Sydney Police Probe Two Possible Mistaken Identity Shootings in 48 Hours

Sydney police are investigating two fatal shootings that occurred on consecutive days, Tuesday and Wednesday. The first victim was a university student who was gunned down on Tuesday, while the second was a man in his 40s killed the following day. Authorities believe both killings may have been cases of mistaken identity. The back-to-back incidents have raised serious concerns about targeted violence in the city.

Trump's plan on birthright citizenship faces a hurdle

Trump's plan on birthright citizenship faces a hurdle

Multilingual LLM Testing Reveals Gaps That English-Only Evals Miss

A developer who evaluated large language model outputs across English, Hindi, Tamil, and Marathi found that model performance varies by the combination of language and task, not language alone. One key finding was that fluent-sounding output in less-common languages is more likely to be accepted uncritically, even when factually wrong. Script errors, diacritic drops, and mixed-language sentences exposed failure modes that standard automated checks and monolingual reviewers routinely overlook. The evaluation also highlighted how code-switching — speakers blending English words into regional language sentences — can disrupt grammar or cause models to mistranslate terms that should stay in English. The core takeaway is that testing a model in one language reveals little about its behaviour in others, making single-language evaluation insufficient for products intended for multilingual audiences.

Why Metamorphic Relations Beat Golden Files for AI-Agent Test Suites

A software engineering post on DEV Community argues that golden-file testing creates a vulnerability when AI agents can read expected outputs and simply patch code to match them, producing programs that pass tests but fail on unseen inputs. The author proposes replacing golden files with metamorphic relations — constraints that describe how outputs must behave under a known transformation, rather than recording a fixed expected value. Three core relation types are highlighted: idempotence, round-trip consistency, and oracle-free comparison using controlled transforms. The approach requires a seed corpus, a replay runner outside the agent's write path, and an expiring quarantine file to prevent flaky tests from masking broken invariants. The article presents a proposed repository layout and example CSV-normalizer code as a practical template, explicitly noting these are illustrative rather than production-verified implementations.

Blank Cells in Data Can Carry Real Signal, Not Just Missing Values

A data analysis using the Ames Housing dataset — 1,460 sales across 79 columns — examined whether empty cells in a table represent missing information or meaningful signals. Researchers found that 19 columns contained blanks, many of which were structural, meaning the absence of a value indicated a real-world condition such as no garage or no alley access. Using two diagnostic axes — whether the blank shifts the target variable and whether it can be predicted from other columns — the study classified blanks as either informative flags or redundant entries. Columns like Fence and Alley carried unique information found nowhere else in the dataset, while garage-related blanks were fully recoverable from companion columns. Notably, deleting all 19 blank-containing columns did not degrade model performance, confirming that their information was already encoded elsewhere.

How BULK COLLECT and FORALL Cut Oracle PL/SQL Loop Runtimes by Orders of Magnitude

A common performance bottleneck in Oracle PL/SQL occurs when loops process database rows one at a time, causing millions of costly context switches between the PL/SQL and SQL engines. On large tables, this overhead — not the actual data work — can stretch routine operations from seconds into tens of minutes. The BULK COLLECT clause addresses the read side by fetching thousands of rows into memory collections in a single context switch, while a LIMIT clause prevents excessive memory consumption on large datasets. FORALL handles the write side by sending an entire collection to the SQL engine in one statement rather than row by row. Together, the two techniques can reduce runtime by an order of magnitude without altering the underlying logic, and adding SAVE EXCEPTIONS allows partial batch failures to be logged rather than aborting an entire operation.

Brain Bank MCP Gives AI Assistants Persistent Memory Stored Locally

A developer has built an open-source tool called Brain Bank MCP that gives AI assistants like Claude persistent memory across conversations. The tool uses Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, a standard that allows AI systems to read and write external data. All memory is stored locally as plain Markdown files, requiring no cloud service, external API, or subscription. Users such as developers, product managers, designers, and students can store preferences, project context, and recurring notes that the AI can recall in future sessions. The project is publicly available on GitHub, with planned upgrades including semantic search, memory tagging, and PDF import support.

Viral post sparks unverified claims about Hamilton-Kardashian relationship finances

A viral social media post has drawn fresh attention to the rumored relationship between Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton and reality TV star Kim Kardashian. The post claimed that Kardashian prefers to cover all expenses in the relationship and would continue doing so if the two married. Hamilton and Kardashian have been publicly linked and spotted together on several occasions. However, the financial claims in the post have not been confirmed by any credible source, interview, or direct statement from either party.

How to Instantly Ban Users and Revoke All Sessions Without Security Gaps

A critical access-control vulnerability exists in healthtech and other platforms when a user account is banned in the profile database but their already-issued session tokens remain valid until natural expiry. Security best practice requires treating the profile state change and session revocation as two separate, explicitly ordered API calls rather than a single combined operation. The ban record must be written first with a full audit trail linking the user, operator, reason, and request ID, followed immediately by a global session revocation command across all devices. Skipping either step or reversing the order can allow a compromised session to refresh itself back to life or leave an active bearer credential in circulation. Using idempotency keys and a durable worker to retry both operations ensures the shutdown is observable, auditable, and complete even under network failures or rate-limiting conditions.

Developer builds Haskell tools to reverse-engineer FromSoftware PS3 game formats

A developer has begun a series documenting the construction of Haskell-based tools to study and transform binary formats used by FromSoftware games on PlayStation 3, starting with the original PS3 release of Demon's Souls. The project treats each step as a reproducible investigation, distinguishing documented facts from hypotheses before implementing only the minimum code needed to advance. The first article focuses on what can be reliably determined from a file named image.iso by reading its metadata through precisely bounded offsets, without mounting the image or extracting any data. Using ISO 9660 and ECMA-119 standards, the prototype identifies fields such as the volume ID, logical block size, a Joliet marker, and a PS3-specific product ID. The author emphasises that the four output lines represent bounded recognition results, not a full conformity certificate for the entire image.

Pakistan Cricket Has Had 11 Coaches in 5 Years Amid Persistent Instability

Pakistan cricket has been plagued by coaching instability, cycling through 11 coaches in just five years. Since September 2021, the Pakistan Cricket Board has repeatedly restructured its senior management setup, resulting in a series of short-term appointments. High-profile coaches such as Jason Gillespie and Gary Kirsten were among those whose tenures ended prematurely. The constant reshuffling has raised serious concerns about the team's long-term direction and consistency.

Domain experts edge out pure techies for plum jobs

Bengaluru startup takes the first step to fusion

Amazon India steps up hiring for festive rush

Offshore RMG sites find a cheat code

Trump Says He Would Not Have Welcomed Harry and Meghan Back to UK

Former U.S. President Donald Trump publicly voiced his disapproval of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's reported return to Britain. Trump stated that he would not have allowed the couple back had he been in a position of royal authority. He criticized Harry and Meghan for what he described as disrespectful behavior toward the British royal family. Trump also spoke warmly of his personal relationships with Queen Elizabeth and King Charles during his remarks.

How Small Companies Can Reclaim Unused AI Quota to Compete Around the Clock

A developer essay published on DEV Community argues that AI tools like Claude Code have fundamentally shifted competitive dynamics by enabling companies to run software development continuously, without the constraints of human labor. The author contends that well-funded firms and those with surplus GPU capacity can compound their first-mover advantage every night while smaller rivals stand still. However, the piece identifies an overlooked equalizer: most companies on monthly AI subscriptions consume only a fraction of their paid quota during daytime hours, leaving nights and weekends entirely unused. The author proposes that small companies can narrow the gap not by outspending larger rivals, but by systematically deploying their already-paid-for quota around the clock. The core argument is that the real disadvantage for smaller firms is not a lack of resources, but a failure to fully utilize the AI access they already fund each month.

Two Dead, Six Injured in Minneapolis Shooting; Suspect Killed

A shooting incident occurred on Wednesday in Minneapolis, a city in the northern United States. Multiple people were struck by gunfire, including two police officers among the victims. The attack left two people dead and six others injured. The suspect involved in the shooting was also killed following the incident. Local officials confirmed the details of the casualty figures and the suspect's fate.

Gemini 3.8 Flash

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