According to The Information (paywalled), Apple reportedly moved up the release of new Mac mini and Mac Studio models after unexpectedly strong enterprise demand for Macs capable of running AI workloads. MacRumors reports: Apple normally releases new Mac models in the autumn, closer to October or November, making this week's announcement unusually early, falling just before the anticipated arrival of new iPhone models. The Information says that the AI-driven boom in Mac Studio and Mac mini sales is behind the early launch. Apple noticeably promoted the ability to link multiple Mac Studios together into a single, more capable system for running large frontier AI models, a feature aimed at business and developer customers rather than everyday consumers.

Apple highlighted the Mac mini and Mac Studio's shift toward business buyers in June, with a "Business at the Park" event involving executives from major companies Ford, Disney, and Anthropic. The Mac mini was said to be the "darling" of the event. Even so, enterprise's rush toward powerful desktop Macs more broadly took Apple by surprise.

The company reportedly did not possess an engineering team dedicated to business customers or staff focused on developer relations, and lacked an enterprise AI strategy. Businesses that approached Apple asking to buy access to the company's Private Cloud Compute infrastructure were reportedly turned down. Apple is instead leaning on partners such as WebAI and Mount Thor, which provide AI tools and execution environments built on Apple hardware.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Broadcom is launching "TrueSource," an effort to curate and secure open-source components used with its Tanzu platform, including Spring, RabbitMQ, and libraries across Java, Python, and Node.js. "The idea is to provide a set of solutions focused on providing clean and secure artefacts," Purnima Padmanabhan, vice president of Broadcom's Tanzu Division, told The Register. "We choose and build every Spring library, databases, other Java components," she said. The Register reports: Padmanabhan said that promise means VMware will also provide "TrueSource trusted artifacts" for code that is not part of Spring, including the wider Java ecosystem, Python, and Node.js. "Broadcom's curation process ensures that the libraries conform to a reference architecture and are supportable by the maintainers of record," according to a company statement. "Thousands of engineers across Broadcom's software divisions scan, fix, contribute to, and consume them every day."

A VMware spokesperson told The Register the Broadcom business unit "will work with and support maintainers on open source software and we will provide fixes to open source upstream for any active projects." "With Spring and RabbitMQ, we are the maintainers. For other open source software, we will work with the maintainers. We believe that the community maintainers must remain the source of truth," the spokesperson said.

This is just the sort of contribution that the open-source community wants vendors to do to reflect the value they extract from software they did not create alone. It's also the sort of thing vendors sometimes conclude they need to do to keep products based on FOSS viable.

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Kalshi has issued its first-ever lifetime ban to former U.S. Rep. George Santos after concluding he failed to fully cooperate with an insider-trading investigation. He is also being fined $71,356, according to a filing (PDF) on its website. Engadget reports:
It was reported in June that Santos was under investigation from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over insider trading. Prediction markets like Kalshi allow users to buy contracts or shares in the outcome of events. Participants don't necessarily have to wait for an event to resolve before selling these contracts and cashing in.

Santos allegedly bought contracts on Kalshi indicating that he would not attend this year's State of the Union speech after weather disrupted his travel plans. According to the CFTC, Santos then sold those contracts for a profit after claiming on social media that he would be in attendance. The former congressman is said to have made more than $17,500 through this scheme, which Kalshi reportedly detected and flagged to authorities. In July, Santos agreed to pay over $35,000 to settle the CFTC's claims against him. The agency also issued him a three-year trading ban.

Kalshi, however, doesn't plan to allow Santos back on its platform in 2029 (or anytime after that). The company confirmed to The Wall Street Journal this was the first time it had given anyone a lifetime ban and that it did so because Santos didn't fully cooperate with its investigation. He can appeal the decision to the CTFC.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey is warning that advanced "frontier" AI models could materially increase cyber risk across the global financial system by making attacks faster, cheaper, and more scalable. In a letter to G20 finance officials, he said financial firms need stronger defenses and contingency plans for simultaneous disruptions. CNBC reports: Writing in his capacity as chair of the Financial Stability Board, an international body that coordinates policy and makes recommendations to national authorities, Bailey identified the potential impact of frontier AI -- which refers to the most advanced AI models -- on cyber risk as "the most immediate concern" for the financial system.

"Frontier AI may have the ability materially to alter the speed, scale and economics of cyber risk, which could undermine market confidence system-wide, especially due to highly concentrated third-party service providers," Bailey said. "Recent developments have also highlighted to me that many jurisdictions do not have the protocols in place to manage the development, release, and deployment of advanced frontier AI models, heightening risks for the financial sector and beyond," he added.

[...] Financial institutions and technology providers will need to improve vulnerability management, response and recovery capabilities -- "and prepare for more severe scenarios involving simultaneous disruption across multiple firms or shared technology dependencies," Bailey said. Alongside new AI models, Bailey cited "fragilities" in sovereign debt markets, the growing use of debt by investors in equity markets and stretched asset valuations, particularly AI-related investments, as among his concerns.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

John from Brisbane has added a photo to the pool:

The Military Jetty at the southern end of Golden Beach in Caloundra, Queensland (a throwback to WWII) looks across the now closed off northern end of Pumicestone Passage. What was north Bribie Island in the distance is now connected to the mainland. A few fishermen and a pelican are busying themselves hopefully on the jetty.

Meanwhile a leafless and dead tree, probably a Pandanus has actually been placed on the beach. It's certainly not naturally there! Why?

The rock and location of the tree are indicative of human intervention.

braart has added a photo to the pool:

Mundi- Mundi NSW - Mad MAX Film Location

braart has added a photo to the pool:

House getting destroyed

braart has added a photo to the pool:

Sydney

New Order

Pearl Jam

The smile on Declan Rice’s face a few minutes from time said it all. The Arsenal midfielder had just shut down Ian Maatsen as the Aston Villa full-back zoomed into the box. Arsenal were hardly imperious, Bukayo Saka scoring the only goal, but Unai Emery’s side struggled to hurt the champions, David Raya untroubled. The records will show Villa have lost their first two league matches of a season without scoring for the first time since 2002 but, despite successive defeats, this time there was no capitulation.

For Villa, this was a marked improvement on defeat at Brighton in their opener. After 31 minutes in their last game, they trailed 4-0 and after 40 were down to 10 men. Here they could take plenty of encouragement from a promising first-half performance, the debutants Zion Suzuki and Nicolas Jackson impressing, having taken the Nos 1 and 11 vacated by Emiliano Martínez and Ollie Watkins respectively. Suzuki’s eye for a pass was particularly noticeable, pinging 50-yard balls to the 19-year-old George Hemmings and John McGinn, the pair operating on opposite flanks.

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Justices’ 5-4 ruling permits Trump administration appeal to block lower court order halting above-ground work

A divided US supreme court has permitted Donald Trump to continue building his controversial $400m White House ballroom amid legal challenges.

In a 5-4 ruling, the justices permitted the Trump administration’s request to ⁠block a lower court order which had halted above-ground construction of the project while a lawsuit by a historic preservation group seeks to block it.

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WASHINGTON (ANP/RTR) - De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump mag doorgaan met de bouw van zijn balzaal bij het Witte Huis zolang de zaak daarover loopt. Het Amerikaanse Hooggerechtshof heeft maandag een tijdelijke bouwstop, opgelegd door een lagere rechter, geschorst.

De National Trust for Historic Preservation, een organisatie die zich inzet voor monumentenbeheer, had vorig jaar een zaak aangespannen tegen de bouw in de hoop deze in zijn geheel te verbieden via de rechter. Trump was daarmee begonnen zonder vooraf toestemming te vragen van het Congres en had daarvoor bovendien in allerijl de historische oostvleugel van het Witte Huis gesloopt.

In het acht pagina's tellende besluit concludeert het Hof nu dat de organisatie vermoedelijk niet het recht had de bouw aan te vechten. De argumentatie richtte zich op de bouw, en niet de sloop van de East Wing. Bovendien zou het doorkruisen van het gehele project de staat vermoedelijk "niet te repareren schade" berokkenen. Over of de bouw van de balzaal in zichzelf juridisch is toegestaan, laat het Hof zich niet uit.

NEW YORK (ANP) - De beurzen in New York zijn maandag met verliezen de handel uitgegaan. Beleggers maken zich zorgen over het opnieuw opgelaaide geweld in het Midden-Oosten. Daardoor stegen de olieprijzen, waardoor ook de inflatiezorgen toenamen.

De Dow-Jonesindex sloot 0,7 procent lager op 53.185,90 punten. De breed samengestelde S&P 500 ging 0,3 procent omlaag tot 7686,14 punten en techgraadmeter Nasdaq verloor 0,1 procent tot 26.370,89 punten.

Brentolie werd 2,6 procent duurder op 90,43 dollar per vat en Amerikaanse olie kostte 3 procent meer op 85,93 dollar per vat. Olieproducenten Chevron en ExxonMobil wonnen 2,1 en 2,7 procent dankzij de hogere olieprijzen. Luchtvaartmaatschappijen hadden juist last van de stijgende olieprijzen. Delta Airlines, American Airlines en United Airlines daalden tot 2,6 procent.

NEW YORK (ANP) - De Spaanse tennisser Carlos Alcaraz heeft eenvoudig de tweede ronde bereikt op de US Open. De als tweede geplaatste titelverdediger was in New York met 6-4 6-4 6-4 te sterk voor de Rus Roman Safiullin. De tweevoudig winnaar van het grandslamtoernooi treft in de volgende ronde de Portugees Jaime Faria.

Alcaraz (23) speelde zijn eerste wedstrijd in het enkelspel in meer dan vier maanden tijd. Hij kampte lang met een polsblessure. De huidige nummer 3 van de wereld deed afgelopen week al wel mee in het gemengd dubbel op de US Open. Samen met de Amerikaanse Serena Williams verloor hij in de kwartfinales.

Alcaraz had tegen Safiullin aan een break genoeg om de eerste set te winnen. Hij draaide in de tweede set een 2-0-achterstand om, waarna hij in de derde set een vroege break niet meer weggaf.

Zevenvoudig grandslamwinnaar Alcaraz won de US Open in 2022 en 2025. Dit jaar veroverde hij voor het eerst de titel op de Australian Open. Door zijn blessure ontbrak hij op Roland Garros en Wimbledon.

AMSTERDAM (ANP) - CDA-leider Henri Bontenbal heeft in de HJ Schoo-lezing gezinspeeld op uitbreidingen van de erfbelasting. "Wij willen een samenleving waarin je kansen meer afhangen van wat je zelf doet, dan van wat je erft", betoogde hij in de Rode Hoed in Amsterdam. "Daarom moeten we ons afvragen of de balans in ons belastingstelsel nog de juiste is."

Bontenbal waarschuwde voor een "golf aan erfenissen" die op Nederland afkomt en vermogensongelijkheid kan doen toenemen. "Zo ontstaat als we niet uitkijken een nieuwe scheidslijn, tussen jongeren die hulp krijgen bij hun eerste huis en jongeren die alles zelf moeten opbouwen."

In het CDA-programma van de afgelopen Tweede Kamerverkiezingen staat al de wens om schenken aantrekkelijker te maken dan erven. In zijn toespraak ging Bontenbal een stap verder, bevestigde hij na afloop tegenover het ANP. Hij wil een fiscale constructie voor schenkingen op papier aanpakken die belasting kan schelen bij de erfenis. "Ik vind eigenlijk niet dat je het daarvoor zou moeten gebruiken."

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo: