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Director Jason Eisener, known for 'Hobo With a Shotgun,' has released a fan-made horror short titled 'Project Shamrock: The Secret Origins of Michael Myers Exposed.' The short imagines a way to connect the Michael Myers character to 'Halloween III: Season of the Witch,' the franchise entry that famously omitted the masked killer.
Two critical PHP vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, each rated 9.2 in severity, affect most PHP builds and were patched by the PHP Project on Wednesday. Security firm Wiz, which found the flaws with AI assistance, says PHP runs on roughly 70% of websites worldwide, and the bugs allow memory disclosure and unauthenticated remote code execution independent of the application running on PHP.
A commentary piece argues that Microsoft's forthcoming Xbox handheld device deserves more attention than the next-generation Xbox console, which could reportedly cost more than $1,200. The analysis frames the handheld as the more consequential product line for Xbox's future, even as the high price of the flagship console draws headlines.
The Trevor Project previewed longitudinal research set for release this fall showing 53% of surveyed LGBTQ+ youth use AI platforms at least occasionally. Nearly half reported using AI for friendship or companionship, and 40% have used it for mental health support, while 29% said AI pointed them to crisis or hotline information.
Microsoft is developing Project Perception, a security initiative that introduces Guardian Agents designed to monitor other AI agents operating within enterprise systems and contain behavior deemed anomalous. The effort treats autonomous AI agents as a potential insider-threat category requiring active oversight rather than passive logging.
A developer has shared Project Hedra, a procedurally generated, low-poly open-world RPG and custom game engine built largely alone, starting at age 15 to learn OpenGL. The codebase has grown to roughly 100,000 lines of code and now runs natively on Linux and Windows, with Steam integration and a CI pipeline for beta deployment.
Guinea-Bissau's Council of Ministers reaffirmed on October 16 that it will not allow a clinical trial led by Danish researcher Christine Stabell Benn of Bandim Health Project, which was to be funded by the US and would have withheld the newborn hepatitis B vaccine dose from half its infant participants. The rejection followed a judicial police raid on Bandim Health's offices in which vaccines were seized, though Stabell Benn noted the raid came after the government's decision.
Fortune's profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reports Microsoft is pursuing a two-part hardware plan: a handheld device by late next year and a full console for holiday 2028. Internal company projections reportedly put that console's price between $1,200 and $1,800, though Microsoft could subsidize costs to lower the retail price.
Nonprofit Earth Species Project applied machine learning to detect carrion crow vocalizations and identify which bird made which call. The group is now developing NatureLM, a model trained on human speech, music and animal sounds, aiming to interpret vocalizations across species, building on decades of recording tools like hydrophones and biologgers.
Researchers from the CARBAM project analyzed 15 years of aircraft-based CO2 and CO measurements across four Amazon basin sites, collecting over 1,000 vertical atmospheric profiles. The data indicate that carbon emissions from the Amazon region are primarily caused by human activities, with drought periods intensifying these emissions.
A Fortune profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reveals new details on Project Helix, Microsoft's next-gen gaming hardware line. A handheld device is expected for holiday 2027, with a full console following in 2028, currently projected to cost between $1,200 and $1,800 unless Microsoft subsidizes it. The report also mentions a possible shift to a la carte Game Pass pricing and more layoffs expected this month and in November.
Police in Guinea-Bissau seized hepatitis B vaccine doses from the offices of Danish researchers Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn, who had been planning a newborn vaccine trial. The trial, criticized by international health experts as unethical, was backed by a $1.6 million CDC grant awarded under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in December, and plans were paused in January amid widespread condemnation, though a Rolling Stone report this month said the CDC had set aside further funding to proceed.