# Morning Briefing

May 5, 2026
📰 Top Stories

## US Military Sinks 6 Iranian Boats Targeting Civilian Ships in Strait of Hormuz

Ground News · 184 sources · Also: NPR, Reuters
The US military sank six Iranian boats that were targeting civilian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, marking a significant escalation in the fragile Iran ceasefire. The UAE also reported Iranian drone and missile attacks on an oil facility.
iran military strait-of-hormuz

## Supreme Court Temporarily Restores Mifepristone Mail Access

Ground News · 283 sources · Also: NPR, Reason
SCOTUS issued an administrative stay restoring access to the abortion pill mifepristone via mail while the case proceeds. Justice Alito entered the stay after lower courts had restricted mail-order distribution.
scotus abortion healthcare

## Secret Service Reports Shot Near Washington Monument; White House Briefly Locked Down

Ground News · 334 sources
The Secret Service reported a single shot fired near the Washington Monument, triggering a brief White House lockdown. The situation was resolved quickly with no reported injuries.
dc security

## GameStop Offers $56 Billion for eBay, Struggles to Explain How It'll Pay

Ars Technica, Kotaku, PC Gamer
GameStop, struggling with falling revenue and store closures, made a $56B bid for eBay and couldn't explain the financing. CEO Ryan Cohen baffled CNBC anchors when asked where the money would come from.
business meme-stocks

## US Attempt to Open Strait of Hormuz Tests Fragile Iran War Ceasefire

NPR · Also: Reason, Ground News
The ceasefire appeared to be holding despite the US forcing open the Strait of Hormuz and Iran firing missiles and drones at the UAE. Congress faces renewed scrutiny over ceding war-declaring authority to the executive.
iran ceasefire geopolitics
💻 Tech

## Bun Is Being Ported from Zig to Rust

Hacker News (641 pts, 449 comments) · Also: The Register
Bun creator Jarred Sumner posted a Zig-to-Rust porting guide, igniting speculation about a full migration. Sumner says there's no commitment to rewriting — just exploring. Zig's no-AI policy is at odds with the view that most open source code will be AI-written in the future.
bun rust zig

## Google Chrome Silently Installs a 4 GB AI Model Without Consent

Hacker News (566 pts, 478 comments)
Chrome is reportedly downloading a 4GB AI model to users' devices without explicit consent, raising serious privacy and storage concerns across the tech community.
chrome privacy ai

## "Notepad++ for Mac" Release Disavowed by Original Creator

Ars Technica · Also: The Register
An unofficial vibe-coded macOS port of Notepad++ drew legal threats from original dev Don Ho, who insists Notepad++ has never released a macOS version. The issue isn't the fork — it's making it look official.
open-source trademark ai-coding

## Async Rust Never Left the MVP State

Hacker News (308 pts, 155 comments)
A detailed critique arguing that Rust's async ecosystem remains immature years after stabilization — from trait bounds to error handling, the ergonomics still feel like a work in progress rather than a finished feature.
rust async

## NHS to Close-Source Hundreds of GitHub Repos Over AI and Security Concerns

The Register
The UK's National Health Service is ordering tech leads to temporarily wall off open source projects, citing concerns around advanced AI and Anthropic's Mythos. Maintainers have a May deadline to enact the change.
open-source ai nhs
🌍 Wider Lens

## The Global Cybersecurity Gap Deepens as AI-Powered Attacks Surge

Rest of World
Restricted access to powerful defensive AI tools like Anthropic's Mythos leaves some companies, central banks, and nations more vulnerable than others — widening the cybersecurity divide between well-resourced and under-resourced defenders.
ai cybersecurity inequality

## Explosion at Fireworks Plant in China Kills at Least 26

NPR
A devastating explosion at a fireworks plant in central China killed at least 26 people. Search and rescue has largely been completed, but verification of casualties and victim identification are still underway.
china disaster

## Cruise Ship Waiting for Help After 3 Die in Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak

NPR
A cruise ship with nearly 150 people aboard is stranded off Cape Verde after three passengers died in a suspected hantavirus outbreak — a rare and serious rodent-borne disease.
health outbreak
🔥 HN Deep Reads

## Does Employment Slow Cognitive Decline? Evidence from Labor Market Shocks

Hacker News (324 pts, 323 comments) · NBER Working Paper
A new NBER paper using labor market shocks as natural experiments finds that continued employment appears to slow cognitive decline. The HN discussion digs into methodology, confounders, and whether the result holds for knowledge work specifically.
research cognition labor

## Agent Skills — How AI Agents Develop Capabilities

Hacker News (308 pts, 154 comments) · addyosmani.com
Addy Osmani's deep dive into how AI agents develop and compose skills, with practical patterns and anti-patterns. The discussion ranges across tool use, memory architecture, and when agentic approaches beat simple prompting.
ai agents engineering

## Lessons for Agentic Coding: What Should We Do When Code Is Cheap?

Hacker News (138 pts, 131 comments)
When AI makes code generation nearly free, the bottleneck shifts to code review, architecture decisions, and maintenance. The HN thread debates whether "code is cheap" actually means "technical debt is expensive."
ai agentic-coding engineering
🎮 Gaming

## Valve's New $100 Steam Controller Sells Out Instantly, Scalpers Flip for $300+

Eurogamer · Also: Kotaku, PC Gamer
Valve's newly released Steam Controller sold out almost immediately and is already appearing on eBay at 3x the price. Meanwhile, Valve imported thousands of "game consoles" as fans speculate about Steam Machine news.
valve steam-deck hardware

## AMD Adding HDMI 2.1 Support for Linux — Good News for Steam Machine

Ars Technica Gaming
AMD is bringing Fixed Rate Link to Linux now with Display Stream Compression coming soon. This matters for anyone running gaming on Linux, especially with Valve's Steam Machine ecosystem heating up.
amd linux hdmi

## Stop Killing Games Launches UK Player Advocacy Group to Lobby Government

Rock Paper Shotgun
The Stop Killing Games campaign formalized as a UK advocacy group to lobby for legislation preserving game access after publishers shut down servers — a right-to-repair fight for digital goods.
right-to-repair preservation uk
⚖️ Bias Check

## US Military Sinks 6 Iranian Boats in Strait of Hormuz

Ground News · 184 sources (Left: 16%, Center: 55%, Right: 27%)
Center outlets dominate coverage with straightforward reporting. Right-leaning outlets emphasize Iranian aggression and frame the US response as proportionate defense. Left outlets focus more on escalation risks and the fragility of the ceasefire, questioning whether the action could reignite broader conflict.
iran bias-check

## SCOTUS Temporarily Restores Mifepristone Mail Access

Ground News · 283 sources (Left: 34%, Center: 45%, Right: 19%)
Center outlets frame this as a procedural stay maintaining the status quo. Left outlets emphasize the preservation of abortion access and frame it as a win for reproductive rights. Right outlets focus on the temporary nature of the stay and the ongoing legal challenge, noting Alito's role specifically.
scotus abortion bias-check