Pakistan has blamed Britain for "grooming" and "spoiling" the ringleader of the Rochdale rape gang and turning him to crime, claiming he has "no connection to Pakistan whatsoever".
The post Pakistan Blames Britain for “Grooming” and “Spoiling” Rochdale Rapist and Turning Him to Crime appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
UK regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into TikTok to assess whether the platform is meeting its obligations under the country’s Online Safety Act to protect children from harmful digital content.
The probe will assess whether the ByteDance-owned platform has implemented effective age assurance systems to determine if a user is underage and prevent children from encountering harmful material online.
Ofcom’s Age Assurance report, published today, suggested that some age inference models including those used by TikTok “may have failed to correctly identify a significant proportion of children”, potentially exposing them to harmful content.
If compliance failures are identified, the watchdog could impose fines of up to £18 million or 10% of the company’s global revenue, whichever is greater. In serious cases, it can also order third parties, including payment providers, advertising services or internet service providers, to withdraw services or block access to the platform in the UK.
A TikTok spokesperson told Reuters the platform “strictly enforces age-appropriate experiences through expert-informed platform rules and advanced age inference technologies, in line with major industry peers”, adding, “we are confident that we meet our Online Safety Act obligations and will work with Ofcom to demonstrate this”.
The probe follows initial findings published by Ofcom in May, which revealed TikTok was the service most frequently cited by children as a source of harmful content. More than half of underage users who recalled seeing harmful content identified TikTok as the source, ahead of YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
At the time, the regulator found personalised, algorithm-driven content feeds were a key route through which children encountered harmful material online. It added TikTok was “particularly concerning” as it was one of the platforms that had “not committed to any significant changes in response to our specific demands”.
Last month, the UK government laid out plans to impose a sweeping ban on social media access for under-16 users, alongside restrictions on gaming and live-streaming platforms.
The post TikTok in Ofcom crosshairs over child safety appeared first on Mobile World Live.
France’s competition authority assumed control of investigating a proposed purchase and subsequent carve-up of SFR by Iliad Group, Bouygues Telecom and Orange, after the European Commission (EC) referred the element falling under its remit.
In a statement, Autorite de la Concurrence estimated its probe into the three related transactions would take at least 18-months due to the complexity of the cases and markets involved.
When the parties announced the agreement in June, they estimated completion in H2 2027.
Because Orange and Bouygues Telecom generate more than two-thirds of their European Union-wide turnover in France, their agreements automatically fell under the remit of the national authority, but the EC could have looked directly into Iliad’s involvement because it did not meet the same criteria.
However, following an application from the company, the European regulator referred that part to France as well.
Autorite de la Concurrence noted the EC had considered it is “best placed to examine the transaction, in particular in view of its impact on the French market, the experience of the Autorite in the sector concerned and the fact the transaction is linked to two transactions with a national dimension”.
It plans to co-operate with the EC during the review.
The French regulator is already in discussions with Orange and Bouygues Telecom ahead of the pair making formal submissions and is now set to undertake a process with Iliad.
Its probe is set to include stakeholder consultation including consumer protection organisations and other regulators.
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Swissto12 said it has raised $70 million in fresh funding to keep up with growing demand for its small geostationary satellite manufacturing business.
The post Swissto12 raises $70 million to accelerate small GEO satellite production appeared first on SpaceNews.
Uncrewed systems are the future for armed forces and the Netherlands is leading the way ‘to keep people out of danger zones’
On each side of the target ship, a black vessel keeps a watchful distance. Defender 1 and Defender 2 are the eyes and ears of the navy – but they have nobody onboard, and their paths are controlled by a computer system.
This is the future of the Royal Netherlands Navy, according to Capt Sjoerd Feenstra, head of the expertise centre for unmanned systems. He is leading a five-week mission, off the coast of Den Helder in the north of the country, to test the limits of systems that operate without the human touch.
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© Photograph: John van Helvert/Media Centrum Defensie
© Photograph: John van Helvert/Media Centrum Defensie
© Photograph: John van Helvert/Media Centrum Defensie
Three small-boat migrants who gang-raped an unconscious woman on Brighton beach in an "entirely predatory and callous attack" face deportation after being handed lengthy jail sentences today.
The post Small-Boat Migrants Who Gang-Raped Unconscious Woman on Beach Jailed for 60 Years appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations have astronomers on the brink of solving another long-standing astronomical mystery: how do supermassive black holes feed?
Astronomers from the Université de Montréal led an international team in the new research, reported in a recent paper in The Astrophysical Journal, which presents the clearest images ever recorded of gaseous filaments connecting a galaxy’s atmosphere to the rotating disk that the supermassive black hole feeds on.
The team’s analysis of the data paves the way toward understanding how black holes consume matter, a mystery that has stumped astronomers for decades.
“JWST observations are offering us thousands of new facts and measurements, and I can report it’s a lot to absorb,” said co-author Megan Donahue, MSU University Distinguished Professor of physics and astronomy. “We are all working together to solve the astrophysics questions about how these black holes get their fuel and how they interact with their host galaxy.”
Supermassive black holes anchor most galaxies in the universe, with masses ranging from millions to billions of times that of the Sun. In active galactic nuclei (AGN), these central black holes both consume enormous amounts of surrounding material and unleash powerful jets that shape the galaxies around them.
This activity presents a longstanding puzzle. Because an AGN’s jets heat the surrounding gas, they should effectively cut off the black hole’s fuel supply, leaving astronomers to wonder how it continues to accrete matter.
To investigate, the researchers tested the leading explanation: that heated gas eventually cools, condenses into long filaments, and falls back toward the galactic center, replenishing the black hole’s supply of material.
They turned JWST toward one of the best natural laboratories for studying AGN: the galaxy NGC 4696, located at the heart of the Centaurus Cluster, roughly 145 million light-years from Earth.
Using JWST’s NIRSpec instrument, the team collected eight hours of observations, mapping the motion of gas deep within the galaxy—where the black hole’s gravitational influence dominates—at a resolution of about 30 light-years.
Their observations revealed an 800-light-year-wide disk of gas orbiting the supermassive black hole at roughly 600 kilometers per second. Connected to this rapidly rotating disk was a large infalling filament, funneling gas inward to feed the AGN.
The discovery fills in a crucial missing piece of the puzzle surrounding how supermassive black holes sustain themselves. The researchers propose that after the black hole injects energy into the surrounding gas, heating it, that material eventually cools and collapses into thin filaments stretching hundreds of thousands of light-years. Guided by magnetic fields, these filaments then fall toward the galaxy’s center, where they accumulate in the rotating accretion disk.
The team also ran a series of computer simulations based on this model and found that the predicted behavior closely matched what JWST observed. While additional observations will be needed to confirm the results, the findings provide strong support for the filament-feeding hypothesis.
“It’s been really exciting to participate in this project,” co-author Mark Voit, an MSU Physics and Astronomy Professor, said in a statement.
“Calculations done by our Michigan State group predict that magnetic fields should help feed the universe’s biggest black holes by channeling cool gas toward them, and it’s amazing to see that happening in these JWST images,” he added.
The paper, “JWST Reveals How Lack Holes Are Fed: Kiloparsec-Scale Multiphase Filaments Feed Sub-Kiloparsec Circumnuclear Disks,” appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on July 14, 2026.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
The European Commission (EC) approved €659 million in German state aid to finance four new semiconductor facilities, in line with the bloc’s Chips 2.0 Act.
Europe’s executive arm stated the measures would contribute to strengthening the European Union’s (EU) position and autonomy in the semiconductor value chain by supporting “the construction of first-of-a-kind facilities”.
Germany will provide direct grants of €353 million, €214 million, €74.4 million and €17.9 million, respectively, to build the four semiconductor facilities.
The biggest sum will be invested in Baesweiler in North Rhine-Westphalia, on a site to manufacture silicon carbide epi-wafers. The EC explained this new type of semiconductor is expected to be used in various sectors including automotive, industrial, telecoms and energy, enabling improvements in the manufacturing process.
Positive effect
All beneficiaries of the investments have agreed to ensure the broader impact of the projects have positive effects on the EU semiconductor value chain, and strengthens collaboration with universities and research institutions. They also pledged to fulfil orders on a priority basis, develop specialised training programmes and share project-related profits with Germany.
The EC explained an assessment of the plan indicated the measures would promote development of economic activities by creating capacity in Europe, had limited impact on competition and trade in the EU, and had a positive effect on the region’s semiconductor sector.
It stated the awards are the 15th to 18th under its Chips Act 2.0 adopted last month and the original Chips Act.
Under the initiatives, it has provided cumulative aid of around €14.2 billion.
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Research commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) found UK teenagers participating in a social media restriction trial reported improvements in sleep, concentration and family life.
The study conducted by market research consultancy Savanta tracked 309 households through a one month pilot testing three approaches to social media restrictions on those aged 13- to 17-years old: a 15-minute daily limit per app, a 9pm to 7am overnight curfew and complete removal of selected social media apps.
Participants across all three groups reported better sleep, improved concentration, more time for studying and increased interaction with family members. However, the impact varied depending on the level of restriction.
The overnight curfew delivered the most consistent sleep benefits and was the easiest restriction for families to maintain, with many continuing it after the trial ended.
A complete ban on social media apps produced the strongest reported gains in focus and reduced distraction, but also caused the greatest disruption to teenagers’ social lives. Many participants argued platforms including Snapchat were central to maintaining friendships, organising plans and staying connected with peers.
Meanwhile, the 15-minute daily limit encouraged more deliberate use but remained the least popular approach, with many finding the limit too short to maintain meaningful online interactions.
However, the study found teenagers often dodged restrictions by accessing social media platforms through other devices, downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) and making false age declarations. “There’s no point in banning it because we’re going to find a way to bypass it anyway,” said one 14-year-old on the overnight curfew.
Social norm
The trial was commissioned before outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to ban social media platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and X, for under-16s across the country. Starmer said the move would “give kids their childhood back”, joining a wave of governments across the world imposing social media restrictions for underage users.
Participants broadly backed some form of restriction but preferred rules to scale with age, paired with parental guidance, involvement from young people in designing policies and investment in education, practical support and offline alternatives. The report warned that without substitutes, digital curbs risk pushing teens to other screens, including streaming, television and gaming. “You can’t take something away and not have something to replace it,” one parent said.
The post UK teens report wellbeing gains from social media curbs appeared first on Mobile World Live.
Intel outlined a €5 billion capital investment in its Republic of Ireland campus to expand European output to meet the increased demand for AI and high-performance computing.
The chipmaker stated the expansion at its facility in Leixlip, County Kildare, began earlier in the year and involves upgrading fabrication facilities and installing leading-edge manufacturing equipment to boost production of its Intel Xeon 6 and next-generation Xeon processors built on the advanced Intel 3 process node.
Intel stated the chips are increasingly critical to power AI factories.
As part of the infrastructure overhaul, Intel is expanding its “automated track system to integrate disparate campus modules” into a single, “high-velocity production environment”.
Intel explained the investment programme would create permanent high-tech jobs alongside engaging specialised building and equipment installation tradespeople.
Naga Chandrasekaran, EVP and GM of Intel Foundry, said the investment is a “definitive commitment to maximising capacity” for foundry customers.
Upgrading the site “with state-of-the-art technology and installing cutting-edge tools” would help keep the Republic of Ireland “at the forefront of the world’s most advance manufacturing ecosystems while strengthening” Europe’s position in “the global technology landscape”, he said.
The move aligns with broader European Union tech-sovereignty goals to establish a resilient, domestic supply chain for leading-edge processors.
Intel invested more than €30 billion in the Republic of Ireland since establishing operations in 1989. The Leixlip site currently employs 4,900 people.
The company is trying to revitalise its chip manufacturing business and become a serious player in the booming foundry industry.
In April, it signed up to Elon Musk’s Terafab AI chip project to create processors for orbital data centres and robots.
The post Intel pumps €5B into EU AI fab capacity appeared first on Mobile World Live.
European government space spending jumped 12% to about $15.4 billion in 2025, according to a July 13 European Space Agency report, bucking a 3% global decline on the back of rising national defense budgets.
The post Defense spending lifts Europe’s space economy appeared first on SpaceNews.
WARSAW, Poland — Poland will host the first European Space Agency (ESA) center located in an eastern flank member state, one that will be focused on civil security and resilience. […]
The post Poland to host new ESA center as government boosts investments in space appeared first on SpaceNews.
For as long as readers have pored over Homer’s Odyssey they have pictured Ithaca, the homeland Odysseus fights for ten years to reach, as an island unto itself.
The post Was Odysseus’ Ithaca Never an Island? Scholars Challenge Centuries-Old Assumption appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
An unusual find has been unearthed by archaeologists excavating a prehistoric settlement in Azerbaijan, who recently discovered a stone sphere they say is unlike any previously documented in the South Caucasus.
The mysterious spherical artifact, crafted from polished stone, was uncovered during excavations at Pasha Tepe in Azerbaijan’s Jalilabad district, and raises new questions about Neolithic technology, trade, and ritual practices.
Excavations at the site are currently being undertaken by a team led by Vafa Mahmudova of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.
The unusual find, which measures approximately 4 inches in diameter and weighs a little more than four pounds, immediately stood out among the items the team had uncovered during excavations. They describe the object as potentially being among the most significant polished stone artifacts associated with the region’s Neolithic period that archaeologists have recovered to date.
“The stone sphere is of particular scientific importance because of both its manufacturing technology and its possible function,” Mahmudova recently told the Azerbaijani news site Report.
“It offers a new source of information for understanding connections between the Levant, Anatolia, and the South Caucasus during the Neolithic period,” he added.
The carefully crafted sphere stands out for its remarkably smooth surface and nearly perfect shape. Unlike many prehistoric stone objects, however, it bears no perforations, impact marks, or other modifications that might reveal how it was used.
Mahmudova says that presently there is no similar object that has yet been identified in archaeological records from the South Caucasus, making the discovery potentially unique.
Presently, the techniques employed in crafting the object remain unclear, as well as what its function might have been. Mahmudova and his colleagues believe that understanding the reasons for its creation could potentially offer valuable new insights into cultural connections linking the South Caucasus with Anatolia and the Levant during the Neolithic period.
A range of theories about the object’s purpose have been put forward, which include that it may have been a ceremonial object used for ritual purposes. More utilitarian possibilities include that it may have been a sort of standardized weight, although neither theory can presently be confirmed based on available data.
Presently, Mahmudova and his colleagues hope to compare the artifact to other similar discoveries, and by drawing from specialists and additional scientific analyses, obtain a better idea of the manufacturing processes behind its creation, and what purpose it might have served.
As excavations at Pasha Tepe remain underway, Mahmudova and his colleagues also say they have recently uncovered sections of a medieval ceramic pipeline, which they say may have served as a component of an ancient water management or drainage system.
Additional surveys at nearby archaeological sites, including the Chalcolithic site Alikomektepe, have offered additional clues that are helping archaeologists reveal clues about the ancient ways of life in the region, according to Heritage Daily.
Future studies involving the curious stone sphere Mahmudova and his colleagues unearthed at Pasha Tepe will hopefully shed additional light on the technological capabilities and cultural traditions of some of the earliest farming communities in the South Caucasus. With any luck, they may also find additional clues to the purpose of an artifact that, for the time being, remains unlike any previously discovered in the region.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
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