ODM backs Ruto 2027, Terry Tao finds bugs with AI coding agents

Januscape (CVE-2026-53359) is a use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux KVM hypervisor's x86 shadow MMU that has existed since the feature was introduced roughly 16 years ago. It allows a guest virtual machine to corrupt host memory and escape to root on the host. This matters for every cloud provider or self-hosted infrastructure running KVM, which is most of the industry including much of Kenya's own hosting and telecom infrastructure. Ubuntu published mitigations over the weekend. If you run any KVM-based virtualization, patch now. The vulnerability is related to an earlier bug (CVE-2026-46113) from May that was fixed upstream but apparently missed the same code path.

A Digital Realty data center in Ashburn, Virginia was seen emitting dark smoke over the July 4 weekend as it ran diesel backup generators while a heat wave pushed the mid-Atlantic grid to its limits. PJM, the regional transmission operator, had warned data centers they could face curtailment and directed them to use backup power. The incident is a preview of a growing tension: AI data center load is exploding in Northern Virginia, but the grid infrastructure is struggling to keep up during extreme weather events. Henrico County, which hosts 37 data centers, faces a 25% electricity cost increase starting July 1. The DOE is building a simulation tool called Agora to model AI data center power demands on the grid, but operational fixes are what actually matter right now.

California's AB 1777 took effect July 1, allowing law enforcement to ticket autonomous vehicles for traffic violations including running red lights, blocking intersections, and stopping in bike lanes. The law also requires two-way intercoms and 24/7 emergency contact in all robotaxis operating in the state. Texas is simultaneously launching a commercial autonomous vehicle authorization system with state and local police given enforcement power starting May 28. The regulatory tightening comes as Waymo expands in Los Angeles, Tesla's robotaxi service in San Francisco remains classified by regulators as not actually autonomous, and Cruise attempts a comeback. For operators, the takeaway is clear: states are done waiting for federal AV legislation and are building their own enforcement frameworks.

Ghostel.el is a terminal emulator for Emacs that builds on libghostty (the same rendering engine behind the Ghostty terminal) rather than running a separate terminal process in a buffer. The result is native GPU acceleration, truecolor support, ligatures, and proper keyboard handling inside Emacs. For the crowd that lives in Emacs, this is a genuine quality-of-life improvement over vterm or ansi-term. It hit 177 points on Hacker News over the weekend, suggesting there is real demand for better terminal integration in the editor that refuses to die. macOS and Linux are supported; Windows support is planned.

Vi Bilägare, a Swedish car magazine, repeated its 2022 touchscreen distraction test with 10 new cars and a 2016 Volvo V60 baseline. Drivers performed common tasks (climate control, radio, brightness) at highway speeds on a closed airfield. The average distance traveled while eyes were off the road rose from 756 meters in 2022 to 813 meters in 2026. The Mercedes CLA was the worst: 35 seconds to complete tasks, with a 19-second delay after startup before the screen accepted inputs, covering 1,116 meters. The Volvo XC60 was best at 485 meters, but even that was worse than a 2022 Volvo C40. The test proves bigger screens and sharper graphics are not making interfaces safer. Physical controls still matter.