Framestore has added VFX supervisor Patrick Ledda and animation supervisor Daniel Blacker to the creative leadership team in London, where they will help in preparation for new projects. Starting as a generalist at Terry Gilliam’s Peerless, Ledda joined MPC 15 years ago as a lighting lead before working up to Head of Lookdev on Prometheus, 47 Ronin, and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, and others.  His supervisory debut on Disney’s Cinderella paved the way for work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo, and The Little Mermaid. “I’ve long admired Framestore’s innovative approach and this is an incredible opportunity to collaborate with some of the industry's most talented minds across a global network of studios,” said Ledda.  “Hugely motivating to be joining a company that continually pushes the boundaries of creativity and technology in filmmaking.” Blacker began his career at Framestore as an animator on Where the Wild Things Are, and returns after 15 years at MPC.  He has guided animation teams across Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Cruella, and Mufasa: The Lion King as animation supervisor. “Framestore has always championed handcrafted, animated performances that are brought to life with such care and attention by teams of artists,” added Blacker.  “Coming back to guide these teams and collaborate too with Art Department, Visdev and FPS to tell these stories for our clients is really exciting.” “Patrick and Daniel join us at a pivotal time, as we embark on film productions that are both creatively ambitious and technologically demanding,” said Fiona Walkinshaw, CEO of Film & Episodic at Framestore.  “We know that they are more than up to the task and are really looking forward to seeing what they create.” Source: Framestore Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologist—L'Wren brings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

The EU-funded Keratoprinter project is developing a new 3D bioprinting platform to create full-thickness, curved human corneas. Aimed at tackling the global shortage of donor tissue, the initiative seeks to restore vision for millions affected by corneal blindness while prioritizing sustainability and patient-specific care. The 42-month research initiative brings together nine partners across five countries, including research institutions, clinical centers, and SMEs specializing in biomaterials, optics, and biofabrication. Funded under the Horizon Europe program, the project officially launched in January 2023 and is coordinated by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (IAP). What is the Keratoprinter? The Keratoprinter is a specialized 3D bioprinting system designed to replicate the curved, multilayered structure of the human cornea using natural biomaterials such as collagen. The project aims to develop a modular bioprinter capable of producing transparent,mechanically stable corneal tissue. It also involves the formulation of bio-based inks derived from human-compatible materials, optimized for extrusion. Digital tools will enable patient-specific customization using corneal topography data. The bioprinter will operate through a feedback-driven, adaptive bioprinting workflow, combining real-time imaging, sensor monitoring, and machine learning algorithms to ensure precision and repeatability throughout the tissue construction process. Corneal blindness is one of the leading causes of vision loss worldwide. Most patients do not receive transplants due to donor shortages and limited surgical access. The Keratoprinter project aims to offer an accessible, scalable solution by enabling the localized production of corneal implants in hospitals and research labs. Sustainable, open, and modular Sustainability is central to the project’s design. The system will use recyclable construction materials and bio-based inks derived from renewable, safe sources. Its open, modular architecture allows for adaptation to different clinical and research needs, supporting future innovation. The project’s results will be made publicly available via the CORDIS webstile to ensure broad access to the technology, particularly in regions most affected by corneal blindness. KeratOPrinter Project Concept Schematic – Image via KeratOPrinter Building on global advances in corneal bioprinting The Keratoprinter initiative contributes to a rising global effort to solve corneal blindness using advanced bioprinting methods. In 2018, scientists at Newcastle University became the first to 3D print human corneas using a bio-ink made of stem cells, alginate, and collagen​. This was followed by efforts to create 4D self-curving corneas, enabling more accurate structural replication of native tissue. Researchers have since pushed the boundaries of corneal bioprinting through clinical testing and materials development. In 2022, scientists from India’s LV Prasad Eye Institute, in collaboration with IIT Hyderabad and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), successfully tested the country’s first 3D printed cornea in rabbits, deeming it safe for human trials. Turkish researchers have also developed artificial cornea suitable for transplantation  using extrusion-based 3D printing. What 3D printing trends should you watch out for in 2025? How is the future of 3D printing shaping up? Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news. You can also follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content. Featured Image shows 3D printing consortium. Image via KeratOPrinter. Rodolfo Hernandez Rodolfo Hernández is a writer and technical specialist with a background in electronics engineering and a deep interest in additive manufacturing. Rodolfo is most interested in the science behind technologies and how they are integrated into society.

Glass Curtain Walls Skyscrapers in London | © Alev Takil via Unsplash Modern architecture thrives on transparency, openness, and a seamless connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. Glass curtain walls embody these principles, transforming buildings into breathtaking structures that blend function with beauty. But beyond their sleek, sophisticated look, glass curtain walls offer a powerful advantage—maximizing natural light while enhancing aesthetics in ways traditional walls never could. Bringing in the Light Natural light is a game-changer in architectural design. It creates a sense of warmth, boosts mood, and reduces the need for artificial lighting. The glass curtain wall system, made of large expanses of glass held in place by aluminum or steel frames, makes this possible on an entirely new scale. Why Natural Light Matters? Health Benefits: Exposure to natural light increases serotonin levels, enhancing mood and productivity. Employees with access to daylight tend to be more focused and energized in workplaces. Energy Efficiency: More sunlight means less reliance on artificial lighting, leading to significant energy savings. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), maximizing daylight in office buildings can reduce lighting energy consumption by up to 60%. Enhanced Views: Traditional walls block sightlines and make spaces feel closed off. Glass curtain walls create an open, inviting environment that connects occupants to the outdoors. Aesthetic Brilliance Apple Headquarters in Cupertino | © Artem Horovenko via Unsplash Glass curtain walls aren’t just functional; they redefine architectural beauty. Their sleek and modern appeal makes buildings look high-end, sophisticated, and futuristic. Architectural Flexibility One of the biggest design advantages of glass curtain walls is their versatility. You can customize them into different shapes, sizes, and finishes, allowing architects to experiment creatively. Whether it’s a skyscraper, a luxury hotel, or a high-end residential complex, these walls add a complementary flair that is hard to match. A Sense of Grandeur Imagine walking into a building with a floor-to-ceiling glass facade—the first impression is breathtaking. The transparency creates a feeling of openness, making interiors seem larger and more inviting. This is why luxury brands, modern office buildings, and even some high-end homes use glass curtain walls to create a statement of elegance. Balancing Transparency with Performance Despite their beauty, some might wonder if glass curtain walls compromise privacy or insulation. But thanks to advances in glass technology, these concerns have been addressed. Privacy Solutions Tinted Glass: Reduces glare and limits visibility from the outside while still allowing natural light to enter. Smart Glass: Can switch between transparent and opaque at the touch of a button, offering privacy on demand. Fritted Glass: Features patterns or designs that partially obscure the view while maintaining a stylish look. Insulation and Energy Efficiency High-performance glazing solutions, such as double or triple glazing, help maintain indoor temperatures by reducing winter heat loss and minimizing summer heat gain. Low-E (low emissivity) coatings further enhance thermal efficiency, ensuring that glass curtain walls are not just visually appealing but practical, too. Real-World Examples St. Regis | © Lauren Lopes via Unsplash © Victor via Unsplash Several notable projects have successfully integrated glass curtain walls to enhance natural light aesthetics: O’Hare International Airport Expansion: The terminal extension features expansive glass curtain walls, creating a bright and welcoming environment for travelers while showcasing a modern architectural design. St. Regis Chicago: This iconic tower uses glass curtain walls to offer panoramic city views, blending luxury with contemporary design elements. Statue of Liberty Museum: The recently opened museum’s design uses glass curtain walls to offer visitors unobstructed views of the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline, uplifting the overall visitor experience. Wrapping Up Though looks or aesthetics are the key to choosing glass curtain walls, they’re not the only ones. Incorporating glass curtain walls welcomes natural light, improves energy efficiency, and uplifts the mood of those inside your building. Long story short, it creates a space that feels alive, open, and visually stunning. If you’re an architect, designer, or property owner looking forward to pushing the boundaries of innovation, glass curtain walls are the go-to pick. They create a perfect balance of form and function. Whether a towering skyscraper or a boutique storefront, embracing glass in architecture isn’t just a trend—it’s the future. Incorporate glass curtain walls now. Let the light in and redefine your space today. Curtain WallsGlass by ArchEyes Team Leave a comment

Collective Threads MOMus Thessaloniki, Greece Through May 11Recently, the output of the Soviet textile designer Anna Andreeva has been the subject of renewed interest among art historians and collectors. In 2018 some of her works were acquired by the MoMA permanent collection in the department of architecture. MOMus, a contemporary museum in Thessaloniki, Greece, is currently hosting a retrospective entitled Collective Threads, which examines her legacy within Moscow’s Red Rose silk factory, named after the German revolutionary martyr Rosa Luxemburg. For more than forty years, from 1944 until at least 1987, Andreeva worked together with other members of the factory’s design collective. Anna Andreeva, Cherëmushki, late 1950s, Gouache on paper (Courtesy MOMus) “The Urban Fabric on Fabric” One of the recurrent themes in her designs, as several commentators have noted, is urbanism. Moving to Moscow from the tiny village of Ilovai-Brigadirskoe outside Tambov at the age of nine, she quickly grew enamored of the capital. She had originally hoped to train as an architect at the Moscow Architectural Institute and at first even gained admission, but she was ultimately denied entry due to her wealthy family background. Her interest in metropolitan architecture remained and frequently found its way into her prints. On the back of some of Andreeva’s abstract patterns is written: “the urban fabric on fabric” [ткан города на ткани]. She saw tiles of fabric and city blocks as each arranged by grids, thus obeying an analogous logic. This commonality is what allowed Andreeva to break out of the floral and polka-dot patterns prescribed for womenswear while Stalin was still alive. Not long after Khrushchev assumed power, and especially following his “secret speech” denouncing Stalin’s crimes in 1956, a cultural thaw set in. This occurred in architecture no less than in painting or literature, as the ornamental excesses of Stalinism were repudiated in favor of unadorned concrete-panel or brick construction. Simultaneously, the restrictions imposed on the fiber arts started loosening as well, and Andreeva seized the opportunity to innovate. Perhaps appealing to the spirit of the times, she took Khrushchev’s initiative to address the postwar housing shortage as the subject for her design. Beginning with Cherëmushki (1958), named after a district in Moscow where these new buildings were first erected, she used the image of standardized khrushchëvki low-rises as a central motif. (Dmitri Shostakovich would also dedicate an eponymous operetta to the neighborhood in early 1959, gently satirizing the construction of the new apartment complexes, so it was well-represented across the arts.) Whereas the mass housing blocks were infamously gray, however, Andreeva’s cartoon outlines were colored in with red, yellow, and orange interspersed with green trees. Although the buildings and trees were obviously figurative up close, their shape was heavily abstracted, arranged along the fabric at a repeating geometric interval that made them hard to discern from a distance. Cherëmushki was by all accounts a massive success, premiering at the Expo 58 world’s fair in Brussels. It proved so popular that, when her coworkers Sulamif Zaslavskaia and Natalia Zhovtis wrote an open letter to the Soviet textile industry in the January 1961 issue of Decorative Arts of the USSR voicing their frustration at the state’s refusal to purchase new designs, the pattern was selected as the background. Anna Andreeva, Greetings, Moscow!, late 1950s, Gouache on paper (Courtesy MOMus) This was not the first time a design by Andreeva had appeared in the pages of this magazine, one of the most widely read artistic periodicals of the day. Just a few months earlier, in August 1960, another of her architecture-themed designs was featured alongside an article by Nina Mertsalova titled “Costume and Fabric.” A young woman is drawn wearing a skirt with scenes from the Soviet capital; the style of the illustration looks like it could have come out of contemporaneous American fashion catalogues. Greetings, Moscow! (1959), codesigned by Zhovtis, includes the facades of iconic buildings from the city in alternating blue and white against a checkered backdrop. Unlike Cherëmushki, this pattern does not include any modernist structures. Instead, the Bolshoi Theatre and one of the Seven Sisters float above cars as they zip by. Andreeva was not averse to depicting more historicist styles, whether the neoclassicism of Joseph Bové or the Stalinist Gothic skyscrapers of the 1940s. Yet the overall effect of this pattern is very modern, juxtaposing recognizable buildings with backgrounded squares. The print of Greetings, Moscow! was available for full dresses in multiple colors as well; a black-and-white version is extant. Cityscapes for Festival Designs These two patterns were not, however, the first time Andreeva depicted cities in her work. Her earliest surviving representation of built environments is a rough sketch for the biennial International Festival of Youth in blue ink on a strip of tracing paper, from 1957, the year it was held in Moscow. For ten years, these antiwar and anti-imperialist celebrations had brought students and youth from all over the world to either the Soviet Union or countries belonging to the Eastern Bloc. Andreeva’s illustration shows architectural landmarks of the previous five festivals—Prague, Budapest, East Berlin, Bucharest, Warsaw—as well as Moscow, along with the official emblems for each festival. Whether Andreeva ever realized this sketch, or even elaborated on it further, is not known. Anna Andreeva, Design for a Moscow Souvenir Scarf, 1960s, possibly 1960 for the Socialist Moscow exhibition, or 1965, in preparation for the Montreal International Exhibition in 1967, Gouache on paper (Courtesy MOMus) Andreeva would go on to design a few other commemorative fabrics representing the capital city at international events. For either the Socialist Moscow exhibition of 1960 or Expo ’67 in Montreal, she proposed a souvenir scarf. Several preparatory drafts for the Stolitsa, as it has been speculatively titled, have survived. One mixed media mock-up has solid blue, red, green, and yellow rectangles pasted on a beige background. Inside these rectangles appear once again the Bolshoi Theatre and Stalinist skyscrapers, but now they are joined by traditional Orthodox onion domes. Pediments, architraves, Khrushchevian apartment blocks, and metro station signs busily crowd the interstitial space, punctuated by gently rounded cars and trees. An alternate version, also on paper, uses Moscow State University as its centerpiece, surrounded by three St. Basil’s Cathedrals, a couple of State Historical Museums, and a more modern building with giant letters perched atop spelling out the name of the city. Trees and subway entrances also find their way in. Here the colors are primarily red, orange, pink, and green. Finally, a small cutout includes most of the design elements from this second proposal and is similarly colorful. By contrast, the only version known to have been printed on silk has much less variation in its color scheme, using a palette of dark blue, light blue, black, and white. Like the other proposals, it shows cars and trees between the facades of modernist and neoclassical buildings, but the piece as a whole exudes a much more frenetic energy. Architectural Motifs in Andreeva’s Commemorative Fabrics Even Andreeva’s designs celebrating historic events often had architectural and urban details sprinkled in. Two works from the early 1960s in particular showcase this tendency. First, there was her scarf saluting Yuri Gagarin’s epoch-making Earth orbit. Two starry night skies in black and gold run between strips of text, while the two alternate panels give a panoramic view of Moscow’s Red Square. Some of the familiar buildings from the Stolitsa proposals reappear here, including St. Basil’s and the State Historical Museum, along with the Kremlin Senate. As the architectural historian and MoMA curator Evangelos Kotsioris puts it in his contribution to the exhibition catalogue, Andreeva seemingly counterposed the cosmic theme of space flight with the “terrestrial, manmade” environment of the capital. A second scarf Andreeva produced the next year commemorated a glorious moment from Russia’s past. For the sesquicentennial of the 1812 Battle of Borodino between Napoleon’s Grande Armée and the Russian Imperial Army, she designed a piece featuring military as well as architectural themes. Although the fighting occurred some 70 miles from Moscow, Andreeva placed St. Basil’s Cathedral and assorted other Russian Orthodox churches next to Nutcracker-like wooden soldiers, cavalrymen, and artillery. Anna Andreeva, Untitled, 1960s, Colored pencil on paper (Courtesy MOMus) Beyond the explicit references to buildings and cities in these designs from the late 1950s and early 1960s, an architectonic influence can be detected in some of Andreeva’s more abstract patterns a decade or so later. One undated sketch from the City or Surfaces series, most likely drawn in the early ’70s, is on view at MOMus. An undulating grid of orthogonal and diagonal rectilinear shapes collide and intersect: Some sections are monochromatic, while others are brightly colored. The whole design suggests an aerial view of a city, with urban blocks crisscrossing each other at irregular angles. Another pattern from this same series by Andreeva has survived, rendered into fabric, produced sometime between 1970 and 1972. This piece almost appears like a pixelated screen, with mostly blue and gold squares of varying sizes clustered together and overlaid onto a backdrop of navy and eggshell. Pink, teal, and light-yellow squares further interrupt the field. While the figures are completely flat, not made to resemble any identifiable structures, they nevertheless hint at a cityscape. (Somewhat similarly, in the 1920s, 2D Suprematist paintings by Kazimir Malevich, El Lissitzky, and Lazar Khidekel had an architectural resonance. For the most part, the fabrics Andreeva designed are redolent of textiles by Lyubov Popova and Varvara Stepanova, but here her work calls to mind these other avant-gardists. She also proposed electrification patterns not unlike those of Gustav Klutsis, whose early abstractions were often inspired by radio towers. Last but not least, Andreeva’s 1972 entry for the prestigious Repin Prize evokes architecture. Mosaic, as it was titled, is an exceedingly complex design: some parts of it look like stain-glass fenestration; others, regarded as vertical bands, could stand side-by-side with Ivan Leonidov’s Narkomtiazhprom skyscraper for Red Square from the early 1930s. Xenia Vytuleva-Herz, Andreeva’s granddaughter, has justly remarked that architectural motifs were her grandmother’s signature. Many of the essays in the forthcoming Collective Threads: Anna Andreeva at the Red Rose Silk Factory (Scheidegger & Speiss, 2025), edited by the brilliant historian of Soviet art Christina Kiaer, touch on this preoccupation in passing. Kiaer’s introduction examines Andreeva’s works up through the early 1960s, so designs like Greetings, Moscow! and Cherëmushki feature prominently in her narrative. She focuses on the collective dimension of the design process, and how this fulfilled the earlier Productivist dream of the artist-engineer engaged in production. Julia Tulovsky highlights many of the stylistic continuities that existed between Andreeva and Constructivism. As the exhibition travels, and Andreeva’s work is more widely disseminated, these and other themes will become better known. The architectural heritage of the USSR can be seen not only in the buildings from that period, or in the unbuilt blueprints handed down, but through a variety of media: in the paintings of Deineka, the music of Shostakovich, and the fabrics of Andreeva. Ross Wolfe is a critic, historian, and educator living in New York City.

Ceilings detail from Khiva’s Tash Hauli Palace. All images © Christopher Wilton-Steer, courtesy of Hemeria, shared with permission Christopher Wilton-Steer’s 25,000-Mile Journey Captures a Contemporary View of an Ancient Trade Route April 9, 2025 Kate Mothes From aerial views of modern-day Venice to a 15th-century caravanserai in Kyrgyzstan, Christopher Wilton-Steer’s awe-inspiring photographs capture contemporary views of life along a series of 1,500-year-old trade routes. An extraordinary historical, cultural, and archaeological phenomenon, the Silk Road connected China in the East to Rome and the Mediterranean in the West. Around 4,000 miles long in its entirety and comprising numerous linking routes—some of which still exist as highways today—the network was used to transport valuable silks from China westward while sending wool and precious metals east. Travelers also transmitted global news, religious beliefs, and disease—most famously The Black Death in the 14th century—along the storied route. An aerial view of Venice In The Silk Road: A Living History, forthcoming from Hemeria, Wilton-Steer traces the trade artery from Italy through the Balkans and into Turkey, wending through Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and India, before continuing through the breadth of China. Starting in London, the photographer traveled nearly 25,000 miles across Europe and Asia, detouring to visit nearby cities and cultural centers, mountains, deserts, remote communities, and spectacular architecture. He captures elaborate mosaic ceilings like those of the Tash Hauli Palace in Khiva, Uzbekistan, or the Shrine of Fatima Masumeh in Qom, Iran. And traces of medieval cities, like Ani in Turkey, sit timelessly in vast landscapes. “When we fly somewhere, we arrive at the destination and most aspects of life of different,” Wilton-Steer says in a foreword. “Traveling overland, I wanted to experience the transitions between different cultures and gain a deeper understanding of what connects us.” In our increasingly integrated world, trade is facilitated through elaborate pan-global shipping networks facilitated by modern technologies. Yet the system is volatile, and the impacts of a global pandemic, accidents, or tariffs can usher in waves of disruption. As China embarks on the world’s largest-ever infrastructure project through its Belt and Road Initiative, the legacy of the Silk Road is front-and-center as the endeavor aims to connect more than 60 percent of the global population. Wilton-Steer is interested in the juxtapositions of contemporary life with ancient traditions, cultures, and historical narratives. Just as the Silk Road helped shape European and Asian civilization hundreds of years ago, the route’s legacy underpins the region’s contemporary social, economic, and cultural spheres. The Silk Road: A Living History will be released on May 20, and you can order your copy in Hemeria’s shop. Wilton-Steer is donating proceeds from the book to the Aga Khan Foundation, which addresses root causes of poverty and works to improve the quality of life in a number of countries along the Silk Road and further afield. You might also enjoy Fatemeh Hosein Aghaei’s stunning photographs of historic Iranian mosques and palaces. Tash Rabat Ceiling details from the Shrine of Fatima Masumeh, Qom The Mausoleam of Oljaytu, Soltaniyeh Alem Entertainment Centre, Ashgabat Details from the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, Isfahan Next article

freshidea - stock.adobe.com News Microsoft’s April 2025 bumper Patch Tuesday corrects 124 bugs Microsoft is correcting 124 vulnerabilities in its March Patch Tuesday, one of which is being actively exploited in the wild, and 11 of which are ‘critical’ By Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor Published: 09 Apr 2025 18:16 Microsoft’s mighty bundle of 124 April fixes for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) in its codebase includes 11 that are rated “critical” and two rated “low”, with the rest rated “important” in severity. Dustin Childs of the Zero Day Initiative noted that “only one of these bugs is listed as publicly known or under active attack at the time of release”, but that this will be of little comfort. In a blog post, Childs said of the vulnerability being listed by Microsoft as under active attack: “This privilege escalation bug [CVE-2025-29824] ... allows a threat actor to execute their code with System privileges. These types of bugs are often paired with code execution bugs to take over a system. Microsoft gives no indication of how widespread these attacks are.” Two of the other bugs Childs picked out – CVE-2025-26663 and CVE-2025-26670 – “allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute their code on affected systems just by sending a specially crafted LDAP [Lightweight Directory Access Protocol] message”. He added: “Since just about everything can host an LDAP service, there’s a plethora of targets out there. And since no user interaction is involved, these bugs are wormable.” Wormable means no human interaction is required for the cyber attack to spread. Of the current crop of Microsoft vulnerabilities being disclosed, Adam Barnett, lead software engineer at Rapid7, said: “The Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) Driver is firmly back on our radar today with CVE-2025-29824, a zero-day local elevation of privilege vulnerability.” This is the vulnerability that Childs put primary focus on in his post. Barnett said: “First, the good news: the Acknowledgements section credits the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center, so the exploit was successfully reproduced by Microsoft; the less-good news is that someone other than Microsoft was first to discover the exploit, because otherwise Microsoft wouldn’t be listing CVE-2025-29824 as exploited in the wild. The advisory does not specify what privilege level is achieved upon successful exploitation, but it’ll be System, because that’s the prize for all the other CLFS [Common Log File System] elevation of privilege zero-day vulnerabilities. “Defenders responsible for an LDAP server – which means almost any organisation with a non-trivial Microsoft footprint – should add patching for CVE-2025-26663 to their to-do list. With no privileges required, no need for user interaction, and code execution presumably in the context of the LDAP server itself, successful exploitation would be an attractive shortcut to any attacker.” He added this further note of caution: “If you breathe a sigh of relief when you see LDAP server critical RCE vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-26663, because you’re certain that you don’t have any Windows LDAP servers in your estate, how about LDAP clients? CVE-2025-26670 describes a critical RCE [Remote Code Execution] in the LDAP client, although the FAQ confusingly states that exploitation would require an attacker to ‘send specially crafted requests to a vulnerable LDAP server’; this seems like it might be a data entry error on the advisory FAQ, so keep an eye out for an update to that section of the advisory.” The full list of CVEs released by Microsoft for April 2025 can be found here. The CVEs encompass, according to Childs’ enumeration, Windows and Windows Components, Office and Office Components, Azure, .Net and Visual Studio, BitLocker, Kerberos, Windows Hello, OpenSSH, and Windows Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. Read more Patch Tuesday updates March 2025: The third Patch Tuesday of 2025 brought fixes for 57 flaws and a hefty number of zero-days. February 2025: Microsoft corrected 57 vulnerabilities, two of which are being actively exploited in the wild, and three of which are ‘critical’. January 2025: The largest Patch Tuesday of the 2020s so far brings fixes for more than 150 CVEs ranging widely in their scope and severity – including eight zero-day flaws. December 2024: Microsoft has fixed over 70 CVEs in its final Patch Tuesday update of the year, and defenders should prioritise a zero-day in the Common Log File System Driver, and another impactful flaw in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. November 2024: High-profile vulns in NTLM, Windows Task Scheduler, Active Directory Certificate Services and Microsoft Exchange Server should be prioritised from November’s Patch Tuesday update. October 2024: Stand-out vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s latest Patch Tuesday drop include problems in Microsoft Management Console and the Windows MSHTML Platform. September 2024: Four critical remote code execution bugs in Windows and three critical elevated privileges vulnerabilities will keep admins busy. August 2024: Microsoft patches six actively exploited zero-days among over 100 issues during its regular monthly update. July 2024: Microsoft has fixed almost 140 vulnerabilities in its latest monthly update, with a Hyper-V zero-day singled out for urgent attention. June 2024: An RCE vulnerability in a Microsoft messaging feature and a third-party flaw in a DNS authentication protocol are the most pressing issues to address in Microsoft’s latest Patch Tuesday update. May 2024: A critical SharePoint vulnerability warrants attention this month, but it is another flaw that seems to be linked to the infamous Qakbot malware that is drawing attention. April 2024: Support for the Windows Server 2008 OS ended in 2020, but four years on and there's a live exploit of a security flaw that impacts all Windows users. March 2024: Two critical vulnerabilities in Windows Hyper-V stand out on an otherwise unremarkable Patch Tuesday. February 2024: Two security feature bypasses impacting Microsoft SmartScreen are on the February Patch Tuesday docket, among more than 70 issues. In The Current Issue: Interview: The role of IT innovation at Royal Ballet and Opera ‘Bankenstein’ and a cold calculation means banking crashes will continue Download Current Issue Making America great, but at what cost? – Cliff Saran's Enterprise blog Turning data into gold: the business intelligence story – Data Matters View All Blogs

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Announcing his tariffs in the White House Rose Garden last week, President Trump said the move would help reopen shuttered car factories in Michigan and bring various other jobs back to the U.S.“The president wants to increase manufacturing jobs here in the United States of America,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added on Tuesday. “He wants them to come back home.”But rather than enticing companies to create new jobs in the U.S., economists say, the new tariffs—bolstered by recent advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics—could instead increase incentives for companies to automate human labor entirely.“There’s no reason whatsoever to believe that this is going to bring back a lot of jobs,” says Carl Benedikt Frey, an economist and professor of AI & work at Oxford University. “Costs are higher in the United States. That means there’s an even stronger economic incentive to find ways of automating even more tasks.”In other words: when labor costs are low—like they are in Vietnam—it’s usually not worth it for companies to invest in the expensive up-front costs of automating human labor. But if companies are forced to move their labor to more expensive countries, like the U.S., that cost-benefit calculation changes drastically.To be sure, experts note that tariffs may not immediately lead to more automation. Automating manufacturing jobs often requires companies to make significant investments in physical machinery, which tariffs are likely to make more expensive. In a time of economic turmoil, companies also usually hold off on making big capital expenditures. Thus, in the short run, Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu predicts, there is likely to be so much disruption that few companies will invest in automation or much else. But if tariffs persist in the medium term, Acemoglu tells TIME, he expects companies “will have no choice but to bring some of their supply chains back home—but they will do it via AI and robots.”The evidence from the last time Trump imposed tariffs on trading partners, in 2018, shows no major increase in automation as a result. (Those tariffs did in fact lead to job losses in affected industries anyway, a Federal Reserve study found, due to higher production costs and reduced export competitiveness.) But some economists think the 2025 tariffs could be different—incentivizing more automation—because AI and robotics have come a long way since 2018. “Our technological capabilities have improved since the last round of tariffs, particularly because of improvements in AI,” says Frey, the Oxford economist.The rise of roboticsFor years, a major limitation of robots was that they couldn’t adapt to even minor changes in their environments. An industrial robot might be able to carry out a repeatable task in a controlled environment easily—like cutting a car door from a sheet of metal—but for more deft tasks in more complex environments, humans still prevailed.That might not be the case for much longer. Robot “brains” are getting more adaptable, thanks to progress in general AI systems like large language models. Robot bodies are becoming more deft, thanks to investment and research by companies like Boston Dynamics. And robots are getting cheaper to produce over time (although tariffs might temporarily reverse that trend). “It has taken some time, but people have been doing research on taking language models’ ability for common-sense understanding, and applying it to robotics,” says Lucas Hansen, co-founder of CivAI, a non-profit. “It doesn’t require much special effort to apply robots to new purposes now, especially once this technology matures a bit more. So if you’re a mid-sized manufacturing operation, previously you would have had to invest tons of money in R&D to automate everything. But now, it will require a lot less marginal effort.”Acemoglu is more skeptical. Robots, he says, still struggle in complex environments, even if flashy corporate demo videos suggest otherwise. “I wouldn’t be optimistic that it’s a quick problem to be solved,” he says, predicting that flexible robots are at least 10 years away.If tariffs lead to more automation, it’s still unlikely that productivity gains will offset the huge losses stemming from supply chain disruption and added import costs. “The main first-order effect of tariffs is they will make everything less efficient,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, the director of the Digital Economy Lab at Stanford University. “When you throw sand in the gears of supply chains and global trade, we’re all just going to be a little bit poorer.”The Trump Administration has said it wants AI to benefit American workers, rather than replace them. “We refuse to view AI as a purely disruptive technology that will inevitably automate away our labor force,” Vice President JD Vance said in February. “We believe and we will fight for policies that ensure that AI is going to make our workers more productive, and we expect that they will reap the rewards.”But past experiences with new technologies in the workplace suggest that rosy vision is unlikely to come to pass, says Brian Merchant, a labor historian and author of Blood in the Machine. “Historically when there is a downturn, if there is an opportunity to automate, then companies will take it. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll use fewer humans, but it does mean that employers have a chance to break through labor protections and gain more leverage.”

In context: WhatsApp is one of the most popular communication platforms of all time with around three billion users worldwide. This means that even the slightest security flaw in the app could pose a serious risk to lots of people. Meta recently updated the Microsoft Store version of its WhatsApp app to patch a potentially dangerous security vulnerability discovered by external researchers. According to WhatsApp's security advisory, the flaw could have been exploited to run malicious code on a PC, affecting versions of WhatsApp for Windows prior to 2.2450.6. The issue, tracked as CVE-2025-30401, stemmed from how the Windows app handled file attachments. Specifically, WhatsApp relied on the file extension to determine how to open an attachment. Unlike MIME types, file extensions can be misleading, potentially tricking users into executing arbitrary, malicious code when opening a file within WhatsApp. A carefully crafted mismatch between an attachment's file extension and its MIME type could have led to code execution, the advisory explained. Meta did not name the external researcher who discovered the vulnerability, though it's likely they were rewarded through the company's Bug Bounty program. Microsoft Store apps are typically updated automatically, so a newer version of the WhatsApp app should now be available with a fix for the CVE-2025-30401 vulnerability. The app currently holds a 4.7 out of five rating, offering what Meta describes as a "100% free" messaging platform used by over two billion people across more than 180 countries. WhatsApp is certainly useful for work, fun, and personal communication, though it's unclear why users should feel compelled to install a dedicated Windows app when the service runs quite well in a browser. Just two years ago, users were voicing frustration with Meta over the confusing and bloated app they were forced to download, especially when compared to the original desktop client. // Related Stories In my experience, so-called "native" Windows apps from the Microsoft Store are often little more than poorly optimized shells wrapped around a browser engine. To make matters worse, they tend to neglect basic security hygiene. Modern web browsers on Windows include built-in protections that could have flagged an issue like CVE-2025-30401 more easily. Additionally, Windows natively provides a security layer known as Mark of the Web, which warns users about potentially dangerous "internet files."