If we combine these two sets of data^1 we obtain a fascinating result^2.

• 46% of all code out there, in every app, is maintained by hobbyists
• 13,8% is maintained by “I sometimes get a bit of pocket money for my code”
• 40% of all code out there is maintained by an industry-paid person

So, nearly 60% of all code being actively shipped in an app or product in the wild is hobbyist-maintained open-source.

See also this discussion on lobste.rs on the economics of the average (as in median) open source project:

https://lobste.rs/s/ftwkvo/hobbyist_maintainer_economic_gravity

To sum up, apparently most open source projects are small, and aren't funded as paid work. And they matter because of their number, which has the effect that they make up a large part of all software in use.

Published date: 15 January 2026 07:05 GMT

Her plight reflects the wider crisis in Gaza, where nearly two million people continue to live under dire conditions three months after the ceasefire.

After two years of Israeli bombardment, much of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and public health system has been destroyed.

People had hoped the October ceasefire would bring some respite and a gradual path to recovery.

But with continued Israeli restrictions on border crossings, aid, and goods, residents feel the situation has merely shifted from an intense genocide to a slower-paced one.

14 January 2026 22:54 GMT
Last update: 15 January 2026 05:45 EST

Prisoners for Palestine (PFP), a group that has been supporting the families and friends of the hunger strikers, said the action - which is considered to be largest since the 1981 Irish Republican hunger strike - had achieved a number of victories, with several key demands being met.

Claiming the cancellation of Elbit's contract as a "resounding victory," it warned that the arms company's "days in Britain are numbered".

PFP that in the past few weeks alone 500 people had signed up to take direct action against weapons firms linked to Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, which it said was "more than the amount of people who took action with Palestine Action over its five-year campaign".

Published date: 13 Jan 2026 14:27 GMT

Additionally, civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal accused Israel of restricting the entry of necessary shelter, caravans and construction materials into Gaza, compounding the natural disaster unfolding in the territory.

"A new polar storm is approaching Gaza, and what lies ahead will be catastrophic," Basal warned, adding that the coming days will bring "preventable deaths".

The Government Media Office in the strip stressed in its latest press release on Tuesday that "Gaza is dying slowly", adding that more than 7,000 tents were swept away in the past two days due to the strong winds and heavy rain.

"This is especially concerning given the near-total lack of heating, the absence of safe shelter, and the severe shortage of blankets and winter clothing, coupled with the continued restrictions on the delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid," it added.

Over the past few years, several AI-powered features have been added to mobile phones that allow users to better search and understand their messages. One effect of this change is increased 0-click attack surface, as efficient analysis often requires message media to be decoded before the message is opened by the user. One such feature is audio transcription. Incoming SMS and RCS audio attachments received by Google Messages are now automatically decoded with no user interaction. As a result, audio decoders are now in the 0-click attack surface of most Android phones.

I’ve spent a fair bit of time investigating these decoders, first reporting CVE-2025-49415 in the Monkey’s Audio codec on Samsung devices. Based on this research, the team reviewed the Dolby Unified Decoder, and Ivan Fratric and I reported CVE-2025-54957. This vulnerability is likely in the 0-click attack surface of most Android devices in use today. In parallel, Seth Jenkins investigated a driver accessible from the sandbox the decoder runs in on a Pixel 9, and reported CVE-2025-36934.

The GNOME Project announced today the alpha version of the upcoming GNOME 50 desktop environment series for public testing to give the community a first taste of the new features and enhancements.

The biggest change of the upcoming GNOME 50 desktop environment series is the removal of X11 support in various core components, which was initially planned for the GNOME 49 release, as GNOME is going Wayland-only from here on, except for the ability to launch other X11 desktop sessions with a per-user X server.

The GNOME 50 release also promises initial support for a session save/restore functionality, a new gnome-headless-session@.service that makes it easier to start a headless graphical session (i.e. for RDP purposes), and support for the new “boot_display” sysfs attribute from Linux kernel 6.18 LTS in GDM.

Children in Darfur are expected to die from hunger “within days” as famine conditions persist more than 1,000 days into the brutal conflict, the United Nations' top Sudan official has warned.

Speaking to Middle East Eye on Wednesday, following recent UN missions to conflict-affected areas, Denise Brown, the UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said aid agencies were uncovering “horrendous” conditions as limited access is negotiated to previously unreachable locations.

Brown said that two weeks ago the UN found malnutrition rates among children in Um Baru in North Darfur to have reached 53 percent.

Published date: 12 January 2026 22:32 GMT
Last update: Jan. 13 2026 12:00 EST

The protests gripping Iran are fuelled by immense economic pressures and frustration with the government, but with Iranians having felt Israel's wrath and also seen what the US did in Venezuela, their demands are not for foreign intervention, a slate of regional experts have said.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington DC on Monday, the experts said that whilst there may be some voices that are outliers, most Iranians were looking for the international community to help lift crippling US sanctions and begin a new path forward.