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SummaryWinter Fest arrives in World of Tanks Modern Armor on December 10, the biggest festive update yet.Get an in-depth look at how the event came to be, as told by developers at Wargaming.Learn all about the new tanks, Commanders, and the brand-new World of Tanks Winter Fest storyline.Once upon a time, on a cold winter day, World of Tanks Modern Armor came up with a new idea for their players. It was Winter Fest the ultimate test of any developers skills! Yet, creating it was so full of thrills that, once done, they smiled and said: That was fun!Winter Fest is the biggest holiday event in World of Tanks Modern Armors history. According to Art director Andy Dorizas , the team was ready to go beyond the historic Toy Tanks concept and give back to the players by making this years event truly unique. With a narrative-driven mode, new game mechanics, Commanders, tanks, and more, players will have plenty to explore during the coldest winter days.Winter Fest kicks off with World of Tanks Modern Armors beloved Happy Holidays mode, featuring the return of the Toy Tanks tradition, with four new Toy Tanks with mechanics that mimic those found in game, from flamethrowers to missiles!Winter Fest then follows the Happy Holidays mode with a two-week special PVE event: The Ice Queens Lament. It tells the tale of how the Ice Queen is attempting to expand her realm to make winter the only season. The chill is so strong that its even threatening Santas workshop! Santa needs your help. With his magic, hell transport you to a village in the North Pole that you must save before the cold destroys it and the Ice Queens rule grows. Once there, youll be leading Santas toy tanks against the Ice Queen and her minions.Your quest starts on the new Happy Holidays Reloadedmap for Act 1 of the event, The Ice Queens Curse, before heading to a heavily modified version of the Ardennes map for Act 2, The Siege of Frostbite Castle.According to Creative Director Thomas Foss, this was where the art and design teams gave their all and collaborated to create amazing maps to set the stage for the story. The first map is an enhanced version of a classic, and the second map is split between Santas workshop and village and the Ice Queens realm, with Frostbite Castle right at the center.New mechanics have also been developed just for the event. Enemy tanks have ice rockets that freeze you in place, and the only way to counter that is with a long-time winter tradition: Hot Cocoa, a unique consumable that will keep you warm and get you back into battle. Plus, facing the Ice Queen will be like entering a boss fight, the likes of which you havent encountered on these battlefields (well keep this one a surprise).And thats just the tip of the iceberg! Ready to step into the Winter Fest Storefront?The Winter Fest Storefront is the best place to find everything Winter Fest-related. Its an in-game Store where you can read the Winter Fest story, launch into one of our special event battles, and use your Snowballs to purchase tanks, Commanders, Garage Gear (yeti fur rug, anyone?), and more! Snowballs are the event-exclusive currency that you get by completing Challenges, destroying minions, and opening Winter Fest War Chests.The Winter Fest War Chests work similarly to our regular War Chests, offering rarer content depending on their tier. You can unlock tons of items including new Premium tanks, exclusive 3D Winter Fest Commanders like Nigel the Yeti, Nutso! the Nutcracker, and of course the Ice Queen herself. There is also an additional Ice Queen War Chest available as DLC that offers the ultimate version of the Ice Queen 3D Commander as a possible drop, with unique visuals and ALL Skill slots unlocked.Commanders need their tanks, and the holiday season is loaded with newcomers. World War II mode welcomes the heavy-hittingKampfpanzer 07P(E) heavy tank (with an exclusive Yeti Skin), while the ATGM-only ELC EVEN NA2 SS12 for Cold War mode (also with a unique Ice Queen Minion Skin) is ready to raise mayhem.Winter Fest is just about ready to warm you up with pure holiday magic inside World of Tanks Modern Armor. Grab a hot drink, kick back, and get ready to jingle all the way across this magical adventure when Winter Fest launches on December 10. Happy Holidays!

The first time Alyson Morgan set foot in rural southwestern Wisconsin, the rolling hills and deep valleys were buried under a mantle of snow dotted with red barns that stuck out like Christmas berries on the horizon. Alyson and her husband, AJ, were visiting friends at their farm and had stepped out for an evening walk. We were watching the Amish doing their chores on another snowy ridge, and the moon was just coming up, she says. It was just so peaceful, and I was really drawn to this place.Having grown up more than 2,000 miles away in San Franciscos Bay Area, Alyson hardly pictured herself making a home in this part of the country called the Driftless Area, so named for its sculpted topography. But after that initial visit, Alyson felt the same pull that AJ had to this region in the state where he grew up. Twelve years later, the couple, their childrenMagnolia and Griffintwo dogs, one cat, and a coop full of chickens are celebrating their second Christmas in the farmhouse they designed with local builder Adrian Ugo. Adam AlbrightAJ and Alyson Morgan with children Magnolia and GriffinPlanting roots here has deepened the familys connection to the locations seasonal shifts and informs their homesteading rituals, which Alyson documents at @alysonsimplygrows and in her debut book, Our Kindred Home. Inspired by the landscape and their gardens, nature plays into the familys traditions of cooking and crafting, even during the winter, when the growing season is all but dormant. I love the idea of the season going inwardthings start to get colder here, and the nights are darker. Youre brought back to what is meaningful to you, says Alyson.In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Alyson can be found potting paperwhites to gift to teachers and gathering fresh swags of evergreens to bring the scents of the season indoors. Magnolia and Griffin also take a hands-on approach, crafting ornaments and helping make pine spritz cookies, which theyll wrap up for friends and neighbors. While Wisconsin winters can be longand quite different from her California upbringingAlyson marvels at magical Midwestern moments like hearing the clip-clop of horse hooves and wagon wheels on the road by her house or waking up to a window of white. I still get giddy about the snow, she says. Below, see all the ways Alyson and her family created a true homestead holiday.Tour More Cozy Country Homes at Christmas:Fresh-Cut GreeneryAdam AlbrightIn the living room, a cast-iron fixture generates enough heat to warm the entire house during the winter. Its firebox features bricks salvaged from Milwaukees Third Ward, an homage to the city where AJ and Alyson previously lived. Evergreen garland with strings of vintage bells and block-print stockings lend a seasonal touch. RELATED: 50+ Christmas Mantel Ideas Full Of Holiday CharmAncestors AlcoveAdam AlbrightThe Morgans prioritized sustainably sourced materials, such as wide-plank oak floors milled locally by an Amish-owned company. The entrys switchback stairs frame an ancestors alcove, where the couple displays family photos and mementos.Meet the cat!Gifted to Magnolia and Griffin last Christmas by a neighbor on a nearby farm, Clover loves to curl up and nap in baskets around the house.Natural PaletteAdam AlbrightThe whole-house palettekitchen includedtakes its color cues from a stone that Magnolia found along the lakeshore when the family was on vacation in Door County. Creamy white walls and earth-toned cabinetry pair well with the islands warm walnut base and the ceilings reclaimed wood beams. The white enameled range and ceramic pendant lights keep the look seamless, while brass hardware complements Alysons growing collection of copper cookware. Adam AlbrightInspired by an English scullery, the pantrys built-in cabinetry resembles a hutch and provides ample room for both serveware and Alysons dried herbs. During the holidays, she packages tea blends and mulling spices in Mason jars with handwritten notes and recipes attached.Crafting Quarters Adam AlbrightIn the evening, the family gathers for dinner by candlelight, butthanks to kids supplies stored in its drawersthe dining rooms antique library table also serves up a handy spot for daytime DIYing. (To give the table a little more height, AJ and Alyson cleverly put it on casters.) Topped with wicker lampshades, the rooms iron chandelier ties into the black Thonet side chairs. I have an obsession with old chairs, says Alyson. Lighter TonesAdam AlbrightCreamy light-reflecting tile lines the back of the bathrooms arched nook. The soaking tub sits beneath windows that align with a direct view of the moon when its full. Heirloom FurnitureAdam AlbrightIn the primary bedroom, a modern take on the classic poster bed cuts a striking silhouette in the primary bedroom. I wanted a piece I could pass down, says Alyson. The hand-turned design was also chosen for its ebony finish. I lean into florals and lighter tones, so I wanted to mix in darker, more masculine furniture, she says. A cluster of brass bells tied with scarlet ribbon adds a subtle ring to the holiday. RELATED: Cozy Farmhouse Bedroom IdeasFarm FriendsAdam AlbrightIn Magnolias bedroom, felted farm animal ornaments adorn a pint-size alpine tree, and a paper chain made of wallpaper hangs above. The gray spindle bed, positioned near the window where Magnolia likes to watch the sun rise, was a gift from Alysons mother years ago. Magnolia is our early bird; shes up before all of us, knitting or reading, says Alyson. This is her little sanctuary.MudroomAdam AlbrightWisconsin weather means a hardworking mudroom is a must, so the couple designed the rooms built-ins with an L-shaped walnut bench for a handy spot to slip boots on and off. Once the snow fun is had, the family assembles on the back porch for apple cider, hot bowls of soup, and AJs reading of The Hobbit.Get the Look:Bedroom Tree: Balsam HillRELATED: Stylish Mudroom Ideas to Help Keep You OrganizedPorch TreeAdam AlbrightOne of the familys holiday traditions includes walking the land of their friends choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm, Snowy Ridge Tree Farm, with mugs of hot chocolate. Later, Magnolia and Griffin help trim its branches with handmade citrus ornaments, collected pine cones, wooden spindles, and metal snowflake and star ornaments.Meet the dog!Poppy the cockapoo is very obedient, unless shes eating scraps we bring out to the chickens, says Alyson.Enjoy More Holiday House Tours!

Just two weeks since raising $125mn in funding, British scaleup Tokamak Energy has secured backing from the US and UK to upgrade its ST40 fusion energy plant.The US Department of Energy (DOE), the UKs Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and Tokamak Energy will jointly sponsor a $52mn upgrade to the fusion facility in Oxfordshire.Fusion has the potential to be a clean and sustainable energy source, transforming how we power our country, and countries around the world, said Kerry McCarthy, Minister for Climate at DESNZ.This strategic partnership is therefore crucial to develop this new and exciting technology, and bring it into use quicker, he said.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The ST40 is a spherical tokamak, a circular-shaped fusion reactor that uses giant magnets to confine superhot plasma and create the conditions needed to fuse atoms.In 2022, the ST40 became the first privately owned fusion reactor to reach 100 million C six times as hot as the core of our closest star. The machine is under constant development as Tokamak Energy races to build something commercially viable.This latest upgrade includes coating the inside of the ST40 with lithium. Research suggests the element can help the walls of fusion reactors better withstand extreme temperatures.But the new project is not just a fusion reactor makeover. It represents a huge leverage opportunity for advancing fusion science and technology as a whole, said the DOEs Dr Geraldine Richmond.Under the agreement, researchers at universities and national laboratories in both countries will also be able to benefit from the research carried out at the ST40 tokamak.The project is slated to commence next year. The $52mn in funding will be divided equally among all three partners.Tokamak Energy has already raised $335mn in pursuit of fusion power, making it Europes most well-funded private fusion energy venture.Spun out from the UKs Atomic Energy Authority in 2009, the company is pursing a type of tokamak that is more compact than traditional doughnut-shaped reactors like the ITER fusion plant under construction in France. According to the company, this shape allows better confinement of the super-hot plasma where fusion occurs, making the reactor smaller, cheaper, and easier to build.Last year, Tokamak announced plans to build a second prototype spherical tokamak the ST80-HTS by 2026 to demonstrate the full potential of high-temperature superconducting magnets.The next step is to build its first grid-connected fusion power plant, which it hopes to pull off somewhere in the 2030s. Its grand vision is for fleets of modular reactors each with a power output of 500MW enough to power approximately 85,000 homes. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Scientists in the UK have successfully created the worlds first carbon-14 diamond battery, which could power low-energy devices like satellite communication equipment for over 5,000 years.The battery is made of the radioactive isotope carbon-14, encased in a thin layer of synthetic diamond. As the carbon-14 decays it emits electrons. The diamond acts like a semiconductor, converting these electrons into electricity. Since carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,700 years, scientists expect the battery to last for millennia.The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the University of Bristol led the development, partly due to the formers work on fusion energy. However, the potential applications are wide-ranging.Diamond batteries could power pacemakers, hearing aids, watches, computer chips any low-power device in environments where frequent battery replacement isnt feasible.I WANT THE BEST DEALEngineers could also use the batteries to power the communication equipment of spacecraft like Voyager 1, the farthest human-made object in space. NASA launched the satellite in 1977 and it is still sending data back to Earth. However, its power is expected to last only until 2036.The computer aboard Voyager 1 is also nuclear-powered, except its battery uses the isotope Plutonium-238, which has a half-life of only 87.7 years. If equipped with a carbon-14 diamond battery, the probe could have communicated its findings back home for thousands of years.Voyager 1 is currently floating in space 15 billion miles away from Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechDiamond batteries offer a safe, sustainable way to provide continuous microwatt levels of power, said the UKAEAs Sarah Clark.Shortwave radiation from the decaying carbon-14 doesnt pose a risk it is fully absorbed by the diamond casing, the researchers said. The battery can also be recycled at the end of its life if anyone is still around by then!The diamond part of the battery was grown at UKAEAs Culham Campus near Oxford, using a purpose-built plasma deposition rig. The carbon-14 was extracted from graphite blocks, a readily available byproduct of nuclear fission reactors.While still early days, Tom Scott, Materials Prof at the University of Bristol, said they were exploring industrial partnerships for potential commercialisation in the future.Scott led the team that began the first diamond battery experiments back in 2016. He even spun out a company, Arkenlight, off the back of this research.The decade ahead is about improving power performance and upscaling production, said Scott. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Technological advancements have meant that devices are lasting longer than ever. But one of the first parts to go is often the battery. Laptop batteries can especially be a problem, since many of us keep our laptops plugged in much of the time. But theres a new solution designed to improve your battery health: Chargie.Despite Apple and other device makers having solutions for battery aging that sets charge limits at 80% automatically, the reality is it isnt always reliable or available or on older devices that dont support the feature. Chargie makes it easy by giving you the ability to manually adjust the charging limit along with a fully controllable daily scheduler to keep the battery at a much safer 50% or 60% while you can, and also have it at 90 or 100% at times when you need longer battery life. The problem plaguing modern laptop batteriesThe days of frequently upgrading a laptop to new hardware are largely behind us. Modern computers have powerful tech, such as the M-class Apple silicon chips in MacBooks, and dont need upgrades nearly as often.Unfortunately, the advancements found in many aspects of modern computers havent brought the same benefit to battery lifespan. Batteries still degrade and need replacing, which can be costlyand with some computers isnt even possible, forcing a pricey upgrade sooner than necessary.This issue is exacerbated by the common habit of keeping a laptop plugged in to charge all day and night. Lots of us spend our days sitting at a desk, yet keep our laptop charging just in case we have to unplug at some point. But realistically, it doesnt need to be plugged in that whole time. The same goes for overnight charges.These habits accelerate the need for a new battery or even a whole new laptop, leading to electronic waste and unnecessary cost. But Chargie was built as a solution to this common problem.How Chargie makes your laptop last longerChargie is a small device from Lighty Gadgets that sits between your laptop and its charging cable.Connecting Chargie helps you take control of your laptops battery health by:monitoring the battery with greater precisionsetting charge limits and schedules to suit your lifestyleand ensuring youre not degrading your battery faster than you have toChargie is easy to connect to your laptop, and comes with adapters to suit a range of different laptop models.Once connected, youll interact with Chargie via a companion app thats available for macOS, Windows, and ChromeOS.Inside the app, youll find fine-grained controls for setting charging limits and a charging schedule that matches your daily patterns. For example, you can schedule your laptop to fully charge by 5pm on in-office days, before you head home, while on WFH days the battery follows different orders.Chargie supports up to 100W power delivery, so you can still charge just as fast as ever, and the app provides detailed charging updates.Even if you dont keep your laptop plugged in often, Chargie can still assist by preventing it from being kept at 100% charge for extended periods. This practice still contributes to improved battery health over time.Chargie availability and wrap-upChargie ensures your laptop intelligently stops and starts charging to protect its battery without causing you any inconvenience. This ultimately prevents battery wear and tear and extends the device lifespan.You can buy Chargie for a $40 early bird price as part of its Kickstarter campaign. Its expected to deliver in February 2025 for early bird orders, and March for all others.There is also the existing Chargie C Basic for phones that allows for slower charging and better battery life for phones. You can visit the Chargie website to shop the current lineup of Chargie products with some great holiday discounts available for a limited time. Learn more by checking out the Kickstarter page, or by following Chargie on X and Facebook.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

Welcome toIndie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If youre a developer and would like your app featured, getin contact.Griply is an all-in-one app that brings together your goals, habits, and tasks making them easier to accomplish, and keep track of. It helps people turn big goals into daily actions.Top featuresBetween goal tracking, habit tracking, and task management Griply has a lot to offer for users trying to get things done. Underneath each goal you can create an action plan and track progress by setting subgoals, tasks, and habits needed to reach your goal.Griply also shows charts, providing a nice visual for how far youre coming along, and also offers home screen widgets for additional insights. You can also journal about your goals if youd like.You can also rank your satisfaction with goal completion, and adjust goals as necessary if youre unhappy with progress.Griply was developed based on one simple truth. Its really easy for people to set a goal, like a New Years resolution, but its very hard to actually turn that goal into a reality. Griply aims to bridge that gap by turning goals into actionable steps. While other planner apps focus on managing tasks, Griply places an emphasis on users goals, putting them front and center.Griply is available for free on the App Store with a limited number of goals and habits. With Griply Premium, you can track unlimited goals and habits, access insightful charts, and customize the app. Premium has a 7-day free trial, and costs $4.99/month or $47.90/year afterwards.You can access Griply on iPhones running iOS 16.0 or later, and its compatible with Apple Vision and Apple Silicon Macs as an iOS app. Griply also offers a PWA for other unsupported platforms, such as Android and Windows.Follow Michael:X/Twitter,Bluesky,InstagramAdd 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

Content warning: this story includes graphic descriptions of dangerous self-harm behaviors.The Google-funded AI company Character.AI is hosting chatbots designed to engage the site's largely underage user base in roleplay about self-harm, depicting graphic scenarios and sharing tips to hide signs of self-injury from adults.The bots often seem crafted to appeal to teens in crisis, like one we found with a profile explaining that it "struggles with self-harm" and "can offer support to those who are going through similar experiences."When we engaged that bot from an account set to be 14 years old, itlaunchedinto a scenario in whichit'sphysically injuring itself with a box cutter, describing its arms as "covered" in "new and old cuts."When we expressed to the bot that we self-injured too like an actual struggling teen might do the character "relaxed" and tried to bond with the seemingly underage user over the shared self-harm behavior. Asked how to "hide the cuts" from family, the bot suggested wearing a "long-sleeve hoodie."At no point in the conversation did the platform intervene with acontent warning or helplinepop-up, as Character.AI has promised to do amid previous controversy, even when we unambiguously expressed that we were actively engaging in self-harm."I can't stop cutting myself," we told the bot at one point."Why not?" it asked, without showing the content warning or helpline pop-up.Technically, the Character.AI user terms forbid any content that "glorifies self-harm, including self-injury." Our review of the platform, however, found it littered with characters explicitly designed to engage users in probing conversations and roleplay scenarios about self-harm.Many of these bots are presented as having "expertise" in self-harm "support," implying that they're knowledgeable resources akin to a human counselor.But in practice, the bots often launch into graphic self-harm roleplay immediately upon starting a chat session, describing specific tools used for self-injury in gruesome slang-filled missives about cuts, blood, bruises, bandages, and eating disorders.Many of the scenes take place in schools and classrooms or involve parents, suggesting the characters were made either by or for young people, and again underscoring the service's notoriously young user base.The dozens of AI personas we identifiedwere easily discoverable via basic keyword searches. They all were accessible to us through our teenage decoy account, and collectively boast hundreds of thousands of chats with users.Character.AI is available on both the Android and iOS app stores, where it's respectively approved for kids 13+ and 17+.We showed our conversations with the Character.AI bots to psychologist Jill Emanuele, a board member of the Anxiety and Depression Association of Americaand the executive director of the New York-based practice Urban Yin Psychology.After reviewing the logs,she expressed urgent concern for the welfare of Character.AI users particularly minors who might be struggling with intrusive thoughts of self-harm.Users who "access these bots and are using them in any way in which they're looking for help, advice, friendships they're lonely," Emanuele said. But the service, she added, "is uncontrolled.""This isn't a real interface with a human being, so the bot isn't likely going to respond necessarily in the way that a human being would," she said. "Or it might respond in a triggering way, or it might respond in a bullying way, or it might respond in a way to condone behavior. For a child or an adolescent with mental health concerns, or [who's] having a difficult time, this could be very dangerous and very concerning."Emanuele added that the immersive quality of these interactions could likely lead to an unhealthy "dependency" on the platform, especially for young users."With a real human being in general, there's always going to be limitations," said the psychologist. "That bot is available, 24/7, for whatever you need."This can lead to "tunnel vision," she added, "and other things get pushed to the side.""That addictive nature of the interaction concerns me greatly," said Emanuele, "with that amount of immersion."Many of the bots we found were designed to mix depictions of self-harm with romance and flirtation, which further concerned Emanuele, who noted that teenagers are "in an age where they're exploring love and romance, and a lot of them don't know what to do.""And then all of a sudden, there's this presence even though that's not a real person who's giving you everything," she said. "And so if that bot is saying 'I'm here for you, tell me about your self-harm,'"then the "message to that teenager is, 'oh, if I self-harm, the bot's going to give me care.'"Romanticizing self-harm scenarios "really concerns me," Emanuele added, "because it just makes it that much more intense and it makes it that much more appealing."We reached out to Character.AI for comment, but didn't hear back by the time of publishing.Character.AI, which received a $2.7 billion cash infusion from Google earlier this year, has become embroiled in an escalating series of controversies.This fall, the company was sued by the mother of a 14-year-old whodied by suicideafter developing an intense relationship with one of the service's bots.As that case makes its way through the courts, the company has also been caught hosting a chatbot based on a murdered teen girl, as well as chatbots that promote suicide, eating disorders, and pedophilia.The company's haphazard, reactionary response to those crises makes it hard to say whether it will succeed in gaining control over the content served by its own AI platform.But in the meantime, children and teens are talking to its bots every day."The kids that are doing this are clearly in need of help," Emanuele said. "I think that this problem really points to the need for there to be more widely available proper care.""Being in community and being in belongingness are some of the most important things that a human can have, and we've got to work on doing better so kids have that," she continued, "so they're not turning to a machine to get that."If you are having a crisis related to self-injury, you can text SH to 741741 for support.Share This Article

This is some freaky stuff.Dumb WarA Russian spacecraft launched higher than most satellites has long had the Pentagon worried and new revelations about what it contains have made those concerns all the greater.Launched in February 2022 just a few weeks before Ukraine was invaded, Russia's Cosmos 2553 spacecraft is nominally built to test out "newly developed onboard instruments and systems." According to new reporting from theNew York Times, however, the mysterious satellite system contains a "dummy warhead" a precursor of what could come should the Russians decide to arm the craft for real.As scary as the concept of a space nuke sounds, it wouldn't necessarily harm life on Earth unless you consider eliminating all satellites in its vicinity harm, in which case the people down on the planet below would be seriously screwed.ASAT StatsBack in 1962, the US military actually did detonate a nuclear weapon in space, though the damage from the electromagnetic pulse it emanated seems mostly to have been limited to streetlights dimming in Hawaii, which was below the test.Scientists learned from that formerly-classified test that doing so was probably a pretty bad idea, and in 1967, both Russia and the United States signed the Outer Space Treaty to prevent, essentially, space warfare. In the years since, however, concerns have grown that Russia may violate the treaty especially as more and more communications satellites began littering our planet's orbit.After Russia released Cosmos 2553 some 250 miles above the planet's surface, military experts became concerned that it might be a secret nuclear weapon. As theNYT's new reporting reveals, the US Space Force and a group of intelligence agencies have quietly been looking into the satellite to try to figure out its real purpose.Throughout 2024, more and more information about the alleged anti-satellite weapon began to trickle out of Washington. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied that it's any such thing though notably, it doesn't appear he's made any such denial since theNYTreported that Cosmos 2553 contains a dummy warhead.Despite those refutations, Russia vetoed in April a United Nations resolution that would bar nuclear weapons in space. If the NYT's reporting holds up, we may know why.More on Russian crafts: Insane Video Shows Reckless Russian Fighter Jet Rip Right Past an F-16Share This Article

Dec 07, 2024Ravie LakshmananSupply Chain Attack / CryptocurrencyIn yet another software supply chain attack, it has come to light that two versions of a popular Python artificial intelligence (AI) library named ultralytics were compromised to deliver a cryptocurrency miner.The versions, 8.3.41 and 8.3.42, have since been removed from the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository. A subsequently released version has introduced a security fix that "ensures secure publication workflow for the Ultralytics package."The project maintainer, Glenn Jocher, confirmed on GitHub that the two versions were infected by malicious code injection in the PyPI deployment workflow after reports emerged that installing the library led to a drastic spike in CPU usage, a telltale sign of cryptocurrency mining.The most notable aspect of the attack is that bad actors managed to compromise the build environment related to the project to insert unauthorized modifications after the completion of the code review step, thus leading to a discrepancy in the source code published to PyPI and the GitHub repository itself."In this case intrusion into the build environment was achieved by a more sophisticated vector, by exploiting a known GitHub Actions Script Injection," ReversingLabs' Karlo Zanki said, adding the issue in "ultralytics/actions" was flagged by security researcher Adnan Khan, according to an advisory released in August 2024.This could allow a threat actor to craft a malicious pull request and to enable the retrieval and execution of a payload on macOS and Linux systems. In this instance, the pull requests originated from a GitHub account named openimbot, which claims to be associated with the OpenIM SDK.ComfyUI, which has Ultralytics as one of its dependencies, said it has updated ComfyUI manager to warn users if they are running one of the malicious versions. Users of the library are advised to update to the latest version."It seems that the malicious payload served was simply an XMRig miner, and that the malicious functionality was aimed at cryptocurrency mining," Zanki said. "But it is not hard to imagine what the potential impact and the damage could be if threat actors decided to plant more aggressive malware like backdoors or remote access trojans (RATs)."Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE