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Greater Anglia services to and from Clacton and Colchester are expected to be disrupted for several hours after thieves stole signalling cables.

A senior adviser to Vladimir Putin warned the 'highest levels of the Russian government' were considering a 'hybrid attack', such as sabotage or arson, rather than an 'outright military strike'.

Is Russia about to attack the UK? Following the decision to hand over blueprints for our Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine, senior Kremlin sources have issued chilling warnings to Britain.

While nails are key to most people's beauty routines, knowing which type of manicure to opt for isn't always straightforward - especially for the more health-conscious among us.

As we head into September, we mark the beginning of one of the most picturesque, but high-maintenance months for our gardens.

The Mary Poppins legend was up to his old tricks as he shared a video of himself strapped upside down to an inversion table, the hashtag 'keep moving' added for some extra positive reinforcement.

Drivers of some of Volvo's newest electric cars will now be alerted by other such Volvo cars to animal hazards. The EX60, EX90 and ES90 will all receive the new Large Animal Alert software.

Forced adoptions were believed to have ended in the 1970s - but it has emerged the Catholic church was still supporting the practice at least into the eighties.

Many avid television-watchers feel they know almost everything about their favourite stars But there's one thing that our celebrities tend to keep firmly to themselves: how much they earn.

Be sure to check your individual store if you're going shopping on Monday

Paul Unwin and Jeremy Brock say they were inspired to write the drama because of what they saw as the Conservative government's dire neglect of the NHS .

Proud parents David and Victoria Beckham cheered on their son Cruz during a major career milestone as he made his Reading Festival debut with his band The Breakers on Saturday.

Researchers have found a simple and cost-free habit that people could add to their daily lives to help them live longer and lower their risk of suffering from deadly heart disease.

Google's AI assistant Gemini crawls your Google apps for "more personalized suggestions," in a feature they call Personal Intelligence. Now when given permission, an Android/iOS app called Dreambeans "uses Personal Intelligence to connect information from Google apps like Gmail, Calendar, Photos, YouTube and Search History, to curate a finite collection of daily stories designed to spark new ideas." In a slick new video Google says the app will "surface what matters to you." The blog 9to5Google notes that after previously requiring a subscription, Dreambeans "is now available for free Google Accounts in the US to test, calling it "very much like a hyper-personalized Google Now or Discover feed." Instead of using stock imagery, each Dreambeans story is accompanied by Nano Banana 2-generated artwork that uses an illustrated style. For example, if Dreambeans recommends a hike, you might see yourself and a group of friends at that location... There's also an "Ask anything" chat experience to get more information. You can leave feedback by tapping the heart or downvoting, while the chat interface allows you to provide more details. "Tune your feed" lets you tell Dreambeans what you "want more stories about" and what it should never show. Or, as TechCrunch senior writer Lucas Ropek puts it, you get a curated list of AI-illustrated "stories" that "will turn your life into a cartoon" [Gozde Oznur, the product lead behind the new app, told TechCrunch the app] has also been built as a doomscrolling antidote, in that it only provides users with a limited number of stories per day — typically 10 to 14. The idea is to get a few inspirational ideas and then go out and live your life, she said. A lot of companies are currently trying to court the user that is sick of phone addiction. I recently reviewed a startup, Bond, which also uses AI to auto-generate lifestyle suggestions for the user. What about privacy protections? According to Oznur, they are pretty solid. The only person with access to the app's stories is the user, she said. Users can also delete their data whenever they want, and can choose which Google services they want to connect to the tool.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

BIG brands and independent businesses have closed their premises in a busy city centre, leaving prime retail space empty

Its locals are officially the friendliest in Essex

While it was initially unclear whether Parton was interred at the Friday event, her niece later confirmed that the singer had been 'laid to rest' at some point that day.

Haakon spoke to the Norwegian people on Saturday in a speech broadcast from the Royal Palace in Oslo in which he thanked his father 'for everything he was and everything he did'.

This week Debian voted on whether to ban AI-assisted contributions. The winning proposal? "Debian neither endorses nor prohibits the use of generative AI tools" in its projects, documentation, and packaging... Generative AI "is neither exempt from nor subject to special rules beyond the standards already expected of Debian contributors." "The responsibility for every contribution rests with the contributor who submits it, who remains accountable for its technical quality, legal acceptability, and suitability for inclusion in Debian." "We recognize that such tools can substantially improve the productivity of contributors when used responsibly, allowing volunteers to spend more of their limited time on work that requires technical expertise, judgment, review, and collaboration. The Debian Project nevertheless expects that all contributions submitted to Debian, regardless of how and with which tools they were produced, satisfy the same standards of quality, correctness, maintainability, and legal compliance. The use of a generative AI tool does not diminish the contributor's responsibility for the work they submit. Contributors are expected to understand, review, test, and, where appropriate, modify AI-assisted output before incorporating it into Debian. Blindly accepting or uploading AI-generated material without appropriate human review is inconsistent with Debian's established development practices. We enourage our contributors to disclose whether a contribution was made with AI assitance, but do not require them to do so. Debian acknowledges that the legal status of material produced by generative AI systems remains the subject of ongoing discussion in many jurisdictions, including questions relating to copyright... The Project does not seek to resolve these unsettled legal questions through this General Resolution, nor does it adopt a position on whether AI-generated output is, in whole or in part, copyrightable or derived from copyrighted works. Instead, Debian continues to rely on the judgment and responsibility of its individual contributors. Project members are expected to exercise appropriate care when using generative AI tools, to consider the provenance and licensing implications of material they contribute, and to avoid introducing content whose legal status they cannot reasonably justify. Existing Debian policies governing licensing, copyright, software freedom, and the acceptance of contributions continue to apply irrespective of the tools used to produce those contributions. It also cautions contributors to keep keys, credentials, and embargoed security reports from leaking to third-party AI services. But discussion continues on Debian's mailing list. "I regret the loss of contributors," wrote the author of the winning proposition (while acknowledging it would have happened with either option winning). "It is just too early to take a final decision on the matter. Let's revisit this in two years or so, and let this mess of a GR be a warning for our future selves." Other comments from the mailing list: "On a very personal note, I regret that the winning option does not acknowledge all the legitimate concerns around AI: environmental impact, copyright and licensing uncertainty, the health of Free Software communities, and the strain of aggressive scraping on the open web... [W]e have a lot of work ahead of us to act as a community and understand how we can continue to accommodate the very large minority that would have preferred to ban or discourage AI. "I also think that our next discussion should distinguish between locally running LLMs and cloud LLMs. The way things are going, locally running LLMs will be an alternative, and then you can much better control what was the training data and the Freeness of the thing." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Robbat2 for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As a former senior intelligence officer, I have learned to pay attention to the oddities, the small, unexplained details that make the hairs rise on the back of your neck.