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A hacker connected to the 2024 Snowflake data breaches, which compromised Ticketmaster and dozens of other companies, has pleaded guilty in connection with cyberattacks affecting 165 organisations. The breach exposed personal data of hundreds of millions of Ticketmaster customers, making it one of the largest data thefts of recent years. Details of the plea, sentencing and broader scheme remain limited.

Former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert has died at the age of 84. Hastert, an Illinois Republican, served as Speaker from 1999 to 2007, the longest-serving Republican in that role. His later years were marked by disgrace: in 2016 he was sentenced in a federal hush-money case tied to sexual abuse allegations from his time as a high school teacher and coach.

A broad area of low pressure, designated Invest 92E, has developed near the Gulf of Tehuantepec south of southern Mexico, producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Weather watchers are tracking it as the latest potential tropical cyclone in the Eastern Pacific, with forecasts watching whether the system organizes into a depression or storm in coming days.

A nor'easter is moving through the Northeast, and AccuWeather is providing live coverage alongside storm chasers on the ground. The broadcast tracks wind, coastal flooding, and rain across the region throughout the day. The live feed has drawn hundreds of thousands of likes, indicating strong public interest in real-time updates on the storm's impact.

Dennis Hastert, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives and longtime congressman from Illinois, has died at the age of 84, according to the Chicago Tribune. Hastert served as Speaker from 1999 to 2007, the longest-serving Republican in that role. His death is drawing renewed attention to a political career that later ended in a federal hush-money case.

Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, has died at 84. Once one of the most powerful politicians in Washington, his legacy was permanently tarnished when he admitted in 2016 to sexually abusing teenage boys decades earlier while working as a teacher and wrestling coach. Obituaries are recalling both his political career and the scandal that ended it.

Cricket South Africa's YesPlay Pro20 Cup featured a match between the Garden Route Badgers and Eastern Cape Linyathi. The fixture drew heavy attention online, with hundreds of thousands of engagements as fans followed the domestic T20 clash between the two provincial sides.

A science explainer is drawing attention to the question of whether dark points in light, such as shadows or dark regions, can travel faster than light. The piece is tagged with physics and cosmos topics and is circulating among science readers. Such apparent faster-than-light motion typically involves shadow edges or phase effects rather than actual matter breaking the speed limit, and interest centres on how this counterintuitive physics works.

European payments companies are joining forces to create a unified European network for payments, intended to reduce the continent's reliance on US-owned card schemes Visa and Mastercard. The initiative would give Europe a home-grown alternative for card payments and digital transactions, and it is drawing attention as a strategic move toward financial independence from American infrastructure.

Ukrainian special forces have stormed Russian trench positions on the eastern front, with combat footage recorded on helmet cameras showing close-quarters fighting. The footage has drawn wide attention, highlighting the intensity of trench warfare in eastern Ukraine, where both sides continue to trade ground in grinding, difficult conditions.

Carlos Alcaraz and Denis Shapovalov played a dramatic opening set in their match at the Tokyo tournament, with swings of momentum that drew a huge online reaction. Highlights of the set are being widely watched as fans debate the quality of the contest and Alcaraz's form during the Japanese swing of the tour.

A developer has shown how to use an iPhone as a second GPU alongside a MacBook, reporting that prefill times for running the Qwen 3.8 27B model are 29 to 44 percent faster. The experiment exploits Apple's unified connectivity to share compute between devices for local AI inference. Commenters are debating how the setup works, its practicality, and what it means for running large models on consumer hardware.

Dennis Hastert, the Illinois Republican who served as Speaker of the US House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007, has died at the age of 84. His later years were overshadowed by scandal: in 2015 he pleaded guilty to banking violations tied to hush-money payments and admitted to sexually abusing former high school students when he was a teacher and wrestling coach. Obituaries are recalling both his record-long speakership and the fall from grace that followed.

PBS Masterpiece's official site is promoting The Gold season 2, outlining the plot, cast and where viewers can watch the new episodes. The drama, based on the 1983 Brink's-Mat bullion robbery, drew strong audiences in its first season. A second season announcement has revived interest in the real-life heist and how the series continues the story of the stolen gold and those entangled in it.

GamesIndustry.biz reports on veteran AAA developers leaving major studios to found independent teams, with one saying 'It's less risky to be the masters of our own fate.' The piece reflects a growing trend of experienced developers opting for independence amid layoffs and studio closures across the games industry, arguing self-direction now carries less risk than staying in big-budget development.

Google Finance is rolling out a new design intended to make following volatile stocks like Tesla easier. The revamp aims to improve how users monitor sharp price swings, with Tesla's frequently turbulent share price cited as the prime example. The news, reported by Mashable, is drawing attention from investors who track Tesla's ups and downs closely.

A new interactive tool forecasting diesel prices has been released, allowing users to explore projections of where diesel costs may head in the coming period. It comes amid ongoing concern over elevated fuel prices, with the accompanying analysis suggesting prices could climb even higher. Early reaction online has been modest but interested, with users trying out the forecasts.

A developer has released Rpi, a rewrite of the Pi coding agent in Rust, claiming startup times roughly 10 times faster than the original. The project replaces the existing implementation with a compiled-language version focused on performance. Developers on Hacker News are discussing the trade-offs of rewriting agent tooling in Rust and whether the speed gains matter in practice.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a state disaster emergency in response to an ongoing measles outbreak in the state. The declaration allows officials to take stronger public health measures to contain the spread of the disease. The outbreak has been continuing despite vaccination efforts, and the move underscores growing concern among state health authorities.

MIPS and Xcelsa announced a collaboration aimed at accelerating the optimization of workload-specific custom chips. The two companies are targeting faster design cycles for tailored silicon, an area of growing importance as AI and specialized computing demand chips optimized for particular tasks. Details on the technical scope of the partnership remain limited to the announcement itself.

Jannik Sinner will skip the Shanghai Masters because of a persistent right knee injury. The Italian world number one has been managing the problem in recent weeks and has opted to withdraw rather than risk aggravating it ahead of the end-of-season stretch. Tennis fans are discussing the implications for the tournament draw and Sinner's bid to finish the season strong.

Poland is positioning military equipment purchased from South Korea close to its border with Belarus and Russia, on NATO's eastern flank. The move underscores Warsaw's rapid military buildup since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its growing defense partnership with Seoul, covering tanks, rocket artillery and other hardware.