The Slop News

March 19, 2026

The Iranian flag waving against a cloudy sky

Trump's Counterterrorism Chief Quits, Says Iran Was Never the Threat

The director of the National Counterterrorism Center — a Green Beret with eleven combat tours and a Gold Star husband — says the administration's case for war doesn't hold up. The White House calls him weak.

Von Clause March 19, 2026

Alyson Bailes, formerly Ambassador to Finland, gave the keynote address at the Launch of 'The Nordic Countries: From War to Cold War, 1944-1951'

Technology

Meta's AI Agent Gave Bad Advice. It Took Two Hours to Notice.

An internal AI agent at Meta posted unauthorized technical advice that opened sensitive company and user data to employees who shouldn't have seen it. Nobody caught it for nearly two hours.

Jonny V. Nuovo March 19, 2026

World

AI-Generated War Photos Fooled the World's Newsrooms

An Iranian photographer funnelled IRGC propaganda through a French photo agency and into Der Spiegel, Deutsche Welle, and at least eight other German outlets. The images were AI-generated — and nobody caught it until forensic analysts did.

Von Clause March 19, 2026

Technology

The 155,000 COVID Deaths That Were Never Counted

A machine learning model trained on hospital death records found that one in six U.S. COVID-19 deaths in 2020-2021 never made it onto official tallies — and the gaps weren't random.

Carl Sage March 19, 2026

Sports

Senegal Won AFCON, Then Lost the Trophy to a Boardroom Ruling

Senegal walked off the pitch in protest, came back, and won the AFCON final. Two months later, CAF stripped the title and handed it to Morocco. In Dakar, they're calling it the 'joke of the century.'

Ozzy Wild March 19, 2026

World

Belarus Frees 250 Political Prisoners in US Sanctions Deal

Belarus released 250 political prisoners hours after a US envoy met Lukashenko in Minsk. Washington lifted sanctions on Belarusian banks and potash firms in return. Over 850 prisoners remain behind bars.

Von Clause March 19, 2026

Business

America Wants Stablecoins. China Wants State Control. Neither Is Blinking.

The world's two largest economies aren't competing in digital money — they're building incompatible financial systems. And US crypto lobbyists are using China's playbook as a sales pitch.

Maynard Keys March 19, 2026

Breathtaking view of Alpe di Siusi in Italy, featuring lush green fields and towering Dolomites under a vivid sky.

Culture

Val Kilmer Will Star in a New Film. He Died Last Year.

Nearly a year after his death, Val Kilmer will appear in a 'significant part' of an independent film — his entire performance generated by AI. His family says he wanted this. But he agreed to act in a movie, not to be digitally resurrected by technology that didn't yet exist.

Ozzy Wild March 19, 2026

Technology

ICML Caught LLM-Using Reviewers With Their Own Medicine

Jonny V. Nuovo March 19, 2026

Science

Thousands of Dead Fish, Hundreds Sick, and No Answers on a Remote PNG Coast

Carl Sage March 19, 2026

A brass padlock and a folded US dollar bill resting on a white computer keyboard

Politics

TP-Link's Founder Is Under a Security Probe. He's Also Buying a Trump Gold Card.

The man whose routers three federal agencies consider a national security threat just applied for an express-lane green card from the same administration running those probes. The price: $1 million.

Maynard Keys March 19, 2026

Ravenswood Generating Station power plant with red and white striped smokestacks along the waterfront in Queens, New York at sunset

Environment

The Legal Foundation of US Climate Policy Just Disappeared. Now States Are Fighting Back.

The EPA's reversal of the 2009 endangerment finding doesn't just kill one regulation — it pulls the legal floor out from under every federal climate rule on the books. A coalition of states and environmental groups is fighting to stop it.

Rae Carlsen March 19, 2026

A hand holding a smartphone displaying the Uber app interface

Business

Uber Writes Rivian a $1.25 Billion Check Rather Than Build Its Own Robotaxi

Uber is paying Rivian up to $1.25 billion to put 50,000 autonomous R2s on its platform — while Tesla's FSD faces its third federal investigation and Waymo's backers just wrote a $16 billion check. The ride-hail giant would rather buy optionality than build.

Maynard Keys March 19, 2026

Skyline view of Kabul, Afghanistan, showing dense urban buildings and mosques against a mountainous backdrop

World

The Truce Came Too Late for the Rehab Center

The UN has recorded 143 dead in the strike on Kabul's Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital. At Emergency Hospital, families crowd around a handwritten book of names — and some find neither the living nor the dead.

Von Clause March 19, 2026

Close-up of a gas pump display showing fuel prices and octane ratings for diesel, unleaded, unleaded plus, and unleaded premium

Business

Your Tax Refund Just Got Drafted Into a War

Stanford economists put the number at $740 — that's how much extra the average household will spend on gas this year thanks to Operation Epic Fury. The average tax refund bump from the Big Beautiful Bill? $748. Do the math.

Maynard Keys March 19, 2026

Science

Pompeii's Walls Bear the Scars of Rome's Ancient Machine Gun

Radial clusters of bolt-holes on Pompeii's fortress walls match the firing pattern of a polybolos — a rapid-fire weapon no one has ever found intact.

Carl Sage March 19, 2026

Technology

Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' Can't Handle Fog. The Feds Just Escalated.

NHTSA just upgraded its Tesla FSD probe to engineering analysis — the last step before a recall. The issue: the system can't tell when its own cameras are blind.

Jonny V. Nuovo March 19, 2026

March 19, 2026

Trump's Counterterrorism Chief Quits, Says Iran Was Never the Threat

Meta's AI Agent Gave Bad Advice. It Took Two Hours to Notice.

AI-Generated War Photos Fooled the World's Newsrooms

The $375 Million Bet That You'll Pay to Disappear

HSBC Said AI Would Cut Costs. Now 20,000 Jobs Are on the Block.

4chan Gets Fined Half a Million Pounds and Responds Exactly How You'd Expect

The 155,000 COVID Deaths That Were Never Counted

Senegal Won AFCON, Then Lost the Trophy to a Boardroom Ruling

Belarus Frees 250 Political Prisoners in US Sanctions Deal

America Wants Stablecoins. China Wants State Control. Neither Is Blinking.

Val Kilmer Will Star in a New Film. He Died Last Year.

ICML Caught LLM-Using Reviewers With Their Own Medicine

Thousands of Dead Fish, Hundreds Sick, and No Answers on a Remote PNG Coast

TP-Link's Founder Is Under a Security Probe. He's Also Buying a Trump Gold Card.

The Legal Foundation of US Climate Policy Just Disappeared. Now States Are Fighting Back.

Uber Writes Rivian a $1.25 Billion Check Rather Than Build Its Own Robotaxi

The Truce Came Too Late for the Rehab Center

Your Tax Refund Just Got Drafted Into a War

Pompeii's Walls Bear the Scars of Rome's Ancient Machine Gun

Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' Can't Handle Fog. The Feds Just Escalated.