Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission + - BYD overtakes Tesla (marketwatch.com)

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

BYD sold a total of 4.6 million new energy vehicles in the year, a 7.7% gain on 2024. On Friday, Tesla said it sold 1.63 million vehicles in 2025, below the 1.78 million it delivered in 2024

Submission + - EPA to regulate widely used phthalates to reduce environment and workplace risks (msn.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Wednesday that the agency will move to regulate dozens of applications of five widely used phthalate chemicals to reduce environmental and workplace risks.

“Our gold standard science delivered clear answers, that these phthalates pose unreasonable risk to workers in specific industrial settings and to the environment,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a written statement.

The EPA announced its decision to regulate usage of Butyl Benzyl Phthalate (BBP), Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Dicyclohexyl Phthalate (DCHP), Diethylhexyl Phthalate (DEHP), and Diisobutyl Phthalate (DIBP), which are common chemicals used to make plastics more flexible in things from building materials to industrial applications. The agency said in its release that it used gold standard science and independent peer reviewers to research into determining the risks associated with exposure to these chemicals, which include hormone deficiencies and endocrine disruption.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a sub-institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), noted that although there are limited studies on the effects of phthalates on humans, there are many reproductive health and developmental problems found with phthalate exposure in animals. These include:

- Early onset of puberty
- Interfering with male reproductive tract development
- Interfering with the natural functioning of the hormone system
- Causing reproductive and genital defects
- Lower testosterone levels in adolescent males
- Lower sperm count in adult males

Submission + - Medicare to require prior authorization from AI for some procedures (marketwatch.com) 1

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

Starting in January, about 6.4 million Americans enrolled in traditional Medicare in New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and Washington state will be part of a pilot program using artificial intelligence for prior authorizations.

Denying coverage is one use case where AI hallucinations is a feature and not a bug.

Submission + - AI Arms Race Emerging Between Patients and Health Insurers

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: PBS NewsHour has a segment on the escalating AI battle in health insurance claims. A 2025 survey found 71% of health insurers admit to using AI for utilization management—the process that approves or denies claims. Of the 73 million Americans on ACA plans who had in-network claims denied, and less than 1% appealed. Now patients are fighting back with AI of their own. Free, open-source tools like Fight Health Insurance and the free Counterforce Health let patients upload denial letters and generate customized appeals citing relevant regulations and medical necessity arguments. Indiana University law professor Jennifer Oliva warns this is becoming an arms race: "As consumers become more empowered by these tools to fight back, the insurers will just up the ante." She also raises a darker concern—insurers may be using AI to identify patients unlikely to appeal or who "will not live through an appeal based on the time that the appeals take." Current regulation is nearly nonexistent.

Submission + - UK company sends factory with 1,000C (1273F) furnace into space

Submitted by yuvcifjt
yuvcifjt writes: Cardiff-based company Space Forge has launched a microwave-sized "factory", ForgeStar-1, into orbit and successfully powered its onboard furnace to about 1,000C (1,273F). Their goal is to manufacture higher-purity semiconductors in microgravity and vacuum conditions, which allow atoms to align more perfectly and reduce contamination compared with Earth-based production. The plasma demonstration confirms that the extreme conditions needed for gas-phase crystal growth can now be created and controlled on an autonomous platform in low Earth orbit, enabling production of ultra-pure seed material. CEO Josh Western says space-made semiconductors could be up to 4,000 times purer and used in a range of electronics. The company plans to build a larger factory (ForgeStar-2) capable of producing material for about 10,000 chips and to test re-entry recovery using a heat shield to return materials to Earth.

Submission + - Stewart Cheifet, Computer Chronicles Host, Dead at 87 (goldsteinsfuneral.com)

Submitted by Pibroch(CiH)
Pibroch(CiH) writes: According to the obituary linked, Stewart Cheifet of Computer Chronicles fame has died. The obituary states he passed Dec 28, 2025.

Cheifet and Digital Research founder Gary Kildall hosted the public television show The Computer Chronicles starting in 1984, and Stewart continued to host the show well into the 1990s. He was well-known for his affable presence and adeptness at interviewing guests and finding out the straight dope about their products. He had recently undergone spinal surgery and had somewhat disappeared from public view after the death of his wife Peta in 2024.

Submission + - Was archive.ph removed by the FBI through a US court order? (hackread.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Multiple requests made to both https://archive.ph/ and https://archive.is/ do not work as of 5:30 am Pacific, December 31, 2025.

These underground sites hosted in Iceland and another country, allegedly run by a Russian, and not at all affiliated with Brewster Kahle's https://archive.org/ allowed readers to read paywalled news articles for free. Archive.ph employed a sophisticated system of using downloaded data to traverse the scripts used on websites with paywalls to circumvent their online security.

This older link discussing the FBI inquiring about the owners of archive.ph is from November 8, 2025: https://hackread.com/fbi-wants...

Submission + - NYC Inauguration Bans Raspberry Pi, Flipper Zero Devices (adafruit.com)

Submitted by ptorrone
ptorrone writes: The January 1, 2026 NYC mayoral inauguration prohibits attendees from bringing specific brand-name devices, explicitly banning Raspberry Pi single-board computers and the Flipper Zero, listed alongside weapons, explosives, and drones. Rather than restricting behaviors or capabilities like signal interference or unauthorized transmitters, the policy names two widely used educational and testing tools while allowing smartphones and laptops that are far more capable. Critics argue this device-specific ban creates confusion, encourages selective enforcement, and reflects security theater rather than a clear, capability-based public safety framework. New York has handled large-scale events more pragmatically before.

Submission + - Coup in Paris: How an AI-generated video caused Macron a major headache (euronews.com) 2

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Alongside the message, a compelling video showcasing a swirling helicopter, military personnel, crowds and — what appears to be — a news anchor delivering a piece to camera.

"Unofficial reports suggest that there has been a coup in France, led by a colonel whose identity has not been revealed, along with the possible fall of Emmanuel Macron. However, the authorities have not issued a clear statement," she says.

Except, nothing about this video is authentic: it was created with AI.

After discovering the video, Macron asked Pharos — France's official portal for signalling online illicit content — to call Facebook's parent company Meta, to get the fake video removed.

But that request was turned down, as the platform claimed it did not violate its “rules of use."

Submission + - University of Oklahoma removes instructor after grading dispute on gender essay (nbcnews.com)

Submitted by SchroedingersCat
SchroedingersCat writes: Oklahoma instructor who gave student a zero on gender essay barred from teaching duties.

The assignment asked students to write a 650-word "reaction paper" to a scholarly article about gender expectations in society. The student wrote in her essay that the scholarly article bothered her, and she described how God created men and women differently. The instructor, who is transgender, gave the student a failing grade because her “paper ... does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive”. The student appealed the grade and filed a claim of religious discrimination.

The school released a statement on Monday: "Based on an examination of the graduate teaching assistant’s prior grading standards and patterns, as well as the graduate teaching assistant’s own statements related to this matter, it was determined that the graduate teaching assistant was arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper. The graduate teaching assistant will no longer have instructional duties at the University."

Submission + - React2Shell ransomware: Weaxor deployed on vulnerable server (scworld.com)

Submitted by spatwei
spatwei writes: The critical React2Shell unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability has been exploited to deploy Weaxor ransomware, S-RM reported Tuesday.

React2Shell, formally tracked as CVE-2025-55182, affects React Server Components versions 19.0.0, 19.1.0, 19.1.1 and 19.2.0, and has been under heavy exploitation since it was first disclosed on Dec. 3, 2025.

Most attacks thus far have been attributed to nation-state threat actors deploying backdoors and financially-motivated attackers deploying cryptominers.

In a new development, S-RM reports that it responded to an incident in which the maximum-severity vulnerability (CVSS 10.0) was used to gain initial access in a ransomware attack. The intrusion reportedly took place on Dec. 5, 2025, and was confined to the vulnerable web server with no additional lateral movement.

The attacker initially exploited React2Shell — which has multiple public proof-of-concept exploits available — by running a PowerShell command that led to the establishment of a Cobalt Strike beacon for command-and-control (C2) communication.

Once a C2 connection was established, and within less than a minute after initial access, the attacker deployed the Weaxor ransomware binary, which encrypts files and appends them with the file extension “.weax.”

Slashdot Top Deals

Whom the gods would destroy, they first teach BASIC.

Close