The U.S. warned that Russia might put a nuclear weapon in area
U.S. intelligence companies have informed their closest European allies that if Russia is going to launch a nuclear weapon into orbit, it would in all probability achieve this this yr. However, they warned, it’d as an alternative launch a innocent “dummy” warhead to go away the West guessing about its capabilities.
The evaluation got here amid a U.S. intelligence scramble: Officers have been conducting a collection of rushed, categorized briefings for his or her NATO and Asian allies, as particulars started to leak out. However U.S. intelligence companies are divided, and officers have low confidence of their evaluation of whether or not Russia is able to launch such an area weapon.
The implications of such a weapon are clearer. It might disrupt communications by destroying the business and army satellites which have reshaped world communications capabilities.
Response: President Vladimir Putin mentioned that Moscow was “categorically towards” putting nuclear weapons in area. The Russian protection minister mentioned the warning was manufactured to get Congress to authorize extra help for Ukraine.
Pakistan’s army is in disaster
Pakistanis as soon as considered the army because the iron hand controlling politics within the nation. Current elections shattered that myth of its omnipotence when voters backed candidates aligned with the jailed former chief, Imran Khan, regardless of a army crackdown on his occasion.
Their fervor — and their accusations that the army then rigged the outcomes to disclaim the candidates a majority — have created one of many army institution’s largest crises but.
“We’ve seen the army changing into more and more remoted from its ordinary help base, like veterans and Pakistan’s elite, who had been additionally arrested and pressured within the crackdown main as much as the polls,” Christina Goldbaum, our Pakistan and Afghanistan bureau chief, informed us.
Younger folks refused to be intimidated by the army, and social media outpaced censorship. However Christina mentioned the temper is uneasy: The army has doubled down and moved to consolidate its management because the election. “Most individuals I’m speaking to don’t imagine that these elections alone are sufficient to basically change the ability dynamic between civilian leaders and army leaders in Pakistan,” she mentioned.
China lags behind the U.S. in A.I. growth
China is racing to construct generative A.I. methods. However its companies lag behind the U.S. by at least a year — and are relying nearly totally on underlying methods from the U.S., in keeping with greater than a dozen tech trade insiders and main engineers.
The jockeying for A.I. primacy might make for a brand new part within the tense technological competitors between the U.S. and China.
1000’s of pages of court docket paperwork have been written concerning the troubled state of the jail at Rikers Island, in New York Metropolis. 1000’s of pages of fiction have, too: The jail has grow to be a literary incubator for detainees and corrections officers.
Lives lived: Ameen Sayani, a pioneering and beloved Indian D.J., was on the air for greater than 42 years. He died at 91.
Niue’s struggle for .nu
Within the Nineteen Nineties, the South Pacific island of Niue might have made an enormous mistake. It gave an American businessman the rights to the internet suffix .nu, in change for entry to the World Vast Net.
“Nu” means “new” in a number of Nordic languages, and hundreds of Scandinavians registered web sites with .nu, making it very useful. Niue has been combating for many years to reclaim it, arguing that it’s a struggle for self-determination.
“We’re victims of digital colonialism,” the island’s prime minister informed The Occasions. “This area, the .nu, acknowledges Niue as a sovereign nation. That is how necessary it’s to our id.”
Niue is searching for about $30 million in damages. A court docket ruling is anticipated quickly.