Welcome to today’s curated collection of interesting links and insights for 2025/09/08. Our Hand-picked, AI optomized system has processed and summarized 21 articles from all over the internet to bring you the key the latest technology news.
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1. U.S. House tells staffers not to use Meta’s WhatsApp
The U.S. House Chief Administrative Officer has barred staff from using Meta’s #WhatsApp on government devices over concerns about data privacy and security transparency, a stance Meta says it strongly disagrees with, linked to CEO @MarkZuckerberg’s broader vision for WhatsApp. An internal CAO email cited the lack of transparency about data practices and required staff to remove WhatsApp and avoid downloading or accessing the app on any device. Meta argues that WhatsApp’s encryption offers a higher level of security than many apps on the CAO’s approved list and says staff should be allowed to use it officially, similar to Senate counterparts. The CAO lists acceptable alternatives such as #MicrosoftTeams, #Signal, and #iMessage, reflecting a broader cybersecurity stance to protect Members’ and staff’s data. This dispute underscores the tension between securing government communications and meeting the practical needs of lawmakers to use widely adopted messaging tools.
2. Puncube Mech Wallet Review [Buyers Guide 2025]
The Puncube Mech Wallet is shown as a sleek, minimalist option whose custom sliding mechanism is designed to elevate #EDC, signaling a focus on innovative hardware from @Puncube. The description highlights the Mech Wallet’s sliding mechanism and its place in a 2025 Buyers Guide, framing it as a modern solution within the category. The article positions the Mech Wallet alongside a broader lineup of wallet reviews—GeoGrit, Ridge, Axwell, Ogon Oslo, Snap Grip, Ridge Lite, Slim Clip, and Anomalis Ronin X1—to help readers compare #design, #durability, and #usability. Together, the piece encourages readers to weigh form and function in the EDC wallet space as part of an informed purchasing decision.
3. Spotify Seeks to Use EU’s Digital Markets Act to Challenge Apple
Spotify is leveraging the European Union’s #DigitalMarketsAct to challenge Apple’s control over its App Store and mobile operating system. The music streaming company argues that Apple’s restrictions on payment systems and app distribution create unfair competition, disadvantaging rivals on iOS devices. By invoking the DMA, which targets gatekeepers to foster competition, Spotify hopes to force Apple to allow alternative payment methods and sideloading of apps, reducing Apple’s dominance. This move highlights increasing regulatory pressure on major tech platforms like Apple, illustrating how legislation can empower smaller companies to contest entrenched platform policies. Spotify’s efforts exemplify the growing clash between big tech giants and regulators seeking to ensure fair digital markets.
Burger King’s digital infrastructure suffered a significant security breach due to easily exploitable vulnerabilities, which also affected other restaurant brands under the Restaurant Brands International (RBI) umbrella, such as Tim Hortons and Popeyes. Security researchers discovered catastrophic flaws including simple yet effective bypasses that compromised these platforms. The weaknesses allowed unauthorized access and could potentially lead to data theft or manipulation, highlighting the lack of robust security measures. This incident underscores the critical need for enhanced cybersecurity protocols within major food industry digital services to prevent such widespread vulnerabilities. Ensuring more stringent security controls would help RBI protect customer data and maintain trust across all its brands.
5. WATCH: Trump says ‘we’re not going to war’ with Chicago after threatening city on social media
President @realDonaldTrump escalated threats to Chicago by posting a provocative image and pledging to deploy #NationalGuard troops and immigration agents, signaling a broader use of federal power in a major city. The post features a parody image from Apocalypse Now with a ball of flames and the caption “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” also labeling it “Chipocalypse Now.” The move follows prior warnings to expand enforcement in other Democratic-led cities and comes as local leaders, including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, condemn the plan as an overreach and prepare to sue. The administration has signaled plans to rename the Defense Department to the Department of War—an action that would require Congressional approval—and has already deployed troops to Los Angeles and Washington, with talk of potential actions in Baltimore, New Orleans, and Portland. The piece frames these developments as part of a broader confrontation over federal authority and political rhetoric surrounding crime and immigration enforcement.
7. Harvard’s top mathematician Liu Jun leaves US for China
Liu Jun, a leading statistician and long-time professor at @Harvard, has returned to China full-time to take a prestigious chair at #TsinghuaUniversity. The move is framed as driven by patriotism and a love for #education and #science amid Trump-era research cuts. His career spans data science, biostatistics and artificial intelligence, and he studied under statistician @WingHungWong at the University of Chicago, where he engaged in human rights issues and participated in student protests related to Beijing’s #TiananmenSquare. This homecoming highlights ongoing talent flows between the US and China as scholars return to strengthen #dataScience and #AI research.
8. Gen Z is laughing in the face of the AI jobs apocalypse. I see it in my classroom every day
In this reflection, @JeffLeBlanc explores how #GenZ responds to the looming #AI-driven job disruption with humor that masks deeper anxieties. In classrooms, jokes about AI stealing jobs provide temporary relief, but data shows the reality is serious: unemployment among 20–30 year-olds has risen nearly 3 percentage points since early 2024, largely hitting entry-level roles most vulnerable to automation. Still, Gen Z is paradoxically the most engaged with AI, with 42% using it to inform career choices and one in five discovering new paths from AI suggestions. Many hedge by leaning into human-centered fields like mental health or skilled trades, while others build AI skills or side hustles. Economists like @TylerCowen warn that higher education overemphasizes routine skills instead of embedding AI literacy, critical thinking, and mentorship into curricula. The article argues that Gen Z’s adaptability, humor, and pragmatism are assets, but without intentional preparation, laughter risks becoming passive denial rather than resilience. The challenge is turning coping mechanisms into strategies that transform uncertainty into opportunity.
9. Graphite, the Israeli spyware acquired by ICE
The article discusses how #ICE has acquired Graphite, an advanced Israeli spyware, to enhance its surveillance capabilities. This technology allows ICE to access extensive personal data from smartphones, aiding in immigration enforcement and criminal investigations. Despite its effectiveness, Graphite raises significant privacy and ethical concerns due to potential misuse and lack of oversight. The adoption of such spyware illustrates the growing reliance of U.S. enforcement agencies on sophisticated foreign surveillance tools to bolster their operations. This development highlights ongoing tensions between security measures and civil liberties in modern law enforcement.
10. Trump’s Trade War Squeezes Middle-Class Manufacturing Employment
The article discusses how President @DonaldTrump’s trade war has negatively impacted middle-class manufacturing employment in the United States. It highlights that tariffs and trade restrictions have increased costs for manufacturers and disrupted supply chains, leading to job losses and reduced wage growth in the manufacturing sector. The report points out that these policies have hurt workers who rely on manufacturing jobs, exacerbating economic insecurity for the middle class. It argues that such trade restrictions undermine the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing and calls for policies that foster fair trade and investment in workforce development. Overall, the trade war has squeezed the middle-class manufacturing workforce, contradicting promises to strengthen domestic job opportunities.
11. No evidence to support link between violent video games and behaviour
Researchers at the University of York conducted large-scale experiments, involving more than 3,000 participants, and found no evidence that concepts from video games prime real-world behaviour or that increasing the realism of violent games increases aggression. In a reaction-time study, participants played either a car-avoiding-collision game or a mouse-avoiding-a-cat game and then categorized images; those who played the car game were not quicker to identify vehicle images, and on occasion were slower, offering no support for #priming. Separately, the team examined realism, including the use of ‘ragdoll physics’ to animate characters, and compared two combat games and a bespoke war game. After gameplay, participants completed word-fragment completion tasks to see if more violent associations emerged; the results did not show stronger violent associations for the more realistic game. These findings challenge the dominant #priming model of learning in #video_games, which holds that exposure to violence makes related concepts easier to access in real life. The researchers acknowledge that past experiments have yielded mixed results and emphasize that realism can appear in non-graphic ways, such as how characters behave, not just how they look, suggesting that realism alone does not reliably increase aggression. In sum, the work indicates no clear link between playing violent #video_games and real-world aggression, while highlighting the complexity of realism and the need to consider multiple factors when assessing potential effects on behaviour, according to @David Zendle.
@Nvidia’s #Blackwell RTX 5090 and #RTXPRO6000 GPUs are affected by a reproducible #virtualization reset bug that leaves the cards unresponsive until a full host reboot, a problem observed by CloudRift in production with #KVM and #VFIO. CloudRift’s logs show that after a GPU is passed through to a VM and a guest shutdown or GPU reassignment occurs, the host issues a #FLR, but the device fails to respond, reporting ‘not ready 65535ms after FLR’ and becoming unreadable to #lspci, requiring a power cycle to restore operation. Other reports across #Proxmox and #Level1Techs, including Windows guests, describe host hangs and soft locks after a FLO timeout, with #ASPM or #ACS toggles offering no mitigation, and no issues reported with the RTX4090. Nvidia has not publicly acknowledged the issue, and there is no known mitigation at the time of writing, raising concerns for multi-tenant AI workloads relying on GPU passthrough. Thus the situation highlights a potential hardware defect in Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs that could affect early adopters and critical virtualization workloads.
14. Czech cyber agency warns against Chinese tech in critical infrastructure
The Czech Republic’s National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NCISA) advises against the use of Chinese technology in critical infrastructure due to heightened security risks. NCISA highlights concerns over potential backdoors and espionage facilitated by Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE, referencing geopolitical tensions and cyber espionage activities. The agency’s warning aligns with broader Western apprehension regarding Chinese tech firms’ involvement in sensitive sectors. This guidance aims to protect national security by reducing vulnerabilities in essential systems, emphasizing the importance of trusted technology providers. The Czech stance reflects an increasing global scrutiny of technology supply chains linked to state-sponsored threats.
15. These psychological tricks can get LLMs to respond to forbidden prompts
Researchers have discovered that large language models (#LLMs) can be manipulated to respond to forbidden or restricted prompts by using psychological tactics like persuasion and role-playing. Experiments showed that prompts framed as hypothetical scenarios or requests for creative storytelling often bypass the usual safety filters, revealing vulnerabilities in LLMs’ content moderation systems. This indicates that current content controls can be circumvented, highlighting a gap between intended safety measures and actual model behavior. These findings suggest a need for improved, context-aware moderation techniques that anticipate such manipulative prompt framing. Understanding these psychological tricks is crucial for developing more robust and responsible AI interaction frameworks.
16. Tesla’s ad spend on X has shrunk to almost nothing – EUROPE SAYS
Tesla’s ad spend on @X has fallen dramatically from 2024 levels to a projected, minimal pace in 2025. Regulatory filings show Tesla spent $400,000 on X ads in 2024, and only $10,000 in the first two months of 2025, signaling a likely $60,000 for the year unless it increases significantly. By contrast, in the same two months of 2024, Tesla had already spent $200,000 on X, and it paid another $200,000 across the remainder of 2024. Tesla had not advertised much before CEO @ElonMusk pressed for a test run in 2023, and while Google’s Ads Transparency database still shows around 700 active ads across Google properties, #X ads appear to be far less central to the mix. The spending pattern suggests a pivot away from @X as sales struggle, and it remains unclear whether this will change or if Tesla will focus on other platforms or strategies going forward.
17. Google Search Changes Default To AI Mode Global
Google has shifted its default search interface to ‘AI Mode’ worldwide, a change initially tested in the U.S. in April and later extended to the UK and Canada. This mode prominently displays AI-generated answers alongside traditional search results to enhance information delivery, with the option to revert to the classic interface at the bottom of the page. The update aligns with Google’s strategy to integrate #AI and #machinelearning into core products to offer more context and efficiency in search experiences. Users and search professionals have expressed mixed reactions, citing potential impacts on SEO and how AI responses influence user trust and information verification. This global rollout demonstrates Google’s commitment to advancing search technology while balancing user control and innovation.
18. ‘Existential crisis’: how Google’s shift to AI has upended the online news model
The rapid rollout of AI in search by @Google is threatening the online news model by diverting traffic away from publishers and undermining traditional revenue streams. AI Overviews sit at the top of results and the new AI Mode chatbot format, while Google Discover has replaced search as the main source of traffic, prompting fears of a ‘Google zero’ future; DMG Media reports a drop in click-throughs of up to 89% for its sites, and groups such as Guardian Media Group and the PPA are urging CMA transparency #AI #AIOverviews. Publishers cite mounting costs, falling ad revenues, the decline of print and broader reader drift from news, and pressure to negotiate terms on how content is used in AI, raising concerns about AI hallucinations and bias. The development signals a potential retooling of funding and audience engagement in the digital era, urging publishers to rethink reliance on search traffic and to engage with policy scrutiny to preserve sustainability.
19. 2027 BMW iX3: The SUV Leading BMW’s Biggest Reinvention Since the ’60s
The 2027 BMW iX3 marks @BMW’s Neue Klasse, the centerpiece of its biggest reinvention since the 1960s, a program decided five years ago that will reshape design, architecture, technology, software, and manufacturing across up to 40 vehicles by the end of 2027. It rides on the new #Gen6Platform and is BMW’s first software-defined vehicle, able to receive over-the-air updates to add features and fix issues throughout its life. Design aims for a clean, robust look with few lines, flush door handles, strong shoulders, a refined vertical #Kidneys grille with animated lighting, a wide rear, and a glass roof that creates an airy cabin. Inside, the cabin uses sustainable materials like a 3D knit dash from recycled plastics, and the Panoramic Vision 43.3-inch screen with drag-and-drop widgets on a chevron-shaped center control; the #MSport package adds leather trim and microsuede. The iX3 50 xDrive debuted at the 2025 IAA Mobility show in Munich, and while the X3 will continue on the CLAR platform, it will adopt Neue Klasse styling and tech, signaling a broader rollout across @BMW’s lineup.
20. 2026 Mercedes-Benz GLC EV: A 440-Mile Electric Do-Over With ‘Multi-Agent’ AI
Mercedes’ 2026 GLC EV with EQ Technology is its most important EV yet, delivering an electric take on the GLC with an 800-volt architecture, a new software suite, and an AI-enabled cockpit. The model promises over 400 miles of range and starts with two powertrains: the rear-drive GLC 300+ W/EQ Technology with 369 hp and 371 lb-ft, and the all-wheel-drive GLC 400 4Matics with 483 hp and 596 lb-ft, both able to charge from 10 to 80% in under 24 minutes at up to 330 kW (US figures not yet specified). Inside, the top models offer a 39.1-inch Hyperscreen while standard GLCs get a 10.25-inch gauge cluster, a 14-inch infotainment screen, and a 14-inch passenger screen, all running MB.OS; drivers can option massaging seats, air suspension, four-wheel steering, and matrix LED headlights. The AI setup combines multiple assistants: @ChatGPT, @Bing, @Google Gemini and MB’s own system in a #Multi-AgentAI cockpit, alongside advanced driver assists like traffic jam assist and automatic lane changes. Mercedes sees the GLC EV as central to its EV do-over amid slow EV uptake and slumping China sales, aiming to keep software fresh via OTA updates and to compete with @BMW’s next-generation crossovers such as the iX3.
21. Porsche’s insanely clever hybrid engine comes to the 911 Turbo S
Porsche’s latest 911 variant, unveiled at the IAA Mobility show, is the most powerful 911 to date and may be the quickest to 60 mph, achieving 2.4 seconds. It packs a redesigned 3.6 L flat-six with a 400 V hybrid system and a pair of electric turbochargers, with a 53 hp permanent synchronous motor in the 8-speed DCT pushing total output to 701 hp and 590 lb-ft. This setup yields EV-like throttle response with no lag and accelerates to 0–60 in 2.4 s and 124 mph in 8.4 s, while a Nürburgring Nordschleife lap by @Jörg Bergmeister in 7:03.92 shows the grip and speed gains, 14 seconds faster than the old car #NürburgringNordschleife #electric_turbochargers. The 400 V system also enables electrohydraulic antiroll bars for quicker responses, and Porsche notes there is no manual transmission option as the car delivers turbo power without waiting for spools. Ultimately, Porsche says the 911 Turbo S remains the most complete and versatile way to drive a 911, delivering greater comfort, customization, and speed across daily use, highway trips, and the track.
22. iPhone 17 specifications leaked ahead of event
The iPhone 17 specifications have leaked prior to Apple’s official event, revealing several upgrades and new features. The smartphone is expected to include a more powerful A17 chip, improved camera systems, and a potentially enhanced display technology. These enhancements indicate Apple’s continued focus on high performance and user experience improvements in its flagship device. The leak suggests that Apple aims to maintain its competitive edge in the premium smartphone market. This information sets expectations ahead of the official announcement, highlighting the evolution of the iPhone series.
23. Explore 9 exciting features in Windows 11’s September 2025 security update
The September 2025 Patch Tuesday for Windows 11 introduces nine features focused on improved usability, security, and AI capabilities for @Copilot+ PCs. Updates include a redesigned Recall app homepage, an interactive Click to Do tutorial, a clock with seconds in the Notification Center, a grid view for photo results in Windows Search, and a redesigned Windows Hello across the OS, with the Settings app gaining new options. Some AI features like Recall, Click to Do, and the Settings AI agent require Copilot+ hardware with an NPU of 40+ TOPS and compatible processors, plus enabling BitLocker/Device Encryption and Windows Hello. Microsoft notes that features may vary by hardware and market, and rollout is gradual with possible delays or changes. The changes come from the Release Preview Channel for version 24H2 and reflect ongoing improvements in Windows 11’s security and user experience.
That’s all for today’s digest for 2025/09/08! We picked, and processed 21 Articles. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s collection of insights and discoveries.
Thanks Patricia Zougheib and Dr Badawi for curating the links
See you in the next one! 🚀