An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Apple has reportedly sent legal letters to dozens of former Apple employees now working at OpenAI, telling them to preserve potentially relevant documents and communications as it continues to pursue its trade secret lawsuit against the AI company. The Financial Times (paywalled) reports that Apple has targeted around 40 former employees with legal preservation letters, acting on its belief that the alleged misappropriation of confidential information may extend beyond the individuals named in its original complaint.

The development follows Apple's lawsuit filed last week against OpenAI, in which the company alleges a coordinated effort to obtain confidential information relating to its hardware engineering and product development. Apple claims OpenAI recruited key engineers, including former Apple executives Tang Tan and Chang Liu, and benefited from proprietary designs, manufacturing processes, and other trade secrets. Tan is OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer and a 24-year Apple veteran who led product design, while Liu is on the hardware team at OpenAI after working as a senior system electrical engineer at Apple.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ABC News reports that White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez allegedly made more than $100,000 betting on Kalshi markets tied to what President Trump would say in speeches, using his access to prepared remarks and last-minute edits. ABC News reports: According to the sources, Kalshi alerted its regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to the suspicious activity on its "Mentions" market, where users can bet on whether specific words, phrases or topics are uttered during a public speech. "Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators," Kalshi's head of enforcement, Bobby DeNault, said in a statement provided to ABC News.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday afternoon, following ABC News' report, that Perez has been put on unpaid administrative leave. Leavitt said she spoke with President Trump about it, and he thought it was a "disgrace" and made the decision himself to put Perez on unpaid leave. Leavitt said she was unaware of any other White House staffers who have made such trades. "The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staffers and officials to follow," said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle when contacted by ABC News.

In addition to February's State of the Union address, sources said CFTC investigators discovered that Perez placed bets on more than a dozen Trump speeches over a three-month period, including a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Trump's remarks in March during a Medal of Honor ceremony.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Stilletjes is de Amerikaanse overheid begonnen ondernemers miljarden aan ten onrechte geïncasseerde importheffingen terug te betalen. Fabio Tesei, die Italiaans voedsel importeert, is er blij mee, al leidt het ook tot discussies met klanten. En zijn blijdschap is van korte duur: twee dagen later is een van zijn medewerkers opgepakt door ICE.

De Europese Commissie komt de banken tegemoet met lagere kapitaaleisen en minder regels, ook om de Britse en Amerikaanse concurrentie de baas te kunnen. Maar Brussel dereguleert minder dan bijvoorbeeld Washington, en gaat lang niet zo ver als de Europese bankenlobby had gehoopt.

De onzekerheid is groot in de Volkswagen-fabriek in Zwickau, nu de VW-top een nieuwe, grootschalige reorganisatie heeft aangekondigd. Mogelijk moet de fabriek, die sinds een recente modernisering alleen elektrische auto’s maakt, alsnog dicht.

Negentien regionale NVM-afdelingen kwamen in verzet tegen de nieuwe tarieven van woningplatform Funda. Na een goed gesprek lijkt de kwestie voorlopig gesust, al mogen de NVM-leden zich nog uitspreken.

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U kunt weer ademhalen. U kunt de gordijnen weer openen. U kunt de airco weer uitdoen. U kunt weer water besparen. U kunt weer lauw bier drinken. U kunt het zwembadje in de tuin weer laten leeglopen. U kunt de parasol weer inklappen. U kunt weer in de zon zitten zonder te sterven. U kunt het weerbericht toch weer net even met wat minder urgentie bekijken. U kunt code rood vergeten (u kunt de Co de Rood-plaatjes weer opbergen). U kunt code oranje vergeten. U kunt code geel vergeten. U kunt de liveblogs weer rustig nalezen. U kunt weer regen verwachten. U kunt de ventilator naar zolder pleuren. U kunt uit de schaduw treden. U kunt uw zonnebril afzetten. U kunt weer op de wc-bril blijven zitten zonder eraf te glijden. U kunt weer zeggen: "Wat een kudtweer in Nederland." U kunt stoppen het hoofd koel te houden. U kunt weer veilig naar buiten. U kunt de buitenlucht weer opeisen. U kunt weer leven. Want het is voorbij. U heeft het overleefd. U kunt het RIVM en het KNMI weer negeren tot het volgende Nationaal Hitteplan.

De rest van de Hollandse zomer

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​Een enorme tegenvaller voor Randy (44) uit Lansing, Michigan. De Amerikaanse man, die vorige week nog een ‘Double Heart Attack Burger’ at met een ‘Triple Bypass Hotdog’ als toetje, is nu al dagen flink ziek van de ijsbergsla van de Taco Bell. Net als duizenden andere Amerikanen is hij getroffen door een uitbraak van de parasitaire ziekte cyclosporiasis. Hij voelt zich al drie dagen beroerd.

“Ik eet twee keer per week bij de Heart Attack Grill, maar dit heb ik nog nooit meegemaakt”, vertelt Randy, die onder een dekentje zit te rillen op de bank. “Ik heb altijd al gedacht dat ijsbergsla m’n einde zou betekenen. Was ik maar gewoon weer voor een halve koe met heel veel boter en saus gegaan, in plaats van voor zo’n riskante taco.”

Randy weet één ding zeker: deze fout gaat hij niet nog een keer maken. “Zo’n risico met sla of groenten neem ik niet nog een keer. Zodra die diarree-aanval ook maar een heel klein beetje voorbij is, eet ik gewoon weer gewoon een normale, veilige maaltijd: een ‘Coronary Dog’ met een Freakshake en een kuip maple syrup ernaast.”

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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

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ajpscs posted a photo:

STEAL THE NIGHT
東京で雨
© ajpscs

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features part of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau in western Africa.

Zoom in or click on the circles to explore this image at its full 10 m resolution.

With an area of 36 125 sq km, Guinea-Bissau is one of the smallest nations in continental Africa. This tropical country is made up of highlands in its northeastern region and, pictured here, lowlands near the Atlantic coast.

Captured in May 2026, the image shows how this coastal region is dominated by low plains scattered with mangrove swamps and cut through by rivers and estuaries, which branch out in the terrain like roots from a plant.

Tidal waters soak the interior on a daily basis, reaching up to 100 km inland – this is possible due to the flat coastal topography. The resulting sea inlets are a distinctive feature of Guinea-Bissau, which has the largest number of saltwater rivers in western Africa. For this reason, Guinea-Bissau features a blend of freshwater and saltwater rivers and estuaries, as shown also in this image.

The Geba River (freshwater) meanders from northeast through plains before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean in the Canal do Geba – the wide estuary at the top of this image. On its way, it carries water and nutrients, useful for agriculture, but also sediment, silt and organic matter which cause the milky colour of the water. The mouth of the Geba estuary is shared with its major tributary, the Corubal River, seen in the image joining from southeast.

Just south of the Canal do Geba is the Rio Grande de Buba, a saltwater estuary, whose shores are surrounded by mangroves in the lower half and which mixes with the seawater of the Atlantic Ocean. It represents a unique example in West Africa of an arm of the sea extending so far inland. At its eastern end lies Buba – visible as a brown, structured area – the largest city in southern Guinea-Bissau and the capital of the region.

Due to its unique environment, Guinea-Bissau is home to remarkably diverse flora and fauna, protected in various national and natural parks. The Cufada Lagoons Natural Park, located between Canal do Geba and Rio Grande de Buba, is also a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance and home to a large subpopulation of the critically endangered western chimpanzee.

The decline of western chimpanzees will have significant consequences for Guinea-Bissau’s environmental balance and rich biodiversity. Over the last few decades, the number of these primates in West Africa has fallen by 80% – a trend likely to continue unless urgent, coordinated action is taken at local, national and international levels.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2026), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

From left to right, NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, with ESA's European Service Module team behind them at ESTEC.

The four Artemis II astronauts visited ESTEC, ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands, on 13 July as the first stop in a series of post-flight visits to the European teams that made their mission possible.

The day included a visit to the Eagle mission control room, where ESA and Airbus engineers monitored the European Service Module around the clock throughout Artemis II. There, astronauts met some of the ESA specialists who had supported their flight from Earth.

“Walking into this room and seeing it full of the engineers who were actually sitting on console during our mission monitoring things was awesome,” said Christina Koch later during the visit. “I could have stayed in here all day.”

The astronauts and engineers shared their perspectives on key moments of the mission – the engineers following events from ESTEC, the astronauts experiencing them first-hand in deep space.

They discussed the trans-lunar injection burn, performed by the European Service Module’s main engine around 25 hours after launch, which was so precise that two planned trajectory correction manoeuvres were no longer required.

During the visit, NASA Orion Program Manager Howard Hu presented ESA with a Program Award acknowledging Europe’s important contribution to Artemis II. Several members of the European Service Module team also received certificates and an Artemis II patch flown on board Orion during the mission, in recognition of their contribution and dedication.

The recognition reflected the vital role played by ESA’s European Service Module and by the teams who developed and monitored it throughout Artemis II. Built by European industry under ESA leadership and assembled by Airbus in Bremen, Germany, the module supplied air and water for the crew, generated electrical power through its four solar arrays, maintained thermal control and provided the propulsion needed to carry Orion over one million kilometres through deep space, around the Moon and safely back to Earth.

During the mission, Artemis II pilot Victor Glover manually flew Orion using the European Service Module’s engines. At a press conference during the visit, he reflected on that experience: “The European Service Module flew like a dream … every space flyer dreams of flying a spaceship by hand in space. Thank you to the European Space Agency, to the Airbus team, and the Europeans that made it possible.”

Credits: ESA-P. Servent

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

Researchers used the NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) Integral Field Unit on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to map chemical contents of the Beta Pictoris system. As a result, they discovered a third planet, Beta Pictoris d, orbiting the young star.

Instead of identifying the planet as a bright point of light, as seen in the reconstructed image, researchers searched the spectroscopic data for the molecular signatures expected from a giant planet atmosphere, allowing the object to stand out from the surrounding debris disc.

The extracted NIRSpec and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) spectra of Beta Pictoris d display a distinctive series of carbon monoxide (CO) absorption lines. This molecular “fingerprint” identified the object as a giant planet, while measurements of the Doppler shift of the spectral lines provided the planet’s radial velocity, confirming it is gravitationally bound to the Beta Pictoris system.

[Image description: The image at the left shows two exoplanets of the Beta Pictoris system. At the centre, there is a white star symbol, which represents light blocked from the host star. Immediately to the left of the star symbol, there is a bright orange-whitesh smudge, labeled b. To the right of the star symbol is a blurry orange smudge labeled d. There is a white circle around this smudge with lines drawn to the spectrum at the right. The x-axis is labeled “Wavelength of Light” and extends from 4.2 to 5.2 microns. The y-axis is labeled “Brightness.” An up arrow is labeled “brighter,” a down arrow “dimmer.” There are two jagged horizontal lines across the graph. One is white, the other is maroon (the former labeled “Webb data”, the latter labeled “Best fit model” in the bottom left corner). A blue vertical column spanning from about 4.3 microns to 5 microns is labeled Carbon Monoxide, CO.]

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, L. Hustak (STScI). Science: A. Gibbs (UC San Diego), J. B. Ruffio (UC San Diego), A. Bidot (STScI). Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI); CC BY 4.0

Welcome to Toronto, World Capital of the Urban Raccoon

*I mean, it might be for all I know! But I do love a raton-laveur; one sets up in our garage at least every other summer. And pretty much every time I am in the city, I spot a raccoon.

Sean Duffy has had enough with anti-car violence and has removed multiple Proven Safety Countermeasures from the DOT's website. While the majority of Federal transportation safety dollars still flow to the states to spend through the Highway Safety Improvement Program, this administration has clearly decided to reject science and abdicate its role as the stewards of transportation safety.

Bike lanes, variable speed limits, speed safety cameras, appropriate speed limits for all road users, and road diets are now apparently woke and not welcome in the menu of things we do in the United States. While traffic fatalities have fallen the last few years, NHTSA still estimates over 36,000 people lost their lives on U.S. roads in 2025 . And that amount puts us firmly below most of our peer countries in safety performance. A look at IRTAD's 2025 Annual Report (page 25) shows our traffic fatalities by 100,000 inhabitants far exceeds that of many industrialized countries and puts the U.S. in the company of Chile and Costa Rica. Apparently some of the Federally funded research I have done in this domain is still accessible online, but the FHWA has made it hard to locate.

"A complete digital edition of William Jardine's 40-volume series on natural history published 1833–1843, including more than 1,300 restored hand-drawn illustrations of birds, mammals, insects, and fish." Digitally recreated by Nicholas Rougeux. The descriptions and nomenclature are dated, and in some cases offensive. Some of the illustrations are quirky but still beautifully rendered. (via Kottke)