Putin Enlists Russian Pride for War in Ukraine During Moscow Parade

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 21:50
The military parade marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany was intended to impress allies and tap into Russia’s deep sense of national pride.

Google Agrees to Pay $1.4 Billion to Settle 2 Privacy Lawsuits

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 21:39
The Texas attorney general brought the cases in 2022 under state laws.

Court Unanimously Denies Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes' Request For Rehearing

SlashDot - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 21:25
Elizabeth Holmes has lost her bid to have the appeal of her 2022 fraud conviction reheard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as her final option. She and former Theranos executive Sunny Balwani remain liable for $452 million in restitution, while Holmes continues serving her 11-year sentence. CNBC reports: The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied Holmes' request for a rehearing before the original three-judge panel that upheld her conviction. At the same time, the court said no judge on the circuit court had asked for a vote on whether to have the full court rehear the appeal. Holmes, 41, was sentenced in January 2023 to 11 years and 3 months in prison after being found guilty of four counts of wire fraud in January 2022. She was found guilty of deceiving investors about the capabilities of Theranos, the blood-testing company she founded in 2003. The company crumbled after a Wall Street Journal story outlined the firm's struggles and shut down in 2018.

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A United Front for Pope Leo Among American Cardinals

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 21:23
One cardinal who cast his ballot said the pope’s choice of the papal name Leo might signal a particular interest in workers’ rights.

Mexican Mayor Implicated in Drug Cartel Ranch Inquiry

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 21:22
The mayor of Teuchitlán is the first government official to have been arrested in connection with the case. Prosecutors accuse him of colluding with the cartel.

Pope Leo XIV’s Creole Roots Tell a Story of New Orleans

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 21:15
“This is like a reward from God,” a local parishioner said, as researchers unearthed more details about the lives of Leo XIV’s ancestors in the heart of the city’s Afro-Caribbean culture.

What to Know About Kosmos-482, a Soviet Spacecraft Returning to Earth After 53 Years

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 21:14
Kosmos-482, which was headed to Venus, is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere by the end of this weekend. Experts don’t yet know where it may come down.

Nuclear-Armed India and Pakistan Have No Bridges Left to Burn

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 21:01
There’s been a profound and dangerous shift in their rivalry, and it threatens U.S. interests.

Huawei Unveils a HarmonyOS Laptop, Its First Windows-Free Computer

SlashDot - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 20:45
Huawei has launched its first laptop running HarmonyOS instead of Windows, complete with AI features and support for over 2,000 mostly China-focused apps. The product is largely a result of U.S. sanctions that prevented U.S.-based companies like Google and Microsoft from doing business with Huawei, forcing the company to develop its own in-house solution. Liliputing reports: Early version of HarmonyOS were basically skinned version of Android, but over time Huawei has moved the two operating systems further apart and it now includes Huawei's own kernel, user interface, and other features. The version designed for laptops features a desktop-style operating system with a taskbar and dock on the bottom of the screen and support for multitasking by running multiple applications in movable, resizable windows. Since this is 2025, of course Huawei's demos also heavily emphasize AI features: the company showed how Celia, its AI assistant, can summarize documents, help prepare presentation slides, and more. While the operating system won't support the millions of Windows applications that could run on older Huawei laptops, the company says that at launch it will support more than 2,000 applications including WPS Office (an alternative to Microsoft Office that's developed in China), and a range of Chinese social media applications.

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Mexico Sues Google Over Changing Gulf of Mexico's Name For US Users

SlashDot - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 20:02
Mexico has filed a lawsuit against Google for changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America" for U.S. users on Google Maps, following a Republican-led House vote on Thursday to codify the name change. President Claudia Sheinbaum argues the U.S. only has authority to rename its portion of the continental shelf and warned of legal action unless Google reversed the change. The Guardian reports: "All we want is for the decree issued by the US government to be complied with," Sheinbaum said. "The US government only calls the portion of the US continental shelf the Gulf of America, not the entire gulf, because it wouldn't have the authority to name the entire gulf," she added. In response to Trump, Sheinbaum has cheekily suggested calling the United States "America Mexicana" -- Mexican America, pointing to a map dating back to before 1848, when one-third of her country was seized by the United States.

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After Criticism, Harris’s $900 Million Group Tries to Lay Out a Future

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 19:29
Future Forward, the big-money group supporting Kamala Harris’s presidential bid last year, resurfaced after her loss with an event in California.

Leo Lived Here: The Price Goes Up for the Pope’s Childhood Home

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 19:21
After Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was selected to become the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, offers began flooding in to buy this modest house outside Chicago, the real estate broker said.

Kids Are Short-Circuiting Their School-Issued Chromebooks For TikTok Clout

SlashDot - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 19:20
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Schools across the US are warning parents about an Internet trend that has students purposefully trying to damage their school-issued Chromebooks so that they start smoking or catch fire. Various school districts, including some in Colorado, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Washington, have sent letters to parents warning about the trend that's largely taken off on TikTok. Per reports from school districts and videos that Ars Technica has reviewed online, the so-called Chromebook Challenge includes students sticking things into Chromebook ports to short-circuit the system. Students are using various easily accessible items to do this, including writing utensils, paper clips, gum wrappers, and pushpins. The Chromebook challenge has caused chaos for US schools, leading to laptop fires that have forced school evacuations, early dismissals, and the summoning of first responders. Schools are also warning that damage to school property can result in disciplinary action and, in some states, legal action. In Plainville, Connecticut, a middle schooler allegedly "intentionally stuck scissors into a laptop, causing smoke to emit from it," Superintendent Brian Reas told local news station WFSB. The incident reportedly led to one student going to the hospital due to smoke inhalation and is suspected to be connected to the viral trend. "Although the investigation is ongoing, the student involved will be referred to juvenile court to face criminal charges," Reas said. TikTok recently banned the search term "Chromebook Challenge" and created a safety message that pops up when searching for the term. The social media company notes that the challenge is on other social media platforms, too.

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Trump Officials Consider Suspending Habeas Corpus for Detained Migrants

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 18:56
Stephen Miller, a top aide, repeated a justification used in the immigration crackdown: that the country is fighting an invasion. But it is unclear the president has the power to take such a step.

Meta To Add Facial Recognition To Glasses After All

SlashDot - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 18:40
According to The Information (paywalled), Meta is reportedly developing facial recognition capabilities for its Ray-Ban smart glasses -- technology it previously avoided due to privacy concerns. 404 Media's Joseph Cox writes: The move is an obvious about-face from Meta. It's also interesting to me because Meta's PR chewed my ass off when I dared to report in October that a pair of students took Meta's Ray-Ban glasses and combined them with off-the-shelf facial recognition technology. That tool, which the students called I-XRAY, captured a person's face, ran it through an easy to access facial recognition service called Pimeyes, then went a step further and pulled up information about the subject from across the web, including their home address and phone number. When I contacted Meta for comment for that story, Dave Arnold, a spokesperson for the company, said in an email he had one question for me. "That Pimeyes facial recognition technology could be used with ANY camera, correct? In other words, this isn't something that only is possible because of Meta Ray-Bans? If so, I think that's an important point to note in the piece," he wrote. This is true. But entirely misses the point of why the students created the tool with Meta's Ray-Ban glasses. They said themselves in a demonstration video they identified dozens of people without their knowledge. You do that by wearing a pair of glasses that look like any other. Meta's Ray-Ban's do have a light that turns on when it's recording, but according to the new report, Meta is questioning whether new versions of its glasses need this.

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Judge Orders Release of Rumeysa Ozturk, Tufts Student Detained by ICE

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 18:36
The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, was being detained in Louisiana. A federal judge said her detention threatened to chill the speech of millions of noncitizens and ordered her release.

Drought in Military Aid to Ukraine Enters Uncharted Territory

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 18:30
It has been 120 days since the last drawdown of weapons from Pentagon stockpiles was announced, outstripping Speaker Mike Johnson’s hold on Ukraine aid more than a year ago.

What the World Needs From Pope Leo

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 18:18
Preaching about the supernatural and the digital.

Coffee Shops Ditch WiFi and Laptops To Limit Remote Work

SlashDot - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 18:02
Numerous coffee establishments across the US are actively restricting internet access and laptop use as they push back against remote workers monopolizing their spaces for hours. New York's Devocion chain limits WiFi to two-hour windows on weekdays and eliminates it entirely on weekends, while Detroit's Alba coffee shop has operated without WiFi since its 2023 opening. Some venues have resorted to physically taping over electrical outlets. DC-based cafe Elle initially launched without WiFi but reversed course after receiving negative Google reviews, implementing a compromise with access restricted to Monday-Thursday, 8am-3pm, with a 90-minute usage cap. The restrictions primarily aim to increase customer turnover, improve sales figures, and restore the community atmosphere that extended laptop sessions often diminish.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

What to Know About the Hepatitis A Outbreak in L.A. County

NY Times - Fri, 05/09/2025 - 17:46
A highly contagious liver infection is surging among groups who are not typically at risk. At least seven people have died.

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