Just In

Lego’s new sets will make Star Wars sound effects for you. | Image: Lego It may have been one of the smallest devices announced at CES 2026, but Lego's new Smart Brick was also one of the most talked about debuts of the show. We've recognized it as the "Best in show" in our CES 2026 awards, and following the Smart Play system's launch earlier this week, the first three sets featuring the new Smart Brick are now available for preorder. Lego is introducing its Smart Brick to the world as part of three new sets in its popular Star Wars line that demonstrate many of the brick's unique capabilities. The cheapest set is the $69.99, 473-piece Smart Play: Darth Vader's TIE Fighter that includes one Smart Brick, one Smar … Read the full story at The Verge.

Shadowheart contemplates a powerful artifact in Baldur’s Gate 3 Following some controversy, the developers at Baldur's Gate 3 creator Larian Studios have further clarified their use of generative AI. CEO Swen Vincke and other Larian developers held an AMA on Reddit where they answered users' questions about the team's next title, Divinity. They also fielded questions related to reports that the studio was using generative AI in its development process. "So first off - there is not going to be any GenAI art in Divinity," Vincke wrote in response to a question on Reddit. Last month, in an interview with Bloomberg, Vincke stated that while they weren't using AI-generated assets in Divinity, the team was e … Read the full story at The Verge.

"That level of openness and transparency is exactly what should be expected of NASA."

Apple and Google are being dragged into the uproar around X's AI chatbot that has continued to virtually undress women in images without their consent this week. In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), and Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote that "X's generation of these harmful and likely illegal depictions of women and children has shown complete disregard for your stores' distribution terms." X users have identified several cases where Grok undressed or sexualized apparent minors in the AI-created images. The senators point to the app stores' own policies for why the app should … Read the full story at The Verge.

Hunter-gatherers probably derived the poison from the milky bulb extract of a Boophone disticha plant.

Faced with a ban in the United Kingdom, X pushes flawed fix to CSAM problem.

The exchange has overhauled its institutional business as part of a broader restructuring, with approximately one-third of its sales team exiting, according to one source.

We saw a ton of cool new products at CES 2026, but not all of them made the cut when it came to deciding what was best of show. One of those products that we nevertheless think holds promise is Anker’s AeroFit Pro 2, which are wireless earbuds that can double as open-ear headphones. You pick the mode you want: wedge them into your ears for better sound enhanced by active noise cancellation, or let them pump out sound near your ears so that you can keep stay tuned into your surroundings. By using the code WSTDA3875US at Anker’s site, you can knock $30 off their $179.99 price. Anker Soundcore AeroFit Pro 2 Where to Buy: $179.99 $149.99 at Anker The AeroFit Pro 2 have an ear hook design, which could make them a great fit for working out. They contain sensors that can determine how you’re wearing them and adjust features accordingly. They can recalibrate the EQ, and in earbud mode, turn on active noise cancellation by way of their six built-in microphones. However, as our announcement post mentioned, I wouldn’t expect ANC that can rival the category’s flagship products from Bose, Sony, or Apple. Other Verge-approved deals for your consideration Donkey Kong Bananza is one of 2025’s best video games and one of the Switch 2’s best titles. Discounts on the game are rare, so if you’ve been considering it, consider hopping over to Walmart or Amazon where you can buy the physical cartridge version for $62.99 instead of $70. Bananza was made by the same development team within Nintendo responsible for Super Mario Odyssey, which should be all the convincing you need to play this fun, surprisingly lengthy 3D platformer. Read our review. Most of the time, the only light that I have going in my office is the Elgato Key Light. It’s bright, its color temperature can be easily dialed in through the mobile or desktop app, and it attaches conveniently to my desk. I use it as bias lighting, aimed diagonally up toward my ceiling to diffuse the lighting evenly in the corner that I work in. If you need a powerful light to illuminate you during video calls, streams, or for any other reason, you can save 23 percent on the Key Light at Amazon, where it costs $138.99 (originally $199.99, but usually around $180 outside of a deal). B&H Photo has it for a dollar more. I see so many disposable hand warmers littered on the streets and sidewalks in NYC during the winter. More people should consider rechargeable hand warmers, like this twin-pack that costs $15.99 (originally $29.99) at Amazon and recharges via USB-C. Once fully charged, each warmer can provide warmth for four to eight hours, depending on the heat setting you choose. The two warmers snap together magnetically when you aren’t using them, and they each have a silicone wrist strap, so they won’t easily go flying out of your pocket.

👋 I’m Saaniya Chugh, and in this interview, I share my journey as a Senior Technical Consultant, tech author, and HackerNoon contributor, what sparked my love for writing, and how I blend ITSM, AI, and storytelling in my work. I talk about defining moments in both consulting and writing, the evolving role of content in the digital age, and why I chose to support the HackerNoon Writing Course as a guest speaker. At the heart of it all, my message is simple: AI can be a collaborator, but authentic human storytelling will always be irreplaceable.

What is every playoff team good at? What are their biggest concerns? Who could make the difference between a short stay and a deep run in the postseason? Here are our strengths, question marks and X-factors for all 14 playoff teams.

Those around the league are high about the Ravens' job, but aren't as high about the Dolphins' vacancy. Also, here's where some around the league think John Harbaugh will land next.

What do the 18 teams who missed the NFL playoffs need to do in order to make the postseason next year? Here's our No. 1 offseason goal for all 18 non-playoff teams.

The Jaguars have been one of the NFL's biggest surprises this season, with first-year coach Liam Coen performing an impressive turnaround.

SpaceX opened its 2026 launch campaign with a mission for the Italian government.

The Champ Stack 10K is one of the first power banks you can safely break in two. | Image: Nimble Accessory maker Nimble announced a new power bank at CES 2026 that will appeal to anyone who's had to reluctantly share or loan their portable charger to someone else. The Champ Stack 10K looks like a typical 10,000mAh power bank that's jumped on the built-in charging cable bandwagon, but it has one interesting difference: you can break it in two - without damaging it - so two people can charge their devices separately. Once separated, each half of the Champ Stack 10K functions as a standalone 5,000mAh power bank, which should provide enough capacity to fully revive a dead smartphone. One half ends up with the power bank's built-in USB-C ch … Read the full story at The Verge.

X is allowing only “verified” users to create images with Grok. Experts say it represents the “monetization of abuse”—and anyone can still generate images on Grok’s app and website.

The stablecoin issuer’s previously undisclosed investment valued the lender at about $500 million, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

Despite a subpar 2026 quarterback draft class, a host of NFL QBs could be available this offseason, including some very big names.

Mira is a hormone testing kit that I tried out ahead of CES 2026. I had to pee in that cup. This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest phones, smartwatches, apps, and other gizmos that swear they're going to change your life. Optimizer arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 10AM ET. Opt in for Optimizer here. At CES 2026 this week, people kept asking me what health tech I was seeing on the show floor. My only answer was this: bodily fluids. As in urine, blood, sweat, and saliva. With most people, my response typically got a handful of groans and raised eyebrows. Among insiders, I surprised no one. CES is ground zero of the wellness Wi … Read the full story at The Verge.

People still use Craigslist to find jobs, love, and even to cast creative projects.

The FCA said firms wishing to undertake crypto-related activity will be need to be authorized when a new regime starts in October 2027.

This year's CES was an odd one. This is a conference usually dominated by futuristic, expensive TVs and futuristic, expensive cars, but those things weren't what dominated CES 2026. Instead, Las Vegas was filled with new ideas about old gadgets and showed us a whole lot of really impressive hardware waiting on software to catch up. On this episode of The Vergecast, recorded live at the Brooklyn Bowl in Vegas, David and Nilay talk through some of the big stories from this year's show. (Thanks to everyone who came to see us and stuck around after for drinks and bowling - we had a blast hanging with all of you!) We talk about the robots that c … Read the full story at The Verge.

Polkadot (DOT) dropped 1.4% and Ripple (XRP) fell 0.9% from Thursday.

Kia unveiled the EV2, a small and affordably priced electric vehicle built for the European market. The EV2 made its debut at the Brussels Auto Show, where executives touted it as its "most compact" EV to date. Of course, it was another in a long line of affordable, capable, and impressively designed EVs that won't be available to US customers - at least not right away. And it arrives at a time when Europeans have many affordable options from which to chose, potentially complicating Kia's strategy for the EV2. The EV2 will come in two trims: a Standard-range version, with 42.2kWh battery pack and 317 km (197 miles) of range based on the W … Read the full story at The Verge.

Canceled contracts and scaled-back product plans turn out to be costly.

The CES show floor officially closes its doors at the end of the day, but there's still a trickle of announcements and reveals coming out of Las Vegas. If you're struggling to stay on top of all the new tech, gadgets, concepts, and AI-powered devices as the final day of CES gets underway, we're still rounding up the best hardware and upgrades that have debuted so far so you can quickly get up to speed. As the show draws to a close for another year, you can still catch up on all of The Verge's CES 2026 coverage here. Philips Hue SpatialAware Preset scenes are the easiest way to take advantage of color-changing smart lights in a room, but t … Read the full story at The Verge.

Bitcoin continued to hold just above $90,000 in the minutes following the report.

A close up photo of an Asus monitor showing its RGB stripe sub pixel layout. CES is a lot — a deluge of consumer tech surrounded by lots of bad carpeting. The Verge’s on-the-ground team of super nerds covered so many new products and technologies that it’s understandable if it was all a little overwhelming. That’s why we’ve gathered up a collection of trend reports from the show to help make sense of everything that happened at CES 2026, which, by extension, is a preview of the big tech stories for the year to come. CES 2026 was awash in bodily fluids Most dubious uses of AI at CES 2026 TV makers are taking AI too far Is this the world’s first solid-state battery? The PC market braces for an AI-driven storm The gap between premium and budget TV brands is quickly closing What surprised us the most at CES 2026 Wi-Fi 8 is appearing at CES before most of us have switched to Wi-Fi 7 CES promises the robot butler, but delivers better Roombas instead AI moves into the real world as companion robots and pets Power bank feature creep is out of control  I tested Nvidia’s Tesla Full Self-Driving competitor — Tesla should be worried RGB is the next big thing in OLED gaming monitors

The current tight consolidation closely mirrors the April 2025 range that set the stage for the record run above $126,000.

The decline was accompanied by a spike in volume, suggesting large-holder or institutional activity, and analysts see a risk of continued pressure.

While most crypto struggles, three memecoins show bullish signals. PEPE demonstrates resilience with strong holder growth, BONK shows accumulation and ecosystem expansion, and Pepeto stands out with $7.14M raised, 100K+ participants, and 850+ platform applications during a market downturn. Pepeto’s low entry price and utility-driven growth create the clearest 100x setup.

Ripple has gained FCA registration through its U.K. subsidiary, marking a key regulatory milestone as Britain moves to bring crypto into its financial framework.

Your day-ahead look for Jan. 9, 2026

Alabama passed a 10 percent porn tax last year, as Utah and Pennsylvania eye similar bills. Half the country has enacted age-verification laws to prevent minors from viewing porn.

Bitcoin remained near $90,000 as trading volumes fell. Thin liquidity fueled choppy price action across major cryptocurrencies, while altcoins were mixed.

What the latest tech-marketing buzzword has to say about the future of automotive.

A new Digital Asset Act will regulate stablecoins, requiring 100% reserve backing and user redemption rights.

This negative-oxygen-ion-generating purifier claims to create a “forestlike atmosphere” in your bedroom.

Aurora Therapeutics, cofounded by Nobel Prize–winning scientist Jennifer Doudna, plans to use gene editing and a new FDA regulatory pathway to commercialize treatments for rare diseases.

this land is greenland, this land is my land / vibecoding reindustrialization / “wtf, i love hedge funds now” -aoc (probably)

Built a real-time sneaker scraper using Bright Data’s MCP Server, LangChain, Claude, and FastAPI. This tool bypasses scraping blocks and extracts live Nike product data like price, availability, and links. Code is open-source.

The era of the passive ‘recommendation engine’ is over. We are entering the age of Agentic Commerce. AI doesn’t just suggest, but acts with autonomy.

A7A5, a ruble-linked stablecoin few outside Russia had heard of a year ago grew the most of any stablecoin, outpacing both USDT and USDC over the past 12 months.

The strategy combines native Ethereum staking yield with restaking rewards and incentives from Linea and ether.fi, under a qualified custodian structure.

For the eighth year in a row, the world’s oceans absorbed a record-breaking amount of heat in 2025. It was equivalent to the energy it would take to boil 2 billion Olympic swimming pools.

The Stickverse is a scrappy, Python-based animation pipeline that turns a raw text story into a fully voiced, lip-synced video. It uses Google's Gemini to parse the script, a tool to record your own bad voice acting, and OpenCV to draw the frames.

Laravel is a PHP framework for building web applications. It can be used to create many things, including a 'headless CMS' with a fraction of the complexity and cost of other CMSs. It ha to be as been by far the most cost effective and personally rewarding technical decisions I have made over years.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an emerging open standard designed to be the universal translator between powerful AI models and the complex world of enterprise data and tools. MCP is the crucial "middleware protocol" that sits between a large language model and the entire enterprise environment.

AWS Systems Manager helps you manage, configure, and operate your compute resources and applications without logging into them.

Carson Beck and the Miami Hurricanes delivered when it mattered most, beating Ole Miss in an instant classic at the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday night.

Project Manager of a AAA game reveals how he optimized art production by a factor of 3.3. He explains how he built a Cosmetics department from scratch on an AAA project and ultimately optimized it. He also explains how to avoid the confusion at the top level of the project that led to high-level confusion.

Bitcoin ETFs have registered a net outflow of over $1 billion in three days.

Organizations need to reframe AI maintenance from a routine IT expense to a critical investment in maintaining revenue streams.

In most enterprise Databricks environments (like in MSC or large analytics ecosystems), system tables such as system.job_run_logs or system.cluster_events may be restricted or disabled due to security or governance policies.

Save 50%, plus up to $250 with NZXT promo codes and discounts.

Save on Skullcandy audio with 47% off Crusher Evo headphones, 36% off Crusher ANC 2 noise-canceling headphones, and more with top deals.

Whether you’re looking to upgrade your internet or get the latest phone, we’ve got you covered with our selection of AT&T coupons and deals.

Save up to 77% on 2-year plans and get 3 free months with our NordVPN discount codes.

Explore Chewy coupon codes for $20 off $49 orders, 50% off pet food, and more winter 2026 discounts.

Get 10% off your next website with exclusive Squarespace discount code for 2026, 50% off plans, and more top coupons.

The next big thing in tech is AI-powered XR computing. But what form factor will it take? Which innovations will it require?

The prospect of OpenAI becoming Wall Street’s largest-ever debut isn’t beyond the realms of possibility, but does it represent value to investors at such a high price?

The Zcash protocol remains unaffected despite the governance clash and restructuring with Bootstrap.

The attack exploited a flaw in an older smart contract, allowing the attacker to buy TRU at no cost and sell it back to extract ether.

Traders absorbed a two-step liquidation reset that left price trapped between $2.07 support and $2.17 resistance.

"The crew is highly trained, and they came to the aid of their colleague right away."

Jonathan Ross told a federal court in December about his professional background, including “hundreds” of encounters with drivers during enforcement actions, according to testimony obtained by WIRED.

IA2 outpaces SWIRL and Lan et al. in training efficiency using TD3-TD-SWAR and adaptive action masking for faster SQL index selection.

Prediction markets see low odds of a clear Supreme Court ruling on tariffs, a setup that has previously triggered short-term volatility in bitcoin, which then stabilized.

After a hectic 48 hours, quarterback Demond Williams Jr. is staying put at Washington.

Discover how spec-driven development transforms AI collaboration by shifting focus from micromanagement to clear requirements.

The president told the New York Times he won't pardon ex-FTX CEO SBF, nor will he be granting help to Sean Combs or Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro.

Spying doesn't become legal just because "cheaters" are the targets.

U.S. derivatives platform and clearinghouse is focusing on prediction contracts targeted at digital assets movements and economic indicators.

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti, who rarely expresses joy on the sideline, explained how he's occasionally happy.

FCC says new category of devices "can operate outdoors and at higher power."

SK Hynix and Micron are also riding high on the AI industry's demand for RAM.

Old-school food pyramid returns, but jumbled and upside-down, like a funnel.

Bank of America said it recommended investors buy Coinbase's stock, pointing to its new products including weekday equities trading and prediction markets.

After raising $1.35M and later exiting my startup, I realized that complex tools like Notion often fail when real-life chaos hits. During a "perfect storm" of relocation, business pivots, and divorce, I ditched the dashboards for a single, infinite-scroll Google Doc. This "Anti-Notion" system uses simple color-coding and daily pruning to provide something a calendar can't: a tangible, psychological record of resilience.

Tron: Ares, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour—The Final Show are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Disney+ this month.

These bird feeders come with cameras and connected apps to let you see and learn about the birds in your neighborhood.

Experts say the next major rally may come only when long-term holders are exhausted, and true institutional capital enters the market.

A pioneering IoT–Oracle eAM integration transformed manufacturing maintenance from reactive to predictive. By combining real-time sensor data, automated work orders, and intelligent scheduling, the platform eliminated unplanned downtime, cut MTTR by 60%, improved MTBF by 45%, and delivered $2.5M in annual savings—setting a new industry standard later commercialized by Oracle.

Polygon is paying $100 million to $125 million for the bitcoin ATM provider, according to one of the sources.

With top-quality noise reduction and advanced spatial audio support, these earbuds might come for your AirPods.

“Under the right conditions, some dogs present behaviors strikingly similar to those of young children.”

Tech companies are calling AI the next platform. But some developers are reluctant to let AI agents stand between them and their users.

This FAQ explains everything about the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon: who can participate, how to submit projects, what information is needed, how scoring works, and what prizes and rewards are available. Learn how to earn a Proof of Usefulness score, access software credits from sponsors, and compete for cash and software prizes.

Expert explains how simple it could be to tweak Grok to block CSAM outputs.

It's said that defense wins championships, so which playoff teams boast the best units? We rank all 14 defenses.

As Siemens uses JPMorgan's blockchain for FX transfers, the bank plans to scale JPM Coin across privacy-focused and public networks

New feature will allow users to link medical and wellness records to AI chatbot.

After record-setting launch, Western holiday sales are down compared to the first Switch.

Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.

The outflow was primarily due to a $47.25 million redemption from 21Shares’ TOXR, while other funds remained stable or positive.

Online detectives are inaccurately claiming to have identified the federal agent who shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minnesota based on AI-manipulated images.

Tom Brady relived the "Tuck Rule Game" in the most recent edition of "Story Time with Tom," and how it almost didn't happen.

The Miami Dolphins have fired head coach Mike McDaniel after four seasons, the team announced on Thursday morning.

US also pulling out of pacts promoting development, democracy, and human rights.

Jalen Hurts might never be the QB everyone in Philadelphia wants. But everything he's been through makes him exactly whom the Eagles need.

To cap off a season of surprises, FOX Sports' NFL experts make their bold predictions for the postseason. A Texans Super Bowl, anyone?

“This is a very significant contribution to the astronomical community."

Will LLMs ever be able to stamp out the root cause of these attacks? Possibly not.

KDE Gear 25.12.1 is now available as the first maintenance update to the latest KDE Gear 25.12 open-source software suite series with fixes for various KDE applications. The post KDE Gear 25.12.1 Released with Various Improvements for Your Favorite KDE Apps appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

Last year's premium Gmail AI features are also rolling out to free users.

Six coaches in the postseason field have made it to the Super Bowl. Two are first-year coaches and two more will also make their playoff debuts. We rank all 14.

New Gmail features, powered by the Gemini model, are part of Google’s continued push for users to incorporate AI into their daily life and conversations.

It’s the most studied supplement in sports medicine, but it’s not just for athletes anymore.

The crop of next-generation TVs arriving this year has more accurate colors than ever, thanks to a fancy new kind of backlighting.

The supply shortage of the RAM needed to build phones and PCs isn’t going away. But a few companies have a plan to solve it.

How two big names in mainstream disaster preparedness helped sell Americans on fear, anxiety, and a new generator.

this whole country is insane / the e-girl next door / pyramid scheme

Makers of smartwatches and other wearables have spent years trying to measure blood sugar without pricking your skin. The PreEvnt Isaac does just that, and you wear it like a necklace.

Millennials are still using Craigslist to find jobs, love, and even to cast creative projects—eschewing other AI- and algorithm-dominated online spaces. “There’s a purity to it.”

The new EX60 will be unveiled later this month; here's what we know.

Enjoy at least 40% off headphones, speakers, soundbars, and other audio products from Bose.

Stream your favorite shows for up to $80 off this month, and save on subscription plans with the latest Peacock TV coupons from WIRED.

Save up to 87% with a Surfshark coupon code, 3 months of VPN free today, and more January 2026 discounts from WIRED.

Get up to 55% off and free meal boxes using a HelloFresh coupon code today. Discover our best codes and discounts to let you save time and money.

Whether you’re looking to upgrade your mattress or swap out your bedding, browse our Tempur-Pedic coupons for up to $300 off and the best sleep of your life.

FOX Sports' Michael Cohen details how the four remaining CFP coaches are balancing a national championship run and the transfer portal in real time.

It’s a widespread view that child deaths are still a pressing problem in poorer countries, but not in rich ones.I don’t think this is true, and I want to illustrate it with one example from the United States.In 2023, 30,200 children died in the US. In the same year, 22,800 Americans of any age were killed through homicide. You can see this in the chart.Few Americans would argue that murders are a “solved problem”. And this is certainly not what you’d take away from the news. As we showed in a recent article, homicides receive disproportionate coverage in both left- and right-leaning media, relative to the number of people who die from them.The everyday tragedies of children dying from preterm births, neonatal sepsis, and asphyxia do not get nearly the same attention, but are no less important. These are problems that we can still make more progress on.I’ve recently written about what high-income countries can do to continue reducing child deaths.

Researchers suggest that they have recovered sequences from ancient works and from letters that may belong to the Renaissance genius.

Which teams who haven't fired their head coach have reached out to John Harbaugh? A source with one team looking for a head coach called the Steelers "an interesting dark horse" in the Harbaugh sweepstakes.

A WIRED review of outputs hosted on Grok’s official website shows it’s being used to create violent sexual images and videos, as well as content that includes apparent minors.

Who should the Ravens turn to at head coach to help maximize Lamar Jackson's window as an elite quarterback? Robert Saleh tops the list of potential candidates.

Which transfers are poised to make the biggest impact next season? And which decisions leave us scratching our heads? Our college football writers debate it.

An AI model that learns without human input—by posing interesting queries for itself—might point the way to superintelligence.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he left a bear cub’s corpse in Central Park in 2014 to “be fun.” Records newly obtained by WIRED show what he left New York civil servants to clean up.

New research has given credence to a 5,000-year-old practice.

With the 2025 regular season wrapped up, we make our picks for a host of the NFL's major on-field awards.

TUXEDO Computers unveils a new InfinityBook Max 16 Linux-powered laptop with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5000 Series GPUs, OLED display, and more. The post TUXEDO InfinityBook Max 16 Gen10 Linux Laptop Unveiled with New OLED Display appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

IPFire 2.29 Core Update 199 Linux firewall distribution is now available for download with support for Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6 wireless networks, as well as other enhancements. Here's what's new! The post IPFire Linux Firewall Distro Adds Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6 Support, LLDP and CDPv2 appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

delta force deep fakes / power struggle / big stick

Nitrux 5.1 distribution is now available for download with Linux kernel 6.18 LTS, new tools, updated components. and other changes. Here's what's new!Uri Herrera announced today the general availability of Nitrux 5.0 as a major update to this immutable and systemd-free distribution. The post Immutable Distro Nitrux 5.1 Released with Linux Kernel 6.18 LTS, New Tools appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

There's a clear No. 1 in Tom Brady's latest top 10. But the rest of the ranking? Well, he believes the gap between No. 10 and 1 is as tight as ever.

Paid tools that “strip” clothes from photos have been available on the darker corners of the internet for years. Elon Musk’s X is now removing barriers to entry—and making the results public.

Which NFL team has the most attractive head coach opening in the 2026 hiring cycle? Here's our breakdown.

The End of an Era, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and The Beatles Anthology are just a few of the shows you should be watching on Disney+ this month.

Here’s our first look at the Devuan GNU+Linux 6 "Excalibur" operating system series on the Raspberry Pi 5 single-board computer. The post First Look at Devuan GNU+Linux 6 “Excalibur” on Raspberry Pi 5 appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

In the HBO show’s fourth season, Industry proves to be more prescient than it’s ever been.

Linux hardware vendor StarLabs announced today that its StarBook Horizon Linux-powered laptop is now on sale as a 13-inch Coreboot notebook designed for privacy and … The post StarBook Horizon Linux Laptop Now on Sale with 32GB RAM, Wi-Fi 6E, and Coreboot appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

On this week’s episode of The Big Interview, the author of The Handmaid’s Tale talks about Elon Musk, political resistance, and why she still has hope for America’s future.

oh hello, zohran / the us house of representatives day traders / walz out

GStreamer 1.28 open-source multimedia framework now has a first Release Candidate (RC) available for public testing. Here's what's new! The post GStreamer 1.28 Release Candidate Now Available for Testing with Rust Goodies appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

This weekend’s invasion was both a throwback to the last century and a new, uniquely Trumpian nightmare—one that’s just beginning.

We just lived through the period with the fastest population growth in human history. Six decades ago, there were three billion people on our planet. Since 2022, there have been more than eight billion people — an increase of five billion over this period.It would have been impressive if food supplies had merely kept pace with population growth. But as the chart above shows, they grew even faster. On every continent, food supplies — measured by calories — grew faster than the population. This rise in food production per person was a major reason for the decline of extreme poverty and hunger.To us, this chart documents one of humanity’s most extraordinary achievements.Hunger remains a large problem today, especially in Africa. We recommend the article by our colleague Hannah Ritchie: “Increasing agricultural productivity across Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most important problems this century”.A note on the data: Food supply estimates come from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. We adjusted them to account for changes in region definitions and data coverage over time.

The chip giant says Vera Rubin will sharply cut the cost of training and running AI models, strengthening the appeal of its integrated computing platform.

we talked to substack's former vp of comms and the ceo of anti-pr pr firm rostra about why she raised a $40m vc fund to invest in founders who aren't boring

The first 18 picks are set for the 2026 NFL Draft, and a handful of those teams have big decisions to make about their starting QBs.

The historical series Shogun was an international hit that won a record 18 Emmy Awards. With production on season 2 starting, the writer and executive producer talk about their new challenges.

Religious communities around the US are getting hit with AI depictions of their leaders sharing incendiary sermons and asking for donations.

Innovative research into the gene-editing tool targets influenza’s ability to replicate—stopping it in its tracks.

9to5Linux Weekly Roundup for January 4th, 2026, brings news about VLC 3.0.23, Devuan GNU+Linux 6.1, Shotcut 25.12, Arch Linux 2026.01.01, GNU Wget 2.2.1, IceWM 4.0, Archinstall 3.0.15, Manjaro Linux 26.0, and more. The post 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: January 4th, 2026 appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

The coaching carousel for the 2026 offseason is about to get moving. Here are the latest news and rumors from around the NFL!

The administration has made it clear that Nicolás Maduro's capture was tied to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Much less certain is how US companies will actually access them—or if they even want to.

Manjaro 26.0 is now available for download with Linux kernel 6.18 LTS, Xfce 4.20, GNOME 49, and KDE Plasma 6.5. Here’s what else is new! The post Manjaro 26.0 Released with Linux 6.18 LTS, Xfce 4.20, KDE Plasma 6.5, and GNOME 49 appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

Descriptive set theorists study the niche mathematics of infinity. Now, they’ve shown that their problems can be rewritten in the concrete language of algorithms.

Meta’s end-to-end encrypted messaging app is used by billions of people. Here’s how to make sure you’re one of the most locked-down ones out there.

Being targeted by sophisticated spyware is relatively rare, but experts say that everyone needs to stay vigilant as this dangerous malware continues to proliferate worldwide.

Back pain is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. Recent research reveals how much time you should spend walking on a daily basis to prevent it.

The tactics behind protest policing are changing—from one of cooperation to intentional antagonism for political marketing purposes.

The “super flu” behind outbreaks in the US and UK is a new variant of influenza A H3N2, subclade K. Existing vaccines appear to be insufficiently effective against the virus.

Devuan GNU+Linux 6.1 distribution is now available for download based on Debian 13.2 “Trixie”, but without including the systemd init system. Here’s what’s new! The post Systemd-Free Devuan GNU+Linux 6.1 Released with Unofficial Raspberry Pi Images appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.

Research shows that people who sleep poorly tend to have brain age that is older than their actual age. Chronic inflammation in the body caused by poor sleep likely plays a part.

Dating apps and AI companies have been touting bot wingmen for months. But the future might just be good old-fashioned meet-cutes.

Government staffing cuts and instability, including this year’s prolonged shutdown, could be hindering US digital defense and creating vulnerabilities.

As I’ve written before, I’m leaning heavily into immutability in the election site code. Until September 2025 (it’s taken a long time to get round to writing this blog post) that meant a combination of records, ImmutableList<T> and ImmutableDictionary<TKey, TValue>. In an ECMA C# standards meeting, however, Joseph Musser passed on some really valuable feedback … Continue reading Changing Immutable Collections →

The United States’ plan for dealing with Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China remains ill-defined among a shifting global order. That must change.

US support for nuclear energy is soaring. Meanwhile, coal plants are on their way out and electricity-sucking data centers are meeting huge pushback. Welcome to the next front in the energy battle.

From university breaches to cyberattacks that shut down whole supply chains, these were the worst cybersecurity incidents of the year.

Privacy may be dead, but civilians are turning conventional wisdom on its head by surveilling the cops as much as the cops surveil them.

From Donald Trump to DOGE to Chinese hackers, this year the internet’s chaos caused outsize real-world harm.

Today’s global coral bleaching events are the worst kind of climate warning.

Drinking water in plastic bottles contains countless particles too small to see. New research finds that people who drink water from them on a daily basis ingest far more microplastics than those who don’t.

In the mid-19th century, Bernhard Riemann conceived of a new way to think about mathematical spaces, providing the foundation for modern geometry and physics.

Chinese companies have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy manufacturing investments overseas, but the projects are having significant social, environmental, and human rights impacts.

Stranger Things, City of Shadows, and Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft are just a few of the shows you need to watch on Netflix this month.

The future of conflict is cheap, rapidly manufactured, and tough to defend against.

in january 2025 the whole world changed — a look back at all the bangers, as pirate wires covered the intersection of politics, technology, and culture

In Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack and Will use an overturned dinghy to hold air underwater. Madness or brilliance?

One Battle After Another, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, and It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley are just a few of the movies you should be watching on HBO Max this month.

Although wolf-canine interbreeding has been considered extremely rare, the latest research shows that many present-day canines carry a small amount of wolf genes.

Big AI companies courted controversy by scraping wide swaths of the public internet. With the rise of AI agents, the next data grab is far more private.

WIRED spoke with DeepMind’s Pushmeet Kohli about the recent past—and promising future—of the Nobel Prize-winning research project that changed biology and chemistry forever.

Heated Rivalry, Mad Men, and The Pitt are just a few of the shows you need to be watching on HBO Max this month.

The New York Police Department's “mosque-raking” program targeted Muslim communities across NYC. Now, as the city's first Muslim mayor takes office, one man is fighting—again—to fully expose it.

Online black markets once lurked in the shadows of the dark web. Today, they’ve moved onto public platforms like Telegram—and are racking up historic illicit fortunes.

Here’s how a fake clip from 2019 wound up in the latest Justice Department Epstein files dump.

The DOJ says it still has “hundreds of thousands” of pages to review, as the latest Epstein files release spurred more pushback from Democratic lawmakers and other critics of the administration.

pirate wires #152 // a lot of you’ve been asking how to spend your money, and I have a few ideas

Videos such as fake ads featuring AI children playing with vibrators or Jeffrey Epstein- and Diddy-themed play sets are being made with Sora 2 and posted to TikTok.

Two decades ago social media promised to connect people with pals far and wide. Twenty years online has left us turning to AI for kinship. IRL companionship is the future.

From Zohran Mamdani’s campaign to the US government’s Halo memes, fandom has become the defining language of US politics.

here comes santa claus / wildfire whitepill / local retard doesn’t know how the military works

Wicked, Merry Little Batman, and Die Hard are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Amazon Prime Video this week.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Frankenstein, and Klaus are just a few of the movies you should watch on Netflix this month.

Plus: Cisco discloses a zero-day with no available patch, Venezuela accuses the US of a cyberattack, and more.

the city's reparations scheme is dreaming big, delivering nothing, and derailing city funds

The economist Paul Krugman once said, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run, it’s almost everything”. When workers can produce more value in the same amount of time, economies can grow faster, and living standards can rise.The chart shows the productivity metric published by the Penn World Table for South Korea and Japan. It measures gross domestic product (GDP) per hour of work.Since 2000, South Korea’s productivity has more than doubled, narrowing what was once a vast gap with Japan. It has now even surpassed its neighbor.Many forces affect productivity, but one stands out in Korea’s case: its commitment to innovation. The country spends nearly 5% of GDP on research and development, among the highest shares in the world, and it files far more patents per million people than any other nation.Explore productivity growth for more countries in our newly updated data from the Penn World Table.

tech companies give the government, historically dumb and slow, cutting-edge tools to enforce the law of the land. don't like it? change the law, don't blame the toolmakers.

See the new movie Avatar: Fire and Ash if you’d like. But if you really want to experience the big blue world of Pandora, the video game is where it’s at.

“I didn't expect this book to be analyzed like The Great Gatsby,” hockey smut author Rachel Reid tells WIRED.

Come See Me in the Good Light, Highest 2 Lowest, and F1: The Movie are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Apple TV this month.

one guy is single-handedly correcting the ai water doomerism with a calculator and a chatbot

Is the latest iPhone operating system aesthetically appealing? No. But is it useful? Also no. At least I have company among the disgruntled.

What does the British government spend its budget on? The chart shows spending broken down by category, scaled to £100. It combines both central and local government spending.Social protection is the single largest item. Out of every £100 spent, £33 goes to it — more than health, at £19 per £100. The UK is typical in this regard — in every OECD country except the US, social protection is the biggest category.Public services also account for a large share: £14 per £100. These include core government functions, foreign aid, and interest payments on government debt.Education and economic affairs, which support the broader economy or specific industries such as fishing and manufacturing, are also prominent categories.Explore how other OECD countries spend their budgets.

how somali immigrants in minnesota (and now maine?) sent billions of taxpayer dollars to islamic terrorists — and what happens when we stop expecting people to assimilate

I’m a Black staffer at WIRED. My position feels more precarious than ever. There’s a reason for that.

Since 2000, GDP per capita has doubled in all three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (where it has nearly tripled).Living conditions in these countries have improved more broadly. Poverty rates are lower, and life satisfaction is higher. Incomes have not just doubled in terms of GDP per capita; median incomes have also doubled.Read more from my colleague Max Roser about economic growth, how it’s measured, and why it matters.

saikat chakrabarti built "the squad." now he's running for congress to turn them into a party.

This Data Insight is the third of a three-part series on China’s role in global trade, drawing on new writing we added this week to our Trade and Globalization topic page.China is the top source of imports for many countries. But this tells us only how China compares with other trading partners, not how large these imports are relative to the size of each country’s economy. That is what this map shows.The map plots the total value of merchandise imports from China as a share of each importing country’s GDP. The data shows that Chinese imports are relatively small when compared with the overall size of the importing economy.Take the Netherlands as an example: China is the country’s leading source of imports. But compared with the size of the whole Dutch economy, this is a comparatively small amount — about 10% as a share of GDP. And as the map shows, the Netherlands is at the high end, largely because it imports a lot overall.In many countries, imports from China account for much less than 10% of GDP. There are a few reasons for this. First, even if China is the leading partner, most countries still import from a wide range of places. And second, in most countries, the economic value produced domestically is larger than the total value of imported goods.Read more about trade partnerships and China’s changing role in global trade.

on kitkat, the beloved sf feline who was run over by an autonomous vehicle, and jackie fielder, the pandering sf politician who now wants to ban the vehicles altogether

This Data Insight is the second of a three-part series on China’s role in global trade, drawing on new writing we added this week to our Trade and Globalization topic page.China’s central role in merchandise trade is the result of a large change that has taken place in just a few decades. This change has been especially large in Africa and South America.In 1990, most African countries imported mainly from Europe, and most South American imports came from North America. Today, Asia is the top source of imports for both regions, primarily due to the rapid growth of trade with China.The chart here focuses on Ethiopia, a country that illustrates this shift. Home to around 130 million people, it is one of Africa’s largest countries and has experienced rapid economic growth in recent decades.In the early 1990s, over 40% of Ethiopia’s imports came from Europe, while very little came from China. Since then, the roles of China and Europe have almost reversed: imports from China now account for one-third of Ethiopia’s total imported goods.Read more about trade partnerships and China’s changing role in global trade.

Parkinson’s disease has environmental toxic factors, not just genetic.

This Data Insight is the first of a three-part series on China’s role in global trade, drawing on new writing we added this week to our Trade and Globalization topic page.Over the past two decades, China’s role in global trade has expanded substantially. It has become a central hub, particularly through growing relationships with many lower and middle-income countries.The map here shows how China ranks as a source of imports into each country. A rank of 1 means that China is the largest source of merchandise goods (by value) that a country buys abroad.In 2024, China was the top source of imported goods for around two-thirds of countries worldwide. This includes nearly all of Asia, much of Africa and Latin America, and parts of Europe.In many countries, China has overtaken the United States as the largest origin of their imported goods. This shift has occurred relatively recently, mainly over the past two decades.Read more about trade partnerships and China’s changing role in global trade.

Despite the world’s immense progress against child mortality, in some of the poorest countries, one in ten children still dies. That’s a level last seen in the richest countries in the middle of the 20th century.The chart shows the nine countries, all located in Africa, where this is the reality today. In Niger, more than 11 out of every 100 children die before the age of five. In the European Union, the child mortality rate is more than twenty times lower.To learn more, read my colleague Max’s article: “Child mortality: an everyday tragedy of enormous scale that we can make progress against”.

Privacy stalwart Nicholas Merrill spent a decade fighting an FBI surveillance order. Now he wants to sell you phone service—without knowing almost anything about you.

In 1961, around two chickens were slaughtered per person globally each year. As many countries grew richer — and richer countries tend to eat more meat — global demand for chicken increased.Since then, the number of chickens slaughtered per person has quadrupled. On average, 9 chickens are killed each year for every person in the world. Chickens have also become much heavier, so the amount of meat eaten in kilograms has grown even faster.Life is short and painful for many farmed animals. Global estimates suggest that most are raised in factory farms. In the United States, around 99% of livestock comes from them.Explore more interactive charts and articles on animal welfare on our dedicated topic page.

AI-powered startup Fortell has become a secret handshake for the privileged hearing-impaired crowd who swear by the product. Now, it wants to be in your ears.

One of the starkest expressions of global inequality is a child’s chance of survival. In 2023, 2.84 million children in Africa died before reaching their fifth birthday, giving the continent the highest child mortality rate of any region (5.9%).The chart above shows a simple hypothesis: how many more African children would reach the age of five if it had the same child mortality rates as other regions?If conditions in Africa improved enough to match Asia’s current child mortality rate (2%), 1.9 million of these 2.84 million children would survive.If the child mortality rate were to drop to the European rate (0.4%), then 2.64 million children would be saved each year.To learn more, read my colleague Max’s article on the progress made in reducing child mortality.

Almost 20,000 Americans were murdered in 2023.The chart shows the homicide rates among male and female victims. Men were 2.7 times more likely to die by homicide than women.We can see that for men, most of these murders were committed by friends, neighbors, acquaintances, or strangers (shown as “Other” in the chart) rather than a partner or family member. The opposite is true for women: intimate partners are the biggest threat.Because the risks are different, the most effective responses may differ too. For women, reducing intimate partner violence is a key priority. For men, prevention is more often tied to crime, gangs, and violence among acquaintances or strangers.Explore homicide rates for more countries.

I’ve been trying to replace my MacBook. I switched from an iPhone to a Z Fold 5 (and now a Z Fold 7) which has gone well 2 years in, so I’ve been trying to do the same with my laptop. For phones, this was easier because the Samsung hardware is already better. Sadly, there’s no better laptop hardware than a MacBook, and while Asahi Linux is cool, it doesn’t work on the M3. Even on the M1, it’s missing the ability to plug an external USB-C monitor in, a key feature I use every day! Without support from Apple, I don’t see this being a viable long term solution, mostly because of Apple’s use of custom little MCUs to do everything. I bought a HP ZBook Strix Halo and a Framework 16. I’ve been daily using the HP, the Framework gets here hopefully this week and maybe I’ll stream it when I get it. I’ve been running Omarchy which I have been quite happy with. It fixed the problem I always had with Arch, which is how customizable it is. It’s a great OS (why isn’t apt-get multithreaded yet?), leave the customizability there, but pick some good defaults with taste. The main issue I have with Linux laptops is power management. I got idle lid-closed power down to 0.2W with the help of AMD’s awesome amd_s2idle script. This is similar to a MacBook, and is 15 days in a bag. Lid-open power has been more of a challenge. I wrote a script to poll the best sensors I could find as fast as I could. I got CPU draw from the SMU and battery draw from the bytes of whatever it is the EC is. Embedded Controller? I couldn’t get the ACPI battery draw to update faster than every 30 seconds, but the EC has it every second in its bytes. Btw, LLMs are super helpful at reverse engineering – it’s almost becoming fun again. After tuning, at screen-on idle, the whole laptop draws 7W, and when browsing the web more like 10W. That’s only 7 hours of life, which is 30% of a MacBook, and still not really acceptable. 4W of those 7W are the CPU. Strix Halo is the only laptop chip that rivals the Apple M-Series, actually having decent cores (the AVX-512 is real too) and good RAM bandwidth. Sadly it’s chiplets, which the LLMs tell me are very power hungry. I tried to further power limit the CPU with RyzenAdj, but I couldn’t even get it to 3W with a stated limit of 2W. I wonder if there’s some other ways to do it, what more can I turn off? The main fix for s2idle was turning off the webcam, what else is on and wasting my CPU (well, really APU) power? AMD, want to release docs about the power draw of Strix Halo? You could probably figure out a lot through experiments too, but then I have to, like, disable the GPU over ssh and then I have to get another laptop and that all sounds like a lot of work. I’m already busy trying to build an open source rocprof-trace-decoder. Also, package Strix Halo with MoP like Apple. it’s the best thing about PoP (low power) without the worst thing about PoP (bad thermals). That picture is Intel Lunar Lake, and you know MoP is a good idea because Intel is discontinuing it while Apple keeps doing it. For the other 3W, this is on HP. The OLED screen is about a watt, which is really good. Don’t turn on the stupid keyboard backlight that draws 2 watts! The memory is probably about a watt too, you can’t really turn it off to measure. I couldn’t find a way to lower the clocks either. That leaves 1 watt of possibility. The WiFi and NVMe are both extremely low power. Any other ideas? I bet there’s something stupid or poorly designed, HP should release a schematic of the laptop. In fact, you don’t need to release a full schematic, just a block diagram. Framework releases these and just showing what parts are used and how they are connected is 80% of what you want. If the CPU could be brought down to 2W (Apple M3 Max is 1W!) and the laptop brought down to 2W, with a 99.6 Wh battery that’s 25 hours. If someone makes one of these in a nice 16” form factor, OLED screen, aluminium unibody, no stupid branding everywhere, I think it might be time for a lot of developers to switch.

The 1970s were a decade shaped by fears about overpopulation. As the world’s most populous country, China was never far from the debate. In 1979, China designed its one-child policy, which was rolled out nationally from 1980 to curb population growth by limiting couples to having just one child.By this point, China’s fertility rate — the number of children per woman — had already fallen quickly in the early 1970s, as you can see in the chart.While China’s one-child policy restricted many families, there were exceptions to the rule. Enforcement differed widely by province and between urban and rural areas. Many couples were allowed to have another baby if their first was a girl. Other couples paid a fine for having more than one. As a result, fertility rates never dropped close to one.In the last few years, despite the end of the one-child policy in 2016 and the government encouraging larger families, fertility rates have dropped to one. The fall in fertility today is driven less by policy and more by social and economic changes.This chart shows the total fertility rate, which is also affected by women delaying when they have children. Cohort fertility tells us how many children the average woman will actually have over her lifetime. In China, this cohort figure is likely higher than one, but still low enough that the population will continue to shrink.Explore more insights and data on changes in fertility rates across the world.

Seasonal influenza is sometimes seen as a mild illness, but it remains a major cause of death. In serious cases, it can cause deadly complications such as pneumonia, strokes, and heart attacks. Researchers estimate that the flu causes about 400,000 respiratory deaths and 300,000 cardiovascular deaths globally each year.The flu is most dangerous for infants and older adults. The map here shows rates of respiratory deaths caused by the flu in adults aged 65 and over, averaged across 2002–2011 (excluding the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic).The data shows that death rates tend to be higher in South America, Africa, and South Asia than in Europe or North America.I come from South America, and I found this surprising: most of what I hear about flu deaths tends to come from richer countries in the Northern Hemisphere. But the map shows that the flu is also deadly, in some cases even more so, in other regions where poverty, worse underlying health, limited access to healthcare, and lower vaccination coverage contribute to higher mortality.One explanation for my misperception might be that surveillance and reporting are stronger in the countries that I associate with deaths from flu. Another could also be age differences: people in high-income countries tend to be older, so their total number of deaths — the ones you actually hear about — may still be higher, even if rates are lower.When you consider the total death toll, you realize that the numbers are very large on the whole. Recall that the map only includes respiratory deaths, so the overall mortality is actually higher if we include other flu-related complications like cardiovascular disease.Even if you account for the uncertainty of estimates in low-income countries — due to limited testing and death registration — the overall pattern remains striking: seasonal influenza kills hundreds of thousands each year, with many of these deaths in South America, Africa, and South Asia.Read more in our article, “How many people die from the flu?”

Earlier this year, I attended a shooting competition for queer, often trans, very online misfits. Then Charlie Kirk was killed.

Measuring happiness is difficult, but one way to understand how satisfied people are with their lives is to simply ask them.Self-reported life satisfaction is one key metric that researchers often rely on. It asks people to imagine a hypothetical ladder, where the best possible life for them is a 10, and the worst possible life is a 0. They then have to place their current position on the ladder.The chart shows the three-year average scores from 2022 to 2024 for the four countries with the highest ratings and the four with the lowest.Afghans reported the lowest life satisfaction in the world, far below any other country.This incredibly low score has been replicated in other studies. Researchers recently compared Afghans’ life satisfaction with international datasets dating back to 1946 and found it was the lowest ever recorded. Two-thirds gave a score of 0 or 1 on the 10-point scale.See self-reported levels of life satisfaction in your own country.

Everyone’s suddenly obsessed with the pelvic floor—physical therapists, MAHA influencers, me. Could this deeply misunderstood body part really be the seat of so much modern dysfunction?

Women are much more likely than men to be killed by their intimate partner. The chart shows this across nine OECD countries in 2023.These deaths are rarely isolated events. Research shows that partner homicides are usually the endpoint of a long pattern of coercive control — behaviors such as surveillance, isolation, intimidation, restrictions on daily life, and physical violence.Recognizing both the gender imbalance and its roots in coercive control can help focus support services, encourage family and friends to act sooner, and increase social pressure against abusive behavior.While women face the highest risk from intimate partners, men make up about 80% of homicide victims globally. The gender split in partner homicides is therefore a striking exception.Explore more data on homicide rates where the perpetrator is an intimate partner.

As OpenAI expands in every direction, the new CEO of Applications is on a mission to make ChatGPT indispensable and lucrative.

This chart shows global GDP per capita, adjusted for inflation. Looking at the world economy from this perspective, it is the steadiness of this change that stands out to me. Average incomes per person have risen at a fairly constant pace of roughly 2% per year, interrupted only by the 2008–09 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic.One reason this is noteworthy, in my view, is that national economies changed a lot during the same period. Some economies slowed, many others grew, and more generally, some major political shifts took place. Yet when all of this is aggregated, the global average followed a remarkably smooth upward track.The line in the chart ends in 2024, so it does not yet capture more recent developments. But a few recent articles, such as this one from The Economist, look at data for 2025 and point to the same stability.Past trends may not continue in the future. But this data reminds us that global economic aggregates can develop more steadily than the headlines might make us think.Read more about what economic growth is and why it is important.

In 2015, countries worldwide signed the Paris Agreement, aiming to keep the global temperature rise “well below 2°C” and limit this increase to 1.5°C.To meet these targets, there are limits to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that can be emitted. These are called carbon budgets. Every year we emit more CO2, these budgets shrink. (That’s because total warming is roughly proportional to cumulative CO2.)In the chart, you can see estimates for how much CO2 the world can emit — from the start of next year — while staying below different levels of warming. This is based on having a 50% likelihood of staying below it; if we wanted to guarantee that we didn’t pass these temperatures, our budget would be much smaller.To get a sense of perspective, we’ve compared each budget with the projected amount of CO2 that the world is expected to emit in 2025. This tells us how many years we have left if emissions stay at their current levels.At current emission rates, the 1.5°C budget would run out around 2030. It seems implausible that global emissions will fall quickly enough to avoid this.The 2°C budget would last until mid-century. By taking action on climate change, we buy ourselves more time and can avoid this level of warming.This is based on the latest estimates from the Global Carbon Project. See how emissions are changing in your country.

Have global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions gone up or down this year?The latest projections from the Global Carbon Project give us some insight. Their researchers and analysts do invaluable work in estimating greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, helping us understand how the situation is evolving.Today, they published their latest “carbon budget”. The chart shows their historical estimates, as well as their projections for 2025.They project that this year, emissions from fossil sources — that is, from fossil fuels and industrial processes — will increase by around 1%. Emissions from all three fuels — coal, oil, and gas — are expected to increase. Meanwhile, emissions from land-use change have decreased due to fewer extreme wildfires and reduced deforestation in South America.This reduction in land use may offset the increase from fossil fuels, resulting in a global total similar to last year. Note that estimates for land-use emissions are much less certain than for fossil fuels.While many countries have made progress in reducing emissions, global fossil emissions continue to rise. To tackle climate change, they need to peak and rapidly decrease in the coming years and decades.This is based on the latest estimates from the Global Carbon Project. Explore how global and national emissions are changing.

Sam Altman says the one-person billion-dollar company is coming. Maybe I could be that person—if only I could get my colleagues to shut up and stop lying.

Roads in rich countries tend to be much safer than those in low- and middle-income countries. Cars are more modern, infrastructure is better, and driving laws are stricter and better enforced.However, there are still huge differences between high-income countries. This is obvious from the chart, which shows death rates from road injuries across various countries. Rates can vary more than 20-fold.I was recently surprised to find that my country, the United Kingdom, has some of the safest roads in the world, alongside Sweden, Singapore, and Norway. It can be easy to complain about the situation in our own country without considering what things are like elsewhere.Road deaths are incredibly high in several Middle Eastern countries, like Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. These countries tend to have far more high-speed highways, drivers often cover much longer distances, and the enforcement of regulations such as speed limits, seatbelt use, and driving distractions is weaker. These countries have reduced fatality rates in recent years, but still have much higher death tolls than other rich countries.Read my article on how the United Kingdom built some of the world’s safest roads.

For years, plastic surgeons thought the proportions of a beautiful buttocks should follow the Fibonacci sequence. Now, people are looking for a more Kardashian shape.

Palantir’s CEO is good with ICE and says he defends human rights. But will Israel and Trump ever go too far for him?

In the late 19th century, Georg Cantor believed his new theory could help the Church understand the infinite nature of the divine. He miscalculated.

The revolution started on social media. It ended with protests, violence, and an online poll to pick the new prime minister.

Kids everywhere know her voice—if not her name. WIRED talks to the former SM trainee about her rise to global superstardom with her hit song “Golden.”

They didn’t want to put their children in the middle—so they put a machine there instead.

On an airstrip somewhere in Texas, a swarm of killer jets approaches—controlled by, of all things, a large language model.

I sound Korean—because I am Korean. Can AI make me sound American?

Some of the world’s most interesting thinkers about thinking think they might’ve cracked machine sentience. And I think they might be onto something.

I watched Legally Blonde (2001) today and it’s so quaint to see a time when people basically trusted the system. She goes and works at a “prestigious law firm” like this is some kind of victory, but in reality the whole system was a huge circlejerk. I toured a bunch of Chinese factories last week. One was installing 100 new CNC machines, and there was no hype or secrecy around it. They straight up told me it was $20k a machine. These sort of vibes. “I’m gonna tell you what I’m doing, and you can try to compete, but I’ll still crush you.” And I believe them. As cheap as comma is and as much as we love vertical integration, we are going to continue to work with that factory. The big question: are most people in America productive or unproductive? If it’s the former, why can’t we solve this with democracy? Jail for the cronies and rent-seekers, wireheading city for the homeless, and no more medicare or social security. But I fear it’s the latter: 73.9 million people are on social security. There’s 258 million people over 18 in the US, so 28% of voters are on the take. And that’s just one group of the unproductive. There’s everyone who is working in made up fake systems where both sides ratchet up complexity when really the whole thing should go away. I think the most people are unproductive ship has sailed. America got 51% attacked. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. Can we get a good dictator and not a South America style one? America (people like Elon and Jensen, who are both first-generation immigrants btw) can rival China, partically if we can attract talent from all over the world, but not if this clown show continues. Everyone does understand that productive capacity is how wars are won and lost, right? Would you bet on 100 CNC machines or 100 lawyers?

In my previous blog post I described some behaviour of C# record types which was unexpected to me, though entirely correct according to the documentation. This is a follow-up post to that one, so if you haven’t read that one yet, please do so – I won’t go over all the same ground. Is this … Continue reading Records and the ‘with’ operator, redux →

Unexpected inconsistency in records The other day, I was trying to figure out a bug in my code, and it turned out to be a misunderstanding on my part as to how C# records work. It’s entirely possible that I’m the only one who expected them to work in the way that I did, but … Continue reading Unexpected inconsistency in records →

Postcodes After a pretty practical previous post about records and collections, this post is less likely to give anyone ideas about how they might tackle a problem in their own project, and doesn’t have any feature requests for Microsoft either. It’s an area I’ve found really fun though. An introduction to postcodes in the UK … Continue reading Election 2029: Postcodes →

Records and Collections This post is to some extent a grab-bag of points of friction I’ve encountered when using records and collections within the election site. Records recap This may end up being the most generally useful blog post in this series. Although records have been in C# since version 10, I haven’t used them … Continue reading Records and Collections →

Storage Since my last post about the data models, I’ve simplified things very slightly – basically the improvements that I thought about while writing the post have now been implemented. I won’t go into the details of the changes, as they’re not really important, but that’s just to explain why some examples might look like … Continue reading Election 2029: Storage →

Data models (and view-models) and how they’re used I was considering using the term “architecture” somewhere in the title of this post, but it feels too pompous for the scale of site. I could probably justify it, but it would give me the ick every time I used the term. But this post will basically … Continue reading Election 2029: Data Models →

Technical overview This post is mostly for scene-setting purposes. There’s nothing particularly remarkable here, but it’s useful to get the plain facts out of the way before we get into genuinely interesting design aspects. Just as a reminder, go to https://election2029.uk if you want to see what any of this looks like at the moment. … Continue reading Election 2029: Technical overview →

Introduction It’s been over 8 months since I started my UK Election 2029 site, and high time that I actually wrote an introduction post so that I can get into more detailed topics later. In 2024, shortly after the UK general election was announced, I created a small site at https://jonskeet.uk/election2024, initially to keep track … Continue reading Election 2029: Introduction →

Shortly after writing my previous post, a colleague pinged me to say she’d figured out what was wrong – at least at the most immediate level, i.e. the exception itself. Nothing is wrong with the ordering code – it’s just that the exception message is too easy to misread. She’s absolutely right, and I’m kicking … Continue reading Election 2029: The Impossible Exception – Solved →

We’ve reached a tipping point where we’ve got a cleaner alternative for most transport. Now we have to commit.

After hitting a power-output milestone, fusion technology is ready to graduate from small-scale lab experiment to full-sized power plant.

AI is elbowing its way into ever more jobs, but while how we work will change, people skills will still be the most important factor.

Fragmented and focused social platforms might be good for helping you find a knitting community. But extremist groups are also using them to normalize darker content.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, or DAOs, offer independently-minded internet users a safe haven—but it’s also a boon to those with a darker purpose.

Targeted, AI-generated political misinformation is already out there—and humans are falling for it.

The climate crisis has become a mental health crisis. But eco-anxiety isn’t necessarily a pathology.

The old playbook for power and control won’t work to retain Gen Z talent. Instead, employers need to take a cue from Roblox.

If not addressed by governments, racism, classism, austerity, and more will continue to drive mortality and illness among minorities.

The year 2023 saw the “enshittification” of platforms from Facebook to Google Search. A new exit strategy means platforms will have to play nicely with your data, even if you leave for a rival.

Global deployment of solar and wind power, plus a surge in EV sales, means emissions from fossil-fuel-derived energy will finally hit the downward slope.

Treatment of Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, ALS, and other brain diseases depends on reliable detection—especially in those who don’t even know they’re at risk. An innovative scratch-and-sniff test can help.

The creep of conducting our day-to-day interactions over screens has reached a breaking point—and it threatens to push out everyone but those with the “right” access.

The lawless, Wild West era of AI and technology is almost at an end, as data protection authorities use new and existing legislation to get tough.

The glory days of venture capital are winding down, leaving in their wake a host of overstuffed tech firms and a bear market ready to maul.

Rose-tinted predictions for artificial intelligence’s grand achievements will be swept aside by underwhelming performance and dangerous results.

Advancements in science will bring unprecedented lens into the complexities of the ocean, and a renewed call for humans to protect it.

Stepping off the hedonistic treadmill, younger workers are demanding a more authentic employment experience.

AI chatbots can be friendly and responsive—even sexy. It’s time to take these fundamentally human behaviors more seriously.

Crispr recently marked a major milestone in medicine. But it's not time for a victory lap—the race is just beginning.

Everything you ever wanted to know about qubits, superpositioning, and spooky action at a distance.

Everything you need to know about the past, present, and future of data security—from Equifax to Yahoo—and the problem with Social Security numbers.

Supersmart algorithms won't take all the jobs, But they are learning faster than ever, doing everything from medical diagnostics to serving up ads.

The idea of creating tamper-proof databases has captured the attention of everyone from anarchist techies to staid bankers.

Here’s everything you need to know about the spectrum, millimeter-wave technology, and what 5G means for you.

How a chaotic skunkworks race in the desert launched what's poised to be a runaway global industry.

What you need to know about the promise (and peril) of networked lightbulbs, ovens, cameras, speakers and, well … everything.

Everything you need to know about how scientists can repurpose a bacterial immune system to alter DNA, making everything from cheap insulin to extra starchy corn.

ISPs shouldn't be able to block some sorts of data and prioritize others—here's what to know about the struggle to treat information on the internet the same.

Everything you wanted to know about soft, hard, and nonmurderous automatons.

The world is getting warmer, the weather is getting worse. Here's everything you need to know about what humans can do to stop wrecking the planet.

Everything you ever wanted to know about VR headsets, Oculus, Vive, and simulator sickness.

In an age of nonstop breaches and hacks, here are ways to improve your online security based on your level of risk, from average user to NSA contractor.

Everything you need to know about engagement, power likes, sponcon, and trust.

Everything you need to know about DNA, medical breakthroughs, and genetic privacy.

The threat of cyberwar looms over the future: a new dimension of conflict capable of leapfrogging borders and teleporting the chaos of war to civilians thousands of miles beyond its front.

Everything you need to know about SETI, the Drake equation, ’Oumuamua, and hot tubs.

Everything you need to know about THC, CBD, terpenes, and the entourage effect.

Information about you, what you buy, where you go, even where you look is the oil that fuels the digital economy.

Everything you need to know about Blue Origin, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and what actually happens to your body if you go live in space.