Tootfinder

from my link log —
Weld: accelerating numpy, scikit and pandas as much as 100x with Rust and LLVM.
https://notamonadtutorial.com/weld-accelerating-numpy-scikit-and-pandas-as-much-as-100x-with-rust-and-llvm-12ec1c630…

“MSI prices its latest handheld at $1,800 as exec says ‘it will be a tough year for us and the gamers’”
Those poor souls will have to hand over their money and we’ll have the unenviable task of taking it.
https://www.videogam…

MSI prices its latest handheld at $1,800 as exec says ‘it will be a tough year for us and the gamers’
There's still potential for more price hikes, its marketing lead warns

Almost as good as a pardon (Joyce Vance/Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance)
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/almost-as-good-as-a-pardon
http://www.memeorandum.com/260520/p66#a260520p66

"Google Search as you know it is over"
#google

Google Search as you know it is over | TechCrunch
Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce traffic to publishers across the web.

In Iran, at least 3,468 people were killed over several weeks of U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Recovery for Iran is expected to be costly after the strikes hit critical infrastructure like bridges, manufacturing, and oil depots, as well as civilian infrastructure like hospitals and schools.
As part of the agreement signed this week, the U.S. has said it would work with regional partners create a $300 billion reconstruction fund.
Meanwhile, in the U.S.:
as Trump seeks nearly $1.…

Trump May Be Drawing Down Iran War, But He’s Demanding Billions More for Bombs
The GOP is souring on Trump’s $1.5 trillion military budget as the president pushes for yet another reconciliation bill.

Deep sea mining identified as biggest threat to known and unknown deep-sea creatures https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/deep-sea-mining-identified-as-biggest-threat-to-known-and-unknown-deep-sea-crea…

Deep sea mining identified as biggest threat to known and unknown deep-sea creatures
The IUCN warns deep-sea mining is the greatest threat to hydrothermal vent species, more than 60% of known vent mollusks are now at risk of extinction.

caida_as: CAIDA AS graphs (2004-2007)
A sequence of 122 network snapshots denoting Autonomous System (AS) relationships on the Internet, from 2004-2007, inferred using the Serial-1 method from RouteViews BGP table snapshots and a set of heuristics.
This network has 21157 nodes and 85468 edges.
Tags: Technological, Communication, Unweighted, Temporal

So Google is basically killing their main product? The ingenious money machine that made them billions? Or am I missing something … I mean: where are the ads? 🤔
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/

Google Search as you know it is over | TechCrunch
Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce traffic to publishers across the web.

From a Chinese state-sponsored news outlet. Can you say pot-kettle-black?
"Investigations found that the foreign intelligence agency had taken control of multiple routers within China and used them as platforms to send phishing emails disguised as invitations to participate in review work or traffic violation payment notices, targeting staff at key institutions."

China’s state security authorities uncover foreign agency using domestic routers as cyberattack proxies; users notice only slower speeds - Global Times
China’s state security authorities recently found that a foreign intelligence agency had used domestic routers in China as “proxies” and phishing emails to target personnel at key institutions to steal sensitive data, while affected users remained unaware, experiencing only slower internet speeds, frequent disconnections and unexpected reboots, according to China's Ministry of State Security (MSS).

A majority of Americans view President Donald Trump as a "dangerous dictator" whose power should be constrained, according to a poll that found a notable increase in that sentiment since March.
https://www.newsweek.com/number-of-america

Number of Americans Viewing Trump as ‘Dangerous Dictator’ Surges—Poll
The majority of Americans view President Trump as a “dangerous dictator“ according to a recent poll.

Sources: the EU Parliament plans to launch EPGenAI Hub as early as September, giving MEPs and staff access to Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral models (Max Griera/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/the-european-parliaments-answer-to-its-ai…

The European Parliament’s answer to its AI worries: More AI
The institution is opening its doors to models from OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic and Mistral as it tries to bring lawmakers’ growing use of the technology under control.

🇺🇦 Auf radioeins läuft...
Jalen Ngonda:
🎵 Just as Long as Were Together
#NowPlaying #JalenNgonda
https://disc0mack.bandcamp.com/track/jalen-ngonda-just-as-long-as-were-together-discomacks-extended-edit
https://open.spotify.com/track/6uAt2PE7YB5gHeCAFeD7G6

The only - ONLY - card the EU holds in the accelerating global AI arms race is #ASML in the Netherlands. As much as I like #Mistral and as much as I think the EU #AIact is better legislation than what others…

Bills WR Keon Coleman describes 2026 season as 'make or break' for his future in Buffalo https://www.nfl.com/news/bills-wr-keon-coleman-describes-2026-season-as-make-or-break

Energy Game Changer: HaaS (Heating as a Service) Insight Summary - EGC: closing public summary and key points from the HaaS (Heating as a Service) Lite project. - https://www.earth.org.uk/EGC-WP5-Summary.html

Energy Game Changer: HaaS (Heating as a Service) Insight Summary
EGC: closing public summary and key points from the HaaS (Heating as a Service) Lite project.

Kara Swisher says she'll leave CNN as soon as she can if the Ellisons acquire WBD, the network's parent company; she's under contract until the end of 2026 (Zoe Engels/Mediaite)
https://www.mediaite.com/media/im-just-not

‘I’m Just Not Staying’: Kara Swisher Jumping Ship At CNN As Soon As She Can Over ‘ ...
CNN’s Kara Swisher said she'll depart CNN as soon as she can if the "incompetent" Ellison family successfully acquires the network's parent company.

this is so fucking funny
https://creepylink.com/

CreepyLink
Make your links look as suspicious as possible

Not only will the Ring Road not solve the traffic issues as report after report has highlighted only 3% is bypass traffic, but it will CPO and affect 54 homeowners.
The N6 will encourage private car use, raise emissions, waste money, and not even solve traffic.
https://www.

Galway Ring Road CPO issued as residents seek clarity
The marathon N6 Galway City Ring Road project has moved a step closer following the publication of the compulsory purchase order (CPO) notice last week, but families facing the loss of their homes say they are still waiting for direct communication about what happens next.

Raiders coach Klint Kubiak talks to media as OTAs begin —LIVE https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/raiders/raiders-coach-klint-kubiak-talks-to-media-as-otas-begin-live-3826792/

Just finished "Fustuk" by Robert Mgrdich Apelian. Without exaggeration, it is a true masterpiece, an absolutely stunning graphic novel about food, family, and magical contracts that reminds me of both Witch Hat Atelier and Young Bride's Stories. The truly impressive part is that Apelian is every bit as good an illustrator and storyteller as both Kamome Shirahama and Kaoru Mori.
In the author's note, Apelian says "So I asked to make the story I always craved growing up: a tale of Middle Eastern joy and magic that speaks to diasporic culture and how those of us within it relate to our two worlds." He succeeded at that goal abundantly, as far as I can tell, and has produced a truly impressive work.
Images are rough pictures of a few example pages showing very cool panel construction, lots of detail, and both dynamic action and expressive faces. I'm not going to spoil anything, but the second image here is one of the most powerful pages I've read in a while and the way it uses gutters demonstrates a beautiful mastery of the comics medium.
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon

> "... clear architectural backbone – not centralisation, but interoperability – can allow many systems to act as one government"
https://www.publictechnology.net/2026/05/1

New government CTO: ‘Interoperability, not centralisation, will allow us to act as one’
As it directs a journey from ‘digital government to intelligent government’, Whitehall's tech hub is hoping to learn architecture lessons from other nations, according to new IT leader Sonia Patel The new cross-government chief technology officer has outlined a vision cohesive infrastructure

Cowboys OC Klayton Adams Eyed as Future NFL Head Coach https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/onsi/dallas-cowboys-oc-klayton-adams-eyed-as-future-nfl-head-coach

For as long as you can remember, time has always slowed down for you during moments of danger.
This power is automatic and time returns to normal once you are out of peril.
One day, however, the world stops, and you can't figure out why.
#MicroFiction #TootFic

MOSQUE SHOOTERS IDENTIFIED AS TWO FORMER GOP SENATORS!
[hey, if they're going to just completely make shit up, we might as well have a little fun as well.]

Carney Paints US as Threat to Canada, Offers Model for Others to Cut the Cord - WhoWhatWhy
https://whowhatwhy.org/international/carney-paints-us-as-threat-to-canada-offers-model-for-others-to-cut-the-cord/

NASA has selected a mission concept to research how space weather and dynamics within Earth’s atmosphere influence the space environment and help improve prediction capabilities for impacts on crucial technology, such as GPS and low Earth orbit satellites, as well as astronauts in space: #DAPHNE (Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer) mission will enter Phase B of development, which includes planning and design for flight and mission operations

Google Search is over – at least as we know it. Instead of links, we’ll see AI agents that generate answers directly. Whilst this sounds convenient, there’s a catch: the sources are obscured and publishers continue to lose search engine traffic. Google won’t compensate for this – its business model is to exploit content for its own gain.
Anyone publishing independently has long needed a model beyond Google: newsletters, donations, paid content.

Google Search as you know it is over | TechCrunch
Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce traffic to publishers across the web.

Happy 50th #anniversary to you, #Z80! 🥳
https://www.to…

Zilog Z80 turns 50 as an open-source replacement heads to drop-in DIP40 silicon — iconic 8-bit CPU launched in July 1976 and was discontinued in 2024
The Z80 powered many retro favorites like the ZX Spectrum, TRS-80, MSX, Game Boy, Master System, Pac-Man arcade cabinet, and many more

❔ How can climate mobility function as a proactive strategy for women and marginalised groups? What influences decision-making processes to migrate or to stay? What do governments and stakeholders need to do to increase women's agency?
📝 New Paper Published:
Human mobility as a climate and disaster risk management strategy: Addressing intersectional vulnerability and enhancing women's agency
🔗

Electric car sales soar 51% in mainland Europe as Trump-Netanyahu war drives up fuel prices
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/20/electric-car-ev-sales-mainland-europe-petrol-prices-iran-war

OK, a •lot• of replies need this reponse:
Yes, of •course• they will start ignoring robots.txt etc as soon as they think it hurts their business. Of course.
It is important to •force that fight•, rather than just capitulating in advance.

Generative "AI" has no idea what it is doing, a story in four images.
The first image is my original drawing (a Venn diagram) with a white background. The second is the same image after I removed the background using GIMP, i.e., made the background layer transparent. The third image is an effort by the "AI system" that is offered as part of my Wordpress setup to create a transparent background. In fact, it has created a new background that is a grey and white grid, a…

É impressão minha ou o Porro abriu uma bandeira da Palestina durante as comemorações?!
EDITADO: Alarme falso, galera, acho que era bandeira de Extremadura, nome de uma Comunidade Autônoma da Espanha. Mas é mesmo muito parecida.

Small-scale farming, logging eclipse megaprojects as top threats to Tapanuli orangutan habitat https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/small-scale-farming-logging-eclipse-megaprojects-as-top-threats-to-tapanuli-orangutan-ha…

Small-scale farming, logging eclipse megaprojects as top threats to Tapanuli orangutan habitat
JAKARTA — Large infrastructure projects have long dominated debate over the future of Indonesia’s Batang Toru ecosystem, the main stronghold of the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan. But a new study suggests that while those projects have accelerated forest loss, the greatest direct threat to the ape’s habitat now comes from a much less visible source: […]

As coding agents become better and better, the coding increasingly stops being the bottleneck, and the bottleneck is how many things you can keep juggling comfortable. As the number gets greater, you'll tend to lose context, drop things, etc. Your ability to handle many things is probably one of the greatest strengths in these workflows.
Which is to say, thanks to LLMs, attention is all you need.

Democrats should get louder in championing clean energy’s affordability and resilience from global shocks,
according to some of the party’s leading voices on the climate.
As the Iran war roils economies by raising the cost of oil and gas,
countries are aiming to accelerate their shift to cleaner energy.
But in the US, Donald Trump has sought to kill off any alternative to fossil fuels while opposing Democrats have been reluctant to tie the conflict to any action on t…

I found an old WD NAS buried in all my computer parts clutter in the basement. I had completely forgotten about it after switching to the great uGreen NAS.
With 2x 4 TB WD Red drives, this WD NAS will now serve as my personal cloud at home, while the uGreen NAS will no longer function as a cloud solution connecting my smartphones and computers on the go, but rather as pure file and document storage on the internal network. So I’m splitting these functions between two NAS devices.

«Inside GitHub's Fake Star Economy:
Six million fake stars, $0.06 per click, and a VC funding pipeline that treats GitHub popularity as proof of traction. We ran our own analysis on 20 repos and found the fingerprints.»
Who trusts his blind faith in optical impressions that are almost incomprehensible?!??
Oh no, that's JUST marketing.
🤷

Inside GitHub's Fake Star Economy
Six million fake stars, $0.06 per click, and a VC funding pipeline that treats GitHub popularity as proof of traction. We ran our own analysis on 20 repos and found the fingerprints.

Still more reasons the AI boosters are full of as much shit as the AI itself.
#Sexism

Jen Horsburgh (@jenatlionra) on Threads
I just wanted to update my resume. Instead, I accidentally proved how a multi-billion-dollar AI tool hallucinates a glass ceiling for women. I changed a single variable: My name. Here is what happened when "Jennifer" became "Jeff." I fed Gemini, Google's AI tool, my old resume, my current info, case studies, and the kinds of roles I wanted, and asked it to write me a new resume. Simple. Except it wasn’t. The first thing I noticed was the softening.

🔊 #NowPlaying on #BBCRadio3:
#OperaOn3
- Britten's Peter Grimes
Allan Clayton stars as the outcast fisherman in Britten's masterpiece at the Royal Ballet and Opera, with a cast including Maria Bengtsson as Ellen and Bryn Terfel as Balstrode.
Relisten now 👇
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002xms1

Do you know that Mastodon 4.6 allows posting poll and media together?
Related PR: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/39203

My sussy baka isn't as pretty as yours....

SkyeChip becomes the first Malaysian chip design company to IPO on the Bursa Malaysia exchange, surging 300% ; the company was valued at ~$397M at its IPO price (Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/business/markets/ipo/skyechip-soar…

SkyeChip soars in IPO at open as Malaysia bets on chip design
IC design specialist targets global expansion on AI demand

as_skitter: Skitter IP graph (2005)
An aggregate snapshot of the Internet Protocol (IP) graph, as measured by the traceroute tool on CAIDA's skitter infrastructure, in 2005.
This network has 1696415 nodes and 11095298 edges.
Tags: Technological, Communication, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/as_s…

Check out today's Metacurity for the most critical infosec developments you should know today, including
--Anthropic eases threat-sharing rules as Cloudflare details frontier AI cyber gains,
--CISA contractor exposed sensitive gov't creds in public GitHub repo,
--Buterin says AI-assisted formal verification can secure blockchain systems,
--NY public health provider says breach affects 1.8m,
--FBI wants access to ALPRs nationwide,
--Interpol busts 2…

Anthropic eases threat-sharing rules as Cloudflare details frontier AI cyber gains
CISA contractor exposed sensitive gov't creds in public GitHub repo, Buterin says AI-assisted formal verification can secure blockchain systems, NY public health provider says breach affects 1.8m, FBI wants access to ALPRs nationwide, Interpol busts 200+ people for cybercrime in MENA, much more

Airbus & the cloud.
"European aerospace giant Airbus has lined up on the runway and is pushing the throttles forward as it prepares to evict apps from America. Airbus has named French cloud services provider Scaleway as the destination for some 900 applications, with an initial 70 getting priority onboarding, as it seeks to put critical systems and data under European control."

Airbus takes flight from AWS. What happens next is critical
Which way to the Land of the Free again?

Evacuation Must Start Now as Rising Gulf Slowly Drowns New Orleans: Study - WhoWhatWhy
https://whowhatwhy.org/science/environment/evacuation-must-start-now-as-rising-gulf-slowly-drowns-new-orleans-study/

A look at Chinese streamer iQiyi's overhaul effort to be the industry's biggest AI adopter, as it aims to release a successful GenAI film as soon as summer 2026 (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026…

Tehran has announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz once again
in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon that have killed at least 83 people on Saturday.
Iran says the attacks are a violation of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding signed this week aimed at pausing the three month-conflict.

Iran shuts Strait of Hormuz as Israel tests MOU with Lebanon strikes
Iran shuts Strait of Hormuz as Israel tests MOU with Lebanon strikes.

Chiefs 2026 NFL Draft odds: Multiple needs as Kansas City picks in top 10 first time since selecting Mahomes

https://www.cbssports.com/betting/news/c…

Google Search as you know it is over -- The era of the "ten blue links" is officially over. (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260519/p85#a260519p85

Fernando Mendoza embraces the marathon draft process as he embarks on his 1st step in NFL career https://www.foxsports.com/articles/nfl/fernando-mendoza-embraces-the-marathon-draft-process-as-he-embarks-on-his-…

TikTok users don't have as much agency over their FYPs as they think https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/how-much-control-do-tiktok-users-really-have-over-fyps/

TikTok users don't have as much agency over their FYPs as they think
The "not interested" feature is your friend, but users must intentionally and constantly curate their FYPs...

Don't miss today's Metacurity for the most critical cybersecurity developments you might have missed over the weekend, including
--White House opens backchannel to Anthropic as Pentagon fight simmers,
--Anthropic gave NSA access to Mythos Preview,
--Anthropic's donation to open source developers highlights how under-sourced they are,
--Asian regulators urge banks to use Mythos,
--LayerZero-powered cross-chain bridge Kelp DAO lost $292m in DPRK exploit…

White House opens backchannel to Anthropic as Pentagon fight simmers
Anthropic gave NSA access to Mythos Preview, Anthropic's donation to open source developers highlights how under-sourced they are, Asian regulators urge banks to use Mythos, LayerZero-powered cross-chain bridge Kelp DAO lost $292m in DPRK exploit, much more

Trump is dangerous twice over:
in what he does
and what he tells us to fear while doing it.
Factcheckers agreed he proved nothing.
Failing as evidence, his address succeeded as permission
– for federal intervention already under way in Fulton county.
In his speech, Trump assembled old intelligence, vulnerabilities and lies
into a conspiracy:
220 million US voter records in Chinese hands,
“extremely exposed” voting machines,
278,000 s…

Trump is invoking foreign election interference to justify his own
The president no longer treats the people who defeated him as voters. He treats them as suspects

One Simple Food Swap Could Cut Carbon Emissions As Much as a Flight Across Europe
https://scitechdaily.com/one-simple-food-swap-could-cut-carbon-emissions-as-much-as-a-flight-across-europe/

Treasury Lawyer Quits as Government Settles Trump IRS Suit (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/treasury-lawyer-quits-as-government-settles-trump-irs-suit-0658a44a?st=RwP79A&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.memeorandum.com/260519/p24#a260519p24

Big US pizza delivery chains are struggling as apps such as DoorDash and Uber Eats give independent pizzerias and other restaurants greater market access (Haley Zimmerman/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/d10e846e-5615-4cb5-bd4f-b159423d4f75

Donald Trump ordered US negotiators to travel to Pakistan on Monday, just days before a ceasefire in the Middle East expires
State broadcaster IRIB on Sunday cited Iranian sources as saying “there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks”.
The Fars and Tasnim news agencies had earlier cited anonymous sources as saying “the overall atmosphere cannot be assessed as very positive”, adding that lifting the US blockade was a precondition for negotiation…

"Henderson noted that the statue cited by the government in its determination was specifically crafted to address risks from hostile nations and other bad actors, none of which seemed to apply to Anthropic."
https://www.courthousenews.com/dc-circuit-

DC Circuit slams Pentagon blacklisting of Anthropic as overreach
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth took issue with the AI company's refusal to remove two narrow contractual restrictions on Claude’s use for lethal autonomous warfare and the mass surveillance of Americans.

Extreme temperature warnings in place as ‘heat dome’ bakes US https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/15/extreme-heat-warnings-us
Heat wave smashes records across central US

The Trump family’s
"World Liberty Financial" is borrowing against its own thinly-traded token.
New reporting suggests the company may have partnered with individuals connected to a US-sanctioned human trafficking operation.
And Justin Sun, who was among the project’s earliest and largest investors, has denounced it as “‘World Tyranny,’ not ‘World Liberty Financial’” as his $75 million investment remains frozen.
As the president’s family’s shady dealings co…

Issue 104 – World Tyranny Financial
As the Trump family’s crypto dealings raise more alarms, crypto enforcement is falling to new lows

Iran Delays Nuclear Talks With US as Lebanon Clashes Worsen (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-19/vance-delays-swiss-trip-as-white-house-says-talks-never-simple
http://www.memeorandum.com/260619/p35#a260619p35

Sources: the UK government is expected to consult as early as this month on rules to make public service news more prominent on social media and video platforms (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/7f147e35-d2ca-48fe-a886-95721002ce3c

The Trump administration in late March announced an extensive reorganization of the Forest Service, the federal agency responsible for managing 193 million acres of public lands across 43 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
As part of the changes, 57 of 77 research stations across the country will be shuttered,
with the headquarters relocating from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City.
While the overhaul is billed as an effort to improve efficiency, conservationist…

Forest Firings: Trump Admin Aims to “Break the Forest Service,” Nearly 200 Million Acres at Stake
The Trump administration in late March announced an extensive reorganization of the Forest Service, the federal agency responsible for managing 193 million acres of public lands across 43 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. As part of the changes, 57 of 77 research stations across the country will be shuttered, with the headquarters relocating from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City. While the overhaul is billed as an effort to improve efficiency, conservationist Jim Pattiz says it wil…

Sources: SpaceX plans to raise $20B in a bond sale as soon as next week; the funds would be used to pay back a $20B bridge loan taken out after the xAI merger (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/8b73b4ce-3855-4b89-9110-3d892567f28a

Climate report says world won't get as hot as feared but will pass warming limit
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-climate-world-wont-hot-limit.html

Trump mocks Democrat Texas Senate candidate James Talarico: 'Can't get elected as a vegan in Texas' (Steven Nelson/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/20/us-news/trump-mocks-democrat-texas-senate-candidate-james-talarico-cant-get-elected-as-a-vegan-in-texas/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260520/p45#a260520p45

Already overburdened by growing alert volumes and expanding attack surfaces, SOC workers now have to deal with more AI-generated information that must itself be evaluated.
Check out my latest CSO on the human challenges that AI brings to SOCs.
Thanks to Fernando Montenegro of the Futurum Group, SOC expert Chris Crowley, SANS expert John Hubbard, and Jose-Marie Griffiths, president emerita and former CIO of Dakota State University, for their insights.

SOCs face a human challenge as AI speeds alerts and threats
The future of the security operations center may depend less on technology than on how well security leaders manage human attention, expertise, and resilience.

Sources: OpenAI is preparing to file confidentially for an IPO as early as Friday (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-is-preparing-to-file-for-an-ipo-very-soon-0ec95af5?st=6pJKH3&reflin…

More than 17,000 people were under evacuation orders in southern California on Tuesday as a wildfirethreatened suburban homes.
The wind-driven #Sandy fire was reported Monday in the hills above Simi Valley, about 30 miles (48km) north-west of Los Angeles.
By Tuesday morning, it had consumed more than 2 sq miles of dry brush and destroyed at least one home, according to the Ventura county fire dep…

A look at Russia's push to develop homegrown AI talent, as the country is hampered by scarce access to AI hardware and a brain drain of top technical talent (Nikita Ostrovsky/Time)
https://time.com/article/2026/06/18/russia-ai-putin-chip-us-china/

Russia Wants AI Sovereignty. It Has a Chip Problem
As Vladimir Putin's daughter helps lead a new push for AI talent, Russia's biggest obstacle may be the chips it can't make.

The Senate succeeded in advancing legislation Tuesday to force Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iran war,
Since Trump ordered the attack on Iran at the end of February, Democrats have forced repeated votes on war powers resolutions that would require him to either gain congressional approval for the war or withdraw troops.
Republicans had been able to muster the votes to reject those proposals,
-- but Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy
— fresh off a primary election loss in…

Senate advances bill aimed at ending Iran war as Cassidy, after primary loss, flips to support it
The Senate advanced legislation Tuesday that seeks to force President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iran war, as a growing number of Republicans defied the president's wishes.

Sources: Kimi developer Moonshot told investors it is preparing for a Hong Kong IPO in as early as six months; its ARR hit $300M in June, up from $200M in April (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-19/ch…

Pete Hegseth lashed out at NATO allies on Thursday as he announced a
six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe
whose outcome will depend on how fast the Europeans take responsibility for their own security.
The review was yet another surprise for European allies and Canada as they learn to deal with an increasingly unpredictable ally.
U.S. officials and senior military officers had promised to coordinate closely with the Europeans as America draws down.

Hegseth announces a review of US forces in Europe
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has criticized NATO allies for not taking more responsibility for their own security. He announced a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe to ensure NATO moves toward Europe leading its own defense. Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, Hegseth calls it “shameful” that European allies denied U.S. forces access to bases for attacks on Iran. He emphasized the need for a “NATO 3.0,” urging the alliance to become a hard-line military force. T…

Internal memo: Xbox hires game industry analyst Matthew Ball as chief strategy officer, and names Scott Van Vliet, who led Azure AI infrastructure, as Xbox CTO (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Xbox hires game industry analyst Matthew Ball to lead strategy
The second major Xbox leadership changes this month.

Analysis finds 60 "jacket apps" on the App Store disguised as simple games and utilities that become gambling apps when accessed from Brazilian IP addresses (9to5Mac)
https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/17/investigation-re…

Investigation reveals dozens of disguised gambling apps on the App Store in Brazil - 9to5Mac
An investigation by 9to5Mac reveals dozens of apps that disguise gambling platforms as simple games and utilities. Here are the details.

Sources: Chinese startup Moonshot AI is seeking formal approval from investors to start a Hong Kong IPO process, which could happen in as soon as six months (Juro Osawa/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/moonshot-ai-seeks-…

Moonshot AI Seeks Investor Approval to Begin IPO Process
Chinese startup Moonshot AI, whose powerful new open-source model is upending Silicon Valley, is seeking formal approval from investors to begin preparations for an initial public offering in Hong Kong, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The Beijing-based company recently distributed a shareholder resolution regarding its IPO plan, according to the people. The timing of its

The media is "abnormalizing" Mamdani as pathologically as they normalize Trump
https://bsky.app/profile/michaelhobbes.bsky.social/post/3moqkac5rl22j

Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social)
Even his policy proposals — free buses, freezing rents on rent-controlled apartments, five city-run grocery stores — weren't all that far outside the political mainstream. The media has conjured a radical antisemitic insurgent out of thin air.

AMD plans to ship Helios, its first rack-scale AI system to rival Nvidia, later in 2026 to Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and others; Helios costs an estimated $5M (Katie Tarasov/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/20/amd-helios-microsoft-ai-nvidia.html

AMD launches Helios, its first rack AI system to rival Nvidia, adding Microsoft as newest buyer
AMD is taking aim at Nvidia with Helios, its first AI rack system, and has landed Microsoft as a new customer, joining Meta, OpenAI and Oracle.

As a House committee debated Trump’s signature domestic policy bill last year,
Republican backers repeatedly emphasized that its changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
also known as food stamps,
wouldn’t affect vulnerable people.
SNAP reforms would “restore integrity” to the program
and ensure it works for the “most vulnerable among us, including children,”
said Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson,
a Pennsylvania Republican and chair of the H…

More Than 770,000 Children Are No Longer Receiving SNAP Benefits After Trump Changes Federal Food Program
Republican backers of Trump’s signature domestic policy bill repeatedly claimed that revisions to the food benefits program wouldn’t affect the most vulnerable. But reports from a dozen states show children are losing access.

Monzo reports FY 2026 revenue up 39% YoY to £1.7B, pre-tax profit up 44% to £87.3M, users up 3M to 15M , and deposits up 55% to £25.7B, as it expands lending (Aisha S Gani/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026…

UK Fintech Monzo Reports 44% Jump in Profit on Interest Income
Monzo Bank Ltd. reported a 44% jump in profit in the year through March, as growth in lending lifted interest income.

Microsoft pauses new GitHub Copilot signups for Pro, Pro , and Student tiers, tightens usage limits, removes Opus models from Pro, and limits Opus 4.7 to Pro (The GitHub Blog)
https://github.blog/changelog/2026-04-20-changes-to-github-copilot-plans-…

Changes to GitHub Copilot plans for individuals - GitHub Changelog
As shared in our recent blog post, we’re making the following changes to Copilot plans for individuals as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure service reliability and a sustainable…

One might see needy children getting less food assistance as a horrifying outcome.
But the Trump administration has sold all this as a success story.
Those losing benefits, we’re told, were all lazy grifters who were probably defrauding the government anyway.
Or, alternatively, maybe they really did once deserve their benefits, but they have since graduated out of their undignified need for federal assistance thanks to Trump’s economic boom.
“A lot of [the enrollmen…

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Hunger Crisis
His solution to the food affordability crisis is to cut programs that help people afford food.

Singapore announces a National AI Partnership with Google and an MoU with OpenAI, which will set up an AI lab and commit $234M to the city-state's AI ecosystem (Dylan Butts/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/singapore-

Singapore inks AI deals with Google, OpenAI as ChatGPT-maker commits $234 million to local ecosystem
Singapore has signed new partnerships with Google and OpenAI to strengthen the city-state's position as a global AI hub and accelerating AI deployment.

‘The biggest threat is the president’
Election fears in Arizona as Trump sows fresh doubts
Experts warn election denialism could bubble up again in November,
despite truce in bitter power struggle
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/j

‘The biggest threat is the president’: election fears in Arizona as Trump sows fresh doubts
Experts warn election denialism could bubble up again in November, despite truce in bitter power struggle

A speculative scenario titled "Europe 2031" projects economic and political instability in the EU if it fails to keep pace with the US and China in the AI race (Aisha Down/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/20/e…

A viral doomsday scenario aims to shake Europe out of its AI complacency
Does a thought-experiment about US ascendancy in the technology say as much about AI jitters as it does about the reality?

Global health leaders are considering whether vaccines or medicines still in development could be used to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
as the World Health Organization’s chief said he was deeply concerned by the outbreak’s speed and scale.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been at least 500 suspected cases of Ebola
and 130 suspected deaths in DRC since the new outbreak began
– up from about 200 cases and 65 deaths when it was announc…

Barret Zoph leaves OpenAI again five months after rejoining in January; Zoph initially left OpenAI in 2024 to serve as Thinking Machines Lab co-founder and CTO (Hayden Field/The Verge)

Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months
He rejoined the company in January after a stint as co-founder of Mira Murati’s competitor, Thinking Machines Lab.

In New York social circles, he was known as the “Jewish James Bond”:
a refugee from Nazi Germany whose gratitude to his American hosts was such that he volunteered to join the US army and became the CIA’s first station chief in Berlin as a mere twentysomething,
filing early warnings about Soviet activity that have been credited with ringing in the cold war.
Like 007, Peter Sichel also appreciated a fine tipple, and after leaving the US foreign intelligence service it was h…

It was all starting to feel like a good old-fashioned something-gate,
the kind of scandal that might even bring down a presidency.
But then, as with so many other stories in the era of Trump, its spark was subsumed by a new fire.
On 28 February, Trump launched an unprovoked and likely illegal war against Iran,
and the Epstein files were once again pushed off the front pages.
The Donald J Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room is an attempt to stem the d…

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) on Wednesday slammed Donald Trump for appointing Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence,
arguing the move increases the risk of a terrorist attack on the U.S. 
“The installation of a thug and a hack like Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence is maybe the most chilling and the most dangerous nomination or appointment that this president has made,” Ossoff told host Jen Psaki on MS NOW’s “The Briefing.”

This type of hopeful news on a gene therapy cure for sickle cell disease would go against Trump’s policies,
as OMB director Russ Vought says.
Why? Because it is DEI.
Sickle Cell Disease disproportionally affects African Americans
due to an evolutionary trait that helps protect them from malaria.
https:…

Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist (@princess-vimentin.bsky.social)
This type of hopeful news on a gene therapy cure for sickle cell disease would go against Trump’s policies, as OMB director Russ Vought says. Why? Because it is DEI. Sickle Cell Disease disproportionally affects African Americans due to an evolutionary trait that helps protect them from malaria.

One of Donald Trump’s most grandiose vanity projects,
-- a multimillion-dollar makeover of Florida’s Palm Beach international airport
into a self-aggrandizing, gold-plated transportation hub,
-- is running into turbulence, barely a week after the first plane’s wheels touched the runway.
At first glance, the rebranding of the airport less than 5 miles from his opulent Mar-a-Lago resort appears to be complete.
Its website bears the name and oversized logo of the …

Trump’s rebranding of Palm Beach airport hasn’t taken off as he planned
Changes inside the Florida international airport are hardly evident as state and county hold back funds for full remodel

The Crab Nebula sits some 6,500 light years from us in Taurus.
It’s what remains after a massive star exploded as a supernova in 1054 CE
— an event people on Earth actually saw and recorded.
Today, it’s known as a pulsar wind nebula, driven by the powerful winds of a fast-spinning pulsar at its center.
https://

Nereide (@drnereide.bsky.social)
1/8 This JWST’s NIRCam and MIRI stunning image reveals different structural details of the Crab Nebula (NGC 1952). Image Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University) https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/investigating-the-origins-of-the-crab-nebula-with-nasas-webb/ #galactic #universe #astronomy 🔭🧪⚛️

A concerning development surrounding an incredibly obscure process Congress set up to deport some people with connections to terrorism.
It comes as the Trump admin has reclassified many gangs as “terrorists,” and accused some innocent people of being gang members.
https://bsky.app/profile/kyledch…

Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social)
NEWS: The Trump administration has activated a secretive and never-before-used legal process to quickly deport foreign nationals deemed to be “alien terrorists” or their immediate family members. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/18/trump-alien-terrorist-deportation-court-01004184

The nation’s largest public four-year university may soon be barred from replacing faculty with generative AI
as a bill backed by a union of professors comes nearer to reaching the governor’s desk.
Few examples exist of the California State University’s attempting to replace faculty labor with generative AI tools,
but the faculty union wants to prevent such efforts from ever getting off the ground.
The bill so far has garnered no opposition from lawmakers and may clear…

Cal State faculty push to prevent AI tools from replacing them as schools and staff experiment
The union representing California State University professors is contesting the system's use of artificial intelligence tools and backing legislation that would protect their jobs from the technology.

Lack of transparency on who manages Trump’s investments adds to questions about possible conflicts of interests that have followed Trump throughout his time in the Oval Office.
"The confusion from the White House as to who manages the president's stock portfolios is deeply troubling,”
Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, acting vice president of policy and government affairs at the Project On Government Oversight, told NOTUS in a statement.
“It would raise serious ethical quest…

What Donald Trump Knows About His Stock Investments
The president is playing the market again as Congress weighs banning elected officials from trading stocks.

US supreme court justice
Ketanji Brown Jackson
issued a rare public rebuke of the nation’s highest court,
declaring that it “can and should be better”
in the wake of a string of controversial moves by its conservative supermajority.
Weeks after writing a solo dissent as the supreme court effectively gutteda key section of the Voting Rights Act,
Jackson – its newest member and fiercest liberal voice – delivered a stark warning over the risk of the court bei…