Japan's Honda To Scale Back On EVs, Focus On Hybrids

SlashDot - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 23:30
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Honda said on Tuesday that it was scaling back its investment in electric vehicles given slowing demand and would be focusing on hybrids, now far more in favor, with a slew of revamped models. Japan's second-biggest automaker after Toyota also dropped a target for EV sales to account for 30% of its sales by the 2030 financial year. "It's really hard to read the market, but at the moment we see EVs accounting for about a fifth by then," CEO Toshihiro Mibe told a press conference. Honda has slashed its planned investment in electrification and software by that year by 30% to 7 trillion yen ($48.4 billion). It's one of a number of global car brands dialing back EV investment due to the shift in demand in favor of hybrids and as governments around the world ease timelines to meet emission rules and EV sales targets. Honda plans to launch 13 next-generation hybrid models globally in the four years from 2027. At the moment it sells more than a dozen hybrid models worldwide, though just three in the U.S. -- the Civic, which comes in hatchback and sedan versions, the Accord and the CR-V. It will also develop a hybrid system for large-size models that it plans to launch in the second half of the decade. The automaker is aiming to sell 2.2 million to 2.3 million hybrid vehicles by 2030, a huge jump from 868,000 sold last year. That also compares with a total of 3.8 million vehicles sold overall last year. Earlier this month, Honda announced it had put on hold for about two years a $10.7 billion plan to build an EV production base in Ontario, Canada, due to slowing demand for electric cars. Honda said, however, that it still plans to have battery-powered and fuel-cell vehicles make up all of its new car sales by 2040.

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O’Connor Wins Democratic Primary for Pittsburgh Mayor, Defeating Incumbent

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 23:14
The outcome is the latest in a string of losses in deep-blue cities that has raised questions about the power of progressive officeholders.

Official Pushed to Rewrite Intelligence So It Could Not Be ‘Used Against’ Trump

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 22:49
An assessment contradicted a presidential proclamation. A political appointee demanded a redo, then pushed for changes to the new analysis, too.

Judge Orders U.S. to Keep Custody of Migrants Amid Claims They Were Sent to South Sudan

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 22:22
In a chaotic hearing, Trump administration officials told a federal judge they did not know where a plane of deportees was going. The judge raised the possibility that he could order its return.

19-Year-Old Accused of Largest Child Data Breach in US Agrees To Plead Guilty To Federal Charges

SlashDot - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 22:06
A Massachusetts man has agreed to plead guilty to hacking into one of the top education tech companies in the United States and stealing tens of millions of schoolchildren's personal information for profit. From a report: Matthew Lane, 19, of Worcester County, Massachusetts, signed a plea agreement related to charges connected to a major hack on an educational technology company last year, as well as another company, according to court documents published Tuesday. While the documents refer to the education company only as "Victim-2" and the U.S. attorney's office declined to name the victim, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News that it is PowerSchool. The hack of PowerSchool last year is believed to be the largest breach of American children's sensitive data to date. According to his plea agreement, Lane admitted obtaining information from a protected computer and aggravated identity theft and agreed not to challenge a prison sentence shorter than nine years and four months. He got access simply by trying an employee's stolen username and password combination, the complaint says, echoing a private third-party assessment of the incident previously reported by NBC News.

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Senate Democrats Grill Defiant Rubio on Trump Policies

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 21:49
There was shouting and gavel banging as Marco Rubio and his former Senate Democratic colleagues clashed over U.S. foreign aid.

George Wendt, a.k.a. Norm From ‘Cheers,’ Is Dead at 76

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 21:49
A burly, easygoing Chicago native, he became a staple of living rooms across the country for more than a decade as one of America’s favorite barflies.

Trump-Putin Call Notches Diplomatic Win for Russia, but Economic Goals Remain in Limbo

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 21:44
The Kremlin has withstood pressure for an immediate cease-fire as a precondition for peace talks, but the Russian president’s push for normalizing relations with the United States appears in limbo.

F.A.A. Restricts Newark Airport Flights to 56 an Hour

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 21:35
The temporary restrictions are being imposed after repeated flight delays and cancellations. The cap will increase to 68 flights per hour in mid-June.

RFK Jr.’s War on Pesticides Riles Farmers and a Republican Senator

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 21:10
A health report commissioned by President Trump has been causing angst within the agriculture industry who fear the chemicals will be identified as a driver of childhood disease.

U.S.D.A. Approves Soda Ban for Food Stamps in Nebraska

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 21:08
The Trump administration approved a first of its kind waiver for Nebraska, allowing a ban on soda purchases through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, starting next year.

Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Andrew Cuomo, Singling Out Another Political Target

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 21:03
After killing a criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams, the Trump administration has begun investigating his chief rival in the New York City mayoral race over his testimony about the pandemic.

KDE Is Getting a Native Virtual Machine Manager Called 'Karton'

SlashDot - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 20:45
A new virtual machine manager called Karton is being developed specifically for the KDE Plasma desktop, aiming to offer a seamless, Qt-native alternative to GNOME-centric tools like GNOME Boxes. Spearheaded by University of Waterloo student Derek Lin as part of Google Summer of Code 2025, Karton uses libvirt and Qt Quick to build a user-friendly, fully integrated VM experience, with features like a custom SPICE viewer, snapshot support, and a mobile-friendly UI expected by September 2025. Neowin reports: To feel right at home in KDE, Karton is being built with Qt Quick and Kirigami. It uses the libvirt API to handle virtual machines and could eventually work across different platforms. Right now, development is focused on getting the core parts in place. Lin is working on a new domain installer that ditches direct virt-install calls in favor of libosinfo, which helps detect OS images and generate the right libvirt XML for setting up virtual machines more precisely. He's still refining device configuration and working on broader hypervisor support. Another key part of the work is building a custom SPICE viewer using Qt Quick from scratch: If you're curious, here's the list of specific deliverables Lin included in his GSoC proposal, though he notes the proposal itself is a bit outdated [...]. For those interested in the timeline, Lin's GSoC proposal says the official GSoC coding starts June 2, 2025. The goal is to have a working app ready by the midterm evaluation around July 14, 2025, with the final submission due September 1, 2025. You can learn more via KDE.org.

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Is Red Meat Bad for Your Heart? It May Depend on Who Funded the Study.

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 20:02
A new analysis found that red meat studies with industry links were more likely to report favorable results than those without them.

KrebsOnSecurity Hit With Near-Record 6.3 Tbps DDoS

SlashDot - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 20:02
KrebsOnSecurity was hit with a near-record 6.3 Tbps DDoS attack, believed to be a test of the powerful new Aisuru IoT botnet. The attack, lasting under a minute, was the largest Google has ever mitigated and is linked to a DDoS-for-hire operation run by a 21-year-old Brazilian known as "Forky." Brian Krebs writes: [Google Security Engineer Damian Menscher] said the attack on KrebsOnSecurity lasted less than a minute, hurling large UDP data packets at random ports at a rate of approximately 585 million data packets per second. "It was the type of attack normally designed to overwhelm network links," Menscher said, referring to the throughput connections between and among various Internet service providers (ISPs). "For most companies, this size of attack would kill them." [...] The 6.3 Tbps attack last week caused no visible disruption to this site, in part because it was so brief -- lasting approximately 45 seconds. DDoS attacks of such magnitude and brevity typically are produced when botnet operators wish to test or demonstrate their firepower for the benefit of potential buyers. Indeed, Google's Menscher said it is likely that both the May 12 attack and the slightly larger 6.5 Tbps attack against Cloudflare last month were simply tests of the same botnet's capabilities. In many ways, the threat posed by the Aisuru/Airashi botnet is reminiscent of Mirai, an innovative IoT malware strain that emerged in the summer of 2016 and successfully out-competed virtually all other IoT malware strains in existence at the time.

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Chip Roy, Demanding More Spending Cuts, Reprises Role as Ringleader of G.O.P. Rebels

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 19:46
The Texas Republican is leading the conservative revolt against what his party calls its “big, beautiful bill.” Whether he will dig in or relent could determine the measure’s fate.

Britain, France and Canada Condemn Israel’s Expansion of Gaza War

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 19:38
Britain, France and Canada called the Israeli plans for escalation “disproportionate” and “egregious” at a time when the U.N. is warning the population is at risk of famine.

U.S. Debt Is on Pace to Set a Record High, Going All the Way Back to 1790

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 19:25
If Republicans pass their tax and spending megabill, the record will arrive even sooner — putting America’s debt at more than 113 percent of the size of its entire economy.

Spain Blocks More Than 65,000 Airbnb Holiday Rental Listings

SlashDot - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 19:20
Spain has ordered Airbnb to remove over 65,000 listings that violate rental regulations, citing missing license numbers and unclear ownership details. The crackdown is part of a broader government effort to address the country's housing crisis, which many blame on unregulated short-term rentals reducing long-term housing supply. Reuters reports: Most of the Airbnb listings to be blocked do not include their licence number, while others do not specify whether the owner was an individual or a corporation, the Consumer Rights Ministry said in a statement on Monday. Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy said his goal was to end the general "lack of control" and "illegality" in the holiday rental business. "No more excuses. Enough with protecting those who make a business out of the right to housing in our country," he told reporters. Bustinduy said Madrid's high court is backing the request to withdraw as many as 5,800 listings. Airbnb will appeal the decision, a spokesperson said on Monday. The company believes the ministry does not have the authority to make rulings over short-term rentals and failed to provide an evidence-based list of non-compliant accommodation. Some of the incriminated listings are non-touristic seasonal ones, the spokesperson said.

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The President Will Destroy You Now

NY Times - Tue, 05/20/2025 - 19:08
Trump’s wanton attacks on institutions and individuals have a specific purpose.

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