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it will close all of its UK stores over the festive period as part of a move to reward staff for their hard work.

it will close all of its UK stores over the festive period as part of a move to reward staff for their hard work.

Forks of forks of forks, but which ones are patched?

A vulnerability in the popular Rust crate async-tar has affected the fast uv Python package manager, which uses a forked version that's now patched – but the most widely downloaded version remains unfixed.…

Heather Pinchbeck, 28, who has since left the service, was charged with one count of making illegal mobile communication with a prisoner who she met while on duty.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: A lot of critical financial and government infrastructure runs on Cobol. The more-than-60-year-old mainframe coding language is embedded into payments and transaction rails, even though there are very few Cobol-literate coders available to maintain them. The big argument in favor of sticking with Cobol systems is that they work. The catch is that, whenever they stop working, it is difficult to figure out why. That's not good in a crisis, which is exactly when they're most likely to break. Covid-19 put a lot of strain the US state benefit systems. The ones that used Cobol for processing unemployment claims failed spectacularly, according to a new working paper from The Atlanta Fed: "States that used an antiquated [unemployment insurance]-benefit system experienced a 2.8 percentage point decline in total credit and debit card consumption relative to card consumption in states with more modern UI benefit systems. [...] Using this estimate in a back-of-the-envelope calculation, I find that the lack of investment in updating UI-benefit systems in COBOL states was associated with a reduction in real GDP of at least $40 billion (in 2019 dollars) lower during this [March 13 2020 to year-end] period The paper uses Cobol as a proxy for old and inefficient IT, not the direct cause of failure. Claimants faced much longer delays in the 28 states that still used Cobol in 2020, both because of the unprecedented volume of claims and the difficulty updating systems with new eligibility rules, author Michael Navarrete finds. [...] As an aside, one oddity of the data is that Republican-controlled states were more likely to have replaced old IT systems, even though their standard unemployment insurance payments are lower on average. Why? Absolutely no idea, but here are the maps. And, once adjusted for state politics, here's the key finding.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham say the expansion of the ULEZ in August 2023 had no significant impact on lowering air pollution.

An off-duty police officer stopped the alleged theft

In shocking footage shared on Telegram, the soldier can be seen in the crosshairs of what appears to be an aerial surveillance camera, walking on a lonely road.

In bruising clashes at PMQs, Keir Starmer insisted the probe would not be 'watered down' to avoid considering 'racial and religious motivations'.

He was only appointed Cabinet Secretary in December, a move which attracted criticism because of his previous role at the top of the Department of Health during the Covid pandemic.

Mohammed Umar Khan, 15, was found guilty of murdering Harvey Willgoose, also 15, during their lunch break at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield.

Rather than applying your toner with a cotton round (or your hands, as I do), Korean toner pads come pre-soaked in a toner solution and ready-to-use.

The Met Office warned the wet and windy conditions may cause travel disruption, flooding, power cuts and damage to buildings within the alert areas tomorrow.

Now, a London site might be set for a revamp - including the creation of a new tourist attraction. Plans say it would 'offer a unique and exhilarating experience'.

Asylum seeker Deng Chol Majek who is accused of killing a young female staff member at his migrant hotel has denied lying about his age when he arrived in the UK.

The cause of a terrifying mid-air collision that left a plane's windshield cracked and a pilot injured appears to have been identified.

The claim that Fowler's products are a cancer 'cure' is horrifying and escalates potential risk if desperate parents abandon the idea of hospital treatment for their children.

Dahbia Benkired, 27, an Algerian migrant living in France, allegedly lured Lola Daviet into her apartment on October 14, 2022. She is currently on day four of her six-day trial at the Paris Assize Court.

Standon Calling had hoped to return in a new guise next year

One of the world's most opulent sleeper trains has announced a new route across Europe - but tickets for the notoriously extravagant journey don't come cheap.