An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Websites that displayed legally mandated U.S. national climate assessments seem to have disappeared, making it harder for state and local governments and the public to learn what to expect in their backyards from a warming world. Scientists said the peer-reviewed authoritative reports save money and lives. Websites for the national assessments and the U.S. Global Change Research Program were down Monday and Tuesday with no links, notes or referrals elsewhere. The White House, which was responsible for the assessments, said the information will be housed within NASA to comply with the law, but gave no further details. Searches for the assessments on NASA websites did not turn them up. "It's critical for decision makers across the country to know what the science in the National Climate Assessment is. That is the most reliable and well-reviewed source of information about climate that exists for the United States," said University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs, who coordinated the 2014 version of the report. "It's a sad day for the United States if it is true that the National Climate Assessment is no longer available," Jacobs said. "This is evidence of serious tampering with the facts and with people's access to information, and it actually may increase the risk of people being harmed by climate-related impacts." "This is a government resource paid for by the taxpayer to provide the information that really is the primary source of information for any city, state or federal agency who's trying to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate," said Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who has been a volunteer author for several editions of the report. Copies of past reports are still squirreled away in NOAA's library. NASA's open science data repository includes dead links to the assessment site. [...] Additionally, NOAA's main climate.gov website was recently forwarded to a different NOAA website. Social media and blogs at NOAA and NASA about climate impacts for the general public were cut or eliminated. "It's part of a horrifying big picture," [said Harvard climate scientist John Holdren, who was President Obama's science advisor and whose office directed the assessments]. "It's just an appalling whole demolition of science infrastructure." National climate assessments are more detailed and locally relevant than UN reports and undergo rigorous peer review and validation by scientific and federal institutions, Hayhoe and Jacobs said. Suppressing these reports would be censoring science, Jacobs said.

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Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross, two pivotal creative forces behind HBO's The Last of Us adaptation, have stepped away from the series before work begins on Season 3. Druckmann is focusing on new projects at Naughty Dog, while Gross hinted at other upcoming creative endeavors, leaving showrunner Craig Mazin at the helm. Ars Technica reports: Both were credited as executive producers on the show; Druckmann frequently contributed writing to episodes, as did Gross, and Druckmann also directed. Druckmann and Gross co-wrote the second game, The Last of Us Part 2. Druckmann said in his announcement post: "I've made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO. With work completed on season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, along with my responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative. Co-creating the show has been a career highlight. It's been an honor to work alongside Craig Mazin to executive produce, direct and write on the last two seasons. I'm deeply thankful for the thoughtful approach and dedication the talented cast and crew took to adapting The Last of Us Part I and the continued adaptation of The Last of Us Part II." And Gross said: "With great care and consideration, I've decided to take a step back from my day-to-day work on HBO's The Last of Us to make space for what comes next. I'm so appreciative of how special this experience has been. Working alongside Neil, Craig, HBO, and this remarkable cast and crew has been life changing. The stories we told -- about love, loss, and what it means to be human in a terrifying world -- are exactly why I love this franchise. I have some truly rad projects ahead that I can't wait to share, but for now, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who brought Ellie and Joel's world to life with such care."

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alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: The world's first commercial hybrid of silicon circuitry and human brain cells will soon be available for rent. Marketed for its vast potential in medical research, the biological machine, grown inside a British laboratory, builds on the Pong-playing prototype, DishBrain. Each CL1 computer is formed of 800,000 neurons grown across a silicon chip, and their life-support system. While it can't yet match the mind-blowing capabilities of today's most powerful computers, the system has one very significant advantage: it only consumes a fraction of the energy of comparable technologies. AI centers now consume countries' worth of energy, whereas a rack of CL1 machines only uses 1,000 watts and is naturally capable of adapting and learning in real time. [...] When neuroscientist Brett Kagan and colleagues pitted their creation against equivalent levels of machine learning algorithms, the cell culture systems outperformed them. Users can send code directly into the synthetically supported system of neurons, which is capable of responding to electrical signals almost instantly. These signals act as bits of information that can be read and acted on by the cells. But perhaps the greatest potential for this biological and synthetic hybrid is as an experimental tool for learning more about our own brains and their abilities, from neuroscience to creativity. The first CL1 units will reportedly ship soon for $35,000 each. Remote access can apparently be rented for $300 per week.

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Beeftopia shares a report from CBS News: The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot. That sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it is part of the government's plans for protecting the U.S. from a bug that could devastate its beef industry, decimate wildlife and even kill household pets. This weird science has worked well before. The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the New World Screwworm fly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of adult male flies -- sterilizing them with radiation before releasing them. They mate with females in the wild, and the eggs laid by the female aren't fertilized and don't hatch. There are fewer larvae, and over time, the fly population dies out. It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in Panama kept the flies contained there for years, but the pest appeared in southern Mexico late last year. [...] The USDA expects a new screwworm fly factory to be up and running in southern Mexico by July 2026. It plans to open a fly distribution center in southern Texas by the end of the year so that it can import and distribute flies from Panama if necessary. The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species, unable to survive Midwestern or Great Plains winters, so it was a seasonal scourge. Still, the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating. One biological trait gives fly fighters a crucial wing up: Females mate only once in their weekslong adult lives. "A similar approach to certain species of mosquito is being debated," adds Beeftopia. "The impact on ecosystems is unclear."

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BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: A new academic study has found that the 2016 Wells Fargo scandal pushed many consumers toward fintech lenders instead of traditional banks. The research, published in the Journal of Financial Economics, suggests that it was a lack of trust rather than interest rates or fees that drove this behavioral shift. Conducted by Keer Yang, an assistant professor at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, the study looked closely at what happened after the Wells Fargo fraud erupted into national headlines. Bank employees were caught creating millions of unauthorized accounts to meet unrealistic sales goals. The company faced $3 billion in penalties and a massive public backlash. Yang analyzed Google Trends data, Gallup polls, media coverage, and financial transaction datasets to draw a clear conclusion. In geographic areas with a strong Wells Fargo presence, consumers became measurably more likely to take out mortgages through fintech lenders. This change occurred even though loan costs were nearly identical between traditional banks and digital lenders. In other words, it was not about money. It was about trust. That simple fact hits hard. When big institutions lose public confidence, people do not just complain. They start moving their money elsewhere. According to the study, fintech mortgage use increased from just 2 percent of the market in 2010 to 8 percent in 2016. In regions more heavily exposed to the Wells Fargo brand, fintech adoption rose an additional 4 percent compared to areas with less exposure. Yang writes, "Therefore it is trust, not the interest rate, that affects the borrower's probability of choosing a fintech lender." [...] Notably, while customers may have been more willing to switch mortgage providers, they were less likely to move their deposits. Yang attributes that to FDIC insurance, which gives consumers a sense of security regardless of the bank's reputation. This study also gives weight to something many of us already suspected. People are not necessarily drawn to fintech because it is cheaper. They are drawn to it because they feel burned by the traditional system and want a fresh start with something that seems more modern and less manipulative.

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Electric vehicles claimed a dominant 96.9% market share in Norway in June 2025, with the Tesla Model Y alone accounting for over 27% of all new car registrations. Mobility Portal Europe reports: According to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (OFV), 17,799 new electric cars were registered in Norway in June out of a total of 18,376 new registrations. In this context, electric vehicles (EVs) held a market share of 96.9%. Compared to June 2024 -- when EVs made up 80% of all new registrations -- this technology increased by 3,790 units. In addition, in May 2025, Norway recorded 4,415 new EV registrations. Last month, only 577 new registrations were for vehicles without fully electric drive systems. Among these were 152 plug-in hybrids (an 83.7% drop compared to June 2024) and 223 other types of hybrids (an 89.1% decline). Over the year, hybrids lost market share, falling from 17% to 2%. Pure combustion engines also further reduced their market presence: 142 new diesel vehicles represented 0.8% of the market share, down from 2% a year earlier, and 57 new petrol vehicles made up 0.3% of the market, compared to 1% in June 2024. "Several campaigns with 0% or very low interest rates on new car purchases significantly boosted sales. The first interest rate cut by Norges Bank helped ensure that many people bought their dream car," said Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, Director of OFV. "It remained to be seen whether Tesla could maintain its strong position, and for how long."

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Ripple Labs is applying for a U.S. national bank charter and a Federal Reserve master account, "following a similar move by stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group as crypto firms look to be regulated to deepen ties with traditional finance," reports CoinTelegraph. From the report: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse confirmed on X on Wednesday that the company is applying for a license with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), following an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal. "True to our long-standing compliance roots, Ripple is applying for a national bank charter from the OCC," he wrote. Garlinghouse said if the license is approved, it would be a "new (and unique!) benchmark for trust in the stablecoin market" as the firm would be under federal and state oversight -- with the New York Department of Financial Services already regulating its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin. [...] Ripple's Garlinghouse added that the company also applied for a Master Account with the Federal Reserve, which would give it access to the US central banking system. "This access would allow us to hold $RLUSD reserves directly with the Fed and provide an additional layer of security to future proof trust in RLUSD," Garlinghouse said. "Congress is working towards clear rules and regulations, and banks (in a far cry from the years of Operation Chokepoint 2.0) are leaning in," he added, mentioning the conspiracy that the Biden administration sought to cut off crypto from the financial system. Ripple applied for the account through Standard Custody, a crypto custody firm it acquired in February 2024.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom's Hardware: Samsung is reportedly delaying the launch of its Taylor, Texas, fab, citing difficulties in securing customers for its output. Sources told Nikkei Asia that even if the South Korean chipmaker brings in the necessary equipment to produce chips at the new plant, the company cannot do anything with them due to the lack of demand. Aside from that, the original planned process node for the Taylor plant is no longer aligned with current demand, highlighting the rapid pace of semiconductor technology. The chip maker started construction on the Taylor fab in 2022, with an initial investment of $17 billion. By 2024, the company decided to double this to $44 billion, with the addition of another advanced fab and expanded R&D operations. This move is supported by a $6.6-billion CHIPS Act subsidy, which was finalized in December last year, despite multiple delays and setbacks. Samsung C&T, the primary contractor for the Taylor fab, states that construction of the site is progressing. Documents from the company show that the site is almost 92% complete as of March 2024. Work on the site was originally scheduled to finish the following month, but regulatory filings indicate that this was moved to October. No reason was given for the delay, but multiple sources indicate that it occurred due to a lack of demand. It was initially planned for the Taylor Fab to produce chips for the 4nm process node, but this has since been upgraded to 2nm, to compete with TSMC and Intel. A supply chain executive told the publication that there is little demand for the originally planned 4nm process node at the site. "Local demand for chips isn't particularly strong, and the process nodes Samsung planned several years ago no longer meet with current customer needs," the executive said to Nikkei Asia. "However, overhauling the plant would be a major and costly undertaking, so the company is adopting a wait-and-see approach for now." Although it has already declared its intention to upgrade the site to manufacture the 2nm process node, that is a resource-intensive task in terms of time, effort, and money. Despite the lack of customers, Samsung says it will proceed with opening the Taylor Fab by 2026 -- a necessary move to qualify for CHIPS Act funding and avoid falling behind competitors like TSMC. Delaying further could jeopardize billions already invested in the project.

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Robert Caruso once again pitted an AI chatbot against Atari 2600 Video Chess -- this time using Microsoft's Copilot instead of ChatGPT. Despite confident claims of chess mastery, Copilot fell just as hard. The Register reports: By now, anybody with experience of today's generative AI systems will know what happened. Copilot's hubris was misplaced. Its moves were... interesting, and it managed to lose two pawns, a knight, and a bishop while the mighty Atari 2600 Video Chess was only down a single pawn. Eventually, Caruso asked Copilot to compare what it thought the board looked like with the last screenshot he'd pasted, and the chatbot admitted they were different. "ChatGPT deja vu." There was no way Microsoft's chatbot could win with this handicap. Still, it was gracious in defeat: "Atari's earned the win this round. I'll tip my digital king with dignity and honor [to the] the vintage silicon mastermind that bested me fair and square." Caruso's experiment is amusing but also highlights the absolute confidence with which an AI can spout nonsense. Copilot (like ChatGPT) had likely been trained on the fundamentals of chess, but could not create strategies. The problem was compounded by the fact that what it understood the positions on the chessboard to be, versus reality, appeared to be markedly different. The story's moral has to be: Beware of the confidence of chatbots. LLMs are apparently good at some things. A 45-year-old chess game is clearly not one of them.

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The "Stop Killing Games" movement, led by YouTuber Accursed Farms, has gained serious momentum as it pushes back against the practice of game publishers shutting down access to titles consumers have paid for. Recent milestones include a UK petition surpassing 100K signatures and an EU initiative nearing its 1 million goal. GamingOnLinux reports: In the UK, the newer petition has flown past the 100K signatures (126,066 at time of writing) needed for it to be considered for a debate in Parliament. That doesn't mean it will happen, just that it now needs to be considered by the UK government to potentially have it mentioned. A good step though, with signatures still flowing in until July 14th, showing there's demand for change. On the EU side, things are also going well there now too. Against the needed 1 million signatures, it's now hit 977,864 (at time of writing). According to the official Accursed Farms X account, they've had reports of "non-citizens spoofing signatures on the EU initiative" so it may be a little inflated.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Nearly 1,000 British workers will keep a shorter working week after the latest trial of a four-day week and similar changes to traditional working patterns. All 17 British businesses in a six-month trial of the four-day week said they would continue with an arrangement consisting of either four days a week or nine days a fortnight. All the employees remained on their full salary. The trial was organized by the 4 Day Week Foundation, a group campaigning for more businesses to take up shorter working weeks. The latest test follows a larger six-month pilot in 2022, involving almost 3,000 employees, which ended in 56 of 61 companies cutting down their hours from a five-day working week. [...] Researchers at Boston College, a US university, said the findings from the latest trial were "extremely positive" for workers. They found that 62% of workers reported that they experienced less burnout during the trial, according to a poll of 89 people. Forty-five percent of those polled said they felt "more satisfied with life." The 4 Day Week Foundation has run successive trials to gather data and demonstrate how companies can make the switch. In January, the foundation said more than 5,000 people from a previous wave had started the year permanently working a four-day week. Companies involved in the latest trial, which started in November, included charities and professional services firms, with the number of employees at each employer ranging between five and 400. They included the British Society for Immunology and Crate Brewery in Hackney, east London. [...] The small web software company BrandPipe said that the latest trial had been a success for the business, coinciding with increased sales. Geoff Slaughter, BrandPipe's chief executive, said: "The trial's been an overwhelming success because it has been the launchpad for us to consider what constitutes efficiency, and financial performance is double what it was before." Slaughter added: "If we're going to see it rolled out more substantially across different sectors, there should be incentives for early adopters, because we're creating the blueprint for the future."

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New evidence from a 300-year-old supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud suggests that some Type Ia supernovae may result from a "double detonation" -- where a helium shell ignites first, triggering a second core explosion in a white dwarf before it reaches critical mass. "While the physics of the process itself are interesting, the key question this raises is whether type Ia supernovae really are all equally bright," writes Ars Technica's John Timmer. "If they can detonate with substantially less mass than is needed for direct ignition of the core, then it's possible that some of them could be considerably less bright." However, the research team notes that additional factors -- such as the influence of binary systems or secondary detonations -- could further complicate the picture. Ars Technica reports: "The detonations in the carbon-oxygen core and the helium-rich shell result in qualitatively different yield products," the researchers behind the new work write in a paper describing it. In the paper, they focus on calcium, which there are two ways of producing. One is from the outer shell of helium, via fusion before the detonation dilutes the material. A second batch of calcium is produced through the fusion of the core material as it's ejected in the supernova, which prevents further fusion events from converting it to even heavier elements. (Material deeper in the core does end up getting fused into heavier material.) Because it's produced by both of the detonations, models predict that the expanding sphere of debris will contain two different shells of calcium, with some space in between them. To find evidence for these shells, the researchers checked an older supernova remnant, which allows enough time for the movement of material to separate the shells by enough distance that they can be resolved from Earth. They focused their observations on a supernova remnant named SNR 0509-67.5, located in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. SNR 0509-67.5 is estimated to be a bit over 300 years old, meaning material has had enough time to move a significant distance away from the site of the explosion. Imaging using a spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope allowed them to resolve what, in effect, was a spherical sulfur sandwich, with the role of the bread played by calcium. In other words, if you were to travel away from the site of the explosion, you would first hit a layer of ionized calcium, followed by ionized sulfur, and then run into a second layer of ionized calcium. This is exactly what computer models that simulate double detonations predict. So, the researchers suggest it is strong support for that hypothesis. The researchers say that the details suggest that SNR 0509-67.5 was a white dwarf with roughly the same mass as the Sun when it exploded, and that its explosion was likely triggered by the detonation of a helium shell with only three percent of the Sun's mass.

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Astronomers have detected a mysterious "interstellar object," dubbed A11pl3Z, speeding through the solar system at 152,000 mph. If confirmed, it would be just the third known interstellar visitor, following 'Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. The visiting space object will pass near Mars and the Sun later this year before leaving the solar system forever. Live Science reports: The newly discovered object, currently dubbed A11pl3Z, was first spotted in data collected between June 25 and June 29 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), which automatically scans the night sky using telescopes in Hawaii and South Africa. The mystery object was confirmed by both NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies and the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center on Tuesday (July 1), according to EarthSky.org. A11pl3Z is most likely a large asteroid, or maybe a comet, potentially spanning up to 12 miles (20 kilometers). It is traveling toward the inner solar system at around 152,000 mph (245,000 km/h) and is approaching us from the part of the night sky where the bar of the Milky Way is located. Based on A11pl3Z's speed and trajectory, experts think it originated from beyond the sun's gravitational influence and has enough momentum to shoot straight through our cosmic neighborhood without slowing down. However, more observations are needed to tell for sure.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A security vulnerability in a stealthy Android spyware operation called Catwatchful has exposed thousands of its customers, including its administrator. The bug, which was discovered by security researcher Eric Daigle, spilled the spyware app's full database of email addresses and plaintext passwords that Catwatchful customers use to access the data stolen from the phones of their victims. [...] According to a copy of the database from early June, which TechCrunch has seen, Catwatchful had email addresses and passwords on more than 62,000 customers and the phone data from 26,000 victims' devices. Most of the compromised devices were located in Mexico, Colombia, India, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, and Bolivia (in order of the number of victims). Some of the records date back to 2018, the data shows. The Catwatchful database also revealed the identity of the spyware operation's administrator, Omar Soca Charcov, a developer based in Uruguay. Charcov opened our emails, but did not respond to our requests for comment sent in both English and Spanish. TechCrunch asked if he was aware of the Catwatchful data breach, and if he plans to disclose the incident to its customers. Without any clear indication that Charcov will disclose the incident, TechCrunch provided a copy of the Catwatchful database to data breach notification service Have I Been Pwned. The stalkerware operation uses a custom API and Google's Firebase to collect and store victims' stolen data, including photos and audio recordings. According to Daigle, the API was left unauthenticated, exposing sensitive user data such as email addresses and passwords. The hosting provider temporarily suspended the spyware after TechCrunch disclosed this vulnerability but it returned later on HostGator. Despite being notified, Google has yet to take down the Firebase instance but updated Google Play Protect to detect Catwatchful. While Catwatchful claims it "cannot be uninstalled," you can dial "543210" and press the call button on your Android phone to reveal the hidden app. As for its removal, TechCrunch has a general how-to guide for removing Android spyware that could be helpful.

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"Slashdot regularly posts milestones on CO2 levels reported by the Mauna Loa Observatory," writes longtime Slashdot reader symbolset, pointing to a new article highlighting how the Trump administration's proposed budget would eliminate funding for the lab's carbon dioxide monitoring. "Continuous observation records since 1958 will end with the new federal budget as ocean and atmospheric sciences are defunded." From a report: [I]t's the Mauna Loa laboratory that is the most prominent target of the President Donald Trump's climate ire, as measurements that began there in 1958 have steadily shown CO2's upward march as human activities have emitted more and more of the planet-warming gas each year. The curve produced by the Mauna Loa measurements is one of the most iconic charts in modern science, known as the Keeling Curve, after Charles David Keeling, who was the researcher who painstakingly collected the data. His son, Ralph Keeling, a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, now oversees collecting and updating that data. Today, the Keeling Curve measurements are made possible by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration, but the data gathering and maintenance of the historical record also is funded by Schmidt Sciences and Earth Networks, according to the Keeling Curve website. In the event of a NOAA shut down of the lab, Scripps could seek alternate sources of funding to host the instruments atop the same peak or introduce a discontinuity in the record by moving the instruments elsewhere in Hawaii. The proposal to shut down Mauna Loa had been made public previously but was spelled out in more detail on Monday when NOAA submitted a budget document (PDF) to Congress. It made more clear that the Trump administration envisions eliminating all climate-related research work at NOAA, as had been proposed in Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for overhauling the government. It would do this in large part by cutting NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research entirely, including some labs that are also involved in improving weather forecasting. NOAA has long been one of the world's top climate science agencies, but the administration would steer it instead towards being more focused on operational weather forecasting and warning responsibilities.

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Apple's expansion in India has hit a snag as Foxconn has sent over 300 Chinese workers back to China, potentially reducing production efficiency just as mass manufacturing of the iPhone 17 begins. AppleInsider reports: It's not known why Foxconn has done this, nor is it clear whether workers have been laid off or redeployed to the company's facilities in China. The move, though, does follow Beijing officials reportedly working to prevent firms moving away from China. Those officials are said to have been verbally encouraging China's local governments and regulatory bodies to curb exports of equipment or technologies to India and Southeast Asia. Overall, China has been making it harder for skilled labor to leave the country. It's not clear how any changes have specifically affected Chinese workers who had already left.What is clear is that Foxconn has used many experienced Chinese engineers as it attempts to rapidly expand in India. It's said, too, that Chinese managers have been vital in training Foxconn staff in India. Since that training has been ongoing for some years, and since at least most of Foxconn's production lines have been set up, it's said that there will not be an impact on the quality of manufacturing. But one source said the changes will impact efficiency on the production line.

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A politically motivated hacker breached Columbia University's IT systems, stealing vast amounts of sensitive student and employee data -- including admissions decisions and Social Security numbers. The Record reports: The hacker reportedly provided Bloomberg News with 1.6 gigabytes of data they claimed to have stolen from the university, including information from 2.5 million applications going back decades. The stolen data the outlet reviewed reportedly contains details on whether applicants were rejected or accepted, their citizenship status, their university ID numbers and which academic programs they sought admission to. While the hacker's claims have not been independently verified, Bloomberg said it compared data provided by the hacker to that belonging to eight Columbia applicants seeking admission between 2019 and 2024 and found it matched. The threat actor reportedly told Bloomberg he was seeking information that would indicate whether the university continues to use affirmative action in admissions despite a 2023 Supreme Court decision prohibiting the practice. The hacker told Bloomberg he obtained 460 gigabytes of data in total -- after spending two months targeting and penetrating increasingly privileged layers of the university's servers -- and said he harvested information about financial aid packages, employee pay and at least 1.8 million Social Security numbers belonging to employees, applicants, students and their family members.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Intel's new chief executive is exploring a big change to its contract manufacturing business to win major customers, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a potentially expensive shift from his predecessor's plans. The new strategy for Intel's foundry business would mean offering outside customers a newer generation of technology, the people said. That next-generation chipmaking process, analysts believe, will be more competitive against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co in trying to land major customers such as Apple or Nvidia. Since taking the company's helm in March, CEO Lip-Bu Tan has moved fast to cut costs and find a new path to revive the ailing U.S. chipmaker. By June, he started voicing that a manufacturing process known as 18A, in which prior CEO Pat Gelsinger had invested heavily, was losing its appeal to new customers, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. To put aside external sales of 18A and its variant 18A-P, manufacturing processes that have cost Intel billions of dollars to develop, the company would have to take a write-off, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Industry analysts contacted by Reuters said such a charge could amount to a loss of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. Intel declined to comment on such "hypothetical scenarios or market speculation." It said the lead customer for 18A has long been Intel itself, and it aims to ramp production of its "Panther Lake" laptop chips later in 2025, which it called the most advanced processors ever designed and manufactured in the United States. Persuading outside clients to use Intel's factories remains key to its future. As its 18A fabrication process faced delays, rival TSMC's N2 technology has been on track for production. Tan's preliminary answer to this challenge: focus more resources on 14A, a next-generation chipmaking process where Intel expects to have advantages over Taiwan's TSMC, the two sources said. The move is part of a play for big customers like Apple and Nvidia, which currently pay TSMC to manufacture their chips.

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Two accessory manufacturers have told The Verge that Nintendo has intentionally locked down the Switch 2's USB-C port using a new encryption scheme, preventing compatibility with third-party docks and accessories. "I haven't yet found proof of that encryption chip myself -- but when I analyzed the USB-C PD traffic with a Power-Z tester, I could clearly see the new Nintendo Switch not behaving like a good USB citizen should," writes The Verge's Sean Hollister. From the report: If you've been wondering why there are basically no portable Switch 2 docks on the market, this is the reason. Even Jsaux, the company that built its reputation by beating the Steam Deck dock to market, tells us it's paused its plans to build a Switch 2 dock because of Nintendo's actions. It's not simply because the Switch 2 now requires more voltage, as was previously reported; it's that Nintendo has made things even more difficult this generation.

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Grammarly has acquired the AI email client Superhuman to enhance its AI-driven productivity suite and expand AI capabilities within email communication. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra and his team will be joining the AI writing company. TechCrunch reports: Superhuman was founded by Rahul Vohra, Vivek Sodera, and Conrad Irwin. The company raised more than $114 million in funding from backers including a16z, IVP, and Tiger Global, with its last valuation at $825 million, according to data from venture data analytics firm Traxcn. "With Superhuman, we can deliver that future to millions more professionals while giving our existing users another surface for agent collaboration that simply doesn't exist anywhere else. Email isn't just another app; it's where professionals spend significant portions of their day, and it's the perfect staging ground for orchestrating multiple AI agents simultaneously," Shishir Mehrotra, CEO of Grammarly, said in a statement. With this deal, CEO Vohra and other Superhuman employees are moving over to Grammarly. "Email is the main communication tool for billions of people worldwide and the number-one use case for Grammarly customers. By joining forces with Grammarly, we will invest even more in the core Superhuman experience, as well as create a new way of working where AI agents collaborate across the communication tools that we all use every day," Rahul Vohra, CEO of Superhuman, said in a statement.

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