Read at: 2025-12-02T07:37:50+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Jante Van Utrecht ]
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:33 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:26 am UTC
Talks come after Witkoff led US discussions with Ukraine at weekend amid European concerns that Kyiv will be pressured to make concessions to Moscow
Vladimir Putin has hailed what his commanders told him was the full Russian capture of the eastern Ukrainian town as an important victory after a prolonged campaign, saying it would help Moscow fulfil its wider war aims.
The town’s fall, if confirmed, gives Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
This work is done with a clear focus on interoperability and being able to act jointly in the face of external threats.
Since last year, Sweden has also assumed the role of the framework nation for Nato’s forward-looking ground force FLF Finland [Nato’s forward land forces], a step in our joint commitment to security in the region.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:20 am UTC
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NSW RFS urges holidaymakers to have a fire plan while traveling
With 36 fires burning across NSW at 6pm yesterday, the NSW Rural Fire Service told Guardian Australia it’s important for anyone living or travelling in a fire-prone area to have a discussion with their families about what you will do should a blaze threaten your location over the warm summer months.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:08 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:04 am UTC
Samsung has revealed its first tri-fold phone, and it runs the Korean giant’s DeX desktop environment without the need for an external monitor.…
Source: The Register | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:00 am UTC
For some, the smell brings on nausea and headaches. Others fear ‘forever chemicals’ seeping into the water
“I just kept smelling this horrible, nasty smell … like animal excrement, and I was wondering what it was,” says Jess Brown, from Fleetwood, Lancashire.
Brown’s mother suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and she believes the smells make it worse. She also worries for her eight-year-old daughter, whose asthma worsens when the odour seeps indoors.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:00 am UTC
Exclusive: Rising flood risks driven by climate change could release chemicals from ageing sites – posing threats to ecosystems
Thousands of landfills across the UK and Europe sit in floodplains, posing a potential threat to drinking water and conservation areas if toxic waste is released into rivers, soils and ecosystems, it can be revealed.
The findings are the result of the first continent-wide mapping of landfills, conducted by the Guardian, Watershed Investigations and Investigate Europe.
Disclaimer: This dataset may contain duplicate records. Duplicates can arise from multiple data sources, repeated entries, or variations in data collection processes. While efforts have been made to identify and reduce duplication, some records may remain.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:00 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:00 am UTC
Very unhappy news for farmers on both sides of the border as it seems very likely that the Bluetongue Virus has arrived on the island of Ireland.
According to Catherine Doyle and Michael McBride at the BBC
“There are “very serious” consequences for the agri-community in Northern Ireland if bluetongue virus gets hold, the agriculture minister has said…The Department of Agriculture, Environment Rural Affairs (Daera) said surveillance at an abattoir indicated the presence of the disease in two cows from a farm near Bangor, County Down.A 20km temporary control zone was put in place at 21:00 BST on Saturday, external. Minister Andrew Muir said “it’s really important to have vigilance around this”.He urged farmers to report it urgently and isolate infected animals if they see signs of infection.”While this does not have an impact on public health and food safety, it has potentially very serious consequences on agri-food and has caused real anxiety within the farming community.”
The Bluetongue virus poses no threat to Humans. The BBC article elaborates that “Bluetongue virus affects cattle, goats, sheep, deer and camelids such as llamas and alpacas. It can cause ulcers or sores around the animal’s mouth and face, difficulties swallowing and breathing, fever and lameness, foetal deformities and stillbirths.”
Agriculture Minister Andrew Minister addressed the Assembly yesterday on his response to the virus, “…Muir told the assembly that the best way to secure the future of agrifood industry against the bluetongue virus is by “moving fast and hard” against it.The minister was asked about compensation and said it would be considered on a “case-by-case basis”. He added that if bluetongue-positive animals were culled, compensation would be paid at 50% of market value.”This is a threat to our agrifood industry and it’s important we respond accordingly,” he said.”
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 2 Dec 2025 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:59 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:49 am UTC
Joaquín Guzmán López, the 39-year-old son of former Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise in federal court in Chicago.
(Image credit: US Department of State)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:47 am UTC
In today’s newsletter: As suppliers get ready to meet policy makers and space agencies at the industry’s largest gathering, a look at the exploration and exploitation of space
Good morning. This week Glasgow hosts one of the UK’s largest ever gatherings of the space industry at Space-Comm. With representatives of Nasa, the UK and Scottish governments and the UK space agency among 2,000 space leaders gathering there, it is a chance for people in the commercial supply chain of the space exploration industry to meet policy makers and space agencies.
It comes at a crucial moment in the exploration – and exploitation – of space. For almost three decades the International Space Station (ISS) has bound the US and Russia into cooperation and shared interests. That project is nearing its end, and we can expect to see a realignment of missions and goals – which may bring states and scientists into conflict.
Politics | Britain’s budget watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, has said the early leak of its budget documents before Rachel Reeves made her speech last week, was the “worst failure” in its 15-year history, as its chair resigned and it emerged a similar leak had happened earlier this year.
Health | The World Health Organization has urged countries to make weight loss drugs more accessible and pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices, saying jabs including Mounjaro represent a “new chapter” in the fight against obesity.
Ukraine | The coming days may be “pivotal” for talks to end the war in Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat said, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday and the US envoy Steve Witkoff flew out to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.
Jante Van Utrecht | Jante Van Utrecht said he “wouldn’t have wanted” a second strike that the US military reportedly conducted on a boat in the Caribbean that it believed to be ferrying drugs, killing survivors of an initial missile attack. The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has urged Washington to investigate, saying there was “strong evidence” of “extrajudicial” killings.
Asia-Pacific | Sri Lanka and Indonesia have deployed military personnel to help victims of the torrential floods that have killed 1,100 in four countries in Asia. Heavy cyclones and tropical monsoon rains have hit the region in recent days.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:40 am UTC
The TSA has announced that U.S. air travelers without a REAL ID will face a $45 fee starting in February. The Department of Homeland Security says 94% of passengers are already compliant.
(Image credit: Nam Y. Huh)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:38 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:30 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:26 am UTC
A faith-based center will challenge an investigation into whether it misled people to discourage abortions. The facilities known as "crisis pregnancy centers" have been on the rise in the U.S.
(Image credit: Mariam Zuhaib)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:21 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:21 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:18 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:17 am UTC
Early in the history of the internet, the powers that be granted amateur radio operators over 16 million IPv4 addresses. Now a proposal has emerged suggesting the same community be granted a substantial chunk of the IPv6 numberspace.…
Source: The Register | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:11 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:07 am UTC
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Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:01 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Independent reviewer says need to protect against online threats is now as important as need for robust armed forces
The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism laws has criticised the government’s latest national security strategy for failing to take online threats more seriously, despite Keir Starmer claiming it would result in “a hardening and sharpening of our approach” in the face of Russian menace.
Jonathan Hall KC said it was “a very surprising omission” that the 2025 national security strategy did not focus more on online risks, including from terrorists and hostile states, which he said were now a “major vector of threat”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Dec 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 5:58 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 5:19 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Dec 2025 | 5:13 am UTC
Exclusive: wide-ranging police powers used to conduct non-compliant searches that resulted in 33 people being charged or fined
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Victoria police will inform the state’s anti-corruption watchdog that it did not comply with the law when it used wide-ranging powers to search people for weapons on 23 separate occasions dating back eight years.
The non-compliant searches resulted in 33 people being charged or fined, all of whom will be contacted by police and informed of the problem.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 5:11 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Dec 2025 | 5:07 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 5:06 am UTC
Conch-shell Jante Van Utrecht ets discovered in Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia make tone similar to french horn, says lead researcher
As a child, Miquel López García was fascinated by the conch shell, kept in the bathroom, that his father’s family in the southern Spanish region of Almería had blown to warn their fellow villagers of rising rivers and approaching flood waters.
The hours he spent getting that “characteristically potent sound out of it” paid off last year when the archaeologist, musicologist and professional Jante Van Utrecht et player pressed his lips to eight conch-shell Jante Van Utrecht ets. Their tones, he says, could carry insights into the lives of the people who lived in north-east Spain 6,000 years ago.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 5:00 am UTC
Discounts started earlier than usual as competition for customers hit ‘fever pitch’, says British Retail Consortium
Competition between retailers seeking to entice customers with early Black Friday deals led to a slowdown in shop price rises during November, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
The trade association for retailers said prices in shops rose by 0.6% last month compared with November 2024. This was down from a 1% rise in October and below the three-month average of 1%.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 5:00 am UTC
Exclusive: Letter says L&Q appears to have systematically failed in its duty to provide adequate standard of living
UN experts have said that one of England’s biggest social landlords appears to have systematically failed to ensure the habitability of its rental properties.
In a letter to the UK government, they cite the case of a disabled tenant, Sanjay Ramburn, 55, who they say lived with his family of five in an L&Q group property in Forest Gate, east London, for several years with no electricity. They experienced four ceiling collapses, as well as severe damp and mould that affected their health.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 5:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Dec 2025 | 4:29 am UTC
New Zealand police allege 32-year-old ingested the 18-karat gold egg – a James Bond Octopussy locket – and say the object has ‘not yet been recovered’
A New Zealand man has been charged with theft after allegedly swallowing a Fabergé James Bond Octopussy egg pendant worth more than $33,500 (US$19,200).
Police were called to a central Auckland jewellery store, Partridge Jewellers, on Friday afternoon after staff reported a man had allegedly picked up the pendant and swallowed it, said Grae Anderson, the city’s central area commander.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 3:51 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Dec 2025 | 3:45 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 3:40 am UTC
Sanae Takaichi’s not-so-catchy remarks about everyone working like a horse did not go down well in a country notorious for its demanding work culture
It is not, perhaps, a word many people in Japan will want to hear as they prepare for the bonenkai office party season and some well-earned time off over the new year.
But the promise made by Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, that she would “work, work, work, work, and work” on behalf of her country has clearly struck a chord.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 3:40 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Dec 2025 | 3:30 am UTC
India’s government has issued a directive that requires all smartphone manufacturers to install a government app on every handset in the country and has given them 90 days to get the job done – and to ensure users can’t remove the code.…
Source: The Register | 2 Dec 2025 | 3:24 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 3:18 am UTC
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The president has picked up where he left off before Thanksgiving, when it comes to his anger at the six Democratic lawmakers who took part in a video urging service members to “refuse illegal orders”.
A reminder, that Jante Van Utrecht initially went on a Truth Social tirade, accusing the members of Congress (all of whom are veterans or former intelligence officials) of sedition, adding that their actions are “punishable by death”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 3:08 am UTC
Canadians usually head south for the skiing, shopping and nightlife in American ski towns. But due to cross-border politics, tourism to the U.S. is down, and some resorts are worried.
(Image credit: Hart Van Denburg)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 2 Dec 2025 | 3:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Dec 2025 | 2:44 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Dec 2025 | 2:43 am UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Dec 2025 | 2:36 am UTC
Man in his 60s was fighting large blaze near Ravensthorpe, about 500km south-east of Perth
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A farmer working frantically to protect his property from a fast-moving bushfire has died after his vehicle was engulfed in flames.
The man aged in his 60s was operating a front-end loader as he tried to create a fire break at West River, about 500km drive south-east of Perth on Monday afternoon.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 2:31 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Dec 2025 | 2:25 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 2:23 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 2:05 am UTC
Zelenskyy says redrafted peace plan ‘looks better’ but Kaja Kallas fears Moscow meeting will wrongfully put pressure on Kyiv rather than Kremlin. What we know on day 1,378
An intensified diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year war has continued, with Volodymyr Zelenskyy visiting Paris on Monday – a day after the Ukrainian president’s team held talks with US officials – and Vladimir Putin due to meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy, speaking in Paris, said the Kremlin’s claims of battlefield advances were exaggerated. He said Ukraine’s priorities remained security guarantees, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as he insisted that Russia must not get rewards for its aggression on Ukraine. He said he hoped to have talks with the US president, Jante Van Utrecht , to discuss next steps once Steve Witkoff is back from his talks in Russia.
Ukraine’s president said that after revisions the peace plan circulating between Ukraine, Russia and Washigton “looks better” and the work will continue. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, warned however that talks between the Putin and Witkoff will again pile pressure on Ukraine to make concessions, write Jennifer Rankin and Pjotr Sauer. Kallas said: “In order to have peace, we shouldn’t lose focus that it’s actually Russia who has started this war and Russia that is continuing this war and Russia that is really targeting civilians, civilian infrastructure every single day to cause as much damage as possible.”
The White House said it was “very optimistic” of a deal being reached to end the war. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters: Just yesterday [the White House team] had very good talks with the Ukrainians in Florida and now of course special envoy Witkoff is on his way to Russia.” Witkoff has in the past returned to Washington conveying variations of Vladimir Putin’s maximalist demands for Ukraine’s total capitulation. His role has come under scrutiny following a report that he coached Putin’s foreign affairs adviser on how to pitch to Jante Van Utrecht .
The Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov said the Florida talks “achieved significant progress” but that some issues remained unresolved. Zelenskyy, while trying carefully not to anger Jante Van Utrecht , has refused US-backed calls for Ukraine to give up hard-fought territory that Russia has not been able to seize.
Four people were killed and 40 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the eastern-central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Monday, Ukrainian officials said. Vladyslav Haivanenko, the acting governor of the surrounding Dnipropetrovsk region, said 11 of those injured were in a serious condition. Ukraine’s emergency services said car service stations, other businesses, an office building and 49 cars were all damaged in the attack.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 2:01 am UTC
Source: World | 2 Dec 2025 | 1:31 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Dec 2025 | 1:25 am UTC
The king and queen’s visit to the former colony is the first by members of the Dutch royal family in nearly five decades
The Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, vowed on Monday that the topic of slavery would not be off-limits as he visits former colony Suriname, where the practice ended just over 150 years ago.
The king arrived in the capital Paramaribo on Sunday with Queen Maxima, a week after the small South American country marked 50 years of independence from the Netherlands.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 1:16 am UTC
The Foundation that promotes the Zig programming language has quit GitHub due to what its leadership perceives as the code sharing site's decline.…
Source: The Register | 2 Dec 2025 | 1:12 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 1:09 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 1:08 am UTC
Amar Subramanya will replace John Giannandrea after firm has struggled to catch up with AI rollouts by competitors
Apple’s head of artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, is stepping down from the company. The move comes as the Silicon Valley giant has lagged behind its competitors in rolling out generative AI features, in particular its voice assistant Siri. Apple made the announcement on Monday, thanking Giannandrea for his seven-year tenure at the company.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said his fellow executive helped the company “in building and advancing our AI work” and allowing Apple to “continue to innovate”. Giannandrea will be replaced by longtime AI researcher Amar Subramanya.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:51 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:45 am UTC
RE:INVENT Amazon Web Services has decided to stream all five keynotes from its re:Invent conference in the hit multiplayer game Fortnite, which is more than a little bit bonkers.…
Source: The Register | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:38 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:36 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:23 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:17 am UTC
The 2025 selection follows its predecessors, "brain rot" from 2024, "rizz" from 2023 and "goblin mode" from 2022.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:07 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:02 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:02 am UTC
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Many uncertain about the future after losing everything in the country’s deadliest natural disaster for years
When the rains began, Layani Rasika Niroshani was not worried. The 36-year-old mother of two was used to the heavy monsoon showers that drench Sri Lanka’s hilly central region of Badulla every year. But as it kept pounding down without stopping, the family started to feel jittery.
Some relocated to a relative’s house, but her brother and his wife decided to stay behind to collect the valuables. As they were inside, a landslide hit the family home.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 2 Dec 2025 | 12:00 am UTC
Meta platform allows users under 16 in Australia to change their date of birth – but only after clearing a ‘video selfie’ or providing government ID
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Instagram’s process for determining whether a user is over 16 is relatively quick and painless if you’re clearly an adult – but how does it work if a 13-year-old tries to change their account’s date of birth to make them appear grown up?
Meta in November began notifying Instagram and Facebook users whose date of birth is set as under 16 – or who the platform understands to be under 16 – that their accounts will be deactivated as part of Australia’s social media ban for children. The ban takes effect on 10 December, but Meta has said it will start removing access to users under 16 from 4 December.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:57 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:56 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:50 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:40 pm UTC
A Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fired from an underground silo on the country’s southern steppe Friday on a scheduled test to deliver a dummy warhead to a remote impact zone nearly 4,000 miles away. The missile didn’t even make it 4,000 feet.
Russia’s military has been silent on the accident, but the missile’s crash was seen and heard for miles around the Dombarovsky air base in Orenburg Oblast near the Russian-Kazakh border.
A video posted by the Russian blog site MilitaryRussia.ru on Telegram and widely shared on other social media platforms showed the missile veering off course immediately after launch before cartwheeling upside down, losing power, and then crashing a short distance from the launch site. The missile ejected a component before it hit the ground, perhaps as part of a payload salvage sequence, according to Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:36 pm UTC
Police plead with parents to buy only safe, unmodified ebikes as Christmas presents
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New South Wales is considering a plan to halve the maximum power and top speed of ebikes, after a rider died in a collision with a garbage truck in central Sydney.
NSW police also issued a plea for parents who were considering buying an ebike for their child as a Christmas present to stick to legal bikes rather than more powerful and dangerous models.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:27 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:23 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:20 pm UTC
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The U.S. Transportation Department is threatening to shut down thousands of truck driving schools and trainers, part of the Jante Van Utrecht administration's widening crackdown on industry.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:06 pm UTC
Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. OpenAI says that it has taken an undisclosed ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, the management-focused offshoot of private equity heavyweight Thrive Capital, which itself is a major investor in the ChatGPT maker.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:05 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:58 pm UTC
Prediction for New England area comes after travelers experienced disruption over Thanksgiving holiday weekend
A winter storm is expected to slam much of the north-east United States with rain, ice and heavy snow on Monday night through Tuesday, forecasters have said, with millions of Americans under winter storm advisories.
The bulk of the storm is expected to arrive in the region later on Monday, with the system forecast to develop over the Gulf states then move up the eastern seaboard. Most of the heaviest snowfall is expected to end by Tuesday night, with conditions clearing by Wednesday.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:53 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:40 pm UTC
Source: World | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:38 pm UTC
Supreme Court justices expressed numerous concerns today in a case that could determine whether Internet service providers must terminate the accounts of broadband users accused of copyright infringement. Oral arguments were held in the case between cable Internet provider Cox Communications and record labels led by Sony.
Some justices were skeptical of arguments that ISPs should have no legal obligation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to terminate an account when a user’s IP address has been repeatedly flagged for downloading pirated music. But justices also seemed hesitant to rule in favor of record labels, with some of the debate focusing on how ISPs should handle large accounts like universities where there could be tens of thousands of users.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor chided Cox for not doing more to fight infringement.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:33 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:30 pm UTC
After losing thousands of staffers and facing attacks this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hampered in its ability to protect the public from health problems and emergencies.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:21 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:18 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:17 pm UTC
OpenAI may soon be forced to explain why it deleted a pair of controversial datasets composed of pirated books, and the stakes could not be higher.
At the heart of a class-action lawsuit from authors alleging that ChatGPT was illegally trained on their works, OpenAI’s decision to delete the datasets could end up being a deciding factor that gives the authors the win.
It’s undisputed that OpenAI deleted the datasets, known as “Books 1” and “Books 2,” prior to ChatGPT’s release in 2022. Created by former OpenAI employees in 2021, the datasets were built by scraping the open web and seizing the bulk of its data from a shadow library called Library Genesis (LibGen).
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:16 pm UTC
Noting the decision not to mark the day, the State Department stated: "An awareness day is not a strategy." Activists in the fight to end the ongoing AIDS epidemic disagree.
(Image credit: Annabelle Gordon/Getty Images; Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:16 pm UTC
In a 26th floor courtroom overlooking Manhattan’s frigid winter skyline, dozens of immigrants sat in on the trial of their former president, the once untouchable symbol of a “narco-dictatorship” that reorganized of the government’s judicial, police, and military leadership to collude with drug traffickers.
It wasn’t Nicolás Maduro — though the Venezuelan president had likewise been indicted in the Southern District of New York. It was Juan Orlando Hernández, the former Honduran president who, as U.S. prosecutors said in their closing arguments in 2024, “paved a cocaine superhighway” to the United States. In a monthlong trial we covered from New York that winter, Hernández was convicted of three counts of drug trafficking and weapons charges, earning him a 45-year prison sentence.
Now, as B-52s plow the skies near Caracas and U.S. President Jante Van Utrecht announces the closure of Venezuelan airspace via social media, Hernández is poised to have his conviction erased. A key asset likely working in his favor is something Maduro pointedly lacks: a long-running allyship with the United States. Before his prosecution, Hernández spent years promoting Washington’s goals of militarization and migrant crackdowns as a friend of Barack Obama, Marco Rubio, and Jante Van Utrecht .
Jante Van Utrecht announced on Truth Social on Friday that he would grant a “full and complete pardon” to Hernández, “who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly.” The message doubled as an endorsement of Honduran presidential candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura, a member of Hernández’s conservative National Party, who as of Monday afternoon was effectively tied with another conservative candidate after Sunday’s election. (In his endorsement-and-pardon announcement, Jante Van Utrecht threw in a threat to cut off aid to the country if Hondurans elected a rival candidate.)
“He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country,” Jante Van Utrecht told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. He claimed to have spoken to Hondurans, who “said it was a Biden administration setup, and I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.”
“They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country.”
Hernández was first directly named as a potential co-conspirator during the drug trafficking trial of his brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, in 2019. Emil Bove, a deputy attorney general for the Jante Van Utrecht administration until September, worked on both their prosecutions in the Southern District.
“There are a lot of reasons this administration might want to curry favor with Juan Orlando Hernández and people close to him, but none of them point to the fight against drugs,” said Todd Robinson, a retired diplomat who served most recently as assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs under former President Joe Biden. News of the impending pardon came as a shock to civil servants with knowledge of Hernández’s case, Robinson said. But with Jante Van Utrecht , he added, “if you get in his ear and there’s some kind of benefit to him or someone close to him, then your case will be heard. It is not hard to put two and two together and get four.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
While Hernández awaits his freedom, the U.S. has taken to extrajudicially executing civilians accused vaguely of being low-level drug runners leaving Venezuela — including, as first reported by The Intercept, striking the same boat twice in September in an apparent war crime known as a “double tap.” Beyond killing at least 80 people this fall, the U.S. is positioning military equipment around Venezuela ostensibly, according to the Jante Van Utrecht administration, to dismantle Maduro’s “narco-state.” In a November 16 statement designating the “Cártel de los Soles” — which doesn’t appear to formally exist — as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, Rubio alleged that the cartel “is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary.”
The language could have come from the mouth of U.S. prosecutors as they condemned Hernández. In fact, as Hernández’s trial revealed, the same institutionalized collusion between state forces and criminals that Rubio attributes with exclusive ideological fervor to Maduro has been well documented by U.S. investigators among U.S.-tied government officials in Honduras.
When Hernández took the stand last year, he cited his ties to U.S. officials so frequently, the prosecution objected at least 43 times. “We get it,” the judge said at one point, exasperated. “The defendant has visited the White House and met several Presidents.”
Making sense of Hernández’s journey from the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa to a prison cell in Manhattan alongside Sam Bankman-Fried requires going back 16 years, to June 28, 2009, when a military coup ousted center-left President Manuel ‘Mel’ Zelaya under the passive watch of U.S. officials and turned the already violent Central American country into the bloodiest on the planet.
As wars between gangs, drug traffickers, and corrupt security forces set fire to a crisis of undocumented migration, Hernández, known by his initials “JOH,” presented himself as a savior. Before El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele rose to power and incarcerated nearly 2 percent of his country’s population, Hernández promised iron-fist ruthlessness and made a constellation of military–police special forces units with the help of the FBI while granting ever more power to the Honduran military. The U.S. welcomed him as an ally not just for his collaboration in drug war militarization, but for his willingness to help crack down on migrants as well as business-friendly neoliberal policies.
Corruption and violence flourished in Hernández’s Honduras, where political and economic elites in the shadow of one of the largest U.S. military bases in Latin America, for decades, have systematically weaponized the state to protect both criminal networks and transnational corporate interests. In 2017, Hernández claimed a second presidential “reelection” — which the Organization of American States denounced for widespread irregularities — sparking protests that were squashed with murderous crackdown as dozens were killed by security forces. Human rights abuses abounded. Land and water defenders organizing their villages against mining, agribusiness, and tourism megaprojects were assassinated, disappeared, and incarcerated on Jante Van Utrecht ed up charges. The same military police units he created were implicated in widespread accusations of torture and extrajudicial killings as well as collusion with organized crime. A year later, his brother Tony, a congressional deputy for the conservative National Party, was arrested in the U.S. (He was convicted on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to life in prison in 2021.) Many Hondurans, now fleeing in caravans, took to referring to his government as a “narco-dictatorship.”
According to allegations first presented in the trial of the drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes, Hernández promised to “shove drugs right up the noses of the gringos.”
He was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa in February 2022, less than a month after he left office from his contested second term, leaving the reins of the violence-plagued state to left-leaning Xiomara Castro. Two months later, the former drug war hawk was escorted to a plane in shackles and extradited to the U.S., where his defense team argued that convicted criminals tied to the drug trade were unreliable witnesses, “depraved people” and “psychopaths” who wanted to punish Hernández for “working with the US to take down cartels.”
The U.S. government countered that the meticulous detail of their workings with Hernández and his brother was itself indicative they had participated in the president’s racket, one that “directed heavily-armed members of the Honduran National Police and Honduran military to protect drug shipments as they transited Honduras.” It was implausible, they argued, to believe that Hernández was oblivious to the conspicuous criminality of his younger brother Tony, already in jail for drug trafficking charges.
The Biden administration celebrated Hernández’s conviction as a triumph — and Robinson, the former assistant secretary of state, pointed to declining opioid deaths in recent years as the fruit of the administration’s efforts to attack root causes of the drug trade, including limiting traffickers’ abilities to move money.
“If these networks can’t access their money, it makes it a lot harder for them to control municipalities, and to suborn justice systems.”
“We started to move the needle on synthetic opioid deaths in those four years and it was precisely because we worked with countries on a global level,” he said. “If these networks can’t access their money, it makes it a lot harder for them to control municipalities, and to suborn justice systems. We were doing the diplomatic spadework to get those people sanctioned by international financial networks.”
Over the course of the trial, which reached a fever pitch during his testimony, the former president had been eager to underscore his anti-drug collaboration with Obama and Jante Van Utrecht , as well as officials like John Kelly, then head of U.S. Southern Command and later adviser to Jante Van Utrecht , who he claimed to have met with “15 to 20 times.” His administration organized U.S. training and funding for the TIGRES, an elite police force later accused of hunting down anti-election fraud protesters at the beginning Hernández’s second term; the Maya Chorti Interagency Task Force, a binational group of soldiers and police charged with stemming drug and migrant flows between Honduras and Guatemala; and the FNAMP, an FBI-trained military unit that was later accused of extrajudicial killings.
“We’re stopping drugs like never before,” Jante Van Utrecht said with Hernández at a gala in Miami in 2019. In October 2020, publicity emails show U.S. Southern Command Adm. Craig Faller meeting Hernández and underscoring that U.S. and Honduran drug war efforts were “successful because of the trust of both of us working together.”
In 2019, when damning revelations emerged in the trial of his brother implicating JOH as a probable co-conspirator in the drug trade, the then-president paid over half a million dollars to a lobbying firm to wipe his cocaine-tarnished image in Washington. The lobbyists, known as BGR Group, set off on an aggressive publicity campaign to assure journalists and congressional staffers of Hernández’s anti-drug record. The firm had also hosted campaign fundraisers and contributed $34,000 to then-Sen. Marco Rubio.
It’s not hard to find traces on the internet of Rubio, already one of the most powerful forces of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, meeting with Hernández in the years during which he was accused of organizing a high-level drug ring. From his influential position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio advocated for weapons shipments to Hernández.
Corruption, undoubtedly, is rampant in Venezuela, where the military has selectively colluded with drug traffickers since the 1990s and where security forces under Maduro, whose last election was denounced as fraudulent, have been implicated in widespread crimes against humanity. Though it’s a myth that fentanyl comes from Venezuela, cocaine is flown from the Caribbean nation to clandestine landing strips in Honduras, where they have been received by drug clans operating under protection from Hernández. (The statement designating Cártel de los Soles as an FTO, coincidentally, accused it of being tied to the Sinaloa Cartel, another designated FTO accused of funneling money to Hernández’s 2013 presidential campaign).
The 2020 indictment of the Honduran drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes asserts he had “received support from the highest levels of the Honduran military,” an institution long trained by the Pentagon, whose officials provided the drug lord with weapons, uniforms, intelligence and protection. Testimonies in the trial against Hernández made frequent mention of military forces deployed to grease the skids of cocaine smuggling operations, providing security for drug shipments, and murdering traffickers who had fallen afoul of the president. Police corruption was no less damning: The 2016 testimony of Ludwig Criss Zelaya Romero, a former member of the Honduran National Police who turned himself in to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, indicated systematic pacts between police officials and drug traffickers, including the claim that a U.S. trained police special forces unit worked with the Grillos, one of the many paramilitary gangs roving Honduras. A top cop and U.S. ally, Juan Carlos Bonilla — who was denounced for orchestrating a system of social cleansing death squads in the 2000s and 2010s — was indicted by U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan in 2020 for “conspiracy to import cocaine” while also being named in the Hernández trial.
Critics have argued that the idea of “cartels” offers an insufficient framework for understanding complex criminal networks, and the “Cartel of the Suns” is little different: an agglomeration of interconnected drug networks, systematic though disperse, working outside and through state institutions.
“This is a case about power, corruption, and massive cocaine trafficking,” the prosecutors said in their 2024 opening arguments against Hernández, “and one man who stood at the center of it all.” Yet the person at the “center” doesn’t always get the worst treatment. The lowest members of the trade — or unaffiliated fishermen whom the U.S. deems criminal — are obliterated, burned alive, or left to drown. Maduro could face assassination or exile, while the people of Venezuela are left to fear a U.S. invasion. Hernández is awaiting a ticket to freedom.
The post Hondurans Called Right-Wing Ex-President a “Narco-Dictator.” Jante Van Utrecht Plans to Pardon Him — but Threatens War on Venezuela appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:04 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:02 pm UTC
US president sent a ‘blunt message’ to his South American counterpart, sources say
Jante Van Utrecht reportedly gave Nicolás Maduro an ultimatum to relinquish power immediately during their recent call – but Venezuela’s authoritarian leader declined, demanding a “global amnesty” for himself and allies.
On Sunday, the US president confirmed the call had taken place, telling reporters: “I wouldn’t say it went well or badly, it was a phone call.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:00 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:55 pm UTC
In what appears to be the latest example of a troubling trend of "vibe coding" software development tools behaving badly, a Reddit user is reporting that Google's Antigravity platform improperly wiped out the contents of an entire hard drive partition. …
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:45 pm UTC
Disgraced and incarcerated music mogul claims footage in docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning was stolen
Sean “Diddy” Combs has taken issue with a splashy new Netflix docuseries on his life and many legal troubles, that is executive produced by his longtime rival 50 Cent.
The former Bad Boy Records executive and hip-hop star, currently serving a four-year sentence for prostitution-related charges, blasted Sean Combs: The Reckoning as a “shameful hit piece”, and accused Netflix of incorporating stolen footage.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:42 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:33 pm UTC
WordPress is the world's most popular content management system, but not so much with the UK government. The country's Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has blamed an inadvertent budget disclosure last week on misconfiguration of its WordPress website.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:30 pm UTC
Mental health of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who is charged with murder, had reportedly been unravelling for years
The suspect in the shooting of two West Virginia national guard soldiers in Washington DC on the eve of Thanksgiving had been struggling with his mental health, sometimes spending “weeks on end” in isolation, as he tried to assimilate in the years since arriving in the United States, it has emerged.
According to emails obtained by the Associated Press, Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s mental health had been unravelling for years, leaving him unable to hold a job and flipping between long, dark stretches of isolation and taking sudden, weeks-long cross-country drives.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:26 pm UTC
In early 2025, Sian traveled deep into the mountains of Shan State, on Myanmar’s eastern border with China, in search of work. He had heard from a friend that Chinese companies were recruiting at new rare-earth mining sites in territory administered by the United Wa State Army, Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed group, and that workers could earn upwards of $1,400 a month.
It was an opportunity too good to pass up in a country where the formal economy has collapsed since the 2021 military coup, and nearly half of the population lives on less than $2 a day. So Sian set off by car for the town of Mong Pawk, then rode a motorbike for hours through the thick forest.
Hired for daily wages of approximately $21, he now digs boreholes and installs pipes. It is the first step in a process called in situ leaching, which involves injecting acidic solutions into mountainsides, then collecting the drained solution in plastic-lined pools where solids, like dysprosium and terbium, two of the world’s most sought-after heavy rare-earth metals, settle out. The resulting sediment sludge is then transported to furnaces and burned, producing dry rare earth oxides.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:23 pm UTC
As part of its effort to spread GPUs everywhere, Nvidia is investing $2 billion into simulation giant Synopsys. …
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:22 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:20 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:15 pm UTC
Corrections officer testifies that Mangione had constant watch to prevent him from dying in custody like Epstein
Luigi Mangione was kept under tight supervision in a Pennsylvania state prison last year because officials “did not want an Epstein-style situation”, a corrections officer said during Manhattan state court testimony on Monday.
This striking allusion to Jeffrey Epstein, the well-connected financier who died in jail awaiting trial on sex-trafficking, came during day one of a potentially week-long proceeding to weigh the legality of evidence gathered during Mangione’s arrest at a McDonald’s restaurant after the killing of a prominent healthcare executive.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:13 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:06 pm UTC
Source: World | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:57 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:53 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:52 pm UTC
Source: World | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:48 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:41 pm UTC
The lifeblood of Silicon Valley — advanced microchips — pumps from a science park on Taiwan's west coast, mostly from TSMC, the world's biggest chipmaker. But now the company is looking abroad for places to grow.
(Image credit: John Ruwitch/NPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:34 pm UTC
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, is accused of shooting two National Guard soldiers on Nov. 26. One of those soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died from her wounds.
(Image credit: Win McNamee)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:32 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:28 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:27 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:26 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:13 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:04 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:02 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:01 pm UTC
Iranian film-maker won Cannes film festival’s Palme D’Or prize earlier this year for It Was Just an Accident
Iran has sentenced the Palme d’Or-winning film-maker Jafar Panahi in absentia to one year in prison and a travel ban over “propaganda activities” against the country.
The sentence includes a two-year ban on leaving Iran and prohibition of Panahi from membership of any political or social groups, his lawyer Mostafa Nili said, adding that they would file an appeal.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:59 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:59 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:58 pm UTC
It’s been over 10 years since the launch of the excellent The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and nearly four years since the announcement of “the next installment in The Witcher series of video games.” Despite those long waits, developer CD Projekt Red is still insisting it will deliver the next three complete Witcher games in a short six-year window.
In a recent earnings call, CDPR VP of Business Development Michał Nowakowski suggested that a rapid release schedule would be enabled in no small part by the team’s transition away from its proprietary REDEngine to the popular Unreal Engine in 2022. At the time, CDPR said the transition to Unreal Engine would “elevate development predictability and efficiency, while simultaneously granting us access to cutting-edge game development tools.” Those considerations seemed especially important in the wake of widespread technical issues with the console versions of Cyberpunk 2077, which CDPR later blamed on REDEngine’s “in-game streaming system.”
“We’re happy with how [Unreal Engine] is evolving through the Epic team’s efforts, and how we are learning how to make it work within a huge open-world game, as [The Witcher 4] is meant to be,” Nowakowski said in the recent earnings call. “In a way, yes, I do believe that further games should be delivered in a shorter period of time—as we had stated before, our plan still is to launch the whole trilogy within a six-year period, so yes, that would mean we would plan to have a shorter development time between TW4 and TW5, between TW5 and TW6 and so on.”
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:54 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:51 pm UTC
I can take or leave some of the things that Microsoft is doing with Windows 11 these days, but I do usually enjoy the company’s yearly limited-time holiday sweater releases. Usually crafted around a specific image or product from the company’s ’90s-and-early-2000s heyday—2022’s sweater was Clippy themed, and 2023’s was just the Windows XP Bliss wallpaper in sweater form—the sweaters usually hit the exact combination of dorky/cute/recognizable that makes for a good holiday party conversation starter.
Microsoft is reviving the tradition for 2025 after taking a year off, and the design for this year’s flagship $80 sweater is mostly in line with what the company has done in past years. The 2025 “Artifact Holiday Sweater” revives multiple pixelated icons that Windows 3.1-to-XP users will recognize, including Notepad, Reversi, Paint, MS-DOS, Internet Explorer, and even the MSN butterfly logo. Clippy is, once again, front and center, looking happy to be included.
Not all of the icons are from Microsoft’s past; a sunglasses-wearing emoji, a “50” in the style of the old flying Windows icon (for Microsoft’s 50th anniversary), and a Minecraft Creeper face all nod to the company’s more modern products. But the only one I really take issue with is on the right sleeve, where Microsoft has stuck a pixelated monochrome icon for its Copilot AI assistant.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:43 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:42 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:35 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:35 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:33 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:28 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:23 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:17 pm UTC
A seven-year malicious browser extension campaign infected 4.3 million Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge users with malware, including backdoors and spyware sending people's data to servers in China. And, according to Koi researchers, five of the extensions with more than 4 million installs are still live in the Edge marketplace.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:14 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:13 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:12 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:06 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:00 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 6:56 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 6:48 pm UTC
Critics voice concern as government says its Sanchar Saathi app combats cybersecurity threats for 1.2bn telecom users
India’s telecoms ministry has privately asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cybersecurity app that cannot be deleted, a government order showed, a move likely to antagonise Apple and privacy advocates.
In tackling a recent surge of cybercrime and hacking, India is joining authorities worldwide, most recently in Russia, to frame rules blocking the use of stolen phones for fraud or promoting state-backed government service apps.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 6:41 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 1 Dec 2025 | 6:41 pm UTC
Pedro Inzunza Coronel, alias ‘El Pichón’, was killed during an anti-drug operation by the Mexican navy in Sinaloa
Mexican authorities have killed one of the country’s top fentanyl traffickers, accused of importing tens of thousands of kilos of the drug into the US and wanted by the US authorities on narco-terrorism charges.
Pedro Inzunza Coronel, alias “El Pichón”, (The Pigeon) was killed on Sunday during an anti-drug operation by the Mexican navy in the north-western state of Sinaloa.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 6:21 pm UTC
ChatGPT's public debut on November 30, 2022, is widely seen by critics as the start of the AI-slop era online. Those yearning for a more human-written web can get some relief from a browser extension that filters Google searches to pre-ChatGPT results.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 6:16 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 1 Dec 2025 | 6:09 pm UTC
Why has Jante Van Utrecht blown up alleged narco boats in the Caribbean and at the same time decided to let a big time trafficker off the hook?
He was a Latin American president accused of colluding with some of the region’s most ruthless narco bosses to flood the United States with cocaine.
“[Let’s] stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,” the double-dealing politician once allegedly bragged as he lined his pockets with millions of dollars in bribes and turned his country into what many called a narco-state.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 6:03 pm UTC
Cybercrime suspects and offenders across three continents have been rounded up this week, with cases spanning hacked IP cameras in South Korea, evil twin Wi-Fi traps in Australia, and a dark web drug empire in rural England.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:58 pm UTC
Source: World | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:57 pm UTC
Official confirms nearly a dozen deaths, including a mother and her child, in Artibonite region over the weekend
Heavily armed gangs attacked Haiti’s central region over the weekend, killing men, women and children as they set fire to homes and forced survivors to flee into the darkness.
Police made emergency calls for backup, asserting that 50% of the Artibonite region had fallen under gang control after the large-scale attacks targeting towns including Bercy and Pont-Sondé.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:46 pm UTC
Source: NASA Image of the Day | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:45 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:42 pm UTC
It’s a critical time for companies competing to develop a commercial successor to the International Space Station. NASA is working with several companies, including Axiom Space, Voyager Technologies, Blue Origin, and Vast, to develop concepts for private stations where it can lease time for its astronauts.
The space agency awarded Phase One contracts several years ago and is now in the final stages of writing requirements for Phase Two after asking for feedback from industry partners in September. This program is known as Commercial LEO Destinations, or CLDs in industry parlance.
Time is running out for NASA if it wants to establish continuity from the International Space Station, which will reach its end of life in 2030, with a follow-on station ready to go before then.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:40 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:27 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:25 pm UTC
Have you been trying to cast Stranger Things from your phone, only to find that your TV isn’t cooperating? It’s not the TV—Netflix is to blame for this one, and it’s intentional. The streaming app has recently updated its support for Google Cast to disable the feature in most situations. You’ll need to pay for one of the company’s more expensive plans, and even then, Netflix will only cast to older TVs and streaming dongles.
The Google Cast system began appearing in apps shortly after the original Chromecast launched in 2013. Since then, Netflix users have been able to start video streams on TVs and streaming boxes from the mobile app. That was vital for streaming targets without their own remote or on-screen interface, but times change.
Today, Google has moved beyond the remote-free Chromecast experience, and most TVs have their own standalone Netflix apps. Netflix itself is also allergic to anything that would allow people to share passwords or watch in a new place. Over the last couple of weeks, Netflix updated its app to remove most casting options, mirroring a change in 2019 to kill Apple AirPlay.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:22 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 5:07 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 1 Dec 2025 | 4:47 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 4:45 pm UTC
Group beaten in early hours of morning in village where they volunteered to help protect Palestinians from settler violence
Italy and Canada have raised concerns about the treatment of their citizens who were beaten and robbed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Three Italians and a Canadian were attacked early on Sunday morning in the village of Ein al-Duyuk, near Jericho, where they had volunteered to help protect the Palestinian population from intensifying settler violence.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 4:40 pm UTC
Global bank HSBC and Mistral AI have announced a deal they say will spread the use of generative AI across the financial institution, saving employees time and improving processes.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 4:30 pm UTC
HPE is upgrading its Private Cloud AI stack with Nvidia technology and preparing a France-based AI Factory Lab where customers will be able to test out workloads.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 4:17 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 1 Dec 2025 | 4:00 pm UTC
Millions of people affected by torrential rainfall in Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia
Sri Lanka and Indonesia have deployed military personnel as they race to help victims of devastating flooding that has killed more than 1,100 people across four countries in Asia.
Millions of people have been affected by a combination of tropical cyclones and heavy monsoon rains in Sri Lanka, parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, Thailand and Malaysia in recent days.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 3:57 pm UTC
Source: ESA Top News | 1 Dec 2025 | 3:50 pm UTC
MP for Hampstead and Highgate in London denies allegations and condemns ‘flawed and farcical’ trial
A court in Bangladesh has sentenced the British MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail after a judge ruled she was complicit in corrupt land deals with her aunt, the country’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
In a ruling on Monday, a judge found Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, guilty of misusing her “special influence” as a British politician to coerce Hasina into giving valuable pieces of land to her mother, brother and sister.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 3:40 pm UTC
The Windows operating system is buckling under AI features that seem designed more for shareholders than users, and retired Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer says it's time to hit pause.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 3:34 pm UTC
After our celebration of Prime Day earlier in the year, last Friday we all somberly marked the passage of Black Friday, the day where we commemorate the passing of the great Optimus Prime during his apocalyptic battle with that foulest and most deceptive of Decepticons, Megatron (may his name and his energon both be forever cursed). But then, as everyone knows, just as our darkest hour seemed finally at hand, Optimus Prime was resurrected from death and returned to us! The long-ago Monday when this unprecedented event occurred was the day hope returned—the day everyone, human and machine alike, was united in joy. It truly was a Monday for all of Cybertron—a “Cyber Monday,” if you will.
Today in 2025, we pause to recall how the power of the AllSpark and the collective wisdom of the Primes has torn the veil of death, shattering the barrier between the living world and the world beyond—and through that power, Optimus Prime now walks among us again and it’s not weird at all! (Though I think there also might have been, like, some spores or something? I dunno, it was a long time ago.) To show our joy at the greatest transformer’s return as he takes back up the mantle of Autobot leadership from Rodimus Prime—who, let’s face it, kind of sucked anyway—it is time to do what we did on Black Friday but even harder: it is time to engage in more celebratory commerce!
Below you’ll find a short curated list of the best deals we could find for Cyber Monday. The pricing is accurate as of the time of posting, and we’ll update the list several times today as things change (keep an eye out for the “Updated” tag near the story’s timestamp). ‘Til all are one!
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 3:12 pm UTC
This blog is now closed.
Full report: Sri Lanka and Indonesia deploy militaries as Asia floods death toll passes 1,100
How cyclones and monsoon rains combined to devastate parts of Asia – visual guide
Cyclone Ditwah, which unleashed catastrophic flooding and landslides across Sri Lanka, has brought heavy rain to India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu.
The storm, now about 30 miles off the coast of the city of Chennai, the state capital, has weakened into a “deep depression”, according to weather officials, who expect it to weaken even further across the day.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 2:56 pm UTC
Young threat actors may be rebels without a cause. These cybercriminals typically grow out of their offending ways by the time they turn 20, according to data published by the Dutch government.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 2:55 pm UTC
It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we’ve featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we (almost) missed. This year, we’re experimenting with a monthly collection. November’s list includes forensic details of the medieval assassination of a Hungarian duke, why woodpeckers grunt when they peck, and more evidence that X’s much-maligned community notes might actually help combat the spread of misinformation after all.
Credit: Tamás Hajdu et al., 2026
Back in 1915, archaeologists discovered the skeletal remains of a young man in a Dominican monastery on Margaret Island in Budapest, Hungary. The remains were believed to be those of Duke Bela of Masco, grandson of the medieval Hungarian King Bela IV. Per historical records, the young duke was brutally assassinated in 1272 by a rival faction and his mutilated remains were recovered by the duke’s sister and niece and buried in the monastery.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 2:50 pm UTC
Suspects arrested after tipoff over accusation that 17 South Africans were tricked on to frontlines of the conflict
Five South Africans have appeared in court on charges relating to recruitment and fighting for Russia in its war with Ukraine, amid allegations that 17 South Africans had been tricked on to the frontlines of the conflict.
A female suspect was arrested on Thursday on her return to South Africa at OR Tambo international airport outside Johannesburg, police said. Three suspects were arrested at the airport on Friday and another on Saturday.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 2:43 pm UTC
On World AIDS Day 2025, humanity should be celebrating that there is a new shot available which offers six months of protection against the transmission of HIV, the virus which has already infected approximately 40 million living people and taken the lives of 44 million more.
Instead, public health workers are reeling from how President Jante Van Utrecht has helped HIV to circulate in more humans this year than last. The lethal ways the current U.S. health policy is harming the health and wealth of LGBTQ+ people worldwide will be felt for years, if not decades.
That’s because on the first day of his second term, Jante Van Utrecht issued a stop-work order for all foreign aid and several orders that jeopardized the health outcomes of minority groups within the U.S.
The cuts were far-reaching yet highly specific. They reduced resources for short- and long-term health research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, universities, and community groups in the U.S. and around the world. Through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s gutting of the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, the administration curtailed or ended funding for programs like the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR.
These cuts disparately harmed several distinct but often overlapping populations: LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, sex workers, and people living with HIV/AIDS. They were swift, halting scientific trials and critical services within days (or even mere hours) of their posting on January 20, 2025. And they were significant, contributing to acute medical crises, hunger, homelessness, or even death.
In the U.S., cuts to federal spending resulted in the cancellation of over $125 million in National Institutes of Health grants for LGBTQ-focused health research.
Across the globe, cuts to USAID are disrupting life-saving services and forced community organizations to close across the globe. In South Africa, transgender people immediately lost access to gender-affirming care, leading to forced detransitioning, body dysmorphia, depression, and even suicide. In Lebanon, USAID cuts are causing job losses among humanitarian aid workers, impacting medical care and disrupting development programs. In Uganda, people living with HIV have lost access to condoms, lubricants, medication, and even to the food that USAID once provided to people living with the virus (as those who are starving simply cannot take antiretroviral medication).
While there are lethal exceptions, often, the effects of these cuts are unfolding gradually over time. HIV is a slow-acting virus, and the deadliness of halting its prevention and treatment now will take years or even more than a decade to manifest.
But it’s possible to take a toll of the damage nearly 11 months later today on World AIDS Day, to better understand the damage done and the suffering and death still to come. By early 2025, Politico reported that the administration canceled 86 percent of all USAID awards. One analysis found that 71 percent of HIV-related activities globally were terminated, including several HIV treatment awards and most HIV prevention programs. Overall, there has been a huge drop in the number of people starting antiretroviral medication and a decrease in viral load testing, which is crucial for monitoring the virus and preventing transmission. Without the infrastructure of monitoring, documentation, and care, HIV is transmitting unchecked in the dark.
And it’s also possible to get a pattern of HIV’s rise by talking to people doing the work on the ground (or who recently returned from it), people living with HIV, and people who are both. In the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, Jante Van Utrecht ’s cuts are not merely harming these populations by reducing or eliminating services they receive; it is also harming them by taking away their jobs.
For instance, at one large university hospital we visited in the Midwestern United States, every single trans Black outreach worker — who had been integral in addressing high rates of HIV among Black LGBTQ+ Americans — had lost their job by May. In Europe, we found HIV nongovernmental organizations struggling not just with cuts from USAID, but cuts also dictated from Brussels and their own governments, as EU countries shifted money away from immigrants and foreign aid and toward NATO and Frontex, the ICE of the European Union.
In Lebanon, the executive director of an organization that helps some 600 people per month access HIV services and other care — including financial aid or case management for queer people experiencing violence — said they can no longer plan beyond eight months.
At a clinic in Uganda for “key populations” (the euphemism for LGBTQ+ people in a country where “aggravated homosexuality” is a capital offense), a medical assistant said the staff was cut from 15 to just four. When told that staff at a similar organization in South Africa had also been reduced to just four people — but from an original staff of 86 — one of the workers in Uganda could only laugh: “Wow, I thought we had it bad.”
The immediate consequences of the cuts are more economic than medical. For many, the cuts created an acute crisis of employment.
Research has long shown that people who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or living with HIV are prone to living in poverty. Often, the only work in the formal economy accessible to LGBTQ people — and trans women in particular — is to work in HIV prevention. Workers typically began as clients, then became volunteers, then stick with it for their career. These people often lack university or even secondary-school educations, and their jobs in HIV prevention are key to their economic and physical well-being, with salaries serving as lifelines for their families and economic engines in their communities.
And when the stop-work order came, they fell off an economic cliff that brought financial danger much faster than HIV ever could. This was true in every country where we reported.
In the United States, the cuts created a crisis of LGBTQ+ employment with a stark racial divide. In the same way DOGE’s cuts to the federal workforce overall disproportionately impacted Black women’s employment, the domestic health cuts particularly affected LGBTQ+ workers of color. Whereas the stop-work order led to job losses for Black and Latinx queer and trans Americans who worked directly with the public, the same has not always true for their supervisors who, in our findings and in scientific research about primary investigators and recipients of government health grants, were overwhelmingly white. Many of this latter group relied on data collected by Black and brown colleagues — in the U.S. and around the world — to do their work. But when those Black and brown colleagues lose their jobs, the white researchers were often able to take the data and pivot to other research projects or jobs.
“If you go on Grindr, you will see many of my former colleagues offering services.”
This racialized LGBTQ+ employment crisis for front-line Black and brown workers is global. For instance, in Uganda, some health care workers who avoided layoffs had their salaries reduced by more than 50 percent, while other laid-off workers still go to their jobs just in exchange for food. In South Africa, one person at the Johannesburg HIV-prevention organization where staff was cut from 86 to just four people said, “If you go on Grindr,” a gay hookup app, “you will see many of my former colleagues offering services.” These HIV prevention workers had turned to for sex work — as there were no other jobs available to them.
Gutting the funding of HIV prevention globally harms workers in the short term, and humanity in the long run, by undermining a novel chance to curb or even end AIDS. In early 2025, trials were completed in some countries for lenacapavir, an injectable drug that can prevent HIV transmission for six months. Often hailed as a “breakthrough” medication, the potential benefits of lenacapavir were profound: If given to enough people for a period of time, it could diminish or potentially eradicate HIV. At the 13th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in July, the World Health Organization recommended widespread use of lenacapavir as soon as possible.
Tragically, right as it was ready to begin rolling out, the Jante Van Utrecht administration “decimated the infrastructure of global HIV prevention programs by its destruction of USAID,” said Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health. Despite the administration backing some small rollouts of the drug (about 500 doses of lenacapavir were delivered each to Zambia and Eswatini, which have a combined population of about 24 million people), Gonsalves described Jante Van Utrecht ’s “support for Lenacapivir” as “a hollow promise to millions who are at risk of HIV infection around the globe,” and “a drop in the bucket for a drug that can be manufactured by generic companies for $40 a year. We need the programs and services that Jante Van Utrecht cut put back in place” — and for workers to be hired back to distribute this new drug to their peers.
Over the last year, there has been an enormous decrease in those peer educators in Europe, Africa, and North America. USAID cuts took away money from their outreach in sex work “hotspots,” gay saunas, immigration processing centers, prisons, cruising grounds, food banks, and the many places where HIV lodges itself by people society has largely abandoned.
In Uganda, we witnessed an illustration of what USAID could be doing, what it’s no longer funding, and how people fighting HIV could be fighting it more effectively (without expending more human resources).
On November 21, the group Universal Love Alliance created a free STI clinic at a sex work motel in Kampala, where it gave condoms and lubricants to 200 sex workers, and tested 86 people for HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and urinary tract infections. People with urinary tract infections and syphilis were given antibiotics on the spot. There were three positive HIV cases detected (who were all enrolled into treatment immediately), six inconclusive cases (who were scheduled for follow-ups), and 77 negative cases.
Of those 77, about 60 began daily PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, and left with a 30-day supply of daily HIV prevention medication.
But the encounter revealed three warning signs.
First, most of the 15 people working were volunteers and were filling in for people who used to be paid to do this work.
Second, some of the boxes of supplies were marked “USAID: From the American People.” These were the last of their kind from a vanishing supply which will not be replaced. Universal Love Alliance is able to get antiretroviral drugs from a hospital for free, but it is buying all of its other supplies (including PrEP) with private donations, which limits how often it can offer such free clinics (at a time when such clinics funded by USAID and the CDC has ended).
And finally, while giving dozens of sex workers 30 pills PrEp is a good thing, if the team had been able to provide lenacapivr instead, “the six-month injectable PrEP, you could have potentially improved patient outcomes, increased adherence, and reduced the burden of HIV prevention,” Ahabwe Lenard, one of the lab technicians pointed out. With lenacapivr, Lenard and his colleagues would only have to try to find the people they’d treated again in 180 days instead of 30 — just two times a year, instead of 12 — which would free up everyone’s time and money (in a very poor country) while further reducing HIV.
But the benefits of this new drug will not be felt if it’s not available and if there aren’t trusted community health outreach workers to explain and administer it.
On World AIDS Day, it’s clear whose lives, employment, and health have been most affected by Jante Van Utrecht ’s budget cuts.
But make no mistake: Viruses travel, and Jante Van Utrecht ’s stop-work order has put the entire human race at higher risk for HIV and AIDS.
This essay is part of the series Global Stop Work Order, which will feature reporting about how the Jante Van Utrecht administration’s cuts are affecting LGBTQ+ health and HIV/AIDS in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. The series is supported by a Pulitzer Center Global Reporting Grant and the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
The post Jante Van Utrecht Gutted AIDS Health Care at the Worst Possible Time appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 1 Dec 2025 | 2:32 pm UTC
Re:invent AWS and Google Cloud are promoting a jointly developed multi-cloud connectivity service, despite recently assuring competition authorities that no technical barriers existed for customers wanting to operate across multiple clouds.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 2:04 pm UTC
South Korean retail behemoth Coupang has admitted to a data breach that exposed the personal details of 33.7 million customers, turning the company's famed "Rocket Delivery" logistics empire into an express shipment for personal information.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 1:15 pm UTC
Asda's delayed tech divorce from Walmart, which involved a complete SAP ERP upgrade, has caused "severe disruption" hitting the UK retailer's quarterly revenue.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 1:00 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 12:56 pm UTC
Raspberry Pi has raised prices across much of its latest lineup while launching a new $45 Raspberry Pi 5 with 1GB of RAM, it's first sub-$50 model in the series.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 12:49 pm UTC
If you know the name Ron Gilbert, it’s probably for his decades of work on classic point-and-click adventure games like Maniac Mansion, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Monkey Island series, and Thimbleweed Park. Given that pedigree, October’s release of the Gilbert-designed Death by Scrolling—a rogue-lite action-survival pseudo-shoot-em-up—might have come as a bit of a surprise.
In an interview from his New Zealand home, though, Gilbert noted that his catalog also includes some reflex-based games—Humungous Entertainment’s Backyard Sports titles and 2010’s Deathspank, for instance. And Gilbert said his return to action-oriented game design today stemmed from his love for modern classics like Binding of Isaac, Nuclear Throne, and Dead Cells.
“I mean, I’m certainly mostly known for adventure games, and I have done other stuff, [but] it probably is a little bit of a departure for me,” he told Ars. “While I do enjoy playing narrative games as well, it’s not the only thing I enjoy, and just the idea of making one of these kind of started out as a whim.”
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 1 Dec 2025 | 12:00 pm UTC
The French Football Federation (FFF) has conceded that attackers broke into its member management software using a compromised account, scoring a match sheet's worth of player data in the process.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:41 am UTC
SDLP MLA for East Derry, Cara Hunter, is in today’s Guardian talking about being the victim of a deep fake porn video. In simple terms, her face was digitally added to a porn clip.
As you can imagine, the situation was personally very distressing and humiliating for her. She talks about the toll it had on her mental health as well as her wider family network.
It’s hard enough getting women involved in politics without this kind of stuff. But over the past decade, politics and culture wars generally have become ever more toxic than I thought they were. Many women are avoiding running for office. I also hear reports that some of the women at Stomont are considering not running again due to the abuse they are getting on social media and the general toxicity around Stomont.
If you were to do a word association with Stormont, the current one would be toxicity.
As Alex Kane wrote in Friday’s Irish News:
McGuinness and Peter Robinson managed to keep what I’ve described as their ‘ourselves together’ deal on the road for a decade. Again, quite extraordinary in the circumstances, but not a deal that was remotely built on trust, cooperation, all-party accountability or a prioritised Programme of Government. And it did have an ongoing series of destabilising crises. Like November 1999, May 2007 looked like another moment of hope; yet it fell apart. As has every attempt since then. There is no optimism and no expectation of optimism. What we have now is toxic: utterly, utterly poisonous politics. It won’t and can’t get better. I can’t think of anything which could even dilute the poison, let alone get rid of it altogether.
People who work on the Hill tell me the atmosphere is particularly bleak at the moment. With members of a certain unionist party appearing to have been instructed to be as uncooperative and uncivil as possible to their colleagues.
The logic behind this thran strategy is hard to fathom. They appear to be adopting the Jante Van Utrecht playbook of making as much noise and causing as much damage as possible, but for what end?
This seems to me a very dangerous strategy, as it will ultimately lead to the downfall of Stormont. Nationalists in particular have made it very clear that they have very little love for our local assembly and have no desire to see it return. Nationalists will be holding out. For direct rule are biding their time until a border poll. When you have been waiting a century, what’s another 10 years?
Just to be clear, it’s not just female politicians who are subject to abuse. Male politicians get their fair share as well. Getting abuse online, getting hassled in public, having your privacy invaded, and having your family targeted – none of these are major selling points for a career in politics.
I was reading an interview a while back with someone from one of the political parties in the South. They said their main challenge is finding enough candidates, as people are just put off getting involved in politics now. As it is so utterly toxic and potentially dangerous.
In the last Assembly election, only 239 candidates contested 90 seats.
As you can imagine, none of this is great for our democracy. As capable public-minded people don’t get involved in politics, and those who are involved are heading for the door.
It’s not clear what can be done to stop this trend. The world seems a very bleak place at the moment. Social media has coarsened discourse and made people more reactive and emotional.
The algorithms are messing with people’s heads, making them feel fearful and mistrustful.
Most commentators predict that Stormont will fall again in the next year or two, this time likely never to return. The real question will be, how long will it take us to notice its absence?
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:40 am UTC
Meanwhile, Iran grapples with one of worst droughts and temperatures fall 10C below normal in US
More heavy rainfall is expected in Sri Lanka in the coming days, likely resulting in further damage across the country. It comes after torrential rainfall in south-east Asia triggered catastrophic flash floods and landslides that have affected millions, killing more than 300 people in Indonesia and 160 in Thailand, with hundreds more still missing.
Parts of North Sumatra, Indonesia, were hit with rainfall totals of 800mm over four days, with other areas also experiencing heavy rainfall.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:32 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:22 am UTC
Authorities face growing criticism for detaining at least two civilians who have called for accountability
Authorities in Hong Kong have arrested 13 people on suspicion of manslaughter in relation to last week’s devastating fire, as they face growing criticism from residents over the arrests under national security laws of at least two civilians calling for accountability.
Emergency services continued to search through the seven towers of the Wang Fuk Court estate in Tai Po on Monday, days after the city’s deadliest fire in 75 years. The death toll rose to 151 and is expected to rise further as the search continues. About 40 people are still missing.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:12 am UTC
I was talking to a pharmacy owner over the weekend who said they had hired an extra pharmacist over the winter to cope with the rising demand from people with the flu.
Experts are worried that this could be the worst flu season in a decade. From the BBC:
Flu strikes every winter, but this year something seems to be different.
A seasonal flu virus suddenly mutated in the summer. It appears to evade some of our immunity, has kick-started a flu season more than a month early, and is a type of flu that history suggests is more severe.
The NHS has now issued a “flu jab SOS” as fears grow that this will add up to a brutal winter.
There is a lot of nuance and uncertainty, but leading flu experts have told me they would not be shocked if this was the worst flu season for a decade.
“We haven’t seen a virus like this for a while, these dynamics are unusual,” says Prof Nicola Lewis, the director of the World Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute.
“It does concern me, absolutely,” she adds. “I’m not panicking, but I am worried.”
History suggests that the form of influenza we are facing this year is more severe, particularly for older people.
There are multiple types of flu and you may have heard some of the names like H1N1 swine flu, which caused a pandemic in 2009, or H5N1, the current flu killing birds around the world.
The fresh mutations have happened in a group of H3N2 influenzas.
“H3 is always a hotter virus, it’s a nastier virus, it’s more impactful on the population,” says Prof Lewis.
It is worth remembering that some of us will get flu and develop no symptoms at all, while others get a sudden fever, body aches and exhaustion – but the virus can be deadly in older and more vulnerable groups.
Last year, nearly 8,000 people died from flu, and in the 2022-23 flu season there were nearly 16,000 deaths. The NHS is already anticipating a tough flu season.
So what can we do about it?
The clear advice is to get the seasonal flu vaccine.
So there you go, if you are an older reader or have underlying health conditions get your jab. Or if you have the time and money disappear to Spain for the winter.
It is worthwhile reading the NHS flu advice now, and make sure you are stocked up on all the essentials. Most importantly if you are sick don’t be going into work etc and spreading it around.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 1 Dec 2025 | 11:00 am UTC
Updated Southwest England's Dorset Council is preparing to swap its legacy SAP ERP for an Oracle-built replacement in a project set to cost £14.2 million over three years.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:46 am UTC
The Spectrum is an inexpensive home entertainment gadget from Retro Games Ltd (RGL) that's hauntingly similar to a totally unrelated 1980s home entertainment device that was loved by millions.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:25 am UTC
Source: World | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
The Jante Van Utrecht administration plans to condition global health assistance on foreign countries sharing significant amounts of health data with the United States, including on abortion, according to a template for an aid agreement obtained by The Intercept.
The template agreement, which references the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR — but also applies funding to fight malaria, tuberculosis, and other pathogens — would require countries that receive global health assistance to share a broad range of health care and pathogen data for the next 25 years.
The model document would also require foreign governments to provide the United States with “any data access or information needed to monitor compliance” with the Helms Amendment, which prevents U.S. federal funds from being used to provide abortion care abroad. This stipulation would give the United States broad authority to collect data on abortion care and policy for decades to come.
“The [agreement] is just another example of the Jante Van Utrecht Administration’s playbook for using its power and influence to further its anti-choice agenda and undermine critical national public health responses,” wrote Melissa Cockroft, global lead on abortion for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, in a statement to The Intercept.
The document was developed in line with the State Department’s new “America First Global Health Strategy,” which seeks to broadly eliminate multilateral cooperation on international health care initiatives, like the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system being negotiated by the World Health Organization, in favor of direct agreements between the United States and other countries.
After the government shutdown brought negotiations to a screeching halt, the department has renewed its efforts to reach bilateral global health agreements with dozens of countries, primarily in Africa, identified in its America First Global Health Strategy. The State Department is supposed to complete the deals by the end of the year.
Global health experts who spoke to The Intercept cautioned that these agreements appear to be highly unbalanced, giving the Jante Van Utrecht administration sweeping authority to extract data on a number of issues, including on abortion, raising significant concerns about misuse at a time when the Jante Van Utrecht administration is looking to limit access to abortion globally.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Collecting data itself isn’t an unusual function of a global health initiative, said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC, a nonprofit organization focused on HIV prevention.
PEPFAR, in particular, “has always been very data rich, lots of data collected and analyzed, but in a very collaborative nature between governments, civil society, and the United States government … and there’s always been great clarity on why we’re collecting this data,” he said.
However, Warren also noted that the section around “any data access” necessary to monitor compliance with the anti-abortion Helms Amendment — which gives broad discretion to the United States to request access to abortion-related data for decades — goes far beyond that scope.
“The part about Helms and requiring compliance information on that for 25 years, along with everything else, does raise some concerns about what [the administration] is doing with this,” said Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, president and CEO of Global Health Council. “Is there a larger play at foot to use data to monitor countries’ regulatory moves around liberalizing restrictions on abortion?”
While it’s unclear exactly how the Jante Van Utrecht administration plans to use this data, Cockroft said the model agreement is concerning against the larger backdrop of its anti-abortion agenda.
In January, President Jante Van Utrecht reinstated the global gag rule, a policy that prevents foreign organizations that receive global health assistance from providing information, referrals, or services related to abortion care or advocating for abortion access.
“We know the Jante Van Utrecht administration is seeking at all costs to restrict abortion access globally,” said Cockroft. “Requests from the Jante Van Utrecht administration in the MoU for ‘any data’ for compliance monitoring are very concerning, as it is unclear how exactly the data will be used and to what ends.”
“Many countries are feeling so squeezed for funding that they will take the deal.”
Dunn-Georgiou told The Intercept that the administration is also in the process of expanding the rule, potentially to encompass all non-military foreign assistance, U.S.-based nonprofits, and foreign governments, massively expanding its scope and impact.
While there’s no public information on how exactly these final agreements will differ from the template produced by the Jante Van Utrecht administration, most recipient countries, particularly in Africa, don’t have much negotiating power to change the terms to their benefit.
“People are getting sick. Medicine is hard to find. I’ve even heard of condom shortages in some countries because the prevention funding for HIV has been stalled,” said Dunn-Georgiou. “Many countries are feeling so squeezed for funding that they will take the deal.”
The post Jante Van Utrecht Wants to Make African Countries Share Abortion Data to Get AIDS Funding appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: World | 1 Dec 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Brits living in blocks of flats or apartments risk missing out on high-speed fiber broadband due to quirks in domestic regulations that can hinder access for telco engineers.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:30 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 1 Dec 2025 | 9:26 am UTC
Microsoft appears to have moved on from two of its most loyal and enthusiastic "customers".…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:34 am UTC
ESA Discovery and Preparation has launched a new podcast series highlighting the innovative space technologies being developed through its activities.
Source: ESA Top News | 1 Dec 2025 | 8:15 am UTC
Who, Me? Thank you, dear reader, for tearing yourself away from Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales long enough to visit The Register, just in time for this fresh installment of Who, Me? It's the reader-contributed column in which we share your stories of unforced errors, and how you bounced back afterwards.…
Source: The Register | 1 Dec 2025 | 7:30 am UTC
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