A UN-backed report warns that even temporarily overshooting the Paris agreement's 1.5C warming target could cause permanent and widespread losses of glaciers, snow and polar ice sheets. With Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets already melting about six times faster than in the 1990s, the report argues that global temperatures should ultimately be brought back below 1C. The Guardian reports: The report, which comes as world leaders and diplomats converge on Turkey for the 31st annual Cop climate conference, documented rapid and accelerating melting of the cryosphere and polar oceans, with damages that range from the loss of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, driving sea level rises that threaten hundreds of millions of people, to thawing permafrost, which releases more planet-heating gas. Glaciers, which are still responding to historical warming, would only preserve about 70% of their current volume over a timescale of centuries if long-term heating were brought back down to 0.8C, the report found.

Meanwhile, the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, which are melting about six times faster today than in the 1990s, would continue to lose ice even in scenarios where overshoot is brief and temperature rise returns to 1.5C, the report found. The scientists said a safe, long-term temperature limit for polar ice sheets lies much closer to 1.0C of global heating, and possibly even lower. "Snow and ice respond rapidly to every fraction of a degree of warming," said [James Kirkham, a glaciologist at ICCI and the lead author of the report. "But most of these systems will take centuries or millennia to recover after overshoot, especially if tipping points are crossed that cause changes to become essentially irreversible."

Last month, a UNEP report found the world must cut emissions by 18% by 2030 and by 45% by 2035 to have a good chance of keeping temperatures from rising 1.7C above preindustrial levels. It found there were "no good outcomes" of remaining above 1.5C. The cryosphere report found that current policies, which will result in 2.8C of global heating, would reduce the mass of glacier ice to below 10% in the Rockies, Alps, Iceland and Scandinavia. If warming was limited to 1.5C, about 20-35% of the mass would remain. In the Hindu Kush Himalayas, where glaciers are a source of water for nearly a quarter of humanity, current policies will leave just 41% of the ice mass. If warming was limited to 1.5C, 83% would remain.

More than 100 activists breached a Microsoft AI data center construction site in Amsterdam as part of coordinated protests against the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. "These data centres are destroying our world. It's becoming uninhabitable because of all the resources they consume. That's why we're here today," protester Sam van der Beek said. Reuters reports: Activist groups have announced actions in 16 countries on Friday and Saturday, according to the "Stop Dirty Data Centers" coalition, which is rallying environmental groups and digital rights campaigns behind calls to pause large-scale construction. In Amsterdam on Friday, more than 100 activists gathered at the construction site of a Microsoft AI data centre, marching arm in arm before breaking into the site, climbing cranes, hanging balloons and dancing while police stood by. Some carried placards with messages reading: "Screw your datacenter."

Site owner Pure Data Centers, which plans to invest more than $1 billion and is backed by Brookfield-owned Oaktree, said it was committed to engagement with local stakeholders. "We respectfully ask those on site to leave safely and engage with us in dialogue about the development and any concerns they may have," it said. Other planned actions include a march in Dublin, a protest outside the parliament building in Warsaw, and a demonstration against a different Microsoft data centre in Denmark. [...] Stop Dirty Data Centers says it is not anti-progress or calling for existing data centers to be closed but that major construction should be halted until governments establish clearer rules.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions after it was reported that US intelligence officials believe Nvidia's chief executive has been targeted by a Chinese spying operation. The chairs of the House committees on China, foreign affairs, and intelligence wrote to Huang this week asking him to appear before a joint closed-door briefing for their committees on November 18. "Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People's Republic of China's access to sensitive US technology and information," representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford wrote. "The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk," the lawmakers added.

The New York Times last week wrote that US intelligence officials believed Huang had been the target of a Chinese spy operation. The concerns center on a Chinese woman named Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based cloud company that has bought billions of dollars of Nvidia's chips. Nvidia has rejected the claims and on Thursday would not say if Huang would appear before Congress. "Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job. Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year," the company said. "Our regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information -- not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets -- and zero information relevant to national security," it added.

The lawmakers said they wanted Huang to discuss the security protocols Nvidia had in place to protect against "foreign adversary espionage." The company said its chief executive had an "outstanding security team" that travels with him. The New York Times said Huang had not received a "defensive briefing," which the intelligence community usually, but not always, provides potential espionage targets to warn them about the activity. Nvidia said it was confident that the US government would have let the company know if it thought a person was a threat to US industry and that it often receives updates from Washington about people of concern.

Britain plans to require employers to disclose salaries in job advertisements. "Whether you're a young person starting out or a parent trying to support your family, you should know what a job pays before spending your time and effort applying for it," Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in a statement. Reuters reports: The government said requiring companies to disclose pay in job ads would help young people applying for their first jobs, while boosting pay transparency and helping tackle disparities that can disadvantage women. Just over two in five employers always publish salary ranges, while fewer than one in five always disclose specific salaries, Burnham's office said, citing estimates from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

The government will soon introduce legislation to parliament making salary disclosures mandatory, Burnham's office said, although it did not provide a timeline. Nearly one million, or 13%, of 16 to 24 year-olds in Britain are not in employment, education or training, one of the highest shares in Europe. A government review into youth inactivity is due to be published later in November.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area in the Pacific Ocean where debris naturally accumulates, is full of tiny bits of plastic -- so full, in fact, that it seems to be changing the color of the ocean. [...] To better understand how microplastics may have influenced the ocean's color, [Daniel Koestner, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bergen in Norway] and his colleagues looked at 20 years of satellite data from the spot in the ocean with perhaps the most of plastic -- the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a zone between Hawaii and California where trash trapped by ocean currents accumulates.

Between 2002 and 2022, the researchers found, waters near the garbage patch have gotten brighter in both blue and green wavelengths compared with surrounding areas. The results, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment on Thursday, don't yet prove that microplastics have directly brightened the ocean, the researchers emphasize, though their findings are backed up by lab experiments with microplastics. But without taking direct ocean samples, it's hard to know for sure what's causing the ocean's color to change. "We're still one step away from proving definitively that microplastics are causing the shift in color that that we're seeing," adds study co-author Shea Cheatham, a Ph.D. student also at the University of Bergen. "We just have to get in there [to the garbage patch] to verify."

The hope is that detecting these color shifts could help identify other areas around the world where microplastics have accumulated.

Paraguayan President Santiago Pena resigned Thursday amid mass protests and impeachment threats following the collapse of Ueno Bank, a major digital lender with close ties to his administration and more than 60% of the country's adults as customers. Regulators seized the bank after uncovering risky insider lending and accounting irregularities that left its capital below legal requirements, locking millions of customers out of their savings. The Associated Press reports: Soon after winning its banking license in 2023, Ueno seemed to be everywhere in Paraguay. The digital lender, a rebranded version of a decades-old finance company, lured customers with generous cash-back offers on groceries, grew to more than 70 locations, sponsored Paraguay's national soccer team and plastered its name on the country's main stadium. Government money poured into Ueno's coffers under Pena. He also appointed Carlos Carvallo, president of Financiera Ueno, the predecessor to Ueno Bank, to run the central bank, the agency charged with supervising the digital lender. As of last month, Ueno reported holding roughly $800 million in public deposits, about a quarter of its total, including money from the state pension and health fund and the operators of Paraguay's giant hydroelectric dams.

Even as retirees' savings and other public money piled up at Ueno, worries were escalating inside the central bank. In June, its inspectors found a pattern of risky lending to insiders, reported ABC Color, a leading Paraguayan newspaper. Ueno had extended large sums to companies tied to its owners, beyond what the law allows and without enough collateral to cover the debts if they went bad. On a single day in September 2025, nearly $39 million had gone to three such companies. Pena repeatedly brushed off the warnings. As recently as last month, he defended Ueno and the central bank's oversight, dismissing the concerns as a smear campaign that was spooking the public.

But on Monday, it all came crashing down. Regulators investigating Ueno's loans to companies linked to its owners found poorly documented lending, the central bank said, as well as expenses the bank had wrongly counted as assets. Once the books were corrected, Ueno's capital, the cushion banks must keep to absorb losses, fell to less than half the legal minimum. The central bank seized the lender Tuesday and announced plans to move customers' accounts, along with whatever assets still hold value, to other banks before liquidating what's left. Ueno's app, cards and transfers went dark and its branches locked their doors, leaving desperate depositors lined up outside with no way to cash out their savings. On Wednesday, a rush to open new accounts elsewhere crashed other banks' mobile apps, fueling public panic. Officials say they had begun repaying depositors and opening accounts at other banks for the roughly 280,000 customers who had banked exclusively with Ueno.

"The banking system is sound," insisted Pedro Acosta Bernal, appointed interim central bank president Wednesday after Carvallo resigned at Pena's request.

Meanwhile, eight senior Ueno executives have been detained, including founder Miguel Vazquez and bank President Juan Manuel Gustale. "Prosecutors also charged 27 bank officials and business associates with offenses including breach of trust and attempted fraud," reports the AP.

theodp writes: That Was Then: The Imagine Cup competition, Microsoft explained in a 2003 press release, "seeks to provide students [aged 16-and-up] around the world with resources to use technology and Web services to solve everyday problems [...] Imagine Cup is about empowering students to apply their creativity and knowledge toward making the world a more-connected place."

This Is Now: "Building is Hard. Selling is Harder." begins the "Why Imagine Cup?" promo video for the 2027 Imagine Cup competition, which is pivoting to an AI startup-first focus in recognition that "A new era for founders is here." "Since 2003, Imagine Cup has empowered emerging innovators to turn ambitious ideas into real-world solutions with Microsoft technology," Microsoft writes of the Imagine Cup Evolution. "Now part of Microsoft for Startups, Imagine Cup enters its next chapter in 2027, opening the competition to eligible early-stage startups and founders everywhere."

An Eligibility FAQ drives home the point that Imagine Cup is no longer a student-only competition: "Imagine Cup 2027 welcomes eligible early-stage startups across seven categories; founders do not need to be students." And if you think making high school students compete against seasoned full-time employees of startup companies seems a tad unfair, Microsoft advises: "Eligible student-led startups are encouraged to enter the Student Startup category but may choose an industry category instead." The #1 overall startup will win a $250,000 cash award and $1,000,000 in startup credits. However, Student Startup category entrants are ineligible for the open category prizes (where the 2nd-place winner gets $50,000 cash and $350,000 in credits, while 3rd place is good for $25,000 and $350,000 in credits); they will instead compete for a single prize of $25,000 cash and $250,000 in credits. The Official Rules (PDF) note that all startups must have a valid Azure Subscription ID and a Microsoft for Startups account.

AMD expects its fourth-quarter revenue to reach roughly $17 billion, potentially surpassing Intel's projected $15 billion to $16 billion and putting AMD ahead of its longtime rival in quarterly sales for the first time. The milestone is being driven largely by booming demand for Epyc server processors and Instinct AI accelerators, with AMD's data center business already accounting for 64% of revenue and expected to exceed 80% in 2027. Tom's Hardware reports: For those of our readers who have been following the CPU market in general as well as AMD and Intel in particular for decades, arguably the most earth-shattering part of AMD's earnings report is its outlook for the fourth quarter. The company expects revenue of approximately $17 billion, plus or minus 3%, which implies a 66% year-over-year increase and 27% sequential growth at the midpoint. In contrast, Intel expects fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion amid weakening PC demand and manufacturing capacity constraints.

If AMD meets its guidance, its quarterly sales will surpass those of its considerably bigger rival Intel for the first time in history. In fact, AMD will not only leave Intel formally behind, but its projected advantage will be approximately $1.5 billion at the midpoint of both companies' forecasts, which is a tangible lead. The development reflects the companies' increasingly different positions on the market: AMD is rapidly expanding its data center CPU and AI accelerator businesses, while Intel continues to depend heavily on PC and enterprise server processors, which sales face headwinds due to high memory prices and components shortages.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group plans to launch Emut Bank in early 2027 as the first digital bank affiliated with a major Japanese financial institution to eliminate ATM cards, "instead having customers confirm identities using the bank's smartphone app for additional security amid a rising tide of cyberattacks," reports Nikkei Asia Review. The smartphone app will also be the only way to manage deposits, with no PC-based banking. From the report: Security has become a greater concern recently. As artificial intelligence advances, Japan has seen a surge in cyberattacks targeting companies, as well as a rise in phishing attacks aimed at stealing personal information, often targeting bank accounts. The technology being used by Emut was developed by Seven Bank, the consumer finance unit of Seven & i Holdings, operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores. Emut customers will be able to withdraw money from Seven Bank's roughly 28,000 ATMs. The network is expected to gradually expand to cover the 16,000 or so ATMs at FamilyMart convenience stores. Although MUFG Bank ATMs will not be accessible, MUFG will consider changing this in the future.

Scrapping cash cards represents a shift in what has for decades been consumers' main method of withdrawing money. The former Sumitomo Bank -- a predecessor of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. -- is believed to have been Japan's first bank to implement cash cards, in 1969. The step away from cash cards by MUFG, Japan's largest financial institution, is likely to spur other banks to follow suit. [...] Eschewing cash cards will reduce Emut's costs, which will let it offer interest rates on deposits that are expected to be higher than MUFG Bank's usual 0.5%, depending on the terms. Interest can be paid out daily, rather than twice a year -- a first for a Japanese bank.

Tuesday, November 3, was Election Day in the United States, and the results are (mostly) in: Democrats are projected to win control of both the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms. The blue wave turned out to be more of a blue tsunami, ending Republican control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's second term.

Democrats flipped seven Republican-held Senate seats in the 2026 midterms, including surprise victories in traditionally Republican strongholds such as Texas, Kansas, and South Carolina. Kansas elected its first Democratic U.S. senator in nearly 100 years (94 years to be exact), while Texas and South Carolina sent Democrats to the Senate for the first time in decades. Democrats also picked up seats in Ohio, Iowa, Maine, and North Carolina.

Mozilla is testing a new Firefox Nightly feature called Mini Window that lets users pop an entire webpage into a small, always-on-top window stripped of most browser controls. "The idea behind the Firefox Mini Window feature is simple: allow users to move a currently open tab (or a section of a tab) into a separate mini window," writes ZDNet's Jack Wallen. "Think of it as moving a tab from one window to what appears like a web app." From the report: At first blush, there's no address bar, controls, scroll bar, or anything else that would normally be associated with Firefox. The Mini Window appears to be a web app, without having to actually create it. However, when I hover my cursor inside the Mini Window, I do see the address bar, the back/forward/reload buttons, and the window close button -- and that's it. The browser gets out of your way, so the only thing I see is the content.

On top of that (pun intended), the Mini Window stays on top of other Firefox windows, so I can have that popped-out content always in focus while I work on other things. This feature comes in handy when I'm working with limited display space (say, on a laptop) and need to reference a page while working on another. For multitasking, it comes in very handy. [...] Let's say I'm writing a paper on Linux and need to read a particular article for background information. I could have my document open in the main window, and then open the article in question in a Mini Window. I could then reference the article without having to click back and forth between them -- even when working on a smaller display.

Here's another use case I've found: When using MacOS's Stage Manager feature, I only have one window available at a time. The Mini Window bypasses that limitation, so I can have my main browser window focused as well as the page open in the Mini Window. Another handy way I like to use Mini Window is to open a favorite search engine, move it to a Mini Window, and then I have an always-ready search tool at my fingertips. I could also open my favorite AI service and use it in the same way.

Google will disable AI tools by default for K-12 students early next year unless school administrators explicitly enable them, but schools that choose to block AI entirely will also lose student access to Google Search. The New York Times reports: Executives at the tech giant said they wanted to be responsive to educators and parents who have asked for more control in how children interact with A.I. But there is a catch: Schools that choose to restrict A.I. entirely will also lose access to Google search. A.I. features are now a standard part of Google's commercially available search engine.

"Search and A.I. are deeply integrated," said Chris Phillips, vice president for education at Google. If a school has banned A.I., he added, students "will not have access to search, and they'll see a message from their school that indicates it's not available." [...] The company's new strategy underscores Google's powerful role in American education. If school leaders want continued student access to search within the company's ecosystem, they will be forced to embrace Google's A.I.

Microsoft is scrambling to fix time-zone problems across Outlook, Power Automate, Fabric, SharePoint and other products after parts of Canada stopped observing seasonal clock changes on November 1. "The company has confirmed problems across a chunk of its software estate, leaving some customers facing incorrect times, broken schedules and a collection of workarounds while Redmond catches up," reports The Register. From the report: Outlook users have been left with the most homework. Switching to the new Canadian time zones won't automatically update existing calendar entries, meaning that meetings scheduled after November 1 are potentially an hour out of whack. Microsoft advises users to change their Outlook calendar time zone, then update upcoming events and meetings to use it. For meetings involving other people, only the organizer can make the change.

Recurring meetings come with an additional treat: changing the time zone resets any previously moved occurrences, which then have to be recreated. Anyone with a calendar full of recurring meetings may wish to put the kettle on first. Microsoft is working on an Exchange Online PowerShell cmdlet to remediate non-recurring meetings, but according to its guidance, that's not due until later this week. A fix for recurring meetings remains "in development," with an ETA yet to be confirmed.

Things get stranger with Power Automate and Fabric, where Microsoft's temporary fix involves pretending you're somewhere else entirely. Depending on the product and province, that could mean Saskatchewan, Arizona or, for Manitobans, Bogota. Because apparently time zones weren't confusing enough already. SharePoint On-Prem customers, meanwhile, have to wait until November 10 for the correct time zones to arrive, while Power Pages users could see server-formatted dates appear an hour out until a service fix lands. Microsoft's current milestone for that is December 12.

Binance now says it's replenished 90% of assets stolen last week in a $6.3 billion security breach, its customers still "rushed to move funds off the platform" when it reopened Sunday, CNBC reports, and Binance "said it recorded $3.64 billion in net outflows after reopening withdrawals on Sunday." The exchange processed $4.65 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. UTC on Nov. 1, Binance said in a post on X. The resulting net outflows represented 2.1% of Binance's $171 billion in total assets, based on its latest available proof-of-reserves data as of Oct. 28. Binance said withdrawal volumes had declined and were stabilizing following an initial spike, while deposit volumes remained substantial.

The exchange began restoring withdrawals in phases at 6 a.m. UTC on Sunday, with services resuming across all 15 networks and assets included in the initial phase by 12:36 p.m. UTC. It said testing was continuing for the remaining networks and assets.

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao sought to reassure users following the breach, writing on X that "98% choose to stay!" He said most of the net outflows occurred within the first couple of hours after withdrawals resumed.

Generative AI was recently banned in America's two largest school districts, just weeks after OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teens.

But forging ahead, tech-backed nonprofit Code.org — now renamed CodeAI — has named OpenAI the "Lead Partner" for its 2026 Hour of AI (which last year replaced its signature event, "the Hour of Code"). Long-time Slashdot reader theodp explains: In August, OpenAI announced a new signature partnership with CodeAI to "prepare the first AI generation", explaining that "through the Hour of AI, OpenAI and CodeAI will introduce millions of students to the basics of using AI thoughtfully and responsibly." The updated Hour of AI website also listed OpenAI's investor/partner Microsoft as one of two "supporters" for the Hour of AI. Now, Microsoft is calling all K-12 teachers around the globe to register for What's working now: Making AI literacy joyful for every learner, a November 17th Microsoft Teams webinar where it will unveil its Minecraft-branded "Hour of AI experience."

"Discover how AI literacy can be engaging, approachable, and joyful for students... and hear practical ideas from educators bringing AI learning into their schools and classrooms."
Speakers include a marketing lead for Microsoft's AI training initiative plus the head of marketing for Microsoft Minecraft Education.