Magnet Defense Unveils Next-Generation Long-Range USV

Military & Secret Tech / memoment editorial

Magnet Defense’s 48-meter Large Uncrewed Surface Vessel (LUSV) has successfully completed a 390-day, 32,000-nautical-mile AI-enabled sea trial.

Magnet Defense press release

Magnet Defense LLC, a provider of maritime unmanned surface vessels (USVs), today emerged from more than two years of quiet development, unveiling its AI-enabled autonomous maritime platform and its technological breakthroughs. Magnet Defense has invested over $50 million in designing, building, and validating its first autonomous unmanned surface vessel, called the M48, an AI-enabled autonomous platform with over 32,000 nautical miles of successful heritage and over 390 total days at sea.

Magnet Defense brings together decades of experience across defense, technology, and industrial manufacturing. As global tensions rise, demand for unmanned maritime capabilities is accelerating. Traditional manned multi-mission ships are too costly and scarce for many modern defense missions, driving a shift toward low-cost, autonomous platforms with rapid response times, distributed assets, and enhanced threat assessment capabilities. Magnet Defense’s AI-enabled USV platforms are designed to meet these challenges, offering unmatched range, endurance, and autonomy for contested environments.

To support global deployment, Magnet Defense’s USVs are designed to operate fully autonomously in high-risk zones, delivering persistent maritime intelligence, surveillance, missile defense, logistics, electronic warfare, and anti-submarine warfare capabilities while reducing personnel risk. The company’s first flagship vessel, the M48 Fleet USV, features modular sensor suites, advanced autonomy, and proven performance in harsh maritime conditions, setting a new standard for operational utility and resilience.

With its stable and efficient geometry and containerized mission payloads, the M48 platform has demonstrated navigation compliance and exceptional endurance, operating a total of 390 days at sea, including operating in multi-day Sea State 7 conditions, and enduring Sea State 9 conditions for many hours.

By combining advanced machine learning, edge processing, and multi-sensor fusion, Magnet Defense’s USVs deliver rapid threat recognition, automated weapon pairing, and operator-in-the-loop mission capabilities. They incorporate unique USV features and redundancies that enable them to maintain long unattended missions without maintenance and fast base turnarounds. These innovations position Magnet Defense as a leader in the rapidly growing USV market for maritime applications.

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“UAlbany Project X”: How a Team of New York Physicists is Launching a Cutting-Edge Investigation into Aerial Mysteries

Military & Secret Tech, Space & Science, UFOs & Disclosure / memoment editorial

Physicists at the University of Albany, New York, have announced a new research initiative—dubbed UAlbany Project X—that marks the beginning of a long-term scientific study of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
The new project, officially launched last month, was made possible by an endowment gift that will provide ongoing funding for the team’s scientific investigation of aerial mysteries, which are currently also being investigated in a separate effort by the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
Kevin Knuth, Ph.D., a professor of physics at the University of Albany and one of the new project’s lead scientists, told The Debrief that UAlbany Project X (UAPx) is an outgrowth of many years of ongoing research that he and his colleagues behind the new effort have already undertaken.
“We’ve been working on studying UAP scientifically for about seven years now,” Knuth explained, adding that his entry into the study of aerial mysteries began with an examination of the many decades of information that have been collected on the topic.
“I started by just doing what a physicist ought to do, which is getting your head around the problem,” Knuth told The Debrief. This ultimately led to his collaboration with scientists from the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies to author a 2019 paper that estimated the minimum speeds and accelerations of UAP observed in several notable cases. Among these was a 2004 incident involving an object observed by U.S. Navy personnel aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) during training exercises off the southern California coast.
Footage of the object, popularly known today as the “Tic Tac,” was obtained by an FA/18 Super Hornet pilot named Chad Underwood and subsequently leaked online. In 2020, the Pentagon confirmed the footage was authentic in an official release accompanied by two other historic videos purportedly depicting UAP, while noting that the object in the 2004 video remained “unidentified.”
A still frame from the 2004 footage obtained by U.S. Navy pilot Chad Underwood, depicting a purported UAP encountered by personnel with the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 11 (CSG-11) (Image Credit: U.S. Department of Defense).
That incident, Knuth says, had been part of what led him and fellow University of Albany physicist and associate professor Matthew Szydagis, along with several colleagues, to conduct a field expedition in 2021 off the coast of Santa Catalina Island with a non-profit scientific research organization called UAPx.
“We worked to have an updated collection mission over the Catalina Channel where the Nimitz Encounter occurred,” Knuth told The Debrief, during which the University of Albany researchers collected observable-light and infrared imagery, and other data that helped them develop a framework for the scientific documentation of UAP.
That work culminated in a paper by Szydagis and co-authored by Knuth and their colleague, University of Albany associate professor Cecilia Levy—the core of the new UAlbany Project X initiative—published in Progress in Aerospace Sciences earlier this year.
“This was a really seminal paper,” Szydagis told The Debrief, describing it as “a summary of UAPx’s first results from the Catalina-Laguna mission.”
“I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of scientists who have gotten their work on the UAP topic published in such a high-caliber journal,” Szydagis said. A second co-authored paper on the history of the UAP subject, with Knuth as the lead author, had appeared in the same edition of the journal, along with a separate study by Luc Dini, Geoffrey Mestchersky, and Jacques Vallée that provided estimates of energy values associated with a historic UAP incident.
“It’s a highly reputable journal that is cited by a lot of other scientists,” Szydagis said. “And yet, nobody talked about either that paper or Kevin’s history paper.”
“In the UAPx paper, we did something that we thought would be considered very important,” Szydagis said. “We concluded the paper with suggestions on how to quantify the meaning of extraordinary evidence, and very few people seem to be paying attention to that.”
Today, while UAP—or UFOs, as they are traditionally known—often succeed in dominating prime time television news segments, podcasts, and occasionally even mainstream publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other peer-reviewed journals like Nature: Scientific Reports, the majority of the attention the subject receives goes toward the question of government secrecy, and how much more the U.S. intelligence community may know about UAP than it has disclosed to the public.
Such questions had been the focus of a recent documentary, The Age of Disclosure, by filmmaker Dan Farah, in which a trove of current and past U.S. government officials that included Marco Rubio, currently serving as U.S. Secretary of State, and James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence, spoke on the record about the issue of transparency regarding information collected about UAP.
Yet, while the question over government secrecy involving UAP commands much of the attention in the media cycle, that isn’t to say that the work of scientists—particularly those with the University of Albany team—had been overlooked by everyone.
Enter Tony Gorman, a well-known Albany-area businessman with many years of experience who was previously a co-owner of The Gorman Group, a family-owned highway construction company that has operated in the area for many decades.
Gorman had seen a short local news story about the UAP research Knuth, Szydagis, and Levy were conducting at the University of Albany, which prompted him to reach out to the team to help ensure an ongoing source of funding for their work.
“I have always been curious about UAPs and what could possibly be out there,” Gorman said in a statement. “When I saw the UAP research the UAlbany team is doing, I wanted to learn more.”
Gorman reached out and, after a series of discussions with the UAlbany researchers, decided to put his money behind their scientific efforts.
“I gained so much respect for their work,” Gorman said. “Right there, I knew I wanted to get involved.”
From left to right: Professor Matthew Szydagis stands alongside Albany businessman Tony Gorman, and Professors Cecilia Levy and Kevin Knuth (Photo by Zach Durocher/University of Albany. Used with permission).
“We received this donation from Tony Gorman,” Knuth told The Debrief. “A generous donation, which basically funds us for five years, and in addition to that, sets up an endowment that funds us in perpetuity.”
“So we’re here to stay.”
“We have money to help sustain us for the long term,” Szydagis told The Debrief. “With Tony’s very generous gift, we have the potential ability to be working on UAP for the rest of our lives.”
As for what the team specifically plans to work on, Szydagis explained that part of its plan is to leverage knowledge from past research while carefully plotting a course forward through strategic investigations that will help the physicists expand the data they are collecting on UAP.
“We’re planning a long-term, cautious, sustainable plan to keep working on UAPs for decades to come,” Szydagis said, though noting that the team is also working to ensure that it does not add to “the clutter of more projects and more silos.”
“So the old UAPx is closing down, and it’s being reborn,” Szydagis told The Debrief. “We are preserving UAPx’s original mission.”
“Through an incredibly generous gift from Tony Gorman, Professors Knuth, Matthey Szydagis, and Cecilia Levy have secured a major endowment to launch UAlbany Project X (UAPx)—the direct academic continuation of everything we’ve built from scratch,” wrote Gary Voorhis, a U.S. Navy veteran and former CEO and co-founder of the original nonprofit UAPx.

“They did it. They took our little rag-tag expedition team and turned it into a funded, university-backed research program with the potential to run for decades,” Voorhis wrote.
Knuth says the new UAlbany Project X will seek not only to collect more data on UAP but also to clarify the subject, how science can be applied to it, and to help dispel misconceptions about UAP.
In addition to the core University of Albany team, the researchers have announced they will receive input from experts, including physicist Eric W. Davis, who Szydagis said will work with the team on a volunteer basis as an adjunct researcher in an advisory position for the project.
“We are deeply honored to have him,” Dr. Szydagis told The Debrief.
“There has been a lot of excellent work done,” Knuth added, although noting that he hopes UAlbany Project X will be able to take scientific approaches to UAP research into new and exciting areas.
“I think the best thing to do is to learn from the mistakes of others, and to build on their successes,” Knuth said. “We’ve gotten diffraction gratings for high-quality cameras, and we plan to collect spectra. And magnetic and electric fields are often omitted from study, and so we plan to accommodate that as well, along with an excellent network of multiple cameras.”
“We have plans to build arrays of cameras to watch the sky and have this portable,” Knuth told The Debrief. “Basically, take your equipment and plant it somewhere for a couple of weeks, and collect data. That’s the way to do it.”
Thanks to Gorman’s endowment, the team also plans to ramp up publication of scientific papers on UAP.
“You should expect more papers from us, not just field expeditions,” Szydagis told The Debrief. “We’ve got all kinds of ideas on papers we want to publish on this topic broadly. And now we can start working on more of these things.”
“We no longer have to just work on this for free in our volunteer time,” Szydagis added, “which is not sustainable long-term.”
Fundamentally, Szydagis says that he, Levy, and Knuth will continue the mission that began during the original UAPx field expedition in 2021 and advance those efforts by collecting new data in the years ahead.
“UAPx is a phoenix being reborn,” Szydagis said. “It’s not dying, it’s not disappearing.”
“The mission will continue as a university effort.”
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

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NASA’s Moon Rocket Celebrates 250 Years of American Innovation

Featured, Space & Science / memoment editorial

NASA is marking America’s 250th year with a bold new symbol of the nation’s relentless drive to explore.
The America 250 emblem is now on the twin solid rocket boosters of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for Artemis II — the powerhouse that will launch a crew of four around the Moon next year. Unveiled Tuesday, the design echoes the America 250 Commission’s Spirit of Innovation theme, honoring a country that has never stopped pushing the horizon forward.
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians spent recent weeks carefully applying the emblem on the rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building — the same place where rockets for Apollo once stood. Engineers are running final tests on SLS and the Orion spacecraft as preparations intensify for Artemis II.
The roughly 10-day Artemis II journey around the Moon will mark a defining moment in this new era of American exploration — paving the way for U.S. crews to land on the lunar surface and ultimately push onward to Mars.
America’s spirit of discovery is alive, and Artemis is carrying it to the Moon and beyond.
Image credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Hears the Crack of Martian Lightning, Providing the First Glimpse into the Red Planet’s Atmospheric Electricity

Military & Secret Tech, Space & Science, UFOs & Disclosure / memoment editorial

The Martian atmosphere is electrically active, according to scientists, citing new French research that reveals evidence of electrical phenomena with significant implications for our understanding of the Red Planet’s atmospheric chemistry, climate, and habitability.
NASA‘s Perseverance rover has been scouting the Jezero crater for signs of life for the past four years. Unexpectedly, its instruments recently picked up something completely unexpected—“mini lighting”—as revealed in a new paper published in Nature.
SuperCam
“These discharges represent a major discovery, with direct implications for Martian atmospheric chemistry, climate, habitability and the future of robotic and human exploration,” lead author Dr Baptiste Chide told Reuters.
Just one day after landing on Mars, SuperCam’s microphone recorded audio from the Red Planet for the first time. The SuperCam instruments, responsible for some of Perseverance’s most interesting finds, inadvertently picked up the audio and electromagnetic signatures suggesting the presence of mini lightning on Mars.
Unfortunately, while the early data is promising, SuperCam was designed to look for life, not lightning. Despite the audio evidence, there is debate about the presence of Martian lightning due to the lack of visual evidence. Although SuperCam collected some evidence of unexpected atmospheric electricity on Mars, researchers say that more specialized instruments and sensitive cameras would help confirm the initial findings.
Discovering Lightning on Mars
The work is a collaboration between the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Université de Toulouse, and the Observatoire de Paris (PSL), working alongside other international researchers.
The French researchers behind the discovery combed through 28 hours of microphone recordings Perseverance made over 1,374 Earth days. Their results indicated that the electromagnetic and acoustic signatures were similar to minor static electrical events on Earth. Researchers have previously theorized that the Martian atmosphere may host such electrical activity, but this is the first direct evidence.
Martian Dust Devils
Violent surface activity, particularly dust devils and dust storm fronts, was strongly correlated with electrical activity. Dust devils are whirlwinds of swirling dust, produced as hot air rises off the Martian surface. The swirling internal movements of these dirt twisters produce electrical discharges as friction develops between tiny dust particles charged with electrons. Electrical arcs several centimeters long, along with an audible shockwave, result from these interactions.
On Earth, dry regions, such as deserts, are most prone to producing static electricity. Mars features even more optimal conditions for producing static electricity than even Earth’s driest regions, as the thin carbon dioxide atmosphere allows sparks to form through much weaker charges than on our planet.
Understanding Mars
The team’s findings may have a substantial impact on our understanding of Martian habitability. Specifically, discovering this extent of atmospheric electrical activity alters our understanding of the Red Planet’s chemistry.

The atmospheric charge is strong enough to speed up the formation of highly oxidizing compounds, which can destroy organic compounds and strongly alter the atmosphere’s photochemical balance. One immediate implication is that this may finally explain the long-debated rapid loss of methane from the Martian atmosphere.
Mars’ climate dynamics are poorly understood at present. The team suggests that static electricity may be affecting dust movement, which would significantly affect Martian weather. Electricity could also pose a threat to electronic equipment on which current robotic and future crewed missions rely. Further supplemental research, aided by specialized instrumentation, will be required to deepen our understanding of Martian climate dynamics and support safe and reliable crewed landings in the future.
The paper, “Detection of Triboelectric Discharges During Dust Events on Mars,” appeared in Nature on November 26, 2025.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

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The Bolduc Brief: The United States’ Continued Mistakes in Bombing Drug Boats – A Call for Thoughtful Engagement

Military & Secret Tech / memoment editorial

In recent years, the United States has committed itself to confronting the multifaceted challenges posed by drug cartels, human trafficking, and weapons trafficking. However, a troubling trend has emerged: the militarized response to these issues, particularly in the form of bombing alleged drug boats. This strategy is fraught with contradictions and inconsistencies that not only undermine the United States’ credibility on the international stage but also raise significant legal and moral questions. As communication falters within the chain of command and operational decisions are made amid confusion, it is crucial to recognize the flaws in this approach and explore alternatives that prioritize legality and ethics.

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Philippines commissions its latest frigate, BRP Diego Silang

Military & Secret Tech / memoment editorial

The Philippine Navy commissioned its newest advanced frigate, BRP Diego Silang (FFG-07), on December 2nd, 2025. The event marks the Philippines’ latest effort to strengthen its presence in the contested South China Sea.

The BRP Diego Silang (FFG-07), named after an 18th-century Filipino revolutionary leader, is expected to boost maritime domain awareness in the West Philippine Sea, Manila’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea. The vessel was delivered by South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai to Subic Bay in September and underwent acceptance procedures before commissioning.

“This will add to the capital ships of the PN that (are) capable of patrolling all the way up to our EEZ and even beyond,” Philippine Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad said in a press briefing. “It will be the most modern warship that we will have.”

In his remarks at the ceremony, Defense Undersecretary for Acquisition and Resource Management Salvador Melchor Mison Jr. said the commissioning of the BRP Diego Silang reflects continued progress in the country’s military modernization.

“Diego Silang sends a clear message that the Philippines will keep investing in programs that bolster maritime domain awareness, strengthen deterrence, and reinforce our ability to uphold the rule of law,”Defense Undersecretary for Acquisition and Resource Management Salvador Melchor Mison Jr.

Department of National Defense (DND), Undersecretary for Acquisition and Resource Management (USARM), Salvador Melchor B. Mison, Jr., with Vice Admiral Jose Ma Ambrosio Q Ezpeleta PN, Flag Officer In Command, Philippine Navy, Rear Admiral Joe Anthony C Orbe PN, Commander, Philippine Fleet, Captain John Percie Alcos PN(GSC), Commanding Officer, BRP Diego Silang (FFG07), during the shipboard tour on December 2, 2025, at Naval Operating Base-Subic, Zambales. Philippine Navy picture.

The Diego Silang is the second ship in the Miguel Malvar-class of guided-missile frigates, part of two vessels ordered from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2021 for $554 million (P28 billion). Displacing 3,200 tons, the ships can reach speeds of up to 25 knots and sail 4,500 nautical miles. They are designed for multi-domain operations, including anti-surface, anti-air, anti-submarine, and electronic warfare missions.

The ships are armed with a 16-cell vertical launching system for VL MICA missiles, eight C-STAR anti-ship missile launchers, a Gökdeniz 35mm close-in weapon system, a 76mm main gun, two triple torpedo launchers, and an advanced AESA radar. The first ship-in-class, BRP Miguel Malvar (FFG-06), was commissioned in May 2025.

The Philippine Navy is also expecting six offshore patrol vessels from HD Hyundai under a separate $537 million (P30 billion) contract, with deliveries set to begin next year. The second ship, the future BRP Rajah Lakandula (PS-21), was launched in November at the Ulsan shipyard, following the launch of the first ship, BRP Rajah Sulayman, in June.

The Department of National Defense said in a procurement monitoring report last October that it is planning to acquire two additional frigates under a $585 million (P34 billion) contract, excluding ammunition and missiles.

The underfunded Philippine Navy is working to strengthen its capabilities to bolster maritime security and keep pace with regional counterparts. Trinidad said in the same briefing that 19 Chinese “frigates and destroyers of various types” were sighted in November encroaching into the West Philippine Sea, the portion of the South China Sea that China claims almost in its entirety.

The BRP Diego Silang (FFG-07), the Philippine Navy’s newest and most advanced guided-missile frigate, is commissioned into service during ceremonies in Subic Bay. PNP picture.

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The Download: AI’s impact on the economy, and DeepSeek strikes again

AI & Singularity / memoment editorial

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The State of AI: Welcome to the economic singularity —David Rotman and Richard Waters Any far-reaching new technology is always uneven in its adoption, but few have been more uneven than generative AI. That makes it hard to assess its likely impact on individual businesses, let alone on productivity across the economy as a whole.
At one extreme, AI coding assistants have revolutionized the work of software developers. At the other extreme, most companies are seeing little if any benefit from their initial investments. That has provided fuel for the skeptics who maintain that—by its very nature as a probabilistic technology prone to hallucinating—generative AI will never have a deep impact on business. To students of tech history, though, the lack of immediate impact is normal. Read the full story.
If you’re an MIT Technology Review subscriber, you can join David and Richard, alongside our editor in chief, Mat Honan, for an exclusive conversation digging into what’s happening across different markets live on Tuesday, December 9 at 1pm ET. Register here! The State of AI is our subscriber-only collaboration between the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review examining the ways in which AI is reshaping global power. Sign up to receive future editions every Monday. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 DeepSeek has unveiled two new experimental AI models DeepSeek-V3.2 is designed to match OpenAI’s GPT-5’s reasoning capabilities. (Bloomberg $)+ Here’s how DeepSeek slashes its models’ computational burden. (VentureBeat)+ It’s achieved these results despite its limited access to powerful chips. (SCMP $)2 OpenAI has issued a “code red” warning to its employeesIt’s a call to arms to improve ChatGPT, or risk being overtaken. (The Information $)+ Both Google and Anthropic are snapping at OpenAI’s heels. (FT $)+ Advertising and other initiatives will be pushed back to accommodate the new focus. (WSJ $)3 How to know when the AI bubble has burstThese are the signs to look out for. (Economist $)+ Things could get a whole lot worse for the economy if and when it pops. (Axios)+ We don’t really know how the AI investment surge is being financed. (The Guardian)4 Some US states are making it illegal for AI to discriminate against youCalifornia is the latest to give workers more power to fight algorithms. (WP $)5 This AI startup is working on a post-transformer futureTransformer architecture underpins the current AI boom—but Pathway is developing something new. (WSJ $)+ What the next frontier of AI could look like. (IEEE Spectrum) 6 India is demanding smartphone makers install a government appWhich privacy advocates say is unacceptable snooping. (FT $)+ India’s tech talent is looking for opportunities outside the US. (Rest of World) 7 College students are desperate to sign up for AI majorsAI is now the second-largest major at MIT behind computer science. (NYT $)+ AI’s giants want to take over the classroom. (MIT Technology Review)

8 America’s musical heritage is at serious riskMuch of it is stored on studio tapes, which are deteriorating over time. (NYT $)+ The race to save our online lives from a digital dark age. (MIT Technology Review) 9 Celebrities are increasingly turning on AIThat doesn’t stop fans from casting them in slop videos anyway. (The Verge)10 Samsung has revealed its first tri-folding phoneBut will people actually want to buy it? (Bloomberg $)+ It’ll cost more than $2,000 when it goes on sale in South Korea. (Reuters) Quote of the day “The Chinese will not pause. They will take over.” —Michael Lohscheller, chief executive of Swedish electric car maker Polestar, tells the Guardian why Europe should stick to its plan to ban the production of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035. One more thing
Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create fair welfare AIAmsterdam thought it was on the right track. City officials in the welfare department believed they could build technology that would prevent fraud while protecting citizens’ rights. They followed these emerging best practices and invested a vast amount of time and money in a project that eventually processed live welfare applications. But in their pilot, they found that the system they’d developed was still not fair and effective. Why?Lighthouse Reports, MIT Technology Review, and the Dutch newspaper Trouw have gained unprecedented access to the system to try to find out. Read about what we discovered. —Eileen Guo, Gabriel Geiger & Justin-Casimir Braun
We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + Hear me out: a truly great festive film doesn’t need to be about Christmas at all.+ Maybe we should judge a book by its cover after all.+ Happy birthday to Ms Britney Spears, still the princess of pop at 44!+ The fascinating psychology behind why we love travelling so much.

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Morning Brief: US Navy Admiral Karl Thomas Takes Command, Russian Tanker Hit in Black Sea, India Imposes Cyber App Mandate

Military & Secret Tech / memoment editorial

A fast-moving slate of defense and geopolitical developments is shaping the global picture this Tuesday morning, December 2, 2025. At A Glance: The US Navy shifts leadership as Admiral Karl Thomas takes command of Fleet Forces. The USS Nimitz edges toward the end of its storied career. Pratt & Whitney secures a major F-35 engine deal. Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail program hangs on through a congressional lifeline. A GAO review faults Pentagon Indo-Pacific budgeting, and Canada joins Europe’s massive SAFE defense fund. Washington and Moscow rattle nuclear-testing threats, Ukraine battles manpower strain, and a Russian tanker is hit in the Black Sea. Fresh West Bank violence flares, a UN report warns of an AI-driven inequality divide, India mandates a controversial cybersecurity app, and the Philippines accelerates its naval modernization.

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Save data by setting your background app refresh to Wi-Fi only

Space & Science / memoment editorial

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Background activity can drain your battery and use your mobile data without you seeing it happen. Apps refresh in the background to keep content updated, which helps you pick up where you left off. The downside is that this constant activity can strain your battery and burn through your data plan. The good news is that you can limit when apps refresh and choose to let them update only on Wi-Fi.We’ll walk you through how to switch Background App Refresh on iPhone to Wi-Fi only. You also get the Android steps so you can keep background activity in check on any device.Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide – free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM newsletter ADAPTIVE POWER IN IOS 26 BOOSTS IPHONE BATTERY LIFE Background App Refresh can drain battery and data by allowing apps to update when you’re not using them. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)Why this setting mattersApps that update behind the scenes use data and power even when you are not opening them. When you switch the feature to Wi-Fi only, you slow down that background drain. It helps save mobile data. It can also help extend battery life because apps refresh less often.What Background App Refresh doesBackground App Refresh lets apps update content while you use other apps or leave your phone locked. When you return to an app, it is already refreshed and ready. That convenience comes with a cost. Each refresh uses data and battery power. By limiting this feature to Wi-Fi, you keep apps updated without using your mobile plan.How to set Background App Refresh to Wi-Fi only on iPhoneFollow these steps:Open SettingsTap GeneralTap Background App RefreshTap Background App Refresh againSelect Wi-Fi to limit updates to Wi-Fi connectionsSTOP FOREIGN-OWNED APPS FROM HARVESTING YOUR PERSONAL DATA Switching Background App Refresh to Wi-Fi only helps iPhone users cut unnecessary data use. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)If you want to block background updates completely, choose Off in step 4. This stops apps from refreshing when you are not using them. It helps save battery, but it can delay updates when you open an app that needs new content before you can use it.How to limit background activity on AndroidAndroid does not use the exact name Background App Refresh, but it offers similar controls. You can restrict background data and background activity, which helps reduce data use and extend battery life.Limit background data per app on Android Settings may vary depending on your Android phone’s manufacturerOpen SettingsTap Network and Internet or Connections Tap Data usageTap Mobile data usageSelect an appTurn Background data off so the app updates only on Wi-FiLimit background activity for battery on Android Settings may vary depending on your Android phone’s manufacturerOpen SettingsTap BatteryTap Battery usageChoose an appTap Manage background activityTurn Allow background activity offUse Data Saver for extra control on AndroidSettings may vary depending on your Android phone’s manufacturerOpen SettingsTap Network and Internet or Connections Tap Data Saver, or you might have to first tap Data usage and then Data saverTurn the switch on to turn on Data Saver Data Saver blocks most apps from using background data unless you choose to allow them.5 HIDDEN BATTERY DRAINERS YOU CAN FIX RIGHT NOW Android users can restrict background data and activity to save battery and reduce mobile data consumption. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)Take my quiz: How safe is your online security?Think your devices and data are truly protected? Take this quick quiz to see where your digital habits stand. From passwords to Wi-Fi settings, you’ll get a personalized breakdown of what you’re doing right and what needs improvement. Take my Quiz here: Cyberguy.com CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APPKurt’s key takeawaysChanging background refresh settings is one of the fastest ways to protect your battery and data. With a few quick steps, your phone runs more efficiently, and your apps use fewer resources. Whether you use an iPhone or an Android device, these settings help put you back in control.What phone tips or frustrations should we look into for a future story? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.comSign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide – free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM newsletter Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.

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The International Space Station Marks 25 Years of Continuous Human Presence

Featured, Space & Science / memoment editorial

On Nov. 2, 2025, NASA honored 25 years of continuous human presence aboard the International Space Station. What began as a fragile framework of modules has evolved into a springboard for international cooperation, advanced scientific research and technology demonstrations, the development of a low Earth orbit economy, and NASA’s next great leaps in exploration, including crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. This legacy of achievement in global human endeavors began with the first crew’s arrival to the space station on Nov. 2, 2000. Expedition 1 crew members NASA astronaut William M. Shepherd and Russian Aviation and Space Agency, now Roscosmos, cosmonauts Yuri P. Gidzenko and Sergei K. Krikalev launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan two days prior. After a successful docking, the crew transferred aboard the station and began bringing it to life. Their primary tasks during their four-month mission included installing and activating the life support and communications systems and working with three visiting space shuttle crews to continue the station’s assembly. The trio returned to Earth in March 2001 aboard space shuttle Discovery, after having turned the station over to the Expedition 2 crew.

Assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station would not be possible without the skilled work of crew members performing intricate tasks, in bulky spacesuits, in the harsh environment of space. In addition to station upkeep, spacewalks provide a platform for testing and improving spacesuits and tools – critical information for future exploration of the Moon and Mars. Other spacewalks have included operations for scientific research. In Jan. 2025, for example, crew members collected samples for an investigation examining whether microorganisms have exited through station vents and can survive in space, to better inform spacecraft design that helps prevent human contamination of Mars and other destinations.
More than 270 spacewalks dedicated to the space station have been accomplished in the last quarter century. Several made station and human spaceflight history:

May 1999: NASA astronaut Tamara Jernigan became the first woman to complete a spacewalk at the space station, in support of its construction.

September 2000: Also during space station assembly, NASA astronaut Edward T. “Ed” Lu and Roscosmos cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko conducted the first U.S.-Russian spacewalk.

March 10, 2001: NASA astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms set the record for longest spacewalk in U.S. history, at 8 hours and 56 minutes.

First spacewalks by international partners included:

April 2001 – Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield

July 2005 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi

Aug. 2006 – European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter

Feb. 26, 2004: NASA astronaut Mike Foale and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Y. Kaleri complete the first spacewalk with no one inside the station.

Oct. 18, 2019: The first all-female spacewalk in history, conducted by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.

The International Space Station welcomed its first commercial crew members on May 31, 2020, when former NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley joined Expedition 63 Commander and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Behnken and Hurley lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida the day before on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight – the first launch of American astronauts from U.S. soil since the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011.
The duo quickly integrated with the rest of the crew and participated in a number of scientific experiments, spacewalks, and public engagement events during their 62 days aboard station. Overall, the pair spent 64 days in orbit, completed 1,024 orbits around Earth, and contributed more than 100 hours of time to supporting the orbiting laboratory’s investigations before splashing down on Aug. 2.
Successful completion of the Demo-2 mission paved the way for regular SpaceX flights carrying astronauts to and from the space station. With another certified crew transportation system in place, the International Space Station Program added research time and increased the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity’s testbed for exploration, including preparations for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.

On Sept. 27, 2023, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio returned to Earth after spending 371 days aboard the International Space Station—the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history. His mission surpassed the previous record of 355 days, set by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, and provided scientists with an unprecedented look at how the human body adapts to more than a year in microgravity.
Rubio’s record-setting mission supported six human research studies, including investigations into diet, exercise, and overall physiology and psychology. He was the first astronaut to test whether limited workout equipment could still maintain health and fitness, an important consideration for future spacecraft with tighter living quarters. He also contributed biological samples, surveys, and tests for NASA’s Spaceflight Standard Measures, a study that collects health data from astronauts to better understand how the body adapts to space—knowledge that helps prepare crews for the Artemis campaign to the Moon and future trips to Mars.
Alongside his fellow crew members, Rubio participated in dozens of investigations and technology demonstrations, from growing tomato plants with hydroponic and aeroponic techniques to materials science experiments that advance spacecraft design.
Long-duration missions help inform future spaceflight and lay the groundwork for the next era of human exploration.

The space station is one of the most ambitious international collaborations ever attempted. It brings together international flight crews, multiple launch vehicles, globally distributed launch and flight operations, training, engineering, and development facilities, communications networks, and the international scientific research community for the benefit of all humanity.
An international partnership of space agencies operates the elements of the orbiting laboratory: NASA, Roscosmos, ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Each partner takes primary responsibility for managing and running the station hardware it provides, as well as on-Earth construction, launch support, mission operations, communications, and research and technology facilities that support the station.
At least 290 individuals representing 26 countries, and the five international partners have visited the orbiting laboratory during its 25 years of continuous human presence. Some of those visitors flew to the station on private astronaut missions. These missions contribute to scientific, outreach, and commercial activities. They also help demonstrate the demand for future commercial space stations and are an important component of NASA’s strategy for enabling a robust and competitive commercial economy in low Earth orbit.
The results of the international partnership created through the space station and its accomplishments exemplifies how countries can work together to overcome complex challenges and achieve collaborative goals. 

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