Latest News
Last updated 06 Feb, 08:56 PM
BBC News
Police search properties linked to Mandelson over Epstein investigation - The former ambassador to the US and Labour minister is under investigation for misconduct in a public office.
Epstein emails: So-called 'shady financier' was Andrew's 'trusted money man' - Andrew seemed keen for Epstein to do business with David Rowland, but Epstein was wary, emails suggest.
Trump removes video with racist clip depicting Obamas as apes - The White House defended the post at first, calling to "stop the fake outrage", as members of both parties condemned the video.
Wetherspoon dog policy could be breaking the law, watchdog says - The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has written to the pub chain after complaints from disabled customers.
Summer camp leader jailed for sexually abusing boys after lacing sweets with tranquilliser - Jon Ruben is jailed for more than 23 years after admitting the sexual abuse of young boys and drugging his wife.
The Register
Let there be light! DARPA seeking physics-defying photonic computers to supercharge AI - There’s about $35M up for grabs if your circuits can beat today’s limits It's no lightweight matter. DARPA is putting about $35 million in total funding on the table in the hope that it will spur researchers to work around fundamental physical constraints and build much larger-scale photonic circuits that do more of the computing with light, not electronics.…
Four horsemen of the AI-pocalypse line up capex bigger than Israel's GDP - Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft eye $635B in infrastructure spend Four tech megacorps intend to collectively fork out roughly $635 billion this year on capex, much of it for datacenters and AI infrastructure – more than the entire output of Israel's economy and well beyond all global cloud infrastructure services revenue generated last year.…
Flickr emails users about data breach, pins it on 3rd party - Attackers may have snapped user locations and activity information, message warns Legacy image-sharing website Flickr suffered a data breach, according to customers emails seen by The Register.…
DDoS deluge: Brit biz battered as botnet blitzes break records - UK leaps to sixth in global flood charts as mega-swarm unleashes 31.4 Tbps Yuletide pummeling Cloudflare says DDoS crews ended 2025 by pushing traffic floods to new extremes, while Britain made an unwelcome leap of 36 places to become the world's sixth-most targeted location.…
Summoning the spirit of the BBC Micro with a Pi 500+ and a can of spray paint - Rhapsody in beige An enterprising engineer has evoked the spirit of Acorn's BBC Micro with a custom paintjob for a Raspberry Pi 500+ computer-in-a-keyboard and a natty set of replacement keycaps.…
New Scientist - Home
The secret signals our organs send to repair tissues and slow ageing - Your organs are constantly talking to each other in ways we’re only beginning to understand. Tapping into these communication networks is opening up radical new ways to boost health
Why exercise isn't much help if you are trying to lose weight - When we exercise more, our bodies may compensate by using less energy for other things – especially if we eat less too
Synchronised volcanic eruptions on Io hint at a spongy interior - Five volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io erupted simultaneously, spewing a mind-boggling amount of lava onto the surface and giving us clues to what may lie underneath
New Scientist recommends 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple - The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week
Statins don't cause most of the side effects listed on their labels - A review of the evidence suggests that statins are no more likely than a placebo to cause most of the side effects listed on their labels
Hacker News
The Waymo World Model - Comments
Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use - Comments
Microsoft open-sources LiteBox, a security-focused library OS - Comments
How to effectively write quality code with AI - Comments
Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info - Comments
Slashdot
Salesforce Shelves Heroku - Salesforce is essentially shutting down Heroku as an evolving product, moving the cloud platform that helped define modern app deployment to a "sustaining engineering model" focused entirely on stability, security and support. Existing customers on credit card billing see no changes to pricing or service, but enterprise contracts are no longer available to new buyers. Salesforce said it is redirecting engineering investment toward enterprise AI. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hidden Cameras in Chinese Hotels Are Livestreaming Guests To Thousands of Telegram Subscribers - An investigation has uncovered a sprawling network of hidden cameras in Chinese hotel rooms that livestream guests -- including couples having sex -- to paying subscribers on Telegram. Over 18 months, the BBC identified six websites and apps on the messaging platform that claimed to operate more than 180 spy cams across Chinese hotels, not just recording but broadcasting live. One site, monitored for seven months, cycled through 54 different cameras, roughly half active at any given time. Subscribers pay 450 yuan (~$65) per month for access to multiple live feeds, archived clips, and a library of more than 6,000 edited videos dating back to 2017. The BBC traced one camera to a hotel room in Zhengzhou, where researchers found it hidden inside a wall ventilation unit and hardwired into the building's electricity supply. A commercially available hidden-camera detector failed to flag it. China introduced regulations last April requiring hotel owners to check for hidden cameras, but the BBC found the livestreaming sites still operational. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AI.com Sells for $70 Million, the Highest Price Ever Disclosed for a Domain Name - Kris Marszalek, the co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, has paid $70 million for the domain AI.com -- the highest price ever publicly disclosed for a website name, according to the deal's broker Larry Fischer of GetYourDomain.com. The entire sum was paid in cryptocurrency to an undisclosed seller. Marszalek plans to debut the site during a Super Bowl ad this weekend, offering a personal "AI agent" that lets consumers send messages, use apps and trade stocks. The previous domain sale record was nearly $50 million for Carinsurance.com, per GoDaddy. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Big Tech's $1.1 Trillion Cloud Computing Backlog - An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft each reported hundreds of billions in RPO (remaining performance obligations) -- signed contracts for cloud computing services that can't yet be filled and haven't yet hit the books. Collectively, the big three cloud providers reported a $1.1 trillion backlog of revenue. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
KPMG Pressed Its Auditor To Pass on AI Cost Savings - An anonymous reader shares a report: KPMG, one of the world's largest auditors of public and private companies, negotiated lower fees from its own accountant by arguing that AI will make it cheaper to do the work, according to people familiar with the matter. The Big Four firm told its auditor, Grant Thornton UK, it should pass on cost savings from the rollout of AI and threatened to find a new accountant if it did not agree to a significant fee reduction, the people said. The discussions last year came amid an industry-wide debate about the impact of new technology on audit firms' business and traditional pricing models. Firms have invested heavily in AI to speed up the planning of audits and automate routine tasks, but it is not yet clear if this will generate savings that are passed on to clients. Grant Thornton is auditor to KPMG International, the UK-based umbrella organisation that co-ordinates the work of KPMG's independent, locally owned partnerships around the world. Talks with Grant Thornton were led by Michaela Peisger, a longtime audit partner and executive from KPMG's German member firm, who became KPMG International's chief financial officer at the beginning of 2025. Read more of this story at Slashdot.