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Chicago environmental justice advocates say a new effort in the city to regulate data centers is an important step toward addressing public health and affordability concerns as national pressure on the industry grows.  Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order on Tuesday directing a new task force to work on tighter regulations aimed at restricting data centers’ air and noise pollution, tempering water and energy usage and preventing utility bill spikes.  Katia Balba, a policy organizer with the community group Alliance of the Southeast, said the executive order is a good start, but she wants to see a full moratorium…

(Photo by ekinyalgin via Getty Images) Control of the House of Representatives is up for grabs this fall, and the results will likely come down to fewer than two dozen races across 14 states. With most of the primaries in the rearview mirror, we now know who will be on the ballot in nearly all of those races – and how much money they have banked. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report handicaps every congressional race and has identified 19 districts that it considers “toss-ups” – competitive races that both the Democratic and Republican candidates have a good chance of winning.…

Consider your ideal wedding. You may picture religious pageantry, majestic domes and the auspicious light of the Divine beaming on a white dress. Maybe you see friends dancing on a pub’s veranda, cheering for you in front of a town hall, or anywhere really – the people you love are there, and it’s all that matters.What you are probably not picturing is a meet-up with Chris and Mitch, two complete strangers waiting for you and your future spouse by a nondescript fountain in the middle of Copenhagen. Judging by my soon-to-be-wife’s bewildered laugh throughout the entire 20 minutes of our…

Rescue efforts in Colombia following Monday’s devastating earthquake have entered what officials called the “final phase” as the death toll rose to 265, with more than 3,500 others wounded.Rescue crews on Wednesday were fast approaching the 72-hour mark since the quake, the period during which survivors are considered most likely to be found alive beneath collapsed buildings.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe magnitude 7.4 earthquake was the strongest to hit Colombia this century. Nearly 500 people remain missing, according to local authorities, and more than 9,550 homes have been destroyed.Pereira, in the heart of Colombia’s coffee region, and…

With missile strikes keeping cargo ships away from its ports, Kyiv is scrambling, yet again, for a way out via Europe. But its fallback routes run overland through EU countries, including Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, where previous waves of Ukrainian grain left governments facing a fierce domestic backlash. The last surge of Ukrainian agricultural exports through Eastern Europe unleashed mass protests from farmers, particularly in Poland, who complained that cheap Ukrainian produce that was meant to merely pass through the region was instead ending up on their domestic markets. Poland imposed a ban on Ukrainian grain in 2023, alongside similar…

The Justice Department declined to appeal a court ruling that effectively dismantled longstanding restrictions on owning short-barreled guns and suppressors, bowing to pressure from Republicans and gun advocates.Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas had said that his order striking down the mandated permitting process under the National Firearms Act as unconstitutional would go into effect Thursday unless the Justice Department appealed it. Trump administration officials didn’t file an appeal to the court before 12:01 a.m. Thursday, according to publicly available court records.In effect, the Trump administration stepped aside, for now, and allowed the Prohibition-era gun control…

The US Department of Justice is overhauling its approach to white-collar crime enforcement, shifting manpower and resources to a new division targeting fraud against the government and theft of taxpayer dollars.The pivot comes as the justice department has softened its approach to enforcing laws against foreign bribery and pulled back on prosecuting other types of white-collar crime since Donald Trump’s return to the presidency last year.The department has created a unit for the initiative called the National Fraud Enforcement Division, with headcount set to balloon to 500 attorneys and staff by August 24. It will pull resources from other DoJ…

Lance Whitney / ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Microsoft’s August Patch Tuesday fixes 421 vulnerabilities.One vulnerability has already been exploited in the wild.The update also tweaks File Explorer, Windows Hello, and other features.Microsoft continues its onslaught against security vulnerabilities, fixing a whopping 421 bugs in August’s Patch Tuesday update. But looking beyond the sheer number, Windows users should install this month’s update, as it patches a zero-day flaw that’s already been exploited by attackers.Aimed at Windows 11 25H2/24H2, Windows 11 23H2, and Windows 10, the 421 vulnerabilities encompass a range of Microsoft…

Two malicious LiteLLM releases sat on PyPI for about 40 minutes in March carrying credential-stealing code capable of harvesting cloud keys, SSH keys, Kubernetes tokens, database passwords, and other secrets from systems that installed them. Threat intelligence firm CloudSEK now says a dataset it obtained, built from roughly 434,000 files the attackers captured, maps potential exposure to more than 2,500 organizations. Those totals are not a victim count. CloudSEK told The Hacker News the material came from confidential intelligence sources and consists of captured loot and log files it assessed as belonging to the campaign, not data gathered from the…

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA) recorded $79,073 of realized gains and $265,776 of unrealized appreciation on written options in its first operating period, helping offset losses on its Bitcoin holdings and shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT).BITA posted an $860,335 decrease in net assets from operations through June 30, its first quarterly filing shows. IBIT is BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin fund and one of BITA’s underlying investments. Related ReadingBlackRock’s new Bitcoin ETF offers monthly income, but caps gains when Bitcoin surgesThe Nasdaq-listed ETF offers monthly income potential through covered calls while capping part of the rally trade.…