Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics
Article URL: https://www.lms.ac.uk/news/leiden-declaration-on-ai-and-mathematics

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48437442

Points: 8

# Comments: 1 ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Great to be asked for feedback! I just noticed that the first wcwidth version was derived from Markus Kuhn’s C code. I came across him in my ISO 8601 and RFC 3339 endeavors the other day. https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html What a surprise. :-)

GOV.UK Goes Dutch On Payments As It Dumps Stripe
The UK’s Government Digital Service is replacing Stripe with Dutch payments provider Adyen for many GOV.UK Pay transactions, including local authorities, police forces, and armed forces units. The three-year deal covers about 1,000 services and is meant to make payments more flexible while keeping the user experience largely unchanged. The Register reports: According to the tend … ⌘ Read more

Gov.uk goes Dutch on payments as it dumps Stripe
Article URL: https://www.theregister.com/public-sector/2026/06/04/govuk-goes-dutch-on-payments-as-it-dumps-stripe/5250763

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48415217

Points: 7

# Comments: 1 ⌘ Read more

Love Island UK Participant Quits Series After Just 3 Days
A participant on Season 13 of Love Island UK exited the show after only three days. The sudden departure marks one of the fastest exits in the show’s history, leaving fans and fellow contestants stunned. The series’ newest season debuted in the UK on Monday, June 1, 2026. George Knight leaves Love Island Season 13 […]

The post [Love Island UK Participant Quits Series After Just 3 Days](https://www.comin … ⌘ Read more

Google Ordered To Put Clearer Links In AI Search, Let UK Publishers Opt Out
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: UK regulators today ordered (PDF) Google to put clearer attributions and links to publishers’ content in its AI-generated search features. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also said Google must give publishers a way to opt out of AI features in search. “In … ⌘ Read more

UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases
Article URL: https://aoav.org.uk/2026/military-experts-or-arms-industry-insiders-uk-media-fails-to-disclose-defence-sector-links-in-nearly-60-of-cases/

Comments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48395938](https: … ⌘ Read more

Elon Musk and America’s Far Right Stoke Anger Over Murder of UK Teen
Influential figures, including Nick Fuentes, have been accused of “hijacking” the murder of Henry Nowak to push a racist agenda. ⌘ Read more

Palantir Contracts Have Become ‘An Unacceptable Point of Weakness,’ UK Politicians Warn
A government committee says that the country’s growing dependence on the data analytics company is a serious liability. ⌘ Read more

US, Australia, and UK Plan New Unmanned Vehicles to Protect Undersea Data Cables
“Around 570 cables (plus a further 80 planned) carry between 95% and 99% of the world’s intercontinental telecommunications data,” reports CNN (since fiber cables offer speeds of terabits per second, carry much more data than satellite links). And “networks of green energy cables carrying electricity are also starting … ⌘ Read more

UK-Based Rockstar Games North Workers Formally Announce Union
Rockstar Games has a 2,000-employee studio in Scotland called Rockstar North. And Thursday its workers announced they’d formed a union, reports the gaming news site Aftermath:

The union [part of the wider Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union] includes workers from Rockstar Games offices in Leeds, London, Edinburgh, Dundee, and Lincoln, … ⌘ Read more

AI will be used to estimate age of asylum seekers from next year
Article URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3pe36qe7ro

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48327222

Points: 7

# Comments: 0 ⌘ Read more

The UK Government’s Low Value Purchase System Is a Waste of Time
Article URL: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/the-uk-governments-low-value-purchase-system-is-a-waste-of-time/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48322154

Points: 3

# Comments: 0 ⌘ Read more

Minimax M3
Article URL: https://www.minimax.co.uk/products/water-softeners/minimax-m3-water-softener/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48316462

Points: 9

# Comments: 4 ⌘ Read more

EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products
Article URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1k2ydn1rz8o

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48309302

Points: 4

# Comments: 0 ⌘ Read more

London Mayor Blocks Palantir
Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/may/21/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-blocks-met-police-deal-with-palantir

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48225489

Points: 20

# Comments: 5 ⌘ Read more

Python 3.15: features that didn’t make the headlines
Article URL: https://blog.changs.co.uk/python-315-features-that-didnt-make-the-headlines.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48220696

Points: 4

# Comments: 0 ⌘ Read more

RIP Peter G. Neuman
We have received\
word that Peter G. Neuman, who, among many other things, ran the RISKS Digest for decades, has
passed away. He will be much missed. ⌘ Read more

The UK Finally Starts Reforming Its ‘Computer Misuse Act’
Computer Weekly reports on “the long-awaited reform of Britain’s outdated Computer Misuse Act of 1990 — which has hamstrung the work of the nation’s cyber security professionals and researchers for years.”

The Computer Misuse Act was passed 35 years ago in response to a high-profile hacking incident involving no less than the King’s father, the late Duke of Edi … ⌘ Read more

UK Antitrust Regulator Is Officially Investigating Microsoft Office
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is opening a formal investigation into whether Microsoft’s bundling of Windows, Office, Teams, Copilot, and related products harms competition. Engadget reports: “Our aim is to understand how these markets are developing, Microsoft’s position within them and to consider what, if any, targeted actio … ⌘ Read more

An Engineer’s Post Protesting Laptop Surveillance Is Going Viral Inside Meta
Meta employees in the US and UK are organizing against corporate software that tracks workers’ keystrokes and mouse activity. ⌘ Read more

Google DeepMind Workers Vote To Unionize Over Military AI Deals
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Employees at Google DeepMind in London have voted to unionize as part of a bid to block the AI lab from providing its technology to the US and Israeli militaries. In a letter addressed to Google’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, Debbie Weinstein, the workers asked the company to recognize th … ⌘ Read more

Kids Bypass Age Verification With Fake Moustaches
A new Internet Matters survey suggests the UK’s Online Safety Act age checks are easy for many children to bypass. Reported workarounds include fake birthdays, borrowed IDs, video game characters, and even drawing on a fake mustache. The Register reports: The group surveyed over 1,000 UK children and their parents, and while it did report some positive effects from changes ma … ⌘ Read more

Pornhub Restores Access for UK Adults Who Use Apple’s Age Verification
The porn giant blocked its content from new UK users in February but says device-based age verification is more secure than third-party sites. ⌘ Read more

Google DeepMind Workers Vote to Unionize Over Military AI Deals
UK staff of Google’s AI research lab hope to block the use of the company’s artificial intelligence models in military settings. ⌘ Read more

16% of Parents Help Their Children Bypass Online Age Checks, Study Finds. One 15-Year-Old Just Uses a Fake Moustache
The Independent reports that “more than a third of children in the UK have found a way around age verification measures” for social media sites and other online platforms. And new research from online safety organisation Internet Matters “suggests … ⌘ Read more

Eden: NHS goes to war against open source
Terence Eden reports
that the UK’s National\
Health Service (NHS) is preparing to close almost all of its open-source repositories as a
response to LLM tools, such as Anthropic’s Mythos, becoming more
sophisticated at finding security vulnerabilities. He does not, to put
it mildly, agree with the decision:

The majority of [code repos … ⌘ Read more

GPT-5.5 Matches Heavily Hyped Mythos Preview In New Cybersecurity Tests
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Last month, Anthropic made a big deal about the supposedly outsize cybersecurity threat represented by its Mythos Preview model, leading the company to restrict the initial release to “critical industry partners.” But new research from the UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) suggests … ⌘ Read more

Discord Sleuths Gained Unauthorized Access to Anthropic’s Mythos
Plus: Spy firms tap into a global telecom weakness to track targets, 500,000 UK health records go up for sale on Alibaba, Apple patches a revealing notification bug, and more. ⌘ Read more

Also, this really speaks to me (or maybe it speaks for me): https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/04/just-let-me-compute-in-peace/

UK Households To Be Urged To Use More Power This Summer As Renewables Soar
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from the Guardian: Households will be called on to boost their consumption of Great Britain’s record renewable energy this summer to help balance the power grid and lower energy bills. Under the new plans, people could be encouraged to run dishwashers and washing machines or … ⌘ Read more

Social Media Platforms Need To Stop Never-Ending Scrolling, UK’s Starmer Says
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said social media platforms should remove addictive infinite-scroll features for young users as Britain considers new child-safety measures. “We’re consulting on whether there should be a ban for under 16s,” Starmer told BBC Radio. “But I think equally important, the addictive scrolling mecha … ⌘ Read more

AI Data Centers Can Warm Surrounding Areas By Up To 9.1C
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Scientist: Andrea Marinoni at the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues saw that the amount of energy needed to run a data centre had been steadily increasing of late and was likely to “explode” in the coming years, so wanted to quantify the impact. The researchers took satellite measurements of land su … ⌘ Read more

Apple Now Requires Device-Level Age Verification in the UK. Could the US Be Next?
Apple unveiled new device-level age restrictions in the UK on Wednesday. “After downloading a new update, users will now have to confirm that they are 18 or older to access unrestricted features,” reports Gizmodo.

“Users will be able to confirm their age with a credit card or by scanning an ID.”

For those underag … ⌘ Read more

UK Startup Ignites Plasma Inside Nuclear Fusion Rocket
UK startup Pulsar Fusion says it has achieved the first plasma ignition inside a nuclear fusion rocket engine prototype – a huge step for space travel that could cut missions to Mars “from months-long journeys to just a few weeks,” reports Euronews. From the report: Pulsar Fusion revealed the milestone during a live stream at Amazon’s MARS Conference, hosted by … ⌘ Read more

Juicier Steaks Soon? The UK Approves Testing of Gene-Edited Cow Feed
“Juicier steaks could soon be served up after barley was given the go-ahead to become Britain’s first gene-edited crop,” reports the Telegraph:
In an effort to fatten up cows and get them to market faster, scientists have altered the DNA of Golden Promise barley to increase its fat content… [Regulators have approved the feeding of th … ⌘ Read more

4Chan Mocks $700K Fine For UK Online Safety Breaches
The UK regulator Ofcom fined 4chan nearly $700,000 (520,000 pounds) for failing to implement age checks and address illegal content risks under the Online Safety Act, but the platform mocked the penalty and signaled it won’t pay. A lawyer representing the company responded with an AI-generated cartoon image of a hamster, writing in a follow-up post on X: “In the only coun … ⌘ Read more

UK Plans To Require Labels On AI-Generated Content
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Britain plans to consider requiring labels on AI-generated content to protect consumers from disinformation and deepfakes, the government said on Wednesday, as it outlined other areas of focus to tackle the evolving global challenge. Technology minister Liz Kendall stressed the need to strike the right balance between protec … ⌘ Read more

The UK Will Invest Billions to Build a Nuclear Fusion Industry
The UK’s science minister is announcing details of a five-year, £2.5 billion investment in nuclear fusion, reports the Times of London, “including building one of the world’s first prototype fusion power plants in Nottinghamshire and developing a UK sector projected to employ 10,000 people by 2030.”

Despite the potentially transformative impact … ⌘ Read more

Meta To Charge Advertisers a Fee To Offset Europe’s Digital Taxes
Meta will begin charging advertisers a 2-5% “location fee” to offset digital services taxes imposed by several European countries, including the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Turkey. Reuters reports: The fee, for image or video ads delivered on Meta platforms including WhatsApp click-to-message campaigns and marketing messages together w … ⌘ Read more

Robotic Surgery Performed Remotely on Patient 1,500 Miles Away
“A surgeon in London says he has performed the UK’s first long-distance robotic operation,” reports the BBC, “on a patient located 1,500 miles (2,400km) away…”

Leading robotic urological surgeon Professor Prokar Dasgupta said it felt “almost as if I was there” as he carried out a prostate removal on [62-year-old] Paul Buxton… It is hoped tha … ⌘ Read more

First British Baby Born Using Transplanted Womb From Dead Donor
A 10-week-old boy named Hugo has become the first baby born in the UK from a womb transplanted from a deceased donor, after his mother Grace Bell – who was born without a viable womb due to a condition called MRKH syndrome, which affects one in every 5,000 women – underwent a 10-hour transplant operation at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford in J … ⌘ Read more

Discord Distances Itself From Persona Age Verification After User Backlash
Discord is attempting to distance itself from the age verification provider Persona following a steady stream of user backlash. From a report: In an emailed statement to The Verge, Discord’s head of product policy, Savannah Badalich, confirms the company “ran a limited test of Persona in the UK where age assurance had previous … ⌘ Read more

After 16 Years, ‘Interim’ CTO Finally Eradicating Fujitsu and Horizon From the UK’s Post Office
Besides running tech operations at the UK’s Post Office, their interim CTO is also removing and replacing Fujitsu’s Horizon system, which Computer Weekly describes as “the error-ridden software that a public inquiry linked to 13 people taking their own lives.”

After over 16 years of cover … ⌘ Read more

Fury Over Discord’s Age Checks Explodes After Shady Persona Test In UK
Backlash intensified against Discord’s age verification rollout after it briefly disclosed a UK age-verification test involving vendor Persona, contradicting earlier claims about minimal ID storage and transparency. Ars Technica explains: One of the major complaints was that Discord planned to collect more government IDs as part of its … ⌘ Read more

HR Teams Are Drowning in Slop Grievances
Workplace grievances that once fit in a single email are now ballooning into 30-page documents stuffed with irrelevant historical detail, made-up legal precedents, and citations to laws from the wrong country – and UK employment lawyers say generative AI is the likely culprit. Anna Bond, legal director at Lewis Silkin, says the complaints she now sees sometimes cite Canadian legislation or fabrica … ⌘ Read more

Britain Lost 14,000 Pubs, a Quarter, in 13 Years
Britain has lost more than 14,000 pubs since 2009, a decline from roughly 54,000 registered public houses and bars to under 40,000 by 2022, according to a new analysis of UK business register data by data analyst Lauren Leek. The North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands lost 25 to 30% of their stock; London saw the smallest decline.

Leek trained a random forest model on … ⌘ Read more

Secondhand Laptop Market Goes ‘Mainstream’ Amid Memory Crunch
Sales of refurbished PCs are on the up amid shortages of key components, including memory chips, that are making brand new devices more expensive. From a report: Stats compiled by market watcher Context show sales of refurbished PCs via distribution climbed 7 percent in calendar Q4 across five of the biggest European markets – Italy, the UK, Germany, Spai … ⌘ Read more

UK Orders Deletion of Country’s Largest Court Reporting Archive
The UK’s Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of the country’s largest court reporting archive [non-paywalled source], a database built by data analysis company Courtsdesk that more than 1,500 journalists across 39 media organizations have used since the lord chancellor approved the project in 2021.

Courtsdesk’s research found that journa … ⌘ Read more

Apple and Google Agree To Change App Stores After ‘Effective Duopoly’ Claim
Apple and Google have agreed to a set of commitments to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority that will prevent them from giving preferential treatment to their own apps and require greater transparency around how third-party apps are approved for sale.

The CMA announced the measures on Tuesday, seven months after it de … ⌘ Read more