Forty-one percent of companies intend to cut their workforce in the next five years as many tasks are automated with AI, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Future of Jobs Report 2025.At the same time, 70% of companies say they expect to hire people with knowledge of the new AI tools, reportsCNN Business.The WEF sees advances in AI and renewable energy as reshaping the labor market, driving demand for a variety of technical or specialist roles while leading to a decline for others. The shifts will also likely push companies to upskill their own employees.Theres good news as well. According to the WEF forecast, while 92 million existing jobs will disappear by 2030, 170 million new jobs will be created. In other words, there will be a net addition of 78 million jobs if the forecast is accurate.

Apple has told us Macs arent secure enough and it continues working toimprove their security, as it does across all of its platforms. But a newly identified malware attack confirms that third-party developers can sometimes be a weak link in the perimeter.In this case,Checkpoint securityhas identified a malware-as-a-service attack it calls Banshee macOS Stealer.This insidious attack, which has apparently now been closed down, was spread via seemingly legitimate browser downloads distributed outside of Apples Mac App Store. When installed, it was capable of exfiltrating all kinds of information, including account, banking and crypto logins, and more, and was resistant to Apples own antivirus protection system, Gatekeeper. (The malware is also available on Windows, but Im less sure of thedegree of risk users on that platform face.If its too good to be true, its too good to be trueHeres what we know:The software was distributed in infected versions of popular software (such as Chrome or Telegram) via phishing websites and fake GitHub repositories.When in the field, it targets third-party browsers such as Chrome, browser extensions, and makes use of a 2FA extension to capture sensitive information.It also tricks users into sharing their passwords with legitimate seeming system prompts, sending stolen data back via command and control servers.An attack-as-a-service malware of this kind usually relies on a command server within the exfiltration process, with legitimate-seeming but infiltrated software a method of attack ever since people used to share applications via FTP, and probably before.None of this is new. Nor is the main attacks reliance on tricking users. Everyone by now knows that computer users are now and will forever be the weakest link in platform security. Convincing people to download software that is infected is common, and recent attacks from NSO and other reprehensible companies showed that it is still possible to craft attacks that dont even require user intervention. (Though those are very, very expensive.)What is new is that those behind the attack used some of Apples own anti-virus tools, stealing, a string encryption algorithm from Apples own XProtect antivirus engine, which replaced the plain text strings used in the original version, according to Checkpoint.This is what helped the attack evade detection for two months, though it was eventually identified, mitigated, and the operation shut down. Crisis over.Prevention beats cureExcept the crisis is never really over.What this attack exposed is that platforms can be undermined, and while Macs (and Apples other products) are unlike others secure by design, that doesnt mean they are infallible.The introduction of Lockdown Mode demonstrates that Apple knows attacks happen. Within that context, it becomes super-important to ensure every user understands that if software they usually pay for is available free somewhere, they should absolutely avoid installing it. And they should always ensure that legitimate software (such as Chrome) is installed from the original source.Thats not a problem if you stay within trusted app distribution ecosystems, of course particularly Apples own heavily-policed app stores. But as the company is forced to open up to third-party distribution, that security will be eroded as, at least in some cases, some app developers insist on independent distribution of their software.That represents a golden opportunity for malware distributors to try to build legitimate-seeming download sites for these apps. Though its possible that Apples Notarization system (as it expands) might become an essential tool to protect against this.While some developers continue to complain about the cost of distribution on Apples platforms, it must be stressed that the cost of cybercrime isexpected to surpass $10 trillionthis year. That means it is in the public interest for app developers if they really want to play their part to combat cybercrime to ensure they create and protect secure software distribution systems that do not confuse consumers.We all play a partIts actually in the national (international) interest. I think some of the top people predict that the next big war is fought on cybersecurity, Apple CEO Tim Cooktold Time in 2016.Software consumers need to play their part.As cyber criminals continue to innovate, security solutions must evolve in tandem to provide comprehensive protection, Check Point Research explains. Businesses and users alike must take proactive steps to defend against threats, leveraging advanced tools and fostering a culture of caution and awareness.Despite this attack, the Mac remains theworlds most secure PC platform. One of the easiest ways for anyone to improve their own security posture is to move to Apples platforms. And one of the easiest ways to undermine that security is to install dodgy software, no matter how genuine it appears to be. If it seems too good to be true, its too good to be true. So, dont download it.You can follow me on social media! Youll find me onBlueSky, LinkedIn,Mastodon, andMeWe.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that previous reports of an iPhone 17 Slim being 6mm are underestimating its thinness, at least for part of the device.A render of what the iPhone 17 Slim could look likeWhile rumors of a slim iPhone 17 have been circulating since at least June 2024, there was initially little news of just how much slimmer it could be than the 7.3mm of the iPhone SE. Then in November 2024, reports claimed that it would come in at a significantly thinner 6mm.Now according to Ming-Chi Kuo, the actual figure is going to be just 5.5mm but perhaps only for part of the iPhone. Rumor Score: Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

A new report claims that popular iPhone apps are being used by advertisers to get your location details, despite Apple's App Tracking Transparency and even without the app developers' knowledge.Popular apps like Candy Crush & Tinder used for location trackingApple introduced App Tracking Transparency (ATT) with iOS 14 back in 2020, and was so effective at blocking advertisers from harvesting and then selling user data, that it reportedly made Facebook's revenue drop by $12.8 billion in a year. However, a new report claims that advertisers have found other ways to track and monetise user data.Some widely used apps, including Candy Crush, Tinder, and MyFitnessPal, are allegedly being exploited by rogue actors within the advertising industry to collect sensitive location data on an enormous scale. This has been claimed before, but now 404 Media reports that a hack of location data company Gravy Analytics has revealed evidence of thousands of popular apps being unknowingly utilized to provide mass location data to advertisers. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

A fresh price cut on AirPods Pro 2 is in effect at Amazon this Friday, delivering the lowest price seen in 2025.Amazon has discounted AirPods Pro 2 by $70.Steeper discounts on Apple products continue to launch at Amazon, with the retailer slashing the price of Apple AirPods Pro 2 this morning to $179.99. This reflects at $70 discount off retail, providing shoppers with the lowest price we've seen on the earbuds in 2025.Grab the $179.99 price Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

For this week'scurated picksof architecture and design competitions listed on Bustler, we are featuring four calls seeking emerging and mid-career practitioners whose work focuses on the public realm, the best projects, products, and ideas from around the world, innovative artistic, inclusive, and sustainable seating solutions, and designs for an installation that will supply clean and reliable electricity and drinking water to Marou, Fiji.For the complete directory of newly listed competitions, clickhere.

The endangered Woodville Karst cave crayfish (Procambarus orcinus) Keith A. Crandall and C. Riley Nelson, IUCNFreshwater ecosystems across the world are in distress. As scientists better comprehend the extent to which lakes, ponds, rivers and marshlandsand the animal and plant life they supportare suffering from long-term human intervention, their findingsare often dire.A new study published in Nature on Wednesday finds that nearly 25 percent of freshwater faunaincluding species of fish, dragonflies, damselflies, crabs, crayfish and shrimpare threatened with extinction.That means there are high to extremely high risks of becoming extinct in the future, Catherine Sayer, lead of the freshwater biodiversity team for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the lead author of the study, explains to ABC News Julia Jacobo. Thats quite an alarming percentage.Although freshwater covers less than 1 percent of the Earths surface, it supports 10 percent of the planets known animal species, including roughly half its types of fish. For the study, researchers assessed 23,496 species of freshwater animals, determining that 24 percent were threatened with extinction. At least 4,294 species are considered at a high risk, according to a statement from the IUCN.Their examined species spanned three groups: Ten-legged decapods like crabs, lobsters and crayfish are the most vulnerable, with 30 percent of their species at risk; fish come in second, with more than a quarter of them threatened; and odonates, like dragonflies and damselflies, which are aquatic during their larval phase, follow at 16 percent.Stuart Pimm, a conservation ecologist at Duke University who was not affiliated with the study, calls it a long-awaited and hugely important paper, according to Christina Larson of the Associated Press. The critically endangered Astyanax salvatoris in Mexico Topiltzin Contreras MacBeath, IUCNThe study finds human modification of the environment is a major factor in turning freshwater ecosystems into more vulnerable shells of their former states. Some 54 percent of the threatened species are affected by pollution, 39 percent by dams and water extraction, 37 percent by agriculture and 28 percent by invasive species and disease.Major human alteration of freshwater habitats is hardly a new development. In the 12th century, for instance, the Dutch began to drain swamps to create tractable land for agriculture. Or, take Chicago, which sits along the coast of Lake Michigan, one of the Great Lakes that together host some 21 percent of the worlds freshwater. In 1900, engineers reversed the flow of the Chicago River, and 45 years before that, lawmakers decided to physically elevate the city from the swamplandon which it was built.But the trend has certainly accelerated in recent decades. The United Nations estimates that 35 percent of global wetland area was lost between 1970 and 2015a rate three times faster than deforestation.Almost every big river in North America and Europe is massively modified with dams, Pimm tells the AP, which threaten freshwater species by blocking migration routes, affecting sediment flow and altering downstream hydrology.Dams completely block water courses, which means that species cant move downstream, and so they cant get to habitats that they previously used for breeding or feeding, Sayer tells ABC News. And that completely disrupts the lifecycle. A male Chlorocypha cyanifronsdamselfly in Gabon Jens Kipping, IUCNEven the paragons of the freshwater realm like the Amazon River might appear mighty, Patricia Charvet, a biologist at Brazils Federal University of Cear and a co-author of the study, tells the AP. But at the same time, freshwater environments are very fragile.The authors of the study emphasize that although threatened freshwater animals tend to live alongside threatened terrestrial and avian creatures, the risks to these water-dwelling species are different. So too must be the solutions.Rajeev Raghavan, an ichthyologist at the IUCN and a co-author of the paper, offers the example of the Western Ghats, an Indian mountain range renowned for its biodiversity.Although they live side by side in the Western Ghats, conservation action for tigers and elephants will not help the critically endangered humpbacked mahseer, Raghavan says in the IUCN statement. The large, freshwater fish is threatened by habitat loss due to river engineering projects and sand and boulder mining, poaching and invasive alien species.Along with the Western Ghats, the paper identifies Lake Victoria in Africa, Lake Titicaca in South America and Sri Lankas Wet Zone as particularly species-richand threatenedfreshwater regions.The particular value of this study is that it shows us which river basins, lakes, et cetera, are the ones where the conservation challenges are most urgent and serious, study co-authorIan Harrison, a freshwater conservationist at Northern Arizona University and a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, tells Reuters Will Dunham. It acts as a baseline of information from which we can track progress, to see if our actions are reducing threats.Since 1500, the study finds, 89 freshwater species have gone extinctand an additional 178 are suspected to be gone. With the recently identified speciesGet the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Extinction, Farming, Fish, Invasive Species, New Research, Pollution, Water, Zoology

Two women follow along during the Moby Dick reading marathon at theNew Bedford Whaling Museum. Craig F. Walker / The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesEvery year, throngs of book lovers gather for a Moby Dick reading marathon at theWhaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusettsand this years event drew the biggest crowd yet.Nearly 2,500 people from 37 states and countriesincluding Australia, Brazil and Swedencame to the reading, as Amanda McMullen, the museums president and CEO, tells Ben Berke of the Publics Radio.Its the highest ever, and its the highest ever by a lot, McMullen says, estimating the next highest attendance number was around 1,750 people in 2020. Michael J. Bobbitt, executive director of the Mass Cultural Council, reads at the stern of a half-scale model of an original whaling ship. Craig F. Walker / The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesThe story ofCaptain Ahabs obsessive quest to take revenge on the white whale who bit off his leg is an American classic and has been read in countless classrooms since its publication in 1851. The novel begins with its narrator, Ishmael, arriving in New Bedford in the hopes of joining a whaling voyageparalleling author Herman Melvilles own experience.The town itself is perhaps the dearest place to live in, in all New England, says Ishmael. Nowhere in all America will you find more patrician-like houses; parks and gardens more opulent, than in New Bedford.Earlier this month, crowds gathered to hearMoby Dick in the same town over the course of 25 hours. The readers followed a tight schedule as they attempted to get through the novel.The whole thing is read out loud, every word, every page, from multiple spots in the museum and from Seamens Bethel, a historic church near the water, McMullen tellsNBC 10 News Kennedy Buck.In addition to the record-setting attendance numbers, officials also announced at the event that New Bedford is building astatue in honor of Melville. The project will cost an estimated $300,000. A proposed statue of Melville shows waves gathering around the author's feet, as the ribs of a whale rise up with the water. City of New BedfordThis is fundamentally a way of New Bedford proclaiming its identity, proclaiming something great about its past, and showing off to the world that this is an important place, Jon Mitchell, New Bedfords mayor, tells the Publics Radio.The eight-foot-tall likeness of the famous author will stand at the garden of Seamens Bethel. SculptorStefanie Rocknaks design shows Meville with his hand in his pocket; at the authors feet, waves crash and a whales ribs rise from the water. At the statues base, visitors will find quotes from the novel.The statue is estimated to take 12 to 15 months to complete. Rocknacks design was chosen from 41 proposals.The opportunity to honor Herman Melville in the city that inspired the most famous literary work in the English language attracted first-class artists from across the country, says Mitchell in astatement. As the selection committee recognized, Stefanie Rocknaks vision for the statue is compelling and timeless. It will be a source of pride for New Bedford residents and visitors for generations.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: American Writers, Arts, Books, Literature, Museums, New England, Whales

The tomb's walls are painted and carved with images of objects the doctor might have used. Franco-Swiss Archaeological Mission of SaqqaraArchaeologists have excavated an intricately carved and painted tomb in northern Egypt, and they think the 4,100-year-old burial chamber belonged to a prominent, multi-talented royal doctor: a physician who served ancient Egyptian kings as an expert in medicinal plants, dentistry and venomous bites.A team of French and Swiss researchers discovered the tomb in Saqqara, the necropolis of the ancient capital city ofMemphis, according to a statement from Egypts Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.This incredible find adds to Saqqaras rich legacy as one of Egypts most significant archaeological sites, writes the ministry. The tomb is adorned with stunning carvings and vibrant artwork, including a beautifully painted false door and scenes of funerary offerings. Researchers discovered the tomb in the necropolis Saqqara. Franco-Swiss Archaeological Mission of SaqqaraInside the tomb, researchers found a stone sarcophagus bearing the name Tetinebefou in hieroglyphics. The inscriptions also indicate that he was the chief palace physician, priest, chief dentist, director of medicinal plants and conjurer of the goddessSerketan Egyptian deity known for curing venomous snake and scorpion bites.The doctor may have served under Pepi II, a pharaoh of ancient EgyptsOld Kingdom around the 23rd century B.C.E. He was crowned as a child and retained the throne for60 to 90 years. When he died, he too was buried in Saqqara, entombed in a pyramid.The Saqqara necropolis has been extensively looted over the millennia, according to a translatedblog post from the researchers. They found only small fragments of funerary materials, but the painted walls alone made the discovery exceptional. AsLive Sciences Owen Jarus reports, the paintings actually depict objects that the doctor might have used, such as jars and vases. The doctor may have served the pharaohPepi II. Franco-Swiss Archaeological Mission of SaqqaraThe doctors title of conjurer of the goddess Serket means he was a specialist in poisonous bites, as research team leaderPhilippe Collombert, an Egyptologist at theUniversity of Geneva, tells Live Science. The other titles on the sarcophagus are quite rare: Director of medicinal plants has only been found on one other ancient Egyptian artifact, and chief dentist is also very unusual, Collombert says.Evidence for ancient Egyptian dentists is exceedingly scarce, as Roger Forshaw, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester who wasnt involved in the research, tells Live Science.The ancient Egyptians are known for theiradvances in medical science, and they possessed extensive knowledge of human anatomy. Thousands of years ago, they weretreating brain cancer via surgery, diagnosing the condition now known asdiabetes and buildingprosthetics. The entombed doctor was apparently an expert physician, dentist and healer of venomous bites. Franco-Swiss Archaeological Mission of SaqqaraWe are talking about a society that at the time had the most advanced medicine that ever existed, asEdgard Camars, a paleopathologist at SpainsUniversity of Santiago de Compostela, toldHistory.coms Jesse Greenspan last year.Many ancient Egyptian doctors were specialists, focusing on a single body part or sickness, according to the fifth-century B.C.E. Greek historianHerodotus. He wrote, All the country is full of physicians, some of the eye, some of the teeth, some of what pertains to the belly and some of the hidden diseases.As such, Tetinebefous numerous and rare titles indicate that he held high status during the reign of Pepi. As Collombert tells Live Science, He was certainly the main physician at the royal court, so he would have treated the pharaoh himself.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Artifacts, Cool Finds, Death, Doctors, Egypt, History, Medicine, Pyramids

Fortnite Festival, the games Rock Band-like music mode where you play along with real songs, is getting local multiplayer for up to four people on PlayStation and Xbox on January 14th.Currently, you can only play Fortnite Festival multiplayer online, but with this change, youll be able to get your former Rock Band back together and jam out on the same TV screen well, with a major asterisk. Fortnite Festival currently only supports certain Rock Band guitar controllers, so if youre on vocals or drums, youll be relegated to playing on a controller.Epic Games didnt immediately reply to a request for comment about when drum kit or microphone support might be added to Fortnite Festival. The new local multiplayer mode is being added as part of season 7 of Fortnite Festival. The featured artist for the season is rumored to be virtual pop star Hatsune Miku and Epic Games is has already dropped a hint that she might be joining Fortnite soon.