Latest News
Last updated 11 Feb, 09:02 PM
BBC News
School stabbing suspect is former pupil, police say - Two boys, aged 12 and 13, are in a stable condition in hospital after the stabbing in a school in north-west London.
Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek dies aged 48 - The father of six starred in multiple popular shows and films in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including Dawson's Creek and Varsity Blues.
Lyse Doucet: In Tehran, rallies for Iran's revolution overshadowed by discontent and defiance - The BBC visits the Iranian capital for the first time since authorities used unprecedented force to put down protests last month.
How Michelin-starred restaurant scored one-star hygiene rating - Ynyshir says its approach is “intentionally non-conventional” and has “played a key role in placing Wales on the international culinary map”.
Epstein survivor calls on Palace to search Andrew's files - Juliette Bryant has called on the Palace to "act" on revelations about Andrew's relationship with Epstein.
The Register
Meta will let users tweak Threads algorithms as long as they ask nicely - Only for three days, though, then it's back to the misery feed Meta has decided to let Threads users make custom tweaks to its all-important algorithm, but don't expect your preferences to stick and do expect to bring your best manners.…
Lawmakers demand great wall to keep advanced chipmaking gear out of China - Allies that don’t align on chip controls could face US component curbs, they argue Banning sales to Chinese-government-affiliated companies, apparently, is not enough. A bipartisan group of American lawmakers this week called on the Trump administration to enact a blanket ban on the sale of equipment used in the production of advanced semiconductors to all of China.…
AI spurs employees to work harder, faster, and with fewer breaks, study finds - Like a puppy, a fun new toy soon turns into an unrelenting taskmaster A Harvard Business Review study is answering the question ‘what will employees do if AI saves them time at work?’ The answer: more work.…
T-Mobile announces its network is now full of AI by rolling out real-time translation - This AI is so network native, the telco tells us, that it all works on existing hardware - no datacenters involved T-Mobile is claiming it's now the first wireless carrier to integrate generative AI "directly into a wireless network," and it's rolling out real-time call translation as the first feature delivered on top of its new AI-filled cellular network. …
Posting AI-generated caricatures on social media is risky, infosec killjoys warn - The more you share online, the more you open yourself to social engineering If you've seen the viral AI work pic trend where people are asking ChatGPT to "create a caricature of me and my job based on everything you know about me" and sharing it to social, you might think it's harmless. You'd be wrong.…
New Scientist - Home
Ancient Peruvian civilisation grew mighty by harvesting guano - The Chincha Kingdom was transporting seabird excrement from islands to valleys as early as the 13th century, and this powerful fertiliser may have been key to its economic success
Putting a price tag on nature failed. Can radical tactics save it? - Biologists have long thought that speaking to nature’s economic value would persuade boardrooms it was worth saving. It hasn’t worked – so what, if anything, will?
The surprising origins of Britain's Bronze Age immigrants revealed - About 4600 years ago, the population of Britain was replaced by a people who brought Bell Beaker pottery with them. Now, ancient DNA has uncovered the murky story of where these people came from
How teaching molecules to think is revealing what a 'mind' really is - Networks of molecules in our body behave as though they have goals and desires. Understanding this phenomenon could solve the origins of life and mind in one fell swoop
This state’s power prices are plummeting as it nears 100% renewables - South Australia is proving to the world that relying largely on wind and solar energy with battery back-up is incredibly cheap, with electricity prices tumbling by 30 per cent in a year and sometimes going negative
Hacker News
Toyota Fluorite: "console-grade" Flutter game engine - Comments
The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory - Comments
GLM-5: From Vibe Coding to Agentic Engineering - Comments
NetNewsWire Turns 23 - Comments
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics - Comments
Slashdot
US Had Almost No Job Growth in 2025 - An anonymous reader shares a report: The U.S. economy experienced almost zero job growth in 2025, according to revised federal data. On a more encouraging note: hiring has picked up in 2026. Preliminary data had indicated that the U.S. economy added 584,000 jobs last year. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised that number after it received additional state data, and found that the labor market had added 181,000 jobs in all of 2025. This is far fewer than the 1.46 million jobs that were added in 2024. One bright spot was last month, when hiring increased by 130,000 roles. This was significantly more than the 55,000 additions that had been expected by economists. "Job gains occurred in health care, social assistance, and construction, while federal government and financial activities lost jobs," BLS said in a statement. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
EVs Could Be Cheaper To Own Than Gas Cars in Africa by 2040 - Electric vehicles accounted for just 1% of new car sales across Africa in 2025, but a study published in Nature Energy by researchers at ETH Zurich finds that EVs paired with solar off-grid charging systems -- solar panels, batteries and an inverter -- could become cheaper to own than gas-powered equivalents across most of the continent by 2040. The analysis considered total cost of ownership including sticker price, financing and fuel or charging costs, but excluded policy-related factors like taxes and subsidies. Electric two-wheelers could reach cost parity even sooner, by the end of the decade, thanks to smaller battery packs. Small cars remain the toughest segment. The biggest obstacle is financing: in some African countries, political instability and economic uncertainty push borrowing costs so high that interest on an EV loan can exceed the vehicle's purchase price. South Africa, Mauritius and Botswana are already near the financing conditions needed for cost parity; countries like Sudan and Ghana would need drastic cuts. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
UK Orders Deletion of Country's Largest Court Reporting Archive - The UK's Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of the country's largest court reporting archive [non-paywalled source], a database built by data analysis company Courtsdesk that more than 1,500 journalists across 39 media organizations have used since the lord chancellor approved the project in 2021. Courtsdesk's research found that journalists received no advance notice of 1.6 million criminal hearings, that court case listings were accurate on just 4.2% of sitting days, and that half a million weekend cases were heard without any press notification. In November, HM Courts and Tribunal Service issued a cessation notice citing "unauthorized sharing" of court data based on a test feature. Courtsdesk says it wrote 16 times asking for dialogue and requested a referral to the Information Commissioner's Office; no referral was made. The government issued a final refusal last week, and the archive must now be deleted within days. Chris Philp, the former justice minister who approved the pilot and now shadow home secretary, has written to courts minister Sarah Sackman demanding the decision be reversed. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Are CDs Making a Comeback? A Statistical Analysis - Reports of the compact disc's death may have been slightly premature, according to a new analysis from Stat Significant that finds CD sales as a share of U.S. music industry revenue have quietly stabilized after years of steep decline. RIAA data shows CD revenue share fell from 7.15% in 2018 to 3.04% in 2022 but has since flatlined at roughly 3%, coming in at 3.14% in 2023 and 3.06% in 2024. Google search traffic for "CD Player" has ticked upward over the past 16 months after two decades of near-continuous decline, and a May 2023 YouGov poll found 53% of American adults willing to pay for music on CDs -- ahead of vinyl at 44% and online streaming at 50%. Respondents under 45 were more likely to express interest in buying physical formats than older cohorts. But on the supply side, Discogs data shows vinyl remains the dominant format for new physical releases; artists have not meaningfully shifted back toward CD production. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
HP Now Rents Gaming Laptops - HP has quietly launched a gaming laptop subscription service called the OMEN Gaming Subscription that lets customers pay a monthly fee to use one of several gaming laptops but never actually own the hardware, even after paying well past the machine's retail price. The service ranges from $50 a month for an HP Victus 15-inch laptop with an RTX 4050 to $130 a month for an Omen Max 16 with an RTX 5080. At current sale prices, subscribers would exceed the cost of buying the laptop outright within 16 to 19 months; at MSRP, that window stretches to roughly 25 months. In exchange for giving up ownership, subscribers get yearly hardware upgrades, next-day replacements, 24/7 support, and an ongoing warranty. There is a 30-day trial period, but cancelling in the second month triggers steep early termination fees -- $550 for the Victus 15 and $1,430 for the Omen Max 16. Cancellation becomes free only after the 13th month. HP also offers accessories like the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless headset as add-on rentals for $8 a month. Read more of this story at Slashdot.