The European Parliament is replacing Google with French search engine Qwant as the default on in-house computers, citing digital sovereignty and privacy concerns. Politico reports: As of Thursday June 4, "Qwant will replace Google as default search engine on European Parliament computers," officials told lawmakers in an email seen by POLITICO. The change is being made "in line with the Parliament's commitment to digital sovereignty and the protection of users' personal data." The search-engine switch comes as Brussels doubles down on its push for âoetech sovereignty.â The European Commission will on Wednesday unveil its long-awaited tech sovereignty package aimed at reducing dependence on foreign technology providers and boosting European alternatives.

The email described Qwant as a "privacy-focused European search engine" designed to avoid tracking users or collecting personal data. Founded in 2013, Qwant markets itself as a privacy-first alternative to Google. Searches conducted through the address bar in Firefox and Edge browsers will automatically be routed through Qwant, although lawmakers will remain free to use competing search engines or change their default settings.

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Russia's FSB claims foreign intelligence services compromised smartphones belonging to senior Russian officials, allegedly turning them into surveillance devices capable of stealing data, recording conversations, and activating microphones or cameras. "This software is used to steal existing data, eavesdrop on ongoing conversations, and conduct covert acoustic and video monitoring of the environment near electronic devices, all aimed at obtaining sensitive information," the FSB said. The Register reports: The agency said it had opened a criminal investigation into illegal access to computer information and the distribution of malicious software. It did not identify the alleged intelligence service responsible, disclose how many officials were affected, name the malware involved, or provide any technical indicators that would allow independent verification of the claims. As things stand, the FSB has revealed the accusation but not the proof.

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Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac will reportedly drop into "reduced functionality mode" on July 13, 2026, when a license-validation certificate expires, leaving perpetually licensed apps able to open files but not edit or save them. Slashdot reader joshuark shares a report from OSnews: "Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion (2026) is a scheduled remote degradation of perpetually-licensed Microsoft Office software for macOS and iOS, set for July 13, 2026 when a license-validation certificate used by the Office apps expires," reports the Consumer Rights Wiki. "After Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support in October 2023, Microsoft assured customers their installed apps would 'continue to function.' The July 13, 2026 conversion instead drops the apps into a Microsoft-defined 'reduced functionality mode,' in which files can be opened and viewed but not edited or saved. By May 30, 2026, the original 2023 end-of-support page had been re-dated and rewritten on Microsoft's site; the 'continue to function' clause was removed."

Microsoft's advice to the users they're stealing from is to keep using the applications as mere viewers, switch to the free Office 365 web applications, pay for a 365 subscription, or buy a brand new regular copy of Office 2024. None of these make any sense, and clearly, all of this should be illegal, but it's not because the software industry is a clown show.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft has unveiled Scout, an experimental always-on AI "autopilot" agent for Microsoft 365 that can operate across Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, calendars, contacts, browsers, and external apps via MCP. "Autopilots stay active in the background, understand how work gets done across your apps and systems, and take action without needing to be prompted each time," said Omar Shahine, a Microsoft veteran who recently announced he is leading a new team to bring OpenClaw-based personal assistants to Microsoft 365 apps. Computerworld reports: Shahine said Scout can reduce mundane tasks that office workers face, such as coordinating and scheduling meeting times with colleagues, or blocking times in a user's calendar based on upcoming work commitments. "It can also spot risks, like stalled decisions, so you can address them before they become blockers," he said. It's available as an "experimental release" to customers of the company's Frontier program, Microsoft said, and will require Intune policy configuration and "opt-in attestation." [...] It's not clear whether Scout will be included in Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions or charged separately. Microsoft did not immediately provide additional details about pricing.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order asking artificial intelligence companies to provide models to the federal government to assess their capabilities ahead of a full release. The order asks companies, on a voluntary basis, to participate in a benchmarking process to assess a model's "advanced cyber capabilities" and determine whether it should be considered a "covered frontier model." It then asks for access to those models up to 30 days before the companies plan to release them more broadly, and enables the government to help select the "trusted partners" that will receive early access.

"Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for the development, publication, release, or distribution of new AI models, including frontier models," the order said. Trump signed the order in private, just weeks after he postponed a signing ceremony with prominent tech CEOs because he "didn't like certain aspects of it," he told reporters at the time. [...] Trump's AI order outlines several timeframes to develop directives and other guidance, specifically calling on the Department of Defense to prioritize the cyber defense of its information systems.

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Longtime Slashdot reader Matt_Bennett shares a blog post from Adafruit: Adafruit received at 10:38 p.m. ET on May 22, 2026 a letter from former FBI chief of staff, Jonathan F. Lenzner, and partner at Fenwick & West LLP, counsel for Flux, demanding, among other things, that Adafruit refrain from publishing an article addressing what the letter characterizes as false and potentially defamatory claims about Flux, including statements about Flux's intellectual property, commercial traction and user base.

The letter further asserts claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Adafruit accessed only information that Flux's own systems made publicly available through a server misconfiguration. Adafruit's reporting concerns a matter of public security interest and was conducted in the ordinary course of responsible disclosure.

Although Adafruit vigorously rejects the assertions made in Flux's May 22, 2026 demand letter, we have temporarily stopped publishing on the Adafruit blog while we consider our response and next steps. We will update the community as appropriate. For context, Adafruit is a major open-source hardware company and electronics retailer known for its maker-focused boards, components, tutorials, and community publishing. Flux.ai is relevant because it is building an AI-assisted circuit-board design platform aimed at changing how engineers create and collaborate on PCB designs.

"Adafruit probably did a review of AI PCB tools," writes HN user karmicthreat. "I've used Flux.ai before; it was a pretty bad experience. After about 50-100$ in tokens a couple of times, I couldn't get more than a couple of simple components on the schematic. And not in sensible positions..."

Redditor AlexTaradox adds: "Nothing was published as far as I know. I assume they did review of AI tools and likely contacted flux with some preliminary results, but flux saw where it is going and decided to block them from publishing any results. Flux is garbage and they obviously know it, but they need to hold for some time until some other scam acquires them. Doing anything with them is just asking to be screwed..."

Further discussions are taking place on Reddit and Hacker News.

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on the water photography has added a photo to the pool:

In 1877, the town of Kumamoto was completely burnt down due to the Seinan Civil War. Then in 1878, the former feudal retainers of the Kumamoto Domain founded Izumi Shrine in Sulzeniji Jojuen. The retainers were strongly connected to the Higo Hosokawa Clan, so they wanted to show their appreciation and recognition to the former lords, then to revitalize the town of Kumamoto, and to to appease and encourage the people.

Izumi Shrine is believed to have power for business prosperity, academic achievement, a good match making and general well-being.

1.Enshrined deities

The successive lords of the Kumamoto Domain, Lady Gracia and etc.

2.Festivals

Annual Spring Festival: April 22-24

Annual Autumn Festival: October 18-20

Sparkling World has added a photo to the pool:

stan.jernigan has added a photo to the pool:

I took this photo of an “Island and Oyster Cultivations Rafts” with my iPhone 17 Pro Max while cruising into Hiroshima, Japan. The platforms have the oysters suspended from cedar or bamboo rafts or long lines. This setup allows the oysters to stay in nutrient-rich water columns and avoid seafloor contaminants…

Even ransomware cartels make mistakes, and in this case, it was a biggie that could have landed the responsible crim in a Russian gulag: accidentally infecting a company located in a Commonwealth of Independent States country. In what threat-hunter Dominic Alvieri deemed the ransom “dumbass of the day,” Nova, the affiliate program for ransomware crew RAlord, on Tuesday issued an apology to Eriell Group, a major oilfield services company with headquarters in Uzbekistan and a corporate office in Moscow. Apparently, Eriell contacted Nova and notified the ransomware operators about an affiliate's mess-up. The affiliate has since been banned from the criminal operation, we’re told. In addition to issuing a “formal apology,” the ransomware gang promised to assist Eriell with the recovery process “free of charge.” The malware slingers claimed they didn’t encrypt any files, and pledged not to leak any of the stolen data. “Apparently, the first rule of ransomware club, you don't attack organizations in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), is still very much in effect in 2026,” Recorded Future threat intelligence analyst Allan Liska told The Register. While cybercrime is technically illegal in Russia and other CIS countries, their governments often provide safe harbor for extortionists and other financially motivated crims - especially if they also happen to work day jobs as state-sponsored hackers - and local police look the other way unless the gangs infect any in-country organizations. Some crews, like the DragonForce cartel, VanHelsing ransomware-as-a-service group, and notorious LockBit operators, expressly prohibit their gang members and affiliates from hitting Russian and other CIS targets. We’re guessing that the Nova affiliate will be high up on all of these gangs’ do-not-hire lists for quite a while. Still, they aren’t the first cybercriminal, Russian-speaking or otherwise, to make seriously dumb mistakes. Earlier this year, notorious data-leak-and-extortion crew Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters claimed they had gained "full access" to Resecurity's systems and stolen "everything." Resecurity later offered its "congratulations" to the cybercrime crew, which had fallen into the threat intel team's honeypot – resulting in a subpoena being issued for one of the data thieves. Pro-Russian hacktivist crew CyberVolk got sloppy when they debuted a ransomware service late last year. They hardcoded the master keys - this same key encrypted all files on a victim's system - into the executable files, thus allowing victims to recover encrypted data without paying any extortion fees. While that mess-up worked in the victim orgs’ favor, another coding error committed by Sicarii malware developers makes it nearly impossible for companies to recover their files: the Sicarii encryptor generates a new cryptographic key pair during every execution - but then discards the private key, meaning there's no recoverable master key. Similarly, a programming mistake in Nitrogen ransomware prevents the gang's decryptor from recovering victims' files, again making paying up futile. Trellix VP of threat intel strategy John Fokker recently told us that he got so sick of seeing the security industry "glorifying threat actors,” that he and his team decided to troll the baddies, and started publishing the Dark Web Roast. “These are just individuals, they just use computers, and they just want to steal your data and make money,” Fokker told The Register. “They're not mythical. They don't have superpowers." And just like any other individual - or superhero - they sometimes slip up, and give the rest of us a moment of snarky joy. ®

Salesforce’s planned acquisition of Contentful should give its Headless 360 product – which CEO Marc Benioff gushed about during earnings last week – a much-needed shot in the arm, an analyst told The Register. Headless 360 takes the Salesforce logic and data layers and presents them inside other applications the user might be operating, such as WhatsApp, Slack, ChatGPT, or Claude. During the call last week, Benioff said it had seen rapid adoption, including a fivefold increase in usage among customers at Anthropic. But it came with limitations. “It lacked the enterprise-grade content layer to drive the customer facing digital experiences,” Forrester principal analyst Chuck Gahun told The Register. “Enterprise customers that wanted to build a marketing website around product listing and detail pages (powered by Salesforce B2B and B2C commerce), ended up relying on different software vendors. Now, Agentforce agents can query customer data, assemble and deliver content driven digital experiences that are dynamic.” It is also another step to move users off of the Salesforce UI, while preserving its unique data and functions. Gahun said that the headless strategy transitions Salesforce's place in the enterprise from a keeper of CRM records and customer data into a system of action where APIs and MCP server calls are able to produce results for business users. “Contentful was one of the strongest headless CMS vendors, with an API-first founding architectural principle. All content management and delivery platform capabilities were accessible via high-fidelity APIs, including an app framework to build, package and distribute frontend and backend apps that are customizable,” Gahun told The Register. Salesforce has been on a buying spree with the purchases of Convergence AI, Bluebirds, Regrello, Informatica, Qualified, Cimulate, and Momentum, all announced or closed within the last year. President and chief operating and financial officer Robin Washington told analysts in September that Salesforce has no plans to slow down M&A. “If we see other things out there that make sense, we're going to buy them,” she said. Gahun has been covering Contentful as a content management system for nearly four years. He said with Salesforce adding Contentful as the digital experience layer on top and with Informatica's customer and enterprise data, it has the potential to unlock better digital and customer experiences for Salesforce. “As digital content begins driving context for agents and answer engines, Salesforce now has a unique seat at that business logic table: powered by context, content, and data - flowing through its next gen enterprise agentic SaaS platform,” he said. The acquisition of Contentful is expected to close later this year, subject to regulatory conditions. Salesforce has not publicly disclosed the purchase price of Contentful. A spokesperson told The Register that it had no comment beyond its statement when asked for more information about the deal. In its statement, Salesforce said Contentful is trusted by 4,800 customers worldwide and gives users a single content layer across email, mobile and web for any use case. “Together, Agentforce and Contentful will move enterprises from static, channel-specific content to dynamic content orchestration – assembling 1:1 experiences at scale based on context, channel, language, and business rules,” Salesforce said. ®

After postponing a planned signing last month for an executive order addressing advanced cybersecurity AI models, President Trump has signed a largely similar version that’s just as questionably effective. The EO, signed in a private ceremony on Tuesday, directs various government agencies to take steps to protect their systems and data, as well as those of agencies they support, from cyber threats, while also facilitating access to advanced AI models that could help agencies bolster their cybersecurity defenses. The order also directs the Treasury Department to establish an “AI cybersecurity clearinghouse” that works with the AI industry and critical infrastructure operators to coordinate and deconflict the use of advanced AI tools for software vulnerability scanning, vulnerability discovery and validation, and remediation and patching efforts. Additional provisions are included to direct federal grant programs toward companies developing AI vulnerability detections, and to expand the US Tech Force's Information Cybersecurity Specialist hiring and placement pathways. Those elements are pretty cut-and-dried, but it’s the rest of the order that has raised eyebrows among policy experts who’ve weighed in on the order so far. Section three of the EO, Secure Frontier Model Deployment, is where the government’s AI model pre-release review scheme is outlined, and it is also where the most substantial change in the order compared to the earlier May draft appears. The version signed Tuesday directs various agencies to work with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish a “voluntary framework” through which the federal government would get access to “covered frontier models” for up to 30 days before their planned release to “other trusted partners” in order for the agencies to review them for potential cybersecurity risks. The May draft included a 90-day review period; the reduction to 30 days appears to be the most significant change between the two versions. Along with the review period, section three of the order also asks federal agencies to “develop and maintain a classified benchmarking process to assess the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models,” which would also be used to determine which AI models qualify as covered frontier models for the purpose of the order. The EO also asks that the voluntary framework enable AI companies to "collaborate with the Federal Government to select trusted partners that will have early access to covered frontier models,” meaning that the Trump administration would effectively have a role in picking which companies get to participate in programs like Anthropic’s Project Glasswing for its Claude Mythos Preview. Want early access? You'd better be on our side The Register was contacted by various policy analysts about the EO, and while all agreed some sort of rule was better than nothing, a number of them shared their concerns. “The White House executive order on frontier AI models, while imperfect, is a step in the right direction to prepare the nation for the release of advanced AI systems,” Cato Institute policy analyst Juan Londoño said of the order. “The lack of clear specifications on which criteria should be used to determine what constitutes a 'covered frontier model,' and the government's involvement in decisions about which 'trusted partners' can access these advanced models, gives the executive a great deal of discretion,” Londoño added. “This could open the door to potential weaponization against companies that have any sort of conflict with the administration.” Former FTC chief technologist Neil Chilson likewise said that the order is better than the “current informal approach,” but hopes Congress will take action to establish some actual rules. Gaps in the order, Chilson said, “could be used to pick winners and losers, or to give short-term national security concerns excessive weight at the expense of longer-term national security, economic growth, innovation, and other national interests.” The Center for Democracy and Technology’s VP of policy, Samir Jain, likewise said that the EO takes necessary steps to address risks to critical infrastructure, and like others, he praised the choice to make the framework non-mandatory. That trusted partners element, however, raised his hackles, too. “The EO should not become a mechanism for the Administration to punish companies for political or other arbitrary reasons, and so we will be closely monitoring the details of its implementation as they emerge,” Jain said. The White House didn’t respond to questions for this story. ®

BertvB posted a photo:

A dramatic wide-angle view of heavy thunderstorm clouds building up early in the evening after a beautiful, hot day in Drenthe, Netherlands. The massive, textured cloud formations loom over the flat green meadows and distant tree lines, capturing the broeierige (stifling) and tense atmosphere just moments before the summer storm officially breaks.

MHKBB posted a photo:

SAS Royal Hotel, Copenhagen
Architect: Arne Jacobsen

Camera: Hasselblad 503CW
Lens: Zeiss Planar T* 2.8/80 C
Film: Ilford XP2 super

Apparently climate change doesn't exist if you prevent scientists from measuring it.

David Bowie

Marisa Aragón Ware grew up wandering through the Rocky Mountain forests of Colorado, where she reveled in nature’s diversity. There, she learned about woodland wildflowers, fungi, birds, and more with the help of her dad, who is a scientist. Over time, her fascination with organic forms made its way into an evolving art practice.

Based in Boulder, Ware continues to spend time in the woods, taking inspiration from flora and fauna alike. Through a meticulous process of cutting and scoring paper, she creates delicate curves to imitate the volume of leaves or bones and defines feathers, insect wings, and petals with precise veins and edges.

Paper became Ware’s medium of choice because she finds beauty and awe in a material we use so often in daily life that we hardly give it a second thought. “Paper is deeply familiar—everyone has handled it, written grocery lists on it, folded it, torn it, discarded it,” she tells Colossal. “Because it’s such an everyday material, there’s something especially powerful about transforming it into something unexpected.”

Biodiversity and ecosystem interdependence are themes running throughout Ware’s work, and she’s especially interested in the theory of biophilia. The hypothesis posits that humans inherently seek connections with nature on multiple levels. “Our need for nature extends far beyond physical survival; it also nourishes imagination, spirituality, and our sense of meaning,” Ware says. “Through my sculptures, I hope to create moments of wonder that help viewers reconnect with that ancient relationship and perhaps feel more compelled to protect it.”

Precision and control are key in Ware’s practice, but she has recently been privileging experimentation and a loosening-up of her approach. “I’ve been asking myself what may have been lost in the process of becoming technically skilled and how I can return to a beginner’s mindset without abandoning the abilities I’ve spent decades developing,” she says. “That questioning has led me to incorporate new processes and materials, including cyanotypes, allowing myself to work in ways that are less controlled, more intuitive, and more exploratory.”

Ware’s work is included in Common Waters at Arch Enemy Arts, which opens on June 5. See more on Ware’s Instagram. You might also enjoy Manabu Kosaka’s hyperrealistic paper sculptures of retro technology.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Meticulously Detailed Natural Specimens by Marisa Aragón Ware Emerge from Paper appeared first on Colossal.

Opa vertelt maar toen wij 14 waren blowden we ook weleens mee in het park, en daarna kregen we dan heel hard de slappe lach of werden ontiegelijk paranoïde. Wat we heel nadrukkelijk niet deden: snuiven, althans, die ene rare jongen achterin de klas wel, maar dat was lijm en hij had geen vrienden. Er was wel een dealer, maar dat was eigenlijk gewoon een jongen die er ouder uitzag en dus wiet of hasj meekreeg uit de coffeeshop. 

Dat er sindsdien het een en ander veranderd is blijkt uit Nachtkinderen, de nieuwe driedelige docuserie van vriendin van de show Sahar Meradji. Die maakt sowieso altijd geweldig spul - eerder volgde ze al op indrukwekkende en indringende wijze wokisten, extreemrechtse gekken, hoeren, junkies, en Nederlandse moslims, nu komen daar dus tieners die keta, 3-mmc of ander obscuur spul gebruiken bij. Afijn, wat ons betreft solliciteert Meradji met Nachtkinderen nadrukkelijk naar de eretitel beste documentairemaker van Nederland, want christus te paard wat een spul is dit. Het leidt tot allerlei talkshowdiscussies over hoe wijdverbreid dit fenomeen nou is, en dat is logisch en goed, maar als je het daadwerkelijk zit te kijken, is dat helemaal niet zo relevant - het is erg genoeg dát dit fenomeen er is. 

Nu kijkbaar op Videoland - was een uitstekende serie geweest voor de NPO, maar die zaten waarschijnlijk te slapen, of hadden te weinig budget omdat het leger aan middenmanagers ook betaald moet worden. 

Ho, en wellicht ten overvloede, maar doe toch maar geen drugs, kinders.

Miguel Ángel Sánchez Muñoz, beter bekend als Míchel, tekende dinsdag een contract voor twee seizoenen als hoofdtrainer van Ajax. Van Girona maakte hij een stuntclub, tot hij dit seizoen onverwachts degradeerde.