A safety breach affecting UpdraftPlus, a WordPress backup plugin installed on complete 3 myriad websites, enabled attackers to instal malicious plugins and create unauthorized director accounts. The assault exploited compromised UpdraftCentral association keys, allowing attackers to obtain authority of connected WordPress websites without needing a username or password.

Updraft Website Compromised

TeamUpdraft confirmed that its website was compromised complete the weekend of October 17-18, 2026. The business believes attackers accessed its client database, which contained client data and association keys for services including UpdraftCentral. Those compromised keys enabled attackers to acquire authority of connected WordPress websites.

Updraft Security Response

A TeamUpdraft blog article explained that the unauthorized admission path at the bosom of the breach was closed, that the possibly compromised credentials were replaced, and that safety updates were released that revoke older UpdraftCentral connections.

The updates, UpdraftPlus 1.26.13 for the liberated type and 2.26.13 for the premium version, were released on October 19, 2026.

The plugin changelog describes the updates as revoking UpdraftCentral Cloud keys, alongside type 1.26.13 correcting how the revocation was applied in the preceding release. The updates automatically disconnect affected websites from UpdraftCentral, blocking additional admission through that route.

The business additionally reported that WordPress.org had pushed the updated plugin to users automatically.

UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin

The UpdraftPlus plugin is used by WordPress websites to create backups, reconstruct websites, and migrate sites to distinct hosting providers or domain names. It supports automated backups and enables website owners to shop backup copies of their websites on services specified as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.

The plugin additionally includes UpdraftCentral, a distant administration characteristic that enables website owners to oversee multiple WordPress installations from a sole dashboard. That characteristic is at the center of the safety incident.

The Compromise Of UpdraftCentral

UpdraftCentral uses safety keys to authenticate instructions sent from the distant dashboard to connected websites. Those keys authorize the assistance to execute administrative actions without requiring person to log in to all website separately.

Compromised Security Keys Enable Website Takeover

The compromised UpdraftCentral keys enabled attackers to dispatch commands to connected WordPress websites that appeared to be lawful instructions from the distant administration service.

Standard safety checks couldn’t differentiate between lawful instructions and those authenticated alongside taken keys. As a result, WordPress websites accepted the attackers’ commands as authorized.

In safety business Patchstack’s first analysis, published before TeamUpdraft released the safety updates, the matter was explained as not an genuine vulnerability:

“This is not a exposure in UpdraftPlus, and as of 19 October no plugin update stops it. The commands are correctly encrypted and signed alongside genuine dashboard personal keys. Every inspect in the plugin passes, since from the site’s item of perspective the education is legitimate.”

What that method is that the attackers weren’t exploiting a programming error in the UpdraftPlus plugin itself. The safety checks were operating as designed, but the taken keys allowed attackers to impersonate the distant administration service.

Malicious Plugins Installed

Using the compromised UpdraftCentral safety keys, attackers sent commands to connected WordPress websites instructing them to instal and activate malicious plugins. Because the commands were authenticated alongside genuine safety keys, the websites treated them as lawful instructions and installed the plugins through WordPress’s normal plugin facility process.

The malicious plugins contained a backdoor that could create a WordPress person document alongside the Editor function and afterward aid that document additional administrative permissions.

Although an Editor document normally lacks approval to instal plugins or oversee crucial WordPress settings, the malicious code separately granted those capabilities. That made the unauthorized accounts difficult to acknowledge since they could appear to be average Editors during possessing permissions normally reserved for administrators.

The backdoor additionally bypassed the normal WordPress login process, bypassing safety measures specified as two-factor authentication and login attempt restrictions.

Patchstack’s inspection established that the malicious plugins contained a coding error that caused affected websites to come back server errors before the backdoor could activate. However, this error didn’t eliminate the danger posed by the malicious plugins.

Patchstack identified 99 distinct names used for the malicious plugins, including one named Site Health Cache. The names mostly resembled lawful website care and achievement tools, making them small apparent to website owners reviewing their installed plugins.

WordPress Sites May Be Connected Without Owners Realizing It

An crucial item concerning this safety event is that a website owner power have an energetic UpdraftCentral association equal if they never intended to use the distant administration service.

Patchstack reported that connecting a website to a TeamUpdraft document could automatically create an UpdraftCentral association since the choice to allow distant administration was selected by default. Consequently, websites using UpdraftPlus strictly for backups could have energetic association keys without location owners realizing it.

The event affects websites alongside energetic UpdraftCentral Cloud connections, not all website alongside the UpdraftPlus plugin installed. Patchstack additionally confirmed that the safety matter affected the two liberated and premium versions of UpdraftPlus. TeamUpdraft stated that self-hosted UpdraftCentral installations were not affected.

UpdraftPlus Users Urged To Check Their Websites

TeamUpdraft is urging website owners, including those who have never knowingly used UpdraftCentral, to inspect their websites for evidence of unauthorized activity.

The business recommends reviewing installed plugins for unfamiliar additions and checking WordPress person accounts for unauthorized administrators.

Website owners should additionally verify that they are operating UpdraftPlus 1.26.13 or 2.26.13, or a newer version, and eliminate any remaining compromised UpdraftCentral association keys.

The association keys can be managed through the WordPress dashboard under Settings, UpdraftPlus, Advanced Tools, and UpdraftCentral.

TeamUpdraft additionally recommends changing director passwords and considering restoration from a backup created before October 17 if evidence of colony is discovered.

Users alongside TeamUpdraft accounts are additionally advised to alter their document passwords.

The business says there is currently no evidence that attackers keep admission to its systems, but its inquiry remains ongoing.

Although the safety updates obstacle additional admission through the compromised connections, they don’t eliminate malicious plugins or unauthorized accounts that may already be on affected websites. That’s why checking for evidence of colony remains crucial equal following updating.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Kues

Tesla took several subtle jabs at its robotaxi competitors onward of its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

On a website Tesla created for its robotaxi safety report, the business uploaded clips of its self-driving cars maneuvering in real-world conditions without a controller rearward the wheel. Obstacles and hazards included stormy weather, a pedestrian crossing at a green light, stray pets, and competitor robotaxis getting in the way.

Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's VP of AI, additionally posted the video on X, calling it "Robotaxi B-roll."

At about the 1:44 grade of Elluswamy's post, the video shows a robotaxi coming to a complete halt in its own lane as a Waymo makes a wider-than-usual correct turn. The Waymo can be seen encroaching into Tesla's lane before it returns to its own path.

A Waymo spokesman did not immediately come back a petition for comment.

In another abbreviated clip, the Tesla robotaxi is seen driving at night, braking for an Avride car that pulled up from the right, a small too far into the Tesla's path.

Avride is a robotaxi business that offers robotaxi rides through Uber in Dallas and is evaluation rides alongside a safety controller rearward the rotor in Austin.

A spokesman for Avride did not immediately react to a petition for comment.

Tesla posted the footage as it seeks to create its case publically on robotaxi safety. The business began offering a constricted figure of autonomous rides without an in-car safety detect in Austin in January.

In the newly posted safety report, Tesla stated its robotaxi assistance has driven 3.3 myriad miles autonomously — comparatively small compared to Waymo's additional than 271 myriad miles driven as of June.

Tesla stated during its Q3 earnings call that it volition initiate unsupervised Cybercabs in Dallas in November.

Meta's commission wants Mark Zuckerberg to rod around.

The business announced a new category of non-voting Class C inventory in its third-quarter earnings report. It listed multiple reasons for creating the new category — one of which is to keep the CEO in control.

A Special Committee established by Meta's commission resolute that Zuckerberg was the finest fit to guide the business into its future, and highlighted the CEO's imaginative imagination and administration abilities.

"The innovation of the Class C average inventory volition continue the founder-led example that has driven the company's achievement since its inception," Meta said.

The inventory category volition additionally provision Meta the capability to backing its growth, the earnings study said. Meta is spending big on AI and the data centers needed to power it. The business reported $34.91 milliard in third-quarter capital expenditures.

Meta's media publish stated the allocation would efficiently amount to a two-for-one inventory divided for existing shareholders. Susan Li, Meta's chief financial officer, stated that the inventory volition be distributed to existing shareholders.

Other tech companies have issued inventory to admission new chief without diluting their CEO's voting power. Google performed a stock split in 2012 for a akin reason. Semafor was archetypal to study the new inventory class.

Zuckerberg has lengthy been the visage of Meta. He's strengthened his guidance through the AI boom, going "startup mode" and getting hands-on alongside the tech. The company's AI squad set up their desks about anywhere Zuckerberg sits.

The achievement of Muse, Meta's AI agent, has raised the overview of another Meta executive: Alexandr Wang. The chief AI authoritative has joined Zuckerberg for podcasts and spoken onstage at keynotes.

A Financial Times profile final week touted Wang as a "potential successor to Zuckerberg." It's apparent the commission wants Zuckerberg there for the lengthy haul.

Meta says several of its biggest prosperity incinerators could eventually commencement turning profits.

The social media giant, which generated complete 97% of its quarterly income from ads, has faced persistent questions from investors about the deficiency of profitability in its AI and hardware initiatives.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed those concerns head-on during its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Zuckerberg stated that Muse, the AI assistant it launched final month, is unprofitable since it's "very compute intensive to run." Meta expects to commencement turning that about next twelvemonth by massively improving Muse's efficiency.

"If compute effectiveness continues improving quickly for another few years, which we think is extremely likely, afterward Muse volition be extremely profitable complete multiple years," he said.

Meta plans to create prosperity from Muse by taking a small transaction fee off of purchases it drives, Zuckerberg stated at Meta's Connect gathering final month.

Zuckerberg added that Muse, which launched lone in the US and Canada, wasn't launched globally due in part to the amount of compute it requires. (Meta's North American users are mostly its most lucrative.)

Zuckerberg additionally struck a affirmative note concerning its cash-hemorrhaging Reality Labs division, which makes products akin Meta Ray-Bans and virtual actuality glasses.

Reality Labs volition narrow its losses to concerning $15 milliard in 2027, downward from the $18 to $19 milliard it expects to endure this year. The division should commencement trending toward profitability next year, as Meta's AI systems create it additional useful, Zuckerberg said.

"I continue to accept that the way to delivering holographic experience, of bringing together the bodily and digital worlds and mundane glasses, volition arrive through VR first," Zuckerberg said.

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At this point, it's difficult not to be acquainted alongside Rebecca Yarros' "Empyrean" sequence concerning dragon passenger Violet Sorrengail.

When "Onyx Storm," the third publish in the romantasy series, was released in January 2025, it became the fastest-selling grownup novel in 20 years.

Yarros is operating on the fourth installment in the series, and she lately released a gathering of abbreviated stories set in the "Empyrean" cosmos called "Threshing Day." However, it volition motionless be a during before publish four is prepared for readers.

In the meantime, though, we're getting nearer to a sequence adaptation of "Fourth Wing," which officially established its guide actors.

'Fourth Wing' is becoming a TV show

In October 2023, Deadline announced that Amazon MGM Studios and Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society were evolving "Fourth Wing" into a TV series. Yarros is an administrator manufacturer for the show.

Outlier Society produced Jordan's "Creed III" and is evolving a slate of another sequence and films in supplement to "Fourth Wing."

Deadline additionally reported in October 2023 that Amazon MGM Studios had acquired the entitlements to the complete "Empyrean" series. In her January 2025 Variety interview, Yarros stated she had shared the "five-book arc" for the "Empyrean" sequence alongside Amazon.

"They have the five-book arc, which went a small awry in Book 3 fair since the positioning, but they already cognize that," she told Variety. "But they have the five-book arc and the broad big points of what happens in between all book, but they don't have the specifics between Book 4 and Book 5, since I'm getting prepared to go to my insane plotting commission and storyline out all sole event that happens in all book, so that I create certain that I'm inside my two books there."

A new showrunner

In July 2024, Outlier Society announced it had hired Moira Walley-Beckett, who worked on shows akin "Breaking Bad" and "Anne alongside an E," as the showrunner for the series. In a January 2025 discussion alongside Variety, Yarros stated Walley-Beckett was "great" and "phenomenal," but in July 2025, Walley-Beckett exited the project.

Variety reported in September 2025 that Meredith Averill was taking complete as showrunner. Averill was earlier the showrunner of the Netflix sequence "Locke & Key" and a manufacturer on shows akin "The Good Wife" and "The Haunting of Hill House."

Amazon declined to comment on this part whenever contacted by Business Insider, but Yarros shared a screenshot of a Deadline part about the showrunner notice on her Instagram whenever it dropped.

"Welcome to the team, Meredith Averill! Guys, I affection everything this fantastic female has worked on and I'm so enthusiastic to have her joining us," Yarros stated in her caption.

'Fourth Wing' is in the works

In January 2026, Jordan assured fans the "Fourth Wing" display was on its way in an interview alongside Deadline.

"We are making certain that this is going to be an breathtaking display that delivers on all of the things the fans desire and several of the things that they won't be expecting either," Jordan said.

He additionally told the outlet that he's conscious of how much fans of "Fourth Wing" attention concerning the series.

"But rely me, I cognize how cherished this franchise IP is," he said. "It's first stages, but I awareness how much group attention concerning this one. It's not misplaced on us."

And on May 11, 2026, Jordan announced the display had been ordered to sequence for Prime Video at the Amazon Upfront, an annual event anywhere Amazon offers a sneak peek at its coming content.

Yarros and Averill joined Jordan onstage at the event, as did Lisa Joy, an administrator manufacturer on the display who volition straightforward the archetypal episode. Joy has earlier worked on shows akin HBO's "Westworld" and Prime Video's "Fallout."

Yarros posted concerning the event on her Instagram story, sharing a photo of herself, Jordan, Averill, and Joy, writing, "What an entirely untamed night! So grateful for this team!"

Meet Violet and Xaden

The Amazon Upfront seemed to build momentum for the show, as it was announced in October that the Prime Video sequence had mold its Violet Sorrengail and her enemy turned beloved Xaden Riorson. Deadline archetypal reported the casting on October 15, 2026, although the streamer didn't verify that news until October 21.

Esther McGregor volition perform Violet. McGregor, the 24-year-old female of Ewan McGregor, appeared in "Babygirl" and "We Were Liars," another Amazon adaptation.

Meanwhile, 30-year-old Emilio Sakraya has been mold as Xaden. The German performer is known for projects akin "Rheingold" and the famous Netflix sequence "Warrior Nun." Both actors are related newcomers, though, alongside their "Fourth Wing" casting marking a big stage in their careers.

McGregor reshared Amazon's article concerning her casting to her Instagram story, writing, "So beyond excited. Honored. Thrilled."

Sakraya additionally shared the article to his Instagram story, but he captioned it alongside a citation from "Iron Flame," the second publish in Yarros' series, in a fun nod to the text: "My house. My chair. My Woman."

In a declaration shared by Amazon, Yarros said, "I'm so grateful to our producing and casting squad for conducting a thorough, worldwide hunt to discover Violet and Xaden. It volition be incredibly breathtaking to see these gifted actors, Esther and Emilio, bring our cherished characters to existence on screen."

Yarros stated at a London event in August 2024 that she intentionally never shared any hopes for which actors may be mold in the show.

"I volition never say who my ideal fan mold is since the mold is so diverse, and I desire to open that up to additional diversity," she said. "And I awareness akin the second I say who I think this character is, that's who everyone volition accept. That's lone who they volition accept."

"I kinda anticipation they find, like, an up-and-coming generation," she added. "But I would never put my fan mold in your heads."

At the identical event, she clarified that she wouldn't be engaged in the casting process, but that she had shared one hard-line casting petition alongside Amazon and Outlier Society.

"They cognize how staunch I am against whitewashing Xaden," she said. "I think that's the biggest thing."

Xaden is described as having "warm tawny skin" in "Fourth Wing" and "tawny-brown" skin in the two "Iron Flame" and "Onyx Storm." Sakraya was delivered in Germany to a Serbian begetter and a Moroccan mother, according to an discussion alongside German Films Quarterly.

Amazon did not provision any additional particulars on casting or whenever filming for the sequence may begin.

Yarros talked concerning the series' aviator during on a publish tour for 'Onyx Storm'

Although particulars concerning the sequence are limited, Yarros made a few comments concerning the display during promoting "Onyx Storm."

Speaking at an involvement on January 24, 2025, in New York, Yarros told fans she had peruse the aviator for the "Fourth Wing" display — and loved it.

"I peruse the latest type of the aviator final week," she said. "It's really nerve-racking whenever you peruse item akin that since you're really — you're trusting person alternatively alongside your baby, right? And you're trusting person alternatively to say, like, 'Hey, this is crucial in your work, and this isn't,' and you kinda get your defender up."

"But guys, I, like, kicked my feet the entire time," she said. "You're gonna affection it."

Yarros additionally praised Walley-Beckett at the event, calling her a "brilliant writer" and saying she maintained the book's integrity in the pilot. It's unclear how the aviator may have changed since Walley-Beckett's exit from the project.

Meta says it’s issuing a new category of shares to prosperity its AI initiatives. As part of its third-quarter earnings study released on Wednesday, the business says the non-voting inventory volition additionally go toward possible acquisitions and employee compensation, alongside selling commencement in 2027.

“The measure of funding required to compete, prolong growth, develop infrastructure, and prosecute new strategic initiatives amidst the AI transformation taking location in the industry is significant,” Meta says in the media release. Susan Li, Meta’s chief financial officer, added during an earnings call that the new category of shares volition “expand our backing tools and provision us elasticity to allocate rearward the unprecedented momentum we’re seeing throughout all part of our endeavor driven by AI.”

Meta has poured billions of dollars into the AI race as it builds (and promotes) sprawling data centers, poaches top talent from another companies akin OpenAI, and builds AI models capable of rivaling those from another tech giants. The business expects chief expenditures between $135 milliard and $145 milliard this year, up from the former $130 milliard and $145 milliard estimate.

It’s been a occupied former few weeks for Meta, which launched its AI agent, Muse, in September. Like another AI agents, Muse can do things akin spotless out your email inbox, publish eatery reservations, and scheme trips. The Muse app attempt to the top of app stores shortly following its rollout, and hit 10 myriad downloads in the US this week. Meta additionally rolled out its Muse Wonder example this week.

Walmart wants your bot to shop.

The retailing elephantine stated Wednesday that it has two new tools to assistance third-party AI agents shop on customers' behalf: delegate profiles and an delegate gateway.

The delegate profiles nexus all transactions to the bot that performed them, and authorize Walmart customers to oversee authorizations and spending limits as they would for an additional person on their credit cardstock account, the business said.

With delegate gateways, bots no longer have to navigate a website that is designed for humans. Instead, Walmart is granting admission through a example content protocol that it says volition assistance agents activity additional quickly and accurately.

Walmart's move contrasts alongside Amazon's approach, which lately blocked Meta's delegate Muse from its site, saying agents breach Amazon's conditions of use. Amazon has additionally pushed rear on another third-party agents, including a lawsuit against Perplexity and restrictions on agents from Google and OpenAI.

"As customers commencement using agents to assistance them shop, we're construction connections, permissions and options that complement those tools and assistance how customers desire to use them," the business stated in a statement.

The business additionally stated the gateway protects the data that Walmart has concerning its customers, and lone provides what is necessary for completing a stated transaction. In particular, the gateway can portion a applicable form or penchant — specified as a customer's favorite laundry detergent brand — without sharing their complete acquisition former alongside the agent.

The business additionally laid out a set of conditions and conditions concerning how AI agents are expected to run whenever shopping.

Under the terms, the business stated it volition regard its customary returns guideline and that agents volition continually see the identical pricing that a individual would see on Walmart.com.

I contacted support; we have business+ and got these unsatisfactory responses (the second one doesn't equal location AL2023):

Our assistance squad is conscious of the reported matter and is actively operating on it.
There is no particular ETA accessible at the moment; however, updates volition be published on our community CVE pages at https://explore.alas.aws.amazon.com/ formerly available.
We propose monitoring the advisories formerly released and evaluating the effect according to your particular environment.

and

Thank you for your patience. My name is redacted and I have taken complete your case from my colleague.

We are conscious of CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, which power PHP interpreter. These issues power PHP branches 8.2 through 8.5 at default configuration and can authorize an unauthenticated distant performer to collision PHP employee processes. We can verify that the reachable scenarios are narrow and assessed as difficult to leverage in practice.

AWS volition merge the fix released by PHP to the following affected services:

AWS Elastic Beanstalk: ElasticBeanstalk mitigation is introduced on the latest phase version. Customers alongside operating environments volition be automatically updated to the latest phase type in the selected care opening through Managed Platform Updates. No act is required to update to the latest version. Customers who have not enabled Managed Platform Updates can update their environment's phase type by following our records [1].

AWS Lightsail: AWS Lightsail volition measure and build the fix for new Lightsail blueprints so customers can merge the fix.

If you have questions or concerns, delight prosecute up on this assistance case.

[1] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/using-features.platform.upgrade.html

Reacted by Andy Davies, Dave Smith-Hayes, dowan-sourcetel, RavianXReaver, charitharo, Panda_Program, Clworld, Andrew Shuttleworth, Gonzalo Romero and Petro Mäntylä

Reacted by MrTschi, dowan-sourcetel, Ben, RavianXReaver and Gonzalo Romero

Tesla has begun producing its long-awaited humanoid robot, Optimus, at its Fremont factory, the business stated in its quarterly earnings report.

"The bots coming off this row are the archetypal production-quality bots that we have manufactured," Tesla said.

The business volition continue refining Optimus's hardware and manufacturing process, but added that it has "proven that the current manufacturing procedure for Optimus is suitable for a business product."

Tesla did not say whenever Optimus would rotate into commercially available.

Elon Musk earlier tempered expectations concerning how quickly Tesla can measure up Optimus production, alert it would be "agonizingly slow."

Tesla stopped producing the Model S and Model X at its Fremont, California, factory before this twelvemonth to create area for an Optimus row designed to eventually create a myriad robots a year. A second row under building in Austin is planned to have an annual capability of 10 myriad robots.

Tesla is competing in a crowded humanoid market. Agility Robotics, which plans to go public, has deployed its Digit robot throughout nine client facilities, during Figure AI has announced deployments in logistics and allocation centers this year. Sunday Robotics, 1X, and Weave Robotics are preparing to container robots into homes this fall.

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Tesla is still marketing plentifulness of cars. Making the identical amount of prosperity on them is getting harder.

On Wednesday, the Elon Musk-led automaker reported that its functioning earnings cut 56% twelvemonth complete twelvemonth to $718 myriad in the third fourth — below Wall Street's estimates of $746.3 myriad — during income was approximately flat at $28.05 billion.

Tesla pointed to higher functioning expenses tied to its AI efforts, or "SI"/"Super Intelligence" as Trump prefers, and another R&D projects. Lower regulatory credit income and weaker energy retention income gain additionally weighed on profitability, during lesser conveyance prices hurt revenue.

"While we continue to execute on innovations to decrease the disbursal of manufacturing and operations, complete time, we anticipate our hardware-related profits to be accompanied by an acceleration of SI, application and fleet-based profits," the business reported.

It's not all bad news for Tesla's profits. The business is motionless solidly in the green, and it attack on the base line. Tesla reported 48 cents in adjusted earnings per share, complete the 44-cent expert agreement estimate.

The automaker additionally sees areas of gain growth in its future: autonomy subscriptions are trending up, and Tesla stated it's offering the right, region-specific merchandise mixes.

The new fourth has already made waves

The Tesla narrative continues to perform out in genuine time, and it's had a occupied duration since the fourth fourth kicked off in October.

On Tuesday, during SpaceX's earnings call, Musk stated that Tesla and SpaceX had all cast committees to examine a possible merger. Both companies are helmed by Musk — and he owns billions of dollars in inventory of each.

Anticipation of the possible mega-merger has been construction about the companies for much of 2026, and has lone risen since SpaceX went public. Musk stated he was not included in those committees and that calling the merger a foregone decision "would be overstating it."

It additionally came small than a week following Tesla held its high-flying demo for the Roadster. The sports car performed a gymnastics routine, including briefly jumping into the air and twirling complete a lineup of another Tesla vehicles.

It came nine years following Tesla archetypal promised to relaunch the Roadster. Musk archetypal showed off a prototype of the conveyance in 2017 and predicted a 2020 merchandise launch.

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• Charles Pulliam-Moore

Meta had to casing out $9.89 milliard to pay for a chunk of the kid safety colony it reached alongside US attorneys general. That’s according to the company’s third-quarter earnings study released on Wednesday, which says Meta’s earnings from operations would have been $22.89 milliard without the settlement.

In August, Meta accepted to pay $17.1 billion to resolve a enormous nationwide lawsuit that claimed the business harmed children by making its social media platforms “addictive” by design. It volition additionally lone pay $5.3 milliard of this amount if YouTube and TikTok execute stricter settings and safeguards for kids, which Meta additionally accepted to as part of the settlement.

Meta’s total expenses and expenses amounted to $51.61 billion, including the amount it accepted to pay as part of the settlement. The business may have equal bigger litigation expenses in its future, as a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $25 milliard complete the Cambridge Analytica scandal on Wednesday.

Even alongside the fees connected alongside its lawful battles, Meta reported earning $64.60 milliard in revenue, marking a 26 percent addition from the identical period final year. “We hit important milestones this fourth toward delivering individual superintelligence for everyone,” Meta CEO Zuckerberg says in the media release. “Our investments are paying off, the center endeavor is strong, and we’re seeing speed throughout the board.”

Developing…

RCE via OOM corruption, CVE-2026-109618 (GHSA-w8hw-w9fx-j79w): out-of-memory handling can interrupt PHP during inner petition data is lone partially initialized. Request cleanup may afterward treat the invalid data as valid.

RCE via old earth state, CVE-2026-109619 (GHSA-6wmf-4rv5-p3rp): request-owned inner province can last following its assistance recollection has been freed. A afterward petition handled by the identical employee may use that old province before normal initialization resets it.

Follow topics and authors from this narrative to see additional akin this in your personalized homepage nourish and to obtain email updates.

• Terrence O'Brien
• Jay Peters

Anthropic is joining the personal AI delegate craze.

The business announced the new app Claude Duet on Wednesday, billed as a "proactive agent" that can run in the background, exterior tasks to a user, and grip a assortment of work. The tool is in investigation preview for now alongside a waitlist, definition it won't immediately vie for the larger market alongside another new agents akin Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots.

Still, the notice ramps up the force on those companies — Anthropic says it built Duet about its flagship Opus 5.5 model, which was released in delayed September and has already rotate into among the industry's most popular. Recent example breakthroughs have made AI improved at handling work on its own, spurring a hurry to build these "always-on" individual agents.

"It can have the discernment and judgement about whenever to be proactive, whenever to act on your behalf," stated Mike Krieger, a co-lead of Anthropic's Labs team, stated in a Duet initiate video.

The tool, Anthropic says, volition dispatch users a concise all dawn concerning what's happening on their connected apps, and communication them whenever item needs attention. Like another companies' offerings, it runs exterior a user's computer, sends notifications, and asks for endorsement on certain tasks.

Anthropic announced Duet on the day of Meta's earnings report and used the chance to citation a new poach from Mark Zuckerberg's company. Karan Ahuja led merchandise administration for Meta Superintelligence Labs until July, according to his LinkedIn, before starting at Anthropic in August and foremost Duet's development.

He wrote on X that he's been using Duet to build Duet, and stated the squad "built it for professionals and small endeavor owners juggling a lot at activity and at home."

Ahuja additionally wrote that Anthropic is letting group into Duet from the waitlist "as quickly as possible."

The news didn't go unnoticed at Meta. Alexandr Wang, who heads Meta Superintelligence Labs, posted a meme concerning Duet's similarity to Muse.

Anthropic is accelerated approaching a elephantine first community offering, which could value the business at as much as $2 trillion. Like another AI players, the business navigates a high-wire competition to win complete users, safe computing power, build state-of-the-art models, and provision AI-native products.

The data resolute Apptopia estimates that Muse had additional than 14 myriad installations as of Wednesday. It established that Claude users who installed the Muse app were using Claude additional than before, although motionless for small minutes per day than they spent on the Meta product.

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As the fume clears from its outrageous Roadster demo, Tesla reported Q3 earnings on Wednesday — and the chilly actuality is that income has flatlined.

Tesla stated it earned $1.7 milliard in net earnings on $28.0 milliard in income in the fourth that ended in September 2026. Revenues were flat, during profits dropped 4 percent compared to the third fourth of 2025, whenever the business earned $1.4 milliard in net earnings on $28.1 milliard in revenue. Tesla’s income came in complete Wall Street expectations of $27.9 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Tesla’s own company-compiled expectations predicted Q3 revenues of $28.3 billion.

The earnings arrive on the heels of a disappointing Q3 revenue report, in which Tesla reported a 2.1 percent autumn in client deliveries compared to the blockbuster third fourth of 2025. (For a direct-to-consumer business akin Tesla, deliveries are a proxy for sales.) The autumn in revenue was extensively expected gratitude to the expiration of the $7,500 national tax credit for electric vehicles on September 30, 2025. Elon Musk himself stated that the business was in for “a few coarse quarters” gratitude to the expiring incentive and another macroeconomic factors.

But the possible of a Tesla-SpaceX merger gained new momentum following Musk’s revelation this week that the two companies had cast particular committees to conversation the possibility. Musk stated a merger would be a “good idea,” equal although he claimed he wouldn’t be engaged in the process.

Beyond merger talks, this former fourth additionally saw the extremely anticipated re-reveal of the next-generation Tesla Roadster, nine years following it was initially announced. The demo in Waco, Texas, featured a redesigned two-seat prototype flying and flipping through the air using cold-gas thrusters provided by SpaceX. While the event generated its own cottage industry of online reactions, it did small to asauge skeptics that the conveyance would really go into manufacturing in 2028, as promised.

Developing…

Google Search Central is reminding anyone who takes servers offline for PHP patches to come back a 503 position code, which tells Google the outage is temporary.

The LinkedIn post went up Wednesday, the day PHP released emergency fixes for two critical flaws that can let attackers run code without logging in.

The article doesn’t say how lengthy a 503 can remain up. Google’s crawl charge documentation recommends against serving one for additional than one to two days, since URLs that come back it for multiple days may be dropped from the index.

What Google And Mueller Said

Google Search Central wrote:

“Serving a 503 (Service Unavailable) HTTP position code ensures already indexed URLs are preserved in Search during you work. Once you commencement serving 200 responses again, things naturally come back to normal.”

The article additionally warned against generic 404s or 200 error pages during the downtime. It connected to Google’s leaf on how HTTP position codes power its crawlers.

In a 2013 post, Google’s John Mueller wrote that returning an error leaf alongside a 200 OK position code causes Google to indicator that error content.

Mueller posted his own reminder on Bluesky before Wednesday and stated anywhere the 503 can arrive from:

“If you’re taking PHP sites downward to agenda period to agreement alongside “unplanned updates”, use HTTP 503 alternatively of letting responses period out / 404 / 500. You can do this exterior of PHP / item DNS elsewhere / CDN.”

The 2011 Google post he connected shows how to dispatch a 503 alongside PHP code, which won’t assistance whenever PHP is what’s coming down.

In a reply, a Bluesky person classified the responses roughly, from finest to worst, as 503, 500, 403, 404 and 200. Mueller called it “a fine model.”

How 503s Affect Crawling

Google’s crawl charge records lists 500, 503, and 429 responses as the way to urgently decrease crawler traffic for a abbreviated period. When Google’s crawlers hit a ample figure of URLs returning those position codes, they decrease the crawl charge throughout the complete hostname, including URLs that motionless come back content. Once the figure of errors drops, Google automatically increases the crawl charge again.

When returning a 503 or 429, you can add a Retry-After HTTP header that tells Google’s crawlers whenever to try again, either as a figure of seconds or as a date and period in UTC.

Google’s crawl charge leaf additionally warns that slower crawling method Googlebot discovers small new pages and refreshes existing ones small often. Google Ads campaigns may be canceled or paused.

When I covered comments from Google’s Gary Illyes in 2024, he stated a 503 enduring 10-15 minutes all now and afterward “is not ‘extended’ by any means, so you have to be fine.”

How Long Google Recommends Serving A 503

Google’s crawl charge leaf warns:

“We don’t propose that you do this for a lengthy duration of period (meaning, longer than 1-2 days) as it may have a negative consequence on how your location appears in Google products. For example, in the case of Search, if Googlebot observes these position codes on the identical URL for multiple days, the URL may be dropped from Google’s index.”

Google’s position codes page, the one the LinkedIn article connected to, says already indexed URLs that come back server errors are “preserved in the index, but eventually dropped.”

Google’s guide to pausing a website calls disabling a entire location an extreme measure that should lone final a extremely abbreviated time, a few days at most.

The guide additionally says not to come back a 503 for the robots.txt file, since that blocks all crawling. It adds that Google’s systems can’t refresh titles, descriptions, metadata, or organized data on a leaf that returns a 503.

Why This Matters

The 503 has to arrive from item that keeps operating during PHP is offline, specified as a CDN regulation or a impermanent server you’ve pointed DNS at. Your robots.txt document should keep responding normally so Google can motionless crawl the site. The 503 is a short-term measure, since Google’s records recommends against serving one for longer than one to two days.

Looking Ahead

Sites on PHP 8.1 or older no longer get regular authoritative updates. PHP has published constricted origin fixes for versions 7.4 through 8.1 for teams that build PHP themselves, and hosts or assistance vendors may provision their own, as Vahan Petrosyan reported for SEJ. For a closure that runs former a day or two, Google’s intermission guide points to an indexable residence leaf served alongside a 200 as a placeholder. Once the location returns 200s again, Google’s position codes leaf says crawling picks rear up gradually.

Featured Image: Tetiana Yurchenko/Shutterstock

Bose announced today it has acquired Skullcandy. Although the two companies are competitors in the person audio space, Skullcandy lately partnered alongside its new owner to bring multiple of Bose’s audio technologies — including its head-tracking spatial audio and outstanding energetic noise cancellation (ANC) — to products akin the Skullcandy Crusher 1080 ANC headphones and Method 360 ANC earbuds.

Specific particulars concerning the agreement weren’t shared, but according to a news release, Bose plans to keep Skullcandy a distinct brand that volition rotate into part of its premium person audio business. Skullcandy volition remain based in Park City, Utah, anywhere it was founded. The acquisition volition assistance Bose develop the attain of its audio technologies, including its industry-leading noise cancellation, to a wider audience.

“For additional than 60 years, Bose has been committed to delivering amazing audio experiences nevertheless and anywhere group choose to listen. As we activity to attain equal additional people, we’re expanding how we do that, not lone through Bose products, but through innovation partnerships and a expanding portfolio of brands,” Bose CEO Lila Snyder says.

Founded in 2003, Skullcandy hasn’t been about for as lengthy as Bose has, but the company’s distinct merchandise designs and branding that includes “longstanding relationships” alongside commission sports athletes volition “present new ways for Bose to meaningfully nexus alongside consumers anywhere it has small existence today,” according to today’s release. Bose’s products are a staple among group who regularly fly and journey for work, but Skullcandy volition assistance the company’s products petition to consumers who don’t necessarily prioritize the effectiveness of ANC on their headphones.

Meta is making it rain for AI.

The business spent $34.91 billion in chief expenditures during the third fourth of 2026. That's up from the second quarter's sum, $31.08 billion.

For the twelvemonth 2026, Meta stated it expects to expend between $135-145 billion in chief expenditures, narrowed from its prediction of $130-145 milliard final quarter.

Meta's forecast includes the annual capex prediction that analysts expected: $139.79 billion.

As Meta bets big on AI, it is investing heavily in its development. It has built massive, costly data centers and spent big on computing power.

The spending uptick was expected. On the "Cheeky Pint" podcast before this month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recounted first conversations concerning the funding — and stated he'd bet up to $200 billion on AI, before he knew the models would work.

Investors haven't loved Meta's enormous capex forecasts in former quarters. The inventory tumbled nearly 10% final fourth following earnings per portion missed Wall Street estimates, and sank 6% the fourth before on raised capex guidance.

This quarter, Meta has a new champion product: Muse.

The AI aide has reached complete 2 myriad regular users and 3 myriad downloads. It quickly scaled the App Store. Muse users told Business Insider they chatted alongside it to help scheme trips and ace exams.

The energy about the business is ebullient, as Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, continues to post memes of Muse's squishy-looking mascot.

At Meta's Connect keynote event in September, Zuckerberg stated Muse "has a novel endeavor model."

"We accept that Muse volition create you money, and we're position rearward this by making Muse liberated for a huge figure of tokens alongside the anticipation that complete time, we volition gain by taking a small fee from transactions," he said.

Muse could assistance justify the capex guidance for several investors. The inventory was selling up 4.12% after-hours at the period of publication.

GM is giving OnStar an AI overhaul. The automaker says it is not coming for the individual who answers whenever your airbags deploy.

On Wednesday, during the company's tech conference, GM Forward, Ed Nightingale, GM's vice chairman of digital products, told Business Insider that the automaker would continue to use individual OnStar staffers on emergency calls to communication archetypal responders.

"That's item that isn't changing," Nightingale said. "We awareness that, whenever it comes to a collision or a issue being solved, they desire to create certain that there's a individual in the loop. The stakes are too high."

The business declined to comment on how lengthy those call-center humans volition be a part of its OnStar plans.

Humans-in-the-loop are a notable constraint on GM's AI ambitions. Other AI-enabled companies, specified as SpaceX, have lately highlighted how few client calls are routed to humans.

It additionally comes as the business gives OnStar — its 30-year-old in-car emergency assistance — a much bigger job.

GM showed off OnStar AI on Wednesday. It's a new sound aide designed to comprehend a conveyance and the controller using it. The automaker stated it can answer questions concerning conveyance alerts, authority several functions, scheme routes about bad weather, and recommendation additional context-aware suggestions, including from data through a driver's digital calendar.

The aide subscription volition attain archetypal on the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq via an over-the-air update in the coming months, GM said. Other vehicles volition follow.

GM additionally plans to unify its brand-specific mobile apps under the OnStar AI name next summer.

Onstage, Sterling Anderson, GM's chief merchandise officer, stated the business was turning the 30-year-old assistance into "an intelligent platform."

The change is part of a ample bet from GM.

GM is focusing heavily on its tech capabilities. On latest earnings calls, CEO Mary Barra has highlighted GM's subscription products. Anderson earlier told Business Insider concerning how AI has allowed the business to cut merchandise betterment period in half, starting alongside the GMC Hummer EV, which lone took 20 months of development. Industry-average merchandise betterment is typically about 5 years.

On Wednesday, the business additionally highlighted the betterment of its hands-off, eyes-off self-driving features, set to create their debut in the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028.

GM motionless has to convince drivers that the new tools are precious adequate to use — and, in several cases, pay for.

Nightingale stated subscriptions lone keep customers whenever drivers can see the benefit.

Work at GM? We desire to comprehend from you. Contact Ben Shimkus at bshimkus@insider.com or Signal at bshimkus.41. Use a individual email location and a nonwork device.

Checking out of your next Airbnb power be small of a hassle now that the business is banning hosts from including time-consuming chores in their home rules. Airbnb’s updated home rules policy, which starts alongside reservations booked on or following November 20th, says hosts can’t ask guests to “complete tasks that necessitate important attempt or time, or would typically be performed by a cleaner.” According to Airbnb, that includes:

Airbnb is displaying hosts’ requests additional prominently now in a new “rules and requests” division on listings. You power see an “includes cleaning requests” alert if a presenter leaves chore requests in their listing following the new guideline goes into effect. Hosts aren’t allowed to sneak in additional rules in messages to guests or on signs about their property, either.

Some hosts pushed back on the home rules restrictions on Airbnb’s forums, saying they stance health risks and arguing that guests can merely choose not to remain at listings alongside overly-strict rules. Airbnb says there can be exceptions to the limits on checkout chores, akin asking guests to “dispose of trash in an animal-proof receptacle in withstand country.”

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