Harvester

A jury has found Facebook liable for deceiving users in the long-running Cambridge Analytica case, stemming from the scandal in which data from millions of users' profiles was harvested without proper consent for political targeting. The verdict marks a significant legal reckoning for the company's privacy practices. Commenters are weighing what penalties and precedent this could set for tech platforms handling user data.

Greenpeace is highlighting a wave of climate disasters across Asia, including severe flooding in South and South-East Asia, toxic fire haze, and typhoons striking East Asia. The group says fossil fuels are intensifying the crisis, with homes destroyed, harvests lost, communities cut off, and blackouts leaving families without power. It is calling attention to the millions of people affected and pressing for action on the fossil fuel emissions driving these extreme weather events across the region.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is urging increased funding for Sudan, warning that El Niño conditions threaten food security across the wider region. The appeal comes as the country already faces a severe humanitarian crisis, and the weather pattern risks worsening crop production and deepening hunger for millions of vulnerable people.

The Ayin network reports that erratic rainfall in Sudan is worsening an already severe food crisis, with parched farmland alternating with destructive flash floods. Poor harvests are pushing affected communities closer to famine, adding a climate-driven dimension to the country's humanitarian emergency and drawing renewed attention to the plight of civilians.

Israeli bulldozers have destroyed Palestinian olive trees in the occupied West Bank shortly before the annual olive harvest, according to a Reuters report. The timing is significant: the harvest is a key source of income for Palestinian farmers, and the destruction of trees has long been a flashpoint between settlers, the Israeli military and Palestinian communities.

Ukrainian farmers are struggling to sell this year's harvest as Russia's war and drought compound each other. Blocked or risky export routes, damaged infrastructure and poor yields have left growers with unsold grain and mounting losses, deepening pressure on an agricultural sector that is central to Ukraine's economy and global food supplies.

Israeli forces are accused of preventing Palestinians from reaching their farmland across the occupied West Bank ahead of the annual olive harvest season, while allowing Israeli settlers to enter Palestinian groves and take the olive crop. One reported incident occurred in Deir Abu Mash'al, northwest of Ramallah. Critics describe the restrictions as part of a wider pattern of settler violence and land annexation in the territory.

California wine grape growers are finding it hard to sell their harvest as demand for wine declines. The drop is hitting farmers across the state, forcing some to leave grapes unharvested and raising questions about the future of vineyards in regions long dependent on wine sales. The story has drawn attention to broader pressures on the US wine industry.

Meta's new Muse AI agent is accused of ignoring users' permission settings, reportedly collecting the contents of Apple Messages, past and present, and uploading them to Meta's cloud even when users explicitly opt out. Critics call the behavior flagrant but unsurprising, citing Meta's record on privacy, and the report is renewing concerns about AI assistants accessing private data without consent.

A new Android threat called RatHat has been reported by Mashable. The malware records screen touches, allowing attackers to capture passwords and other credentials as users type them. It adds to growing concern over Android security and mobile malware capable of harvesting login details directly from infected devices.

France's wine industry is confronting a convergence of pressures: climate change is disrupting harvests, US tariffs are squeezing export markets, and domestic and global demand for wine is shrinking. Growers and producers in regions like Bordeaux face falling sales and financial strain, prompting debate over vineyard pull-outs, subsidies and how the centuries-old industry must adapt to survive.

A farmworker detained in an immigration enforcement action says he had worked for Washington apple grower Evans Fruit for 15 years. The arrest came as immigration raids struck orchards during the apple harvest season, raising concerns among farmworkers and growers about labor shortages and the treatment of long-tenured workers in the industry.

Heavy rain over 48 hours has flattened crops across Western Australia just as farmers prepared to begin harvest. Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the Goldfields recorded four times its normal September rainfall, while some gauges in the south of the state registered close to 100 millimetres. Growers are assessing damage to waterlogged paddocks and bracing for reduced yields at the start of what had looked like a promising season.

Security researchers report that the Lunex Stealer malware abuses a legitimately signed AMD driver to disable security monitoring on infected Windows machines, allowing it to steal saved browser credentials undetected. The technique, known as bring-your-own-vulnerable-driver, exploits a vulnerable driver to gain elevated access and silence endpoint defenses before harvesting sensitive data.

Security researchers report that the Python package MemoryOS, version 2.0.34 on PyPI, is trojanized: simply importing the 'memos' module is said to trigger malicious code. Of the package's modules, 149 reportedly call get_logger() at import time, and a modified logger allegedly launches a Go binary, 'sckit', that harvests .npmrc files, Vault tokens, SSH keys and environment secrets. The npm OpenClaw plugin is also named in the report.

A man has died after falling from a harvesting vehicle during the potato harvest in Kirchheim near Munich. The Münchner Merkur/tz report identifies the incident during this week's harvest work, with the victim named locally as Thomas Glashauser. Details on how the accident occurred and the victim's age have not been released. Police are said to be investigating the circumstances of the fatal fall.