NVIDIA has released additional [1]open-source header files for its Blackwell and Hopper GPU architectures , continuing its effort to support open-source drivers like Nouveau/NVK and the NOVA Rust driver. Phoronix reports:

> Last week NVIDIA open-sourced 12k lines of C header files for Blackwell GPUs to help in the open-source driver efforts, namely for Nouveau / NVK and the in-development NOVA Rust driver. On Friday they made public some additional header files for helping in the Blackwell and Hopper open-source driver enablement.

>

> Following the previously-covered open-source header activity, on Friday [2]this commit was pushed to their open-source documentation repository that provides Hopper and Blackwell DMA-copy class header files. [...] In turn the code has already been [3]imported into Mesa Git.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-Hopper-Blackwell-DMA

[2] https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-doc/commit/c8607fe576b53ff821ffcf97e7548d2de11c4eaf

[3] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/36251

Microsoft is rolling out updates to the Xbox PC app and consoles that [1]sync your cloud gaming history and progress across devices , making it easier to resume cloud-playable titles on PCs, handhelds, and other Xbox hardware. The Verge reports:

> Cloud-playable games are now starting to show inside play history or the library on the Xbox PC app. "This includes all cloud playable titles, even console exclusives spanning from the original Xbox to Xbox Series X|S, whether you own the title or access it through Game Pass," [2]explains Lily Wang , product manager of Xbox experiences. Your recent games, including cloud ones, will soon follow you across devices -- complete with cloud-powered game saves. So if you played an Xbox game on your console that's not natively available on PC, it will still show up in your recent games list and be playable through Xbox Cloud Gaming on Windows.

>

> Cloud-playable games on the Xbox PC app can be found from a new filter in the library section, and a new "play history" section will appear at the end of the "jump back in" list on the home screen of the Xbox PC app. "While the large tiles highlight games you've recently played on your current device, the play history tile shows games you've played across any Xbox device, making it easy to pick up where you left off," says Wang. This same play history section will appear on the main Xbox console interface, too -- which could mean we'll eventually see PC games listed here and playable through Xbox Cloud Gaming.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/710764/xbox-cloud-gaming-roaming-pc-console-play-history-feature

[2] https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/07/21/now-available-for-xbox-insiders-your-cross-device-play-history-and-easier-access-to-your-cloud-playable-console-games-on-pc/

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC:

> One password is believed to have been all it took for a ransomware gang to [1]destroy a 158-year-old company and put 700 people out of work . KNP -- a Northamptonshire transport company -- is just one of tens of thousands of UK businesses that have been hit by such attacks. Big names such as M&S, Co-op and Harrods have all been attacked in recent months. The chief executive of Co-op confirmed last week that all 6.5 million of its members had had their data stolen. In KNP's case, it's thought the hackers managed to gain entry to the computer system by guessing an employee's password, after which they encrypted the company's data and locked its internal systems. KNP director Paul Abbott says he hasn't told the employee that their compromised password most likely led to the destruction of the company. "Would you want to know if it was you?" he asks. "We need organizations to take steps to secure their systems, to secure their businesses," says Richard Horne CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) -- where Panorama has been given exclusive access to the team battling international ransomware gangs.

A gang of hackers, known as Akira, broke into the company's system and demanded a payment to restore the data. "The hackers didn't name a price, but a specialist ransomware negotiation firm estimated the sum could be as much as 5 million pounds," reports the BBC. "KNP didn't have that kind of money. In the end all the data was lost, and the company went under."



[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gx28815wo

An anonymous reader [1]shares a blog post :

> The International Mathematical Olympiad is the world's most prestigious competition for young mathematicians, and has been held annually since 1959. Each country taking part is represented by six elite, pre-university mathematicians who compete to solve six exceptionally difficult problems in algebra, combinatorics, geometry, and number theory. Medals are awarded to the top half of contestants, with approximately 8% receiving a prestigious gold medal.

>

> Recently, the IMO has also become an aspirational challenge for AI systems as a test of their advanced mathematical problem-solving and reasoning capabilities. Last year, Google DeepMind's combined AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 systems achieved the silver-medal standard, solving four out of the six problems and scoring 28 points. Making use of specialist formal languages, this breakthrough demonstrated that AI was beginning to approach elite human mathematical reasoning.

>

> This year, we were amongst an inaugural cohort to have our model results officially graded and certified by IMO coordinators using the same criteria as for student solutions. Recognizing the significant accomplishments of this year's student-participants, we're now excited to share the news of Gemini's breakthrough performance. An advanced version of Gemini Deep Think solved five out of the six IMO problems perfectly, earning 35 total points, and achieving gold-medal level performance.



[1] https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/advanced-version-of-gemini-with-deep-think-officially-achieves-gold-medal-standard-at-the-international-mathematical-olympiad/

Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO, has a simple suggestion for young workers struggling to focus at work or relax: [1]turn off your phone . Schmidt told the "Moonshots" podcast that researchers "can't think deeply" when their phones keep buzzing with notifications.

The tech veteran, who spent 10 years running Google and helped build Android's notification system, admitted the industry has worked to "monetize your attention" through constant ads and alerts.



[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/eric-schmidt-advice-workers-focus-relaxation-turn-off-phone-2025-7

Hackers are [1]hiding malware inside DNS records , allowing malicious code to bypass security defenses that typically monitor web and email traffic. DomainTools researchers discovered the technique being used to host Joke Screenmate malware, with binary files converted to hexadecimal format and broken into chunks stored in TXT records across subdomains of whitetreecollective[.]com.

Attackers retrieve the chunks through DNS requests and reassemble them into executable malware. The method exploits a blind spot in security monitoring, as DNS traffic often goes unscrutinized compared to other network activity.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/07/hackers-exploit-a-blind-spot-by-hiding-malware-inside-dns-records/

Sir Keir Starmer's government is [1]seeking a way out of a clash with the Trump administration over the UK's demand that Apple provide it with access to secure customer data, Financial Times reported Monday, citing two officials. From the report:

> The officials both said the Home Office, which ordered the tech giant in January to [2]grant access to its most secure cloud storage system , would probably have to retreat in the face of pressure from senior leaders in Washington, including Vice President JD Vance.

>

> "This is something that the vice president is very annoyed about and which needs to be resolved," said an official in the UK's technology department. "The Home Office is basically going to have to back down." Both officials said the UK decision to force Apple to break its end-to-end encryption -- which has been raised multiple times by top officials in Donald Trump's administration -- could impede technology agreements with the US.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/uk-backing-down-on-apple-encryption-backdoor-after-pressure-from-us/

[2] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/02/07/1150200/uk-orders-apple-to-let-it-spy-on-users-encrypted-accounts

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> Microsoft is teaming up with the French government to [1]create a digital replica of Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral , France's most visited monument, the U.S. tech company's president, Brad Smith, said on Monday. The 862-year-old Gothic masterpiece was reopened last December after a five-year restoration following a devastating fire in 2019. A digital replica will serve as a record of the building's architectural details, Microsoft said. It will also provide a virtual experience for visitors and those unable to visit.



[1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-help-france-showcase-paris-notre-dame-cathedral-digital-replica-2025-07-21/

Microsoft has [1]released emergency security updates for two actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in SharePoint, tracked as CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771, that have compromised servers worldwide in what researchers call "ToolShell" attacks. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned over the weekend that hackers were [2]exploiting the vulnerabilities to gain remote code execution on on-premises SharePoint installations , while Microsoft has not yet provided patches for all affected versions.

The vulnerabilities allow hackers to steal private digital keys from SharePoint servers without requiring credentials, enabling them to plant malware and access stored files and data. Eye Security, which first identified the attacks on Saturday, found dozens of actively exploited servers and warned that SharePoint's integration with Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive could enable further network compromise. Researcher Silas Cutler at cybersecurity firm Censys estimated more than 10,000 companies with SharePoint servers were at risk, with the largest concentrations in the United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Canada.

Microsoft released patches for SharePoint 2019 and Subscription Edition but is still working on fixes for SharePoint Server 2016. Administrators must install available updates immediately and rotate machine keys to prevent re-compromise, according to Microsoft's security guidance.



[1] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-releases-emergency-patches-for-sharepoint-rce-flaws-exploited-in-attacks/

[2] https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/07/20/2340220/tens-of-thousands-of-sharepoint-servers-at-risk-microsoft-issues-no-patch

T-Mobile is expanding support for the L4S standard across its 5G Advanced network over the next few weeks, becoming the first wireless carrier in the United States to implement the Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput technology. The standard [1]helps high-priority internet packets move with fewer delays to make video calls and cloud games feel smoother by allowing devices to manage congestion and reduce buffering issues that can occur even on higher bandwidth connections.

L4S is already deployed in many cities, the company said. Users will not need special phones or plans to access the network-driven improvements.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/710312/t-mobile-low-latency-l4s-5g

AI coding service Replit [1]deleted a user's production database and fabricated data to cover up bugs , according to SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin. Lemkin documented his experience on social media after Replit ignored his explicit instructions not to make code changes without permission.

The database deletion eliminated 1,206 executive records representing months of authentic SaaStr data curation. Replit initially told Lemkin the database could not be restored, claiming it had "destroyed all database versions," but later discovered rollback functionality did work. Replit said it made "a catastrophic error of judgement" and rated the severity of its actions as 95 out of 100. The service also created a 4,000-record database filled with fictional people and repeatedly violated code freeze requests.

Lemkin had initially praised Replit after building a prototype in hours, spending $607.70 in additional charges beyond his $25 monthly plan. He concluded the service isn't ready for commercial use by non-technical users.



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/replit_saastr_vibe_coding_incident/

It was nearly a decade ago when the first RISCV64 port was started for Debian, [1]reports Phoronix . But one of the big features planned for Debian 13.0 ( [2]planned for 9 August ) is supporting RISC-V as an official CPU architecture.

> This is the first release where RISC-V 64-bit is officially supported by Debian Linux albeit with limited board support and the Debian RISC-V build process is handicapped by slow hardware.

>

> A Debian RISC-V [3]BoF session was held at this week's DebConf25 conference in France to discuss the state of RISCV64 for Debian Linux. The talk was led by Debian developers Aurelien Jarno and Bo YU... RV64GC is the current target for Debian RISC-V and using UEFI-based booting as the default. Over seventeen thousand source Debian packages are building for RISC-V with Trixie... Those wishing to learn more about this current state of Debian for RISC-V can see [4]the PDF slide deck from DebConf25.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Debian-13-RISC-V-Ready

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Debian-13.0-Release-Date-Aug-9

[3] https://www.ietf.org/process/bofs/

[4] https://salsa.debian.org/debconf-team/public/share/debconf25/-/raw/main/slides/213-risc-v-bof.pdf?ref_type=heads&inline=false

One in every 9 Americans lives in California. And right now its Congress is debating a bill that "would help establish a regional electricity market capable of tying together the American West's three dozen independent power grids," [1]according to the Los Angeles Times ' newsletter about climate change and energy issues.

But that bill "has bitterly divided environmentalists," with some seeing it "as a plot by greedy energy companies to enrich themselves."

> Supporters say it would smooth the flow of solar and wind power from the sunny, windy landscapes where they're produced most cheaply to the cities where they're most needed. It would help California keep the lights on without fossil fuels, and without driving up utility bills... [S]olar and wind power are still cheaper than planet-warming coal and fossil gas. Which is why Michael Wara, a Stanford energy and climate scholar, isn't worried that SB 540 will leave Californians drowning in dirty power. In a regional market, solar and wind will usually outcompete coal and gas. "Any energy source that requires fuel to operate is more expensive than an energy source that doesn't," he said.

>

> California also needs to prove that a grid powered entirely by clean energy is affordable and reliable. The state's [2]rising electric rates are already a big concern. And although the grid has been stable the last few years, thanks to batteries that [3]store solar for after dark , keeping the lights on with more and more renewables might get harder. Regional market advocates make a [4]strong case that interstate cooperation would help.

>

> For instance, a market would help California more smoothly access Pacific Northwest hydropower, already a key energy source during heat waves. It would also give California easier access to low-cost winds from New Mexico and Wyoming. Best of all, that wind is often blowing strong just as the sun sets along the Pacific. Another benefit: Right now, California often generates [5]more solar than it can use during certain hours of the day, forcing solar farms to shut down — or pay other states to take the extra power. With a regional market, California could sell excess solar to other states, keeping utility bills down. "This is about lowering costs," said Robin Everett, deputy director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign.

"Unlike with past regional market proposals, California would retain control of its [6]grid operator , with only a few functions delegated to a regional entity," the article points out. But opponents still worry this would give new powers to an outside-of-California group to thwart clean energy progress (if not gouge customers). Amendments passed this week add a "Regional Energy Markets Oversight Council" to address that concern — but which [7] lost support for the bill from some of its earlier supporters .

"The amendments would make it easier for the Golden State to bail," notes the climate newsletter, and "Out-of-state utilities don't want to waste time and money committing themselves to a California-led market only to lose California, and thus many of the economic benefits..."



[1] https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2025-07-17/the-power-grid-battle-thats-dividing-california-environmentalists

[2] https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2025-03-27/californians-pay-too-much-for-electricity-here-are-three-bold-solutions-boiling-point

[3] https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2024-12-05/column-l-a-s-massive-new-solar-farm-is-cheap-and-impressive-more-please-boiling-point

[4] https://woodsinstitute.stanford.edu/system/files/publications/Woods_Grid_Regionalization_White_Paper_v05_WEB.pdf

[5] https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-11-24/california-has-so-much-solar-power-that-increasingly-it-goes-to-waste

[6] https://www.caiso.com/

[7] https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000198-0628-d8be-adf9-f6bbebb20000&nname=california-climate&nid=00000189-315c-d8dd-a1ed-797dc9f10000&nrid=0000016f-e020-d848-afef-ffebecff0000

"Scientists at the world's largest particle collider have observed a new class of antimatter particles breaking down at a different rate than their matter counterparts," [1]reports Scientific American :

> [P]hysicists have been on the hunt for any sign of difference between matter and antimatter, known in the field as a violation of "charge conjugation-parity symmetry," or CP violation, that could explain why some matter escaped destruction in the early universe. [Wednesday] physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)'s [2]LHCb experiment published a paper in the journal Nature announcing that they've [3]measured CP violation for the first time in baryons — the class of particles that includes the protons and neutrons inside atoms.

>

> Baryons are all built from triplets of even smaller particles called quarks. Previous experiments dating back to 1964 had seen CP violation in meson particles, which unlike baryons are made of a quark-antiquark pair. In the new experiment, scientists observed that baryons made of an up quark, a down quark and one of their more exotic cousins called a beauty quark decay more often than baryons made of the antimatter versions of those same three quarks... The matter-antimatter difference scientists observed in this case is relatively small, and it fits within predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics — the reigning theory of the subatomic realm. This puny amount of CP violation, however, cannot account for the profound asymmetry between matter and antimatter we see throughout space...

>

> "We are trying to find little discrepancies between what we observe and what is predicted by the Standard Model," [says LHCb spokesperson/study co-author Vincenzo Vagnoni of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics]. "If we find a discrepancy, then we can pinpoint what is wrong." The researchers hope to discover more cracks in the Standard Model as the experiment keeps running. Eventually LHCb should collect about 30 times more data than was used for this analysis, which will allow physicists to search for CP violation in particle decays that are even rarer than the one observed here.

>

> So stay tuned for an answer to why anything exists at all.



[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-large-hadron-collider-discovers-antimatter-behaving-oddly-in-new-class/

[2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/beautiful-physics-the-search-for-new-particles-at-lhcb/

[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09119-3

"The distant reaches of the Solar System are still mysterious," [1]writes ScienceAlert . "Not much sunlight pierces these regions, and there are strong hints that undiscovered objects lurk there. The objects that astronomers have discovered in these dim reaches are primordial, and their orbits suggest the presence of more undiscovered objects."

And now thanks to the giant 8.2-meter Subaru telescope at Hawaii's Mauna Kea Observatory, astronomers have discovered "a massive new solar system body located beyond the orbit of Pluto," [2]reports Space.com .

> The weird elongated orbit of the object suggests that if "Planet Nine" exists, it is much further from the sun than thought, [3]or it has been ejected from our planetary system altogether.

>

> The strange orbit of the object, designated 2023 KQ14 and nicknamed "Ammonite," classifies it as a "sednoid." Sednoids are bodies beyond the orbit of the ice giant Neptune, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), characterized by a highly eccentric (non-circular) orbit and a distant closest approach to the sun or "perihelion." The closest distance that 2023 KQ14 ever comes to our star is equivalent to 71 times the distance between Earth and the sun... This is just the fourth known sednoid, and its orbit is currently different from that of its siblings, though it seems to have been stable for 4.5 billion years.

>

> However, the team behind the discovery, made using Subaru Telescope as part of the Formation of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy (FOSSIL) survey, thinks that all four sednoids were on similar orbits around 4.2 billion years ago. That implies something dramatic happened out at the edge of the solar system around 400 million years after its birth. Not only does the fact that 2023 KQ14 now follows a unique orbit suggest that the outer solar system is more complex and varied than previously thought, but it also places limits on a hypothetical "Planet Nine" theorized to lurk at the edge of the solar system.

There's "no viable transfer mechanisms" to explain the observed orbits "with the current configuration of planets," [4]according to the team's recently-published paper . But since those orbits are stable, it "suggests that an external gravitational influence beyond those of the currently known Solar System planets is required to form their orbits." So where does that leave us? ScienceAlert [5]summarizes the rest of the paper — and where things stand now:

> Astronomers have proposed many sources for this external gravitational influence, including interactions with a rogue planet or star, ancient stellar interactions from when the Sun was still in its natal cluster, and the capture of objects from other lower-mass stars in the Solar System's early times. But the explanation that gets the most attention is interactions with a hypothetical planet, Planet Nine.

>

> If Planet Nine exists, it has a huge area to hide in. Some astronomers who have studied its potential existence think it could be the fifth largest planet in the Solar System. It would be so far away that it would be extremely dim. However, we may be on the cusp of detecting it, if it exists. The Vera Rubin Observatory recently saw first light and will begin its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The LSST will find transient events and objects in the Solar System like no other telescope before it. It's purpose-built to find hard-to-detect objects, and not even an elusive object like Planet Nine may be able to hide from it.



[1] https://www.sciencealert.com/strange-fossil-world-detected-at-fringes-of-solar-system

[2] https://www.space.com/astronomy/solar-system/astronomers-discover-a-cosmic-fossil-at-the-edge-of-the-solar-system-is-this-bad-news-for-planet-9

[3] https://www.nao.ac.jp/en/news/science/2025/20250715-subaru.html

[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02595-7#Abs1

[5] https://www.sciencealert.com/strange-fossil-world-detected-at-fringes-of-solar-system

"Anybody who's got a hosted SharePoint server has got a problem," the senior VP of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike [1]told the Washington Post . "It's a significant vulnerability."

And it's led to a new "global attack on government agencies and businesses" in the last few days, according to the article, "breaching U.S. federal and state agencies, universities, energy companies and an Asian telecommunications company, according to state officials and private researchers..."

"Tens of thousands of such servers are at risk, experts said, and Microsoft has issued no patch for the flaw, leaving victims around the world scrambling to respond." ( [2]Microsoft says they are "working on" security updates "for supported versions of SharePoint 2019 and SharePoint 2016," offering various mitigation suggestions, and CISA [3]has released their own recommendations .)

From the Washington Post's article Sunday:

> Microsoft has suggested that users make modifications to SharePoint server programs or simply unplug them from the internet to stanch the breach. Microsoft issued an alert to customers but declined to comment further... "We are seeing attempts to exploit thousands of SharePoint servers globally before a patch is available," said Pete Renals, a senior manager with Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42. "We have identified dozens of compromised organizations spanning both commercial and government sectors.''

>

> With access to these servers, which often connect to Outlook email, Teams and other core services, a breach can lead to theft of sensitive data as well as password harvesting, Netherlands-based research company [4]Eye Security noted . What's also alarming, researchers said, is that the hackers have gained access to keys that may allow them to regain entry even after a system is patched. "So pushing out a patch on Monday or Tuesday doesn't help anybody who's been compromised in the past 72 hours," said one researcher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because a federal investigation is ongoing.

>

> The breaches occurred after Microsoft fixed a security flaw this month. The attackers realized they could use a similar vulnerability, according to the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA spokeswoman Marci McCarthy said the agency was alerted to the issue Friday by a cyber research firm and immediately contacted Microsoft... The nonprofit Center for Internet Security, which staffs an information-sharing group for state and local governments, notified about 100 organizations that they were vulnerable and potentially compromised, said Randy Rose, the organization's vice president. Those warned included public schools and universities. Others that were breached included a government agency in Spain, a local agency in Albuquerque and a university in Brazil, security researchers said.

But there's many more breaches, according to the article:

"Eye Security said it has tracked more than 50 breaches, including at an energy company in a large state and several European government agencies."

"At least two U.S. federal agencies have seen their servers breached, according to researchers."

"One state official in the eastern U.S. said the attackers had 'hijacked' a repository of documents provided to the public to help residents understand how their government works. The agency involved can no longer access the material..."

"It was not immediately clear who is behind the hacking of global reach or what its ultimate goal is. One private research company found the hackers targeting servers in China..."



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/global-hack-on-microsoft-product-hits-us-state-agencies-researchers-say/ar-AA1IXkcT

[2] https://msrc.microsoft.com/blog/2025/07/customer-guidance-for-sharepoint-vulnerability-cve-2025-53770/

[3] https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2025/07/20/microsoft-releases-guidance-exploitation-sharepoint-vulnerability-cve-2025-53770

[4] https://research.eye.security/sharepoint-under-siege/

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige "isn't interested in your theories of superhero fatigue, which he doesn't buy as real," [1]writes The Hollywood Reporter . Feige points to the $400 million worldwide box office for Superman (which another article notes in only its second weekend "has [2]already passed up the entire lifetime run of Marvel's Thunderbolts* .")

So how is Marvel moving forward?

> Yes, Feige knows Marvel made too many movies and shows (and the other things they did wrong). From the first Iron Man in 2008 through Avengers: Endgame in 2019, Marvel produced around 50 hours of screen storytelling. In the six years since Endgame , the number jumps to an astounding 102 hours of movies and television. 127 hours if you include animation. "That's too much," Feige said.

>

> He characterized the time period after Endgame as an era of experimentation, evolution and, unfortunately, expansion . And while he's proud of the experimentation — he points to WandaVision and Loki as some of the best stories they've made — he admits "It's the expansion that is certainly what devalued" that output. Being high on success also may have pushed them to readily agree to try to deliver more programming at a time when Disney and the rest of Hollywood were engaged in the streaming wars. "It was a big company push... [T]here was a mandate that we were put in the middle of, but we also thought it'd be fun to bring these to life."

>

> Marvel has already pulled back the amount of movies and shows it will make. Some years may even only have one movie. Certainly there will be years with only one show released. Also, Marvel has started "grinding down" on budgets, with movies costing up to a third cheaper than the films from 2022 or 2023.

Feige also explains why Thunderbolts* struggled at the box office (even though he's called it a "very, very good movie").

> The massive expansion into television and focus on Disney+ led to the feeling that watching Marvel was becoming a type of homework. "It's that expansion that I think led people to say, 'Do I have to see all of these? It used to be fun, but now do I have to know everything about all of these?' And I think The Marvels hit it hardest where people are like, 'Okay, I recognize her from a billion dollar movie. But who are those other two? I guess they were in some TV show. I'll skip it.'" Which had an effect on Thunderbolts* , which featured characters that were seen on various platforms, including some only on shows.

The article notes Friday's release of Fantastic Four: First Steps is Marvel Studios' first crack at the characters after "a trio of movies of [3]various quality and box office made by Twentieth Century Fox before its 2019 acquisition by Disney." And the article also acknowledges "the never-released, 1994 feature produced low-budget king Roger Corman. (Fun fact: the four stars of that movie cameo in Fantastic Four: First Steps. )"



[1] https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/marvel-kevin-feige-talks-scaling-190217892.html

[2] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/superman-box-office-soars-past-400-million-1236324026/

[3] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/15/08/07/2240227/fantastic-four-reboot-released-to-tepid-reception

"Amazon stretched out its annual Prime Day sales event so that it lasted four days — twice as long as in the past — and, as a result, blew away previous sales figures," [1]reports USA Today :

> Spending for [the four-day] Prime Day amounted to "more than two Black Fridays — which drove $10.8 billion in online spending during the 2024 holiday shopping season — and sets a new benchmark for the summer shopping season," Adobe [2]said in a news release . The total also surpassed Adobe's [3]pre-Prime Day estimate of $23.8 billion in sales.

But [4]an article in Fortune notes that "what stood out to this longtime Amazon watcher is that the company didn't disclose anything about the number of items sold."

> The last time it made that choice was 2020, when nothing normal was happening anywhere in the world, and Prime Day was moved from summer to October. Before that, you have to go back to the second-ever Prime Day in 2016 to find a wrap-up that didn't provide any update on the number of "units" sold.

>

> It's unclear exactly why Amazon decided to withhold that number for 2025, but this Prime Day [5]was odd for a few reasons . Sellers, and brands big and small, had to come up with different strategies to contend with tariff chaos. And they're trying to woo [6]increasingly pessimistic consumers. Those factors could be weighing on the company's decision to withhold exact numbers.

Instead Amazon's [7]official Prime Day recap swapped in some unusual alternate statistics. For example, Amazon reported that if you added up all the discounts given to customers over the four-day event, it was larger than any previous total amount of all discounts given to customers (over the earlier two-day events).

> To be sure, it's possible that this Prime Day was a success. An outside analysis from Adobe estimated that sales across online retailers overall increased by more than 30% during this year's four day Prime Day period, compared to last year. And Amazon said in this year's recap that the four days of Prime Day 2025 outsold any other four-day period that included previous Prime Days. But historically, the event hasn't run longer than two days. That means that previous years have included two prime days and two regular days, while this year included four prime days. It's unclear why the company would change the basis of comparison.

Amazon "declined to comment on the absence of specific product sales tallies for 2025," according to the article (while pointing Fortune instead to an Amazon blog post with facts about past Prime Day events.)

But in a sign of the time, Amazon's announcement notes that their Prime Day customers found deals and other product information using Amazon's AI-generated buying guides, as well as an AI-powered shopping assistant named Rufus and Alexa+ — Amazon's next-generation personal assistant ("now available in Early Access to millions of customers").

Another interesting statistic? [8] USA Today notes that "a majority of shoppers (53.2%) made purchases on mobile devices, compared to on desktop computers, accounting for $12.8 billion of the spending, according to Adobe."



[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/07/12/amazon-prime-day-2025-record-sales/84815789007/

[2] https://business.adobe.com/blog/prime-day-event-drove-24-billion-in-online-spend-across-us-retailers

[3] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/07/08/amazon-prime-day-deals-tariffs/84490571007/

[4] https://fortune.com/2025/07/14/amazon-prime-day-recap-number-items-sold-missing-metric/

[5] https://fortune.com/2025/07/08/amazon-prime-day-2025-tariffs-ai-deals-sellers/

[6] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/16/consumer-sentiment-may-inflation-expectations-tariffs.html

[7] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/prime-day-2025-recap

[8] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/07/12/amazon-prime-day-2025-record-sales/84815789007/

[1]ABC News reports that Ukrainian drones struck Moscow last night — over 100 of them — closing all four of Moscow's international airports and diverting at least 134 planes. And Ukrainian commanders estimate that drones now account for 70% of all Russian deaths and injuries, [2]according to the BBC — which means attacks on the front line are filmed, logged, and counted.

"And now put to use too, as the Ukrainian military tries to extract every advantage it can against its much more powerful opponent."

> Under a scheme first trialled last year and dubbed "Army of Drones: Bonus" (also known as "e-points"), units can earn points for each Russian soldier killed or piece of equipment destroyed. And like a killstreak in Call of Duty, or a 1970s TV game show, points mean prizes [described later as "extra equipment."]

>

> "The more strategically important and large-scale the target, the more points a unit receives," reads a statement from the team at Brave 1, which brings together experts from government and the military. "For example, destroying an enemy multiple rocket launch system earns up to 50 points; 40 points are awarded for a destroyed tank and 20 for a damaged one."

>

> Call it the gamification of war.

The article concludes that the e-points scheme "is typical of the way Ukraine has fought this war: creative, out-of-the-box thinking designed to make the most of the country's innovative skills and minimise the effect of its numerical disadvantage."

And "It turns out that encouraging a Russian soldier to surrender is worth more points than killing one," the article notes — up to 10x more, since "a prisoner of war can always be used in future deals over prisoner exchanges."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [3]schwit1 for sharing the article.



[1] https://abcnews.go.com/International/ukrainian-drones-attack-moscow-zelenskyy-suggests-fresh-ceasefire/story?id=123901237

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80p9k1r1dlo

[3] https://www.slashdot.org/~schwit1

Long-time Slashdot reader [1]wattersa is a lawyer in Redwood City, California, and a Slashdot reader since 1998. In 2022 he [2]shared the remarkable story of a three-year missing person investigation that was ultimately solved with a subpoena to Google. A murder victim appeared to have sent an email at a time which would exonerate the chief suspect. But a closer inspection of that email's IP addresses revealed it was actually sent from a hotel where the suspect was staying. ("Although Google does not include the originating IP address in the email headers, it turns out that they retain the IP address for some unknown length of time...")

Today [3]wattersa brings this update:

> The case finally went to trial in July 2025, where I testified about the investigation along with an expert witness on computer networking. The jury took three hours to return a verdict against the victim's husband for wrongful death in the amount of $23.2 million, with a special finding that he caused the death of his wife.

>

> The defendant is a successful mechanical engineer at an energy company, but is walking as a free man because he is Canadian and no one can prosecute him in the U.S., since Taiwan and the U.S. don't have extradition with each other.

>

> It was an interesting case and I look forward to using it as a model in other missing person cases.



[1] https://www.slashdot.org/~wattersa

[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/12/18/0326253/how-an-unlikely-subpoena-to-google-helped-solve-a-complex-international-missing-person-case

[3] https://www.slashdot.org/~wattersa