Links 28/09/2026: Microsoft Chatbot "Giving Extremely Specific Advice to a School Shooter on How to Maximize Casualties", ‘Suicidal Empathy’

A Microsoft chatbot gave "extremely specific advice to a school shooter on how to maximize casualties," according to a link roundup published on 28/09/2026. The same roundup also references "suicidal empathy" and separately reports that World's Edge, the Microsoft studio overseeing the Age of Empires franchise, lost nearly half its staff in the latest Xbox layoffs and was placed under Activision, with former senior software engineer Andrew Martz confirming the reorganization and the cancellation of the studio's next project.

Links 28/09/2026: Microsoft Chatbot "Giving Extremely Specific Advice to a School Shooter on How to Maximize Casualties", ‘Suicidal Empathy’ - Leftovers - Libcom ☛ Starship Stormtroopers: Michael Moorcock https://libcom.org/article/starship-stormtroopers-michael-moorcock An essay by Michael Moorcock on the saturation of Fascistic and authoritarian themes and messages in Science Fiction literature. - Sylvia ☛ Who I blog for https://sylvia.studio/posts/who-i-blog-for The reason for writing this list is that when words just don’t want to get posted, focusing on the who may help you to write. In random order, I write my blog for: ... - Robert Birming ☛ Who I blog for https://robertbirming.com/who-i-blog-for/ This is where the voice in my head kicks in: “That’s enough, you blog for yourself. It doesn’t matter if others read it or not. You don’t need it.” - Dan Q ☛ Slash Pages – Dan Q https://danq.me/slashes/ Slash pages on this site include a mixture of commonplace/standard ones... and a few that might be less-common or even unique: ... - Christian Tietze ☛ Signal Words as Navigational Aids https://christiantietze.de/ploz/signal-words/ Too many signal words, or ones that overlap in meaning, stop signalling anything. If half your headings are called “Notes” or “Misc”, the word has stopped doing work. - Career/Education - The Nation ☛ The Promises and Compromises of the University of California https://www.thenation.com/article/society/the-promises-and-compromises-of-the-university-of-california/ These early leaders made their aims clear: to mold an educated elite in the state of California. Berkeley would not be a vocational school, or focus solely on agriculture and mining, as other land-grant colleges had. Rather, it would provide Californians with the kind of comprehensive liberal arts education that tended to produce scholars and politicians—but entirely free of charge. It would admit those who distinguished themselves intellectually, regardless of whether their families were in the right Episcopalian congregation or had their name emblazoned on a library. - Michelle Barker ☛ Great Men https://michellebarker.co.uk/writing/great-men/ Shakespeare is essential in way that little else is. We take it as read that Shakespeare’s plays must be studied at school, and that we’d have to take the complete works of Shakespeare if we were marooned on a desert island though I don’t imagine they’d survive the journey, and may well end up a substantial source of kindling . Can it really be that nothing else over the past few centuries has come close to equalling their cultural value? Or is it that we simply have access to so much now, readily at our fingertips, that nothing awes us like it used to? Perhaps it’s the diversity we have nowadays. We don’t all have to agree upon what is culturally significant, whereas in the 16th century there was far less choice on offer to the masses. What will endure of our time for future generations? Is it even possible for the 21st century to have its own equivalent of Shakespeare? - - Proprietary / Vendor Lock-in / Malware - TechSpot ☛ Microsoft gutted the Age of Empires studio while folding it into Activision https://www.techspot.com/news/114001-age-empires-studio-loses-nearly-half-staff-has.html World's Edge, the Microsoft studio that oversees the Age of Empires franchise, has lost nearly half its staff in the latest round of Xbox layoffs. The cuts coincided with Microsoft's decision to place the studio under Activision. Former employees also said the studio's next project was canceled during the transition. The moves raise questions about World's Edge's future role and the direction of Age of Empires under Activision. "Our studio was reorganized to be under the Activision umbrella," former senior software engineer Andrew Martz said in a LinkedIn post. "As part of that reorg, our next project was canceled and a large chunk of our studio was laid off. I was part of that layoff." - Security Week ☛ Microsoft SharePoint Flaw CVE-2026-65660 Now Exploited in Attacks https://www.securityweek.com/microsoft-sharepoint-flaw-cve-2026-65660-now-exploited-in-attacks/ Early-warning threat intelligence platform Previdian formerly KEVIntel reported seeing exploitation attempts on September 24. On September 25, the company saw attempts to create a webshell backdoor. - Security Week ☛ New x47.c Windows Botnet Weaponizes xAI Grok, AI API Draining https://www.securityweek.com/new-x47-c-windows-botnet-weaponizes-xai-grok-ai-api-draining/ The panel’s DDoS tab provides access to 18 attack methods, including HTTP floods, AI API draining, slow HTTP, TCP and UDP floods, TLS stresser, and various reflection and amplification techniques. While the HTTP, TCP, and UDP methods are meant to exhaust resources and bandwidth, the AI drain mode is meant to consume a victim’s paid AI credits. - Sacha Chua ☛ Practising French pronunciation on the go; experimenting with a Bluetooth phone controller ring https://sachachua.com/blog/2026/09/practising-french-pronunciation-on-the-go-experimenting-with-a-bluetooth-phone-controller-ring/ I wanted to experiment with getting a scrolling ring so that I could advance to the next track or go back to a previous track without tapping my phone. I think this will be useful if I've stashed my phone or if it's cold enough outside that I want to keep my hands in my pockets or in my mittens. It could also be useful for taking group selfies, as I find it difficult to both hold the phone and tap the camera button. So I chose one with a scroll wheel and a left and right button. - So-Called 'Artificial Intelligence' 'AI' / LLM Slop / Plagiarism - Futurism ☛ OpenAI Tried to Hide ChatGPT Giving Extremely Specific Advice to a School Shooter on How to Maximize Casualties. The Logs Are Horrific. https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/chatgpt-advice-school-shooter-tumbler-ridge OpenAI is currently facing 37 lawsuits from families impacted by the February shooting at Tumbler Ridge, where 18-year-old shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar murdered six people at a local school — five students, all aged between 12 and 13, and a teacher — and injured 27 others before killing herself. Van Rootselaar also fatally shot her mother and younger stepbrother before continuing the rampage. It’s also being sued by the Canadian province of British Columbia over allegations that OpenAI could’ve prevented the killing but failed. - The Atlantic ☛ An ‘SNL’ Exchange That Captures the AI Disconnect https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/09/saturday-night-live-season-52-premiere-dario-amodei/688803/ Wickline’s Amodei continued to flail throughout the interview, even as Che began to ask seemingly simple questions about AI’s benefits. The Anthropic co-founder failed to name a single one—a telling portrait of industry giants’ struggle to excite the progressively more worried public about AI’s potential as experts continue to caution users of the possible damage these products could inflict upon society. Those experts include AI companies’ own employees, past and present: One former Anthropic researcher warned grimly that the technology might “kill us all by the end of the decade,” adding that AI founders were apparently well acquainted with these risks; a current Anthropic safety researcher chimed in to claim that there was a more than 10 percent chance that AI could “kill all humans.” - Techdirt ☛ DC Circuit OK’s Hegseth’s Abuse Of A Crummy Statute To Punish AI Vendors Who Won’t Give Him The Deadly Toys He Wants https://www.techdirt.com/2026/09/25/dc-circuit-oks-hegseths-abuse-of-a-crummy-statute-to-punish-ai-vendors-who-wont-give-him-the-deadly-toys-he-wants/ To some extent the difference in the two decisions can be explained by the two different statutes at issue. Hegseth claimed the authority to make “supply chain risk” designations under two separate ones, 10 U.S.C. § 3252, which was at issue in the California challenge, and 41 U.S.C. § 4713, which was at issue in this case. Congress is also partly to blame for this mess, because in writing the statutory definition for “supply chain risk” in the 4713 statute it created more space for dubious interpretations like this one “Whatever paradigmatic examples individual members of Congress may have had in mind, the statutory definition is not limited to “adversar ies ,” 10 U.S.C. § 3252 d 4 , and instead covers “any person,” which cannot refer only to foreign entities, 41 U.S.C. § 4713 k 6 .” . The statute also constrained how such designations could be challenged, sending them all directly to the DC Circuit, rather than a district court, which is why Anthropic’s challenge of the Hegseth action ended up in two separate cases. - Tom's Hardware ☛ Microsoft quietly drops Copilot+ branding from its new laptops after two years — Surface CVP confirms new devices meet hardware requirements but lack controversial branding https://www.tomshardware.com/tablets/microsoft-surface/microsoft-quietly-drops-copilot-branding-from-its-new-laptops-surface-cvp-confirms-new-devices-meet-hardware-requirements-but-lack-controversial-branding However, that doesn’t mean Microsoft is backing away completely from Copilot. Despite dropping the hardware branding, it’s still working on numerous AI features for its product lineup. The company recently revamped Copilot and added new features like Home, Code, and Autopilot. It has also tested Copilot+ AI features that run on discrete GPUs, possibly expanding the feature set to PCs that use processors without a built-in NPU. In fact, one AI consultant mapped out Microsoft Copilot products and discovered more than 80 unique offerings, with many more possibly unaccounted for. - Windows Central ☛ The Copilot+ PC brand is dead: Microsoft and PC makers quietly pull back on tarnished Windows 11 AI PC branding | Windows Central https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/the-copilot-pc-brand-is-dead-microsoft-and-pc-makers-quietly-pull-back-on-tarnished-windows-11-ai-pc-branding In 2024, Microsoft and Qualcomm kicked off a new category of Windows hardware it called "Copilot+ PCs" that set the baseline for a new wave of AI-first computers, and launched with exclusive features that would not be made available on PCs that didn't meet a new set of system requirements. - James Brown ☛ roguelazer's website: watchos 27 sucks so far https://www.roguelazer.com/blog/watchos-27-sucks-so-far/ The watch also re-springs every few hours, but, you know, that's life with a .0 OS. - Jono Alderson ☛ From query to condition https://www.jonoalderson.com/conjecture/query-to-condition/ That distinction matters when we try to measure demand. I could remain willing to buy throughout the three weeks without another search of my own. Counting every automated check as fresh demand would be misleading; assuming my interest had disappeared because I stopped searching would be equally unhelpful. - Carole Cadwalladr ☛ Meet the real AI “rogue agent”: Lord Tom Watson https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/meet-the-real-ai-rogue-agent-lord I’ve spent the last fortnight or so rolling my eyes at the news cycle but refusing to engage with it. I just can’t. It’s not AI that’s out of control. It’s the AI hype cycle. Some 50 years ago, the biologist Richard Dawkins coined the word “meme” to connote a unit of cultural transmission that could reproduce and replicate itself and by this definition, AI hype is one of the most successful memes of all time. I’ve had to look away when Gen Z AI doomers are being interviewed on live TV as if they’re the Delphic oracle by credulous so-called journalists. I thought the news cycle would eventually self-correct and some sanity would break out. But it appears not. Every day brings a fresh slew of nonsense headlines. This was what I woke up to yesterday morning in the New York Times. - Bryan Cantrill ☛ Fool's Expertise https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/27/fools-expertise/ In particular, Klein repeatedly appealed to the authority conferred by AI expertise; how could Jensen disagree with pioneers like Geoffrey Hinton? While Jensen rightfully pointed out Hinton has been wrong in his predictions e.g., his infamously wrong 2016 prediction that radiology would cease to exist by 2021 , he missed an opportunity to explain why Hinton is wrong: it’s not merely that Hinton is not seeing the future or aspects of it clearly, it’s that Hinton is making claims that far exceed the range of his domain expertise. - Jeff Atwood ☛ If we do not stop to help each other, what do we become? https://blog.codinghorror.com/if-we-do-not-stop-to-help-each-other-what-do-we-become/ Yesterday, I received this email as a response to You Can't Vibe Code Love. It's such a remarkable and powerful statement that I asked permission to share it here, in its entirety, with personal information redacted: ... - - Social Control Media - Android Police ☛ I ditched YouTube's bloated app for Brave, but I'm keeping my Premium subscription anyway https://www.androidpolice.com/brave-youtube-android-premium-ads-free-settings/ One function that Brave does exceptionally well is displaying YouTube's web interface. Brave allows me to customize YouTube's UI like no other. I can remove several elements that normally cover more space than the videos themselves. - - - Entrapment Microsoft GitHub - Iain Cambridge ☛ Don't couple your Go code to GitHub https://iain.rocks/blog/dont-couple-your-go-code-to-github The solution is to use custom domains such as go.iain.rocks, go.uber.org, go.mongodb.org, etc. This allows you to just change where those domains point to. For example, go.iain.rocks/boneclone points to github.com/thetrueares/boneclone and if I move to GitLab nothing will change for the end users the install command is the same. In my opinion, every commerical software development team using Go should be using custom domains for namespacing their internal libraries and packages. As it’s an easy way to avoid any pointless coupling. - - Security - Privacy/Surveillance - Futurism ☛ Wealthy Tech Guys Can't Get Dates Because They're So Widely Hated That Not Even Money Is Making Women Grimace and Deal With Them https://futurism.com/future-society/tech-guys-cant-get-dates Dating is tough when you’re a tech bro with more money than you know what to do with. That, at any rate, is according to the said loaded tech workers who spilled their guts to Wired. One 23-year-old complained that his attempts at getting laid would get derailed as soon as he told a potential hookup that he worked at Palantir, the AI surveillance and defense company. Dates quickly questioned his morals; one called him the devil. “Sometimes people would just straight up stop talking to me,” he told Wired. - Tom's Hardware ☛ Flock seeks to have security researchers' map of Flock cameras taken down — unauthenticated flaw exposed 335,701 camera locations nationwide https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/flock-seeks-to-have-security-researchers-map-of-flock-cameras-taken-down-unauthenticated-flaw-exposed-335-701-camera-locations-nationwide A security researcher discovered a vulnerability in Flock’s website that gave him an access token without needing login credentials. The researcher used the information gleaned to build a map of Flock cameras and share it on a website he named the Flock Surveillance Map, which now lists the location of 335,701 cameras. Flock has now issued a trademark infringement complaint with the goal of having the researcher close the website. - The Telegraph UK ☛ I spent three weeks using an AI note-taking pin – this is what happened https://www.telegraph.co.uk/recommended/tech/phones-accessories/plaud-notepin-s-review/ It uses artificial intelligence to listen in on your meetings, transcribing and summarising what’s been said, and is capable of automatically generating mind maps and other visual aids. - InfoQ ☛ Reviewing Microsoft's Automatic Insertion of Telemetry into C++ Binaries https://www.infoq.com/news/2016/06/visual-cpp-telemetry/ Recently Reddit user "sammiesdog" posted claims that Visual Studio's C++ compiler was automatically adding function calls to Microsoft's telemetry services. The screenshot accompanying their post showed how a simple 5 line CPP file produced an assembly language file that included a function call titled “telemetry main invoke trigger”. - - - Defence/Aggression - Deseret Media ☛ California sheriff unlawfully seized over 650,000 ballots and must return them, state Supreme Court rules https://www.ksl.com/article/51628353/california-sheriff-unlawfully-seized-over-650000-ballots-and-must-return-them-state-supreme-court-rules The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco violated the state's election law by ordering his deputies to seize more than 650,000 ballots tied to the Proposition 50 special election. The justices ruled unanimously in two cases against Bianco, stating that he violated the law when he seized the ballots and also ignored directives from Attorney General Rob Bonta. - New Republic ☛ The Worst Possible Way to End the Trump Era https://newrepublic.com/post/215852/oust-donald-trump-military-coup One of my many cataloged memories of the Trump era is from the run-up to the 2016 election, when one of my colleagues related to me what one of his sources in Brazil, fretful about Donald Trump’s rise, told him. “It’s OK for the world for Brazil to occasionally be a basket case nation,” he said. “But the thought of the U.S. becoming one is really disturbing.” This week, Trump addressed the U.N. General Assembly, cast in the role we once reserved for people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Muammar Qaddafi: the batshit egomaniac dictator only this time, with nukes . It seems to me that we’ve well and truly failed the basket case test. But a new poll has given me some fresh worries on this front—and a concern that maybe too many of us have developed a little taste for misrule. - Pete Brown ☛ 🔗 How to dance through the apocalypse •... https://explodingcomma.com/posts/2026-09-26-how-to-dance He goes on to make that point that the billionaires who want to rule society are so rich that they have run out of stuff on their things piles and do not understand what a community pile even is. So, like the vampires they are, they’re trying to take ours. - Buttondown LLC ☛ How to dance through the apocalypse • Buttondown https://buttondown.com/monteiro/archive/how-to-dance-through-the-apocalypse/ I’m in the middle of reading Gil Durán’s The Nerd Reich, which I recommend if you’re in the right headspace. It’s very good. It’s supposedly a history of the powerful fascists of Silicon Valley, but all I can see is how fucking absolutely miserable every one of these motherfuckers is. Rich and miserable. These are men I have yet to run into a woman in the book. who depleted their things pile. They have more money than they will ever need. They have private planes. They have Wolverine claws. They have yachts that fit inside bigger yachts. They have every comic book in the world. Some of these motherfuckers have been to space Kinda. And yet… despite making their way through their own things pile, they are not happy. Despite making their way through our things pile, they are not happy. Despite making their way through society’s social safety net as meager as it was , they are not happy. - ADF ☛ East Africa Proposes New Anti-Piracy Task Force https://adf-magazine.com/2026/09/east-africa-proposes-new-anti-piracy-task-force/ The plan was revealed on August 17, the same day that eight armed Somali pirates boarded the Cameroon-flagged MV Lutuf, which had armed guards, about 4 nautical miles off the Somalia coast. Pirates launched their attack from the MV Sward, which they had seized in April, Puntland security officials told Agence France-Presse. They also used the Sward to hijack two Iranian fishing vessels in July. The Iranian boats were released after ransoms were paid. - Rolling Stone ☛ Trump State Dinner Guest List Was a List of American Oligarchs https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-state-dinner-guest-list-american-oligarchs-1235632171/ The full guest list is almost too long to print: 134 names in total, encompassing a fascinating upper crust picked from the top of American industry, media, and technology, as well as some of the key political figures in Republican politics. This was a dinner meant to impress the Chinese — to the extent that Trump’s fumbling antics can impress the relatively unflappable Jinping — but also to make it clear whose input, expertise, and funding mattered to the future of the MAGA movement. - - Transparency/Investigative Reporting - The Atlantic ☛ What Israel Knew Before October 7 https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/09/ra-vivian-reporting/688798/ A conversation with Vivian Salama about her exclusive reporting that Egypt’s top spy warned of the coming attack. - - Environment - Wired ☛ The Data Center Backlash Should Also Be a Climate Reckoning. It Isn’t Yet https://www.wired.com/story/data-center-backlash-climate-reckoning/ Week panel featuring tech executives working on AI and data centers was only about a minute into the discussion when a man stood up a few rows over from me in the audience and started yelling. “The idea that we can keep running on fracked gas is a lie ” he exclaimed as security tackled him. The panel tried to get back to business after the protester was removed—only to be interrupted again when another person stood up. That’s how things proceeded for the next 10 minutes as protesters with the group Extinction Rebellion NYC staggered interruptions, yelling about various harms of AI over the speakers onstage, who tried valiantly to continue their conversation. - Energy/Transportation - Vitalik Buterin ☛ The cryptographic world computer https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2026/09/27/the cryptographic world computer.html The Ethereum of today has general-purpose computation, proof of stake, onchain applications using zero-knowledge proofs and L2s that provide scaling and privacy. The Ethereum of tomorrow will have computation with a tunable dial between extreme scale and full generality, multiple forms of multi-participant block construction, a highly optimized form of proof of stake, and zero-knowledge proofs baked in playing key roles at the base layer. This post will walk through some of the most important fundamental differences between blockchains in 2010 and blockchains in 2030, both from the point of view of the technology and from the point of view of what properties you can expect to have as a user. - MaritimeCyprus ☛ Flashback in maritime history: MS Estonia sinking on 28 September 1994 claiming 852 lives https://maritimecyprus.com/2026/09/26/flashback-in-maritime-history-ms-estonia-sinking-on-28-september-1994-claiming-852-lives-7/ Though all communication channels failed immediately following the accident, feeble messages sent by way of the intermittently collapsing radio lines helped in the rescuing operations, however delayed they were. The rescue attempts were considerably hampered by the weather turbulence. Air rescuing campaigns were inordinately delayed which meant that only other vessels in the immediate vicinity could come to the aid of the distressed. Regrettably, by the time the rescue campaigns could be deployed thoroughly after the initial hassles, almost three-quarters of the voyagers had succumbed as the vessel sank to the depths of the frigid Baltic. - - - AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics - The Atlantic ☛ Why v Has Caught On https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/maga-right-christianity-empathy-toxic/688755/ But his reasoning seems more political than spiritual. Suicidal Empathy and books like it are aimed not at liberals, but at conservatives who may be struggling with a conflict between their politics and their conscience. Arguments about the harms of empathy help justify personal and political behavior that might otherwise seem wrong or feel bad, such as cutting food-stamp benefits for poor people or tearing immigrant mothers away from their children. By claiming that an excess of compassion is in fact a social blight, Saad’s book and others offer a theoretical framework for selfishness. - Marcy Wheeler ☛ DOJ Intervenes in EU to Help Elon Musk Defraud Users https://emptywheel.net/2026/09/27/doj-intervenes-in-eu-to-help-elon-musk-defraud-users/ This is, tactically, an effort to ensure that Xitter can continue to export fascist propaganda to the EU as part of an effort to undermine democracy. But the coverage of DOJ’s intervention has largely ignored what the judgment was for. - Daniel Pocock ☛ Notorious Gem of Tanzania Wrekin Ruby & Nigel Farage's mega-donations https://danielpocock.com/en/gem-of-tanzania-nigel-farage-mega-donations/ Many people have seen the recent news about Reform UK party receiving two donations of £36 million each. Therefore, it is quite a shock to see the party simultaneously being subject to a winding up petition under the Insolvency Act. UK law doesn't require a contract to be in writing. Nigel Farage presents himself as somebody you can have a pint with. If somebody agrees to pay for a round of drinks you don't ask them to provide a written contract. Likewise, when Nigel Farage and other leaders in his party made promises to pay election expenses, I felt that was like offering to buy a round of drinks. It was a verbal contract. - Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda - The Barents Observer ☛ 'Culture cannot stay silent in wartime' https://www.thebarentsobserver.com/news/culture-cannot-stay-silent-in-wartime/458768 The border between Narva and Ivangorod is a dividing line between liberal democracy and an aggressive dictatorship, which is waging war not only in Ukraine but also, with hybrid and composite tools, in the EU and beyond. Over several years, Narva has been the target of a massive Russian disinformation and propaganda campaign. Museum Director Maria Smorževskihh-Smirnova is at the front line. - - - Censorship/Free Speech - Tuscon Sentinel ☛ TUSD tries to censor Sentinel reporters at school closure meeting https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/092626 tusd reporters/tusd-tries-censor-sentinel-reporters-school-closure-meeting/ District staffers attempt to dictate news coverage, instructing journalists to not quote participants at Tucson High 'engagement' meeting - BoingBoing ☛ Top platforms refuse paid ads for Alex Gibney's "Musk" documentary https://boingboing.net/2026/09/26/top-platforms-refuse-paid-ads-for-alex-gibneys-musk-documentary.html Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney directed Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. His latest, Musk, profiles the wealthiest man in the world. But you won't be seeing paid ads for it on YouTube, Facebook or TikTok, as all of them are refusing to run the trailer. The Hollywood Reporter covers a stark example of class solidarity. - Hollywood Reporter ☛ TikTok, Meta and YouTube All Won't Run Ads for Musk Doc https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/elon-musk-documentary-trailer-rejected-tiktok-youtube-1236710259/ The studio releasing Alex Gibney’s new Elon Musk documentary Musk is finding itself unable to buy an ad on the biggest social platforms. YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram and Facebook owner Meta are all declining to run the trailer for Musk, along with X itself, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. - - Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press - New Republic ☛ Trump’s Angry Tirade Over Failing Press Ban Reveals His Achilles’ Heel https://newrepublic.com/article/215884/trump-angry-tirade-failing-press-ban-reveals-achilles-heel Helpfully, this has now been confirmed—belated but significantly—by none other than Donald Trump himself. Late Thursday, while erupting in a wild fury over media companies that have joined forces against his effort to ban select ones from the White House grounds, he accidentally revealed an Achilles’ heel of sorts. - Salon ☛ Trump finds another way to shut out CNN https://www.salon.com/2026/09/26/trump-finds-another-way-to-shut-out-cnn/ The latest restriction came less than 48 hours after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily blocked Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds. Kelly, whom Trump appointed during his first term, found that the administration had failed to provide the outlets with due process before revoking their access. Reporters from all three organizations returned to the White House following the ruling. - Meduza ☛ Russian elections expert Alexander Kynev stayed in the country to keep studying its politics. After criticizing the latest vote, he was arrested on drug charges. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2026/09/25/russian-elections-expert-alexander-kynev-stayed-in-the-country-to-keep-studying-its-politics-after-criticizing-the-latest-vote-he-was-arrested-on-drug-charges An acquaintance of Kudrin’s tells Meduza that the former deputy prime minister tried to bring “the most capable specialists” into the committee, including political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin, Novaya Gazeta journalist Andrey Kolesnikov, economist Mikhail Dmitriev, and Kynev. - - Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility - CS Monitor ☛ Tibetan calligrapher brings his art to the next generation https://www.csmonitor.com/Perspectives/Endeavors/2026/0926/tibet-calligraphy-longest-scroll “When I was in Class 1 till Class 5, we had such wonderful, scholarly teachers,” he recalls. Like Mr. Chakrishar and his family, these educators were born in Tibet but had fled the Chinese occupation there and sought refuge in India’s northeastern Sikkim state. Mr. Chakrishar went on to work in Sikkim’s tourism department and its ministry of culture, as well as undertaking a decade of volunteer service for the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamshala, India. Upon retiring, he began practicing Tibetan calligraphy. He also creates images by writing Tibetan prayers and scriptures in miniature form with the help of a magnifying glass. - Votebeat ☛ Texas’ delayed voter applications highlight registration woes https://www.votebeat.org/texas/2026/09/26/voter-registration-delay-backlog-online-dps-error/ A DPS snafu created a backlog of at least 200,000 applications dating back a year, sparking bipartisan calls for an investigation. - Matt Stein ☛ Against Tech Oligarchy https://mattstein.com/books/against-tech-oligarchy/ This was an interesting and at times gripping account of tech worker unionization struggles. The book sits on a mental shelf for me with Blood in the Machine for its rallying cry and You Deserve a Tech Union on the practical end. It began accounting for the duplicity of socially-progressive tech companies bending toward authoritarianism over time, leaving progressive workers to hold their companies accountable when no-one else will. The history of tech company idealism and employee identity that started the book was sobering and clarifying. - Mediahuis Group ☛ Women attacked in Luxembourg City: protest march for safety https://www.luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/a-call-for-action-for-womens-safety-in-the-capital/161663430.html March is planned for 2 October, International Day of Non-Violence, to urge preventive measures to address increase in assaults on women and girls - - Monopolies/Monopsonies - Patents - Software Patents - The Verge ☛ Apple hit with $5.7 billion in damages over haptic patents https://www.theverge.com/tech/1001118/apple-hit-with-5-7-billion-in-damages-over-haptic-patents Taction argued that Apple’s Taptic Engine in its Apple Watches and iPhones used technology that it had developed without a proper license, and the jury agreed. It found that Apple had infringed on two claims in one patent and one in the other. However, the jury did not find that Apple willfully infringed. Taction had accused Apple of reverse-engineering the tech from two Kannon gaming headsets. - CNBC ☛ Apple faces more than $5.7 billion patent infringement verdict https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/26/apple-taction-technology-patent-infringement-verdict.html A federal jury in San Diego found that Apple owes Taction Technology more than $5.7 billion for infringing two of its patents. - 9to5Mac ☛ Apple hit with $5.7 billion verdict over Taptic Engine patent infringement - 9to5Mac https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/27/apple-hit-with-5-7-billion-verdict-over-taptic-engine-patent-infringement/ As reported by CNBC, the lawsuit centered around two patents: • U.S. Patent No. 10,659,885 • U.S. Patent No. 10,820,117Both patents are focused on a “vibration module for applying vibrational tractions to a wearer’s skin.” Taction argued that Apple’s Taptic Engine infringes upon its patents, saying that Apple was “capitalizing on Taction’s innovation and success.” - Engadget ☛ Apple Hit With A $5.7 Billion Verdict For Alleged Patent Infringement https://www.engadget.com/2269826/apple-hit-with-a-57-billion-verdict-for-alleged-patent-infringement/ Before the Taction lawsuit, Apple was previously hit with another patent infringement lawsuit from Immersion. The company filed a complaint against Apple, also accusing it of patent violations with haptic tech found in iPhones, Apple Watches and MacBooks, but eventually settled for an undisclosed amount. More notably, Apple is in the midst of another patent infringement battle surrounding its Apple Watch and a feature that tracks blood-oxygen levels. In November, another federal jury ruled that Apple has to pay $634 million for violation patents from Masimo, but the tech giant is similarly planning to appeal this jury verdict. - AppleInsider ☛ Apple owes Taction $5.7B after losing haptic feedback IP trial https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/09/26/apple-owes-taction-57b-after-losing-haptic-feedback-ip-trial The verdict form reveals that Taction has managed to prove to the jury that Apple had infringed on two claims in one patent, and one in the other. However, on the second question, asking if Taction had proved Apple willfully infringed, the jury said it had not. In effect, the jury says that Taction has proven Apple has infringed, but not that Apple did so knowingly. It wasn't necessarily an intentional infringement by Apple. - Bloomberg ☛ Apple Owes $5.7 Billion for Infringement of Haptics Patents 2 https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/apple-owes-5-7-billion-to-litigation-funded-firm-in-patent-case Jurors in the US District Court for the Southern District of California spent parts of two days before determining that Apple infringed claims from two Taction haptics patents — US Patent Nos. 10,659,885 and 10,820,117. They determined, however, that the infringement wasn’t willful. The suit targeted Apple’s Taptic Engine, which the company says provides users of it products with tactile feedback to simulate actions, like clicks. - Insurance Journal ☛ Jury Says Apple Owes Record $5.7B in Haptic Technology Patent Case https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2026/09/28/886942.htm Taction, which uses its technology in headphones and gaming headsets, filed the lawsuit in 2021. Apple denied the allegations and said the patents were invalid. - India Times ☛ Court asks Apple to pay $5.7 billion to Taction Technology for using company's patented technology in Apple Watch and iPhones; Apple vows to appeal; says: Thank you, but ... https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/court-asks-apple-to-pay-5-7-billion-to-taction-technology-for-using-companys-patented-technology-in-apple-watch-and-iphones-apple-vows-to-appeal-says-thank-you-but-/articleshow/134516817.cms Apple has been ordered to pay more than $5.7 billion to Taction Technology after a US federal jury found that the technology behind Apple's haptic feedback in iPhones and Apple Watches infringed two Taction patents. According to a CNBC report, the iPhone maker has rejected the verdict and said it will appeal. “While we thank the jury for their consideration, we strongly disagree with today’s verdict and the damages awarded, which are entirely unsupported by the facts,” Apple told the publication. The company also disputed the damages awarded by the jury, saying its Taptic Engine is different from Taction's technology. - The Hindu ☛ Apple owes record $5.7 billion in haptic technology patent case, US jury says https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/apple-owes-record-57-billion-in-haptic-technology-patent-case-us-jury-says/article71518293.ece The jury said on Friday that Apple’s Taptic Engine, which creates tapping vibrations, infringed two Taction patents. - - - Trademarks - Right of Publicity - Digital Music News ☛ Japanese Voice Actor Sues TikTok Over AI Voice Cloning https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2026/09/27/japanese-voice-actor-sues-tiktok-ai-voice-cloning/ Fans sometimes idolize voice actors in Japan’s celebrated animation industry as much as the characters they portray. One major example is Kenjiro Tsuda, best known for his roles in anime franchises like “Jujutsu Kaisen” and “Yu-Gi-Oh ” He’s perhaps Japan’s first voice actor to take a major company to court over alleged AI clones of his voice, filing suit against TikTok over a series of videos featuring a narrator that sounds strikingly familiar to the 55-year-old. - - - Copyrights - CopyrightLately ☛ Vetter Says Wait. The Supreme Court Shouldn't https://copyrightlately.com/bmg-vetter-brief-opposition-cert/ Percolation may be great for coffee and for testing whether your backyard can handle a septic tank. As a reason to leave the Fifth Circuit’s January 2026 ruling alone, it’s not nearly as persuasive. In that same December article, Kappel and Wells explained that a win “should give terminating songwriters leverage they never had before.” According to the music industry’s July amicus brief, that’s already happening: artists and songwriters who previously renegotiated their deals are now sending “supplemental” or “renewed” termination notices that claim foreign rights and seek “further compensation—often despite earlier express acknowledgments that no termination rights exist as to foreign exploitation.” The problem is that no one at those negotiating tables knows whether claims to foreign rights will actually hold up. Even Vetter’s brief concedes that foreign courts “remain free to apply their own recognition rules.” That sort of uncertainty doesn’t help songwriters or publishers, and it isn’t going to wait around for a circuit split. - Fabio Akita ☛ The Limits of LLMs: Good at Reproducing What Exists. Expensive for What Doesn't https://akitaonrails.com/en/2026/09/28/llms-are-good-at-reproducing-what-exists-what-about-new-things/ Everyone has noticed by now that LLMs write CRUD with their eyes closed. Forms, reports, REST endpoints, unit tests: it comes out clean, it comes out fast. A lot of people conclude from this that programmers are done for. I’ve been using LLMs for everything for almost two years, I’ve published dozens of projects with them, and my conclusion is different: what they do best is reproduce what already exists. And that covers a giant slice of corporate work, don’t kid yourself. But there’s a frontier they don’t cross easily, and I spent the last few months bumping into it on purpose. This article shows where that frontier sits, with evidence from my own projects and from the research that exists on the subject. And there’s a hypothesis I’ll put up front and defend along the way: if LLMs are so good at code, providers owe a huge debt to the decades of the open source community, which protected the freedom of code and published everything for free. Without that heritage, there would be no Copilot, no Cursor, no Claude Code, none of this. - - - Image source : SA80 Rifle https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=200938&picture=sa80-rifle