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Bank employees across India are set to observe a three-day strike, prompting questions about whether services like UPI payments, ATM withdrawals and salary credits will be disrupted. The proposed walkout has drawn wide public attention, with people checking whether digital payment systems will stay operational or whether they should withdraw cash in advance.

A new project called Thoreau BASIC asks what programming would look like if BASIC had never fallen out of fashion. Launched as a Show HN submission with a dedicated website, it invites programmers to revisit the once-ubiquitous teaching language. Early reaction is emerging among developers nostalgic for simple, accessible computing and curious about modern takes on classic languages.

Schools are facing growing debate over the use of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning. Educators are weighing AI tools for personalised lessons and administrative work against concerns about academic integrity, data privacy, and unequal access for students. The discussion comes as districts and governments move to set policies on how AI should be used by teachers and pupils.

A new essay on the Cryptography Engineering blog asks whether sandboxing techniques are sufficient to contain rogue AI agents that act beyond their intended scope. The piece examines the limits of isolation-based defenses as autonomous software agents gain more capabilities and access. Readers are debating whether technical containment can keep up with increasingly capable agentic systems.

Bitcoin is trading near $85,000 after the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first triple-leveraged crypto exchange-traded products. The decision gives retail investors access to amplified exposure to cryptocurrency prices through regulated market products, a notable step in the mainstreaming of crypto assets. Financial outlets worldwide are covering the approval alongside bitcoin's price resilience, with analysts weighing what higher-leverage products could mean for volatility and investor risk.

Police temporarily blocked access to the Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart after nearly 80,000 visitors flooded the festival grounds, German outlet T-Online reports. The closures were a safety measure to ease overcrowding at one of Germany's largest folk festivals, second only to Munich's Oktoberfest. Visitors reported long waits and packed walkways as officers regulated entry through the main gates.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has dropped government plans pushed by Keir Starmer to restrict jury trials for defendants facing sentences of three years or less. The decision preserves defendants' right to a jury in large numbers of cases. Supporters see it as a win for access to justice; critics argue courts must cut backlogs. The reversal is drawing wide attention in the UK.

Developers in Canada's North say work on artificial intelligence tools for Inuktitut remains essential even as investment and enthusiasm for AI cool globally. They argue Indigenous-language technology fills a gap that mainstream AI products ignore, supporting language preservation and access to services in Inuktitut across northern communities.

A new open-source Python project called Agent-Reach, published on GitHub by developer Panniantong, is drawing attention for letting AI agents read and search content across Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, GitHub, Bilibili and XiaoHongShu through a single command-line interface with no API fees. The tool is trending among developers looking to give their AI assistants broader real-time access to the internet without paying for official platform APIs.

Argentina has adjusted its foreign exchange rules after the cost of withdrawing or moving dollars out of the country jumped sharply. The changes, reported from Buenos Aires, come as businesses and savers face higher hurdles in the currency market. The government is aiming to ease pressure on those trying to access hard currency while managing Argentina's chronic dollar shortage.

Nigeria is working to reform its land administration and mortgage systems with the aim of making housing more accessible and inclusive. Stronger land titling and financing frameworks are seen as key to unlocking homeownership for more Nigerians, where high costs and limited mortgage access have long kept formal housing out of reach for many households.

Alberta separatists have travelled to Washington offering access to the province's fresh water and oil in exchange for American backing for independence from Canada. According to the Globe and Mail, Republican operatives have in turn provided tactical assistance to the separatist movement inside Alberta. The report has drawn attention to the movement's attempts to internationalize its cause and to concerns in Canada about foreign involvement in provincial politics.

The International Monetary Fund has disbursed $138 million to El Salvador after granting waivers related to the country's Bitcoin policies. The payout follows adjustments to El Salvador's crypto commitments under its IMF program, allowing the government to continue certain Bitcoin-related measures while accessing IMF financing. The news is being reported across financial and crypto outlets, with observers weighing what the waivers signal about the fund's stance on El Salvador's unusual monetary experiment.

Turbobulls has launched a personal inflation feature that shows what inflation has done to an individual's own money rather than the headline rate. Hovering over any date on the net worth chart reveals what that day's cash and investments would buy today, a Wallet view shows losses on idle cash, and the Portfolio adds an inflation break-even line. The tools are part of the paid Turbo Pro tier, with access apparently limited for now.

A New York Times report examines pay advance apps that let workers tap wages early, warning that fees, tips and subscription charges can add up to effective costs far higher than users expect. The article breaks down how these charges compare with alternatives and what workers should watch for before relying on early wage access.

Figma has begun restricting access to its MCP server to a whitelist of approved clients, and Pi is reportedly not on the list. The change means tools outside the approved set can no longer connect directly to Figma's MCP endpoint, prompting debate among developers about interoperability, platform control, and what the tightening of access means for third-party integrations built around the protocol.

South Sudan facing Egypt in football is drawing large audiences through a live Arabic-language commentary broadcast presented as an eFootball video game simulation. Viewers are tuning in for the African football matchup, with the stream attracting over 300,000 likes, reflecting strong regional interest in the clash between the two national sides.

A new tool called Strata has been introduced, described as an expressive semantic layer that can refuse requests from large language models when they are invalid or unsupported. It aims to sit between LLMs and data, enforcing correctness rather than always answering. Developers on Hacker News are engaging with the launch, which fits ongoing debate about controlling AI access to data.

The Motley Fool has published a primer explaining market capitalisation — the total value of a company's outstanding shares — and how investors can use it to compare companies of different sizes. The guide breaks down the distinction between large-, mid- and small-cap stocks and argues the metric helps separate strong investments from weaker ones, offering a beginner-friendly refresher at a time when many retail investors are rethinking how they value companies.

A Wall Street Journal report examines the rapid commercial growth of youth baseball in the United States, with travel teams, private coaching, tournaments and specialized facilities turning the sport into a major industry. The same expansion is driving up costs for families, raising concerns that participation is increasingly limited to wealthier households and reshaping who gets to play the game seriously.

Anthropic's Claude chatbot is displaying an "at capacity" message, telling users the AI service cannot handle more requests at the moment. The outage or overload has drawn attention among tech circles, where users are comparing notes on when the service becomes available again and whether demand for the chatbot has outgrown its infrastructure.

Iranian officials say the return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to Iran remains undecided, according to comments by foreign ministry spokesperson Baghaei. The statement leaves open the question of resumed monitoring of Iran's nuclear programme, which has been in limbo amid tensions between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog. No timeline or conditions were given for inspectors to come back.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry Undersecretary met with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross office, according to Sudanese media. The meeting comes as Sudan's civil war continues to drive a severe humanitarian crisis, with aid access a central concern for international organisations operating in the country.