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The Innovation Platform’s Maddie Hall spoke with Paolo Picca, Innovation Lead at the Office for Nuclear Regulation, about a new regulatory sandbox aimed at exploring the use of artificial intelligence to enhance safety and efficiency in the UK’s nuclear industry. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety and security of the UK’s nuclear industry. As an independent regulator, the ONR is responsible for overseeing nuclear safety and safeguarding practices, continuously seeking innovative methods to improve regulatory efficiency. Recently, ONR received funding from the government’s Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) to implement a regulatory sandbox,…
In addition to smoke and flames, firefighters also face invisible chemicals such as PFAS. Cambiotics is developing microbiome-based solutions to reduce this chemical burden. When a firefighter steps into a burning building, all his senses are heightened by the danger. The heat, the sound of buildings collapsing, the smell of smoke. These are dangers that training prepares you for. But a different kind of threat is woven into their very equipment. It’s a silent, invisible enemy that hangs on long after the fire goes out. PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are chemicals valued for their resistance to…
December 8, 2025Ravi LakshmananNetwork security/vulnerabilities An Iranian hacker group known as MuddyWater was observed leveraging a new backdoor called UDPGangster that uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) for command and control (C2) purposes. According to a Fortinet FortiGuard Labs report, the cyber espionage campaign targeted users in Türkiye, Israel, and Azerbaijan. “This malware allows remote control of compromised systems by allowing attackers to execute commands, extract files, and deploy additional payloads. All of these communications occur over UDP channels designed to evade traditional network defenses,” said security researcher Cara Lin. This attack chain involves a spear-phishing tactic that distributes a booby-trapped…
Will Netflix’s $82.7 billion deal to buy Warner Bros. get approval from federal regulators? Paramount was thought to be the frontrunner to buy the storied movie studio because of CEO David Ellison’s ties to the Trump administration, but new reports from Bloomberg and The Hollywood Reporter indicate that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos met with President Donald Trump in November to discuss a potential deal. President Trump reportedly told Sarandos that Warner Bros. should be sold to the highest bidder, but Netflix executives appeared to leave the meeting confident that the president would not immediately object to the deal. Bloomberg also…
Nikita Bia, head of product at X, hit back at the European Commission this weekend after it fined the social media company 120 million euros (about $140 million). In the first fine under the European Union’s Digital Services Act, the commission called X’s blue checkmark system “deceptive” and said the paid verification system left users vulnerable to identity theft and fraud. The commission also said that X’s ad repository does not meet the DSA’s requirements for transparency and accessibility. The commission said X must respond to blue checkmark concerns within 60 days and advertising transparency violations within 90 days or…
Welcome to TechCrunch Mobility. A central hub for news and insight on the future of transportation. To receive this in your inbox, sign up for free here. Just click on TechCrunch Mobility. The next week will see another announcement regarding the launch or plans for robotaxi in cities. Let’s think about it. Waymo will begin testing self-driving cars (with safety monitors) in Philadelphia, and manually drive them to collect data in Baltimore, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh. Uber and Avride have launched robotaxi services in Dallas. Initially, a human safety operator will be at the wheel. The California Department of Transportation…
After more than two years of hiatus, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched its app for registration in India. For now, users can trade between cryptocurrencies, but speaking at India Blockchain Week (IBW), Coinbase APAC Director John O’Loren said the company will open a fiat onramp in 2026, allowing users in India to top up with money and buy cryptocurrencies. Coinbase launched in India in 2022, but had to stop supporting the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment network within days. The move comes after UPI operator National Payments Corporation (NPCI) refused to acknowledge Coinbase’s presence in the country. In late 2023,…
Although OpenAI continues to maintain that there are currently no ads or ad tests on ChatGPT, Mark Chen, the company’s chief research officer, acknowledged that the company has “fallen short” in recent promotional messages and is working on improving the experience. Chen and other OpenAI executives were responding to posts from paid ChatGPT subscribers who complained about seeing promotional messages from companies like Peloton and Target. In response, the company said it was simply testing ways to display apps built on the ChatGPT app platform it announced in October, and that there was “no financial component” to these proposals. (One…
More than 400 years ago, British settler and explorer John Smith wrote in his diary that there was a Native American village along a large river in what is now Virginia. However, the location of the reported village was later forgotten and its existence was debated.Archaeologists currently excavating along the Rappahannock River have uncovered thousands of artifacts, including beads, pottery shards, stone tools, and tobacco pipes, that are believed to have come from the village Smith described centuries ago.”The presence of these artifacts supports both oral history and documents that suggest a settlement was located here in 1608, when Captain…
A new study of unusually bleached rocks suggests Mars once had humid regions with heavy rainfall, similar to Earth’s tropical regions.Researchers were intrigued by a unique, brightly colored rock that NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered on the surface of Mars. Upon closer examination, the rock was found to be kaolinite, a type of clay rich in aluminum, the scientists reported in the study, published Dec. 1 in the journal Communication Earth & Environment.On Earth, kaolinite is most often formed under very warm, steamy conditions, such as those found in tropical rainforests. They usually form in rocks that have been stripped of…