nerd

11 Nov 2026

Slashdot

US and Rest of World Must Follow China's Lead On Green Energy, Says John Kerry

Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from The Guardian: China is leading the world in moving away from fossil fuels, and the rest of the globe -- including the US -- must now follow, the former US secretary of state John Kerry has told the Guardian, as Cop watchers wonder exactly how China is going to approach this year's climate summit. As Cop31 opens -- this year the climate conference is in Turkey -- there is plenty of speculation about whether China will finally step into the leadership role that it has long avoided. In its latest "five-year plan" adopted in March 2026, China for the first time pledged to "actively participate in and lead global climate governance". Cop31 could provide the first indications Beijing is ready to put that rhetoric into action, something it has historically been reluctant to do. In 2025, clean-tech exports surpassed $220 billion, and they should grow again this year; the world's largest emitter is now the world's leading supplier of clean energy technology. China accounts for about 85% of solar and 80% of lithium-ion battery supply chain production capacity, and in 2025, nearly 75% of electric cars were manufactured there. Smart moves now by China would position it as a linchpin in a future electrostate world order, persuade rivals to cooperate, and solidify its influence in the global south. "The only country that has hugely accelerated is China," said Kerry. "The rest of the world is stumbling along while Mother Nature is sending us more powerful signals every week, every day." "[China] realized suddenly they had way too much dependency on oil and gas from other places, and they decided they needed to be independent. Other countries, since the war in Iran, and since the strait of Hormuz has been interrupted, have made a similar decision, and they're moving independently. There's been a massive uptick in deployment of renewables. Thank you, Donald Trump." For autocratic states without free and fair elections, seeing the economic benefits reaped by China would be the spur to adopt low-carbon growth, he added. "They'll see where the market is going, and they will recognize where the cheaper alternatives are. Even they can read a spreadsheet, and understand where costs are exorbitant [in fossil fuels], and where you have a better deal," Kerry said. "Right now, renewables together with storage, together with some transitional gas, is cheaper and more effective, than just going with fossil fuels." He added: "The marketplace has made its decision and globally is moving to electrons, and electrostate status. People are going to electricity and they're going to try to do that as clean as humanly possible. That's the choice that I see being implemented in many different places. It is unstoppable."

Hacker News

Greg Kurtzer's Ginux is now a userspace kernel

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11 Nov 2026 5:25am GMT

Show HN: Black Ops II statically recompiled to native ARM64 macOS

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11 Nov 2026 4:56am GMT

Protecting SSH Keys with macOS Secure Enclave

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11 Nov 2026 4:28am GMT

Slashdot

M John Harrison Becomes First Sci-Fi Author To Win Booker Prize

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Eighty-one-year-old M John Harrison has won the Booker prize for The End of Everything, a postapocalyptic novel set on a near-future Kent coast, becoming the oldest winner in the award's history. Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said that while plenty of previous winners had dabbled in science fiction, Harrison's was "the first Booker winner to have emerged from the bona fide SF world." She called it "a historic win, for a writer whose decades of work are lightly worn on every page". Harrison, who has been publishing for six decades, overtakes Margaret Atwood, who was 79 when she shared the prize in 2019 for The Testaments. He received the 50,000-pound award and trophy at a ceremony in London on Monday evening. The End of Everything, Harrison's first Booker nomination, is set a few decades from now, years after a disaster nobody can properly account for. Set on the Kent coast, the novel sees Phillip Tennent and his ageing aunt Marnie attempting to survive alongside the looming threat of the mysterious iGhetti: vast, shape-changing beings whose origins and intentions are never explained. At 198 pages, it was the shortest book on the shortlist. Mary Beard, chair of the judges, said the decision was unanimous, reached after a full day of discussion. "It's a book that turns you upside down, raises a wry smile -- and surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism," she said. "One main point of the book is that if, or when, such an apocalypse comes it will be incomprehensible. And the old rules won't matter either This is the politics of now seen through the lens of the future."

Google Fi Brings Back Network Switching With 'Secondary' Partner

Google Fi is bringing back network switching through an unnamed "secondary" 5G carrier. "Most users will be on the 'Primary network,' but Google Fi will automatically switch users to the 'Secondary network' if it meaningfully improves performance with so-called 'smart thresholds' for doing so," reports 9to5Google. "At launch, there is no manual switching." When Project Fi first launched the service included support with both Sprint and T-Mobile. That went away when T-Mobile acquired Sprint in 2020. 9to5Google reports: Google is not naming the second network today, but did share that Ultra Wideband is supported. Officially, you are switching between "two of America's fastest 5G networks." Fi Wireless does note that users have top priority, so data is never deprioritized on the Primary network. Meanwhile, there's "highest QCI priority" on the backup network that means subscribers are among the last to be slowed down when there's congestion. This is also available internationally when local partner networks are available with the Flexible and Unlimited Premium plans. Network switching will first be supported on Pixel 9 and newer devices that have a Google Fi eSIM (and no other SIM active). It makes use of Android's Multiple Enabled Profiles (MEP) eSIM technology that allows for two carrier profiles on a single chip. [...] These Google Fi updates start rolling out today, with network switching seeing gradual availability.