A coalition of European startups has urged swift action to slash burdensome EU regulations after a landmark declaration from the D9+ group of digitally advanced nations. The declaration stressed the need for removing barriers and simplifying EU rules and procedures. Ministers from all 13 countries in the D9+ Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden signed the statement. They emphasised the need for a reviewed digital rulebook that is deregulated where possible and avoids unnecessary red tape. A startup group has called for the ministers to back up theirThis story continues at The Next Web

Apple is celebrating the return of baseball with a new documentary, Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series, streaming today on Apple TV+. The services Friday Night Baseball double-header games also start again this evening. Fight for Glory goes behind the scenes of the 2024 World Series, with exclusive access to the Yankees and Dodgers as they revive Major League Baseballs most iconic playoff rivalry.Fight for Glory is the first ever all-access docuseries covering the World Series. It follows the journeys of the Dodgers and the Yankees throughout the post-season, including interviews with players, their families, coaches, fans and journalists. All three parts are available to watch today.For baseball fans, Friday Night Baseball also returns tonight on Apple TV+. That sees Apple stream two games every Friday night, with a rotating assortment of teams. Tonights debut includes Baltimore Orioles vs. Toronto Blue Jays, and New York Mets vs. Houston Astros.You can watch Apple TV+ using the Apple TV app on your device. That includes iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K, as well as smart TVs, games consoles and more. The company recently released an app for Android phones and tablets too. You can also watch in a web browser at tv.apple.com. Apple TV+ is priced at $9.99 per month, and is part of the Apple One bundle subscription. You can get a seven-day free trial for new Apple Account sign-ups here.Check out everything on Apple TV+ here.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Mar 28, 2025The Hacker NewsLong gone are the days when a simple backup in a data center was enough to keep a business secure. While backups store information, they do not guarantee business continuity during a crisis. With IT disasters far too common and downtime burning through budgets, modern IT environments require solutions that go beyond storage and enable instant recovery to minimize downtime and data loss. This is where business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) comes into play. BCDR goes beyond basic backup to provide comprehensive recovery that keeps businesses running, no matter what comes their way.Notably, the shift toward BCDR has become a critical focus area for businesses worldwide. The State of BCDR Report 2025, which surveyed over 3,000 IT pros, decision-makers and experts, reveals that more than half of organizations plan to switch their backup solutions within the next year. Apart from the obvious cost concern, businesses cite disaster recovery (DR) execution and the ability to effectively test backup and recovery processes as the key factors driving this change. On that front, Datto BCDR is an all-in-one hybrid cloud BCDR platform that guarantees business continuity and resilience without breaking the bank. Datto BCDR seamlessly integrates local hardware, software and cloud-based recovery to keep businesses up and running. Remarkably, this comprehensive approach allows organizations to consolidate their backup and DR needs under a single, reliable vendor, significantly reducing costs.Can a single solution transform the way businesses recover from disasters? Scott Lennon, CEO of Total Communications, thinks so. He calls Datto's backup appliance SIRIS "a magical IT box" for its powerful local and cloud virtualization. Read the full case study here.Let's check how Datto BCDR works to facilitate effortless business continuity.How Datto BCDR delivers turnkey business continuityDatto BCDR is a comprehensive, turnkey BCDR platform designed to always keep businesses operational. At its core, Datto BCDR combines a robust lineup of backup appliances with both agent-based and agentless backups, ensuring flexibility across different IT environments. Powering the hybrid disaster recovery capabilities of this platform is the purpose-built Datto Cloud, designed specifically for long-term, off-site data retention and disaster recovery.1) Seamless deployment across physical, virtual and image-based environmentsDatto appliances are built for quick, scalable and flexible data protection. They offer options for turnkey physical appliances as well as virtual and image-based deployments. Regardless of the deployment type, every solution includes cloud replicas for long-term data retention, off-site redundancy, DR testing and full DR capabilities. Datto SIRIS Private offers a simple way to deploy Datto devices as a private cloud for your customers, which is commonly used in industries like healthcare, financial services and government. A key advantage of a Datto appliance is that it doubles as a local recovery target since it can host workloads and applications in the event of a local failover. This ensures fast recovery on-site while maintaining automated, hourly replication to the immutable Datto Cloud for off-site protection. 2) Flexible backup options with agent-based and agentless protectionDatto BCDR supports both agent-based and agentless backups, giving businesses the flexibility to protect their systems based on their infrastructure. While agent-based backups are available for Windows and Linux, agentless backups for VMware virtual machines (VMs) eliminate the need to manage and update agents. With these options, businesses can implement a backup strategy that aligns with their IT setup, whether it consists of physical servers, virtual machines or a combination of both.3) Customizable backup and replication schedulesDatto BCDR gives businesses full control over their backup and replication schedules, ensuring that data is always protected without requiring constant manual intervention. Once admins define their local and cloud backup policies, they do not need to configure or manage the cloud environment, making the process simple and efficient.For greater control, backup and replication policies can be fine-tuned, allowing IT teams to adjust backup frequency, retention settings and alert preferences. Additional options like off-site sync throttling and manual backups are available so that backup operations don't interfere with network performance or business operations. Datto also offers advanced verification and DR testing features to ensure that backups are healthy and recoverable. Meanwhile, Datto's robust reporting and alerting capabilities enable IT teams to customize notifications, reports and monitoring settings, ensuring full visibility and proactive issue resolution. For those who require an even more granular approach, Datto offers more advanced options that allow IT teams to fine-tune their backup and DR settings to match their unique business requirements.Gain next-level efficiency with Datto's Inverse Chain TechnologyDatto's Inverse Chain Technology is designed to outperform the popular traditional incremental backups that rely on a chain structure, where a full backup is followed by incremental backups that only capture changes. While this reduces processing power during backups, recovery is slow because the system must rebuild a full backup from multiple incremental copies. Worse, if a single incremental backup is corrupt, all subsequent recovery points become unusable.Inverse Chain Technology solves these problems by storing each backup as a fully independent recovery point, eliminating the need for a rebuild process. Each backup creates a complete server image, including data, applications, operating system and settings, ensuring faster and more reliable restores both locally and in the Datto Cloud. Despite storing full recovery points, storage demands stay low thanks to ZFS copy-on-write technology, which ensures each unique data block is saved only once. IT teams can also delete outdated or unusual recovery points without resetting the backup chain, such as removing backups of a machine confirmed infected with ransomware.With backups as frequent as every five minutes, the technology ensures minimal data loss. It also drastically reduces the management overhead by eliminating frequent full backups and manual pruning.Experience the power of the immutable Datto CloudThe Datto Cloud is purpose-built for cloud backup and DR, offering unmatched flexibility, security, performance and cost-efficiency. With Datto Cloud, you get:Cloud Deletion Defense: Recover agents or backup snapshots, whether accidentally or maliciously deleted.Geo-distributed protection: Store data in multiple geographic locations for redundancy and compliance.Enterprise-grade security: AES-256 encryption (at rest and in transit), two-factor authentication (2FA) and immutable storage to prevent unauthorized access and data tampering.Proven reliability: A platform that handles 10,000+ restores per month, supporting over one million end clients.Transparent pricing: No hidden fees or surprise costs, such as hidden egress fees and unpredictable storage costs.Be 100% confident in your backup and recoveryBackup and DR verification are critical to ensuring 100% recoverability, yet many businesses fail to test their backups frequently enough. According to the State of BCDR Report 2025, testing often takes a back seat due to limited IT staff and time constraints. The report found that only 15% of organizations test backups daily, and 25% conduct tests weekly, suggesting that the remaining operate with an uncertain level of risk. DR testing follows a similar pattern, with just 11% testing daily, 20% weekly and 23% monthly. The rest are extremely vulnerable to prolonged, unexpected outages.With Datto BCDR, backup and DR testing are fully automated, eliminating the manual effort required for routine verification.With Datto's automated backup and DR testing, you get:Screenshot verification: Confirm that backups boot and restore successfully.Application verification: Ensure that critical application services like Structured Query Language (SQL), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Active Directory (AD) and Domain Name System (DNS) start correctly after recovery.Service verification: Confirm that additional system services start upon boot, including:Security services (Windows Firewall, Windows Defender, etc.)Networking configurations and servicesRemote Desktop settings and accessRansomware detection: Get backups scanned for suspicious file patterns, alerting IT teams to potential ransomware activity before it spreads.Leverage the unparalleled recovery capabilities of Datto BCDRA backup is only as good as its ability to restore data quickly and reliably when disaster strikes. Datto BCDR provides all the necessary tools to restore operations seamlessly, ensuring business continuity with minimal disruption.Seamless local recovery for instant failoverGet powerful features for swift local recovery, including:Local virtualization: Datto appliances double as local recovery targets, allowing businesses to host workloads and applications directly on the device. In the event of a hardware failure, software crash or ransomware attack, where recovery to production is not immediately possible, businesses can failover to the Datto appliance and continue operations without disruption.Export backup images, including in RAW format: The Export Image function supports export to VMDK, VHD and VHDX formats and offers native RAW export for Linux-based hypervisors, including Proxmox, SCALE Computing Platform and OpenStack. This eliminates the need for manual image conversions, reducing recovery time and complexity.Additional recovery options: Datto BCDR provides granular and full-system recovery capabilities, including file and folder restore, volume restore, virtualization via hypervisor, bare metal restore and ESX upload. These options give IT teams the flexibility to restore data in the way that best suits their needs.Effortless cloud recovery with the Datto Recovery LaunchpadWhat sets Datto apart is its purpose-built disaster recovery cloud, designed for fast, reliable and hassle-free recovery. The Datto Cloud provides self-service cloud recovery tools through the Recovery Launchpad, ensuring IT teams can restore systems quickly when local recovery is not an option. Accessible from the same portal used to manage Datto BCDR appliances, the Recovery Launchpad delivers a seamless, centralized experience.IT pros can leverage a comprehensive set of tools here to restore data quickly and efficiently. If they need to recover specific files or folders, they can download them instantly using File Restore. In the event of a major disruption, they can spin up full backups in the Datto Cloud through instant virtualization. For more extensive recovery needs, Image Export allows them to retrieve complete recovery points from cloud backups.Lightning-fast recovery with Datto's 1-Click Disaster RecoveryDatto's groundbreaking 1-Click Disaster Recovery (1-Click DR) feature makes disaster recovery fast, effortless and reliable as simple as reordering from your favorite fast-food app. This feature allows IT pros to clone virtual machines (VM) and network configurations from previously successful DR tests, eliminating the need to manually reconfigure settings during an actual disaster. By reapplying tested configurations, businesses can drastically reduce recovery times and minimize the risk of DR failures, ensuring they meet even the strictest recovery time objectives (RTOs) with ease.Final thoughtsA strong BCDR strategy is critical for protecting businesses from unexpected disruptions. From securing backups against cyberthreats and validating their integrity to regularly testing recovery processes and executing DR with precision, each step plays a crucial role in ensuring seamless operations. Without the right solution, businesses risk costly downtime, critical data loss and catastrophic financial and reputational setbacks.To avoid such repercussions, businesses can confidently trust Datto, which continues to set the benchmark in business continuity and resilience. With Datto's peerless capabilities, IT pros and businesses can rest assured that their operations remain protected, recoverable and uninterrupted, no matter what challenges arise.Ready to solidify your business resilience? Get custom Datto BCDR pricing now. Found this article interesting? This article is a contributed piece from one of our valued partners. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

John Edwards, Technology Journalist & AuthorMarch 28, 20255 Min ReadBorka Kiss via Alamy Stock PhotoThe software development team's goal should be to deliver stakeholders a flawless app. That's all well and good but then a bottleneck suddenly appears. What happens next depends on how well the team leader handles the situation.Software development, although younger than traditional manufacturing, is now critical to the modern enterprise, says Mitchell Johnson, chief product development officer at supply chain management platform provider Sonatype. "While manufacturing has been optimized over centuries, software development is still catching up, despite its foundational role in business success," he explains in an email interview. "The stakes are enormous, as enterprises now rely on software for everything from product innovation to operations."The best way to eliminate a software development bottleneck is to prioritize clear, consistent communication and to make progress visible to the entire team, says Matej Bukovinski, CTO of software development firm Nutrient. "Ongoing asynchronous communication is truly effective for frequent updates, because it allows team members to share progress and next steps without disrupting their workflows," he notes via email.Practices such as daily async updates, scheduling work early to ensure visibility, and maintaining a dynamic Kanban board will reveal bottlenecks as they emerge, Bukovinski says. "When you use these approaches, combined with periodic team sync-ups for deeper discussions, you can create a transparent and collaborative environment that mitigates bottlenecks before they can escalate."Related:"When you focus on early visibility and collaborative problem-solving, you foster agility, which allows the team to quickly adapt and address issues without slowing down overall momentum," Bukovinski says.First StepsThe best way to eliminate software development bottlenecks is to automate as much as possible, advises Elliot Peele, senior manager of software development at statistical software development firm SAS. "If there's a process you have to do more than once, automate it," he recommends in an online interview. "Enable software developers to focus on writing code rather than performing repetitive tasks."Reliable automation is essential for eliminating bottlenecks, Johnson says. "Modern development cycles often grind to a halt when manual processes in testing, operations, or security cant keep up with the pace of code generation." By automating critical tasks such as dependency management, vulnerability detection, and risk remediation, teams can move faster without sacrificing quality or security.Related:What makes automation highly usable is a foundation of reliable, accurate data. Automated tools are only as good as the insights theyre built on and leveraging solutions that draw from the best data ensures high-confidence results, Johnson says. "For example, automating high-confidence upgrades and waivers minimizes wasted effort and keeps development workflows smooth."Automation is effective because it moves the mundane task to the responsibility of the robot rather than the creative developer, Peele says. "Additionally, automating tasks makes them more reliable and repeatable, as humans are inherently error prone."Preventing Future BottlenecksDevelopers can play a critical role in preventing future bottlenecks by proactively maintaining the quality and security of their codebase, Johnson says. "Engaging with tools that provide insights into the software supply chain, regularly updating dependencies, and participating in thorough code reviews are all ways developers can contribute to a smoother development process."Creating a culture of shared responsibility can also help. "By collaborating across teams, developers can identify inefficiencies and resolve issues early, reducing the likelihood of bottlenecks escalating further downstream," Johnson explains. "Continuous improvement practices, like retrospectives and feedback loops, can help teams stay agile and address potential challenges before they impact development cycles."Related:Bukovinski stresses the need for teams to embrace proactive interaction habits supported by project management and communication tools. "This is where your operations team can play a big role in communication success," he notes. Sharing regular updates ensures that the entire team is aware of progress and potential blockers, enabling quick action when needed. "Keeping the Kanban or sprint board up-to-date and pushing incomplete work early ensures that dependencies and feedback loops are handled efficiently."Async communication also reduces the cognitive load created by constant meetings, giving developers more focused time for problem-solving. "A culture of transparency and collaboration supported by these habits helps the team stay resilient and adaptable," Bukovinski says.Emerging ToolsAs new technologies become available, particularly AI tools, start thinking about using new approaches, such as reusable robots and other processes that developers can leverage to improve their speed and efficiency, Peele says. "If you can avoid writing automation twice, you can save significant effort, avoid duplication, and build general purpose tools to help everyone."Peele has one final bit of advice: "Start simple, and don't try to solve all your problems with AI -- you'll get there eventually."About the AuthorJohn EdwardsTechnology Journalist & AuthorJohn Edwards is a veteran business technology journalist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and numerous business and technology publications, including Computerworld, CFO Magazine, IBM Data Management Magazine, RFID Journal, and Electronic Design. He has also written columns for The Economist's Business Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Communications Direct. John has authored several books on business technology topics. His work began appearing online as early as 1983. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he wrote daily news and feature articles for both the CompuServe and Prodigy online services. His "Behind the Screens" commentaries made him the world's first known professional blogger.See more from John EdwardsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Mary E. Shacklett, President of Transworld DataMarch 28, 20256 Min ReadWavebreak Media ltd via Alamy StockOnce an on-premises room with a collection of IT equipment, the data center is being reimagined into a virtual DC that embraces the cloud as well as on-prem assets. It is also moving into areas such as building design/construction, energy consumption/sustainability and facility management.In this expanded environment, CIOs and IT are finding themselves in new, hybrid relationships with facility managers, cloud operators, construction engineers, IT vendors and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) vendors.How do these data center changes impact budget thinking, presentations to the board, strategies and operations?First, Some ContextIn September 2024, IBM was still defining a data center as "a physical room, building or facility that houses IT infrastructure for building, running and delivering applications and services. It also stores and manages the data associated with those applications and services.", saying that data centers had evolved into remote facilities or networks of facilities owned by cloud service providers (CSPs) that hosted virtualized IT infrastructure for the shared use of multiple companies and customers.This is the definition that most of us who work in IT are used to. CIOs also understand what the data centers expansion into the cloud portends, although our CEOs and C-level peers might not understand.Related:The physical data centers that companies operate have provided the low-lying fruit for meeting corporate sustainability goals that boards and regulators have encouraged. These easy gains in sustainability were facilitated by eliminating physical storage and servers and replacing them with cloud services or virtualized operating systems and applications. The net and tangible results of these moves were reductions in on-prem data center energy consumption and physical floor space.Corporate management and boards were delighted with these sustainability gains. Nonetheless, they still dont understand the long-term implications of cloudifying IT and virtualizing assets, how these trends have changed fundamental thinking about data centers.Should this matter to CIOs?Yes, because when CIOs present data center status and requests to the board, the CEO, other C-level executives and stakeholders, they must talk about everything that represents the companys total IT investment in the data center, no matter where those technology assets are.What the Data Center Is TodayMost modern CIOs think about the data center as a concept more than as a physical thing. IT understands it must manage all the technology that the company invests in, whether the tech is in a physical on premises room, in a cloud, or even in tangential data center facility infrastructure like an HVAC system and new data center construction.Related:Including all these areas under the heading of data center has major ramifications for the budget, for data center strategy, and for day-to -day operations.Adopting a Global Data Center ApproachAs they think beyond the traditional boundaries and definitions of data centers, CIOs are adopting an all-encompassing approach to data center management that is global to the company. Key points that should drive this approach include:Educate management. Most corporate boards and managers still think of the data center as a physical facility. They dont see how moving more IT to the cloud or to enterprise edges changes this. It's because they don't have the day-to-day responsibility to manage all this technology sprawl. Managing the sprawl falls on IT, so its incumbent on the CIO to educate the board and senior management on how the concept of managing a data center has changed. One great way to approach the conversation is from the standpoint of security. The company must be able to secure all of its assets, no matter where they are. Management and the board will certainly agree.Related:Work with users to secure IT assets. The cloud, together with citizen development -- where users independently subscribe to their own cloud services without IT necessarily knowing -- have generated a need to uncover and secure all these assets, which should be under enterprise IT management. As part of data center expansion within the enterprise, IT should reach out to user departments and use zero-trust networks, which can identify the additions of new assets that IT might not know about, so these assets can be securely and properly managed.Update job descriptions. Historically, a network specialist or a security expert was focused on internal IT networks and security and then developed skills and used tools for these areas. Now, with more IT moving to the cloud, IT asset management and toolset knowledge should be expanded so that IT security and network staffs can effectively manage cloud-based IT. Position descriptions most likely need to be updated so they encompass these areas, and IT staff members may need to be upskilled in cloud management tools and techniques.Collaborate with facility and HVAC vendors. CIOs and their systems and storage managers must gain knowledge and actively collaborate with building contractors, HVAC suppliers, electricians and the entire corporate facilities group, because planning for new or expanded data centers or data center improvements require it.If a new data center, data center expansion or improvement is planned, simple elements like whether to have a light-colored roof, which can reflect sunlight away from the data center and reduce heating levels inside, are important. So are decisions on sub-floor cooling systems and power feeds for data center servers and storage. HVAC units can become major topics. For instance, understanding the location of the data centers hot spots. Those are areas most likely to generate excess heat, such as heavy-process servers and storage). And, whether your staff is planning to rack more storage to concentrate hotspots in fewer areas. Or can your HVAC system be adjusted for this? The goal is to have max-capacity HVAC working in data center hot spots, and lower HVAC activity in areas of the data center where little heat is being generated. IT doesnt have the bandwidth or skillsets to address all these environmental issues on its own, so it must develop working knowledge and collaborate with vendors and facilities experts.Develop working relationships with vendors. IT has a tendency to vet vendors, define service-level agreements (SLAs), sign contracts and move on. Since so much IT is being placed in the hands of vendors, this dynamic must change.Vendors should be brought into IT projects and project planning. They should minimally be communicated with on a monthly basis to review the status of the systems and services they provide. The emphasis should be on a continuous working relationship, with the vendor and IT designating point persons on their respective staffs to coordinate and direct communications.SummaryData centers are evolving into ecosystems of diverse IT assets and personnel that span clouds, facilities, vendors and services.When CIOs talk about the data center, they should present it as an active and holistic ecosystem of inter-related assets and personnel so upper management and the board can better understand what the data center is becoming, and why IT makes its data center budget requests.In addition to furthering data center understanding at the top of the organization, IT skillsets and job responsibilities will require upskilling and realignment.About the AuthorMary E. ShacklettPresident of Transworld DataMary E. Shacklett is an internationally recognized technology commentator and President of Transworld Data, a marketing and technology services firm. Prior to founding her own company, she was Vice President of Product Research and Software Development for Summit Information Systems, a computer software company; and Vice President of Strategic Planning and Technology at FSI International, a multinational manufacturer in the semiconductor industry.Mary has business experience in Europe, Japan, and the Pacific Rim. She has a BS degree from the University of Wisconsin and an MA from the University of Southern California, where she taught for several years. She is listed in Who's Who Worldwide and inWho's Who in the Computer Industry.See more from Mary E. ShacklettReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

London mayor says 600-bed scheme would make significant contribution to capitals student accommodation targetsAerial view of how Makes plans for the building would look if builtSadiq Khan has called in Make Architects plans for a 20-storey student accommodation scheme in Paddington two months after it was rejected for the second time by Westminster council.The 605-bedroom proposals for United Students and Travis Perkins were thrown out by councillors in January due to its height, scale and impact on daylight on nearby residents.This followed a previous refusal for a larger 768-home version of the job in 2022, which had itself been scaled back from the original 22-storey plan containing 843 homes.But in a letter to Westminster council, Khan said the proposals would make a significant contribution to the strategic student accommodation requirement identified in the London Plan.The mayor of London said the plans would also make a positive contribution towards the capitals housing targets.The canal-side scheme will include replacement space for a branch of Travis PerkinsAerial view of how Make's plans for the building would look if built1/6show captionAs such, the non-delivery of 605 student bed spaces is considered to impact upon the implementation of the London Plan, Khan said.The move means the mayor will now act as the local planning authority for the scheme, with a public hearing to be held in the coming months.The London Plan 2021 requires at least 3,500 purpose-built student accommodation bed spaces to be built each year to meet demand, with 35% of rooms to be let at affordable rent.The application refused by Westminster in January had proposed 35% of the bedrooms as affordable. However, this has since been amended to 30% with 5% being provided as a payment in lieu of 3m towards the councils affordable housing fund.The scheme would see the demolition and replacement of an existing Travis Perkins branch on the canal-side site with student accommodation located above, along with a new canal path and public realm.The site is located behind Paddington station and next to Fletcher Priests Brunel Building.The project team includes Gerald Eve on planning, Arup on transport, GIA on daylight, Tavernor Consultancy on heritage, Waterman on MEP, Meinhardt as structural and facade engineer, BDP as landscape architect and AtkinsRealis as principal designer.

Architect part of UK team working on Greeces largest airportExterior view of Grimshaws plans for the expansionA team led by UK firms Grimshaw and Haptic has won a scheme to almost double the capacity of Athens airport.The Anemos consortium, which also includes Arup, London retail specialist Leslie Jones and Greek practice K-Studio, will oversee a phased expansion of Athens International Airport, increasing passenger numbers from 26 million to 40 million passengers a year by 2032. Design management is being carried out by another UK firm, Plan A.Originally designed and constructed by German giant Hochtief, and completed in 2001 ready for the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, Athens International Airport is the largest airport in Greece, located 20 km from the city centre.How the North oculi would look under the plansThe expansion project will extend and alter the main terminal building and overhaul a satellite terminal building.The plans for the existing main terminal include new north and south oculi large halls with roofs up to 24.5m high covering gardens, lounges and shops.The first phase of the work is reported to be worth around 540m to complete.

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OpinionMarch 28, 20255 min readMaking America Ableist AgainBy going after Social Security, Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Education, Donald Trump is signaling his belief that having good genes means not having a disabilityBy Megha Satyanarayana A girl holds a sign supporting disability awareness at a 2019 parade in New York City. Recent actions by the Trump administration could undermine protections and accommodations for people with disabilities across the nation. Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty ImagesWhen I was a teenager, I took voice lessons from a musician who was blind. I drove over to her apartment to sight-read music, sing scales and work on vocal exercises, and I wondered how the heck she managed with our wretched bus system, how she got to the store, to campus, or just out for a walk. I was too afraid to ask.One summer, I spent a lot of time with a genetics doctor who worked in a clinic that was part of what the state then called the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. I learned about dozens of genetic diseases that left children with permanent intellectual disabilities. I learned about the history of institutionalization in our state. It wasnt pretty. No states is. We talked about her caseload each week, what caused the diseases, and how she handled each kids medical needs. It was eye-opening, to say the least.Then, in my last year of high school, I worked with a child with developmental delays in motor skills. We played ball, games, anything to help him move his body, because his parents could see that it helped him regulate, helped him gain dexterity.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.My teenage brain began to put it all together the ways we tuck people with disabilities out of sight and out of mind. Special education at different schools, few extracurricular activities, the complex and coordinated steps needed to carry out day-to-day lifeall hidden. A lot has changed since then; children with disabilities go to mainstream schools, extracurriculars are more inclusive, other transportation options exist, and we adjust our infrastructure and workplaces (by law, if not desire) to make it easier for anyone who is differently abled to manage, if not succeed.But now our president and his administration are waging war on people with disabilities in the name of government efficiency. Yet, its about more than that. Whether through rhetoric about normalizing institutionalization again or by making Social Security benefits harder to get, this is nothing other than ableism, eugenics doctrine at work in the highest level of government, and its already making life much harder for the 70 million adults in our country who have a disability, the 7.5 million children who get help at school for one, and the millions of able-bodied people who care for them. Lets be clear about how egregious this is; the Trump administration is targeting services and protections that affect nearly 25 percent of the U.S. population, saying it isnt the federal governments responsibility to set standards of care and consideration for these Americans, to ensure they are being treated equally.Whether the endgame is the privatization of more services, or, shifting the responsibility of caring for people with disabilities to charities and private donations, or leaving it up to states to decide who is worthy of assistance and who is not, the message is crystal clear: To have good genes in Trumps world, its not just being white that mattersas the administration has tried to eliminate racial diversity in government and elsewhere with a McCarthyesque zealbut being able-bodied and of sound mind. Everyone else can just rot.That Trump and his administration are doing this shouldnt surprise anyone. This is a president who, while campaigning for his first term in office, imitated the arm motions of a New York Times reporter who is differently abled. He was telling us then that he scorned disability. And recently, only 10 days into his second term, as part of an antidiversity rant, he baselessly blamed a mid-air collision in Washington D.C. on air traffic controllers with severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems, saying people with that job needed to be naturally talented geniuses.On top of the cuts to the Social Security Administration, which helps some 67 million people of all ages with disability insurance, Trumps appointees are slashing the Department of Veterans Affairs and dismantling the Department of Education, both of which serve people with disabilities. As well, his Department of Justice is removing guidance documents that help businesses better serve people with disabilities. One of the documents is about making new hotels ADA-compliant. Another is about communicating with clients or customers with disabilities. The Republican budget plan in Congress calls for cuts that are certain to impact Medicaid, which provides health care to both children and adults with disabilities.Of the 16 million veterans in the U.S., about one third get disability benefits. Many seek help with mental health after trauma, injury and much more, and are already dealing with the fallout of changes to the VA. About 15 million people with disabilities use Medicaid.Of course all this will play out in court. And there is the chance that the administration wont take all these steps, given that much of what they are doing requires an act of Congress to legally happen. And there are those who think its fine to shrink the federal government and push all decision-making to states. But then what happens when states decide to stop caring for people with disabilities?Texas and 16 other states recently challenged the constitutionality of Section 504, an antidiscrimination statute that is perhaps better known to parents as the law that makes possible educational accommodations for children with ADHD, autism and epilepsy, not to mention children with mobility issues or diabetes. Why? Those states objected to the Biden administration adding gender dysphoria to its protections. The suit has been paused, but not withdrawn, and some legal analyses see this case as a preview to efforts to overturn Olmstead v. L.C., the Supreme Court case that made it discriminatory to institutionalize people with disabilities when they can live in the community. Out of sight, out of mind might soon be back on the table for some of our most vulnerable people.Meanwhile, the president might do to states what hes doing to universitiestry to withhold federal funding to get what he wants in terms of disability protectionsas a note, many of the states that get the most funding for educating children with disabilities tend to vote Republican. And its not just race-based diversity research the administration is trying to pull the plug on. Social securityfunded research into disability was just canned last month. The Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the Department of Education that studies, among other things, special education, has been devastated.In 2020, one poll indicated 51 percent of people with disabilities in the U.S. voted for Trump. This president, his administration, and his supporters have made it abundantly clear through his words and their actions that their vision of the U.S. does not serve people who are not perfect physical and emotional specimens of whiteness. And the last time our country went down that path, the results were catastrophic for Americans and the world.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.