Latest News
Last updated 14 Jan, 04:28 PM
BBC News
US pulling some personnel from Qatar air base, official tells CBS - Officials say it is a "precautionary measure" and comes as Donald Trump weighs up whether to take action against Iran.
Faisal Islam: Why the Northern Powerhouse Rail plan will really go ahead this time - Faisal Islam says the Labour argues the difference in its plans this time is that the planning has come first.
BBC on site after crane collapses and crushes train in Thailand - Correspondent Jonathan Head says the 'devastating' accident is an enormous setback for Thailand's efforts to modernise its infrastructure.
Actor John Alford jailed for sex assaults on teens - The former London's Burning and Grange Hill star is sentenced at St Albans Crown Court.
Sting pays Police bandmates more than £500,000 in royalties - The musician discovered a "historic underpayment" after being sued in London's High Court.
The Register
France fines telcos €42M for sub-par security prior to 24M customer breach - Three major GDPR violations, including a lack of basic security controls, lead to hefty dent in profits The French data protection regulator, CNIL, today issued a collective €42 million ($48.9 million) fine to two French telecom companies for GDPR violations stemming from a data breach.…
Hasta la vista! Microsoft finally ends extended updates for ancient Windows version - Support expires for Windows Server 2008, and the codebase released to manufacturing in 2006 Microsoft has quietly maintained support for an OS that's nearly 18 years old, but its time has finally passed - the Windows Vista-powered Windows Server 2008 took its last breath this week.…
'Imagination the limit': DeadLock ransomware gang using smart contracts to hide their work - New crooks on the block get crafty with blockchain to evade defenses Researchers at Group-IB say the DeadLock ransomware operation is using blockchain-based anti-detection methods to evade defenders' attempts to analyze their tradecraft.…
AI's $3T infrastructure binge continues despite lack of clear profits - Investment in datacenters to peak by 2029, place your bets please The AI-driven datacenter construction frenzy shows no signs of slowing, but neither do concerns that the whole edifice could collapse under the weight of its own hype and mounting investment demands.…
Firefox 147 brings GPU boost, tidier tabs, and video that follows you around - Latest update focuses on hardware acceleration, security tightening, and a handful of quality-of-life tweaks The latest Firefox is here with some handy changes – most of which differ depending on what OS and type of CPU you run it on.…
New Scientist - Home
China has applied to launch 200,000 satellites, but what are they for? - A Chinese application to the International Telecommunications Union suggests plans for the largest satellite mega constellation ever built – but something else might be going on here
T. rex took 40 years to become fully grown - An analysis of growth rings in the leg bones of 17 Tyrannosaurus rex individuals reveals that the dinosaurs matured much more slowly than previously thought, and adds to the evidence that they weren't all one species
Three ways to become calmer this New Year that you haven't tried (yet) - Easing stress is one of the healthiest pursuits you can embark on this January. Here are some evidence-backed ways to ground yourself in 2026
We must completely change the way we build homes to stay below 2°C - Construction generates between 10 and 20 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but cities can slash their climate impact by designing buildings in a more efficient way
Sooner-than-expected climate impacts could cost the world trillions - A report warns that we may have seriously underestimated the rate of warming, which could damage economic growth
Hacker News
Why some clothes shrink in the wash – and how to 'unshrink' them - Comments
FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home in 'highly unusual and aggressive' act - Comments
Maggots, an Efficient Source of Protein, May Become Next Superfood for Humans - Comments
Edge of Emulation: Game Boy Sewing Machines (2020) - Comments
There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape - Comments
Slashdot
Matthew McConaughey Trademarks Himself To Fight AI Misuse - Matthew McConaughey is taking a novel legal approach to combat unauthorized AI fakes: trademarking himself. From a report: Over the past several months, the "Interstellar" and "Magic Mike" star has had eight trademark applications approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office featuring him staring, smiling and talking. His attorneys said the trademarks are meant to stop AI apps or users from simulating McConaughey's voice or likeness without permission -- an increasingly common concern of performers. The trademarks include a seven-second clip of the Oscar-winner standing on a porch, a three-second clip of him sitting in front of a Christmas tree, and audio of him saying "Alright, alright, alright," his famous line from the 1993 movie "Dazed and Confused," according to the approved applications. "My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it's because I approved and signed off on it," the actor said in an email. "We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
UK Police Blame Microsoft Copilot for Intelligence Mistake - The chief constable of one of Britain's largest police forces has admitted that Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant made a mistake in a football (soccer) intelligence report. From a report: The report, which led to Israeli football fans being banned from a match last year, included a nonexistent match between West Ham and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Copilot hallucinated the game and West Midlands Police included the error in its intelligence report without fact checking it. "On Friday afternoon I became aware that the erroneous result concerning the West Ham v Maccabi Tel Aviv match arose as result of a use of Microsoft Co Pilot [sic]," says Craig Guildford, chief constable of West Midlands Police, in a letter to the Home Affairs Committee earlier this week. Guildford previously denied in December that the West Midlands Police had used AI to prepare the report, blaming "social media scraping" for the error. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Europe is Rediscovering the Virtues of Cash - After spending years pushing digital payments to combat tax evasion and money laundering, European Union ministers decided in December to ban businesses from refusing cash. The reversal comes as 12% of European businesses flatly refused cash in 2024, up from 4% three years earlier. Over one in three cinemas in the Netherlands no longer accept notes and coins. Cash usage across the euro area dropped from 79% of in-person transactions in 2016 to just 52% in 2024. Sweden leads the digital shift where 90% of purchases now happen digitally and cash represents under 1% of GDP compared to 22% in Japan. The policy change stems from concerns about financial inclusion for elderly and poor populations who struggle with digital systems. Resilience worries also drove the decision after Spaniards facing nationwide power cuts last spring found themselves unable to buy food. European officials worry about dependence on American payment giants Visa and MasterCard. The EU now recommends citizens store enough cash to survive a week without electricity or internet access. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nuclear Weapons Are Now ESG Compliant - The European Union published guidance on December 30 that reclassified nuclear weapons as acceptable investments under its sustainable finance framework, completing a policy change approved in November that narrowed the definition of banned armaments from "controversial" to "prohibited." The shift addresses earlier vagueness that the Commission said hindered efforts to raise $932 billion in defense investments over four years. Under the revised rules, only four weapon categories remain expressly outlawed by a majority of EU states: personnel mines, cluster munitions, and biological and chemical weapons. Nuclear weapons manufacturers avoided exclusion because only Austria, Ireland and Malta signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, though all EU members support non-proliferation under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The updated guidance also permits ESG labeling for companies handling depleted uranium for anti-tank ammunition and white phosphorus, which is toxic but not classified as a chemical weapon. European ESG funds currently hold minimal defense stocks, according to Jefferies data. The Commission's notice now makes these investments eligible for funds operating under Article 8 and Article 9 sustainable investment mandates. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Never-Before-Seen Linux Malware Is 'Far More Advanced Than Typical' - An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Researchers have discovered a never-before-seen framework that infects Linux machines with a wide assortment of modules that are notable for the range of advanced capabilities they provide to attackers. The framework, referred to as VoidLink by its source code, features more than 30 modules that can be used to customize capabilities to meet attackers' needs for each infected machine. These modules can provide additional stealth and specific tools for reconnaissance, privilege escalation, and lateral movement inside a compromised network. The components can be easily added or removed as objectives change over the course of a campaign. VoidLink can target machines within popular cloud services by detecting if an infected machine is hosted inside AWS, GCP, Azure, Alibaba, and Tencent, and there are indications that developers plan to add detections for Huawei, DigitalOcean, and Vultr in future releases. To detect which cloud service hosts the machine, VoidLink examines metadata using the respective vendor's API. Similar frameworks targeting Windows servers have flourished for years. They are less common on Linux machines. The feature set is unusually broad and is "far more advanced than typical Linux malware," said researchers from Checkpoint, the security firm that discovered VoidLink. Its creation may indicate that the attacker's focus is increasingly expanding to include Linux systems, cloud infrastructure, and application deployment environments, as organizations increasingly move workloads to these environments. "VoidLink is a comprehensive ecosystem designed to maintain long-term, stealthy access to compromised Linux systems, particularly those running on public cloud platforms and in containerized environments," the researchers said in a separate post. "Its design reflects a level of planning and investment typically associated with professional threat actors rather than opportunistic attackers, raising the stakes for defenders who may never realize their infrastructure has been quietly taken over." The researchers note that VoidLink poses no immediate threat or required action since it's not actively targeting systems. However, defenders should remain vigilant. Read more of this story at Slashdot.