Eight-Year-Old WooCommerce Site Had 12,000 Orphaned WebP Files Slowing It Down

A developer auditing a WooCommerce-LearnDash site found 12,301 WebP sidecar files left behind by a previously uninstalled image optimizer plugin, consuming 241MB of storage and burdening backups and malware scans. The files, generated by EWWW Image Optimizer, were completely unreferenced and served no purpose once the plugin was removed. A separate audit revealed that a plugin called disable-thumbnails-and-threshold had silently stripped 14 registered image sizes at runtime, meaning WooCommerce product thumbnails were never actually generated on disk. Rather than proceeding with a new WebP conversion tool, the developer resolved these deeper structural issues first, noting that installing another optimizer would have compounded the existing problems. The case highlights the importance of auditing inherited WordPress sites for orphaned files and misconfigured plugins before adding new optimization layers.

Delhi Court Sentences Tahir Hussain, 4 Others to Life in IB Officer Murder Case

A Delhi court has sentenced former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and four others to life imprisonment for the murder of Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma. Sharma was killed during the violent Northeast Delhi riots in February 2020. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, citing the 51 injuries found on the victim's body. However, the court considered mitigating circumstances before settling on life sentences for all five convicts.

Kangana Ranaut shares childhood photo as Sita from 1997 school play

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut shared a childhood photograph in which she portrayed Goddess Sita in a school production of the Ramayana in 1997. The image resurfaced on social media amid widespread discussions following the release of the recent Ramayana trailer. Ranaut has been active online lately, having also posted criticism directed at Gen Z protesters. The actress was most recently seen on screen in the medical drama-thriller Bharat Bhagya Vidhata.

Dulani becomes Sri Lanka's second women's T20I centurion in win over Pakistan

Sri Lanka took a 1-0 series lead against Pakistan following a commanding victory in their women's T20I clash. Harshitha Madavi Dulani scored a landmark century, becoming only the second Sri Lanka women's player to achieve the feat in T20I cricket. She followed in the footsteps of captain Chamari Athapaththu, who was the first Sri Lankan woman to hit a T20I hundred. Dulani's innings proved decisive as Sri Lanka cruised to victory against Pakistan.

India's April-June fiscal deficit widens to 18.2%

Developer builds minimal web search agent, then audits whether it earns the label

A developer built a Perplexity-style search assistant using a Bun backend, React 19 frontend, Tavily for search, and OpenRouter as the model provider. The system allows a language model to autonomously decide when to call a web search tool, loop through results, and stream cited answers to users. Before publishing about the project, the developer paused to honestly assess whether the build qualified as a true 'agent harness' or merely a well-dressed API call. After reviewing the core agent loop code, they confirmed it meets the harness definition: the model controls tool use, the loop iterates until completion, context is trimmed, and output is a structured event stream. The developer acknowledged the build is a single-tool harness with no retries or provider fallback, and noted that a more robust multi-tool version remains a future goal.

Supreme Court Stays Order Bringing NSE Under RTI Act, Seeks Responses

The Supreme Court has stayed an order that would have brought the National Stock Exchange (NSE) under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta agreed to hear a petition filed by the NSE challenging the order. The court has sought responses from the Central Information Commission and other relevant parties. The matter will be taken up for further hearing after the responses are received.

SC seeks stray animal accident compensation

22 Native Browser Features That Can Replace Common JavaScript Libraries

A developer-focused article highlights 22 built-in browser capabilities that eliminate the need for third-party JavaScript libraries in many common use cases. Features such as native dialogs, the Popover API, color pickers, and the Clipboard API are now supported directly in modern browsers without additional dependencies. The Web Share API, lazy image loading, smooth scrolling via CSS, and the Geolocation API are among the other built-in tools covered. HTML elements like details and summary enable accordion-style components, while the Notification API allows desktop alerts, all natively. The piece argues that developers can write less code and reduce reliance on external packages by leveraging these modern browser standards.

How Iran's military ran a $4bn gambling network as part of a sanctions-dodging op

Legendary South Indian Playback Singer Jamuna Rani Dies at 88

Veteran South Indian playback singer Jamuna Rani passed away at the age of 88. Over the course of her long career, she recorded more than 6,000 songs, cementing her place as a celebrated figure in South Indian cinema. She had entered the film industry at a very young age and built an enduring legacy through her music. Jamuna Rani was a recipient of the Kalaimamani Award, recognising her significant contributions to the arts. Her songs continue to be remembered as an integral part of South Indian cinema's musical heritage.

US Weighs $100,000 Fee on Foreign Students' Post-Graduation Work Permits

The US government is reportedly considering a $100,000 fee for foreign students applying for post-graduation work authorization under the Optional Practical Training program. The proposal follows a major H-1B visa fee increase imposed on sponsoring companies in the previous year. Indian engineers, who represent a large share of H-1B visa approvals, are expected to be disproportionately affected by the change. If implemented, the measure could significantly limit career opportunities in the US for skilled international graduates. Critics warn the policy may broadly narrow pathways for foreign professionals seeking to work in the country after completing their studies.

Union Cabinet approves 3 big schemes

Warren Buffett's Charitable Donations Reignite Debate on Foundation Accountability

Warren Buffett's large-scale donations to family foundations have come under scrutiny from experts and critics. Concerns have been raised about the tax advantages these donations provide and how quickly the funds are actually distributed to charitable causes. Private foundations are legally required to disclose their grants and distribute a minimum percentage of assets each year. The broader debate focuses on whether existing philanthropic structures offer sufficient accountability and transparency. The controversy follows recent tensions surrounding the Gates Foundation, further intensifying public interest in how billionaire philanthropy operates.

Simple UTM conventions that keep your marketing analytics clean and reliable

UTM parameters lack built-in validation, meaning inconsistent tagging by team members over time can silently fragment analytics data into untrustworthy reports. Key rules include always using lowercase letters, hyphens instead of spaces or underscores, and appending the year to campaign names to avoid data stacking across recurring events. Marketers often confuse utm_source and utm_medium — source identifies the specific place (e.g., instagram), while medium describes the channel type (e.g., social). UTM tags should only be applied to external links, as tagging internal site navigation can overwrite original referrer data and corrupt attribution. Maintaining a short, team-accessible reference list of approved parameter values is recommended to prevent gradual naming drift across campaigns.

‘Minister lied’: KC Venugopal’s motion against Jitendra Singh for ‘no firing’ remark

Why Doaba Region Is Central to Punjab's Political Power Equations

Doaba, a key region in Punjab, has long been considered a decisive factor in the state's political outcomes. Historically, the region was dominated by the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance until 2017. In the 2012 assembly elections, the SAD-BJP combine held a commanding lead, winning 16 seats against Congress's six in the region. The area's voting patterns have made it a stronghold that major parties have consistently competed to control.

Sony confirms plan to end physical game discs despite fan opposition

Sony is proceeding with its decision to stop producing physical game discs, despite significant backlash from PlayStation fans. During a recent earnings call, CFO Lin Tao acknowledged that the company carefully considered community concerns before reaching its conclusion. Tao cited the broad shift toward digital content consumption as the primary driver behind the move. Sony indicated it will 'cautiously move forward' with the transition, suggesting a measured rather than abrupt rollout.

Lok Sabha Passes Registration of Births and Deaths Amendment Bill

The Lok Sabha has passed the Registration of Births and Deaths Amendment Bill, marking a significant legislative development in India's parliamentary session. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju voiced disappointment over the Opposition's decision to boycott the debate on the legislation. Rijiju emphasized that the government had sought a thorough discussion on what he described as an important piece of legislation. The bill's passage came despite the absence of meaningful opposition participation in the proceedings.

AI Coding Gains Come With 243% More Incidents, Study of 22,000 Developers Finds

A Faros AI study tracking 22,000 developers across 4,000+ teams found that higher AI adoption boosted task completion by 34% and epics by 66%, but also drove bugs up 54%, incidents per pull request up 243%, and median review time up fivefold. Thirty-one percent more pull requests merged with no review at all, not by choice but because reviewers could not keep up with the accelerated output. A separate Anthropic-run trial found that AI-assisted developers completed tasks marginally faster yet scored 17 percentage points lower on comprehension of code they had just written. Critics argue the industry has misidentified the human as a speed bottleneck, when in reality developers serve as the only available judges of maintainability, intent, and design — qualities no automated benchmark currently measures. In response, one engineer built a deliberately minimal harness that keeps humans at decision points while routing mechanical checks to automated gates, capping individual code diffs at 400 lines to force better scoping.