America's great journey in space is about to face its most consequential moment in half a century. Everyone agrees: It's a complete disaster. I. Artemis, We Have a Problem As you may have heard, NASA plans to send a crew of astronauts around the moon in early 2026, followed by a lunar landing in 2027. Or maybe you haven't heard. When I told one of my daughters about this plan to send people to the moon, she said, after a long silence: "But I thought we already sent a bunch of people there a long time ago." This is a standard response when I quiz people about Artemis, NASA's program to return to the moon, and this time to stay . It's named for Apollo's twin sister and the goddess of the moon and the hunt. The other day, I was in a gaggle with six neighbors, all highly informed professional people--two of them with long careers at the National Science Foundation--and none knew anything about Artemis except one thing: It's a plan to send people to Mars. Artemis is a moon mission. There is no Mars mission NASA has no Mars rocket, no Mars capsule, no Mars mission crew. What it does have is a very troubled moon program. Artemis faces fundamental engineering challenges that have called into question the program's basic architecture. Reconfiguring a mission this important is hard in the best of times, but the agency is being forced to do it during a year of unprecedented internal turmoil. A new administration always means turnover, but NASA has been in an uncontrolled spin every bit as alarming as the one Neil Armstrong famously pulled out of during in 1966. More than a year ago, President-elect Donald Trump nominated a billionaire entrepreneur and Elon Musk ally, Jared Isaacman, to become NASA administrator. It was an unconventional choice, but Isaacman drew support from many quarters in the space community. Then, right before Isaacman was poised for confirmation by the Senate, Trump and Musk had a nasty falling-out, and Trump yanked Isaacman's nomination. Since Inauguration Day, NASA had been run by acting administrator Janet Petro, a veteran agency official, and with Isaacman out, she remained in charge until one day in July when Trump suddenly named Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy as interim administrator.

America's Biggest Bitcoin Miners Are Pivoting to AI In the face of a profitability crisis, industrial-scale bitcoin miners are transforming their data centers into AI factories. One afternoon in June 2024, I stood up against the fence of a sprawling industrial facility a few miles outside of Corsicana, Texas. Over a metal gate, I watched a bright yellow excavator claw at the dirt and flatbed trucks shuttle to and fro. A hangar-like structure with a gleaming white roof stretched hundreds of meters along the opposite perimeter. The company that owned the plot, Riot Platforms, was busily constructing the world's largest bitcoin mine. A year and a half later, a projected two-thirds of the facility is being repurposed to accommodate AI and high-performance computing (HPC) tasks.

Google runs the Gemini AI model and is owned by Alphabet. Google runs the Gemini AI model and is owned by Alphabet. EU opens investigation into Google's use of online content for AI models Tue 9 Dec 2025 05.06 ESTFirst published on Tue 9 Dec 2025 03.48 EST The EU has opened an investigation to assess whether Google is breaching European competition rules in its use of online content from publishers and YouTube creators for artificial intelligence. The European Commission said on Tuesday it will examine whether the US tech company, which runs the Gemini AI model and is owned by Alphabet, is putting rival AI owners at a "disadvantage". "The investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage," the commission said.

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Ben & Jerry's brand could be destroyed, says co-founder Ben & Jerry's will be destroyed as a brand if it remains with parent company Magnum, the company's co-founder Ben Cohen has told the BBC. His remarks are the latest in a long-running spat between the ice cream brand and its parent company over its ability to express its social activism and the continued independence of its board. The comments came on the day that the Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC) started trading on the European stock market - spinning off from owner Unilever. A spokesperson for Magnum said the firm wanted to build and strengthen Ben & Jerry's powerful, non-partisan values-based position in the world. Ben & Jerry's was sold to Unilever in 2000 in a deal which allowed it to retain an independent board and the right to make decisions about its social mission.

Before Monday's announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China over national security concerns. Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday: "I have informed President Xi, of China, that the United States will allow NVIDIA to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other Countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security. Trump said the Department of Commerce was finalising the details and that he was planning to make the same offer to other chip companies, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel. Nvidia's H200 chips are the company's second most powerful, and far more advanced than the H20, which was originally designed as a lower-powered model for the Chinese market that would not breach restrictions, but which the US banned anyway in April. The president said the US would receive 25% of the proceeds, more than the 15% previously agreed to with Nvidia in an earlier deal to lift restrictions, and following similar unorthodox plans for the federal government to take a financial cut from private business dealings.

Two X-ray space telescopes captured the never-before-seen blast 130 million light-years away. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. A never-before-seen blast from a supermassive black hole was spotted by two sophisticated X-ray space telescopes . This giant black hole about 130 million light-years away from Earth whipped up powerful winds, flinging material out into space at 37,282 miles per second. This particular supermassive black hole is lurking within the spiral galaxy NGC 3783.

Rachael Dunfell knew two things about her husband's 21-year-old cousin: that he liked specialised racing bikes and that he was interested in the Vikings. But those pieces of information yielded few ideas for a suitable Christmas gift. So Rachael, 33, from Manchester, turned to artificial intelligence. She inputted his age, his hobby and his interest into Copilot, the Microsoft-owned chatbot, which led her to the website of a niche retailer that sells Viking-themed metal bike parts. It's just something that I really would never have known existed, she said, but it was perfect.

Ukraine is preparing to present a revised peace plan to the White House, as it seeks to avoid making territorial concessions to Russia. Kyiv is set propose alternatives to the US after President Volodymyr Zelensky again ruled out surrendering land, saying he had no right to do so under Ukrainian or international law. He made the comments as he met European and Nato leaders on Monday, part of a collective push to deter the US from backing a peace deal which includes major concessions for Ukraine, and which allies fear would leave it vulnerable to a future invasion. Meanwhile, the city of Sumy in north-western Ukraine was left without power overnight after a Russian drone attack. The region's governor said more than a dozen drones had hit power infrastructure, the latest in Russia's nightly attacks.

About 40% of 13-to 17-year-olds in England and Wales affected by youth violence are turning to AI chatbots for mental health support. About 40% of 13-to 17-year-olds in England and Wales affected by youth violence are turning to AI chatbots for mental health support. 'I feel it's a friend': quarter of teenagers turn to AI chatbots for mental health support It was after one friend was shot and another stabbed, both fatally, that Shan asked ChatGPT for help. She had tried conventional mental health services but "chat", as she came to know her AI "friend", felt safer, less intimidating and, crucially, more available when it came to handling the trauma from the deaths of her young friends. As she started consulting the AI model, the Tottenham teenager joined about 40% of 13-to 17-year-olds in England and Wales affected by youth violence who are turning to AI chatbots for mental health support, according to research among more than 11,000 young people.