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Last updated 28 Apr, 02:25 AM

BBC News

King to defend 'democratic values' as US state visit begins - King Charles will address the US Congress on Tuesday and it is expected to express sympathy over Saturday's gun attack.

Suspect charged with attempted assassination of Trump at Washington dinner - Investigators say the 31-year-old California man wanted to kill as many high-level officials as possible.

Starmer faces vote on inquiry over Mandelson vetting claims - No 10 brands the move "a desperate political stunt by the Conservative Party", which had asked for the vote.

My tenant owes £15,000 in rent, but I can't get them out of the property - Landlords tell BBC News why they fear new laws could make it harder to remove problematic tenants.

Terror trial to begin for man accused of plotting attack on Taylor Swift concert - Prosectuors say the man, 21-year-old Beran A., received training from members of jihadist group Islamic State on how to handle explosives.

The Register

China blocks Zuck’s acquisition of AI outfit Manus - Back to the drawing board for Meta's AI ambitions China has blocked Meta’s acquisition of AI upstart Manus.…

Microsoft's GitHub shifts to metered AI billing amid cost crisis - The all-you-can-eat AI buffet is coming to an end Microsoft is closing the AI buffet offered to GitHub Copilot customers, acknowledging that it can’t sell AI like Red Lobster's Endless Shrimp.…

Ongoing supply-chain attack 'explicitly targeting' security, dev tools - Vendor confirms repo data exposure after Lapsus$ claims source code, secrets dump Software security testing outfit Checkmarx has become the latest organization caught up in an ongoing attack on security-tool providers. The biz said data posted online appears to have come from one of its GitHub repositories after the Lapsus$ extortion crew claimed to have dumped the company’s source code, secrets, and other sensitive data.…

Cursor-Opus agent snuffs out startup’s production database - Relax, the data's been recovered. Continue with your vibe coding Jer (Jeremy) Crane, the founder of automotive SaaS platform PocketOS, spent the weekend recovering from a data extinction event caused by the company's AI coding agent in less than 10 seconds. …

The Navy's autonomous carrier-based refueling drone has finally flown - After missing its 2025 target, Boeing's MQ-25A Stingray is one step closer to a carrier deck The US Navy’s current carrier-based refueling aircraft may soon be getting help, as Boeing has completed the first flight of its autonomous tanker drone designed for carrier operations.…

New Scientist - Home

Coral reefs on a remote archipelago shrugged off a massive heatwave - Scientists were shocked to find that the Houtman Abrolhos Islands’ coral reefs survived a prolonged extreme heatwave in 2025 virtually unharmed, which may reveal how to protect corals elsewhere

Why the keto diet could be a revolutionary way to treat mental illness - You may think of the high-fat, low-carb eating plan as a faddish way to lose weight. But the keto diet is now being used to tackle conditions from severe depression to bipolar disorder and anorexia, with transformative results

Giant Arctic continent launched dinosaurs to world domination - Coincident with the rise of the dinosaurs, a large landmass filled most of the Arctic circle, potentially contributing to global cooling that advantaged the famous reptiles

10,000 new planets found hidden in NASA telescope data - NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has been searching for exoplanets since its launch in 2018, and it turns out it may have found plenty more of them than we had thought

Why your opinion of used electric vehicles is probably wrong - The idea that EV batteries age poorly is a misconception – and a new report has found they often outlive the cars themselves

Hacker News

Integrated by Design - Comments

Microsoft and OpenAI end their exclusive and revenue-sharing deal - Comments

Talkie: a 13B vintage language model from 1930 - Comments

Meetings are forcing functions - Comments

Three men are facing charges in Toronto SMS Blaster arrests - Comments

Slashdot

Study Finds a Third of New Websites Are AI-Generated - alternative_right shares a report from 404 Media: Researchers working with data from the Internet Archive have discovered that a third of websites created since 2022 are AI-generated. The team of researchers -- which includes people from Stanford, the Imperial College London, and the Internet Archive -- published their findings online in a paper titled "The Impact of AI-Generated Text on the Internet." The research also found that all this AI-generated text is making the web more cheery and less verbose."The proliferation of AI-generated and AI-assisted text on the internet is feared to contribute to a degradation in semantic and stylistic diversity, factual accuracy, and other negative developments," the researchers write in the paper. "We find that by mid-2025, roughly 35% of newly published websites were classified as AI-generated or AI-assisted, up from zero before ChatGPT's launch in late 2022." "I find the sheer speed of the AI takeover of the web quite staggering," Jonas Dolezal, an AI researcher at Stanford and co-author of the paper, told 404 Media. "After decades of humans shaping it, a significant portion of the internet has become defined by AI in just three years. We're witnessing, in my opinion, a major transformation of the digital landscape in a fraction of the time it took to build in the first place." Maty Bohacek, a student researcher at Stanford and one of the co-authors of the paper, added: "As AI-generated content spreads, the challenge is finding a role for these models that doesn't just result in a sanitized, repetitive web," he said. "Rather than forcing models to be perfectly compliant and agreeable, allowing them to have a more distinct personality or 'friction' might help them act as a creative partner rather than a replacement for human voice." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

EU Tells Google To Open Up AI On Android; Google Says That's 'Unwarranted Intervention' - An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In January, the European Commission began an initial investigation, known as a specification proceeding, into how Google has implemented AI in the Android operating system. The results are in, and the EU says Android needs to be more open, which is not surprising. Meanwhile, Google says this amounts to "unwarranted intervention," which is equally unsurprising. Regardless of Google's characterization of the investigation, the commission may force Google to make Android AI changes this summer. This action stems from the continent's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a sweeping law that designates seven dominant technology companies as "gatekeepers" that are subject to greater regulation to ensure fair competition. Google has consistently spoken against the regulations imposed under the DMA, but it and the other gatekeepers have been subject to the law for several years now, and there's little chance the commission backs away from it. The issue before the commission currently is the built-in advantage for Gemini on Android. When you turn on any Google-powered Android phone, Gemini is already there and gets special treatment at the system level. The European Commission is taking aim at the lack of features available to third-party AI services. The commission believes that there are too many experiences on Android that only work with Google's Gemini AI, and as a gatekeeper, Google must change that. "As we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI, it is clear that interoperability is key to unlocking the full potential of these technologies," said Commission VP for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen in a statement. "These measures will open up Android devices to a wider range of AI services, so that users will have the freedom to choose the AI services that best meet their needs and values, without sacrificing functionality." The commission does have a solid track record pushing for openness so far. Since the DMA came into force, Google has been required to make numerous changes to its business in Europe, like implementing search choice screens on Android, allowing alternative payment methods in the Play Store, and limiting data sharing across services. Now, the EU wants Google to make the Android platform more hospitable to third-party AI services. Google's objection focuses on preserving the autonomy for device makers (including Google) to customize AI services. "This unwarranted intervention would strip away that autonomy, mandate access to sensitive hardware and device permissions; unnecessarily driving up costs while undermining critical privacy and security protections for European users," said Google senior competition counsel Claire Kelly. The problem isn't that you can't install ChatGPT or Grok; it's that these chatbots don't have the same access to data and features as Gemini. To address that imbalance, the EU is considering several requirements that would force Google to give third-party AI assistants deeper access to Android, closer to what Gemini currently enjoys. The proposed requirements include: - Letting alternative AI tools be launched system-wide through hot words, gestures, or button presses. - Allowing third-party assistants to see screen context when users invoke them. - Giving non-Gemini AI tools access to local device data, with user permission, so they can generate proactive suggestions, summaries, and contextual help. - Allowing other AI services to control installed apps and Android system features on the user's behalf. - Ensuring third-party developers can access the necessary device hardware to run local AI models with strong performance, availability, and responsiveness. - Requiring Google to create APIs that let outside AI providers plug into Android more deeply. - Requiring Google to provide technical assistance to those AI providers. - Making those APIs and support available free of charge. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Notepad++ Finally Lands On macOS as a Native App - BrianFagioli writes: Notepad++ has finally made its way to macOS, and this time it is not through a compatibility layer. A new community-driven port brings the long-standing Windows text editor over as a fully native Mac application, built with Cocoa and compiled for both Apple Silicon and Intel systems. Instead of relying on Wine or similar tools, the project replaces the Windows-specific interface with a macOS-native one while keeping the core editing engine intact, allowing longtime users to retain the same workflow, shortcuts, and overall feel. The port is independent from the original Notepad++ project but tracks upstream changes closely, with development happening in the open. It is code-signed and notarized, and notably avoids telemetry or ads. Plugin support is being rebuilt for macOS and is still evolving, but the groundwork is in place. While macOS already has several established editors, this effort is aimed squarely at users who want the familiar Notepad++ experience without relearning a new tool. You can download the app here. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

China Blocks Meta's $2 Billion Takeover of AI Startup Manus - China has blocked Meta's planned $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus, ordering the deal withdrawn after months of scrutiny from both Beijing and Washington. "The decision to prohibit foreign investment in Manus was made in accordance with laws and regulations," reports CNBC, citing the National Development and Reform Commission. "It added that it has asked the parties involved to withdraw the acquisition transaction." From the report: The deal had attracted scrutiny from both China and Washington, as lawmakers in the U.S. have prohibited American investors from backing Chinese AI companies directly. Meanwhile, Beijing has increased efforts to discourage Chinese AI founders from moving business offshore. The Chinese government's intervention in the transaction drew alarm among tech founders and venture capitalists in the country who were hoping to take advantage of the so-called Singapore-washing model, where companies relocate from China to the city-state to avoid scrutiny from Beijing and Washington. Manus was founded in China before relocating to Singapore. The company develops general purpose AI agents and launched its first general AI agent in March last year, which can execute complex tasks such as market research, coding and data analysis. The release saw the startup lauded as the next DeepSeek. Manus said it had passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, or ARR, in December, eight months on from launching a product, which it claimed made it the fastest startup in the world at the time to hit the milestone from $0. The company raised $75 million in a round led by U.S. VC Benchmark in April last year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Supreme Court Reviews Police Use of Cell Location Data To Find Criminals - An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: When the Call Federal Credit Union outside Richmond, Va., was robbed at gunpoint in 2019, the suspect took $195,000 from the bank's vault and fled before the police arrived. A detective interviewed witnesses and reviewed the bank's security footage. But with no leads, the officer relied on a so-called geofence warrant to sweep up location data from all the cellphones in the vicinity of the bank for the 30 minutes before and after the robbery. The data he gathered eventually led to the identification and conviction of Okello T. Chatrie, now 31, a Jamaican immigrant who came to the United States in 2017. Geofence searches have become increasingly popular as a tool for law enforcement, but critics say they put at risk the personal data of everyday Americans and violate the Constitution. Mr. Chatrie challenged the use of a geofence warrant in his conviction, in a case that will be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday. The justices will examine how the Constitution's traditional protections apply to rapidly changing technology that has made it easier for the police to scoop up vast amounts of data to assemble a detailed look at a person's movements and activities. It has been eight years since the court last took up a major Fourth Amendment case involving the expectations of privacy for the millions of people carrying cellphones in the digital age. In that 2018 case, the court ruled that the government generally needs a warrant to collect location data drawn from cell towers about the customers of cellphone companies. The court has also limited the government's ability to use GPS devices to track suspects' movements, and it has required that law enforcement get a warrant to search individual cellphones. In Mr. Chatrie's case, the government did obtain a warrant, but one that his legal team said was overly broad, violating Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. Read more of this story at Slashdot.