Linux Mint 27 is expected next month, and it's starting to take shape. Its flagship desktop, Cinnamon 2.8, is already available. The team behind the popular, beginner-friendly Linux just released Cinnamon 2.8, which will be the default desktop in Mint 27. Since 2014, Linux Mint versions have been based on the LTS releases of Ubuntu. Since a new LTS, Ubuntu 26.04 "Resolute Raccoon" arrived in late April, that means that a corresponding version of Mint is in development. The Mint project blog post last month revealed the codename: "Adrien." This is the first male codename since Mint 1.0 "Ada" in 2006, based on the first ever Ubuntu LTS release, 6.06 "Dapper Drake", but the project has run through the whole alphabet since then (except for the letter “Y”.) That blog also revealed it will have a new alarm clock app, but the subsequent Mint Blog post imparted more information. The Nemo file manager will gain a preview pane, there will be a new and much more capable system resource-monitor program called "Superlight", a new simple manager for compressed archive files (Zip and so on) called "Unfold," and a new, theme-able terminal emulator called "Velocitty." Mint also has a new Community Website, which uses GitHub to manage logins and eliminates the old website's dependency on PHP. Probably the most significant new feature, though, is that Mint 27 will restore system hibernation. Ubuntu supported hibernation in its early releases, but it has been disabled as standard since 12.04 "Precise Pangolin." Enabling it again is regularly discussed, for instance back in 2020. As we discussed in some detail a year ago, it's a complicated subject and there's a lot that can go wrong. It seems that Mint's Clément Lefebvre feels he can sort this, and we hope it works out. Support is included in the new version of Cinnamon, among a host of other changes. Its Wayland support is no longer experimental, although the X11 session is still there so users won't be forced to use the new system. The Network Manager applet has better, simpler VPN support and Wi-Fi encryption handling. There are multiple improvements across the desktop: better handling of sound devices, keyboard input layouts, touchpads and gesture support, HiDPI display handling, and better search in the Settings app. The window list control has been upgraded, more things happen in the background for faster desktop starts, and it has better handling and storage of authentication and credentials, including the same Rust-based "oo7" secret store we mentioned in Fedora 45. Screensaver handling is also mentioned – this is particularly problematic under Wayland, as XScreensaver maintainer Jamie Zawinski has covered with some feeling. The Mint blog mentioned this at the start of 2026, when Lefebvre announced the new, slower, annual release schedule. LXQt 2.5 Cinnamon is not the only desktop environment that has moved to embrace Wayland while also maintaining its support for X.org. Almost exactly two years ago, we reported that the LXQt 2.1 included preliminary Wayland support. That project is very much still in active development, led by Jen-Lee "PCMan" Hong, and version 2.5.0 just appeared, almost simultaneously with Cinnamon 2.8. Before LXQt, "PCMan" developed the LXDE desktop – which is still around. There's an LXDE spin of Fedora 45, the Raspberry Pi OS uses some of its components, and last year when Debian 13 was released we also noted that its terminal emulator, LXTerminal, had just been updated. This release of LXQt removes its last dependency on an LXDE component – until now, it still used the old menu-cache. LXQt 2.5 is based on Qt 6.10, and it draws upon some of the components of KDE Plasma. One of these is libkscreen, which manages screens for Plasma. Version 6.8 of this drops X11 support – as does Plasma 6.8 itself – and that broke LXQt's Monitor Settings applet. The team are looking for a workaround and plan to fix this in a minor point release. Aside from this, the desktop's taskbar-style panel has improved sizing support, icon handling, and auto-hide, but most of the improvements in this release are in around its QTerminal terminal emulator. New LXQt versions usually appear twice a year, around April and November, so this version will likely be in Lubuntu 27.04 in about five months – and available in many other distributions, too. ®

New Glenn's return to flight has slipped to January 2027, according to a leaked staff memo from Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp, overshadowing the company's announcements of a new third stage and booster engine. Blue Origin has been rebuilding after its New Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test in May, extensively damaging the launchpad. A month later, the company's CEO, Dave Limp, said that Blue Origin "still plan[s] to fly again this year," which raised a few eyebrows in the space and rocket community. The detonation had pretty much destroyed the facility, and getting back into the launch business so quickly seemed optimistic. That timetable has now slipped. In the memo circulating on social media, Limp praised the team's efforts but said: "We're proactively updating our anticipated launch date to January 2027." A small slip given the damage, but one that leaves less breathing room before NASA's planned Artemis III demonstration mission, involving lunar technologies from Blue Origin and SpaceX, next year. The delay emerged as the Bezos-backed company unveiled GS3, a third stage for New Glenn, designed for missions including direct injection into geostationary orbit and Earth-escape trajectories. The company said: "GS3 is already under contract for a cislunar mission with a government customer scheduled to launch in 2028." Blue Origin says the stage is not required for its lunar lander architecture, although it could support sustained operations around the Moon. The company also unveiled Northstar, a booster engine it says has half the parts and 30 percent less mass than its BE-4, while increasing thrust from 640,000 to 715,000 pounds-force. The memo said the team had "found and fixed the issue that caused the anomaly," without elaborating. Limp said in August that the problem "originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines" and that existing engines would need retrofitting, but did not explain how the valve failed or what changes were required. The Register asked Blue Origin for comment. ®

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

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According to Florence Pugh, Denis Villeneuve’s stunningly strange and breathtaking universe is the equivalent to George Lucas’ heroic space opera. Let’s hope not

A long time ago, far far away, in a galaxy called the 1970s, kids dreamed of joining the rebellion, rescuing a princess and blowing up the Death Star. Peer into the cosmic tea leaves and it would become immediately clear that no amount of evildoing could withstand a neurotic gold butler, a dustbin with ideas above its station and a walking seven-foot tall shagpile carpet with a very low tolerance for disagreement.

It is worth remembering this when considering Florence Pugh’s recent declaration, ahead of next month’s Dune: Part Three, that Dune is her generation’s Star Wars. And then wondering how much trouble we might be in if she’s actually right. “I think they brought back movie-going. What an event the second [Dune] was,” Pugh cheerfully told the New York Times. “It was just so lovely to be a part of something that we know is our generational kind of Star Wars.”

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The Warriors’ freshman has spent his first weeks in the NBA antagonizing superstars, speaking his mind and emerging as one of the league’s most compelling personalities

If a screen-addled pickup basketball player teleported into the body of a high-level athlete, they might resemble Yaxel Lendeborg. The most commonly cited fact about Lendeborg is that he used to spend 12 to 14 hours a day gaming, and didn’t debut on his high school basketball team until he was an upperclassman. Professional athletes often have origin stories that resemble the superhero more than the mortal, but Lendeborg really was just like us at one point. Lendeborg has also said that prior to entering the NBA, he didn’t really watch it, either. The Puerto Rican forward racked up more than enough accolades in college to qualify for the NBA, but still. Any of you reading this could smoke the man who may be this season’s rookie of the year in trivia about his profession.

The 24-year-old Lendeborg is a forward on the Golden State Warriors, a team caught between the ancient, gleaming remnants of the most fearsome dynasty of the 2010s and its future. The balance didn’t work out last season, as the Warriors produced flashes of old greatness to win one play-in game before flaming out in the next. Such results are a frustrating waste of Stephen Curry’s wonderful form even at 38 years old. Lendeborg is the best hope in a while to help maximize it. But even more importantly, Lendeborg is the character of the season so far. He’s spent its first two weeks antagonizing superstars, firing off unselfconscious takes in the press and vacuuming up the spotlight from his blander peers. What a joy to bear witness to an athlete who probably didn’t even hear the words “media training” until college.

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While there’s no evidence linking AI to mass layoffs, the tech has already ‘changed worker psychology’

When artificial intelligence researcher Mrinank Sharma quit his job at Anthropic earlier this year, the news rippled across the internet. In his resignation letter, posted on X and viewed 15.3m times, Sharma warned of a world “in peril” from the technology he had helped build.

“It is clear to me the time has come to move on,” he wrote. His next move: a poetry degree.

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Some dismiss books like A Court of Thorns and Roses as mere genre fiction. But reading for pleasure has its own magical power

Fitness influencers love to inform us that “summer bodies are built in winter”, and boy oh boy have I spent the last three colder months in the southern hemisphere in a deep phase of preparation. I had a meticulous spreadsheet. I tracked everything with military precision. I committed to my grindset and sacrificed for my goals.

However, my end result wasn’t a six-pack of abs and a back strong enough to carry a dinner convo with the most punishing of acquaintances. It was to consume the entire back catalogue of Sarah J Maas – 16 books in total (including the novellas) – in anticipation of the long-awaited sixth book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.

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Women of all ages across the globe open up about their sexual experiences amid a time of supposed societal sexual upheaval

The recently released film Wicker is full of sex. So much sex that some theaters released a 4D version where audiences can feel their seats creak in sync with the passionate lovemaking of the protagonist, a fisher played by Olivia Colman, and her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård.

Also, this husband is made of wicker.

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In a Guardian article in 2010, the Oxford Rhodes scholar said UK democracy had the ‘upper hand’ over the US

• US politics live – latest updates

In the tense final hours before his dramatic election as senator for Michigan in this week’s midterms, Abdul El-Sayed had a heated encounter with a British TV journalist that rapidly went viral.

As James Matthews, of Sky News, tried to ask him a question, El-Sayed bit back. “Why would I care to have a conversation with you?” he demanded of Matthews, placing both hands on the reporter’s shoulders in a gesture of emphasis.

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Algemeen directeur Menno Geelen vertekt op 1 april 2027 bij voetbalclub Ajax. Volgens de raad van commissarissen van de club is er door de vroege aankondiging genoeg tijd om de juiste opvolger te vinden.

Het album You Made Me / Skin on Linen is een theatraal manifest, tierende hoogmis en meedogenloze oorwassing. Verder biedt drummer Yoràn Vroom ritmische souplesse en pianist Marcel Worms een liefdevolle ode aan het leven.

Alledaagse kinderobservaties en -gedachten, van angst voor verhuizen tot prille verliefdheid: in haar bundel Dat past allemaal in je hoofd toont Saskia van der Wiel dat ze goed weet wat tienjarigen bezighoudt.

In Minibar in Den Haag staat een zeer creatieve geest te koken met eigenzinnige en soms een beetje vreemde ideeën, vindt Joël Broekaert. Hij mist nog raffinement.

Cyclo S9, Search&Destroy

This Mortal Coil

Cairo

She really wanted to go, she wanted it for over 30 years. Standing besides a pyramid and looking up to that immense neatly piled bunch of stones. Walk in the temples built so long ago, with many rulers, legendary names. And finally we went, because there was not so much a fascination, but a curious interest in ancient Egyptian history, their gods, rulers and monuments from my side as well. For some unspoken reasons now felt like the right moment.

Slecht nieuws voor de liefhebbers van polarisatie. Aan de andere kant: goed nieuws voor de mensen die de Tweede Kamer niets toevertrouwen. De T. heeft een mail (hierrr hele tekst) van het Amsterdamse UMC en het Radboudumc in handen waarin de ziekenhuizen een gesprek met de Tweede Kamer over transgenderzorg afzeggen. De ziekenhuizen vrezen dat het gesprek aanleiding kan geven tot VERDERE POLARISATIE. Dat is toch het laatste wat we erbij kunnen hebben? Polarisatie! Hallo zeg. Dat bijvoorbeeld iemand wat vindt. En dat dan iemand anders (hij/hem) dat dan niet vindt. Dat moet je niet willen hebben. Nu niet, nooit niet, nooit meer polarisatie!

Weet u nog? Dat u naar het ziekenhuis ging om medische redenen en dat het ziekenhuis niet bepaalde wat er wel of niet kon worden besproken in de Tweede Kamer? Verleden: tijd. Het ziekenhuis fixt inclusie en is heden ten dage verzetter der doelpalen. De term POLARISATIE is een maatschappelijk scheidsrechtersfluitje geworden. 'Blablabla publiek debat' - fwietfwietfwieeeet, polarisatie en de inhoud lekker links onberoerd laten meuren. Alles wat voor- en tegenstanders heeft, is per definitie polariserend. Vluchtelingen: polariserend. Niemand thuis die de vaatwasser wil uitruimen: polariserend. Met 15 bier in je keel beweren dat PSV een betere club is dan Ajax: feitelijk juist polariserend. 

Gevolg van de keutelintrekkerij: "Door het ontbreken van experts is er volgens een meerderheid vooralsnog geen reden een nieuw gesprek in te plannen." Driewerf hoera, auto in de ankers en doel bereikt.

Bain Capital Acquires Tibetan Buddhism For $35 Million. “For centuries, this organization has been guided by outdated principles that are antithetical to investor and shareholder concerns, prioritizing incentives like wisdom, mental discipline…”