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The New York Times

An attempt to ban social media in Nepal triggered violent protests that toppled the prime minister, left Parliament in flames, and brought soldiers into the streets of capital Kathmandu. Citizens have turned to the Discord platform to debate leadership. A chatroom there, organized by civic group Hami Nepal, now has over 145,000 members, largely Gen Z activists. “The Parliament of Nepal right now is Discord,” a content creator from Kathmandu said.

From "Nepal’s Social Media Ban Backfires as Politics Moves to Chat Room"
The New York Times (09/11/25) Pranav Baskar
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ACM Media Center

ACM signed a three-year read-and-publish agreement with eight Canadian regional library consortia representing 72 institutions. The pact provides those institutions Premium Access to the ACM Digital Library, ACM’s comprehensive collection of computing and information technology literature. “This agreement reflects the power of regional collaboration in expanding access to academic publishing,” said Scott Delman, ACM’s Director of Publications. “We are proud to work with this group of Canadian consortia to support Open Access publishing and increase the visibility of research coming out of Canada.”

From "ACM Signs ACM Open Agreement with Canadian Regional Consortia"
ACM Media Center (09/10/25)
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New Scientist

Researchers in China have developed a “DNA cassette,” merging retro design with cutting-edge data storage. The team at China’s Southern University of Science and Technology printed synthetic DNA molecules onto plastic tape, encoding digital files through DNA base sequences. To simplify retrieval, they added barcodes, likening the process to locating books in a library. The researchers said 100 meters of the tape can hold more than 3 billion pieces of music, at 10 megabytes per song.

From "DNA Cassette Tape Can Store Every Song Ever Recorded"
New Scientist (09/10/25) James Woodford
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BBC News

The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a warning about the growing problem of students hacking school and college IT systems. Most insider breaches in education originate from pupils, often starting as dares or challenges, but sometimes causing serious damage. Since 2022, the ICO investigated 215 insider attacks, and found more than half (57%) were carried out by children, some of whom accessed staff systems, altered records, or stole personal data from peers.

From "Children Hacking Schools for Fun, U.K. Watchdog Warns"
BBC News (09/11/25) Joe Tidy
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CNN

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating seven tech companies over potential risks their AI chatbots could pose to children and teens. The inquiry targets companion-style bots that mimic human emotions and encourage users to form relationships. Companies under review include Alphabet, Meta, OpenAI, Snap, Character.AI, and xAI.

From "FTC Investigates AI ‘Companion’ Chatbots"
CNN (09/11/25) Clare Duffy
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The Korea Times

Google said it will comply with South Korea’s security demands to remove latitude and longitude coordinates from its map in order to gain approval to export high-precision map data overseas. The company also pledged to strengthen partnerships with local technology firms and to consider purchasing government-approved satellite images from local partners like Tmap Mobility. South Korea restricts overseas transfers of maps with a scale finer than 1:25,000 for security reasons.

From "Google Accepts Seoul's Security Requirements for Map Data Transfer"
The Korea Times (09/10/25)
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