“The U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense on Sunday for the first time transported a small nuclear reactor on a cargo plane from California to Utah to demonstrate the potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use. The agencies partnered with California-based Valar Atomics to fly one of the company’s Ward microreactors on a C-17 aircraft — without nuclear fuel — to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. … The microreactor in Sunday’s event, a little larger than a minivan, can generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 homes, according to Valar CEO Isaiah Taylor. It will start operating in July at 100 kilowatts and peak at 250 kilowatts this year before ramping up to full capacity, he said.” (02/16/26)
“Deep in the coastal mountains above the sparkling Pacific resort of Mazatlan, towns spaced along a twisting road appear nearly deserted, the quiet broken only by the occasional passing truck. It was near one of these towns, Panuco, that 10 employees of a Canadian-owned silver and gold mine were abducted in late January. The bodies of five were located nearby and five more await identification. Most residents of these towns have fled out of fear as two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel have been locked in battle since September 2024, said Fermín Labrador, a 68-year-old from the nearby village of Chirimoyos. Others, he said, were ‘invited’ to leave. The abduction of the mine workers under still unclear circumstances has raised fears locally and more widely generated questions about the security improvements touted by President Claudia Sheinbaum.” (02/16/26)
“As reported by VGC and Japanese gaming outlet Beep21, Sega console designer Hideki Sato has died. The engineer and former Sega president was 77. Sato’s career with Sega began in the 1970s — SegaRetro.org lists his earliest projects as the arcade games MonacoGP, Turbo, and Star Jacker. Sato’s most notable contribution to gaming history, however, would be leading the engineering teams behind every Sega home console from 1983 to the company’s exit from the hardware business in 2001.” (02/15/26)
“Ukraine’s state anti-corruption agencies on Monday charged former Energy Minister German Galushchenko with money laundering and taking part in a criminal organization, a day after he was arrested at the Ukrainian border during an attempt to flee the country. The crackdown is part of the ongoing Operation Midas, which is investigating the $100 million corruption plot in Ukraine’s state nuclear energy sector that rocked the inner circle of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year. According to the National Anti-Сorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Galushchenko and his family members became investors in a fictitious investment fund, created to launder the $100 million siphoned out of Ukrainian state nuclear energy company Energoatom.” (02/16/26)
“The US military has boarded a second oil tanker in the Indian Ocean, after tracking it from the Caribbean Sea where it was suspected of helping Venezuela avoid US sanctions. The boarding of the Panamanian-flagged Veronica III is the second such US interception in the Indian Ocean in the past week. It comes amid a US crackdown on sanctioned oil exports from Venezuela. … At least seven oil tankers have been [stolen by US-based pirates] since last year, as the Trump administration moves to control the supply of Venezuelan oil.” (02/15/26)
“Bitcoin developers have taken another step towards addressing the risk posed by future quantum computers, merging BIP 360 into the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals GitHub repository as the long-running debate over the timeline intensifies. Bitcoin developers have taken another step towards addressing the risk posed by future quantum computers, merging BIP 360 into the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals GitHub repository as the long-running debate over the timeline intensifies. … The debate around how best to address a future quantum threat stems from Shor’s algorithm, which could derive private keys from public keys if run on a sufficiently powerful, fault-tolerant quantum computer.” (02/15/26)
“A Ukrainian drone strike ignited fires at one of Russia’s Black Sea ports, officials said Sunday, ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war. Two people were wounded in the attack on the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, which damaged an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals, according to regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev. Meanwhile, falling debris from Russian drones damaged civilian and transport infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, officials said, causing disruption to the power and water supply. Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian energy sites aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.” (02/15/26)
“At least nine Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian civil defence and health officials said, in what Israel’s military called a response to Hamas ceasefire violations. Medics said an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment housing displaced families killed at least four people, while health officials said another strike killed five in Khan Younis in the south.” (02/15/26)
“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is shut down after Congress failed to fund the agency before the midnight deadline. The partial shutdown is due to deadlock over federal immigration operations, but it also means TSA agents at airports across the U.S. are expected to screen passengers and bags without pay. About 95% of TSA workers are deemed essential personnel and required to keep working.” [editor’s note: They’re not required to do anything. They can give up the thug life and go get real jobs any time they want to – TLK] (02/14/26)
“As early voting began for the state primaries, North Carolina college students found themselves walking more than a mile to cast their ballots after the Republican-controlled State Board of Elections closed polling places on their campuses. The board, which shifted to a 3-2 GOP majority, voted last month to close a polling site at Western Carolina University and to reject the creation of polling sites at two other colleges: the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC Greensboro), and the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T), the largest historically [b]lack college in the nation. Each of these schools had polling places available on campus during the 2024 election. The decision, which came just weeks before early voting was scheduled to begin, left many of the 40,000 students who attend these schools more than a mile away from the nearest polling place.” (02/14/26)
