Tootfinder

Apple settles with Brazil's regulator to allow alternative app stores; report: Apple will charge a 5% fee for alt app stores and 15% on App Store linkouts (Hartley Charlton/MacRumors)
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/12/24/new-app-store-fee-structure-in-brazil/<…

Apple to Introduce New App Store Fee Structure in Brazil Following Antitrust Settlement
Brazilian regulators have approved a settlement that will require Apple to change how the App Store operates on iPhone in the country, including...

Arriving at Act I, The Alters is quite engaging. It's a video game, in case you are reaching for your favourite search engine. So far, the sci-fi aspect has that structured feeling of the Eastern European/Soviet branch of the genre, mixed up with the post-Soviet era shift of values and cultural trends -- still kind of bland, but looking at the Western guilty thrill of the dystopian. It's a damn good, well-made game. I hope it holds up in that way until the end.

So my other big piece of the day is an inside look at the struggle for the future of the CVE program that just went live at CyberScoop.
Many thanks to Jay Jacobs of Empirical Security, Nick Leiserson of the Institute for Security and Technology, Mitchel Herckis of Wiz, Brian Fox of Sonatype, Peter Allor of the CVE Foundation, Ben Edwards of Bitsight and a few experts who go unnamed for their insight.

Everyday microplastics could be fueling heart disease #health

Everyday microplastics could be fueling heart disease
Microplastics—tiny particles now found in food, water, air, and even human tissues—may directly accelerate artery-clogging disease, and new research shows the danger may be far greater for males. In mice, environmentally realistic doses of microplastics dramatically worsened plaque buildup, altered key vascular cells, and activated harmful genes linked to inflammation and atherosclerosis, all without changes to weight or cholesterol.

Der "Minecraft"-Film bekommt eine Fortsetzung
Der Kinoerfolg des "Minecraft"-Films macht es alternativlos: Ein Nachfolger ist in Arbeit und soll 2027 erscheinen.
https://www.hei…

IRS Direct File,
the electronic system for filing tax returns for free,
will not be offered next year,
the Trump administration has confirmed.
An email sent Monday from IRS official Cynthia Noe to state comptrollers that participate in the Direct File program said that
“IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026. No launch date has been set for the future.”
The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency
was credited by users with…

IRS Direct File won't be available next year for submitting tax returns for free
The Trump administration has decided not to offer the IRS' electronic tax filing system for free next year, and its future is unclear. An IRS official informed state comptrollers in an email Monday that "IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said better alternatives exist and the private sector can do a better job. The program, developed during Joe Biden's presidency, was praised for making tax filing easy and economical. However, it face…

Former NFL QB offers alternative opinion on George Pickens following Week 14 loss https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/onsi/news/former-nfl-qb-offers-alternative-opinion-george-pickens-following-week-14-loss

Two-Dimensional Altermagnetism in Epitaxial CrSb Ultrathin Films
Keren Li, Yuzhong Hu, Yue Li, Ruohang Xu, Heping Li, Kun Liu, Chen Liu, Jincheng Zhuang, Yee Sin Ang, Jiaou Wang, Haifeng Feng, Weichang Hao, Yi Du
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12344

Two-Dimensional Altermagnetism in Epitaxial CrSb Ultrathin Films
Altermagnets constitute an emerging class of collinear magnets that exhibit zero net magnetization yet host spin-split electronic bands arising from non-relativistic spin-space-group symmetries. Realization of altermagnetism in the two-dimensional (2D) limit remains an outstanding challenge because dimensional reduction suppresses kZ dispersion and destabilizes the symmetry operations essential for spin compensation. Here, we demonstrate genuine 2D altermagnetism in epitaxial unit-cell-thin fil…

'Fanning the flames': 3 ex-GOP governors slam Trump's 'infuriating' use of National Guard - Alternet.org
https://www.alternet.org/trump-national-guard-governors-gop/