Waymo has received its first permit from the New York City Department of Transportation to begin testing autonomous vehicles in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn, marking the city's first official rollout of self-driving car trials. The program will initially deploy up to eight vehicles with safety drivers through late September, with the potential to extend and expand into other boroughs. CNBC reports: New York state law requires the company to have a driver behind the wheel to operate. "We're a tech-friendly administration and we're always looking for innovative ways to safely move our city forward," [Mayor Eric Adams] said in a release. "New York City is proud to welcome Waymo to test this new technology in Manhattan and Brooklyn, as we know this testing is only the first step in moving our city further into the 21st century."

The news comes just two months after the company said it filed permits to test its cars in the city with a trained specialist behind the wheel. [...] As part of the permit, Waymo must regularly meet and report data to DOT and work closely with law enforcement and emergency services.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Microsoft has reportedly stopped giving Chinese companies proof-of-concept exploit code for soon-to-be-disclosed vulnerabilities following last month's SharePoint zero-day attacks, which appear to be related to a leak in Redmond's early-bug-notification program. The software behemoth gives some software vendors early bug disclosures under its Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP), which typically delivers info two weeks before Patch Tuesday. MAPP participants sign a non-disclosure agreement, and in exchange get vulnerability details so that they can provide updated protections to customers more quickly.

According to Microsoft spokesperson David Cuddy, who spoke with Bloomberg about changes to the program, MAPP has begun limiting access to companies in "countries where they're required to report vulnerabilities to their governments," including China. Companies in these countries will no longer receive "proof of concept" exploit code, but instead will see "a more general written description" that Microsoft sends at the same time as patches, Cuddy told the news outlet. "A leak happened here somewhere," Dustin Childs, head of threat awareness at Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), told The Register in July. "And now you've got a zero-day exploit in the wild, and worse than that, you've got a zero-day exploit in the wild that bypasses the patch, which came out the next day."

Childs said the MAPP change "is a positive change, if a bit late. Anything Microsoft can do to help prevent leaks while still offering MAPP guidance is welcome."

"In the past, MAPP leaks were associated with companies out of China, so restricting information from flowing to these companies should help," Childs said. "The MAPP program remains a valuable resource for network defenders. Hopefully, Microsoft can squelch the leaks while sending out the needed information to companies that have proven their ability (and desire) to protect end users."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Clean-energy growth helped China's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall by 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, extending a declining trend that started in March 2024. From a report: The CO2 output of the nation's power sector -- its dominant source of emissions -- fell by 3% in the first half of the year, as growth in solar power alone matched the rise in electricity demand. The new analysis for Carbon Brief shows that record solar capacity additions are putting China's CO2 emissions on track to fall across 2025 as a whole.

Other key findings include:

The growth in clean power generation, some 270 terawatt hours (TWh) excluding hydro, significantly outpaced demand growth of 170TWh in the first half of the year.
Solar capacity additions set new records due to a rush before a June policy change, with 212 gigawatts (GW) added in the first half of the year.
This rush means solar is likely to set an annual record for growth in 2025, becoming China's single-largest source of clean power generation in the process.
Coal-power capacity could surge by as much as 80-100GW this year, potentially setting a new annual record, even as coal-fired electricity generation declines.
The use of coal to make synthetic fuels and chemicals is growing rapidly, climbing 20% in the first half of the year and helping add 3% to China's CO2 since 2020.
The coal-chemical industry is planning further expansion, which could add another 2% to China's CO2 by 2029, making the 2030 deadline for peaking harder to meet.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide September 1966

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

marikoroid has added a photo to the pool:

In Amsterdam zijn vier mensen uit een woning gered die vol was komen te staan met rook door een brand. De brand brak vrijdagavond laat uit op de eerste etage van een gebouw aan de J.J. Viottastraat in het Museumkwartier. De oorzaak van de brand is niet bekend.

De vier mensen bevonden zich op de tweede etage en konden door de rook niet naar buiten, meldt de Veiligheidsregio Amsterdam op X. Ze zijn gered met behulp van speciale maskers, waarmee ze werden aangesloten op de ademlucht van de brandweerlieden. Vanwege rookinhalatie zijn alle vier naar het ziekenhuis gebracht.

PYONGYANG (ANP) - Noord-Korea heeft Zuid-Korea ervan beschuldigd waarschuwingsschoten te hebben afgevuurd op Zuid-Koreaanse soldaten in de buurt van de grens. Het land waarschuwt dat de spanningen hierdoor kunnen oplopen tot een "onbeheersbaar" niveau. Seoul heeft nog niet op de beschuldigingen gereageerd.

Het incident vond dinsdag plaats toen Noord-Koreaanse soldaten bezig waren de zwaar versterkte grens, die het schiereiland verdeelt, permanent af te sluiten, meldde het staatspersbureau KCNA. Het citeerde daarbij een verklaring van luitenant-generaal Ko Jong Chol.

Ko noemde het incident een "ernstige provocatie". "Dit is een zeer ernstig precedent dat onvermijdelijk kan leiden tot een situatie aan de zuidelijke grens die kan escaleren tot een onbeheersbare confrontatie", voegde hij eraan toe.

De beschuldigingen komen twee dagen voor het bezoek van de nieuwe Zuid-Koreaanse president Lee Jae-myung aan Washington, die probeert de spanningen met Pyongyang enigszins te verminderen.

N i e u w bericht, informatie over aantal slachtoffers in eerste alinea.

PEMBROKE (ANP/AFP) - Op een snelweg in het westen van de Amerikaanse staat New York is een tourbus met ongeveer vijftig mensen over de kop geslagen toen de chauffeur de controle over het voertuig verloor. Er vielen zeker vijf doden en tientallen gewonden, aldus de politie.

De meeste passagiers waren Aziatisch of van Aziatische afkomst, onder wie Chinezen, Indiërs en Filipino's. Een politiewoordvoerder zei tegen verslaggevers dat de autoriteiten vermoeden dat er een kind onder de doden is.

Het ongeluk vond plaats op Interstate 90 in Pembroke, ongeveer 48 kilometer ten oosten van Buffalo. De bus was onderweg van de beroemde Niagarawatervallen naar New York City.

Sommige passagiers zaten lang vast in het wrak. Anderen werden uit de bus geslingerd toen deze over de kop sloeg, aldus de woordvoerder. De chauffeur overleefde het ongeluk, waar geen andere voertuigen bij betrokken waren.

rajbhoy has added a photo to the pool:

Skyline of Parramatta at sunset. From top of Woo-la-ra in
Wentworth Point, NSW Australia