When James Huniford founded Housing Works’ annual Design on a Dime benefit two decades ago, the ELLE DECOR A-List designer had no idea that the event would quickly become one of the marquee affairs in the New York design calendar. During that first year in 2005, says Huniford, “a small handful of designers came together at Housing Works' Gramercy Thrift Shop to create modest but wonderfully chic displays made up of donated décor treasures—all sold for a dime.”Courtesy of Housing WorksDesigner James Huniford (left) and Billy Cotton at the 2017 Design on a Dime opening night. The dimes added up quickly and the money raised (over $24 million to date) goes to a crucial cause: New York City-based Housing Works is a nonprofit dedicated to ending HIV/AIDS and homelessness. “It was a small first step,” says Huniford, who after two decades remains the event’s chair. “But evidently it was a strong one, because Design on a Dime grew stronger every year.” This spring, Design on a Dime is celebrating its 20th anniversary with its biggest celebration yet. The 2025 event kicks off on April 23 with a gala dinner and awards ceremony honoring designers Nate Berkus, Jeremiah Brent, and Alessandra Branca, along with Bloomingdale’s and journalist and longtime Housing Works supporter Tamron Hall. Design on a Dime’s opening night is the next evening, with a VIP hour from 5:30-6:30 pm, and general admission and sale from 6:30-9:30 pm. The free public shopping days are April 25 and 26. Courtesy of Housing WorksRayman Boozer of Apartment 48 created this vignette for Design on a Dime in 2024. For design devotees (and anyone in search of unmatchable décor deals), the April 24 sale and party are not to be missed. That’s where some of the top interior designers in the business—including ELLE DÉCOR A-Listers Mark Cunningham, Redd Kahoi, Yellow House Architects, Ghislaine Vinas, Danielle Colding, Robert Couturier, Nick Olsen, Leyden Lewis, and Richard Mishaan—will be creating model rooms filled with donated merchandise (marked up to 80 percent off retail prices) from companies like Ralph Lauren Home and Bloomingdale’s. Gary GershoffThe line for Design on a Dime in 2019. The event is held at New York’s Metropolitan Pavilion. Over the years, the vignettes have become all the more elaborate as designers try to outcompete one another. One year, Ken Fulk reimagined the Housing Works Bookstore as a Downton Abbey-esque library, complete with a living Adonis at the threshold. Another time, Eddie Lee created a scene in wood veneer and cinnamon velvet inspired by the French decorator Francois Catroux. Meanwhile, the duo behind Pappas Miron whipped up a Bordeaux-colored salon that conjured a 1920s speakeasy in Left Bank Paris. “The vignettes are Design on a Dime’s heart, genius, and joy,” Huniford says. “Designers coax blue-chip décor donations from dealers, galleries, shops, showrooms, and brands. Then, like sorcerers, they forge incredible interiors. They are like museum-worthy design dioramas but much better because you can shop from them!” Courtesy of Housing WorksAlessandra Branca created this back cushion in Schumacher fabrics for Design on a Dime’s 2025 Pillow Talk auction. This year will feature the debut of two new offerings. First, Pillow Talk, a collection of pillows in an assortment of Schumacher fabrics, by 50 designers, including Sheila Bridges and Billy Cotton (available in an online auction ending on April 24). There will also be a Brunschwig & Fils Bazaar, with five rooms draped in the fabric house’s textiles and designed by Robert Couturier, Sarah Vaile, Roxy Owens, Isabel Ladd, and Nick Olsen. For Huniford, Design on a Dime showcases both the creativity of the design community and its generosity and sense of caring. “AIDS perseveres as a hideous menace locally and certainly globally,” he notes. “And for people of my generation working in fields like design—that were previously literally decimated by AIDS—we'll always be compelled to remember —and love—who we lost, while looking out for organizations like Housing Works who have served and are serving still on the frontlines on so many critical causes in addition to AIDS.” Ingrid AbramovitchExecutive Editor, ELLE DecorIngrid Abramovitch, the Executive Editor at ELLE Decor, writes about design, architecture, renovation, and lifestyle, and is the author of several books on design including Restoring a House in the City.

Europe’s housing crisis is deepening. High building costs, tight regulations, and labour shortages have choked the supply of affordable homes. As cities swell with new arrivals and construction workers retire en masse, the gap between supply and demand is only widening. Endless solutions have been proposed. Mass housing projects, revamping the planning system, modular buildings, pre-fabricated materials, rent controls, and restrictions on corporate acquisitions of homes have all been explored with mixed success. But the shortage of affordable housing has only grown. Dutch startup Monumental has pitched another fix: automation. The company is developing a suite of autonomous, electric robots that work on construction sites around the clock. Salar al Khafaji, the startup’s CEO and co-founder, believes the tech can overcome the labour, cost, and regulatory hurdles crippling the industry. The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!“It’s obvious that we need some forms of automation and robotics to solve these problems,” he tells TNW. “There’s almost no other way around it.” At TNW Conference on June 19-20 in Amsterdam, al Khafaji will share his tips on building a thriving robotics business. Ahead of his talk, he outlined his vision of the future of construction.  Why construction has stagnated Before launching Monumental in 2021, al Khafaji cofounded a visualisation startup called Silk. When Silk was acquired by US analytics giant Palantir in 2016, he began pondering his next venture. His plan was to focus on a major global challenge. “I wanted to solve a serious problem in society,” he says. “And I became obsessed with construction and infrastructure.”  Al Khafaji was stunned to see so little technological progress in the industry. The built world in which we live, work, and play had become severely restricted as a result. His focus turned to a central problem: a productivity collapse in construction. Labour shortages, strict regulations, and high costs, he feared, were worsening the housing crisis. New developments had become eye-wateringly expensive and painfully slow to construct. They also often result in unpopular buildings.  The past offers unflattering comparisons. The Empire State Building, for instance, was completed in 1931 after just 410 days. Eighty-four years later, 432 Park Avenue took 1,500 days — and became infamous for leaks, malfunctions, and a divisive design. The problem extends beyond landmark buildings. Construction of standard homes has also lost pace. The average time taken to build a single-family house went from 4.8 months in 1971 — the earliest year with data available — to seven months in 2019. Even after scaling this to account for the growth in average house size, the process is still slower today. Longer projects also bring higher costs, with labour often forming the bulk. “It’s very, very labour-intensive because we’ve barely automated anything there,” al Khafaji says. Monumental is his attempt to overhaul the status quo. Credit: MonumentalAl Khafaji (right) and Monumental co-founder and CTO Sebastiaan Visser. Credit: Monumental Tackling the housing crisis Al Khafaji founded Monumental in 2021 alongside his long-term business partner, Sebastiaan Visser, who serves as the company’s CTO. Their big idea was automating on-site construction with robotics and software. They began by building a prototype robotic crane, which evolved into autonomous ground vehicles that carry building materials around a construction site. The first finished system off the production line focused on one crucial construction craft: bricklaying. It was a logical starting point. Bricklaying is a skilled but physically demanding and sometimes dangerous job with a rapidly dwindling workforce. In 2022, researchers found that 19 European countries had a shortage of bricklayers, which made it the occupation with the biggest labour scarcity. As a result, construction projects suffer from delays and increased costs. With the profession struggling to attract young talent, the shortage of workers is only set to grow. In the UK, the number of bricklayers recently hit a 25-year low, and a third of them are forecast to retire within the next decade. Monumental’s systems aim to fill the gap — and, ultimately, strengthen the supply of affordable housing. The startup’s electric bricklayer robots work autonomously alongside humans. Using sensors, computer vision, and small cranes, the machines precisely lay bricks and mortar in walls. The system also integrates with existing construction processes — a crucial requirement in an industry that isn’t always open to new technologies. The robot builders Al Khafaji compares the robots to distributed computers. Composed of multiple, interconnected modular components, they function like network devices. To prepare the machines for construction jobs, the startup’s software models both the site and the robots themselves. A machine vision stack then allows them to localise in the building zone. While they work, AI coordinates their tasks. “We really think of it as an operating system for construction sites,” al Khafaji says. “We’re trying to make construction more software-defined.” In 2023, the robots completed their first large-scale, 15-metre wall. Since then, the machines have built facades for houses, canal retaining walls, and other structures that stand across the Netherlands today. Investors have been impressed by the progress. Last year, Monumental raised $25mn in seed funding to bring the concept closer to reality. But the company still has to win over the construction industry. Labour’s role in the housing crisis Across construction sites, many labourers’ tasks have changed relatively little over recent decades. Bricklayers, for example, continue working in much the same way. Shipyard workers, by contrast, have had their jobs transformed — if not replaced — by containerisation and automated pickers.  Al Khafaji was shocked by construction’s lack of innovation. “It doesn’t feel like enough time, money, or talent is flowing there… It’s the industry with the most stagnation,” he says. “Construction basically works the same way as a century ago.” It’s a curious inertia given the size of the industry. Construction employs over 100 million people and accounts for about 13% of global GDP. Yet the sector still can’t come close to matching demand. Take the Netherlands. In 2020, the Dutch government set a goal of building 1 million new homes – two-thirds of them affordable — within a decade. Since then, the country has consistently fallen short of the target. Automation and digital tools could bring enormous benefits on building projects. But construction firms have historically been reluctant to adopt them. The industry is typically cautious of new technologies for fundamentally logical reasons.  Businesses often operate on boom-and-bust cycles, prioritising financial reserves over long-term investments in new, unproven ideas. Costs are enormous, project cycles are extremely long, and project margins low, fostering conservative and risk-averse strategies.  “No one wants to take a bet,” al Khafaji says. “Imagine if you were to build your own house for your family… Are you gonna take a bet on a new material that no one has tried before or a process that no one has done before?” Monumental hopes to ease the industry’s concerns. The robot march towards building sites The company offers services in ways that are familiar to construction projects. Quotes are offered in common market terms, such as per square metre or brick. Standard materials are used, supply chains are conventional, and clients aren’t asked to do CapEx investments. Instead, they can simply tell Monumental which bricks and mortar they desire and the company will construct the project. At any point, they can also swap the technology out for human masons. “We’re not selling them robots,” al Khafaji says. “We’re not selling them software licenses… We’re selling them a wall.” But bricks on walls are just the start of Monumental’s plans. The company plans to apply robotics to numerous building tasks. “A brick is just a building block,” al Khafaji says. “You could imagine the brick being different things — concrete blocks, window frames, door frames, roofing elements. All these things, you grab them, hold them, and put them in a different place.” Monumental estimates that these functions account for a third of the tasks on a construction site. As the technology evolves, autonomous machines could take on even more building jobs. Al Khafaji has grand visions for the future.  “That’s an almost science fiction version of this, where everything is automated,” he says. “You could imagine electric robots coming in for just a couple days and silently building beautiful structures in a very short amount of time — with limited pollution and more safety.” It’s a long way from laying bricks, but the foundations are already being set — one robot at a time. Salar al Khafaji will be among the standout speakers at TNW Conference, which takes place on June 19-20 in Amsterdam. Tickets are now on sale — use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the checkout to get 30% off the price tag. Story by Thomas Macaulay Managing editor Thomas is the managing editor of TNW. He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers. Away from work, he e (show all) Thomas is the managing editor of TNW. He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers. Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse). Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

IBM and the European Space Agency (ESA) today launched TerraMind, a new open-source AI model with an “intuitive” understanding of Earth. According to the research team, the system is the best-performing AI model for Earth observation. In an ESA-led evaluation, TerraMind beat 12 leading AI models on the PANGAEA benchmark — a community standard for Earth observation. The model excelled at various real-world tasks, including land cover classification, change detection, and multi-sensor analysis. On average, it outperformed other models by 8% or more. “To me, what sets TerraMind apart is its ability to go beyond simply processing earth observations with computer vision algorithms,” said Juan Bernabé-Moreno, director of IBM Research UK and Ireland. “It instead has an intuitive understanding of geospatial data and our planet.” TerraMind is a generative AI model that can understand different types of data — such as images, text, and time-based sequences (like climate patterns) — and spot connections between these different kinds of information. That’s particularly useful when dealing with an immensely complex system like Earth.   REGISTER The model was trained on 9 million samples drawn from nine different data types, including satellite images, climate records, terrain features, and vegetation maps. The broad dataset covered every region and biome on Earth. It was designed to minimise bias and ensure the model can be used reliably across the globe, the researchers said.  ESA and IBM expand AI’s push into climate modelling TerraMind is built on Prithvi, an open-source family of foundational climate models launched by IBM and NASA in 2023. The Prithvi models require relatively less computational power than traditional climate modelling software, making them potentially more environmentally friendly. A standout feature of TerraMind is its “Thinking-in-Modalities” (TiM) tuning. Similar to chain-of-thought reasoning in language models, TiM lets TerraMind self-generate extra data to improve its performance.  “TiM tuning boosts data efficiency by self-generating the additional training data relevant to the problem being addressed — for example, by telling the model to ‘think’ about land cover when mapping water bodies,” said Johannes Jakubik, an IBM research scientist based in Zurich.  TerraMind was built in collaboration with Polish spacetech firm KP Labs, the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany, and the German Space Agency (DLR). The model is now available open-source on Hugging Face. Fine-tuned versions will be released in the coming months.  ESA, NASA, and IBM are by no means the only organisations experimenting with AI models for climate forecasting. Another example emerged from Google DeepMind, which recently unveiled an AI weather forecaster that makes faster and more accurate predictions than the best system available today. The EU has also experimented with the tech. Last year, the union unveiled a comprehensive digital twin of the Earth that uses vast troves of data to improve climate predictions. Story by Siôn Geschwindt Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehic (show all) Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehicles, he's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. He has five years of journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. When he's not writing, you can probably find Siôn out hiking, surfing, playing the drums or catering to his moderate caffeine addiction. You can contact him at: sion.geschwindt [at] protonmail [dot] com Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

Apr 22, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Cloud Security Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a now-patched vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that could have enabled an attacker to elevate their privileges in the Cloud Composer workflow orchestration service that's based on Apache Airflow. "This vulnerability lets attackers with edit permissions in Cloud Composer to escalate their access to the default Cloud Build service account, which has high-level permissions across GCP services like Cloud Build itself, Cloud Storage, and Artifact Registry," Liv Matan, senior security researcher at Tenable, said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The shortcoming has been codenamed ConfusedComposer by the cybersecurity company, describing it as a variant of ConfusedFunction, a privilege escalation vulnerability impacting GCP's Cloud Functions service that an attacker could exploit to access other services and sensitive data in an unauthorized manner. The disclosure comes weeks after Tenable detailed another privilege escalation vulnerability in GCP Cloud Run dubbed ImageRunner that could have allowed a malicious actor to access container images and even inject malicious code -- creating cascading effects. Like ImageRunner, ConfusedComposer is another example of the Jenga concept, which causes security issues to be inherited from one service to the other when cloud service providers build new services atop existing ones. The exploit hinges on the attacker having permission to edit a Cloud Composer environment (i.e., composer.environments.update), which could be exploited to inject a malicious Python Package Index (PyPI) package that's capable of escalating privileges through Cloud Build. The attack is made possible due to the fact that Cloud Composer allows users to install custom PyPI packages in their environments, thereby enabling an adversary to execute arbitrary code within the associated Cloud Build instance by using installation scripts inside their malicious package. "ConfusedComposer is important because it exposes how behind-the-scenes interactions between cloud services can be exploited through privilege escalation," Matan explained. "In this case, an attacker only needs permission to update a Cloud Composer environment to gain access to critical GCP services like Cloud Storage and Artifact Registry." Successful exploitation of the flaw could permit an attacker to siphon sensitive data, disrupt services, and deploy malicious code within CI/CD pipelines. Furthermore, it could pave the way for the deployment of backdoors that can grant persistent access to compromised cloud environments. Following responsible disclosure by Tenable, Google has addressed the vulnerability as of April 13, 2025, by eliminating the use of the Cloud Build service account to install PyPI packages. "The environment's service account will be used instead," Google said in an announcement on January 15, 2025. "Existing Cloud Composer 2 environments that previously used the default Cloud Build service account will change to using the environment's service account instead." "Cloud Composer 2 environments created in versions 2.10.2 and later already have this change. Cloud Composer 3 environments already use the environment's service account, and are not impacted by this change." The disclosure comes as Varonis Threat Labs uncovered a vulnerability in Microsoft Azure that could have allowed a threat actor with privileged access to an Azure SQL Server to alter configurations in a manner that causes data loss upon admin action. Microsoft has fully remediated the issue as of April 9, 2025, after it was made aware of it on August 5, 2024. The Destructive Stored URL Parameter Injection vulnerability, the company said, stems from a lack of character limitation for server firewall rules created using Transact-SQL (T-SQL). "By manipulating the name of server-level firewall rules through T-SQL, a threat actor with privileged access to an Azure SQL Server can inject an implant that, based on specific user actions, deletes arbitrary Azure resources that the user has permissions for," security researcher Coby Abrams said. "The impact of a threat actor exploiting this vulnerability could be large-scale data loss in the affected Azure account." It also comes as Datadog Security Labs shed light on a bug in Microsoft Entra ID restricted administrative units that could enable an attacker to prevent selected users from being modified, deleted, or disabled, even by a Global Administrator. "A privileged attacker could have used this bug to protect an account under their control, preventing containment by any Entra ID administrator," security researcher Katie Knowles said. This included various tasks such as resetting passwords, revoking user sessions, deleting users, and clearing user multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods. The issue has since been fixed by the Windows maker as of February 22, 2025, following responsible disclosure on August 19, 2024. In recent weeks, threat actors have been found training their sights on websites hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances by exploiting Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerabilities to extract metadata information. "EC2 Instance Metadata is a feature provided by AWS that allows an EC2 instance to access information needed at runtime without needing to authenticate or make external API calls," F5 Labs researcher Merlyn Albery-Speyer said. "It can expose information such as the public or private IP address, instance ID, and IAM role credentials. Much of this is sensitive data of interest to attackers." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

In honor of Earth Day, The Simpsons has a brand-new episode available (and only available) on Disney+.The direct to streaming episode is called “Yellow Planet” and, fittingly, it is a spoof of National Geographic-style documentaries series. (National Geographic, like The Simpsons, is owned by Disney. Mmmm ... corporate synergy.) So in “Yellow Planet,” you’ve got Homer reimagined as a whale, Bart as a lizard, Lisa as a bird, and so on. (If you don’t like nature docs, some of the jokes might be a bit obscure. Then again, when you cast Homer as a whale, I suppose some of the gags sort of write themselves at that point.)Here’s a trailer for the special Simpsons episode:READ MORE: Every Simpsons Chalkboard Gag Ever, RankedHere is the episode’s official synopsis:In “Yellow Planet,” The Simpsons are reimagined as animals in a National Geographic-style nature mockumentary. Homer and Marge navigate the ocean as whales from different series, Bart hatches as an iguana struggling to survive, and Lisa leads her flock as a finch. Along the way, familiar Springfield faces appear in unexpected roles, shaping their journeys in the wild.The exclusive “Yellow Planet” episode of The Simpsons is now streaming on Disney+, along with 35 earlier seasons of the series, The Simpsons Movie, and over 10 other Simpsons Disney+ shorts. If you are curious: There are now almost 800 episodes of The Simpsons and, with the series currently in its 36th season, Fox has already renewed it through its 40th season.40 years of The Simpsons?!? Unbelieveable.Sign up for Disney+ here.Get our free mobile appTV Shows We Used to Love That Are Cringe NowWe can't say why we liked these shows, but we can certainly say why we can't watch them now. Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

People talk about how pop culture is cyclical, but man, it is really cyclical.After the original Scream proved to be a surprise smash hit in the mid-1990s, reinvigorating interest in the moribund slasher genre, a whole slew of copycats flooded into theaters and video stores. One of the more distinguished of Scream’s spiritual successors was I Know What You Did Last Summer, featuring a cast of on-the-rise stars (including Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillippe, and Sarah Michelle Gellar) and a screeplay by Scream co-creator Kevin Williamson.Cut to 25ish years later. Scream returns in a new legacyquel, introducing new characters and bringing back the survivors of the original franchise. That film is also a hit. And wouldn’t you know it? Now the movies that follows the O.G. Scream are getting their own legacyquels.I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) seems to follow the Scream (2022) playbook fairly closely. The slasher killer of the old movies is back (The Fisherman! He has a hook!). There’s a new cast of attractive young people for him to terrorize. And wouldn’t you know it? The survivors of the original Last Summer (Hewitt and Prinze) are back too.You can see them all in the trailer for the new film below:READ MORE: The Most Shocking Horror Movie Deaths EverI have to tell you, when Jennifer Love Hewitt dramatically turned out and said “I just have one question: What did you do last summer?” I gave this trailer a standing ovation. Alone, in my kitchen. Bravo.Here is I Know What You Did Last Legacyquel’s official synopsis:When five friends inadvertently cause a deadly car accident, they cover up their involvement and make a pact to keep it a secret rather than face the consequences. A year later, their past comes back to haunt them and they’re forced to confront a horrifying truth: someone knows what they did last summer…and is hell-bent on revenge. As one by one the friends are stalked by a killer, they discover this has happened before, and they turn to two survivors of the legendary Southport Massacre of 1997 for help.I Know What You Did Last Summer is set to open in theaters on July 18.The 10 Worst Horror Movies of the Past 10 Years (2015-2024)Over the last decade, the horror genre has experienced some high highs, and some low lows.Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging in everyday use cases, thanks to advances in foundational models, more powerful chip technology, and abundant data. To become truly embedded and seamless, AI computation must now be distributed—and much of it will take place on device and at the edge.  To support this evolution, computation for running AI workloads must be allocated to the right hardware based on a range of factors, including performance, latency, and power efficiency. Heterogeneous compute enables organizations to allocate workloads dynamically across various computing cores like central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), neural processing units (NPUs), and other AI accelerators. By assigning workloads to the processors best suited to different purposes, organizations can better balance latency, security, and energy usage in their systems.  DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT Key findings from the report are as follows:  • More AI is moving to inference and the edge. As AI technology advances, inference—a model’s ability to make predictions based on its training—can now be run closer to users and not just in the cloud. This has advanced the deployment of AI to a range of different edge devices, including smartphones, cars, and industrial internet of things (IIoT). Edge processing reduces the reliance on cloud to offer faster response times and enhanced privacy. Going forward, hardware for on-device AI will only improve in areas like memory capacity and energy efficiency.  • To deliver pervasive AI, organizations are adopting heterogeneous compute. To commercialize the full panoply of AI use cases, processing and compute must be performed on the right hardware. A heterogeneous approach unlocks a solid, adaptable foundation for the deployment and advancement of AI use cases for everyday life, work, and play. It also allows organizations to prepare for the future of distributed AI in a way that is reliable, efficient, and secure. But there are many trade-offs between cloud and edge computing that require careful consideration based on industry-specific needs.  • Companies face challenges in managing system complexity and ensuring current architectures can adapt to future needs. Despite progress in microchip architectures, such as the latest high-performance CPU architectures optimized for AI, software and tooling both need to improve to deliver a compute platform that supports pervasive machine learning, generative AI, and new specializations. Experts stress the importance of developing adaptable architectures that cater to current machine learning demands, while allowing room for technological shifts. The benefits of distributed compute need to outweigh the downsides in terms of complexity across platforms.  Download the full report. This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff. This content was researched, designed, and written entirely by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes the writing of surveys and collection of data for surveys. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review.

1 Google could be forced to sell Chrome A new remedies trial has begun, following last year’s ruling that Google illegally abused its search market power. (WP $)+ The DoJ alleges that Google is using AI to strengthen its monopoly. (Axios)+ Multiple states also want Google to share data with its rivals. (The Information $)+ Microsoft and other rivals will be watching the outcome closely. (WSJ $)2 The FTC is suing Uber The lawsuit claims the company charged its customers without their consent. (WSJ $)+ It claimed its customers would save $25 a month thanks to its Uber One service. (Reuters)+ The Trump administration is really going after Big Tech. (FT $)3 Inside the fight to prevent DOGE from eradicating rural health careCommunity health centers are at the mercy of grant funding. (The Atlantic $)+ Cuts to sexual healthcare have come amid a rise in syphilis cases. (The Guardian)+ Here’s a who’s-who of DOGE staff. (NYT $)+ The ACLU is going after DOGE records. (Wired $)4 Misleading political content is thriving on Facebook in Canada And it’s become worse since the country blocked news from users’ feeds. (NYT $)+ The country is preparing to vote in a federal election, too. (The Guardian)+ Meta will start using AI tools to detect underage users. (The Verge)5 How Big Tech conceals its hidden workforce in Africa They’re training AI models and moderating content behind the scenes. (Rest of World)+ We are all AI’s free data workers. (MIT Technology Review) 6 A school funded by Pricilla Chan is shutting downThe Primary School is closing at the end of the 2026 academic year. (Bloomberg $) 7 The FBI can’t find records of its hacking tool purchasesDespite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on them. (404 Media) + Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming. (MIT Technology Review)8 Bluesky is finally getting blue checkmarks‘Authentic and notable’ accounts will be able to apply. (Engadget) + It’s a mixture of Twitter’s old approach and a more decentralized option. (Wired $)9 The hidden joys of Google Maps It’s not just for navigation, y’know. (The Guardian)

Submitted by WA Contents The 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition will be held from May 13 to November 9, 2025 Italy Architecture News - Apr 22, 2025 - 13:21   html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" The 24th International Exhibition, under the titles Inequalities, will run from May 13 to 9 November, 2025. The Triennale Milano has organized International Expositions every three years since 1923, inviting designers, architects and artists from around the world to engage with a key contemporary theme.After tackling the themes of sustainability with Broken Nature (2019) and the mysteries of the universe with Unknown Unknowns (2022), the 24th International Exposition closes this trilogy by focusing reflection on the human dimension and addressing an urgent and political issue such as the growing inequalities that characterize cities and the contemporary world. Inequalities is a collective project that, through exhibitions, installations, special projects and events, questions the global challenges related to the differences present in various spheres of existence: from economic to ethnic, from geographic origin to gender.The 24th International Exhibition also includes a section devoted to international participations, solicited under the auspices of the BIE - Bureau International des Expositions.Read more about the exhibitions & installations here. The top image in the article: Photography by Johnny Miller/Unequal Scenes.> via Triennale Milano architecture event

Submitted by WA Contents 10th International Alvar Aalto Design Seminar: Checkpoint Finland Architecture News - Apr 22, 2025 - 13:00   html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" The 10th International Alvar Aalto Design Seminar – Checkpoint will be held on Tuesday, 10 June 2025 in the Main Building of the University of Jyväskylä (Alvar Aalto, 1954-55).Now is the time for Checkpoint! How is the design heritage renewing itself? How will authentic and human design, traditional crafts, and raw design flourish in the age of AI?Today, in 2025, it is the use of AI in design that gets people talking, while authenticity, humanity and craftsmanship are emerging as counterforces. On this occasion we will also pay homage to renewable heritage and tradition: this year marks 90 years since the founding of Artek, and 13 Aalto buildings have been nominated for inscription in 2026 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The one-day seminar opens up the challenges of today’s design field amidst major global changes. Three topical themes are Authenticity, Cohabitation and Evolution. We look with optimism towards a diverse future of sustainable development in design. The seminar’s first speakers are now listed: Designer Ineke Hans (NL), Professor Design & Social Context at UdK-Berlin (DE); Design Professor Ann Light, University of Sussex (UK) and Malmö University (SE); Design lead and entrepreneur Zeynep Falay Von Flittner, Falay Transition Design (FI/TUR); Design historian and curator Kaisu Savola, Aalto University (FI); Industrial designer Harri Koskinen, head of Friends of Industry Ltd. (FI) and CEO Hanna Neuvo, FYRA Design Agency (FI).The Alvar Aaalto Foundation invites you to follow the live programme on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, starting 11 am at the Main Building of the University of Jyväskylä. The English-language event will be streamed to a global audience. Take advantage of Early Bird ticket prices before the end of April 2025. Join now and take your friends, students, colleagues with you! Virtual participation in the seminar is free of charge! Even different time-zones are no obstacle: after registration the recordings will be available until the end of September. For tickets click here.Versatile side programmeThe seminar side programme on 10.–11.6.2025 is dedicated to design heritage. This year marks 90 years since the founding of Artek, and 13 Aalto buildings have been nominated for inscription in 2026 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The open to all lecture connected to the Artek anniversary and Visibly Invisible – Artek´s Drawing Office 1936–20024 -exhibition will be held on Tuesday 10.6. by Timo Penttilä and Antti Tevajärvi of Artek 2nd Cycle at the Aalto2 Museum Centre. The side programme provides also guided visits to Alvar Aalto Architectural sites, such as Säynätsalo Town Hall, University of Jyväskylä Campus (10.6.), Villa Mairea and Paimio Sanatorium (a bus tour 11.6. Jyväskylä-Noormarkku-Paimio-Helsinki). There are limited places for the guided tours, so act quickly! For tickets, as well as reduced price group tickets, click here.The International Alvar Aalto Design Seminar was established 30 years ago as a discussion forum in the spirit of Alvar Aalto's functional and ecological design. Visual identity of the event has been since beginning by Graphic designer, Artist Aimo Katajamäki. The event is arranged every third year alternately with the Alvar Aalto Symposium and Alvar Aalto Researchers’ Seminar. Produced by the Alvar Aalto Academy / Alvar Aalto Foundation together with the main partner, the City of Jyväskylä, and other 2025 partners, Aalto University, Archinfo, Artek, Cumulus Association, Finnish Design Shop, Finnish Design Info, Habitare Pro, and the University of Jyväskylä.The top image in the article courtesy of The Alvar Aaalto Foundation.> via The Alvar Aaalto Foundation architecture event