Leftovers

• CS Monitor ☛ Plot twist! Gen Z powers a movie theater resurgence.

  When box office sales plummeted during the pandemic, conventional wisdom held that members of Gen Z might not return to the movie theater. Instead, young people are both creating hit content and filling seats for the in-person experience.

• Science / Mathematics / Computer Science

  • Science Alert ☛ MIT Scientists Grew Artificial Blood Vessels In The Lab Using Magnets

    Essential for lab-grown organs.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Broke a 160-Year-Old Law of Physics to Create Programmable Heat

    A 'smarter' way to manipulate heat.

  • Science Alert ☛ Pumpkin Peel That Would Have Been Thrown Away Outperforms Plastic Packaging in Lab Tests

    Waste not, want not.

  • Science Alert ☛ The Longest Journey Sunlight Ever Takes Happens Before It Leaves The Sun

    There's something to be said for the Irish goodbye.

  • Science Alert ☛ What's Wildfire Smoke Actually Doing to Your Body? Studies Show It Might Be Worse Than You Think

    "Your whole body is affected."

  • Science Alert ☛ Iceberg Lettuce Has Been Implicated in The US Cyclospora Outbreak – Here's How You Should Prepare Your Salad

    Does washing actually help?

  • Science Alert ☛ Our Entire Galaxy May Have Once Flipped on Its Side

    Flipping heck!

• Career/Education

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Whitmer makes ‘science of reading’ training mandatory for Michigan teachers

    As Michigan struggles with low literacy test scores, leaders are putting in a new training requirement for elementary teachers.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ ART-Pi II development board features 600 MHz STM32H7R7 Cortex-M7 MCU with NeoChrom GPU

    The 600 MHz STM32H7R/S Cortex-M7 microcontroller family with an optional NeoChrom  2.5D GPU and up to 640 KB SRAM and 64 KB flash was introduced in 2024. However, apart from ST’s own development boards such as the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 and STM32H7S78-DK, we hadn’t seen any boards based on it. The ART-Pi II development board changes that.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Intel layoffs to hit Data Center group — division focused on server CPUs, Hey Hi (AI) chips, and data center architecture to be hit by an unknown number of cuts

    Intel plans to cut the employee numbers of its Data Center group, months after announcing record growth since its disastrous announcement in 2024.

  • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Vidit Bhargava ☛ Dumb Phones aren't a smart idea to cure smartphone addiction

      At the heart of the smartphone addiction problem is the fact that we've put everything behind a single slab of glass, which means that a single screen controls much of our interaction with everything and because everything from entertainment to productivity is vying for the same slot of our attention, the result is a miasma of applications that no one wants to use.

      The solution to that might not be more technology, but for tech to take a step back and empower people to use analog tools more.

    • Harry Roberts ☛ Low- and Mid-Tier Mobile for the Real World (2026)

      Last year, I set out to find one representative low-tier and one representative mid-tier Android device for real-world web performance testing. Back then, I landed on the Samsung Galaxy A15 5G and Galaxy A54 5G. How much have things changed in a year?

      Then, as it is now, the point wasn’t to find the slowest phones I could buy, nor was it to find two old flagships whose best days were behind them. Remember, low-tier does not mean old, and mid-tier does not mean a flagship from 2018. These are current device classes used by real people, with their own constraints around processing power, memory, storage, and price.

      One year on, the method still holds up. Better yet, the market has given us much stronger evidence to work with. Let’s see what the best, real devices are for 2026…

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Sri Lanka uses air force drones to help tackle rapidly spreading dengue outbreak

    The drones are deployed to spot potential mosquito breeding grounds on rooftops.

  • BIA Net ☛ Turkish Medical Association investigates doctor advertising 'female circumcision'

    “Female genital mutilation is a severe form of violence that violates the bodily integrity, health and fundamental human rights of women and girls. It has no medical necessity or scientific basis,” said the association.

  • France24 ☛ 'It has to work': France nears approval of under-15 social control media ban

    France's two houses of parliament are expected to give final approval to legislation that bars under-15s from social control media. The bill comes amid concern over mental health of young people. If approved, France would follow Australia's lead, where the world's first ban ​for under-16s ‌on platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, Fentanylware (CheeTok) and YouTube came into ⁠force in December.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Chief of Indonesia’s troubled free meals agency resigns on health grounds

    Nanik’s predecessor was sacked by Prabowo in June and arrested on corruption charges.

  • New York Times ☛ 1,700 H.I.V. Treatment Sites Closed After Convicted Felon Aid Cuts, a Study Finds

    New research also shows that children and high-risk adult populations have been particularly affected.

  • New York Times ☛ Cyclospora Cases in the U.S. Hit Record High

    Federal health officials have confirmed another 2,500 cases of the parasitic infection.

• Proprietary / SaaS

  • So-Called 'Artificial Intelligence' ('AI') / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ Author Invited to Give Speech at Proprietary Chaffbot Company Headquarters, Uses Opportunity to Trash Hey Hi (AI) to Their Faces

      "I had a ball."

    • Futurism ☛ MLB Bans Hitters From Consulting Hey Hi (AI) Chatbots Before Going Up to Bat

      Teams were using Hey Hi (AI) to make "in-game decisions traditionally made by players and coaches."

    • Futurism ☛ It’s Official: Hey Hi (AI) Execs Are Quaking in Their Boots

      China is catching up fast.

    • Futurism ☛ Frontier Hey Hi (AI) Is Faceplanting at Real-World Workplace Tasks

      "They are still far from human-level performance."

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ British Politician Ann Widdecombe Was Murdered with a Hammer, Prosecutors Say

    The politician, Ann Widdecombe, was eating lunch at home when a man walked in and asked whether she had bank cards, security footage showed.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China summons Philippine ambassador over clash in disputed waters

    China summoned the Philippine ambassador on Tuesday following a clash at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, which sparked condemnation of Beijing by Manila’s allies. Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, a vital global trade route, despite an international ruling that found its claims have no legal basis.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China summons Philippine ambassador over clash in disputed waters

    The Philippine military accused the China Coast Guard of clubbing a Filipino sailor with a baton on July 20.

  • The Strategist ☛ Australia throws itself behind Philippines amid China’s aggression

    Foreign Minister Penny Wong has publicly put the full weight of Australia’s strategic messaging, funding and capabilities behind strengthening the Philippines and defending international rules.

  • New York Times ☛ Philippines Says Sailor Was Injured in Skirmish With Chinese Coast Guard

    China said it was not the aggressor in the episode, which was the latest flare-up in the South China Sea between the two countries.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China must offer reassurance on its military build-up, Australian Foreign Minister says

    She said Australia has raised its concerns about China’s recent missile test in the Pacific.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea probes diplomatic academy hack, eyes possible North Korea link

    The authorities are examining potential involvement by foreign state-backed hacking groups.

  • New York Times ☛ A Family’s Daring Escape From North Korea

    Their resolve for freedom hardened during the pandemic, when they lived through a crippling food shortage and were forced to witness frequent public executions.

  • RFERL ☛ Tajikistan Distances Itself From Detained Israel- Iran Spy Suspect

    Tajikistan's interior minister said has said that a man arrested in Israel on suspicion of spying for Iran is no longer a Tajik citizen, contradicting earlier statements by Israeli authorities that described the suspect as a dual Tajik-Russian national.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • New York Times ☛ Russia Will Not Yield

      A journey around the globe showed the country’s relentless adaptation.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine's Zelensky fires military chief after protests and names a replacement

      President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday fired Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky as commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, following days of mass protests in Kyiv and other cities nationwide demanding his removal. Zelenskyy appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new army chief, according to a statement on social control media.

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky fires army chief Oleksandr Syrsky, ‌a 'victory for protestors'

      President ​Volodymyr ​Zelensky said on Tuesday that Major ​General ‌Mykhailo ⁠Drapaty ‌will take over as Ukraine's ⁠commander-in-chief after firing Soviet-trained top commander Oleksandr Syrsky. "This is a victory for the protestors who took to the streets a week ago, when Zelensky fired Fedorov," says FRANCE 24 correspondent Gulliver Cragg. "Their main demand was that Syrsky be fired." He added that "Drapaty was the one Fedorov wanted to see in that position to replace Syrsky".

    • Scoop News Group ☛ North Korea’s IT worker scheme funds Russia’s war effort

      DTEX researchers found a series of transactions in a payment wallet showing North Korean IT worker salaries flowing into sanctioned entities that support the regime’s military programs.

    • France24 ☛ 🔴 Zelensky fires Ukraine army chief Oleksandr Syrsky

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky sacks Ukraine army chief Syrsky after protests over rival minister's dismissal

      President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday dismissed Ukraine's military head Oleksandr Syrsky following days of public pressure and named Major ​General ‌Mykhailo ⁠Drapaty, an ally of ousted defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, as the new commander-in-chief.

    • France24 ☛ Zelensky faces deepening political crisis as protests dig in

      In Ukraine, protesters say they’re giving Volodymyr Zelensky until Friday to re-instate the popular Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, and fire General Oleksandr Syrsky, the military chief of staff. The President removed Fedorov from his post last week, citing a clash between the two men. The protests have brought Syrsky’s unpopularity to the forefront. Through credited with stopping the Russian invaders at the gates of Kyiv in 2022, he’s since gained a reputation for brutality, and for wasting lives unnecessarily. He's also, as our correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports, accused of tolerance for corruption.

    • LRT ☛ Hungary’s OTP, buyer of Baltic bank Luminor, maintains operations in Russia

      Hungary’s OTP Bank, which has agreed to acquire Baltic banking group Luminor, says it has been unable to find a legally, morally and economically acceptable way to exit Russia, where it continues to serve about 2 million customers more than four years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Exit 'The Butcher': Zelenskyy Makes Another Shakeup To Ukraine's Military Command

      President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed out Ukraine’s top general nearly a week after he sacked Mykhaylo Fedorov as defense minister, who had openly clashed with the general in a major fight over strategy in the war against Russia.

    • The Straits Times ☛ India summons Russia envoy to condemn deadly ship attack in Ukraine

      A Kremlin spokesman implied, without providing evidence, that the vessel had been carrying arms for Ukraine.

    • New York Times ☛ Zelensky Dismisses Ukraine’s Top General After Protests

      The move followed the firing of a popular defense minister, who had clashed with the general over how to fight the war.

    • New York Times ☛ Mykhailo Drapatyi: What to Know About Ukraine’s New Top General

      Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, a decorated commander, is popular both inside and outside of his country.

    • New York Times ☛ When Protesters Speak, Zelensky Listens, in the Ukrainian Tradition

      With anger high over the firing of the defense minister, the president’s office is signaling an openness to compromise.

    • New York Times ☛ A Wartime Rift in Ukraine

      President Volodymyr Zelensky fired his top general after a feud between old-school officers and younger innovators spilled into the streets.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Ukraine again hits warehouses of Russia's top online retailer Wildberries, Russia says

      Another attack on the warehouses of Russia's largest online retailer, Wildberries, has injured several people, said the head and co-founder of the company on Wednesday.

    • LRT ☛ ‘Fatigue in Europe’: Lithuania among few fighting for Russia sanctions

      The European Union is still failing to agree on its 21st package of sanctions against Russia, with Lithuania’s ambassador to the bloc saying signs of European fatigue with pressuring the Kremlin are becoming increasingly apparent.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian military to guard LNG terminal amid warnings of Russian provocations

      Lithuania’s military has been deployed to help protect the country’s liquefied natural gas terminal in Klaipėda and other critical infrastructure following warnings from President Gitanas Nausėda and other regional leaders about potential Russian provocations.

    • LRT ☛ NATO would reinforce Lithuania if Russia escalates provocations, presidential aide says

      NATO countries would deploy additional military capabilities to Lithuania if Russian provocations in the region triggered a critical security situation, President Gitanas Nausėda’s chief national security adviser, Deividas Matulionis, said Tuesday.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Federal News Network ☛ House passes bill expanding whistleblower protections

    The bill forbids federal officials from asking a contractor to retaliate against someone else. A companion bill passed the Senate in May.

• Environment

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Science Alert ☛ A Rare, Distant Space Rock Killed The Dinosaurs – And It Reveals Just How Unlucky They Were

      "Curb Your Enthusiasm" theme plays...

    • Daniel Pocock ☛ Essex Lion, Pumas, Panthers & Swiss black cat harassment judgment

      Is it really wise to copy hoaxes and policy errors from Australia?

      For those who saw rumours about harassment & Debian, I published the evidence and recordings from the Swiss black cat harassment judgment here.

  • Overpopulation

    • New York Times ☛ Water Plants Under Fire in the Gulf Are Crucial to Civilians

      Several days of airstrikes have hit water and energy plants in Kuwait, a nation that relies on desalination for 90 percent of its drinking water.

• Finance

  • Mexico News Daily ☛ Imports hit by new tariffs are down 23%, with China posting the steepest losses

    New tariffs imposed in January, affecting over 1,400 product categories, have slashed those imports from US $15.4 billion to $11.8 billion. Overall imports from Asia, however, are up.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China at risk of increased youth joblessness as labour distress spreads

    One economist expects youth unemployment to approach 20 per cent in the next two months.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's foreign minister discusses trade balance with EU lawmakers

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a delegation of European lawmakers in Beijing on Tuesday that China and the EU should promote an "upward dynamic balance" in bilateral trade ties from a long-term perspective, according to a statement from China's foreign ministry.

  • WhichUK ☛ Are banking hubs keeping up with bank branch closures?

    Nearly 7,000 bank branches have closed in the UK since 2015

  • JURIST ☛ HRW report says UN funding crisis from unpaid dues puts human rights at risk

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday reported that the United Nations is facing a severe funding crisis, largely because major contributors like the US and China, who together supply nearly half of all member-state dues, have either failed to pay or consistently paid late.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan PM Sanae Takaichi’s popularity dips after prioritising controversial laws

    Some respondents said they thought the Japanese leader was not doing enough to counter inflation.

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ SDNY Asks for Two Weeks to Unfuck the Leak Investigation It Fucked Up in Rush to Please Convicted Felon

    Sean Buckley, the prosecutor purporting to investigate the sources for two NYT articles disclosing security weaknesses in Convicted Felon's Flying Bribery Palace, asked for a 2-week Mulligan to do the investigative steps he didn't do first. In the process, he likely forfeited any claim this investigation is proper.

  • Daniel Pocock ☛ How Australian challenge to Nigel Farage precipitated record UK by-election candidates

    Is Nigel Farage willing to debate Daniel Pocock or any other candidate in the Clacton by-election or is he in hiding?

    The nomination process closed at 16:00 on Friday. A few hours later, the returning officer announced his office had received 34 valid nominations. That is a new UK record for the number of candidates contesting a by-election.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Futurism ☛ The Proliferation of Deepfakes Is Profoundly Changing the Way Teenagers Use the Internet

      "We grew as Hey Hi (AI) grew. We grew up together. Adults don't have the same life experience that we do. They don't understand how advanced and how intense Hey Hi (AI) is."

    • Futurism ☛ Restaurant in Major Trouble After Posting Hey Hi (AI) Pictures of “Its Food”

      "If they put this much effort into marketing, just imagine how much they care about food."

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • New York Times ☛ Whitney Cummings’s Convicted Felon Joke at Kennedy Center Is Cut From DRM spreader Netflix Special

    At the Mark Twain Prize ceremony, the comedian Whitney Cummings made a joke about the president that seemed to refer to Jeffrey Epstein.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Amol Rajan tops BillBC table for news moonlighters with £115k+ in events fees

    Full details of BillBC journalist outside earnings for April 2025 to March 2026 revealed.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Hearst starts with ‘why’ as journalists asked to produce fewer articles

    Plus, why Telegraph cut down its newsletters in quality over quantity focus.

  • Press Gazette ☛ Edward Stourton: ‘Rolls Royce’ broadcaster with ‘minimal ego’

    Renowned journalist sacked by BillBC for being too 'posh' but then reinstated dies aged 68..

• Internet

  • APNIC ☛ Bringing APNIC closer to Members: SANOG to host next APNIC Sub-Regional Forum

    APNIC’s next Sub-Regional Forum at SANOG in Kathmandu, Nepal, will bring Internet operations, policy, and community discussions closer to Members in South Asia.

  • New York Times ☛ Meet Jimothy, the Seattle Raccoon Who Is Taking Over the Internet

    The stout raccoon, which has a spinal condition, is “an example to all of us that you don’t have to be perfect to be loved,” a Seattle City Council member said.

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Amazon data center in Bahrain struck and destroyed by Iranian cruise missiles, state media claims — attacks launched against proprietary trap AWS site in response to alleged US strikes on an under-construction nuclear plant

    The Amazon site has suffered multiple hits since the start of the U.S. bombing campaign in Iran. The IRGC claims to have 'destroyed' AWB Bahrain, but the company has moved operations off the facility since early April.

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Anonymous No More: Real-Party Disclosure Comes to Ex Parte Reexamination

      USPTO would require real-party-in-interest disclosure in every third-party ex parte reexamination request, extending the Director's RPI campaign.

    • Unified Patents ☛ Fortress Investment entity DivX video playback patent monopoly challenged

      On July 20, 2026, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 10,576,716, owned and asserted by DivX LLC, an NPE and entity of Fortress Investment Group LLC. The ‘716 patent monopoly is generally directed to progressive video playback systems where a client application on a device retrieves portions of a media file from a remote server and plays the media as it is being downloaded.

    • JUVE ☛ KaVo and Mitscherlich prevail against MK-Dent in dental turbine dispute

      On 17 July 2026, Munich Regional Court, presided over by judge Hubertus Schacht, handed down its judgment in the infringement proceedings brought by KaVo Dental against MK-Dent (case ID: 21 O 596/25). Also named as defendants were the online dental equipment retailer Global-Dent and the dental spare parts supplier Sparedent.

    • Software Patents

      • Unified Patents ☛ Velos H.265 video codec patent monopoly challenged

        On July 20, 2026, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 12,088,843, owned by Velos Media, an NPE. The '843 patent monopoly is generally directed to selecting the best motion vector to encode or decode a current block of a video frame.

      • It's FOSS ☛ Siemens AG Was The Last Holdout in MPEG-4 Visual's Road to Being Patent-Free

        The final patent, active in Brazil, expired on July 19, 2026.

  • Copyrights

    • Digital Music News ☛ The American Federation of Musicians Fires Back Against UMG and WMG Dismissal Arguments as Hey Hi (AI) Compensation Dispute Turns Ugly

      The American Federation of Musicians’ AI-focused lawsuit against Universal Music and Warner Music is getting really hot, really fast. Now, the union is aggressively pushing back against the defendants’ aggressive dismissal arguments and urging the court to let discovery proceed.

    • MIT Technology Review ☛ The Download: Chinese Hey Hi (AI) divides the White House, and a record copyright monopoly payout

      This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Anthropic hit with largest-ever $1.5 billion penalty in copyright monopoly lawsuit — court says training Hey Hi (AI) on published material is fair use, but startup’s pirated library infringes on authors’ rights

      The settlement was finally approved by a U.S. federal judge, with a majority of the plaintiffs accepting the amount. A few members of the group refused, citing the small amount compared to the number of infringed titles, and are pursuing a separate lawsuit of their own.

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Sedlik en Banc: A Menu for Replacing Copyright’s Intrinsic Test

      The en banc Ninth Circuit weighs five ways to replace copyright's intrinsic test in the Kat Von D tattoo case, Sedlik v. Von Drachenberg.