Latest News Articles — Global News Aggregator

New Webb Telescope photos show off the Exposed Cranium Nebula

It's always a fun day for the space nerds when a NASA team has new images to share from the James Webb Space Telescope. Today's pair has brains on the brain, with a look at the fittingly named Exposed Cranium Nebula. More officially, this cloud of space dust and debris is known as Nebula PMR 1. The images shared today may capture a moment in the final stages of a star, as well as giving hints as to how the nebula got its brain-like shape. "The nebula appears to have distinct regions that capture different phases of its evolution — an outer shell of gas that was blown off first and consists mostly of hydrogen, and an inner cloud with more structure that contains a mix of different gases," NASA's blog post reads. The dark line that runs vertically through the nebula, giving it the cranial appearance, could be the result of "an outburst or outflow from the central star, which typically occurs as twin jets burst out in opposite directions." Both Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) were used to document the nebula. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/new-webb-telescope-photos-show-off-the-exposed-cranium-nebula-235609619.html?src=rss

Someone made an app to warn you if smart glasses are nearby

Engadget

2 days ago

Someone made an app to warn you if smart glasses are nearby

A new app will notify users if smart glasses are likely nearby. The aptly named Nearby Glasses was developed in response to media coverage outlining how glasses like Meta's Ray-Bans have been used to film people without their consent. As first reported by 404 Media, the app detects the unique Bluetooth signature emitted by smart glasses and sends a push alert that someone wearing the device may potentially be nearby. “I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech,” the app's developer Yves Jeanrenaud told 404 Media. Smart glasses have sparked increased privacy concerns, especially as Meta is reportedly working to add facial recognition technology to its Meta Ray-Bans. OpenAI is also reported to have a pair of smart glasses in the works. It bears mentioning that false positives may occur, including from VR headsets. Nearby Glasses is currently available on the Google Play Store and GitHub. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/someone-made-an-app-to-warn-you-if-smart-glasses-are-nearby-183359723.html?src=rss

190-million-year-old “Sword Dragon” fossil rewrites ichthyosaur history

Science Daily

2 days ago

190-million-year-old “Sword Dragon” fossil rewrites ichthyosaur history

A newly identified ichthyosaur from the UK’s Jurassic Coast is rewriting part of the prehistoric playbook. Nicknamed the “Sword Dragon of Dorset,” the three-meter-long marine reptile lived during a poorly understood window of evolution when major ichthyosaur groups were disappearing and new ones emerging. Its beautifully preserved skeleton — complete with a blade-like snout and possible last meal — helps pinpoint when this dramatic transition occurred.

Moscow policeman killed in bomb attack on Ukraine war anniversary

Al Jazeera

2 days ago

Moscow policeman killed in bomb attack on Ukraine war anniversary

The attack on a police car occurred near one of the busiest train stations in the Russian capital.

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Wild Study Proposes Possible Link Between Solar Flares and Earthquakes

Gizmodo

3 days ago

Wild Study Proposes Possible Link Between Solar Flares and Earthquakes

Researchers say a deadly earthquake in Japan and 2023’s most powerful solar flare occurring back-to-back can’t be a coincidence—but other experts say it probably was.

Watch: Yosemite waterfall turns molten orange

BBC World

3 days ago

Watch: Yosemite waterfall turns molten orange

The event occurs only in February, when the setting sun hits Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park at just the right angle.

The Hill

3 days ago

What exactly is a 'bomb cyclone'?

Bomb cyclones can happen in any season, but mainly occur during fall and winter.

NASA's crewed Artemis II launch gets pushed back again, this time due to a helium issue

Engadget

4 days ago

NASA's crewed Artemis II launch gets pushed back again, this time due to a helium issue

It looks like a March launch is no longer in the cards for Artemis II, NASA's first crewed trip to the moon's vicinity since the final Apollo mission over 50 years ago. While preparations were underway at the Kennedy Space Center for a launch as soon as March 6, the space agency says it ran into an issue with the flow of helium to its SLS rocket's upper stage this weekend and it now has to roll the rocket from the launch pad back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to figure out what's wrong and fix it. A media briefing is planned for sometime this week to discuss the problem and what's next. But in a post on X, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman confirmed the rollback will "take the March launch window out of consideration." NASA noted on its blog that the current effort "potentially preserves the April launch window, pending the outcome of data findings, repair efforts, and how the schedule comes to fruition in the coming days and weeks." It's a four-mile trip back to the VAB that will take hours to carefully transport the massive rocket and the Orion spacecraft. NASA says it's eyeing February 24 for this trek. The issue occurred overnight in the early hours of February 21, when NASA says it observed "interrupted flow of helium to the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage." The space agency explained: The upper stage uses helium to maintain the proper environmental conditions for the stage’s engine and to pressurize liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant tanks. The systems worked during NASA’s Artemis II wet dress rehearsals, but teams were not able to properly flow helium during normal operations and reconfigurations following the wet dress rehearsal that concluded Feb. 19. Operators are using a backup method to maintain the environmental conditions for the upper stage engines and the rocket, which remains in a safe configuration. The Artemis II crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Chri

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Video: Deadly ‘terrorist attack’ in Ukraine’s Lviv

Al Jazeera

4 days ago

Video: Deadly ‘terrorist attack’ in Ukraine’s Lviv

Two explosions occurred while Ukrainian police responded to an emergency at a store in the city of Lviv.

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Hong Kong Ocean Park’s last 2 arctic foxes die, den temporarily closed

South China Morning Post

5 days ago

Hong Kong Ocean Park’s last 2 arctic foxes die, den temporarily closed

Hong Kong’s Ocean Park has temporarily closed its Arctic Fox Den after the enclosure’s last two remaining animals, “Siu Go” and “Trinity”, died of old age. The theme park announced on Saturday that Siu Go and Trinity had both died at the age of 11. It did not specify when the deaths occurred. “The park’s animal care and veterinary team closely monitored the health of each arctic fox throughout their later years and provided them with meticulous care,” a spokesman said. “However, they ultimately...

Tunic publisher claims TikTok ran 'racist, sexist' AI ads for one of its games without its knowledge

Engadget

6 days ago

Tunic publisher claims TikTok ran 'racist, sexist' AI ads for one of its games without its knowledge

Indie publisher and developer Finji has accused TikTok of using generative AI to alter the ads for its games on the platform without its knowledge or permission. Finji, which published indie darlings like Night in the Woods and Tunic, said it only became aware of the seemingly modified ads after being alerted to them by followers of its official TikTok account. As reported by IGN, Finji alleges that one ad that went out on the platform was modified so it displayed a "racist, sexualized" representation of a character from one of its games. While it does advertise on TikTok, it told IGN that it has AI "turned all the way off," but after CEO and co-founder Rebekah Saltsman received screenshots of the ads in question from fans, she approached TikTok to investigate. A number of Finji ads have appeared on TikTok, some that include montages of the company’s games, and others that are game-specific like this one for Usual June. According to IGN, the offending AI-modified ads (which are still posted as if they’re coming directly from Finji) appeared as slideshows. Some images don’t appear to be that different from the source, but one possibly AI-generated example seen by IGN depicts Usual June’s titular protagonist with "a bikini bottom, impossibly large hips and thighs, and boots that rise up over her knees." Needless to say (and obvious from the official screenshot used as the lead image for this article), this is not how the character appears in the game. As for TikTok’s response, IGN printed a number of the platform’s replies to Finji’s complaints, in which it initially said, in part, that it could find no evidence that "AI-generated assets or slideshow formats are being used." This was despite Finji sending the customer support page a screenshot of the clearly edited image mentioned above. In a subsequent exchange, TikTok appeared to acknowledge the evidence and assured the publisher it was "no longer disputing whether this occurred." It added that it has escalated the

13-hour AWS outage reportedly caused by Amazon's own AI tools

Engadget

6 days ago

13-hour AWS outage reportedly caused by Amazon's own AI tools

A recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage that lasted 13 hours was reportedly caused by one of its own AI tools, according to reporting by Financial Times. This happened in December after engineers deployed the Kiro AI coding tool to make certain changes, say four people familiar with the matter. Kiro is an agentic tool, meaning it can take autonomous actions on behalf of users. In this case, the bot reportedly determined that it needed to "delete and recreate the environment." This is what allegedly led to the lengthy outage that primarily impacted China. Amazon says it was merely a "coincidence that AI tools were involved" and that "the same issue could occur with any developer tool or manual action." The company blamed the outage on "user error, not AI error." It said that by default the Kiro tool “requests authorization before taking any action” but that the staffer involved in the December incident had "broader permissions than expected — a user access control issue, not an AI autonomy issue." Multiple Amazon employees spoke to Financial Times and noted that this was "at least" the second occasion in recent months in which the company's AI tools were at the center of a service disruption. "The outages were small but entirely foreseeable," said one senior AWS employee. A builder shares why their workflow finally clicked. Instead of jumping straight to code, the IDE pushed them to start with specs. ✔️ Clear requirements. ✔️ Acceptance criteria. ✔️ Traceable tasks. Their takeaway: Think first. Code later. Get the full breakdown here 👉… pic.twitter.com/eD7ZrEdEn5 — Kiro (@kirodotdev) January 14, 2026 The company launched Kiro in July and has since pushed employees into using the tool. Leadership set an 80 percent weekly use goal and has been closely tracking adoption rates. Amazon also sells access to the agentic tool for a monthly subscription fee. These recent outages follow a more serious event from October, in which a 15-hour AWS outage disrupted services li

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What James Talarico gets wrong — and right — about Christianity

The Hill

6 days ago

What James Talarico gets wrong — and right — about Christianity

By now, you’ve heard of the controversy surrounding CBS lawyers’ decision not to air Stephen Colbert’s interview with Texas candidate for U.S. Senate James Talarico (D) — likely for fear of offending President Trump’s FCC. This all but guaranteed that everyone immediately wanted to see it. Media observers call this the “Streisand effect,” which occurs when an...

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Rare prison sentences handed to Cameroon soldiers after killing of 21 civilians

BBC World

6 days ago

Rare prison sentences handed to Cameroon soldiers after killing of 21 civilians

In a rare occurence, three soldiers were handed jail terms for killings in the troubled Anglophone region.

Hong Kong Observatory detects tremors felt by residents

South China Morning Post

6 days ago

Hong Kong Observatory detects tremors felt by residents

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The Hong Kong Observatory detected locally felt tremors from a 4.0-magnitude earthquake in Guangdong province on Friday afternoon, confirming more than 100 reports from residents. The weather forecaster’s initial analysis indicated that the 4.0-magnitude earthquake occurred at 2.28pm in Guangdong’s Yangjiang, with the epicentre located about 260km (161.6...

Big Tech Bets Get a Reset in Latest 13Fs

Bloomberg

7 days ago

Big Tech Bets Get a Reset in Latest 13Fs

From Warren Buffett to Bill Ackman, Bloomberg’s Hema Parmar breaks down what the latest 13F filings reveal about where big money managers are placing their bets — and what it means for Big Tech. Interview occurred on February 18, 2026. (Source: Bloomberg)

Naked intruder exposes gaps in Japan’s royal security: ‘enormous failure’

South China Morning Post

8 days ago

Naked intruder exposes gaps in Japan’s royal security: ‘enormous failure’

A bizarre, previously unreported incident involving a naked man at Japan’s Imperial Palace during a new year’s celebration has raised questions about the emperor’s security as the royal household prepares for his birthday audience on Monday. The breach occurred on January 2 but only came to light this week, when the magazine News Post Seven published an account of the episode. An official from the Imperial Household Agency confirmed to This Week in Asia that a security incident had taken place...

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New Webb Telescope photos show off the Exposed Cranium Nebula

Someone made an app to warn you if smart glasses are nearby

190-million-year-old “Sword Dragon” fossil rewrites ichthyosaur history

Moscow policeman killed in bomb attack on Ukraine war anniversary

Wild Study Proposes Possible Link Between Solar Flares and Earthquakes

Watch: Yosemite waterfall turns molten orange

What exactly is a 'bomb cyclone'?

NASA's crewed Artemis II launch gets pushed back again, this time due to a helium issue

Video: Deadly ‘terrorist attack’ in Ukraine’s Lviv

Hong Kong Ocean Park’s last 2 arctic foxes die, den temporarily closed

Tunic publisher claims TikTok ran 'racist, sexist' AI ads for one of its games without its knowledge

13-hour AWS outage reportedly caused by Amazon's own AI tools

What James Talarico gets wrong — and right — about Christianity

Rare prison sentences handed to Cameroon soldiers after killing of 21 civilians

Hong Kong Observatory detects tremors felt by residents

Big Tech Bets Get a Reset in Latest 13Fs

Naked intruder exposes gaps in Japan’s royal security: ‘enormous failure’