There has been much discussion in the space community recently about building large data centers in orbit to avoid the environmental consequences of sprawling computing facilities on Earth. These space-based data centers could take advantage of the always-on, free fusion reactor at the center of the Solar System.

Proponents say this represents a natural step in the evolution of moving heavy industry off the planet’s surface and a solution for the ravenous energy needs of artificial intelligence. Critics say building data centers in space is technically very challenging and cite major hurdles, such as radiating away large amounts of heat and the cost of accessing space.

It is unclear who is right, but one thing is certain: Such facilities would need to be massive to support artificial intelligence.

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Just a few weeks ago, automakers were celebrating a healthy third quarter for electric vehicle sales. General Motors was looking particularly flush, with EV sales up 104 percent for the year to date compared to the first nine months of 2024. But the strong EV sales in Q3 were seemingly due to the imminent end of the federal tax credit that expired at the end of September , with many consumers buying a car sooner than planned to take advantage of the $7,500 incentive.

The Trump administration has been altering the regulatory environment in other ways to discourage clean technologies, canceling infrastructure initiatives and turning a blind eye to pollution . On top of that, the impact of the president’s chaotic trade war has driven up prices and is cooling demand. Two weeks ago, GM told investors that things are looking so bad that it will take a $1.6 billion hit to its bank accounts as it realigns manufacturing capacity going forward.

Now we can see some of the impact of that realignment. According to The Detroit News , 1,200 workers are being laid off at GM’s EV-building Hamtramck Assembly Center near Detroit, which will move from two shifts a day to just one in early January.

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It’s spooky season, and what better way to spend Halloween weekend than settling in to watch a classic Hollywood ghost story? To help you figure out what to watch, we’ve compiled a handy list of 15 classic ghost stories, presented in chronological order.

What makes a good ghost story? Everyone’s criteria (and taste) will differ, but for this list, we’ve focused on more traditional elements. There’s usually a spooky old house with a ghostly presence and/or someone who’s attuned to said presence. The living must solve the mystery of what happened to trap the ghost(s) there in hopes of setting said ghost(s) free. In that sense, the best, most satisfying ghost stories are mysteries—and sometimes also love stories . The horror is more psychological, and when it comes to gore, less is usually more.

As always, the list below isn’t meant to be exhaustive. Mostly, we’re going for a certain atmospheric vibe to set a mood. So our list omits overt comedies like Ghostbusters and (arguably) Ghost , as well as supernatural horror involving demonic possession— The Exorcist, The Conjuring , Insidious— or monsters, like The Babadook or Sinister . Feel free to suggest your own recommendations in the comments.

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This week, Meta asked a US district court to toss a lawsuit alleging that the tech giant illegally torrented pornography to train AI .

The move comes after Strike 3 Holdings discovered illegal downloads of some of its adult films on Meta corporate IP addresses, as well as other downloads that Meta allegedly concealed using a “stealth network” of 2,500 “hidden IP addresses.” Accusing Meta of stealing porn to secretly train an unannounced adult version of its AI model powering Movie Gen, Strike 3 sought damages that could have exceeded $350 million, TorrentFreak reported .

Filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Monday, Meta accused Strike 3 of relying on “guesswork and innuendo,” while writing that Strike 3 “has been labeled by some as a ‘copyright troll’ that files extortive lawsuits.” Requesting that all copyright claims be dropped, Meta argued that there was no evidence that the tech giant directed any of the downloads of about 2,400 adult movies owned by Strike 3—or was even aware of the illegal activity.

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A cargo ship from Japan pulled alongside the International Space Station on Wednesday, maneuvering close enough for the lab’s robotic arm to reach out and grab it as the vehicles soared 260 miles over the South Atlantic Ocean.

“HTV capture complete,” Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui radioed from the ISS. “I just want to say congratulations to all teams and people involved in this mission. Also, thank you very much for your hard work and support for the first HTV-X mission.”

The HTV-X spacecraft is an upgraded cargo freighter replacing Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle, which successfully resupplied the space station nine times between 2009 and 2020. At the conclusion of the HTV program, Japan’s space agency preferred to focus its resources on designing a new cargo ship with more capability at a lower cost. That’s what HTV-X is supposed to be, and Wednesday’s high-flying rendezvous marked the new ship’s first delivery to the ISS.

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Attackers are exploiting a major weakness that has allowed them access to the NPM code repository with more than 100 credential-stealing packages since August, mostly without detection.

The finding, laid out Wednesday by security firm Koi, brings attention to an NPM practice that allows installed packages to automatically pull down and run unvetted packages from untrusted domains. Koi said a campaign it tracks as PhantomRaven has exploited NPM’s use of “Remote Dynamic Dependences” to flood NPM with 126 malicious packages that have been downloaded more than 86,000 times. Some 80 of those packages remained available as of Wednesday morning, Koi said.

A blind spot

“PhantomRaven demonstrates how sophisticated attackers are getting [better] at exploiting blind spots in traditional security tooling,” Koi’s Oren Yomtov wrote. “Remote Dynamic Dependencies aren’t visible to static analysis.”

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Steven Hatfill, a senior advisor for the Department of Health and Human Services was fired over the weekend, with health officials telling reporters that he was terminated for giving himself a fake, inflated title and for not cooperating with leadership.

For his part, Hatfill told The New York Times that his ouster was part of “ a coup to overthrow M. Kennedy ,” referring to anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Further Hatfill said the coup was being orchestrated by Matt Buckham, Kennedy’s chief of staff, though Hatfill didn’t provide any explanation of how his ouster was evidence of that. An HHS spokesperson responded to the allegation, telling the Times that “firing a staff member for cause does not add up to a coup.”

Bloomberg was first to report Hatfill’s termination .

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The Federal Communications Commission voted yesterday to raise the maximum prices that prison and jail phone services can charge inmates and their families.

The 2–1 vote with Republicans voting to raise the limits came with a dissent from Democrat Anna Gomez, who said the new rates will be “almost double in some facilities.” A new inflation factor will allow rates to rise further.

“The FCC once again is going above and beyond to address the unsubstantiated needs of monopoly providers to squeeze every penny possible from families that want to stay in touch with their loved ones,” Gomez said at the FCC meeting . “Throughout this order, the FCC chooses to reward corporations with money taken from vulnerable families.”

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Social media videos have confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers patrolling US streets are actively using facial recognition technology to verify citizenship, 404 Media reported .

In one video posted on a Chicago-based Instagram account, a self-described teenager and US citizen tells officers that he has no government ID. After he offers to show his student ID instead, the officer turns to another and asks, “can you do facial?” As the other officer pulls up an app to scan the teen’s face, the first officer tells the teenager to “relax” while alleging that “a lot of parents” tell their kids they were born in the US. The video ends after the officer takes the minor’s photo and asks the teen to verify that his name matches what the app’s database pulled up.

It’s unclear which app the officers used during this Chicago stop. But 404 Media has been closely tracking ICE and CBP’s increasing use of face scans amid the Trump administration’s nationwide mass deportation campaign, which critics slam as largely rooted in racial profiling. Earlier this year, 404 Media reviewed leaked emails confirming that ICE was using Mobile Fortify, which allows agents to scan “an unprecedented number of government databases” and compare face matches against a database of 200 million images.

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