Hundreds Sue Virginia Hospital and Executives Over Unneeded Surgeries

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 21:48
More than 500 women claimed that they had received unnecessary operations. Hospital leaders said they were not aware of a doctor’s misconduct.

Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s First Female Prime Minister, Dies

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 21:23
A leader for three terms, she traded the country’s leadership with Sheikh Hasina, the head of another political dynasty, over decades. She was believed to be 80.

Russian Enthusiasts Planning DIY DDR5 Memory Amidst Worldwide Shortage

SlashDot - lun, 12/29/2025 - 21:02
Amid a global DDR5 shortage and soaring prices, Russian hardware enthusiasts are experimenting with do-it-yourself DDR5 RAM by sourcing empty PCBs and soldering memory chips by hand. Tom's Hardware reports: The idea comes from Russian YouTuber PRO Hi-Tech's Telegram channel, where a local enthusiast known as "Vik-on" already performs VRAM upgrades for GPUs, so this is a relatively safe operation for him. According to Vik-on, empty RAM PCBs can be sourced from China for as little as $6.40 per DIMM. The memory chips themselves, though, that's a different challenge. The so-called spot market for memory doesn't really exist at the moment, since no manufacturer has the production capacity to make more RAM, and even if they did, they'd sell to better-paying AI clients instead. Still, you can find SK Hynix and Samsung chips across Chinese marketplaces if you search for the correct part number, as shown in the attached screenshots. Moreover, the Telegram thread says it would cost roughly 12,000 Russian Rubles ($152) to build a 16 GB stick with "average" specs, which is about the same as a retail 16 GB kit. There's also a ZenTimings snapshot showing CL28 timings, claiming that even relatively high-end DDR5 RAM can be built using this method, but it won't be cost-effective. Therefore, it doesn't make too much sense just yet to get the BGA rework station out and assemble your own DDR5. Things are expected to get worse, though, so maybe these Russians are on to something.

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Democrats Aim to Spotlight Republican Efforts to Rewrite the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 20:36
On the fifth anniversary of the attack, which falls next Tuesday, Democrats plan to hold an informal hearing to review President Trump’s clemency for the rioters and G.O.P. attempts to sanitize the event.

New York City Takes Over Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 20:26
Maimonides Health is a community fixture that will become part of NYC Health + Hospitals. Many of its patients are on government medical plans.

Fedora Continued At The Forefront Of Upstream Linux Innovations In 2025

SlashDot - lun, 12/29/2025 - 20:25
Phoronix's Michael Larabel is "reliving some of the best moments for Fedora Linux in 2025" by highlighting the year's most popular news around the distro. Throughout 2025, Fedora continued to lead upstream Linux innovation with bold changes like Wayland-only GNOME, newer kernels, architecture cleanups, and experimental features -- while openly grappling with controversial shifts such as dropping 32-bit support and modernizing long-standing subsystems. "Fedora Linux this year continued in punctually shipping the very latest upstream Linux innovations from the freshest Wayland components to Linux kernel features and continuing to leverage other improvements in the open-source world," writes Larabel. "Fedora enjoyed the successful Fedora 42 and Fedora 43 releases this year, including going with Wayland-noly GNOME and further phasing of 32-bit packages. Fedora's KDE spin continued improving too and the Red Hat sponsored Linux distribution enjoyed a wealth of other improvements this year."

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Russia Threatens to Harden Its Stance on Ukraine

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 20:18
Plus, food trends for 2026. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.

An Anti-A.I. Movement Is Coming. Which Party Will Lead It?

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 19:45
The technology Is ruining much of what makes life worth living.

'Pull Over and Show Me Your Apple Wallet'

SlashDot - lun, 12/29/2025 - 19:45
Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: MacRumors reports that Apple plans to expand iPhone and Apple Watch driver's licenses to 7 U.S. states (CT, KY, MS, OK, UT, AR, VA). A recent convert is the State of Illinois, whose website videos demo how you can use your Apple Wallet license to display proof of identity or age the next time you get carded by a cop, bartender, or TSA agent. The new states will join 13 others who already offer driver's licenses in the Wallet app (AZ, MD, CO, GA, OH, HI, CA, IA, NM, MT, ND, WV, IL). There's certainly been a lot of foot-dragging by the states when it comes to embracing phone-based driver's licenses -- Slashdot reported that Iowa was ready to launch a mobile driver's license in 2014; they didn't get one until nearly a decade later, in late 2023.

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U.S. Kills 2 in Strike in Pacific, as Trump Pressures Venezuela

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 19:43
The attack was the 30th announced by the U.S. military since early September. It came days after President Trump said the U.S. had struck a coastal site related to drugs and Venezuela.

Tough Job Market Has People Using Dating Apps To Get Interviews

SlashDot - lun, 12/29/2025 - 19:02
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Most people use dating apps to find love. Tiffany Chau used one to hunt for a summer internship. This fall, the 20-year-old junior at California College of the Arts tailored her Hinge profile to connect with people who could offer job referrals or interviews. One match brought her to a Halloween party, where she networked in hopes of landing a product-design internship for the summer. While there, she got some tips from someone who had recently interviewed at Accenture. As for the connection with her date? Not so much. "I feel like my approach to the dating apps is it being another networking platform like everything else, like Instagram or LinkedIn," Chau said. Chau is among a cadre of workers who are using dating apps to boost their job searches. They're recognizing that the online job hunt is broken as unemployed workers flood the system, AI screens out resumes and many job matching programs are overwhelmed. Automation has squeezed human contact out of hiring, which has pushed applicants to seek any path to a live hiring manager, no matter the means. The overall US unemployment rate continued to climb throughout 2025, reaching 4.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while the number of unemployed high school graduates held steady at about 4.4% in November, the rate for workers with a bachelor's degree rose to 2.9% from 2.5% a year ago. About a third of dating app users said they had sought matches for job hook-ups, according to a ResumeBuilder.com survey of about 2,200 US dating site customers in October. Two-thirds targeted potential paramours who worked at a desirable employer. Three-quarters said they matched with people working in roles they wanted. "People are doing it to expand their networks, make connections, because the best way to get a job today is who you know," said Stacie Haller, ResumeBuilder.com's chief career advisor. "Networking is the only way people are rising above the horror show that the job search is today."

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Grim Evidence of Trump’s Boat Strikes Washes Ashore on a Colombian Peninsula

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 18:34
First came the scorched boat. Then the mangled bodies. Then the packets with traces of marijuana. Now, fishermen fear the ocean that feeds them.

Sam Altman Offers $555K Salary To Fill Most Daunting Role In AI

SlashDot - lun, 12/29/2025 - 18:20
OpenAI is offering a $555,000 salary (plus equity) to recruit a new "head of preparedness," a high-pressure role tasked with anticipating and mitigating extreme AI risks. "This will be a stressful job, and you'll jump into the deep end pretty much immediately," said Sam Altman as he launched the hunt to fill "a critical role" to "help the world." The Guardian reports: In what may be close to the impossible job, the "head of preparedness" at OpenAI will be directly responsible for defending against risks from ever more powerful AIs to human mental health, cybersecurity and biological weapons. That is before the successful candidate has to start worrying about the possibility that AIs may soon begin training themselves amid fears from some experts they could "turn against us." The successful candidate will be responsible for evaluating and mitigating emerging threats and "tracking and preparing for frontier capabilities that create new risks of severe harm." Some previous executives in the post have lasted only for short periods. Altman said on X as he launched the job search: "We have a strong foundation of measuring growing capabilities, but we are entering a world where we need more nuanced understanding and measurement of how those capabilities could be abused, and how we can limit those downsides both in our products and in the world, in a way that lets us all enjoy the tremendous benefits. These questions are hard and there is little precedent." One user responded sardonically: "Sounds pretty chill, is there vacation included?" What is included is an unspecified slice of equity in OpenAI, a company that has been valued at $500 billion.

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Israel Strips U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees of Diplomatic Immunity

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 18:13
The legislation was the latest blow to the agency, known as UNRWA. Israel has accused it of being extensively infiltrated by Hamas.

Nvidia Takes $5 Billion Stake In Intel Under September Agreement

SlashDot - lun, 12/29/2025 - 17:40
Nvidia has completed its previously announced $5 billion investment in Intel, buying over 214 million shares at a fixed price after the deal received clearance from Federal Trade Commission. "The leading AI chip designer said in September it would pay $23.28 per share for Intel common stock, in a deal that is seen as a major financial lifeline for the chipmaker after years of missteps and capital intensive production capacity expansions drained its finances," reports Reuters.

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Idris Elba and Cynthia Erivo Make King Charles’s New Year Honors List

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 17:30
Mr. Elba received a knighthood and Ms. Erivo was also honored in an annual British tradition celebrating professional excellence and community service.

China Drafts World's Strictest Rules To End AI-Encouraged Suicide, Violence

SlashDot - lun, 12/29/2025 - 17:00
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: China drafted landmark rules to stop AI chatbots from emotionally manipulating users, including what could become the strictest policy worldwide intended to prevent AI-supported suicides, self-harm, and violence. China's Cyberspace Administration proposed the rules on Saturday. If finalized, they would apply to any AI products or services publicly available in China that use text, images, audio, video, or "other means" to simulate engaging human conversation. Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law, told CNBC that the "planned rules would mark the world's first attempt to regulate AI with human or anthropomorphic characteristics" at a time when companion bot usage is rising globally. [...] Proposed rules would require, for example, that a human intervene as soon as suicide is mentioned. The rules also dictate that all minor and elderly users must provide the contact information for a guardian when they register -- the guardian would be notified if suicide or self-harm is discussed. Generally, chatbots would be prohibited from generating content that encourages suicide, self-harm, or violence, as well as attempts to emotionally manipulate a user, such as by making false promises. Chatbots would also be banned from promoting obscenity, gambling, or instigation of a crime, as well as from slandering or insulting users. Also banned are what are termed "emotional traps," -- chatbots would additionally be prevented from misleading users into making "unreasonable decisions," a translation of the rules indicates. Perhaps most troubling to AI developers, China's rules would also put an end to building chatbots that "induce addiction and dependence as design goals." [...] AI developers will also likely balk at annual safety tests and audits that China wants to require for any service or products exceeding 1 million registered users or more than 100,000 monthly active users. Those audits would log user complaints, which may multiply if the rules pass, as China also plans to require AI developers to make it easier to report complaints and feedback. Should any AI company fail to follow the rules, app stores could be ordered to terminate access to their chatbots in China. That could mess with AI firms' hopes for global dominance, as China's market is key to promoting companion bots, Business Research Insights reported earlier this month.

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Mamdani Will Be Sworn In at Abandoned Subway Station Beneath City Hall

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 16:29
Hours before Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani holds an inauguration block party outside City Hall, he will officially become mayor in a small private ceremony.

Russia Threatens to Toughen Its Stance on Ending the War in Ukraine

NY Times - lun, 12/29/2025 - 16:29
Moscow said a Ukrainian drone attack targeted a residence of President Vladimir V. Putin, which Ukraine denied, accusing the Kremlin of fabricating an excuse not to make peace.

Stingless Bees From the Amazon Granted Legal Rights in World First

SlashDot - lun, 12/29/2025 - 16:22
Stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to be granted legal rights anywhere in the world, in a breakthrough supporters hope will be a catalyst for similar moves to protect bees elsewhere. From a report: It means that across a broad swathe of the Peruvian Amazon, the rainforest's long-overlooked native bees -- which, unlike their cousins the European honeybees, have no sting -- now have the right to exist and to flourish. Cultivated by Indigenous peoples since pre-Columbian times, stingless bees are thought to be key rainforest pollinators, sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem health. But they are faced with a deadly confluence of climate change, deforestation and pesticides, as well as competition from European bees, and scientists and campaigners have been racing against time to get stingless bees on international conservation red lists. Constanza Prieto, Latin American director at the Earth Law Center, who was part of the campaign, said: "This ordinance marks a turning point in our relationship with nature: it makes stingless bees visible, recognises them as rights-bearing subjects, and affirms their essential role in preserving ecosystems."

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