Yemen's Perim Island Gains Strategic Importance Amid Houthi Offensive

Perim Island, situated at the narrowest point of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, has come under renewed global attention due to an escalating Houthi offensive in Yemen. The island's location makes it a critical chokepoint for international maritime trade and military movement. Its strategic value has grown in the context of rising tensions between the United States and Iran. Control or influence over the island could significantly impact naval operations and shipping lanes in the region.

12% of LLM API Calls Returned No Answer, Exposing Hidden Costs in AI Pipelines

An analysis of 5,087 LLM API calls made between late June and early September 2026 found that 622 calls — about 12.2% — failed to return any answer, a rate the authors describe as normal for production environments. The largest failure category was 503 errors, meaning the upstream provider lacked capacity, while the second largest was 400 errors caused by malformed client requests. Critically, these two failure types require different handling: 503 errors are worth retrying, while 400 errors will never succeed regardless of how many retries are attempted. Timeouts and client-side cancellations proved uniquely costly, as tokens were already being generated when those calls stopped, and any retry would bill the full input prompt again from scratch. The authors recommend retrying only on 429 and 5xx status codes, and capping retry budgets by token count rather than by number of attempts to avoid runaway costs on large prompts.

Platform Engineering: How Internal Developer Platforms Are Reshaping Software Delivery

Platform Engineering is an emerging discipline focused on designing toolchains and workflows that enable self-service capabilities for software development teams. It addresses the growing cognitive overload on developers who, in cloud-native environments, must manage Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud security alongside writing code. At its core, the approach involves a dedicated platform team building and maintaining an Internal Developer Platform (IDP), treated as an internal product whose customers are the company's own developers. The IDP provides standardized, reusable infrastructure that abstracts complexity, allowing developers to provision environments or deploy applications independently without waiting on a central operations team. A key concept within Platform Engineering is the definition of 'Golden Paths' — well-documented, best-practice-aligned workflows that guide developers toward secure and efficient ways of completing common tasks.

How Adding a Single Database Index Cut Query Latency from 200ms to Under 1ms

A developer building a URL shortener noticed severe performance degradation as traffic scaled from hundreds to thousands of requests per second. Investigation revealed the database was performing a full table scan on every lookup, reading all rows just to match a single short code string. Adding a B-tree index on the short_code column eliminated the sequential scan, allowing the query planner to jump directly to the matching row in under a millisecond. The article explains how indexes work as optimized lookup structures, comparing B-tree, hash, and specialized index types, while noting the trade-off of increased write overhead and storage costs. Key lessons include matching indexes to actual query predicates and avoiding over-indexing, which can slow down write-heavy operations like batch jobs.

UK Website Security Audits in 2026: Costs, Methods and Best Practices

UK enterprises are being urged to budget carefully for website security audits in 2026 as a key measure against data breaches, regulatory fines, and reputational harm. Audit costs vary significantly by platform complexity, ranging from £1,500–£3,000 for static sites to over £18,000 for enterprise portals or custom SaaS products. A thorough audit typically combines automated vulnerability scanning with manual testing by consultants who simulate real-world attacks to uncover logic flaws, injection risks, and API weaknesses. The OWASP Foundation notes that many web application vulnerabilities, particularly injection flaws, are missed by automated tools alone, making human-led testing essential. Businesses can reduce audit costs by resolving known configuration errors before engaging a consultant, while e-commerce and enterprise platforms are advised to run automated scans monthly rather than annually.

SQL Joins Explained: Inner, Left, Right, and Full Join Differences

SQL joins combine rows from two tables based on a shared column, typically an ID, but each join type handles unmatched rows differently. An inner join returns only rows with matches on both sides, discarding any unmatched records from either table. A left join retains all rows from the left table, filling in NULLs where no match exists in the right table, while a right join does the opposite. A full join preserves all rows from both tables, using NULLs to fill gaps wherever a match is absent. Developers are advised to use an inner join by default and switch to other types only when unmatched rows are relevant to the query.

Selling gold after price rise? Check tax on ₹10L sale

Saim Ayub Dismissed for Duck Twice on Test Return Against England at Edgbaston

Pakistan opener Saim Ayub had a dismal comeback to Test cricket, scoring ducks in both innings of the third Test against England at Edgbaston. The young batter faced just 11 deliveries across the two innings combined before being dismissed each time. England pacer Ollie Robinson was responsible for both dismissals, making Ayub's return to the side particularly difficult. The performance drew sharp criticism from former England captain Nasser Hussain, who questioned Ayub's readiness for Test cricket.

iOS 26 Adds New Layout Guide to Prevent UI Overlap with iPadOS Traffic Light

A developer created a SwiftUI demo to visualize two layout guides available on iPadOS: the standard safeAreaLayoutGuide and the newly introduced layoutGuide with cornerAdaptation margins from iOS 26 SDKs. The demo arose from work on fixing layout issues in Focus browser and Firefox for iOS. While the safe area layout guide helps avoid overlap with notches and home bars, it does not prevent UI elements from being obscured by the iPadOS window traffic light controls in windowed mode. The new margins cornerAdaptation layout guide was specifically introduced to address this gap. The developer shared full SwiftUI source code for the demo, which visually distinguishes the two regions using blue and orange outlines.

DHS Removes 'Mr Singh' Self-Deportation Poster After Indian-American Backlash

The US Department of Homeland Security has taken down a controversial poster that urged a person named 'Mr Singh' to self-deport. The poster drew sharp criticism from Indian-American communities and Democratic leaders, who condemned it as racially targeted. The backlash prompted the DHS to remove the material, though the episode has sparked a broader debate about the agency's messaging. Critics labeled the government's initial response to the controversy as dismissive and misleading.

Army Insider Detained After Weapons Stolen from Hyderabad Madras Regiment Unit

A weapons theft from an Indian Army unit in Hyderabad was uncovered on August 31 when a Lieutenant Colonel of the Madras Regiment filed a complaint at Bollaram Police Station in the Malkajgiri police zone. Authorities launched an investigation that lasted approximately 10 days before cracking the case. An insider with links to the unit was detained in connection with the theft. The case highlights security concerns within military establishments regarding internal threats.

25 Years On, the World Is Still Learning Hard Lessons from 9/11

A quarter century after the September 11 attacks, their impact continues to shape global foreign, security, and intelligence policy. The attacks prompted sweeping changes in how governments approach counterterrorism, surveillance, and international cooperation. Despite significant reforms, analysts suggest that key lessons from the failures exposed by 9/11 are still being absorbed and applied. The BBC's security correspondent examines how the events of that day remain a defining reference point for an entire generation of policymakers and intelligence officials.

Vermont town opens 1976 time capsule with a joint and birth-control packaging

Geneticist Mitali Mukerji blends Ayurveda, genomics and AI for precision health

Molecular geneticist Mitali Mukerji has built her career at the crossroads of genomics, traditional medicine, and personalised healthcare. After completing her PhD at IISc and conducting research at CSIR-IGIB, she became a key figure in Ayurgenomics, a field examining whether Ayurvedic Prakriti body types have identifiable biological markers. Her work drew criticism for applying modern scientific methods to traditional Ayurvedic concepts. She has since expanded her research focus to AI-driven integrative precision health at IIT Jodhpur. Her journey reflects both the difficulties and the potential of rigorously testing unconventional ideas within contemporary biology.

India Curates Regional Specialty Hamper for BRICS Summit Delegates

India has prepared a special gift hamper for journalists and delegates attending the BRICS summit. The hamper contains nine items sourced from different regions across the country. Among the notable inclusions are Bihar's traditional sattu and Odisha's coffee, highlighting India's diverse food heritage. The curated package appears designed to showcase India's regional products on an international platform.

India may pitch BRICS a payment plan beyond cash

Vance Offers Plane Ticket to Protester Waving Mexican Flag at Rally

Vice President JD Vance made a pointed remark to a protester who interrupted one of his public appearances. The individual emerged from the crowd waving a Mexican flag and shouting at Vance. In response, the Vice President offered to buy the protester a plane ticket, implying they should leave the United States. The incident highlights the charged atmosphere surrounding immigration-related rhetoric at political events.

Jailed Hindu monk granted 5-hour parole to attend mother's funeral in Bangladesh

Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das, currently imprisoned in Bangladesh, was granted a brief 5-hour parole to attend his mother's funeral. The release was ordered by Chattogram district deputy commissioner Mohammad Zahidul Islam Mia following an application from Das's family. His mother, Sandhya Rani Dhar, 70, passed away early Thursday while receiving treatment at a hospital in Hathazari. Das, a former ISKCON member, serves as a spokesman for Hindu Sammilito Sanatan Jagaran Jote.

Fresh Cloud Servers Hit With Hundreds of Intrusion Attempts Within Minutes of Going Online

A developer rented three servers in Frankfurt, New York, and Singapore without registering them in DNS or sharing their addresses, then monitored unsolicited connection attempts for roughly 45 minutes per region. The first uninvited connection arrived just 48 seconds after the Singapore server booted, with Frankfurt and New York following shortly after. In total, the three servers logged 3,480 connection attempts from 860 unique IP addresses, including over 1,000 attempts using real login credentials. The most targeted port was telnet (port 23), reflecting persistent botnet activity aimed at IoT devices such as routers and cameras. The experiment, which cost under three cents, showed that any public IP address faces roughly 700 to 800 unsolicited connection attempts per hour simply by being reachable on the internet.

OpenAI Launches GPT-Live-1 Model via API

OpenAI has introduced GPT-Live-1, making it available through its API for developers. The release marks the company's latest addition to its growing lineup of accessible AI models. Developers can now integrate the model into their applications via OpenAI's standard API infrastructure. The announcement was shared on OpenAI's official website, signaling a continued push to expand real-time AI capabilities for builders and enterprises.