China’s commerce ministry warns Brussels that Beijing “will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard” the interests of Chinese companies and individuals included in the 20th sanctions package. 3 HRS ago 2 mins read Source link
Retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis, a former NATO allied supreme commander, suggested on Thursday that reopening the Strait of Hormuz largely hinges on the U.S. military’s ability to stop Iranian mines from being laid in the waterway. “Strategically, what we ought to be doing is going after these small boats before they get underway. And… Source link
BRUSSELS — The head of the International Energy Agency on Tuesday summoned an extraordinary meeting to decide whether to tap millions of barrels of emergency oil supplies amid soaring energy costs. The meeting, to be held at an undisclosed time on Tuesday, will “assess the current security of supply and market conditions to inform a subsequent decision on whether to make emergency stocks of IEA countries available to the market,” the agency’s chief, Fatih Birol, said in an emailed statement. The IEA’s 31 members — mostly advanced Western economies — have grown increasingly panicked as Iran and a U.S.-Israeli coalition trade airstrikes, imperilling critical supply chains and energy infrastructure across the Gulf. Merchant shipping has also abandoned the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for 20 percent of the world’s energy trade, prompting fears of price spikes. Source link
I recall the first full-time job I ever had. I was a young graduate joining Alcan, an aluminium company that made commercial aluminium windows and doors for the architectural building industry. I recall my mentor, a very nice elderly man who had amazing technical knowledge, but I found he was reluctant to share his accumulation of lifelong knowledge with me. This highlights a problem many organizations face today: How do you capture and retain the tacit knowledge that is unwritten, unspoken, and intuitive, which individuals acquire through personal experiences, interactions, and observations (Polanyi, 1966; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995)? Unlike explicit knowledge, which is well-documented, codified, and transferred through books, manuals, and databases, tacit knowledge resides within individuals and is difficult to articulate; it includes skills, expertise, and insights gained over time (Polanyi, 1966). Significant competitive advantage can be gained in capturing and leveraging tacit knowledge (Grant, 1996; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). However, due to the intangible nature of tacit knowledge, transferring and retaining this knowledge pose considerable challenges (Szulanski, 1996). Many employees have valuable insights …
Ancient ruins of Jerash, Jordan — scene of a devastating pandemic in the 7th century. Gatsi/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Gatsi/Getty Images In the middle of the 7th century, a plague swept through the walled city of Jerash, in what is now modern-day Jordan. Ceramicists abandoned their workshops under the Hippodrome, leaving unfired pottery in their haste. Young and old alike succumbed to a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis, the same microbe responsible for the Black Death seven centuries later. The city, unable to manage the dead and dying, converted those workshops into a mass grave. “It was filled within days — hundreds of bodies,” says Rays Jiang, a University of South Florida geneticist and lead author of a new study in the Journal of Archeological Science, highlighting the plague victims of Jerash. “There’s no ceremony, there’s no grave goods. It’s a bare minimum to get the bodies disposed of and away from the city.” To understand the lives of the people who died at Jerash, Jiang gathered a team of eight experts from various …
Over the past couple of months, several researchers have begun making the same provocative claim: They used generative-AI tools to solve a previously unanswered math problem. The most extreme promises—AI-assisted resolutions to some of the hardest problems in mathematics—may well turn out to be empty hype. But a number of AI-written solutions, albeit to far less lauded problems, have checked out. These were answers to a number of the Erdős Problems—more than 1,000 mathematical questions set forth by the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős—written with generative-AI models including ChatGPT. OpenAI quickly claimed a victory: “GPT-5.2 Pro for solving another open Erdős problem,” OpenAI President Greg Brockman posted on X in January. “Going to be a wild year for mathematical and scientific advancement!” (OpenAI and The Atlantic have a corporate partnership.) Much of the excitement around the news has stemmed from the adjudicator of these AI-written proofs: Terence Tao, a professor at UCLA who is widely considered to be the world’s greatest living mathematician. His stamp of approval seemingly legitimizes the greatest promise of generative AI—to push …
How Agscent’s CH4 and CO2 measurement technologies and genomic tools are transforming beef production by identifying more efficient and profitable cattle that improve productivity and naturally produce less methane. Advanced measurement tools are leading the fundamental shift in how the cattle industry approaches sustainability. Rather than viewing environmental goals as constraints on production, technologies like Agscent Air GHG and genetics reveal that efficiency improvements often align with economic and environmental objectives. Dr Troy Rowan, a geneticist at the University of Tennessee, is investigating using genomics and advanced measurement technologies to understand cow efficiency, particularly in forage-based systems. His goal is to develop practical tools that allow producers to breed cattle adapted to their specific environments that are both more profitable and more sustainable. “At the end of the day, it’s about making the best use of our natural resources,” Rowan said. “Living in harmony with the environment, putting these large ruminants in positions that they were designed to do – turning grass into high-quality protein.” For generations, beef producers have relied on visual assessments and …
With the advent of digital farming, information on soil health remains in the dark. SQAT provides a cost-effective solution, leading to lower farming costs and a smaller environmental footprint. The ground is shifting under our feet. The Soil Observatory of the EU has found that 89% of agricultural soils in Europe are degraded. Industrial farming practices, including intensive use of mineral fertilisers and intensive tillage, have degraded soil health and threaten long-term fertility. As the predominant medium for food production, healthy soils are crucial for long-term food security. They are also important for a farmer’s bottom line, directly affecting agricultural productivity. As the need for sustainable agriculture rises, it’s imperative for farmers to know their soil in order to understand and then manage it. Soil Quality Analysis Tool: Implementing Smart Farming Applications using EO Data, Soil Sensors & Robotics (SQAT) – is an EU-funded initiative that brings together advanced technologies to deliver high-resolution soil insights and smarter farming practices. Managing soil health For a farmer, a healthy soil is a valuable resource. It has a …
“SAF is central to the decarbonization of the aviation sector,” believes Raman Ojha, president of Shell Aviation. “Having said that, adoption and penetration of SAF hasn’t really picked up massively. It’s not due to lack of production capacity, but there are lots of things that are at play. And book and claim in that context helps to bridge that gap.” Bridging the gap with book and claim Book and claim is a chain of custody model, where the flow of administrative records is not necessarily connected to the physical product through the supply chain (source: ISO 22095:2020). Book and claim potentially enables airlines and corporations to access the life cycle GHG emissions reduction benefits of SAF relative to conventional jet fuel even when SAF is not physically available at their location; this model helps bridge the gap between that concentrated supply and global demand, until SAF’s availability improves. “To be bold, without book and claim, no short-term science-based target will be achieved,” says Bettina Paschke, vice president of ESG accounting, reporting and controlling at DHL …
President Donald Trump aims to control and revive Venezuela’s oil industry. Critics call it modern-day colonialism. A nation with the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela is now at the centre of a high-stakes economic power play over energy supply – with global ramifications. The United States says it will control the sales and revenue of Venezuelan oil “indefinitely”, days after it abducted the nation’s President Nicolas Maduro. President Donald Trump wants US companies to invest billions of dollars to revive the nation’s oil sector. Washington says that would benefit the people of Venezuela and the US. Critics, though, have called the move modern-day colonialism and a direct grab for energy resources. And, we look at Iran’s economic crisis. Published On 9 Jan 20269 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Source link
