Ceres releases new guidance for investors to address risk in the electric power sector resulting from the expansion of data centers

ceres.org

Scientists are certain a wayward SpaceX rocket slammed into the moon as predicted

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A SpaceX rocket that launched a pair of lunar landers undoubtedly slammed into the moon as predicted on Wednesday after drifting off course for the past year, scientists reported. Although the 5,400-mph (8,700-kph) collision had yet to be officially confirmed, space tracking experts said it was inevitable that the leftover rocket segment plowed into the moon. It’s the latest instance of lunar litter, a problem that many fear could worsen as the U.S. and China race to put astronauts on the moon. In 2022, a Chinese rocket unintentionally hit the moon following a lunar mission, and many more stray rocket pieces likely struck the moon in decades past without scientists’ knowledge. SpaceX’s Julianna Scheiman said this week that the company is working with NASA to avoid future wrecks, stressing that this projected crash was not deliberate. A combination of solar activity and gravity accidentally put it on a collision course with the moon, she said. Retired astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that observations of the dead 4-ton upper stage on Tuesday night showed it heading straight for the moon. The anticipated crash site was a dusty, barren patch near Einstein Crater on the moon’s sunlit western...

sun-sentinel.com

Maharashtra's semi-arid districts face highest risk from rapidly intensifying flash droughts, study says

Ahilyanagar, Beed, Dharashiv, Sangli and Solapur have emerged as Maharashtra’s most vulnerable flash drought hotspots, according to a new study that analysed drought patterns in the state over 44 years. The study, published in the journal Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, found that these semi-arid interior districts showed severe and rapidly intensifying flash droughts, with intensification rates exceeding 9 per cent per eight-day period. The study found that while the duration of flash droughts has remained relatively stable, the speed at which they develop has shown a more consistent and significant increase in districts such as Sindhudurg and Solapur. Flash droughts develop much faster than conventional droughts, often within days or weeks. They are driven by a combination of rainfall deficits, high temperatures, rapid soil moisture loss and high atmospheric demand for water. The researchers said Maharashtra’s flash drought behaviour is changing gradually, with risks concentrated in specific hotspots rather than showing a uniform state-wide trend. Rapid drying in semi-arid districts The study analysed flash droughts across Maharashtra between 1981 and 2024. It found that most parts of the state showed low to moderate flash drought severity, with relatively gradual moisture depletion under normal hydro-climatic conditions. But semi-arid interior...

downtoearth.org.in

Debate over fossil-fuel abatement erupts in climate finance community

A growing number of climate experts and advocates are voicing opposition to a proposal to include oil and gas abatement projects in a forthcoming Canadian sustainable investment framework aimed at attracting billions in new capital to address the climate crisis. The framework, to be known as the Canadian Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, will act as a kind of voluntary rule book for the financial industry. Its chief contribution will be to establish a consensus for activities that are considered acceptable investments under the Paris Agreement on climate change. The project will provide guidance to investors to steer dollars toward investments that help mitigate global warming. The taxonomy’s architects and advocates hope it will attract at least some of the estimated $140 billion a year needed for Canada to reach its goal of a net-zero economy by 2050. After five years of study, work on the taxonomy is finally underway. Operating with federal funding but independent from government, a planning council to lead the initiative was appointed earlier this year from representatives of the financial industry, universities and climate organizations. The Canadian Climate Institute is providing research and administrative support. The shape of the debate As the wars in Ukraine and Iran...

corporateknights.com

Europe's Forests Face Unprecedented Biomass Loss

Using satellite data, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have identified an unprecedented loss of aboveground biomass in Europe's forests since 2018. Forests in Central Europe, which have been heavily affected by drought and bark beetle outbreaks, have been particularly impacted. The study also shows that even small increases in disturbed forest area can release large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. The findings raise concerns about the European Union's ability to meet its climate goals. Unlike previous studies that focused solely on changes in tree cover, this study provides the first Europe-wide assessment of changes in forest biomass. To accomplish this, the research team combined satellite data on tree cover change with information on the amount of biomass stored in forests. Their analysis reveals a clear shift: since 2018, biomass losses have increased sharply, leading to substantially greater losses of carbon stored in forests. This increase in biomass loss coincided with a major rise in bark beetle outbreaks linked to worsening drought conditions. Since 2018, Europe has lost, on average, 46 percent more biomass per year per hectare forest area than during the period from 1985 to 2017. While both timber harvesting and natural disturbances contribute to...

miragenews.com

British Columbia is logging its last old growth and protesters are sleeping in the road to stop it

The five-car caravan crept down a gravel logging road as the day’s last beams of golden light filtered through the trees. About 20 forest defenders were making a stand in southwest Vancouver Island, at a spot where a logging company was expected to cut old-growth trees the following morning. They made camp in tents and the backs of cars. One truck parked sideways across the road. They awoke at 3 a.m., their headlamps tracing the ground, as they took their positions. An hour later, headlights appeared in the distance. A logging truck slowed, idled, then turned around. Nobody got out. Nobody spoke. It was a small, inconclusive victory in a fight that has spanned generations. But for those gathered in the forest, it mattered. “There is no dispute about what happened to our land,” said Bill Jones, a First Nations Pacheedaht elder who sat in the road as daylight crept in. At 86, he’s watched the forests on his nation’s territory disappear for most of his adult life. He started logging himself at age 18, he said, before he understood what he was helping to dismantle. “There’s nothing left — it’s practically naked, bare,” he said. “There’s few remnants here...

aptnnews.ca

Google Is in Talks to Pay Over $1.5 Billion for AI Coding Startup Mechanize

Google is negotiating a deal worth more than $1.5 billion for Mechanize, a startup that trains AI agents to write code, according to Business Insider. It looks a lot like Google's Windsurf deal all over again: license the tech, hire the talent, skip the antitrust headache. Business Insider reported this week that Google is in talks to license Mechanize's technology and bring on a slice of its staff, in a deal some reports value at close to $2 billion. Mechanize doesn't sell a coding assistant you'd recognize from a Slack sidebar. It builds reinforcement learning environments, simulated workstations complete with email, Slack, a code editor and a browser, where AI models practice finishing real engineering tasks start to finish. Google wants that training data badly enough to pay for it. Founded in April 2025 by Tamay Besiroglu, Ege Erdil and Matthew Barnett, Mechanize set out with an audacious goal: automate white-collar work entirely, starting with software engineering. Besiroglu has pitched the company's addressable market at roughly $18 trillion, the sum of annual U.S. wages. The startup has 46 employees as of June 2026, according to Tracxn, and its backers include Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison, former GitHub chief executive Nat Friedman,...

startupfortune.com

Virus reactivation in acute and long COVID-19

Chronically infecting viruses are prevalent in the general population, with individuals carrying 8–12 viruses at any given time1. These viruses are generally innocuous and typically do not cause infectious symptoms. However, emerging evidence suggests that their reactivation may contribute to autoimmune diseases, malignancies and chronic fatigue syndrome1,13,14,15. Additionally, Herpesviridae such as EBV and CMV commonly reactivate in severe infections (for example, malaria or pneumonia) and sepsis18,33,34 and have more recently been implicated in long COVID4,22,35. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand how chronically infecting viruses reactivate in COVID-19 and develop strategies to combat their reactivation. Here we conducted a prospective, multi-omic analysis of 1,154 patients who were hospitalized due to COVID-19, which revealed widespread reactivation of chronic viruses from the Herpesviridae and Anelloviridae families. By integrating cellular and cytokine immunophenotyping, metabolomics and transcriptomics, our findings expand on the complex interplay between SARS-CoV-2 and chronic viral reactivation and provide a deeper understanding of the host immune response. Importantly, our findings demonstrate an association of viral reactivation with COVID-19 and long COVID outcomes. Despite prior studies evaluating viral reactivation in COVID-19 (refs. 2,3,4,5,6,7,22,23) and other infections18,33,34, the exact timing and rates of reactivation for different viruses have not been clearly...

nature.com

Radiant Aims to Reignite US Nuclear Power

The pursuit of abundant, clean energy is a critical challenge for modern civilization, and the startup Radiant believes it has found a key solution in the form of advanced nuclear micro-reactors. In a recent video presented by a16z American Dynamism, Radiant's vision for a nuclear renaissance is laid out, focusing on making power more affordable and accessible for everyone, ultimately enabling greater human prosperity. The Case for a Nuclear Revival The video begins by framing nuclear power as a vital, yet underutilized, energy source. "We must think far beyond of what that nuclear power can do in terms of peace," one speaker states, emphasizing its potential as a fundamental enabler of progress. The core thesis of Radiant, as articulated by its leaders, is to democratize energy access. "Prosperity for civilization, for every human, which means making power more affordable for more people," explains Tori Shivanandan, President & COO of Radiant. She points to a historical disconnect in the U.S. nuclear industry, where a failure to listen to customer needs led to a loss of innovation. This, she argues, is why mass-producing small reactors is essential. Doug Bernauer, Founder & CEO of Radiant, elaborates on the challenges that have sidelined nuclear...

startuphub.ai

Center for Food Safety | Press Releases | | Lawsuit Filed to Stop Pollution from Industrial Shellfish Aquaculture Hatchery

centerforfoodsafety.org

'Alarming' surge in bluetongue disease among UK sheep | Farm animals

theguardian.com

With AI slop, wildfire misinformation is mutating online

The 2026 wildfire season in Canada, which has been particularly severe in Ontario, has prompted significant interest on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Many of these posts contain misinformation, including AI-generated maps with incorrect details on the locations or severity of fires across Canada, or conspiracy theories linking wildfires to lasers, 15-minute city initiatives or eco-terrorism. Many posts focus on mismanagement and place blame on Canadian governments, which complicates valid critiques of wildfire response and funding with destabilizing misinformation. Ontario is grappling with one of the worst wildfire seasons in recorded history, which has put thousands of people, especially those in the province’s north, at risk. Last month, two Indigenous communities — Namaygoosisagagun First Nation and Whitewater Lake First Nation — were burned to the ground. The scale of the crisis has made headlines around the world, and prompted a blaze of posts on social media. But many of those posts contain misinformation, both AI-generated and hand-crafted: maps that purport to show Ontario wildfires labelled with communities that don’t exist; false information about air quality and evacuation alerts; captions with conspiracy theories about 15-minute cities and arson. Look closely and you might see clues about what’s real and...

thenarwhal.ca

How the Axis of Resistance Recovered

As the United States’ five-month-old war with Iran continues to evolve, Tehran’s ability to continue punishing the United States and its allies has come as a surprise to many strategists and analysts. For months, the United States and Israel have intermittently pummeled the country with air strikes, decapitating much of its senior leadership. Yet Iran and its regional allies have proved remarkably dogged: Hezbollah remains a threat despite Israel’s blistering campaign in southern Lebanon, Iran-backed Iraqi militias have attacked Gulf oil and gas infrastructure, and the Houthis in Yemen have restarted their campaign against commercial ships in the Red Sea. In fact, the resilience of both the Islamic Republic and its partners despite years of apparent setbacks points to an underlying flaw in the thinking that led to the conflict. In launching the campaign against Iran in late February, the United States and Israel were drawing on a theory pushed by American regime-change advocates and Israeli strategists for years: by targeting the Islamic Republic’s economy, its leadership, weapons facilities, and central supply lines with military force and economic sanctions, Washington could fatally undermine the Iranian regime. In doing so, it would also deal a decisive blow to the regime’s allies...

foreignaffairs.com

Butterflies seek new habitats as climate changes - study

Climate change is driving shifts in where butterflies are found globally, a major study has said, with many species moving into new areas while others are retreating from traditional habitats. The study in Nature Ecology and Evolution is one of the most comprehensive to date on how butterfly distributions are changing, assessing more than 1,700 species across 105 countries and territories. Researchers found that nearly 80% of the reported shifts in the geographic ranges that butterflies inhabit were associated with climate change and extreme weather events. Other factors were also driven by human activity: changes in land use, intensive agriculture, urbanisation, habitat fragmentation and the introduction of invasive species. Butterflies are considered important indicators of ecosystem health because they are highly sensitive to temperature changes, have short life cycles, and depend on specific host plants. As the planet warms - primarily because of the burning of coal, oil and gas - some butterfly species are relocating northwards or seeking out higher elevations in search of cooler conditions. However, just 22% of species showed a shift in elevation. Overall, 80% of species expanded their range while 27% experienced range contractions, with some showing different patterns in different regions, underscoring the complexity...

rte.ie

Court orders Durham chemical company to stop creek contamination flowing toward Jordan Lake

A Durham chemical company accused of illegally contaminating a tributary of Third Fork Creek has agreed to a court order requiring it to stop polluted discharges, investigate the source of contamination and develop a plan to clean up the site. The tributary flows into Jordan Lake, a major drinking water source for the Triangle, making the case significant beyond Durham. The consent preliminary injunction requires Brenntag Mid-South to take immediate steps to address contamination while the state's lawsuit continues. The order is enforceable by the court. North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced the agreement Wednesday after suing Brenntag in June on behalf of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. The lawsuit alleges the company violated state water quality laws by allowing contaminated groundwater and other pollutants to discharge into an unnamed tributary of Third Fork Creek. "We now have a court order to stop the contamination of this water in Durham, and we're going to make sure it is followed to the letter," Jackson said in a statement. According to court records, DEQ began investigating the facility after receiving an anonymous complaint in April 2025 alleging chemical leaks, chemical dumping and poor housekeeping. During an inspection, state officials...

wral.com

Cruise Ship Hantavirus Outbreak Highlights Need for Clear Public Health Communication and Global Disease Preparedness

Newswise — A small outbreak of a rare hantavirus on a cruise ship earlier this year captured worldwide attention and sparked concerns about a possible new pandemic. But according to a new University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) commentary published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the outbreak posed little risk to the general public and offers important lessons about how health officials, scientists, and the media should communicate during emerging disease events. The commentary examines an outbreak of Andes virus, a rare hantavirus found in South America, aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius. The outbreak left three people dead and there were 13 infections among passengers and crew. While the event prompted extensive media coverage, the authors argue that the virus's limited human-to-human transmission ability made a larger outbreak unlikely. "Seeing a deadly virus spread among passengers on a cruise ship naturally raised concerns because it reminded many people of the early days of COVID-19," said Daniel J. Morgan, MD, MS, Professor of Epidemiology & Public Health at UMSOM and lead author of the commentary. "But not every dangerous virus has the capacity to become a pandemic. It's important that public health responses and public messaging are guided by evidence...

newswise.com

UK company claims commercial breakthrough for MOF-based atmospheric water harvesting

A UK technology company has unveiled what it describes as the first commercially available atmospheric water harvesting system to use metal-organic framework (MOF) technology, marking what it says is the technology’s first commercial deployment of MOF-based atmospheric water harvesting. Ahbstra launched its ARK system at an event in Barcelona in late July, positioning the technology as a response to increasing water scarcity in regions where groundwater supplies are under pressure. The company says the first purchased units are due to be installed by early 2027, with initial customers primarily located in Spain’s Balearic Islands, where water scarcity is acute. Atmospheric water harvesting systems extract moisture directly from the air using a variety of approaches, including refrigeration-based condensation, liquid and solid desiccants, and metal-organic framework (MOF) sorbents. While conventional systems are already commercially available, MOF-based harvesting has until now largely been confined to laboratory research and pilot projects. The promise of MOFs has been the possibility of capturing large quantities of water vapour efficiently from very dry air, using much less energy than conventional condensation-based systems. But commercial deployment at meaningful scale has proved challenging. According to Ahbstra, the ARK addresses these engineering challenges through the use of a patented “Suspended...

envirotecmagazine.com

Strategic Attack on Iran: Airpower's Promises, Limits, and Lessons

Operation Epic Fury, which began on Feb. 28, has showcased a formidable display of airpower. U.S. aircraft have struck targets including air defenses, coastal surveillance systems, command and control facilities, missile and drone sites, naval forces, and communications networks. As the war drags on, with the Strait of Hormuz closed and Iran retaliating across the region, the target list increasingly includes so-called “dual-use” targets that serve both military and civilian purposes (see my analysis). Tactically, the air campaign has been impressive. The United States enjoys not merely air superiority but air supremacy over Iran, enabling it to strike with relative impunity (AFDP 3-01, Counterair Operations, p. 2). In an earlier Just Security article, I assessed Epic Fury’s strategic coherence using key principles from Clausewitz’s On War, particularly those addressing a conflict’s objectives, type of war, center of gravity, culminating point, and friction. Here, I want to examine the strengths and weaknesses of airpower in achieving strategic objectives, as well as the optimal ways to employ it for that purpose. My goal is to provide readers with a primer that will enable them to draw conclusions about the use of airpower in this conflict, both thus far and going forward. The...

justsecurity.org

The Myth of a Global Antifa

In September 2025, Donald Trump designated “antifa” a domestic terror organization. Last month, his administration went one step further by declaring that the “extreme left” had developed the antifa network into a global threat. Marco Rubio announced at a press conference on July 16 that Antifa militants and their comrades travel from across Europe and to the Americas to participate in each other’s attacks, to funnel propaganda and training, materials, and target information through shared encrypted channels — moving through underground networks of safe houses, and finance and sustain their operations through transnational funds. This description sounds eerily like what global far-right networks have been doing for years. The “antidem” network, crisscrossing the Atlantic and ranging up and down the Americas, has helped far-right politicians take over parties, those parties take power, and those resulting governments coordinate anti-immigrant, anti-climate, anti-LGBT, and fundamentally anti-democratic policies. This effort is well-funded by right-wing sugar daddies like Elon Musk and Robert Shillman. In the United States, even more extreme right-wing militants have been responsible for 152 attacks and 112 deaths between 2016 and 2025, compared to 35 attacks and 13 deaths by the extreme left (according to the right-leaning Center for Strategic and International...

fpif.org

Pete Hegseth's Desperate Crusade for Masculine Validation

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump surveyed his top military brass on the prospect of making war in Iran. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine urged caution, presciently predicting that a ramped-up campaign against Iran could lead its leaders to close the Strait of Hormuz. However, Pete Hegseth, Trump’s self-styled “Secretary of War,” jumped at the prospect of such a conflict. “Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up,” Trump recalled at a press event. “And you said, ‘Let’s do it, because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.’” Americans join the military for any number of reasons: to serve their country, gain economic stability or simply join a community. For Hegseth, a thirst for martial victory and a desire for a masculine metamorphosis seemed to surpass all else. Much to Hegseth’s chagrin, however, his career as an Army officer corresponded to a series of distinctly failed military campaigns. After graduating from Princeton in 2003, he deployed to two doomed military locales — Afghanistan and Iraq — and then relentlessly defended the Pentagon’s occupation of parts of those places in essays, speeches and, ultimately, as a weekend host on Fox News...

fairobserver.com

A compendium of next-generation patient-derived models for diverse cancers

Before extracting nucleic acids, pathology quality control (QC) was performed on all frozen and FFPE tumours and normal specimens. From frozen tissue, a 30 mg or smaller piece was prepared, or an equivalent amount of scrolls were cut from a FFPE block, with sections stained with haematoxylin and eosin taken from the top and bottom of each specimen. The stained slides were scanned and their pathology reviewed to confirm that the tumour was consistent with the reported histology, and to assess the per cent tumour nuclei, per cent necrosis and other pathological features. The tumour nucleus and necrosis percentages from the top and bottom slides were averaged, and tumour specimens with an average of ≥50% tumour nuclei and ≤20% necrosis were submitted for nucleic acid extraction. Normal tissues were rejected if they had any detectable tumour cells. DNA was extracted from normal blood and saliva specimens. DNA and RNA were co-extracted from tumours, solid normal tissues and cancer models. Before extraction, cancer models were first washed with ice-cold PBS to remove residual Matrigel. Frozen tissues and cancer models were homogenized using a Qiagen TissueLyser, and RNA and DNA were extracted using a modification of the DNA/RNA AllPrep kit (Qiagen). The...

nature.com

DEP questions Fundamental Data site control for Tucker Co. data center-linked project

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wvgazettemail.com

Learning from China's innovation ecosystem

Editor's Note：China-Kazakhstan cooperation is expanding well beyond traditional trade and infrastructure into artificial intelligence, fintech, cloud computing and advanced manufacturing. During a recent visit to Shanghai for the China-Kazakhstan High-Tech Roundtable Conference, Timur Turlov, founder and CEO of Kazakhstan's Freedom Holding Corp, one of the nation's largest investment conglomerates, met executives from some of China's leading technology companies, resulting in agreements spanning digital payments, autonomous mobility, cloud computing and agricultural technology. China Daily reporter WangMingji spoke to him about his visit. Q1: During your visit to China, what impressed you most? Turlov: What impressed me most about China was how much it has developed in recent years, how modern it has become, and how impressive its progress has been. I knew about China's technological achievements before coming here. But reading about them and experiencing them firsthand are two very different things. Everywhere you go, you see digital services, advanced infrastructure and innovation already integrated into people's everyday lives. The speed at which ideas are translated into practical applications is remarkable. Whether it is digital payments, intelligent transportation or AI-powered services, many technologies that other countries are still discussing have already become part of daily life in China. That ability to...

chinadaily.com.cn

How nature-based solutions can make agriculture more resilient to climate change

Climate change and associated warming can reduce crop performance (how well a crop grows and produces under specific conditions) by disrupting photosynthesis and altering pest populations, lowering fertiliser use efficiency (FUE), soil fertility, and crop yields. Higher temperatures and increased concentration of CO₂ can affect plant growth, expand pest ranges and life cycles, reduce plants’ ability to convert nutrients into yields, and worsen soil moisture loss and nutrient imbalance. Climate-resilient agriculture practices are needed to minimise these climate-related risks. Climate-resilient agriculture refers to farming practices that enable the agricultural system to adapt to changing climatic conditions, reduce vulnerability to climate-induced shocks, and enhance productivity. These practices focus on adaptation and mitigation measures and include measures like the selection of appropriate crops and climate-adapted varieties, adjustment of sowing window and crop duration, adoption of appropriate planting methods, agroforestry, biochar, efficient use of fertiliser, insecticides, pesticides, and improved water and soil management. Story continues below this ad In addition, climate-resilient agriculture also depends on the resilience of social systems – households, communities, and regions – and their ability to utilise available technical knowledge, services provided by the government and organisations. Moreover, among the various approaches that support climate-resilient agriculture, nature-based solutions have...

indianexpress.com

On this day in space! Aug. 5, 2011: NASA's Juno spacecraft launches to Jupiter

On Aug. 5, 2011, NASA launched the Juno spacecraft on a mission to study Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. The robotic spacecraft lifted off on an Atlas V rocket from what is now Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and spent the next five years making the 1.74-billion-mile trek to Jupiter. Next Stop, Jupiter! Launch Photos of NASA's Juno Mission Since it arrived in Jupiter's orbit in 2016, the Juno spacecraft has taken the most amazing photos of Jupiter anyone has ever seen! But it has also taken plenty of scientific measurements to study Jupiter's composition, magnetic fields, weather patterns and more. Why it mattered Juno is an interesting mission. It was the first dedicated orbiter at Jupiter since NASA's prolific Galileo mission, which ended in 2003, and is the first solar-powered spacecraft to the gas giant. Indeed, each of its three 30-foot-long solar wings is as long as a semi truck to collect enough sunlight to power its systems. But it's the science that makes Juno stand out. When Galileo orbited Jupiter, its high-gain antenna did not fully deploy, meaning the probe was never able to record detailed video of Jupiter's atmosphere as hoped. While Juno...

space.com

Why is Anthropic destroying books? | Kathryn James

Should we destroy all the books in the world? An answer to this question can be found in the court documents of Bartz v Anthropic PBC. The northern California district court case, decided in late July this year, highlighted the improbably named “Project Panama”, one of the AI company Anthropic’s efforts to improve its large language model Claude. “What is Project Panama?” court exhibit 21 asks, in an internal memo. The answer: “Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.” The memo advises discretion: “Why use a codename? … [B]ecause we don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.” Destructive scanning was Anthropic’s solution to a problem: in order to “train” Claude, Anthropic had to procure a large, high-quality language dataset, preferably one created before 2022 and the corrupting influence of generative AI on contemporary text. Claude needed as many language combinations as possible, to improve its ability to predict language outcomes. Anthropic needed data, lots of it, of very high quality. Books, as it happens, remain one of the best sources for complex, high-quality, long-form text. As the court’s decision relates, Anthropic hoped that books’ “well-curated facts, well-organized analyses,...

theguardian.com

Tokayev's Warning to Putin Was About More Than Ukraine

Why would one of Russia's closest allies publicly call on President Vladimir Putin to freeze the war in Ukraine, knowing the message would not be welcome? That is what President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan did last week in Omsk and the question of why made headlines around the world. Before digging a little deeper, there is some important context to mention whenever we talk about relations between Astana and Moscow. First of all, Kazakhstan shares a 7,644-kilometer border with Russia, the longest continuous international border in the world. One point on which both supporters and critics of the Kazakh government tend to agree is that geography simply cannot be ignored when discussing Kazakhstan’s foreign policy toward Russia. Furthermore, mid-level Russian politicians and public figures openly promote propagandistic narratives about Kazakhstan, criticizing its domestic language policy and making barely disguised territorial claims about the country’s northern regions bordering Russia. Obviously, none of this can be ignored by anyone who remembers how the war in Ukraine began. Another important part of the context is that Kazakhstan remains closely tied to Russia economically. Considering all these factors, Kazakhstan has little choice but to do what Tokayev, a career diplomat, does best: maintain a...

themoscowtimes.com

Rescued sea turtle named Pancake swims to hot hangout for young turtles

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Email address Thank you! By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. After roughly two weeks back in the open ocean, Pancake the sea turtle is moving right along. The critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) was released back into the Atlantic Ocean from New York’s Coney Island on July 23, following seven months of rehabilitation. According to the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, Pancake was recently spotted in the South Shore Estuary Reserve bays off of Long Island. These protected bays provide juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtles with critical food and shelter, “making them an ideal place for young turtles to forage and grow.” The turtle has also explored the waters further south off of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are the smallest sea turtle species. They are found throughout the East Coast, from the south up towards New England. When fully grown, they can weigh 70 to 100 pounds and grow to two feet long. The...

popsci.com

These tiny swirls on the sun could trigger solar flares

High-energy whirlpools speckle the sun’s surface. New telescope images show characteristic swirls of magnetized plasma across a 19-kilometer-wide patch of the sun’s surface. The observations, reported August 5 in Nature, are the most detailed taken of the sun to date. The images also provide evidence for a type of fluid instability that might explain the sun’s outbursts, such as solar flares and eruptions. “This instability occurs everywhere at the boundaries of solar magnetic elements,” says astrophysicist David Kuridze of the National Solar Observatory headquartered in Boulder, Colo. Solar magnetic elements are regions of highly magnetized plasma on the sun’s surface. There are millions of them, and energy from their magnetized plasma can be transferred, stabilized and transformed by swirling motions — a phenomenon called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, or KHI, occurs when two fluid layers move next to each other at different speeds. A small disruption in the balance of these two forces can cause curling motions that roll up into waves. The instability has been observed in some ocean waves, clouds, Jupiter’s atmosphere and even the sun’s atmosphere. But it has never been directly observed on the sun’s surface — until now. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope...

sciencenews.org

Sun's swirling surface captured in spectacular detail by world's largest solar telescope

The Sun's surface is constantly churning with hot, glowing plasma. Those swirling eddies play a huge role in the Sun's occasional violent outbursts, but they're difficult to see because it is so bright. Now astronomers have used the world's largest solar telescope to capture the highest-resolution imagery ever taken of our star's roiling surface. It shows a section of the Sun about 5,000 by 3,500 kilometres in size: a zone that, on Earth, could comfortably enclose mainland Australia. Loading... The stunning imagery also captures a never-before-seen physical process, which the researchers have described in the journal Nature. Michael Wheatland, an astrophysicist at the University of Sydney who wasn't involved with the research, said the imagery was "just incredible". "In this amazing detail, we see all of this really interesting fundamental physics happening." Whirling patterns on the Sun's surface The observations show the solar surface, called the photosphere, constantly swirls and flows with plasma. According to the researchers, these ebbs and flows show the plasma undergoes a physical process called Kelvin-Hemholtz instability. This effect happens when different types of fluids mix, causing small fluctuations at the borders between them. Loading... "You see it in clouds, you see it in the ocean,...

abc.net.au