Latest News
Last updated 16 Feb, 08:07 PM
BBC News
Government abandons plans to delay 30 council elections - All English elections will now go ahead as originally planned after Reform UK brought a legal challenge over the decision to delay some polls.
Students begin Covid compensation claim against 36 more universities - It comes after University College London settled a claim from students there over lost learning in the pandemic.
Actor Robert Duvall, who starred in The Godfather, dies aged 95 - The Oscar-winner died "peacefully" at his home in Middleburg, Virginia, on Sunday, his family says.
US build-up of warships and fighter jets tracked near Iran - BBC Verify has seen US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln near Iran ahead of talks between the two countries
Teenagers guilty of killing man they thought was a paedophile - Alexander Cashford was chased and hit with rocks and a bottle before he died.
The Register
Canada Goose ruffles feathers over 600K record dump, says leak is old news - Fashion brand latest to succumb to ShinyHunters' tricks Canada Goose says an advertised breach of 600,000 records is an old raid and there are no signs of a recent compromise.…
Dutch cops arrest man after sending him confidential files by mistake - Bungled link handed over sensitive docs, and when recipient didn't cooperate, police opted for cuffs Dutch police have arrested a man for "computer hacking" after accidentally handing him their own sensitive files and then getting annoyed when he didn't hand them back.…
Oracle vows 'new era' for MySQL as users sharpen their forks - Commit drought and governance gripes push Big Red to reset Oracle has promised a "decisive new approach" to MySQL, the popular open source database it owns, following growing criticism of its approach and the prospect of a significant fork in the code.…
You probably can't trust your password manager if it's compromised - Researchers demo weaknesses affecting some of the most popular options Academics say they found a series of flaws affecting three popular password managers, all of which claim to protect user credentials in the event that their servers are compromised.…
KPMG partner in Oz turned to AI to pass an exam on... AI - Unnamed consultant – one of a dozen cases at the company's Australian arm – now nursing a fine AIpocolypse A partner at accounting and consultancy giant KPMG in Australia was forced to cough up a AU$10k ($7,084/ £5,195) fine after he used AI to ace an internal training course on... AI.…
New Scientist - Home
The mystery of nuclear 'magic numbers' has finally been resolved - A mathematical equivalent of a microscope with variable resolution has shed light on why some atoms are exceptionally stable, a riddle that has persisted in nuclear physics for decades
Psychedelic reduces depression symptoms after just one dose - The psychedelic DMT has been linked to improved mental health outcomes before, but now, scientists have shown it reduces depression symptoms more than a placebo when given alongside therapeutic support
We’ve glimpsed before the big bang and it’s not what we expected - The big bang wasn’t the start of everything, but it has been impossible to see what came before. Now a new kind of cosmology is lifting the veil on the beginning of time
Humans are the only primates with a chin – now we finally know why - Biologists have debated the reason why Homo sapiens evolved a prominent lower jaw, but this unique feature may actually be a by-product of other traits shaped by natural selection
Backwards heat shows laws of thermodynamics may need a quantum update - We are used to heat flowing from hot objects to cool ones, and never the other way round, but now researchers have found it is possible to pull off this trick in the strange realm of quantum mechanics
Hacker News
Use Protocols, Not Services - Comments
Wero – Digital payment wallet, Made in Europe - Comments
"token anxiety"; or, a slot machine by any other name - Comments
What Your Bluetooth Devices Reveal About You - Comments
Show HN: Jemini – Gemini for the Epstein Files - Comments
Slashdot
India's Toxic Air Crisis Is Reaching a Breaking Point - New Delhi's air quality index averaged 349 in December and 307 in January -- levels the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies as hazardous -- and the months-long smog season that forces more than 30 million residents to endure respiratory illness has this year sparked something new: public protest. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at India Gate on November 9 to demand government action; police detained more than a dozen people, and a follow-up protest later that month turned violent. The government's response has been largely cosmetic. Authorities deployed truck-mounted "smog guns" and "smog towers" that scientists widely regard as ineffective, and a cloud seeding trial in October failed outright. A senior environment minister told Parliament in December that no conclusive data linked pollution to lung disease -- a claim doctors sharply disputed. The government cut pollution control spending by 16% in the latest federal budget. Almost 1.7 million deaths were attributable to air pollution in India in 2019, according to the Lancet. A 2023 World Bank report estimated the crisis shaves 0.56 percentage point off annual GDP growth. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Instagram Boss Says 16 Hours of Daily Use Is Not Addiction - Instagram head Adam Mosseri told a Los Angeles courtroom last week that a teenager's 16-hour single-day session on the platform was "problematic use" but not an addiction, a distinction he drew repeatedly during testimony in a landmark trial over social media's harm to minors. Mosseri, who has led Instagram for eight years, is the first high-profile tech executive to take the stand. He agreed the platform should do everything in its power to protect young users but said how much use was too much was "a personal thing." The lead plaintiff, identified as K.G.M., reported bullying on Instagram more than 300 times; Mosseri said he had not known. An internal Meta survey of 269,000 users found 60% had experienced bullying in the previous week. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
KPMG Partner Fined Over Using AI To Pass AI Test - A partner at KPMG Australia has been fined $7,000 by the Big Four firm after using AI tools to cheat on an internal training course about using AI. From a report: The unnamed partner was forced to redo the test after uploading training materials into an AI platform to help answer questions on the use of the fast-evolving technology. More than two dozen staff have been caught over this financial year using AI tools for internal exams, according to KPMG. The incident is the latest example of a professional services company struggling with staff using artificial intelligence to cheat on exams or when producing work for clients. "Like most organisations, we have been grappling with the role and use of AI as it relates to internal training and testing," said Andrew Yates, chief executive of KPMG Australia. "It's a very hard thing to get on top of given how quickly society has embraced it." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ireland Launches World's First Permanent Basic Income Scheme For Artists, Paying $385 a Week - Ireland has announced what it says is the world's first permanent basic income program for artists, a scheme that will pay 2,000 selected artists $385 per week for three years, funded by an $21.66 million allocation from Budget 2026. The program follows a 2022 pilot -- the Irish government's first large-scale randomized control trial -- that found participants had greater professional autonomy, less anxiety, and higher life satisfaction. An external cost-benefit analysis of the pilot calculated a return of $1.65 to society for every $1.2 invested. The new scheme will operate in three-year cycles, and artists who receive the payment in one cycle cannot reapply until the cycle after next. A three-month tapering-off period will follow each cycle. The government plans to publish eligibility guidelines in April and open applications in May, and payments to selected artists are expected to begin before the end of 2026. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New EU Rules To Stop the Destruction of Unsold Clothes and Shoes - The European Commission has adopted new measures under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) to prevent the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear. From a report: The rules will help cut waste, reduce environmental damage and create a level playing field for companies embracing sustainable business models, allowing them to reap the benefits of a more circular economy. Every year in Europe, an estimated 4-9% of unsold textiles are destroyed before ever being worn. This waste generates around 5.6 million tons of CO2 emissions -- almost equal to Sweden's total net emissions in 2021. To help reduce this wasteful practice, the ESPR requires companies to disclose information on the unsold consumer products they discard as waste. It also introduces a ban on the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing accessories and footwear. Read more of this story at Slashdot.