ICT news

• Chernobyl's Protective Shield Can No Longer Confine Radiation, UN Nuclear Watchdog Says

  06-12-2025 20:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  "A structure designed to prevent radioactive leakage at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine is no longer operational," reports Politico, "after Russian drones targeted it earlier this year, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog has found."[T]he large steel structure "lost its primary safety functions, including the confinement capability" when its outer cladding was set ablaze after being struck by Russian drones, according to a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Beyond that,
  
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• Congress Quietly Strips Right-To-Repair Provisions From US Military Spending Bill

  10-12-2025 00:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  Congress quietly removed provisions that would have let the U.S. military fix its own equipment without relying on contractors, despite bipartisan and Pentagon support. The Register reports: The House and Senate versions of the NDAA passed earlier both included provisions that would have extended common right-to-repair rules to US military branches, requiring defense contractors to provide access to technical data, information, and components that enabled military customers to quickly repair ess
  
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• Millions of Australian Teens Lose Access To Social Media As Ban Takes Effect

  09-12-2025 23:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  Australia's world-first ban blocking under-16s from major social platforms has come into effect. The BBC is live reporting the reactions "both from within Australia and outside it." From the report: I've been speaking to 12-year-old Paloma, who lives in Sydney and says she is "sad" about the ban. She spends between 30 minutes and two hours a day on social media. "I'm upset... because I am part of several communities on Snapchat and TikTok," she tells me. "I've developed good friendships on the a
  
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• Apple's Slow AI Pace Becomes a Strength As Market Grows Weary of Spending

  09-12-2025 23:02 via apple.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Shares of Apple were battered earlier this year as the iPhone maker faced repeated complaints about its lack of an artificial intelligence strategy. But as the AI trade faces increasing scrutiny, that hesitance has gone from a weakness to a strength -- and it's showing up in the stock market. Through the first six months of 2025, Apple was the second-worst performer among the Magnificent Seven tech giants, as its shares tumbled 18% through the
  
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• 2025 Will Be World's Second or Third-Hottest Year on Record, EU Scientists Say

  09-12-2025 22:22 via news.slashdot.org
  This year is set to be the world's second or third-warmest on record, potentially surpassed only by 2024'S record-breaking heat, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Tuesday. From a report: The data is the latest from C3S following last month's COP30 climate summit, where governments failed to agree to substantial new measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reflecting strained geopolitics as the U.S. rolls back its efforts, and some countries seek to weaken C
  
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• Microsoft 365 Prices Rising For Businesses and Governments in July 2026

  09-12-2025 21:41 via it.slashdot.org
  Microsoft has announced that it will raise prices on its Microsoft 365 productivity suites for businesses and government clients starting in July 2026, marking the first commercial price increase since 2022. Small business and frontline worker plans face the steepest hikes: Business Basic jumps 16.7% to $7 per user per month, while frontline worker subscriptions surge up to 33%. Enterprise plans see more modest bumps, ranging from 5.3% for E5 to 8.3% for E3. Microsoft attributed the increases to
  
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• The Inevitable Shape of Cheap Online Retail

  09-12-2025 21:01 via slashdot.org
  Pinduoduo in China, Shopee in Southeast Asia, and Meesho in India operate in markets that could hardly be more different -- an upper-middle-income industrial state, a stitched-together archipelago of under-banked economies, and a country where three-quarters of retail is unorganized and e-commerce penetration sits at about 7% -- yet all three have landed on the same business model.
  These platforms run asset-light marketplaces specializing in cheap goods and slow delivery, monetizing through logi
  
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• How Pokemon Cards Became a Stock Market For Millennials

  09-12-2025 20:28 via games.slashdot.org
  The Pokemon Trading Card Game has quietly transformed into something its creators never intended: a speculative asset class dominated by adults hunting for profit while children struggle to find a single pack on store shelves. The resale market has climbed so high that the latest set, Phantasmal Flames, had a rare Charizard illustration valued at more than $800 before anyone had even pulled one from a pack -- a pack that retails for about $5.3.
  Ben Thyer, owner of BathTCG in Bath, has watched hi
  
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• Microsoft To Invest $17.5 Billion in India

  09-12-2025 19:15 via slashdot.org
  Microsoft announced on Tuesday its largest-ever investment in Asia -- $17.5 billion over four years starting in 2026 -- to expand cloud and AI infrastructure across India, fund skilling programs, and support ongoing operations in the country. The commitment adds to a $3 billion investment the company announced in January 2025 that is on track to be spent by the end of 2026. A new hyperscale cloud region in Hyderabad is set to go live in mid-2026 and will be Microsoft's largest in India, comprisi
  
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• What Happens When an 'Infinite-Money Machine' Unravels

  09-12-2025 18:25 via news.slashdot.org
  Michael Saylor's software company Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, built a financial model that some observers called an "infinite-money machine" by stockpiling hundreds of thousands of bitcoins and issuing stock and debt to buy more, but that machine appears to be breaking down. The company's stock peaked above $450 in mid-July and ended November at $177.18, a 60% decline. Bitcoin fell only 25% over the same period. The gap between Strategy's market cap and the value of its bitcoin ho
  
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• Xbox Is Bleeding Out

  09-12-2025 17:50 via games.slashdot.org
  Microsoft's Xbox consoles were conspicuously absent from Black Friday's winners, failing to crack the top three in U.S. sales during one of the retail calendar's most important weeks. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, the PlayStation 5 captured 47% of Black Friday week console sales ending November 29, followed by the Nintendo Switch 2 at 24% and -- somewhat remarkably -- the NEX Playground, a Kinect-like Android device aimed at children, at 14%.
  Microsoft ran no promotions on its con
  
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• The Rarest of All Diseases Are Becoming Treatable

  09-12-2025 17:11 via science.slashdot.org
  In February, a six-month-old baby named KJ Muldoon became the first person ever to receive a CRISPR gene-editing treatment customized specifically for his unique genetic mutation, a milestone that researchers say marks a turning point in how medicine might approach the thousands of rare diseases that collectively affect 30 million Americans. Muldoon was born with a type of urea-cycle disorder that gives patients roughly a 50% chance of surviving infancy and typically requires a liver transplant;
  
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• 'Colleges Oversold Education. Now They Must Sell Connection'

  09-12-2025 16:21 via news.slashdot.org
  A tenured USC professor is arguing that universities need to fundamentally rethink their value proposition as AI rapidly closes the gap on human instruction and a loneliness epidemic grips the generation most likely to be sitting in their lecture halls. Eric Anicich, an associate professor at USC's Marshall School of Business, wrote in the Los Angeles Times that nearly three-quarters of 16- to 24-year-olds now report feeling lonely, young adults spend 70% less time with friends in person compare
  
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• Microsoft Excel Turns 40, Remains Stubbornly Unkillable

  09-12-2025 15:41 via it.slashdot.org
  Microsoft Excel, the 40-year-old spreadsheet application that helped establish personal computers as essential workplace tools and contributed to Microsoft's current valuation of nearly $4 trillion, has weathered both the rise of cloud computing and the current AI boom largely unscathed. In its most recent quarter, commercial revenue for Microsoft 365 -- the bundle including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint -- increased 17% year over year, and consumer revenue rose 28%.
  The software traces its origin
  
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• India's Aviation Crisis Is All About Too Big to Tame

  09-12-2025 15:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  India's dominant airline IndiGo has cancelled roughly 3,000 flights since last week after new pilot fatigue regulations collided with technical issues and the seasonal schedule shift, stranding more than half a million passengers and forcing aviation authorities to reverse course on the safety rules they had just implemented.
  InterGlobe Aviation, IndiGo's parent company, told regulators that stricter requirements for night flying and weekly rest periods created an acute crew shortage. The Airlin
  
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• Science Journal Retracts Study On Safety of Monsanto's Roundup

  09-12-2025 14:00 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology has formally retracted a sweeping scientific paper published in 2000 that became a key defense for Monsanto's claim that Roundup herbicide and its active ingredient glyphosate don't cause cancer. Martin van den Berg, the journal's editor in chief, said in a note accompanying the retraction that he had taken the step because of "serious ethical concerns regarding the independence and accounta
  
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• Opportunistic Pro-Russia Hacktivists Attack US and Global Critical Infrastructure

  09-12-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  CISA, in partnership with Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, and other international partners published a joint cybersecurity advisory, Pro-Russia Hacktivists Create Opportunistic Attacks Against US and Global Critical Infrastructure.
  This advisory, published as an addition to the joint fact sheet on Primary Mitigations to Reduce Cyber Threats to Operational Techn
  
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• Evidence That Humans Now Speak In a Chatbot-Influenced Dialect Is Getting Stronger

  09-12-2025 11:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Researchers and moderators are increasingly concerned that ChatGPT-style language is bleeding into everyday speech and writing. The topic has been explored in the past but "two new, more anecdotal reports, suggest that our chatbot dialect isn't just something that can be found through close analysis of data," reports Gizmodo. "It might be an obvious, every day fact of life now." Slashdot reader joshuark shares an excerpt from the report: Over on Reddit, according to a new Wired story by Kat Tenb
  
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• Claude Code Is Coming To Slack

  09-12-2025 08:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  Anthropic is bringing Claude Code directly into Slack, letting developers spin up coding sessions from chat threads and automate workflows without leaving the app. TechCrunch reports: Previously, developers could only get lightweight coding help via Claude in Slack -- like writing snippets, debugging, and explanations. Now they can tag @Claude to spin up a complete coding session using Slack context like bug reports or feature requests. Claude analyzes recent messages to determine the right repo
  
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• Cold Case Inquiries Stall After Ancestry.com Revisits Policy For Users

  09-12-2025 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Since online genealogy services began operating, millions of people have sent them saliva samples in hopes of learning about their family roots and discovering far-flung relatives. These services also appeal to law enforcement authorities, who have used them to solve cold case murders and to investigate crimes like the 2022 killing of four University of Idaho students. Crime-scene DNA submitted to genealogy sites has helped investigato
  
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• 193 Cybercrims Arrested, Accused of Plotting 'Violence-As-a-Service'

  09-12-2025 03:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Europol's GRIMM taskforce has arrested nearly 200 people accused of running or participating in "violence-as-a-service" schemes where cybercrime groups recruit youth online for real-world attacks. "These individuals are groomed or coerced into committing a range of violent crimes, from acts of intimidation and torture to murder," the European police said on Monday. The Register reports: GRIMM began in April, and includes investigators from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the
  
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• Nvidia Can Sell H200 Chips To China For 25% US Cut

  09-12-2025 02:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  The Trump administration will allow Nvidia to resume selling H200 chips to China, but only if the U.S. government takes a 25% cut. Axios reports: Trump said on Truth Social that he'll allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips -- the generation of chips before its current, more-advanced Blackwell lineup -- to China, with the U.S. government pocketing a quarter of the revenue. He said he would apply "the same approach to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies."American defense hawks fear that China
  
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• More Than 200 Environmental Groups Demand Halt To New US Datacenters

  09-12-2025 02:10 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: A coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new datacenters in the U.S., the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the climate crisis. The green groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch and dozens of local organizations, have urged members of Congress to h
  
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• Taiwan Cries Censorship As Government Bans Rednote

  09-12-2025 01:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader hackingbear writes: Taiwan's government has ordered a one-year block of a popular, mainland Chinese-owned social media app Xiaohongshu, also known as The Little RedNote, citing its failure to cooperate with authorities over fraud-related concerns. Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited Xiaohongshu's, which does not have business presence on the island, refusal to cooperate with authorities as the basis for the ban, claiming that the platform has been linked
  
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• IBM To Buy Confluent For $11 Billion To Expand AI Services

  09-12-2025 00:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  IBM is buying Confluent for $11 billion in a major push to own real-time data streaming infrastructure essential for enterprise AI workloads. It marks Big Blue's biggest acquisition since Red Hat in 2019. Bloomberg reports: The AI boom has touched off billions of dollars in deals for businesses that build, train or leverage the technology, propelling the value of an entire ecosystem of data center developers, software makers, generative AI tool developers and data management firms. Mountain View
  
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• Firefox 146 Now Available With Native Fractional Scaling On Wayland

  09-12-2025 00:10 via news.slashdot.org
  Firefox 146 has been released with native fractional scaling support on Wayland -- finally giving Linux users crisp UI rendering. Other new additions include GPU process improvements on macOS, developer-focused CSS features, and broader access to Firefox Labs. Phoronix reports: Firefox 146 also now makes Firefox Labs available to all users, Firefox on macOS now has a dedicated GPU process by default, dropping Direct2D support on Windows, support for compressed elliptic curve points in WebCrypto,
  
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• Meta Pledge To Use Less Personal Data For Ads Gets EU Nod, Avoids Daily Fines

  08-12-2025 23:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Meta's proposal to use less personal data for targeted advertising in its pay-or-consent model that will be rolled out next month won the approval of EU antitrust regulators on Monday, signaling the company will not face daily fines after all. [...] The U.S. tech giant has been locked in discussions with the European Commission after getting hit with a $233 million fine in April for breaching the Digital Markets Act aimed at reining in the power
  
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• Lenovo's Next Gaming Laptop May Have a Rollable OLED Screen That Stretches Ultrawide

  08-12-2025 22:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  Lenovo may be preparing to unveil a gaming laptop that uses rollable OLED technology to expand horizontally into an ultrawide 21:9 display, according to a Windows Latest report suggesting the device could appear at CES 2026 in January. The Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable would differ from the company's existing ThinkBook Plus Gen 6, which expands its screen vertically.
  The new gaming-focused design would see the left and right edges of the display extend beyond the laptop's base chassis when unrolled
  
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• Social Media's Relentless Shopping Machine Has Created an Army of Debt-Laden Buyers

  08-12-2025 22:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  The influencer economy that Goldman Sachs projects will reach nearly half a trillion dollars by 2027 depends on a less-examined population: the influenced, millions of people who find themselves accumulating debt and clutter after years of exposure to what amounts to a 24/7 digital infomercial.
  Antoinette Hocbo, a former marketing professional who knows the tricks brands use to chip away at willpower, bought a $199 Pilates program, an iPad, and an arsenal of makeup products after TikTok's algori
  
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• China's Growth Is Coming at the Rest of the World's Expense

  08-12-2025 21:30 via slashdot.org
  China has contributed less to global growth this year than the U.S. despite Beijing's frequent criticism of protectionism, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis citing new research from Goldman Sachs economists. U.S. imports are up 10% so far this year compared to a year earlier, while China's imports have fallen 3% in dollar terms. Goldman's economists found that the historical relationship between Chinese growth and global growth has turned negative; where 1% more Chinese output once rai
  
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