The cloud & infrastructure stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
A new report says UK ministers met mostly businesses about datacenters, while environmental groups got no meetings and residents had little say.
Read more: UK ministers met AI datacenter firms often, but not green groupsA breach at the email host of Germany's AfD party exposed more than 345,000 email addresses, and the leaked messages are still being picked apart.
Read more: Hack of German party AfD's email host exposed 345,000 addressesCloudflare counted 49 Internet disruptions in Q3 2026. Government shutoffs and power failures led the list, a reminder that being online depends on electricity.
Read more: Power failures and government shutoffs knocked the Internet offline in Q3AI is straining the US power grid, but industry leaders say the same pressure is funding tools meant to keep bills and outages down.
Read more: AI's power hunger is pushing the US to upgrade its aging electric gridA cyberattack at UNM Health paused surgeries and diverted ambulances. Services are back, but patients should expect scam messages that use their care details.
Read more: Ransomware hits New Mexico's biggest hospital system, diverting ambulancesGoogle Cloud and Oracle now let AI assistants query Oracle business data directly, with some tools live today and others in preview.
Read more: Google and Oracle let AI assistants work directly with company dataGoogle Cloud now lets companies run their own VMware setup on dedicated Google servers, with full admin control and the option to use existing licenses and discounts.
Read more: Google Cloud now lets companies run VMware with full controlGartner named Amazon Connect a Leader for the fourth year in a row. Here is what that means if your business takes customer calls or chats, and what it does not.
Read more: Amazon's customer service software ranks as a top pick againMicrosoft released emergency Windows updates on October 26 to block certificates tied to eight weak eMudhra keys that could be used to fake website identities.
Read more: Microsoft pulls trust from weak digital IDs on Windows computersPaylogix, a New York benefits firm, says hackers copied files on 41,739 people, including Social Security numbers. Three other health groups also reported breaches.
Read more: Hackers Took Data on 41,739 People From a Benefits FirmOpenAI is giving ChatGPT a visual redesign with buttons, a built-in calculator and adjustable graphs, aimed at making it easier for newcomers to use.
Read more: ChatGPT is getting buttons, graphs and a calculator, not just textGoogle Cloud is building its Gemini voice assistant to finish tasks, not just answer questions. Businesses that handle many phone calls are the main target.
Read more: Google's Gemini voice assistant is being built to take action, not just talkA data company says small errors at each step snowball, and one sales team used accurate counts to find 700 accounts it had missed.
Read more: Small data errors add up: 80% accurate steps end at 33%Google's new Fitbit Edge takes over from the Charge with a better screen, floor counting and monthly health alerts, but it gives up tap-to-pay.
Read more: Fitbit Edge replaces the Charge with a better screen and health alertsData centers, the huge buildings behind AI and the internet, are now a top campaign issue, and where candidates stand may affect your utility bill and your town.
Read more: Data centers have become a top issue in the 2026 electionsMany Americans oppose nearby data centers over fears of higher power bills, but Fast Company reports the real effect depends on the local grid and the deal.
Read more: Whether a data center raises your power bill depends on where you liveBanks are testing AI that spots fraud rings by how accounts and devices connect, but people still make the final call on cases. Here is what that means for you.
Read more: Banks Turn to AI That Spots Fraud Gangs by Their PatternsAmazon's customer service software can now score whether a customer left happy, may quit, bought something or solved the problem alone.
Read more: Amazon's customer service software now tracks if customers were helpedOpenAI says a faster processing tier helps its engineers investigate outages in minutes, not hours. No outside test has confirmed the claim.
Read more: OpenAI says its faster AI tool cut engineers' outage checks to minutesSummary.com has launched EDGE AI, which answers work questions using only its library of business book summaries. It is included with a subscription.
Read more: Summary.com adds a tool that answers work questions from business booksAirTrunk raised a A$4.25 billion green loan for a Sydney data center campus, a vote of confidence after a rough few weeks for the industry.
Read more: AirTrunk lands $3 billion loan to build Sydney data center campusSpain has softened its proposed limits on data center power use after industry pushback, which could shape where cloud and AI services grow.
Read more: Spain softens its power rules for data centers after tech pushbackOpenAI is promoting ChatGPT Voice for Diwali budgets, gift ideas, menus and recipes, so families can plan by talking instead of typing.
Read more: OpenAI pitches ChatGPT Voice as a helper for Diwali planningAnthropic's IPO filing says some of its planned AI data centers will run on natural gas, a choice that could raise costs for the company and for nearby power customers.
Read more: Anthropic admits its AI data centers will run on natural gas
