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A study involving 641 participants across 10 European countries found pesticides in every silicone wristband worn for one week. Researchers at Radboud University tested for 193 pesticides and detected 173 substances. The average participant was exposed to 20 different pesticides through non-dietary sources. Non-organic farmers had the highest exposure at a median of 36 pesticides. Organic farmers and people living near farms recorded lower numbers. Consumers living far from agricultural areas had a median of 17 pesticides. The wristbands captured banned substances including breakdown products of DDT, which was prohibited decades ago, and insecticides dieldrin and propoxur. Paul Scheepers, the molecular epidemiologist who co-authored the study, said people cannot avoid exposure to pesticides in their direct environment.

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TransparentTribe Attack Linux-Based Systems of Indian Military Organizations to Deliver DeskRAT  CyberSecurityNews

The U.S. will expand the use of facial recognition technology to track non-citizens entering and leaving the country in order to combat visa overstays and passport fraud, according to a government document published on Friday. Reuters: A new regulation will allow U.S. border authorities to require non-citizens to be photographed at airports, seaports, land crossings and any other point of departure, expanding on an earlier pilot program. Under the regulation, set to take effect on December 26, U.S. authorities could require the submission of other biometrics, such as fingerprints or DNA, it said. It also allows border authorities to use facial recognition for children under age 14 and elderly people over age 79, groups that are currently exempted. The tighter border rules reflect a broader effort by U.S. President Donald Trump to crack down on illegal immigration. While the Republican president has surged resources to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, he has also taken steps to reduce the number of people overstaying their visas.

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Amazon Web Services basically invented the cloud computing business and once held nearly half the market. That dominance is slipping. AWS captured 38% of corporate spending on cloud infrastructure services last year, down from almost 50% in 2018, according to Gartner. Microsoft now grows its backlog of corporate sales faster than Amazon. The company that brushed aside incumbents and transformed an internal startup into Amazon's profit engine now faces internal bureaucracy that has slowed it down. Bloomberg interviewed 23 current and former AWS employees who described management layers that proliferated after a pandemic hiring binge. One sales engineer who was six managers from Jeff Bezos before the pandemic found himself fifteen rungs from CEO Andy Jassy earlier this year. AWS hesitated to invest in Anthropic when the AI startup was spending most of its cash on Amazon servers. Executives doubted the Anthropic AI could be monetized and were culturally reluctant to pay for external technology they believed could be built in-house. Google invested in early 2023. Amazon followed that September with $4 billion in commitments. On Thursday, Google said it will supply up to 1 million AI chips to Anthropic.

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Asahi Linux Advances Apple M3 Support with Rust Bootloader Migration  WebProNews

Hackers have been spreading malware through more than 3,000 YouTube videos advertising cracked software and game hacks, cybersecurity firm Check Point warned this week. The campaign, active since at least 2021, tripled its video production in 2025. The videos promoted free versions of Adobe Photoshop, FL Studio, Microsoft Office, and game cheats for titles like Roblox. Fake comments created the appearance of legitimacy, the researchers found. Users who downloaded archives from Dropbox, Google Drive, or MediaFire were instructed to disable Windows Defender before opening files. The downloads contained malware including Lumma and Rhadamanthys, which steal passwords and cryptocurrency wallet information. The hackers hijacked existing accounts and created new ones. One compromised channel with 129,000 subscribers posted a cracked Photoshop video that reached 291,000 views. Another video for FL Studio received over 147,000 views.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: The first announcement that Lip-Bu Tan made a day after becoming the permanent chief executive of Intel was about massive layoffs to right-size the company in accordance with market realities. Now, the extent of those layoffs is becoming clearer, indicating Intel let go of as many as 20,500 employees in about three months. If we add 15,000 positions eliminated by the previous management, that means Intel reduced its headcount by 35,500 people in less than two years.

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Larry Sanger, who helped launch Wikipedia in 2001 before being ousted by co-founder Jimmy Wales a year later, has spent years arguing the online encyclopedia has abandoned its commitment to neutrality. Leading conservatives in the second Trump administration are now amplifying his critique. Elon Musk announced plans to launch an AI-powered alternative called Grokipedia this week, calling Wikipedia "hopelessly biased." Senator Ted Cruz sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation demanding answers about what he termed "ideological bias." House Republicans opened an investigation into possible platform manipulation. Sanger published "Nine Theses" on reforming Wikipedia and appeared on Tucker Carlson's show. His arguments circulated widely among conservatives, including Trump's AI czar David Sacks. Sanger recently converted to Christianity and voted for Trump in 2024. He is working to recruit hundreds of conservatives to become active Wikipedia editors. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales maintains that neutrality remains the site's core policy.

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The Latest Sheaves Work To Hopefully Improve Linux Performance  Phoronix

A web browser linked to Chinese online gambling websites and downloaded millions of times routes all internet traffic through servers in China and covertly installs programs that run in the background, according to findings published by network security company Infoblox. The researchers said the Universe Browser, which advertises itself as offering privacy protection, includes features similar to malware such as key logging and surreptitious connections. Infoblox collaborated with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on the research. The investigators found links between the browser and Southeast Asia's cybercrime ecosystem, which has connections to money laundering, illegal online gambling, human trafficking and scam operations using forced labor. The browser is directly linked to BBIN, a major online gambling company that has existed since 1999. Infoblox researchers examined the Windows version of the browser and found that it checks users' locations and languages when launched, installs two browser extensions, and disables security features including sandboxing.

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I tried switching to open-source software for everything but hit a wall I didn’t expect  MakeUseOf

Learn how to use the Gemini app’s tools — like Veo 3, Nano Banana and more — to create spooky Halloween visuals.Learn how to use the Gemini app’s tools — like Veo 3, Nano Banana and more — to create spooky Halloween visuals.

Microsoft has reorganized its Outlook team under new leadership as part of a broader effort to integrate AI into its core products. Gaurav Sareen, a corporate vice president at the company, recently assumed direct leadership of the Outlook division after Lynn Ayres, who previously ran the team, began a sabbatical. The move represents the latest in a series of AI-focused restructurings across Microsoft's divisions. Sareen wrote in an internal memo that the company now has an opportunity to reimagine Outlook from the ground up rather than add AI features to existing systems, according to The Verge. Ryan Roslansky, the chief executive of LinkedIn, took on an expanded role earlier this year as head of Office. Sareen now reports to Roslansky, who oversees the Office suite, Outlook and Microsoft 365 Copilot teams. The restructuring comes after Microsoft spent several years developing One Outlook, a web-based version meant to replace separate Windows, Mac, and web applications.

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I ditched Windows and built a Linux laptop in minutes - here's how you can, too  ZDNET

Automattic has filed counterclaims against WP Engine in a lawsuit the hosting company initiated in October 2024. The counterclaims accuse WP Engine of trademark infringement and deceptive marketing practices. After private equity firm Silver Lake invested $250 million in WP Engine, the hosting company began calling itself "The WordPress Technology Company" and allowed partners to refer to it as "WordPress Engine," the lawsuit says. WP Engine also launched products named "Core WordPress" and "Headless WordPress." The counterclaims allege that WP Engine promised to commit 5% of its resources to the WordPress ecosystem but failed to keep those promises. Automattic contends that WP Engine engaged in trademark violations to avoid licensing fees that would have affected the company's earnings and valuation. Silver Lake sought to sell WP Engine at a $2 billion valuation but could not find a buyer. The filing notes that potential buyers included Automattic. The counterclaims also assert that WP Engine degraded product quality and removed essential features to reduce costs during this period.

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Gemini Drops is our new monthly update on how to get the most out of the Gemini app.

Intel's tick-tock development cadence will not return. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said during the company's Q3 2025 earnings call that the 18A process node will be a "long-lived node" powering at least three generations of client and server products. Intel reported its first profit in nearly two years, aided by financial support from Nvidia, Softbank, and the US government. The company faces chip shortages that will peak in the first quarter of next year. CFO David Zinsner said Intel is prioritizing AI server chips over consumer processors. Intel will launch only one Panther Lake SKU this year and roll out others in 2026. Zinsner called Panther Lake "pretty expensive" and said Intel will push Lunar Lake chips "in at least the first half of the year."

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Major League Baseball and Fox Sports both worked with Google Cloud to use AI this baseball season.Major League Baseball and Fox Sports both worked with Google Cloud to use AI this baseball season.

The Delhi regional government is trialling a cloud-seeding experiment to induce artificial rain, in an effort to clean the air in the world's most polluted city. From a report: The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has been proposing the use of cloud seeding as a way to bring Delhi's air pollution under control since it was elected to lead the regional government this year. Cloud seeding involves using aircraft or drones to add to clouds particles of silver iodide, which have a structure similar to ice. Water droplets cluster around the particles, modifying the structure of the clouds and increasing the chance of precipitation. Months of unpredictable weather over India's capital had put the BJP's cloud-seeding plans on pause. But days after Delhi's air quality once again fell into the hazardous range after Diwali festival, and a thick brown haze settled over the city, the government said the scheme would finally be rolled out.

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Intel Xe3P Spotted In Latest Linux Kernel Patches, Confirms Pairing With Nova Lake CPUs  Wccftech