Latest News

Last updated 20 Apr, 01:17 PM

BBC News

US releases video of forces seizing Iranian ship - The US has intercepted an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf as part of its naval blockade, Donald Trump has said.

Spat at, threatened and kidnapped: British Jews tell of rising antisemitism - British Jews have described to BBC Panorama how they are experiencing a rise in antisemitism.

'They told me he was dead': Children born near army base learn truth about UK soldier dads - A DNA and legal project has identified the fathers of 20 children born near a military base in Kenya.

Man kills seven of his children, and an eighth child, in Louisiana mass shooting - Three boys and five girls, aged between three to 11, were killed in the shooting on Sunday, officials say.

Travelodge 'extremely sorry' for giving stranger key to couple's room - Woman says she was left feeling shaken and believes the chain needs to do more to improve security.

The Register

AI is reshaping Britain's datacenter map away from London - Bit barns need to worry more about space, access to grid – overstuffed center no longer a must, say experts UK AI datacenter capacity could migrate away from London as power shortages, planning constraints and reduced reliance on low-latency connections to financial firms make other locations more attractive.…

UK.gov kicks off half-a-billion quid sovereign AI venture with £80M invite - Companies get to keep IP developed for government projects The UK government is opening £80 million in AI procurement talks with tech firms, drawing on its £500 million sovereign capability fund.…

HP's remote desktop push retreats as Anyware heads for end of life - Workstations that made distant desktops feel local is headed for a slow shutdown HP is quietly pulling the plug on its Teradici-derived remote desktop business, shelving HP Anyware and its zero client hardware barely a few years after betting big on the tech as the backbone of its hybrid work push.…

Blue Origin nails the landing, but puts the payload satellite in the wrong orbit - Wouldn't be the first time a Jeff Bezos company left a package in the wrong place Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket nailed the landing this weekend, but failed at the crucial part of delivering a satellite to a usable orbit.…

Palantir's NHS future in doubt as ministers eye contract break - £330M deal leaves service with no ownership of software built to connect trusts to the platform The UK government is considering ending Palantir's involvement in a central NHS data platform after coming under fire from MPs, unions, and campaigners.…

New Scientist - Home

We might finally know how to use quantum computers to boost AI - Pushing against years of scepticism, an analysis suggests quantum computers may offer real advantages for running machine learning and similar algorithms in the near future

The biggest threat to Chernobyl is no longer radiation - Forty years after the world’s biggest nuclear disaster, the safety of Chernobyl hangs in the balance – though not because of the radiation risk

Hospital-acquired pneumonia reduced by daily toothbrushing - Most hospital patients don't brush their teeth regularly, but doing so could cut their risk of developing pneumonia during their stay

Beef is making a comeback – does it fit into a healthy diet? - The protein craze is in full swing and beef consumption is on the rise, particularly in the US, where health agencies are promoting red meat as part of an optimum diet. So, how much beef should we really be eating, and how does it impact our well-being?

How autoimmune conditions can unexpectedly drive mental illness - Antibodies mistakenly attacking the brain are linked with conditions including schizophrenia, dementia and OCD, prompting a revolution in how we think about mental health conditions

Hacker News

Tesla Hid Fatal Accidents to Continue Testing Autonomous Driving (French) - Comments

M 7.4 earthquake – 100 km ENE of Miyako, Japan - Comments

GitHub's Fake Star Economy - Comments

ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL - Comments

Focused microwaves allow 3D printers to fuse circuits onto almost anything - Comments

Slashdot

Videos Catch Amazon Delivery Drones Dropping Packages From 10 Feet in the Air - There's been a few complaints about Amazon's drone delivery service. "The automated mailmen are dropping off packages from 10 feet in the air," reports the New York Post, "rendering the contents of each box susceptible to crashing and smashing." One example? Tamara Hancock filmed a drone delivering a bottle of Torani flavoring syrup to her home in Arizona (as a test of how Amazon handled fragile items). It was delivered it in a plastic bottle — not glass — but the massive drone drops the drone from so high that the impact cracked the bottle's cap. (In the video Hancock opens her delivery to find leaked flavoring syrup "everywhere.") The delivery was hard to film, Hancock says, because "If the drone sees me in the back yard, it will not drop, because it is worried about hurting humans or animals." The Post notes Amazon's "AI-charged fleet" of drones are "Outfitted with industry-leading 'sense and avoid' technology, the aerodynamic machines are equipped to drop off eligible items, weighing a maximum of five pounds, at designated areas in 60 minutes or less." The high-tech, however, apparently does not ensure gentle landings. Collisions, including a recent crash-and-burn into a Texas building, as well as several mid-flight malfunctions in rainy weather, have abounded since the drones' inaugural launch.... Tasha, a separate Amazon user, spotted the drone plunging a package near the paved driveway of a neighbor's yard. Unfortunately, its propellers caused other, previously delivered parcels to blow away, sending one into the street... In a statement to The Post, Amazon said it apologized for one of the "rare instances when products don't arrive as expected." Amazon's drone fleet has been running since late 2024, the Post adds, and are now offering "ultra-fast" shipping in U.S. states including Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Kansas and Texas. The machines do seem massive. I'm surprised neighbors aren't complaining about the noise... Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Zoom Partners With Sam Altman's Iris-Scanning Company To Offer Callers Verifications of Humanness - Zoom "has partnered with World, Sam Altman's iris-scanning identity company (previously known as Worldcoin), " reports Digital Trends, "to add real-time human verification inside meetings." Zoom is now inviting organizations to join the beta version of the rollout, which Digital Trends says "lets hosts confirm that every face on the call belongs to a real person, not an AI-generated imposter. " For those wondering how World's Deep Face technology works, it includes a three-step process. It cross-references a signed image from a user's original Orb registration, a live face scan from the device, and the frame of the video that's visible to the other participants in the meeting. Only when the three samples match does a "Verified Human" badge appear next to the user's name... Hosts can also make Deep Face verification mandatory for joining meetings, preventing unverified participants from joining entirely. Mid-call, on-the-spot checks are also possible... Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Brave Browser Introduces 'Origin', a Pay-Once 'Minimalist' Browser - The Brave browser "has introduced Brave Origin, a stripped-down version of its browser that removes built-in monetization features like Rewards and other extras tied to its business model," writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli" The stripped-down browser is available either as a separate browser download or as an upgrade to the existing Brave install, unlocked through a one-time purchase that can be activated across multiple devices. The idea is simple on paper: pay once, and you get a cleaner, more minimal browsing experience without the add-ons that fund Brave's ecosystem. What makes the move unusual is the pricing model itself. While paying to support a browser is not controversial, charging users specifically to remove features raises questions about whether those additions are seen as value or clutter. The situation gets even stranger on Linux, where Brave Origin is reportedly available at no cost, creating an uneven experience across platforms and leaving some users wondering why they are being asked to pay for something others get for free. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Successfully Reuses Booster - But Loses Satellite - SpaceNews reports: Blue Origin's New Glenn suffered a malfunction of its second stage on the rocket's third flight April 19, stranding its payload in an unrecoverable "off-nominal" orbit and dealing the company a setback as it seeks to increase its flight rate... AST SpaceMobile had planned to launch 45 to 60 satellites this year for its D2D constellation, but BlueBird 7 is the first to launch since BlueBird 6 launched on an Indian LVM3 rocket in December. AST SpaceMobile still expects to have 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year, the article notes. (In an earnings call in March, AST SpaceMobile's CEO had promised they'd soon start "stacking" satellites, "batched in groups of either three, four, six or eight in a single launch.") He'd added that "To support our launch cadence during 2026, we expect the New Glenn booster to be reused every 30 days or less..." There's some good news there, SpaceNews points out, since today saw the first successful reflight of a New Glenn first stage rocket: The booster, called "Never Tell Me The Odds" by Blue Origin, touched down on the company's landing platform, Jacklyn, in the Atlantic Ocean nearly nine and a half minutes after liftoff. The booster launched NASA's ESCAPADE Mars mission on the NG-2 flight in November. However, the booster reuse on NG-3 was only partial since the stage's biggest component, its BE-4 engines, was new. "With our first refurbished booster we elected to replace all seven engines and test out a few upgrades including a thermal protection system on one of the engine nozzles," Dave Limp, chief executive of Blue Origin, said in an April 13 social media post. "We plan to use the engines we flew for NG-2 on future flights." The satellite will now be "de-orbited", AST SpaceMobile said in a statement. (They added that "The cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under the company's insurance policy.") Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Voyager 1 is Running Out of Power. NASA Just Switched Part of It Off - After 49 years of space travel, Voyager 1 "is running out of power," reports NPR: The spacecraft runs on a radioisotope thermoelectric generator — a device that converts heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. It carries no solar panels, no rechargeable batteries. Just the slow, steady release of nuclear warmth, which diminishes by about 4 watts each year. After nearly five decades, that decline has become critical. During a routine maneuver in late February, Voyager 1's power levels fell unexpectedly, bringing the probe dangerously close to triggering an automatic fault-protection shutdown — a self-preservation response that would have forced engineers into a lengthy and risky recovery process. The team needed to act first. On April 17, mission engineers sent a sequence of commands to deactivate the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, known as the LECP, which is one of Voyager 1's remaining science instruments. The LECP has measured ions, electrons, and cosmic rays originating from both our solar system and the galaxy beyond it, helping scientists map the structure of interstellar space in a way no other instrument could... Voyager 1 now carries two operational science instruments: one that listens for plasma waves, and one that measures magnetic fields. Engineers believe the latest shutdown could buy the mission roughly another year of breathing room. The team is also developing a more sweeping power conservation plan they informally call "the Big Bang" — a coordinated swap of several powered components all at once, trading older systems for lower-power alternatives. If testing on Voyager 2, planned for May and June 2026, goes well, the same procedure will be attempted on Voyager 1 no sooner than July. If it works, there is even a slim chance the LECP could once more continue to work. The engineers say they hope to keep at least one instrument operating on each spacecraft into the 2030s. It would leave both still reporting from places no machine has ever gone before.111 Voyager 1 is now 15 billion miles from Earth, the article points out. (Radio signals take 23 hours to arrive...) Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot for sharing the article. Read more of this story at Slashdot.