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SUNDAY, 28 DECEMBER 2025, 11:58

Science/Tech

Mesh Networks Are About To Escape Apple, Amazon and Google Silos

Yesterday at 04:00 AM, via Slashdot

After more than two decades of promises and false starts in the mesh networking space, the smart home standards that Apple, Amazon and Google have each championed are finally set to escape their respective brand silos and work together in a single unified network. Starting January 1, 2026, Thread 1.4 becomes the Thread Group’s only certified standard, bringing a crucial new capability called...

Driverless Future Gains Momentum With Global Robotaxi Deployments

Yesterday at 02:30 AM, via Slashdot

The global push to put autonomous taxis on public roads is accelerating as ride-hailing companies and technology firms advance from pilot programs toward limited commercial rollouts in cities across China, the United States, Europe and the Middle East. WeRide and Uber launched Level 4 fully driverless robotaxi operations in Abu Dhabi in November and began offering robotaxi passenger rides on...

NASA Chief Says US Will Return To Moon Within Trump’s Second Term

Yesterday at 01:40 AM, via Slashdot

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who was confirmed by the Senate just last week after a turbulent nomination process that stretched across most of 2025, said Friday that the United States will return to the moon within President Donald Trump’s second term. Isaacman made the comments during an interview on CNBC, calling Trump’s recommitment to lunar exploration key to unlocking what he...

New York To Require Social Media Platforms To Display Mental Health Warnings

Yesterday at 01:07 AM, via Slashdot

Social media platforms with infinite scrolling, auto-play and algorithmic feeds will be required to display warning labels about their potential harm to young users’ mental health under a new law, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Friday. From a report: “Keeping New Yorkers safe has been my top priority since taking office, and that includes protecting our kids from the potential...

FFmpeg Developer Files DMCA Against Rockchip After Two-Year Wait for License Fix

Friday at 22:00 PM, via Slashdot

GitHub has disabled Rockchip’s Media Process Platform repository after an FFmpeg developer filed a DMCA takedown notice, nearly two years after the open-source project first publicly accused the Chinese chipmaker of license violations. The notice, filed December 18, claims Rockchip copied thousands of lines of code from FFmpeg’s libavcodec library — including decoders for H.265, AV1, and VP9...

Indian IT Was Supposed To Die From AI. Instead It’s Billing for the Cleanup.

Friday at 20:40 PM, via Slashdot

Two years after generative AI was supposed to render India’s $250 billion IT services industry obsolete, the sector is finding that enterprises still need someone to handle the unglamorous plumbing work that large-scale AI deployment demands. Less than 15% of organizations are meaningfully deploying the new technology, according to investment bank UBS, and Indian IT firms are positioning...

As AI Companies Borrow Billions, Debt Investors Grow Wary

Friday at 19:37 PM, via Slashdot

While stock investors have pushed AI-related shares to repeated highs this year, debt markets are telling a more cautious story as newer AI infrastructure companies find themselves paying significantly elevated interest rates to borrow money. Applied Digital, a data center builder, sold $2.35 billion of debt in November at a 9.25% coupon — roughly 3.75% above similarly rated companies, or about...

The Guardian view on adapting to the climate crisis: it demands political honesty about extreme weather | Editorial

Friday at 19:30 PM, via The Guardian

Over the holiday period, the Guardian leader column is looking ahead at the themes of 2026. Today we look at how the struggle to adapt to a dangerously warming world has become a test of global justice

The record-breaking 252mph winds of Hurricane Melissa that devastated Caribbean islands at the end of October were made five times more likely by the climate crisis. Scorching wildfire weather in...

Defunding fungi: US’s living library of ‘vital ecosystem engineers’ is in danger of closing

Friday at 19:00 PM, via The Guardian

These fungi boost plant growth and restore depleted ecosystems, but federal funding for a library housing them has been cut – and it may be forced to close

Inside a large greenhouse at the University of Kansas, Professor Liz Koziol and Dr Terra Lubin tend rows of sudan grass in individual plastic pots. The roots of each straggly plant harbor a specific strain of invisible soil fungus. The...

The Economic Divide Between Big and Small Companies Is Growing

Friday at 18:24 PM, via Slashdot

While America’s largest corporations are riding a wave of surging profits and AI-fueled stock market enthusiasm to record highs, small businesses across the country are cutting staff and scaling back operations as years of high inflation, cautious consumers and tariff confusion take their toll. Private firms with fewer than 50 workers have steadily shed jobs over the past six months, according...

Retreating From EVs Could Be Hazardous For Western Carmakers

Friday at 17:08 PM, via Slashdot

Western carmakers retreating from electric vehicles amid softening government mandates could find themselves in a precarious position as Chinese rivals continue gaining ground in the EV market they’re choosing to de-prioritize. The EU on December 16th dropped its earlier plan to ban petrol car sales outright from 2035, instead requiring carmakers to cut emissions from new vehicles by 90% from...

AI’s Hunger For Memory Chips Could Shrink Smartphone and PC Sales in 2026, IDC Says

Friday at 16:05 PM, via Slashdot

The global smartphone and PC markets face potential contractions of up to 5.2% and 8.9% respectively in 2026, according to downside risk scenarios from IDC that trace the problem to memory chip manufacturers shifting production capacity away from consumer electronics toward AI data centers. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology have pivoted their limited cleanroom space toward...

Conservative and Christian? US right champions psychedelic drugs

Friday at 15:00 PM, via The Guardian

Texas governor among those to call for expanded access to ibogaine, said to help with treating veterans with PTSD

For half a century, psychedelics largely belonged to the cultural left: anti-war, anti-capitalist, suspicious of the church and state. Now, one of the most politically consequential psychedelic drugs in the US – ibogaine – is being championed by evangelical Christians,...

China Launches $21 Billion Venture Capital Funds To Invest in ‘Hard Technology’

Friday at 14:31 PM, via Slashdot

An anonymous reader shares a report: China on Friday launched three venture capital funds to invest in “hard technology” areas, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The capital contribution plans for the funds have been finalised, each with more than 50 billion yuan ($7.14 billion), according to the report. The funds will primarily invest in early-stage startups and the targets should be valued at...

Pig organ transplants could one day be superior to human ones, says expert

Friday at 14:00 PM, via The Guardian

Surgeon leading xenotransplantation trial aimed at solving shortage of human organs says edits can lessen risk of rejection

A leading surgeon behind a clinical trial of transplanting pig kidneys into living humans has said they could one day be superior to those from human donors.

Dr Robert Montgomery, the director of NYU Langone’s Transplant Institute, said the first transplant of the trial...

The pioneering light boxes helping Orkney islanders avoid seasonal affective disorder

Friday at 14:00 PM, via The Guardian

Wintering Well boxes to counter effects of low light on mental health are ‘super popular’, says island librarian

“Boxes of light” are being used to help people who struggle with low winter mood while living in one of Scotland’s darkest communities as part of a wider research initiative to support the million-plus sufferers of seasonal affective disorder across Britain.

Residents of the Orkney...

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