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Persistent sessions could be just the beginning

In the heyday of North Sea oil, 'Granite City' Aberdeen boasted Britain's biggest concentration of millionaires - yet the former boom town has suffered a stark decline.

The body of Elizabeth-Jane Ross, 38, was discovered by a vagrant stuffed into a travel bag in an abandoned car park in Athens.

Google has integrated its Nano Banana 2 image generator into Google Earth, allowing users to place AI-generated events and objects onto real satellite imagery. The company says its AI-generated images contain invisible watermarks detectable through Gemini or Lens, but the BBC found those safeguards and some third-party detection tools can be fooled into labeling manipulated Google Earth images as real. From the report: A collapsed Eiffel Tower, a sinkhole swallowing the Great Pyramid of Giza and Russian tanks in Ukraine's capital were among the images BBC Verify was able to create when testing the feature, which was rolled out on Thursday. Google has not yet responded to questions based on BBC Verify's tests, but in a social media post the company said they "take misinformation seriously" and that "we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections." AI and misinformation expert Henk van Ess has highlighted the risks this feature poses, creating fake images of a non-existent nuclear power plant in Iran, a refugee camp on the US-Mexico border and a fake hospital in Gaza with a bomb crater next to it. He said Google was allowing "invented" imagery to be "welded to genuine coordinates, drawn on genuine imagery." "The forgery does not have to look convincing on its own. It inherits the credibility of the map it was born on," van Ess added. UPDATE 7/31/26 10:54 AM: Google is rolling back the image generation inside of Google Earth: "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One of the world's biggest charities has apologised to bosses of JK Rowling's rape support centre after branding it 'anti-rights'.

'The idea that it could even be brought forward, in my view, shows that the FIFA president is the wrong man to lead the organisation,' said Burnham.

Few voices have been as forthright in their disapproval of Gianni Infantino's proposal to sell off the World Cup as UEFA's president Aleksander Ceferin.

alternative_right shares a report from Axios: Google has basically stopped sending people to websites (including our site) for answers and information. Instead, it's using AI to answer them on its platform, in its words. Chartbeat data shared with Axios shows Google Search traffic to publishers fell 34% over the past year. That pain is regressive. Over the past two years, small publishers lost 60% of referrals from search overall, medium publishers 47%, large publishers 22%.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Like most people who start on weight-loss medications such as Wegovy, Kaylee Lennon had heard about the potential side-effects, including sulphur burps and diarrhoea.

Infantino, 56, is facing a rebellion from his members and is under pressure to quit but is odds-on at 1/4 with Paddy Power to keep his job.

Paris Wilson, 35, fed information on fitness instructor Danny Calahane's whereabouts to a drugs kingpin.

Scott Gough, 56, was found dead at home near Rickmansworth on March 29 2024, a day after a gang of six young men banged on his door and left a threatening note.

He reached into the pram of a two-month-old baby and stole a dummy in one incident

New York has sued prediction-market platform Kalshi, alleging it operates an "illegal gambling operation" without state authorization. "No matter what they call themselves, prediction markets like Kalshi are gambling platforms, plain and simple," said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a press release announcing the lawsuit. "By ignoring our laws, Kalshi is running an illegal operation and harming New Yorkers in the process." CNBC reports: In a case filed in a Manhattan state court (PDF), the lawsuit claims that Kalshi accepts wagers as a gambling business in disregard for the state's constitution and laws by not being registered with the New York State Gaming Commission. Governor Kathy Hochul in the press release said the state is taking the action to stop what it views as illegal behavior and bring the company into compliance with New York law. The lawsuit is seeking a permanent injunction against Kalshi. The suit by the state is also seeking a total restitution to users who have placed trades on the platform, a $100,000 penalty for each attempt to offer sports wagering, and another penalty three times the amount the company has gained while allegedly operating in violation of New York law. The state estimates that could total $36 billion.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wonder Woman icon Lynda Carter showed off her age-defying appearance at 75 in a new Instagram post shared this week, see her now.

Firefighters are tackling a field fire that has sent smoke billowing across the area in Ingatestone.

Firefighters are tackling a field fire that has sent smoke billowing across the area in Ingatestone.

Hélène Poole had it all - or at least, it seemed that way. But beneath the successful veneer, she was struggling with a heavy, suffocating burden: a debilitating drinking problem.

From ditching handbags and heels to avoiding queues, a large portion of women under 30 in the UK are putting convenience first on a night out - and they're silently judging those who do otherwise.