Some iPhone 18 Pro Max units on AT&T are dropping to "SOS" and losing service for good, and Apple says a software update won't bring them back. Affected users need a full hardware replacement, while everyone else should update now to avoid joining them.

— via Daring Fireball, John Gruber

Brightline filed for bankruptcy even as its Miami-Orlando trains keep running, and a planned Los Angeles-Las Vegas line is now courting public money too. Plus Philadelphia's $1.85 million bet on green corridors, a Florida tax measure that could push small cities to disincorporate, and Zurich's plan to redevelop 600,000 square meters by 2035.

— via Greater Greater Washington, Jeff Wood (Contributor)

Oman grounded the FlyDubai co-pilot years before the attack over fears he'd turned extremist, a person familiar with the matter says. The UAE airline hired him anyway, and it's unclear how closely he was vetted.

— via Vancouver Is Awesome, author

Vancouver voters hit the polls twice this October, a week apart, with 130 candidates on one crowded ballot and a $790 million borrowing question attached. A second ballot asks non-binding questions on hard drug use and a proposed secure care facility, plus a doubled $9.4 million election budget meant to fix 2025's long lines.

— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Kenneth Chan

Denis Shapovalov outlasted Alejandro Tabilo 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the Japan Open quarterfinals, firing 11 aces but also five double faults along the way. Up next: whoever survives Carlos Alcaraz versus Matteo Arnaldi.

— via Vancouver Is Awesome, author

Mail-in ballot requests for Vancouver's civic election have already topped 18,000, more than 70 per cent above the total requested in all of 2022. Advance voting opens Saturday at 59 locations, with the deadline to request a mail-in package closing fast.

— via Daily Hive Vancouver, Kenneth Chan

A jet lost at least 9,000 feet in two minutes, then flew level for several more before vanishing from flight data. The strange pause before the disappearance raises as many questions as the drop itself.

— via NPR, Frank Langfitt

Two Iranian men scouted the Manchester synagogue where a Yom Kippur attack killed two people last year, prosecutors say, allegedly plotting to bomb it with a homemade chlorine device on instructions from a handler in Iran.

— via PBS NewsHour, Associated Press

Mayor Katie Wilson tells councilmembers demanding 1,400 police officers to slow down: the city hasn't even funded the 1,250 it already promised. She also pushes back on permanent CCTV at Seattle Center after the Bite shooting, floating mobile cameras instead.

— via PubliCola, ericacbarnett

A hunter keeps half a kudu carcass after the kill, but hunter-gatherer sharing still masks real inequality. Researchers reviewing a century of ethnography found every society studied, from the Hadza to the Agta, harbored hidden hierarchies in land, knowledge or marriage.

— via The Conversation — Science, Duncan Stibbard Hawkes, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Baylor University

Archestra's open-source OpenAPPA blocked every attack across two security benchmarks, while Claude Code's auto mode failed 10% of the time and Microsoft FIDES 31%. The trick: enforcement runs outside the agent's loop entirely, using a deterministic policy algebra instead of a second AI model judging tool calls.

— via InfoQ, Bruno Couriol

Thirty-one years after starting in a church parking lot, Philadelphia's Mid-Autumn Festival drew thousands to Chinatown Saturday, with ICE's local office sitting just two blocks from the celebration. Organizers say some restaurant workers are skipping shifts out of fear, even as agents keep showing up to eat.

— via WHYY, Emily Neil

A $50 million workforce hub is coming to North Philadelphia, pairing job training in skilled trades and health care with a basketball center. Groundbreaking is set for fall 2027, backed by a $500,000 state investment and 20% of funding already raised quietly.

— via WHYY, Jassmyn Nesmith

PGW is spending $1.1 million to swap 27 valves at nine stations, cutting methane venting there in half. But even the utility admits the fix trims its total climate pollution by just 1.3%, since most emissions come from gas burned in homes, not pipelines.

— via WHYY, Sophia Schmidt

About 100 ACT UP activists swarmed Philadelphia's City Hall, warning new Medicaid cuts could be deadly for HIV-positive people. The nearly $1 trillion rollback adds work requirements, strips funding from clinics like Planned Parenthood, and ends a CDC prevention program that's sent over $200 million to community groups since 2020.

— via WHYY, Andrew McGurl

The Yankees spent Friday rolling baseballs down foul lines and firing pop-ups against a white backdrop, cramming to learn Tropicana Field's quirks before Game 1. They've never played a postseason game there, and the Rays, who posted a 55-26 home record, know every trap door cold.

— via NY Post, Mark W. Sanchez

A 29-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the chest near Jamaica Avenue early Saturday and died at the hospital. The suspect is still at large, even as murders citywide have dropped more than 20% from last year.

— via Gothamist, Ben Feuerherd

Igor Shesterkin became the 18th goalie in NHL history to score, and even Ilya Sorokin admits this one beat his own fluke goal from March 2025. "He scored a real goal," Sorokin says, after Shesterkin actually fired the puck rather than catching a bad bounce.

— via NY Post, Andrew Crane

A federal judge threw out the Justice Department's attempt to use a law written to protect abortion clinics against pro-Palestinian protesters at a New Jersey synagogue. Offensive or hostile protest isn't the same as a FACE Act violation, the judge ruled, giving the government 30 days to try again.

— via Gothamist, Willow Higgins

24 IDF soldiers confess on camera: strikes on Gaza were never accidental, and one calls the operations "fun." The targeting computer gets it right 85% of the time, meaning 15% of the dead weren't even Hamas.

— via CultMTL, Justine Smith

A federal judge blocks the Education Department from publishing six years' worth of confidential foreign donor names, finding the sudden reversal likely violates federal law. The ruling cites a bare, internally contradictory justification and warns that donors in repressive countries could face real danger once their identities go public.

— via Volokh Conspiracy (Reason), Eugene Volokh

San Jose gave a sidewalk food pantry serving more than 100 people daily just 60 days to shut down, ruling it blocks a public right-of-way. The nonprofit's lawyer wants a meeting, and the mayor is already talking compromise.

— via Hoodline, Tony Ng