Alvaro Lopez Ortega / 2026-07-23 Briefing

Created Thu, 23 Jul 2026 19:06:38 +0000 Modified Fri, 24 Jul 2026 19:06:54 +0000
4585 Words

Russian state hackers exploited a Zimbra zero-day to steal NATO emails; CISA warned many servers remain vulnerable. Iran-linked threat actors expanded targeting of US industrial control systems. Tesla spent $1 billion on chips and robots, with unproven Optimus and Robotaxi. Sony will end physical PlayStation discs by 2028, sparking backlash over digital ownership. UK invested £708 million in the Tempest fighter jet.

🔒 Security & Privacy

Russian zero-click attack on NATO emails

Russian state-sponsored hackers exploited an unpatched Zimbra zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-66376) to steal emails from NATO member organizations without user interaction, while a separate year-long phishing campaign has infected users immediately upon opening emails posing as Signal support. Both attacks, attributed to Russian actors, have targeted Western government and commercial entities, with CISA warning that many Zimbra servers remain vulnerable.

GitHub overhauls bug bounty program

GitHub is restructuring its bug bounty program into a two-tier system, cutting public rewards while increasing payouts for an invite-only group of proven researchers due to a surge of AI-generated reports. The platform is also imposing new limits on first-time researchers and introducing a signal requirement to reduce low-effort submissions.

Iran-linked crews are probing more flavors of US industrial kit

CISA has expanded its alert about Iran-linked threat actors targeting internet-facing industrial control systems beyond Rockwell Automation controllers to include a wider range of devices. The intruders are probing multiple manufacturers’ equipment used in critical infrastructure sectors.

Google Selfie Sign-In with Liveness Detection

Google has introduced a new account recovery method that allows users to verify their identity by recording a short selfie video, including moving their head side to side, to prove they are not a deepfake. The feature uses liveness detection and is designed for extreme scenarios such as device theft or amnesia, rolling out globally to most accounts.

Talking smack about a doctor got him access to private medical files

A person gained unauthorized access to private medical records by using social engineering tactics instead of a working security badge, talking their way into the records room.

Silent Replacement of Trusted macOS App Executables

A macOS vulnerability allows an attacker with current user code execution to silently replace the main executable of a trusted app (e.g., Signal) without triggering security warnings, then relaunch it to impersonate the app in permission prompts for Keychain and TCC-protected data. Apple has decided not to fix this issue.

US Government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system

The US Department of Justice is prosecuting Sam Tunick for having GrapheneOS on his phone, an operating system that can wipe data with a passcode, under a federal statute that criminalizes destroying property to prevent seizure. Experts say this may be the first time the law has been applied to a privacy-focused OS. Tunick was interrogated at an airport without a warrant or lawyer, and his phone was erased after he provided the passcode.

Free way to get your data out of ChatGPT Business accounts

scrapemychats is a tool that exports all ChatGPT conversations and attached files from business or Team accounts (which lack an official export button) into a searchable, offline archive. It runs locally using the user’s own Chrome session and never transmits data outside the machine. The export includes a self-contained HTML viewer with full-text search, categorisation, and inline media.

Fourth Circuit: Border Agents Can Search Your Phone by Hand, No Suspicion Needed

The Fourth Circuit ruled that manual searches of electronic devices at the U.S. border require no suspicion of wrongdoing, a lower standard than forensic searches which previously needed individualized suspicion. The court rejected arguments that all border device searches should require a warrant based on probable cause, allowing invasive manual searches without any justification.

Leaked Document Shows the Surveillance Tech at ICE’s Fingertips

A leaked document reveals the extensive surveillance technology available to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detailing tools and capabilities at the agency’s disposal.

🤖 AI & Machine Learning

Model Context Protocol prepares to break with its stateful past

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is undergoing its most significant overhaul since launch, removing sessions and eliminating little-used features. The changes will require substantial rework for homebrew implementations.

Runway launches Media Router, first for generative media, expanding from AI video to AI infra

Runway launched Runway Media Router, which it says is the first model router built specifically for generative media, automatically selecting the best image, video, or audio model based on a developer’s priorities for quality, speed, or cost. The tool is part of the Runway Dev platform, marking the company’s shift from an AI video startup to an infrastructure provider for generative media.

Prompt Caching In Agents

Prompt caching enables large language models to reuse stored attention states for repeated prefix tokens in coding agent sessions, reducing latency and cost. However, it is fragile—changes like tool definitions or model switches can invalidate the cache, forcing full recomputation. This cache behavior influences latency, cost, tool design, session design, and product features for coding agents.

Transform your fund into something you can talk to

AngelList Link is an MCP server that allows fund GPs to ask plain-English questions about their funds—such as capital call status, LP holdings, and valuations—to AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT, receiving instant, verifiable answers from AngelList’s single-source-of-truth system. It eliminates the need to email fund administrators or reconcile data across disconnected tools, offering daily financials and read-only access today, with write capabilities planned for future agentic fund management.

Palmier Pro – Open-source macOS video editor built for AI

Palmier Pro is a new open-source video editor for macOS that integrates AI generation and a local MCP server, allowing AI agents like Claude to manage projects, edit timelines, and generate media directly within the editor. The tool aims to automate the mechanical aspects of video editing, reducing the back-and-forth between separate AI platforms and traditional editors. It is currently free and supports macOS 26, with AI features requiring a free sign-up for credits.

Writing fingerprint analysis of responses reveals Kimi’s similarity to Claude

The article describes a method using trigram entropy and cross-entropy to compare LLM models by analyzing their text outputs, revealing stylistic similarities such as Kimi’s resemblance to Claude. It also identifies distinguishing words and phrases by evaluating frequency, rarity, and statistical significance against a pooled background.

Honey Bee Colony Monitoring via Audio IoT Sensors, Tensorgrams and RNNs

A new method for monitoring honey bee colony strength uses modulation tensorgrams that preserve temporal dynamics, fed into convolutional and recurrent neural networks. On the UrBAN dataset of over 3,000 hours of audio, this approach improves accuracy and cross-hive generalizability over prior methods, enabling robust acoustic monitoring of colony strength.

Petals: Run LLMs at home, BitTorrent-style

Petals is a BitTorrent-style system that enables running and fine-tuning large language models (like Llama 3.1 up to 405B) on consumer hardware by loading only a portion of the model and joining a peer network. It achieves single-batch inference up to 6 tokens/sec for Llama 2 (70B) and supports custom sampling, fine-tuning, and hidden state access via a PyTorch/Transformers API. The project is part of the BigScience research workshop.

🔧 Developer & Open Source

Firefox 153 contains itself while Thunderbird 153 fixes almost everything

Mozilla’s Firefox 153 introduces features to isolate users’ online identities, while the MZLA-led Thunderbird 153 delivers a major update addressing numerous fixes.

agent-shell 0.63 updates

Agent-shell 0.63 introduces extensible markdown rendering, activity grouping for tool usage and thinking, inline image rendering, and per-agent MCP server configuration. It also adds diff improvements, out-of-turn notification support, viewport refinements, and a notification-adapter mechanism for agent-specific preprocessing.

The PImpl idiom and the C++26 std::indirect type

The PImpl idiom hides implementation details behind an opaque pointer to separate interface from implementation and reduce compile-time dependencies, but typical C++ implementations using raw pointers suffer from issues like constness not propagating to the implementation object and undefined behavior from moved-from objects. C++26 is expected to simplify the idiom’s implementation, likely through the new std::indirect type.

How MVCC and Transactions Work in RocksDB

RocksDB implements MVCC by assigning each write a monotonically increasing sequence number; readers capture the published sequence at read start and only see keys with sequence numbers at or below that point, providing a consistent snapshot. This allows concurrent reads and writes without blocking, building on the LSM-tree’s inherent versioning from immutable memtables and SSTs. Compaction garbage-collects older versions, guided by sequence numbers to avoid removing in-flight data.

Vulkan and Software Rendering Tutorials

A 2016 Vulkan tutorial is outdated; readers should consult vulkan.org/learn instead. Separately, a tutorial series teaches building a software renderer from scratch in 500 lines of C++ (using only a TGA image class) to understand how modern graphics APIs like OpenGL and Vulkan work internally, typically taking 10–20 hours to complete.

Carbon Memory Safety first deep dive

The article titled “Carbon Memory Safety first deep dive” is inaccessible, displaying only a sign-in prompt with no substantive content. The title suggests it may discuss memory safety in the Carbon programming language, but the actual article content is behind a login wall.

Spatial languages: writing code in 2D

The article proposes writing code in two-dimensional space, using vertical layout for expressions like a 3-arity infix operator @@ that toggles a target when two inputs are true. It demonstrates vertical chaining to create a three-way toggle and solves a puzzle to reset a mutable variable within the same expression, drawing a parallel to quantum computing’s CCCX gate.

Wanix — Wasm-native Unix sandboxing for the web

Wanix enables running and interacting with real Wasm and x86 programs fully sandboxed in the browser without a server, using custom HTML elements like <wanix-term> and <wanix-task>. Inspired by Plan 9, it creates a Unix-like namespace environment that supports tasks, terminals, virtual machines, and bind mounts for building and managing namespaces.

Justif: Knuth-Plass justification and microtypography for the web

justif is a web tool that achieves publication-grade text justification with interactive controls for hyphenation, protrusion, and expansion. It enables side-by-side comparison with browser rendering and includes sample texts, typefaces, and metrics.

Pip 26.2: –only-deps solves 16 years of app deployment hacks

The new --only-deps flag for pip will install dependencies from pyproject.toml without installing the package itself, ending 16 years of manual workarounds like pip install -e . or third-party tools. This simplifies dependency management for non-library projects such as application backends and scripts.

Building on ATProto

The author wants to build local-first, user-controlled review apps on ATProto to replace platforms like Yelp, but finds the protocol’s current development disappointing and not on track to support interoperable, public data standards. They stress the need for both public and private review options and user ownership of data, which existing applications fail to provide.

JEP 540: Simple JSON API (Now in Incubator)

JEP 540 proposes a simple, standard API for parsing and generating RFC 8259-compliant JSON documents within the JDK, eliminating the need for external libraries for common tasks. The API is designed to be small, easy to learn, and focused on strict conformance, with goals of low ceremony, readable code, and resilient handling of missing or unexpected values. It is an incubating feature that does not aim to replace existing JSON libraries like Jackson or Gson.

Learn WebGPU for C++

This documentation offers a step-by-step guide to using the WebGPU graphics API for native 3D applications in C++ on Windows, Linux, and macOS. It provides flexible paths for both beginners and experienced users, with options for C++ or raw C API and support for wgpu-native or Dawn backends. The guide is a work in progress, using status indicators to mark the completeness of each chapter.

Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

LearnOpenGL is a free online book that teaches modern (core-profile) OpenGL from basics to advanced topics with clear examples, aimed at both beginners and experienced users. The content is also available as a physical print edition for purchase and as a free PDF download.

Whetuu – a zero-config cross-shell prompt written in Zig

Whetuu is a cross-shell prompt and history picker installable via a single command that places its binary in ~/.whetuu/bin and adds two lines to the user’s shell config on macOS and Linux. The modular prompt displays git status, toolchain versions, and other segments, and includes a history picker filtered by directory with syntax highlighting and Nerd Font glyphs.

macOS menu-bar manager for SSH port forwards

A macOS menu-bar app provides local SSH port forwarding with no external dependencies and native performance. It runs directly on macOS without requiring additional software.

Remux – an open-source tmux workspace designed for iPhone

Remux is an open-source native iOS client for remote tmux workspaces, built on Ghostty, that lets users manage sessions, windows, and panes with a mobile-first interface. It includes features such as file and localhost previews, direct SSH with keychain storage, and a shortcut palette for commands. The app is currently available as a public beta on TestFlight.

You can now run same OCI images as containers or Firecracker microVMs

Pullrun is a lightweight CLI and runtime (under 25 MB total) that runs the same OCI image as a container, Firecracker microVM, Apple Silicon VM, Kubernetes workload, or AI agent task without requiring a daemon, overlayfs, or separate VM images. It uses a content-addressed DAG store for zero-copy reads and peer-to-peer image distribution. The project also includes a Kubernetes CRI shim, MCP server for AI agents, policy engine, and encrypted secrets support.

Emacs Is a Lispboard

Emacs is conceived as a “Lispboard”—a customizable, all-in-one environment where a Lisp interpreter integrates tools like a terminal, email client, and code editor into a single window. The article argues that Emacs’s true natural rival is the web browser, as both aim to be cross-platform, extensible habitats for building workflows, rather than competing with other editors or file managers.

Brow6el, a terminal web browser with graphics support via Chromium, has moved its main repository to tangled.org after the author’s other projects were no longer welcome on Codeberg. It supports Sixel and Kitty graphics protocols with features including tiled rendering, mouse support, vim-style modal controls, and bookmark management, though Kitty image support has limitations over SSH and on older versions.

Code mode yields a 99.2% cost reduction in our systems

A script that makes 26 internal calls instead of 26 individual tool calls reduced context characters by ~126× (from ~3.26M to 25.8K), tokens by ~99.2% (from ~815K to ~6.45K), and cost from ~$2.44 to $0.02, completing in 13.12 seconds compared to an estimated 2–6.5 minutes.

Cruller: Bun’s Zig Runtime, Continued on Zig 0.16

Cruller is a production-focused fork of the last Zig-based Bun runtime, ported to vanilla Zig 0.16 and stripped of development tools, retaining only features like HTTP servers, WebSockets, and fetch. It achieves an 18% smaller binary size (73 MiB vs. 88.5 MiB) with near-identical performance, but is a work in progress targeting Linux x64 and is not intended as a full Bun replacement.

💼 Business & Finance

Tesla burns through a billion as Musk bets the farm on chips and bots

Tesla has spent $1 billion on chips and robots as CEO Elon Musk doubles down on these technologies. The company acknowledges that its Optimus humanoid robot remains “very complex,” while its Robotaxi service is being designed to avoid running over pets.

Microsoft is testing free, ad-supported cloud gaming for Xbox Insiders, limited to one-hour sessi…

Microsoft is testing free, ad-supported cloud gaming for Xbox Insiders, allowing them to stream games they own in one-hour sessions with ads only playing beforehand. The test is limited to select games and a finite period, offering an alternative to paid subscriptions.

Amazon adds Luna to Prime Video via Games tab, with Hogwarts Legacy and EA Sports FC for Fire TV.

Amazon is integrating its Luna cloud gaming service into Prime Video via a new Games tab, starting with titles like Hogwarts Legacy, EA Sports FC 26, and Clue for Fire TV users. The move aims to boost discovery and appeal to casual gamers, rather than competing directly with consoles.

Texas Instruments Q2 revenue up 23% to $5.46B, beat est.; net income up 53%; Q3 forecast above est.

Texas Instruments reported Q2 revenue of $5.46 billion, up 23% year over year and above estimates, with net income rising 53% to $1.98 billion. The company forecast Q3 revenue between $5.65 billion and $6.15 billion, also exceeding analyst expectations.

ServiceNow invests $40M in BusinessNext at $700M valuation, ~5% stake

ServiceNow has invested $40 million in Indian banking software firm BusinessNext, valuing it at $700 million and taking a roughly 5% stake. The partnership aims to jointly offer AI-driven automation to financial institutions, combining ServiceNow’s enterprise workflow platform with BusinessNext’s banking expertise. BusinessNext, which serves over 70 banks globally, will gain access to ServiceNow’s global sales network to accelerate its expansion.

What happened to TheNumbers.com

TheNumbers.com, a leading film data site, vanished in March 2026 after being overwhelmed by automated bot and AI crawler traffic, reappearing with much of its content removed. Founder Bruce Nash confirmed that the site collapsed under unmanageable scraping from AI agents, highlighting the fragility of data-rich websites to such attacks.

Stop pretending billionaires built the future

High taxation on the rich during the mid-20th century fostered economic equality, innovation, and broad prosperity, contrasting with today’s low tax rates that have fueled inequality. The article refutes the claim that billionaires are necessary for progress, citing how forced higher wages and reinvestment under high taxes drove American growth. It calls for raising wages and equity for workers rather than relying on billionaires’ voluntary philanthropy.

⚖️ Policy & Regulation

Stats watchdog prescribes stronger caveats for NHS Palantir claims

Health service told to ensure ministers don’t mistake before-and-after comparisons for cause and effect.

Instagram to remove ‘pickup line’ and other harassment videos shot on Meta glasses in public

Instagram is banning videos shot on Meta glasses that involve harassing strangers in public, including pickup line pranks and obnoxious behavior. Head Adam Mosseri announced the policy, and Meta has already deactivated two large pickup artist accounts for violating the rule.

China resumes robotaxi permits after safety review on April Baidu outage

China has resumed issuing robotaxi licenses, which were suspended in April after a widespread outage involving over 100 Baidu robotaxis in Wuhan. The gradual resumption follows a comprehensive industry-wide safety review that concluded in late June.

On Accountability

The author attended ICST 2024, where a workshop on AI in software testing raised concerns about LLM research reliability and realistic expectations. However, the most impactful moment was Mike Hoye’s keynote, which criticized the software industry’s lack of accountability, resonating with the author’s view that LLMs are worsening a culture of avoiding responsibility for code quality and user impact.

UK households free to install plug-in balcony solar panels from end of August

The UK government has passed legislation allowing plug-in balcony solar panels to be sold by major retailers from August 27. These DIY systems, which plug into a standard wall socket, can generate up to 800 watts and save households £70–£110 annually. The change enables renters and flat owners without rooftop access to generate their own solar electricity.

Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It’s time for change

Nearly a quarter of American workers remain in unwanted jobs to retain health insurance, suppressing wages and stifling innovation by preventing entrepreneurs from starting new ventures. The article argues that this “job lock” harms industry innovation and calls for universal healthcare reform, noting that even libertarians recognize the flaws in the employer-based system.

EU fines Google €890M for competition breaches over search and apps

The EU fined Google €890 million for violating the Digital Markets Act by prioritizing its own services in search results and restricting app developers from directing users to cheaper offers. The commission ordered Google to treat third-party services fairly and allow developers to promote external offers, noting that the company has begun testing compliance changes. Google can appeal, but the EU emphasized its sovereign right to regulate US tech companies.

Map of Every Clean Water Act (Npdes) Discharge Violation in the US

A map of all NPDES-permitted facilities in the US displays their Clean Water Act compliance status, including violations. The data is updated every two weeks from the EPA.

🖥️ Hardware & Gadgets

UK pumps £708 million into its future fighter jet

The UK has invested £708 million into the Tempest future fighter jet program, coinciding with a hypersonic target contract and BAE Systems’ unveiling of a ’loyal wingman’ drone. This funding aims to advance next-generation combat air capabilities.

Sony in hot water as axing PlayStation discs triggers opposition tsunami

Sony plans to cease physical disc production for new PlayStation games by January 2028, citing a shift toward digital preference. Gamers oppose the move, arguing it strengthens Sony’s monopoly, restricts access in regions without PSN, and eliminates the resale market and price competition. Critics warn that digital “ownership” is merely revocable access, as seen in past license deletions.

Primate Labs launches Geekbench 7 with larger datasets and new video/audio tests.

Primate Labs has released Geekbench 7, featuring larger datasets for CPUs and GPUs, new audio and video encoding/decoding tests including AV1 and Opus, and a redesigned multi-core benchmark. Despite these changes, the tool looks and functions similarly to Geekbench 6. A Pro license remains priced at $99, with a discount until August 6th.

NerdLens: Mirror your computer with cardboard VR

NerdLens is an open-source proof-of-concept that streams a computer screen to an iPhone over a wired USB connection, using Google Cardboard as a VR headset. It captures desktop frames, compresses them as JPEG, and renders them in a stereoscopic view. The project targets iOS, requires manual setup with Unity and Tauri, and is intended for experimentation rather than consumer use.

Hybrid-Electric Aicraft Engine Targeting 30% Fuel Efficiency

Pratt & Whitney Canada has begun ground testing of a flight-standard hybrid-electric propulsion system for the RTX Hybrid-Electric Flight Demonstrator in Quebec. The system combines a thermal engine with a 1-megawatt electric motor and battery, and will be installed on a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-100 for a first flight expected in 2027. The project aims to demonstrate up to 30% improved fuel efficiency for regional turboprop missions.

New Framework Desktop Option with AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 and 192GB Memory

The Framework Desktop is a compact 4.5L computer that delivers high-end gaming and AI performance using standard PC parts. A new configuration will feature an AMD Ryzen™ AI Max+ PRO 495 processor, 192GB of unified memory, a 40-CU Radeon 8065S GPU, and 131 TOPS of AI compute, with optional Linux pre-installation.

Amiga 1000: Ten years ahead of its time

The Commodore Amiga 1000, released in July 1985, featured preemptive multitasking, advanced color graphics (up to 4,096 colors), and stereo sound—technology considered a decade ahead of its time. However, its high cost (around $2,000 in ideal configuration) and early software instability limited its market impact.