In his mid-20s, Lu Heng "got an idea that has made him a lot richer," [1]writes the Wall Street Journal .

He scooped up 10 million unused IP addresses, mostly form Africa, and then leases them to companies, mostly outside Africa, "that need them badly."

> [A]round half of internet traffic continues to use IPv4, because changing to IPv6 can be expensive and complex and many older devices still need IPv4. Companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Google still want IPv4 addresses because their cloud-hosting businesses need them as bridges between the IPv4 and IPv6 worlds... Africa, which has been slower to develop internet infrastructure than the rest of the world, is the only region that still has some of the older addresses to dole out... He searches for IPv4 addresses that aren't being used — by ISPs or anyone else that holds them — and uses his Hong Kong-based company, Larus, to lease them out to others.

>

> In 2013, Lu registered a new company in the Seychelles, an African archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to apply for IP addresses from Africa's internet registry, called the African Network Information Centre, or Afrinic. Between 2013 and 2016, Afrinic granted that company, Cloud Innovation, 6.2 million IPv4 addresses. That's more addresses than are assigned to Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. A single IPv4 address can be worth about $50 on its transfer to a company like Larus, which leases it onward for around 5% to 10% of that value annually. Larus and its affiliate companies, Lu said, control just over 10 million IPv4 addresses. The architects of the internet don't appear to have contemplated the possibility that anyone would seek to monetize IP addresses...

>

> Lu's activities triggered a showdown with Africa's internet registry. In 2020, after what it said was an internal review, Afrinic sent letters to Lu and others seeking to reclaim the IP addresses they held. In Lu's case, Afrinic said he shouldn't be using the addresses outside Africa. Lu responded that he wasn't violating rules in place when he got the addresses... After some back-and-forth, Lu sued Afrinic in Mauritius to keep his allocated addresses, eventually filing dozens of lawsuits... One of the lawsuits that Lu filed in Mauritius prompted a court there to freeze Afrinic's bank accounts in July 2021, effectively paralyzing the organization and eventually sending it into receivership. The receivership choked off distributions of new IPv4 addresses, leaving the continent's service providers struggling to expand capacity...

>

> In September, Afrinic elected a new board. Since then, some internet-service providers have been granted IPv4 addresses.



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/the-battle-over-africa-s-great-untapped-resource-ip-addresses/ar-AA1RlKtM

The Free Software Foundation describes how "After months of preparation and excitement, we [1]finally came together on November 21 for a global online hackathon to support free software projects and "put a spotlight on the difficult and often thankless work that free software hackers carry out..."

> Based on how many of you dropped in over the weekend and were incredibly engaged in the important work that is improving free software, either as a spectator or as a participant, this goal was accomplished. And it's all thanks to you!

>

> Friday started a little rocky with a datacenter outage affecting most FSF services. Participants spread out to work on six different free software projects over forty-eight hours as our tech team worked to restore all FSF sites with the help and support of the community. Over three hundred folks were tuned in at a time, some to participate in the hackathon and others to follow the progress being made. As a community, we got a lot done over the weekend...

>

> It was amazing to see so many of you take a little (or a lot of!) time out of your busy schedules to improve free software, and we're incredibly grateful for each and every one of you. It really energizes us and shows us how much we can accomplish when we work together over even just a couple days. Not only was this a fantastic sight to see because of the work we got done, but it was also a very fitting way to conclude our fortieth anniversary celebration events. Free software has been and always will be a community effort, one that continues to get better and better because of the dedicated developers, contributors, and users who ensure its existence. Thank you for celebrating forty years of the FSF and fighting for a freer future for us all.



[1] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/2025-hackathon-roundup

"The internet is being increasingly polluted by AI generated text, images and video," argues the site for [1]a new browser extension called Slop Evader . It promises to use Google's search API "to only return content published before Nov 30th, 2022" — the day ChatGPT launched — "so you can be sure that it was written or produced by the human hand."

404 Media calls it "a scorched earth approach that [2]virtually guarantees your searches will be slop-free ."

> Slop Evader was created by artist and researcher [3]Tega Brain , who says she was motivated by the growing dismay over the tech industry's unrelenting, aggressive rollout of so-called "generative AI" — despite widespread criticism and the wider public's distaste for it. "This sowing of mistrust in our relationship with media is a huge thing, a huge effect of this synthetic media moment we're in," Brain told 404 Media, describing how tools like Sora 2 have short-circuited our ability to determine reality within a sea of artificial online junk. "I've been thinking about ways to refuse it, and the simplest, dumbest way to do that is to only search before 2022...."

>

> Currently, Slop Evader can be used to search pre-GPT archives of seven different sites where slop has become commonplace, including YouTube, Reddit, Stack Exchange, and the parenting site MumsNet. The obvious downside to this, from a user perspective, is that you won't be able to find anything time-sensitive or current — including this very website, which did not exist in 2022. The experience is simultaneously refreshing and harrowing, allowing you to browse freely without having to constantly question reality, but always knowing that this freedom will be forever locked in time — nostalgia for a human-centric world wide web that [4]no longer exists .

>

> Of course, the tool's limitations are part of its provocation. Brain says she has plans to add support for more sites, and release a new version that uses DuckDuckGo's search indexing instead of Google's. But the real goal, she says, is prompting people to question how they can collectively refuse the dystopian, inhuman version of the internet that Silicon Valley's AI-pushers have forced on us... With enough cultural pushback, Brain suggests, we could start to see alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo adding options to filter out search results suspected of having synthetic content (DuckDuckGo added the [5]ability to filter out AI images in search earlier this year)... But no matter what form AI slop-refusal takes, it will need to be a group effort.



[1] https://tegabrain.com/Slop-Evader

[2] https://www.404media.co/slop-evader-browser-extension-pre-generative-ai-search-filter/

[3] https://tegabrain.com/

[4] https://www.404media.co/facebooks-ai-spam-isnt-the-dead-internet-its-the-zombie-internet/

[5] https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/how-to-filter-out-ai-images-in-duckduckgo-search-results

An anonymous reader shared [1]this report from CBS News :

> Artificial intelligence can do the work currently performed by nearly 12% of America's workforce, according to [2]a recentstudy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers, relying on a metric called the "Iceberg Index" that measures a job's potential to be automated, conclude that AI already has the cognitive and technical capacity to handle a range of tasks in technology, finance, health care and professional services. The index simulated how more than 150 million U.S. workers across nearly 1,000 occupations interact and overlap with AI's abilities...

>

> AI is also already doing [3]some of the entry-level jobs that have historically been reserved for recent college graduates or relatively inexperienced workers, the report notes. "AI systems now generate more than a billion lines of code each day, prompting companies to restructure hiring pipelines and reduce demand for entry-level programmers," the researchers wrote. "These observable changes in technology occupations signal a broader reorganization of work that extends beyond software development."

"The study doesn't seek to shed light on how many workers AI may already have displaced or could supplant in the future," the article points out.

"To what extent such tools take over job functions performed by people depends on a number of factors, including individual businesses' strategy, societal acceptance and possible policy interventions, the researchers note."



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/artificial-intelligence/ai-can-already-do-the-work-of-12-of-america-s-workforce-mit-study-says/ar-AA1Re4XQ?ocid=BingNewsVerp

[2] https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25137

[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ai-artificial-intelligence-jobs-workers/

Almost two-thirds of registered U.S. voters "say that a four-year college degree isn't worth the cost," [1]according to a new NBC News poll :

> Just 33% agree a four-year college degree is "worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime," while 63% agree more with the concept that it's "not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off." In 2017, U.S. adults surveyed were virtually split on the question — 49% said a degree was worth the cost and 47% said it wasn't. When CNBC asked the same question in 2013 as part of its All American Economic Survey, 53% said a degree was worth it and 40% said it was not. The eye-popping shift over the last 12 years comes against the backdrop of several major trends shaping the job market and the education world, from exploding college tuition prices to rapid changes in the modern economy — which seems once again poised for radical transformation alongside advances in AI...

>

> Remarkably, less than half of voters with college degrees see those degrees as worth the cost: 46% now, down from 63% in 2013... The upshot is that interest in technical, vocational and two-year degree programs has soared.

"The 20-point decline over the last 12 years among those who say a degree is worth it — from 53% in 2013 to 33% now — is reflected [2]across virtually every demographic group ."



[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/poll-dramatic-shift-americans-no-longer-see-four-year-college-degrees-rcna243672

[2] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26310998-nbc-news-october-2025-poll/

"A year after [1]launching a commercial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi, Chinese autonomous vehicle technology company WeRide and partner Uber can finally call that service driverless," [2]reports TechCrunch .

A company official hailed it as "a historic transportation milestone, as the [3]first driverless AV deployment outside of the U.S. or China ." But TechCrunch notes that's just the beginning:

> Uber has spent the past two years locking up partnerships with 20 autonomous vehicle technology companies in various countries, including the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

>

> Those partnerships have expanded beyond the realm of robotaxis as well. Uber's deals span the full range of self-driving applications, including delivery and trucking. This year alone, it announced partnerships withAnn Arbor, Michigan-based [4]May Mobility and [5]Volkswagen , Chinese self-driving firms Momenta,Pony.ai, and Baidu, as well as a recent deal to create a [6]premium robotaxi service using Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with a self-driving system from San Francisco-based startup Nuro.

>

> These deals are finally beginning to materialize into commercial services. For instance, Uber and Waymo launched a robotaxi service earlier this year in Austin. Now, Uber has expanded to the Middle East with WeRide in Abu Dhabi — with even more cities to come, including Dubai. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi forecast in the company's third-quarter earnings report that there would be autonomous vehicle deployments on the Uber network [7]in at least 10 cities by the end of 2026. Uber and WeRide have previously shared plans to expand to 15 cities throughout the Middle East and Europe, eventually scaling to thousands of robotaxis. That would represent a massive leap for WeRide, which today has more than 150 robotaxis in the region.



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/06/uber-and-weride-launch-robotaxi-service-in-abu-dhabi/

[2] https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/25/uber-and-werides-robotaxi-service-in-abu-dhabi-is-officially-driverless/

[3] https://investor.uber.com/news-events/news/press-release-details/2025/WeRide-and-Uber-Launch-Middle-Easts-First-Fully-Driverless-Robotaxi-Commercial-Operations-in-Abu-Dhabi-UAE/default.aspx

[4] https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/01/may-mobility-to-launch-robotaxis-on-uber-platform-this-year-in-texas/

[5] https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/24/uber-and-volkswagen-pair-up-to-launch-robotaxi-service-with-self-driving-electric-microbuses/

[6] https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/29/uber-to-launch-a-premium-robotaxi-service-in-waymos-turf-of-san-francisco/

[7] https://s23.q4cdn.com/407969754/files/doc_events/2025/Nov/04/Uber-Q3-25-Prepared-Remarks.pdf

An anonymous reader shared [1]this report from CNBC :

> Italian defense company Leonardo on Thursday unveiled plans for an AI-powered shield for cities and critical infrastructure, adding to Europe's push to ramp up sovereign defense capabilities amid rising geopolitical tensions.

>

> The system, dubbed the "Michelangelo Dome" in a nod to Israel's Iron Dome and U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for a "Golden Dome," will integrate multiple defense systems to detect and neutralize threats from sea to air including missile attacks and drone swarms... Leonardo's dome will be built on what CEO Roberto Cingolani called an "open architecture" system meaning it can operate alongside any country's defense systems... Leonardo's dome will be built on what CEO Roberto Cingolani called an "open architecture" system meaning it can operate alongside any country's defense systems.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/28/leonardo-unveils-michelangelo-dome-ai-powered-shield-system.html

[1] Digital Trends reports :

> A wave of shortages now threatens to ripple across RAM, SSDs, and even hard drives, affecting not only performance-hungry rigs but also everyday systems.

>

> — CyberPowerPC has publicly confirmed it will raise prices on all systems starting December 7th due to RAM costs spiking by 500% and SSD prices doubling since October.

>

> — Memory suppliers warn of a global DRAM and SSD shortage running into late 2026 or even 2027, driven heavily by AI server demand.

>

> — As reported by [2]Bloomberg , Lenovo has [3]already stockpiled memory to ride out the crunch and maintain steadier PC pricing.

>

> — Among other OEMs, HP, in its [4]recent earnings call , flagged possible price increases or lower-spec models on the back of rising component costs.

But Apple "may also be in a good position to weather the shortage," [5]reports Ars Technica , since "analysts [6]at Morgan Stanley and [7]Bernstein Research believe that Apple has already laid claim to the RAM that it needs and that its healthy profit margins will allow it to absorb the increases better than most."

Ars Technica also shows how much RAM and storage prices have jumped — sometimes as much as 2x or even 3x [8]in just three months . "In short, there's no escaping these price increases, which affect SSDs and both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM kits of all capacities (though higher-capacity RAM kits do seem to be hit a little harder)."

> Memory and storage shortages can be particularly difficult to get through. As with all chips, it can take years to ramp up capacity and/or build new manufacturing facilities... And memory makers in particular may be slow to ramp up manufacturing capacity in response to shortages. If they decide to start manufacturing more chips now, what happens if memory demand drops off a cliff in six months or a year (if, say, [9]an AI bubble deflates or pops altogether)? It means an oversupply of memory chips — consumers benefit from rock-bottom prices for components, but it becomes harder for manufacturers to cover their costs... The upshot is: Not only are memory prices getting bad now , but it's exceptionally difficult to predict when shortage-fueled price hikes might end...

>

> Tom's Hardware [10]reports that AMD has told its partners that it expects to raise GPU prices by about 10 percent starting next year and that Nvidia [11]may have canceled a planned RTX 50-series Super launch entirely because of shortages and price increases.



[1] https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/youre-not-imagining-it-ram-and-storage-prices-are-climbing-fast/

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-24/lenovo-stockpiling-pc-memory-due-to-unprecedented-ai-squeeze

[3] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/25/0257209/lenovo-stockpiling-pc-memory-due-to-unprecedented-ai-squeeze

[4] https://www.pcmag.com/news/hp-to-raise-prices-lower-configurations-due-to-soaring-memory-costs

[5] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/spiking-memory-prices-mean-that-it-is-once-again-a-horrible-time-to-build-a-pc/

[6] https://seekingalpha.com/news/4522911-morgan-stanley-downgrades-multiple-hardware-companies-due-to-surging-memory-prices

[7] https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/apple-most-immune-to-memory-price-rises-others-more-impacted-bernstein-4373305

[8] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/spiking-memory-prices-mean-that-it-is-once-again-a-horrible-time-to-build-a-pc/

[9] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/11/googles-sundar-pichai-warns-of-irrationality-in-trillion-dollar-ai-investment-boom/

[10] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/amd-to-raise-graphics-card-prices-by-at-least-10-percent-in-2026-price-surge-attributed-to-ongoing-ai-related-dram-supply-crisis

[11] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidias-rtx-5000-super-could-be-cancelled-or-get-pricier-due-to-ai-induced-gddr7-woes-rumor-claims-3-gb-memory-chips-are-now-too-valuable-for-consumer-gpus

Hyperloop One ceased operations in December 2023, [1]notes CNN . "Yet nearly two years on, in other parts of the world, hyperloop projects are ongoing." For example, Rotterdam-based [2]Hardt Hyperloop has a cool web site — and the company's managing director tells CNN that hyperloops are the only "actionable, sustainable solution to replace short-haul air travel" over distances greater than 300 miles. "It's 90% more efficient than air travel, operational expenses and maintenance costs are much lower than conventional high-speed railways and, as an enclosed, autonomous system, it's not affected by external factors such as bad weather or strikes."

> Rail-friendly Europe appears to be the new hyperloop hub, with four companies dedicated to it... Europe's Hyperloop Development Program (HDP) is a public-private partnership backed by EU funding and the private sector. HDP's vision is to have the first set of commercially viable hyperloop lines open by 2035-40, followed by a route network by 2050. It estimates that a 15,000-mile network linking 130 of Europe's major cities could shift 66% of short-haul flight passengers to hyperloop by 2050, saving between 113 million and 242 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Core network hubs would be scattered across the continent from London to Berlin, Madrid to Belgrade, and Sofia to Athens, while loops would serve the Iberian Peninsula, the Baltic States and Scandinavia, the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe. The cost? A cool 981 billion euros, or $1.1 trillion, according to HDP estimates...

>

> [T]hose behind the EU-backed HDP project are hoping to have a full-scale test track of up to 3 miles operational by the end of 2029, followed by a 20-30 mile twin-tube "Living Lab" which would replicate all aspects of day-to-day operation and public service, slated to be up and running [3]by 2034 . Elsewhere, Hyperloop Italia is investing in a demonstration line between [4]Venice and Padua costing up to €800 million ($929 million) which could be [5]ready by 2029 , while Germany, Spain, India and China are also investigating trial routes to establish the viability of the technology.

And meanwhile China and Japan are also building "maglev" (magnetic levitation) train lines, the article points out — though it also includes this quote from rail expert and author Christian Wolmar. "Hyperloop is unworkable. The infrastructure it needs would be amazingly expensive to build and it can't deliver the capacity to compete with high-speed railways or airlines.

"It doesn't integrate with existing transport modes, the infrastructure required to reach city centers would cause intolerable noise and disruption. And there are doubts over energy costs, capacity and passenger safety if something goes wrong at such high speeds....

"[T]he economics of it just don't work."



[1] https://www.cnn.com/travel/hyperloop-is-dead-or-is-it

[2] https://www.hardt.global/

[3] https://www.hyperloopdevelopmentprogram.com/download-file/hdp-vision-paper-2024

[4] https://hyperloopitalia.com/

[5] https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/italys-first-hyperloop-line-to-run-by-2029-between-venice-padua-says-bibop-gresta

Europe's Airbus said on Friday it was [1]ordering immediate repairs to 6,000 of its widely used A320 family of jets in a sweeping recall affecting more than half the global fleet, threatening upheaval during the busiest travel weekend of the year in the United States and disruption worldwide. From a report:

> The setback appears to be among the largest recalls affecting Airbus in its 55-year history and comes weeks after the A320 overtook the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered model. At the time Airbus issued its bulletin to the plane's more than 350 operators, some 3,000 A320-family jets were in the air.

>

> The fix mainly involves reverting to earlier software and is relatively simple, but must be carried out before the planes can fly again, other than repositioning to repair centres, according to the bulletin to airlines seen by Reuters. Airlines from the United States to South America, Europe, India and New Zealand warned the repairs could potentially cause flight delays or cancellations.



[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/airbus-issues-major-a320-recall-after-flight-control-incident-2025-11-28/

An EDM song by the British group Haven ran into trouble in October after it shared clips of upcoming song "I Run" on TikTok.

The song "was an overnight viral sensation online," [1]writes Digital Music News — racking up millions of plays "even before it hit streaming services." (Although the Washington Post notes that "Record labels and TikTok users [2]began questioning whether 'I Run' used an AI deepfake , modeled off British R&B singer Jorja Smith, for the vocals.")

Digital Music News picks up the story:

> The artist says he used his own voice to record the vocals, and then ran it through layers of processing and filtering to turn it into the female-sounding voice heard in the track. However, that filtering also included the use of the controversial genAI platform Suno — and that's what complicates things... [The article says later that Suno "is currently in the middle of a blockbuster lawsuit with the Big Three major labels over allegations of widespread copyright infringement of sound recordings used during the AI model training process."]

>

> Meanwhile, the song was [3]rapidly amassing listenership . It soared to #11 on the U.S. Spotify chart and #25 on Spotify globally. Videos using the song continued going viral on TikTok and Instagram, including one in which rapper Offset had apparently played the song during a Boiler Room set, which later turned out to be falsified. And then, as quickly as it appeared, "I Run" was taken down from streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music. That was due, in part, to numerous takedown notices from The Orchard, the label to which Jorja Smith is signed, as well as the RIAA and IFPI. The [4]takedown notices alleged various issues with the track, including the "misrepresentation" of another artist, as well as copyright infringement.

>

> As a result, the song has also been withheld from the Billboard charts, including the Hot 100, on which it had been predicted to debut this week before the controversy. Billboard [5]points out that it "reserves the right to withhold or remove titles from appearing on the charts that are known to be involved in active legal disputes related to copyright infringement that may extend to the deletion of such content on digital service providers."

The song itself has now been re-released with an all-human vocal track. But going forward will the music industry ever work with AI platforms? [6]The Washington Post reports :

> "I Run" has taken off as record labels remain unsure of the extent to which they should welcome generative AI programs such as Suno or Udio into the industry. After the two AI music companies began growing in popularity, the three major labels — Sony Music, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group — filed lawsuits against Suno and Udio, claiming that the AI companies have used the labels' sound recordings to train their model.

>

> Since then, UMG [7]and Warner have reached [8]agreements to work with Udio, ending their litigation... It comes shortly after all three major labels licensed their catalogue to Klay, a music streaming start-up that allows users to adjust songs using artificial intelligence. Major licensing organizations such as ASCAP and BMI shared that they would register songs that were partially AI-generated — but not fully generated ones.

>

> Haven appears to present an uncomfortable edge case. While some AI-generated songs that sound broadly like other artists have been allowed to remain on streaming platforms, the voice in "I Run" appears to have been deemed too duplicative for comfort.



[1] https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2025/11/24/havens-i-run-ai-song-explained/

[2] https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/music/articles/music-industry-getting-used-ai-100000489.html

[3] https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2025/11/19/viral-ai-track-yanked-from-spotify/

[4] https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2025/11/20/i-run-ripped-down-disqualified-from-charts/

[5] https://www.billboard.com/pro/haven-i-run-poised-hit-ai-deepfake-allegations-slowed/

[6] https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/music/articles/music-industry-getting-used-ai-100000489.html

[7] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/11/25/2240236/warner-music-group-partners-with-suno-to-offer-ai-likenesses-of-its-artists

[8] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/20/warner-udio-ai-music-licensing-copyright/771542e0-c610-11f0-be23-3ccb704f61ac_story.html

A [1]new study published in Communications Earth & Environment has reconstructed the climate conditions of the ancient Indus River Valley civilization between 3000 and 1000 B.C., finding that four intense droughts -- each lasting more than 85 years -- likely [2]drove the gradual decline of one of the world's earliest advanced societies .

The research team, led by Hiren Solanki at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, combined paleoclimate data from cave formations and lake records with computer models to determine that the region shifted from wetter-than-present monsoon conditions to prolonged dry spells as the tropical Pacific Ocean warmed. The third drought, peaking around 1733 B.C., proved the most severe: it lasted 164 years, reduced annual rainfall by 13%, and affected nearly the entire region.

Overall temperatures rose by 0.5 degrees Celsius and rainfall dropped between 10 and 20%. These changes shrank lakes and rivers, dried soils, and made agriculture increasingly difficult in areas away from major waterways. Harappan settlements progressively relocated eastward toward the Indus River over roughly 2,000 years. The civilization's long survival under repeated climate stress -- through crop switching, trade diversification, and settlement relocation -- offers lessons for modern communities facing environmental pressures, the researchers said.



[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02901-1

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/scientists-may-have-solved-why-this-ancient-advanced-civilization-vanished/ar-AA1RhqRG

European leaders have spent years warning that the continent risked falling behind the U.S., China and Russia in the global contest for economic, technological and military dominance, and officials [1]now believe they have reached that point .

The mood darkened over the summer when Europe found itself on the sidelines as Washington and Beijing negotiated a reset of global trade rules, and turned bleak this month when the White House presented a Ukraine cease-fire plan without consulting European capitals. In July, the EU accepted a trade deal allowing the U.S. to impose 15% tariffs without retaliation.

President Trump ignored European calls to pressure Moscow before meeting Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August, telling reporters "this is not to do with Europe, Europe's not telling me what to do." Germany has eased its debt brake to pour $580 billion into a decade-long rearmament program, and the EU has set a 2030 rearmament goal -- defense spending across the region is set to exceed $560 billion this year, double what it was a decade ago. "Battle lines for a new world order, based on power, are being drawn right now," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in September. "A new Europe must emerge."



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/europe-fears-it-can-t-catch-up-in-great-power-competition/ar-AA1Rj6up

EU antitrust regulators will examine whether Apple's Apple Ads and Apple Maps [1]should be subject to the onerous requirements of the bloc's digital rules after both services hit key criteria, with the U.S. tech giant saying they should be exempted. From a report:

> Apple's App Store, iOS operating system and Safari web browser were designated core platform services under the Digital Markets Act two years ago aimed at reining in the power of Big Tech and opening up the field to rivals so consumers can have more choice. The European Commission said that Apple has notified it that Apple Ads and Apple Maps met the Act's two thresholds to be considered "gatekeepers." The DMA designates companies with services with more than 45 million monthly active users and $79 billion in market capitalisation as gatekeepers subject to a list of dos and don'ts.



[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/apple-tells-eu-commission-it-meets-digital-markets-act-dma-thresholds-2025-11-28/

Australia warned it's in danger of missing its 2035 climate targets without deeper pollution cuts, which in turn threatens the nation's ambitions to reach net zero by mid-century. From a report:

> Emissions are [1]set to fall 48% by 2035 from 2005 levels based on current projections [ [2]non-paywalled source ] , the government said in a report on Thursday. That's short of an official pledge to cut greenhouse gases between 62% and 70%. The forecast doesn't take into account new action planned under the nation's Net Zero Plan. Still, the targets remain achievable and officials plan to take additional measures to meet them, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said in a speech to parliament.



[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-27/australia-risks-2035-climate-goal-without-bigger-emissions-cuts

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/nov/26/australia-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-fossil-fuels-down

Singapore has [1]claimed the top spot in the 2025 Global Talent Competitiveness Index for the first time, displacing Switzerland from a position the European nation had held since the ranking's inception in 2013. The index, produced by business school INSEAD and the Portulans Institute, measured 135 economies across 77 indicators spanning soft skills, AI talent concentration, and formal education systems. The city-state ranked first globally in formal education and what the report calls "Generalist Adaptive Skills," a category covering soft skills, digital literacy, and innovation-oriented thinking.

A key factor in Singapore's rise was a seven-place jump in talent retention, moving from 38th to 31st. The United States fell from third place in 2023 to ninth this year, its weakest showing in 12 years, due to declines in openness and lifelong learning metrics. High-income European countries continue to dominate the top ten, holding seven positions.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/28/nexperia-crisis-dutch-chipmaker-issues-urgent-plea-to-its-china-unit.html

The bitter standoff between Dutch chipmaker Nexperia -- which supplies basic chips crucial to 49% of European automakers, over 85% of medical device companies, and the entire defense industry -- and its Chinese parent company Wingtech [1]escalated on Friday when both Wingtech and Nexperia's Chinese unit accused the Dutch business of secretly [2]building a supply chain that would cut China out entirely . The accusations came one day after Nexperia's Dutch headquarters published an open letter claiming it had repeatedly tried and failed to contact its Chinese unit.

Nexperia China demanded the Dutch side halt its overseas expansion plans, specifically a $300 million investment in a Malaysian plant, and alleged an internal company target to source 90% of production outside China by mid-2026. The Chinese unit also accused its European counterparts of deleting employee email accounts and cutting off access to IT systems. The dispute traces back to September when the Dutch government invoked a Cold War-era law to seize control of Nexperia on economic security grounds.

An Amsterdam court subsequently stripped Wingtech of its ownership rights. Beijing retaliated by halting exports of finished Nexperia chips on October 4, triggering warnings of production shutdowns from automakers including Nissan and Bosch. Export curbs were relaxed in early November, and the Dutch government suspended its intervention last week following talks, but the court ruling remains in force. Wingtech warned that supply disruptions could return if the control issue remains unresolved.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/28/nexperia-crisis-dutch-chipmaker-issues-urgent-plea-to-its-china-unit.html

[2] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/nexperias-chinese-parent-says-companys-dutch-unit-seeking-permanently-strip-its-2025-11-28/

Apple's Podcasts app on both iOS and Mac has been exhibiting strange behavior for months, spontaneously launching and presenting users with obscure religion, spirituality and education podcasts they never subscribed to -- and at least one of these podcasts [1]contains a link attempting a cross-site scripting attack , 404 Media reports. Joseph Cox, a journalist at the outlet, documented the issue after repeatedly finding his Mac had launched the Podcasts app on its own, presenting bizarre podcasts with titles containing garbled code, external URLs to Spotify and Google Play, and in one case, what appears to be XSS attack code embedded directly in the podcast title itself.

Patrick Wardle, a macOS security expert and creator of Objective-See, confirmed he could replicate similar behavior: simply visiting a website can trigger the Podcasts app to open and load an attacker-chosen podcast without any user prompt or approval. Wardle said this creates "a very effective delivery mechanism" if a vulnerability exists in the Podcasts app, and the level of probing suggests adversaries are actively evaluating it as a potential target. The XSS-attempting podcast dates from around 2019. A recent review in the app asked "How does Apple allow this attempted XSS attack?"

Asked for comment five times by 404 Media, Apple did not respond.



[1] https://www.404media.co/someone-is-trying-to-hack-people-through-apple-podcasts/

Australia's streaming quotas have become law. Legislation requiring the likes of Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max to [1]spend a portion of their local earnings on original Australian content has been passed in parliament, and now comes into effect. From a report:

> The quotas were announced earlier this month. This will see global streamers with more than one million Australian subscribers made to spend 10% of their total Australian expenditure -- or 7.5% of their revenues -- on local originals, whether they are dramas, children's shows, docs, or arts and educational programs.

>

> Failing to comply with the rules will see streamers fined up to ten times their annual revenues in Australia. This is more than what broadcasters are liable for if they breach their quota rules laws. Streamers will be given three years to get their production operations in line.

>

> Streamers have long opposed government-set quotas and content levies, arguing they already meaningfully invest in the production sectors of the countries in which they operate. Producers, in general, have welcomed the systems, but remain wary that they could push streaming services out of their countries.



[1] https://deadline.com/2025/11/australia-streaming-quotas-sworn-into-law-1236630348/

Black fungus found growing inside Chernobyl's destroyed reactor [1]may be feeding on radiation , and researchers have tested samples of the same species aboard the International Space Station to explore whether it could eventually shield astronauts from cosmic rays. Ukrainian scientist Nelli Zhdanova first discovered the melanin-rich mould colonizing the walls and ceilings of the exploded reactor building during a May 1997 survey. Her research indicated that the fungal hyphae were actually growing toward sources of ionizing radiation rather than merely tolerating it.

In 2007, nuclear scientist Ekaterina Dadachova at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that melanised fungi grew 10% faster when exposed to radioactive caesium compared to control samples, leading her to propose "radiosynthesis" -- a process where organisms convert radiation into metabolic energy. The same strain, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, traveled to the ISS in December 2018 and grew an average of 1.21 times faster over 26 days compared to Earth-based controls. Nils Averesch, a biochemist at the University of Florida and co-author of that study, remains cautious about attributing the growth boost to radiation harvesting since zero gravity could also be responsible.



[1] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251125-the-mysterious-black-fungus-from-chernobyl-that-appears-to-eat-radiation