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Vladimir Putin agreed Tuesday in a call with Donald Trump Tuesday to halt attacks against Ukrainian energy targets but would not accept an immediate full ceasefire and insisted that the West halt all military aid for Kyiv.The US and Russian leaders spoke for more than an hour and a half and both expressed hopes for repairing relations wrecked by Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its pro-Western neighbor three years ago.But the highly anticipated call failed to produce the breakthrough Trump had hoped for, as there was no agreement from the Russian president for Washington’s proposed 30-day ceasefire, already agreed to by Ukraine.In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he backed the energy truce but believed Putin’s refusal of a wider peace showed he was not “ready” and still seeks to “weaken” Ukraine.Trump insisted on his Truth Social network they had “an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War.”The Kremlin, however, made it clear that any full truce was a way off — and dependent on Russian demands that both Ukraine and its Western allies would find hard to accept.A Kremlin statement said Putin agreed to pause strikes against Ukraine energy targets for 30 days and that Putin had already given the order to his military. The White House said separately that the “leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire.”Russia has launched a series of devastating attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure throughout the winter. Ukraine has used drones to bomb multiple Russian oil installations.- Sirens in Kyiv -Trump and Putin also agreed that broader truce talks would “begin immediately,” the White House said in its statement, citing a “huge upside” if Russia and the United States repair their relations.But the Kremlin statement said the “key condition” for peace would be a “complete cessation” of Western military and intelligence support to Ukraine’s embattled military.Explosions rang out and air raid sirens wailed over the Ukrainian capital Kyiv a few hours after the call, AFP journalists reported, in a sign that Russia appeared determined to press on with its wider offensive.Trump has been intent on delivering on an election pledge to end fighting in Ukraine, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden’s policy on Russia for fueling the war.He stunned the world in February when he announced a surprise call with Putin and the start of talks with Russia to end the conflict, sparking fears among allies that he was pivoting too far towards Moscow. As Trump upended years of US policy staunchly backing Ukraine, he then had a televised shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.But Western allies have been skeptical that Putin is ready for a ceasefire.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron vowed after the Kremlin statement that they would keep sending military aid to Ukraine.”Ukraine can count on us,” Scholz said.- Wary allies -The Europeans have also been wary that Trump will try to force through a deal that punishes Ukraine without demanding concessions of Russia.Trump said at the weekend that he was ready to discuss “dividing up certain assets” of Ukraine’s, including land and power plants.Under US pressure, Ukraine had already agreed to Washington’s proposal for a full 30-day ceasefire. It has also accepted a US plan to give it preferential access to Ukraine’s mineral resources.But Putin has repeatedly said that there were further issues that needed discussion, mostly centering on its maximalist demands for the West to halt all support for Ukraine.Russia has pressed on with a grinding advance in recent months in southern and eastern Ukraine.Moscow has also seized back much of Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which Kyiv seized last year and was hoping to use as a bargaining chip.Russia said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces attempted a ground assault on the Belgorod region earlier but were pushed back, casting it as an attempt to undermine the Trump talks.burs-dk/sms

Hundreds of Hollywood stars including Ben Stiller, Cate Blanchett and Cynthia Erivo have urged Donald Trump’s White House to protect film, TV and music copyrights against big tech and artificial intelligence.The open letter — signed by over 400 actors, directors and artists — hits back against tech giants like Google and OpenAI, who say their AI models must be allowed to train on a vast range of copyrighted work or risk being left behind by Chinese rivals.But “weakening copyright protections” and allowing tech giants to “exploit America’s creative and knowledge industries” would threaten “the world’s most vibrant creative economy,” says the Hollywood letter.The US entertainment industry supports over 2.3 million jobs that generate some $230 billion in annual wages, as well as “providing the foundation for American democratic influence and soft power abroad,” it says.The intervention comes after Trump in January signed an executive order committing to remove “unnecessary government control” of AI and boost “America’s global AI dominance.”The White House invited companies and other interested parties to submit suggestions.Google and OpenAI said they must be allowed to train their AI models on the widest possible range of copyrighted content, warning that rival countries could otherwise gain a dangerous advantage.If Chinese developers “have unfettered access to data and American companies are left without fair use access, the race for AI is effectively over,” wrote OpenAI, noting China’s rapid progress with models like DeepSeek.The Hollywood counter-letter was first sent to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last week. Organizers said they are continuing to gather signatures.AI has become an existential concern in Hollywood, where studios and producers are keen to explore its cost-cutting potential, but many creatives fear that its use could destroy jobs and damage the quality of content.Artificial intelligence was a central issue in the strikes that in 2023 brought the US entertainment industry to an expensive, months-long halt.Writers and actors eventually agreed deals with studios including strict AI protections, requiring consent and compensation if AI models train on writers’ movie scripts, or build computer-generated characters using actors’ likenesses.But the issue has returned to the fore with Trump’s election and the ever-increasing grip of major tech companies on Hollywood, and the US economy more broadly.”Make no mistake: this issue goes well beyond the entertainment industry, as the right to train AI on all copyright-protected content impacts all of America’s knowledge industries,” says the letter.

The Trump administration plans to lay off hundreds of scientists and researchers from the US federal government as part of drastic cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lawmakers warned Tuesday.The firings would result from the EPA, which tackles environmental issues including pollution, clean water and climate change, eliminating its scientific research arm that employs over 1,500 people.Documents reviewed by Democratic staff of the US House Committee on Science, Space and Technology said the cuts would mean a majority of employees “will not be retained,” while the remaining positions would be moved to other departments within the agency.The layoffs, which have not been finalized, would further President Donald Trump’s goal of slashing government spending by reducing the federal workforce as well as rolling back environmental and public health regulation.Trump in February said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, his pick to oversee the agency, plans to slash around 65 percent of the agency’s 17,000-strong staff.When asked about the planned cuts, EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said the agency “is taking exciting steps as we enter the next phase of organizational improvements.” “We are committed to enhancing our ability to deliver clean air, water, and land for all Americans,” Vaseliou continued. “While no decisions have been made yet, we are actively listening to employees at all levels to gather ideas on how to increase efficiency and ensure the EPA is as up-to-date and effective as ever.”Plans to scrap the EPA’s research office sparked outcry from Democratic lawmakers.”Every decision EPA makes must be in furtherance of protecting human health and the environment, and that just can’t happen if you gut EPA science,” said Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House science committee.”Last time around, Trump and his cronies politicized and distorted science…now, this is their attempt to kill it for good” Lofgren said, adding that the “EPA cannot meet its legal obligation to use the best available science” without the researchers.The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a nonprofit advocacy group, emphasized the role that the affected staff play in the EPA’s stated mission. “The scientists and experts in this office conduct and review the best available science to set limits on pollution and regulate hazardous chemicals to keep the public safe,” said Chitra Kumar, UCS managing director of climate and energy, in a statement.”The administration knows, and history shows, that industry will not regulate itself.”

A pair of NASA astronauts unexpectedly stuck in space for more than nine months were hours away from returning to Earth on Tuesday, closing out a mission that has captured the world’s attention.Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, accompanied by fellow American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, left the International Space Station earlier in the morning after exchanging final farewells and hugs with remaining crew members.Their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule named Freedom is orbiting around the planet on a 17-hour-journey that will culminate in a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida, near Tallahassee, around 5:57 pm (2157 GMT). A recovery vessel will then retrieve the quartet and they will be flown to Houston, where they will complete a 45-day rehabilitation program.Wilmore and Williams, both ex-Navy pilots and veterans of two prior space missions, flew to the orbital lab in June last year, on what was supposed to be a days-long roundtrip to test out Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.But the spaceship developed propulsion problems and was deemed unfit to fly them back, instead returning empty.They were subsequently reassigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which arrived at the ISS last September with a reduced crew of two — rather than the usual four — to accommodate the pair, who had become widely referred to as the “stranded” astronauts.NASA however rejected this characterization, emphasizing that they could have been evacuated in an emergency if necessary.Early Sunday, a relief team called Crew-10 docked with the station, paving the way for the Crew-9 team to depart.”Colleagues and dear friends who remain on the station… we’ll be waiting for you. Crew-9 is going home”, Hague said.- ‘Unbelievable resilience’ -Wilmore and Williams’ 286-day stay exceeds the usual six-month ISS rotation but ranks only sixth among US records for single-mission duration.Frank Rubio holds the top spot at 371 days in 2023, while the world record remains with Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 consecutive days aboard the Mir station.That makes it “par for the course” in terms of health risks, according to Rihana Bokhari of the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.Challenges such as muscle and bone loss, fluid shifts that can lead to kidney stones and vision issues, and the readjustment of balance upon returning to a gravity environment are well understood and effectively managed.”Folks like Suni Williams are actually known for their interest in exercise, and so I believe she exercises beyond what is even her normal prescription,” Bokhari told AFP.Still, the unexpected nature of their extended stay — away from their families and initially without enough packed supplies — has drawn public interest and sympathy.”If you found out you went to work today and were going to be stuck in your office for the next nine months, you might have a panic attack,” Joseph Keebler, a psychologist at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.”These individuals have shown unbelievable resilience.”- Trump weighs in -Their unexpected stint also became a political lightning rod, with President Donald Trump and his close advisor, Elon Musk — who leads SpaceX — repeatedly suggesting former president Joe Biden abandoned the astronauts and refused an earlier rescue plan.”They shamefully forgot about the Astronauts, because they considered it to be a very embarrassing event for them,” Trump posted Monday on Truth Social.Such accusations have prompted an outcry in the space community, especially as Musk offered no specifics and NASA’s plan for the astronauts’ return has remained largely unchanged since their Crew-9 reassignment.Trump has also drawn attention for his bizarre remarks, referring to Williams, a decorated former naval captain, as “the woman with the wild hair” and speculating about the personal dynamic between the two.”They’ve been left up there — I hope they like each other, maybe they love each other, I don’t know,” he said during a recent White House press conference.

Google said Tuesday it will acquire cloud security platform Wiz for $32 billion, citing the need for greater cybersecurity capacity as artificial intelligence embeds itself in technology infrastructure.The all-cash deal brings Wiz into the Google Cloud operation, boosting the capacity of consumers to use “multiple clouds” and providing “an end-to-end security platform for customers, of all types and sizes, in the AI era,” the companies said in a joint statement.The deepening influence of AI makes “cybersecurity increasingly important in defending against emergent risks and protecting national security,” they added.The transaction, the largest ever sought by Google or parent Alphabet, will test US President Donald Trump’s openness to large takeovers after resistance to such deals by the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden.Alphabet had been close to a Wiz takeover last summer, but company leaders opted to stay independent at the time with an eye towards an initial public offering, CEO Assaf Rappaport said in a message to employees after the earlier deal fell apart.Started in 2020 by the Israeli-born Rappaport and a team who sold a previous venture to Microsoft, Wiz is based in New York, with offices in three other US cities and Tel Aviv.In a webcast after the deal was announced, Rappaport said the service “continuously scans an organization’s code and cloud environments, monitoring them in real time” to “prioritize the most critical risk based on real impact and blocks active threats.”After the deal closes, Wiz will operate as a Google company that still provides services to other tech giants including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, making it like the operation of Mandiant, another cybersecurity company Google acquired three years ago, said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.”With Wiz, we believe we will vastly improve how security is designed, operated and automated, providing an end-to-end security platform for customers to prevent, detect and respond to incidents across all major clouds,” Kurian said.Google’s cloud business has grown significantly over the last decade, garnering more than $43 billion in revenue in 2024, up nearly 31 percent from the prior year.Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the Google-Wiz deal could be the first of many with the departure of Lina Khan, the Biden-era head of the Federal Trade Commission, who was considered hostile to tech industry consolidation.”While the merger & acquisition environment has been extremely quiet to start the year, we believe that this acquisition will open the door to a massive wave of M&A across the tech landscape,” Ives said in a note.The cybersecurity industry is especially well suited “as more cloud operators look to secure their cloud portfolios while more cyber names look to capitalize on their all-in-one platform approaches by scooping up undervalued companies and improving their offerings,” Ives said.Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell 3.8 percent in morning trading.

US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin began a critical phone call on Tuesday, with the White House saying the talks on securing a ceasefire in Moscow’s invasion were “going well.”Trump has already made clear that he is ready to discuss what parts of occupied Ukraine that Russia will be allowed to keep, saying at the weekend Moscow and Washington are talking about “dividing up certain assets.” The call comes amid concerns in Kyiv and European capitals that the 78-year-old Republican will cede too much ground to Putin, a leader for whom he has repeatedly expressed admiration in the past.”President Trump is currently in the Oval Office speaking with President Vladimir Putin of Russia since 10:00am (1400 GMT)” deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino said on X almost an hour later.”The call is going well, and still in progress.”A ceasefire is still far from guaranteed. Kyiv has agreed to halt fighting for 30 days and enter talks with Russia more than three years into Moscow’s invasion, but Putin has set a string of conditions.Trump said on his Truth Social network late Monday that “many elements of a final agreement have been agreed to, but much remains” to be settled.The talks were “getting down to a very critical stage,” Trump added.- Putin speech -Putin gave a hardline anti-Western speech Tuesday before the call, saying the West would still try to undermine Russia even if it lifted sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.He mocked the G7 to wild applause from the audience, saying it was too small to “see on a map.”Kyiv said it expected Moscow to “unconditionally” accept to the ceasefire.”It is time for Russia to show whether it really wants peace,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Putin does not want peace and is trying to achieve a better position militarily ahead of any halt in fighting.  Russia has attacked Ukraine with near daily barrages of drones and missiles for more than three years, occupying swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine and pressing a grinding advance in recent months.Putin has said that a ceasefire only benefits Kyiv and not the Russian army, that he said was “advancing”. Moscow has also made clear that it would not accept NATO troops deployed as peacekeeping forces in Ukraine and has said it was against the US arming Ukraine — demands that he could put forward to Trump.The push towards a ceasefire began in February when Trump announced last month that he had spoken to Putin — a surprise call that broke Western efforts to isolate the Russian leader while his invasion continues.As Trump upended years of US policy he then had a televised shouting match with Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28, which led to the United States temporarily suspending its billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv.- ‘End NOW’ -On Sunday Trump said he would discuss issues of “land” and “power plants” with Putin — a likely reference to the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest that fell to Russia in the first days of its invasion.  Zelensky said over the weekend that any discussions over territory should take place at the negotiating table only after a ceasefire.Trump is intent on delivering on an election pledge to end fighting in Ukraine, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden’s policy on Russia for fueling the war.”It must end NOW,” he said on Truth Social.As Washington and Moscow prepared for the talks, authorities in Russia’s Kursk region were evacuating several hundred civilians from areas retaken from Ukraine last summer.The Kremlin has hailed Moscow’s quick offensive there last week as a major success, with Putin calling for Ukrainian soldiers to surrender or be killed.Russian pensioner Olga Shkuratova’s husband was killed last week during fighting as Russia ousted Ukrainian troops from her village of Goncharovka. “A shell hit. Everything was blown apart in a second. No house, no garage, no barn,” the 62-year-old told AFP as she was taken to safety by volunteers. burs-dk/sms

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said Washington could hold off reciprocal tariffs for countries that halt practices it deems unfair, adding that officials will produce a list of levies on April 2.This is the date on which President Donald Trump has promised reciprocal duties set to affect both US allies and competitors, with tariffs tailored to each trading partner.”What’s going to happen on April 2 — each country will receive a number that we believe represents their tariffs,” Bessent told Fox Business in an interview, adding that the level could vary.”We are going to go to them and say, look, here’s where we think the tariff levels are, non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, unfair funding, labor suppression,” he added.If they stop these practices, Bessent said, “we will not put up the tariff wall.”He expressed optimism that on April 2, some duties “may not have to go on because a deal is pre-negotiated” or because countries swiftly approach Washington for talks once they receive their number.- ‘No reason’ for recession -Bessent also told Fox Business that he saw “no reason we need to have a recession” in the world’s biggest economy, saying “the underlying economy is healthy.”But he dismissed the premise of guaranteeing there will not be a downturn.He raised the idea of “a pause” as officials transition from an “unsustainable” level of government spending, saying that the Trump administration would rein in expenditures and bring manufacturing home.Trump’s tariff plans and the uncertainty surrounding them have shaken markets in recent times, fanning fears that an economic ebb could be in the cards.The president has referred to tariffs as a way to raise revenue, remedy trade imbalances and pressure countries to act on US concerns.On Tuesday, Bessent stressed that Trump has identified “critical industries” — like steel and aluminum among manufacturing sectors — for which he hopes to bring production back to the United States.He added that “we’re going to take in substantial revenues,” pointing to these as a means to offset the government deficit.Economists note that while tariffs raise revenue for the government, they also shift demand towards domestic industries that make the protected goods.They caution that this does not always mean a net expansion of demand.Bessent also said Tuesday that the Treasury is working with Congress on further outbound investment rules: “We will make sure that our outbound investment doesn’t turn around and get used against us.”

As President Donald Trump moves to axe Voice of America and other US-funded media, China and Russia are eager to fill the void.The targeting of VOA, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia not only freezes some of the most dogged reporting on countries with heavily restricted media, but it comes after years of concerted efforts by Beijing and Moscow to promote their own worldview on the global media landscape.Trump issued an executive order Friday to pare down the nearly $1 billion US Agency for Global Media, with hundreds of journalists swiftly put on leave or fired, in his latest sweeping cut to the federal government.Lisa Curtis, who was a senior official on the National Security Council in Trump’s first term and serves as board chair of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, formed in the Cold War to reach behind the Iron Curtain, said that closing the service “will actually help our adversaries.””Countries like China, Russia and Iran are investing hundreds of millions of dollars pumping out anti-American propaganda and disinformation,” she said.”Why would the Trump administration want to disarm itself in this environment?” she asked.She said a pro bono legal team was challenging the authority to cut the funding, which was appropriated by Congress.- Aggressive marketing -A 2022 study by Freedom House, the democracy promotion research group which has also seen US government funding slashed by Trump, found that China has ramped up its media footprint globally.The report said China has found success by offering free or low-cost content and providing equipment and other services needed by resources-stretched outlets.While Chinese media are often formal in tone, Russia has aggressively challenged the West through government-run Sputnik and RT.After Europeans banned the outlets in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia has set its sights on Africa, including through social media campaigns targeting Western health projects, according to the Global Engagement Center, the State Department’s anti-disinformation arm that also recently closed.After budget cuts in 2023 in Britain, the BBC ended long-time radio services including in Arabic. The BBC director general later said that Russian media took over the BBC Arabic radio frequency in Lebanon.Sarah Cook, a researcher who led the 2022 Freedom House report, said it was not as simple as China taking over from VOA, which did not enter into local contracts in the same way as Chinese media.But a very different sort of journalism could dominate if China rather than the United States funds reporting in the developing world.”Even if Chinese state media are doing it, the content is completely different. It’s all pro-government, even pro-local government,” she said.- ‘Lie factory’ -Observers say the impact could be greatest in countries such as Cambodia and Laos, which lack the sophisticated online censorship of China. Cambodia’s longtime former leader Hun Sen wrote on Facebook to thank Trump “for his courage to lead the world to combat fake news.”In China, the Global Times hailed the end of “lie factory” VOA, and Sputnik said VOA and RFE were behind “fakes” about Russia’s alleged massacre of civilians in Kyiv’s Bucha suburb.Kari Lake, a firebrand Trump supporter brought to the US Agency for Global Media, described it as a “giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer” that is not “salvageable.”Trump often rails against media coverage of him, and his administration has called government-funded media outdated, as private news sources are readily available.But US-funded broadcasters ran in dozens of languages and often relied on exiles with unique sourcing in their homelands.Curtis pointed to a figure that Persian-language Radio Farda reached 10 percent of Iran’s adult population every week and to original reporting, including a 2016 RFE/RL story on a Chinese military base in Tajikistan.Radio Free Asia broadcasts in the Tibetan and Uyghur languages, a unique outlet for journalists from the minority groups to operate outside the constraints both of the Chinese government and of commercial pressure.”They are going to cover the stories that don’t get picked up by other outlets, because big media cover more broadly and don’t necessarily have as many native speakers employed,” said Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund who has researched Chinese media policies.Ohlberg said China began a global hiring spree in media during the 2008 financial crisis as it saw the struggles of Western commercial outlets, which have long angered Beijing with critical coverage.”They saw an opportunity — let’s offer our narrative,” she said.”That expansion is going to continue, and it would have regardless of this decision.”It just makes it easier for the narrative to take hold as there are now fewer alternatives.”

Bone and muscle deterioration, radiation exposure, vision impairment — these are just a few of the challenges space travelers face on long-duration missions, even before considering the psychological toll of isolation.As US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams prepare to return home after nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), some of the health risks they’ve faced are well-documented and managed, while others remain a mystery.These dangers will only grow as humanity pushes deeper into the solar system, including to Mars, demanding innovative solutions to safeguard the future of space exploration.- Exercise key -Despite the attention their mission has received, Wilmore and Williams’ nine-month stay is “par for the course,” said Rihana Bokhari, an assistant professor at the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor College. ISS missions typically last six months, but some astronauts stay up to a year, and researchers are confident in their ability to maintain astronaut health for that duration.Most people know that lifting weights builds muscle and strengthens bones, but even basic movement on Earth resists gravity, an element missing in orbit.To counteract this, astronauts use three exercise machines on the ISS, including a 2009-installed resistance device that simulates free weights using vacuum tubes and flywheel cables.A two-hour daily workout keeps them in shape. “The best results that we have to show that we’re being very effective is that we don’t really have a fracture problem in astronauts when they return to the ground,” though bone loss is still detectable on scans, Bokhari told AFP.Balance disruption is another issue, added Emmanuel Urquieta, vice chair of Aerospace Medicine at the University of Central Florida.”This happens to every single astronaut, even those who go into space just for a few days,” he told AFP, as they work to rebuild trust in their inner ear. Astronauts must retrain their bodies during NASA’s 45-day post-mission rehabilitation program.Another challenge is “fluid shift” — the redistribution of bodily fluids toward the head in microgravity. This can increase calcium levels in urine, raising the risk of kidney stones.Fluid shifts might also contribute to increased intracranial pressure, altering the shape of the eyeball and causing spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS), causing mild-to-moderate vision impairment. Another theory suggests raised carbon dioxide levels are the cause.But in at least one case, the effects have been beneficial. “I had a pretty severe case of SANS,” NASA astronaut Jessica Meir said before the latest launch.”When I launched, I wore glasses and contacts, but due to globe flattening, I now have 20/15 vision — most expensive corrective surgery possible. Thank you, taxpayers.”- Managing radiation -Radiation levels aboard the ISS are higher than on the ground, as it passes through through the Van Allen radiation belt, but Earth’s magnetic field still provides significant protection.The shielding is crucial, as NASA aims to limit astronauts’ increased lifetime cancer risk to within three percent.However, missions to the Moon and Mars will give astronauts far greater exposure, explained astrophysicist Siegfried Eggl.Future space probes could provide some warning time for high-radiation events, such coronal mass ejections — plasma clouds from the Sun — but cosmic radiation remains unpredictable.”Shielding is best done with heavy materials like lead or water, but you need vast quantities of it,” said Eggl, of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.Artificial gravity, created by rotating spacecraft frames, could help astronauts stay functional upon arrival after a nine-month journey to Mars.Alternatively, a spacecraft could use powerful acceleration and deceleration that matches the force of Earth’s gravity.That approach would be speedier — reducing radiation exposure risks — but requires nuclear propulsion technologies that don’t yet exist.Future drugs and even gene therapies could enhance the body’s defenses against space radiation. “There’s a lot of research into that area,” said Urquieta.Preventing infighting among teams will be critical, said Joseph Keebler, a psychologist at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.”Imagine being stuck in a van with anybody for three years: these vessels aren’t that big, there’s no privacy, there’s no backyard to go to,” he said.”I really commend astronauts that commit to this. It’s an unfathomable job.”

Google said Tuesday it will acquire cloud security platform Wiz for $32 billion, citing the need for greater cybersecurity capacity as artificial intelligence embeds itself in technology infrastructure.The all-cash deal brings Wiz into the Google Cloud operation, boosting the capacity of consumers to use “multiple clouds” and providing “an end-to-end security platform for customers, of all types and sizes, in the AI era,” the companies said in a joint press release.The deepening influence of AI makes “cybersecurity increasingly important in defending against emergent risks and protecting national security,” the companies said.The transaction, the largest ever sought by Google or parent Alphabet, will test President Donald Trump’s openness to large takeovers after resistance to such deals by the administration of Joe Biden.Alphabet had been close to a Wiz takeover last summer, but the deal fell apart due in part to regulatory concerns, according to the Wall Street Journal.Started in 2020 by co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport and a team who sold a previous venture to Microsoft, Wiz will continue to work and provide services to platform led by other tech giants including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.Wiz is based in New York, with offices in Tel Aviv and three other US cities.In a webcast after the deal was announced, Rappaport said the service “continuously scans an organization’s code and cloud environments, monitoring them in real time” to “prioritize the most critical risk based on real impact and blocks active threats.”