Well, that didn’t last too long. Katie Zacharia became White House press secretary just five days ago, but after President Donald Trump told reporters she should “reconsider,” the New York Times reported she’d been fired Friday afternoon. 

Zacharia held the position for less than a week, but generated considerable controversy in that short time. Her first briefing on Tuesday lasted only 14 minutes as she took questions from just three reporters at Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail, appearing flustered and disorganized. Meanwhile, questions about her credentials took center stage, as she identified herself as a lawyer but in fact had never passed the bar exam. Her long history of pushing far-right conspiracy theories like QAnon also resurfaced. 

Then, Zacharia made two appearances on Fox News, both of which did not seem to go well. Sean Hannity grilled her on her false credentials Thursday night and told her, “I can give you some unsolicited advice. That’s never going to be a friendly room to you,” referring to the White House press pool. The next morning, she appeared on “Fox and Friends” and was asked if she still had the “confidence” of the president. “I-I-I’m standing here and I was able to travel with him through all of the midterm convention — or, excuse me — the midterm rallies, and I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me,” she replied.

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Apparently, she did not have Trump’s confidence. Speaking to reporters at the White House Friday, the president said he told her “Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider.” He added that he would leave the decision to her, according to CNN, but said they would speak when he returned to the White House. “Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this,” he said he told her. A few hours later, she was out. 

Numerous people online compared Zacharia’s short tenure was compared to Anthony Scaramucci, who was appointed White House Communications Director in 2017 during Trump’s first term, but just lasted 11 days. “To put it more precisely: a Zacharia is about .4 of a Scaramucci,” Anna Bower, a senior editor at Lawfare, posted on Blue Sky. The Mooch, as Scaramucci is popularly known, posted on X that “Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.”

Zacharia replaced secretary Karoline Leavitt, who resigned from the position in August.

😳 Zacharia flames out on Fox News for the second time in 12 hours 😳

With the wreckage still smoldering from her debacle on Hannity, Katie went on Fox & Friends and received another grilling from Fox hosts

LAWRENCE JONES: It’s been a tough week for you. Do you wish you would’ve disclosed to the president about not passing the bar?

ZACHARIA: Those questions weren’t asked

Here’s the whole segment:

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2026

The post Katie Zacharia was too incompetent even for Trump appeared first on Salon.com.

Nothing takes the sexy out of a sexy nurse costume quite like getting patted down by a TSA agent named Gary while 40 irritated travelers watch. Halloween costumes are already ridiculous enough without having to explain to airport security why you’ve got fake blood on your face and a plastic machete in your carry-on.

Despite what some Halloween headlines suggest, TSA hasn’t introduced any new costume bans. The same security rules apply year-round, although they become a lot more irritating when you’re dressed as a medieval knight or carrying something that looks like a murder weapon. TSA recommends changing into your costume after security to avoid an unexpected pat-down.

Wearing a Halloween Costume to the Airport? Here’s What TSA Wants You to Know.

Metal can also be a pain at airport security. Chains, armor, studded belts, and other accessories can set off the scanners, leaving you to remove half your costume before you’re allowed through. And if you’ve spent three weeks putting together a historically accurate suit of armor, you probably don’t want to dismantle the damn thing at LaGuardia.

Costume weapons are another story. Fake swords, pitchforks, lightsabers, and even witch brooms generally belong in checked luggage, according to travel experts. TSA officers have the final say, and anything resembling an actual weapon could be an issue.

Replica explosives are an exceptionally bad idea. TSA prohibits realistic fake bombs and grenades in both carry-on and checked bags. And yes, somebody has tested this policy.

In 2025, officers at Boise Airport discovered what looked like a pipe bomb inside someone’s checked suitcase. It consisted of PVC pipes, wooden blocks marked “C4,” and wires sticking out. The passenger reportedly explained that the objects were training aids, although TSA wasn’t impressed.

Masks and elaborate face paint can cause problems, as well. Officers need to verify that your face matches your identification, so your Ghostface mask has to come off. TSA also discourages full-face makeup at checkpoints, meaning your zombie transformation might have to happen after you’ve made it through security.

Fake blood and liquid latex are going to get the same treatment as your shampoo and toothpaste. Under TSA’s 3-1-1 rule, you’re limited to 3.4 ounces per container, and it all has to fit in a single quart-size bag. Any bigger bottles need to go in your checked luggage. And if your Halloween makeup kit includes more than 12 ounces of powder, TSA might want to take a closer look at that, too.

At least the candy is safe. Solid Halloween treats can go in your carry-on, but TSA can still inspect them if necessary. If you’re unsure about a costume accessory, send a photo to AskTSA on X or Facebook Messenger before packing.

Otherwise, save the full costume for after security. Gary’s got enough to deal with without trying to figure out why you’ve got a fake sword strapped to your thigh.

The post Flying for Halloween? These Costume Accessories Could Get You Stopped by TSA. appeared first on VICE.

Analogue announced new versions of its Super Nt and Mega Sg retro consoles today with a "reworked industrial design" and built-in wireless connectivity for controllers and accessories. Like the original versions, the new Super Nt Plus and Mega Sg Plus are able to play Nintendo and Sega Genesis cartridges using an FPGA processor that perfectly recreates the functionality of Nintendo and Sega's 16-bit consoles without the need for emulation.

Although neither of the new consoles allows SNES or Genesis titles to be played in 4K like the Analogue 3D does with Nintendo 64 titles, the 1080p Super Nt and Mega Sg Plus add a USB-C port so you can po …

Read the full story at The Verge.

After a Chrome clone was spotted on the Play Store earlier this week, a user on Reddit says they're seeing a fake version of WhatsApp in a "sponsored" slot above the real version. As reported earlier by Android Authority, the WhatsApp dupe has racked up over 500,000 downloads and, at the time of writing, its Play Store listing is still live.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The WhatsApp clone is from a developer going by "Agment Assets sallu" who doesn't currently have anything else listed on the Play Store. Their listing for the WhatsApp impostor has the same icon, screenshots, and text as the real version, but …

Read the full story at The Verge.

This story was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive their stories in your inbox every week.

Some 86 years ago, Missouri voters enshrined a system for selecting top judges that would remove political influence from the courts. And almost immediately, it came under attack.

Under what has come to be known as the Missouri Plan, lawyers help choose a slate of three candidates from which the governor must make an appointment for the state Supreme Court, appeals courts and, in some populous areas, the circuit courts. 

In the first years after adoption, it faced pushback from party bosses who had historically used judicial seats for political patronage. They said it gave too much power to the lawyers. Voters, though, decisively defeated a repeal measure in 1942. 

More recently, the conservative activist Leonard Leo, who viewed Missouri as a crucial battleground, tried in 2007 to persuade Republican Gov. Matt Blunt to reject a slate of Supreme Court candidates — part of a broader effort to weaken a judicial selection system that had become a model for some two dozen states around the country. 

Blunt resisted and picked one of the three judges from the approved slate. 

Then, in 2012, GOP lawmakers put a proposed overhaul before voters that, if approved, would have given the governor more control. Voters, by a 3-to-1 margin, turned back the plan.

Now the attacks are back, driven by a new grievance. 

LAcon V, the 83rd World Science Fiction Convention, received 2,492 valid ballots (two paper), up from 1,962 at Seattle Worldcon 2025. There were 1,488 nominating ballots received (six paper), up from 1,338 last year.

The procedure for counting nominations remains the E Pluribus Hugo, or EPH, system, instituted in 2017 to help reduce the effect of bloc voting. The rather complicated system gives a single point to each voter’s ballot, dividing that point among the nominees. The points are counted, the two nominees with the fewest points are compared, and (points notwithstanding) the one with the fewest nominations (votes) is dropped. The process repeats until down to six finalists; the last position on the ballot is determined strictly by votes unless there’s a tie. This system complicates discussing how close a runner-up was to making the ballot, as some nominees might have eliminated others earlier on if they’d had just a few more points. We used to try to determine ourselves how far back the closest runner-up to the ballot was, but for the last several years the official nomination statistics have included their own determination of the margin by which the last place on the final ballot was decided, and we’re using those summations.

Once again, it’s time to explain the Australian ballot preference system (also called ranked voting or ‘‘Instant Runoff Voting’’) used for the Hugo Awards. First-place votes (including those for No Award) are counted in column one. If no entry has the majority of the vote then the entry with the fewest votes is dropped (e). The dropped entry’s second-place votes now become first-place votes (column two) and the process is repeated until a nominee has a majority of the votes (usually six drops, with six finalists), deciding first place. Second place is determined by dropping the winner, counting their second-place votes as if they were first, etc. Therefore, the item that originally placed second doesn’t necessarily win second place. Likewise, third place is decided by dropping both first- and second-place winners, promoting the next eligible entry, and counting all over again. The system ensures that the winner is liked by a majority of voters, even though it may not have received a majority of first-place votes.

BEST NOVEL

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow won easily, starting with the most first-place votes and holding the lead through all six rounds of voting to take first place. The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, which had the most nominations, then took second place in similar fashion. Third place was more of a contest, with The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson leading in the first two rounds, only to see A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett take the lead in the last two rounds. The Raven Scholar then took fourth place in three rounds without challenge. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor took fifth in a single round, and Shroud followed in sixth. The closest runner-up to the ballot was Katabasis by R.F. Kuang, which needed three more nominations to make the ballot. This was Harrow’s seventh Hugo nomination and second win.

BEST NOVELLA

Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots came in with the most nominations, the most first-place votes, and led through all six rounds to win. The rest of the places also went without significant challenge, with Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle in second place, Freya Marske’s Cinder House in third, Naomi Novik’s The Summer House in fourth, T. Kingfisher’s What Stalks the Deep in fifth, and Olivia Waite’s Murder by Memory in sixth. The closest runner-up to the ballot was A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo, which needed 11 additional nominations to make the list. This is El-Mohtar’s third Hugo nomination and third win.

BEST NOVELETTE

‘‘Never Eaten Vegetables’’ by H.H. Pak led all the way to take the Hugo in six rounds. Second place saw a bit of a scuffle, with ‘‘Kaiju Agonistes’’ by Scott Lynch leading in the first two rounds, only to have ‘‘When He Calls Your Name’’ by Catherynne M. Valente pick up enough votes to move into the lead when ‘‘The Millay Illusion’’ by Sarah Pinsker dropped, and hold on to take second place in the fifth round. ‘‘Kaiju Agonistes’’ then led all the way in voting for third place. Fourth place saw a tie between ‘‘Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy’’ by Martha Wells (which had the most nominations and led the first round of voting) and ‘‘The Girl My Mother Is Leaving Me For’’ by Cameron Reed, which pulled up to tie in the third round. The Pinsker then ended up in sixth place. John Scalzi’s ‘‘3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years’’ was the closest runner-up, needing one nomination worth more than half a point to make the list. This is Pak’s first Hugo nomination and win.

BEST SHORT STORY

‘‘In My Country’’ by Thomas Ha led the voting all the way, taking the award in six rounds. Second place was more of a contest, with ‘‘Wire Mother’’ by Isabel J. Kim leading the first two rounds of voting, only to have ‘‘10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days’’ by Samantha Mills move into the lead in the third and fourth rounds; then the Kim surged ahead in the fifth round to snag second place. ‘‘Missing Helen’’ by Tia Tashiro then led all the way in voting for third; the Mills took fourth without a challenge. ‘‘Six People to Revise You’’ by J.R. Dawson, which had the most nominations, ended up in fifth place, and Effie Seiberg’s ‘‘Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything’’ followed in sixth. ‘‘Barbershops of the Floating City’’ by Angela Liu needed just one more nomination to make the ballot. This is Ha’s second Hugo nomination and his first win.

BEST SERIES

John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series started with a solid lead in first-place votes and held on to win the award in the sixth round. Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series led the first four rounds of voting for second place, but when Elizabeth Bear’s White Space dropped, enough of its votes went to Katherine Addison’s The Chronicles of Osreth (which had the most nominations) to push it into the lead, taking second place in the fifth round. The October Daye series then waltzed off with third place without a contest, Bear’s White Space took fourth in a bit of a squeaker with Max Gladstone’s The Craft Wars, which then took fifth in one round; Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde came in fifth. Two series got enough nominations to make the list, but were declared ineligible: Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut due to having fewer than 240,000 new words since its last appearance on the ballot in 2019, and Nghi Vo’s The Singing Hills Cycle due to having fewer than 240,000 words total. Because of the two dropped series, it’s difficult to determine the closest runner-up; T. Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier needed two more nominations to make the ballot, but might not have enough words to be eligible; Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Dogs of War needed nine more nominations to make the ballot. This is Scalzi’s 14th Hugo nomination and fourth win (previous wins are for fan writer, related book, and novel).

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, based on Le Guin’s novel and adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham, led for all six rounds to take the Hugo. Things got a little more interesting in the voting for second place: The Space Cat, written by Nnedi Okorafor and illustrated by Tana Ford, led in the first two rounds, only to see Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon, written by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman. pull ahead in the third and fourth round; then The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo & John Picacio dropped, and enough of its next votes went to The Space Cat for it to take second place. The Invisible Parade led the first two rounds of voting for third place, only to have Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon take the lead and keep it to take third in four rounds. The Invisible Parade, which had the most nominations, then led all the way in the voting for fourth place. The Power Fantasy Vol. 1: The Superpowers took fifth place in one round, and webcomic A Girl and Her Fed written by K.B. Spangler and illustrated by Ale Presser took sixth. The closest runner up is Who Killed Nessie? written by Paul Cornell and illustrated by Rachael Smith, which needed two more nominations to make the ballot. This is Fred Fordham’s first nomination and win, as well as Ursula K. Le Guin’s 27th nomination and ninth win.

BEST RELATED WORK

Ada Palmer’s Inventing the Renaissance led from the first round and held on to win. Second place was mostly a contest between two titles: The Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom, maintained by Renay, which led in the first two rounds, then tied in the third round with Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia Butler by Susana M. Morris, which pulled ahead in the fourth and took second in the fifth round. The Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom (which had the most nominations) took third place without a challenge, and Colourfields: Writing About Writing Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid took fourth. Essay ‘‘The Cuddled Little Vice (Sandman)’’ by Elizabeth Sandifer took fifth in one round, followed by ‘‘Ragnarök vs the Long Night’’ by Ashaya & Aziz in sixth. We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories About Political Protest, Resistance, and Hope edited by Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older needed eight more nominations to make the ballot. This was Palmer’s third Hugo nomination and first win.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – LONG FORM

Sinners started with the most nominations, the most first-place votes, and went unchallenged through six rounds of voting to take the Hugo. Second place went to Andor (Season 2) without a contest. KPop Demon Hunters trounced the opposition for third place, taking it in just three rounds. Superman led the first two rounds of voting for fourth place, only to lose to Frankenstein in the third and final round. Superman then snagged fifth, and Mickey 17 took sixth. The closest runner up was Pluribus, which needed either one more nomination, or for the series Andor to have been eliminated in favor of the Best Dramatic Presentation – Short Form entries; enough nominations were made for Andor to make the ballot in either category, but more voters nominated the longer form than nominated individual episodes, so the Short Form nominees were eliminated. Under the same rules, Murderbot could have made the ballot here, but was eliminated in favor of the episodes in Short Form.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – SHORT FORM

Murderbot: ‘‘All Systems Red’’ won with a dramatic display of dominance, coming in with the most nominations, a big lead in first-place votes, and building that lead to take the prize in only five rounds. Murderbot: ‘‘The Perimeter’’ similarly took second place in just four rounds. Pluribus: ‘‘We Is Us’’ led all the way in the voting for third place; Severance: ‘‘Cold Harbor’’ tooks fourth without challenge. Doctor Who: ‘‘The Story & the Engine’’ only needed one round to take fifth place, followed by The Wheel of Time: ‘‘The Road to the Spear’’ in sixth. A number of items that could have made the ballot were dropped; as mentioned in the previous category, three Andor episodes were dropped here in favor of having the series on the Long Form ballot. Due to the limit on the number of episodes of the same show on the final ballot, Murderbot: ‘‘Free Commerce’’ was dropped at the showrunners’ request. This many changes make it effectively impossible to determine the next runner up, or how far back it was, but Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: ‘‘A Space Adventure Hour’’ was next on the list by number of nominations, at least nine nominations back of the ballot.

BEST GAME OR INTERACTIVE WORK

A clear favorite with voters, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had the most nominations, a big lead in first-place votes, and held on to win in six rounds. Second place had Blue Prince leading through the first three rounds of voting, but Hades II managed to pick up a 20-vote lead in the fourth round, holding on to take second in the fifth round. Blue Prince then took third place without challenge, Hollow Knight: Silksong similarly took fourth, Dispatch took fifth in one round, leaving Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector in sixth. Split Fiction was the closest runner-up, needing 11 more nominations to make the ballot.

BEST EDITOR – SHORT FORM

Neil Clarke won easily, starting with the most nominations and a solid lead in first-place votes that only grew through six rounds of voting. Sheila Williams took second place with similar ease. Third place ended in a tie; Jennifer Brozek had a slim lead over Michael Damien Thomas in the first two rounds, but Thomas pulled ahead by two points in the third, only to have Brozek pull up to tie in the fourth round. Lee Harris then took fifth place in one round, and Scott H. Andrews ended up sixth. John Joseph Adams needed six more nominations to make the ballot. Clarke now has 18 Hugo nominations and eight wins overall; this is his 14th nomination and fifth win in this category.

BEST EDITOR – LONG FORM

Diana M. Pho started with a slim lead in the first few rounds of voting, but held on and grew that lead to win in six rounds. Lee Harris, who had the most nominations coming in, then took second place without serious challenge. Third place was more of a contest; Carl Engle-Laird led the first two rounds of voting, but then Jaymee Goh pulled ahead in the third round and took third in the fourth round. Engle-Laird then led through three rounds of voting to snag fourth place, Jenni Hill followed in fifth, and Joe Monti in sixth. Lindsey Hall declined nomination in this category; the closest runner-up was Navah Wolfe, three nominations back of the ballot. This was Diana M. Pho’s fifth Hugo nomination and third win.

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

Another category with a clear winner from the start: John Picacio came in with the most nominations, a big lead in first-place votes, and won without serious challenge in six rounds. Second place saw a scuffle between three contenders: Tran Nguyen led the first four rounds of voting, with Tom Roberts running second for the first two rounds, then Kelly Chong moved up into second place for the third and fourth rounds and then took the lead in the fifth and final round. Tran Nguyen led all the way to take third place in four rounds. Tom Roberts claimed fourth place in a single round, Dave Kellett snagged fifth place in one round, and Lulu Chen followed in sixth place. Maurizio Manzieri needed just one more nomination to make the ballot. Picacio now has four wins out of 19 Hugo nominations (16 in this category). Next year, the name of this category will change to Best Artist in Professional Illustration.

BEST SEMIPROZINE

Uncanny won without a fight, leading through all six rounds of voting. None of the places in this category saw any real contest: Strange Horizons, which had the most nominations, placed second, followed by Escape Pod in third, and Khōréō in fourth. On Spec took fifth place in a single round, leaving The Deadlands to take sixth. Beneath Ceaseless Skies declined nomination. The Sunday Morning Transport was the first runner-up, needing four more nominations to make the ballot. This is the 11th nomination for Uncanny and the ninth win.

BEST FANZINE

The voting started with An Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog having the most nominations and the lead in first-place votes, a lead it kept through four rounds, but when Journey Planet dropped out nerds of a feather flock together picked up enough votes to move into the lead and win in the sixth round. The rest of the places went without challenge: An Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog coasted into second place in the usual five rounds, Ancillary Review of Books took third, Journey Planet fourth, Intergalactic Mixtape took fifth, and Galactic Journey sixth. The closest runner-up was The Rec Center, 11 nominations away from the ballot. This was the eighth nomination and third win for nerds of a feather flock together.

BEST FANCAST

Worldbuilding for Masochists led through the first five rounds of voting, only to have Hugo, Girl! pull off a last minute surge and win in the sixth round with a nine-point lead. Worldbuilding for Masochists had to settle for taking second place without challenge, followed by Eating the Fantastic taking third in similar fashion. Octothorpe, which had the most nominations, came in fourth. The Coode Street Podcast took fifth place in a single round, and A Meal of Thorns ended up in sixth place. The Sword and Laser needed 13 more nominations to make the ballot. This is the fourth nomination and second win for Hugo, Girl!

BEST FAN WRITER

James Davis Nicoll led the first three rounds of voting, only to see Jason Sanford vault into the lead in the fourth round and build that lead to win in the sixth round. Nicoll then led the first four rounds of voting for second place, only to have Roseanna Pendlebury grab the lead in the fifth and final round. Nicoll then took third place without a fight. Örjan Westin followed in fourth place, Alex Brown in fifth, and Jay Brantner (AKA ‘‘Tar Vol’’) in sixth. There was some confusion about Brantner’s name; this was his first time on the ballot and most of his nominations were variations on TarVolon or Tar Vol, only five including any part of ‘‘Jay Brantner’’, who said he preferred to have his real name on the ballot; initially the Hugo Administration team tried to avoid confusion for fans who didn’t know the author’s real name by using ‘‘Jay Brantner (for ‘Tar Vol On’)’’, but on further discussion settled on the version with (AKA ‘‘Tar Vol’’) to make it clear Tar Vol is a pseudonym. The closest runner-up is Cora Buhlert, two nominations away from the ballot. This is Jason Sanford’s seventh Hugo nomination and first win.

BEST FAN ARTIST

Yuumei came in with the most nominations, a big lead in first-place votes, and held the lead to win in just five rounds. Geneva Bowers led all the way in the voting for second place, Sara Felix took third place in the same style, Richard Man then took fourth in only two rounds, España Sheriff grabbed fourth in one round, and Terri Ash followed in sixth. Brad Foster needed two more nominations to make the ballot. This was Yuumei’s first nomination and win.

BEST POEM

‘‘Hex Supply Customer Support Log’’ by Elis Montgomery led all the way through six rounds of voting to win. All of the places in this category went without challenge: ‘‘How to Become a Sea Witch’’ by Theodora Goss took second, ‘‘Care for Lightning’’ by Mari Ness (which had the most nominations) was third, ‘‘The World to Come’’ by Jennifer Hudak was fourth, ‘‘The Mourning Robot’’ by Angela Liu took fifth in a single round, and ‘‘Landing: Seattle’’ followed in sixth. The closest runner-up was ‘‘the jacarandas are unimpressed by your show of force’’ by Gwynne Garfinkle, two nominations away from the ballot. This is Elis Montgomery’s first nomination and win. The Best Poem category was a special Hugo Award for both Seattle Worldcon 2025 and LAcon V; a special amendment to make the category permanent got its first passage in 2025 and was ratified in 2026, becoming effective in 2027; it will need to be re-ratified in 2029.

LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK (NOT A HUGO)

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins had the most nominations, started the voting with a solid lead in first-place votes, and held onto the lead for five rounds, only to lose to Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee, which had the fewest nominations and was only fourth in first-place votes, but picked up enough votes when other titles dropped, particularly They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran, to pull ahead in the final round. This is one of the interesting effects of the Australian voting system – even big bestsellers with lots of first-place votes can have trouble winning if they don’t have support lower down on the ballot. Sunrise on the Reaping then started in the lead in the voting for second place, but Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman pulled ahead in the fifth round (again, after the Tran dropped) to take second place. The Collins again led the first three rounds of voting for third place, but it was Tran’s turn to pull ahead in the last round. The Collins then ended up taking fourth place, just two votes ahead of Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen, which then took fifth, leaving Oathbound by Tracy Deonn in sixth. Breath of the Dragon by Shannon Lee & Fonda Lee needed just one more nomination, or 0.18 points, to make the ballot. This was C.B. Lee’s first Lodestar nomination and win.

ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (NOT A HUGO)

Antonia Hodgson started out with the most nominations, a big lead in first-place votes, and led throughout the voting to win. H.H. Pak took second place without challenge, Jared Pechaček took third in similar fashion, Sophie Burnham took fourth, Kamilah Cole landed fifth in a single round, and Molly O’Neill followed in fifth. Hodgson and O’Neill were the only two nominees not in their second year of eligibility. Hodgson herself questioned her elegibility in this category, as she has a number of previous novels, but since none of her earlier works had genre elements she was deemed eligible for her first work of SF/F, The Raven Scholar. Two other authors with enough nominations to make the ballot were ruled ineligible due to qualifying publication(s) before 2024: Barbara Truelove and Silvia Park. The closest runner-up was Carolyn Zhao, two nominations away from making the ballot.

–Carolyn F. Cushman

Meta's new terms appear to give it permission to crawl and scrape websites "associated" with the businesses that use its platforms - including online publishers, according to a report from Nieman Lab. The new terms, which go into effect on October 30th, say Meta can use this outside content to "develop, improve, research," and "train" its AI products.

While Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts says that the company is just "consolidating" its commercial and self-serve ad terms, legal experts tell Nieman Lab that this could allow Meta "to argue its commercial terms supersede other blocking instructions," like a site's robots.txt file. That could …

Read the full story at The Verge.

There's a new storage upgrade option for smartphones compatible with wireless chargers and other magnetic accessories, but it won't help if you've run out of room for apps, pics, and videos. The MagSafe Flex Pouch looks like a magnetic wallet for pairing a small stack of credit cards to your phone, but its storage capacity goes well beyond a few thin plastic cards thanks to an extremely stretchy silicone pouch.

The MagSafe Flex Pouch's creators, a company called Ninja Labs, has a bunch of suggestions for how to use the $58 accessory on its website. You can use it as yet another MagSafe wallet but one that has enough capacity for all the cre …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Delivery estimates for the iPhone Duo slipped into next year in less than an hour after Apple opened preorders for it at 8AM ET on Friday.

At the time of writing we are seeing late January delivery dates for every configuration on Apple's website. The foldable is slated to launch in stores on October 23rd, and Apple typically reserves some units for in-store availability. So while online orders are delayed, you might be able to get one sooner in-person at an Apple Store.

The long delay could be due to high demand for Apple's first foldable iPhone, low supply on Apple's side, or a mix of both. Apple announced the iPhone Duo in September, f …

Read the full story at The Verge.

When the midrange Sony Xperia 10 VI was announced over two years ago with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset and Android 14, Sony promised three major OS updates which would have included this year's Android 17 release. However, according to a notice posted to the company's UK support site, the Xperia 10 VI won't be getting Android 17 after all.

In the notice Sony explains that a "detailed technical assessment" revealed that "limitations related to the device's storage configuration" mean the Xperia 10 VI "does not support an Android 17 upgrade experience that we consider adequate." As a result, the company has "decided not to make this …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Bobby Pulido is in the middle of everything. 

The famed Tejano singer is trying his hand at politics in his home state of Texas, which is a crucial part of Democrats’ pathway to a potential House majority in Washington. And the blue wave that has made those lofty ambitions more and more realistic has been partially fueled by Latino voters’ shift away from President Donald Trump amid mounting anger with ICE and his mass deportation agenda. 

An important change will soon be made to global timekeeping that aims to prevent potential infrastructure failures akin to the Y2K bug scare. On Thursday, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) voted to scrap the leap second, an ad hoc time adjustment that's occasionally added so tracked time standards mirror the Earth's real (and inconsistent) rotation.

BIPM members previously agreed in 2022 to cease using leap seconds on or before 2035, but this is now being expedited to take effect on May 20th next year, aligning with World Metrology Day. There's an unprecedented reason for its retirement being brought forward: changes t …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Elon Musk promised a flying car. And the Tesla Roadster did exactly that.

Tesla demonstrated its next-generation Roadster at an event in Waco, Texas, where the electric supercar drove upside down, briefly flew, and accelerated to 60mph in under a second. It was an impressive demonstration of a car that likely will come with some heavy caveats and restrictions if it ever goes into production.

The event was less than 30 minutes and felt more like a stunt show than a product reveal. Indeed, there was no mention of price, release date, or other such mundane details. Musk promised the hypercar would go into production in 2028, but after near …

Read the full story at The Verge.

No one knows why a hacker or group of hackers decided to remotely overheat French supermarket refrigerators, sparking fires and spoiling millions of euros worth of food that had to be tossed out, but they did. And all thanks to an outdated, un-updated security system riddled with easy-to-exploit loopholes, as The New York Times reported.

Affecting over 400 supermarkets across France, including several major chains that supply densely populated urban areas, the grocers found their industrial fridges cranked up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, effectively low-temp cooking tons of food that can easily spoil, and it did just that.

Hackers Turned French Supermarket Fridges Up to 122°F, Sparking Fires and Spoiling Food

Apparently, when you leave operational technology connected to the internet without a security patch for who knows how long, hackers can digitally walk in and try to turn the milk aisle into the yogurt aisle.

The chaos led to towering mountains of spoiled meat and melted frozen foods being tossed into dumpsters across the country, with some actual fires erupting from overheated fridges.

Danfoss, the Danish engineering company whose software runs the now-hacked industrial fridges, said that the affected refrigeration units were “end-of-life” systems running legacy firmware that hadn’t received security updates in ages. France’s National Cybersecurity Agency and Paris prosecutors are coordinating with neighboring European countries since similar refrigerator attacks might have occurred in Portugal, Spain, and Poland, according to Reuters.

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It’s nothing to be too freaked out over, but it is at least a little concerning that a fungal pathogen is apparently being tested out there that seems resistant to every antifungal drug it’s been hit with.

In a recent study published in Scientific Reports, scientists described the weird case of a 28-year-old woman in Kenya who developed a hospital-acquired surgical infection caused by a strain of Candidozyma auris that is to antifungal medication as bullets are to Superman. It shrugs off all four major classes of antifungal meds, including powerhouses like fluconazole and amphotericin B.

That’s evolution at work, and it’s only mildly terrifying. C. auris was already considered a pretty serious pathogen according to the World Health Organization, thanks to it being a fungus that calls hospitals its home and that it has a 30 to 50 percent mortality rate.

What Is ‘Pan-Drug Resistance’? A Rare Fungal Case in Kenya Is Raising Concern.

It’s not often that there is a pan- drug resistance thing out there making us all feel just a little bit freaked out by its mere presence in the world. This is the first time pan-drug resistance has been documented in Africa and only the second time in the world; the first time was in New York in 2022.

The Kenyan case is a little more worrying, as the Kenyan bug doesn’t share the same genetic mutations as the New York version. That means the fungus didn’t hop on a plane from New York to Kenya, which would have made sense. It became resistant to all four major antifungal drug classes entirely on its own in a completely different part of the world.

Right now, there doesn’t appear to be any immediate threat of this thing spreading, as the first line of defense is basic hygiene and strict hospital containment measures, but there is the bleak, perhaps overly anxious idea that immediately comes to mind: that this thing spreads and no modern medicine we currently have at our disposal can fight it.

Gulp.

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Earlier this year, an AI agent powered by Claude basically wiped out a person’s entire company by deleting the code that made the business run. It was pretty funny. Sad, but funny. Well, it happened again, but instead of deleting vital code, an AI agent deleted an entire upcoming season of a TV show.

According to reports from Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, production company Mastiff gave an AI agent access to their servers while putting the final touches on The Challenge Sverige, Sweden’s version of the MTV reality show that feels like it’s been on the air here in the States for at least a century.

‘The Challenge Sverige’ Lost Its Entire Edited Season. Now It Has to Be Rebuilt.

According to the Swedish publication, the AI wiped out the entire edited season just five weeks before it was scheduled to air on November 22. No backup was available to restore the files, so weeks of editing vanished into thin air thanks to an AI agent that is basically also thin air.

The show’s broadcaster, TV4, has been forced to push the premiere date back into 2027 as post-production crews scramble to re-edit every single episode from scratch. The show’s host, Ahmed Berhan, seems to be taking the disaster in stride, telling Aftonbladet, “I knew AI would be the death of me” and “some days you just have to accept that you’re living in a f*cking sitcom.”

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Anyone who grew up riding wooden roller coasters or getting tossed around on a county-fair Zipper knows that a little “harmless terror” is half the fun. Today’s rides are taller and faster, but expectations haven’t changed. You strap yourself in and trust that the people responsible for your safety have done their jobs.

On Monday, October 12, Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, died after falling from the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia while riding with his son. According to Cobb County police, Kariem struck other riders before falling beneath the ride, injuring four people.

Investigators are still determining what happened aboard the coaster, which travels at 70 mph and uses lap-bar restraints. Six Flags has since temporarily closed nine similar coasters at six parks as a precaution.

Why Permanent Amusement Park Rides Fall Outside Federal Consumer Safety Oversight

The tragedy comes shortly after Six Flags Magic Mountain in California retired its X2 coaster amid allegations that more than 100 riders suffered serious injuries, including brain trauma. There’s no established connection between those incidents and Kariem’s death, but the recent events have renewed questions about who oversees roller coaster safety in the United States.

The federal government hasn’t regulated permanent amusement park rides since 1981. Instead, each state sets its own inspection and safety requirements, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission remains responsible for traveling carnival rides. Critics have been calling this uneven system the “roller coaster loophole.”

What happens after an inspector discovers a safety issue also depends on where the ride is located. Some states require regular government inspections, while others rely largely on park operators and private inspectors. David Bertozzi, president of the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials, told the New York Post that when he discovers a safety issue in a state without mandatory inspections, “I have no authority to shut them down.”

Sen. Ed Markey has pushed to close the loophole since 1999, but the amusement industry has continued to oppose federal oversight. He’s also criticized Congress for losing interest in ride safety once the summer season ends, once remarking that “as the weather cools, so does Congress’s interest.”

The chances of getting seriously hurt on a ride at a permanent amusement park are low, with industry estimates putting the odds at about one in 15.5 million rides. But injuries still happen, and a National Safety Council report counted an estimated 652 roller coaster injuries across North America in 2024, up from 458 in 2023.

For Kariem’s family, those numbers cannot begin to explain the loss of a husband and father who went to an amusement park and never came home.

Riders can look into their state’s inspection requirements before visiting a park, but keeping people safe is ultimately the responsibility of the operators, inspectors, and regulators overseeing these rides.

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It’s weird to think there was a time when people didn’t logically assume that inhaling cigarette smoke several times a day didn’t have some kind of native effect on the body. Some doctors even recommended smoking at one point. Now we know smoking causes a range of issues, like cancer and emphysema. But those are the broad implications that affect everyone. According to new research, cigarettes can impact our reproductive organs, but those impacts may affect men and women differently.

A study published in Frontiers in Toxicology by researchers at the Universities of Nottingham and Sheffield looked at how cigarette smoke extract affected male and female mice over twelve weeks. The team found that while tobacco smoke wrecks reproductive health across the board, regardless of whatever factors you threw in front of it, it does operate through distinct biological routes depending on sex.

Scientists Exposed Mice to Cigarette Smoke Extract. Here’s What Changed.

Female mice suffered damage that was invisible to the naked eye. Under a microscope, their ovaries and egg-developing follicles looked healthy. No visible signs of damage. But when researchers took a peek at the genetic level, they found that smoke exposure altered key genes linked to cell division and protein production, triggering a pattern that looked like premature ovarian aging paired with a reduction in function.

Male mice couldn’t hide the damage. Higher doses of smoke extract caused physical changes within the testicles, visibly enlarging the seminiferous tubules where sperm develop. The physical structures of male sex organs were damaged, and so were the genes regulating sperm production and immune responses.

As I always say in these cases, it is a study of mice, and while they were a lot like us and therefore make great test subjects, it’s not a one-to-one comparison. As study co-author Dr. Adam Watkins says, we know smoking is bad for your reproductive health, but “the exact mechanisms are not fully understood.”

We need to dig deeper into this research now that we know there is a lot of damage we can’t see at a glance.  

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A team of divers off the coast of Turkey found what might be the oldest shipwreck ever discovered, so they needed to check what was inside the large ancient jars the ship carried when it sank.

Archaeologists from Akdeniz University, who published a preliminary report in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, discovered a site nearly 100 feet underwater off Kekova Island. There, they found about 30 ceramic amphorae and three stone anchors belonging to a sunken vessel dating to 4,400 to 4,700 years ago.

There’s not much of a ship to see in this shipwreck, as the wooden ship disintegrated long ago, but it still suggests a 33-foot vessel filled with ancient booze and olive oil.

An Archaeologist ‘Nearly Fainted’ After Seeing What Was Left in These Ancient Jars

Lead archaeologist Hakan Öniz described the site as a “time capsule at the bottom of the sea.” Is this time capsule filled with the usual time-capsule fodder? A newspaper from the day it sank? Nifty tchotchkes of the day? Nope.

They found a lot of sludge! Sludge that apparently has some kind of archaeological value, according to Australian archaeologist Karin Sowada, who says she “nearly fainted” when she looked inside the recovered jugs, bowled over by how much material was still lingering around after being at the bottom of the ocean for nearly 5,000 years,

Experts believe these Levantine-style vessels originally hauled wine, olive oil, or tree resin, but sailors were crafty and found other uses for their ships, like how one appeared to have two holes carved out in its body that researchers think may have been used to make butter or cheese, since these guys were likely hauling live goats across the Mediterranean.

Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy says the vessels match designs from Egypt, Troy, and Crete, suggesting global trade networks were already fully operational thousands of years ago, and that ancient sailors about 5000 years ago were the ancient version of the Sysco 18-wheelers you see on the highway.

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Valve is introducing a major new feature for Steam achievements called "achievement sets" that lets developers list different groups of achievements for a base game and DLCs.

"In games that support sets, you still unlock achievements by playing the game as usual," Valve says. "But when you browse what you have unlocked afterward, Steam will break the long list of game achievements into the developer-created sets, making it easier to see what you have completed and to find other related achievements you can unlock next." Achievement sets have their own progress bars, and if you finish a set, you'll get a "set complete" trophy that's visible …

Read the full story at The Verge.