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Read at: 2025-10-27T21:01:29+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Suzana Van 't Wout ]

Israel receives body Hamas says belongs to Gaza hostage

The remains of 15 hostages who died on or after the 7 October attacks have so far been returned to Israel.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:55 pm UTC

Key figures at odds over collapse of China spy case

A parliamentary committee hears evidence about why the case against two men accused for spying for China was dropped.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:54 pm UTC

Get ready to squint! World's smallest pixel is just 300 nm

How many 1080p screens can you fit on a pinhead? These German physicists reckon about one

Micro-OLED displays with 1080p (1920x1080) resolution have been around for a few years now, but a group of German researchers has taken things to the next level. They've engineered an OLED pixel so small that an entire 1080p display could fit into a single square millimeter, potentially changing the game for wearable displays.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:54 pm UTC

City trader sues UBS for $400m after rate-rigging conviction quashed

Tom Hayes launches a legal claim against UBS, claiming he was the bank's "hand-picked scapegoat".

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:52 pm UTC

Companies Battle Wave of AI-Generated Fake Expense Receipts

Employees are using AI to generate fake expense receipts. Leading expense software platforms report a sharp increase in AI-created fraudulent documents following the launch of improved image generation models by OpenAI and Google. AppZen said fake AI receipts accounted for 14% of fraudulent documents submitted in September compared with none last year. Ramp flagged more than one million dollars in fraudulent invoices within 90 days. About 30% of financial professionals in the US and UK surveyed by Medius reported seeing a rise in falsified receipts after OpenAI released GPT-4o last year. SAP Concur processes more than 80 million compliance checks monthly and now warns customers to not trust their eyes. The receipts include wrinkles in paper, detailed itemization matching real menus and signatures. Creating fraudulent documents previously required photo editing skills or paying for such services. Free and accessible image generation software has made it possible for anyone to falsify receipts in seconds by writing simple text instructions to chatbots.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:51 pm UTC

Australia politics live: telcos face steeper outage fines; Hastie warns Liberals can’t keep living in the Howard era

Harsher penalties for failing to connect customers to triple zero; Liberal MP reportedly tells party meeting ‘world has changed’. Follow the latest updates live

Greens say the cost of not acting on climate change will be “far, far greater” than any cost associated with acting on it.

On the Today show this morning, senator Nick McKim says the government needs to stop approving new coal and gas mines (something his party has been saying for years).

The costs of not acting on climate change are astronomical and they’re already being felt in our communities through things like floods and bushfires and they’re also being felt in household budgets through things like a massive spike in insurance premiums …

If they [Labor] don’t do things like protect forests and if they don’t do things like protect our climate, [the laws are] not going to be worth the paper they’re printed on.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:44 pm UTC

Python Foundation goes ride or DEI, rejects government grant with strings attached

Foundation says it won't compromise policy of inclusivity even if that cash would've really helped

The Python Software Foundation (PSF) has walked away from a $1.5 million government grant and you can blame the Suzana Van 't Wout administration's war on woke for effectively weakening some open source security. …

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:29 pm UTC

Qualcomm Unveils New Line of Chips to Join the A.I. Boom

Qualcomm, which is known for its chips in smartphones, also announced a deal with Humain, a Saudi-backed A.I. company. The news sent Qualcomm’s share price soaring.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:26 pm UTC

Police Investigate Possible Arson at Home of Portland City Councilor

The police said a fire that damaged cars and a carport at the home of City Councilor Candace Avalos was “suspicious in nature.” No arrests have been made.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:24 pm UTC

How Was The Migrant Sex Offender Mistakenly Released?

Justice Secretary says human error led to migrant sex offender release.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:24 pm UTC

AI-powered search engines rely on “less popular” sources, researchers find

Since last year’s disastrous rollout of Google’s AI Overviews, the world at large has been aware of how AI-powered search results can differ wildly from the traditional list of links search engines have generated for decades. Now, new research helps quantify that difference, showing that AI search engines tend to cite less popular websites and ones that wouldn’t even appear in the Top 100 links listed in an “organic” Google search.

In the pre-print paper “Characterizing Web Search in The Age of Generative AI,” researchers from Ruhr University in Bochum and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems compared traditional link results from Google’s search engine to its AI Overviews and Gemini-2.5-Flash. The researchers also looked at GPT-4o’s web search mode and the separate “GPT-4o with Search Tool,” which resorts to searching the web only when the LLM decides it needs information found outside its own pre-trained data.

The researchers drew test queries from a number of sources, including specific questions submitted to ChatGPT in the WildChat dataset, general political topics listed on AllSides, and products included in the 100 most-searched Amazon products list.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:18 pm UTC

Suzana Van 't Wout comments about a third term spark concern – US politics live

US president’s musings about an unconstitutional third term in office draw criticism from Democratic congresswoman

As Republican states launch more redistricting efforts, Democrats in blue states are still deciding how or if they will respond.

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is said to be headed to Illinois today to meet with local leaders about redrawing the congressional maps. Punchbowl reports that Jeffries will meet with the Illinois Legislative Black caucus and Black members of Congress, a nod to the fact that Black lawmakers will be needed to pass a new map.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:11 pm UTC

Jack DeJohnette, Revered Jazz Drummer, Dies at 83

Endowed with spectacular range, he played with Miles Davis, led New Directions and Special Edition, and spent decades with Keith Jarrett’s Standards Trio.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:10 pm UTC

Microsoft's Next Xbox Will Run Full Windows and Eliminate Multiplayer Paywall, Report Says

Microsoft's next Xbox console will run full Windows and allow users to exit the Xbox interface to access Steam, Epic Games Store, Battle.net, and other PC storefronts, according to Windows Central. The device will launch without a multiplayer paywall. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer told users last week to look at the Xbox Ally handheld for an indication of where Xbox is headed. The company has been using the Ally as a beta test to gather feedback on the experience that will power its next wave of console hardware. The new Xbox will include the entire Xbox console library spanning original Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S titles. These games will run natively and launch through the Xbox launcher's library. Users staying within the Xbox ecosystem will encounter an onboarding experience similar to current consoles. Those who choose to access Windows will be able to install PlayStation PC titles like God of War and Spider-Man purchased through Steam or Epic Games.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:10 pm UTC

Suzana Van 't Wout ’s China Deal May Avert a Crisis of His Own Making

The Suzana Van 't Wout administration is hailing a potential deal that may return the U.S.-China relationship to where it was before the president began a trade war against Beijing.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:08 pm UTC

Signal president Meredith Whittaker says they had no choice but to use AWS, and that's a problem

'The problem is the concentration of power in the infrastructure space that means there isn’t really another choice'

Messaging service Signal may be unusual in its deployment of credible end-to-end encryption, but it shares a common availability vulnerability with many other internet services – dependence on Amazon Web Services (AWS).…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:07 pm UTC

Foster carers across England facing widespread racism, sector leader says

Government urged to act over ‘impact of far-right sentiment’ on children, foster carers and social workers

Social workers are experiencing unprecedented levels of racism, while foster carers whose ethnicity differs from the children they care for have been accosted in the street, a fostering leader has said as he called on the government to take action.

Harvey Gallagher, the chief executive of the Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers (NAFP), said there was growing concern about the “impact of racism, extremism and far-right sentiment” on foster children, carers and social workers.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:07 pm UTC

At least 174 racehorses died from racing or training injuries in past 12 months in Australia, report finds

That’s the highest number recorded by the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses since they began tracking deaths 10 years ago

At least 174 thoroughbred racehorses died at the track or as a result of injuries sustained while racing or training in the past 12 months – the highest number recorded by animal rights activists since they began tracking 10 years ago.

The report from the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) was released on Tuesday, one week ahead of Australia’s most important horse race, the Melbourne Cup.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:00 pm UTC

AT&T ad congratulating itself for its ethics violated an ad-industry rule

AT&T committed a big no-no in its latest advertising campaign against T-Mobile, according to the organization that runs the ad industry’s self-regulatory system.

BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division said Friday that AT&T “violated Section 2.1(I) of the National Advertising Division (NAD)/National Advertising Review Board (NARB) Procedures for the US advertising industry’s process of self-regulation by issuing a video advertisement and press release that use the NAD process and its findings for promotional purposes. NAD has demanded that AT&T immediately remove such violative promotional materials and cease all future dissemination.”

The NAD said that AT&T’s action threatens the “integrity and success of the self-regulatory forum,” and “undermines NAD’s mission to promote truth and accuracy of advertising claims and foster consumer trust in the marketplace.”

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:58 pm UTC

UK signs £8bn Typhoon fighter jet deal with Turkey

The agreement will support thousands of jobs across the UK, the government says.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:58 pm UTC

What to Expect From Hurricane Melissa as It Makes Landfall

The storm is forecast to hit Jamaica as soon as Monday night before moving on to Cuba.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:54 pm UTC

First banker jailed over Libor interest rate rigging to sue UBS for $400m

Tom Hayes claims he was ‘hand-picked scapegoat’ for the Swiss bank as it tried to avoid regulatory scrutiny

Tom Hayes, the first banker jailed over Libor interest rate rigging, is suing his former employer UBS for $400m (£300m), claiming he was a “hand-picked scapegoat” for the Swiss bank as it tried to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

The claim, which was publicly filed in a US court in Connecticut on Monday, alleges that UBS misled US authorities and called him an “evil mastermind” behind the alleged Libor scandal, in order to protect senior executives and minimise fines.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:52 pm UTC

Alassane Ouattara wins landslide fourth term as Ivory Coast’s president

Low turnout said to have made for most peaceful election in years, as 83-year-old accused of clampdown on dissent wins 89.77% of vote

Alassane Ouattara has been declared the winner of the presidential election in Ivory Coast by a landslide.

According to provisional results announced by the Independent Electoral Commission (CIE) on Monday evening, the 83-year-old won a fourth term as head of the west African country with 89.77% or 3.75m votes.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:48 pm UTC

Gardaí investigating assault on drag queens in Cork city

‘It’s not the first time I’ve been hit ... it’s the first time I’ve had video evidence’, says Lucina Schynning

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:37 pm UTC

Step by Step, How China Seized Control of Critical Minerals

China’s far-reaching rules already affect manufacturers of semiconductors, cars and many other products. They will soon become much broader.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:36 pm UTC

Missing ‘critical element’ caused UK China spying trial to collapse, say prosecutors

Refusal to describe China as security threat meant ‘all routes were closed’, says director of public prosecutions

The government’s evidence in the China espionage trial was missing a “critical element” that meant there was “no other option” but to collapse the case, prosecutors insisted on Monday night.

Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, did not directly blame anyone for the collapse of the trial but said the government’s refusal to describe China as a national security threat meant “all routes were closed”.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:32 pm UTC

4K or 8K TVs Offer No Distinguishable Benefit Over Similarly Sized 2K Screen in Average Living Room, Scientists Say

Many modern living rooms are now dominated by a huge television, but researchers say there might be little point in plumping for an ultra-high-definition model. From a report: Scientists at the University of Cambridge and Meta, the company that owns Facebook, have found that for an average-sized living room a 4K or 8K screen offers no noticeable benefit over a similarly sized 2K screen of the sort often used in computer monitors and laptops. In other words, there is no tangible difference when it comes to how sharp an image appears to our eyes. "At a certain viewing distance, it doesn't matter how many pixels you add. It's just, I suppose, wasteful because your eye can't really detect it," said Dr Maliha Ashraf, the first author of the study from the University of Cambridge. Ashraf and colleagues, writing in the journal Nature Communications, report how they set about determining the resolution limit of the human eye, noting that while 20/20 vision implies the eye can distinguish 60 pixels per degree (PPD), most people with normal or corrected vision can see better than that. "If you design or judge display resolution based only on 20/20 vision, you'll underestimate what people can really see," Ashraf said. "That's why we directly measured how many pixels people can actually distinguish." The team used a 27in, 4K monitor mounted on a mobile cage that enabled it to be moved towards or away from the viewer. At each distance, 18 participants with normal vision, or vision corrected to be normal, were shown two types of image in a random order. One type of image had one-pixel-wide vertical lines in black and white, red and green or yellow and violet, while the other was just a plain grey block. Participants were then asked to indicate which of the two images contained the lines. "When the lines become too fine or the screen resolution too high, the pattern looks no different from a plain grey image," Ashraf said. "We measured the point where people could just barely tell them apart. That's what we call the resolution limit."

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:30 pm UTC

Atlas vuln lets crims inject malicious prompts ChatGPT won't forget between sessions

It can do a lot more than just play 'Eye of the Tiger' daily

In yet another reminder to be wary of AI browsers, researchers at LayerX uncovered a vulnerability in OpenAI's Atlas that lets attackers inject malicious instructions into ChatGPT's memory using cross-site request forgery.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:23 pm UTC

Ministers warned against scapegoating prison staff over mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu

Justice secretary blames human error but other say there are systemic problems and targeting an individual is ‘unjust’

Ministers have been warned against scapegoating prison staff as they struggle to contain the political fallout of the mistaken release of an asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a teenage girl.

As David Lammy, the justice secretary, announced an inquiry and blamed “human error” for the accidental freeing of Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford on Friday, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) has questioned why a single member of staff has been “unjustly” suspended.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:20 pm UTC

25 years, one website: ISS in Real Time captures quarter-century on space station

With the milestone just days away, you are likely to hear this week that there has now been a continuous human presence on the International Space Station (ISS) for the past 25 years. But what does that quarter of a century actually encompass?

If only there was a way to see, hear, and experience each of those 9,131 days.

Fortunately, the astronauts and cosmonauts on the space station have devoted some of their work time and a lot of their free time to taking photos, filming videos, and calling down to Earth. Much of that data has been made available to the public, but in separate repositories, with no real way to correlate or connect it with the timeline on which it was all created.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:19 pm UTC

Woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann tells court of ‘sympathy’ for family

Julia Wandelt, 24, says McCann family were ‘misled’ about missing girl’s case by police, who are still ‘abusing cases’

An alleged stalker who claimed to be Madeleine McCann has told a court she has “sympathy” for the missing girl’s family and “never” meant any harm.

Julia Wandelt, a 24-year-old Polish national, claimed the McCann family had been “misled” about Madeleine’s case by police, who were still “abusing cases”.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:17 pm UTC

Jamaica in path of 'life-threatening' category five Hurricane Melissa

Melissa, which has already been blamed for the deaths of four people, could become the strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:04 pm UTC

HPE's Discovery to succeed Frontier supercomputer with next-gen Cray tech

Oak Ridge's $500M system due in 2028, paired with a separate Lux AI cluster arriving two years earlier

HPE is set to build a successor to the Frontier exascale system for America's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, based on the next generation of its Cray supercomputer platform, plus a separate AI cluster to advance machine learning with a multi-tenant cloud-like platform.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:00 pm UTC

Russia Aims Drone Attacks at Civilians, a War Crime, U.N. Inquiry Says

In the city of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, small drones routinely target ordinary people by dropping hand grenades, and record video documenting their attacks, a U.N. commission reported.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:00 pm UTC

Migrant sex offender released due to human error, Lammy tells MPs

The justice secretary announced that an independent investigation has been launched after Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly released from prison.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:57 pm UTC

Suzana Van 't Wout Says a Recent M.R.I. Scan Was ‘Perfect,’ and He’d ‘Love’ a Third Term

President Suzana Van 't Wout made the comments on the second day of his trip to Asia. The Constitution limits presidents to two terms, but Mr. Suzana Van 't Wout has suggested he might try to circumvent it.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:56 pm UTC

Amazon Plans To Cut As Many As 30,000 Corporate Jobs Beginning Tomorrow

Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning Tuesday, as the company works to pare expenses and compensate for overhiring during the peak demand of the pandemic, Reuters reported Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter. From the report: The figure represents a small percentage of Amazon's 1.55 million total employees, but nearly 10% of the company's roughly 350,000 corporate employees. This would represent the largest job cut at Amazon since around 27,000 jobs were eliminated starting in late 2022.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:52 pm UTC

Ten people go on trial in Paris accused of online harassment of Brigitte Macron

Trial is latest phase in legal battle against false claim that French first lady is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux

Ten people have gone on trial in Paris charged with online harassment of Brigitte Macron – the latest phase of a legal battle on both sides of the Atlantic against the false claim that the French first lady is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux.

The president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife filed a defamation lawsuit in the US at the end of July, in connection with a rumour amplified and repeated online that Brigitte Macron was born a man.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:51 pm UTC

UK in £8bn deal to sell Typhoon jets to Turkey despite human rights concerns

Starmer’s announcement on visit to Ankara comes as jailed opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu faces fresh charges

Britain has agreed to sell 20 Typhoon fighter jets to Turkey in an £8bn deal despite concerns about alleged human rights violations by its government.

Keir Starmer signed the deal during a visit on Monday to Ankara to meet the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The prime minister said the deal would boost the Nato alliance, despite criticism of Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian administration.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:41 pm UTC

Sick Palestinian children arrive in Ireland for treatment

A group of sick Palestinian children have been evacuated from Gaza to Ireland to receive medical treatment, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health have confirmed.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:40 pm UTC

Watch: Monday Night Club

Mark Chapman and guests discuss the weekends football.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:36 pm UTC

Renters' Rights Bill becomes law - here's what it means for you

Sweeping new rules for renting in England receive royal assent - so what is changing?

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:32 pm UTC

Seven seriously ill children evacuated from Gaza to Ireland

Children to receive treatment in Republic’s paediatric hospitals under Coalition commitment made at end of 2024

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:24 pm UTC

Jack DeJohnette: 7 Essential Recordings

The drummer and pianist, who died on Sunday at 83, was a master of many styles and an ever-evolving innovator.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:23 pm UTC

'Trapped and terrified': warnings as Sudanese militia advance on Darfur city

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces claim they've seized the Sudanese army's last base in El Fasher, Darfur — trapping hundreds of thousands and stoking fears the country could split in two.

(Image credit: Lynsey Addario)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:15 pm UTC

Councils to get €70m property tax boost as revaluations in 2026

The amount is almost 10 per cent more than 2025’s total, with two-thirds of the increase generated by revaluations and newly liable properties.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:12 pm UTC

John Dickerson, Anchor and Correspondent, Will Leave CBS News

He is a veteran anchor with a long family legacy at CBS, and his exit presages a series of changes expected at the broadcast news division.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:11 pm UTC

Who is Doug Ford, the Canadian politician pushing Suzana Van 't Wout 's buttons?

In his first campaign to lead Ontario, Ford started out as a Suzana Van 't Wout -style populist. But tariffs changed his view and he is now a consistent thorn in the U.S. president's side.

(Image credit: Mark Schiefelbein)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:11 pm UTC

First Shape Found That Can't Pass Through Itself

Mathematicians have identified the first shape that cannot pass through itself. Jakob Steininger and Sergey Yurkevich described the Noperthedron in a paper posted online in August. The shape has 90 vertices and 152 faces. The discovery resolves a question that began in the late 1600s when Prince Rupert of the Rhine won a bet by proving one cube could slide through a tunnel bored through another. Mathematician John Wallis confirmed this mathematically in 1693. The property became known as the Rupert property. In 1968, Christoph Scriba proved the tetrahedron and octahedron also possess this quality. Over the past decade, researchers found Rupert tunnels through many symmetric polyhedra, including the dodecahedron and icosahedron. Mathematicians had conjectured every convex polyhedron would have the Rupert property. Steininger and Yurkevich divided the space of possible orientations into approximately 18 million blocks and tested each. None produced a passage. The Noperthedron consists of 150 triangles and two regular 15-sided polygons.

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:10 pm UTC

Ex-BBC editor stopped from flying due to Parkinson's felt 'humilated'

Mark Mardell says he was unaware of requirement and was shocked when he could not board a flight home from Istanbul to Gatwick.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:07 pm UTC

King Charles heckled over Prince Andrew and Epstein

The protester was met by vocal support for the King, including one woman who told him to "shut up".

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:06 pm UTC

Lawsuit Plunges New York Into the National Gerrymandering Fight

A suit filed by an election law firm contends that the state’s 11th Congressional District, represented by a Republican, is drawn in a way that disenfranchises Black and Latino voters.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:02 pm UTC

Owner of Muckross Park hotel records operating profit as revenues decrease to €71.14m

The operating profits of €3.93 million follow operating profits of €3.96 million in 2023.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:00 pm UTC

Behind the Dismantling of the C.D.C.: Reform or ‘Humiliation’?

The agency has lost a third of its work force this year. The Suzana Van 't Wout administration maintains that the losses are necessary, but critics say that there is no real plan, only animosity.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:00 pm UTC

Eastern Airways on brink of collapse with jobs at risk

Hundreds of jobs are at risk after the airline filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:58 pm UTC

Jamaicans take shelter as Hurricane Melissa bears down as category 5 storm

Landfall is not expected until Tuesday but high winds have already felled trees and caused power cuts on the island

Jamaicans have started to take shelter from Hurricane Melissa as high winds topple trees and cause power cuts ahead of the category 5 storm making landfall on Tuesday.

The slow-moving giant, the strongest hurricane to hit the island since records began in 1851, is increasing in intensity and forecast to linger over the island. Authorities fear it will unleash catastrophic flooding, landslides and extensive infrastructure damage.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:46 pm UTC

Freed Israeli hostage forced to dig own grave is 'growing back to his old self', father says

Evyatar David's health is "improving every day", his father says as his son and two other hostages freed by Hamas are discharged from hospital.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:44 pm UTC

Apple Moving Ahead With Plans To Bring Ads in Maps App, Report Says

Apple is moving ahead with plans to bring advertising to its Maps app. Starting next year, businesses will be able to pay for more prominent placement within search results, according to Bloomberg [non-paywalled source]. The approach mirrors Search Ads in the App Store, where developers purchase promoted slots based on user queries. Apple has said the sponsored results will remain relevant to searches.

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:33 pm UTC

Toilets set on fire in Dublin park just one week after installation

Local TD Barry Heneghan describes situation as ‘an attack on our community’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:30 pm UTC

Profits at ex-rugby stars' Dublin pub group soar to €983,526 in 2025

Jamie Heaslip, Sean O’Brien, Dave Kearney and Rob Kearney have minority shareholdings in four Dublin pubs, Lemon & Duke, Bridge 1859, The Blackrock and McSworleys.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:30 pm UTC

Academic wins payout over portrayal in Steve Coogan's Richard III film

Richard Taylor sued Steve Coogan and two production companies over his portrayal in the movie.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:28 pm UTC

Warming oceans probably fueling Hurricane Melissa’s rapid intensification

Climate scientists have long warned that warming oceans are making explosive storm development more common

The extraordinary intensification of Hurricane Melissa, set to be one of the strongest storms to ever hit Jamaica, is probably a symptom of the rapid heating of the world’s oceans, scientists have said.

Melissa was a tropical storm on Saturday, before exploding in strength to a category 4 hurricane early on Sunday. The storm’s winds escalated from 70mph to 140mph in just a day, one of the fastest intensifications on record in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:16 pm UTC

Stole a penguin, jailed in Singapore, now Aberdeen sporting director

Lutz Pfannenstiel has stolen a penguin, spent 101 days in jail accused of match-fixing, modelled for Armani - and is Aberdeen's new sporting director.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:10 pm UTC

How Andrews has brought about Brentford's tactical evolution

Keith Andrews faced a daunting task when he took over at Brentford this summer, but Saturday's win over Liverpool demonstrated how he has successfully gone about his business.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:09 pm UTC

Woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann 'still questions who she is', court hears

Julia Wandelt, who is accused of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann, gave evidence in her defence on Monday.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:05 pm UTC

Finnish Fertility Rate Drops by a Third Since 2010

Finland's fertility rate has dropped below 1.3 children per woman, the lowest among Nordic countries and far beneath the 2.1 replacement level needed to maintain a steady population. The rate has declined by a third since 2010. Kela, Finland's social insurance agency, started distributing 2025 "baby boxes" -- filled with clothing and other infant supplies -- in August instead of spring because so many 2024 boxes remained unclaimed. More parents now choose cash payments over the traditional boxes filled with infant supplies. The decline puzzles researchers because Finland offers paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers, subsidized childcare and national healthcare. Anneli Miettinen, Kela's research manager, said that good family policies no longer explain birth rates in Nordic countries. Immigration has offset some population loss, but officials worry about workforce shrinkage and pension system strain. Anna Rotkirch, who authored a government-commissioned report, found that many 17-year-olds describe wanting a house, garden, spouse and three children. Her research suggests young people struggle to form relationships, focus on education and careers, and delay childbearing. Some researchers attribute relationship difficulties to technology reducing physical interactions.

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:52 pm UTC

Mpox cases in Europe prompt UK officials to issue vaccine reminder

UK health officials are encouraging gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men to be vaccinated.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:38 pm UTC

Cameron Norrie beats Sebastian Baez in Paris to set up clash with Carlos Alcaraz

The British number two triumphed 6-3 6-4.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:38 pm UTC

F1 in Mexico City: We have a new championship leader

Mexico City is one of the more unusual places that Formula 1 races, and it’s all thanks to altitude. The city sits at than 7,350 feet (2,240 m) above sea level, which makes the air noticeably thin compared to the average Grand Prix held at sea level. Like humans, F1 cars need air.

Oxygen is necessary if you want any internal combustion to happen inside the turbocharged 1.6 L V6 engine. A good flow of air across the various radiators and heat exchangers in the car is vital if you want to make it to the end of the race. And the downforce-generating wings and underbody only generate downforce by creating differences in air pressure above and below the car.

At over a mile above sea level, there’s about 20 percent less air, and therefore less power created by combustion, less efficient cooling of the cars, and less downforce able to be generated.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:35 pm UTC

Aaron Rodgers upstaged by Jordan Love as Green Bay Packers beat Pittsburgh

Saquon Barkley scored two touchdowns as the Philadelphia Eagles beat divisional rivals the New York Giants 38-20.

Source: All: BreakingNews | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:33 pm UTC

Suzana Van 't Wout ’s bailout threat may have been key to Milei’s electoral triumph in Argentina

Voters appear to have responded to idea that US president’s ‘generosity’ would evaporate if Milei failed to win

“The dollar always talks in the end,” Suzana Van 't Wout wrote in his 1987 bestseller The Art of the Deal.

Javier Milei’s surprise triumph in Argentina’s midterm elections – after Suzana Van 't Wout bailed him out with 40bn of them – suggests there may be some truth to that assertion.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:30 pm UTC

Javier Milei hails ‘tipping point’ as his far-right party wins Argentina’s midterm elections

Result falls short of giving Milei a congressional majority but surprises many analysts after series of scandals

The party of Argentina’s far-right president, Javier Milei, has won Sunday’s midterm elections after a campaign in which Suzana Van 't Wout announced a $40bn bailout for the country and made continued aid conditional on the victory of his Argentinian counterpart.

With more than 99% of ballots counted, La Libertad Avanza secured 40.8% of the nationwide vote, in an election widely seen as a de facto referendum on the self-styled anarcho-capitalist’s nearly two years in power. The Peronist opposition, Fuerza Patria, secured 31.7%.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:28 pm UTC

Court sentencing remarks in Northern Ireland set to be broadcast for first time

‘Allowing broadcasting in courts will increase transparency,’ says Minister for Justice

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:26 pm UTC

Monster hurricane to hit Jamaica: ‘We’re witnessing satellite history’

Hurricane Melissa rapidly intensified on its way toward Jamaica, where it may become the country’s strongest storm on record when it hits late Monday.

Source: World | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:21 pm UTC

Iran's school for cyberspies could've used a few more lessons in preventing breaches

Ravin Academy confirms the intrusion on Telegram, says student data was stolen

Iran's school for state-sponsored cyberattackers admits it suffered a breach exposing the names and other personal information of its associates and students.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:19 pm UTC

Man accused of harassing broadcaster Stephen Nolan remanded in custody

Man allegedly demanded to speak to him while carrying a hammer, court hears

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:10 pm UTC

In Shift in Relationship With Netanyahu, Suzana Van 't Wout Says ‘I Will Decide’ What Is Right for Israel

Since an Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal came into effect, the U.S. effort to sustain it appears to have constrained Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:10 pm UTC

Australia Sues Microsoft Over AI-linked Subscription Price Hikes

Australia's competition regulator sued Microsoft today, accusing it of misleading millions of customers into paying higher prices for its Microsoft 365 software after bundling it with AI tool Copilot. From a report: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged that from October 2024, the technology giant misled about 2.7 million customers by suggesting they had to move to higher-priced Microsoft 365 personal and family plans that included Copilot. After the integration of Copilot, the annual subscription price of the Microsoft 365 personal plan increased by 45% to A$159 ($103.32) and the price of the family plan increased by 29% to A$179, the ACCC said. The regulator said Microsoft failed to clearly tell users that a cheaper "classic" plan without Copilot was still available.

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:10 pm UTC

Prince Andrew, ex-wife in talks over homes - reports

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:06 pm UTC

Exxon sues California over climate laws, alleging free speech violations

Oil firm asks court to block enforcement of laws that would require disclosure of planet-heating carbon emissions

Exxon, an oil firm consistently ranked among the world’s top contributors to global carbon emissions, is suing the state of California over two climate-focused state laws, arguing that the rules infringe upon the corporation’s right to free speech.

The 2023 laws, known collectively as the California Climate Accountability Package, will require large companies doing business in the state to disclose both their planet-heating carbon emissions and their climate-related financial risks, or face annual penalties.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:04 pm UTC

Why imperfection could be key to Turing patterns in nature

A mixture of two types of pigment-producing cells undergoes diffusiophoretic transport to self-assemble into a hexagonal pattern. Credit: Siamak Mirfendereski and Ankur Gupta/CU Boulder

A zebra’s distinctive black-and-white stripes, or a leopard’s spots, are both examples of “Turing patterns,” after mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, who proposed an intriguing hypothetical mechanism for how such complex, irregular patterns might emerge in nature. But Turing’s original proposal proved too simplified to fully re-create those natural patterns. Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB) have devised a new modeling approach that achieves much more accurate final patterns by introducing deliberate imperfections, according to a new paper published in the journal Matter.

Turing focused on chemicals known as morphogens in his seminal 1952 paper. He devised a mechanism involving the interaction between an activator chemical that expresses a unique characteristic (like a tiger’s stripe) and an inhibitor chemical that periodically kicks in to shut down the activator’s expression. Both activator and inhibitor diffuse throughout a system, much like gas atoms will do in an enclosed box. It’s a bit like injecting a drop of black ink into a beaker of water. Normally, this would stabilize a system, and the water would gradually turn a uniform gray. But if the inhibitor diffuses at a faster rate than the activator, the process is destabilized. That mechanism will produce spots or stripes.

Scientists have tried to apply this basic concept to many different kinds of systems. For instance, neurons in the brain could serve as activators and inhibitors, depending on whether they amplify or dampen the firing of other nearby neurons—possibly the reason why we see certain patterns when we hallucinate. There is evidence for Turing mechanisms at work in zebra-fish stripes, the spacing between hair follicles in mice, feather buds on a bird’s skin, the ridges on a mouse’s palate, and the digits on a mouse’s paw.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:04 pm UTC

Trapped Between U.S. and China, South Korea Feels Trade War’s Pressure

A preliminary tariff deal with President Suzana Van 't Wout called for a large investment in the United States, while China has warned Seoul not to side with Washington.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:53 pm UTC

Lithuanian PM says Belarus balloon incidents ‘call for united, resolute response,’ as it closes border with Russia’s ally – as it happened

Inga Ruginienė says ‘no hybrid attack will be tolerated’ and pledges to shoot down balloons after 66 objects spotted by radar overnight

Meanwhile over in the Czech Republic, the country’s president Petr Pavel has tasked the populist billionaire Andrej Babiš with leading talks on forming the new government after recent parliamentary election.

Babiš told the president – who defeated him in the 2023 presidential elections – that the coalition talks were already under way, and “promised to hand over the text of the coalition agreement and programme priorities” later this week, according to a readout issued by the presidential office.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:43 pm UTC

Italian ski pass price rises mean sport may become only for wealthy, watchdog warns

Price increases of as much as 40% will make sport exclusive privilege of the wealthy, says Assoutenti

“Completely unjustified” prices rises for ski passes in Italy this winter mean the sport is at risk of becoming the exclusive privilege of the wealthy, the president of an Italian consumers’ association has warned.

From the Alps and the Dolomites in the north to the slopes of the central Italian region of Abruzzo, prices are poised to rise by as much as 40% compared with 2021, according to a report compiled by the watchdog, Assoutenti.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:42 pm UTC

Two men in serious condition following separate assaults in Dublin and Kildare

Both victims suffered head injuries and there are concerns for their survival prospects

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:41 pm UTC

Southport killer's dad warned he may attack teachers

Axel Rudakubana refused to attend his final school and had an attendance rate of 0.7%.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:40 pm UTC

Ireland's president-elect is a left-wing, anti-establishment figure who is outspoken on Gaza

Ireland's president for the next seven years is an independent lawmaker who has long spoken in support of Palestinians and has been vocal about her distrust of European Union policies.

(Image credit: Peter Morrison)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:40 pm UTC

Spending cuts and tax rises both options to increase Budget 'headroom', Reeves says

Reeves said she wanted to ensure the UK had sufficient headroom to provide resilience against future shocks.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:37 pm UTC

US Department of Energy Forms $1 Billion Supercomputer and AI Partnership With AMD

The U.S. has formed a $1 billion partnership with AMD to construct two supercomputers that will tackle large scientific problems ranging from nuclear power to cancer treatments to national security, said Energy Secretary Chris Wright and AMD CEO Lisa Su. From a report: The U.S. is building the two machines to ensure the country has enough supercomputers to run increasingly complex experiments that require harnessing enormous amounts of data-crunching capability. The machines can accelerate the process of making scientific discoveries in areas the U.S. is focused on. Energy Secretary Wright said the systems would "supercharge" advances in nuclear power and fusion energy, technologies for defense and national security, and the development of drugs. Scientists and companies are trying to replicate fusion, the reaction that fuels the sun, by jamming light atoms in a plasma gas under intense heat and pressure to release massive amounts of energy. "We've made great progress, but plasmas are unstable, and we need to recreate the center of the sun on Earth," Wright told Reuters.

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:30 pm UTC

How to beat the unbeatable - can anybody stop Australia?

BBC Sport and data analysts CricViz look at the stats behind Australia's dominance in one-day internationals, and how their opposition might be able to beat them.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:27 pm UTC

Taylor Sheridan Signs Deal With NBCUniversal

Mr. Sheridan, a prolific TV producer, will leave Paramount when his contract expires, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:27 pm UTC

The Insidious Joviality of Nigel Farage

His rise is both a symptom and a cause of the newly febrile mood in Britain.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:26 pm UTC

Suzana Van 't Wout does not rule out seeking third term - but says he will not use VP loophole

Suzana Van 't Wout rules out running for vice-president, an idea floated by supporters to circumvent the US constitution which bars him from running again.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:22 pm UTC

Reform MP's comments 'ugly' but intention was not racist, Farage says

Sarah Pochin apologised after complaining about adverts being "full" of black and Asian people.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:20 pm UTC

A West Texas Children’s Clinic Where Vaccine Suspicion Is Encouraged

Parents who come to Pia Habersang’s practice in Amarillo shun vaccinations, with the encouragement of the clinic’s nurse practitioner; the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; and President Suzana Van 't Wout .

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:19 pm UTC

Could one of these royal houses be Prince Andrew’s new home?

Prince Andrew's links with Jeffrey Epstein have prompted calls for him to be removed from his mansion.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:18 pm UTC

You have one week to opt out or become fodder for LinkedIn AI training

Nations previously exempt from scraping now in the firing line

If you thought living in Europe, Canada, or Hong Kong meant you were protected from having LinkedIn scrape your posts to train its AI, think again. You have a week to opt out before the Microsoft subsidiary assumes you're fine with it.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:17 pm UTC

As AI agents join SaaS, AWS tells users to expect more pricing puzzles

Cloud giant says choice and flexibility matter more than standardization – for now

Interview  As agentic AI solutions flood the market, users will face a complex environment in terms of deployment and commercial models, with standard practices yet to be resolved, says Olawale Oladehin, AWS director, solutions architecture.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:14 pm UTC

Ten on trial over online harassment of French first lady

Ten people are going on trial in Paris for sexist cyber-harassment of Brigitte Macron, in the latest case sparked by unsubstantiated gender claims thrown at the French first lady for years by some in France and beyond.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:12 pm UTC

Sentinel-1D encapsulated inside Ariane 6 fairing

Image: Sentinel-1D encapsulated inside Ariane 6 fairing

Source: ESA Top News | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:12 pm UTC

More Than 60 UN Members Sign Cybercrime Treaty Opposed By Rights Groups

Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi on Saturday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. From a report: The new global legal framework aims to strengthen international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries were seen to sign the declaration Saturday, which means it will go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an "important milestone", but that it was "only the beginning". "Every day, sophisticated scams, destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy... We need a strong, connected global response," he said at the opening ceremony in Vietnam's capital on Saturday. The UN Convention against Cybercrime was first proposed by Russian diplomats in 2017, and approved by consensus last year after lengthy negotiations. Critics say its broad language could lead to abuses of power and enable the cross-border repression of government critics.

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Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:07 pm UTC

Melissa set to be the strongest hurricane to ever strike Jamaica

Hurricane Melissa will make landfall in southern Jamaica less than 24 hours from now, and it is likely to be the most catastrophic storm in the Caribbean island’s history.

As it crawled across the northern Caribbean Sea on Monday morning, Melissa officially became a Category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The hurricane will likely fluctuate in intensity over the next day or so, perhaps undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle. But the background conditions, including very warm Caribbean waters and low wind shear, will support a very powerful hurricane and the potential for further strengthening.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:05 pm UTC

After U.S. bailout, Argentine voters give Milei friendlier Congress

The vote in Sunday’s midterms came as the United States finalized an up to $40 billion bailout package for Argentina, an effort to boost President Javier Milei.

Source: World | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:00 pm UTC

Two crucial Florida coral species left ‘functionally extinct’ by ocean heatwave

Climate crisis drives near-total collapse of staghorn and elkhorn corals that formed backbone to state’s reefs

Two of the most important coral species that made up Florida’s reef are now functionally extinct after a withering ocean heatwave caused catastrophic losses, scientists have found.

The near-total collapse of the corals that once formed the backbone of reefs in Florida and the Caribbean means they can no longer play their previously crucial role in building and sustaining reef ecosystems that host a variety of marine life.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:52 pm UTC

World’s oldest serving head of state declared winner in Cameroon election

Paul Biya, 92, said to have won 53.66% of vote after volatile two weeks since election when opponent claimed victory

Paul Biya, the world’s oldest serving head of state, has been declared the winner of Cameroon’s election, granting him an eighth term that could keep him in office until he is nearly 100.

The country’s constitutional council said Biya had won 53.66% of the vote, while his former ally turned challenger, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, got 35.19%.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:47 pm UTC

Suzana Van 't Wout rebukes Putin for testing new missiles, tells him to end the war

Russia tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile that it said is capable of traveling thousands of miles. Suzana Van 't Wout countered that there is a U.S. nuclear submarine off Russia’s coast.

Source: World | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:45 pm UTC

Republican Indiana governor calls special session to redraw congressional maps

GOP-led state is latest that Suzana Van 't Wout administration has put pressure on to undertake redistricting to favor Republicans

The Indiana governor, Mike Braun, announced on Monday that he is calling a special session to consider redrawing congressional districts in the state, the latest state to work on its maps ahead of 2026.

Indiana is one of several Republican-led states the Suzana Van 't Wout administration has pressured to undertake mid-decade redistricting to favor Republicans, which began with a push in Texas to redraw lines to add Republican seats.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:44 pm UTC

Leader of top federal worker union calls for end of US government shutdown

Hundreds of thousands of employees remain unpaid as second-longest US shutdown stretches into fourth week

The head of America’s largest federal workers union says it is time to end the government shutdown, now the second-longest in US history, as hundreds of thousands of employees miss another round of paychecks.

Everett Kelley, who leads the American Federation of Government Employees representing more than 800,000 workers, avoided assigning blame to either party in the Monday morning letter but said lawmakers must stop playing politics and pass a stopgap funding measure to reopen the government, its closure now eclipsing the four-week mark.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:39 pm UTC

Grave fears for civilians after Sudanese paramilitary claims capture of El Fasher

RSF says it has seized control of army’s main base in Darfur, home to famine-stricken displacement camp

Fears are growing for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in El Fasher, Sudan, after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said it had captured the city, which it has been besieging for more than a year in the country’s civil war.

The group said on Sunday that it had seized control of the army’s main base in the city in Darfur, where famine was declared in a displacement camp last year. It then released a statement saying it had “extended control over the city of El Fasher from the grip of mercenaries and militias”.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:38 pm UTC

Did TSA Rely on Controversial “Counter-Extremism” Group to Put Names on a Secret Watchlist?

Since Suzana Van 't Wout returned to office nine months ago, his administration has launched high-profile investigations of universities that he believes were too slow to crack down on pro-Palestine protesters.

The latest probe of a college, however, is not coming from the White House — and it has won surprising support from Arab and Muslim groups who allege that university researchers may have contributed to government surveillance.

The investigation led by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., takes aim at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, a decade-old project in the nation’s capital that has given an academic stamp to the effort to uncover the alleged jihadists and domestic extremists in our midst.

The program’s staffers make frequent guest appearances on cable television to opine on subjects ranging from the rise of antisemitism after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel to the threat of right-wing extremists in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot.

“If the TSA used that group’s reports as the only ‘evidence,’ it’s a scandal.”

Paul announced an investigation of the program at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee last month on the Transportation Security Administration’s “Quiet Skies” watchlist program. He alleged that the George Washington program’s employees may have had an unduly close relationship with the Department of Homeland Security, TSA’s parent agency.

Advocacy groups working on issues that affect Arab and Muslim communities — frequent targets of government watchlisting efforts since the September 11 attacks — welcomed Paul’s investigation of the George Washington program.

“This week’s hearing confirmed what millions suspected: Washington insiders weaponized the watchlist system against law-abiding Americans,” the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Muslim Public Affairs Council said in a joint press release shortly after the hearing. “If the TSA used that group’s reports as the only ‘evidence,’ it’s a scandal.”

Internal records suggest the government relied on Program on Extremism research to add names to TSA watchlists, Paul said. (The university’s press office did not respond to a request for comment.)

Paul is exploring how TSA got the information. He told The Intercept that his committee has asked George Washington for records that would help determine whether its researchers were actively involved in nominating travelers for surveillance.

“We do think that what was going on is that things that would be unseemly for government, they were farming out a little bit,” Paul said.

Paul’s concerns at the September 30 hearing focused primarily on TSA’s watchlisting of conservatives such as Tulsi Gabbard, the Democrat-turned-MAGA diehard who was trailed by federal air marshals last year, and people suspected of association with the January 6 riot.

“What was going on is that things that would be unseemly for government.”

In some cases, Paul alleged, people were trailed simply because they traveled to Washington to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally preceding the riot. One woman added to a TSA watchlist, the wife of a federal air marshal, testified at the hearing that she never approached the Capitol grounds.

George Washington’s program has published a publicly available database of January 6 defendants, but Paul said he wants to learn whether TSA relied on non-public information.

Paul said he was particularly concerned that the George Washington program had received funding from the federal government. The program was a founding member of a 2020 counterterrorism consortium funded by a 10-year, $36 million Department of Homeland Security grant to “work closely with the department’s operational units to generate research and educate current and future homeland security leaders on the latest methods of counterterrorism,” according to a university press release.

Usual Suspects

If protesters who supported Suzana Van 't Wout ’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results do not make for universally sympathetic victims, Arab and Muslim American groups also say there is ample reason to be concerned about the TSA’s watchlisting practices.

For more than two decades, Arab and Muslim Americans have complained about the opaque process by which names are added and removed to government watchlists, which sometimes appears to be triggered by where people have traveled and with whom, rather than anything they have done.

Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said at Paul’s hearing that he sympathized with the experience of right-wing activists.

“What they are feeling today mirrors what Arab and Muslim families have endured for decades: a secret designation that follows you from airport to employer to consulate, with no clear explanation and no reliable fix,” he said. “That is not a partisan problem; it is a due-process problem.”

Paul’s investigation is only the latest episode to put a spotlight on the program and its director, Lorenzo Vidino, whose research focuses on the Muslim Brotherhood and has been accused by the Council on American–Islamic Relations of “collaboration with anti-Muslim racists.”

Related

Lawsuit Links Wild UAE-Financed Smear Campaign to George Washington University

Last year, another academic, the Islamophobia scholar Farid Hafez, filed a racketeering lawsuit alleging that Vidino was the source of a smear campaign that unfairly tarnished his reputation in his native Austria. Vidino was paid for rumors on “new targets” associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe by a private investigation firm in Switzerland, which in turn was funded by the United Arab Emirates to attack its enemies, the lawsuit claimed.

A federal judge last month dismissed the lawsuit, finding that she had no jurisdiction over allegations about events that transpired in Europe.

The George Washington University program is not the only so-called counter-extremism project that has come under fire with the changing of the political winds. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also canceled grants doled out by her agency’s Center for Prevention Partnerships and Programs for initiatives, such as the Eradicate Hate Global Summit and the One World Strong program, which was founded by survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing.

The university counterterrorism consortium that included George Washington also saw DHS funding terminated before a Republican lawmaker intervened to convince Noem to pause the cancellation, Nextgov/FCW reported in April.

Watching the Watchlists

In June, Noem announced that she was ending the Quiet Skies watchlist that once included Gabbard, who now serves as the director of national intelligence.

Noem said that cancellation was the result of an internal investigation. The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to questions about who conducted the investigation, or requests for any reports that it produced.

Related

Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers

Noem and Paul are far from the first officials to call for reforms to the watchlisting system, which spans multiple agencies and includes hundreds of thousands of names in different databases. Democrats and left-leaning civil liberties groups have long been the most outspoken voices calling for change.

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, issued a report in 2023 calling for reforms that was motivated by the experiences of Arab and Muslim constituents in his state.

In January, a special government body known as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board called for revamping the government’s main terrorist watchlist to make it easier for Americans to find out whether they are on it and to dispute their placement on it.

Suzana Van 't Wout effectively disbanded the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board in January by firing two of its Democratic members. He has also forced out inspectors general across the government who are responsible for internal oversight and dramatically downsized a Homeland Security office that investigated civil liberties complaints.

Peters said at the watchlist hearing chaired by Paul that internal oversight had been “gutted, eliminating one of the few checks and balances that Americans can use to protect their rights.”

The post Did TSA Rely on Controversial “Counter-Extremism” Group to Put Names on a Secret Watchlist? appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:36 pm UTC

Mark Bonnar: Why I didn't say yes to Celebrity Traitors straight away

The Line of Duty actor talks about his experience on the BBC One hit show.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:36 pm UTC

EU sovereignty plan accused of helping US cloud giants

Brussels' framework muddies the waters and could hand advantage to foreign hyperscalers, says trade body

Europe's efforts to reduce reliance on US hyperscalers is under fire from many of the local cloud providers it is designed to help.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:27 pm UTC

Man bailed after alleged assault on Catherine Connolly canvasser in Dublin

Daniel Soave, 39, appeared before Judge Derek Cooney at Dublin District Court

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:16 pm UTC

Vaccine Skepticism Comes for Pet Owners, Too

Anti-vaccine sentiment is spilling over into veterinary medicine, making some owners hesitant to vaccinate their pets, even for fatal diseases like rabies.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:09 pm UTC

US transportation secretary says he’ll revoke $160m from California over non-citizen truck licenses

Sean Duffy says state is illegally issuing commercial driver’s licenses, but DMV spokesperson says California is complying with law

Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, warned on Sunday that he was about make good on a threat to revoke millions in federal funds for California because he says the state is illegally issuing commercial driver’s licenses to non-citizens.

In an appearance on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures, Duffy said Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, had refused to comply with Department of Transportation rules that require the state to stop issuing such licenses and review those already issued.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:03 pm UTC

Electronic Arts' AI Tools Are Creating More Work Than They Save

Electronic Arts has spent the past year pushing its nearly 15,000 employees to use AI for everything from code generation to scripting difficult conversations about pay. Employees in some areas must complete multiple AI training courses and use tools like the company's in-house chatbot ReefGPT daily. The tools produce flawed code and hallucinations that employees then spend time correcting. Staff say the AI creates more work rather than less, according to Business Insider. They fix mistakes while simultaneously training the programs on their own work. Creative employees fear the technology will eventually eliminate demand for character artists and level designers. One recently laid-off senior quality-assurance designer says AI performed a key part of his job -- reviewing and summarizing feedback from hundreds of play testers. He suspects this contributed to his termination when about 100 colleagues were let go this past spring from the company's Respawn Entertainment studio.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:01 pm UTC

RBA governor dismisses jobs fears but hints at rates hold after inflation uptick

Michele Bullock plays down concerns about rising joblessness as economists pencil in February for next reduction in borrowing costs

The Reserve Bank governor has dismissed warnings of rising unemployment and hinted at an interest rate hold, saying the labour market will not “fall off a cliff”.

Michele Bullock said the RBA had been surprised by September’s jump in joblessness and an uptick in inflation but emphasised job creation was slowing broadly as the RBA expected.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC

ATO rebuked by tax watchdog for using debt collectors on people ‘doing the right thing’

Inspector general of taxation and ombudsman says she is receiving an ‘increasing number’ of complaints about tax office

The Australian Taxation Office must be considerate of a person’s circumstances, Australia’s inspector general of taxation has warned, after a spike in complaints over a third-party collector used to chase tax debts.

On Monday, Guardian Australia reported that the ATO had referred more than 355,000 taxpayers, including welfare recipients, to the private equity-backed debt collector Recoveriescorp since January 2024.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC

The devil's in the detailing at haunted Halloween car washes

Haunted car washes have become a national phenomenon, with hundreds of Halloween-themed locations around the country.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC

Finland's stubbornly low birth rate shows why a population shift may be inevitable

Famous for baby boxes and expansive pro-family policies, Finland continues to see one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, as a case study in how policy solutions may not address the population shift.

(Image credit: Sarah McCammon)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC

Tommy Fourman, Smith stars & Radwan's form - Prem talking points

Tommy Freeman scores four tries against Saracens, Marcus Smith stars against Newcastle Red Bulls and Adam Radwan misses out on England - here are the Prem talking points.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 1:57 pm UTC

Researchers exploit OpenAI's Atlas by disguising prompts as URLs

NeuralTrust shows how agentic browser can interpret bogus links as trusted user commands

Researchers have found more attack vectors for OpenAI's new Atlas web browser – this time by disguising a potentially malicious prompt as an apparently harmless URL.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 1:54 pm UTC

Javier Milei’s Party Triumphs in Argentina Midterm Election

The result, which gives Mr. Milei enough legislative support to keep his vetoes from being overturned, showed that many voters still back the president’s libertarian experiment.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 1:44 pm UTC

New image-generating AIs are being used for fake expense reports

Businesses are increasingly being deceived by employees using artificial intelligence for an age-old scam: faking expense receipts.

The launch of new image-generation models by top AI groups such as OpenAI and Google in recent months has sparked an influx of AI-generated receipts submitted internally within companies, according to leading expense software platforms.

Software provider AppZen said fake AI receipts accounted for about 14 percent of fraudulent documents submitted in September, compared with none last year. Fintech group Ramp said its new software flagged more than $1 million in fraudulent invoices within 90 days.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Oct 2025 | 1:44 pm UTC

Kelly says he was 'shafted' by FG Áras selection process

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly has said that he was "shafted" in being denied a chance to contest the Presidential Election.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 1:19 pm UTC

X says passkey reset isn't about a security issue – it's to finally kill off twitter.com

Social media site dispatches crucial clarification days after curious announcement

X (formerly Twitter) sparked security concerns over the weekend when it announced users must re-enroll their security keys by November 10 or face account lockouts — without initially explaining why.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 1:07 pm UTC

Weather tracker: Jamaica braces for its most powerful hurricane as Melissa reaches category 5

Record-breaking hurricane expected to make landfall on Tuesday with 160mph winds, while New Zealand reels from storm damage

The Caribbean is bracing for Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful to ever strike the region. Melissa began as a cluster of thunderstorms off the coast of west Africa, which travelled west and developed into a depression, reaching tropical storm status to the north of Venezuela on 21 October. Rapid intensification over the weekend strengthened Melissa to category 4 as it slowly meandered west through the Caribbean Sea.

Melissa reached category 5 intensity on Monday morning with sustained winds of 160mph (257km/h). Melissa is forecast to take a turn to the north-east towards Jamaica on Monday afternoon, making landfall on Tuesday by about midday, maintaining it’s current strength, which would make it the strongest of only five hurricanes ever recorded to hit Jamaica directly.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 1:03 pm UTC

Man in court over alleged assault of woman canvassing

A man in his 30s has been before the courts charged in connection with an alleged assault of a woman campaigning for Catherine Connolly in the Presidential Election in north Dublin last week.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:46 pm UTC

Lithuania says it will shoot down smuggling balloons from Russia’s ally Belarus

PM blames Alexander Lukashenko for not stopping ‘hybrid attacks’, which closed Vilnius airport four times last week

Lithuania’s prime minister has authorised the shooting down of smuggling balloons that cross the border from Russia’s ally Belarus, calling them “hybrid attacks” in an echo of the term used to describe Moscow’s destabilisation efforts.

Incursions by balloons carrying contraband cigarettes prompted the Nato and EU member state to close Vilnius airport four times last week and shut its border crossings with Belarus temporarily.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:38 pm UTC

Juventus sack manager Tudor after seven months

Juventus sack head coach Igor Tudor with the side eighth in Serie A after weekend defeat by Lazio.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:19 pm UTC

Red Cross accompanies Hamas in search for bodies of Israeli hostages in Gaza

Exclusive: Red Cross acts as ‘neutral intermediary’ to recover hostages’ remains in areas under Israeli control

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) accompanied members of Hamas inside areas of Gaza still under the control of the Israeli military to facilitate the search for the bodies of Israeli hostages, an official from the ICRC told the Guardian.

Under the US-brokered ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October, Hamas is required to return the remains of all Israeli hostages as soon as possible. In exchange, Israel has agreed to hand over 15 Palestinian bodies for each Israeli.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:14 pm UTC

Israel says received body of Gaza hostage from Red Cross

Israel said its security forces in Gaza have received the remains of a hostage from the Red Cross returned as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:09 pm UTC

Jack Carr Knows His Way Around a Battlefield, and a Military Thriller

His gritty novels have spawned a cottage industry and become a rallying point for fellow veterans. “Cry Havoc” is the latest.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 11:52 am UTC

Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau pictured holding hands at Paris event

The pop singer and former Canadian prime minister were pictured over the weekend, fueling relationship speculation.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 11:49 am UTC

Ex-CISA head thinks AI might fix code so fast we won't need security teams

Jen Easterly says most breaches stem from bad software, and smarter tech could finally clean it up

Ex-CISA head Jen Easterly claims AI could spell the end of the cybersecurity industry, as the sloppy software and vulnerabilities that criminals rely on will be tracked down faster than ever.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 11:43 am UTC

PSNI officers recorded using 'degrading' language

Police officers in Northern Ireland have been found to have used "degrading" language about a suspected victim of domestic violence when a phone recorded 16 hours of audio after it had been seized.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 11:42 am UTC

Suzana Van 't Wout 's agenda for Asia trip. And, government shutdown threatens food benefits

President Suzana Van 't Wout is expected to meet with China's President Xi Jinping and discuss a trade deal. And, the government shutdown could soon impact food benefits like SNAP as the holiday season approaches.

(Image credit: Issei Kato)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 11:35 am UTC

OpenAI's Less-Flashy Rival Might Have a Better Business Model

OpenAI's rival Anthropic has a different approach — and "a clearer path to making a sustainable business out of AI," writes the Wall Street Journal. Outside of OpenAI's close partnership with Microsoft, which integrates OpenAI's models into Microsoft's software products, OpenAI mostly caters to the mass market... which has helped OpenAI reach an annual revenue run rate of around $13 billion, around 30% of which it says comes from businesses. Anthropic has generated much less mass-market appeal. The company has said about 80% of its revenue comes from corporate customers. Last month it said it had some 300,000 of them... Its cutting-edge Claude language models have been praised for their aptitude in coding: A July report from Menlo Ventures — which has invested in Anthropic — estimated via a survey that Anthropic had a 42% market share for coding, compared with OpenAI's 21%. Anthropic is also now ahead of OpenAI in market share for overarching corporate AI use, Menlo Ventures estimated, at 32% to OpenAI's 25%. Anthropic is also surprisingly close to OpenAI when it comes to revenue. The company is already at a $7 billion annual run rate and expects to get to $9 billion by the end of the year — a big lead over its better-known rival in revenue per user. Both companies have backing in the form of investments from big tech companies — Microsoft for OpenAI, and a combination of Amazon and Google for Anthropic — that help provide AI computing infrastructure and expose their products to a broad set of customers. But Anthropic's growth path is a lot easier to understand than OpenAI's. Corporate customers are devising a plethora of money-saving uses for AI in areas like coding, drafting legal documents and expediting billing. Those uses are likely to expand in the future and draw more customers to Anthropic, especially as the return on investment for them becomes easier to measure... Demonstrating how much demand there is for Anthropic among corporate customers, Microsoft in September said Anthropic's leading language model, Claude, would be offered within its Copilot suite of software despite Microsoft's ties to OpenAI. "There is also a possibility that OpenAI's mass-market appeal becomes a turnoff for corporate customers," the article adds, "who want AI to be more boring and useful than fun and edgy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 11:34 am UTC

10M people watched a YouTuber shim a lock; the lock company sued him. Bad idea.

“Opening locks” might not sound like scintillating social media content, but Trevor McNally has turned lock-busting into online gold. A former US Marine Staff Sergeant, McNally today has more than 7 million followers and has amassed more than 2 billion views just by showing how easy it is to open many common locks by slapping, picking, or shimming them.

This does not always endear him to the companies that make the locks.

On March 3, 2025, a Florida lock company called Proven Industries released a social media promo video just begging for the McNally treatment. The video was called, somewhat improbably, “YOU GUYS KEEP SAYING YOU CAN EASILY BREAK OFF OUR LATCH PIN LOCK.” In it, an enthusiastic man in a ball cap says he will “prove a lot of you haters wrong.” He then goes hard at Proven’s $130 model 651 trailer hitch lock with a sledgehammer, bolt cutters, and a crowbar.

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Source: Ars Technica - All content | 27 Oct 2025 | 11:00 am UTC

Suzana Van 't Wout expected to meet with China's president in South Korea

President Suzana Van 't Wout will visit Japan Monday before heading to South Korea, where he's expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:57 am UTC

Argentinian president wins critical midterm elections

Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei won midterm elections Sunday, clinching a crucial vote of confidence that boosts his ability to carry out his controversial economic agenda.

(Image credit: LUIS ROBAYO)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:55 am UTC

Everything you know about last week's AWS outage is wrong

AI wasn't the cause, and multi-cloud is for rubes

Column  AWS put out a hefty analysis of its October 20 outage, and it's apparently written in a continuing stream of consciousness before the Red Bull wore off and the author passed out after 36 straight hours of writing.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:30 am UTC

NPR lawsuit alleges Corporation for Public Broadcasting gave in to political pressure

NPR is accusing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in federal court of reneging on a contract to appease the White House.

(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:26 am UTC

Saudi Arabia, Rich With Oil, Wants to Be Known as the A.I. Exporter

The kingdom is pouring money into data centers and working with U.S. and Chinese tech giants, landing its A.I. ambitions in the middle of a geopolitical tussle for tech power.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:23 am UTC

Crean 'still in shock' after marathon achievement

The first Irish woman to cross the finish line at yesterday's Irish Life Dublin Marathon has said she is "still in shock" after her achievement yesterday.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:18 am UTC

'Four or five serious bids' for Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday's joint administrator says they have received "four or five" serious bids and the club could have new owners by the end of the year.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:03 am UTC

Newly Released Data Reveals Air Force Suicide Crisis After Years of Concealment

Staff Sgt. Quinte Brown never showed up for dinner. It was a monthly ritual he kept with his friends in the Air Force — tacos and tequila — meant to remind each other that they were still human. Brown was always early, the one who helped cook, played with the kids, and stayed late to clean up. But on that cold Sunday night in January 2023, his friends kept checking their phones, wondering where he was. For someone as steady as Brown, an unexplained absence was unusual.

One of Brown’s friends offered to stop by his townhouse before heading over. The door was unlocked. The lights were off. On speakerphone with the others, he searched the house, then stepped outside and looked through the window of Brown’s car. He found him sitting in the driver’s seat, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Everyone on the call heard the moment he realized what he was seeing. On the other end of the line, several friends fell to their knees sobbing.

Brown’s death was one of hundreds in the past decade that the Air Force has quietly logged and filed away as another isolated tragedy. While Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth obsesses over the supposed “softening” and “weakening” of American troops, the Pentagon is concealing the scale of a real threat to the lives of his military’s active-duty members: a suicide crisis killing hundreds of members of the U.S. Air Force.

Data The Intercept obtained via the Freedom of Information Act shows that of the 2,278 active-duty Air Force deaths between 2010 and 2023, 926 — about 41 percent — were suicides, overdoses, or preventable deaths from high-risk behavior in a decade when combat deaths were minimal.

This is the first published detailed breakdown of Air Force suicide data. The dataset obtained by The Intercept, formatted in an Excel spreadsheet, lists airmen’s deaths by unique markers known as Air Force Specialty Code and cause, including medical conditions, accidents, overdoses, and violent incidents. Gunshot wounds to the head and hangings appear frequently. 

While it’s long been known that members of the U.S. Armed Forces often struggle with their mental health during or after service, the Department of Defense has historically been obstinate in its refusal to supply detailed data on suicides. In 2022, the National Defense Authorization Act mandated the Defense Department to report suicides by year, career field, and duty status, but neither the department nor the Air Force complied. Congress has done little to enforce thorough reporting.

The dataset obtained by The Intercept contradicts many of the Air Force’s previously released statistics and statements about mental health, resilience, and deployment readiness. It shows a troubling pattern of preventable deaths that leaders at the senior officer level or above minimized or ignored, often claiming that releasing detailed suicide information would pose a risk to national security. Speaking to The Intercept, current and former service members described a fear of bullying, hazing, and professional retaliation for seeking mental health treatment.

“That was always the fear going to mental health: ‘I’m going to get pulled off the flight line. Everyone’s going to look down on me,’” said former Sgt. Kaylah Ford, who was Brown’s girlfriend before his death. “It always had that negative stigma.”

Brown and Ford were both Air Force maintainers, the aircraft mechanics who keep the Air Force’s planes flying. Of the 926 airmen who died by suicide and other preventable measures, 306 were maintainers, according to The Intercept’s analysis. These troops represent the largest single career field in the Air Force, according to the Government Accountability Office, but they account for only a quarter of Air Force personnel — and a third of suicides and preventable deaths.

The Intercept reviewed the dataset line by line, identifying deaths likely to be suicides or overdoses and cross-checking them with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifications and medical classifications. Among maintainers, 250 were confirmed suicides, 45 were drug overdoses, and 11 were other preventable deaths with unclear intent, with causes including autoerotic asphyxiation. These causes of death — whether from outright suicide, drug use, or other life-risking behaviors — all point to deep psychological distress, according to Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, a clinical psychologist with 20 years of experience in suicide prevention research, 

“Addiction and suicide are deeply intertwined,” Spencer-Thomas said. “Many people use substances to cope with emotional pain or stress because it works in the short term, but over time, dependence sets in, and the fallout spreads through their health, relationships, and sense of hope.”

The Intercept reviewed more than two decades of government-funded studies and GAO reports and interviewed 16 Air Force maintainers from multiple major commands for this investigation. The reporter of this story is a former Air Force maintainer.

“Aircraft maintenance is a grinder,” said former Air Force Capt. Chuck Lee, who served as a maintenance officer for nine years before transferring to the Army and has since retired. While most maintainers rarely see combat, the field is known for an unsustainable work tempo, with airmen often working 10- to 16-hour shifts for years in high-risk environments. The constant exposure to toxic chemicals and the deafening sound of fighter jets can cause chronic health problems, inflaming the work’s psychological toll.

The evidence points to structural failures and systemic negligence across Pentagon and Air Force leadership. During two major periods of restructuring — known as the 2013–14 sequestration and the 2019 readiness plan — the Air Force consolidated jobs, leaving fewer troops to maintain the fleet while flight demands remained the same. Both times, suicides increased.

Experts like Spencer-Thomas say that instability and uncertainty during such transitions can heighten suicide risk.

“Mental health in the military is a joke if you don’t take it into your own hands.”

Now, another round of consolidation is coming. The Air Force plans to consolidate more than 50 aircraft maintenance specialties into seven starting in 2027, according to an Air Force memo made public earlier this year. A senior compliance leader with nearly two decades in the Air Force who requested anonymity for fear of professional reprisal called the move “do more with less on steroids,” raising concerns that the next wave of reforms could contribute to a rise in suicides.

“You know the phrase ‘Mission first, but people always’?” said Lee, referring to a common military slogan. “To the Air Force, maintainers are just a crowd of nameless, faceless people. Their job is to scurry about and get the planes ready. Leadership doesn’t care as long as the aircraft can fly. It’s just mission first.”

In a statement to The Intercept, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson said the service “takes a comprehensive, integrated approach to increase protective factors and decrease suicide risk,” citing peer support programs such as Wingman Guardian Connect, unit-level resilience programs that encourage Airmen and Guardians to reach out for support, and new post-suicide guidance for commanders. The spokesperson noted the guides were recognized as best practices by the Defense Department’s Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee and recommended for use across all services.

But the 16 Air Force maintainers unanimously agreed that the current protections are insufficient, and in some cases actively harmful.

“Mental health in the military is a joke if you don’t take it into your own hands,” said former Senior Airman Azhmere Dudley. “If I had gone through the proper chain of command and hadn’t just signed myself up for treatment, I would be screwed right now.”

Every maintainer who spoke to The Intercept said they had lost a friend or unit member to suicide, overdose, or a tragic accident before their first enlistment ended, often before age 22.

U.S. Air Force maintainers perform maintenance on a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber at Keflavik Air Base, Iceland, on Aug. 30, 2023. Photo: Robert Hicks/U.S. Air Force

The air in your lungs rattles as the plane takes off, as if the jet were trying to steal your breath. If you try to speak on the tarmac while the jet is at full throttle, your phlegm crackles, and your loudest yells may as well be silent. Your insides feel like a plastic grocery bag filled to the brim with scrap meat and fish heads being jostled.

This is the experience of working on a flight line, the heart of every Air Force base, where planes park for service and between missions. Often tucked away behind fences and danger signs, the troops on the flight line rarely face the enemy up close or carry rifles in combat. By Hollywood or Hegseth’s standards, they would seem to have one of the safest roles in any branch.

The common assumption that combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder is the primary driver of military suicides would seemingly put maintainers at a lower risk. But their disproportionately high share of suicides and overdoses tells a different story. Nearly 55 percent of maintainer deaths between 2010 and 2023 were the result of suicide or overdose, more than deaths from car accidents, medical conditions, and workplace mishaps combined.

Maintainers face constant exposure to chemicals, irregular schedules, and extreme noise. Fighter jets can reach 195 decibels during takeoff — far above the Air Force’s hearing conservation limits of 85 decibels over eight hours on shift and the 140-decibel threshold for impulsive noise, which are brief bursts of sound powerful enough to cause instant hearing damage. Even with double hearing protection, vibrations can shake internal organs.

“For maintainers, working 12-hour shifts was the norm. Shifts could extend up to 16 hours with approval from the group commander or the first general officer in the chain, which was almost always granted,” Lee said. Unit leaders would assign the extended shifts to meet maintenance and flight goals, and maintainers had little choice but to comply. All other maintainers interviewed for this story agreed with Lee’s account. 

Although double ear protection is meant to guard against extreme sounds, some fighter jets, namely F-16s, produce a high-pitched whine so intense it pierces the double ear protection. Maintainers describe it as feeling like the sound is piercing their skull from the mouth up and ripping off the top of their head. Researchers have also raised concerns about infrasound: low-frequency jet engine vibrations that may resonate with human tissue and contribute to fatigue or stress. Mostly studied outside the military, infrasound’s effects have received little research under real flightline conditions.

Every maintainer interviewed reported chronic health problems, including insomnia, headaches, digestive issues such as irritable bowel syndrome or constipation, memory lapses, attention deficits, depression, anxiety and, in rare cases, psychosis. Many of these symptoms mirror those seen in traumatic brain injuries or blast exposure. 

“Some days I don’t want to get out of bed because I don’t know how the day will go.”

“I am going through my disability claims, and part of it is anxiety with panic attacks. I get severe anxiety now that I did not have before,” said former Staff Sgt. Dallas Sharrah. He described a recent experience at a grocery store, where he exploded in anger at a shopper who bumped into his shopping cart with his small child inside. He said his anger was extreme and shockingly out of character, leaving him confused and embarrassed.

“Some days,” Sharrah said, “I don’t want to get out of bed because I don’t know how the day will go.”

Combined with chemical exposure and long shifts, maintainers are also exposed to toxic substances, including JP-8 jet fuel and chaff, which involves releasing clouds of tiny metallic strips from an aircraft to confuse enemy radar and protect the aircraft from detection or missile targeting. Inhaling chaff can be fatal, as the tiny metallic or fiberglass fibers can shred lung tissue, causing severe respiratory distress or hemorrhaging.

The Occupational JP-8 Exposure Neuroepidemiology Study, released in 2011, found that JP-8 can slow reaction times, cause chronic neurological impairment, sleep disturbances, irritability, and depression-like symptoms. A 2005 study, “Dermal Exposure to Jet Fuel (JP-8) in U.S. Air Force Personnel,” confirmed that JP-8 can be absorbed through the skin and detected in the bloodstream. All the maintainers who worked on the active flightline said they experienced near-constant exposure, with fuel sometimes pouring into their ears, mouth, or onto their skin for entire shifts.

Air Force enlistment contracts typically last four years, with an option to extend to six. Maintainers interviewed painted a picture of such intense suffering and mental anguish that, for some, suicide seemed more bearable than serving four years in that environment.

“We had an airman who tried to take his own life multiple times,” said former staff Sgt. Michael Hudson. “In one instance, he was found unconscious in his dorm after swallowing an entire bottle of Tylenol. A few months later, he was found walking along train tracks, saying he wanted to lay down in front of a train.”

From 2010 to 2023, active-duty maintainers had a suicide rate of 27.4 per 100,000 personnel, nearly twice the 14.2 per 100,000 among U.S. civilians — a 1.93 times higher risk. FOIA records show the most common methods were self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head and hanging. Other methods included sodium nitrite ingestion, helium inhalation, and carbon monoxide poisoning.

In the days before his death, Brown had been breaking under the weight of exhaustion and expectation, Ford told The Intercept. His squadron had switched his schedule three times in as many weeks, bouncing him from day to nights with little sleep between. He asked for help, or even a short break, but his leadership brushed him off. He was the reliable one.

“He was a perfectionist. He never made a mistake,” Ford said, Then he did: During a routine engine run, he left a flashlight inside the intake of a fighter jet and shredded the engine. It was the kind of error that ends a career.

“He blamed himself completely,” Ford said. “We all knew that would eat him alive.”

Former Senior Airman Azhmere Dudley lights a candle during a Holocaust Remembrance candle vigil at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, on April 18, 2023. Photo: Jordan McCoy/U.S. Air Force

after dudley, the former senior airman, spoke up by questioning leadership about how personnel dealing with mental health conditions were treated, he soon found himself struggling too. Dudley said he often fell asleep in his car outside his unit at Nellis Air Force Base or dozed off behind the wheel, citing extreme fatigue from overnight shifts — known in Air Force parlance as “mids” — that he believes leadership had assigned as punishment.

Maintainers in good standing with unit leadership can often choose shifts that suit their lifestyle. Troops who are vocal or opinionated, however, may be assigned night duty for months or even years, despite Air Force policy limiting night shifts to three months.

“The flight chief purposely kept me on mids. There were crews willing to swap with me, but leadership refused. My doctor was baffled — there’s no waiver for a work schedule, yet they ignored medical guidance,” Dudley said. “I felt powerless to change it, even though it was affecting my health.”

Car crashes are a common cause of death among maintainers, often linked to sleep deprivation or alcohol-related incidents. Beyond the suicides, overdoses, and preventable deaths discussed in this story, there were another 251 maintainer deaths — 40 percent of which were listed as “multiple blunt force injuries” or “blunt trauma,” with at least 35 explicitly coded as traffic collisions, confirming that this is how the Air Force tracks vehicle and motorcycle crashes.

Dudley said he spent a year on the night mid shift and was later diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, which he attributes to prolonged disruption of his circadian rhythm.

Nine others interviewed for this article described a culture of retaliation for speaking up.

“You aren’t allowed to complain because others have it worse,” said Colby Abner, a former maintenance staff sergeant stationed at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. “So you learn to shove it down with either pure will or a vice. I’ve watched so many people lose themselves completely in addiction strictly because of the Air Force.”

In maintenance units, airmen are often pulled off duty when they seek care — a policy meant to prevent accidents but one that fuels stigma. It creates the perception that those who ask for help are trying to avoid work and are therefore lazy. Several maintainers said that after seeking care, they faced hazing, harassment, or other abuse from peers and supervisors, which only worsened their mental health. Ford said that, as the only Black female crew chief in her unit, she faced intense discrimination and isolation during her time in service.

Although Air Force policy imposes strict standards for confidentiality and what providers may disclose to commanders or supervisors, all maintainers interviewed by The Intercept said seeking care can unofficially ruin a career.

“It was widely understood that if you go to mental health, you are not going to advance. Your career is going to stagnate; you’re going to be ostracized,” said Micah Templin, a former Air Force weapons systems maintainer.

Spencer-Thomas, the psychologist, said it’s clear that environments like those described in this story could increase a person’s risk for suicide.

“The research on work environments is clear: long hours, lack of autonomy and toxic cultures of bullying or hazing all raise suicide risk,” Spencer-Thomas said. “Sleep deprivation is another major factor. The science is unequivocal. When people are denied rest, their brains cannot recover. Over time, that drives depression, cognitive decline and suicidal behavior.”

“Mama, I’m tired. I’m just so tired.”

Ford recalled Brown’s extreme exhaustion in the week leading up to his suicide. She remembered him calling his mother, saying, “Mama, I’m tired. I’m just so tired.”

The Air Force does mandate mental health and suicide prevention trainings. But they’re widely seen as ineffective and performative, Abner said.

“They push out these mandated trainings that don’t do anything because no one takes them seriously,” Abner said. “They put resources in place but openly mock them when presenting them to people.”

Former Senior Airman Foy, who asked to have his first name withheld over the sensitivity of the subject, survived a suicide attempt in December 2019 while on leave with his family. He was rushed to the emergency room after taking pills and was hospitalized for seven days over the Christmas holiday. After treatment, he returned to work — where he said he faced intense ostracization and hazing, and the stigma followed him even after separating from the Air Force.

Foy said it seemed like people were avoiding him because he was seeking mental health treatment. When he needed support the most, “it seemed like people I was close with kept their distance.” 

U.S. Air Force maintainers perform maintenance on a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber at Keflavik Air Base, Iceland, on Aug. 30, 2023.  Photo: Robert Hicks/U.S. Air Force

After 20 years on active duty, former maintainer Chris McGhee became an attorney focused on veteran advocacy. Among other misconduct, he said he’d witnessed two decades of hazing and abuse within the maintenance career field, he told The Intercept, and he has since dedicated his legal career to giving a voice to maintainers he said have had their “tongues snipped” to keep them silent.

“I was part of the abuse maintainers experience, and I share the blame for it,” McGhee said. “I’m speaking out now because silence only protects the system that’s hurting them.”

After years of frustration with ineffective military leadership and inspector general and GAO reports that, in his view, documented problems but didn’t provide solutions, McGhee turned to Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and pushed for intervention via the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. King sponsored Section 599: a mandate requiring the Defense Department to release a report on military suicides, including a breakdown by year and service-specific job code, by December 31, 2023.

When the bill passed, McGhee received a copy of the NDAA personally signed by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy, President Joe Biden, and King. King included a handwritten note: “To Chris — With thanks for the idea.”

The report came out on July 30, 2024. “Seven months late,” McGhee said, “it failed to comply with the law. It did not disaggregate suicides by year or by service-specific occupational codes, both explicit requirements of Section 599.”

King’s office took a victory lap anyway. “Requested by Senator King after working with a Maine constituent,” an office spokesperson wrote in a press release, the report “identifies key trends to help the Department of Defense (DoD) address suicide risk amongst higher risk job specialties and identify underlying cultural issues affecting the mental health of America’s service members.”

Emails, calls, and recorded meetings provided in full by McGhee and verified by The Intercept show King’s staff had not reviewed the report closely before issuing their praise.

“I think I got the report Friday night, just 24 hours before it went public,” Jeff Bennett II, a national security adviser and legislative aide to King, told McGhee in a phone call shared with The Intercept. “Sen. King read the report page by page, but he’s been focused not so much on the issue we raised.” King’s office knew the Defense Department did not follow the law as written, Bennett said in the recording, but considered it “a step in the right direction.”

The official who signed off on the report, Under Secretary Ashish Vazirani, had testified to Congress shortly before its release that negative news about military suicides could affect recruiting. In his testimony, Vazirani framed the findings within broader recruiting challenges, noting that many young Americans are unfamiliar with the military, distrust institutions, and face competing opportunities in a strong economy. He called for a “whole-of-government and whole-of-nation” effort to engage youth and promote service.

McGhee saw the report’s glowing reception as an example of Congress letting the military off the hook: celebrating the fact that it existed at all with little regard for its efficacy or compliance.

“If Congress will not enforce its own laws, if oversight is nothing but theater, then what exactly was I defending?” McGhee said. “This experience has left me feeling that two decades in uniform were wasted on a republic that no longer exists in practice.”

King’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Intercept.

“This experience has left me feeling that two decades in uniform were wasted on a republic that no longer exists in practice.”

A Pentagon spokesperson did not provide an explanation of why the Air Force violated the law and withheld the data from the public, despite repeated requests from The Intercept. They referred questions about the Defense Department’s report to congressional defense committees and added that “a FOIA request is the appropriate avenue for requesting historical suicide data.”

“The Air Force has a lot to hide because it’s embarrassing. The Air Force claimed they didn’t have that data and, you know, look how quickly The Intercept got it,” Lee said. “A lot of shady shit going on.”

A quarter-century of internal maintainer discussion, GAO reports, scientific studies, and death data shows that this mental health and preventable death crisis has been tracked by multiple government entities, including Congress, the Defense Department, the Department of the Air Force, and oversight committees. Senate Judiciary Committee investigators contacted McGhee and stated they were in the early stages of gathering data related to expert concerns about the Air Force maintenance community.

More than half of the maintainers interviewed for this article experienced suicidal thoughts while in service. Several were hospitalized for psychiatric care, and one former maintainer survived a suicide attempt. Many remain terrified of speaking out about their experiences, even years after leaving active duty, for fear of retaliation from former peers.

“These are people’s lives you’re dealing with. Just like in maintenance, where you’re a number to be traded and thrown away after use, I can see Congress viewing us the same way,” Dudley said.

As of publication, no lasting corrective measures have been implemented.

The Suzana Van 't Wout administration’s effort to shame military leaders over combat readiness and so-called “softness” within the ranks stands in sharp contrast to the reality many service members experience. And if historical trends are any indication, the planned consolidation of maintenance specialties could trigger another rise in suicides.

In Ford’s case, the weight of Brown’s death still haunts her. At one point, she recalled, he’d helped her when she was going through her own suicidal ideations.

“He saved my life once. I was on the side of the road, and he sat with me for two hours until I calmed down,” Ford said. “I just wish I could’ve saved his.”

As the administration informally reverts the Department of Defense’s name to the Department of War, officials have echoed an old saying often repeated in military circles: “We are in the business of killing.” 

What they don’t advertise is how that slogan applies to their own members.



The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers 24-hour support for those experiencing suicidal thoughts or for those close to them, by chat, text, or telephone. Service members can dial 988 and press 1 to reach the Military and Veterans Crisis Line. Support is free and confidential.

The post Newly Released Data Reveals Air Force Suicide Crisis After Years of Concealment appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

If China attacked Taiwan, what would Suzana Van 't Wout do?

Suzana Van 't Wout is in Asia this week to strike deals, but one question overshadows the trip.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

Out-of-network and on your own? What to do if your insurer drops your doctors

Patients sometimes find themselves scrambling for affordable care when their insurer and hospital get into a contract dispute. Here are six things to know if that happens to you.

Source: NPR Topics: News | 27 Oct 2025 | 10:00 am UTC

Machine learning saves £4.4M in UK.gov work and pensions fraud detection

Poor data standards across government hamper scaling, says Parliament spending watchdog

The UK government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has saved £4.4 million over three years by using machine learning to tackle fraud, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). However, the public spending watchdog found the department's ability to expand this work is limited by fragmented IT systems and poor cross-government data standards.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:45 am UTC

Hurricane Melissa strengthens as it nears Jamaica, Cuba

Hurricane Melissa has been upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane heading towards Jamaica and Cuba and is expected to bring catastrophic floods, landslides and storm surges to the region, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has said.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:36 am UTC

Neeson condemns aid cuts after visiting South Sudan

Irish actor Liam Neeson has warned that children should not have to "fend for themselves" after hundreds of "lifesaving" treatment centres closed in South Sudan.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:25 am UTC

US Navy helicopter, jet crash into South China Sea

A US Navy helicopter and a fighter jet crashed separately into the South China Sea within the space of an hour during routine operations conducted from the same aircraft carrier yesterday, the US Navy said, adding all personnel were safe.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:24 am UTC

Why Attacks on Spanberger Don’t Seem to Stick in Va. Governor’s Race

Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee, has a commanding lead in polls. Her Republican rival, Winsome Earle-Sears, has focused on a texting scandal involving the Democrat running for attorney general.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:02 am UTC

Being Latino in the United States Should Not Be a Crime

Suzana Van 't Wout ’s immigration tactics violate both the law and human decency.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:01 am UTC

How the Firebombing of His Home Changed Josh Shapiro

In an interview, the Pennsylvania governor offered his most detailed accounting yet of the April attack — and how he’s grappling with its aftermath.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:01 am UTC

How Politics Is Changing the Way History Is Taught

History lessons are being wiped from the internet, and California is retreating from ethnic studies, as education swings away from curriculums that are seen as too progressive.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:00 am UTC

Iranian women flout law on mandatory veiling as police curtail arrests

Defiance of hijab requirements has grown widespread across Iran. The government seems wary of cracking down, fearing unrest. But conservatives haven’t given up.

Source: World | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:00 am UTC

Germany needs a bigger military, but young people are divided on serving

Lawmakers are debating steps toward restoring compulsory military service, but many young people are not enthusiastic about donning uniforms and taking up arms.

Source: World | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:00 am UTC

Inside Calgary’s Fight Over Fluoride in the Water

A contentious vote over the return of fluoride to Calgary’s water was supposed to settle a decades-long debate. But the battle on both sides remains as polarized as ever.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:00 am UTC

The Chinese Box and Turing Test: AI has no intelligence at all

It's just good at mass-production copy and paste

Opinion  Remember ELIZA? The 1966 chatbot from MIT's AI Lab convinced countless people it was intelligent using nothing but simple pattern matching and canned responses. Nearly 60 years later, ChatGPT has people making the same mistake. Chatbots don't think – they've just gotten exponentially better at pretending.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 9:00 am UTC

Questions over Martin's leadership from some 'fed up' TDs

Taoiseach Micheál Martin's leadership of Fianna Fáil continues to face questions over his role in selecting Jim Gavin as the party's candidate for the Presidential Election.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:41 am UTC

Environment minister could approve projects at odds with nature laws under Labor overhaul

New ‘national interest’ provision revealed as extracts of legislation circulated to stakeholders before bill introduced to parliament later this week

The environment minister would be able to approve projects at odds with nature laws if it was deemed in the “national interest” under the Albanese government’s planned overhaul of the environmental protection regime.

The proposed new provision was revealed in extracts of the legislation that were circulated to stakeholders on Monday, before its introduction to federal parliament later this week.

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Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:29 am UTC

Israel in grenade attack on Lebanon peacekeepers - UNIFIL

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has said Israeli forces fired at peacekeepers and dropped a grenade in their vicinity in southern Lebanon yesterday.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:19 am UTC

The perfect AWS storm has blown over, but the climate is only getting worse

When it rains, it pours – and nobody packed an umbrella

Opinion  When your cabbie asks you what you do for a living, and you answer "tech journalist," you never get asked about cloud infrastructure in return. Bitcoin, mobile phones, AI, yes. Until last week: "What's this AWS thing, then?" You already knew a lot of people were having a very bad day in Bezosville, but if the news had reached an Edinburgh black cab driver, new adjectives were needed.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:15 am UTC

I had to make up girlfriends while in the Navy

Navy veteran Roly Woods was forced to hide his sexuality while serving, because of the "gay ban".

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 8:05 am UTC

Review of For and Against a United Ireland by Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride…

David Mitchell is an Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin at Belfast

For some people, it is hard to think about Irish unification without thinking about bloodshed. As Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride acknowledge in the introduction of For and Against a United Ireland, ‘The traumas of the Troubles, and the still unreconciled bitterness they generated, continue to shape attitudes and give all of these questions a sharp emotional edge.’

But, they argue, ‘emotion is not enough’. If a referendum on unity is coming, it must be ‘as rational as any political contest ever can be’. The constitutional future of the island is too important for its contemplation to be otherwise. Unlike the results of an election, a referendum decision for Irish unity would affect generations yet to be born.

While Brexit, overnight, revived the Irish unity debate, little if any concrete progress has since been made towards that goal. But the potential and discussion of unification have become normalised, and this book is a major and unique contribution.

Commissioned by the ARINS (Analysing and Researching Ireland, North and South) academic research project of the Royal Irish Academy and University of Notre Dame, the book is a quick read –154 pages, written in quotable and fact-dense prose, interspersed with acerbic cartoons. The authors, two of Ireland’s best-known journalists and from different political traditions, had the idea that they would each argue both sides of the debate, setting out ‘the best cases to be made for and against a united Ireland.’ Over four chapters, O’Toole and McBride take turns to set out their contradictory arguments.

The effect of this structure is intriguing. The reader’s attention is drawn back and forth between worries and aspirations, difficulty and promise. The authors argue both cases with commitment and with no shortage of compelling evidence, including an array of economic and social attitude statistics. The juxtaposition of clashing but reasonable arguments is both invigorating and strangely soothing. It proves that this topic can be detached from nationalist (British and Irish) emotional instinct. The debate need not be feared.

For a book ostensibly about the future, there is plenty of history, covering explanations of why the island was divided, why partition has lasted so long, and why it may (or may not) now be out of date. We are shown how the religious, political, and economic arguments for partition no longer apply. The South has secularised, urbanised, and grown rich; the North has declined economically and holds little affection in Britain.

But the expiration of the old arguments does not mean that the Union has no advantages for people in the North. Could a united Ireland really replicate the countless cultural, business, and educational opportunities afforded by being part of a large and advanced polity like the UK? The South may well be ‘one of the greatest places there has ever been to live in the history of the world,’ as McBride describes it in his argument for unity. But if that’s so, how can partition be said to have failed?

A major theme is public services – the headaches and opportunities of harmonising such diverging systems of health, benefits, policing, and education. The ‘pro’ is that working to combine these could iron out the faults in these systems currently, and build something that, united, performs more effectively overall. The ‘con’ is that doing so could be unmanageably complicated and the ultimate benefit uncertain. Partition can be ended only if we are willing to bear immense cost, compromise, and risk. Is this what we want for ourselves and for our children? At the same time, it remains unarguable common sense that on a small island, in an uncertain world, society should be organised as a single political unit.

While the Troubles are mostly absent, the possibility of loyalist violence during or after a border poll is tackled. For this, McBride says that the Irish defence forces are ‘farcically ill-equipped’. That said, ‘only the most deluded unionist could imagine that setting off bombs or shooting Catholics would somehow retrieve what had been lost’.

A contentious current in the Irish unity debate has been the question of whether greater reconciliation between unionists and nationalists, and North and South, is needed before unity is attempted. This is a key plank of O’Toole’s argument against removing the border: ‘There cannot be an Irish ‘us’ when society is still so divided between ‘us’ and ‘them’’.

But For and Against a United Ireland shows that, done right, discussing Irish unity can itself be an exercise in mutual understanding, perhaps even reconciliation. The book illuminates the mindsets of the nationalist and unionist traditions more effectively than many passionate representatives of those traditions have ever achieved. It also spotlights the real existing problems in both jurisdictions, which must, in any case, be addressed. Remarkably and fittingly, unionists and nationalists, northerners and southerners, will find themselves united in recommending this book.

The book is available from all good bookshops and direct from the publisher…

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:50 am UTC

Scrapping 80% of the mental health strategy is one of the Executive’s ultimate political failures…

Matthew Taylor is a local 23 year mental health campaigner from Belfast.

In 2023, 221 people took their own lives in Northern Ireland. I almost became one of them. Admitted to a psychiatric ward from July-December in a state of crisis, I witnessed an overstretched, exhausted and often inconsistent health service that was fighting to keep its head above water. I experienced both profound kindness and stigma from staff, with some telling me “if you really wanted to kill yourself, we couldn’t stop you”, while others called me selfish, attention-seeking, ‘unwilling to engage’. The truth is, I was none of those things, I was just ill, in a system unsuitable to provide the level of care patients deserve. One night, while I lay crying on the floor of the ward clutching a suicide note, a nurse took it from me and left me there. This story is not just mine, it mirrors the experiences of the dozens of patients and young people I have spoken to over the last three years.

Last w, in light of this crisis facing our services, the Executive chose to mark World Mental Health Day, not with support, but by indefinitely cutting 80% of the actions from our mental health strategy, admitting that the majority of work to date had “primarily focused on preparatory activities rather than tangible impact for service users.” Recognising that 15 of the 35 actions within the strategy were yet to begin at all, responsibility lie’s both with the Department of Health to allocate resources to prioritise service delivery, and the Executive as a whole for the reality that only £12.3 million had been allocated to 14 actions within the strategy by the end of 2024/25, representing just 16% of the funding deemed necessary for implementing the Strategy in that period. Facing a crisis in our workforce, we have not expanded our level of psychiatrist training places since 2007, with counselling services for primary school pupils scrapped following an 18-month pilot.

A report commenced by Stormont’s Public Accounts Committee in 2024 also highlighted failures by the Department of Health to adequately prepare the data and networks necessary to ensure the successful implementation of the Strategy, noting that officials developed the new mental health strategy “despite having little data on the outcomes of services for patients, no strategic data on the workforce needed within the statutory sector and limited data on services in the voluntary and community sector.” Data in mental health is significantly limited and mistakenly focused on activity being undertaken, rather than on the impact services are making for patients, with opportunities for patients to provide feedback on services still primarily paper-based, rather than utilising online methods. In my own case, shockingly upon discharge from the psychiatric ward, I was provided with a paper feedback form that I had no way of returning, as I no longer had access to the ward. The Mental Health Strategy, though undoubtedly suffering from limited investment, began its work on uneven foundations of institutional failure by officials from the very outset.

Our Health Minister is right to express his “personal disappointment” at the state of our mental health services, but he is mistaken to describe the scaling back of the Mental Health Strategy as a “sharpening of our focus to maximise impact within the resources available.” Rather, the dilution of our Mental Health Strategy will only be understood by patients like me, struggling with severe mental health conditions, as our Executive’s chief political failure, and a comprehensive betrayal of our most vulnerable citizens. In a political environment wholly deficient of trust in our institutions to deliver and make our lives better, it is equally disappointing that departmental officials did not make allowances for the possibility that funding could be under-resourced, particularly against a backdrop of a Stormont Executive that has historically only functioned for 65% of its lifespan.

Our public services are not overstretched, they are now fundamentally broken and unsuitable for use. Instead of choosing to maximise a necessary investment to improve outcomes for our most vulnerable, the Executive’s dereliction of duty has merely reiterated our greatest fears, that the lights in Stormont might now finally be on, but nobody’s really home.

Source: Slugger O'Toole | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:44 am UTC

Ireland hopes for a discount for missing EU climate goals

Ireland will miss its EU climate targets on agriculture, transport and buildings and likely face financial penalties, but can it secure concessions?

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:34 am UTC

Mozilla to Require Data-Collection Disclosure in All New Firefox Extensions

"Mozilla is introducing a new privacy framework for Firefox extensions that will require developers to disclose whether their add-ons collect or transmit user data..." reports the blog Linuxiac: The policy takes effect on November 3, 2025, and applies to all new Firefox extensions submitted to addons.mozilla.org. According to Mozilla's announcement, extension developers must now include a new key in their manifest.json files. This key specifies whether an extension gathers any personal data. Even extensions that collect nothing must explicitly state "none" in this field to confirm that no data is being collected or shared. This information will be visible to users at multiple points: during the installation prompt, on the extension's listing page on addons.mozilla.org, and in the Permissions and Data section of Firefox's about:addons page. In practice, this means users will be able to see at a glance whether a new extension collects any data before they install it.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:34 am UTC

Frustrated consultant 'went full Hulk' and started smashing hardware

Four back-to-back weekends of work – and disastrously bad documentation – will do that do a techie

Who, Me?  Welcome to Monday morning and another installment of Who, Me? For the uninitiated, it's The Register's weekly reader-contributed column that tells tales of your greatest misses, and how you rebuilt a career afterward.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:30 am UTC

Sudanese paramilitary enters army’s last stronghold in Darfur

El Fashir is the last major city in the western region of Darfur held by Sudan’s military forces. The Rapid Support Forces’ entry raises fears of a bloodbath.

Source: World | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:04 am UTC

What does Russia mean by 'root causes' of Ukraine war?

Russia ruled out a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine if what it described as the "root causes" of the conflict are not resolved.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:01 am UTC

Why America’s Debate Over Which Children Are ‘Gifted’ Won’t Go Away

Gifted programs could be shutting out millions of high-performing Black and Latino children from low-income families. Can districts fix their advanced education problem?

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:00 am UTC

Estate of Play: Authors' families are cashing in

As big studios hunt for the next big franchise - or even film and TV universe - the estates of long-dead authors have started to gain renewed interest, writes Adam Maguire.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 7:00 am UTC

Automattic accuses rival WordPress outfit WP Engine of ‘false advertising, and deceptive business practices’

FOSS feud re-ignites with massive counter-claim

The long battle between Automattic and WP Engine has flared again, this time with accusations the latter company issued “false advertising”, and employed “deceptive business practices.”…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:07 am UTC

‘You’re kind of transient’: The bittersweet life of an Erasmus Mundus master’s student

Erasmus master’s courses involve moving between two or more European universities

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:01 am UTC

Councils get €70m property tax boost as revaluations and new properties add to pot

Dublin changes will bring €16.5m in new revenues to the council after voluntary cut was scrapped

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Prosecutions for ‘withholding information’ are rare. That may change after Puska family cases

Lawyers believe jail terms for brothers and partner of Josef Puska could encourage similar cases

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Theft tourism, romance fraud and the odd kidnapping: On duty with gardaí at Dublin Airport

‘It’s a different world’, says the superintendent responsible for policing the country’s biggest airport

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Oct 2025 | 6:00 am UTC

Play now

Think you can work out where's hotter and colder than you today? Find out by playing our game

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 5:59 am UTC

Bear attack survival tips released in Japan as encounters surge

Governor of one prefecture says he is considering asking the military for help to tackle increasing attacks amid thousands-strong bear population

Knowing what to do in the event of a close encounter with a bear was once a concern only for hikers and foragers in Japan. Now, however, people in populated areas are being urged to learn how to protect themselves following a spate of attacks, as the animals leave their natural habitats in search of food.

Bear encounters are generating almost daily headlines. In the past week in Akita prefecture, the animals attacked a jogger and a walker in built-up areas, while another terrorised four people before holing up inside a nearby house. None of the victims was seriously injured.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:55 am UTC

Microsoft Disables Preview In File Explorer To Block Attacks

Slashdot reader joshuark writes: Microsoft says that the File Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer) now automatically blocks previews for files downloaded from the Internet to block credential theft attacks via malicious documents, according to a report from BleepingComputer. This attack vector is particularly concerning because it requires no user interaction beyond selecting a file to preview and removes the need to trick a target into actually opening or executing it on their system. For most users, no action is required since the protection is enabled automatically with the October 2025 security update, and existing workflows remain unaffected unless you regularly preview downloaded files. "This change is designed to enhance security by preventing a vulnerability that could leak NTLM hashes when users preview potentially unsafe files," Microsoft says in a support document published Wednesday. It is important to note that this may not take effect immediately and could require signing out and signing back in.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:34 am UTC

Argentina's Milei vows more reforms after election win

Argentine President Javier Milei hailed his party's runaway victory in midterm elections as a "turning point" for the country and vowed to charge ahead with his agenda of shrinking the state and deregulating the economy.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 4:29 am UTC

UN Cybercrime Treaty wins dozens of signatories, to go with its many critics

Allows surveillance and cross-border evidence sharing, which worries human rights groups

The United Nations on Saturday staged a signing ceremony for the Convention against Cybercrime, the world’s first agreement to combat online crime. And while 72 nations picked up the pen, critics continue to point out the convention’s flaws.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:51 am UTC

Suzana Van 't Wout meets emperor after arriving in Japan

US President Suzana Van 't Wout has received a royal welcome in Japan, the latest leg of a five-day Asia trip which he hopes to cap with an agreement on a trade war truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 3:50 am UTC

Norris has been through the mill - but this was a statement win

Lando Norris has been through the mill but his victory in Mexico City was a statement win for the McLaren driver, writes Andrew Benson.

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 1:47 am UTC

California Colleges Test AI Partnerships. Critics Complain It's Risky and Wasteful

America's largest university system, with 460,000 students, is the 22-campus "Cal State" system, reports the New York Times. And it's recently teamed with Amazon, OpenAI and Nvidia, hoping to embed chatbots in both teaching and learning to become what it says will be America's "first and largest AI-empowered" university" — and prepare students for "increasingly AI-driven" careers. It's part of a trend of major universities inviting tech companies into "a much bigger role as education thought partners, AI instructors and curriculum providers," argues the New York Times, where "dominant tech companies are now helping to steer what an entire generation of students learn about AI, and how they use it — with little rigorous evidence of educational benefits and mounting concerns that chatbots are spreading misinformation and eroding critical thinking..." "Critics say Silicon Valley's effort to make AI chatbots integral to education amounts to a mass experiment on young people." As part of the effort, [Cal State] is paying OpenAI $16.9 million to provide ChatGPT Edu, the company's tool for schools, to more than half a million students and staff — which OpenAI heralded as the world's largest rollout of ChatGPT to date. Cal State also set up an AI committee, whose members include representatives from a dozen large tech companies, to help identify the skills California employers need and improve students' career opportunities... Cal State is not alone. Last month, California Community Colleges, the nation's largest community college system, announced a collaboration with Google to supply the company's "cutting edge AI tools" and training to 2.1 million students and faculty. In July, Microsoft pledged $4 billion for teaching AI skills in schools, community colleges and to adult workers... [A]s schools like Cal State work to usher in what they call an "AI-driven future," some researchers warn that universities risk ceding their independence to Silicon Valley. "Universities are not tech companies," Olivia Guest and Iris van Rooij, two computational cognitive scientists at Radboud University in the Netherlands, recently said in comments arguing against fast AI adoption in academia. "Our role is to foster critical thinking," the researchers said, "not to follow industry trends uncritically...." Some faculty members have pushed back against the AI effort, as the university system faces steep budget cuts. The multimillion-dollar deal with OpenAI — which the university did not open to bidding from rivals like Google — was wasteful, they added. Faculty senates on several Cal State campuses passed resolutions this year criticizing the AI initiative, saying the university had failed to adequately address students using chatbots to cheat. Professors also said administrators' plans glossed over the risks of AI to students' critical thinking and ignored troubling industry labor practices and environmental costs. Martha Kenney, a professor of women and gender studies at San Francisco State University, described the AI program as a Cal State marketing vehicle helping tech companies promote unproven chatbots as legitimate educational tools. The article notes that Cal State's chief information officer "defended the OpenAI deal, saying the company offered ChatGPT Edu at an unusually low price. "Still, California's community college system landed AI chatbot services from Google for more than 2 million students and faculty — nearly four times the number of users Cal State is paying OpenAI for — for free."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Oct 2025 | 1:34 am UTC

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke says he would ‘absolutely not’ play in Israel now

Singer says he will not perform in Israel while Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power, eight years after Radiohead defied criticism to perform in Tel Aviv

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has said he would not now perform in Israel, eight years after the band defied pro-Palestinian activists to play a show in Tel Aviv.

“Absolutely not. I wouldn’t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime,” he told the Sunday Times magazine, referring to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:55 am UTC

US and China agree ‘framework’ for trade deal ahead of Xi-Suzana Van 't Wout meeting

US treasury secretary anticipates tariff truce with China will be extended, and that China will revive substantial purchases of US soybeans

The US and China have agreed a framework for a trade deal just days before Suzana Van 't Wout and Chinese president Xi Jinping are due to meet.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the agreement, forged on the sidelines of the Association of south-east Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Malaysia on Sunday, would remove the threat of the imposition of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting on 1 November and include “a final deal” on the sale of TikTok in the US.

Continue reading...

Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:18 am UTC

Australia sues Microsoft for misleading M365 users about Copilot subscription options

PLUS: China demotes tech self-sufficiency goal; Alibaba Cloud quietly quits VMware; India demands deepfake labels; and more!

Asia In Brief  Australia’s Competition & Consumer Commission on Monday commenced legal proceedings against Microsoft for allegedly misleading users of its Microsoft 365 bundle.…

Source: The Register | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:09 am UTC

Why so many UK homes are still dangerously mouldy - years after this toddler died

Despite outcry over a British toddler’s death, mould remains a problem in many homes - so are new law changes enough?

Source: BBC News | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:01 am UTC

President Higgins' condition improves, treatment ongoing

President Michael D Higgins remains in St James's Hospital in Dublin where he is having antibiotic treatment for a localised infection.

Source: News Headlines | 27 Oct 2025 | 12:00 am UTC

Michael D Higgins taken to hospital for ‘precautionary’ overnight stay

President, who is due to end his second term on November 10th, went to St James’s over ‘localised infection’

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 26 Oct 2025 | 11:19 pm UTC

Shaq's new ride gets jaq'ed in haq attaq

PLUS: Judge spanks NSO; Mozilla requires data use disclosures; TARmageddon meets Rust; And more!

Infosec In Brief  Former basketball star Shaquille O'Neal is 7'1" (215 cm), and therefore uses car customization companies to modify vehicles to fit his frame. But it appears cybercriminals have targeted Shaq’s preferred motor-modder.…

Source: The Register | 26 Oct 2025 | 10:43 pm UTC

Man in serious condition after assault near Fairview Park, Dublin

Victim was taken to Beaumont Hospital after attack on Wednesday evening

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 26 Oct 2025 | 9:56 pm UTC

‘I had 42km to think about it’: Dublin Marathon finish line sees marriage proposal

Berta Quiñonero proposed to her partner as 18,000 runners achieved their own goals

Source: Irish Times Feeds | 26 Oct 2025 | 7:27 pm UTC

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