Daily News Digest — 2026-10-25
Today's digest
Security and infrastructure dominate a quiet weekend news cycle. BleepingComputer's newest story details BlackX, a UEFI bootkit used in an espionage campaign that bypasses Secure Boot on fully patched Windows systems, while Slashdot's latest item covers NASA speeding up the Artemis program toward a 2028 crewed lunar landing. NASA's Artemis plans were also covered by Slashdot's front page alongside the AP report it links.
On Digg, the AI-infrastructure economy is a recurring theme: GPU capacity resale, rising GPU rental rates against shrinking US electrical-equipment capacity, and competing inference benchmark claims from SGLang and vLLM. The rest of the front page is weekend sports (World Series Game 2, college football upsets, the US Grand Prix), entertainment and business news. Note: Slashdot's RSS feed had no new items inside the 24-hour window (its newest entry was about 36 hours old), so only one Slashdot story qualifies; BleepingComputer's RSS feed was blocked (403), so its homepage was used instead.
- BlackX UEFI bootkit exploits Baton Drop flaw to bypass Secure Boot
- NASA Adopting Apollo's Urgency To Build a Moon Base
- GPU rental rates rise while US electrical-equipment capacity falls
- Volkswagen reportedly plans Georgia Audi factory and South Carolina facility expansion
Slashdot
NASA Adopting Apollo's Urgency To Build a Moon Base
NASA is accelerating its Artemis program, aiming to return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028 and eventually build a permanent base near the moon's south pole, according to an AP report. Administrator Jared Isaacman said Artemis III, a two-week Earth-orbit docking test with SpaceX and Blue Origin landers and four astronauts, is still on track for next summer, while the Artemis IV landing remains set for 2028. NASA is keeping its choice between the two landers open as long as possible, is cutting meetings and bureaucracy, and describes a "new space race" with China. Slashdot commenters debated safety, budget and whether the timeline is realistic.
Digg
Rays strike first against Brewers in World Series Game 2
Yahoo Sports shared an MLB video of the Rays scoring first against the Brewers in Game 2 of the World Series. A Rays fan noted Drew Rasmussen was starting against his former team. Digg lists 73 sources on the story.
Houthis renew warning as Riyadh airport plans October 25 flight restart
Al-Monitor, carrying Reuters, reports Riyadh's airport planned to restart domestic flights from Terminal 1 and national-carrier international flights from Terminal 2 on October 25. The Houthis renewed a warning at the same time. (from feed excerpt)
Reselling GPU capacity as a possible AI-lab fallback
A user on X quoted a friend at a "neolab" who said such a lab could resell compute even if it fails to train the best model. The post framed GPU resale as a fallback business for AI labs. (from feed excerpt)
A24's 'Elden Ring' movie reportedly has a budget around $200 million, its largest yet
A post says A24's adaptation of Elden Ring has a reported budget of around $200 million, the studio's largest yet. Alex Garland is attached and the film is targeting a 2028 release. (from feed excerpt)
UCF reportedly upsets No. 2 BYU in double overtime
ESPN calls the double-overtime win UCF's first against an AP top-five team. The result is a major upset of the No. 2-ranked Cougars.
RTX 20, 30 and 40 mods reportedly deliver up to twice the throughput in select AI tests
VideoCardz identifies separate modder projects that unlock hidden tensor performance on Nvidia RTX 20, 30 and 40 series GPUs, with up to twice the throughput in select AI tests. Wccftech says there is no convincing evidence of a gaming performance boost. (from feed excerpt)
@log4j's alleged OpenAI account ban draws calls for local AI alternatives
On X, @bayeslord questioned the due process behind the alleged OpenAI account ban of @log4j, while @beffjezos argued for open-source and local AI. The thread links OpenAI's account-deactivation troubleshooting page. (from feed excerpt)
Ramayana: Part One Advances Reportedly Hit ₹10 Crore in India, $517K in USA
A box-office post reports $517,354 in US premiere sales from 23,319 tickets across 612 locations, alongside roughly ₹10 crore in advance sales in India. (from feed excerpt)
Volkswagen reportedly plans Georgia Audi factory and South Carolina facility expansion
CNBC reports a government official told Reuters the planned Georgia Audi plant would produce 200,000 SUVs annually. Bloomberg reports the plan, which also includes expanding a South Carolina facility, hands the Trump administration a win. (from feed excerpt)
No. 14 Houston and No. 10 Utah's game called a 'barnburner'
Before the game, the Pat McAfee Show called Houston Utah's toughest test yet and expected a "spectacular night." Yahoo Sports later called the game a "barnburner." (from feed excerpt)
DICE and Respawn are working on a new game amid Battlefront 3 rumors
IGN reports EA confirmed the DICE and Respawn project, while GameRant says Jeff Grubb believes DICE is likelier than Bungie to be working on Battlefront 3. (from feed excerpt)
SGLang and vLLM claim DeepInfer parity in separate inference tests
SGLang cites results on B300 and GB300 hardware, while vLLM's decode claim covers batch sizes 8 to 256. Both projects say they match DeepInfer's performance in their own tests. (from feed excerpt)
Jailer 2 Crosses ₹600 Crore Worldwide in First 9–10 Days
The Indian Express reports ₹666.30 crore worldwide after 10 days, and a box-office post puts the overseas gross at ₹229.50 crore. (from feed excerpt)
Kimi Antonelli takes pole for the United States Grand Prix
F1 clocked Antonelli's early Q3 lap at 1:34.035 before confirming him on pole for the United States Grand Prix. (from feed excerpt)
LSEG agrees to acquire credit-data firm Octus for $3.535 billion in cash
LSEG plans to pair Octus's private-credit intelligence with its fixed-income data if the acquisition closes. The deal is valued at $3.535 billion in cash. (from feed excerpt)
GPU rental rates rise while US electrical-equipment capacity falls
a16z says US electrical-equipment factory capacity is down 9% since 2019, even as prices have risen 69%. The post ties this constraint to rising GPU rental rates. (from feed excerpt)
‘The Prestige’ set for Jan. 29, 2027, return with first screenings on 70mm and IMAX screens
Variety says Disney scheduled the anniversary re-release of Christopher Nolan's thriller about rival magicians, starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, for January 29, 2027 on 70mm and IMAX screens. (from feed excerpt)
Beirut’s $13 chicken sandwich spotlights Lebanon’s economic divide
Reuters reports the Chic Taouk sandwich costs nearly twice a typical chicken sandwich, drawing criticism amid Lebanon's financial struggles. (from feed excerpt)
Wisconsin beats USC at home after two first-quarter interceptions
Yahoo Sports called the 24-7 result an upset and said Wisconsin held No. 16 USC to one score, helped by two first-quarter interceptions. (from feed excerpt)
One Piece reportedly coming to Fortnite
Digg's front page lists a report that One Piece content is coming to Fortnite, with 8 sources covering it. (from feed excerpt)
BleepingComputer
BlackX UEFI bootkit exploits Baton Drop flaw to bypass Secure Boot
BlackX is a new UEFI bootkit used in an early-2026 espionage campaign against diplomatic agencies in Central Asia, particularly Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Kaspersky found it exploits the Baton Drop flaw (CVE-2022-21894) to bypass Secure Boot and is similar to BlackLotus, though it uses a different kernel driver and payloads. The driver, signed with a revoked certificate, disables security processes and tampers with ETW providers, with some actions targeting Kaspersky and Avast products. Attribution to APT41 is medium confidence, and fully patched systems were still vulnerable because the revocation of "Windows Production PCA 2011" must be triggered manually.