The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned nine individuals, including Hezbollah parliamentarians, Amal Movement security figures, and Lebanese Army Intelligence officers, signaling that state uniforms no longer confer immunity if the person wearing them serves the militia’s security architecture. Source link
Britain has activated a new space monitoring and defence platform designed to strengthen protection for UK satellites and the services they support. The software, called Borealis, became operational six months earlier than planned and is now being used by the National Space Operations Centre to track potential threats in orbit. The system is designed to detect and analyse space debris, hostile satellites and other objects that could disrupt critical UK satellite infrastructure. Borealis will improve military decision-making by delivering faster, more accurate intelligence on space activity, helping safeguard communications, navigation systems, and national security operations. The launch comes alongside the release of the first images captured by Britain’s Noctis-1 military telescope, previously known as Nyx-Alpha. The telescope monitors objects orbiting Earth, including UK satellites, and feeds real-time tracking data into the Borealis platform to help prevent collisions and identify emerging threats. Commenting on the innovation, UK Space Minister Liz Lloyd MP said: “Borealis represents a significant step forward in the UK’s ability to monitor, protect and defend the critical space capabilities. “This joint investment by …
A big moon is cresting the Scots pine as I sit at an upstairs window looking down on to the garden. Awaiting the dusk emergence of a female tawny owl has become an evening ritual. After a day spent in the confines of a nest box in our sycamore tree, her departure shifts back by a few minutes every night. Completely silent, she drops towards the woodland border and skims the plants, each time on the same trajectory, a grey shadow in the gloaming. Another movement on the path below catches my eye: a woodcock slinking along, using the box hedge to disguise her passage. If I hadn’t been watching for the owl I would never have known that she too is nesting somewhere in the garden’s thick leafiness. In July 2023, I wrote about a woodcock nesting in a flower border a few metres from the house, four chicks successfully hatching from four eggs. Last year, another attempt was disturbed by a cat captured on trailcam. This may be the same bird returned for a third time. Woodcocks …
agent: A person or thing (it can be a chemical or even a form of energy) that plays some role in getting something done. AI agent: A technology that uses a large language model, like a brain, and then links it to tools such as email or the internet so that it can perform actions or accomplish tasks on its own. AI model: Short for artificial-intelligence model, it’s a particularly smart computer algorithm. Simple types of these models choose from a set of pre-selected to answer a user’s requests (perhaps to respond to a chat). More complex models may train on mountains of data to essentially figure out their own answers to potentially novel questions. code: (in computing) To use special language to write or revise a program that makes a computer do something. (n.) Code also refers to each of the particular parts of that programming that instructs a computer’s operations. hack: (in computing) To get unapproved — often illegal — access to a computer, usually to steal or alter data or files. Someone …
A 3D-printed, ultra-thin, lightweight, high-performance shielding material comprised of two nanotubes has proven effective as a shield against both cosmic electromagnetic waves and radiation. Shielding materials are a necessity in key modern industrial settings-such as spacecraft, nuclear power plants, semiconductor equipment, and advanced medical devices-to protect both equipment and personnel from electromagnetic waves and radiation. But electromagnetic waves and neutron radiation can only be blocked with distinct materials, which are often heavy and inflexible. A flexible film material that blocks 99.999% of electromagnetic waves and reduces neutrons by approximately 72% A research team led by Dr. Joo Yong-ho at the Extreme Environment Shielding Materials Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology(KIST) have developed a new, lightweight solution to this problem, by combining carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which block electromagnetic waves, with boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), which absorb neutrons, to create a shell-structured, composite material capable of simultaneously blocking both types of radiation in a single thin layer. Credit: Korea Institute of Science and Technology Furthermore, by combining this with a polymer (PDMS), the …
Via Remix News, The year 2026 will go down in the history of European integration as a special moment. The European Union, under the banner of protecting democracy, has begun systematically restricting freedom of speech and real political pluralism. Thus, it embarks on the well-trodden historical paths of every authoritarian regime, resorting to violence and censorship as public support wanes. A report recently published by the Ordo Iuris Institute leaves no doubt: we are dealing with a project for a profound overhaul of the public sphere that will primarily target conservative communities, including Catholics. Jerzy Kwasniewski, the head of the conservative institute Ordo Iuris. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) The new EU mechanisms, ironically referred to as the “Democracy Shield,” are not a single piece of legislation. This is a coordinated regulatory system—from the Digital Services Act (DSA), through codes of conduct on “hate speech” and “disinformation,” to the regulation on political advertising. Their common denominator is the now-official departure from the European cult of free speech and its replacement with a system of preventive restrictions, in the name …
Taipei, Taiwan — Japan’s southern island of Kyushu is known for its volcanic landscape and tonkatsu ramen, but the popular tourist destination is ground zero for one of the greatest shifts in Japan’s defence strategy since 1947, when it formally renounced the use of war to settle international disputes. In late March, Japan deployed long-range missiles to Kumamoto Prefecture on the island’s southwest coast. Unlike previous defence installations, these missiles could hit China, reflecting the fact that Beijing has ranked as Japan’s top national security threat above North Korea and Russia since 2019. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters at the time that “Japan faces the most severe and complex security environment in the post-war era” and the country must strengthen its “deterrence and responsiveness”. Known as the “southern shield,” the new front in Japan’s defence strategy has seen the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), as the country’s military is formally known, deploy a range of weapons platforms as well as electronic warfare and air assets in southern …
In the “capitalist death circus,” America fights the school shooting epidemic by wasting billions on the theater of war—marketing bulletproof backpacks, bunker-desks, and combat simulators to turn teachers into soldiers. For educators, surviving a shooting is a double trauma—a harrowing collision between their own survival instincts and responsibility to their students. To remain a protective figure, they often suppress their own terror and grief, leading to an emotional burnout that few other professions experience. Teachers Are in a Permanent State of High Alert Teachers are also secondary first responders, forced to absorb student terror without the specialized training or emotional distance of emergency professionals. This can create a painful paradox: The teacher is simultaneously a victim, protector, and witness. Resulting survivor’s guilt—an intense, often irrational sense of failure to protect every child—may make their path to recovery even more complex. This secondary trauma is the deep physical and emotional distress caused by absorbing the pain of others. Even without witnessing a shooting, many teachers live in chronic stress, working within a system that treats schools …
Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech NASA’s Artemis 2 mission has successfully journeyed around the far side of the Moon and is currently making its long way back to Earth. Just after 8 pm Eastern time today, the Orion spacecraft’s crew module will separate from its service module, which allowed the spacecraft to propel itself through space. Then it’ll slam into the Earth’s atmosphere at full force, at a speed of over 23,000 mph, heating it up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it slows down enough over the next 13 minutes to safely splash down in the Pacific Ocean with the help of three large chutes. Absorbing the vast majority of these forces — and keeping the astronauts safe during reentry — is Orion’s heat shield, a thick layer of insulating material that has long been mired in controversy. Following the conclusion of NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, scientists spotted major cracks across more than 100 locations, as outlined in a 2024 report the agency’s …
Across the country, Republican-led state legislatures are passing a slate of laws that effectively shield oil and gas companies from legal claims that they are responsible for the destruction and mounting toll caused by climate change. Fifteen laws have either been passed or are currently being debated in 11 states. Together, they threaten to remove long-standing tools for the public to hold corporations accountable. A ProPublica investigation has found that most of these bills are part of a coordinated effort, orchestrated by a constellation of groups that share staff or have funding ties to the prominent conservative activist Leonard Leo, who is credited with placing conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. These groups have drafted state legislation, planned its dissemination and engaged a well-connected lobbying firm to get them signed into law. The effort is unfolding as courts are weighing more than 30 significant lawsuits by states, counties and municipalities accusing fossil fuel companies of misrepresenting the risks their products posed to consumers and seeking to recoup the costs of disasters and other climate …
