Drone pilot makes US rescind no-fly zones around unmarked, moving ICE vehicles

Drone pilot makes US rescind no-fly zones around unmarked, moving ICE vehicles

fivenewscrypto    avril 30, 2026   

In January 2026, during the height of protests against immigration raids in Minneapolis, federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good. Before even gathering all the facts, the Department of Homeland Security labeled the mother of three an “anti-ICE rioter” who “weaponized her vehicle against law enforcement” in an “act of domestic terrorism.”

Days later, the feds announced a major expansion of “no-fly zones” in the name of national security. While such no-fly zones used to be about controlling aircraft, they now often focus on small drones. The expanded no-fly zones announced on January 16 prohibited such drones from flying within 3,000 lateral feet and 1,000 vertical feet of federal facilities.

But for the first time, the order extended no-fly zones to ground vehicles belonging to the Department of Homeland Security. Even while the vehicles were in motion. Even if they were unmarked. And even if their routes had not been announced.

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Humanoid robots start sorting luggage in Tokyo airport test amid labor shortage

Humanoid robots start sorting luggage in Tokyo airport test amid labor shortage

fivenewscrypto    avril 30, 2026   

Humanoid robots are getting a new gig as baggage handlers and cargo loaders at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport—part of a Japan Airlines experiment to address a human labor shortage as airport visitor numbers have surged in recent years.

The demonstration, set to launch in May 2026, could eventually test humanoid robots in a wide range of airport tasks, including cleaning aircraft cabins and possibly handling ground support equipment such as baggage carts, according to a Japan Airlines press release. The trials are scheduled to run until 2028, which suggests that travelers flying into or out of Tokyo may spot some of the robots at work.

This marks the latest foray for humanoid robots after they have already begun pilot-testing in workplaces such as automotive factories and warehouses. Most robotic productivity so far has relied on robotic arms and similarly specialized robots that perform the same predictable tasks on assembly lines and in warehouses. By comparison, humanoid robots face a much stiffer challenge in dealing with more open and unpredictable work environments, and it remains to be seen whether the latest robotic software and hardware will be up to the task.

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GitHub will start charging Copilot users based on their actual AI usage

GitHub will start charging Copilot users based on their actual AI usage

fivenewscrypto    avril 29, 2026   

GitHub has announced that it will be shifting to a usage-based billing model for its GitHub Copilot AI service starting on June 1. The move is pitched as a way to "better align pricing with actual usage" and a necessary step to keep Copilot financially sustainable amid surging demand for limited AI computing resources.

GitHub Copilot subscribers currently receive an allocation of monthly "requests" and "premium requests," which are spent whenever they ask Copilot for help from an AI model. But those broad categories cover many different AI tasks with a wide range of total backend computing costs, GitHub says.

"Today, a quick chat question and a multi-hour autonomous coding session can cost the user the same amount," the Microsoft-owned company wrote in its announcement. And while GitHub says it has "absorbed much of the escalating inference cost behind that usage" to this point, lumping all "premium requests" together "is no longer sustainable."

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Electrical current might be the key to a better cup of coffee

Electrical current might be the key to a better cup of coffee

fivenewscrypto    avril 29, 2026   

University of Oregon chemist Christopher Hendon loves his coffee—so much so that studying all the factors that go into creating the perfect cuppa constitutes a significant area of research for him. His latest project: discovering a novel means of measuring the flavor profile of coffee simply by sending an electrical current through a sample beverage. The results appear in a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

We've been following Hendon's work for several years now. For instance, in 2020, Hendon’s lab helped devise a mathematical model for brewing the perfect cup of espresso, over and over, while minimizing waste. The flavors in espresso derive from roughly 2,000 different compounds that are extracted from the coffee grounds during brewing. So it can be challenging for baristas to reproduce the same perfect cup over and over again.

That's why Hendon and his colleagues built their model for a more easily measurable property known as the extraction yield (EY): the fraction of coffee that dissolves into the final beverage. That, in turn, depends on controlling water flow and pressure as the liquid percolates through the coffee grounds. The model is based on how lithium ions propagate through a battery’s electrodes, similar to how caffeine molecules dissolve from coffee grounds.

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The great American data center divide

The great American data center divide

fivenewscrypto    avril 29, 2026   

In Tazewell County, Illinois, Michael Deppert depends on a natural pool of water beneath the sandy soils of his farm to irrigate the pumpkins, corn, and soybeans growing in his fields.

So when a data center was proposed about eight miles away, he feared it would tap the same aquifer, potentially eroding crop yields and profits.

Deppert, who is also the president of the local farm bureau lobby group, says locals were also “nervous” about how a data center would affect the “good, clean drinking water.” Residents launched a fierce opposition campaign, packing city council meetings and mounting petitions. After several months, the project, led by developer Western Hospitality Partners, was scrapped.

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EU tells Google to open up AI on Android; Google says that's "unwarranted intervention"

EU tells Google to open up AI on Android; Google says that's "unwarranted intervention"

fivenewscrypto    avril 29, 2026   

In January, the European Commission began an initial investigation, known as a specification proceeding, into how Google has implemented AI in the Android operating system. The results are in, and the EU says Android needs to be more open, which is not surprising. Meanwhile, Google says this amounts to "unwarranted intervention," which is equally unsurprising. Regardless of Google's characterization of the investigation, the commission may force Google to make Android AI changes this summer.

This action stems from the continent's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a sweeping law that designates seven dominant technology companies as "gatekeepers" that are subject to greater regulation to ensure fair competition. Google has consistently spoken against the regulations imposed under the DMA, but it and the other gatekeepers have been subject to the law for several years now, and there's little chance the commission backs away from it.

The issue before the commission currently is the built-in advantage for Gemini on Android. When you turn on any Google-powered Android phone, Gemini is already there and gets special treatment at the system level. The European Commission is taking aim at the lack of features available to third-party AI services. The commission believes that there are too many experiences on Android that only work with Google's Gemini AI, and as a gatekeeper, Google must change that.

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"Super ZSNES" is a stab at a modern SNES emulator from the original developers

"Super ZSNES" is a stab at a modern SNES emulator from the original developers

fivenewscrypto    avril 29, 2026   

Aficionados of game console emulator history will almost certainly be familiar with ZSNES, an MS-DOS-based (and, later, Windows-based) emulator for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that originally launched back in 1997. Originally written in x86 assembly code, it was known best for its performance on low-end PCs and was capable of running some games at full speed on chips as slow as a 233 MHz Pentium II, though it usually did so at the expense of emulation accuracy.

ZSNES developed rapidly (alongside the contemporary, competing Snes9x project) throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s. Updates slowed after the original creators left the project, and new releases ceased entirely around 2007.

But a successor to ZSNES has arrived. The project's original creators (who go by the handles zsKnight and _Demo_) have returned 19 years later with a new follow-up project called "Super ZSNES," an SNES emulator that emphasizes audio-visual upgrades to those aging ’90s-era Super Nintendo games. The only more surprising emulator news would be if NESticle somehow rose from the dead.

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