An anonymous reader shares a report: In the past 18 months, as the judicial system has increasingly used electronic monitoring instead of prisons to monitor inmates through the coronavirus pandemic, newly released data confirm what activists and advocates have long argued: Ankle monitors are onerous, and they often subject wearers to vague rules, like avoiding people of "disreputable character." The ankle monitoring business, the research found, is also dominated by four profit-seeking companies, and it ultimately could drive more people back to prison.

The new, comprehensive collection of hundreds of electronic monitoring-related rules, policies and contracts, obtained through public records requests across 44 states, demonstrates that four companies that make millions of dollars a year account for 64 percent of the contracts examined in the study. The companies -- Attenti, BI Inc., Satellite Tracking of People and Sentinel Offender Services LLC, according to the report -- also keep location data indefinitely, even after monitoring is completed, which is within the law. Governments also often require family members or employers to act as agents of the government and report potential violations, putting them in an awkward position in which they must be both supportive and supervisory.

Crucially, wearers must pay both one-time and ongoing fees for the monitors, which can be $25 to over $8,000 a year. The report argues that such costs "undermine financial security when it is needed most." By comparison, the Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons said in 2018 that it costs just under $100 per day to incarcerate a federal inmate, or over $36,000 a year. Put another way, wearers in Los Angeles and Sacramento counties in California, which impose the highest annual costs, according to the new findings, pay $22 a day -- still considerably less than what taxpayers would otherwise pay.

The FCC has sent out the first checks from its Emergency Connectivity Fund, an effort to help close the "homework gap" at schools by covering the cost of computers and internet services. From a report: Thousands of school districts, in every state plus D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico, will split this first $1.2 billion distribution, and there's still lots more to come. The problem they are looking to mitigate is the large number of students who, in an age when studying, homework and now even classes are all done online, lack a device or adequate internet connection to participate. This exacerbates an existing inequality, for these students often lack access to other resources and end up falling behind through no fault of their own. The ECF was conceived to combat this, and funded earlier this year as part of the big pandemic recovery bill. It's a $7 billion program in total, but the money is being distributed over time as schools and libraries make their formal requests, saying they need to cover the cost of this many tablets, or wireless hotspots, or broadband connections. The FCC seems to be picking up the bill as long as the request is reasonable and the paperwork is in order.

The Biden administration is considering invoking a Cold War-era national security law to force companies in the semiconductor supply chain to provide information on inventory and sales of chips, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Thursday. From a report: The goal is to alleviate bottlenecks that have idled U.S. car production and caused shortages of consumer electronics and to identify possible hoarding, she said in an interview. Her team for months has sought clarity into how companies allocate their semiconductor supply. But previous meetings that convened firms from different industrial sectors haven't led to increased transparency and many companies have refused to hand over business data to the government. The Commerce Department is now asking companies to fill out questionnaires within 45 days providing supply chain information. The request is voluntary but Raimondo said she warned industry representatives that she might invoke the Defense Production Act or other tools to force their hands if they don't respond.

Starting in 2030, California will require all light-duty autonomous vehicles that operate in the state to emit zero emissions. From a report: Signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday, SB 500 represents the latest effort by the state to limit the sale of new internal combustion vehicles with an eye towards reducing greenhouse emissions. In 2020, Newsom signed an executive order that effectively banned the sale of new gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles by 2035. That same year, the state's Air Resources Board mandated that all new trucks sold in California emit zero emissions by 2045. "We're grateful for California's leadership in ensuring this will be the industry standard," said Prashanthi Raman, head of global government affairs at Cruise, in a statement to Engadget. "The AV industry is primed to lead the way in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in cities, and it's why we've operated an all-electric, zero-emissions fleet from the start." Cruise backed SB 500 through its involvement with the Emission Zero Coalition, a group that also includes autonomous delivery startup Nuro.

A software outage temporarily affected the U.K. Border Force's automated entry gates, slowing arrivals at airports across the country. From a report: Hubs in London Heathrow and Manchester reported issues before the Home Office said the problem was resolved. "We're aware of a systems failure impacting the e-gates, which are staffed & operated by Border Force," Heathrow said in a tweet. "This issue is impacting a number of ports of entry." Travelers reported long lines at Heathrow, with documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux describing a "human logjam" at the nation's largest airport.

A security researcher has published details about three iOS zero-day vulnerabilities, claiming that Apple has failed to patch the issues, which they first reported to the company earlier this year. From a report: Going by the pseudonym of Illusion of Chaos, the researcher has published their findings on Russian blogging platform Habr and has released proof-of-concept code for each vulnerability on GitHub. This includes:

1. A vulnerability in the Gamed daemon that can grant access to user data such as AppleID emails, names, auth token, and grant file system access.

2. A vulnerability in the nehelper daemon that can be used from within an app to learn what other apps are installed on a device.

3. An additional vulnerability in the nehelper daemon can also be used from within an app to gain access to a device's WiFi information.

When Cambodia's banned opposition party held a Zoom call on September 9, they hardly expected it to be personally infiltrated by the country's prime minister. From a report: Appearing abruptly and interrupting a speaker, the uninvited guest, Prime Minister Hun Sen, chimed in to warn virtual attendees that their communications were being monitored. "I have been listening, and have entered to listen many times already," the 69-year-old authoritarian leader said, on a video recording of the interaction that circulated widely on Facebook. For about 12 minutes, the prime minister lectured a senior member of the opposition, Long Ry. He wagged his finger as he demanded his rivals, who he had driven into exile, stop insulting him if they ever expected to be allowed to return home.

The events that followed were equally disorienting. A longtime spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People's Party, Senator Sok Eysan, initially attempted to explain that the clip was manipulated from old video footage. After Hun Sen publicly referred to the incident on Facebook -- his favored platform -- Eysan reversed course. He said that the images were real, but that the opposition had recently spread misinformation to imply that the government was reaching out to them. "Tricks," he alleged, "to confuse ... domestic and international views." Later that week, Hun Sen revealed that he'd previously attended 20 online meetings held by the opposition. "This entry was just to give a warning message to the rebel group to be aware that Hun Sen's people are everywhere," Hun Sen wrote on Facebook. "Please be careful, and don't do any activities against the national interest."

China's central bank said on Friday that all cryptocurrency-related transactions are illegal in the country and they must be banned, citing concerns around national security and "safety of people's assets." From a report: The world's most populated nation also said that foreign exchanges are banned from providing services to users in the country. [...] The People's Bank of China separately ordered internet, financial and payment companies from facilitating cryptocurrency trading on their platforms. The central bank said cryptocurrencies cannot be circulated in the market as they are not fiat currency. Offenders, the central bank warned, will be "investigated for criminal liability in accordance with the law."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Verge has spotted an apparently new warning message in the Windows 11 Setup app that explicitly warns users of the dangers of installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware -- you may run into "compatibility issues," your PC "won't be entitled to receive updates," and that "damages to your PC due to lack of compatibility aren't covered under the manufacturer warranty." This is all stuff that we've heard from Microsoft before, but it's the first time that this policy has appeared during the Windows 11 setup process rather than in media reports. Once you click through this foreboding warning message, the Windows 11 installation is apparently allowed to proceed.

I've tried and failed to recreate this screen on multiple unsupported Windows 10 systems of different vintages, both with builds downloaded through the Insider program and installs directly from a manually downloaded Windows 11 ISO file. I also haven't seen any firsthand reports of it outside of the Verge report. This doesn't mean it isn't happening -- Microsoft is always rolling out different updates to different groups of people at different times -- just that I can only speculate as to when you will actually see this message and what it means. My guess is that it is eventually intended to replace another screen currently shown when you attempt a manual install of Windows on an unsupported system, one that totally blocks the upgrade if you don't meet Windows 11's processor, TPM, or Secure Boot requirements. The only way to get around that screen and proceed with installation for current builds of Windows 11 is to implement some registry edits that disable the system checks. This new screen would keep the checks in place while allowing people to perform the kind of manual, officially unsupported installs that the company has begrudgingly decided to allow.

The United Kingdom is the latest country to rule that an artificial intelligence can't be legally credited as an inventor. Engadget reports: Per the BBC, the UK Court of Appeal recently ruled against Dr. Stephen Thaler in a case involving the country's Intellectual Property Office. In 2018, Thaler filed two patent applications in which he didn't list himself as the creator of the inventions mentioned in the documents. Instead, he put down his AI DABUS and said the patent should go to him "by ownership of the creativity machine."

The Intellectual Property Office told Thaler he had to list a real person on the application. When he didn't do that, the agency decided he had withdrawn from the process. Thaler took the case to the UK's High Court. The body ruled against him, leading to the eventual appeal. "Only a person can have rights. A machine cannot," Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing of the Appeal Court wrote in her judgment. "A patent is a statutory right and it can only be granted to a person." In August, an Australian Court ruled that an AI can be recognized as an inventor in a patent submission. However, a U.S. District Judge ruled earlier this month that a computer using AI can't be listed as an inventor on patents because only a human can be an inventor under U.S. law.

Samoa is joining Japan, India, and China in scrapping daylight saving time, which was first proposed in 1895 so entomologist and astronomer George Hudson could study insects at night. "Hudson is dead, so daylight saving is no longer necessary," writes Mark Frauenfelder via BoingBoing. "It's time for the rest of the world to wake up and do the same." Time and Date reports: "The Ministry hereby advises that the Daylight Saving Time (DST) policy has ceased as per Cabinet Decision [...]. There will be no activation of the Daylight Saving Time policy for this year." The announcement (PDF) came from the Government of Samoa on September 20, 2021, following a decision made by Samoa's new Government Cabinet on September 15, 2021. DST was implemented in 2010 by the previous Government of Samoa to give more time after work to tend to their plantations, promote public health, and save fuel. Instead, it "[...] defeated its own goals by being used by people to socialize more," according to the Samoa Observer.

Scientists have successfully used artificial intelligence to create a new drug regime for children with a deadly form of brain cancer that has not seen survival rates improve for more than half a century. The Guardian reports: The breakthrough, revealed in the journal Cancer Discovery, is set to usher in an "exciting" new era where AI can be harnessed to invent and develop new treatments for all types of cancer, experts say. Computer scientists and cancer specialists at the ICR and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust used AI to work out that combining the drug everolimus with another called vandetanib could treat diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a rare and fast-growing type of brain tumor in children. Currently, DIPG and other similar types of tumors are incredibly difficult to remove surgically from children because they are diffuse, which means they do not have well-defined borders suitable for operations. But after crunching data on existing drugs, the team found everolimus could enhance vandetanib's capacity to "sneak" through the blood-brain barrier and treat the cancer.

The combination has proved effective in mice and has now been tested in children. Experts now hope to test it on a much larger group of children in major clinical trials. The research found that combining the two drugs extended survival in mice by 14% compared with those receiving a standard control treatment. Both the drugs in the research, which was funded by Brain Research UK, the DIPG Collaborative, Children with Cancer UK and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, among others, are already approved to treat other types of cancer. "The AI system suggested using a combination of two existing drugs to treat some children with DIPG -- one to target the ACVR1 mutation, and the other to sneak the first past the blood brain barrier," said Chris Jones, professor of paediatric brain tumor biology at the ICR. "The treatment extended survival when we tested it in a mouse model, and we have already started testing it out in a small number of children. We still need a full-scale clinical trial to assess whether the treatment can benefit children, but we've moved to this stage much more quickly than would ever have been possible without the help of AI."

Impossible Foods' latest meatless product is set to hit tables from Thursday: plant-based pork that claims to be tastier and healthier than the real deal. CNBC reports: The ground pork product will first be available in restaurants in the U.S., Hong Kong and Singapore, with further plans for retail expansion in those markets in the coming months. It marks the California-based company's third commercial launch after ground beef and chicken nuggets as it seeks to solidify its position in the growing plant-based protein space.

Speaking in a first-on interview ahead of the launch, Impossible Foods' president Dennis Woodside told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" that the pork alternative could beat the real deal in both taste and nutritional value. "Pig typically isn't regarded as a healthy product, but here you have a substitute that tastes just as good but is actually better for you," he said. According to the company, the product -- which is made primarily from soy -- provides the same amount of protein as its traditional meat counterpart, but with no cholesterol, one-third less saturated fat, and far fewer calories. Meantime, in a recent blind taste test conducted by Impossible Foods, it found that the majority (54%) of Hong Kong consumers said they preferred the meatless pork product.

Suspected foreign government-backed hackers last month breached a computer network at one of the largest ports on the US Gulf Coast, but early detection of the incident meant the intruders weren't in a position to disrupt shipping operations, according to a Coast Guard analysis of the incident obtained by CNN and a public statement from a senior US cybersecurity official. CNN reports: The incident at the Port of Houston is an example of the interest that foreign spies have in surveilling key US maritime ports, and it comes as US officials are trying to fortify critical infrastructure from such intrusions. "If the compromise had not been detected, the attacker would have had unrestricted remote access to the [IT] network" by using stolen log-in credentials, reads the US Coast Guard Cyber Command's analysis of the report, which is unclassified and marked "For Official Use Only." "With this unrestricted access, the attacker would have had numerous options to deliver further effects that could impact port operations." The Port of Houston is a 25-mile-long complex through which 247 million tons of cargo move each year, according to its website.

In the case of the Port of Houston, the unidentified hackers broke into a web server somewhere at the complex using a previously unidentified vulnerability in password management software at 2:38 p.m. UTC on August 19, according to the Coast Guard report. The intruders then planted malicious code on the server, which allowed further access to the IT system. Beginning about 90 minutes after the initial breach, the hackers stole all of the log-in credentials for a type of Microsoft software that organizations use to manage passwords and access to their networks, according to the report. Minutes later, cybersecurity staff at the port isolated the hacked server, "cutting off unauthorized access to the network," the advisory said.

It's unclear who was behind the breach, which appears to be part of a broader espionage campaign. When asked about the incident at a Senate hearing on Thursday, US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said she believed a foreign government-backed hacking group was responsible. Attribution of cyberattacks "can always be complicated," Easterly told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "At this point in time, I would have to get back with my colleagues, but I do think it is a nation-state actor."