Author: franperez66q@protonmail.com

Editor’s note: This is the second of three feature articles Ars is publishing to explore the financial, technical, and competitive dimensions of orbital data centers. Although the idea of putting data centers into space has long been discussed on a theoretical basis, the technology has rapidly become a red-hot topic. This series attempts to ground-truth some of the rhetoric flying around. In this article, we discuss the technical challenges of building an orbital data center constellation: launching all of it, dissipating heat in space, dealing with radiation, and addressing latency issues in orbit. Read part one here. SpaceX has pinned…

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Britain’s decision this week to join a €60bn EU defence loan scheme for Ukraine has set a “template” for such deals in future, according to the bloc’s outgoing ambassador to London, with the two sides now in “the phase of winning”.An attempt by the UK to join an EU defence fund last year fell apart after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer refused to pay the entry fee. But Pedro Serrano told the FT that Brussels was determined to make Britain a key pillar of European defence and economic security.Serrano was appointed to his role in September 2022 at a time…

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Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), speaking at the ECB Forum in Sintra, Portugal on July 1st, 2026.CNBCSeveral consecutive days of strikes exchanged between the U.S. and Iran have once again thrown oil prices into the spotlight — and cast uncertainty on the European Central Bank’s interest rate decision next week. Investors on Wednesday were repricing for the ECB’s July 22 monetary policy meeting as soaring oil prices have put expectations for a hold in doubt. “The renewed outbreak of military conflict in the Middle East and the fresh rise in oil prices underscore that the situation…

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By Ahmed Aboulenein WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) – Erica Schwartz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. CDC, will appear before the Senate health committee on Wednesday for a confirmation hearing that will test whether the embattled agency can secure stable leadership after months of turmoil. Trump nominated Schwartz, his first-term deputy surgeon general, in April, after multiple leadership shakeups at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has lacked a confirmed leader for all but a month of Trump’s second term. The hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is the first…

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In this photo illustration a 13-year-old teenage boy looks at an iPhone screen displaying various social media apps on January 12, 2026 in Bath, England. Matt Cardy | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesThe U.K. government on Wednesday proposed new measures to protect older teens on social media, including a midnight curfew and a limit to infinite scrolling, as tech giants continue to face scrutiny over online safety. Teens between the ages of 16 and 17 years old will face a default overnight curfew from midnight to 12 a.m., and addictive features like infinite scrolling and autoplay will be automatically…

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There is much excitement about the disruption that AI is likely to bring to traditional business workflows. This applies especially to supply chains, the interconnected systems that provide us with everything from daily staples to luxury goods. The move to AI is likely to present opportunities for improvement in areas from inventory planning and management to manufacturing, production and delivery.So far, AI agents’ contribution to supply chain operations has been limited, and for companies not already on a path to digitalisation it can offer no shortcuts. While digitalisation adds value through algorithms, machine learning and data management, such tools have…

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US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Prime Minister of Iraq Ali al-Zaidi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 14, 2026. Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty ImagesU.S. military strikes on Iran will intensify next week if Tehran does not cooperate in peace talks in the coming days, U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday. In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday evening, Trump hinted that the conflict was more likely to intensify than de-escalate as a fragile ceasefire agreed last month continues to fracture. “We’re going to hit them…

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