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Reform UK receives $97M from two crypto billionaires in record 24-hour fundraise

Nigel Farage's Reform UK party has secured $97 million in donations from two cryptocurrency billionaires within a single 24-hour period. The combined sum matches the largest individual political donations ever recorded in United Kingdom history. The fundraising surge represents a significant escalation of the crypto industry's financial involvement in British politics. The donations sharply boost Reform UK's financial standing and signal growing political ambitions backed by digital asset wealth.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Reproducible AI Benchmarks Require Frozen Dataset, Oracle, and Metrics Bundle

A coding-agent benchmark score is meaningless unless the dataset, oracle, metrics, and environment are locked together as a single versioned bundle before any evaluation runs. Publishing a success rate without these frozen components is comparable to reporting a race time without confirming the distance or the position of the finish line. The proposed framework organizes tasks into a structured directory, each with a stable identifier, a frozen prompt, fixture files, and an oracle definition. A manifest file hashes every component that could affect scoring, and this manifest must be generated before any agent process begins to prevent post-hoc oracle changes. The harness presented is a reproducibility scaffold for future benchmarks, not a record of a completed evaluation.

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IndiaTimes of India ·

81-year-old meets schoolmate PM Modi seeking CBI probe into land dispute

An 81-year-old man met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his former schoolmate, to seek justice in a long-running land dispute. The elderly resident alleges that his property has been encroached upon using forged documents. Following the meeting, municipal authorities have scheduled a hearing for September 16 to address the matter. Representatives from the construction companies involved in the dispute have been asked to appear at the hearing.

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Crypto & Web3CoinDesk ·

Anthropic, OpenAI, and Musk Agree Frontier AI Development May Need to Slow

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for a slowdown in the race to develop advanced AI systems. OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk have both expressed agreement with this unusually aligned position. The concern centers on frontier AI systems that are becoming capable enough to assist in building their own next-generation successors. The convergence of views among these prominent and often competing AI figures marks a notable moment in the industry's ongoing safety debate.

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IndiaNDTV ·

BRICS Pushes for Self-Reliance Amid Global Trade Restrictions

BRICS nations are actively pursuing greater self-reliance as global trade faces increasing disruption. The bloc is focusing on key strategic sectors including energy, food security, and rare earth materials. This push comes in response to a shifting global landscape marked by sanctions, tariffs, and trade restrictions. By strengthening internal capabilities in these critical areas, BRICS aims to reduce dependence on external markets and powers.

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IndiaTimes of India ·

Noida man arrested for pushing wife off terrace amid dowry dispute

A man in Noida has been arrested for allegedly pushing his wife off the terrace of their home, resulting in her death. The dispute reportedly stemmed from unmet dowry demands amounting to thirty lakh rupees and a car. Before the incident, the victim had called her brother expressing fear that her in-laws might harm her. She succumbed to injuries sustained from the fall. Police are currently investigating the case and searching for other family members believed to be involved.

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IndiaNDTV ·

Xi's India Visit Would Carry Major Symbolic Weight, Says Former Envoy

A former Indian ambassador to China has highlighted the significance of a potential visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to India. The ex-envoy stated that the optics of such a visit would be very important, particularly in the context of BRICS-related diplomacy. He suggested that a bilateral meeting between the two leaders could help lay the groundwork for stronger outcomes going forward. The remarks reflect cautious optimism about the trajectory of India-China relations at a diplomatic level.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Developer Builds Browser Game Collection to Kill Time at Work

A developer has created TapWhenBored, a small collection of browser-based casual games designed for quick breaks. One of its featured games, Marble Nostalgia, is a digital take on the classic marble solitaire board game where players must eliminate marbles by jumping over them. The goal is to leave just one marble remaining on the board, a feat no player has achieved so far. The developer has set up a leaderboard to track player progress toward that milestone. The project includes several other casual games beyond Marble Nostalgia and is open for anyone to try.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Hardcoded Zero in Append-Only Log Silently Masqueraded as Real Measurement

A developer discovered that a log entry reading 'OK_ATOMS atoms=0 top=0 bot=0' was never a real measurement — it was a string literal written as a placeholder while the actual counter was still being built. Because zero is a legitimate result in real runs, the hardcoded line was indistinguishable from genuine output, allowing it to pass unnoticed through parsers and downstream systems. The append-only nature of the log meant the false record could not be deleted, requiring a superseding entry to correct it. The author argues that any log line resembling a measurement must actually originate from one, and suggests using an unambiguous error or a non-numeric sentinel value like 'reason=census_not_wired' as a placeholder instead. A simple audit — checking for log print statements whose numeric fields are literals rather than variables — can help identify lines that will never reflect real changes in underlying data.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Beginner's Guide to Building Your First ASP.NET Web Service

A new tutorial on DEV Community walks beginners through setting up their first ASP.NET web service using .NET 10 and either Visual Studio or JetBrains Rider. The guide starts by stripping down the default project template to a minimal configuration, keeping only the core application builder setup. It then introduces Scalar, a lightweight API testing tool added via a NuGet package, to replace the default weather forecast boilerplate. Developers are shown how to register Scalar in the development pipeline and write a basic GET endpoint that returns 'Hello World'. The tutorial is the first in a series that will later cover controllers, dependency injection, databases, and clean architecture.

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IndiaTimes of India ·

Decomposed body of suspected Pak JeM militant, M4 rifle recovered in J&K's Doda

Security forces in Doda's Divshetar area of Jammu and Kashmir have recovered the decomposed body of a suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist believed to be from Pakistan. The remains were found alongside an M4 rifle and are thought to have been buried under snow for a period following an earlier counter-terrorism operation. Authorities are currently working to establish the identity of the deceased individual. The discovery is part of a wider investigation linked to recent militant encounters in the Jammu region.

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IndiaTimes of India ·

J&K SIA raids Poonch and Udhampur in radicalisation investigation

Jammu and Kashmir's State Investigation Agency conducted searches across five locations in Poonch and Udhampur districts on Saturday. The agency is investigating the alleged spread of secessionist narratives through both online and offline channels. Investigators found that certain individuals had been in contact with suspicious persons across the Line of Control. The probe aims to uncover networks involved in radicalisation activities within the region. Further details are expected to be released by officials once the searches are fully concluded.

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IndiaTimes of India ·

Loud Noises Deter Deer From Crops But Animals Adapt Within Six Weeks

A new study found that loud human noises and bright lights successfully drove deer and elk away from crops about 64% of the time. However, sounds mimicking predators or dog barks proved far less effective as deterrents. Over a six-week period, the animals gradually habituated to the deterrents, particularly in areas close to human activity. Researchers warn that repeated exposure to the same stimuli causes wildlife to stop responding to them. To maintain effectiveness, experts recommend varying the types of deterrents used and pairing them with real consequences for the animals.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

How to Dual-Boot Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon Alongside Windows 11

A step-by-step guide outlines how to install Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon edition on a Windows 11 machine while keeping Secure Boot and BitLocker enabled. The process begins with downloading Linux Mint and the Rufus tool to flash the OS onto a USB drive. Users must then create a dedicated disk partition via Windows Disk Management before rebooting into the boot menu to launch the Linux Mint installer. During installation, the guide recommends manually allocating the free partition by splitting it into separate root and home directories. Following these steps allows users to run both operating systems on the same device without disabling key Windows security features.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

A 201 response alone does not verify a completed payment workflow, dev warns

A developer behind the API workspace tool Lucidra has highlighted a common gap in integration testing: receiving a 201 Created response only confirms resource creation, not the completion of the underlying payment process. To properly validate a payment workflow, tests must also verify that a matching webhook event arrived with the correct payload and that the resource eventually reached its final state. The article demonstrates this with a self-contained Node.js script that requires no external accounts or dependencies, deliberately introducing edge cases such as out-of-order events and delayed state updates. A key technical insight shared is that the webhook listener must be started before the API request is sent, so that fast-arriving callbacks are buffered rather than missed. Running the example with a missing webhook flag causes the test to exit with an error, proving that a 201 response alone is insufficient to confirm a successful payment flow.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Developer Builds AST-Based Scorer to Grade Python Retry Loop Safety

A developer created a static code analysis tool called a 'hygiene scorer' that reads Python source files and grades retry loop implementations for safety properties. The scorer walks the abstract syntax tree (AST) and awards points for features like attempt caps, wall-clock timeouts, backoff, jitter, and idempotency keys, while penalizing unbounded loops. The motivation was to address a common pattern in agent and automation code where retry loops lack hard stop conditions, potentially causing runaway processes. The tool was built and tested using a free AI model accessed via MonkeyCode, with outputs validated against fixture files rather than trusted outright. The author argues that verifying whether a loop can terminate is a more practical engineering concern than evaluating an AI model's reasoning quality.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

The Shifting Definition of AI: Why 'AGI' Means Different Things to Different People

A commentary piece on DEV Community raises a foundational question about artificial intelligence: what the term actually means, as industry leaders like Dario Amodei and Sam Altman publicly discuss slowing AI development. The author points out that the definition of 'AI' has historically shifted whenever machines mastered a specific task — chess engines, calculators, and spam filters were once considered intelligent, then quietly reclassified as mere computation. Terms like AGI, ASI, and 'reasoning models' are frequently used interchangeably despite representing fundamentally different concepts, from economic productivity to human-like learning to self-awareness. The piece argues that unlike physics, intelligence lacks a settled, measurable definition, making timelines such as 'AGI in five years' difficult to evaluate without first agreeing on what the target actually is. The author concludes that recent calls to slow AI development signal meaningful progress, but may also reflect the same recurring cycle of hype and redefinition that has defined the field for decades.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Researcher Routes Home Traffic Through Chosen ISP Upstream Without Router Access

A developer conducted a self-described Computer Science experiment to determine whether an end user can influence which upstream provider carries their internet traffic, without accessing the ISP's routers. By studying BGP Best Path Selection, they identified that AS-PATH length and Local Preference are the key factors an ISP uses to choose between upstream providers. The researcher used bgp.tools to confirm their ISP had two upstreams — TransTeleCom (Russia) and RETN Limited (UK) — then searched for a VPS hosted on a subnet routed through RETN's infrastructure. After selecting an EDIS Global server in Tallinn, Estonia, and routing traffic through a VPN tunnel, the researcher used the Trippy tool to monitor packet paths during a 15 GB Steam download. The route remained entirely stable through RETN throughout the test, partially confirming that targeted upstream selection is achievable by ordinary users through careful VPS and VPN configuration.

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StartupsProduct Hunt ·

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Dev Tutorial Introduces 'Progress Contract' to Stop AI Coding Agents from Spinning in Place

A software development tutorial published on DEV Community introduces a bootcamp-style lab designed to expose a common flaw in AI coding agents: appearing busy without making real progress. The lab requires agents to track a 'remainder' — a measurable, shrinking count of unfinished work such as failing tests or unresolved files — at every iteration. If the remainder does not strictly decrease each loop, the run is graded as a failure, regardless of how much output the agent produces. The exercise uses Node.js, a frozen test oracle, and an append-only NDJSON log to enforce accountability and prevent agents from gaming their own exit conditions. The author argues that without such a progress contract, agent transcripts resemble a diary rather than proof of forward movement.

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