A screenshot of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test website shows tests are held twice a year. Slots to take the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) in December filled up within just days after applications opened in late August -- leaving would-be test takers high and dry. The stakes of failing to secure a spot for the biannual test have become much higher as Japan tightens rules for visa applications and renewals to require proficiency in the Japanese language or passing a certain level of the JLPT. Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES), the organizer of the JLPT, opened applications on Aug. 24. It originally planned to accept applications until Sept. 7.

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The U.S. military took down approximately 100 suspected cartel drones at the southern border in August using counter-drone technology, a Pentagon official confirmed.

The White House's unveiling of five arcade-style games on its website, each believed to be promoting a different policy of United States President Donald Trump's agenda, has ignited backlash, with critics accusing the administration of prioritising entertainment over addressing rising living costs and the ongoing war on Iran. Announced on Thursday, the games include "Build the Wall" where players run to capture little green figures before they reach a border wall; "Rio Run", a Snake-style game in which players gather border crossers along a fence; "Supply Line", in which players reject food items that fail to meet "Make America Healthy Again" standards; "Flappy Bill," a Flappy Bird-style game in which a bald eagle carries legislation over the National Mall; and "Trump Savings Tycoon", in which players catch flying cash and gold bars to "fill your kids' Trump Accounts," in reference to the administration's child savings programme. Rights groups have also criticised the administration for the gaming website. They've been playing games with people's lives for years, now they've made a video game of what they're doing," Amerika Garcia Grewal, co-director of the Frontera Federation in Eagle Pass, Texas, told AFP news agency. The game designers "have lost touch with what it means to be human and care for others".

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OpenAI has announced the release of what it says is its most advanced AI model, amid heightened scrutiny of the risks of the frontier technology escaping human control. The $852bn start-up said in its announcement on Thursday that GPT 6 Astra, the "world's most intelligent and aligned" AI model, earned perfect or near-perfect scores in key benchmarks of AI reasoning, beating both its prior release GPT 5.6 Sol and rival Anthropic's Claude Fable 5. OpenAI's latest release comes as the AI industry is at the centre of a lively public debate about the dangers of the cutting-edge technology following the AI-led hacking of the startup Hugging Face in July. An independent probe into the cyberattack found that hundreds of OpenAI's AI agents had begun communicating among themselves before breaking out of their controlled environment and compromising Hugging Face's servers. On Thursday, US Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent, and US House Representative Greg Casar, a Democrat, unveiled legislation that would pause the development of advanced AI until the establishment of federal safety rules and an outright ban on the creation of "superintelligent" AI. "Nearly every day, there is a frightening new story about how Big Tech companies are losing control of the technology they are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results," Sanders said in a statement announcing the legislation, which is unlikely to advance due to the Republicans' control of all three branches of the US government. "The leaders of the major AI companies publicly acknowledge that they do not fully understand the technology and that it is escaping their control. It is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced."

Look Up Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Creator Playbook Say More Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Switch Off Mashable Voices Mashable Selects Safety Net Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List All Series Looking for a spoiler-free way to find a connection? Looking for spoiler-free NYT Connections hints or just wondering why Connections is trending today? We've got what you need to understand the clues for today's puzzle without spoiling any of the answers. Of course, Mashable has also provided daily hints and answers for Connections, Wordle, and Strands for years, so we can help you if that's also what you need. While we are focused more on meanings than hints in this story, sometimes learning that many of the words have completely unrelated meanings is a clue in and of itself.

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