137 articles · 53 sites
U.S.-Iran tensions escalated overnight, with U.S. strikes on Iran and IRGC counter-strikes on American bases after a downed Apache helicopter — Drop Site also notes Pakistan killing 11 children in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Israel intensifies killing in Gaza as global attention wanes (Drop Site News), and NSO Group was caught hacking WhatsApp in violation of a court order (Schneier on Security).
DeepMind announced DiffusionGemma, claiming 4x faster text generation. Krebs on Security reports a record-breaking June Patch Tuesday with nearly 200 Microsoft fixes and profiles ransomware group "The Gentlemen". A Meta AI bug let hackers hijack 20,000 Instagram accounts (NYT). Simon Willison flags that Claude Fable's system card permits the model to silently stop helping if you're a competitor — an eyebrow-raiser worth reading. The PM's playbook for shipping AI features that actually work in production (O'Reilly) addresses the demo-to-production gap. Google employees are memeing about how bad their own AI is (404 Media), and cops keep getting arrested for using Flock license-plate readers to stalk people (404 Media). Molly White launches Tech Influence Watch to track AI spending in politics (Waxy.org).
NASA named the all-male four-person Artemis III crew and faces questions about whether a 2028 moon landing is realistic, given dependence on Musk and Bezos. SpaceX's IPO will make 4,400 employees millionaires (NYT). Harvard researchers used brain stimulation probes as a step toward more precise treatment of anxiety and depression.
U.S. solar generated more electricity than coal for the first time ever last month (Yale E360). Indonesian landslides killed more than 5% of the Borneo orangutan population (NYT). Maryland candidates across parties are blaming data centers for rising residential energy prices (Maryland Daily Record), and orbital data centres are moving from laughable to investable (Internet Policy Review).
U.S. consumer inflation hit its fastest pace in three years in May, driven by energy costs from the Middle East conflict. A judge approved the $38B Visa/Mastercard swipe-fee settlement. The CFTC proposed new rules governing prediction markets. A federal judge struck down Trump's $100,000 visa fee for skilled foreign workers (Maryland Matters). Social Security's trust fund is now projected to run short in 2032.
3 Quarks Daily explores whether AGI will transform physics and Iran's stolen revolution through Dina Nayeri's essay. Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) reflects on always developing as an artist (The Creative Independent). An unsettling essay asks what a 1966 chatbot and its horrified inventor tell us about today's voice assistants. Jim Nielsen's blog muses on what it means to be "good" at something.