World

Strait of Hormuz: Mines, Tolls, and a Strait Nobody Can Reopen

Iran imposed a de facto toll system on Hormuz tanker traffic; the US is urging shipping companies not to pay. In a darkly comic twist, the US says Iran has been unable to locate its own mines in the strait — raising questions about whether the closure is more political instrument than sustained military blockade. Trump said the strait would reopen “soon,” while Australia secured a fuel supply pledge from Singapore. Planet Labs announced it is indefinitely restricting satellite imagery of Iran and the Middle East under US pressure, limiting open-source intelligence access during an active conflict.

Al Jazeera · NYT — mines · BBC — Planet Labs · The Guardian — Australia

Israel Strikes Lebanese Government Building, Killing 13

An Israeli airstrike on a government building in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, killed at least 13 people, including Lebanese military officers. Total Lebanese casualties since March 2 have reached 1,953 killed and 6,303 wounded. Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, damaging a 1,500-year-old Byzantine church in Nahariya. In Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque reopened for the first time in 40 days, with thousands attending Friday prayers. Netanyahu requested a delay in his corruption trial testimony and removed Spain from a Gaza coordination centre.

Al Jazeera · Al Jazeera — Al-Aqsa · Reuters — trial

West Bank: Palestinian Killed as Former Security Chiefs Warn of ‘State Terrorism’

A Palestinian was shot dead during an Israeli settler attack on a village in the occupied West Bank. Former Israeli security chiefs issued an unusually blunt warning that “government-sponsored Jewish terrorism” in the West Bank is out of control — a sharp indictment from within the Israeli security establishment. — BBC

Hungary Votes Sunday: Orbán’s Biggest Test in 16 Years

Péter Magyar’s TISZA opposition leads in polls ahead of Sunday’s election, with tens of thousands filling Budapest’s Heroes’ Square in a final rally. After 16 years of Orbán — which the European Parliament has called a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” — the vote has drawn attention from Washington, Moscow, Brussels and Kyiv. Trump sweetened his Orbán endorsement with promises of US economic aid. Magyar, who broke publicly with the government two years ago, represents the most credible opposition challenge since 2010.

The Guardian · BBC · NPR · Kyiv Independent

Melania Calls for Epstein Hearings; Survivors Accuse Her of ‘Shifting Burden’

First Lady Melania Trump called on Congress to hold public Epstein hearings with survivors — placing herself at odds with an administration that has sought to close the investigation. More than a dozen survivors responded critically, accusing her of “shifting the burden” onto victims rather than demanding accountability from the network that enabled Epstein.

BBC · The Guardian · NPR

France to Migrate Government Systems From Windows to Linux

France announced plans to abandon Microsoft Windows across government systems in favor of Linux, citing reduced reliance on US technology. One of the most significant sovereignty-driven government IT migrations in Europe, signaling a broader trend of reassessing dependence on US tech infrastructure. — TechCrunch

Ukraine

Caspian Oil Platforms Hit: Deep-Strike Campaign Reaches New Distances

Ukrainian special operations forces struck two Lukoil offshore drilling platforms in the Caspian Sea overnight — the Valery Grayfer and Yuri Korchagin fields — extending the deep-strike energy campaign far beyond the immediate theater. The Tinguta main oil pumping station in Volgograd Oblast, handling up to 3 million tons of diesel per year, was also hit and caught fire visible from 20 km. The Feodosia oil terminal in Crimea continues to burn for a third day, with analysts estimating a 2–6 week fuel shortage in occupied Crimea. Intelligence chief Budanov: the oil infrastructure campaign will continue for the duration of the war. Zelensky separately revealed that unnamed “partners” have asked Ukraine to refrain from striking Russian oil refineries.

Ukrainska Pravda — Caspian · Ukrinform — Volgograd · Ukrainska Pravda — Novorossiysk resumes · Kyiv Independent — partners

Easter Truce Declared — Hours After 160-Drone Overnight Attack

Putin signed a ceasefire effective 1600 Moscow time April 11 through end of day April 12; Zelensky accepted. But in the hours before it took effect, Russia launched 160 drones overnight — hitting a residential building in Sumy (17 injured including a child, a kindergarten damaged), Odesa (2 killed), and Poltava (1 killed). The Kremlin did not consult Ukraine or the US before announcing. ISW notes Russia has used short ceasefires as cognitive warfare tools rather than genuine pauses. Ukraine has separately secured an oil supply deal with Gulf states in exchange for military support.

Ukrainska Pravda — 160 drones · Ukrainska Pravda — Sumy · Ukrainska Pravda — Odesa · BBC · Politico — Gulf oil

Shadow Fleet Sails Past: UK and Estonia Decline to Act

Despite earlier statements about aggressive interdiction, UK military forces escorted but did not stop Russian shadow fleet tankers through the English Channel, citing fears of violating international maritime law. Estonia separately said the risk of detaining vessels is “too high.” The US is also reportedly set to extend waivers permitting purchases of sanctioned Russian oil. The enforcement gap undermines Western pressure on Russia’s oil revenues at the same moment Ukraine is striking production and logistics.

Zmina · Kyiv Independent — Estonia · Ukrainska Pravda — US waiver

Zaporizhia Counterattacks Force Russian Reserves Into a Secondary Front

Ukrainian counterattacks in the Oleksandrivka and Hulyaipole directions are forcing Russian command to redeploy strategic reserves — including Pacific Fleet naval infantry — to a secondary front far from the primary Fortress Belt objective in Donetsk. Russia’s self-imposed deadline to take Druzhkivka and Kostyantynivka by end of April appears unachievable. Ukrainian forces also made confirmed advances near Yampil, south of Hryshyne, and northeast of Pishchane. Ukraine dismissed the commander of the 11th Army Corps following the fall of Siversk.

ISW Assessment, April 10 · Ukrainska Pravda — corps commander

Tech

The Browser Extension Supply Chain Is Broken

Two stories this week underscore the same problem. A blogger systematically installed a large portion of the Firefox extension catalog and found many are abandoned, request excessive permissions, or appear to be adware. Separately, the popular JSON Formatter Chrome extension was acquired and began injecting adware — while the original open-source repo on GitHub still shows clean code. Popular tools get acquired and weaponized against their existing user base, often without any alert from the store.

jack.cab — Firefox extensions (HN · Lobsters) · GitHub — JSON Formatter (HN)

Rust’s Supply Chain Attack Surface Is Larger Than You Think

A detailed analysis of how Rust’s ecosystem is vulnerable to supply chain attacks via crates.io, build scripts (build.rs), and procedural macros that run arbitrary code at compile time. The author walks through realistic attack vectors and mitigation strategies including cargo-vet, cargo-deny, and reproducible builds. Despite Rust’s memory safety reputation, the build toolchain remains a significant attack surface.

Blog post · Lobsters

Linux Kernel Documents AI Coding Assistant Policy

The Linux kernel added official documentation on using AI coding assistants: AI-generated code must receive the same scrutiny as any other code, contributors are responsible for reviewing and understanding AI output before submitting, and AI tools may not generate commit messages or changelogs without disclosure. A significant acknowledgment that AI tooling has reached kernel-level relevance.

GitHub · HN

Acyclic E-Graphs: Inside Cranelift’s Mid-End Optimizer

Chris Fallin on the acyclic e-graph design used in Cranelift, the WebAssembly/JIT compiler backend powering Wasmtime and Firefox. E-graphs represent equivalence classes of expressions during optimization; Cranelift’s acyclic variant avoids cycles to enable efficient rewriting passes. A rare look inside production compiler IR design with concrete motivations for the architectural choices.

Blog post · Lobsters

With AI Handling Boilerplate, Plain TypeScript May Beat Frameworks

An argument that AI coding assistants change the framework calculus: since AI generates verbose DOM manipulation code cheaply, the conciseness advantage of frameworks weakens. The author builds a lightweight app with plain TypeScript and the DOM API and finds it more explicit, predictable, and debuggable. An interesting practical data point for TypeScript-first development.

dlants.me · Lobsters

Drone Warfare Has Made Surface Infrastructure Indefensible

Steve Blank argues that persistent drone threats have fundamentally changed military strategy: surface-based assets are now trivially targetable. He makes the case for massive investment in underground facilities and tunneling technology, drawing on lessons from Ukraine and recent conflicts. Sharp geopolitical-technical argument with implications for military restructuring. (See also: Ukraine — Caspian strikes)

Steve Blank · HN

ML-KEM-768 vs. X25519: A Long Bet on Post-Quantum

Filippo Valsorda has set up a formal long bet on whether ML-KEM-768 (NIST’s standardized lattice-based KEM) or X25519 will be broken first. Formalizes a real cryptographic question: does NIST’s post-quantum transition hedge against quantum threats, or does the new lattice math introduce its own unknowns?

GitHub · Lobsters

Capsicum vs. Seccomp: Process Sandboxing Compared

A technical comparison of Capsicum (FreeBSD/capability model) and Linux seccomp for process-level sandboxing. Capsicum uses capability-based access control — processes can only use resources they were explicitly handed — while seccomp restricts syscalls via BPF filters. Covers design philosophy, usability tradeoffs, and which provides stronger guarantees in practice.

Blog post · Lobsters

Culture

Italo Calvino: Traveller in a World of Uncertainty

A History Today essay on Calvino’s life and literary significance — how he navigated postwar Italian realism, joined and left the Communist Party, and developed his signature style of fables, combinatorics, and cosmic lightness. Covers the arc from neorealist The Path to the Spiders’ Nests through Cosmicomics and If on a winter’s night a traveler. Good Saturday longform for a writer whose work rewards renewed attention.

History Today · HN