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Submission + - Shai-Hulud: The novel self-replicating worm infecting hundreds of NPM packages (sysdig.com) 1

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: On September 15, 2025, an engineer discovered a supply chain attack against the NPM repository. Unlike previous NPM attacks, this campaign used novel, self-propagating malware (also known as a worm) to continue spreading itself. At the time of this writing, approximately 200 infected packages have been identified, including several repositories such as the popular @ctrl/tinycolor and multiple owned by CrowdStrike.

Once executed, this novel worm — dubbed Shai-Hulud — steals credentials, exfiltrates them, and attempts to find additional NPM packages in which to copy itself. The malicious code also attempts to leak data on GitHub by making private repositories public.

Submission + - Doomed 'cannibal' star could soon explode in a supernova visible during day (space.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Astronomers have discovered the secret of a strange star system that has baffled them for years, finding it contains a dead star about to erupt after overfeeding on a stellar companion. The supernova explosion of this cosmic cannibal could be as bright as the moon, making it visible with the naked eye over Earth even in broad daylight.

The system in question is the double star V Sagittae located around 10,000 light-years from Earth, containing a white dwarf stellar remnant and its victim companion star, which orbit each other roughly twice every Earth day.

Submission + - Taliban Leader Bans Wi-Fi To 'Prevent Immorality' (apnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Taliban leader banned fibre optic internet in an Afghan province to “prevent immorality,” a spokesman for the administration said Tuesday. It’s the first time a ban of this kind has been imposed since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, and leaves government offices, the private sector, public institutions, and homes in northern Balkh province without Wi-Fi internet. Mobile internet remains functional, however.

Haji Attaullah Zaid, a provincial government spokesman, said there was no longer cable internet access in Balkh by order of a “complete ban” from the leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. “This measure was taken to prevent immorality, and an alternative will be built within the country for necessities,” Zaid told The Associated Press. He gave no further information, including why Balkh was chosen for the ban or if the shutdown would spread to other provinces.

Submission + - Fedora Linux 43 Beta released (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: The Fedora Project has announced Fedora Linux 43 Beta, giving users and developers the opportunity to test the distribution ahead of its final release. This beta introduces improvements across installation, system tools, and programming languages while continuing Fedoraâ(TM)s pattern of cleaning out older components.

The beta can be downloaded in Workstation, KDE Plasma, Server, IoT, and Cloud editions. Spins and Labs are also available, though Mate and i3 are not provided in some builds. Existing systems can be upgraded with DNF system-upgrade. Fedora CoreOS will follow one week later through its âoenextâ stream.

Installer changes are a major focus in Fedora 43. The Anaconda WebUI is now the default across Spins, creating a consistent and modern setup experience. The installer has also moved to DNF5, replacing DNF4. Support for modular packages has been removed, simplifying the installation process further. Fedora Kinoite now enables automatic updates by default, applying fixes in the background and finalizing them after reboot.

Fedora 43 updates its core development tools. The GNU toolchain has been refreshed with gcc 15.2, glibc 2.42, binutils 2.45, and gdb 17.1. LLVM has been updated to version 21. Perl moves to 5.42, and OpenJDK 25 is now the preferred Java version. RPM itself jumps to 6.0, bringing structural changes for packagers. Package maintainers also benefit from new RPM macros for build flags, easing per-package compiler adjustments.

On the language front, Python has been updated to version 3.14. Go 1.25 is included, with Golang packages now vendored by default to improve reproducibility. Idris 2 makes its debut, offering advanced type system features. Haskell GHC is updated to 9.8 with Stackage 23. The release also introduces support for the Hare programming language, which is still under development but available for experimentation.

Other notable updates include PostgreSQL 18, Ruby on Rails 8.0, MySQL 8.4 as the default version, Dovecot 2.4, and Tomcat 10.1. Fedora CoreOS is now built with Containerfile, allowing Podman users to build locally. Greenboot has been rewritten in Rust, and SELinux handling sees adjustments with reduced âoedontauditâ rules.

Fedora 43 also makes graphical and user-facing changes. Noto Color Emoji now uses the newer COLRv1 format, improving scalability. GNOME is now Wayland-only, retiring the old X11 session. The default monospace fallback font has been set to avoid inconsistent text rendering.

Deprecated or removed components include the gold linker, python-nose, YASM, legacy GTK Rust bindings, and outdated Python RPM macros tied to setup.py. Packages depending on async-std and python-async-timeout are also being phased out.

Submission + - School bus routes cancelled in Quebec because of e-Bus fire (globalnews.ca) 2

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

The 1200 Lion buses operating in Quebec were pulled from service Thursday night as a precautionary measure after a bus caught fire in Montreal earlier in the week. Several children and a driver were inside the bus when it went up in flames, but no one was injured. It was the third fire involving a Lion school bus in the last year.

Submission + - Oldest known lizard ancestor discovered in England (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Scientists announced Wednesday they have discovered the oldest-known member of the lizard family in southwest England, a tiny creature that used its surprisingly large teeth to hunt cockroaches 242 million years ago.

The ancient reptile, which lived during the Middle Triassic epoch shortly before the rise of the dinosaurs, was so small its entire body could fit in the palm of a human hand.

"The new animal is unlike anything yet discovered and has made us all think again about the evolution of the lizard, snakes and the tuatara," the latter of which is a New Zealand reptile, Dan Marke of the University of Bristol said in a statement.

Submission + - Newly discovered ResHydra botnet can disrupt all US internet (wsj.com)

Submitted by sturgeon
sturgeon writes: WSJ reports today that new botnet (reshydra) can generate 100+ Tbps plus attacks (10x size of recent largest ever Cloudflare attack!) and disrupt all internet traffic to US or other countries. Reshydra use tens of millions of compromised android fire sticks in homes and security web cameras in businesses around the world.

Submission + - The sweetpotato's DNA turned out stranger than anyone expected (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The research revealed surprising complexity. The sweetpotato genome is a mosaic assembled from multiple wild ancestors, some of which have yet to be identified. About one-third comes from Ipomoea aequatoriensis, a wild species found in Ecuador that appears to be a direct descendant of a sweetpotato progenitor. Another significant portion resembles a wild Central American species called Ipomoea batatas 4x, though the actual donor may still remain undiscovered in the wild.

"Unlike what we see in wheat, where ancestral contributions can be found in distinct genome sections," says Shan Wu, the study's first author, "in sweetpotato, the ancestral sequences are intertwined on the same chromosomes, creating a unique genomic architecture."

This intertwined genetic heritage means that sweetpotato can be tentatively classified as a "segmental allopolyploid" — essentially a hybrid that arose from different species but behaves genetically as if it came from a single one. This genomic merging and recombination gives sweetpotato its remarkable adaptability and disease resistance, traits crucial for subsistence farmers worldwide.

Submission + - Fukushima insects tested for cognition (news.cnrs.fr)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Although the results of the study have yet to be published, scientists are already reporting a decline in insect cognition in the contaminated area of Fukushima Prefecture. "We can see correlations," Armant says. "However, a causal link with radioactive contamination has not yet been established. But since the area is no longer inhabited, it is unlikely that the effect is due to factors such as pesticides."

Submission + - Microsoft Orders Employees Back to Office 3 Days Per Week (msn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft said many employees must soon return to the office three days a week. “The most meaningful breakthroughs happen when we build on each other’s ideas together, in real time,” Amy Coleman, the company’s Chief People Officer, wrote in a memo Tuesday. The requirement will start for workers in the Seattle area who live within 50 miles (80 km) of an office at the end of February, before expanding to the rest of the US and launching internationally, she wrote.

The change is “not about reducing headcount,” Coleman wrote. The software giant has fired some 15,000 workers this year as it grapples with the high costs of developing and offering artificial intelligence products. Rather, the data showed employees working together in-person were more successful, she wrote. “As we build the AI products that will define this era, we need the kind of energy and momentum that comes from smart people working side by side,” Coleman wrote.

Submission + - Intel Ousts CEO of Products, Ending 30-Year Career (tomshardware.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Intel has removed its chief executive officer of products, Michelle Johnston Holthaus, as part of a major shake-up of the executive branch of the embattled chip firm, according to Reuters. This is part of new CEO Lip-Bu Tan's plan to reshape the company under his leadership, flattening the leadership structure so he makes more of the important decisions about day-to-day operation. [...]

Holthaus is the latest high-profile figure at Intel to get the axe, ending a 30-year career at Intel, but a mere 10 months in her CEO of products role, and a temporary position as co-CEO after the previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger, suddenly left in 2024. "Throughout her incredible career, Michelle has transformed major businesses, built high-performing teams and worked to delight our customers," Tan said in a statement. "She has made a lasting impact on our company and inspired so many of us with her leadership. We are grateful for all Michelle has given Intel and wish her the best."

Intel has said Holthaus will remain with the company in an advisory role, but her position will not be filled by anyone else. What Intel is doing, though, is bringing in executives from elsewhere, including one who worked at Tan's previous endeavour, Cadence. Srinivasan Iyengar joined the company in June and will take on the role of head of a new central engineering division. This group will focus on developing a new custom silicon business for external customers. Although Intel's fabrication business has been one of its worst-performing in recent years, and there are still talks of it selling large portions of it, it's found a new lease of life following U.S. government investment and Bu Tan's leadership.

With Iyengar's new role, though, it's possible we'll see Intel designing chips for customers, rather than merely producing them. That could see it compete against the likes of Broadcom and Marvell. With Tan pushing for a faster, leaner business overall, Iyengar will report directly to him in his new role. Intel also announced that it had acquired the services of former executive vice president of solutions engineering at Arm, Kevork Kechichian. He'll begin heading Intel's datacenter group, and brings years of experience at ARM, NXP Semiconductor, and Qualcomm.

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