Twice

A Rust compiler improvement that emits metadata earlier in the build process can make building or checking Rust code up to twice as fast, according to the change being discussed. The work is hosted on GitHub under the headstart project, and developers are weighing what the speedup means for everyday compile times in Rust projects.

Ontario farmer Norm Lamothe has buried a pair of white cotton briefs in his field as part of the 'soil your undies' test, a simple method farmers use to gauge soil health. After two months underground, the cotton had largely disintegrated, a sign that microbes and soil life are active and the land is thriving. He first tried the test years earlier and got a different result.

Munich-based robotics company Robco, which builds robots for industrial use, has become a unicorn. The startup is now valued at one billion US dollars, twice its valuation from the beginning of the year. The funding milestone highlights growing investor interest in German industrial robotics and is being noted across German tech media.

France beat Belgium 4-1 in an international football match. Désiré Doué scored a fine goal in the 77th minute to revive Les Bleus, Cherki added the second on 81 minutes, and Olise struck twice late, including a double sealed around the 91st minute. Fans celebrated the dominant final ten minutes that demolished the Belgian side.