The office sink is always a horror. Managers worried this one glowed
WHO, ME? Welcome to a fresh, tasty installment of Who, Me? It’s The Register‘s reader-contributed
column where you confess to things you did at work that probably
deserve to remain a secret.
This week,
meet a reader we’ll Regomize as “Ray” who told us he once worked in a research
lab repairing nucleonic instruments.
We understand they’re gadgets that use very short half-life
isotopes that emit just enough radiation it’s possible to measure the
backscatter. According to the World
Nuclear Association, this is helpful to measure the level of coal in a
hopper, or the thickness of paper!
Like many workplaces, the lab Ray worked in had a microwave
oven staff could use to warm their lunches, and a coffee machine too.
The difference in this lab was that the appliances lived next
to a sink used to wash the nucleonic kit.
Ray’s manager decided that posed a risk to worker health –
which it didn’t – so insisted the microwave and coffee machine go elsewhere.
Ray’s solution was to screenshot his PC’s desktop, print it
onto A3 paper, and laminate it.
“The screen looked very realistic without requiring a
backlight,” he said. So Ray moved it into an unused office and put a keyboard
and mouse in front of it. He also found the coffee machine a new home where the
manager wouldn’t go looking.
“They were both still in use when I retired three years
later,” he told Who, Me?
Have you found a way to defy the boss and got away with it?
If so, click
here to send us an email. We’d love the chance to expose readers to your
story! ®
Two Israeli soldiers will spend weeks in military prison for the desecration of a Christian object after one stuck a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon and the other photographed it.
The photo of the soldier, a cigarette dangling from his own mouth, went viral and sparked widespread outrage. It was the latest act by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon to be denounced as anti-Christian.
Israel’s military said the soldier posing would be jailed for 21 days and the one who photographed him 14.
The military “views the incident with great severity and respects freedom of religion and worship, as well as holy sites and religious symbols of all religions and communities,” spokesperson Lt Col Ariella Mazor wrote on X.
The photo appeared days after images of an Israeli soldier wielding an axe against a fallen statue of Jesus on the cross in the southern Lebanon village of Debel were roundly condemned by foreign leaders, Christian leaders and Israeli politicians.
The military sentenced soldiers who participated in hacking down the crucifix to time in military prison.
The punishments given in the two cases are unusual.
The conflict-monitoring group Action on Armed Violence found that Israel had closed down or left unresolved 88% of cases of alleged misconduct in Gaza and the West Bank. In a recent case, charges were dropped against soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Gaza detainee.
Israeli forces took control of southern Lebanon as part of the latest conflict with Hezbollah, which began on 2 March when the Tehran-backed Lebanese militant group fired missiles over the border two days after the US and Israel launched their war against Iran.
Israel then launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon and its forces have remained despite a truce.
Israel’s military says it only targets buildings that Hezbollah uses as outposts. The scale of destruction, however, has Lebanese officials and residents worried that large numbers of displaced people will have nowhere to return if the fragile truce holds.
Christians make up about a third of Lebanon’s population of roughly 5.5 million people.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to prove his doubters wrong as he fights for his political future in the wake of last week’s disastrous local election results and growing speculation that a leadership contest may not be far off.
In a make-or-break speech speech on Monday, the leader of the ruling Labour Party said that he remains the man to deliver change and will take responsibility for fulfilling his party’s electoral promises.
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Labour came to power in July 2024 in a landslide victory, following 14 years of Conservative Party rule. Since then, Starmer’s popularity has tanked while support for the anti-immigration party, Reform UK, led by Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage, has soared. In local elections last week, Labour lost more than 1,460 council seats in England – most of them won by Reform – in the worst election results suffered by a governing party in more than three decades.
It has prompted calls from MPs for Starmer to resign. So far, he has refused to consider that, describing his government as a “10-year project” while conceding that the party under his leadership has made mistakes.
Why is pressure on Starmer mounting now?
Discontent with Starmer’s leadership has been increasing over the past year. That could be seen clearly last week in the heavy losses in English local elections and parliamentary votes in Scotland and Wales.
While Labour lost nearly 1,500 local council seats, Reform UK surged from fewer than 100 to around 1,450 seats under Farage.
Support for Labour evaporated, even in several of its traditional strongholds in London, in former so-called “Red Wall” industrial regions in central and northern England, and in Wales, mainly benefiting Farage’s populist party.
One major issue is what many voters view as Starmer’s failure to tackle immigration. Despite agreeing a “one-in-one-out” deal with France last year to return undocumented migrants in return for those with a clear link to the UK, only a few have been successfully sent back.
There has also been mounting pressure over Labour’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US in December 2024. He was sacked after embarrassing emails between him and Jeffrey Epstein were uncovered by British media last September. Since then, Mandelson has been accused of sharing sensitive financial market information with Epstein in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2006-2007. Starmer has been accused of failing to heed warnings not to appoint him as ambassador, despite knowing of his connections to the convicted sex offender.
Starmer has publicly apologised, but said he did not know how close their relationship was. “None of us knew the depth and the darkness of that relationship,” Starmer said earlier this year.
Starmer has one of the lowest approval ratings for a Western leader. The latest Ipsos Political Pulse opinion poll shows half of Britain’s electorate believes Starmer should step down, and two-thirds believe he is unlikely to win reelection. The next general election must be held by July 2029 – five years after the previous one.
Bale said local elections only confirmed what the public already knew and Labour Party members feared. “Namely, [that] the government is terribly unpopular and Starmer is even more unpopular than the government,” he said.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a speech in London in a bid to secure his premiership following devastating election losses for his Labour Party [Carl Court/Getty Images]
Who could Starmer’s main challengers be?
To trigger a leadership contest, more than 20 percent of Labour MPs – 81 of them – must support a new candidate.
“It’s a serious possibility,” Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said. “That’s a pretty low bar when there is so much discontent in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party].”
Among the potential challengers:
Angela Rayner
Starmer’s former deputy prime minister, the left-leaning trade unionist Angela Rayner, has been touted as one of the most credible challengers, although she has not put herself forward. Rayner was the housing secretary but was forced to resign last year for breaking the ministerial code on her taxes.
She has reportedly called for the return of the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, to parliament, suggesting she would back him in a leadership contest. Burnham is not an MP, having been blocked by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) from standing in a by-election in January.
“What we are doing isn’t working, and it needs to change. It’s no good acknowledging mistakes if they’re not put right,” Rayner said on Monday after Starmer’s speech.
Bale said Rayner would likely garner consensus within the party.
“[The] left-leaning Labour MPs feel that Starmer’s leaned too far right and the government needs a course-correction,” he told Al Jazeera.
Wes Streeting
Bale said Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has traditionally been seen as being at the centre-right of the party but has taken a left-wing stance on some issues such as Gaza and welfare, is also a likely contender, as some MPs do not deem Rayner to be “up to the job” and rate him as a good communicator. It is thought he may have already secured the required 20 percent of Labour MPs to support a bid, some British media reported on Monday.
Streeting’s allies have pointed to election results in Redbridge, the local authority in his constituency, where Labour held on last week, as a favourable sign for a possible leadership challenge. However, he has in the past lost support because of his previous friendship with Mandelson, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported on Monday.
Rayner or Streeting may be most likely to kick off a leadership contest, but neither is universally popular within Labour itself, say observers.
Catherine West
Catherine West, the little-known MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet in north London, appears to have backed down after warning she could attempt to trigger a leadership contest.
In a BBC interview on Friday, West said she would prefer to see the cabinet “reorganise themselves” to avoid a leadership election. But if no new leader was forthcoming by Monday, she would ask MPs to back her to challenge the prime minister.
Following Starmer’s speech on Monday, she criticised it as “too little too late”, but suggested she would no longer stand for the Labour leadership. Even before backing down, West acknowledged she did not have the support needed to force a contest. Her threat of triggering one herself appeared to be an attempt to force more high-profile contenders to make a move.
Andy Burnham
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who ranks in opinion polls as the public’s preferred choice, is currently unable to challenge as he does not have a seat in parliament – he will need to win a by-election before he can mount a challenge.
YouGov polling has found that 34 percent of Britons think he would be a better prime minister than Starmer.
Last year, Burnham was repeatedly touted as a contender for the leadership and notably never publicly ruled it out.
Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” is set to go dark the night of his fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert’s final program on May 21.
The final episode of Colbert’s “The Late Show” will air on Thursday, May 21, and though Colbert and Kimmel are in different time slots, Kimmel told LateNighter that he will not air a new episode on that Thursday.
Kimmel did the same in 2015 for David Letterman’s finale.
Stephen Colbert and guest Jimmy Kimmel appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Sept. 30, 2025, in New York.(Scott Kowalchyk/CBS)
CBS announced in 2025 that “The Late Show” would be canceled at the end of its season in May.
The network cited financial reasons for the show’s cancellation at the time. Many politicians and commentators suggested at the time it had to do with pressure from the Trump administration.
Colbert said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that while there does not appear to be definitive proof that his show was canceled for political reasons, he thinks it’s the most likely explanation.
Despite acknowledging the traditional broadcast model was in trouble amid a changing media landscape, he suggested, “There are many people who believe there was another reason. And, as I said in the most measured tones I could muster, there is a reason why people believe that. The network had clearly already done it once by cutting that $16 million check [to the Trump administration].
Late-night host Stephen Colbert on March 8, 2026 during the 2026 Writers Guild Awards New York Ceremony. Jimmy Kimmel during his show on March 16, 2026.(Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Writers Guild of America East; Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images)
“Me being canceled reinforced a narrative that CBS already had a nimbus of knee-bending that they had created around themselves, because even their lawyers said there was no reason to cut the check, and then they did and gave no rationale for why they changed their minds. And then, suddenly, they got their broadcast license,” Colbert added.
Several members of the entertainment industry have paid tribute to Colbert in final appearances on the show, in addition to politicians.
Former President Barack Obama sat for an interview with Colbert that aired in early May, where he suggested the liberal late-night host could be a better president than Trump.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei says Tehran’s response to the latest US proposal to end the war was “not excessive.” He says it’s the US that continues to make “unreasonable demands” during negotiations over ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
President Donald Trump called out the “piece of garbage” peace proposal from Iran on Monday from the Oval Office, saying only “stupid people” in Iran are questioning his resolve in guaranteeing Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
The latest Iranian proposal reneged on a past vow to give up enriched uranium.
This is a breaking news report. Check back for updates.
Eric Mack is a writer for Fox News Digital covering breaking news.
Cybercrooks ruin engineers’ weekends with Saturday attack
Checkmarx’s software engineers are still working to remove a malicious version of the code security outfit’s Jenkins plugin after detecting an unauthorized upload over the weekend.
It updated customers on Saturday, May 9, after discovering a version of its AST Scanner, which is used for security scans in Jenkins CI pipelines, was made available via the Jenkins Marketplace.
“We are aware that a modified version of the Checkmarx Jenkins AST plugin was published to the Jenkins Marketplace,” it said in a statement. “We are in the process of publishing a new version of this plug-in.”
Versions published as of May 9, 2026, should not be trusted, it added, before urging all users to check they’re running the correct release (2.0.13-829.vc72453fa_1c16) published on December 17, 2025.
Installed by several hundred controllers, the plugin remains available at the time of writing, and appears as the most recently available version, although pull requests actioned on Monday morning suggest this will soon be pulled down.
“What makes this particularly dangerous for Jenkins users is the trust model at play,” said SOCRadar in its coverage. “The Checkmarx Jenkins plugin is a tool people install specifically to improve the security of their pipelines.
“A backdoored version doesn’t just compromise one project; it rides trusted infrastructure into every build pipeline it touches, with access to source code, environment variables, tokens, and whatever secrets the runner can see.”
Shai-Hulud?
The Dune-themed malware, named after its self-propagating wormable nature, first caused a stir in September last year as hundreds of npm packages were compromised.
Shail-Hulud 2.0 was first seen in the following November, affecting over 25,000 GitHub repos, before the Mini Shai-Hulud packages, the same ones that were injected into Checkmarx’s Jenkins plugin, hit SAP npm packages in the earlier stages of the recent TeamPCP supply chain attacks.
Security engineer Adnan Khan spotted the compromise quickly over the weekend. The crew behind the early supply chain attack affecting Checkmarx in April, TeamPCP, defaced the company’s GitHub and published six packages, each with a description alluding to the Shai-Hulud wormable malware.
These packages no longer appear on Checkmarx’s GitHub, but TeamPCP made multiple changes to the AST plugins page, renaming it to “Checkmarx-Fully-Hacked-by-TeamPCP-and-Their-Customers-Should-Cancel-Now,” and altering the description to claim CheckMarx failed to rotate its secrets.
The latest infiltration of Checkmarx’s internals marks the third time TeamPCP has compromised the company’s packages in as many months.
As previously seen in The Register, the crooks successfully targeted Checkmarx’s AST plugin for GitHub Actions and its KICS static analysis tool back in March, deploying credential-stealing malware.
SOCRadar said the latest TeamPCP compromise of the Jenkins plugin suggests that either TeamPCP was telling the truth about Checkmarx’s secrets rotation, or its members took advantage of an additional persistence mechanism that the security vendor failed to notice during its response to the March intrusion. ®
Savannah Guthrie is to present a TV game show based on the New York Times’ hit word game Wordle, the newspaper announced Monday.
It will be the first new onscreen venture for the host of NBC’s Today show since her return in April after the disappearance two months earlier of her mother.
In her own reveal on the Today show, Guthrie, 54, said the project had been in the works for some time – but was delayed by her leave of absence after Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Arizona home on 1 February.
The 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie has not been seen since, despite an intensive months-long investigation. Authorities believe she was probably the victim of a kidnapping.
According to the Times, and a press release on Monday by NBCUniversal, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon will produce the show through his Electric Hot Dog company. The newspaper and the TV network’s Universal Television Alternative Studio (Utas) are to act as co-producers.
Half-hour episodes will be filmed in Manchester, England, beginning in June, and be aired on prime time in the US in 2027.
Guthrie said she is an “avid” player of the hugely successful viral word game, created by Reddit engineer Josh Wardle in 2021, and acquired by the Times a year later for an undisclosed seven-figure sum.
“We’ve been working on this for a really long time, and actually we just found out in February that we got picked up and we were supposed to shoot in March,” she told viewers on Monday, according to Hello!.
“I just want to say a quick thank you to NBC and to Jimmy and his production company and the New York Times and the studio, Universal. Because when everything happened with me and my family, they just stopped everything and said, ‘We’ll wait for you’.
“And Hollywood is a really tough business, as you know, and I didn’t expect that and I just want to say thank you, it means so much to me.”
Fallon, according to the NBC press release, said the Wordle show would be “a solid gamer for prime time”.
He said: “I feel very honored to be working with Savannah Guthrie on this show. Savannah has that rare combination of intelligence, charm, and warmth that makes everyone feel instantly welcome. And she obviously knows how to host a show.”
Utas president Toby Gorman said Guthrie would bring “the perfect blend of warmth and wit” to a television version of the game in which players must find a five-letter word in six or fewer guesses.
In its article on Monday confirming the deal, the newspaper said it was “the first instance of the Times associating itself with a prime-time entertainment program on a major broadcaster”.
It said it had previously collaborated with cable and streaming channels on documentary series based on its journalism.
“That The Times is co-producing a half-hour variety show where contestants compete for a cash prize reflects in part the company’s diversification in recent years,” it said, adding that its games app – featuring daily crosswords, Spelling Bee, and Wordle – is among its most popular products.
Guthrie has spoken often and movingly about the pain she and her family have suffered since her mother’s disappearance. In an emotional Mother’s Day post on Instagram on Sunday, the presenter said: “We miss you with every breath. We will never stop looking for you. We will never be at peace until we find you.”
Guthrie told the Times that Wordle had been a point of connection between her and her mother – and that in December she showed Nancy Guthrie the show’s pilot.
“Everything is strange right now,” she said. “It’s strange to get up and do the Today show every day, and it’s strange to say that I’m going to do a game show when your heart is broken.
“Nothing about that has changed, and it’s not easy. But I’m determined to put one foot in front of the other. And this is a joyous thing.”
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., cautioned Republicans to be “very careful what you pray for” amid a Trump-backed effort by Republican South Carolina state lawmakers to redraw the state’s map — an effort that would target Clyburn, the lone Democratic member of the state’s U.S. House of Representatives.
Deemed a “kingmaker” within the Democratic Party, Clyburn’s endorsement of then–presidential candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 election was widely credited with helping Biden win the presidency. He has been in Congress for more than 30 years, but now faces uncertainty as the South Carolina legislature voted Wednesday to consider redrawing the state’s congressional lines.
However, in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Clyburn said he believed he would win his seat for an 18th term, adding that if Republicans are successful with their redistricting effort in South Carolina, there are “possibilities of at least three Democrats” being elected to Congress in the state.
“I don’t know why people think I could not get reelected if they redistrict South Carolina,” Clyburn said. “I have a district that’s about 45 percent African-American. I have no idea what the number will be after the legislature finishes, but whatever that number is, I will be running on my record and America’s promise.”
Former House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., listens to DeAndrea Gist Benjamin, a nominee for U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit, during a meeting in South Carolina.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)
Clyburn took to X on Thursday, accusing Republicans of trying to “break” his district after the state House voted Wednesday to consider redrawing the state’s congressional map.
“Republicans in the South Carolina state legislature began the process of extending their session to allow for the redrawing of the state’s congressional map — with one goal in mind: eliminating the state’s only Democratic House district that is occupied by a Democrat,” Clyburn posted on X.
“This fight is bigger than one district,” Clyburn continued. “It’s about whether our democracy belongs to the people, or to politicians who change the rules when they don’t like the results.”
A Clyburn spokesperson pointed to the congressman’s X posts when reached for additional comment.
The South Carolina legislature vote came in response to the Supreme Court ruling last month in Louisiana v. Callais, which determined in a 6-3 decision that the state’s push to create a second majority-Black district was unconstitutional. The ruling set stricter criteria for establishing a district based on constituents’ racial makeup, creating an opportunity for states to reexamine minority-majority districts first established under the Voting Rights Act.
“This decision threatens to send our country deeper into the thicket of never-ending redistricting fights, with repeated aggressive map redraws, protracted legal battles, and relentless partisan tugs-of-war, all of which are destined to result in more regressive Court decisions,” Clyburn said of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“This Court seems hellbent on redeeming the post-Reconstruction America that neutered the 1875 Civil Rights Act and other legislative and judicial actions that drastically limited Black participation and achievement, and eliminated African American political representation in multiple Southern states,” Clyburn continued.
Following Clyburn’s rallying call to Democrats, a South Carolina House subcommittee on Friday voted 3-2 to advance legislation that would push back the state’s June 9 primary election by two months. The goal is to give the legislature more time to pass its redrawn map, which would give Republicans a 7-0 advantage in the House. However, even if the primary election is pushed back, the effort has been deemed a difficult process and will likely confuse voters, state Election Commission Executive Director Conway Belangia told The State.
The South Carolina Election Commission noted that more than 6,000 absentee ballots have already been mailed out to military service members and overseas voters ahead of the June primary, and more than 200 ballots have already been mailed back.
The South Carolina State House in Columbia, S.C., is shown as lawmakers consider the Prenatal Equal Protection Act, a bill that would classify abortion as homicide under state law.(Logan Cyrus/AFP)
The state House Judiciary Committee held its own hearing centered on the state’s redistricting push. During the hearing, Belangia estimated that it would cost between $2.2 million and $2.5 million to move the state’s primary to August.
House members suggested allocating $2 million in the state’s budget next year to cover the expected litigation costs from a legal fight over the map.
Fox News Digital reached out to South Carolina’s Senate Majority Conference for further comment.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., talks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol during votes on Tuesday, March 10, 2026.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
South Carolina Republicans’ push to redraw the state’s map is the latest move by GOP-led states to revise congressional districts in an effort to maintain the party’s majority following the midterm elections.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., first suggested weeks ago that South Carolina lawmakers consider targeting Clyburn’s district, responding to Virginia Democrats’ successful push to pass a ballot measure redrawing that state’s congressional map, which resulted in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats. However, the Virginia Supreme Court overruled the state’s map on Friday, causing major uproar from Democrats.
Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.
A rightwing extremist who called for “killing migrants when they arrive on their boats” has pleaded guilty to terrorism offences.
Ivan Jennings, 46, from Stafford, admitted encouraging terrorism between 15 August and 14 November 2024 at Leicester crown court on Monday.
He had previously pleaded guilty to dissemination of a terrorism publication at a hearing in August. That charge related to a manifesto written by Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in terror attacks in Norway in 2011.
A court previously heard Jennings was a member of a number of extreme rightwing social media chat groups and had encouraged others to emulate the Australian white nationalist Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 51 people and tried to kill 40 others in terror attacks on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.
Jennings had also discussed molotov cocktails and “killing migrants when they arrive on their boats”, the prosecutor Lee Ingham told the Old Bailey in January.
Jennings, who remains on conditional bail, denied possession of a document for terrorist purposes, namely Tarrant’s racist manifesto, on 14 November 2024. The judge, Andrew Lockhart KC, said this count would lie on the file at his sentencing on 4 September at Leicester crown court.
Last month the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) raised the UK national threat level from “substantial” to “severe”. The Home Office said: “The terrorist threat level in the UK has been rising for some time, driven by an increase in the broader Islamist and extreme rightwing terrorist threat from individuals and small groups based in the UK.”
Referrals of far-right extremists to Prevent, the government’s anti-terrorism programme, surged between April 2024 and March 2025, according to the most recent government data.
In the year to March 2025, 8,778 referrals were made because of suspicions of extremist radicalisation, 27% more than in the previous year and the highest number of referrals in a single year since records began 10 years ago.
Of the 8,769 referrals where the type of concern was specified, 21% (1,798 cases) were due to “extreme rightwing concerns”; 10% (870 cases) were referrals connected to Islamist ideology; and 56%(4,917 cases) were for individuals judged to have no identified ideology. Concerns regarding “fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks” accounted for 5% of referrals (469 cases).
