ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, Ukraine, Aug 3 (Reuters) - When they found the bodies of Russian troops at an abandoned position, something about the corpses looked wrong.
The kitten is a folding steel hook that sappers use to dislodge booby traps, nicknamed for its retractable tongs that spring out like cat’s claws.
Occupying Russian troops have sown landmines and booby traps across hundreds of miles of Ukraine’s front, a tactic that Kyiv’s commanders describe as the primary reason why their long-awaited summer counteroffensive has slowed to a crawl.
For mine-clearers like Volodymyr, every day brings deadly risk, trying to make the ground safe, first for their fellow soldiers to advance, and eventually for civilians to go home.
Landmines inflicted a colossal toll in the first month of the counteroffensive launched in June, said Oleksandr, an anaesthesiologist with the 128 Brigade who treats battlefield wounds at a front-line field hospital.
In addition to the “kitten” hooks, Volodymyr’s unit has been sent “spider boots”, which lift each foot off the ground on four metal legs, so any blast they set off will not be triggered directly under a sapper’s body.
Aug 3 (Reuters) - Specialized cloud provider CoreWeave has raised $2.3 billion in a debt facility led by Magnetar Capital and Blackstone (BX.N) and collateralized by Nvidia chips, with the funds to be used to expand to meet rising AI workload, the company said on Thursday.
Nvidia-backed CoreWeave has seen a boost from the generative AI boom thanks to its purpose-built cloud infrastructure at scale.
The company has unique access to the most advanced Nvidia chips that are in short supply, giving it an edge in competition with traditional cloud providers like Microsoft (MSFT.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Google (GOOGL.O), which are facing supply restraints while working on developing their own chips.
The new financing will be used to acquire more graphics processing units, invest in data centers and hiring, the company said.
It announced an $1.6 billion data center in Texas last week and aims to expand to 14 in the U.S. by year end.
CoreWeave also raised $421 million in equity this year led by Magnetar Capital at a valuation of over $2 billion.
The figures shed light on Russia’s spending on the conflict at a time when sector-specific budget expenditure data is no longer published.
Rising war costs are supporting Russia’s modest economic recovery this year with higher industrial production, but have already pushed budget finances to a deficit of around $28 billion - a figure compounded by falling export revenues.
Higher spending on defence, as Moscow prosecutes what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, could widen the deficit further, while the boost in output could cannibalise other sectors and crowd out private investment.
Reuters calculations based on the document showed that Russia had spent 19.2% on defence in the first six months of all initially planned budget expenditure for 2023 as a whole.
Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said in July that the defence industry was now producing more munitions each month than it did in the whole of 2022.
The Bank of Russia forecasts GDP growth at 1.5%-2.5% this year, in line with analysts polled by Reuters last week.
Reuters calculations based on the document showed that Russia had spent 19.2% on defence in the first six months of all initially planned budget expenditure for 2023 as a whole.
Almost a fifth of all their budget mid year? If that is right and I understand it correctly, that is just not sustainable.
KYIV, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The Security Service of Ukraine accused Russia on Friday of preparing to stage a “false flag” attack at the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarus in order to blame Ukrainian saboteurs as part of an effort to draw Minsk into the war in Ukraine.
The attack, it said in a statement on the Telegram app, would be carried out by military and intelligence forces sent by Moscow to Belarus disguised as Wagner mercenaries who were exiled after staging a mutiny in Russia in June.
“Russia plans to accuse Ukraine of what they have done in order to try once again to draw Minsk into the full-scale war against our state,” it said in a statement, without providing evidence.
It said its assertions were based on information obtained from several sources, including a captured Russian serviceman.
Belarus is a close Kremlin ally and Moscow’s forces used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for their abortive drive towards the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv at the beginning of their February 2022 full-scale invasion.
Fighters from Wagner, a Russian mercenary group, launched a mutiny against the Russian defence establishment in June and some of its fighters have since moved to Belarus under a deal.
After looking into this a bit last night, it seems that all of the preliminary results are showing that it does not have super conducting properties. Of course, I’ll wait and see, but even universities in SK are doubtful.
It’s credibly a strong diamagnet with a phase transition. Either it’s a completely new thing with no theoretical basis, or it’s the first reproducable example of a 1d superconductor. Either is a huge breakthrough.
Of course not. There’s only been days since the research was pre-emptively published. People around the world saying “yeah, I see strong diamagnetism in a minority of samples” is the peer review. You’re goal post shifting.
Do you have peer reviewed research stating that multuple verifiable videod observations of a novel diamagnetic material are whatever alternative explanation you’re vaguely gesturing at without defining?
A neat thing happened and it’s probably the simplest explanation that fits the data (but it might not be and that’s really significant too). This extreme scepticism and semantic game-playing over whether it’s true superconductivity just sparkling bosons if it doesn’t come from the cooper-pair region of france is stupid and pedantic.
So, there’s not evidence then I see. How is asking for conclusive scientifc evidence before extraordinary claims “moving the goal posts”? Do you think I have personal skin in this game or something? It seems that you are being blinded by the possibilities, but that’s not how science works.
Extraordinary consequences are not extraordinary claims. It’s probably a perfectly boring and normal advancement of physics that will take a long time to bear fruit if it is even possible to use it, or possibly an interesting anomaly with little application.
The only one making unsubstantiated absolute positive claims here is you.
There is no extraordinary claim. The claim follows the exact pattern of the discovery of type ii superconductors (right down to BCS failing to predict it and gatekeepers swarming to shout about how it is an "extraordinary claim). Multiple independent simulations predict the material will be interesting, and the 40 year old theory that did predict type ii superconductors was used to find it. I’m asserting nothing other than that the most likely explanation for the five independent reproductions is the simplest.
The potential impact on society if it is a superconductor and not a novel diamagnet, and if a process can be found to make pure bulk material is large. You’re trying to conflate this with an extraordinary claim.
The potential impact if it is a novel diamagnet on theoretical physics is large. This would be the more extraordinary claim, and insofar as you have said anything at all, you are actively making this claim (or you are claiming that three universities are conspiring to fake videos).
You seem to be confusing faith with science. That’s not how science works
Et tu. Brutus. Additionally science does not work by gatekeeping and invoking magic words like “peer review” without actually paying attention to the meaning of those words. It’s just a short hand for “get someonenelse who knows what they are doing to try and falsify your work”. The LK-99 paper has already had much, much more scrutiny than the average publication.
That’s a lot of word vomit to say that there is no peer reviewed evidence yet.
Notice how I’m not closing the door on it completely? Yet you seem to be completely sold in regard to the original claims with there being little to no evidence, and in fact NO peer reviewed evidence yet.
Nice to see some tempered analysis in response to the hype the other week from the initial papers.
My only concern is that many labs attempting to verify the claims may fail at the specific manufacturing of the material, as it sounds like it isn’t easy to make.
I’m not sure there is much more they can do to make it more efficient, it’s just an inherently tricky thing. They have to put the copper ions somewhere they really don’t want to go. It’s like trying to flick a marble up a slope to a flat spot at the top - you have to give it just the right amount of energy or it will fall back down either before or after the flat spot you want it at.
Aug 4 (Reuters) - Poet turned militia leader Maung Saungkha, one of the most prominent figures fighting for democracy in Myanmar, says his armed group plans to start carving out territory in the country’s heartlands to confront the junta more directly.
Maung Saungkha said the move is a key strategic aim for his Bamar People’s Liberation Army (BPLA) - a militia formed in the wake of the junta’s February 2021 coup - now that it has gained training from allies and battle experience in the country’s borderlands.
Maung Saungkha said the BPLA wants to work with the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) - the armed wing of the National Unity Government formed from the remnants of Aung Sang Suu Kyi’s administration that is seeking to supplant the junta.
Bamar dominance has long been resented by Myanmar’s many minorities but Maung Saungkha’s background has helped the BPLA forge strong ties with other ethnic armed organisations, delicate work seen as critical for the resistance.
But, to have greater impact, they need to move “beyond creating confusion and disorder” in urban areas and work together to seize strategic sites, she said, adding their efforts were impeded by competition between armed groups for weapons and resources.
Brigadier General Nyo Tun Aung, the AA’s deputy commander-in-chief, said in a letter to Reuters that Maung Saungkha has built “good and close relationships” with leaders of “ethnic revolutionary organisations.”
Aug 4 (Reuters) - Poet turned militia leader Maung Saungkha, one of the most prominent figures fighting for democracy in Myanmar, says his armed group plans to start carving out territory in the country’s heartlands to confront the junta more directly.
Maung Saungkha said the move is a key strategic aim for his Bamar People’s Liberation Army (BPLA) - a militia formed in the wake of the junta’s February 2021 coup - now that it has gained training from allies and battle experience in the country’s borderlands.
Maung Saungkha said the BPLA wants to work with the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) - the armed wing of the National Unity Government formed from the remnants of Aung Sang Suu Kyi’s administration that is seeking to supplant the junta.
Bamar dominance has long been resented by Myanmar’s many minorities but Maung Saungkha’s background has helped the BPLA forge strong ties with other ethnic armed organisations, delicate work seen as critical for the resistance.
But, to have greater impact, they need to move “beyond creating confusion and disorder” in urban areas and work together to seize strategic sites, she said, adding their efforts were impeded by competition between armed groups for weapons and resources.
Brigadier General Nyo Tun Aung, the AA’s deputy commander-in-chief, said in a letter to Reuters that Maung Saungkha has built “good and close relationships” with leaders of “ethnic revolutionary organisations.”
Aug 4 (Reuters) - Poet turned militia leader Maung Saungkha, one of the most prominent figures fighting for democracy in Myanmar, says his armed group plans to start carving out territory in the country’s heartlands to confront the junta more directly.
Maung Saungkha said the move is a key strategic aim for his Bamar People’s Liberation Army (BPLA) - a militia formed in the wake of the junta’s February 2021 coup - now that it has gained training from allies and battle experience in the country’s borderlands.
Maung Saungkha said the BPLA wants to work with the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) - the armed wing of the National Unity Government formed from the remnants of Aung Sang Suu Kyi’s administration that is seeking to supplant the junta.
Bamar dominance has long been resented by Myanmar’s many minorities but Maung Saungkha’s background has helped the BPLA forge strong ties with other ethnic armed organisations, delicate work seen as critical for the resistance.
But, to have greater impact, they need to move “beyond creating confusion and disorder” in urban areas and work together to seize strategic sites, she said, adding their efforts were impeded by competition between armed groups for weapons and resources.
Brigadier General Nyo Tun Aung, the AA’s deputy commander-in-chief, said in a letter to Reuters that Maung Saungkha has built “good and close relationships” with leaders of “ethnic revolutionary organisations.”
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