Making Contact

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Qatari mediators in Doha as Washington presses for renewed negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme. Qatar has acted as a key intermediary between Tehran and Washington in past exchanges. The meeting comes amid heightened regional tension, and observers are watching for any signal that direct nuclear talks between Iran and the United States might resume.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres met with Iran's Minister for Foreign Affairs at UN headquarters, according to an announcement from UN Media. No details of the discussion have been released. Meetings between the UN chief and Iranian diplomats typically cover regional conflicts, nuclear issues and humanitarian concerns, drawing attention given Iran's prominent role in current global tensions.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is expected to travel to Damascus as the EU moves to normalise relations with Syria's new authorities. The visit signals a shift in European policy after years of isolation under the Assad government, with Brussels weighing engagement, sanctions relief and support for Syria's political transition.

Charles Spencer, Princess Diana's brother, says he has been in contact with both Prince William and Prince Harry since the release of his new book about his sister. The remark is drawing attention given the long-running estrangement between the royal brothers, and it suggests Spencer has maintained ties with both nephews despite tensions within the royal family. Details of the conversations have not been disclosed.

The syndicated radio program Making Contact, which covers news, human rights, and social justice topics, has aired its latest episode dated March 10, 2026. The program is being shared with listeners online, with the broadcaster promoting it across topics including activism, peace, geopolitics, and US politics.

Chinese diplomacy is actively reaching out to members of the European Parliament across the political spectrum, a signal of Beijing's effort to broaden its influence in Brussels at a time of strained EU-China relations. The outreach spans different political groups, suggesting a coordinated strategy to build contacts regardless of party lines amid ongoing trade and political tensions.

In July 2025, a rescue boat captain near Queensland spotted two humpback whales and the body of a stillborn calf on the seafloor. Footage shows the female repeatedly diving toward the calf, making eye contact and resting a pectoral fin on its body. Researchers describe the behaviour as consistent with grieving, drawing wide attention to whale mourning.

The FBI is asking potential victims to come forward as part of an investigation into travel-related fraud. The agency has not detailed the scope of the scheme or how many people may be affected, but is urging anyone who believes they were targeted to make contact. Details about suspects, locations and financial losses have not yet been released.

Japanese golf instructor Ando Ryoji is offering advice on ball position, asking players who want more consistent drives whether their ball is positioned too far forward in their stance. The tip targets amateur golfers struggling with unreliable contact and distance, and is being shared among Japanese golf communities.

Developers are sharing a fix for a common SSH error where loading a private key fails with 'error in libcrypto'. The mistake usually happens before the server is ever contacted: the key file is corrupt, has wrong line endings, wrong permissions, or is not in the expected format. Converting the key with ssh-keygen or checking the file formatting resolves it, a tip aimed at beginners in devops.

Silvio Berlusconi reportedly wanted to stage a large-scale Broadway-style musical about his own life, tentatively called 'Il principe azzurro'. The project was revealed by image consultant Cesare Gasparotti, who said Berlusconi asked him for maximum secrecy, had already envisioned the scenography and had begun making contacts. The story of the late Italian leader becoming a stage musical is drawing amused and skeptical reactions.

Reports say some iPhone 18 Pro Max owners on AT&T are unable to make phone calls, and Apple is offering free device replacements to affected customers. The move suggests Apple is treating the problem as a hardware fault rather than a network or software issue, and affected users are being advised to contact Apple support for a swap.

Lithuania scrambled NATO fighter jets to investigate an unidentified object detected near its border with Belarus. The aircraft was launched after air traffic control lost contact with a small plane, prompting security concerns in the Baltic region. The incident has drawn wide attention as NATO members remain on alert over airspace violations and unidentified aircraft incidents involving the region bordering Russia and Belarus.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri came close to colliding during the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Norris managing to avoid contact at the last moment. The McLaren teammates' near-miss is drawing attention as fans debate how close the two cars came and what it means for the intra-team rivalry this season.

John Beck registered a groundout with an exit velocity of 110.2 mph in an MLB game, one of the hardest-hit balls of the day despite resulting in an out. The stat has drawn attention from baseball fans tracking hard-hit contact and the limits of exit velocity as a measure of offensive success.

A widely syndicated advice column from Eric Thomas, published in The Washington Post, addresses a painful family dilemma: parents whose son has cut off all contact with them are wondering whether they should remove him from their will. The question of inheritance in cases of family estrangement is striking a chord with readers.

MLB.com examines which big league lineups are best built to survive October pitching, when staffs shorten bullpens and quality of arms sharpens dramatically. The analysis notes that October brings a tougher environment for hitters and that teams with better pitching generally advance, making contact skills and pitch selection more valuable than raw power as the playoffs approach.

Families across the United States are increasingly estranging themselves from relatives over political and religious differences, according to a report by Cleveland.com. The piece examines how deepening ideological divides, amplified by polarising elections and social debates, are pushing some people to cut off contact with parents, siblings and children they can no longer reconcile with.

Milwaukee Brewers hitters are swinging the bat faster in 2024 than in previous seasons, according to MLB.com. Increased bat speed can translate into harder contact, more extra-base hits and better results against high-velocity playoff pitching. The improvement is being viewed as a potentially significant factor if the Brewers make a deep postseason run in October.

A cybersecurity commentator says most incident response plans are written once, approved, and never rehearsed, so teams only test them during a real incident. That leads to wasted first hours searching for contact numbers and arguing over decision-making authority. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre offers a free tool, Exercise in a Box, that lets organisations run practice scenarios to close that gap before an attack happens.

A Colorado electrical substation lost power twice in two days after two squirrels contacted unprotected equipment. Nearly all of the facility's components were fitted with wildlife guards, but the animals reached the parts that were not covered. The first outage cut electricity to 4,400 customers for more than two hours; the second affected 1,300 customers for about 40 minutes.