Science and Technology (old posts, page 190)

23andMe’s founder wins bid to regain control of bankrupt DNA testing firm

Anne Wojcicki made $305m bid for firm, which has lost customers since declaring bankruptcy, with backing of Fortune 500 company

23andMe’s former CEO is set to regain control of the genetic testing company after a $305m bid from a non-profit she controls topped a pharmaceutical company’s offer for it in a bankruptcy auction.

Last month, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals agreed to buy the firm for $256m, topping a $146m bid from Anne Wojcicki and the non-profit TTAM Research Institute. The larger offer prompted Wojcicki to raise her own with the backing of a Fortune 500 company, according to the former executive. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks after a court hearing currently scheduled for 17 June, the company said on Friday.

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Security updates for Monday

Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (.NET 8.0 and .NET 9.0), Arch Linux (curl, ghostscript, go, konsole, python-django, roundcubemail, and samba), Fedora (aerc, chromium, golang-x-perf, libkrun, python3.11, python3.12, rust-kbs-types, rust-sev, rust-sevctl, valkey, and wireshark), Gentoo (Konsole and sysstat), Oracle (.NET 9.0), Red Hat (bootc, grub2, keylime-agent-rust, python3.12-cryptography, rpm-ostree, rust-bootupd, xorg-x11-server, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), SUSE (apache2-mod_auth_openidc, docker, grub2, java-1_8_0-openj9, kernel, less, python-Django, screen, and sqlite3), and Ubuntu (cifs-utils and modsecurity-apache).

Israeli stands at Paris airshow shut down ‘by order of French government’

Four booths hidden from view, prompting fury from Israel’s defence ministry and visiting US Republicans

The four main Israeli company stands at the Paris airshow have been shut down after exhibitors reportedly refused to remove some weapons from display.

The stands at the aerospace industry event were hidden from view after pressure on the organisers from the French government, a source told the Guardian.

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Northern Ireland government confirms it did not ask Fujitsu to continue bidding for project

Scandal-hit IT giant said it wouldn't take on new UK.gov contracts or continue bidding on existing ones unless asked

Exclusive  The Northern Ireland government did not ask Fujitsu to continue bidding for a £125 million ($167 million) contract, yet the Japanese tech giant to continued to do so, despite promising to quit competing for UK government work during the fallout from the Horizon scandal.…

Starwatch: Mars and Regulus will make for an eye-catching pair

Celestial objects will be separated by less than a degree and the colour difference between them will be striking

Look into the western sky this week to see an eye-catching conjunction between Mars and Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation of Leo, the lion. The chart shows the view from London at 2300 BST on 16 June 2025.

The pair of celestial objects will be separated by less than a degree, less than twice the apparent diameter of the full moon. This means that as well as being an easy spot with the naked eye, they are close enough to fit into the same field of view when viewed through binoculars. Although they will move further apart as the week continues.

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UK-wide drug trial hailed as a ‘milestone’ in leukaemia treatment

Combination of two targeted drugs found to produce better outcomes and was more tolerable than chemotherapy

A groundbreaking UK-wide trial has found a chemotherapy-free approach to treating leukaemia that may lead to better outcomes for some patients, with the results being hailed as a “milestone”.

Led by researchers from Leeds, results from the Flair trial, which took place at 96 cancer centres across the UK, could reshape the way the most common form of leukaemia in adults is treated, scientists said.

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