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"Facebook and Instagram owner Meta is launching paid subscriptions for users who do not want to see adverts in the UK," reports the BBC: The company said it would start notifying users in the coming weeks to let them choose whether to subscribe to its platforms if they wish to use them without seeing ads. EU users of its platforms can already pay a fee starting from €5.99 (£5) a month to see no ads — but subscriptions will start from £2.99 a month for UK users. "It will give people in the UK a clear choice about whether their data is used for personalised advertising, while preserving the free access and value that the ads-supported internet creates for people, businesses and platforms," Meta said. But UK users will not have an option to not pay and see "less personalised" adverts — a feature Meta added for EU users after regulators raised concerns... Meta said its own model would see its subscription for no ads cost £2.99 a month on the web or £3.99 a month on iOS and Android apps — with the higher fee to offset cuts taken from transactions by Apple and Google... [Meta] reiterated its critical stance on the EU on Friday, saying its regulations were creating a worse experience for users and businesses unlike the UK's "more pro-growth and pro-innovation regulatory environment". "Meta said its own model would see its subscription for no ads cost £2.99 a month on the web or £3.99 a month on iOS and Android apps," according to the BBC, "with the higher fee to offset cuts taken from transactions by Apple and Google." Even users not paying for an ad-free experience have "tools and settings that empower people to control their ads experience," according to Meta's announcement. The include Ad Preferences which influences data used to inform ads including Activity Information from Ad Partners. "We also have tools in our products that explain 'Why am I seeing this ad?' and how people can manage their ad experience. We do not sell personal data to advertisers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Pretty Woman actor, 75, cut a dapper figure in a sharp black tuxedo as he sat front row with Alejandra, 42.

The Sex Education star, 57, was the epitome of class in the sleeveless number, which perfectly enhanced her lithe figure.

The former Love Island star, 34, confessed that he and Chloe, 24, had split for the eighth time in June, but it appears the pair have worked through their breakup.

Our thoughts are with those who have lost a loved one

Jonny Mitchell , 53, became an unlikely heartthrob when he starred on the show as the headteacher at Thornhill Community Academy, in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, more than a decade ago.

Dr Victor Kattan claimed that the current bloody conflict in Gaza was 'made in Britain' as he campaigned for the UK to apologise and make 'reparations' to Palestinian Arabs.

The local pub is at the heart of the village community

IEEE Spectrum ranks the popularity of programming languages — but is there a problem? Programmers "are turning away from many of these public expressions of interest. Rather than page through a book or search a website like Stack Exchange for answers to their questions, they'll chat with an LLM like Claude or ChatGPT in a private conversation." And with an AI assistant like Cursor helping to write code, the need to pose questions in the first place is significantly decreased. For example, across the total set of languages evaluated in the Top Programming Languages, the number of questions we saw posted per week on Stack Exchange in 2025 was just 22% of what it was in 2024... However, an even more fundamental problem is looming in the wings... In the same way most developers today don't pay much attention to the instruction sets and other hardware idiosyncrasies of the CPUs that their code runs on, which language a program is vibe coded in ultimately becomes a minor detail... [T]he popularity of different computer languages could become as obscure a topic as the relative popularity of railway track gauges... But if an AI is soothing our irritations with today's languages, will any new ones ever reach the kind of critical mass needed to make an impact? Will the popularity of today's languages remain frozen in time? That's ultimately the larger question. "how much abstraction and anti-foot-shooting structure will a sufficiently-advanced coding AI really need...?" [C]ould we get our AIs to go straight from prompt to an intermediate language that could be fed into the interpreter or compiler of our choice? Do we need high-level languages at all in that future? True, this would turn programs into inscrutable black boxes, but they could still be divided into modular testable units for sanity and quality checks. And instead of trying to read or maintain source code, programmers would just tweak their prompts and generate software afresh. What's the role of the programmer in a future without source code? Architecture design and algorithm selection would remain vital skills... How should a piece of software be interfaced with a larger system? How should new hardware be exploited? In this scenario, computer science degrees, with their emphasis on fundamentals over the details of programming languages, rise in value over coding boot camps. Will there be a Top Programming Language in 2026? Right now, programming is going through the biggest transformation since compilers broke onto the scene in the early 1950s. Even if the predictions that much of AI is a bubble about to burst come true, the thing about tech bubbles is that there's always some residual technology that survives. It's likely that using LLMs to write and assist with code is something that's going to stick. So we're going to be spending the next 12 months figuring out what popularity means in this new age, and what metrics might be useful to measure. Having said that, IEEE Spectrum still ranks programming language popularity three ways — based on use among working programmers, demand from employers, and "trending" in the zeitgeist — using seven different metrics. Their results? Among programmers, "we see that once again Python has the top spot, with the biggest change in the top five being JavaScript's drop from third place last year to sixth place this year. As JavaScript is often used to create web pages, and vibe coding is often used to create websites, this drop in the apparent popularity may be due to the effects of AI... In the 'Jobs' ranking, which looks exclusively at what skills employers are looking for, we see that Python has also taken 1st place, up from second place last year, though SQL expertise remains an incredibly valuable skill to have on your resume."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Benny Blanco gave fans a glimpse inside newlywed life with Selena Gomez as he shared a series of intimate snaps from their wedding weekend - including one showing the singer asleep on his chest.

Harrison Mizen, eight, learned about the unique communication method at school and put a message in an old glass rum bottle which 'reminded him of pirates'.

A video circulating on social media of the incident shows the three-time darts world champion, 36, at the centre of a five-man scuffle near the shop's counter.

Boden now has an up to 50% sale

The couple tied the knot in Santa Barbara surrounded by loved ones over the weekend, with photos capturing Gomez beaming with uncontainable happiness.

The Greater Manchester mayor, who has claimed Labour MPs are privately urging him to challenge the PM, did nothing to dampen down speculation about his ambitions.

Kelly Brook giggled as she regaled tales of her very colourful love life.

Rory McIlroy's wife, Erica, was reportedly left in tears following a day of vitriolic abuse from American fans at the Ryder Cup. The pair's relationship was targeted throughout the day.

Lola Young collapsed and was 'carried off stage' by medical staff at the All Things Go Music Festival in New York on Saturday.

The Northern Irishman has been involved in several incidents with the heated New York crowd at Bethpage, with his wife Erica reportedly left in tears at the end of play on Saturday evening.

The Duchess of Sussex, 44, took to her Instagram account on Friday to show off what appeared to be her cosy living room in her Montecito home.