04-01 00:00 · 中东,局势,BBC,中东
The crew members, whose ship was seized in December, got their release order a day before the war began.
'Felt close to death': Indian seafarers detained in Iran return home
Eight Indian seafarers who were detained in Iran in December have returned home after weeks of delay caused by the war in the Middle East.
The men were part of an 18-member crew - 16 Indians and one each from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - on a ship seized by Iranian authorities who alleged they were smuggling fuel. The company operating the ship denied this.
Eight crew members returned to India on 10 February. The remaining eight Indians reached home on Sunday after an arduous journey that involved travelling via land to Armenia and then taking a flight via Dubai.
The crew members from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also flew back to their countries from Armenia.
The ship, MT Valiant Roar, operated by Dubai-based Prime Tankers LLC, was seized on 8 December while it was in international waters.
Some of the crew members were taken to a jail in Iran's Bandar Abbas port city, while the others were detained on the vessel.
In January, their families approached a court in India, seeking government intervention, following which India's foreign ministry said it had secured consular access to them.
Eight men returned to India on 10 February, but the others, including five Indians in jail, received their release order only on 27 February.
A day later, the US and Israel began military strikes on Iran, prompting it to retaliate. Flights and border crossings across the region were disrupted.
"The joy of the release order did not last even a few hours," Vijay Kumar, the ship's captain, said as he recalled the ordeal.
Though Iranian authorities returned their passports, the security situation forced the sailors to stay put on the ship in Bandar Abbas.
Kumar said the ship was docked close to an Iranian naval facility, placing them uncomfortably close to potential targets.
"We could only watch helplessly as missiles fell around us through the night," he said.
He added that Iranian authorities had removed key navigation and safety equipment from the ship when they seized it, making it impossible to move to a safer location. BBC News Hindi has contacted Iran's embassy in Delhi for a comment.
On 3 March, the Indian embassy in Tehran evacuated the crew - Kumar said this included the Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi men - from the ship and arranged rooms for them in a hotel in the city.
The BBC has contacted the high commissions of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Delhi for comment.
In Tehran, the situation remained tense.
Ketan Mehta, one of the engineers on the ship, said the threat of missile strikes meant the crew could not sleep in the day or night.
"Every moment felt close to death," said Anil Kumar Singh, the ship's chief engineer.
Crew members said explosions nearby caused the walls of their hotel to shake through the night.
The men said they stayed in the Tehran hotel until the land route out of Iran became accessible. On 15 March, they began travelling towards Iran's border with Armenia, sometimes passing through areas which were being bombed.
They took shelter in Jolfa - an Iranian city located about 60 km (37 miles) from the Armenian border - where they waited for three days before receiving visas.
They crossed into Armenia on 27 March and travelled to the capital, Yerevan, where they spent a night at a hotel. From there, the Indians flew to Dubai and then on to Mumbai city, arriving in the early hours of 29 March.
Masood Alam, one of the crew members, said he was still shaken by the experience.
Alam was due to get married after Eid, which was last week. But the ceremony had to be postponed. His family has now resumed preparations for the wedding and a new date will be fixed soon.
Some crew members alleged they had not been paid for several months and were unsure whether they would return to work with Prime Tankers.
The company's owner Jugwinder Brar has denied the allegations.
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04-01 00:00 · 中东,局势,BBC,中东
The new law, passed on Monday, was pushed hard by the far-right and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks face death penalty under new Israeli law
Israel's parliament has approved a law that would make the death penalty the default sentence for Palestinians convicted of deadly terror attacks.
Critics, including UN human rights chief Volker Türk, have described the new law as discriminatory. Türk also said its application would "constitute a war crime".
The new law passed its third and final reading in the Knesset by 62 votes to 48 on Monday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voting in favour.
The bill stipulates that Palestinians convicted in Israeli military courts of carrying out deadly attacks deemed to be "acts of terrorism" would be executed by hanging within 90 days, with a possible postponement of up to 180 days.
In theory, Jewish Israelis could also be executed under the law - but in practice this almost certainly would not happen, as the death penalty could only be carried out where the intention of the attack was to "negate the existence of the state of Israel".
The legislation was pushed hard by the far-right, with the National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir its driving force. After the vote, he posted on X: "We made history!!! We promised. We delivered."
A member of Ben-Gvir's party, Limor Son-Har-Melech, who survived an attack by Palestinian gunmen in which her husband was killed, argued that the law was necessary, citing the example of how one of her husband's killers was later released and went on to take part in the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel.
During the debate in the Knesset, she said: "For years, we endured a cruel cycle of terror, imprisonment, release in reckless deals, and the return of these human monsters to murder Jews again."
But Yair Golan, the leader of opposition Democrats party, criticised the legislation and said it would lead to international sanctions.
"The death penalty law for terrorists is an unnecessary piece of legislation designed to get Ben-Gvir more likes," he said. "It does not contribute one ounce to Israel's security."
Speaking the day after the vote, Turk, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, said the bill was "patently inconsistent with Israel's international law obligations".
"The death penalty is profoundly difficult to reconcile with human dignity, and it raises the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people," he said in a statement.
"Its application in a discriminatory manner would constitute an additional, particularly egregious violation of international law. Its application to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory would constitute a war crime."
Ahead of the vote, the UK, France, Germany and Italy expressed their "deep concern", saying the bill risked "undermining Israel's commitments with regard to democratic principles".
The Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, condemned the law, saying it "seeks to legitimise extrajudicial killing under legislative cover".
And Hamas, which controls Gaza, said in a statement on Monday evening that the approval of the bill "threatens the lives" of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and called on the international community to "ensure the protection of our prisoners".
Amnesty International urged Israeli authorities to repeal the new law. "Israel is brazenly granting itself carte blanche to execute Palestinians while stripping away the most basic fair-trial safeguards", said Erika Guevara-Rosas, the rights group's senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has already petitioned the country's Supreme Court against the law.
"The law is unconstitutional, discriminatory by design and - for West Bank Palestinians - enacted without legal authority," it said in a statement.
The Supreme Court will now have to consider whether to hear the challenge to the bill.
Israel has only executed two people in its history - one of them the infamous Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, who played an important role in perpetrating the Holocaust.
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04-01 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
President Donald Trump, when asked about the helicopters flying by his friend's house said: "They like Kid Rock. I like Kid Rock."
US Army pilots who flew near Kid Rock's home suspended and then reinstated within hours
The crews of two military helicopters seen hovering outside musician Kid Rock's Tennessee home were briefly suspended on Tuesday, before being told they could go back to work by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
"No punishment. No Investigation. Carry on, patriots," Hegseth wrote on social media.
Kid Rock, a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, posted a video of himself saluting to the AH-64 Apaches as they hovered above his pool at his home on Saturday, prompting many to question why they were there.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Army had said that the crews would be taken off work while the military looked into whether they had followed federal flying regulations. Hegseth stepped in a short while later.
The BBC has contacted the US Army for comment.
Kid Rock - whose real name is Robert Ritchie - told local news outlet WKRN-TV on Monday that it is not uncommon for helicopters from the nearby Fort Campbell Army base to fly near his home.
He noted that he has performed for troops at Fort Campbell and overseas.
"I think they know this is a pretty friendly spot," he said.
"I've talked to some of these pilots. I've told them, 'You guys see me waving when you come by the house?' I'm like, 'You guys are always welcome to cruise by my house, any time.'"
Trump, when asked about it, said in a joking manner: "Maybe they were trying to defend him."
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday evening, the president said the crews "probably shouldn't have been doing it. You're not supposed to be playing games".
"They like Kid Rock. I like Kid Rock," he added.
The Army has confirmed that two of its Apache helicopters from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Campbell conducted a flight on 28 March in the Nashville area in the state of Tennessee, where Kid Rock lives and owns two restaurants.
"The Army takes any allegations of unauthorized or unsafe flight operations very seriously and is committed to enforcing standards and holding personnel accountable," spokesman Maj Montrell Russell told the BBC in the earlier statement.
In the caption of the video he posted online, Kid Rock, who also performed at the Republican convention in 2024, insulted California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has feuded with him and Trump.
One clip shows Kid Rock standing poolside next to a smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty, clapping and saluting as the aircraft hovers before flying away.
"God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her," the caption reads.
Another video shows the Born Free singer pumping his fist before a second gunship appears to fly by his mansion, which he has dubbed the Southern White House.
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04-01 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Tests results suggest the two women may have been killed with ricin, according to Italian media, but police still do not have a suspect.
Italian Christmas meal tragedy turns into murder inquiry
Italian prosecutors have opened a murder investigation following the deaths of a mother and her teenage daughter after a pre-Christmas meal last year.
Sara Di Vita, 15, and her mother Antonella Di Ielsi, 50, fell ill after a lunch in their hometown of Pietracatella, a small municipality 260km (161 miles) south-east of Rome.
Sara's father Gianni - the former mayor of Pietracatella - was also taken to hospital, but he later recovered. The couple's eldest daughter was not there that day.
Doctors initially attributed the symptoms to food poisoning, but the new focus comes after laboratory tests revealed the presence of a deadly poison, ricin, Italian media say - even though police still do not have a suspect.
Doctors are said to have thought the infection originated from either fish or mushrooms and discharged the mother and daughter after they went to hospital.
However, their symptoms quickly worsened and the pair were soon re-admitted.
Dr Vincenzo Cuzzone, head of the intensive care unit at Cardarelli hospital in nearby Campobasso, told Italian media that liver failure occurred first and was followed by multi-organ failure "at truly unparalleled speed".
Di Vita and Di Ielsi's deaths were initially attributed to medical negligence and doctors who discharged them were placed under investigation for manslaughter, Italian media report.
They published the test results carried out at laboratories in Italy and Switzerland.
Ricin, a highly toxic chemical, is a poison found naturally in castor beans.
Ingesting a tiny quantity can cause rapid organ failure and lead to death. There is no known antidote for ricin poisoning.
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04-01 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The deaths of the two Indonesian nationals came less than a day after another UN peacekeeper - also Indonesian - was killed in Lebanon.
Peacekeepers killed by roadside explosion in Lebanon, initial report finds
Two Indonesian peacekeepers were killed on Monday by a "roadside explosion" in southern Lebanon, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix has said, citing the findings of an initial investigation.
In a separate statement, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said the explosion was of "unknown origin" and "destroyed" the peacekeepers' vehicle near Bani Hayyan.
A third peacekeeper was "severely" injured in the explosion, and a fourth was hurt, Unifil said.
It was the second such fatal incident in 24 hours. Another peacekeeper - who was also Indonesian - was killed on Sunday when a projectile, also of unknown origin, exploded in Adchit Al Qusayr, southern Lebanon.
Unifil said it had launched investigations to determine what happened in both incidents.
The findings of an "initial" investigation into the incident on Monday "point to a roadside explosion striking the convoy", Lacroix told the UN Security Council earlier.
Their deaths had "most likely" been caused by an IED (improvised explosive device), Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, later said at a briefing.
Speaking about the other incident, on Sunday, Dujarric said it was likely caused by "an explosive that landed in the position that the Indonesians were holding".
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia as well as a political party, has fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for the ongoing US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
In a statement on Telegram, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its own review had concluded that the Bani Hayyan explosion "was not caused by IDF activity".
It went on: "A comprehensive operational examination indicates that no explosive device was placed in the area by IDF troops, and that no IDF troops were present in the area at all."
Separately, the IDF said on Tuesday that four of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon. Another soldier was severely wounded and a reservist moderately wounded, the IDF said.
Dujarric, of the UN, said the peacekeepers in Lebanon were "soldiers sent there on behalf of the international community... and everyone needs to ensure that they are protected and never targeted".
He urged Lebanon and Israel to use the Unifil mechanism for dialogue, saying "the bottom line is that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon needs to be respected".
Antara, an Indonesian government-owned news agency, named the soldier killed on Sunday as Chief Private Farizal Rhomadhon. The two soldiers killed on Monday were named as Captain Zulmi Aditya Iskandar and First Sergeant Muhammad Nur Ichwan.
In a statement, Unifil said: "We extend our sincerest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of those brave peacekeepers who gave their lives in service of peace."
Created by the UN Security Council in 1978, Unifil has since served as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon.
The peacekeeping force patrols the "Blue Line" - the de facto border between Lebanon and Israel, in collaboration with the Lebanese army.
Around 339 peacekeepers have been killed since the mission was established.
Despite a November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, brokered after violence flared between the two over the war in Gaza, Israel has conducted near-daily strikes on Hezbollah targets.
It says the armed group has not abided by the terms of the ceasefire - under which Hezbollah was meant to disarm and leave its positions in the south - and has accused Unifil and the Lebanese army of not doing enough to remove its militants from the region.
Since the ceasefire began, 1,268 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry, including 124 children.
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04-01 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The US state department says a suspect in her abduction has ties to an Iran-backed militia group, Kataib Hezbollah.
US journalist Shelly Kittleson kidnapped in Baghdad
A US freelance journalist has been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and one of the suspects is linked to an Iran-backed militia, Iraqi and US officials say.
Shelly Kittleson was abducted on Tuesday evening, said Al-Monitor, a news outlet for which she has contributed articles.
The Iraqi interior ministry said security forces had chased the reporter's abductors in a pursuit that resulted in one of the kidnappers' cars overturning and the arrest of one suspect.
A US state department official said an individual with ties to an Iranian-aligned militia group, Kataib Hezbollah, was detained by Iraqi authorities.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, confirmed the abduction of an American journalist, without naming Kittleson.
He posted on X: "The State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them and we will continue to coordinate with the FBI to ensure their release as quickly as possible."
It is understood that US officials had contacted Kittleson a number of times to warn of threats against her, including as late as Monday night.
The US state department said in a statement to the BBC: "Due to privacy and other considerations, we have nothing further to share at this time."
It added that the state department had confirmed it "is aware of Kittleson's kidnapping and working with the Iraqi government to secure her release".
Al-Monitor said it was "deeply alarmed" by her kidnapping, and called "for her safe and immediate release".
An Iraqi official confirmed to the BBC's US partner CBS that local authorities were working "at the highest level" to release Kittleson.
Her emergency contact Alex Plitsas, a CNN national security analyst, told CBS that Kittleson had been warned by the US government about a specific threat to her from Iran-backed paramilitaries.
Kataib Hezbollah was said to be plotting to kidnap or kill female journalists.
Plitsas said Kittleson had been warned that her name was on a list in Kataib Hezbollah's possession. A second source confirmed she had been told of a risk, but thought it was false information.
The interior ministry statement said in a statement translated from Arabic: "Security forces immediately launched an operation to apprehend the perpetrators, acting on precise intelligence and through intensive field operations, tracking the kidnappers' movements."
It added: "The pursuit resulted in the interception of a vehicle belonging to the kidnappers, which overturned as they attempted to escape."
The interior ministry did not identify the suspect, calling the abductors "unknown individuals".
"The Ministry affirms that efforts are ongoing to track down the remaining perpetrators and secure the release of the abducted woman, and to take due legal action against all those involved in this criminal act, in accordance with the law," it added.
Kittleson, based in Rome, Italy, has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. According to her bio on X, she has worked for numerous publications.
The FBI, National Security Council, state department, Delta Force and the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service were in contact about her abduction, sources familiar told CBS.
Baghdad was once notorious for kidnappings, but abductions have decreased as the security situation in Iraq has improved in recent years.
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04-01 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Defence Minister Israel Katz also says houses in Lebanese villages near the Israeli border will be demolished.
Israel says it will keep control over part of southern Lebanon after war with Hezbollah ends
Israel's defence minister has said a buffer zone will be set up inside southern Lebanon and that Israel will keep security control over a swathe of the territory even after the end of the current war against the armed group Hezbollah.
Israel Katz said the area to be occupied would go up to the Litani River in southern Lebanon - about 30km (18.6 miles) from the border with Israel.
He also said all houses in Lebanese villages near the Israeli border would be demolished.
Lebanon's Defence Minister Maj Gen Michel Menassa said Katz's remarks reflected "a clear intention to impose a new occupation of Lebanese territory". European nations, Canada and the UN also criticised Israel's announcement.
Israel sent ground troops into southern Lebanon on 2 March and has also been launching broad strikes across the country.
Israel was also carrying out near-daily strikes on Hezbollah before that despite a ceasefire that was agreed in 2024.
Since early March, at least 1,238 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry, including at least 124 children. The UN's humanitarian affairs office says 52 health workers have also been killed.
In the same period, 10 Israeli soldiers and two Israeli civilians have been killed by Hezbollah attacks, Israeli authorities say.
Others killed in the south in recent days include three Indonesian peacekeepers, and three Lebanese journalists, according to the UN and the Lebanese health ministry.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it killed two of the journalists, describing them as "terrorists" without providing evidence to back up its claims. It also said it was aware of reports a female journalist was killed.
It has not yet been established who killed the peacekeepers.
More than a million people - roughly one in every six in the country - have also been displaced, worsening an existing humanitarian crisis in Lebanon.
Israeli officials say the aim is to protect communities in northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks.
Speaking in a video statement published by the defence ministry on Tuesday, Katz gave further details on Israel's military intentions in southern Lebanon.
"At the end of the operation, the IDF will establish itself in a security zone inside Lebanon, on a defensive line against anti-tank missiles, and will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani."
"In addition, the return of more than 600,000 residents of southern Lebanon who evacuated northward will be completely prohibited south of the Litani until the safety and security of northern residents are ensured," he added.
"All houses in villages near the border in Lebanon will be destroyed - according to the model of Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza - to remove, once and for all, the threats near the border to northern residents," he said.
Katz had already announced the intention to create a buffer zone in the south of Lebanon earlier in the month. He had also already said displaced residents would not be allowed back until northern Israel was safe and that houses would be demolished.
But his latest statement goes a step further than his last, as he said Israeli troops would stay in the region after Israel's war with Hezbollah ends.
Lebanon's defence minister said Katz's remarks were "no longer mere threats", but reflected "a clear intention to impose a new occupation of Lebanese territory, forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of citizens, and systematically destroy villages and towns in the south".
Addressing the UN Security Council from Beirut on Tuesday, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said "the current escalation is compounding a situation that is already critical".
He said 51 primary healthcare centres and four hospitals had closed due to hostilities, with others damaged or operating at reduced capacities.
"Given the intensity of the coercive displacement that we are seeing, how should we prepare, collectively as the international community, for a new addition to the list of occupied territories?" Fletcher asked the council.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Israel's deployment of ground troops in Lebanon an "illegal invasion", which violates its "integrity and sovereignty".
"The government of Lebanon has banned Hezbollah, is taking action, is trying to take action against Hezbollah and their terrorist activities and their threats to Israel, and that is the purported justification for this invasion," Carney said.
A joint statement signed by the foreign ministers of 10 European countries, including the UK, France and Italy, as well as EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, urged Israel to avoid widening its military operations in Lebanon and to respect the country's territorial integrity.
They expressed their "full support to the government and the people of Lebanon, who are once again suffering the dramatic consequences of a war that is not theirs".
The ministers added that "the
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04-01 00:00 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
An 11-year-old is reported to have been killed in an air strike while manning a checkpoint in Tehran.
Iran using children in security roles in war, reports and witnesses say
The death of an 11-year-old Iranian boy reportedly in an air strike while manning a security checkpoint alongside his father in Tehran has thrown focus on a new initiative to recruit children into the security services.
Alireza Jafari's mother Sadaf Monfared told the municipality-run newspaper Hamshahri that the pair had been helping Basij volunteer militia patrols and checkpoints to "maintain the security of Tehran and its people" when they were killed on 11 March.
Last week, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official in Tehran told the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency that the organisation would enrol "volunteers" aged 12 and above.
Eyewitnesses have told the BBC they have seen children, including some armed, in security roles in the capital and other cities.
Foreign-based human rights organisations have also reported Alireza's death. The Kurdish group Hengaw said he was a "fifth-grade student" who was killed while present at a checkpoint in Tehran.
Alireza's mother said her husband had told her there were not enough personnel at the checkpoint, with "only four people" present. She said he took Alireza with him and said that the boy needed to be "ready for the days ahead".
She quoted her son as saying: "Mum, either we win this war or we become martyrs. God willing, we will win, but I would like to become a martyr."
Hamshahri newspaper said they were hit by an "Israeli drone strike".
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC they were unable to verify this unless provided with the co-ordinates of the alleged strike.
Rahim Nadali, of the IRGC's Greater Tehran Muhammad Rasulollah Corps, said the new programme, known as Homeland Defender Fighters for Iran, would place children on various duties, including patrols and deployment at checkpoints.
Recruitment, he added, could take place at mosques attached to the Basij militia in Tehran, and in city squares where pro-establishment rallies have been held.
The Basij is a volunteer militia controlled by the IRGC, with an estimated one million members. It is often deployed on the streets to suppress dissent. Israel has said it recently targeted several Basij checkpoints.
Despite a government-imposed internet outage in Iran, the BBC has spoken to four eyewitnesses who said they had seen children under the age of 18 at checkpoints in Tehran, the nearby city of Karaj, and the northern city of Rasht.
Names have been changed for security reasons.
Golnaz, who is in her 20s in east Tehran, told the BBC that she had seen armed teenagers taking part in Basiji forces when she went out after an air strike on 9 March to see what was going on.
Sara, also in her 20s in west Tehran, told the BBC that she saw a teenager at a checkpoint on 25 March.
"He was holding a gun at the cars. He and the others were stopping cars and searching them. He was short and slight."
Those who have been able to connect to the internet have told the BBC that the practice is still going on, and that some patrols go around with the Islamic Republic's flag and loudspeakers during the night.
Some have told the BBC that they have seen teenagers at checkpoints in cities other than Tehran as well.
Peyman, who is in his 20s and lives in Karaj, told the BBC that he saw what he called a "teenage boy" with a Kalashnikov at a checkpoint on 30 March. "His moustache hadn't fully grown," he said.
Tina, who is also in her 20s and comes from Rasht, told the BBC that she saw young people on duty in a square in the city on 14 March.
"They were wearing masks so their faces were covered. But it's obvious that they are children; I can see it from their eyes. They are short as well. They stand in front of those adult forces. I feel pity for them and I get scared at the same time."
"There is no excuse for a military recruitment drive that targets children to sign up, much less 12-year-olds," said Bill Van Esveld of HRW. "What this boils down to is that Iranian authorities are apparently willing to risk children's lives for some extra manpower."
Pegah Banihashemi, an expert in constitutional law and human rights at the University of Chicago Law School, told the BBC: "Under international law, the use of children in security or military roles is tightly constrained and, in many contexts, unlawful."
She also said that their deployment "introduces broader risks to society: untrained minors operating under pressure, often with limited command structure and insufficient understanding of force, can unintentionally escalate violence and endanger civilians".
Holly Dagres, an Iran specialist at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank told the BBC that the use of children at security checkpoints "underscores the desperation of the Islamic Republic".
She said it shows "how deeply unpopular they are with their own population that it is struggling to recruit adults to staff security checkpoints and is resorting to using children in support r
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03-31 00:01 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
The ladder is missing rungs – Engineering Progression When AI Ate the Middle
This is a lightly edited transcript of a talk I gave at QCon London on 17 March 2026.
AI is approaching perfection on exactly the tasks that used to comprise the first decade of an engineering career, and those tasks were never just tasks. They were the mechanism that built judgment, intuition, and the ability to supervise the systems we now delegate to AI. The ladder isn’t just missing rungs. It’s missing the process that created the people who built the ladder.
At a conference in New York last year, Dario Amodei, the co-inventor of reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) and co-founder of Anthropic, predicted that within three to six months AI would be writing 90% of all code; and within twelve months, essentially all of it. At the six-month mark, Amodei claimed vindication, saying the 90% figure was “absolutely true,” at least within Anthropic.
Act I: A Prediction Expires
Twelve months on, almost to the day, and well, that’s not exactly what’s happened.
A detailed analysis by Redwood Research concluded that the 90% number was misleading. If you count only code committed to repositories, it was closer to 50%. Which is still a pretty shocking number. The figure inflates to 90% only by including throwaway scripts, one-off explorations, and all AI-generated text that was ever transiently useful. Meanwhile, Google reports that just over 25% of internal code was AI-generated; Microsoft reports around 30%; GitHub Copilot shows roughly 30% enterprise suggestion acceptance rate.
These figures haven’t really changed over the last six months. That’s nowhere near “essentially all.”
But AI is writing a lot of code. The landscape of what being a developer is has massively changed. Amodei isn’t making it up, Anthropic’s own internal data shows engineers using Claude in 59% of their daily work and reporting 50% productivity gains. Roughly 4% of all public GitHub commits are now authored by Claude Code. The tools are real. The productivity is real, at least in certain contexts.
The problem is that “writing code” was never the point. The conversation most people are having right now is about AI writing code. The conversation we should be having is around what software engineering looks like when software engineers don’t have to write code. But behind that is another question, which both sides arguing about code are ignoring: the structural question. If AI handles the work that used to train engineers, where does the next generation of engineers come from?
Amodei’s own caveat to his claim proves the point. He said the programmer still needs to specify the overall design, how code collaborates, and whether the design is secure. He separated the writing from the engineering. But until about three to six months ago, the writing was how people learned the engineering.
Back in July last year, a Reuters headline got posted in every engineering Slack channel in the world: “AI slows down some experienced software developers, study finds.” As an ex-journalist I don’t consider this the most snappy headline, but it certainly grabbed everyone’s attention.
The METR study behind it was a proper randomised controlled trial, not a vendor survey. It found that experienced developers using AI tools took 19% longer to complete tasks. Before starting, they predicted AI would make them 24% faster. After finishing, they still believed they’d been 20% faster. The gap between perception and measured reality was forty three percentage points. That headline alone challenges the narrative around AI. But what happened next matters for this talk.
In February this year, METR tried to run a follow-up study. They couldn’t. Not because the methodology failed, but because developers now refuse to work without AI. An increasing share of developers told METR they wouldn’t participate in any study that required them to complete half their tasks without AI assistance. The study became unmeasurable, not because the effect disappeared, but because the dependency had become too deep to control. In less than a year, we went from “AI makes experienced developers slower but they can’t tell” to “developers won’t even attempt work without AI”. The tool went from optional to load-bearing before anyone figured out what it was actually doing to the people using it.
There’s something worth noting about where recent improvements in AI coding are actually coming from: the last four or five months have seen what I’d consider a breakthrough in usability. But a significant part is the tooling and architectures around the models: agentic loops, structured feedback from linters and test runners, the ability to iterate rather than generate in a single shot. The models got somewhat better, thanks to targeted training; the scaffolding got a lot better. Most of the gains we’ve seen are coming from tighter feedback loops. Architecture, not intelligence.
For the last year I’ve been an interim CTO at a scale-up. I’ve been doing a lot of hiring. Anyone hiring right now has see
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03-31 00:01 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
FTC action against Match and OkCupid for deceiving users, sharing personal data
The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against OkCupid and its affiliate Match Group Americas over allegations OkCupid deceived users of its dating app by sharing their personal information, including photos and location information, with an unrelated third party, contrary to OkCupid’s privacy promises.
As part of a settlement, OkCupid, operated by Dallas-based Humor Rainbow, Inc., and Match Group Americas, which provides services for Humor Rainbow, will be prohibited from misrepresenting its privacy policies.
In afederal complaint, the FTC alleged that OkCupid gave an unauthorized third party access to the personal data of millions of OkCupid users in violation of its privacy policies. The FTC’s action follows the Commission’s successful enforcement in federal court of its Civil Investigative Demand, which required OkCupid to turn over information requested by the agency.
“The FTC enforces the privacy promises that companies make,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “We will investigate, and where appropriate, take action against companies that promise to safeguard your data but fail to follow through—even if that means we have to enforce our Civil Investigative Demands in court.”
As alleged in the complaint, OkCupid told consumers that it doesn’t share “your personal information with others except as indicated in this Privacy Policy or when we inform you and give you an opportunity to opt out of having your personal information shared.” Its privacy policy at the time claimed it may share personal information with service providers, business partners, other entities within its family of businesses or when it informed consumers about such data sharing and gave consumers the chance to opt out.
Despite these promises, the FTC alleged that OkCupid shared users’ personal data with a third party—even though it was not a service provider, business partner, or family affiliate—and did not inform consumers or give them the chance to opt out of such sharing.
Even though it did not have any business relationship with OkCupid, the third-party data recipient asked the company to share large datasets of OkCupid user photos and related data with it because OkCupid’s founders were financial investors in the third party. OkCupid provided the third party with access to nearly three million OkCupid user photos as well as location and other information without placing any formal or contractual restrictions on how the information could be used, the FTC alleged.
The FTC also alleged that, since September 2014, Match and OkCupid took extensive steps to conceal—including through trying to obstruct the FTC’s investigation—and deny that OkCupid shared users’ personal information with the data recipient. For example, when a news story revealed that the third party had obtained large OkCupid datasets, OkCupid claimed to the media and OkCupid users that it was not involved with the third party.
Underthe proposed settlement, OkCupid and Match are permanently prohibited from misrepresenting or assisting others in misrepresenting:
The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint and stipulated final order was 2-0.
The FTC filed the complaint and final order in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.
NOTE:The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. Stipulated final orders have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court judge.
The lead staff attorneys on this matter are Sarah Choi and Alejandro Rosenberg.
The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition andprotect and educate consumers. The FTC will never demand money, make threats, tell you to transfer money, or promise you a prize. Learn more about consumer topics atconsumer.ftc.gov, or report fraud, scams, and bad business practices atReportFraud.ftc.gov. Follow theFTC on social media, readconsumer alertsand thebusiness blog, andsign up to get the latest FTC news and alerts.
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