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Of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, nine of the top 10 are powered by GPUs, but that might not be the case for much longer. As chipmakers like Nvidia prioritize AI FLOPS over the ultra-precise floating point calculations used in scientific computing, US National Labs are turning to new chip architectures to get their FP64 fix. Among the candidates is NextSilicon’s Maverick-2, a dataflow processor designed explicitly with the 64-bit floating point mathematics that dominate the Department of Energy’s most important simulations. Despite its name, the Department of Energy is concerned with far more than the US’ power grid. It operates some of the largest publicly known supercomputers in the world, which are responsible for everything from simulating the physics of nuclear weapons at the moment of criticality and bioweapons defense to public health and safety. Since the Titan Supercomputer made its debut in 2012, a growing number of these supercomputers have been powered by GPUs from Nvidia, and more recently AMD. But that’s not the case for Sandia National Laboratory’s new Spectra supercomputer, which was built in collaboration with Penguin Solutions and NextSilicon. Compared to exascale systems like Frontier or El Capitan, Spectra is tiny. The machine counts 64 nodes and 128 of NextSilicon’s “runtime-configurable” accelerators. But scale isn’t the point. Spectra is a test bed for NextSilicon’s Maverick-2. This week, Sandia gave the chips the thumbs up, announcing that the big iron had met all of its system acceptance requirements, opening the door for the chips to be deployed in larger systems in the future. Not another GPU Despite some similarities to Nvidia’s B200, Maverick-2 is a very different beast. Instead of the standard von Neumann compute architecture that underpins most CPUs and GPUs today, NextSilicon’s chips employ a reconfigurable dataflow architecture. The processor’s two compute dies comprise a grid of arithmetic logic units interconnected in a graph. Each unit is configured at runtime to perform a specific operation, whether it be addition, multiplication, or some other logic operation. But the chip’s real trick is overlapping data flow and compute. As soon as data reaches the next unit in the pipeline, it’s computed immediately, no waiting for load-store operations to shuffle data around. According to NextSilicon, this dramatically improves the performance and efficiency of the chips in real-world workloads. Dataflow architectures aren’t new. Groq, Cerebras, and SambaNova have all built chips based on the concept. However, all of these designs are aimed at AI inference or training. NextSilicon’s is one of the few we’ve seen aimed at HPC. Dataflow is notoriously difficult to program for, which is likely why the chip startups that have built chips around it have largely offered them as a managed or white glove service rather than selling bare metal servers. Rather than trying to port workloads to run on its chips, NextSilicon has built a compiler that it claims allows it to run any existing C, Python, Fortran, or CUDA codebases on its chips. As we understand it, it works by initially running these workloads on the CPU. The compiler then captures the compute graph, maps it to the chips, and then optimizes it to maximize performance. With Spectra, Sandia has now validated the parts across three key workloads: the high-performance conjugate gradient (HPCG) benchmark, the LAMMPS molecular dynamics test suite, and the Sparta Monte Carlo simulation suite. AI is changing GPUs NextSilicon’s focus on HPC comes in stark contrast to the next generation of GPUs from Nvidia. The company’s Rubin GPUs due out later this year promise gobs of memory bandwidth and up to 50 petaFLOPS of FP4 compute. This makes the chips strong contenders for AI inference and training workloads, which is probably why the DoE is also deploying them in systems like the Doudna supercomputer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. While FP64 compute remains relevant for many existing scientific workloads, for AI workloads, Nvidia's GPUs are still relevant to US Labs. However, all those AI FLOPS come at the expense of hardware FP64 vector and matrix performance. Rubin tops out at 33 teraFLOPS, making it slower than even Nvidia’s nearly four-year-old H100. But that’s not to say it’s not good for scientific computing. For matrix heavy workloads like High Performance Linpack (HPL), Nvidia is leaning on a somewhat controversial spin on the Ozaki scheme, which uses lower precision data types to emulate FP64 compute. Using this approach, Nvidia claims Rubin can deliver up to 200 teraFLOPS of FP64 matrix performance. We dug deeper into Nvidia’s emulated FP64 algorithms earlier this year, but suffice to say it’s not perfect. While it has shown promise in certain HPC workloads, in others, particularly vector-heavy ones, like computational fluid dynamics, it offers little if any benefit. Coincidentally, the latter happens to be the same kind of workload that NextSilicon has focused its attention on. We don’t yet have system-level benchmarks for NextSilicon’s hardware, much less Spectra, but we’re told a single Maverick-2 can deliver about 600 gigaFLOPS of FP64 compute HPCG. The startup claims this performance is roughly on par with leading GPUs while consuming half the power. While Nvidia is clearly prioritizing AI compute in its latest generation of GPUs, AMD has taken a different approach. Like Rubin, AMD’s new MI455X accelerators are tuned for AI inference and training, but it’s only one of several versions of the GPU the House of Zen has baked in TSMC’s oven. For the MI430X, AMD swapped out the AI-centric compute dies for some built specifically for HPC. Earlier this month, we learned the chip would deliver up to 200 teraFLOPS of peak FP64 grunt to the DoE’s upcoming Discovery and Europe's Alice Recoque supercomputers. Who needs GPUs anyway? Chip startups like NextSilicon still need to prove their chips can scale to larger systems. But, across the Pacific, China has already shown that, at least for scientific computing, it doesn’t need GPUs to compete with the West’s best supers. China has a history of building boutique silicon specifically to advance its national supercomputing capability. Some systems, like the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer, used a custom manycore processor like 260 custom RISC processors. Others, like the Tianhe 2A, used a homegrown digital signal processor (DSP) called the Matrix 2000 for its FP64 compute. More recently, we caught wind of a new supercomputer, called the LineShine, that, similar to the TaihuLight machine, reportedly uses 47,000 custom CPUs, which are expected to push the machine to 2 exaFLOPS of FP64 grunt. Of course, because China doesn’t participate in the annual Top500 ranking of the fastest publicly known supers anymore, we may never know for sure. China’s use of boutique silicon is due in part to US trade restrictions on the sale of high-end accelerators in the region. Even where still legal, these chips have become a supply chain vulnerability for Beijing. In fact, the US government’s decision to bar Intel from selling its Xeon Phi processors to China drove the development of the Matrix 2000. In the US, the bigger challenge may be competing with chip designers' shareholders. AI has made Nvidia the most valuable company in the world; HPC by comparison remains an important, albeit niche market. ®

Nintendo is trying to secure a touchscreen-specific monster-catching patent that could be relevant to Palworld Mobile. Japan's patent office has initially rejected the application for lacking an inventive step over prior art, but the company could appeal or amend the claims. Games Fray reports: The Japan Patent Office (JPO) has now made a new monster-catching patent application by Nintendo public. Patent Application No. 2026-019762 covers monster-catching of the kind already asserted against the PC and console versions of Palworld and is from the same patent family as two of the three patents Nintendo is already asserting against Palworld, but with a touchscreen focus. Potential targets are the upcoming Palworld Mobile game and Tencent's Roco Kingdom: World, which is presently available only in China but likely to expand internationally. Nintendo filed the application this year with a request for a fast-tracked review. The JPO has indeed been quick, and the response is that Nintendo's application lacks an inventive step over the prior art. Nintendo already amended the claims in February and can try to amend them again. It can try to persuade the examiner and potentially appeal the decision. But the initial rejection suggests that Nintendo will not obtain the desired touchscreen monster-catching patent quickly. The rejection was communicated on April 24, 2026. Nintendo could abandon the application now, but Nintendo being Nintendo, they are more likely to try to persuade the examiner to arrive at a different conclusion, even though the reasons for the rejection are strong. In many patent examination processes, the initial rejection is essentially just an invitation to present one's best arguments. Here, however, the rejection notice is so well-reasoned that it will be an uphill battle for Nintendo. Nintendo's application would cover a touchscreen-controlled game in which a player moves through "a field in a virtual space," uses "a capture item for capturing a field character," and can summon "a battle character" to fight that creature. During combat, the game would display "a plurality of commands including at least an attack command and an item command," selected through "an operation input using the touch panel." The key claim is that when the capture item is used "during a battle" or "in a non-battle state," the game performs "a capture success determination," and, if successful, "the field character is captured and set to a state owned by the player."

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Meta is expected to begin cutting about 8,000 jobs this week as it pours more money into AI infrastructure and looks to "offset" other investments, with additional layoffs reportedly possible later this year. According to CNBC, the morale has worsened inside the company. "Internally, there's an emerging sense of dread across wide swaths of the company," the report says, citing current and former Meta employees. "That's in part because more cuts are expected this year, including a potential round of layoffs in August, followed by another round later in the year, some of the sources said." From the report: [...] Whatever anxiety investors are experiencing, the feelings inside the company are more intense, with some longtime staffers questioning Meta's AI pursuits under AI chief Alexandr Wang, while also weighing if now is the time to leave for opportunities at other companies in the AI race, according to current and former employees. Data aggregated by Blind, an anonymous professional network that requires users to verify their employment with a work email address, reveals some of the internal malaise. Meta's overall rating by employees on Blind has declined 25% from a peak in the second quarter of 2024 to the current period, with a 39% drop in its culture rating. In every category other than compensation, Meta has seen a ratings decline and dramatically underperforms rivals Amazon, Google and Netflix, the Blind data reveals. The company's full-court press with AI included the recent debut of an employee tracking tool intended to collect data from staffers' actions, such as mouse movements and keystrokes on their work computers. The Model Capability Initiative, or MCI, as it's called, is part of Meta's efforts to train AI models to power digital agents that can perform various coding and white-collar tasks. Employees have characterized the data tracking tool as "dystopian," according to messages viewed by CNBC, with some workers expressing fear that personal information could be leaked. Some Meta workers have noted that their workplace computers appear slower since the company initiated the project, adding to their frustration, sources said. Meta workers responded by creating an online petition that urges Zuckerberg and leadership to shutter the project. "Collecting and repurposing this kind of data raises serious concerns around privacy, consent, and trust in the workplace," the petition says. "It should not be the norm that companies of any size are permitted to exploit their employees by nonconsensually extracting their data for the purposes of AI training." Further reading: NYT: 'Meta's Embrace of AI Is Making Its Employees Miserable'

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After three weeks of testimony, which was covered extensively here on Slashdot, a U.S. jury on Monday ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding that he waited too long to bring his claims that the company betrayed its nonprofit mission. Reuters reports: The trial had widely been seen as a critical moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence generally, both in how it should be used and who should benefit from it. Following the verdict, Musk's lawyer said he reserved the right to appeal, but the judge suggested he may have an uphill battle because whether the statute of limitations ran out before Musk sued was a factual issue. "There's a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury's finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the spot," U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said. In his 2024 lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI, its Chief Executive Sam Altman and its President Greg Brockman of manipulating him into giving $38 million, then going behind his back by attaching a for-profit business to its original nonprofit and accepting tens of billions of dollars from Microsoft and other investors. Musk called the OpenAI defendants' conduct "stealing a charity." OpenAI was founded by Altman, Musk and several others in 2015. Musk left its board in 2018, and OpenAI set up a for-profit business the next year. OpenAI countered that it was Musk who saw dollar signs, and that he waited too long to claim OpenAI breached its founding agreement to build safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity. "Mr. Musk may have the Midas touch in some areas, but not in AI," William Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI, said in his closing argument. The verdict followed 11 days of testimony and arguments where Musk's and Altman's credibility came under repeated attack. Lawyers for OpenAI embraced each other after the verdict was announced. Microsoft faced an aiding and abetting claim. In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said, "The facts and the timeline in this case have long been clear and we welcome the jury's decision to dismiss these claims as untimely." Recap: Musk Accused of 'Selective Amnesia', Altman of Lying As OpenAI Trial Nears End (Day Twelve) OpenAI Trial Wraps Up With 'Jackass' Trophy For Challenging Musk (Day Eleven) Sam Altman Testifies That Elon Musk Wanted Control of OpenAI (Day Ten) Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Testifies In OpenAI Trial (Day Nine) Sam Altman Had a Bad Day In Court (Day Eight) Sam Altman's Management Style Comes Under the Microscope At OpenAI Trial (Day Seven) Brockman Rebuts Musk's Take On Startup's History, Recounts Secret Work For Tesla (Day Six) OpenAI President Discloses His Stake In the Company Is Worth $30 Billion (Day Five) Musk Concludes Testimony At OpenAI Trial (Day Four) Elon Musk Says OpenAI Betrayed Him, Clashes With Company's Attorney (Day Three) Musk Testifies OpenAI Was Created As Nonprofit To Counter Google (Day Two) Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Head To Court (Day One)

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UPDATED Web hosting bills getting too expensive? Maybe you ought to consider serving your site from a one-dollar 8-bit microcontroller. Okay, you won’t exactly be serving up a high-performance, graphic-rich website using this project from European developer and blogger Maurycy Zalewski. The setup is limited to one URL, but hey, it actually works, provided an influx of visitors hasn’t killed the site yet. The bargain-basement chip that serves as the central component of this project is the AVR64DD32, which currently retails from DigiKey for $1.30. It has a single 8-bit AVR core with a blistering 24 MHz max clock speed, 8 KB of static RAM, 64 KB of flash memory, and 256 bytes of EEPROM non-volatile memory for storing a very limited amount of data. Zalewski told The Register in an email that the whole build was free for him, as he had everything on hand, but he estimates the total cost of the thing to run closer to $2 or $3 when accounting for resistors and capacitors, the board the chip is attached to, and the like. Serving a web page from such a limited chip is a task, to say the least, and Maurycyz had to do a lot of legwork to get the thing working. The I/O pins on the AVR max out at 12 MHz, which Zalewski explained meant that it wouldn’t be possible to use Ethernet for the project, as the data flow from even the aged baseline Ethernet connection of 10BASE-T is too fast for the chip to handle. “10BASE-T still runs at 10 megabits/second,” Zalewski wrote. “Worse, it uses Manchester encoding: a zero is sent as ‘10’ and a one as ‘01,’ so 10 megabits of data is actually 20 megabits at the wire.” “The proper solution is to buy a dedicated Ethernet chip from DigiKey, but then I'd be waiting weeks to finish this project,” Zalewski noted. Instead of waiting, he decided to take a different approach by turning to Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP), just like the guy who turned a discarded vape into a web server last year. For those unfamiliar with SLIP, it’s a 38-year-old protocol designed to encapsulate IP traffic for transmission over serial lines, and it was widely used to make internet connections in the olden days. SLIP is still supported in modern Linux builds due to its compact size and the fact that it’s often used to connect microcontrollers to the internet. Now, giving the AVR an internet connection didn’t solve the harder problem of actually serving a web page to visitors. Zalewski said the chip could generate response packets by swapping the source and destination addresses on incoming traffic and resetting the packet’s TTL value, but implementing TCP still took several days of work. HTTP handling was simplified by returning a hardcoded response for every request, which works as long as the site only serves a single URL. Here’s that limitation we were talking about: “This works fine as long as there's only a single URL on the site,” Zalewski said. Sorry for those wanting to host more pages from that $1 microcontroller. Lastly, Zalewski said he had to figure out how to get requests from the internet to the microcontroller without spending money on a publicly routed IP address. That was resolved by using WireGuard to connect the microcontroller located at his home to a public-facing machine at a Helsinki datacenter, which then proxied requests to the microcontroller using a local address block. “This means that visitors aren't directly connecting to the MCU's TCP/IP stack... but hey, it's the same setup that the Vape Server uses and no one complained,” Zalewski said. And all without having to buy a vape or root through dumpsters to find an old one. Zalewski told us that the hardware he used for the task was so simple that it only took a few minutes to build the thing itself. The software was another thing altogether, though. "Wiring up the board only took a few minutes, but writing the software took multiple days," Zalewski said. Lucky for those wanting to duplicate or add to his work, the source code and a pre-compiled binary that'll run on an 8-bit microcontroller are included in his blog post. ® Updated at 1854 GMT on 3/18/2026 with more information after we spoke to the developer.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Going back to grad school has long been the Plan B of young professionals who aspire to climb higher in their careers or struggle to get promoted in a tough job market. New data show that getting a master's degree isn't the guarantee it used to be. The unemployment rate for workers under 35 with a master's degree has rarely been higher in the past 20 years, according to the Burning Glass Institute, a labor-market think tank focused on the future of work, which analyzed data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics going back to 2003. At the same time, the unemployment rate for workers under 35 with a Ph.D., law degree or medical degree has rarely been lower. "For most of the past two decades, these lines moved together -- not anymore," said Gad Levanon, chief economist of Burning Glass. Levanon has a theory about why the payoffs for advanced degrees have uncoupled: "More degrees chasing fewer of the positions those degrees were meant to unlock." [...] While degrees from law school and medical school amount to a license to practice, master's degrees are more of a signal, Levanon said. And a signal loses value when so many people have one, he added: "It's hardly a sure bet to securing a good job." Now master's-degree holders under 35 are at the 77th percentile of unemployment, where the 50th percentile is normal, according to the Burning Glass analysis. Even associate-degree holders have had a higher employment level for the past year. Unemployment among master's-degree holders has been worse only about a quarter of the time in the past 20-plus years. There was a stint during the Covid-19 pandemic when this cohort was out of work at higher rates, and a more prolonged stretch as the U.S. climbed out of the recession in 2008 and 2009. "Every indication is hiring managers now are more receptive than ever to the idea that a person doesn't need a graduate degree to be competitive," said Johnny C. Taylor Jr., president of SHRM, the chief lobbying group for human-resource professionals. "We are seeing that, hands down, especially in the last two or three years with AI," he said of job readiness. Employers just want to know, "Can you do it?"

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Microsoft is testing long-requested Windows 11 customization options, including a resizable taskbar, smaller taskbar buttons, and a more configurable Start menu that lets users reduce recommended content. BleepingComputer reports: Starting with Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.8493, the taskbar can now be configured to use smaller buttons and moved to the bottom, top, left, or right side of the screen. "The ability to move the taskbar to the top or sides of the screen has been one of the most requested features, and we are bringing it to Windows 11," said Diego Baca, partner director of Microsoft Design. "With this update, when small taskbar is enabled, you get smaller icons, a shorter taskbar, and more vertical space for your apps (see video below). No restart or sign-out is required." [...] Microsoft is also rolling out changes to give Windows users more control over the Start menu, allowing them to toggle off recommended content and customize its size. "These controls are designed to work together. If you want a Start menu with just your pinned apps, you can turn off Recommended and All," Boca added. "If you want a full Start that shows everything, you can leave it all on. The goal is simple: it is your choice, and it should be easy to make." However, Microsoft will maintain a list of recently installed apps, as it is a key way for users to discover new applications alongside the Microsoft Store. Furthermore, Microsoft is improving file relevance by adjusting how files are displayed and ordered to prioritize the most relevant items, and will also allow users to hide their name and profile picture from the Start menu. [...] In addition to taskbar and Start menu improvements, the company plans to reduce notifications, simplify Windows settings, and ensure that device setup on new Windows PCs requires fewer reboots. Microsoft is also working on improving Windows search, aiming for a more consistent experience across the Start menu, taskbar, File Explorer, and Settings.

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Another Linux kernel flaw has handed local unprivileged users a way to peek at files they should never be able to read, including root-only secrets such as SSH keys. The bug affects multiple LTS kernel lines from 5.10 upward, although a fix has already landed – and there is now a proposal for reducing the odds of similar surprises in future. What FOSS analytics vendor Metabase memorably dubbed the strip-mining era of open source security continues. This time, the culprit is CVE-2026-46333, a local kernel vulnerability that lets an unprivileged user read files they should not be able to access, including those normally available only to root. An attacker who already has login access to an affected machine could therefore potentially grab SSH keys, password files, or other confidential credentials, as the KnightLi blog explains. Despite its official designation, a demo exploit on GitHub calls it ssh-keysign-pwn. It is not quite as catchy a name as Copy Fail, or Dirty Frag, or indeed Fragnesia, but we feel it is safe to say it hasn't been a good month. According to a report on Linux Stans, it affected LTS kernel versions 5.10, 5.15, 6.1, 6.6, 6.12, 6.18 and 7.0. The good news is that it's already been fixed: Linus himself, in commit 31e62c2, called the fix "ptrace: slightly saner 'get_dumpable()' logic." The issue was reported on the oss-security list on Friday by security consultancy Qualys, as noted on X by grsecurity's Brad Spengler. In the same thread, Altan Baig pointed out that the underlying issue was reported by Jann Horn on the Linux Kernel Mailing List way back in 2020. The problem with tracking security reports, which Penguin Emperor Torvalds described recently, is not new, alas. ModuleJail This also seems like a good time to look at what we thought was an interesting new defensive measure, Jasper Nuyens' ModuleJail. The top line of the README summarizes it: The mention of "no AI inside the tool" is arguably something of a giveaway, and you can see a CLAUDE.md file in the repo. Even so, how it works is simple enough. Although Linux has a monolithic kernel, it is modular: when the kernel's source code is compiled, the person or tool building it can choose if each individual component is included (built into the binary), not included at all, or compiled as a module, which can be loaded on the fly as and when it's needed. Since the kernel is mostly device drivers, it's normal for distribution vendors to compile most non-essential components as kernel modules – as the Arch wiki explains. Blacklisting a module just means adding its name to a list of modules not to load. Blacklisting unusued models for added security isn't a new idea. It's in the RHEL 6 documentation, for instance, and a DoHost blog post from last year describes it as a security measure. ModuleJail simply automates the process: it blacklists any modules not currently in use. Probably safe for a server, but rather less ideal for a laptop or machine where you need to plug in new hardware on the fly. Connecting a USB headset, say, is quite different from plugging one into a headphone socket. While a device with a jack plug uses your existing sound controller, by connecting a USB one you're effectively adding a new sound controller – just one that happens to be connected over USB. ModuleJail mentions that its approach avoids changing the initramfs. An initramfs, like an initrd, is a file containing a temporary RAM disk, so that a generic kernel can find and load the drivers it needs for the particular box it's running on – even before it can find the machine's SSD and mount the root partition. Back in the 1990s, as grumpy old graybeards such as this vulture recall, recompiling your kernel was a standard part of periodic system maintenance. One benefit of building the kernel customized for your own computer was eliminating the need for an initramfs. If all the drivers are built in, there's no need for this temporary stage, although as the ArchWiki notes, this does limit some advanced features, which, for instance, systemd uses. We would love to see some of the systemd-free distros incorporate such automatic ModuleJail-style identification of essential modules, and use it to build a custom kernel on the fly, then banish the use of initramfs. (Maybe just keep the all-options-enabled installation kernel around as an emergency fallback.) Aside from a few special cases such as OpenZFS, this should work on most hardware – and make life simpler, quicker, and perhaps slightly more secure. ®

The CFTC says it is ramping up efforts to catch insider trading and market manipulation in prediction markets, using AI tools, blockchain tracing, and other surveillance systems to flag suspicious bets. It's also monitoring activity by U.S. traders accessing offshore platforms like Polymarket through VPNs. Wired reports: [T]he Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees prediction markets, wants you to know that it's watching very, very closely. The agency is searching for suspicious behavior from traders within the United States who have been sneaking onto offshore markets, including Polymarket's crypto platform -- which is blocked stateside -- by using virtual private networks. "We're going to find them, and we're going to bring actions," agency chairman Michael Selig told WIRED this week, speaking from the CFTC's headquarters in Washington, DC. Selig says the agency, which is especially lean right now, is staffing up. Like so many other AI-pilled workplaces, the CFTC is also leaning into automation to handle the growing workload, including tools that analyze trading patterns and flag potential manipulation. "You've got so much data," Selig says. "When we feed it into AI, we get really great information. It can help us understand things, like where we might want to investigate, or when we might need to send a subpoena to a trader." In addition to proprietary surveillance systems developed in-house, the agency's arsenal includes third-party blockchain tracing tools like Chainalysis for crypto platforms, and market abuse detection software including Nasdaq Smarts for centralized markets. (Beyond Nasdaq Smarts, the agency did not specify which AI tools it uses and declined to share more specific examples.) [...] Selig recently told Congress that the company is pursuing "hundreds, if not thousands" of insider trading tips. Investigations are not limited to federally regulated exchanges. "We're surveilling the markets on a global basis," he tells WIRED. Selig says that the agency will exert extraterritorial jurisdiction -- its legal ability to enforce its laws beyond traditional boundaries -- when it finds suspicious activity on offshore platforms like Polymarket, though he says it's a case-by-case approach. "We use it in extreme circumstances," he says, with an eye towards whether charges have a strong chance of sticking in court. "In any extraterritorial litigation, there's going to be challenges to our authority, and that could also impair our ability to bring cases in the future." According to Selig, the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act allows the CFTC more leeway to pursue this kind of enforcement action, by giving it more authority over foreign swap activities that impact the US. When appropriate, the agency works with regulators from other countries, too. "For cases where we're not sure we'll win, or it's less in our wheelhouse and more of a foreign matter, we would relay it to a foreign regulator," he says. "We're constantly referring cases." [...] Selig is insistent that the CFTC is only just getting started. The agency will identify wrongdoers, he says -- no matter "how large or how small."

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Europe's hunt for secure, high-capacity satellite communications infrastructure has produced a laser-equipped mountaintop ground station in northern Greece. Lithuanian space and defense biz Astrolight says that it has commissioned a new optical ground station in Greece that will support ESA-backed CubeSat missions testing laser-based communications between satellites and Earth. The Holomondas Optical Ground Station was built through the PeakSat project, led by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with backing from the European Space Agency and Greece's Ministry of Digital Governance. Its job is to receive data from satellites via infrared laser links rather than the radio systems that space operators have relied on for decades. PeakSat and ERMIS-3, two Greek CubeSats launched in March under ESA's wider Greek IOD/IOV mission program, both carry Astrolight's ATLAS-1 optical communication terminal. Astrolight also built the ground segment, giving the project a fully integrated end-to-end optical communications setup. Astrolight CEO Laurynas Mačiulis told The Register that the company originally pursued laser communications after concluding it "would need to tap into the optical spectrum," as demand for satellite bandwidth continues to grow. He described optical connectivity as "one of the enabling technologies for further expansion into space." The company says the station uses an 808-nanometer laser beacon and an optical C-band receiver capable of receiving data at up to 2.5 Gbps. Unlike traditional RF systems, optical links use tightly focused infrared beams that are harder to intercept or jam while also supporting significantly higher throughput. The engineering problem, however, is slightly more complicated than pointing a laser pointer at the sky and hoping for the best. "You have two moving objects that try to establish a laser link, which means trying to point a very, very narrow laser pointer at your object, which is potentially tens of thousands of kilometers away, moving at eight kilometers per second," Mačiulis said. ESA and its partners are pitching optical comms partly as an answer to an increasingly crowded radio spectrum, but the tech is also drawing attention from defense and dual-use operators interested in more resilient communications systems. "There is a need for networking in space, both for connectivity and tactical reasons, and dual-use defense applications," Mačiulis said, adding that future satellite constellations "will inevitably rely on optical links, because that gives information superiority and security and resistance to jamming electronic warfare." He added "there's also sovereignty aspects, which means that there will never be a single player – there cannot be just Starlink." ®

Netherlands police’s scheme to unmask and shame scammers into submission is proving highly successful, with 74 of its 100 most wanted now known to investigators. The country's “Game Over?!” campaign involved releasing the blurred images of fraudsters into the public domain and threatening to unmask them within two weeks if they did not turn themselves in. True to its word, after two weeks, the Dutch police unblurred the alleged offenders’ faces via social media and advertising boards across the country, including at gas stations, shopping centers, and train stations. The result? Thirty-four handed themselves in, and revealing the remaining faces led to the identification of a further 40 individuals. The police said it received more than 500 tips from the public after it unblurred the faces. Its website was viewed more than two million times, and its campaign images were seen nearly 90 million times on social media. Of the 74 now known to the police, more than half (38) have been questioned, and the interrogations for the rest are already scheduled. Police have arrested six individuals so far, although they stated that this doesn’t necessarily mean the arrests were directly for their alleged crimes. Arrests may take place when someone fails to appear for police questioning, for example, or if a suspect is linked to multiple offenses. Anne Jan Oosterheert, portfolio holder for online crime at the Dutch Politie, said: “This form of crime claims many victims. It has a huge impact on both the victims and society. The goal of Game Over?! is therefore to identify and prosecute the suspects. “With the identification of 74 suspects, this goal has been amply achieved, and so far, we can speak of a successful investigative offensive. We are very satisfied and grateful for all the help we have received from citizens.” An unusual take on appealing to the public for support, Game Over?! aimed to give the alleged offenders the chance to retain their anonymity in exchange for helping the police, and potentially assisting their own prosecution. The idea behind naming the campaign “Game Over?!” came from the term “F-Game,” or fraud game, which is what police say offenders often refer to when discussing their actions. The police’s initial announcement explicitly called the campaign a public attack on criminals, saying that it was also relying on public shaming to eventually apprehend the alleged offenders. The same message also came with a warning that young people were increasingly being recruited to these schemes, often paid very little for the privilege. Of the 74 now identified, the police said today that the youngest suspect was aged just 14, with the oldest being 42. The average age across them all was 22. Game Over?! explicitly targeted banking helpdesk impersonators, fake police officers, and card collectors, with officials saying they had become a “nasty” social problem. “These nasty forms of fraud have now become a social problem that can also be solved in collaboration with society," said Oosterheert previously as part of the campaign’s launch announcement. Of the crime types police strategists are looking to stamp out, cases involving bank helpdesk fraud are the most common, and typically target the elderly. The classic script goes: scammer calls the victim pretending to be a representative of their bank; throughout the course of the phone call, the scammer convinces the victim to surrender enough of their details so they can go away and access their account; the scammer then steals their money. Fake police officer scams are another, more recent scourge on the country, that in some cases have become violent and even deadly. They typically also target the elderly and see criminals knocking on doors, offering to safeguard valuables on the residents’ behalf. Police say that tens of thousands of elderly victims have fallen victim to scams like these, resulting in police fielding calls from victims and their “frightening stories.” “The impact on these often vulnerable victims is enormous,” the police said. “Their sense of security is often completely gone, as is their trust in the government and their fellow human beings.” ®

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The World Health Organization declared on Saturday that the spread of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda was a global health emergency. The announcement was made a day after Africa's leading public health authority reported that an outbreak in a province in the northeast of the country was linked to dozens of suspected deaths. By Saturday, cases had also been confirmed in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, the W.H.O. said. In Congo's Ituri province, where the outbreak was first identified, 246 suspected cases and 80 deaths attributed to the virus had been reported, although only eight cases had been definitively linked to the virus through laboratory testing. There is no approved vaccine and no therapeutics for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola behind the outbreak, according to the W.H.O. The scale of the outbreak could be far larger than has been detected and reported, the W.H.O. said in declaring a "public health emergency of international concern." It added that there were "significant uncertainties" about the precise number of people infected and the "geographic spread." The W.H.O.'s declaration signals a public health risk requiring a coordinated international response, and is intended to prompt member countries to prepare for the virus to spread and to share vaccines, treatments and other resources needed to contain the outbreak. [...] The risk of the outbreak spreading is exacerbated by a humanitarian crisis, high population mobility and a large network of informal health care facilities in the area, the agency said. Containing an Ebola outbreak depends on the speed and scale of the public health response. The virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, putting family members and caregivers at particular risk. Tracing people who may have come into contact with sufferers, isolating and treating victims promptly and safely, and burying the dead properly are all viewed as critical steps.

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The AI industry is copying techniques used by tobacco firms, big pharma and oil companies to influence governmental policy and regulation of itself, according to an academic study. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Trinity College Dublin, Delft University of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University claim they identified patterns of "corporate capture" by which regulations and public bodies come to act in the interest of industry rather than the citizens they are meant to protect. Their paper, “Big AI’s Regulatory Capture: Mapping Industry Interference and Government Complicity,” details various mechanisms of capture and how these work. The most frequent include what the researchers identify as Discourse & Epistemic influence (D&EI), Elusion of law, or Direct influence on policy. For evidence, the researchers analyzed 100 news stories covering four global AI events between 2023 and 2025; the EU AI Act negotiations, and the global AI summits held in the UK, South Korea, and France. They report finding numerous cases fitting capture patterns. One of the most prevalent here was “narrative capture,” which is when an industry or company attempts to steer discussion in a direction that benefits them, and influences the position or decisions of public officials and official regulations. As an example, it cites how the European Commission has uncritically followed the industry’s call to "simplify” the AI Act (alongside other digital regulation) even before it has been fully implemented. Earlier this month, The Register reported how enforcement of the rules was delayed, while the rules themselves were cut back after months of angry complaints from AI companies. Narratives deployed emphasized how "regulation stifles innovation" and centered on "red tape," where regulation is portrayed as unnecessary or excessive, setting the stage for later calls explicitly advocating for "deregulation." The researchers found that "elusion of law" (using legal loopholes) is the most recurring after narrative-framing activity. This may comprise violations, such as disregarding existing laws, or contentious interpretations of laws governing areas including antitrust, privacy, copyright and labor laws. Reg readers will be familiar with AI developers' efforts to exempt themselves from copyright laws, for example, by arguing that requiring permission or payment for training data would stifle progress or even destroy the industry entirely. This position has been championed by the Tony Blair Institute and by the UK’s former deputy PM and erstwhile Meta apologist Sir Nick Clegg, who now works for neocloud biz Nscale. The study also identified lobbying and "Revolving Door" as common tools for shaping policy, the latter referring to public officials moving into private sector roles or industry figures securing influential government posts. The UK government’s flagship AI Opportunities Action Plan - for example - was authored by entrepreneur Matt Clifford, who it turns out happens to have financial interests in nearly 500 tech firms, including a number involved with AI. The paper concludes that while it is only right that government regulators attend to the concerns of industry, regulation should always prioritize protecting and promoting the core public values for which governments bear responsibility. It warns that the AI industry’s power, wealth and influence have "far-reaching implications" in terms of impact on the rule of law, the labor market, the environment, knowledge production, and, ultimately, on the functioning of democracy itself. The level of power held by the AI industry is "so corrosive" that policymakers ought to treat it as an emergency, the paper says. Government complicity is detrimental to ensuring the rule of law and to restoring trust in public interest technologies, it points out. ®

The TanStack team has documented security measures and proposals following a damaging breach last week, including the possibility of making pull requests (PRs) by invitation only - a break from the open-contribution model that defines most open source projects. The attack used code from the Shai-Hulud worm, published by malware outfit TeamPCP, which can extract secrets from memory used by GitHub Actions. It began with a PR that triggered an automatic workflow via TanStack's use of the pull_request_target feature, causing the malicious code to be built and run by a GitHub Action, poisoning a cache used across the entire repository. The TanStack team said that its workflow used a pattern GitHub warns against: pull_request_target id intended for PRs that "do not require dangerous processing, say building or running the content of the PR." Since the attack, TanStack has removed all use of pull_request_target from its continuous integration (CI) pipeline, disabled caches used by pnpm (a Node.js package manager) and GitHub Actions, pinned actions to commit SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm) hashes rather than retargetable tags, and disabled use of text messages for 2-factor authentication. The TanStack repository also now uses a feature of pnpm 11 called minimumReleaseAge, which requires dependencies to have been published for a set period before they can be installed. The idea is that compromised packages are usually detected and removed before that period completes. A more drastic proposal is closing the ability for external contributors to open pull requests at all. "We are absolutely not going closed source," the team said, but it could put in place a mechanism where contributions begin with an issue or discussion, and a PR can be submitted only by invitation. TanStack acknowledged that it would be a radical step to take as "open PRs are part of how a lot of us became maintainers in the first place." It might not be necessary if the repository can be hardened enough that malicious PRs cannot cause damage. It is a debate that maintainers of other open source projects will watch with interest. Supply chain security is a huge issue, but making pull requests invitation-only could hurt projects by deterring contributions. Another aspect of this is the extent to which GitHub itself is to blame. "Cache scoping in GitHub Actions shouldn't silently bridge fork PRs and base-repo branches," said the TanStack team.®

Microsoft has begun rolling out tweaks to the Windows 11 experience to make good on its promise to "fix" the operating system, starting with the ability to move the taskbar around. The changes are only for Windows Insiders brave enough to be in the Experimental channel, but will be welcomed by customers left baffled by Microsoft's decision to strip features from its OS with Windows 11. The update allows the taskbar to be positioned at the top, bottom, left, or right of the screen, with icon alignment selectable for each position. Flyouts, including those for Start and Search, appear relative to the taskbar location, and it is also possible to "never combine" taskbar buttons, meaning each app window appears as a separate labeled button. Shifting the taskbar to the side opens up additional screen space at the bottom – which is handy for editing code or writing lengthy pieces complaining about Microsoft's approach to product quality. It's a good start, but it isn't all there yet. This is the Experimental channel after all. However, some omissions, such as auto-hide (which isn't yet supported in alternate positions) and Search boxes being just a search icon, are irritating. Microsoft is also pondering different taskbar positions per monitor and drag-and-drop, but wrote: "Our focus is to deliver the core functionality you need while keeping the experience simple, predictable." A cynic might suggest the company takes the same approach to testing its security updates. Other improvements include the ability to shrink the taskbar with smaller buttons, something that will be welcomed by users running on smaller screens where every pixel matters, and more control over the Start menu. Currently, the size of the Start menu is decided by Windows. The update means users can choose Small or Large themselves, and those choices will remain across displays. Microsoft is also simplifying control over the Start menu sections and recommendations, and adding the option to hide a user's profile picture – useful for those presentation moments when having something personal pop up unbidden might not suit the audience. The update will receive more polishing before reaching production – there are still some howlers, such as notifications, that seem to completely ignore the taskbar's position. But this is more of a preview than anything else at this stage, and an opportunity for enthusiasts to file feedback on the direction of travel. However, there is also the nagging feeling that Microsoft had all this in earlier versions of Windows, and it's taken half a decade for the company to reinvent what was working before. Windows Design Director Diego Baca explained: "The taskbar was modernized during Windows 11 to support better animations, more states, and several other features. So we could not reuse that old code." That "old code" should, coupled with user feedback, have given Microsoft a starting point for the Windows 11 user interface, which it chose to ignore. Now, as Windows 12 lurks in the shadows, Microsoft is reimplementing functionality that users have missed from previous versions. Better late than never. ®

Exploit attempts are already hammering a newly disclosed NGINX bug dubbed "NGINX Rift," proving once again that attackers read patch notes faster than most admins. Researchers at VulnCheck said they are seeing active exploitation tied to CVE-2026-42945, a heap buffer overflow flaw affecting both NGINX Open Source and NGINX Plus that was disclosed last week after apparently sitting unnoticed for 18 years. VulnCheck's Patrick Garrity said the company observed exploitation activity on its canary systems "just days after the CVE was published." "An unauthenticated attacker can crash the NGINX worker process by sending crafted HTTP requests," he said. "On servers with ASLR disabled – which, of course, is extremely unlikely – code execution is possible." Researchers at Depthfirst disclosed the bug last week, saying the flaw had been sitting in NGINX's rewrite module since 2008. The vulnerability, nicknamed "NGINX Rift," was assigned a CVSS score of 9.2. According to F5, which acquired NGINX in 2019, the flaw can be triggered by specially crafted HTTP requests under certain server configurations. In most cases, the result is a crashed worker process and a forced restart, though systems running without standard Linux memory protections could potentially face code execution. A public proof-of-concept exploit appeared the same day patches dropped, which helps explain why researchers started seeing exploitation attempts almost immediately. In practice, turning this into reliable remote code execution takes a pretty specific setup. The target server must be running a specific rewrite configuration, attackers need enough knowledge of that setup to exploit it correctly, and ASLR must also be disabled on the host system. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont noted that while the bug is real, modern Linux defaults significantly reduce the likelihood of successful real-world RCE. "Regarding CVE-2026-42945 in nginx – no modern (or even old) Linux distribution runs nginx without ASLR," Beaumont said. "So, cool, sweet technical vuln – it's valid – but the RCE apocalypse ain't coming." Even so, VulnCheck said Censys scans surfaced roughly 5.7 million internet-exposed NGINX servers running potentially vulnerable versions, which means patching teams everywhere just inherited another very long week. ®

The Polish government is urging public officials and "entities within the National Cybersecurity System" to stop using Signal, directing them to instead use an encrypted messenger developed by a leading Polish research organization. In an announcement on Friday, the government stated that Signal comes with security risks, including social engineering attacks orchestrated by advanced persistent threat (APT) groups. "National-level Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) have identified phishing campaigns conducted by APT groups linked to hostile state agencies," the announcement says. "These attacks target, among others, public figures and government employees." Offering examples of these social engineering campaigns, the government said attackers impersonate Signal support staff and abuse this perceived trust to take over victims' accounts. Attackers trick users into opening malicious links by sending messages designed to create a sense of urgency, such as those supposedly informing them of their account being blocked. Successful attempts can expose victims' phone numbers and, crucially, messages sent between government officials, potentially threatening national security. A more detailed advisory cited "recent security incidents" related to Signal as reasons for the change. It didn't specify what these recent attacks were, or even who was behind them, but it can be reasonably assumed that the Polish government was indirectly referencing Russia's phishing attempts against both Signal and WhatsApp, which were revealed in March. Dutch intelligence agencies AIVD and MIVD reported a "large-scale" campaign targeting their own government officials, noting that some attacks were successful. "The Russian hackers have likely gained access to sensitive information," the AIVD and MIVD said, adding that successful attacks were carried out on government bods as well as journalists. Beyond Signal support staff impersonation, the agencies said the attacks can also involve outsiders persuading victims to surrender their verification codes or PINs, or abusing the platform's Linked Devices feature via QR codes to take control of accounts. The FBI, CISA, and the German information security department issued near-identical warnings. The alternative Poland announced the launch of mSzyfr Messenger in March, saying it was designed for use by public administration entities, those involved in the National Cybersecurity System, and others to be decided by the government. Developed by the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the Scientific and Academic Computer Network – National Research Institute (NASK), mSzyfr was touted by the government as "the first secure instant messenger fully under Polish jurisdiction." It does, however, rely on multi-factor authentication (MFA) provided by US megacorps. Microsoft is the recommended option, but users can also opt for Google or FreeOTP. Further, if users want to retain access to messages even after logging out of the platform, they must set up a recovery key, which the installation manual suggests storing in a password manager. That undercuts the government's emphasis on Polish jurisdiction somewhat, since many popular password managers are either foreign-owned or open source. An FAQ document for mSzyfr states that the messenger is built with a privacy-by-design philosophy, and explicitly notes that neither WhatsApp nor Signal fits this description. It also claimed the US-based platforms are not GDPR-compliant. The mSzyfr app is not publicly available. Only individuals working for approved organizations are able to receive invites to join the platform. It replaces Swiss-founded Threema, which the Polish government began endorsing for state officials and law enforcement in 2022, but data such as messages cannot be transferred because of the apps' encrypted nature. All Threema users should expect to receive an invite to mSzyfr in the near future, if they have not already. The Register asked Signal to comment on Poland's announcement, but it did not immediately respond. It did, however, recently address security concerns raised by various intelligence agencies last week, introducing new warnings and alerts inside the platform to help users weed out potential impostors and bad actors. ®

John Lennon's last interview — just hours before he was shot on December 8, 1980 — has become a documentary directed by Steven Soderbergh, debuting Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival. In a new interview with the Associated Press, Soderbergh defends the film's limited use of AI to visualize concepts from that two-hour interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono: Soderbergh was resolved to let the audio play. He could finds ways to visualize much of the film, but that still left a large gap where the conversation grows more philosophical. "I worked on everything that could be solved except that for as long as I could," Soderbergh says. "Then there was the inevitable moment of: OK, but really what are we going to do? We just started playing and ran out of time and money. That's where the Meta piece came in." Soderbergh accepted an offer to use Meta's artificial intelligence software to conjure surreal imagery for those sections, which make up about 10% of the film. When Soderbergh let the news out earlier this year, it prompted an uproar. One of America's leading filmmakers was using AI? In a film about a Beatle, no less? The AI parts (overwhelmingly slammed by critics in Cannes) are fairly banal and don't differ greatly from special effects — there are no deepfakes of Lennon. But they put Soderberg at the forefront of an industrywide debate about the uses of AI in moviemaking. It's a conversation the director, who has made movies on iPhones, is eager to have. While the film follows John and Yoko's conversation, "I needed a way to follow them in flight visually," Soderbergh says, "or I'm not doing my job." Though when asked about the strong negative reaction, Soderbergh acknowleges that "I knew what was coming. I take it very seriously, and I understand why people have an emotional response to this subject. As I've said before, I feel like I owe people the best version of whatever art I'm trying to make and total transparency about how I'm doing it." AP: Some fear generative AI will tear apart the film industry. You don't see it as a bogeyman, though. SODERBERGH: I think most jobs that matter when you're making a movie cannot be performed by this tech and never will be performed by this tech. As it becomes possible for anybody to create something that meets a certain standard of technical perfection, then imperfection becomes more valuable and more interesting. We haven't seen yet someone with a certain amount of creative credibility go full-metal AI on something, and see how people react. I think it's necessary. How do you know where the line is until somebody crosses it? "I don't think what I'm doing crosses it. Some people may disagree. I don't know where my line is yet. I'm waiting to see...

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Microsoft has admitted that the May 2026 security update might fail to install with a "Something didn't go as planned. Undoing changes" message. The problem is related to the EFI System Partition (ESP), which is usually where the device boots from. Its minimum size is 200 MB, and the operating system manages it. However, if there is 10 MB or less free space, then the update might fail with a 0x800f0922 error code and the helpful message. "On affected devices, the installation might proceed through the initial phases but fail during the reboot phase at approximately 35-36% completion," Microsoft said. As with all security updates, there is important stuff in here that needs to be installed. In our earlier coverage, we called this a "doozy of a Patch Tuesday." While nothing was reported as being under active attack, there were dozens of fixes for critical Microsoft CVEs. On devices experiencing the issue, Microsoft has suggested either a registry edit, which will have administrators rolling their eyes, or a Known Issue Rollback (KIR) to deal with the problem. The company wrote: "The resolution has already propagated automatically to consumer devices and non-managed business devices." The issue affects Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2, and emerged while Microsoft was enjoying a period of no known issues with its operating system products. The admission was made doubly unfortunate by coinciding with a company blog post titled "Improving Windows Quality". Microsoft clearly has more work to do on the quality front, which, frankly, is understandable. Windows is more akin to a supertanker than an agile skiff, and changing direction will take time. However, as administrators reach for the KIR group policy to deal with this latest issue, many would be forgiven for looking at Microsoft's protestations around quality and muttering the infamous aphorism: "The more things change, the more they stay the same." ®

Britain's F-35 fighter fleet is set to carry US-made glide bombs as an interim measure until delayed F-35 software updates from Lockheed Martin add support for the SPEAR 3 mini-cruise missile intended for the aircraft. The news comes in an official response from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which published a scathing report last year on the MoD's management of the F-35 program. That report noted that the stealth fighter force lacks essential capabilities, one of which is a stand-off weapon to attack ground targets from a safe distance. The SPEAR missile is intended to fulfil this requirement, but although it is ready and passed test firings in 2024, the F-35 is not currently able to operate it. This capability should have been delivered by now through the Block 4 software update from F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin, but this has met with a series of delays. It is now expected in 2031, five years behind schedule. One of the PAC's recommendations was that the MoD should set out in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) how it will ensure a stand-off capability until SPEAR 3 is fully integrated onto the aircraft. Permanent Secretary at the MoD Jeremy Pocklington wrote back in a letter that approval has been given to proceed with a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) procurement of the precision-guided munition, Small Diameter Bomb (SDB II). "This acquisition will provide the F-35 with an interim stand-off capability until the introduction of SPEAR 3 into service," he stated. SDB II, designated GBU-53/B StormBreaker in US service, is a roughly 200-pound (93 kg) bomb with fold-out wings to allow it to glide to a target up to 69 miles (111 km) away. It has a tri-mode seeker in the nose that lets it use radar, infrared, or laser tracking to home in. Other criticisms leveled at the MoD were that it lacked suitably qualified engineers, and the department's pattern of delaying purchases to meet annual budget targets, which the PAC claimed has the effect of inflating total program costs while reducing operational capacity. Pocklington conceded that not enough spares were available to support the F-35 squadrons aboard aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales during the eight-month Operation Highmast deployment last year. "The surge to 24 F-35B aircraft during Operation HIGHMAST exceeded the Afloat Spares Pack capacity of 12. This was mitigated by supplementing with the Deployable Spares Pack [designed for land-based deployments] and taking additional spares from the RAF Marham Base Spares Pack," he wrote. "The Lightning Force is collaborating closely with the Royal Navy to optimise joint scheduling between home and embarked operations, given the current limitation of two front-line squadrons. The Department also plans to double the capacity of the Afloat Spares Pack and procure an additional Deployable Spares Pack for land operations, subject to the DIP." In response, PAC chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP commented on the "entirely unacceptable incompetence that flies in the face of any kind of sensible planning from the Ministry of Defence." "At the heart of any military planning is sound logistics. The UK sent an aircraft carrier with 24 F-35 fighter jets on it to the Middle East – with not enough spare parts to support them." "In an increasingly dangerous world, our military and the country need more than this half-baked approach from the MoD. Our brave fighting men and women, before being sent into potential harm's way, must have absolute certainty that they are well-supported in their equipment, with clear and reliable supply lines," he added. Pocklington's letter also said a short-term reduction in the availability of F-35 aircraft was likely due to the MoD stepping up corrosion awareness and prevention practices. While corrosion can be an issue for all aircraft, this is especially true for those operated from carriers, and it can also impact the F-35's radar-defeating stealth capabilities. The PAC report had noted that the MoD is behind in delivering a UK Aircraft Signature Assessment Facility, needed to check that the F-35's stealth technology is still doing its job and has not been compromised. On the lack of qualified engineers, Pocklington claimed that steps were being taken to address this by increasing available posts to 168. "The RAF has plans in place to fill its remaining engineering posts by 2032. This date is driven by the amount of time (up to three years) it takes to make engineers fully competent on an aircraft type," he said, adding that "the number of personnel recruited into the Engineering Profession, who are now in the training system, has already increased." However, the government's Defence Investment Plan (DIP) was due in autumn 2025, but there is currently no official publication date for it, despite the fact that many key projects are in limbo until it is delivered. ®