The best VPNs can make your online life more private with software that's convenient and cheap — sometimes even free. While keeping your IP address invisible, you can use your VPN to explore streaming content from all over the world or (virtually) sneak into a sports event that's not available in yo…

What if, instead of taking a water or soil sample to the lab, you could take the lab to the sample? That's what a team of researchers reporting in ACS Sensors did with a new nitrate-monitoring "lab-on-a-drone" system. The drone allows for easy, real-time water sampling and analysis in hard-to-reach …

arXiv:2511.04201v2 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: We introduce the concept of compact quantitative equational theory. A quantitative equational theory is defined to be compact if all its consequences are derivable by means of finite proofs. We prove that the theory of interpolative barycentric (a…

Colin Watson announced that Debusine repositories are now available in beta form, which can be used to maintain APT-compatible add-on package repositories for Debian Linux. This comes down to being similar in nature to Personal Package Archives (PPAs) that are popular with Ubuntu Linux...

Torn between MacBook Air and Pro? We've tested them all to help you make an informed choice.

Dressed in an orange puffer jacket, Japanese scientist Yoshinori Iizuka stepped into a storage freezer to retrieve an ice core he hopes will help experts protect the world's disappearing glaciers.

All 48 competing nations to get minimum of $10.5mFifa Council approval comes amid ticket price rowFifa has announced a 50% increase in World Cup prize money for next year’s tournament, with the champions set to take home $50m (£37.5m) as a reward for their success.The news comes days after there was…

Harry and Megan Tooze were found dead with gunshot wounds at their farm more than 30 years ago.

The Prime Minister said Roman Abramovich should make good on his pledge that money from the sale of Chelsea FC would go to benefit Ukrainians

The California startup Vast has opened a call for scientific research aboard its Haven-1 private space station, which is set to launch atop a SpaceX rocket next year.

India’s securities market regulator has halved the fee paid by domestic mutual funds to brokerages, while also slashing the basic expense costs in one of the most sweeping revamp of rules governing the asset management industry.

US Attorney’s Office for Southern District of New York alleges ‘massive fraud scheme’ at collapsed subprime car lender

The financial picture around drilling is moving against the Trump administration’s hopes

Mashable's headphones expert weighs in on who should invest in the AirPods Max in 2025 and beyond.

Initial participants in the new Apple Manufacturing Academy tell WIRED that the tech giant’s surprising frankness and hands-on support are already benefiting their bottom lines.

arXiv:2512.14331v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Real-world robots must operate under evolving dynamics caused by changing operating conditions, external disturbances, and unmodeled effects. These may appear as gradual drifts, transient fluctuations, or abrupt shifts, demanding real-time adaptation …

arXiv:2512.14054v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Reliable helipad detection is essential for Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) landing, especially under GPS-denied or visually degraded conditions. While modern detectors such as YOLOv8 offer strong baseline performance, single-model pipelines struggle …

From tinned fish to baked goodies, you can deliver the best-tasting treats to their door—even if you don’t live close by.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for a strategic relationship with Ethiopia during his first visit to the country

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is no longer recommending giving all infants a dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours after birth, approving a sweeping and highly controversial change recommended by the agency’s vaccine advisory panel. The agency now officially advises …

Over the past decade, communities across the United States have faced a steady rise in severe weather events. Climate Central reports more than 193 major disasters during this period, resulting in over $1.5 trillion in economic losses and 6,403 deaths. Beyond the staggering figures, these events dis…

Experts examine the international law basis of the U.S. boarding and seizure of a vessel carrying Venezuelan crude.
The post Was the Visit and Seizure of the Skipper off the Coast of Venezuela Lawful? appeared first on Just Security.

Statue of Johns, who protested poor conditions at her segregated Virginia high school, unveiled following removal of statue of Confederate generalThe US Capitol on Tuesday began displaying a statue of a teenaged Barbara Rose Johns as she protested poor conditions at her segregated Virginia high scho…

Nuno Loureiro, a professor at MIT, was shot to death at his home in a Boston suburb. Police say they found Loureiro on Monday and the 47-year-old died the next day.

The British government says it has given Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich a final chance to hand over 2.5 billion pounds or $3.25 billion to the victims of Russia's war in Ukraine

Retell AI Inc., an artificial intelligence voice platform, today announced the addition of a quality assurance solution for voice AI named Retell Assure that monitors calls, surfaces issues and reduces the need for human spot checks. The company positions itself as a third-generation voice AI platfo…

A court filing by a group with deep ties to the pipeline company Energy Transfer raises questions about the growing use of amicus briefs in litigation.

Officers make arrest in connection with deaths of Harry and Megan Tooze in farmhouse in LlanharryAn 86-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the killing of a married couple who died after being blasted with a 12-bore shotgun more than 30 years ago.Harry Tooze, 64, and Megan Tooze, 67, we…

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller backed further interest-rate cuts to get the central bank’s setting back to neutral, while saying policymakers need not rush to do so.

Quote from: Bob Shaw on 12/16/2025 11:14 pmsend CO2 from Venus to Mars, the Moon and Mercury and to give them all dense atmospheres. These should last for thousands of years but will require replenishment - Venus wil...

WASP-121 b is a scorching double-tailed planet. Helium gas is escaping from its atmosphere and forming 2 huge tails along its orbit.
The post Weird, ultra-hot, double-tailed planet surprises scientists first appeared on EarthSky.

Ukraine is under intense pressure on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, but underwater it appears to be a growing threat to Russia

Warner Bros. Discovery's board told its shareholders that Paramount Skydance's offer "provides inadequate value" for the business.

Jenna Padgett says fostering a sense of belonging can help boost physics
The post Want a strong future for physics? Here’s why we must focus on students from under-represented groups appeared first on Physics World.

FastestVPN PRO’s lifetime plan is down to $32.97 (reg. $600) through Jan. 11, offering 15-device coverage and advanced security tools.

KASA: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration continues to collaborate with the United States on lunar exploration. [Dec 17, translated]QuoteThe K...

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is advising its shareholders to reject a hostile takeover bid by Paramount Skydance Corp. in favor of its original agreement with streaming giant Netflix Inc. Geetha Ranganathan of Bloomberg Intelligence has more on Bloomberg Television. (Source: Bloomberg)

arXiv:2512.14574v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Food image classification models are crucial for dietary management applications because they reduce the burden of manual meal logging. However, most publicly available datasets for training such models rely on web-crawled images, which often differ f…

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Seven Kenyans were detained for working in the country illegally, officials said. The arrests came amid rising tensions after the United States prioritized white Afrikaners seeking asylum.

As of Dec. 17, the JBL Tune Buds are still at their lowest-ever price of $39.95 at Amazon. This is 60% off their list price of $99.95.

The discovery of a hidden supermassive black hole inside an ancient galaxy suggests that some of our universe's most extreme objects could be invisible unless observed in infrared wavelengths, James Webb telescope observations reveal.

AI growth drives chip demand, but memory shortages and supply chain woes threaten progress.
The post AI’s Booming Demand Meets a Semiconductor Reality Check appeared first on EE Times.

Kimchi may do far more than add flavor to meals—it could help fine-tune the human immune system. A clinical study using advanced single-cell genetic analysis found that regular kimchi consumption strengthens immune defenses while preventing harmful overreactions. Researchers observed improved activi…

New NOTAMs showing this slipping into 2026, NET January 5 (thanks to https://www.reddit.com/r/ISRO/comments/1pou20i/new_notams_for_pslvc62_eosn1_launch_h...

MIAMI (AP) — FIFA slashed the price of some World Cup tickets for teams' most loyal fans following a global backlash and some will get $60 seats for the final instead of being asked to pay $4,185. FIFA said Tuesday that $60 tickets will be made available for every game at the tournament in North...

Finn Wolfhard teased the final four episodes of "Stranger Things" on "The Tonight Show", using a one-word clue for each.

US President Donald Trump has ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

arXiv:2512.14491v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Transformer-based multi-modal intelligent systems often suffer from high computational and energy costs due to dense self-attention, limiting their scalability under resource constraints. This paper presents SMMT, a sparse multi-modal transformer arch…

President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers going into and leaving Venezuela, ratcheting up pressure on Caracas as the US builds up its military presence in the region.

Venezuela said in its statement that its ambassador to the United Nations would immediately denounce what …

Governor Kathy Hochul maintains a 19-point lead over her Republican challengers in a hypothetical 2026 election matchup, according to a Siena College poll, while New Yorkers expressed optimism about the state's direction and supported proposals to tax the wealthy to fund social services.

Fossil fuel demand has kept growing amid the rise of low-carbon technology

"There are probably enough concerns about the health of the labor market to justify an insurance rate cut by the Federal Reserve next year," UBS's Paul Donovan said.

arXiv:2512.13970v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Marine obstacle detection demands robust segmentation under challenging conditions, such as sun glitter, fog, and rapidly changing wave patterns. These factors degrade image quality, while the scarcity and structural repetition of marine datasets limi…

Part station, part museum, two new subway stops in Rome offer riders the chance to see ancient artifacts unearthed in digging for the stations.

A giant iMac would also cost a fortune.

Plus, get a new look at Christopher Nolan's take on 'The Odyssey'.

Getting customers in shape before deploying artificial intelligence has been an activity partners have been engaged in all year, and it will continue to be so in 2026

Russian President Vladimir Putin is warning that Moscow will extend its gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies reject the Kremlin's demands in peace talks

Peter Navarro's appeal of his contempt of Congress conviction may seem, to some, unnecessary. Last year, fresh out of prison after serving a 4-month stint for refusing to abide a congressional subpoena, he was whisked onto the Republican National Convention stage and welcomed back into the fold. …

Skana Robotics built a decision-making algorithm that helps unmanned vessels react and adapt to data from other vessels.

Numbers from the November jobs report released on Tuesday show the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, its highest level in four years. CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger explains what to know.

arXiv:2512.14306v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: This paper investigates the ability of Large Language Models (LLMs), specifically GPT-3.5-turbo (GPT), to form inflation perceptions and expectations based on macroeconomic price signals. We compare the LLM's output to household survey data and offici…

Sure, we've seen millions poured into lobbying and other means of influence during every presidency, but the last two years set a whole new bar. Business leaders, including those from almost every Big Tech company, stepped over themselves to prove fealty to Donald Trump's second administration. It's…

Chatbots and AI-powered search has the potential to expand access to abortion information. Advocates are figuring out how to make that happen.

Conventional wisdom would tell you a booming stock market should create more jobs, not fewer. But it’s hard to ignore that there are larger forces at play.

The massive MacIntyre wind project is waiting for new turbine blades and wind parts as it continues its slow progress through commissioning.
The post Replacement turbine blades on the way as huge wind farm held at half-way point of commissioning appeared first on Renew Economy.

In this episode of Space Minds, host Mike Gruss moderates a timely panel discussion at the Spacepower conference on how commercial space capabilities are reshaping national security, civil space, and military decision-making.
The post Speed, risk, and the future of national security space appeared f…

Most of Russia’s billions in frozen assets are in Belgium, which fears bearing the brunt of Russian lawsuits — and worse.

Amazon’s stock is near flat this year. A reported $10 billion deal with OpenAI may energize investors — or it could fuel further fears about an AI bubble.

arXiv:2512.14202v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The performance of reinforcement learning (RL) agents depends critically on the quality of the underlying feature representations. Hyperbolic feature spaces are well-suited for this purpose, as they naturally capture hierarchical and relational struct…

The partnership will focus on Tokenet, Digital Prime's institutional lending network, and introduce new features like regulated stablecoin collateral.

"Wanting to give peace a chance would've meant not taking over Uvira."

Satellite images show Israeli forces in Gaza have continued to demolish civilian buildings during the ceasefire.

The bitcoin miner deepened its pivot into AI infrastructure with a $7 billion long term lease backed by Google.

A new boss for Horizon Power, a new president for AEVA, and a new CEO for Plico. Plus moves at AEMO, AEMC, CEIG, CER, CEC, Green Peak, Aurora, AGL, EEC.
The post Grid Connections 2025: Who’s going where in Australia’s green energy transition appeared first on Renew Economy.

A key question in astronomy is how ubiquitous Earth-like rocky planets are. The formation of terrestrial planets in our solar system was strongly influenced by the radioactive decay heat of short-lived radionuclides (SLRs), particularly 26Al, likely delivered from nearby supernovae. However, current…

The first funerals were held Wednesday for the 15 victims of the mass shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach. One of the victims laid to rest was Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a father of five whose youngest was born seven weeks ago. Anna Coren has more.

Relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales, accused of three offences from 2022 to 2024The Duke of Marlborough, formerly known as Jamie Blandford, has been charged with intentional strangulation.Charles James Spencer-Churchill, a relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princ…

Water and land surfaces on a planet interact with gases in the atmosphere and with radiation from the star. These interactions define the environments that prevail on the planet, some of which may be more amenable to prebiotic chemistry, some to the evolution of more complex life. This review articl…

The Costume Designers Guild has partnered with Roman jewelers Bvlgari. This collaboration underscores the commitment of both brands to creativity, craftsmanship and the communities shaping culture. Bvlgari will serve as a strategic partner to the CDG and reintroduce a new edition of its iconic statu…

Berlin Film Festival has announced the first 12 films to screen in its Panorama section, which includes 10 world premieres and five feature debuts. These include new works by Danielle Arbid, Patric Chiha, Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, Anna Roller, Faraz Shariat, Ian de la Rosa and Sebastian Br…

The House is set to vote Wednesday on a narrow, GOP-crafted health care bill, having shut down any chance of an amendment that includes an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. A contentious Rules Committee meeting ended Tuesday night with an ObamaCare effort by moderate Republicans being rule…

arXiv:2512.14273v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Grounded video question answering (GVQA) aims to localize relevant temporal segments in videos and generate accurate answers to a given question; however, large video-language models (LVLMs) exhibit limited temporal awareness. Although existing approa…

The future of M3GAN spinoff Soulm8te and indeed the M3GAN cinematic universe is in doubt after Universal pulled the movie from its release calendar.

A new paper calculated a solar storm could bring down the planet's satellite system in just three days, wreaking havoc on infrastructure.

arXiv:2512.14228v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Georeferencing text documents has typically relied on either gazetteer-based methods to assign geographic coordinates to place names, or on language modelling approaches that associate textual terms with geographic locations. However, many location de…

New video shows Rob and Michele Reiner's son, Nick Reiner, moments before he was arrested for allegedly killing his parents. Plus, President Trump announces new U.S. action against Venezuela. All that and all that matters in today's Eye Opener.

arXiv:2512.13767v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Cyber-physical systems (CPS) such as unmanned aerial vehicles are vulnerable to slow degradation that develops without causing immediate or obvious failures. Small sensor biases or timing irregularities can accumulate over time, gradually reducing sta…

arXiv:2504.15956v2 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: We prove that with linear transformations, both (i) two-layer self-attention and (ii) one-layer self-attention followed by a softmax function are universal approximators for continuous sequence-to-sequence functions on compact domains. Our main te…

Singapore has reported a rise in rogue tankers carrying sanctioned cargo through its shipping lanes.

Experts have discovered thousands of dinosaur footprints in northern Italy's Stelvio National Park.

arXiv:2512.14376v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: WebAssembly (Wasm) has risen as a widely used technology to distribute computing workloads on different platforms. The platform independence offered through Wasm makes it an attractive solution for many different applications that can run on disparate…

arXiv:2510.10767v2 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) is increasingly used to fine-tune diffusion models, but a key challenge arises from the mismatch between stochastic samplers used during training and deterministic samplers used during inference. I…

Latest Liverpool alumnus to join Saudi Pro League will not have to worry about a lack of funds at Al-QadsiahThe path from Liverpool to the east of Saudi Arabia is becoming increasingly well-worn, but Brendan Rodgers has a bigger job on his hands than Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderso…

The claim was made as part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s dismissal of Paramount’s hostile takeover offer.

The platform offers full legal ownership, with shares issued and recorded onchain, and provides real shareholder rights and self-custody.

Play 'Tone Colors,' the Billboard daily crossword for Tuesday (Dec. 16, 2025).

A group of prominent figures issued a statement memorializing Mr. Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. “We were their friends, and we will miss them forever.”