04-06 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Pope Leo XIV addressed thousands of worshippers gathered in St Peter's Square on Easter Sunday in his first address as pontiff.
Pope Leo calls for global leaders to choose peace in his first Easter Mass
Thousands of worshippers flocked to St Peter's Square on Sunday to hear Pope Leo XIV deliver his first Easter Mass address as pontiff.
Framed by white roses on the central balcony of the Vatican's basilica, the pope called on "those who have the power to unleash wars" to choose peace.
"On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars," he said.
The first US-born pope has become a vocal critic of the Iran war, and has used recent public addresses to denounce global conflicts and urge de-escalation.
Pope Leo waved to the crowd gathered in the square below before delivering his "Urbi et Orbi" blessing - Latin for "to the city and the world".
St Peter's Square was decorated with bright spring blooms, with rows of daffodils and thousands of purple, red and white flowers arranged for the Easter Mass.
"We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent, indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people," the pope said in his address.
"Let those who have weapons lay them down. Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace."
In a break with recent tradition, Leo did not explicitly name any country or conflict in his message.
Referring to the Easter story of Christ's resurrection, three days after he was nailed to the cross, he said Jesus had been "entirely nonviolent" in the face of suffering.
For Christians, Easter is the most important date in the liturgical calendar, marking the resurrection of Christ - a central tenet of the faith.
As bells rang out across the Vatican and the crowd applauded, Leo concluded his blessing by offering Easter greetings in several languages, including Latin, Arabic and Chinese.
The pope also announced that he would return to the basilica on 11 April to lead a prayer vigil for peace.
Leo has repeatedly denounced ongoing global conflicts in recent weeks, using a series of Holy Week addresses to warn against what he has described as a growing indifference to war and suffering.
In his sermon during Saturday night's Easter vigil, the pontiff urged believers not to feel numbed by the scale of global conflicts but to work actively for reconciliation.
He made a rare direct appeal to Donald Trump on Tuesday, urging the US President to find an "off-ramp" to end the conflict with Iran.
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04-06 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The incident comes a week before the polls, and follow warnings of a potential operations staged to influence voters.
Hungary alleges plot to blow up gas pipeline ahead of election
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has convened an emergency meeting of the National Defence Council after explosives were found near a pipeline that transports Russian gas to Hungary.
The discovery in a border area of neighbouring Serbia comes as Orban's party is badly trailing in opinion polls ahead of crucial elections next Sunday.
Opposition leader Peter Magyar accused him of "panic-mongering" orchestrated by "Russian advisers", days after security experts warned of a possible "false flag" operation that could be blamed on Ukraine.
Orban, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has resisted EU calls to abandon Russian energy imports since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In recent weeks Hungarian security experts have raised the possibility of a staged operation, either on Hungarian or Serbian territory, intended to arouse enough sympathy for Orban to help his Fidesz party win the election - or to give Orban an excuse to declare an emergency and postpone or cancel the vote.
Serbian President Alexander Vucic, a close ally of Orban, informed the Hungarian leader of the discovery on Sunday morning.
Two rucksacks full of explosives and detonators were found by the Serbian army near the village of Tresnjevac in the Kanjiza district, about 20km (12 miles) from the point where the TurkStream pipeline crosses into Hungary.
"Our units found an explosive of devastating power," Vucic said in a post on Instagram. "I told PM Orban that we would keep him updated on the investigation."
Hungary receives between five and eight billion cubic metres of Russian gas a year through the TurkStream pipeline, which both Hungary and Slovakia depend on for Russian gas.
Balint Pasztor, president of the Vojvodina Hungarian Association, and another key Orban ally, posted on Facebook: "If the investigation proves that we were not the primary target after all, but rather Hungary's supply lines, then this makes it even clearer: the terrorist attack was planned with the aim of bringing down Viktor Orban."
Fidesz has made hostility to Ukraine a cornerstone of its election campaign.
At election rallies Orban has told supporters that low heating and fuel prices in Hungary are only possible thanks to cheap Russian oil and gas, both of which arrive in Hungary by pipeline - oil through Ukraine, and gas through the Balkans.
Orban alleges that a "Kyiv-Brussels-Berlin" axis is conspiring to stop Hungary getting cheap Russian fuel, to impose their "puppet" prime minister Magyar in the upcoming election. A Tisza government, Orban says, would also drag Hungary into a European war against Russia.
Orban has already accused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of imposing "an oil blockade" on Hungary, because no Russian oil has arrived through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory, since the end of January.
Ukraine says the pipeline was damaged in a Russian attack, and should be functional again in-mid April.
There have been no official allegations of Ukrainian involvement in the pipeline incident so far. But one well-informed Serbian source told the BBC this could happen as early as Monday, when Serbian authorities are expected to release the first results of their investigation.
The Ukrainian government pre-empted any accusations of involvement on Sunday. "Ukraine has nothing to do with this," foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyy said in a post on X. "Most probably, a Russian false-flag operation as part of Moscow's heavy interference in Hungarian elections."
On 2 April, Hungarian security expert Andras Racz warned on Facebook that a "fake attack" on the TurkStream pipeline could be staged inside Serbia.
Racz also predicted that the explosives would be identified as Ukrainian, allowing Orban to once again point the finger of blame at Kyiv.
"We had some solid preliminary information about this operation, including details about the place and possible timing," former senior Hungarian counter-intelligence officer, Peter Buda, told the BBC.
"It's clear that Ukraine's interests aren't at stake here. An operation like this would help Orban before the election by influencing public opinion in his favour.''
The Hungarian government insists the threat is real. "In the past few days and weeks, we've seen it all," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on Facebook.
"The Ukrainians organised an oil blockade against us. Then they tried to impose a total energy blockade on us by firing dozens of drones at the TurkStream pipeline while it was still on Russian territory.
"And now we have today's incident, in which Serbian colleagues found explosives capable of blowing up the pipeline."
Opposition leader Peter Magyar accused Orban, in cahoots with the Serbian president, of staging the latest incident.
"He will not be able to prevent next Sunday's election. He will not be able to prevent millions of Hungarians from ending the most corrupt two decades in our co
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04-06 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The rescue could impact how Trump views a ground operation to take Kharg Island or to seize enriched uranium sites.
Analysis: Trump declares victory in Iran war after rescue, but threats to US operation still loom
US President Donald Trump was swift to declare victory after the second crew member of an F-15 downed over Iran was recovered, claiming on Sunday that the dramatic and successful rescue in Iranian territory "proves, once again, that we have achieved overwhelming air dominance and superiority".
Observers, however, paint a more complicated picture of what this means for the US in Iran.
While the mission was a success, the events of the last few days - in which two aircraft were downed and at least one helicopter hit by gunfire - highlight that threats to US aircraft and personnel remain even after weeks of heavy US and Israeli strikes against Iran's military infrastructure and boasts from the president that Tehran had "no anti-aircraft equipment" left.
Several Washington sources who spoke to the BBC speculated that the loss of aircraft and the complexity of the operation to recover the pilots could potentially dissuade Trump from any ground operation to take Kharg Island and sites in the Persian Gulf, or to seize highly enriched uranium buried deep underground in Iran.
These operations – scoped by military planners and presented to the president as options – are deeply complex and risk exposing US forces to lingering Iranian capabilities, including difficult-to-find man portable air defence systems, known as Manpads, which are shoulder-launched weapons most effective against low flying aircraft.
On the other hand, the fact that US troops were able to enter a contested environment, and set up a forward airfield and refueling point under the nose of the Iranians - then hold it for hours while two stuck aircraft were destroyed and replacements sent - might embolden him.
It could convince the administration that an airborne or amphibious operation against targets in Iran stands a good chance of success.
Trump also has sent mixed messages about the path forward, telling reporters in a series of phone calls on Sunday that he believes a "deal" with Iran could be just around the corner.
If that fails, he has said repeatedly on Truth Social, the clock is ticking on a self-imposed deadline to begin striking Iranian power plants and bridges. If the Strait of Hormuz was not opened, he posted in an expletive-laden message on Sunday to the Iranian regime, they would be "living in Hell". In a brief phone interview with Fox, Trump also suggested he might move to "take" Iran's oil, without providing further details.
An expanded campaign against Iranian infrastructure and energy targets would represent an escalation, with human rights groups warning of the impact on civilians and potential violations of international law. The president's critics are likely to take it as a sign of Trump's frustration that the US has been unable to secure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global corridor for oil and other commodities.
Trump's comments over the weekend stand in contrast to several he made last week, including a televised address on 1 April, in which he suggested that the US had already created the conditions necessary for other countries to engage in the Strait. "Take it, protect it, use it for yourselves," he told allies.
Trump had also recently suggested that he was willing to "leave" Iran even if a deal eluded him. But he now appears to have shifted course in the hopes that doubling down on the threat of devastating attacks on the country's core infrastructure can prompt Tehran's leadership to come to the table.
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04-06 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The operation to extract him from the ground in hostile territory was hugely complex and involved multiple US government agencies.
How rescue of US airman in remote part of Iran unfolded
The US military has rescued a missing crew member in a dramatic mission after his fighter jet was shot down in a remote part of Iran.
The exact circumstances remain unclear, but the operation to extract him from the ground in hostile territory was hugely complex.
Dozens of special forces, as well as US warplanes and helicopters, were involved in the plan, along with the CIA, US media reported.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said on social media: "We have rescued the seriously wounded, and really brave, F-15 Crew Member/Officer, from deep inside the mountains of Iran."
But the airman's ordeal began on Friday with reports that an F-15 jet, which was carrying a weapons systems officer and a pilot, had been shot down over southern Iran.
The incident was the first in which a US fighter jet was shot down by enemy fire in more than 20 years.
The two US military personnel on board the F-15E Strike Eagle managed to eject from the aircraft, and the pilot was rescued the same day, but the second crew member was missing.
The US then began a race against time to locate him.
Iran made it clear they wished to capture him alive and offered a bounty of £50,000 ($66,100).
Videos shared on social media, which have not been verified by the BBC, appeared to show armed civilians searching for him.
Once the officer was on the ground, he had only a handgun to defend himself, US officials said.
The airman would have received training for a situation like this, and it would have involved turning his beacon signal on, getting to high ground, concealing himself and establishing communications.
According to reports in US media, the airman hid himself in a mountain crevice and restricted the use of his beacon - concerned the signal could be picked up by Iran.
He then reportedly waited for his rescuers to arrive.
The CIA played a crucial role in the rescue operation, according to a senior Trump administration official who spoke to US media.
It was the US intelligence agency that tracked the airman's exact location to the mountain crevice and passed the information along to the Pentagon.
Trump said his location was monitored "24 hours a day" by US officials who were planning the rescue operation.
The officer was "being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour," the president added.
The CIA also ran a deception campaign, according to reports, spreading word inside Iran that US forces had already found the second airman.
The president said in his Truth Social post that the US military "sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him".
As US special forces made their way towards the stranded officer, bombs and weapons fire were used to keep Iranian troops away from his location, reports say.
US media also reported that two transport planes that were intended to fly out rescue crews were unable to take off from a remote base inside Iran, and were then destroyed to keep them out of enemy hands. Special forces then flew out on three extra aircraft to collect the crews, the reports added.
Footage and photos confirmed by BBC Verify appeared to show a smouldering aircraft wreckage in a mountainous area of central Iran, about 50km (30 miles) southeast of the city of Isfahan.
Iran's military said two US C-130 military transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters were destroyed during the operation - and that "a deception and escape mission at an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan…was completely foiled".
Iranian state media said on Sunday that troops from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had shot down a US drone over Isfahan while it was searching for the missing airman.
The BBC has not been able to confirm either version of events near Isfahan.
Before midnight US time the rescue was complete, and the airman was flown to Kuwait for medical treatment, officials said. Trump said the officer was "seriously wounded", but "he will be just fine".
US authorities have not disclosed any information about the airman's exact location when he was rescued, or his identity.
Former US military official William Fallon - a retired US Navy admiral - told the BBC that "time of day" probably worked in the rescue mission's favour. "Darkness is better for our people because they're used to operating at night."
Fallon says that when flying over hostile territory, "you have to be prepared to be the person that's hit".
Just before 00:00 EDT (04:00 GMT) on Sunday US media broke the news that the second pilot had been found.
Trump wrote on social media that the US would "NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND!"
Iran insisted that the operation had been a failure. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for Iran's main military command, said in a video address that several US military aircraft had been forced to make emergency landings.
"The ignorant president, trapped in the swamp of the war and aggression that he himself starte
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04-06 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The US president says he will destroy Iranian power plants and bridges if the vital waterway is not reopened.
Trump issues expletive-laden threat to Iran over Hormuz Strait blockage
US President Donald Trump has published an expletive-laden post on social media in which he threatened to destroy Iran's power plants and bridges if it failed to meet his Tuesday deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping.
He repeated an earlier threat to unleash "hell" but told US media there was a "good chance" of a deal being reached with Tehran.
Iran mocked his ultimatum, dismissing it as "helpless, nervous and stupid".
Both the US and Iran had scrambled to locate the US serviceman in a mountainous region of south-western Iran. The pilot of the F-15 had been recovered shortly after the aircraft was shot down on Friday.
The incident came after more than a month of war, as Iran continued to respond to US and Israeli air strikes with attacks on Gulf nations allied to the two countries.
Iran has also significantly impeded transit in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane through which about a fifth of the world's oil and gas normally passes, leading to skyrocketing global oil prices and fears of higher inflation around the world.
The disruption led Trump in March to announce a series of deadlines for Iran to reopen the strait. On Sunday he took to his Truth Social platform to reaffirm this demand.
The paragraph below contains very strong language.
He said: "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Afterwards, he told Fox News there was a "good chance" a deal would be reached on Monday, but he was considering "blowing everything up and taking over the oil" if a deal to end the war was not reached quickly.
Later, the US president posted again - "Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!" - an apparent extension of the deadline originally meant to expire on Monday, 6 April.
Trump has postponed deadlines for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz several times.
On 21 March, Trump initially threatened to "obliterate" Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not "FULLY OPEN" within 48 hours.
Two days later, he said he would not launch strikes for another five days - until 28 March - while "good" and "productive" talks with Iran continued. Iran denied any contact between its officials and the Trump administration had taken place.
As that date approached, Trump again delayed the deadline by a further 10 days, until 6 April. This is the date that the new 48-hour deadline has been extended from.
Gen Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi of Iran's central military command said Trump's threat was a "helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action", adding that "the gates of hell will open" for the US leader.
Meanwhile, Israel has attacked civilian Iranian infrastructure sites - a petrochemical facility on Saturday was the latest - and it was waiting for US approval to strike more energy facilities next week, according to defence officials.
US-Israeli strikes also hit the Qasem Soleimani international airport in south-western Iran on Sunday.
Iran has continued to fire drones and missiles at Israel and US Gulf allies.
A residential building in the Israeli city of Haifa was hit directly by a ballistic missile on Sunday. Four people were injured.
Earlier in the day, authorities in Abu Dhabi said they were battling fires at a Borouge petrochemical facility caused by falling debris from an Iranian missile.
Kuwait said strikes by Iranian drones had severely damaged oil and petrochemical facilities. Industrial and fuel plants were also targeted in Bahrain.
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04-05 08:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Iran claims another US aircraft involved in the rescue of the F-15 fighter pilot has been shot down.
The United States has rescued the second crew member of a US F-15 jet shot down, President Donald Trump confirms, as Iran claims another US aircraft involved in the rescue has been downed in the province of Isfahan.
“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday. “He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine.”
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The airman, who Trump said held the rank of colonel, was the second member of a two-person crew of an F-15 that Iran said on Friday had been brought down by its air defences.
“This miraculous search and rescue operation comes in addition to a successful rescue of another brave pilot yesterday, which we did not confirm because we did not want to jeopardise our second rescue operation.”
The rescue resolves a crisis for the White House with the war on Iran in its sixth week.
The first member of the crew had been rescued, triggering a high-stakes search for the remaining airman by both Iran and the US.
Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said there had been no confirmation or denial from the Iranians on the pilot’s rescue.
“Over the past 24 hours, we have witnessed continuous air strikes on the location where the fighter jet was downed,” he said.
Another plane down?
Separately on Sunday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it shot down a US aircraft that was looking for the missing officer in the southern province of Isfahan, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.
Fars posted a photo on its Telegram channel, showing thick smoke rising from a field, and said: “Trump’s desperate attempt to cover up a huge defeat.”
The plane was a C-130 class aircraft, it said, and was destroyed by a police commando unit called the Faraj Rangers.
The high-stakes US rescue effort, which involved dozens of military aircraft, encountered fierce resistance from Iran.
Before Trump’s confirmation, Al Jazeera’s Jon Hendren, reporting from Washington, DC, quoted a US official as saying that US forces had encircled and were moving in on the downed airman, who had managed to avoid Iranian units for about two days.
“And then a firefight broke out. This happened in daylight,” Hendren reported. “Generally, special operations troops would go in for a rescue operation like that, and they would try to extract someone very quickly in the darkness. This went on for hours, we were told.”
In a separate incident, an A-10 Warthog fighter crashed after being hit over Kuwait, with the pilot ejecting, officials said. The degree of any injuries among the aircraft crew remained unclear.
Still, Trump was triumphant.
“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a single American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again that we have achieved overwhelming air dominance and superiority over the Iranian skies,” he said in his statement.
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04-05 08:01 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The statue honours the late African giant pouched rat who sniffed out more than 100 landmines during his lifetime.
Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat
A famous mine-clearing rat, who was awarded a gold medal for his heroism, has been commemorated with the world's first statue dedicated to a landmine-detecting rat.
A statue of the rodent carved from local stone by artists was unveiled in Siem Reap, Cambodia on Friday, in time for the International Day for Mine Awareness on 4 April.
Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, was trained by the Belgian charity Apopo before moving to Cambodia to begin his bomb-sniffing career in 2016.
Using his acute sense of smell and training to detect a chemical compound within explosives, Magawa would then alert human handlers of mines that could be later safely removed.
During his time, Magawa cleared more than 141,000 square metres (1,517,711 sq ft) of land - the equivalent of 20 football pitches – and could search a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes.
In 2020, Magawa was awarded the PDSA Gold Medal – known as the George Cross for animals – for his "life-saving devotion to duty". He was the first rat to be given the medal in the charity's 77-year history.
Apopo's Cambodia Programme Manager, Michael Raine, said on Friday the monument for Magawa "is a reminder to the international community that there's still a job to be done here".
Cambodia now has a target date of 2030 to become mine-free, he added.
The charity has been training its rodents, also known as HeroRATS, since the 1990s.
Because of their small size, the rats are not heavy enough to detonate mines, making them a safer option than humans.
They have also been trained to prevent illegal wildlife trafficking in Tanzania.
Ronin's impressive work in Cambodia's northern Preah Vihear province surpassed the previous record held Magawa.
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04-05 08:01 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Two men have been arrested over the shooting of a seven-month-old baby in Williamsburg.
Man charged over fatal shooting of baby in pram in New York
A man has been charged with murder after a seven-month-old baby died after being shot while sitting in her pushchair in New York.
Greene appeared in court on Friday where he pleaded not guilty, according to CBS News, the BBC's US partner. Officers believe the baby was the unintended victim of a gang-related shooting.
Police said a second suspect, Matthew Rodriguez, 18, had been arrested in connection with the shooting in Pennsylvania and charges were pending.
Footage from the incident appears to show two men on a motorcycle riding against the flow of traffic through the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn, before a man on the back of the vehicle took out a gun and fired, police said.
Officers believe Greene carried out the shooting and was on the back of the scooter, CBS reported.
He was thrown from the vehicle following the incident and was taken to hospital for treatment where he was placed in police custody.
Greene also pleaded not guilty to charges of five counts of criminal possession of a weapon, two counts of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, and two counts of assault, CBS reported.
Rodriguez is believed to be the man seen driving the scooter the gunman was on during the shooting. The driver crashed into oncoming traffic after the gunfire and fled, police said.
Family and friends gathered on Friday night for a candlelight vigil at the corner where the shooting took place.
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04-05 03:48 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
Show HN: mailtrim – find what's actually filling your Gmail inbox
I always assumed Gmail bloat came from large attachments.
Turns out 3 senders were responsible for 30% of my inbox —
thousands of tiny emails I'd never thought to clean up.
I built mailtrim to surface this pattern:
- ranks senders by actual storage impact (not just count)
- confidence scoring on what's safe to bulk-delete
- 30-day undo on everything — nothing is permanent by default
- runs entirely locally, no email data leaves your machine
Free, open source (MIT). No subscription, no backend.
One friction point upfront: Gmail API setup is one-time, ~15 min.
After that it's just `mailtrim stats` and `mailtrim purge`.
Keen to hear feedback on the confidence/safety model especially —
that's the part I'm least sure I've got right.
https://github.com/sadhgurutech/mailtrim
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04-05 03:48 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
Writing Lisp Is AI Resistant and I'm Sad
In an insulting, ironic blow to the neats, the scruffies created an AI that much prefers to write anything but Lisp.
I use agentic AI a lot at work to do my job as a DevOps engineer. I use OpenRouter with the Goose CLI tool, and I've gotten a pretty good configuration file going with it.
I have lately started writing a tool that converts between different RSS reader formats. I started writing it in Lisp, of course. It's my favorite language.
I had a problem though. I had to teach the AI how to use the REPL. Initially, I
had it run commands to interact with the REPL via
tmux, e.g. tmux capture-pane
-t 0.0 -p | tail -n 1
. It worked okay, but I noticed that REPL development was
very hard for the AI. Claude really spun its wheels. Lesser AIs would be very
much worse. I'd blow $10-$20 in a handful of minutes with not much to show for
it but sort of OK lisp code that I ended up rewriting. I tried doing it with
cheaper AIs like DeepSeek and
Qwen, which I found did OK at work for
some tasks, but it wasn't working.
I figured maybe if I made REPL development smoother, the AI would do a better
job. I wanted to give goose unlimited rights to the REPL while still guarding
general command rights, too. So, I created a tool called
tmux-repl-mcp that would make
interacting with the REPL more straightforward. Instead of consuming a ton of
tokens, executing a bunch of sleep commands, and parsing tmux output, the could
just run execute_command
in the repl and get its output.
I wrote this tool in Python since a lot of my AI tooling in my goose
configuration file was built around
uvx already. I liked that I just had
to install uvx
and all of a sudden goose
could use all these tools. I
already had all this stuff built up in my configuration file, so I figured it
would be easier for folks to use if it were distributed in the same way.
Besides, the official guide to write an MCP
server were in
non-lisp languages anyway.
The difference in writing Python and Lisp with AI was of course dramatic, downright wild. I got it to write all of the code and all the tests for the code. I had to debug it semi-manually, but I was still able to bang together this more-than-nothing tool in like a day or two, and with cheap models at that. Worst of all, the experience for me was the same in many ways: I wrote code by being a poor man's product owner to the AI for both, only the AI would perform well with the Python. I felt none of the happiness I usually feel just writing Lisp.
Going back to my actual project was painful. I ended up writing one of the files
(src/newsboat.lisp
) by hand. I was in the middle of debugging it when I
realized how much harder it was to write with AI in Lisp. I had to switch back
to Claude, which at least makes some progress relative to the others. The
tmux-repl-mcp
tool helped, but I still blew through $10 in like 30 minutes.
The signal-to-noise ratio, or in other words, the wheel-spinning-to-progress
ratio in the AI session was night and day compared to Python. And in AI, you pay
for the noise and the signal together.
Now I'm thinking of rewriting it in Go. With AI, code is cheap, but only if you use a language for which AI has a lot of training data.
Another frustration has been tooling. Lisp has a lot of tools to choose from. I like using OCICL instead of QuickLisp, for example, but I had to tell the AI to not use quicklisp every single session. It was like built into the AI to use it. This also helped me realize that AI generates code sort of on a path of least resistance.
There are reasons other than a lack of training data that makes lisp particularly AI resistant. The high-latency request-reponse way we interact with AI APIs does not work well with REPLs. REPL development makes programming easier and better by reducing that latency for humans, but there's already high latency anyways in these APIs. The downside of not using REPLs is that you have to have higher accuracy when writing code and you can only test big batches of code at once, but AI can write hundreds of lines in one go so that it just makes sense for the AI to use a language that doesn't use the REPL.
It is orders of magnitude easier and cheaper to write in high-internet-volume languages like Go and Python than it is to write in Lisp. The advent of AI has converted language popularity into real dollars-and-cents-per-million-tokens cost savings. What's more, building in one language or the other makes no difference to how I experience the language; either way, in the ideal case, I'm a rather opinionated micro-managy product owner. That is really sad.
It reminds me of a tale that was told in my hometown about Plank Road in Naperville, IL. The nineteenth century roads were always muddy, so a bunch of investors created a road that was planked, or made of wood. The makers of the road would charge money for using the road. Later, the railroad offered to build a railroad through Naperville, but they declined, saying they were making plenty of money on the pl
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