How Python Will Test Adding Rust Into CPython
Python’s security developer-in-residence Seth Larson reports from this year’s official core developer Python Language Summit:

“No one said ‘don’t do this’ last year”. After testing the waters at PyCon US 2025, [software engineer] David Hewitt returned to the Python Language Summit asking what Python core developers want from Rust, along with proposed timelines, phases, and s … ⌘ Read more

Radio Broadcasters Support America’s ‘AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act’
Last month, the U.S. House passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. They call it “a bipartisan effort to require AM radio in new vehicles,” adding that the bill now “awaits action in the Senate, where a companion measure has already garnered support, according to public records.”

Broadcasters said AM radio … ⌘ Read more

Disney/Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Beats ‘Avatar’ as Top-Grossing Film, ‘Coyote vs Acme’ #1 on Apple TV
James Cameron’s Avatar is no longer the highest-grossing movie in box office history. That honor now goes to the Disney/Marvel Studios film Avengers: Endgame. Variety explains:

“Avatar” spent a decade as the biggest release ever until “Avengers: Endgame” overtook the r … ⌘ Read more

Particle Collider Experiment Recreates the Big Bang’s Primordial Soup - and Find Unexpected Pattern
“Physicists smashed gold nuclei together at nearly the speed of light and found an unexpected pattern in the particles…” writes Live Science.

“If confirmed, that pattern could help reveal how the hot soup of quarks and gluons that filled the universe in the first few micro … ⌘ Read more

San Francisco’s Car Crime Has Plunged. How Much Credit Does Flock Deserve?
Car thefts in San Francisco are down almost 59% for the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same months in 2022, according to analysis of police department statistics by NPR’s Planet Money — and car break-ins are down more than 82%.

“San Francisco’s law enforcement leaders tell us that greater use of surveillance technol … ⌘ Read more

FSF Sponsors ‘GNU Boot’, a Libre, Ethical Replacement for Nonfree BIOS Or UEFI
“Free your BIOS today!” urges the web page for GNU Boot, calling it “a 100% free software project aimed at replacing the nonfree boot software (like BIOS or UEFI) of computers with free boot software.

GNU Boot is only a distribution: it reuses existing software projects like Coreboot, GRUB, SeaBIOS, etc. So it’s not very … ⌘ Read more

US Bank Regulator Sued Over Crypto Firm Charters by Community Bank Advocates
A U.S. banking group just sued the government agency that issues America’s federal bank charters, reports CoinDesk, “accusing it of exceeding its legal powers in granting national trust-bank status to crypto firms.”

The agency’s move “creates a gaping hole in financial regulation,” according to the lawsuit by The Independ … ⌘ Read more

Long-Time Slashdot Reader Announces New Open Source Web Browser ‘Northstar’
Long-time Slashdot reader Andreas® announces Northstar, a “minimalist” web browser written entirely from scratch in C — now available in version 1.0.11:

One window, one page, one process — about 160,000 lines of original C, small enough for one person to read and audit end-to-end. It carries no upstream browser engine: no … ⌘ Read more

Three EU Officials Not Sold on Europe’s Homegrown Alternative to Microsoft Teams
Politico EU reports:

The European Commission has rolled out an alternative to Microsoft Teams — but officials using it aren’t impressed, with one describing the tool as “absolute shit.”

The Commission introduced Element Pro over the summer as a “sovereign back-up to Teams,” according to an internal staff memo seen b … ⌘ Read more

This Virus Stole a Human Gene and Won’t Let Go of It
“Scientists have discovered a virus that is a tiny bit human, carrying a gene it stole from our ancestors about 100,000 years ago,” writes the New York Times. “And this virus may be using our own gene to infect us.”

Phys.org explains that it’s “both an important gene for brain function and a jumping gene capable of moving and inserting itself into genomes.”

BC200 is … ⌘ Read more

Physicists Identify ‘Octupolar’ Magnetism, With Implications for Quantum Technologies
While most magnets have two poles (north and south, or positive and negative), recent advances in quantum mechanics have revealed an “octupolar order,” writes Phys.org, where a pattern of particles in a crystalline structure “behaves as if it has eight magnetic poles rather than the familiar two.”

Now, … ⌘ Read more

Surveillance Company Tells Cops It Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras
404 Media reports:

“We will not add facial recognition to our devices,” Flock CEO Garrett Langley said in a recent video. But other, third-party companies are telling cops that they are willing to add facial recognition to data gathered by Flock cameras in order to “close that gap.” A company called VIDIZMO i … ⌘ Read more

As ‘Falcon Heavy’ Launches, SpaceX Plans Dragon and Falcon 9 Phase Out As Starship Ramps Up
Spaceflight Now reports:

“A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from Florida Thursday night on a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, America’s spy satellite agency… The NRO has previously flown payloads on 22 Falcon 9 rockets but this is the first time it has used the … ⌘ Read more

President Trump Doxxes Senator’s Cellphone in Push For Permanent Daylight Saving Time
U.S. President Donald Trump “doxxed” a U.S. senator today, writes the Washington Sun, by posting his cell phone number “as part of a plea for his Truth Social followers to badger his Republican ally into making daylight saving time permanent.”

When The Washington Sun called the number minutes after Trump’s … ⌘ Read more

Steam On Linux - Down To 3.05% For September?
Phoronix reports:

Steam on Linux use in March hit an all-time high of around 5.33% marketshare. Since then it pulled back to around 4% while for September 2026 the Steam Survey results… indicate a rather steep decline of 0.85%, down to 3.05%. Meanwhile macOS is at 1.92% and Microsoft Windows at 95%… Steam’s Survey reports a 7.42% increase in Chinese use, up to 31.39% overall of t … ⌘ Read more

Researcher, Dartmouth Professor and Provost Face Accusations of Secretly Using AI
“The winner of the Nikon Small World in Motion competition is under investigation,” writes the photography news site PetaPixel , “after scientists accused Dr Ning Xu of using AI in his video.”

The Nikon competition is about showcasing the beauty, complexity, and artistry of the microscopic world. The entries a … ⌘ Read more

California’s Governor Wants Worker Protections from AI. But FSF Thinks Kill Switches are ‘Dangerous Precedent’
The Guardian reports that California governor Gavin Newsom signed laws on Wednesday “aimed at protecting California workers from the threats of artificial intelligence , including potential job losses and workplace surveillance.”
The laws ban employers from usi … ⌘ Read more

Someone Got Doom In an SQL Database
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Rendering Doom in a database is obviously a bad idea,” Lukas Vogel writes in a lengthy blog post explaining how exactly he managed to render Doom using an SQL database. OK, that’s not entirely accurate. The SQLDoom project uses a small Python client to handle input and output, drive the game’s timing, and display each frame to the screen. Behi … ⌘ Read more

US Judge Rules Flock Search Was Mass Surveillance. Bernie Sanders Proposes ‘Ban Flock Act’
Flock’s cameras offer “indiscriminate mass surveillance,” a U.S. federal judge wrote in a ruling Thursday, as does any system with “continuously updated” location histories for all the vehicles filmed by automated license plate-reading cameras.

The judge’s ruling included italics for emphasis when … ⌘ Read more

1 In 8 Cancer Cases Worldwide Are Due to Infections
An estimated 2.3 million cancer cases worldwide in 2024, about one in eight, were attributable to infections, according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology. “This recent Lancet data is a profound reminder that a significant portion of our global cancer burden is fundamentally preventable,” said David Greenberg, MD, of Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University … ⌘ Read more

Google Tests AI Data Center In Space
Longtime Slashdot reader Geoffrey.landis shares a report from NPR: Google just put a refrigerator-sized satellite into space, part of a research project the company hopes can pave the way for orbiting AI data centers powered by the sun. The prototype satellite has four specialty chips in it called Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, that Google designed for machine learning and has already deployed i … ⌘ Read more

New Mexico Wants Meta To Pay $40 Billion In Penalties For Cambridge Analytica Scandal
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The state of New Mexico asked a judge on Thursday to order Meta Platforms to pay between $35 billion and $40 billion in penalties after a jury found the company had misled consumers about the privacy of their data on Facebook in a case that came out of the C … ⌘ Read more

AI Has Finally Learned To Play Stratego
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, NYU, and Stanford have built an AI called Ataraxos that finally cracked Stratego, beating four-time world champion Pim Niemeijer 15 games to one with four draws. Its key advantage was a second neural network that estimates the identities of hidden enemy pieces, letting the system search plausible game states rather than brute-force a massive hidden-informa … ⌘ Read more

The University of Washington Is Moving a Graduate Program to Microsoft’s Campus
Longtime Slashdot submitter theodp writes: GeekWire reports that the University of Washington has moved its Global Innovation Exchange {GIX) program to Microsoft’s campus in a rent-free deal (UW News release). GIX, an institute supporting tech leaders that offers an MS in Technology Innovation, is the first UW program … ⌘ Read more

Apple Tightens macOS ‘Full Disk Access’ Controls As AI Agents ‘Substantially’ Increase Risk
Apple says it will tighten macOS Full Disk Access controls as increasingly capable AI agents raise the risks of apps gaining broad access to users’ files, messages, mail, and browsing history. TechCrunch reports: Days after a journalist claimed that Meta’s Muse app on Mac read their private me … ⌘ Read more

Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery to Become Skydance
Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will operate under the Skydance name once their roughly $110 billion merger closes, which is expected on October 6. The combined company will bring together Paramount+, HBO Max, CBS, CNN, MTV and other networks, along with major franchises including The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, DC and Yellowstone.

Ellison sa … ⌘ Read more

Used Processor Leads To Game Ban
AmiMoJo shares a report from heise online: Anyone buying used hardware for a gaming PC needs to be careful: not just whether the components are still in order but also what the previous owner did with them. A case on Reddit shows this. Someone installed a used AMD processor, a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, in their PC. Because the previous owner was caught cheating, the new owner cannot start several online games.

Th … ⌘ Read more

EU’s Microsoft Teams Alternative Draws Bad Reviews From Officials
The European Commission has rolled out Element Pro as a self-hosted “sovereign back-up” to Microsoft Teams and the reviews aren’t great. Politico reported that several officials questioned its usefulness and usability, with one calling it “absolute shit.” Politico reports: “I don’t understand the added value here,” one official wrote on an internal s … ⌘ Read more

Judge Dismisses Chegg and Penske Antitrust Lawsuits Targeting Google AI Search
A federal judge has dismissed antitrust lawsuits from Chegg and Penske Media accusing Google of harming publishers by using their content in AI Overviews and other AI search features without compensating them or providing a meaningful opt-out. Ars Technica reports: The lawsuits were filed in 2025, and Google requested … ⌘ Read more

Social Media Harms Democracy By Spreading Rumors, Survey Shows
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: A growing number of people think social media manipulates and divides people and harms democracy, Pew Research Center said on Thursday, echoing rising concern and tighter scrutiny across the world. Companies running popular social platforms, including Meta, Snap, and TikTok, have faced thousands of law … ⌘ Read more

Error-Prone AI Nearly Sparked World War Three Last Month
In an op-ed for The Guardian, authors Timnit Gebru and Emily M. Bender argue that policymakers are focusing too heavily on hypothetical “superintelligence” while overlooking the more immediate danger of deploying unreliable AI in high-stakes settings. They point to an as-yet independently unverified CNN report claiming U.S. officials nearly intercepted a Chinese … ⌘ Read more

20% of Swiss Glaciers Lost In Five Years
Swiss glaciers lost 5.5% of their ice volume in the first eight months of 2026, bringing total losses since 2021 to 19.4%. Researchers say some glaciers are now collapsing from within as meltwater carves out large cavities. The Guardian reports: Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich and lead author of the report, said many people do not realize how fast glaciers are retreating, or that ju … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Alerts More Than 100 Groups About Rogue AI Agent Activity
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: OpenAI has informed more than 100 organizations about incidents involving unauthorized activity tied to its AI agents, according to a blog post by the ChatGPT maker, as AI labs face mounting scrutiny over rogue AI agent activity. Here are some other details:
- The Sam Altman-led company has been c … ⌘ Read more

California Rushes To Prepare For Massive ‘Kelvin’ Wave, Predicted Sea Level Rise
fjo3 shares a report from The Guardian: Communities across California are rushing to prepare for the imminent arrival of the so-called “Kelvin wave,” a massive underwater band of warm water threatening to inundate swaths of the vast North American shoreline. The wave is nearing southern California and expected to reac … ⌘ Read more

Amazon’s New Kindle Accessories Bring Back Physical Controls
Alongside a refreshed Kindle lineup, Amazon today introduced two accessories that bring physical buttons back to its touchscreen e-readers. The $34.99 Kindle Click is a Bluetooth remote that lets readers turn pages and adjust brightness without touching the device, while a new $79.99 magnetic cover is available for select Paperwhite and Colorsoft models. … ⌘ Read more

Russian-Owned Snooping Software Used By US Secret Service
Bruce66423 shares a report from The Telegraph: British police forces, including specialist units within the Metropolitan Police, have used Oxygen Forensics software to break into the phones of suspects during live investigations, public documents show. The Virginia-based company behind the software has been accused in the US of having hidden its Russian ownersh … ⌘ Read more

Cloudflare Tries to Outplay Jev With Open-Weight Clef Models
Cloudflare has launched two open-weight decision models, Clef and Clef-flash, designed for structured yes/no, multiple-choice, and ranking tasks while also supporting images, video, and up to a 64K context window. Cloudflare says its models outperform TypeSafe’s Jev on several benchmarks and can run locally from Hugging Face. The Register reports: For st … ⌘ Read more

Ryan Roslansky Is Leaving After Nearly 18 Years At LinkedIn and Microsoft
Ryan Roslansky is leaving Microsoft and LinkedIn after nearly 18 years, triggering another leadership shuffle across Office and Teams. “Roslansky, who until recently was the CEO of LinkedIn, was promoted to the head of Office last year and then took control of Microsoft Teams earlier this year,” notes The Verge. From the report: “Rya … ⌘ Read more

Micron Projects Tightening RAM Shortages Through 2028 As It Generates Record Profit
Micron says the global RAM and storage shortage will tighten further through 2027 and 2028, with CEO Sanjay Mehrotra saying the company has already sold most of next year’s capacity. “In calendar 2027 as well as 2028, we see demand exceeding supply. In fact, we see greater tightness in the industry in 202 … ⌘ Read more

Cops Can Bypass iPhone’s Automatic Reboot To Get Into Locked Phones
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: A company that makes phone hacking devices claims to have developed a solution that freezes iPhones in a state that lets cops more easily access sensitive data inside them, according to a video obtained by 404 Media. […] The new technology to get around inactivity reboot was developed by … ⌘ Read more

Pentagon Creates ‘Autowarcom’ to Expand AI and Drone Capabilities
Longtime Slashdot reader ThurstonMoore shares a report from Reuters: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced the creation of a new military command that would be dedicated to building and providing autonomous and robotic capabilities across the U.S. military. The command, which Hegseth said would be called “Autonomous Warfare C … ⌘ Read more

FTC Is Investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and Other AI Companies Over Product Risks
The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies over potential consumer and safety risks posed by their products, with the agency reportedly preparing requests for documents and executive testimony. CNBC reports: OpenAI stunned the industry in July when it disclo … ⌘ Read more

HP’s Answer to the MacBook Neo Is Thinner, Lighter, and Comes With OLED
HP is taking aim at Apple’s MacBook Neo with the new OmniBook 5 14, a $699.99 Windows laptop that starts with an Intel Core 5 315 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage but includes an OLED display even on the base model. It’s also slightly thinner and lighter than the Neo. The Verge reports: The OmniBook 5 14 can be configured … ⌘ Read more

PS5 Emulation Is Suddenly Making Big Strides On PC
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: For a long time, PC gamers could access many PlayStation 5 games only if the publisher invested in a bespoke port (something Sony has recently said it will be scaling back). Now, though, rapid advancements in PS5 emulators and other tools are making recent PlayStation titles increasingly playable on generic PCs. SharpE … ⌘ Read more

Google Unveils Gemini 4 Argon, Retaking Benchmark Lead Over OpenAI and Anthropic
Google has unveiled Gemini 4 Argon, a new frontier AI model that it says leads or ties rivals on 13 of 18 disclosed benchmarks. The model is initially being released only to trusted cyber defenders and select pre-release testers, with broader availability planned later. VentureBeat reports: Google is not claiming th … ⌘ Read more

‘Xbox Is Not For Sale,’ Says Microsoft’s Gaming Chief
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says Microsoft has no plans to sell the gaming business, telling The New York Times that “Xbox is not for sale” and that the company intends to take a long-term view. Windows Central reports: Microsoft’s vast layoffs across the summer have hit Xbox in their thousands, with studios like Ninja Theory on the path to being closed, and others like Double … ⌘ Read more

Hackers Stole Millions of US Military Personnel Records During Months-Long Data Breach
A months-long breach of the Defense Manpower Data Center exposed personal information belonging to roughly 2.8 million living current and former U.S. military personnel and staff, plus records for nearly 300,000 deceased people. Attackers reportedly exploited a file-sharing vulnerability between October … ⌘ Read more

Google Reportedly Tests Paying Publishers For AI Search Results
Google is reportedly testing a program that pays around 100 publishers based on how much their content contributes to its AI-powered search features. According to The Information, one publisher earned more than $1 million over a year, while another has received roughly $50,000 to $60,000.” Digiday reports: Once a publisher joins the “AI contributio … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Is Killing RSS Feeds, Ending Public API Access
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Amid a number of updates for moderators and developers announced Wednesday comes bad news for supporters of a more open web: Reddit is ending support for RSS feeds. Reddit says RSS has now become a “common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse,” which is why it’s made the decision to wind down RSS feed … ⌘ Read more

Singapore Pilots a Government-Built Dating Service
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from Mashable: Singapore’s government is trying its hand at matchmaking again. The country’s Government Technology Agency (GovTech) has launched FirstDate, a pilot dating service for singles aged 21 to 35. For now, it’s open only to public officers, according to the service’s website. Applications close Oct. 5. FirstDate is de … ⌘ Read more