Thursday, 10 September 2026
Lean 4 bug manufactures a false Fermat's Last Theorem proof; Automattic's board forces CEO Mullenweg on leave; Anthropic contracts predictive surveillance of activists.
Today's Lead
EngineeringTrail of Bits
A 'proof' of Fermat's Last Theorem that fits the margin
Researchers at Trail of Bits found a bug in Lean 4 that allowed false proofs. The bug was a mismatch between the logical definition and compiled native code of a string extraction function. This mismatch let users construct false mathematical proofs, for example of Fermat's Last Theorem.
NVIDIA Developer Blog
Introducing CUDA Rust: Two Tracks for Writing GPU Kernels
NVIDIA introduced two approaches for developers to write GPU kernels in Rust. The cuda-oxide backend provides thread-level control similar to CUDA C++, while cutile-rs offers a higher-level model where the compiler manages thread mapping across sub-tensors. Both approaches enforce memory safety at compile time. The cutile-rs tool runs on production systems such as HuggingFace Grout and mistral.rs.
Read →404 Media
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence'
The Automattic board placed CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave. The board voted for this decision without his consent. Mark Davies, the CFO, will be the interim CEO.
Read →Read the Docs
Understanding the Recent DDoS Attack Against Read the Docs
Read the Docs faced a major distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in June 2026. The attack sent over 5.5 million requests per minute from millions of unique global addresses. Attackers used randomized headers and targeted cache-miss scenarios to evade defenses. The company responded with layered defenses: edge caching, rate limiting, and behavior analysis. Modern DDoS defense requires analysis across multiple dimensions, not simple IP blocking.
Read →IEEE Spectrum
The Growing Proof That Autonomous Cars Save Lives
Studies show autonomous vehicles cut crash deaths significantly. Waymo robotaxis had 92 percent fewer fatal crashes than human drivers. Automatic braking systems reduce pedestrian crashes by 27 percent and rear-end crashes by 50 percent.
Read →Aeon
Meet the Aboriginal Australian artists painting over the colonial past
Warlpiri artists from Central Australia paint over colonial documents and maps to reclaim narratives about their land. The documentary shows how Indigenous knowledge systems merge with Western cartography to challenge colonial narratives. Artistic collaboration in this project asserts Aboriginal sovereignty over representation and stories.
Read →JSTOR Daily
What Came Before the American Suburb?
Hempstead Village was a rural American town for three hundred years. Before cars became common, railroads allowed small-town commerce to grow. Post-war suburban development, including Levittown and shopping malls, transformed historic downtown areas and communities like Hempstead.
Read →