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TechCrunch: The AI layoff wave is becoming a powder keg<\/a><\/p>\n Last month the tech sector cut more jobs than in any month in two years \u2014 nearly 40,000 \u2014 and for the third month running AI was the most-cited reason. Yet a growing chorus argues AI is merely a convenient excuse, and the real cause is pandemic-era overhiring and weak management: even Jack Dorsey eventually admitted his company Block had been overstaffed, while venture capitalist Marc Andreessen calls AI the \u201csilver bullet excuse\u201d for layoffs. The piece warns of a combustible situation: as tens of thousands lose their jobs, a tiny circle of AI insiders is becoming unimaginably rich \u2014 in a single day the Cerebras and SpaceX market debuts minted new billionaires and thousands of millionaires.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera: \u2018Looked so real\u2019: How AI is being weaponised against India\u2019s Muslim women<\/a><\/p>\n A new form of abuse is spreading in India \u2014 AI-generated sexualised imagery and fabricated videos meant to shame and intimidate Muslim women. The article cites model Samreen Ayoub: from her university-years photos, someone assembled a news-segment-style video, complete with a voiceover and on-screen captions, falsely claiming she was \u201cselling her body\u201d to Hindu men and labelling her own brother as her pimp. \u201cIt looked so real that even my parents would have believed it,\u201d Ayoub says.<\/p>\n The New York Times: Taking on Neo-Nazis, One Trademark at a Time<\/a><\/p>\n In Germany, public display of Nazi symbols and slogans has long been banned, yet online shops skirt the law \u2014 for instance by dropping vowels (\u201cHTLR\u201d) or using \u201c88\u201d as code for \u201cHeil Hitler.\u201d To dry up that trade, a campaign called Recht Gegen Rechts (\u201cRights Against the Right\u201d), founded in 2021 by Simon Knittel, registers EU trademarks for neo-Nazi symbols and coded phrases. By owning those rights, the campaign can lawfully go after shops that profit from pro-Nazi merchandise and choke off a revenue stream that sustains hate groups.<\/p>\n The New York Times: How Does One Brain Speak Two Languages?<\/a><\/p>\n A new study (published in JNeurosci) overturns the long-held assumption that a bilingual brain processes each language with a separate mechanism. It turns out that when forming, say, a plural, brain activity is strikingly similar whether the person is speaking their native or their second language. That suggests both languages are powered by one and the same \u201cgrammatical engine,\u201d rather than two separate systems as scientists had previously thought.<\/p>\n Le Monde: When Darwin comes to town: How the urban jungle disrupts animals\u2019 natural selection<\/a><\/p>\n For ten years biologists have been studying how animals adapt to city life \u2014 and whether the changes they observe are genuine genetic evolution or merely flexible behaviour. Urban chickadees grow more aggressive, snails\u2019 shell colour shifts, and pigeons\u2019 plumage better withstands pollution. The researchers conclude that the city has unexpectedly become a vast laboratory of natural selection, where evolution can be watched almost in real time.<\/p>\n Le Monde: The Swiss canton attracting Dubai\u2019s ultra-wealthy<\/a><\/p>\n Zug \u2014 one of the smallest yet richest cantons in Switzerland \u2014 uses low taxes and a sense of security to draw the world\u2019s wealthy, increasingly from Dubai too. In this tiny territory (240 km\u00b2, 130,000 people) one in eight residents is at least a millionaire, more than 40,000 companies are registered, and the canton\u2019s GDP rivals that of whole countries such as Armenia or Namibia.<\/p>\n Financial Times: Lessons from Ireland\u2019s Revolut revolution<\/a><\/p>\n The British fintech Revolut \u2014 valued at $75bn with 75 million customers \u2014 is heading toward a possible $200bn stock-market listing in 2028. The article takes Ireland as its case study, where Revolut has rapidly poached customers from local banks, and shows how vulnerable old-school banks with their outdated systems are to nimble fintechs. Even JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon has named Revolut as a serious competitor.<\/p>\n Financial Times: Arson targeting Keir Starmer properties originated in Russia<\/a><\/p>\n A Financial Times investigation concludes that a Russia-based online sabotage network was behind the arson attacks on Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s family home and other sites linked to him. The attacks were directed by a handler using the alias \u201cEl Money,\u201d tied to the pro-Kremlin hacker group NoName057(16) \u2014 which the US calls a Russian \u201cstate-sanctioned project.\u201d The handler recruited a 22-year-old Ukrainian construction worker in London (already convicted of the arson), and the same handler also arranged anti-Islamic graffiti at mosques \u2014 part of Russia\u2019s effort to stoke social tensions in Britain.<\/p>\n SABC News: Without free, decolonised education sacrifices of 1976 remain in vain<\/a><\/p>\n Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the June 16 Soweto uprising, the family of student-protest leader Tsietsi Mashinini stresses that unless education becomes free and decolonised, that generation\u2019s sacrifice will have been in vain. The uprising was sparked by the apartheid regime\u2019s decision to make Afrikaans the language of instruction in Black schools; it began in Soweto, spread across the country, and became a turning point in the fight against apartheid.<\/p>\n NPR: Is it OK to track your 18-25-year-old kid? Most parents do<\/a><\/p>\n A University of Michigan survey finds that 52% of parents of 18-to-25-year-olds track their grown children\u2019s location through phone apps \u2014 usually with tracking left on all the time. Most cite peace of mind about their child\u2019s safety, though some admit it causes more anxiety than reassurance. Psychologists warn that when tracking is used to meddle and control, it holds a young person back from becoming independent \u2014 precisely the age when it matters that part of life stays their own.<\/p>\n