Alvaro Lopez Ortega / 2026-06-23 Briefing

Created Fri, 26 Jun 2026 20:49:14 +0000 Modified Fri, 07 Aug 2026 19:13:41 +0000
7582 Words

A critical FFmpeg flaw, ‘PixelSmash,’ allows attackers to compromise systems via malicious videos, requiring urgent updates. Cybersecurity threats continue as a Russian hacker used Anthropic’s Claude to breach booking platforms, exposing millions of records, while North Korean groups targeted AI software supply chains. Additionally, the EU is advancing digital euro legislation to boost financial autonomy.

🤖 AI & Machine Learning

Latest AI Industry Developments

AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are facing significant financial strain as compute costs for users frequently exceed subscription revenues, raising concerns about long-term industry sustainability. Consequently, many large enterprises are reducing their AI expenditures by transitioning from expensive flagship models to more cost-effective alternatives.

Low-Tech AI in Elden Ring

Elden Ring utilizes a Pushdown Automaton system rather than a traditional Finite State Machine to manage NPC behaviors via Havok Script. This architecture employs a hierarchical stack of “Goals,” allowing characters to execute complex actions by pushing and popping sub-goals based on their success or failure.

Let’s say you’re hungry for a sandwich

To use the Mastodon web application, users must enable JavaScript. Alternatively, they can utilize one of the native apps available for their specific platform.

I automated my job (and it made me a better leader)

A senior director at GitHub describes how they used the GitHub Copilot app’s automation features to manage fragmented information across various work platforms. By implementing scheduled prompts to monitor calendars, emails, and messages, they reduced cognitive load and were able to focus more effectively on strategic leadership tasks.

How to find AI-conservative companies to work for?

A seasoned software engineer is seeking ways to find companies that use AI more conservatively rather than over-relying on it for essential tasks like design and documentation. Driven by frustration with the industry’s growing dependence on artificial intelligence, they are considering leaving the tech sector entirely.

AI Torah Chervuta

Yochai is a Socratic AI learning guide designed to facilitate the study of the Jewish canon using an extensive knowledge graph and over 1,000 primary sources. The tool aims to help users discover personal insights directly from foundational texts and has open-sourced its underlying knowledge graph for public use.

Algorithmic Monocultures in Hiring

This research examines the emergence of “algorithmic monocultures” within the recruitment sector. It investigates how the widespread adoption of similar automated decision-making tools can lead to systemic effects in hiring processes.

Modal has launched Auto Endpoints, a self-serve solution for deploying production-grade LLM inference with complete visibility into the underlying code and metrics. The tool provides an OpenAI API-compatible service that allows developers to easily manage and scale open models using Modal’s automated infrastructure.

The End of Code Review: Coding Agents Supersede Human Inspection

A new research paper argues that LLM-based coding agents have reached a capability threshold that renders traditional human code review unnecessary. The authors contend that these autonomous systems can achieve all the goals of manual inspection with higher efficiency and lower costs, making human oversight unscalable in AI-driven development pipelines.

RLM-based local debugger for AI agent traces

HALO (Hierarchal Agent Loop Optimizer) is a new open-source tool designed to debug and optimize AI agents by analyzing their execution traces. Using a Recursive Language Model (RLM), the system breaks down trace analysis into smaller subproblems to identify systemic issues and recurring patterns more effectively than standard LLMs.

FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model

FUTO has released a dataset of over one million QWERTY English swipes on HuggingFace under the MIT license. Collected through a voluntary mobile web initiative starting in August 2024, the data is used to train and evaluate various swipe typing models.

Claude Tag

Anthropic has introduced Claude Tag, a new feature that allows teams to collaborate with Claude directly within Slack channels by tagging @Claude to delegate tasks. Currently in beta for Enterprise and Team customers, the tool can connect to various data sources and codebases while proactively providing updates based on accumulated channel context.

I don’t want you to summarise the page

The author argues against using Large Language Models (LLMs) to summarize web pages, stating that such summaries undermine the experience of reading original content. While acknowledging their utility for coding and complex searches, they express concern over the pervasive integration of LLMs into all aspects of computing.

Krea 2 Technical Report

Krea 2 is a new series of foundation models designed for creative exploration in image generation, aiming to move beyond the narrow aesthetics of current systems. The models utilize advanced training pipelines and architectural innovations, such as prompt expanders and style-reference systems, to offer greater control over diverse styles, moods, and compositions.

peerd – AI agent harness that runs entirely in your browser

Peerd is an experimental AI agent harness that operates entirely within a web browser via a browser extension, eliminating the need for external processes or specialized “AI browsers.” By leveraging native browser security and primitives like WebGPU and WebAssembly, the tool can execute diverse workloads ranging from JavaScript notebooks to Linux VMs.

Lift4D: Harmonizing Single-View 3D Estimation for 4D Reconstruction In-the-Wild

Researchers have introduced Lift4D, a new test-time optimization framework designed for complete 4D reconstruction from monocular video. By combining temporally consistent per-frame predictions with an occlusion-aware optimization and a diffusion prior, the system effectively recovers visible details and completes unobserved regions in complex “in-the-wild” scenarios.

Mistral OCR 4

Mistral has released Mistral OCR 4, a model that provides structured content extraction including bounding boxes, block classification, and inline confidence scores. Supporting 170 languages, the compact model is designed for self-hosted deployment in enterprise search, RAG, and retrieval pipelines.

Unlimited OCR: One-Shot Long-Horizon Parsing

Baidu Inc. has introduced Unlimited OCR Works, a model designed for one-shot long-horizon parsing of single images and multi-page documents such as PDFs. Building upon Deepseek-OCR, the project is available on platforms including GitHub, Hugging Face, and arXiv.

The Reversal Curse: LLMs trained on “A is B” fail to learn “B is A”

Research has identified a phenomenon called the “Reversal Curse,” where large language models fail to automatically generalize knowledge from statements of the form “A is B” to their reverse, “B is A.” This limitation persists across various model families and sizes, though models can deduce reversed relationships when the information is provided within the prompt’s context.

Neural Particle Automata

Neural Particle Automata evolve neural cellular automata by replacing fixed grids with agentic particles that move freely in space. By following simple shared rules, these particles can form complex morphologies and exhibit emergent behaviors such as self-regeneration.

AI Built a Nuke and Still Lost

An experiment using Civilization VI as a simulator revealed that frontier AI models struggle with the complex, adaptive decision-making required for effective governance. While these models can achieve specific strategic goals, they fail to adjust their strategies when faced with unforeseen systemic changes and cascading consequences.

Ultralytics YOLO26: Unified Real-Time End-to-End Vision Models

Ultralytics YOLO26 is a new family of unified real-time vision models that utilizes an NMS-free dual-head design and advanced training strategies like MuSGD to enhance efficiency and small object detection. The framework supports multiple tasks, including detection, segmentation, and pose estimation, while significantly improving the accuracy-latency trade-off on the COCO dataset.

VibeThinker: 3B param model that beats Opus 4.5 on reasoning with novel SFT+GRPO

VibeThinker-3B is a 3-billion parameter language model that utilizes a “Spectrum-to-Signal” post-training paradigm to enhance verifiable reasoning. The model achieves performance on mathematical and coding benchmarks comparable to much larger flagship systems, supporting the hypothesis that complex reasoning capabilities can be effectively compressed into compact architectures.

An Introduction to YOLO26

Released in January 2026, YOLO26 is a multi-task model family supporting tasks such as object detection, instance segmentation, and pose estimation across five size variants. The architecture is optimized for edge deployment by removing Non-Maximum Suppression and Distribution Focal Loss to reduce latency and improve hardware compatibility.

Anthropic reimagines Claude in Slack as nosy, always-on agentic AI coworker

This technology news digest covers recent developments such as OpenAI Codex’s impact on SSD longevity and Oracle’s significant workforce reductions. It also highlights new AWS Lambda MicroVMs alongside various updates in cybersecurity and the open-source community.

🛡️ Security & Privacy

Hacker employs Claude to breach booking firms, leaves millions of records publicly accessible

A Russian hacker used HexStrike AI integrated with Anthropic’s Claude to breach multiple hotel booking platforms by disguising malicious activity as legitimate penetration testing. The attack resulted in the theft of over 2 million email addresses along with sensitive guest information, including names, phone numbers, and reservation details.

Critical FFmpeg flaw discovered: just watching a video can fully compromise your system

A critical vulnerability known as “PixelSmash” (CVE-2026-8461) in FFmpeg’s MagicYUV decoder allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via malicious video files without any user interaction. Due to the widespread use of FFmpeg in various applications and IoT devices, users are urged to immediately update to version 8.1.2 or disable the affected decoder.

North Korean hackers infiltrated software used to build AI apps, Microsoft says

Microsoft has identified the North Korean hacking group Sapphire Sleet as responsible for a supply chain attack targeting 141 Mastra npm packages used to build AI applications. By compromising a trusted contributor account, the attackers distributed malware designed to steal cryptocurrency wallet data, browser extensions, and login credentials from developers’ devices.

Normalization of Vulnerability Reports

The rise of Large Language Models is diminishing the unique importance of traditional vulnerability reports by making security discovery more accessible to both attackers and defenders. Consequently, the primary challenge for software maintainers is shifting from valuing researcher insights toward efficiently triaging an increased volume of AI-generated potential vulnerabilities.

A scientist says he can scan prisoners’ brains for signs of evil

Neuroscientist Kent Kiehl uses fMRI scans and psychopathy checklists to investigate brain abnormalities in incarcerated individuals. His controversial research, which gained prominence during the trial of serial killer Brian Dugan, has since influenced thousands of legal cases involving claims of biological criminality.

ATProto Permissioned Data Proposal Draft

The ATProto Permissioned Data Proposal introduces permissioned repositories, which allow users to store specific sets of records within a designated “space” on their own Personal Data Server (PDS). The proposal outlines a system where space authorities manage access by issuing credentials to users via delegation tokens and client attestations.

Signs you’re a dangerous terrorist: using Signal, moving zines

Texas protesters convicted on terrorism charges have received exceptionally long prison sentences, with some exceeding 50 years. Critics argue these convictions unfairly target anti-fascist activists by criminalizing activities such as using encrypted messaging apps and distributing political literature.

Pact: Anonymous Credentials for the Web

The “Pact” proposal addresses the growing conflict between website anti-bot measures and browser privacy protections, which often leads to invasive user verification. It introduces a system of anonymous credentials designed to help websites distinguish human visitors from bots without compromising personal privacy.

What we call “age verification” is actually mass surveillance

The author argues that proposed internet “age verification” measures are effectively forms of mass surveillance that would subject all online users to pervasive tracking. The article claims these policies, supported by an unlikely coalition of activists, ultimately benefit the advertising industry and could lead to further restrictions such as VPN bans.

Madison Square Garden compiled a list of activists against facial recognition

Madison Square Garden compiled a list of activists who have publicly criticized the venue’s use of facial recognition technology, according to data uncovered by 404 Media. The document, which included critics’ tweets and comments, was discovered within a massive cache of stolen company data recently leaked online.

Mythos discovers ‘Squidbleed,’ a memory leak that’s gone undetected since Clinton era

This tech news digest covers the discovery of a long-standing memory leak called “Squidbleed” and various emerging security threats, including phishing attacks and SharePoint zero-days. It also reports on industry shifts like Oracle’s workforce reductions due to AI expansion and new technical updates for AWS Lambda and OpenBSD.

💻 Software Engineering

Microsoft confirms Recycle Bin bug in Windows 10 and 11: a patch is on the way

Microsoft has confirmed a bug in Windows 10 and 11 that causes cryptic internal codes to appear instead of original filenames in Recycle Bin deletion dialogs. The company is currently developing a patch to resolve the issue, which follows a recent security update that has also triggered reports of OneDrive glitches and system instability.

Legibility of Effort

The rise of LLMs has obscured the “legibility of effort,” making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between high-quality human work and low-effort AI-generated content. This loss of clear indicators complicates content discovery and presents new challenges for open-source maintainers struggling to manage an influx of automated contributions.

How we found a bug in the hyper HTTP library

Cloudflare engineers discovered a race condition within the open-source hyper HTTP library that caused intermittent image truncation in their Images service. After six weeks of investigation, the bug was successfully resolved with just four lines of code.

maestro: Lightweight, Linux-compatible kernel, written in Rust

Maestro is a lightweight, Unix-like kernel written in Rust that aims to leverage the language’s safety features for improved reliability. Currently supporting x86_64 and x86 architectures, the project is in its early stages of development and includes partial compatibility with Linux system calls.

how a stray “j” ruined my evening

A developer’s custom link shortening script recently caused broken URLs by appending an extra “j” character due to how an ANSI terminal interpreted newlines. The issue was discovered after users reported 404 errors when accessing links shared via a Signal TUI. The problem was resolved by using the --join-output flag in jq to suppress trailing newline characters.

Record type inference for dummies

This introductory post provides a foundation in type theory by defining anonymous records across various programming languages, such as JavaScript and Python. It serves as a precursor to an advanced discussion on implementing effective type inference for these records within statically typed languages.

Implementing a Custom Query Language with Python and Apache Spark

This article demonstrates how to implement Entity History Query Language (EHQL), a custom tool designed for analysts to query vehicle maintenance data. The implementation utilizes Python and the Lark parsing library to transform EHQL commands into executable Apache Spark queries.

FEXPRs vs. vtable: how LispE interpreter works

LispE addresses the traditional trade-off between interpreters and compilers by acting as an interpreter for compiled C++ objects. By representing each language instruction as a subclass with a uniform eval method, the system creates an executable Abstract Syntax Tree that leverages C++’s full optimization capabilities.

Please keep code descriptions simple

The author advocates for concise commit messages and merge request descriptions that focus on the rationale behind changes rather than redundant details. To improve accessibility for neurodivergent reviewers, they also recommend using atomic commits and avoiding an over-reliance on LLM-generated text.

Reflecting on the Past

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of his long-running website, an author reflects on forty years of technological evolution from early 8-bit microcomputers to modern high-performance computing. The retrospective highlights the rapid progress made in computing power, storage, and connectivity over four decades.

Matt’s Script Archive: The Scripts That Reshaped The Web

In the mid-1990s, Matt Wright’s “Matt’s Script Archive” provided popular but highly insecure web tools like WWWboard that prioritized ease of use over security. This historical example illustrates the long-standing tension between non-technical users seeking simple software solutions and developers advocating for robust coding practices.

Blobly

The application Blobly is currently experiencing connectivity issues. Users are being prompted to attempt to reconnect to the service.

Don’t verify email addresses by sending spam to them

Some developers are attempting to validate email addresses by triggering automated verification emails immediately upon input, a practice that essentially involves sending spam. The article highlights how Pangram’s sign-up form demonstrates this behavior, resulting in users receiving unsolicited emails as soon as they enter their information into the API.

Orion 1.1 for macOS is out, with containers

Orion 1.1 for macOS has launched, introducing “containers” that allow users to manage separate accounts and prevent cross-site tracking. The update also features an interface refresh, enhanced on-page and offline translation capabilities, and exclusive customizable browser borders for Orion+ subscribers.

LaTeX.wasm: LaTeX Engines in Browsers

LaTeX.wasm enables the execution of LaTeX engines directly within web browsers. By integrating this library into a webpage, developers can programmatically initialize engines, load necessary files, and compile LaTeX documents into PDF format using JavaScript.

Wavacity: Audacity audio editor ported to WASM, under GNU GPL v2

Wavacity is a WebAssembly port of the Audacity audio editor that allows users to edit audio directly in their web browsers without any installation. The free, open-source software is released under the GNU GPL v2 and is not officially affiliated with the Audacity Team.

Jerry’s Map

For decades, an individual named Jerry has been meticulously hand-drawing an incredibly detailed map of his entire neighborhood. This expansive artistic project captures every intricate feature and nuance of the local area.

Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

An engineer was reportedly terminated from Google after developing a Command Line Interface (CLI) for Google Workspace. The dismissal follows the creation of the tool, highlighting potential conflicts regarding employee-led software development.

F3

F3 is a new open-source data file format designed to improve upon older formats like Parquet by enhancing efficiency, interoperability, and extensibility. Utilizing embedded Wasm decoders for future-proofing, the project currently serves as a research prototype intended to verify concepts presented in its foundational paper.

  • F3 — github.com

Nimic – Pure Python as a systems language with AOT compilation

Nimic is a pure Python module that enables C-level performance by allowing developers to write AOT compilable code using a subset of Python. The module utilizes the ctypes module to emulate native types and pointers, ultimately transpiling the Python code into the Nim programming language.

Treedocs: Documentation that automatically checks for staleness

Treedocs is a Swift CLI tool designed to help developers and coding agents quickly understand complex repositories through a documented file tree. The tool automatically detects documentation drift by highlighting stale or invalid entries in red, ensuring that the treedocs.yaml file remains synchronized with the actual filesystem.

Markdy: Like Mermaid Diagrams, but for Motion

Markdy is a tool designed for creating motion animations using a syntax similar to Mermaid diagrams. It allows users to define essential scene parameters, such as canvas dimensions and frame rate, through simple configuration lines within a .markdy file.

TikZ Editor – WYSIWYG editor for figures in LaTeX

A new open-source WYSIWYG editor for TikZ has been released, allowing users to visually edit LaTeX figures by dragging and resizing elements. The tool synchronizes source code with a rendered preview in real-time and was developed largely using the AI coding agent Codex.

Bun-sqlgen – Type-safe raw SQL for Bun, no ORM

bun-sqlgen is a new library that provides type-safe raw SQL for the Bun runtime without the need for an ORM. It uses codegen to validate queries against actual PostgreSQL or SQLite databases, allowing developers to catch schema mismatches and invalid SQL at build time.

This article explores techniques for lossless GIF recompression to improve compatibility with extremely old web browsers like NCSA Mosaic. Inspired by the exhaustive search method used in ZopfliPNG, the author discusses optimizing GIF files by finding the smallest possible bit representation for fallback images.

Shumai – open-source Frame.io alternative for creative work

Shumai is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Frame.io designed for managing creative projects and collaborating with AI agents. The platform offers features such as precise feedback collection and supports scalable distributed processing via Temporal for resource-intensive tasks like transcoding.

You already have a Git server

Developers can leverage existing Git repositories on SSH-accessible servers to streamline file management and deployment without the need for manual copying tools. By utilizing Git hooks, users can also automate tasks like running build scripts and receive immediate feedback directly in their terminal upon pushing changes.

I built a GPU back end for Emacs

An Emacs developer has implemented a new GPU-driven display backend using Metal for macOS and OpenGL for Linux. The project introduces hardware-accelerated capabilities to the editor, including shader-based cursor effects and video playback within buffers.

The Traditional Vi

Originally developed by Bill Joy in 1976, the vi editor was released under a BSD-style license in 2002 following decades of proprietary restrictions. This specific port preserves the original lightweight functionality while adding support for international character sets and minor POSIX.2 enhancements.

The new HTTP QUERY method explained

The newly introduced HTTP QUERY method, defined in RFC 10008, allows for complex data filtering using a request body to overcome the length and encoding limitations of GET parameters. Designed to be safe, idempotent, and cacheable, this method provides a standard alternative to using POST for large-scale or nested queries.

Matrix and Quaternion FAQ

The Matrix and Quaternion FAQ is a technical resource detailing the mathematical concepts and programming implementations of matrices and quaternions. The document includes a comprehensive history of collaborative updates and contributions from numerous developers dating back to 1997.

A pure ARM64 Assembly web server, now on Linux with CGI for no reason

The ARM64 Assembly web server ymawky has been ported from macOS to Linux and now includes CGI scripting support. This update enables the processing of dynamic content, query strings, and POST requests for CGI resources.

Microsoft Access finally breaks free of its 22-inch form limit

Microsoft Access has removed its 34-year-old 22-inch form limit, and AWS has introduced Lambda MicroVMs for long-running tasks. The news also highlights several cybersecurity threats, including Russian-led phishing campaigns and SharePoint zero-day vulnerabilities.

🔌 Hardware & Infrastructure

Windows hibernation may contribute to SSD wear as storage costs rise

Windows hibernation can accelerate SSD wear by writing RAM contents to the disk, potentially shortening the lifespan of drives with low endurance or limited capacity. This issue is drawing increased attention as sharply rising storage prices make hardware replacement much more expensive than in recent years.

China’s Arm-based LineShine beats US El Capitan by 20%+ to become world’s fastest supercomputer

China’s LineShine supercomputer in Shenzhen has surpassed the U.S. El Capitan to become the world’s fastest, marking China’s first top ranking since 2017. Notably, the system achieves its high performance using only standard microprocessors instead of the graphics processing units (GPUs) typically used in high-end computing.

Data center boom exposes US power grid weaknesses and needed infrastructure upgrades

The rapid expansion of AI data centers is creating unprecedented electricity demands that threaten to bottleneck technological growth. Although the U.S. has sufficient energy production, outdated grid interconnection processes and significant backlogs are preventing new infrastructure from accessing necessary power.

Eli Lilly plans $7.3B biotech “App Store” using 1,016 Blackwell chips in new data center.

Eli Lilly plans to utilize its $7.3 billion cash reserve to create an “App Store” for biotech scientists aimed at accelerating drug discovery through AI. The company also intends to launch a new data center featuring 1,016 Blackwell chips in 2025 to support these collaborative efforts with smaller biotech firms.

Advanced Nintendo Entertainment System (ANES) – NES Modded to Use 2 PPUs

The Advanced Nintendo Entertainment System (ANES) project outlines a hardware modification that allows the NES to utilize two Picture Processing Units (PPUs). This modification enables enhanced graphical capabilities, including increased colors, more sprites, and parallax scrolling.

Trains halted across Germany because of communication system problem

A malfunction in Germany’s GSM-R digital communication system forced all trains across the national railway network to halt late Tuesday. The outage left many passengers stranded, but the operator, Deutsche Bahn, has since resolved the issue and service is gradually resuming.

Modelplane

Modelplane is an orchestration platform in early development designed to manage GPU clusters across cloud, neocloud, and on-premise environments as a single inference fleet. It automates the provisioning, autoscaling, and routing of models through a unified OpenAI-compatible endpoint by coordinating models, serving engines, and underlying infrastructure.

Modelplane – The Open Source Control Plane for AI Inference

Modelplane is an open-source control plane designed to orchestrate AI models, serving stacks, and infrastructure across cloud and on-premise environments. Built on Crossplane, the software allows platform teams to manage hardware resources while enabling developers to deploy models through unified, OpenAI-compatible endpoints.

The Cascade Graph – An interactive map of AI and energy constraints

The Cascade Graph is an interactive map designed to visualize the economic and physical constraints affecting the expansion of AI. The tool uses a network of 393 nodes and 562 edges to illustrate macro drivers, industrial chokepoints, and their impact on various markets.

80386 Early Start Memory Access

The z386 FPGA core has been updated with Intel’s “Early Start” memory access technique, which reduces latency by beginning address calculations for subsequent instructions during the current instruction’s final cycle. This optimization, along with other recent improvements, has significantly boosted performance, allowing the z386 to match or exceed ao486-class benchmarks in tests like Doom.

AWS Launches New Lambda MicroVMs

AWS has introduced Lambda MicroVMs, a new serverless compute primitive built on Firecracker technology that provides VM-level isolation for securely executing user and AI-generated code. This update supports runtimes of up to eight hours and features near-instant launch/resume speeds with state preservation, making it ideal for long-running tasks such as managing AI agents.

In praise of memcached

The author argues that Memcached is a superior choice for caching because its architecture prevents it from being mistakenly used as a permanent database. Unlike Redis, which can create operational risks due to its persistence features, Memcached simplifies cluster management and handling server downtime.

O2 joins UK 2G switch-off with summer 2029 start date

O2 has announced that it will begin decommissioning its 2G network in the summer of 2029. This transition is expected to affect various legacy devices beyond older mobile phones, including smart meters and telecare alarms.

🏢 Tech Business & Policy

EU Advances Digital Euro Independence

A European Parliament committee has supported legislation for a digital euro aimed at reducing Europe’s reliance on U.S.-based payment networks to enhance the EU’s financial autonomy. If approved, the European Central Bank plans to launch a pilot program in 2027, with a potential full rollout by 2029.

Tensions brew over use of Palantir software in Germany

The Green Party in North Rhine-Westphalia is pushing to cancel state contracts with Palantir due to concerns over mass surveillance and human rights violations. This move threatens to create tension within the ruling coalition and reflects a growing movement in Germany toward digital sovereignty through the use of European or open-source alternatives.

Google plans a 12-week incubator, picking 10 to 20 AI startups from its “Xoogler” alumni and prov…

Google is launching a 12-week incubator specifically designed for former employees building artificial intelligence startups. Supported by the AI Futures Fund, the program aims to select between 10 and 20 companies to receive up to $350,000 in Google Cloud and AI credits along with $100,000 in funding.

How Sam Altman’s 80+ personal investments, many from his time running YC, benefit from ties to Op…

Sam Altman’s personal tech investments have seen significant gains following business partnerships between OpenAI and his linked startups. These connections are currently facing scrutiny from the House Oversight Committee and legal officials regarding potential conflicts of interest ahead of a planned IPO.

EU to impose €3 duty on items under €150 from July 1 to curb Shein and Temu imports

Starting July 1, the European Union will impose a €3 duty on online purchases valued under €150. The measure aims to curb the influx of low-priced merchandise from non-EU retailers such as Shein and Temu.

Tencent negotiating exits from Japanese game studios as it reassesses global portfolio

Tencent Holdings Ltd. is negotiating exits from several minority investments in Japanese game studios, including Marvelous Inc., as part of a global portfolio reassessment. The company may sell these stakes back to the original management teams, even if such moves result in financial losses.

NLRB judge rules Amazon broke law by refusing to recognize SF Teamsters; must bargain.

A US NLRB judge has ruled that Amazon violated federal law by failing to recognize the Teamsters union at a San Francisco warehouse. As a result, the company is now required to engage in collective bargaining with the workers.

Prairieland Defendants Sentenced Today to Prison Terms Ranging from 30-100 Years

Eight defendants were sentenced in federal court to prison terms ranging from 30 to 100 years for charges including rioting, material support for terrorists, and conspiracy involving explosives. The convictions stem from a July 4th demonstration at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center, with supporters rallying after the sentencing to protest what they called disproportionate punishments.

Extreme Heat conference cancelled due to extreme heat warning

The “Extreme Heat: Improving governance and strengthening action around the world” conference, part of London Climate Action Week, has been cancelled due to a red extreme heat warning issued by the UK Met Office. The event was scheduled to feature the announcement of the inaugural Adeline Stuart-Watt Award and discussions on enhancing global extreme heat governance.

California AB 2047 makes 3D printers off-limits to students, educators, business

California Assembly Bill 2047, which would require all 3D printers sold in the state to include a DOJ-certified detection algorithm, has moved from the State Assembly to Senate committees for review. Critics argue the legislation is technically unfeasible and could restrict access to 3D printing technology for schools, libraries, and small businesses.

United Wizards of the Coast recognized by NLRB

The workers at Arena have officially elected the UWOTC-CWA union following a period of organizing and voting. The newly recognized union now looks forward to negotiating its first ratified contract.

WaPo Loves Data Centers More Than Disclosing Bezos’s Financial Interest in Them

The Washington Post’s opinion editors have been vocally advocating for the expansion of data centers, yet they often fail to disclose that owner Jeff Bezos has a significant financial interest in the industry through Amazon Web Services. This lack of transparency regarding the paper’s corporate connections raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest in its editorial coverage.

Audit finds San Francisco tax official steered $10M contract to friend

An audit by San Francisco’s city controller found that former chief assistant treasurer Tajel Shah improperly steered a $10 million contract to a technology company led by her friends. The investigation revealed that Shah manipulated the bidding process to unfairly benefit the firm, creating an appearance of a “pay-to-play” business tax system.

Millions in UK could claim share of £3B after Apple case given green light

A class action lawsuit against Apple regarding alleged anti-competitive practices in its iCloud service is set to proceed to trial. The consumer group Which? claims the tech giant “trapped” users into its ecosystem, potentially entitling 40 million UK customers to a share of a £3 billion claim.

The truth about being a manager

Transitioning from an engineer to a manager involves significant challenges, including shifting team dynamics, increased emotional labor, and more cautious communication. The article highlights that new managers must learn to navigate difficult business decisions professionally while managing the isolation and confidential responsibilities that come with leadership.

Backblaze Announces Five-Year Multi-Exabyte Agreement with CoreWeave

Backblaze has entered into a five-year, $335 million agreement with CoreWeave to provide multi-exabyte data storage capacity. This strategic partnership aims to support CoreWeave’s managed infrastructure by providing cost-efficient storage tiers optimized for demanding AI workloads.

Netanyahu, Trump planned Iran strike far in advance, ran deception campaign

Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump began planning a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear program in February 2025, using a deception campaign to hide their coordination. According to The Washington Post, the two leaders leaked false reports of diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Israel to lull Iran into complacency.

Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

Apple may soon increase product prices due to a global shortage and rising costs for RAM and SSD components. While some analysts suggest these price hikes are imminent, others believe they may be timed to coincide with new hardware releases this fall.

Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

The article presents a dystopian vision of 2026 where cryptocurrency is deeply integrated into political influence, military prediction markets, and shadow finance. It argues that these developments transform crypto-based instruments into self-referential systems that lack the traditional market function of price discovery for real-world value.

Ideate a trading strategy with an Ex-Citadel Trader

A former Citadel Securities options market maker is offering a consultancy service to help traders develop robust and actionable trading strategies. Using a professional market-making perspective, the service evaluates trade ideas by assessing edge legitimacy, determining optimal position sizing, and analyzing execution feasibility.

The European Commission’s plan to replace disruptive cookie banners with an automated consent signal has been abandoned following opposition from Google and several EU member states. This setback means the tracking industry can continue using manipulative “dark patterns” to harvest user data through frustrating banner interactions.

Valve opens Steam Machine pre-orders with queue lottery and hefty prices amid AI squeeze

This news digest highlights significant technological shifts, including Oracle’s workforce reductions driven by AI investments and new AWS Lambda capabilities for long-running tasks. It also covers various security threats, such as phishing attacks and SharePoint zero-day vulnerabilities, alongside notable open-source software updates like OpenBSD 7.9.

Brits still reckon Big Tech isn’t paying enough tax

This technology news digest covers British support for taxing Silicon Valley companies alongside recent developments in cloud computing and cybersecurity. It also highlights significant software updates, such as the release of OpenBSD 7.9 and new AWS Lambda features.

🌐 Digital Culture & Society

UFO skeptic Michael Shermer apologizes to David Grusch

UFO skeptic Michael Shermer has apologized to whistleblower David Grusch for previously disparaging his claims regarding recovered non-human technology. The apology follows Shermer’s recent appointment to Avi Loeb’s new UAP Science Advisory Panel.

Man tries to make a sale on Facebook Marketplace, gets scammed out of $300 via Zelle

A man lost $300 after falling for a Facebook Marketplace scam involving a fraudulent Zelle email that claimed funds needed to be “unlocked” with an additional payment. While he shared his experience on TikTok as a warning, many commenters expressed little sympathy, noting the tactic is a well-known fraud method.

Real estate pros increasingly use AI virtual staging to create misleading property listings.

Real estate professionals are increasingly using AI-powered virtual staging tools to enhance property photos, which can lead to misleading online listings. While these tools help clients visualize potential upgrades more affordably, they often create significant discrepancies between digital images and the actual condition or size of an apartment.

Twenty Years Later, Everything Is the Truman Show (2018)

Twenty years after its release, The Truman Show appears remarkably prescient in its depiction of a life lived for an audience. The film’s themes of privacy invasion and manufactured reality closely mirror today’s landscape of reality television and social media self-documentation.

Wordit – Change One Letter, Keep the Chain Going

A new game concept called Wordit challenges players to build long chains of four-letter words by changing only one letter at a time. Players earn points for every correct word but lose lives for errors, starting the game with three lives.

France records its hottest day ever

France recorded its hottest day ever with an average temperature of 29.8 C during an early heat wave affecting much of Europe. The extreme temperatures have disrupted schools and transportation, forced major landmarks like the Eiffel Tower to restrict visiting hours, and contributed to a surge in drownings.

San Diego photologs from the 1970s

High-resolution scans of 1970s San Diego photologs have been rediscovered, offering a vivid look at the city’s streets through vintage 35mm film. The collection captures a nostalgic era characterized by colorful pastel cars, creative business signage, and unique local landmarks.

The worthlessness of Vitamin D is mildly exaggerated

While many experts now argue that vitamin D supplements offer no health benefits unless a person is severely deficient, the author suggests this skeptical view may be an overcorrection. Drawing on biological and evolutionary evidence, the article proposes that individuals with low-to-moderate levels of the vitamin may still benefit from supplementation.

Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger blocked from editing Wikipedia

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has announced his intention to return to the platform in fall 2025 to lead various reform efforts. His proposed initiatives include establishing the WikiProject Intellectual Diversity and presenting the “Nine Theses on Wikipedia” to foster a more inclusive contributor base.

Will It Mythos?

A new benchmark suite has been developed using real-world security vulnerabilities discovered by Mythos to evaluate whether other AI models can replicate its specialized bug-finding capabilities. By testing models against bugs that occur after their training data cutoffs, the study aims to determine if Mythos possesses unique power or if its performance is merely hype.

I never bought anything from clicking on a paid ad

The author expresses skepticism regarding the effectiveness of paid advertisements, noting they have never made a purchase by clicking on one. Consequently, they question which types of consumers actually engage with such ads to complete transactions.

1,700 free online courses from top universities

Over 1,700 free online courses from prestigious institutions such as Yale, MIT, and Harvard are available in subjects including archaeology, architecture, and art history. To access the course content without cost, learners must select the “audit” or “no certificate” options on platforms like Coursera and edX to avoid paying for credentials.

Space Force goes to (pretend) orbital war following record-fast Rocket Lab launch

Rocket Lab successfully placed the Pioneer satellite into orbit in less than 17 hours after receiving launch orders. The mission is designed to facilitate close-range maneuvers with True Anomaly’s Jackal satellite.