Power Is Largely Restored in Spain After Widespread Outage
Electricity returned to nearly all of Spain almost 18 hours after a blackout there and in neighboring Portugal. The cause of the outage was unclear.
What We Know About the Power Outages in Spain and Portugal
Millions on the Iberian Peninsula were left without power for hours on Monday. Much of Spain’s power grid was operating normally by Tuesday morning.
Car Subscription Features Raise Your Risk of Government Surveillance, Police Records Show
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Automakers are increasingly pushing consumers to accept monthly and annual fees to unlock preinstalled safety and performance features, from hands-free driving systems and heated seats to cameras that can automatically record accident situations. But the additional levels of internet connectivity this subscription model requires can increase drivers' exposure to government surveillance and the likelihood of being caught up in police investigations. A cache of more than two dozen police records recently reviewed by WIRED show US law enforcement agencies regularly trained on how to take advantage of "connected cars," with subscription-based features drastically increasing the amount of data that can be accessed during investigations. The records make clear that law enforcement's knowledge of the surveillance far exceeds that of the public and reveal how corporate policies and technologies -- not the law -- determine driver privacy.
"Each manufacturer has their whole protocol on how the operating system in the vehicle utilizes telematics, mobile Wi-Fi, et cetera," one law enforcement officer noted in a presentation prepared by the California State Highway Patrol (CHP) and reviewed by WIRED. The presentation, while undated, contains statistics on connected cars for the year 2024. "If the vehicle has an active subscription," they add, "it does create more data." The CHP presentation, obtained by government transparency nonprofit Property of the People via a public records request, trains police on how to acquire data based on a variety of hypothetical scenarios, each describing how vehicle data can be acquired based on the year, make, and model of a vehicle. The presentation acknowledges that access to data can ultimately be limited due to choices made by not only vehicle manufacturers but the internet service providers on which connected devices rely.
One document notes, for instance, that when a General Motors vehicle is equipped with an active OnStar subscription, it will transmit data -- revealing its location -- roughly twice as often as a Ford vehicle. Different ISPs appear to have not only different capabilities but policies when it comes to responding to government requests for information. Police may be able to rely on AT&T to help identify certain vehicles based on connected devices active in the car but lack the ability to do so when the device relies on a T-Mobile or Verizon network instead. [...] Nearly all subscription-based car features rely on devices that come preinstalled in a vehicle, with a cellular connection necessary only to enable the automaker's recurring-revenue scheme. The ability of car companies to charge users to activate some features is effectively the only reason the car's systems need to communicate with cell towers. The police documents note that companies often hook customers into adopting the services through free trial offers, and in some cases the devices are communicating with cell towers even when users decline to subscribe.
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India Accuses Pakistan of Supporting Terrorism. Here’s What We Know.
India renewed its claims after a deadly terror attack last week in Kashmir, a territory that it has long fought over with Pakistan.
Can Reform U.K. Be More Than a Vessel for Rage?
Much of the British political class laughed at Nigel Farage in 2016. It isn’t laughing now.
After Pro-Israel Crowd Assaults Woman, Protesters Rally in Brooklyn
The police were investigating the attack in Crown Heights, where hundreds of pro-Israel demonstrators surrounded a woman and hurled slurs at her.
A Contender for the Papacy in the Mold of Francis
Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines is known as the “Asian Francis.” But he has been criticized for not being vocal enough about his country’s brutal drug war and clerical sex abuse.
Trump’s Tariffs Put China’s E-Commerce Superpowers to the Test
Companies like Alibaba that built China’s world-leading online shopping sector are now helping its sellers find markets beyond the United States.
Trump Administration Looks to Take Steps to Ease Pain From Car Tariffs
The planned concessions to give automakers more time to relocate production to the United States would still leave substantial tariffs on imported cars and car parts.
Trump Signs 3 Executive Orders, Addressing Immigration and Policing
The president directed his administration to compile a list of “sanctuary cities” that do not cooperate with federal enforcement of immigration laws.
Oracle Engineers Caused Days-Long Software Outage at US Hospitals
Oracle engineers mistakenly triggered a five-day software outage at a number of Community Health Systems hospitals, causing the facilities to temporarily return to paper-based patient records. From a report: CHS told CNBC that the outage involving Oracle Health, the company's electronic health record (EHR) system, affected "several" hospitals, leading them to activate "downtime procedures." Trade publication Becker's Hospital Review reported that 45 hospitals were hit.
The outage began on April 23, after engineers conducting maintenance work mistakenly deleted critical storage connected to a key database, a CHS spokesperson said in a statement. The outage was resolved on Monday, and was not related to a cyberattack or other security incident. CHS is based in Tennessee and includes 72 hospitals in 14 states, according to the medical system's website.
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4 Dead After Car Crash at After-School Center in Chatham, Illinois
Several others were injured, the State Police said.
N.Y. Budget Deal Includes School Cellphone Ban and Public Safety Changes
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $254 billion state budget agreement that includes tax credits. A measure to restrict mask wearing was watered down.
U.S., Helped by Musk’s Team, Charges Iraqi With Voting Illegally in 2020
Akeel Abdul Jamiel, who appears to be a fan of President Trump, voted in upstate New York despite not being a citizen, officials said.
Harvard, Under Pressure, Revamps D.E.I. Office
The move comes as President Trump has tried to abolish D.E.I. programs at universities.
Duolingo Will Replace Contract Workers With AI
According to an email posted on Duolingo's LinkedIn, the language learning app will "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle." Co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn also said the company will be "AI-first." The Verge reports: According to von Ahn, being "AI-first" means the company will "need to rethink much of how we work" and that "making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won't get us there." As part of the shift, the company will roll out "a few constructive constraints," including the changes to how it works with contractors, looking for AI use in hiring and in performance reviews, and that "headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work."
von Ahn says that "Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees" and that "this isn't about replacing Duos with AI." Instead, he says that the changes are "about removing bottlenecks" so that employees can "focus on creative work and real problems, not repetitive tasks."
"AI isn't just a productivity boost," von Ahn says. "It helps us get closer to our mission. To teach well, we need to create a massive amount of content, and doing that manually doesn't scale. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI. Without AI, it would take us decades to scale our content to more learners. We owe it to our learners to get them this content ASAP."
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Mexico to Give U.S. More Water From Their Shared Rivers
A joint agreement appeared to avert a threat by President Trump of tariffs and sanctions in a long-running dispute over water rights in the border region.
National Climate Assessment Authors Are Dismissed by Trump Administration
The Trump administration told researchers it was “releasing” them from their roles. It puts the future of the assessment, which is required by Congress, in doubt.
Trump Recasts Mission of Justice Dept.’s Civil Rights Office, Prompting ‘Exodus’
Hundreds of lawyers and other staff members are fleeing the arm of the agency that defends constitutional rights, which appointees intend to reshape to enact President Trump’s agenda.
Digital Photo Frame Company Nixplay Slashes Free Cloud Storage From 10GB To 500MB
Nixplay has dramatically reduced its free cloud storage offering for digital photo frame users from the original 10GB to just 500MB. The previously announced update, which took effect last week, also removed the formerly free ability to sync Google Photos albums. Users whose accounts already exceed the new 500MB limit will find their content "restricted from sharing or viewing" unless they edit their library or purchase a subscription. Nixplay now offers two paid tiers: Nixplay Lite at $19.99 annually for 100GB storage and Nixplay Plus at $29.99 yearly for unlimited storage.
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