Technology
Poor planning fuels Bangladesh contraceptive crisis
A worker arranges packets of condoms at a pharmacy in Dhaka. Bangladesh's family planning system is buckling under severe contraceptive shortages. DHAKA - Bangladesh's once-praised family planning system is buckling under severe contraceptive shortages, raising fears of a rise in unplanned pregnancies in one of the world's most densely populated countries. For decades, the South Asian nation was hailed as a success for slashing birth rates through an expansive state-backed family planning program that sent field workers door to door with pills, condoms and advice on birth spacing. But that system is now faltering, with government clinics across the country of 170 million people running out of basic contraceptives after procurement failures and administrative disruption left supplies depleted in nearly a third of districts. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
'I was given a choice - keep my legs or keep my life' - the sepsis patient who lived
'I was given a choice - keep my legs or keep my life' - the sepsis patient who lived Farmer Marshall Wylie thought nothing of it when he cut his arm, sorting wood in August 2023. And he thought even less of it when he felt ill over the next 48 hours. But the following week, he said he clinically died due to sepsis, and eventually his legs had to be amputated. Farmers are at particular risk of developing sepsis due to incidents on the farm, but can also be reluctant to seek healthcare. Warning: This article contains some graphic images of hands and feet with sepsis.
HMRC to use AI from British tech firm to spot fraud and tax return errors
HM Revenue and Customs has announced a 10-year, £175m deal with the British tech firm Quantexa to provide AI-powered technology to help improve its performance. Quantexa says its systems will combine data collected by HMRC with external sources to help the tax office identify incidents of fraud and fix unintentional errors more quickly. Its tasks will include helping HMRC to assist customer service staff, as well as to identify hidden networks of companies and individuals masking fraudulent activity. Public dissatisfaction with HMRC performance has crept up in recent years, according to government figures. A Freedom of Information request made by the campaigners at the Contentious Tax Group found there were more than 93,000 complaints made about the department in 2024-2025 .
TDK ready to step up investment to ride AI wave
TDK CEO Noboru Saito says the firm is prepared to add investments to ride the global boom in generative artificial intelligence. Electronics component linchpin TDK is prepared to add to what is already its biggest capital spending campaign ever in a push to ride the global boom in generative artificial intelligence. The company has added ¥100 billion ($640 million) to its multiyear investment plan each year since it rolled it out in 2024, and now CEO Noboru Saito says the effort may accelerate to match an expected surge in orders and demand. "Should promising prospects arise, our commitment is to make timely and opportunistic investments," Saito, 59, said in an interview. "If we don't sow the seeds for medium-to long-term growth now, we won't be able to reap the harvest later." In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
Discovery of new alien worlds rewrites understanding of the cosmos
Trump's hidden five-tap code in handshake with Xi... and the tell-tale'bullfrog smile' that betrayed the president How Kylie Kelce REALLY feels about Taylor Swift after her foul-mouthed wedding rant: Insiders reveal stark'differences' between the sisters-in-law... and truth about'feud' What REALLY goes on in some Equinox steam rooms: Gym insiders reveal eye-popping indecency... secret towel signals used by experimental married men... and clubs with most'aggressive' locker rooms Xi greets Trump with ominous warning about risk of war between US and China: 'Beware the Thucydides Trap' Inside Eric Swalwell's marriage implosion: Disgraced Democrat nowhere in sight at family home as his furious wife appears without her ring and delivers ultimate insult Home Depot and Lowe's use sneaky cameras in theft crackdown - but honest customers are the real victims Buster Murdaugh's explosive reaction as his father's murder conviction is overturned: Insiders reveal all about his secret new life... and jailhouse calls with Alex Inside Carrie Underwood's'grounded' and'traditional' home life on her 400-acre Tennessee farm Grotesque new Michael Jackson allegations raise questions about his accusers so taboo they're almost impossible to ask... but we must: MAUREEN CALLAHAN Kylie Jenner and Timothee Chalamet's mortifying relationship secrets exposed: Her'jealousy'... his pleas for'space'... and why he's now finally'on board' with a proposal Beautiful young mom appeared to have it all. Now her two toddlers are dead after falling into a pool while on COCAINE... and her own parents allegedly made very troubling comments about her Walmart axes 1,000 workers as white-collar jobs bloodbath reaches America's biggest private employer Grief author Kouri Richins gives 40-minute rant about love and calls husband's poisoning murder a'tragedy' as she learns fate in Moscow Mule slaying... and sends deranged message to her sons This miracle drug rapidly reversed my balding. It wrecked my sex life... but a microdosing hack gave me my libido and my hair back MORE: FBI files reveal reports of'four-foot tall' beings emerging from UFOs Scientists have announced a groundbreaking discovery lurking beyond our solar system that rewrites humanity's understanding of the cosmos. A new study led by Princeton University in New Jersey identified more than 10,000 new possible planets trillions of miles from Earth. That included at least 11 worlds described by scientists as'super-Earths.'
Microsoft is retiring Copilot Mode on Edge, because everything is Copilot Mode now
Microsoft is retiring Copilot Mode on Edge, because its features are now built directly into the browser for both desktop and mobile. If you'll recall, Microsoft started testing Copilot Mode on Edge in July last year, allowing you to use it to search for information across multiple open browser tabs and to analyze the details on each page. Now, the feature is available not just on desktop, but also on Edge for mobile. Just ask Copilot a question or give it a command, such as Compare the smart TVs across all my open tabs, and it will pull info from your tabs to give you a structured, side-by-side comparison analysis. After the initial testing of Copilot Mode, Microsoft rolled out Journeys, which you can use to save projects you can revisit in the future. It's now also available for free on mobile, so you can pick up planning trips or making purchases from where you left off days or weeks ago.
Japan megabanks set to win Mythos access after Bessent visit
MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking are all likely to gain access to Anthropic's artificial intelligence model, Mythos. Japan's three megabanks are set to secure access to Anthropic's artificial intelligence model, Mythos, according to a person familiar with the matter, after its limited release last month sparked fears of a new age of cybersecurity risks. MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Mizuho Bank are all likely to gain access to the artificial intelligence model developed by the U.S. firm, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The planned access was earlier reported by Nikkei. The move comes as financial institutions around the world grow alarmed about the risks created by Mythos, which has an unprecedented ability to detect software vulnerabilities. That has raised concerns that hackers could use Mythos to disrupt critical infrastructure, and access has so far been limited to a small number of U.S. companies and organizations.
Musk's xAI races to get Wall Street firms to use Grok chatbot
Musk's xAI races to get Wall Street firms to use Grok chatbot A chat window for chatbot Grok. Musk's artificial intelligence venture, xAI, is moving with urgency to boost revenue by selling chatbot subscriptions and access to its computing resources before SpaceX's expected IPO next month. Billionaire Elon Musk's xAI has recruited multiple Wall Street firms with ties to his business empire to test its Grok chatbot, according to people familiar with the matter, part of a push to bolster revenue ahead of parent company SpaceX's initial public offering. Apollo Global Management and Morgan Stanley have begun using Grok internally alongside software from other AI model makers, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public. Valor Equity Partners is also using Grok, the people said. Despite some banks signing up for Grok, financiers are rarely using the chatbot for work, some of the people said.
Consolidation-Expansion Operator Mechanics:A Unified Framework for Adaptive Learning
Every adaptive learning system must alternate between two operations: consolidating what it already knows and expanding into new evidence. We propose \emph{Consolidation-Expansion Operator Mechanics} (OpMech), a framework that makes this structure precise. The central object is the \emph{order-gap} $\Ogap(θ; e)$, the degree to which a consolidation operator~$Q$ and an expansion operator~$P_e$ fail to commute at a given knowledge state. Because the order-gap is computable from the system's own trajectory, it serves as a real-time control signal: large values indicate that the system is still sensitive to the ordering of consolidation and expansion; once the order-gap falls and stays small, further processing is unlikely to change the outcome. Three results give the signal precise meaning: the order-gap decays along convergent trajectories; a persistently large order-gap implies the system is far from its settled state; and an order-gap-based stopping rule terminates with provable guarantees in both noiseless and bounded-noise settings. The framework applies across five domains: bandits, reinforcement learning, stochastic optimization, continual learning, and recursive language models. We give conditions under which the order-gap reliably tracks convergence in three representative cases. We develop the recursive language model application in detail, showing how OpMech replaces heuristic stopping rules and fixed recursion budgets with principled, evidence-driven alternatives.