A dumpster-diving TikToker struck gold the morning after the Academy Awards. But why are they binning carpets after one brief use? And where can we find the uneaten chocolate Oscars?

The Oscars are over, and the world has moved on. No longer are we debating the merits of any particular film, or the validity of any given win. Now there are only two sets of people who care about the Oscars; the agents of the winners, who are all busy renegotiating their clients’ contracts, and amateur Los Angeles-based carpet fitter Paige Thalia.

Thalia found a small amount of viral fame this week, after she discovered the Oscars red carpet languishing in a skip the morning after the ceremony, and decided to kit out her home with it.

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Boyband drops album that speaks to its Korean roots ahead of Seoul comeback concert, with more than a quarter of a million fans expected to attend

K-pop stars BTS released a new album on Friday billed as reflecting the maturing boy band’s Korean roots and identity, as buzz built ahead of their open-air comeback concert in the heart of Seoul.

The Saturday night gig, which is expected to draw around 260,000 people, will be BTS’s first after a hiatus of almost four years while all seven members served compulsory military service. It comes ahead of an 82-date world tour.

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In his first newspaper interview after fathering a child outside his marriage, Grohl discusses his changed outlook, his grief for Taylor Hawkins, and the 430 therapy sessions he’s had

‘I’m just going to recline.” Weighing up the seating options in a luxury London hotel suite, Dave Grohl opts for the sofa. He lays his head and swings his legs round until his black leather boots are resting on the upholstery, and clasps his hands across his stomach. Punk-rock disregard for shoe etiquette aside, it’s the classic pose of the psychoanalysed. “I’ve been in therapy six days a week for 70 weeks,” he says. “I did the maths the other day: over 430 sessions.”

Even by US standards, that is a lot – but if anyone needed to work out who they are and why they were doing what they were doing, it was Grohl. Nirvana ended traumatically after the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, but their drummer Grohl quickly formed a new band, Foo Fighters, stepping up to frontman and turning them into the definitive stadium rockers of the new century with hits such as Everlong, Best of You and The Pretender. Grohl was often described as “the nicest man in rock”, a label his team tells me he dislikes, but he was certainly genial and seemed to be settling into middle age with hobbyist projects – documentary series, memoir, horror-comedy film – between a series of world tours and middle-ranking Foo Fighters albums. He had married second wife Jordyn Blum in 2003 and they’d had three daughters together. Bassist Nate Mendel tells me: “When we were first rehearsing in the mid-90s, Dave said: I just want this band to be low-drama, and for it to be fun.”

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Archivist Jo Klett says the 40 boxes of material will provide ‘a full picture of Roger’s entire working career’

“It’s a joy to be old,” wrote Roger McGough, one of Britain’s most popular, prolific and funniest poets. “The dog dead and the car sold.”

Another joy might be decluttering. After the departure of dozens of boxes of notebooks, manuscripts, drafts, project files, journals, posters, letters, personal artworks and more, McGough has admitted his house is significantly emptier. “If anyone wants to buy some old empty filing cabinets then get in touch … through you,” he joked.

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Palestinians say the move is part of a wider Israeli strategy to leverage security tensions to tighten restrictions

For the first time since 1967, al-Aqsa mosque – Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site – will be closed at the end of Ramadan on Friday, with tensions rising among Palestinians as Israeli authorities keep the complex shut, forcing worshippers to hold Eid prayers as close as they can to the sealed site.

On Friday morning hundreds of worshippers were forced to pray outside the Old City, as Israeli police barricaded the entrances to the site.

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I loved Tanzania – we flew over hungry lions in a national park

I can still remember my first flight, in 2002. It was magical. I was working as a tour guide in Myanmar. I met a British balloon pilot called Phil, who had a spare place on a flight. He offered to take me, too.

I don’t particularly enjoy flying in planes, but this was different. We floated gently with the wind, out in the open air. There was no turbulence. It was so serene and picturesque as we flew over temples. I immediately fell in love with ballooning.

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The actor has played many classic roles and his love of film is clear in his garden, from the Saltburn proscenium arch to the pergola where Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd have partied the night away

Step into Richard E Grant’s garden in Richmond, London, and you’ll be met with a rather unconventional sight. Instead of the daffodils and tulips you’d usually find in an English garden at this time of year, Grant’s space is full of props and decorations from the films he’s starred in – from Saltburn to Carrie Cracknell’s 2022 adaptation of Persuasion.

After any job, he says, “I go to the production department and try and buy or bribe my way” to get pieces to put in his garden. The space has, until now, been a private spot for Grant to entertain his actor friends. But now he has shared it with the world as part of the Royal Horticultural Society’s new podcast, Roots. I took a look around it – here are some of the weird and wonderful things that can be found there.

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A corporate getaway is the new setting for this hoax reality show in which all but one person is an actor. Luckily, that person has a real ‘captain fun’ attitude – even when faced with icky situations

In 2023, Freevee (owned by Amazon) aired Jury Duty, a hoax reality show starring an unsuspecting member of the American public who was unaware that everyone else deciding the outcome of a trial in an LA courthouse alongside him was in fact an actor. It was frequently ridiculous – not least when X-Men actor James Marsden was parachuted in as a member of the jury. It did, however, have a lot of heart, and a lovable mark in the form of Ronald Gladden, a sweet man who blindly followed the “hero’s journey” he was unaware was being meticulously plotted by producers, and who took the eventual reveal very well. Some questioned the ethics of this Truman Show-esque premise, although Gladden seemed fairly undamaged by his accidental fame. Certainly, you imagine that his prize – $100,000 and a two-year deal with Amazon – would have helped to soften any initial feelings of “WTF”.

And so to season two, which retains the Jury Duty brand name but takes place at an annual retreat for Rockin’ Grandma’s hot sauce, a company that – spoiler alert – doesn’t exist. Taking the starring role this time is twentysomething Anthony Norman, an office temp who quickly becomes the company’s most beloved employee. It is, we learn, the final Rockin’ Grandma’s retreat for CEO Doug Womack, who is set to retire and hand over the company to his son, the lackadaisical, cod-Jamaican-accented Dougie, a former ska band member who is somewhere between Chet Hanks and the Dude from The Big Lebowski. Like Gladden before him, Norman is kind and obliging to a fault, and a big fan of organised fun – the perfect candidate to take over the running of the retreat when HR boss Kevin taps out after a humiliating social faux pas. One minute Norman’s the new guy – the next he’s running around in a yachting cap, declaring himself the new “captain fun”. For somebody who thought he was merely taking on a short-term job – and being filmed for a documentary about the corporate world – his seemingly unending reserves of enthusiasm and commitment to the dysfunctional world of Rockin’ Grandma’s are commendable.

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Michael Kenny’s daughter Juliette, a sixth-former at a school in Kent, died one day after showing symptoms

The father of an 18-year-old school pupil who died after the meningitis outbreak in Kent said his family’s devastation is “immeasurable” as he called for better protection for young people.

Juliette Kenny died last Saturday, one day after first showing symptoms of vomiting and discoloration in her cheeks, her father, Michael Kenny, said.

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East Gippsland, Australia

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

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Python pipeline analyzing 16,695 Arabic tweets from X to detect linguistic uncertainty and examine how language influences social media engagement.

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In Papendrecht is een busje met daarin honderden kilo's cocaïne gevonden. Verder onderzoek van de politie leidde naar een loods in het Brabantse Klundert, waar acht verdachten konden worden aangehouden.

De lente gaat vandaag officieel van start, en doet dat met perioden met zon. Het blijft overal droog. Met temperaturen tussen 12 en 14 graden is het wel minder zacht dan gisteren. De wind waait matig en komt uit het noordoosten.

Onderzoekers hebben een nieuw kantelpunt in de veroudering van het menselijk lichaam gevonden: rond je vijftigste gaat het ineens een stuk sneller. Dat blijkt uit een grote studie waarin wetenschappers de eiwitsamenstelling in verschillende organen en weefsels in kaart brachten op duizenden meetpunten over de volwassen levensloop. Door die zogeheten proteomische “leeftijdsklokken” te bouwen, konden ze zien wanneer het lichaam echt een andere versnelling in veroudering inzet.

Opvallend is dat vooral de bloedvaten er rond die leeftijd fors op achteruitgaan. De aorta, het grote centrale bloedvat dat het hart met de rest van het lichaam verbindt, blijkt een van de snelst verouderende structuren. Maar ook organen als de pancreas en de milt vertonen duidelijke en langdurige veranderingen. De onderzoekers zien de grootste sprongen in eiwitveranderingen tussen ongeveer 45 en 55 jaar, wat wijst op een brede ‘verbouwing’ van het lichaam in deze periode.

Tegelijkertijd nemen de concentraties van tientallen eiwitten toe die gelinkt zijn aan ziekten als hart- en vaatziekten, leververvetting, fibrose en bepaalde levertumoren. Dat suggereert dat de biologische basis voor veel ouderdomsziekten al rond de vijftig wordt gelegd, nog voordat er klinisch duidelijke klachten zijn. De nieuwe proteoom-atlas, die zo’n vijftig jaar aan volwassen leeftijden bestrijkt, maakt het mogelijk om veel preciezer te volgen welke organen wanneer kwetsbaar worden.

Het onderzoek sluit aan bij eerdere studies die lieten zien dat mensen niet gelijkmatig oud worden, maar versneld verouderen op een paar cruciale momenten in het leven, onder meer in de middenveertig en rond de zestig. Samen schetsen deze studies een beeld van veroudering als een stapsgewijs proces met verschillende ‘rukjes’ vooruit, in plaats van een geleidelijke, rechte lijn.

Voor de praktijk betekent dit dat preventie misschien veel eerder en gerichter moet beginnen, vooral op het gebied van vaatgezondheid en stofwisseling in de leeftijdsgroep rond de vijftig. Als artsen en beleidsmakers weten welke systemen precies instorten en wanneer, wordt het mogelijk om behandelingen en leefstijlaanpassingen te timen vóórdat de echte schade optreedt.

Een nieuw soort spyware, DarkSword, misbruikt een lek in oudere iOS‑versies en maakt het mogelijk om iPhones met één klik te besmetten en binnen minuten vrijwel alle persoonlijke gegevens te kopiëren. Het gaat volgens beveiligingsonderzoekers om honderden miljoenen toestellen wereldwijd, omdat een kwart van alle iPhones nog op de kwetsbare iOS‑versie 18 draait.

DarkSword werkt via Apple’s Safari‑browser: een link in een mail, WhatsApp‑bericht of op een ogenschijnlijk onschuldige website is vaak genoeg om het toestel te infecteren. Daarna gaat het snel. De malware leest mee in iMessage, WhatsApp en Telegram, plundert je e‑mail, foto’s (ook verborgen albums), contacten, agenda, locatie‑ en gezondheidsdata én de toegangsgegevens van cryptowallets. Opvallend: de spyware blijft niet langdurig op het toestel staan, maar haalt in korte tijd zoveel mogelijk informatie binnen en wist vervolgens haar eigen sporen.

Volgens Google en de beveiligingsbedrijven Lookout en iVerify wordt DarkSword al sinds november ingezet in onder meer Oekraïne, Saudi‑Arabië, Turkije en Maleisië. Een door Rusland gesteunde groep, UNC6353, zou de tool hebben gebruikt via besmette nieuws‑ en overheidswebsites, terwijl ook klanten van het Turkse surveillancebedrijf PARS Defense ermee werken. De zaak past in een bredere trend: extreem dure hacktools die ooit zijn ontwikkeld voor westerse inlichtingendiensten, zoals de eerder onthulde iOS‑spyware Coruna, lekken door naar de cybercriminaliteit.

Apple benadrukt dat er inmiddels updates zijn uitgerold die zowel DarkSword als Coruna blokkeren. Wie een recent toestel heeft, is volgens het bedrijf veilig met de nieuwste versie iOS 26.3.1; voor oudere iPhones binnen de 18‑reeks geldt iOS 18.7.3 als de dichte versie. In Instellingen > Algemeen > Software‑update is te zien of je toestel up‑to‑date is. Voor oudere iPhones die iOS 26 niet meer krijgen (zoals de iPhone X, 8 en 7) adviseren onderzoekers om de zogeheten Blokkeermodus in te schakelen onder Instellingen > Privacy en beveiliging: onhandig, want sommige functies vallen weg, maar voorlopig de beste bescherming tegen deze nieuwe generatie iPhone‑aanvallen.

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Daurian redstart

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: A lobbying trade body for smaller cloud providers is asking the European Commission to impose interim measures blocking Broadcom from terminating the VMware Cloud Service Provider program, calling the decision a death sentence for some tech suppliers and an illegal squeeze on customer choice. As The Reg revealed in January, Broadcom shuttered the scheme, a move sources claimed affects hundreds of CSPs across Europe and curtails options for enterprises buying VMware software and services. The Cloud Infrastructure Service Provider in Europe (CISPE) trade group, representing nearly 50 tech suppliers, filed the complaint today with the EC Directorates-General, accusing Broadcom of bully-boy tactics, and calling for authorities to halt what it terms as "ongoing abuse."

Francisco Mingorance, CISPE secretary general, said of the complaint: "Businesses -- both cloud providers and their customers -- are being irreparably damaged by Broadcom's unfair actions, which we believe are illegal. "After imposing outrageous and unjustified price hikes immediately following the acquisition of VMware, Broadcom is now applying the 'coup de grace'. We need urgent intervention to force them to change. The only way to stop bullies is to stand up to them." CISPE claims that, since Broadcom completed its $69 billion takeover of VMware in October 2023, prices have risen tenfold, payment is demanded upfront, products are bundled regardless of customer need, and minimum commitments are based on potential rather than actual consumption.

The VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program officially closed in January and all transactions must be complete by March 31. After that date, only a select group of suppliers will be able to sell VMware subscriptions -- either standalone or as part of a broader service. Across Europe, we're told this equates to hundreds of businesses losing their authorization. For some, the loss of VCSP status effectively destroys their market. Those whose operations were built around VMware must now hand customers to another authorized supplier or begin the costly migration to an alternative platform. Broadcom said in a statement responding to the complaint: "Broadcom strongly disagrees with the allegations by CISPE, an organization funded by hyperscalers, which misrepresent the realities of the market. We continue to be committed to investing significantly in our European VMware Cloud Service Provider partners... helping them offer alternatives to the hyperscalers and meet the evolving needs of European businesses and organizations."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.