Latest News

Last updated 27 Mar, 10:26 PM

BBC News

King experiences temporary side effects of cancer treatment - Charles returns to Clarence House after a short period in hospital, palace says, but postpones Friday engagements in Birmingham.

Starmer accuses Putin of 'playing games' over Ukraine peace deal - Now is not the time for pulling back or weakening sanctions, prime minister says at summit in Paris.

Six dead after tourist submarine sinks in Red Sea - Another 39 people were rescued after the vessel sank in the Red Sea on Thursday morning.

Why Rachel Reeves may have to raise UK taxes in October - The chancellor is on track to meet her own fiscal rules, so why is there talk of tax rises in the autumn?

Germany says it 'will not give in' as Trump announces 25% tariffs on all car imports - Major economies vow to retaliate, with China accusing Washington of violating international trade rules.

The Register

China’s FamousSparrow flies back into action, breaches US org after years off the radar - Crew also cooked up two fresh SparrowDoor backdoor variants, says ESET The China-aligned FamousSparrow crew has resurfaced after a long period of presumed inactivity, compromising a US financial-sector trade group and a Mexican research institute. The gang also likely targeted a governmental institution in Honduras, along with other yet-to-be-identified victims.…

IBM US cuts may run deeper than feared ‒ and the jobs are heading to India - Big Blue 'might as well move its headquarters' to Bengaluru since it 'no longer prioritizes' America Following our report last week on IBM's ongoing layoffs, current and former employees got in touch to confirm what many suspected: The US cuts run deeper than reported, and the jobs are heading to India.…

Panic averted: It was just a bug in Atop after all - Warning of possible problems sparks controversy: Was it OverDAtop? Rachel Kroll has clarified the Atop alarm: Turns out it was just a weird little bug, and it's probably already been fixed.…

Dems dub Trump cuts to chip export controls a 'gift' to Xi and Putin - Concerns over whether Bureau of Industry and Security, which maintains entity list, would be able to do its job Keeping critical tech out of the hands of US adversaries is about to get harder for the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) with the Trump administration seemingly poised to slash its already meager budget by $20 million.…

Security shop pwns ransomware gang, passes insider info to authorities - Researchers say 'proactive' approach is needed to combat global cybercrime Here's one you don't see every day: A cybersecurity vendor is admitting to breaking into a notorious ransomware crew's infrastructure and gathering data it relayed to national agencies to help victims.…

New Scientist - Home

Little red dots seen by JWST might be a kind of black hole 'star' - Red specks in the early universe are puzzling astronomers, but a proposed explanation suggests they are the progenitors of supermassive black holes

What do GLP-1 drugs really tell us about the brain's reward system? - Anecdotal reports suggest drugs like Ozempic may curb not just appetite but also impulsive or addictive behaviour, hinting at links between metabolic health and our brains

Flourishing microalgae could offset emissions as the planet heats up - Photosynthesising microbes in soil may increase their activity as temperatures rise, offsetting some of the carbon emissions expected to be released from peatland and permafrost

Quantum computers are on track to solve knotty mathematical problems - A quantum algorithm for solving mathematical problems related to knots could give us the first example of a quantum computer tackling a genuinely useful problem that would otherwise be impossible for a classical computer

How toilet waste is being rebranded as a valuable resource - From useful nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus to cellulose for construction, there is treasure to be mined in our sewage, says Graham Lawton

Hacker News

Tracing the thoughts of a large language model - Comments

I tried making artificial sunlight at home - Comments

How to Use Em Dashes (–), En Dashes (–), and Hyphens (-) - Comments

Learning Theory from First Principles [pdf] - Comments

Launch HN: Continue (YC S23) – Create custom AI code assistants - Comments

Slashdot

H&M To Use Digital Clones of Models In Ads and Social Media - An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Fashion retailer H&M is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create digital "twins" of 30 models. It says it will use the AI doppelgangers in some social media posts and marketing in the place of humans, if given permission by models. "We are curious to explore how to showcase our fashion in new creative ways -- and embrace the benefits of new technology -- while staying true to our commitment to personal style," said its chief creative officer Jorgen Andersson in a statement. The initiative was first reported by industry publication Business of Fashion. H&M told the outlet that models would retain rights over their digital replicas and their use by the company and other brands for purposes such as marketing. Its images are likely to be initially used in social media posts, with watermarks that make their AI use clear, it added. H&M also said models would be compensated for use of their digital twins in a similar way to current arrangements -- which sees them paid for use of their images based on rates agreed by their agent. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google Maps Can Soon Scan Your Screenshots To Plan Your Vacation - Google is rolling out new AI-powered features across Maps, Search, and Hotels to simplify travel planning, including a screenshot-detection tool in Maps that identifies and saves locations mentioned in image text. The Verge reports: Once the new screenshot list is enabled in Maps, the Gemini-powered feature will detect places that are mentioned in text within screenshots on the device, show users the locations on the map, and allow them to review and save locations to a sharable list. The screenshot list feature will start rolling out in English this week to iOS users in the US, with Android support "coming soon." AI Overviews for Google Search are also being updated to expand travel planning tools, with itinerary-building features rolling out in English to mobile and desktop devices in the US this week that can create trip ideas for "distinct regions or entire countries." Users can use terms like "create a vacation itinerary for Greece that focuses on history" to explore reviews and photos from other users alongside a map of location recommendations, which can be saved to Google Maps or exported to Docs or Gmail. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Columbia University Suspends Student Behind Interview Cheating AI - Columbia University has suspended the student who created an AI tool designed to help job candidates cheat on technical coding interviews, according to disciplinary documents seen by Business Insider. Chungin "Roy" Lee received a yearlong suspension for "publishing unauthorized documents" from a disciplinary hearing about his product, Interview Coder, not for creating the tool itself. Lee had signed a form agreeing not to disclose his disciplinary record or post hearing materials online. Interview Coder, which sells for $60 monthly, is on track to generate $2 million in annual revenue, Lee said. The university initially placed him on probation after finding him responsible for "facilitation of academic dishonesty." Lee had already submitted paperwork for a leave of absence before his suspension. He told BI he plans to move to San Francisco, which "was my plan all along." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop Graphics Benchmarks Revealed - MojoKid writes: Similar to Nvidia's recent desktop graphics launches, there are four initial GeForce RTX 50 series laptop GPUs coming to market, starting this month. At the top of the stack is the GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU, which is equipped with 10,496 CUDA cores and is paired to 24GB of memory. Boost clocks top out around 2,160MHz and GPU power can range from 95-150 watts, depending on the particular laptop model. GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs for both laptops and desktops feature updated shader cores with support for neural shading, in addition to 4th gen ray tracing cores and 5th gen Tensor cores with support for DLSS 4. The GeForce RTX 50 series features a native PCIe gen 5 interface, in addition to support for DisplayPort 2.1b (up to UHBR20). These GPUs are also fed by the latest high speed GDDR7 memory, which offers efficiency benefits that are pertinent to laptop designs as well. Performance-wise, NVIDIA's mobile GeForce RTX 5090 is the new king of the hill in gaming laptops, and it easily bests all other discrete mobile graphics options on the market currently. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Oracle Customers Confirm Data Stolen In Alleged Cloud Breach Is Valid - An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Despite Oracle denying a breach of its Oracle Cloud federated SSO login servers and the theft of account data for 6 million people, BleepingComputer has confirmed with multiple companies that associated data samples shared by the threat actor are valid. Last week, a person named 'rose87168' claimed to have breached Oracle Cloud servers and began selling the alleged authentication data and encrypted passwords of 6 million users. The threat actor also said that stolen SSO and LDAP passwords could be decrypted using the info in the stolen files and offered to share some of the data with anyone who could help recover them. The threat actor released multiple text files consisting of a database, LDAP data, and a list of 140,621 domains for companies and government agencies that were allegedly impacted by the breach. It should be noted that some of the company domains look like tests, and there are multiple domains per company. In addition to the data, rose87168 shared an Archive.org URL with BleepingComputer for a text file hosted on the "login.us2.oraclecloud.com" server that contained their email address. This file indicates that the threat actor could create files on Oracle's server, indicating an actual breach. However, Oracle has denied that it suffered a breach of Oracle Cloud and has refused to respond to any further questions about the incident. "There has been no breach of Oracle Cloud. The published credentials are not for the Oracle Cloud. No Oracle Cloud customers experienced a breach or lost any data," the company told BleepingComputer last Friday. This denial, however, contradicts findings from BleepingComputer, which received additional samples of the leaked data from the threat actor and contacted the associated companies. Representatives from these companies, all who agreed to confirm the data under the promise of anonymity, confirmed the authenticity of the information. The companies stated that the associated LDAP display names, email addresses, given names, and other identifying information were all correct and belonged to them. The threat actor also shared emails with BleepingComputer, claiming to be part of an exchange between them and Oracle. Read more of this story at Slashdot.