WordPress (finally) drops support for PHP 5. Beginning with WordPress 6.3, the minimum required version will be 7.0 and 7.4 will be the recommended version.

Ronald Huereca has a great tutorial on how to add your own commands to the coming Command Palette.

The first beta of WordPress 6.3 is available. It includes the Command Palette, improved page management, new blocks, and many other improvements.

So they have decided to rename the Command Center to “Command Palette,” which seems like a good choice.

This article from PatchStack explains what WordPress salts are and how they are used.

It is good to see that attention is being paid to improve performance. The tests were of even very basic installs / configurations. I’m guessing this means that 6.3 will come with another performance boost.

The 6.2.2 minor release addresses 1 bug and 1 security issue related to Block themes parsing shortcodes in user-generated data. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 5.9 have also been updated.

There is a very ambitious set of goals and projects envisioned for WordPress 6.3, which is scheduled for August 8th, 2023.

Plans include adding a navigation section to the Site Editor, adding a styles section, enhancements to blocks and possibly adding some new blocks, expanding pattern management, UI refinements, and performance gains.

Yikes! – Note that WordPress 6.2.1 removes support for shortcodes in block theme templates. Apparently this was part of one of the security fixes. There are a couple of work-arounds mentioned in the thread.