An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: You'll now be able to use selfie videos to log into your Google account. It has long been possible to log into Google using your face, via your phone's face unlock or if your passkey login uses biometrics for verification. This is yet another option to get into your account using your face to authenticate your identity, which could be especially useful if you don't have access to the phone or computer you typically use or if you got locked out of your account and none of the other log-in options are working.

[...] Google will ask you to turn your head in certain ways during the verification and every time you use the option to log in. The company says it's to fend off impersonation attempts, such as deepfake videos, and prove you're currently in front of the camera. It will, of course, have to save your selfie video and use it for comparison for future logins.The company says it will encrypt your video and only use to help you sign in, but if you ever change your mind, you can delete it from your Google account. It's worth noting the option is currently unavailable for Workspace accounts, child accounts and those enrolled in Google's Advanced Protection Program.

You can set it up and give it a try at g.co/signin-selfie.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Right On Photography has added a photo to the pool:

On a trip to Sydney yesterday I managed a few shots from North Head towards South Head and down the harbour to the city. Best shown as a panorama

‘Wave of optimism’ is sparked by prospect of new PM, England football team’s progress and hot weather

Consumer confidence in the UK jumped this month by its biggest margin for nearly three years as the prospect of Andy Burnham becoming prime minister became almost certain.

The data company GfK said a “Burnham bounce” along with a strong run by the men’s England football team at the World Cup and sunny weather had lifted the mood of consumers in its long-running monthly survey.

Continue reading...

The powerful politician was no stranger to controversy, but brazenly defying a ban on surrogacy that he had long defended, was the last straw

Up until last week, Jens Spahn was, by all accounts, a model of political success in Germany. At just 22, he was elected to the Bundestag for the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), and rose steadily through the ranks of the party. He was a leading official in the finance ministry, led the ministry of health through Covid and, in 2025, became his party’s leader in parliament, arguably the second-most powerful post in the country. Controversies – and there were many in more than two decades in politics – did not seem to stymie his rise to power.

So when Spahn was made to resign after announcing that he had become a father after he and his husband used a surrogate mother in the US, there was a moment of disbelief among those who thought him a Teflon political operator immune to scandal. Why was surrogacy the issue that finally brought him down? That this was the final straw for his party revealed how, in the conservative Germany of today, reproductive politics can mark a red line.

Tania Roettger is a journalist based in Berlin

Continue reading...

Writing from year after gross indecency arrest challenges ‘isolated mathematician’ image, says Cambridge academic

When people think of Alan Turing, they might imagine he was arrogant, isolated, humourless, tortured. A better way of remembering the father of modern computing would be, an academic argues, as “playful, funny, cheeky, literary, and someone who really liked sex”.

The Cambridge University English literature professor Sarah Dillon has transcribed and studied a little-known short story that Turing wrote in the year after his arrest in Manchester for gross indecency.

Continue reading...

Black-crowned night heron one of many species thriving at Holnicote Estate where river ‘reset’ has transformed area into lush oasis

A rare black-crowned night heron has been spotted on an estate in the south-west of England where an innovative river “reset” is transforming the area into an oasis for birdlife.

The heron was caught on camera in a jungly corner of the Holnicote Estate, where conservation experts have been restoring the landscape by allowing a river to return to its natural course.

Continue reading...

Our lovable yet unruly boxer Dusty forced me to wonder: if a dog has no morals, how do you teach it to be ‘good’?

By William Davies. Read by John Robins

Read the text version here

Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/longreadpod

Continue reading...

Versions of Amy Winehouse and hundreds of other musicians are generating millions for beleaguered UK venues. But what is the emotional toll for the imitators, and are they pushing out original artists?

As peak heatwave sun beams down on to a field in Derbyshire, Amy Winehouse tells the crowd she is in need of hydration – so Robbie Williams fetches her a drink. Elsewhere, members of the public stop the Beastie Boys for selfies, Fred Durst grooves along as Diana Ross covers Al Green, and shirtless teenagers form a circle pit during Korn as a woman sits knitting in a camping chair just behind them. James Brown and Prince turn out to be the same artist – just dressed up in different clothes.

These are all scenes from Replika festival last month, which won the Guinness world record for the biggest tribute festival, with 108 acts performing across a very sweaty weekend. The punning deserves an accolade of its own: acts included Catfishing the Bottlemen, Pearl Scam, Wrong Jovi and Iffy Clyro.

Continue reading...

Irish politicians concerned about Daniel Tatlow-Devally’s treatment in jail want Micheál Martin to send observers to Ulm 5 trial

A cross-party delegation of Irish politicians has urged Dublin to send observers to a high-security trial of pro-Palestinian activists in Germany and to raise concerns about the Irish defendant’s detention when the German chancellor visits next week.

Mairéad Farrell of Sinn Féin, a member of the seven-member delegation, said she and her colleagues had attended the hearing in Stuttgart on Wednesday of the so-called Ulm 5 activists, who are facing charges over an attack on an Israeli arms company.

Continue reading...

Since I started doing search and rescue five years ago, I have found seven survivors. Sadly, the number I find dead is higher

In 2012, I was a student and had arrived in Taiwan from the Czech Republic. I soon discovered something that interested me far more than my studies: the mountains of Taiwan. I would leave the campus to explore untouched trails near Taipei. I was obsessed with old maps, often looking for routes that had vanished from modern ones, and hiking paths that no one had taken for decades.

I stayed in Taiwan because of my love for the mountains – there are more than 250 peaks that exceed 3,000 metres. Among the local hiking community, I became known for my speed and knowledge of remote regions.

Continue reading...