Iranian drone strikes shut down a major helium facility in Qatar, removing about 30% of global helium supply and raising concerns for the semiconductor industry, which relies on the gas for chip fabrication. "QatarEnergy declared force majeure on existing contracts on March 4, freeing it from supply obligations to customers," reports Tom's Hardware. The industry outlet Gasworld reports that no imminent restart is planned. From the report: Helium consultant Phil Kornbluth, speaking at a Gasworld webinar on March 4, said that if the outage extends beyond roughly two weeks, industrial gas distributors could be forced to relocate cryogenic equipment and revalidate supplier relationships, a process that could stretch over months regardless of when Qatari output resumes.

South Korea is among the most exposed countries, which, according to the Korea International Trade Association, imported 64.7% of its helium from Qatar in 2025. The country relies heavily on helium imports to cool silicon wafers during fabrication and is understood to have no viable substitute.

The country's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources has reportedly launched an investigation into supply and demand for 14 semiconductor materials and equipment types with high dependence on Middle Eastern sources, Nikkei reported on Wednesday. Bromine, which is used in circuit formation, is another big concern, with South Korea sourcing 90% of its imports from Israel, also party to the ongoing conflict in Iran.

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AI services may not stay cheap for long, as companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are currently subsidizing usage to rapidly grow market share. As these companies move toward profitability and potential IPOs, Axios reports that investors will likely push them to increase prices and improve margins. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: Flashback: Silicon Valley has seen this movie before. The so-called "millennial lifestyle subsidy" meant VC money helped underwrite cheap Uber rides and DoorDash deliveries. Before that, Amazon built its base with low prices, free shipping and, for years, no sales tax in most states. Eventually, all of these companies had to charge enough to cover costs -- and make a profit.

Follow the money: The current iteration of AI subsidies won't last forever. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are widely expected to go public. Public investors will demand earnings growth and expanding margins. Even as chips get more efficient, total spending keeps rising. Labs need more capacity, more upgrades and more supply to meet demand.

The bottom line: The costs of AI will keep going down. But total spend from customers will need to keep going up if AI companies are going to become profitable and investors are ever going to get returns on their massive investments.

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sdinfoserv writes: After running a Reddit clone for a couple of months, the Digg beta shut down again. The website is a splash memo from CEO Justin Mezzell, blaming the latest "Hard Reset" on bots. "Building on the internet in 2026 is different," writes Mezzell. "We learned that the hard way. Today we're sharing difficult news: we've made the decision to significantly downsize the Digg team..."

The decision was made after struggling to gain traction and an overwhelming influx of AI-driven bots and spam. "When the Digg beta launched, we immediately noticed posts from SEO spammers noting that Digg still carried meaningful Google link authority," says Mezzell. "Within hours, we got a taste of what we'd only heard rumors about. The internet is now populated, in meaningful part, by sophisticated AI agents and automated accounts. We knew bots were part of the landscape, but we didn't appreciate the scale, sophistication, or speed at which they'd find us."

"We banned tens of thousands of accounts. We deployed internal tooling and industry-standard external vendors. None of it was enough. When you can't trust that the votes, the comments, and the engagement you're seeing are real, you've lost the foundation a community platform is built on."

Despite the setback, Digg plans to rebuild with a smaller team, with founder Kevin Rose returning to work full-time on a new direction for the platform. "Starting the first week of April, Kevin will be putting his focus back on the company he built twenty+ years ago," writes Mezzell. "He'll continue as an advisor to True Ventures, but Digg will be his primary focus."

Slashback: The Rise of Digg.com

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Bush

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Patrick Wolf

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On fifth anniversary of their takeover, Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac showed off their ‘happy clapper’ credentials

The daily ritual of the modern football fan is well established: check the fixtures and TV listings, then decide which match to half-follow while gawping at social media as a second screen. On most nights in March this year there has been either a Premier League or Champions League game to provide turf-coloured backlight to the doomscroll. Until Friday night.

Clearly the suits at Sky Sports thought Wrexham v Swansea City on a Friday night needed its own sideshow. A clash between two historic Welsh clubs just five points apart in the battle for the Championship playoff places may not appeal to the TikTok generation. If only there were some Hollywood actors on hand to step into the content void, relegating Daniel Mann and Andy Hinchcliffe to second-string commentary choice.

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• Manager speaks at length after defeat at Real Madrid

• Players must use ‘guts and nose’ to score, he adds

Pep Guardiola launched a four-and-a-half-minute defence of his team selection in the 3-0 Champions League defeat by Real Madrid. Guardiola chose to play an attacking 4-2-2-2 formation at the Bernabéu stadium on Wednesday and the visitors were ultimately humbled by a Federico Valverde hat-trick to leave them on the brink of a European exit.

“I had to explain it [team selection] before and after? After 10 years? I would not convince you one second, any one of you, anyone,” Guardiola said before City’s visit to West Ham on Saturday. “Why? Because we lost 3-0, destroyed, yeah it’s normal. It’s not personal, believe me, it’s all the managers.

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CARACAS (ANP/RTR) - Venezuela en Colombia hebben op hoog niveau overleg gehouden in Caracas. Ministers en andere functionarissen spraken in de Venezolaanse hoofdstad over samenwerking op gebieden als handel, toerisme, energie en veiligheid, meldt de regering van Venezuela.

Het was de eerste keer sinds de gevangenname van president Nicolás Maduro van Venezuela door de VS dat de buurlanden dergelijk topoverleg hielden. Er stond eigenlijk een ontmoeting gepland tussen de Venezolaanse interim-leider Delcy Rodríguez en de Colombiaanse president Gustavo Petro, maar dat ging om onduidelijke redenen niet door.

Onrust in het autocratisch bestuurde Venezuela heeft in het verleden ook grote gevolgen gehad voor Colombia, waarmee het een grens van 2200 kilometer deelt. Miljoenen Venezolanen vertrokken naar het buurland toen de economie in eigen land onder het Maduro-regime instortte.

WASHINGTON (ANP) - De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump heeft bekendgemaakt dat het hoofd van het beroemde Kennedy Center in Washington wordt vervangen. Op zijn eigen platform Truth Social meldde Trump dat Richard Grenell stopt en dat Matt Floca hem opvolgt.

Het Kennedy Center kende het afgelopen jaar een roerige periode. Trump nam vorig jaar de leiding van het cultuurcentrum over en stelde zijn oude bondgenoot Grenell aan. Later voegde Trump zijn eigen naam toe aan die van het prestigieuze cultuurcentrum. In reactie daarop annuleerden veel artiesten concerten in het Kennedy Center. Daarnaast kampt het centrum met teruglopende bezoekersaantallen.

Trump maakte in februari nog bekend dat het Kennedy Center twee jaar dichtgaat voor renovaties.

WASHINGTON (ANP/RTR/BLOOMBERG) - De Verenigde Staten hebben Venezuela toestemming gegeven om meststoffen en olie aan Amerikaanse bedrijven te verkopen. Het Amerikaanse ministerie van Financiën meldt dat de sancties tegen Venezuela verder worden versoepeld. Sinds de Amerikaanse en Israëlische aanvallen op Iran staat het wereldwijde aanbod van deze producten onder druk en zijn de prijzen flink gestegen.

Het ministerie heeft vrijdag drie bijgewerkte algemene licenties uitgegeven "om de revitalisering van de energiesector van het land verder te ondersteunen en te helpen zorgen voor een goed bevoorrade wereldwijde grondstoffenmarkt", verklaart het ministerie op X. De toegestane investeringen en activiteiten in de Venezolaanse energie-industrie worden daarmee uitgebreid en meststoffen kunnen rechtstreeks naar de VS worden uitgevoerd om Amerikaanse boeren te ondersteunen.

De VS willen Venezuela geleidelijk herintegreren in de wereldwijde energiemarkt en de economie van dat land stimuleren, nadat Amerikaanse troepen de Venezolaanse president Nicolás Maduro in januari oppakten.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide October 1967

Conversations with Anthropic's models may now be accompanied by interactive apps

Seeing is believing, or so it was said up until AI required questioning everything. But even when braced to resist the slop roulette of online interaction, pictures are worth a thousand tokens.…

Een 42-jarige man wordt op zaterdagavond 17 januari ernstig mishandeld, nadat hij een boze blik negeert. Het slachtoffer loopt langs vier mannen, die op een terrasje van een shoarmazaak aan de Slinge in Rotterdam-Zuid zitten.

OzGFK has added a photo to the pool:

Feb 2026, Happo-one, Hakuba.
Cross processed Voigtlander Vchrome, Ricoh 35 ZF.
Vanbar dev, dslr scan.

The opportunities don’t stop when the race starts, so here’s what you need to remember when betting in-play.

Er zullen mensen zijn die dit ‘woke’ comedy noemen (en dus per definitie niet grappig). Maar daarvoor zijn de grappen veel te hard en politiek-incorrect.

Wokies hebben doorgaans ook geen zelfspot (daarvoor nemen ze alles veel te serieus) en dat heeft Jaye McBride duidelijk wel.

For the first time in awhile, copies of two lost episodes of classic Doctor Who have been discovered. Both are from the William Hartnell era and feature the Daleks.