Latest News
Last updated 16 Feb, 06:07 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.
Teenagers guilty of killing man they thought was a paedophile - Alexander Cashford was chased and hit with rocks and a bottle before he died.
Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds - But researchers say it could still improve someone's overall health through helpful changes to some body functions.
Ice and snow warnings as another blast of Arctic air sweeps across the UK - More than 70 flood warnings have also been issued by the Environment Agency after heavy rain.
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
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
Rethinking our approach to BMI highlights the need for speed - We must find a balance between haste and getting mired in medical inertia
Intermittent fasting probably doesn’t help with weight loss - Intermittent fasting appears to be no better than doing nothing when it comes to helping people who are overweight or have obesity lose weight
Can we ever know the shape of the universe? - The shape of the cosmos depends on a balance of two competing forces: the pull of gravity and the expansion driven by dark energy. Columnist Leah Crane explores what observations tell us about how much universe is out there and whether it’s shaped like a sheet, a saddle or something else entirely
Hacker News
Ministry of Justice orders deletion of the UK's largest court reporting database - Comments
Running My Own XMPP Server - Comments
What Your Bluetooth Devices Reveal About You - Comments
WebMCP Proposal - Comments
Show HN: Simple org-mode web adapter - Comments
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.
Pentagon Threatens Anthropic Punishment - An anonymous reader shares a report: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is "close" to cutting business ties with Anthropic and designating the AI company a "supply chain risk" -- meaning anyone who wants to do business with the U.S. military has to cut ties with the company, a senior Pentagon official told Axios. The senior official said: "It will be an enormous pain in the ass to disentangle, and we are going to make sure they pay a price for forcing our hand like this." That kind of penalty is usually reserved for foreign adversaries. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Axios: "The Department of War's relationship with Anthropic is being reviewed. Our nation requires that our partners be willing to help our warfighters win in any fight. Ultimately, this is about our troops and the safety of the American people." Anthropic's Claude is the only AI model currently available in the military's classified systems, and is the world leader for many business applications. Pentagon officials heartily praise Claude's capabilities. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Sony May Push Next PlayStation To 2028 or 2029 as AI-fueled Memory Chip Shortage Upends Plans - Sony is considering delaying the debut of its next PlayStation console to 2028 or even 2029 as a global shortage of memory chips -- driven by the AI industry's rapidly growing appetite for the same DRAM that goes into gaming hardware, smartphones, and laptops -- squeezes supply and sends prices surging, Bloomberg News reported Monday. A delay of that magnitude would upend Sony's carefully orchestrated strategy to sustain user engagement between hardware generations. The shortage traces back to Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron diverting the bulk of their manufacturing toward high-bandwidth memory for Nvidia's AI accelerators, leaving less capacity for conventional DRAM. The cost of one type of DRAM jumped 75% between December and January alone. Nintendo is also contemplating raising the price of its Switch 2 console in 2026. Read more of this story at Slashdot.