Researchers in Vienna and Beijing have independently built the first nuclear clocks based on oscillations inside thorium nuclei, marking a major milestone for a field that could eventually produce highly portable, ultra-precise timekeepers. The clocks are already precise enough to lose only about a second over millions of years. The New York Times reports: The first nuclear clocks are not going to immediately supplant the worldwide network of atomic clocks, whose steady ticking we rely on for GPS and the definition of a second. Nor have they captured the record for most precise timepiece; the best atomic clocks are about 10,000 times more reliable and would take more than 100 billion years to lose one second.

But nuclear clocks hold a bevy of potential advantages over existing atomic clocks. One day, they could be more reliable than the leading atomic versions, and nuclear clocks could be made more portable. They even hold the ability to search for certain kinds of dark matter -- the invisible stuff whose clumps make up 83 percent of the matter in the universe. If a particle of dark matter passed through the thorium nuclei, it could register as a wobble in the nuclear clock's otherwise steady ticktock. The findings have been published in the journal Nature.

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De tussentijdse verkiezingen donderdag in het Londense kiesdistrict Holborn and St Pancras zijn gewonnen door Labour-kandidaat Sagal Abdi-Wali. Een fikse tegenvaller voor partijleider Zack Polanski van de Groenen, die zo niet zijn gehoopte plek in het Lagerhuis krijgt.

Een slaplant die gestrest is, kan snel doorschieten. Dan is-ie niet lekker meer. Welke slasoort kan hittestress het best verdragen? „Sla is nauwer verwant aan de paardebloem dan aan rucola.”

De acceptatie van homoseksualiteit daalt in een groot deel van het onderwijs. Vandaag, op Paarse Vrijdag, dragen duizenden leerlingen, studenten en docenten paarse kleding om…

India’s peak technology industry body, NASSCOM, has shrugged off changes to the USA’s skilled visa regime, and Microsoft has denied it abuses the program. The changes, announced on Thursday by US vice president JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, mean that Microsoft and Adobe can no longer use the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) program to convert holders of the H-1B visa for skilled workers to permanent residents. Sonderling also revoked access to PERM for Indian companies Infosys, Tata, Wipro, and HCL, plus Capgemini. The secretary said the change followed criminal investigations and alleged “fraud and abuse.” “Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost three million foreign workers,” he said. “They've received over 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. That's hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers.” Vice President Vance weighed in with what he called a “message to Microsoft.” “You’re a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers. You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.” Critics of the H-1B visa have often alleged that US companies use it to bring in foreign workers who are prepared to work for less than Americans. The theory even extends to an allegation that India’s outsourcers use H-1B visas to bring in workers whose main agenda is offshoring more work to India. Some observers suggest skilled workers have a secondary motivation of using their time in the US to seek visas for family members. Microsoft, whose CEO Satya Nadella once held an H-1B visa, and which has fired over 20,000 staff since early 2025, took issue with the administration’s decision in a strongly worded post. “Microsoft only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category,” the company wrote. “We pay our employees some of the highest compensation in the tech sector, and our wages are among the highest of all H-1B filings. We pay our H-1B employees the same as any other employees doing comparable work.” “Microsoft succeeds as a global technology leader by developing the world’s best technology workforce,” the company’s post continues. “We do this by strengthening this country’s talent pipeline, hiring American workers, and attracting the best talent from around the world.” That’s essentially the same argument used by NASSCOM, and Indian politicians such as minister of state Vardhan Singh, who last year said that “skilled talent mobility has long played a significant role in promoting technology advancement, innovation, economic growth, and wealth creation in both India and the United States.” NASSCOM, which has never found a reason to doubt that Indian tech companies are anything other than excellent corporate citizens, took to X to share its view that “immigration and skilled talent mobility are two distinct issues and should not be viewed through the same lens.” The lobby group also argued “Over a number of years, Indian technology companies have significantly reduced their dependence on H-1B visas, while steadily expanding local hiring and building a strong domestic workforce in the U.S.” “They work with majority of the US fortune 500 companies, enable them to innovate and grow, and generate more local jobs. Consequently, the number of employees transitioning from H-1B visas to permanent residency through the PERM process is also relatively limited.” Microsoft vowed to provide the Trump administration with more information about its migration initiatives. ®

NEW YORK (ANP/AFP) - Burgemeester Zohran Mamdani van New York gaat van de Amerikaanse president Donald Trump eisen dat immigratiedienst ICE alle handhavingsacties in de stad staakt. Dat schreef Mamdani donderdag op X, nadat ICE een man in New York zou hebben neergeschoten.

Volgens de politie werd een man neergeschoten tijdens een confrontatie met federale agenten in de Bronx. Media meldden dat ICE bij het incident was betrokken.

Volgens burgemeester Mamdani omsingelden agenten de man en een vijfjarig kind in een auto. Daarna losten ze schoten en raakte de man gewond. Het lijkt er volgens de burgemeester op dat het kind ongedeerd is gebleven.

Hij spreekt van een "onverantwoordelijke en ongelooflijk ernstige situatie". "Ik ga niet toekijken terwijl ICE-agenten onze gemeenschappen terroriseren." Mamdani wil dat ICE vertrekt uit de buurten, ziekenhuizen en straten. Hij eindigt zijn betoog met "Schaf ICE af".

Ook gouverneur Kathy Hochul van New York liet op X van zich horen. Ze wil dat de federale autoriteiten een "volledig en transparant verslag" leveren van de omstandigheden rond dit incident. "New Yorkers verdienen het om precies te weten wat er is gebeurd en waarom."

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Saudi Arabia has not commented on claims, but confirmed three killed in airport strikes earlier this week

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis say they have struck Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh ⁠airport with a ballistic missile, badly damaging a plane and leading some airlines to suspend flights to the capital.

The group provided no evidence, and Saudi Arabia did not immediately comment on the claim.

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Sagal Abdi-Wali defeats Green party leader Zack Polanski to retain the Holborn and St Pancras seat for Labour

Activists in Camden have suggested the Greens’ decision to back the anti-Zionism motion has cost them votes in the byelection.

Councillors for both Labour the Liberal Democrats told the Press Association that voters had informed them they would not be backing the Green party after it passed the motion last weekend calling Zionism racism.

It is clear now we will come a close second in this by-election. Taking the fight to Labour in one of its safest seats shows just how far the Greens have come.

Voters want us to keep Labour’s feet to the fire on affordable housing, public ownership of water and the climate crisis. Greens will be there every single day, holding Labour to account and demanding the change people voted for.

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Victory by Sagal Abdi-Wali in north London seat will be a relief for Andy Burnham in high-stakes battle for the left of British politics

Labour has won the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in a high-stakes battle for the left of British politics.

The byelection, called after the former prime minister Keir Starmer resigned the seat in September, was considered a two-horse race between the Labour candidate, Sagal Abdi-Wali, and the Green party leader, Zack Polanski. Abdi-Wali recieved 12,292 votes to Polanski’s 8,928.

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