E130: Monitoring Community Concerns, 2026 Global Partner Program, WP 6.9 RC1

WordPress 6.9 Release Candidate 1 is here, bringing new Notes, improved Interactivity and Block Binding APIs, border-radius presets, and key fixes across the editor. The community is also watching the situation in Bangladesh, with the Community Team coordinating closely to keep events healthy and safe. Core discussions this week focus on unified roadmaps, better contributor recognition, and preparing developers for the iframe-based editor coming in WordPress 7.0.

The big security story comes from Imunify360, where a critical flaw in its AI-bolit scanner allowed attackers to execute arbitrary PHP—one of the most severe hosting-level issues in a decade. WooCommerce 10.3.5 landed with important compatibility fixes, Google Search Console added custom annotations, and Human Made with WordPress VIP released an AI Readiness Report for enterprise teams.

Beyond core, the ecosystem is buzzing: ElasticPress adds semantic search powered by OpenAI, Elementor 3.33 ships a new Variables Manager and improved CSS controls, Cloudways announces award winners, and GoDaddy launches Airo.ai to bring conversational AI into small-business workflows. CookieAdmin crosses 200k installs, Charitable hits 1M downloads, and WPConsent powers 100k+ sites just months after launch.

New projects this week include lightweight analytics tools, design block collections, country-based pricing for WooCommerce, modern CAPTCHA options, and fresh plugins for loyalty programs, filters, archives, and more.

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Dive in for another week of releases, security alerts, community news, and fresh innovation across the WordPress world.