300 million people celebrate Nowruz under a cloud of war

Taiwan wary that China could exploit US distraction over Middle East war - Reuters

<a href="https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMi0AFBVV95cUxOQndmcm1TYkZ2Q1JZemNrcTFBR21FQmtseU56a29rTXNlRG4zXzBpaDMtbXhxZnkybEt6VXVMYjVQbDVHOUotY3h3WGhueEdPNkVGcmRvbW5JRURybndGWkRoNjdVS21iX0xPVkpTcmZ4eUVLd3F3dGRZWlQzbUt2MmQ0alB4WF80QVpKN2ZOem12dmZGN1lqTWVCbzRtVXZPM0x4QnEwODQzMTJvX1p4ZHUzZTAtS3lRbzJ1ZFBVZUNKQlptUUF5cHlPY0E2Mll5?oc=5" target="_blank">Taiwan wary that China could exploit US distraction over Middle East war</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="#6f6f6f">Reuters</font>

US man pleads guilty to defrauding music streamers out of millions using AI

<p>Michael Smith, 52, charged after flooding platforms with thousands of AI songs and boosting them with bots</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/feb/17/sign-up-for-the-breaking-news-us-email-to-get-newsletter-alerts-direct-to-your-inbox?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_STANDFIRST&amp;utm_campaign=BN22326&amp;utm_content=signup&amp;utm_term=standfirst&amp;utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB">Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox</a></p></li></ul><p>A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/northcarolina">North Carolina</a> man has pleaded guilty to defrauding music streaming platforms and his fellow musicians out of millions in royalties by flooding the services with thousands of AI-generated songs – and using automated “bots” to artificially boost the number of listens into the billions.</p><p>As part of a deal with federal prosecutors in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/new-york">New York</a>’s southern district, 52-year...

From rainbows to tremors: Wartime Nowruz feels surreal, yet hope endures - ایران اینترنشنال

Spyware once used by governments is now spreading to cybercriminals

<p>Cybercriminal groups are now using <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/02/06/spyware-industry-proliferates-google" target="_blank">spyware</a> tools once utilized mainly by spies and law enforcement to hack into iPhones, new research shows.</p><p><strong>Why it matters</strong>: Anyone with an iPhone can now be the target of invasive malware that siphons off personal text messages, photos, notes and calendar data. </p><hr><p><strong>Driving the news</strong>: In the last month, researchers at Google, iVerify and Lookout uncovered two campaigns exploiting iPhone vulnerabilities.</p><ul><li>Earlier this month, Google researchers said they identified a sophisticated iPhone hacking toolkit, called <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/coruna-powerful-ios-exploit-kit" target="_blank">Coruna</a>, originally built for an unnamed government customer that later ended up in the hands of a Chinese cybercriminal group. TechCrunch later <a href="https://techcrunch....

As wealth taxes gain traction, Warren proposes levy on the ultra-rich

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's bill would raise taxes on households worth more than $50 million and on billionaires.

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy says US has linked security guarantees to ceding of Donbas

<p>Ukrainian president says peace deal proposed by US included ceding land to Russia. What we know on day 1,492</p><p><strong>The US is making its offer of security guarantees for a peace deal in Ukraine conditional on Kyiv ceding all of the country’s eastern region of Donbas to Russia, </strong>president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters in an interview. With the US focused on its own conflict with Iran, Donald Trump is applying pressure to Ukraine in an effort to bring a quick end to the four-year war triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion, Zelenskyy said. “The Middle East definitely has an impact on President Trump, and I think on his next steps. President Trump, unfortunately, still chooses a strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” he told Reuters. “I would very much like the American side to understand that the eastern part of our country is part of our security guarantees,” he said.</p><p><strong>Russia sought to blackmail the US by offering to stop sharing milit...