On Saturday night, Ben Collins watched “Flow,” the Golden Globe-winning animated film about a cat that finds friendship as it tries to survive a flood. “Very beautiful movie,” Collins said. It left him feeling zen, like “maybe life is going to be OK, these are just the waves of life.” Five minutes after it ended, […]
This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters here Good morning and happy Friday. In today’s newsletter: China’s military is building a massive complex in western Beijing that US […]
The U.S. Navy’s Orca drone, also known as the Extra-Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV), has been in development for years, but will soon be in the hands of sailors as the sea service works to figure out how they will use the capability going forward. The Navy first ordered five of the semi-tractor trailer-sized submersible […]
At the end of last year, a farmer in eastern Turkey discovered a rare, largely intact late Roman mosaic while planting a cherry orchard. Spanning almost 1,000 square feet, the mosaic is thought by archaeologists to be the largest example of its kind unearthed in the country. Hidden for hundreds of years under 50 cm […]
A massive piece of space junk recently smashed into a village in Kenya. The 1,100-pound (500 kilograms) ring of metal likely came from a rocket, though its exact origins are still unknown, Kenyan officials say. Low-earth orbit is getting increasingly congested. There are currently more than 170 million pieces of debris wider than 0.004 inches […]
After a massive New Year’s Eve blackout, nearly all of Puerto Rico’s power has been restored — though the island is also projected to face power shortages later in the day on Thursday. LUMA, the company that manages electricity for the island, said that 99 percent of its customers had power as of Thursday morning.…
Antarctica is losing ice quickly, in part because of climate change. Massive calving events, such as the one that formed the Delaware-sized (5,800 square kilometers, or 2,239 square miles) A-68 iceberg in 2017, can destabilize ice shelves and capture the public’s attention. But the infrequency of extreme calving events makes it difficult for scientists to […]
Massive waves are pummeling the coasts of Ecuador and Peru. Massive waves of up to 13 feet (four meters) are pummeling the coasts of Ecuador and Peru, leaving scores of ports closed and at least one person dead on Saturday, authorities said. Jetties and public squares were submerged in some parts of Peru, sending residents […]
WASHINGTON — A ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said Friday. Biden administration officials said this month that at […]
Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U.S. presidential election, boosted by people seeking refuge from Elon Musk’s X, which they view as increasingly leaning too far to the right given its owner’s support of President-elect Donald Trump, or wanting an alternative to Meta’s Threads and its algorithms. The platform grew out of […]
