Author: rb809rb

Nigel Farage Confidant Linked to $550K Loss On Iran Strike Polymarket Bet: Report
In brief

An account bearing George Cottrell’s name appeared to lose $550k on an Iran strike bet.

An additional $125k loss was tied to a wager on Keir Starmer leaving office.

Polymarket is not licensed to operate in the UK.
An account on the prediction market Polymarket that appears to bear the name and birth year of British financier and Nigel Farage confidant George Cottrell lost more than $550,000 on bets about whether the U.S. would bomb Iran.

The “GCottrell93” account wagered roughly $550,000 on the outcome “No” to the question “US strikes Iran by February 28, 2026?” according to Polymarket data first cited by UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph. The position was wiped out after the United States struck Iran on February 28. Prior to this, the account won multiple bets against the strikes before other dates in February.

The same account also appears to have lost around $125,000 on a bet that Prime Minister Keir Starmer would be out of office by February 28. It has garnered almost $3.5 million in profits, the bulk of that coming from a bet on Trump winning the 2024 election.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has previously expressed “high confidence” that the account belongs to Cottrell, a longtime associate of Reform UK leader Farage who has helped raise millions of pounds for his political movements, including Ukip and the Brexit Party. In 2025 his mother, aristocrat Fiona Cottrell, emerged as one of Reform UK’s largest donors.

Cottrell has a long history with high‑stakes betting and finance. Court filings in the UK previously named him as part of a professional betting syndicate linked to Brighton and Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom. The syndicate, tied to the analytics firm Starlizard, reportedly generated hundreds of millions of dollars in winnings, with Cottrell said to have earned substantial sums by copying its bets.

Cottrell was arrested in 2016 while attending the Republican National Convention in Chicago alongside Farage. U.S. prosecutors charged him with conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, blackmail and extortion after meetings with undercover federal agents in Las Vegas. Following a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud and served eight months in prison.

Last month, he published a book entitled “How To Launder Money: A guide for law enforcement, prosecutors and policymakers,” whose launch was attended by Farage and senior Reform UK figures.

In a statement emailed to Decrypt, a Reform UK spokesperson said that “George Cottrell is not employed by the party so you are best approaching him for comment.” Decrypt has attempted to contact Cottrell via his company, Geostrategy.

Reform UK and crypto

Reform UK has taken an explicitly pro‑cryptocurrency stance and became the first major British political party to accept crypto donations in June 2025. The policy has drawn criticism from lawmakers and transparency campaigners who warn that cryptocurrency donations could enable money laundering or foreign interference in British elections.

This week former Labour minister Rushanara Ali called for a ban on crypto political donations, describing them as a potential vector for “foreign interference in our democracy.” Seven parliamentary committee chairs also wrote to the prime minister earlier this year urging an explicit prohibition on cryptocurrency donations.

Campaign groups have raised similar concerns. The UK Anti‑Corruption Coalition and Spotlight on Corruption argue that the Electoral Commission lacks the powers necessary to properly monitor the origin of crypto donations.

Despite publicly saying it accepts it, donating online to Reform UK using crypto doesn’t seem to work. Decrypt tried to access the party’s crypto donations page online on multiple browsers and was directed to a blank page each time.

Prediction markets under scrutiny

Cottrell’s bets also come at a time of increased scrutiny of prediction markets. Polymarket is not licensed to operate in the UK and limits services to UK-based users. The Gambling Commission told Decrypt it “does not comment on individual businesses” but pointed to its register of licensed operators, which does not include Polymarket.

In guidance published last month, the regulator said prediction market platforms would likely fall under the legal definition of a “betting intermediary” in the UK, similar to a betting exchange, and would require the appropriate gambling licence to operate legally.

Despite arguments by some platforms that prediction markets are distinct from gambling, regulators around the world have taken an increasingly hard line. Companies in the sector face legal or regulatory challenges in numerous jurisdictions including France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Portugal, Hungary, Thailand and the Netherlands.

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
March 7, 2026
Kazakhstan’s Central Bank Will Invest Up to $350 Million in Crypto Assets: Reuters
In brief

Kazakhstan’s central bank could invest up to $350 million in crypto and related assets.

The investments will comprise associated firms and financial products.

The allocations could dovetail with Alatau City, a so-called smart city.
Kazakhstan’s central bank has earmarked $350 million for investments in the crypto, with plans to deploy capital as early as next month, Reuters reported on Friday.

“This includes not only cryptocurrency itself,” National Bank of Kazakhstan Governor Governor Timur Suleimenov reportedly said, while taking questions on the central bank’s latest interest rate decision. “We are currently developing a list of instruments in which we ⁠will invest.”

Derived from the Central Asian country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves, which totaled nearly $70 billion as of Feb. 1, the initiative marks an effort to diversify away from traditional stores as value using a relatively small amount of capital.

The investments will span “shares of high-tech companies related to cryptocurrencies and digital financial assets, index funds, and other instruments that exhibit similar dynamics to crypto assets,” suggesting that the central bank may not hold digital assets in their native form.

Decrypt has reached out to the National Bank of Kazakhstan for comment.

Kazakhstan’s national fund, established decades ago to manage oil-sale revenue, was valued at $65.23 billion at the start of last month. And the central bank’s investments in crypto could begin as late as May, per Reuters, which cited Deputy Governor Aliya Moldabekova.

“We are currently selecting companies that deal with digital assets. For example, those ⁠involved in cryptocurrency infrastructure,” she said. “We are currently in the process of selecting such companies.”

The measure resembles a relatively distinct approach to capitalizing on digital assets compared to the strategic Bitcoin reserve established by the Trump administration last year, set to be seeded using Bitcoin seized from U.S. criminal or civil proceedings via executive order. The reserve represented a key campaign promise from President Donald Trump in 2024.

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev floated a strategic crypto reserve himself in September, describing such assets as foundational to “the new digital financial system.”

At the time, he tied the country’s efforts to Alatau City, a so-called smart city featuring massive towers that aims to reach a population of 2 million residents by 2050.

“Alatau City should become the first fully digitalized city in the region,” Tokayev said, underscoring a desire for “technologies to pay for goods and services with cryptocurrency.”

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
March 7, 2026
North Carolina star Caleb Wilson breaks right thumb in practice and is out for the season

North Carolina says star freshman Caleb Wilson broke his right thumb in practice and will miss the remainder of the season.

Caleb Wilson appeared to be close to returning for No. 17 North Carolina from a fracture to his left hand, just in time for the peak of March.

Instead, the star freshman and high-end NBA prospect is abruptly done for the season after suffering a new injury.

The school announced Friday that Wilson will need surgery after breaking his right thumb in a non-contact drill during Thursday’s practice. The news comes on the eve of a second matchup with No. 1 Duke, less than a week from the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament and roughly two weeks from the start of March Madness.

“Can’t really put into words how special chapel hill has been to me man,” Wilson posted on Instagram Friday night.

“But truly this has been one of the most amazing experiences and times in my life and I would not trade for anything even with the freak accident injuries as of late,” he added.

It was a shocking change to Wilson’s trajectory as the Tar Heels’ scoring and rebounding leader inched his way back from the injury suffered in a Feb. 10 loss at Miami. He had been cleared for individual work late last week, and had shed his cast and was focusing on non-contact work like dribbling and shooting.

Before Thursday’s practice, coach Hubert Davis told reporters that Wilson was increasing his work but had yet to be cleared for 5-on-5 action. According to the school’s release, Wilson was hurt while dunking later that day.

The Tar Heels had gone 5-1 in his absence, including a home win against then-ranked Louisville and Tuesday’s win against Clemson in UNC’s home finale. And Wilson had been on the bench, eagerly jumping around and cheering on teammates with his left hand in the cast.

Now, the buzz that had built about Wilson’s approaching return is gone.

The 6-foot-10, 215-pound freshman from Atlanta was averaging team-highs of 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds, providing elite athleticism, intense competitiveness and go-go-go motor. He had also endeared himself to fans with his exuberant energy and public comments about wanting to make a mark in his time in Chapel Hill.

He went out in his second game and dropped 24 points on 9-for-11 shooting in a win against Kansas and fellow top NBA prospect Darryn Peterson, saying afterward: “I want to let the world know who I am for sure.”

And he was a standout in the first meeting against the rival Blue Devils. Wilson had 17 first-half points in a one-man show that helped the Tar Heels hang in the game early, finishing with 23 points in a win that came on Seth Trimble’s last-second 3-pointer in an epic finish to the storied rivalry.

Wilson was injured in the next game at Miami, coming as he closed out on Noam Dovrat’s 3-pointer from the top, with Dovrat hitting the shot while being fouled at the 5:34 mark and both players falling to the court. Wilson kept playing before checking out in the second half, then headed to the tunnel for evaluation by trainer Doug Halverson.

He later returned with 8:47 remaining, his left wrist and palm area heavily taped as he finished with a season-low 12 points. The team said X-rays at the time were negative for a fracture, but additional imagining done after the team returned to Chapel Hill discovered the break in his left hand.

That turned out to be his last action of the season, and his college career if he goes the expected one-and-done route with his high-lottery draft projection.

The Tar Heels (24-6, 12-5) were locked into the No. 4 seed at next week’s ACC Tournament regardless of Saturday’s outcome at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium in the regular-season finale. The Blue Devils have won seven straight since that Feb. 7 loss at UNC, including a neutral-court win against then-No. 1 Michigan and last weekend’s 26-point win over now-No. 13 Virginia.

March 7, 2026
Jeremy Larner, Oscar-Winning Screenwriter on Robert Redford’s ‘The Candidate,’ Dies at 88

Jeremy Larner, whose experience as a speechwriter for 1968 presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy informed his Oscar-winning screenplay for the Robert Redford-starring The Candidate, has died. He was 88.

Larner had been ill for some time and died Feb. 24 in a nursing facility in Oakland, California, his son Jesse Larner told The Hollywood Reporter.

For his only other produced screenplay, Larner adapted his 1964 novel Drive, He Said, for the audacious basketball-centric 1971 film of the same name that marked the feature directorial debut of Jack Nicholson.

Larner had joined McCarthy on the campaign trail in March 1968, with the Minnesota senator, running on a platform to end the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, attempting to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.

McCarthy appeared on his way to victory, but following the withdrawal of President Lyndon Johnson from the race and the assassination of fellow candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the nomination would go to Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

After writing Nobody Knows: Reflections on the McCarthy Campaign of 1968, a book that gained traction when it was serialized in Harper’s magazine in 1969, Larner was approached by Redford and director Michael Ritchie to write the script for The Candidate (1972).

In the Warner Bros. film, Redford stars as idealistic young liberal Bill McKay, a poverty lawyer and son of a wheeling-dealing governor (Melvyn Douglas) who is groomed by a political consultant (Peter Boyle) to run against Republican incumbent Crocker Jarman (Don Porter) for senator in California.

McKay speaks his mind, figuring he has no chance of winning — until he does, prompting him at the end to ask Boyle’s Marvin Lucas, “What do we do now?”

Redford and Ritchie “had a few ideas of what they wanted it to be about, and of the ending as well,” Larner recalled in an extensive 2016 Brooklyn Magazine interview with Steve Macfarlane about his work on the film. “One of the reasons they approached me was, I was one of the very few writers who had written speeches for a presidential campaign, and a screenwriter at the time as well.

“Here’s what I said the first time I met with [them]: I said, to me, a politician was like a movie star. He could lose himself in a character — it’s true of many stars, and was even truer then — who resembles himself, only larger than life, as a symbol of what’s beautiful and what’s true. I was aware, of course, that Redford was that kind of a symbol. As I said this, I thought to myself: ‘You are now definitely losing the job.’

From left: Melvyn Douglas and Robert Redford in 1972’s ‘The Candidate.’

Courtesy Everett Collection

“This is where my experience with McCarthy came into it: I would write a speech, hear McCarthy deliver my words as part of his stump speech, and see the response he got from it. He’d say things that enabled people to cheer themselves by cheering him.

“I thought a campaign was like drifting downriver on a raft, where everything is beautiful: then you begin to hear the roar of the falls up ahead, but it’s too late. You go over the falls, you lose yourself, you become eternally confused by the difference between yourself and who your public thinks you are. And it’s a disarming, dissociative experience. And Redford played that very well: the better McKay gets at campaigning, the more he loses himself.”

Jeremy David Larner was born on March 20, 1937, and raised in Indianapolis, where he won the city’s high school tennis championship while attending Shortridge High. His father, Martin, was president of the Jewish Community Center Association.

Larner graduated from Brandeis University in 1958, where his classmates included soon-to-be activist Abbie Hoffman, then attended the University of California at Berkeley for graduate work on a Woodrow Wilson fellowship.

He moved to New York when he was 22 and stayed throughout the 1960s, working as a freelance journalist for such publications as Life — for whom he covered the 1968 Mexico City Olympics — The New Republic and Harper’s.

Larner also authored two novels and three nonfiction books during this period, including Poverty: Views From the Left; Drive, He Said; The Addict in the Street; and the LSD-centric The Answer.

During the McCarthy campaign, Larner penned a radio commercial for Paul Newman that played in Indiana, and he ghost-wrote a magazine article for the actor talking about why he was impressed with the senator.

Larner’s Drive, He Said novel revolved around two Ohio University roommates, one an alienated basketball star (played by William Tepper in the film) and the other a revolutionary (Michael Margotta). Its title is taken from a quote from the Robert Creeley poem I Know a Man.

In 1968, Nicholson phoned Larner and said, “Jer, I’m gonna be a star, and they’re gonna let me direct a picture. I want you to come out and write it,” he told Los Angeles Magazine in 1996. So Larner left Boston — he was working at Harvard at the time — to come to L.A.

Larner said he wrote the first draft of Drive, He Said and then rewrote Nicholson’s rewrite. (Also contributing to the script: Terrence Malick and Robert Towne, both uncredited.)

From left: William Tepper and director Jack Nicholson on the set of 1971’s ‘Drive, He Said.’

Courtesy Everett Collection

By the time production had wrapped on the R-rated film — it was dismissed at Cannes and played mere weeks in theaters before being pulled — Nicholson was indeed a star with Easy Rider in his pocket, and Larner had returned to Harvard before The Candidate opportunity arose.

“I came down to New York,” he told Macfarlane. “Redford and Ritchie saw 10 different writers with experience on political movies, or with experience as speechwriters. I figured I would not get the job, especially because I had kind of long hair and a beard at the time [Laughs]. But I figured I was free to say what I wanted to say, and to my surprise they called me back.

“Then they came up to Cambridge … and we worked mostly in my kitchen — I think we went out to dinner a couple times. We worked out the nature of the story, and I told them stories of my experience with McCarthy, some of which I put directly in the script. For example, the moment when somebody hands McKay a Coke and a hot dog, so his hands are occupied, and then slugs him in the face — that really happened to McCarthy!”

For additional research, Larner spent a week with Democratic Sen. John V. Tunney, who had recently been elected a California senator. One of Tunney’s lines — “I have a confession to make: I ate all the shrimp” — made it into his script.

Given a month to write the screenplay, Larner said it took him two weeks, working from noon to 3 a.m. very day to come up with 180 pages. Then, he was on set of the $1.1 million picture every day, rewriting constantly.

“I’m a little surprised the ending worked out OK — more than OK, he said. “That line, ‘What do we do now?,’ is probably not something a real politician would say. They think they know what they’re doing as a rule, even when they don’t!”

On Oscar night in 1973, Larner in his acceptance speech thanked “the political figures of our time who’ve given me terrific inspiration. I think as long as they continue to do the things they do and to use the words that they use, words like ‘honor,’ there’ll be better pictures and sharper pictures even than The Candidate.”

Larner went on to write about a dozen screenplays but never had another onscreen writing credit. “I was much better paid for them and I thought some of them were far better than The Candidate, but I could never get any of them made,” he said. Those included several drafts of North Dallas Forty (1979) and an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Victory for Sydney Pollack.

“I thought I was the exception to the rule in terms of writers having clout, but writers don’t have any clout unless they get to be Paddy Chayefsky,” he said. He did pen environmental speeches for Redford, speak on college campuses and write Chicken on Church & Other Poems, published in 2006.

Survivors include his sons, Jesse and Zachary, and his brother, Daniel. He was married to Brandeis classmate Susan Berlin from 1960 until their 1968 divorce.

In his interview with Macfarlane, Larner said that during the making of The Candidate, many people working on the film didn’t understand his script, and he noted he was “constantly explaining myself.”

“It made sense to Redford and Ritchie, I always thought, but then again I was always reminding them of where the scenes fit together, and it was a constant concern of theirs to make sure the scenes did,” he recalled.

“But the idea for the movie predated the script. When Redford and Ritchie approached me, McKay would be the son of a former governor, trapped into an uncomfortable position, and surprised when he wins. Kind of like me winning the Oscar.”

March 7, 2026
Bill Maher Gets “Honest” With Donald Trump About President’s Successes and Failures: “I Have Every Right to Say So in a Democracy”

Nearly three weeks after Donald Trump spent part of his Valentine’s Day lashing out at Bill Maher, claiming that he wasted his time having dinner with the Real Time host last year, Maher offered a detailed rebuttal, complete with clips, of just where he stands with the president, revealing that he has both criticized and praised him.

At the end of his “New Rules” segment, Maher said that despite what the president wrote on Truth Social, he doesn’t “suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Instead, the comedian says, the president, who has continued to post to social media about Maher as recently as Friday amid an ongoing conflict with Iran, has “Bill Maher Derangement Syndrome.”

First Maher corrected some facts from Trump’s Truth Social post about the dinner, noting he didn’t ask for it, he was invited by their mutual friend, Kid Rock, on his podcast, and that he “had a drink before dinner and then a couple more during.”

“I was having a good time,” he said. “So were you, Don, because we were talking like real humans, not like that crazy act you put on in public, but I know that’s what you do. You are, if anything, a man who wears his heart on his sleeve. And so you did here, listing your accomplishments and how hurt you feel that people, including me, have not recognized them enough. I understand that feeling.”

He went on to explain that shortly after the dinner Trump texted him “complaining I was still part of the lunatic left” and insisting that he should have “won a Nobel Prize for ending wars.”

Maher said he replied with, “Yeah, and I should have won 20 Emmys.”

“We argued for a while, and [Trump] ended by saying, ‘Bill, you know what? Don’t change. I wouldn’t know what to do with you if you did OK.’ That’s the normal human being I saw the night we broke bread,” Maher said. “And as long as I think there’s even a spark of a possibility to bring that guy out more, I will not consider the dinner a waste of time, even, as I now see we’re back to name calling and that I have some new ones, like ‘highly overrated lightweight’ to add to the list you signed. Thank you. I’ll be by with the new one.”

He then went through what he felt Trump should get credit for, showing clips of when he’s supported those initiatives on his show.

First, Maher said “despite all the hate I got from my side,” I “never threw [Trump] under the bus.”

“You say no mention of the perfect border,” Maher added. “The border is a win. You mentioned the mass removal of stone cold criminals. This is what got Trump elected. We’re going to get the gangs out.”

He went on to say that he supported Trump bombing the nuclear facility in Iran over the summer and didn’t “hate” the U.S. military operation removing Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela earlier this year.

And he listed a number of other Trump initiatives that he supported including ones related to animal rights, marijuana, the White House ballroom, the “golden dome missile shield” and that Trump “wasn’t wrong” about making NATO members pay “their fair share.”

He added, “About the Nick Fuentes Jew-hating wing of the Republican Party, [cutting to a clip of an earlier episode] Trump is the one who said, and I give him credit for this, he said, ‘We don’t want you.’”

And Maher showed a clip of him admitting he was wrong when he said he thought by July 4 “the economy would be in the shitter.”

“See, that’s the difference between you and me, Don, I can admit when I’m wrong and I can be honest,” Maher said as he started to share some tough love with Trump. “In fact, I may be the last person from the lunatic left that is still an honest broker when it comes to you.”

He added, “It’s a shame you can’t take criticism, because in an alternative universe where we could have further honest conversations, I could say things to you that might be quite helpful, like, Don, I’m going to level with you. I’m going to give it to you straight. Some people don’t like you. … I always want the American president to succeed, and I do give credit when you have, but there’s lots of stuff you do that is not my idea of success, and I have every right to say so in a democracy.”

He went on to list what he thought were Trump’s failures including the current manifestation of ICE: “Yeah, I’m glad you got rid of stone cold criminals, but no one wanted the sadism and stupidity that went along with it.”

Elon Musk’s DOGE, Maher added was “a complete disaster. People died for no reason, and it cut no government waste.”

Other Trump positions Maher opposed included the president’s stance on coal “not beautiful or clean,” “taking the side of autocrats instead of democratic allies around the world” and hating “Canada and wind.”

“Criminalizing dissent is wrong, and so is the juvenile trolling and suing people into silence,” he added.

“It’s not derangement for me to be always calling out the election-denying obsession you have or the pardons-for-my-friends-and-punishment-for-my-enemies mode of governing or the side deals for your family that always seem to be part of everything,” he said. “We see how rich you’ve all become, but the people of West Virginia don’t seem to be feeling the winning. A Democratic senator recently said, of your administration, ‘they are the elites they pretend to hate.’ Free advice, if the Democrats ever learn to weaponize that message, your MAGA movement is in big trouble.”

In his initial Truth Social post on Feb. 14, Trump said, taking issue with some of Maher’s criticism the night before, “Sometimes in life you waste time! T.V. Host Bill Maher asked to have dinner with me through one of his friends, also a friend of mine, and I agreed. He came into the famed Oval Office much different than I thought he would be. He was extremely nervous, had ZERO confidence in himself and, to soothe his nerves, immediately, within seconds, asked for a ‘Vodka Tonic.’ He said to me, ‘I’ve never felt like this before, I’m actually scared.’ In one respect, it was somewhat endearing! Anyway, we had a great dinner, it was quick, easy, and he seemed to be a nice guy and, for his first show after our dinner, he was very respectful about our meeting — But with everything I have done in bringing our Country back from ‘OBLIVION,’ why wouldn’t he be?”

Then Trump objected to Maher’s Real Time for “devolv[ing] into the same old story — Very boring, ANTI TRUMP.”

Of Maher, Trump said, comparing him to late-night hosts that he’d criticized, “he is no different than Kimmel, Fallon, or Colbert.”

Maher briefly addressed Trump’s comments on his Feb. 20 show before promising a more detailed response when he returned from a one-week break on March 6.

“He went off on me and said the dinner we had was a waste of time — well, I didn’t think it was — and that I’m a jerk, and I’m a low-rent lightweight, and all this … because I never stopped criticizing him,” Maher said on Feb. 20. “I never said I would! I know how women feel now: A guy buys you dinner and then expects you to put out. I’m not that guy.”

Maher spoke about his dinner with Trump, which happened in the spring of 2025 on the April 11, 2025 episode of Real Time, saying that during their meeting, the president was “gracious and measured,” and not like the “person who plays a crazy person on TV.”

“The guy I met is not the person who the night before the dinner shit tweeted a bunch of nasty crap about how he thought this was a bad idea and what a deranged asshole I was,” Maher said. “I read it and thought, ‘Oh, what a lovely way to welcome someone to your house.’ But when I got there, that guy wasn’t living there.”

Maher’s willingness to have dinner with Trump sparked backlash from some circles, with Larry David even penning a satirical essay for The New York Times, mocking Maher’s visit to the White House, titled “My Dinner With Adolf.”

Near the end of the year, Maher said David “certainly is not really my friend anymore,” indicating that they haven’t spoken recently.

March 7, 2026
Man finally gets answer over what causes three holes in shirt that’s baffled people for years

A man who was left with holes in his t-shirts has finally had it explained to him after he was left baffled for years.

Now I can’t speak for the entire male population here, but it’s fair to suggest that a lot of lads spend their adult lives confused about what to wear and how they can get the best out of their clothes.

Gen Z’ers have already been left baffled about the ankle sock as they look to revive an old style of fashion, and it seems as if the classic combo of jeans and a t-shirt simply doesn’t cut it anymore, particularly if you’re out to impress with your outfit.

For those of us who still wear the occasional t-shirt, it can often come with a confusing conclusion, which is to say that holes can often appear there without any real explanation.

This is fascinating conversation in the Dull Men’s Facebook page and that’s exactly where the topic first came up, as we’re unlikely to mention it in the pub despite it being something that we’ve probably all experienced at one time or another.

The man wrote: “Almost every one of my t-shirts have these little holes in them in the front near my waist. I do not wear belts.

“It has puzzled me for years, and I mean years. I thought maybe it was my seatbelt, but I have had multiple cars throughout the years.

“I also thought maybe it was something in the washing machine or dryer snagging them, but that wouldn’t make sense that it would be in the same place every time.”

It’s more common than you might think (Reddit)

The natural explanation might well have been a belt buckle but as the original poster suggested, it was something else which was causing this annoyance.

And now another site where topics from dull to dangerous are explored, also known as Reddit, has offered up a number of potential solutions.

One person explained: “If you wear pants with buttons (like jeans), the fabric gets caught between the button and something you are leaning against, like a desk, table, or countertop.

“There are silicon button covers you can buy that will stop this from happening. I was getting little holes like that on almost all of my knit shirts until I started using the button covers.”

Your trouser button might be to blame (Getty Stock)

Another person thinking along the same lines added: “The buttons on the front of your pants make these holes when you go up against a counter or something.

“Took me years to figure that one out too. I though it was my washer!”

Of course, opening beer bottles with your t-shirt is not only going to be frowned upon by everyone else at the party, but it’s also likely to cause these holes as well.

Naturally, we men don’t like replacing our clothes unless absolutely necessary, so if you can avoid these holes it’s something of a god send, but otherwise, it might be time to order in some replacements.

March 7, 2026
Bitcoin Dives Below $69K as US Loses 92K Jobs in February
In brief

The U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February, pushing unemployment to 4.4% and sending Bitcoin below $69,000.

Bitcoin ETFs lost $228 million on Thursday, though one analyst says stability above $70,000 could signal a healthy reset.

Investors are watching next week’s CPI, GDP, and jobs data for clues on inflation and the labor market.
Bitcoin plunged below $70,000 on Friday, falling more than 5% over the last day as the U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate inched up to 4.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

U.S. Representative Darren Soto (D-FL) was quick to blame President Donald Trump for the weakening labor market.

“Job losses mount as Trump’s dismal economy continues to take its toll on American families,” he wrote on X. “U.S. lost another 92,000 jobs in February after dismal job numbers for 2025. His tariffs, corruption and incompetence are to blame.”

The president hasn’t yet commented on the the jobs report. On Truth Social, he said of the U.S. war with Iran that: “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

Bitcoin peaked above $72,000 yesterday, but was trading for $68,282 at the time of writing after having lost 5.6% in the past day, according to crypto price aggregator CoinGecko.

Liquidations have been modest over the past 24 hours. A total of $370 million worth of crypto derivatives have been forced to sell in the past day, the majority of that coming from long positions. Nearly half of that tally came from Bitcoin positions, according to derivatives analytics platform CoinGlass.

Earlier this week, Bitcoin climbed above $74,000 for the first time in four weeks. But the retrace isn’t cause for alarm, according to Nexo analyst Iliya Kalchev.

“Markets do not need acceleration here; they need acceptance above reclaimed levels,” he said in a note shared with Decrypt. “Stability above $70,000 would reinforce the idea that positioning has reset and that incremental supply is thinning.”

There’s also signs that institutional BTC investors are still feeling skittish, as Bitcoin ETFs shed $228 million on Thursday.

Looking ahead, next week will bring a full slate of marcoeconomic indicators, Kalchev added.

“Monday brings Japan’s gross domestic product data. Wednesday features Germany consumer price index, United States consumer price index, and a United States 10-year note auction that will test demand for duration at current yield levels,” he wrote. “Thursday’s initial jobless claims and Friday’s core personal consumption expenditures data alongside JOLTs job openings will further shape the inflation and labor narrative.”

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
March 7, 2026
Dubai Orders Crypto Exchange KuCoin to Stop Offering Services to Residents
In brief

Dubai’s virtual asset regulator, VARA, issued a cease and desist order to KuCoin saying that it is not licensed in the emirate.

The regulator urged consumers and investors not to utilize the exchange as a result.

Another crypto exchange, MEXC, also received a similar warning, though it didn’t contain the cease and desist language.
Dubai’s digital asset regulatory body has ordered Kucoin Exchange EU Gmbh—operating as Kucoin—to cease and desist its operations in the emirate, according to a Friday announcement.

The Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) said that the cryptocurrency exchange does not hold a license to provide digital asset services within Dubai, and is therefore not authorized to operate there.

“It has come to VARA’s attention that the company [KuCoin] may be providing Virtual Asset activities to Dubai residents without the necessary regulatory approvals and misrepresenting its licensing status,” the notice reads. “As a result, the company has been instructed to cease and desist all unlicensed VA activities.”

The regulator’s announcement warns investors that engaging with unlicensed companies can pose “significant financial risks” and advises them not to utilize KuCoin.

In response to the news, KuCoin indicated that it operates via various entities in different geographic jurisdictions, saying KuCoin Exchange EU GmbH “operates as a MiCAR-regulated entity focused on the European Union (EU) market” and does not accept non-EU users or conduct marketing activity outside the area.

“Regulatory frameworks for digital assets are developing rapidly across many jurisdictions, and regulators are increasingly clarifying their expectations for the industry,” a spokesperson for the firm told Decrypt. “KuCoin respects applicable laws and regulatory processes globally and maintains a cooperative approach with regulators while supporting the development of a responsible digital asset ecosystem.”

It is not immediately clear whether or not the exchange will seek the appropriate regulatory licenses to operate in the emirate, and a representative did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s inquiry.

In addition to KuCoin, crypto exchange MEXC was issued a similar warning notice by the regulator on March 4. However, the regulator did not formally request that the firm cease and desist services, despite indicating that MEXC is “not allowed to offer or promote” virtual asset services in the emirate.

A representative for MEXC did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Daily Debrief Newsletter

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
March 7, 2026
Cuba announces fifth death after shootout with Florida-tagged speedboat

The government in Havana has claimed that the 10 people on board the speedboat had planned to unleash terrorism in Cuba.

Published On 7 Mar 2026

Share

The government of Cuba has announced that a fifth person died as a consequence of a fatal shootout last month involving a Florida-flagged speedboat that allegedly opened fire on soldiers off the island nation’s north coast.

The island’s Ministry of Interior said late on Thursday in a statement that Roberto Alvarez Avila died on March 4 as a result of his injuries.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

It added that the remaining injured detainees “continue to receive specialised medical care according to their health status”.

On February 26, authorities in Cuba said that Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops.

They said the passengers were armed Cubans living in the United States who were trying to infiltrate the island and “unleash terrorism”. Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others.

“The statements made by the detainees themselves, together with a series of investigative procedures, reinforce the evidence against them,” the Cuban Interior Ministry said in its statement.

It added that “new elements are being obtained that establish the involvement of other individuals based in the US”.

Earlier this week, Cuba said it had filed terrorism charges against six suspects who were on the speedboat. The government also unveiled items it claimed to have found on the boat, including a dozen high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.

Cuban authorities have provided few details about the shooting, but they said the boat was roughly 1.6 kilometres (1 mile) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off the country’s north coast.

They also provided the boat’s registration number, but The Associated Press news agency was unable to readily verify the details because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.

The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities.

The island’s economy was, until recently, largely kept economically afloat by Venezuela’s oil, which is now in doubt after a US military operation abducted and deposed former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

March 7, 2026
Iran’s legal case for striking the Gulf collapses under scrutiny

The Gulf states have spent years trying to broker peace between Iran and the West: Qatar brokered nuclear talks, Oman provided back-channel diplomacy, and Saudi Arabia maintained direct dialogue with Iran through 2024 and into 2025. Iran attacked them anyway. The idea that the Gulf states have a responsibility, a moral one, to protect Iran from the consequences of its actions because of good neighbourliness is now grotesque in context. Iran did not return good neighbourliness. Iran returned ballistic missiles.

Iran’s position is based on three propositions. First, that Iran acted in lawful self-defence pursuant to Article 51 of the UN Charter; that host countries relinquished territorial sovereignty by allowing US military bases on their territory; and that the definition of aggression in Resolution 3314 justifies the attack on those bases as lawful military objectives. Each of these propositions is legally flawed, factually skewed, and tactically wrong. Collectively, they add up to a legal argument that, if accepted, would ensure that the Gulf is permanently destabilised, the basic principles of international law are destroyed, and, in a curious twist, the very security threats that Iran is reacting to are reinforced.

The self-defence claim does not meet the required legal threshold

The UN Charter, in Article 51, permits the use of force only in self-defence against an “armed attack”, and this term is not defined by reference to the state invoking it. The International Court of Justice, in cases such as Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States) (1986) and Oil Platforms (Iran v. United States) (2003), has interpreted the requirement of an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter restrictively. The Court distinguished between the most grave forms of the use of force, which qualify as armed attacks triggering the right of self-defence, and less grave uses of force that do not. Accordingly, not every use of force, such as minor incidents or limited military activities, amounts to an armed attack. In this light, the mere presence of foreign military bases in Gulf states, maintained for decades under defence agreements with host governments, would not in itself constitute an armed attack against Iran.

Necessity and proportionality are also part of customary international law, requiring that self-defence be necessary and proportional. Iran has not demonstrated either. Targeting the territory of other sovereign Arab states in response to the policy decisions of the United States is neither necessary, since diplomatic and United Nations avenues are still available, nor proportional, since it imposes military consequences on states that are not a party to any conflict with Iran.

Critically, Article 51 also has a mandatory procedural element, in that any state employing self-defence is immediately required to notify the Security Council. Iran has consistently evaded this requirement in each of its escalatory actions. While this may seem to be a minor element, it is in fact the means by which the international community is able to verify and check self-defence claims. A state that evades this requirement is not employing Article 51. It is exploiting the language of Article 51.

Iran’s reading of Resolution 3314 is a fundamental distortion

The provision of Article 3(f) of the Annex to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) (1974) states that an act of aggression includes the “action of a State in allowing its territory, which it has placed at the disposal of another State, to be used by that other State for perpetrating an act of aggression against a third State”. Iran could rely on this provision to hold the Gulf states that host United States military bases liable for any act of aggression committed from their territories against Iran. Nevertheless, the mere presence of military bases is not sufficient to hold them to be lawful military objectives; this will depend on their actual contribution to military activities against Iran based on the rules of international humanitarian law.

Thus, such an Iranian reading would be wrong on three distinct legal grounds.

First, Resolution 3314 is definitional in nature. The resolution was adopted to assist the Security Council in determining when aggression has taken place, not to confer upon states the unilateral power to punish states deemed to have committed aggression through the use of force. The resolution itself, in Article 2, asserts the power of the Security Council to make the determination of what constitutes aggression. The self-application of Article 3(f) of the resolution is therefore bypassed altogether.

Second, Article 3(f) speaks of the active launching of an attack, not the passive hosting of a military base. The legal distinction is fundamental. A state, in signing a defence treaty with another and hosting the latter’s troops on its soil, is engaging in a measure of sovereignty. A state, actively launching, coordinating, or enabling military strikes against a third party, is engaged in a different matter altogether. Iran has not credibly shown this latter case. The presence of US troops or bases in the Gulf has been a fact for decades, and this has not constituted armed aggression against Iran under any legal standard.

Third, even if Article 3(f) were applicable, the appropriate course would be to bring the matter to the Security Council, not to launch unilateral military strikes. General Assembly resolutions do not override the Charter. Iran cannot rely upon a non-binding resolution defining terms to override the Chapter VII requirements for the use of force or the clear criteria of Article 51.

Sovereignty cannot be dictated by a neighbour’s strategic preferences

Iran, in invoking the principle of good neighbourliness, asks the Arab Gulf states to deny the United States basing rights. Good neighbourliness is a two-way principle, and it does not allow for interference in the internal affairs of other states, certainly not interference in the decisions of other states simply because they are deemed inconvenient to the interfering state. All UN states possess the inherent right to conclude defence treaties with whomever they choose, and this is so regardless of the opinion of their neighbours.

The asymmetry of Iran’s position is striking and self-disqualifying. Iran itself has active military relationships with Russia and China. Iran arms, finances, trains, and supports the activities of non-state military actors in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force operates openly in various states, and this has been extensively documented in United Nations Panels of Experts reports, as well as other international monitoring reports. According to the standards that Iran applies to the Gulf states, any state that hosts the activities of the IRGC, the transfer of Iranian arms, or the coordination of Iranian proxies on its soil would be engaging in aggression against third parties. Iran will not accept this principle when it is applied to itself. A legal principle that is unacceptable to the party to whom it would be applied is not a legal principle at all; it is a political tool.

A doctrine that defeats Iran’s own strategic interests

From the perspective of international relations theory, Iran’s position follows the logic of offensive realism, which seeks to remove the external balancing architecture of regional neighbours by claiming it to be hostile in nature. However, this approach is empirically self-defeating.

Under balance of threat theory, states react to offensive capability, geographic proximity, and aggressive intentions. Iran’s doctrine, in asserting the right to strike any state that hosts forces it perceives as a threat, drives each and every threat variable to maximum levels for each and every state in the region. The obvious consequence, evident in the data, is that the states in the region and external powers are becoming more, rather than less, securely integrated. The Fifth Fleet’s permanent base in Bahrain, the UAE’s negotiations over F-35s, Saudi Arabia’s deployments of THAADs, and Qatar’s expansion of the Al Udeid base are reactions to Iran’s escalation, not causes of it.

From the perspective of constructivism, the legitimacy of a legal argument is also partly based on the normative credibility of the state that presents the argument. The record of Iran’s compliance with IAEA regulations, including the enrichment of uranium to a purity level of 60 percent or more in 2023–2024, interference with inspections, the removal of monitoring cameras, and the overall violation of the non-proliferation regime, has undermined the credibility of the state significantly. A state that is itself a violator of the legal regime cannot claim the role of a law-abiding state seeking protection under the norms of the legal regime.

Iran’s legal rationale was always theoretically wrong. What has occurred since February 28, 2026, has made Iran’s actions morally and politically wrong. Iran did not simply target US military assets. The reality of the situation is now documented and undeniable. Ballistic missiles and drones were launched against Gulf states in the opening days of the conflict. This marked the first time one actor had simultaneously attacked all six GCC states. Iran escalated its attacks in deliberate stages. Day 1: Iranian missiles were fired against military bases. Day 2: Iranian missiles were fired against civilian infrastructure and airports. Day 3: Iranian missiles were fired against the energy sector. Days 3 and 4: The US Embassy in Riyadh was attacked by Iran. International airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait were attacked by Iranian missiles, resulting in the suspension of flights throughout the region. Videos from Bahrain documented an Iranian Shahed drone attacking an apartment building. This is not self-defence. This is the collective punishment of sovereign nations that went to extraordinary lengths to avoid the conflict.

The rationale provided by Iran falls flat when one considers the actions Iran itself took. Its doctrine held that only targets involved in the preparation or launch of an attack against Iran were legitimate targets. Civilian airports are not military bases. Hotels in Palm Jumeirah are not military command centres. An apartment complex in Manama is not a weapons storage facility. By Iran’s own stated legal rationale, none of these targets was legitimate, yet they were attacked. This was not a legal doctrine at all; it was a pretext for coercion, and the conduct of war revealed this to be the case.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

March 7, 2026