Electrek reports on the new Omo X, a scooter planned for release in 2026 that's "full of premium tech features that blur the lines between e-scooter and self-driving EV." At its recent launch in Jakarta, the Omo X didn't just sit pretty center stage, it actually drove itself onto the stage using its "Halo Pilot" system, which apparently comes complete with adaptive cruise control, remote summon, self-parking, and even automatic reversing and self-balancing at low speeds. This is legit autonomous behavior previously reserved for cars, now shrunk down and smoothed out for a two-wheeler. Under the hood — or rather, behind the sleek bodywork — Omoway's Halo architecture delivers collision warning, emergency-brake assist, blind spot monitoring, and V2V [vehicle-to-vehicle] communication. The frame is modular, too. It can be reconfigured in step-through, straddle, or touring posture to suit casual riders, commuters, and motorcycle wannabes alike. That kind of flexibility isn't just a marketing gimmick, but rather it looks purpose-built to capture diverse motorcycle-heavy markets like Indonesia, which counts over 120 million two-wheelers and is quickly transitioning to electric models... It's tech-rich, head-turning, and seems built to evolve with software updates. The remote summon and AI-assisted features could genuinely simplify urban mobility, and tricks like automatically driving itself to a charging station sound legitimately useful... [But] Omoway's vision here will have to carry extra sensors, actuators, and redundant systems to support those smart functions. With added costs and complexity, will riders in developing markets pay a premium, carry extra maintenance risk, or worry about obsolescence? Much hinges on Omoway's software support and local service networks. The article reports a projected price around €3,500 (roughly $3,800). "And while Indonesia may have been the launchpad, global markets aren't off the table..."

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"A Nintendo Switch 2 user reportedly got his brand-new console banned by Nintendo after buying used Switch 1 games and patching them on his console," reports Tom's Hardware: According to Reddit user dmanthey, they purchased four used titles off the Facebook marketplace, inserted them into the Switch 2, and had them all updated. When they turned on their handhelds the following day, they received a message saying that they were restricted from Nintendo's online services and that they couldn't even download the games they had already bought... [T]hey were able to prove their innocence by pulling up the Facebook Marketplace listing for their games and sending the photos of their purchased cartridges. According to the Redditor, the process was painless and fast, and it was "so much easier than getting support from Microsoft or Sony...." Other users warned, though, that this isn't always a guaranteed resolution. Nintendo is known for being protective of its intellectual property and delivers harsh penalties to anyone caught violating it. We've already had several reports of users getting banned for using Mig Flash, even on their own ROMs. And while it's not true that getting banned turns your Switch 2 into a brick, it will still prevent you from accessing the company's online services, which severely restricts its features and usability. "Nintendo attaches unique codes to its Switch game cartridges to prevent piracy," notes Engadget. "However, bad actors can copy games onto a third-party device, like the MIG Flash, and then resell the physical game card. Once Nintendo detects two instances of its unique code being online at the same time, it will ban any accounts using it..." This anti-piracy policy isn't new — Nintendo has long had a reputation for fiercely combating any type of piracy — but it has become relevant again thanks to the recently released Switch 2, which offers backwards compatibility with original Switch titles. The company even recently amended its user agreement to allow itself the power to brick a Nintendo Switch that's caught running pirated games or mods.

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James Gunn's Superman "appears to be succeeding in rebooting DC Studios and its most iconic comic book franchise," writes The Hollywood Reporter, noting the film is "headed for a possible record domestic box office debut of $115 million to $120 million." Gunn is in a unique position, being both the film's writer-director and the co-head of the Warner Bros.-owned DC, which he co-runs with Peter Safran. Overseas, Superman is launching to $100 million-plus from 78 markets after earning $40 million midweek from its first raft of international markets for an early global total of $96.5 million through Friday. Superman will be the first superhero film to cross $100 million in its North American bow since Marvel Studios and Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool & Wolverine launched to $211 million in summer 2024 ("superhero fatigue" has become part of the Hollywood lexicon). And it's the first DC title to cross $100 million in eight long years since Wonder Woman debuted to $103.3 million in 2017. And if the $225 million tentpole comes in north of $116.6 million, it will beat Zack Snyder's 2013 film Man of Steel ($116.7 million) to rank as the biggest domestic launch ever for a solo Superman pic, not adjusted for inflation. Snyder's mash-up Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice scored the biggest DC opening of all time when earning $166.6 million over Easter weekend in 2016... Gunn's movie is only the third Hollywood title of 2025 to launch north of $100 million after fellow Warners tentpole A Minecraft Movie, which opened to $162.8 million, and Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch, which sewed up $146 million in its debut. Crossing the century mark is no small feat for any movie in the post-pandemic era, and particularly for the troubled superhero genre. The pic should enjoy a long run thanks to strong word-of-mouth. Critics and audiences alike are embracing the film. The pic earned an A- CinemaScore from moviegoers, the same grade given to Man of Steel and ahead of Superman Returns' B+. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is a stellar 94 percent, while the critics' score is a pleasing 82 percent... Other upcoming DC Studios projects include HBO's Green Lantern series, Lanterns, and a Supergirl movie due out in 2026. Superman's weekend debut at nearly $130 million domestically smashes early estimates of around $90 million (according to a senior media analyst at Comscore). And the film also got a positive reaction from the author of the cultural history Superman: The Unauthorized Biography (writing for NPR): Recent attempts to tell live-action Superman stories have shied away from his bright, hopeful, altruistic nature in favor of making him more cool and relatable (read: dark and brooding). That's not who he is; it never has been. Superman is an ideal. He represents the best we can aspire to be. He's not the hero you relate to, à la Peter Parker/Spider-Man's ongoing struggle to pay his rent and buy Aunt May her damn medicine. He's the hero who inspires you, who shows you the way... It doesn't have to be about slogging through trauma and shame and shadow-selves and endlessly tedious redemption arcs. Sometimes, it's simpler, cleaner, brighter. And also? Not for nothing? More fun.

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An anonymous reader shared this report from Cosmos magazine about a plan to "pick up those faint signals from billions of years ago." Astronomers are planning to launch a tiny spacecraft to the far side of the Moon to listen out for "ancient whispers" in a quest to uncover the secrets of the early universe. The mission will focus on understanding the 'Cosmic Dawn', a period in the early stages of the universe after the Big Bang but before the first stars and galaxies appeared. One of the difficulties in studying this period of the universe is that silence is essential. With all the electronics and interference in our atmosphere, Earth becomes too loud, making it unsuitable for this kind of research... The proposed mission will utilise the Moon as a giant shield, blocking out the noise from Earth, in order to observe these signals... The mission, known as CosmoCube, is a joint study between the UK's University of Portsmouth, University of Cambridge and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Space... CosmoCube's radio will operate at low frequencies (10-100MHz), which should hopefully be able to detect extremely faint signals. The team hope to reach lunar orbit before the end of the decade, with a roughly 5-year roadmap planned. The article includes this quote from Professor David Bacon, from the University of Portsmouth and CosmoCube researcher. "It's incredible how far these radio waves have travelled, now arriving with news of the universe's history. "The next step is to go to the quieter side of the Moon to hear that news."

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An anonymous reader shared this report from Jalopnik: On July 2, the 88th anniversary of famed aviator Amelia Earhart's disappearance, Purdue University announced an expedition [which will launch in November] to confirm whether or not the wreckage of her plane has been found. Satellite imagery from a decade ago indicated the presence of something that sure looks plane-like under the waters of Nikumaroro Island, an uninhabited spit of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that just happens to be near Earhart's intended flightpath... This isn't the first time Earhart investigators have been to Nikumaroro. Human bones were recovered from the island previously, which scientists determined with 99% confidence to belong to the beloved pilot, per the university's student newspaper the Purdue Exponent. The investigators also found some women's beauty products from the 1930s. If that is indeed where Earhart died, it stands to reason that her Lockheed Electra 10E, nicknamed the Flying Laboratory, wouldn't be far away. Since nobody noticed any aircraft wreckage on the island (which isn't very big), it would probably be under the water. Recovering such a legendary airplane will be a multi-stage process spanning years. This expedition, which will embark in November, is only planning to verify what's actually there, not retrieve anything. Recent satellite imagery doesn't show the object anymore, meaning it might have become buried; in fact, it was only ever visible in 2015, right after a cyclone blew threw and shifted a bunch of sand, as NBC News reports. The team will start with non-invasive procedures, such as sonar and magnetometers, before drilling through the silt with a hydroglobe to make physical contact with the object. Lastly, they will use a suction dredge to pull off loose sediment. If they're lucky, that will be sufficient to actually see part of the Lockheed Electra.

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Lucid Motors set a Guinness World Record for the longest journey by an electric car on a single charge, covering a distance of 749 miles (about 1,205 km), reports New Atlas. "In doing so, Lucid broke the 1,045-km (649-mile) record previously achieved by the Mercedes-Benz EQS450+ in June 2025 by the Japanese car website www.webcg.net/articles/-/52268webCG." The electric vehicle covered this journey between St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Munich, Germany, traveling through highways, secondary roads, and alpine roads — all without a single halt for charging. Given that the vehicle has a 960-km (596-mile) WLTP range, my guess is that the test team must have made good use of favorable road and weather conditions to make the feat possible. With a net elevation decrease of just over 1,310 m (about 4,300 ft) throughout the drive, the EV most certainly benefited from regenerative braking, a rather useful feature that turns downhill momentum back into battery power. Lucid has yet to release official data like average speed or total drive time, but what is apparent is that this was not a high-speed dash but rather a well-planned route to achieve one impressive result... The Air Grand Touring has two all-wheel drive electric motors with a combined system output of 611 kW (819 horsepower) and 1,200 Nm (885 lb.ft) of torque. Power is provided by an NMC battery, which has a gross energy capacity of 117 kWh (112 kWh usable). Best of all, it can go from 0-60 mph in just three seconds flat... For reference, the almost half-priced BMW i4 and jazzy Porsche Taycan offer less than half the WLTP range of the Lucid Air GT. So, it's not like there's a head-to-head competition out there. Lucid is miles ahead in its class (pun intended!) Starting at US$112,650, the Air Grand Touring is among the most luxurious sedans on the market right now. But as you can see, it comes at a price. Still, knowing that there is technology to conquer range anxiety is comforting. It might take a while, but there's no reason why we can't expect such range figures from reasonably priced EVs in the near future.

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"Firefox is dead to me," wrote Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols last month for The Register, complaining about everything from layoffs at Mozilla to Firefox's discontinuation of Pocket and Fakespot, its small market share, and some user complaints that the browser might be becoming slower. But a new rebuttal (also published by The Register) argues instead that Mozilla just has "a management layer that doesn't appear to understand what works for its product nor which parts of it matter most to users..." "Steven's core point is correct. Firefox is in a bit of a mess — but, seriously, not such a bad mess. You're still better off with it — or one of its forks, because this is FOSS — than pretty much any of the alternatives." Like many things, unfortunately, much of computing is run on feelings, tradition, and group loyalties, when it should use facts, evidence, and hard numbers. Don't bother saying Firefox is getting slower. It's not. It's faster than it has been in years. Phoronix, the go-to site for benchmarks on FOSS stuff, just benchmarked 21 versions, and from late 2023 to now, Firefox has steadily got faster and faster... Ever since Firefox 1.0 in 2004, Firefox has never had to compete. It's been attached like a mosquito to an artery to the Google cash firehose... Mozilla's leadership is directionless and flailing because it's never had to do, or be, anything else. It's never needed to know how to make a profit, because it never had to make a profit. It's no wonder it has no real direction or vision or clue: it never needed them. It's role-playing being a business. Like we said, don't blame the app. You're still better off with Firefox or a fork such as Waterfox. Chrome even snoops on you when in incognito mode... One observer has been spectating and commentating on Mozilla since before it was a foundation — one of its original co-developers, Jamie Zawinksi... Zawinski has repeatedly said: "Now hear me out, but What If...? browser development was in the hands of some kind of nonprofit organization?" "In my humble but correct opinion, Mozilla should be doing two things and two things only: — Building THE reference implementation web browser, and — Being a jugular-snapping attack dog on standards committees. — There is no 3." Perhaps this is the only viable resolution. Mozilla, for all its many failings, has invented a lot of amazing tech, from Rust to Servo to the leading budget phone OS. It shouldn't be trying to capitalize on this stuff. Maybe encourage it to have semi-independent spinoffs, such as Thunderbird, and as KaiOS ought to be, and as Rust could have been. But Zawinski has the only clear vision and solution we've seen yet. Perhaps he's right, and Mozilla should be a nonprofit, working to fund the one independent, non-vendor-driven, standards-compliant browser engine.

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Slashdot reader BrianFagioli shared this report from Nerds.xyz: NVIDIA just put out a new security notice, and if you're running one of its powerful GPUs, you might want to pay attention. Researchers from the University of Toronto have shown that Rowhammer attacks, which are already known to affect regular DRAM, can now target GDDR6 memory on NVIDIA's high-end GPUs when ECC [error correction code] is not enabled. They pulled this off using an A6000 card, and it worked because system-level ECC was turned off. Once it was switched on, the attack no longer worked. That tells you everything you need to know. ECC matters. Rowhammer has been around for years. It's one of those weird memory bugs where repeatedly accessing one row in RAM can cause bits to flip in another row. Until now, this was mostly a CPU memory problem. But this research shows it can also be a GPU problem, and that should make data center admins and workstation users pause for a second. NVIDIA is not sounding an alarm so much as reminding everyone that protections are already in place, but only if you're using the hardware properly. The company recommends enabling ECC if your GPU supports it. That includes cards in the Blackwell, Hopper, Ada, and Ampere lines, along with others used in DGX, HGX, and Jetson systems. It also includes popular workstation cards like the RTX A6000. There's also built-in On-Die ECC in certain newer memory types like GDDR7 and HBM3. If you're lucky enough to be using a card that has it, you're automatically protected to some extent, because OD-ECC can't be turned off. It's always working in the background. But let's be real. A lot of people skip ECC because it can impact performance or because they're running a setup that doesn't make it obvious whether ECC is on or off. If you're not sure where you stand, it's time to check. NVIDIA suggests using tools like nvidia-smi or, if you're in a managed enterprise setup, working with your system's BMC or Redfish APIs to verify settings.

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Robinhood's stock hit is up more than 160% for 2025, reports CNBC, and the trading platform's own stock hit an all-time high on Friday. But "Despite its stellar year, the online broker is facing several headwinds..." Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier opened a formal investigation into Robinhood Crypto on Thursday, alleging the platform misled users by claiming to offer the lowest-cost crypto trading. "Robinhood has long claimed to be the best bargain, but we believe those representations were deceptive," Uthmeier said in a statement. The probe centers on Robinhood's use of payment for order flow — a common practice where market makers pay to execute trades — which the AG said can result in worse pricing for customers. Robinhood is also facing opposition to a new 25% cut of staking rewards for U.S. users, set to begin October 1. In Europe, the platform will take a smaller 15% cut. Staking allows crypto holders to earn yield by locking up their tokens to help secure blockchain networks like ethereum, but platforms often take a percentage of those rewards as commission. Robinhood's 25% cut puts it in line with Coinbase, which charges between 25.25% and 35% depending on the token. The cut is notably higher than Gemini's flat 15% fee. It marks a shift for the company, which had previously steered clear of staking amid regulatory uncertainty... The company now offers blockchain-based assets in Europe that give users synthetic exposure to private firms like OpenAI and SpaceX through special purpose vehicles, or SPVs. An SPV is a separate entity that acquires shares in a company. Users then buy tokens of the SPV and don't have shareholder privileges or voting rights directly in the company. OpenAI has publicly objected, warning the tokens do not represent real equity and were issued without its approval... "What's important is that retail customers have an opportunity to get exposure to this asset," [Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said in an interview with CNBC], pointing to the disruptive nature of AI and the historically limited access to pre-IPO companies. "It is true that these are not technically equity," Tenev added, noting that institutional investors often gain similar exposure through structured financial instruments... Despite the regulatory noise, many investors remain focused on Robinhood's upside, and particularly the political tailwinds.

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It killed tens of millions of people in 14th century Europe," CNN reports, though "today, it's easily treated with antibiotics." And yet "A resident of northern Arizona has died from pneumonic plague, health officials said Friday." Plague is rare to humans, with on average about seven cases reported annually in the U.S., most of them in the western states, according to federal health officials. The death in Coconino County, which includes Flagstaff, was the first recorded death from pneumonic plague since 2007, local officials said... The bubonic plague is the most common form of the bacterial infection, which spreads naturally among rodents like prairie dogs and rats. There are two other forms: septicemic plague that spreads through the whole body, and pneumonic plague that infects the lungs. Pneumonic plague is the most deadly and easiest to spread.

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"Microsoft's Outlook email service malfunctioned for over 21 hours Wednesday and Thursday," reports CNBC, "prompting some people to post on social media about the inability to reach their virtual mailboxes." The issue began at 6:20 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, according to a dashboard the software company maintains. It affected Outlook.com as well as Outlook mobile apps and desktop programs. At 12:21 ET on Thursday, the Microsoft 365 Status account posted that it was rolling out a fix. Although earlier on Thursday Microsoft posted on X that "We identified an issue with the initial fix, and we've corrected it..." More details from the Associated Press: Disruptions appeared to peak just before noon ET on Thursday, when more than 2,700 users worldwide reported issues with Outlook, formerly also Hotmail, to outage tracker Downdetector. Some said they encountered problems like loading their inboxes or signing in. By later in the afternoon, reports had fallen to just over a couple hundred... Microsoft did not immediately provide more information about what had caused the hourslong outage. A spokesperson for Microsoft had no further comment when reached by The Associated Press on Thursday.

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China "accounts for more than half of global coal use," reports Asia Times, "even as it builds the world's largest solar-panel and EV industries." Much of the world's solar gear is made on fossil power. The International Energy Agency finds that "coal generates over 60% of the electricity used for global solar PV manufacturing," far above coal's ~36% share of typical grids. That is because over 80% of PV factories sit in Chinese provinces like Xinjiang and Jiangsu, where coal dominates the grid. China has poured over $50 billion into solar factories since 2011, roughly ten times Europe's investment, cutting panel costs by about 80% and fueling a worldwide solar boom. But those panels were produced on coal. In one analysis, they repay their manufacturing CO2 in only months, meaning the emissions were dumped up-front in China's coal plants. Any major disruption to China's coal power or factories (from grid shocks to trade barriers) could thus send ripples through the global PV market. China's coal and heavy industries also feed its clean-tech supply chain. Coal-fired steel mills supply the aluminum and metal parts for EVs and panels, and coal chemicals provide battery precursors and silicon for solar... At the same time, Chinese oil and gas giants (CNPC, Sinopec) have set up solar, wind and battery divisions, redirecting fossil profits into green ventures. Another interesting statistic from the article: "In Thailand, Asia's long-time auto hub, Chinese EV brands now command more than 70% of EV sales." Thanks to Slashdot reader RossCWilliams for sharing the news.

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Bitcoin "vaulted to a fresh all-time high Friday, breaking above $118,000," reports Yahoo Finance: Year to date, the token is up roughly 21%, buoyed in part by crypto-friendly policies from the Trump administration, including the establishment of a strategic bitcoin reserve and a broader digital asset stockpile... "At the heart of this rally lies sustained structural inflows from institutional players," wrote Dilin Wu, research strategist at Pepperstone. "Corporates are also ramping up participation," he added. The analyst noted companies like Strategy and GameStop have continued to add bitcoin to their balance sheets. Trump Media & Technology Group this week also filed for approval to launch a "Crypto Blue Chip ETF", which would include about 70% of its holdings in bitcoin. The timing of bitcoin's breakout also comes days before Congress kicks off its highly anticipated "Crypto Week" on July 14. Lawmakers will debate a series of bills that could define the industry's regulatory framework... The GENIUS Act is among the regulations the House will consider. The bill, which recently passed through the Senate, proposes a federal framework for stablecoins. "After jumping above $118,000 on Thursday, technical analyst Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner of research firm Fairlead Strategies, believes bitcoin is on track to reach $134,500, about 14% higher than current levels," writes Business Insider . It's not just bitcoin that's jumped this week. Other cryptos are surging as well. Ethereum has rallied over 16% in the past five days, and as DOGE rose 8% in the last day alone... Additionally, over $1 billion in short positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours as the price of bitcoin surged and traders were forced to close their positions, [said Thomas Perfumo, global economist at crypto Kraken].

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The advocacy group Free Press on Friday blasted America's Federal Communications Commission chief "for an order that rips net neutrality rules off the books, without any time for public comment, following an unfavorable court ruling," reports the nonprofit progressive news site Common Dreams: A panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled in January that broadband is an "information service" instead of a "telecommunications service" under federal law, and the FCC did not have the authority to prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from creating online "fast lanes" and blocking or throttling web content... FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a Friday statement that as part of his "Delete, Delete, Delete" initiative, "we're continuing to clean house at the FCC, working to identify and eliminate rules that no longer serve a purpose, have been on our books for decades, and have no place in the current Code of Federal Regulations...." Responding in a lengthy statement, Free Press vice president of policy and general counsel Matt Wood said that "the FCC's so-called deletion today is little more than political grandstanding. It's true that the rules in question were first stayed by the 6th Circuit and then struck down by that appellate court — in a poorly reasoned opinion. So today's bookkeeping maneuver changes very little in reality... There's no need to delete currently inoperative rules, much less to announce it in a summer Friday order. The only reason to do that is to score points with broadband monopolies and their lobbyists, who've fought against essential and popular safeguards for the past two decades straight...." Wood noted that "the appeals process for this case has not even concluded yet, as Free Press and allies sought and got more time to consider our options at the Supreme Court. Today's FCC order doesn't impact either our ability to press the case there or our strategic considerations about whether to do so," he added. "It's little more than a premature housekeeping step..."

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Slashdot reader hcs_$reboot shared this report from NPR: A pair of switches that control the fuel supply to the engines were set to "cutoff" moments before the crash of Air India Flight 171, according to a preliminary report from India's Air Accident Investigation Bureau released early Saturday in India... Indian investigators determined the jet was properly configured and lifted off normally. But three seconds after takeoff, the engines' fuel switches were cut off. It's not clear why. According to the report, data from the flight recorders show that the two fuel control switches were switched from the "run" position to "cutoff" shortly after takeoff. In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots can be heard asking the other "why did he cutoff," the report says, while "the other pilot responded that he did not do so." Moments later, the report says, the fuel switches were returned to the "run" position. But by then, the plane had begun to lose thrust and altitude. Both the engines appeared to relight, according to investigators, but only one of them was able to begin generating thrust. The report does not draw any further conclusions about why the switches were flipped, but it does suggest that investigators are focused on the actions of the plane's pilots. The report does not present any evidence of mechanical failures or of a possible bird strike, which could have incapacitated both engines at the same time.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Contrary to popular belief, using cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools slowed down experienced software developers when they were working in codebases familiar to them, rather than supercharging their work, a new study found. AI research nonprofit METR conducted the in-depth study on a group of seasoned developers earlier this year while they used Cursor, a popular AI coding assistant, to help them complete tasks in open-source projects they were familiar with. Before the study, the open-source developers believed using AI would speed them up, estimating it would decrease task completion time by 24%. Even after completing the tasks with AI, the developers believed that they had decreased task times by 20%. But the study found that using AI did the opposite: it increased task completion time by 19%. The study's lead authors, Joel Becker and Nate Rush, said they were shocked by the results: prior to the study, Rush had written down that he expected "a 2x speed up, somewhat obviously." [...] The slowdown stemmed from developers needing to spend time going over and correcting what the AI models suggested. "When we watched the videos, we found that the AIs made some suggestions about their work, and the suggestions were often directionally correct, but not exactly what's needed," Becker said. The authors cautioned that they do not expect the slowdown to apply in other scenarios, such as for junior engineers or engineers working in codebases they aren't familiar with. Still, the majority of the study's participants, as well as the study's authors, continue to use Cursor today. The authors believe it is because AI makes the development experience easier, and in turn, more pleasant, akin to editing an essay instead of staring at a blank page. "Developers have goals other than completing the task as soon as possible," Becker said. "So they're going with this less effortful route."

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Major space industry players -- including SpaceX, Boeing, and Blue Origin -- are urging Congress to maintain funding for the TraCSS space traffic coordination program, warning that eliminating it would endanger satellite safety and potentially drive companies abroad. Under the proposed FY 2026 budget, the Office of Space Commerce's funding would be cut from $65 million to just $10 million. "That $55M cut is accomplished by eliminating the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) program," reports The Register. From the report: "One of OSC's most important functions is to provide space traffic coordination support to US satellite operators, similar to the Federal Aviation Administration's role in air traffic control," stated letters from space companies including SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, and others. The letters argue that safe space operations "in an increasingly congested space domain" are critical for modern services like broadband satellite internet and weather forecasting, but that's not all. "Likewise, a safe space operating environment is vital for continuity of national security space missions such as early warning of missile attacks on deployed US military forces," the letters added. Industry trade groups sent the letters to the Democratic and Republican leadership of the House and Senate budget subcommittees for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, claiming to represent more than 450 US companies in the space, satellite, and defense sectors. The letters argue for the retention of the OSC's FY 2025 budget of $65 million, as well as keeping control of space traffic coordination within the purview of the Department of Commerce, under which the OSC is nested, and not the Department of Defense, where it was previously managed. "Successive administrations have recognized on a bipartisan basis that space traffic coordination is a global, commercial-facing function best managed by a civilian agency," the companies explained. "Keeping space traffic coordination within the Department of Commerce preserves military resources for core defense missions and prevents the conflation of space safety with military control." In the budget request document, the government explained the Commerce Department was unable to complete "a government owned and operated public-facing database and traffic coordination system" in a timely manner. The private sector, meanwhile, "has proven they have the capability and the business model to provide civil operators" with the necessary space tracking data. But according to the OSC, TraCSS would have been ready for operations by January 2026, raising the question of why the government would kill the program so late in the game.

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In June 2025, solar power became the leading source of electricity in the EU for the first time, surpassing nuclear and wind, while coal hit a record low. CBC reports: Solar generated 22.1 percent of the EU's electricity last month, up from 18.9 percent a year earlier, as record sunshine and continued solar installations pushed output to 45.4 terawatt hours. Nuclear followed closely at 21.8 percent and wind contributed 15.8 percent of the mix. At least 13 EU countries, including Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, recorded highest-ever monthly solar generation, [data from energy think tank Ember showed on Thursday.] Coal's share of the EU electricity mix fell to a record low of 6.1 percent in June, compared to 8.8 percent last year, with 28 percent less electricity generated than a year earlier. Germany and Poland, which together generated nearly 80 percent of the 27-country bloc's coal-fired electricity in June, also saw record monthly lows. Coal accounted for 12.4 per cent of Germany's electricity mix and 42.9 percent of Poland's. Spain, nearing a full phase-out of coal, generated just 0.6 per cent of its electricity from coal in the same period. Wind power also set new records in May and June, rebounding after poor wind conditions resulted in a weak start to the year. But despite record solar and wind output in June, fossil fuel usage in the first half of 2025 grew 13 percent from last year, driven by a 19 percent increase in gas generation to offset weak hydro and wind output earlier in the year. Electricity demand in the EU rose 2.2 percent in the first half of the year, with five of the first six months showing year-on-year increases. The next challenge for Europe's power system is to expand battery storage and grid flexibility to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels during non-solar hours, Ember said in the report.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: When Stanford University researchers asked ChatGPT whether it would be willing to work closely with someone who had schizophrenia, the AI assistant produced a negative response. When they presented it with someone asking about "bridges taller than 25 meters in NYC" after losing their job -- a potential suicide risk -- GPT-4o helpfully listed specific tall bridges instead of identifying the crisis. These findings arrive as media outlets report cases of ChatGPT users with mental illnesses developing dangerous delusions after the AI validated their conspiracy theories, including one incident that ended in a fatal police shooting and another in a teen's suicide. The research, presented at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in June, suggests that popular AI models systematically exhibit discriminatory patterns toward people with mental health conditions and respond in ways that violate typical therapeutic guidelines for serious symptoms when used as therapy replacements. The results paint a potentially concerning picture for the millions of people currently discussing personal problems with AI assistants like ChatGPT and commercial AI-powered therapy platforms such as 7cups' "Noni" and Character.ai's "Therapist." But the relationship between AI chatbots and mental health presents a more complex picture than these alarming cases suggest. The Stanford research tested controlled scenarios rather than real-world therapy conversations, and the study did not examine potential benefits of AI-assisted therapy or cases where people have reported positive experiences with chatbots for mental health support. In an earlier study, researchers from King's College and Harvard Medical School interviewed 19 participants who used generative AI chatbots for mental health and found reports of high engagement and positive impacts, including improved relationships and healing from trauma. Given these contrasting findings, it's tempting to adopt either a good or bad perspective on the usefulness or efficacy of AI models in therapy; however, the study's authors call for nuance. Co-author Nick Haber, an assistant professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Education, emphasized caution about making blanket assumptions. "This isn't simply 'LLMs for therapy is bad,' but it's asking us to think critically about the role of LLMs in therapy," Haber told the Stanford Report, which publicizes the university's research. "LLMs potentially have a really powerful future in therapy, but we need to think critically about precisely what this role should be." The Stanford study, titled "Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses prevents LLMs from safely replacing mental health providers," involved researchers from Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas at Austin.

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Stanford researchers have developed a blood-based AI tool that calculates the biological age of individual organs to reveal early signs of aging-related disease. The Mercury News reports: The tool, unveiled in Nature Medicine Wednesday, was developed by a research team spearheaded by Tony Wyss-Coray. Wyss-Coray, a Stanford Medicine professor who has spent almost 15 years fixated on the study of aging, said that the tool could "change our approach to health care." Scouring a single draw of blood for thousands of proteins, the tool works by first comparing the levels of these proteins with their average levels at a given age. An artificial intelligence algorithm then uses these gaps to derive a "biological age" for each organ. To test the accuracy of these "biological ages," the researchers processed data for 45,000 people from the UK Biobank, a database that has kept detailed health information from over half a million British citizens for the last 17 years. When they analyzed the data, the researchers found a clear trend for all 11 organs they studied; biologically older organs were significantly more likely to develop aging-related diseases than younger ones. For instance, those with older hearts were at much higher risk for atrial fibrillation or heart failure, while those with older lungs were much more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. But the brain's biological age, Wyss-Coray said, was "particularly important in determining or predicting how long you're going to live." "If you have a very young brain, those people live the longest," he said. "If you have a very old brain, those people are going to die the soonest out of all the organs we looked at." Indeed, for a given chronological age, those with "extremely aged brains" -- the 7% whose brains scored the highest on biological age -- were over 12 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease over the next decade than those with "extremely youthful brains" -- the 7% whose brains inhabited the other end of the spectrum. Wyss-Coray's team also found several factors -- smoking, alcohol, poverty, insomnia and processed meat consumption -- were directly correlated with biologically aged organs. Poultry consumption, vigorous exercise, and oily fish consumption were among the factors correlated with biologically youthful organs. Supplements like glucosamine and estrogen replacements also seemed to have "protective effects," Wyss-Coray said. [...] The test ... would cost $200 once it could be operated at scale.

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