First Thing: Pete Hegseth reportedly had unsecured office internet line to connect to Signal

The revelation is the latest in a string of security breaches involving the defense secretary. Plus, Elon Musk’s xAI accused of pollution over Memphis supercomputer

Good morning.

The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, had an unsecured internet connection installed in his office to evade the Pentagon’s security filters and use Signal on a personal device, two sources told the Associated Press (AP).

Defense department computers are connected to the internet through two separate networks: one for classified information and another for unclassified information. The revelation that Hegseth was using another line means it is possible that sensitive information may have been at risk of hacking or surveillance.

It is the latest in a series of developments concerning Hegseth and security protocols, starting with the explosive news that he and other top security officers were using Signal to discuss strikes on Yemen, which came to light after a journalist was accidentally added to the group.

• What else do we know? Sources told AP that Hegseth sometimes had three computers in his office, including a personal one – despite the ban on bringing in electronic devices owing to spyware risks. Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, told news outlets: “We can confirm that the secretary has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”

Steve Witkoff arrives in Moscow for more talks on Ukraine peace plan

The US special envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Moscow for further negotiations on a Ukraine peace plan. His visit – the fourth since January – comes after another night of Russian attacks on Ukraine, with three people reportedly killed in the country’s south-east.

The battle over Russian occupied territory remains a major barrier to a deal, with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, repeatedly refusing to hand over any of the territory, including the strategically located Crimea. European leaders have called for Moscow, not Kyiv, to reconsider its position.

The US envoy’s visit comes after the former UK prime minister Boris Johnson also criticised the proposed deal, saying Ukraine “gets nothing” under the terms offered by the Trump administration.

• What does President Donald Trump say to that? He said on Thursday night that Russia “stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country” is a “pretty big concession”.

Maher calls Larry David’s satire of his Trump dinner ‘kind of insulting to 6 million dead Jews’

Bill Maher has criticized Larry David’s satirical essay comparing Maher’s flattering account of his meeting with Donald Trump to dining with Adolf Hitler.

Maher, previously a fierce Trump critic, described him as “gracious” and “much more self-aware than he lets on” in an episode of his talkshow Real Time after he dined with the president and some of his high-profile supporters. The New York Times then published a satirical piece by David, from the perspective of a former critic of Hitler who comes around to the Nazi leader after dining with him.

• What did Maher say? He told Piers Morgan’s talkshow Uncensored on Thursday that the piece was “kind of insulting to 6 million dead Jews” and that “Hitler has really kind of got to stay in his own place. He is the GOAT of evil.”

In other news …

• The Vatican is preparing for Pope Francis’s Saturday funeral ceremony as mourners continue to flock to St Peter’s Basilica to pay their respects, before heads of state arrive on Friday.

• A US federal agency has texted a survey to Barnard College employees asking if they are Jewish and have been subjected to antisemitism, causing anxiety about the creation of such a list among some recipients.

• Pakistan and India traded fire overnight along the line of control in the disputed region of Kashmir, officials have said, with the UN calling for the two nuclear-armed powers to exercise “maximum restraint”.

• Donald Trump’s online store is stocking merchandise branded “Trump 2028” – despite the president being constitutionally banned from running for a third term.

Stat of the day: 70% of GOP voters now believe richest Americans should pay higher taxes

Seven in 10 Republican voters now believe that the richest Americans should pay more tax – a significant increase from 62% six years ago, according to Morning Consult. What is more, two-thirds back proposals to raise taxes on those earning more than $400,000.

The changing public view among conservative voters comes as Donald Trump’s tax agenda stands to redistribute wealth the other way, giving more than half its benefits to the US’s richest 10%.

Don’t miss this: what happens when you build a city from wood?

A former industrial area in south Stockholm is home to an ambitious environmental project: 25 neighborhoods are being built out of timber. While it’s a huge project, owing to the structural material, developers can build at twice the speed compared with concrete-based construction.

The potentially groundbreaking “Wood City”, which will see its first buildings finished this year, comes after research found that building with wood instead of concrete and steel in 80% of new buildings would help offset half of Europe’s construction industry emissions.

Climate check: Elon Musk’s xAI accused of pollution over Memphis supercomputer

Environmental and community activists in Memphis have accused Elon Musk’s xAI of becoming one of the biggest air polluters locally since it fired up its data center there last summer.

The first public hearing with the health department on the problem will take place on Friday, after the Southern Environmental Law Center revealed this month that xAI had discreetly brought in at least 35 portable methane gas turbines without air permits to help fuel its supercomputer. Methane is a potent climate-heating gas.

Last Thing: historians at odds over how many penises are embroidered on Bayeux tapestry

Two medieval historians are engaged in an academic debate over the scholarly issue of just how many penises are embroidered into the Bayeux tapestry.

Six years ago, the Oxford professor George Garnett announced he had spotted 93 penises (mostly belonging to horses) on the tapestry depicting the Norman conquest of England – but now Dr Christopher Monk has laid claim to a 94th, though Garnett insists that what he’s seeing is a dagger. Here, they explain why it all matters.

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