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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A Bloomberg report, citing sources familiar with the matter, highlights that the proposed plant would be a gigafab, essentially a sprawling complex of multiple chipmaking facilities. If it comes to pass, it would represent a massive leap in the UAE's ambitions to become a key player in this field, even though it currently lacks skilled semiconductor labor.

TSMC has reportedly met several times in recent months with Steve Witkoff, the US Special Envoy to the Middle East, and MGX, a powerful UAE investment fund tied to the ruling family. The renewed interest comes amid broader negotiations around AI cooperation between the two countries.

Still, don't expect bulldozers on the ground anytime soon. The idea is still in early-stage talks, and whether it advances at all hinges on how the US feels about it, particularly given the national security and economic implications.

Critics inside the administration point to the UAE's ties to China and the risk of future technology transfers. AI data centers can be more easily regulated through licensing and oversight, but a chip manufacturing plant would create a pipeline of advanced know-how and local production that the US could lose control over.

It's worth mentioning that TSMC is already investing heavily in the US through its Arizona project, which is expected to cost $165 billion and includes fabs, research labs, and chip packaging facilities. The US committed $6.6 billion in subsidies to help make that happen as part of the CHIPS Act. But some in the Trump administration worry that spreading TSMC's resources too thin, especially in a region with complex geopolitics like the Gulf, could backfire.

Regardless of the outcome, the UAE continues to position itself as a regional tech leader and has been aggressively courting partnerships in AI, quantum computing, and cloud infrastructure. Last month, Trump announced a series of agreements with multiple Gulf countries, including the UAE, related to exporting AI chips and developing AI infrastructure.

Original Submission

day of the dalek writes:

The Real ID Act was passed in 2005 on the grounds that it was necessary for access control of sensitive facilities like nuclear power plants and the security of airline flights. The law imposed standards for state- and territory-issued ID cards in the United States, but was widely criticized as an attempt to create a national ID card and would be harmful to privacy. These concerns are explained well in a 2007 article from the New York Civil Liberties Union:

Real ID threatens privacy in two ways. First, it consolidates Americans' personal information into a network of interlinking databases accessible to the federal government and bureaucrats throughout the 50 states and U.S. territories. This national mega-database would invite government snooping and be a goldmine for identity thieves. Second, it mandates that all driver's licenses and ID cards have an unencrypted "machine-readable zone" that would contain personal information on Americans that could be easily "skimmed" by anybody with a barcode reader.

These concerns are based on what happens when criminals access the data, but also how consolidating data from many government agencies into a central database makes it easier for bad actors within the government to target Americans and violate their civil liberties. These concerns led to a 20 year delay in enforcing Real ID standards nationally, and as a USA Today article from 2025 warns, once Americans' data is stored on a central repository for one purpose, mission creep is likely. If the centralized database is used to make student loan applications and income tax processing more efficient, what's to stop law enforcement from accessing it to identify potential criminals? Over the past two decades, criticism of the Real ID Act has come from across the political spectrum, with many people and organizations on both the left and right decrying it as a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties.

Much of these concerns have never been realized about the Real ID Act, but they are renewed with Executive Order #14143, signed by Donald Trump on March 20, 2025. This directs for the sharing of government data between agencies except when it is classified for national security purposes. The executive order does not include any provisions to protect the privacy of individuals.

Although Trump has not commented on how this data sharing will be achieved, the Trump Administration has hired a company called Palantir to create a central registry of data, which would include a national citizen database. Recent reporting describes a database with wide-ranging information about every American that is generally private:

Foundry's capabilities in data organization and analysis could potentially enable the merging of information from various agencies, thereby creating detailed profiles of American citizens. The Trump administration has attempted to access extensive citizen data from government databases, including bank details, student debt, medical claims, and disability status.

Palantir does not gather data on their own, but they do provide tools to analyze large repositories of data, make inferences about the data, and provide easy-to-use reports. There are serious concerns about the lack of transparency about what data is being integrated into this repository, how it will be used, the potential for tracking people in various segments of the population such as immigrants, and the ability to use this data to target and harass political opponents. Concerns about how Trump's national citizen database will be used echo fears raised from across the political spectrum about the Real ID Act, except that they are apparently now quite close to becoming reality.

Additional reading:

• Trump appears to be building an unprecedented spy machine that could track Americans (MSNBC)
• What is Palantir? The secretive tech company behind Trump's data collection efforts (Mashable)
• Former Palantir workers condemn company's work with Trump administration (NPR)
• Palantir filed to go public. The firm's unethical technology should horrify us (The Guardian)
• The Gleeful Profiteers of Trump's Police State (Mother Jones)
• Donald Trump's Reported Database Move Sparks Alarm: 'Dystopian' (Newsweek)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

German motorists likely felt disheartened at the sight of all the stop signs on Google Maps [last] Thursday. The Guardian reports that major roads in western, northern, south-western and central parts of the country were shown as closed. Even parts of Belgium and the Netherlands appeared to have ground to a halt.

The situation was exacerbated by the incident taking place at the start of a four-day break for the Ascension holiday, when many Germans were travelling. It led to a huge number of Google Maps users heading for alternative routes to avoid the non-existent closures. Somewhat ironically, this caused huge jams and delays on these smaller roads.

Drivers not relying on Google Maps – and any Google users who decided to check another service or the news – didn't have to deal with these problems. Apple Maps, Waze, and the traffic reports all showed that everything was moving freely. The major highways were likely quieter than usual as so many Google Maps users were avoiding them.

The apparent mass closure of so many roads caused panic among those who believed Google Maps' warning. Some thought there had been a terrorist attack or state-sponsored hack, while others speculated about a natural disaster.

When asked about the glitch, which lasted around two hours, Google said the company wouldn't comment on the specific case. It added that Google Maps draws information from three key sources: individual users, public sources such as transportation authorities, and a mix of third-party providers.

Ars Technica contacted Google to ask about the cause of the problem. A spokesperson said the company "investigated a technical issue that temporarily showed inaccurate road closures on the map" and has "since removed them."

With Google Maps drawing information from third parties, the issue could partly have been related to the German Automobile Club's warning that there may be heavy traffic at the start of the holiday. Google also added AI features to Maps recently, and we all know how reliable they can be.

There have been plenty of other incidents in which Google Maps got things very wrong. Germany was cursing the service again earlier this month when it showed highway tunnels being closed in part of the country when they were open.

In 2023, Google was sued by the family of a North Carolina man who drove his car off a collapsed bridge as he followed directions given by Google Maps. The case is ongoing.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Fuel cells powered with the metal could provide a new source of electric power that's far more energy-dense than lithium-ion batteries.

A new type of fuel cell that runs on sodium metal could one day help clean up sectors where it’s difficult to replace fossil fuels, like rail, regional aviation, and short-distance shipping. The device represents a departure from technologies like lithium-based batteries and is more similar conceptually to hydrogen fuel cell systems. 

The sodium-air fuel cell was designed by a team led by Yet-Ming Chiang, a professor of materials science and engineering at MIT. It has a higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries and doesn’t require the super-cold temperatures or high pressures that hydrogen does, making it potentially more practical for transport. “I’m interested in sodium metal as an energy carrier of the future,” Chiang says.  

The device’s design, published today in Joule, is related to the technology behind one of Chiang’s companies, Form Energy, which is building iron-air batteries for large energy storage installations like those that could help store wind and solar power on the grid. Form’s batteries rely on water, iron, and air.

One technical challenge for metal-air batteries has historically been reversibility. A battery’s chemical reactions must be easily reversed so that in one direction they generate electricity, discharging the battery, and in the other electricity goes into the cell and the reverse reactions happen, charging it up.

When a battery’s reactions produce a very stable product, it can be difficult to recharge the battery without losing capacity. To get around this problem, the team at Form had discussions about whether their batteries could be refuelable rather than rechargeable, Chiang says. The idea was that rather than reversing the reactions, they could simply run the system in one direction, add more starting material, and repeat. 

[...] Chiang and his colleagues set out to build a fuel cell that runs on liquid sodium, which could have a much higher energy density than existing commercial technologies, so it would be small and light enough to be used for things like regional airplanes or short-distance shipping.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Apple has a month left to make its App Store rules compliant with EU Digital Markets Act antisteering provisions, or the fines will keep coming.

On April 23, following multiple reports that the EU was delaying the issuing of fines against Apple and Meta, Europe finally pulled the trigger. It announced that it would fine Apple and Meta millions of euros for failing to comply with the Digital Markets Act.

Over a month later, on May 27, the European Commission published its full ruling on the matter. The 67-page document also outlines exactly what the punishment is to Apple, for failing to follow the regulation.

The bottom line is that Apple was fined 500 million euro ($567 million), with Apple being given three months to pay it to the European Commission. If it doesn't pay on time, it will have to pay interest on the due funds.

Apple also has to fix itself and end the non-compliance with the Digital Markets Act within 60 days of the April notification. If Apple does not, it faces the prospect of "periodic penalty payments" of an unspecified amount until it does comply.

The ruling covers how Apple is not complying with the DMA based on how its anti-steering rules are implemented. Originally, Apple prevented developers from telling consumers about ways to make payments for services and features that didn't go through Apple's systems.

Apple did change its rules under regulatory pressure, but did so in a way that didn't meet the requirements of the Digital Markets Act. These changes included allowing developers to share an external link with users, but with limitations.

Since Apple wouldn't get its 30% cut for usage of its In-App Purchases mechanism, Apple added a new requirement, effectively taking a 27% fee from these transactions outside of the App Store system.

In its ruling, neither the old nor new business terms complied with the regulation, since they restricted the ability for developers to promote their off-App Store offers in their apps. Forcing a fee instead of doing so free of charge was also seen as an issue, as is limiting links to one URL per app.

Repeatedly, Apple's arguments are denied in the ruling, such as its definition of "free" as its read in the regulation when taking into account nuances in different languages.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The phone was featured in a BBC video, which showed it powering on with an animated North Korean flag waving across the screen. While the report did not specify the brand, the design and user interface closely resembled those of a Huawei or Honor device.

It's unclear whether these companies officially sell phones in North Korea, but if they do, the devices are likely customized with state-approved software designed to restrict functionality and facilitate government surveillance.

One of the more revealing – and darkly amusing – features was the phone's automatic censorship of words deemed problematic by the state. For instance, when users typed oppa, a South Korean term used to refer to an older brother or a boyfriend, the phone automatically replaced it with comrade. A warning would then appear, admonishing the user that oppa could only refer to an older sibling.

Typing "South Korea" would trigger another change. The phrase was automatically replaced with "puppet state," reflecting the language used in official North Korean rhetoric.

Then came the more unsettling features. The phone silently captured a screenshot every five minutes, storing the images in a hidden folder that users couldn't access. According to the BBC, authorities could later review these images to monitor the user's activity.

The device was smuggled out of North Korea by Daily NK, a Seoul-based media outlet specializing in North Korean affairs. After examining the phone, the BBC confirmed that the censorship mechanisms were deeply embedded in its software. Experts say this technology is designed not only to control information but also to reinforce state messaging at the most personal level.

Smartphone usage has grown in North Korea in recent years, but access remains tightly controlled. Devices cannot connect to the global internet and are subject to intense government surveillance.

Original Submission

looorg writes:

A large study of "Trust, attitudes and use of artificial intelligence" completed by KPMG and MBS. Apparently people like AI. They trust it. They believe it will bring great benefits. They use it in their work, some apparently don't believe they can do their work without AI anymore. Also they don't bother to check if the AI is correct or not in its output. All good. Trust friend computer!

Led by the University of Melbourne in collaboration with KPMG, Trust, attitudes and use of Artificial Intelligence: A global study 2025, surveyed more than 48,000 people across 47 countries to explore the impact AI is having on individuals and organizations. It is one of the most wide-ranging global studies into the public's trust, use, and attitudes towards AI to date.

• 66% of people use AI regularly, and 83% believe the use of AI will result in a wide range of benefits.

• Yet, trust remains a critical challenge: only 46% of people globally are willing to trust AI systems.

• There is a public mandate for national and international AI regulation with 70% believing regulation is needed.

• Many rely on AI output without evaluating accuracy (66%) and are making mistakes in their work due to AI (56%).

However, the use of AI at work is also creating complex risks for organisations. Almost half of employees admit to using AI in ways that contravene company policies, including uploading sensitive company information into free public AI tools like ChatGPT.

What makes these risks challenging to manage is over half (57%) of employees say they hide their use of AI and present AI-generated work as their own.

AI [increases] the security risk at work. Or they don't want to let their employer know that they could easily be replaced by a bot.

Sources:

https://mbs.edu/news/Global-study-reveals-trust-of-AI-remains-a-critical-challenge
https://ai.uq.edu.au/project/trust-artificial-intelligence-global-study

Additional sources:

https://kpmg.com/xx/en/our-insights/ai-and-technology/trust-attitudes-and-use-of-ai.html
https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmgsites/xx/pdf/2025/05/trust-attitudes-and-use-of-ai-global-report.pdf

Original Submission

_{Processed by jelizondo}

[Editor's Comment: This is the first two parts of a planned 4-part series]

MCP: What It Is and Why It Matters—Part 1
MCP: What It Is and Why It Matters—Part 2

Imagine you have a single universal plug that fits all your devices—that's essentially what the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is for AI. MCP is an open standard (think "USB-C for AI integrations") that allows AI models to connect to many different apps and data sources in a consistent way. In simple terms, MCP lets an AI assistant talk to various software tools using a common language, instead of each tool requiring a different adapter or custom code.

So, what does this mean in practice? If you're using an AI coding assistant like Cursor or Windsurf, MCP is the shared protocol that lets that assistant use external tools on your behalf. For example, with MCP an AI model could fetch information from a database, edit a design in Figma, or control a music app—all by sending natural-language instructions through a standardized interface. You (or the AI) no longer need to manually switch contexts or learn each tool's API; the MCP "translator" bridges the gap between human language and software commands.

In a nutshell, MCP is like giving your AI assistant a universal remote control to operate all your digital devices and services. Instead of being stuck in its own world, your AI can now reach out and press the buttons of other applications safely and intelligently. This common protocol means one AI can integrate with thousands of tools as long as those tools have an MCP interface—eliminating the need for custom integrations for each new app. The result: Your AI helper becomes far more capable, able to not just chat about things but take actions in the real software you use.

[...] Without MCP, integrating an AI assistant with external tools is a bit like having a bunch of appliances each with a different plug and no universal outlet. Developers were dealing with fragmented integrations everywhere. For example, your AI IDE might use one method to get code from GitHub, another to fetch data from a database, and yet another to automate a design tool—each integration needing a custom adapter. Not only is this labor-intensive; it's brittle and doesn't scale.

MCP addresses this fragmentation head-on by offering one common protocol for all these interactions. Instead of writing separate code for each tool, a developer can implement the MCP specification and instantly make their application accessible to any AI that speaks MCP. [...] In short, MCP tackles the integration nightmare by introducing a common connective tissue, enabling AI agents to plug into new tools as easily as a laptop accepts a USB device.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Airlines are tightening their rules on batteries and portable chargers.

Because of fire risks, you'll now have to keep your portable chargers visible while you're using them, at least on Southwest Airlines flights. In other words, you can't charge your laptop or Switch in the overhead bin. This, the airline argues, will allow them to better catch and stop a fire if a battery overheats. This policy went into effect on May 28.

"When a portable charger/power bank is used during a flight, it must be out of any baggage and remain in plain sight," Southwest Airlines' policy reads. "Do not charge devices in the overhead bin."

You can still travel with up to 20 spare batteries, including portable chargers and power banks, at a time on Southwest.

"Portable chargers and spare batteries must be protected from short circuit by protecting any exposed terminals and packed in your carryon (sic) bag or with you onboard," the policy continues. "Lithium-ion batteries size must not exceed 100 watt-hours."

Southwest's policy is actually fairly generous, as many foreign arlines are taking much stricter approaches to portable charging products.

Other airlines, including EVA Air, China Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways, and Singapore Airlines, have all completely banned the use of portable chargers while passengers are in-flight, The New York Times reported. Ryanair asks passengers to remove lithium batteries from overhead bins, and the South Korean government requires that passengers keep their portable chargers out of overhead bins, too, also according to The New York Times. The Federal Aviation Administration, for its part, requires that lithium-ion batteries be kept in carry-on baggage.

This comes just a few months after a fire destroyed an Air Busan plane on the tarmac in South Korea, likely because of a portable power bank, local authorities told the BBC at the time. However, The New York Times reports that there is "no definitive link between portable batteries and the Air Busan fire, and an investigation is underway."

Original Submission

Tech Review reports on a US startup that claims to have modernized and cleaned up the magnesium refining process, https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/28/1117481/metal-magrathea/ The light weight metal has many applications.

The star of Magrathea's process is an electrolyzer, a device that uses electricity to split a material into its constituent elements. Using an electrolyzer in magnesium production isn't new, but Magrathea's approach represents an update. "We really modernized it and brought it into the 21st century," says Alex Grant, Magrathea's cofounder and CEO.

The whole process starts with salty water. There are small amounts of magnesium in seawater, as well as in salt lakes and groundwater. (In seawater, the concentration is about 1,300 parts per million, so magnesium makes up about 0.1% of seawater by weight.) If you take that seawater or brine and clean it up, concentrate it, and dry it out, you get a solid magnesium chloride salt.

Magrathea takes that salt (which it currently buys from Cargill) and puts it into the electrolyzer. The device reaches temperatures of about 700 °C (almost 1,300 °F) and runs electricity through the molten salt to split the magnesium from the chlorine, forming magnesium metal.

Typically, running an electrolyzer in this process would require a steady source of electricity. The temperature is generally kept just high enough to maintain the salt in a molten state. Allowing it to cool down too much would allow it to solidify, messing up the process and potentially damaging the equipment. Heating it up more than necessary would just waste energy.

Magrathea's approach builds in flexibility. Basically, the company runs its electrolyzer about 100 °C higher than is necessary to keep the molten salt a liquid. It then uses the extra heat in inventive ways, including to dry out the magnesium salt that eventually goes into the reactor. This preparation can be done intermittently, so the company can take in electricity when it's cheaper or when more renewables are available, cutting costs and emissions. In addition, the process will make a co-product, called magnesium oxide, that can be used to trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to cancel out the remaining carbon pollution.

The company site, at https://www.magratheametals.com/ doesn't pull any punches--from their home page:

Magnesium supply underpins trillions of dollars of trade and national security is impossible without it. Today there is 0 production in all of NATO. The US cannot manufacture cars, planes, and other critical assets without magnesium metal. This is a national security emergency.

Magrathea is the US Department of Defense backed category leader in solving this problem with the most sophisticated backers, the most talented technologists, and the most commercial traction of any Western magnesium project in 2 decades.

The Tech Review article ends with a mention that currently, 95% of magnesium is from China...and like any monopolist, they would be likely to cut prices (short term) to attack competitors in other parts of the world.

Personally, I thought that Magrathea built luxury planets, and has been on holiday during the current galactic recession...

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://www.theverge.com/law/678334/right-to-repair-texas-hb-2963

Texas moved closer to becoming the next state with a right to repair law on the books, as the state Senate unanimously voted 31 - 0 to finalize HB 2963 this weekend. It would require manufacturers to make spare parts, manuals, and necessary tools available for equipment sold or used in the country's second most populated state.

As more states have passed right to repair laws, we've seen repair options and information becoming more widely available nationwide from companies like Apple and Samsung. If the bill is signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, that will add another significant market with these requirements in place.

Original Submission

pdfernhout submitted the following article:

'One day I overheard my boss saying: just put it in ChatGPT': the workers who lost their jobs to AI

The increasing sophistication and adoption of Artificial Intelligence are no longer abstract future concepts but a present-day reality reshaping the workforce, as detailed in a recent Guardian piece. The story gives voice to journalists, illustrators, copywriters, and voice actors who have found their livelihoods threatened or lost to AI tools, raising critical questions about the future of creative professions and the ethical implications of this technological shift.

Mateusz Demski, a journalist from Poland who lost his radio job, describes a particularly jarring experience when his former station introduced AI hosts:

One of the first shows they did was a live "interview" with Polish poet Wisława Szymborska, winner of the 1996 Nobel prize for literature, who had died 12 years earlier. What are the ethics of using the likeness of a dead person? Szymborska is a symbol of Polish intellectual culture, so it caused outrage. I couldn't understand it: radio is created by people for other people. We cannot replace our experiences, emotions or voices with avatars.

Annabel Beales, a copywriter from the UK, shared her dismay after her dream job was diminished and then eliminated due to AI:

Around eight months in, I noticed I was getting less work. One day, I overheard my boss saying to a colleague, "Just put it in ChatGPT." The marketing department started to use it more often to write their blogs, and they were just asking me to proofread [...] The company's website is sad to see now. It's all AI-generated and factual – there's no substance, or sense of actually enjoying gardening. AI scares the hell out of me. I feel devastated for the younger generation – it's taking all the creative jobs.

As these personal accounts highlight the human cost and ethical dilemmas of AI replacing human roles, it makes one wonder: Beyond economic efficiency, what societal values do we risk eroding when we prioritize automated content generation over human creativity, experience, and ethical oversight, and what responsibilities do companies and policymakers have in navigating this transition?

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Chinese government has decided to ease export curbs affecting companies that trade in rare earth metals and goods based on these resources. The change of policy was signaled by state media, reports Reuters. However, this change is only being implemented to the benefit of Chinese and European semiconductor companies, whose supply chains have been adversely impacted by the curbs that were introduced in April. Semiconductor players based in countries like the U.S., Taiwan, and South Korea aren't going to directly benefit from this change.

Since China implemented the new curbs, only a few licenses have been granted for those wishing to export rare earth magnets, for example. The complex process to export these vital materials for certain semiconductor, auto, and defense production processes is known to take months. Moreover, there has been confusion at customs due to the freshness of the shift in policy. Organizations need time to adapt and get used to new rules.

The headline change of the rare earths export policy seems to have been precipitated by a meeting between Chinese officials and members of the European Union Chamber of Commerce. This meeting took place on Tuesday, according to local media reports.

Reuters quotes Jens Esklund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, who said, “The meeting provided European Chamber members the opportunity to express in person the urgent need to accelerate approval processes, to ensure the stability of their supply chains.”

Esklund went on to tell Reuters that if China's rare earths export policy wasn't changed, "many European production lines will come to a halt." As such, the Eurozone's need for China's softening of export restrictions is clear. The report does not indicate what the EU will have to give back in order to enjoy this Chinese favor.

Naturally, Chinese firms that operate multinationally will also welcome the change to the rare earths export policy. China’s initial implementation seems to have been too blunt an instrument. It must have impacted domestic firms unintentionally, we assume.

Last but not least, there is no mention of the U.S. or other countries, regions, or trading blocs in this agreement. The U.S. and China are still very much in a trade war, and today it looks like the Trump administration is in the middle of a conflict with the U.S. Court of International Trade in relation to all the tariff shenanigans we have seen in recent months.

Original Submission

c0lo submitted the following article:

Mount Etna erupts as large plumes rise from Italian volcano:

Italy's Mount Etna has erupted, with large plumes of ash and smoke seen rising from the volcano.

Images and video from the island of Sicily showed volcanic material spilling out of the volcano on Monday morning.

A number of explosions of "increasing intensity" were recorded in the early hours on Monday morning, Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) Etna Observatory said.

The full scale of the eruption is currently unclear and disruption appears to be minimal, with flights departing and arriving as usual at the island's airports.

Mount Etna is one of the world's most active volcanoes, so eruptions are not uncommon and its outbursts rarely cause significant damage or injury.

Ground movements indicated the latest eruption happened on the south eastern edge of the volcano, according to INGV. This appears to be where a known 200m-wide vent is.

Footage shared throughout Monday shows a rapidly moving mix of ash, gas and rock - known as a pyroclastic flow - emerging from the site and moving down the side of the volcano.

Geologists monitoring the eruption said it was likely that part of volcano's crater collapsed and that this was the material being carried down its slopes.

Pyroclastic flow can be very dangerous to the surrounding area, but there has been no indication of an imminent threat.

In its most recent update, INGV noted that the volcanic material had not yet gone past the Valley of the Lion, the point on the approach to the summit where tourist trips stop.

INGV said it first recorded changes in the volcano's activity at 00:39 local time (22:39 GMT), before clarifying that there was an ongoing "Strombolian" eruption.

The size of Strombolian eruptions can vary but are often characterised by intermittent explosions, which occur due to the presence of gas in the magma chamber within the volcano.

When the gas bubbles reach the surface, they can burst suddenly, throwing material skywards. The process is not dissimilar to letting gas out of a fizzy drink.

These types of eruptions can be particularly dangerous for nearby aircraft.

A red alert was reportedly issued earlier on Monday, possibly suspending flights operating nearby, but this was later downgraded.

Mount Etna's last notable eruption came in February and caused the island's Catania airport to divert dozens of flights because of ash clouds.

Tourists were also warned to stay away from the volcano's lava flows.

See also:

• Mount Etna erupts, shooting a massive ash cloud into the sky and raising alerts

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The leaks include thousands of chat logs, personal videos, and ransom negotiations tied to some of the most notorious cyber-extortion gangs —believed to have raked in billions from companies, hospitals, and individuals worldwide.

It's part of his "fight against an organized society of criminals known worldwide," GangExposed told The Register via Signal chat. He claims that he's not interested in the $10 million bounty that the Feds have put up for information about one key Conti leader that he's already named, as well as a second that he says will soon be identified on Telegram.

"I take pleasure in thinking I can rid society of at least some of them," GangExposed said. "I simply enjoy solving the most complex cases."

After creating his latest Telegram channel on May 5 — GangExposed says two earlier accounts were shut down days ago — he published his first "revelation" and outed Stern, the leader of Trickbot and Conti, as 36-year-old Russian named Vitaly Nikolaevich Kovalev. Stern's identity was later confirmed by German police.

A couple of days later, GangExposed claimed to identify another key Conti crim who goes by Professor as Vladimir Viktorovich Kvitko, a 39-year-old Russian national who reportedly relocated from Moscow to Dubai. According to chat logs and other communications leaked by GangExposed, Kvitko and other Conti leaders moved to Dubai in 2020 and set up shop in the United Arab Emirates to continue their cyberattacks against Western organizations.