Zun

KDE Plasma 6.8 removes the X11 session at login, offering only Wayland after roughly three decades of X11 support. Old X11 applications continue to run through XWayland, and users who still need a native X11 session can stay on Plasma 6.7, whose X11 session will be maintained for a transitional period. Linux users are debating the end of an era and what it means for legacy hardware and workflows.

The Forest Landscape Integrity Index is gaining attention as a measure of how strongly human activity has altered a country's forests. Using a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 represents largely untouched woodland, the index estimates the degree of human intervention in forest ecosystems and is being shared as a tool for comparing forest health between countries.

An estimate of Covid infection incidences for Zurich, calibrated against wastewater prevalence data from the Werdhölzli treatment plant, puts the current incidence at around 500, based on data through 11 October 2026. That translates to roughly one in every 200 residents becoming infected each week. Wastewater-based surveillance has become a key indicator since routine testing declined, and updated figures regularly draw attention during ongoing Covid waves.

As temperatures drop across Germany and Austria, media outlets are debating when households should switch on their heating for the cold season. Articles from web.de, Heute and Vienna.at all address the question, offering advice on the right time to start heating in October. Separately, Swedish firm Elvaco is rolling out NB-IoT retrofit modules for heat meters through the end of 2026, part of the broader modernisation of heating infrastructure.

A Swahili-language sports commentator says the European football predictions he shared cannot be beaten, and announces that from today he will begin posting news about Grand Prix racing. He states that coverage starts at Marina Bay in Singapore, the venue hosting the Formula 1 night race, marking a switch from football tips to motorsport updates.

Spain's royal couple is visiting Ceuta, the first visit by the Spanish king to the enclave in nearly 20 years. The trip is meant to signal support for the city after a surge in migrant crossings from Morocco. Critics note the royal programme only briefly touches on the issue of migration itself, despite it being the backdrop of the visit.

A programmer has ported Super Mario 64 to Microsoft's Zune HD, the discontinued music player Microsoft released in 2009 and abandoned shortly after. The mod puts Nintendo's classic 1996 platformer running on hardware long considered obsolete, the latest example of enthusiasts keeping dead gadgets alive through unofficial software ports.

An eyewitness account from a former Israeli soldier, published by the veterans' group Breaking the Silence, is circulating alongside claims of dehumanisation of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The group, made up of IDF veterans, regularly publishes whistleblower testimony about practices during the occupation, and the new account is being widely shared and debated online.

Ukraine has introduced an interactive map that lets residents check whether residential buildings are ready for winter, including whether heating and water supply are available. People can look up their own address to see the status of their building's utilities. The tool has drawn attention amid ongoing strikes on energy infrastructure and concern about how households will cope during the cold months.

At the SCCON26 conference in Berlin, discussions among politicians and public administrators are increasingly focused on how government IT systems can be set up in a sustainably sovereign way, reducing dependence on external providers. Exhibitors are also showcasing visions of the future digital workplace, with approaches like web components presented as one technical route to sovereign, reusable system architectures for the public sector.

A traveller driving through southern Finland describes how the dense forest gradually gives way to open countryside, with fields and pastures dominating the view, broken up by smaller patches of woodland. The observation highlights that the south of the country is far more intensively farmed and settled than the forested regions further north.

Tamanoumi Masahiro, sumo's 51st yokozuna or grand champion, died on this day in 1971. The top rank in professional sumo, yokozuna is held by only a small number of wrestlers, making Tamanoumi part of an elite lineage. He is being remembered on the anniversary of his death, with attention to his place in the sport's history and his lasting legacy in Japan.