daily

By Dan Walsh

Local authority meetings are renowned for the regular commentary on dog fouling and littering; therefore, it would be anticipated that public representatives will be delighted to inform their supporters that litter fines are to be increased to €250.

The Minister of State with responsibility for the Circular Economy Alan Dillon today (Thursday) announced a package of measures to support cleaner communities, including a new €250,000 fund for local authorities and an increase in litter fines from €150 to €250 from September 1^st, 2026.

“People are rightly proud of their local communities, but one issue I consistently hear about is litter, including dog fouling. This new €250,000 fund will help local authorities provide additional dog waste bins and related infrastructure where it is needed most. We want to make it easier for responsible dog owners to do the right thing and help keep our parks, beaches and public spaces clean”, said Minister Dillon.

The new fund will support local authorities in purchasing additional dog waste bins, bag dispensers and related infrastructure in parks, beaches, greenways and other locations regularly used by dog owners.

A circular will issue to Local Authorities in due course with the details on how to apply for this funding.

Minister Dillon also confirmed that he has signed the commencement order providing for a substantial increase in litter fines. From September 1^st, 2026, the fixed-payment on-the-spot fine for littering will rise from €150 to €250.

The Minister added: “There must be consequences for littering. Those who drop litter impose costs on communities, local authorities and taxpayers. The increase in fines sends a clear message that littering is unacceptable and that the polluter must pay. Most people dispose of their waste responsibly. It is unfair that the actions of a small minority can spoil public spaces for everyone else.”

Minister Dillon also welcomed the launch of a new nationwide anti-litter awareness campaign – ‘Bin it or bring it home’ – by the Regional Waste Management Planning Offices, supported by the Department.

The Minister explained; “Enforcement is important, but education and awareness are equally important. The message is simple: if there is not a bin nearby, take your litter home. The same applies to dog waste. Every one of us has a role to play in keeping Ireland clean.”

By Dan Walsh

Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien and Ministers of State Seán Canney and Jerry Buttimer today announced Department of Transport funding of €40 million to address the damage caused to regional and local roads by Storm Chandra last January.

Wexford County Council is to receive €13.49 million. Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne TD informed WexfordLocal.com of this “significant and critical announcement this morning for Wexford.”

“I have secured €13.49 million from Minister Darragh O’Brien to aid Wexford’s storm damage repairs and can confirm that it has been allocated today. Since the storm hit us, I have been pressing hard for this to be secured to support the work of Wexford County Council,” concluded Minister Browne.

Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council Cllr Lisa McDonald welcomed the announcement. “This is the biggest ever announcement for rural roads in the county outside of our usual allocation,” she said.

Sinn Féin TD for Wicklow–Wexford, Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin, has welcomed the allocation and told WexfordLocal.com the funding will benefit rural communities across North Wexford, including areas such as Gorey, Courtown, Riverchapel, Ballymoney, Kilmuckridge, Ballycanew, Oulart, Monamolin, and Camolin,Bunclody, Ballindaggin and others where road conditions have been a long-standing concern for residents.

Deputy Ó Súilleabháin stressed that it does not go far enough. “This €13.49 million allocation is very welcome and will deliver much-needed improvements. However, more funding is required. Wexford County Council has indicated that the true cost of bringing all rural roads back to a safe and acceptable standard is closer to €20 million, leaving a significant shortfall.”

Fine Gael TD for Wicklow Wexford Brian Brennan told WexfordLocal.com; “I am delighted that this funding has been approved.  The damage caused by Storm Chandra was unprecedented and left a trail of devastation in its wake.

“The cost of repair of this damage is enormous and would put massive strain on the Council’s already tight roads Budget.  I have been working closely with Eddie Taaffe, Chief Executive, Wexford County Council, the Tanaiste and Minister for Finance and all relevant Departments to get this funding over the line and I am both delighted and relieved to see this allocation delivered.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is set to meet the Taoiseach and Tánaiste in Cork on Thursday. Ireland took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union on Wednesday; it was marked by a ceremony at Dublin Castle which was attended by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Traditionally, the European Commission visits each country at the start of its presidency to discuss its programme and goals for its six-month term. The Government has said it wants to focus on competitiveness, values and security during its tenure. Over two days, several meetings will be held, including one between the Taoiseach and von der Leyen and others between Irish ministers and European commissioners. Micheál Martin and von der Leyen will also chair a plenary session. In a statement ahead of the event, Martin said the discussions will include “Ireland’s work to progress the negotiations on the EU’s next long-term budget”, “delivery of the One Europe One Market Roadmap objectives” and how to create “a more integrated Single Market”. He said he also plans to raise “Israel’s persistent and egregious breaches of human rights and international law”. The College of Commissioners is the political leadership of the European Commission and is made up of a commissioner from each of the 27 member states, led by the Commission President. The former Fianna Fáil Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath, is Ireland’s EU commissioner, with responsibility for democracy, justice, the Rule of Law, and consumer protection. Commissioners are also due to visit the Tyndall National Institute, Ireland’s largest deep-tech research centre, to hear from researchers about their work in semiconductors, advanced materials, and space. While the Gardaí have said traffic restrictions for the visit will be kept to the minimum required, they have advised members of the public travelling through Cork Airport to allow for additional time due to possible temporary traffic restrictions.

Kimi K2.7 Code is generally available in GitHub Copilot Kimi K2.7 Code, an open-weight model, is now generally available in GitHub Copilot. This is the first open-weight model offered as a selectable option in the Copilot model picker, giving you more choice and a lower-cost option for your coding workflows. Kimi K2.7 Code is hosted by GitHub on Microsoft Azure. This model is billed at provider list pricing under usage-based billing. See GitHub Copilot’s pricing for models and requests for details. Availability in GitHub Copilot Kimi K2.7 Code is beginning to roll out to Copilot Pro, Pro+, and Max plans. You’ll be able to select the model in the model picker in Visual Studio Code. Rollout will be gradual and we’ll continue to monitor the model’s quality and performance. We’ll expand to Copilot Business, Enterprise, and additional surfaces over the coming weeks. Check back soon if you don’t see it yet. You’ll be able to select the model in the model picker in: - Visual Studio Code version 1.127.0 or later - Visual Studio version 17.14.6 or later - Copilot CLI - GitHub Copilot cloud agent - GitHub Copilot App - github.com - GitHub Mobile iOS and Android - JetBrains version 1.9.1-251 or later - Xcode - Eclipse Enabling access for Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise Kimi K2.7 Code is off by default for Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise. Plan administrators must enable the Kimi K2.7 Code policy in Copilot settings before anyone in their organization can select it. If the policy is left off, the model stays unavailable to that organization. We recommend administrators review open-weight models against their own security, compliance, and data-governance requirements before enabling them. Learn more To explore all models available in GitHub Copilot, see our documentation on supported models and choosing the right AI model for your task. Share your feedback Join the discussion in GitHub Community to share your feedback.

CursorBench 3.1 We evaluate agents on ambiguous, multi-file tasks from real Cursor sessions. Higher scores are better. More about CursorBench| Model | ||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Fable 5 Max | 72.9% | $18.02 | 63,842 | 76 | | 2 | Fable 5 Extra High | 72.0% | $13.74 | 48,754 | 63 | | 3 | Fable 5 High | 70.6% | $10.81 | 37,173 | 54 | | 4 | Fable 5 Medium | 69.8% | $8.27 | 28,507 | 47 | | 5 | Opus 4.7 Max | 64.8% | $11.02 | 62,989 | 96 | | 6 | GPT-5.5 Extra High | 64.3% | $4.37 | 17,905 | 46 | | 7 | Fable 5 Low | 64.2% | $5.70 | 18,882 | 36 | | 8 | Opus 4.8 Max | 63.8% | $7.59 | 77,370 | 60 | | 9 | Composer 2.5 | 63.2% | $0.55 | 15,152 | 37 | | 10 | GPT-5.5 High | 62.6% | $3.59 | 13,329 | 40 | | 11 | Opus 4.8 Extra High | 62.1% | $6.14 | 55,622 | 54 | | 12 | Opus 4.7 Extra High | 61.6% | $7.11 | 43,942 | 72 | | 13 | Sonnet 5 Max | 61.2% | $6.87 | 93,485 | 93 | | 14 | Opus 4.7 High | 59.4% | $5.01 | 32,227 | 59 | | 15 | GPT-5.5 Medium | 59.2% | $2.22 | 9,065 | 35 | | 16 | Opus 4.8 High | 58.4% | $4.41 | 36,788 | 45 | | 17 | Sonnet 5 Extra High | 58.4% | $5.23 | 58,228 | 86 | | 18 | Sonnet 5 High | 57.0% | $3.74 | 41,735 | 66 | | 19 | Opus 4.8 Medium | 56.6% | $3.83 | 31,684 | 41 | | 20 | Sonnet 5 Medium | 54.9% | $2.57 | 27,469 | 53 | | 21 | GLM 5.2 Max | 54.6% | $3.11 | 51,312 | 83 | | 22 | Opus 4.8 Low | 54.3% | $2.93 | 22,726 | 36 | | 23 | Opus 4.7 Medium | 52.7% | $2.93 | 19,193 | 41 | | 24 | Kimi K2.7 Code | 52.7% | $1.92 | 32,902 | 70 | | 25 | Composer 2 | 52.2% | $0.56 | 14,163 | 40 | | 26 | GLM 5.2 High | 50.7% | $2.46 | 30,621 | 76 | | 27 | Gemini 3.5 Flash | 49.8% | $1.94 | 35,105 | 79 | | 28 | Sonnet 4.6 Max | 49.0% | $3.09 | 40,280 | 55 | | 29 | GPT-5.5 Low | 48.8% | $1.19 | 4,923 | 24 | | 30 | Sonnet 4.6 High | 48.8% | $3.06 | 37,352 | 57 | | 31 | Opus 4.7 Low | 48.3% | $1.87 | 13,164 | 29 | | 32 | Sonnet 5 Low | 47.7% | $1.46 | 17,028 | 37 | | 33 | Kimi 2.6 | 47.6% | $1.27 | 24,783 | 56 | | 34 | Sonnet 4.6 Medium | 46.0% | $2.64 | 31,360 | 50 | | 35 | Sonnet 4.6 Low | 41.5% | $1.89 | 21,211 | 50 | | 36 | Kimi 2.5 | 31.9% | $0.87 | 9,446 | 30 | Changelog CursorBench 3.1 - Introduced problems focused on codebase understanding, bugfinding, planning, and code review. - Improved grading criteria for some edit tasks. CursorBench 3.0 - Initial set of tasks focused on edit, refactor, and bugfix problems. Avg cost / task is computed by applying each model's published per-million-token pricing (input, cache read, cache write, and output) to the tokens it used on each CursorBench 3.1 task, then averaging across tasks. Results are subject to variance; small differences in scores may not be statistically meaningful.

Senior SWE-Bench We treat agents like senior engineers, so why evaluate them like junior engineers? Senior engineers build features without over-specified requirements Senior SWE-Bench feature tasks have realistic instructions that read like natural language messages rather than over-specified requirements. To reliably evaluate these tasks, we introduce a validation agent which uses expert-designed recipes to write behavioral tests that adapt to submitted solutions. Senior engineers solve bugs that require runtime investigation from behavioral reports Senior SWE-Bench bug tasks reflect tricky user reports and focus on investigation, from starting services to debugging subtle runtime issues. They are sourced from PRs that needed significant runtime investigation to solve (e.g. logs, profiling data, reproduction steps). Senior engineers ship the right code without being told to Senior SWE-Bench scores tasteful solves by combining runtime correctness tests with several quality metrics based on observed codebase practices. In addition, verifiers and validation can test against load-bearing codebase practices that go unstated in instructions. Leaderboard - 1Claude Opus 4.8Mini-SWE-Agent · max24.0% - Claude Sonnet 5Mini-SWE-Agent · max19.4% - 2GPT-5.5Mini-SWE-Agent · xhigh16.0% - 3Claude Opus 4.7Mini-SWE-Agent · max14.1% - 4GPT-5.4Mini-SWE-Agent · xhigh14.0% - 5GLM-5.2Mini-SWE-Agent · max12.5% - 6Kimi K2.6Mini-SWE-Agent · default8.2% - 7Claude Sonnet 4.6Mini-SWE-Agent · high8.2% - 8Gemini 3.1 ProMini-SWE-Agent · high6.1% - 9Gemini 3.5 FlashMini-SWE-Agent · medium3.0% | # | Model | Effort | Solve rate (pass@1) | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | Claude Opus 4.8 | max | 24.0% | | Claude Sonnet 5 | max | 19.4% | | | 2 | GPT-5.5 | xhigh | 16.0% | | 3 | Claude Opus 4.7 | max | 14.1% | | 4 | GPT-5.4 | xhigh | 14.0% | | 5 | GLM-5.2 | max | 12.5% | | 6 | Kimi K2.6 | default | 8.2% | | 7 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | high | 8.2% | | 8 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | high | 6.1% | | 9 | Gemini 3.5 Flash | medium | 3.0% | The top-performing frontier models fail to complete tasks with senior-level correctness and taste over 75% of the time. Tasks Senior SWE-Bench tasks are sourced from PRs in repos spanning libraries to multi-service applications, authored by engineers with hundreds of commits in their respective repos. We focus on multi-phase, multi-stack feature PRs and bug/performance PRs with significant runtime investigation. For more on task design, read the blog post More naturally under-specified instructions Senior SWE-Bench tasks reflect natural communication with agents, with a median instruction length 31% that of SWE-Bench Pro. More diverse task scope Senior SWE-Bench feature tasks can span across multiple services, with an average of 11 files touched per feature task. Longer task horizon Senior SWE-Bench tasks are designed to be long-horizon, requiring hundreds of steps for even the strongest agents. More naturally under-specified instructions Senior SWE-Bench tasks reflect natural communication with agents, with a median instruction length 31% that of SWE-Bench Pro. More diverse task scope Senior SWE-Bench feature tasks can span across multiple services, with an average of 11 files touched per feature task. Longer task horizon Senior SWE-Bench tasks are designed to be long-horizon, requiring hundreds of steps for even the strongest agents. Reference-solution SLOC & files are measured identically across all three benchmarks. Instruction length excludes harness boilerplate. Token and step counts for other benchmarks are based on their self-reported metrics.

For the quickest way to join, simply enter your email below and get access. We will send a confirmation and sign you up to our newsletter to keep you updated on all your gaming news. Join the GamesRadar community for quick access. Enter your email below and we'll send confirmation, and sign you up to our newsletter. By submitting your information, you confirm you are aged 16 or over, have read our Privacy Policy and agree to the Terms & Conditions. Geographical rules apply. Today, Sony announced that it was ending production of physical PlayStation discs and shutting down the PS3 and Vita stores. I think that's something of a nightmare from a consumer perspective, but what does it mean for proper historians and preservationists? It's less damaging than you might think, actually, because they've been preparing for this eventuality for some time. The problem is that the game industry still won't budge on legislative effort to make preserving digital games legal. "This is unfortunate news for those who still prefer buying games on physical media," Video Game History Foundation director Frank Cifaldi says in a statement on social media, "and is certainly a hit to consumer rights, the resale market, and game creators whose businesses rely on the physical market. But from the perspective of professional preservationists, this doesn't have as much of an impact as you might expect." While many players conflate the work of game preservation with ensuring that old games remain available to modern players – the sort of thing movements like Stop Killing Games are all about – that kind of consumer-focused effort is a very small part of what game preservation is about. The reality is that the vast majority of retail video games have already been kept from disappearing thanks to piracy. That's hardly an ideal solution, of course, but it does mean that museums don't really feel an urgent need to put their resources into, say, making sure the NES version of Super Mario Bros. is protected for future generations. "The reality is that the vast majority of video games produced over the last two decades were not made for dedicated home video game consoles, let alone pressed to physical media," Cifaldi continues. "And even when they were released on physical media, a day-one digital patch was all but guaranteed, meaning that even though a disc is preserving data in an accessible way, it may not represent the game that people actually played. Museums and archives have been preparing for this future for a while, with the expectation that putting discs on a shelf isn't going to be a long-term solution for preserving new games." This speaks to just how broad the field of game history really is. Most players only care about making sure they can continue to play their favorite games years into the future, which is fair enough. But who's tracking the history of, say, browser games, a very important part in the evolution of modern video games? What about the mobile games that have been disappearing from iOS and Android for years? Who's making sure the world knows about the development of the hentai visual novel scene on Steam? Those games were always digital-only releases, and if one is delisted from sale, there's suddenly no legal way to access it. That will soon be the case even for massive launches like GTA 6. Museums and historians in particular need legal legitimacy for their work, and spent years fighting for a DMCA exemption that would allow them to preserve digital games. That proposal, opposed by game industry lobby groups, was denied by the US copyright office in 2024. "What continues to baffle us is what the industry expects institutions like ours to do about it," Cifaldi concludes in today's statement. "If platform owners are deciding to eliminate physical media and older digital storefronts, then we'd also like to see trade groups like the Entertainment Software Association offer meaningful solutions for archives and museums to legally preserve digital-only content and make it accessible for research. Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more "Everyone agrees this is a serious problem, but the ESA has repeatedly opposed the efforts of cultural heritage institutions to reform digital copy protection laws to make it easier to do this work. The industry needs to meaningfully come to the table on this issue, because asking museums to download a copy of Grand Theft Auto VI and hope it'll run in 50 years is not a preservation solution." Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028. Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format. This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today. We’ll continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or PlayStation Store. We remain committed to delivering a world-class gaming experience to our fans and we thank you for your continued support. For important updates on PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita announced today, please click here. Join the Conversation Add a CommentBut don't be a jerk! 6,060 Comments Loading More Comments