Latest News
Last updated 26 Mar, 05:51 PM
BBC News
UK forecast to see biggest hit to growth from Iran war out of major economies - The OECD downgrades forecasts for many of the world's biggest economies due to the US-Israel war with Iran.
NS&I boss replaced as savers left waiting for millions of pounds - Pensions Minister Torston Bell said those affected would receive compensation "where appropriate".
More than 13 million living in poverty, new figures show - The level rose slightly on the previous year while the number of children living in poverty has remained steady.
Olympic women's sport limited to biological females - The women's category of Olympic sports will be limited to biological females from 2028, says the International Olympic Committee.
Nottingham victims' families 'tortured' by authorities, inquiry told - The partner of one survivor told a public inquiry that authorities have "prolonged their suffering".
The Register
Apple's making more iPhone parts in the US. The iPhone itself? Not so much - Maybe that's why Tim didn't get an invitation to the President's tech bro club? Apple's American Manufacturing Program (AMP) is expanding, with new suppliers signed on to produce iPhone components - though those parts will still be shipped overseas for final assembly.…
Staff too scared of the AI axe to pick it up, Forrester finds - Your AI rollout isn't failing - your employees just hate it If your company isn't seeing great returns from its investment in AI, you might want to look at the humans tasked with deploying it and how you can motivate them. Right now, many employees fear AI-driven job losses and aren't well trained to use the tech, according to Forrester.…
Linear moves sideways to agentic AI as CEO declares issue tracking dead - Agent will capture issues and eventually debug code The Linear cloudy issue tracker and project manager has introduced an AI agent and plans to add AI coding assistance, with CEO and co-founder Karri Saarinen declaring that "issue tracking is dead."…
AI bug reports went from junk to legit overnight, says Linux kernel czar - Greg Kroah-Hartman can't explain the inflection point, but it's not slowing down or going away Interview I was at a press luncheon at KubeCon Europe this week when, to my surprise, who should sit down next to me but long-term Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman. Greg, who lives in the Netherlands these days, was there to briefly comment on AI, Linux, and security. We spoke about how, over the last month, AI-driven activity around Linux security and code review has "really jumped" in a way no one in the open source world saw coming.…
Three more charged over alleged Nvidia GPU smuggling scheme to China - Prosecutors say trio used Thai front companies to reroute high-end AI servers The US has collared three more people for allegedly attempting to smuggle Nvidia GPUs to China, days after a Supermicro co-founder faced similar accusations.…
New Scientist - Home
Computer finds flaw in major physics paper for first time - A computer language designed to robustly verify mathematical theorems and expose logical flaws has been turned towards a physics paper – and spotted an error. The discovery raises questions about how many other papers may harbour similar issues
A variety of jungle animals all use one type of tree as a latrine - In the cloud forest of Costa Rica, many canopy-dwelling animals do their business in strangler fig trees, perhaps as a way of leaving messages
The Selfish Gene: Still one of the most thrilling evolution books ever - Fifty years ago, Richard Dawkins shared an irresistible scientific metaphor with the world that modernised and democratised evolutionary biology. Half a century on, The Selfish Gene remains powerfully insightful, finds Rowan Hooper
Temperature gets a new definition using a quantum device - A device that relies on quantum effects and oversized atoms may be a more reliable way to measure temperature that doesn't require calibration
How big is a 'shedload'? Let's ask the nuclear physicists - Feedback is prompted by readers to investigate the size of the shed in the term 'shedload', and gets down and dirty with particle physics in the quest
Hacker News
Moving from GitHub to Codeberg, for lazy people - Comments
My minute-by-minute response to the LiteLLM malware attack - Comments
OpenTelemetry profiles enters public alpha - Comments
Why so many control rooms were seafoam green (2025) - Comments
Show HN: Claude skill that evaluates B2B vendors by talking to their AI agents - Comments
Slashdot
Tracy Kidder, Author of 'The Soul of a New Machine', Dies At 80 - Ancient Slashdot reader wiredog writes: Tracy Kidder, author of "The Soul of a New Machine," has died at the age of 80. "The Soul of a New Machine" is about the people who designed and built the Data General Nova, one of the 32 bit superminis that were released in the 1980's just before the PC destroyed that industry. It was excerpted in The Atlantic. "I'm going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China Reviews $2 Billion Manus Sale To Meta As Founders Barred From Leaving Country - Chinese authorities have barred two Manus executives from leaving the country while investigating whether Meta's reported $2 billion acquisition of the Singapore-based AI startup violated foreign investment reporting rules. "Manus was founded in China but last year relocated its headquarters and core team to Singapore," notes the Financial Times. "Meta acquired it for $2 billion at the end of last year." The Financial Times reports: Manus's chief executive Xiao Hong and chief scientist Ji Yichao were summoned to a meeting in Beijing with the National Development and Reform Commission this month, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. They said Xiao and Ji were questioned on potential violations of foreign direct investment rules related to its onshore Chinese entities. After the meeting, the Singapore-based executives were told they were not allowed to leave China because of a regulatory review, while they remain free to travel within the country, two of the people said. No formal investigation has been opened and no charges have been brought. Manus is actively seeking law firms and consultancies to help resolve the matter, said a person with knowledge of the move. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Researchers At CERN Transport Antiprotons By Truck In World-First Experiment - An anonymous reader quotes a report from Physics World: Researchers at the CERN particle-physics lab have successfully transported antiprotons in a lorry across the lab's main site. The feat, the first of its kind, follows a similar test with protons in 2024. CERN says the achievement is "a huge leap" towards being able to transport antimatter between labs across Europe. [...] To do so, in 2020 the BASE team began developing a device, known as BASE-STEP (for Baryon-Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment-Symmetry Tests in Experiments with Portable Antiprotons), to store and transport antiprotons. It works by trapping particles in a Penning trap composed of gold-plated cylindrical electrode stacks made from oxygen-free copper that is surrounded by a superconducting magnet bore operated at cryogenic temperatures. The device, which also contains a carbon-steel vacuum chamber to shield the particles from stray magnetic fields, is then mounted on an aluminium frame. This allows it to be transported using standard forklifts and cranes and withstand the bumps and vibrations of transport. In 2024, BASE researchers used the device to transport a cloud of about 105 trapped protons across CERN's Meyrin campus for four hours. After that feat, the researchers began to adjust BASE-STEP to handle antiprotons and yesterday the team successfully transported a trap containing a cloud of 92 antiprotons around the campus for 30 minutes, traveling up to 42 km/h. With further improvements and tests, the team now hope to transport the antiprotons further afield. The first destination on the team's list is the Heinrich Heine University (HHU) in Dusseldorf, Germany, which would take about eight hours. "This means we'd have to keep the trap's superconducting magnet at a temperature below 8.2 K for that long," says BASE-STEP's leader Christian Smorra. "So, in addition to the liquid helium , we'd need to have a generator to power a cryocooler on the truck. We are currently investigating this possibility." If possible to transport to HHU, physicists would then use the particles to search for charge-parity-time violations in protons and antiprotons with a precision at least 100 times higher than currently possible at CERN. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Reddit Takes On Bots With 'Human Verification' Requirements - Reddit is rolling out human-verification checks for accounts that show signs of bot-like behavior, while also labeling approved automated accounts that provide useful services. The social media company stressed that these checks will only happen if something appears "fishy," and that it is "not conducting sitewide human verification." TechCrunch reports: To identify potential bots, Reddit is using specialized tooling that looks at account-level signals and other factors -- like how quickly the account is attempting to write or post content. Using AI to write posts or comments, however, is not against its policies (though community moderators may set their own rules). To verify an account is human, Reddit will leverage third-party tools like passkeys from Apple, Google, YubiKey, and other third-party biometric services, like Face ID or even Sam Altman's World ID -- or, in some countries, the use of government IDs. Reddit notes this last category may be required in some countries like the U.K. and Australia and some U.S. states, because of local regulations on age verification, but it's not the company's preferred method. "If we need to verify an account is human, we'll do it in a privacy-first way," Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman wrote in the announcement Wednesday. "Our aim is to confirm there is a person behind the account, not who that person is. The goal is to increase transparency of what is what on Reddit while preserving the anonymity that makes Reddit unique. You shouldn't have to sacrifice one for the other." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Melania Trump Welcomes Humanoid Robot At White House Summit - Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: In Melania and the Robot, the New York Times reports on First Lady Melania Trump's inaugural Fostering the Future Together Coalition Summit, which brought together international leaders, First Spouses from around the world, tech leaders, educators, and nonprofits to collaborate on practical solutions that expand access to educational tools while strengthening protections for children in digital environments (Day 2 WH summary). The Times begins: "On Wednesday, Mrs. Trump appeared at the White House alongside Figure 3, a humanoid, A.I.-powered robot whose uses, according to the company that makes it, include fetching towels, carrying groceries and serving champagne. But Mrs. Trump joins tech executives and some researchers in envisioning a world beyond robot butlery. She is interested in how these robots could cut it as educators. Both clad in shades of white, the first lady and the visiting robot walked into a gathering of first spouses from around the world, a group that included Sara Netanyahu of Israel, Olena Zelenska of Ukraine, and Brigitte Macron of France. The dulcet tones from a (presumably human) military orchestra played as the first lady and her guest entered the event. Both lady and robot extolled the virtues of further integrating robots into the educational and social lives of children. In the history of modern first-lady initiatives, which have included building a national book festival (Laura Bush), reshuffling the food pyramid (Michelle Obama) and advocating for free community college (Jill Biden), Mrs. Trump's involvement of a humanoid robot in education policy was a first." "Figure 3 delivered brief remarks and delivered salutations in several languages. With its sleek black-and-white appearance, Figure 3 would fit right in with the first lady's branding aesthetic, which includes a self-titled coffee table book and movie, not least because the name "MELANIA" was emblazoned on the side of its glossy plastic head. After Figure 3 teetered gingerly away, Mrs. Trump looked around the room and told them that the future looked a lot like what they had just witnessed. 'The future of A.I. is personified,' she told her audience. 'It will be formed in the shape of humans. Very soon artificial intelligence will move from our mobile phones to humanoids that deliver utility.' She invited her guests to envision a future in which a robot philosopher educated children." Read more of this story at Slashdot.