Germany’s intelligence chiefs issued stark warnings about Russian espionage and preparations for military conflict with NATO at a parliamentary hearing Monday Moscow’s willingness to use hybrid and covert measures has reached a “level previously unseen,” said Bruno Kahl the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service while also warning that “direct military confrontation with NATO has become an option for Moscow.” The Kremlin’s goal is to divide the West in order to hinder Europe’s ability to defend itself while bolstering the Russian military in preparation for a potential attack “Putin will continue to test the West’s red lines and further escalate the confrontation,” he said “The Russian armed forces will probably be in a position to launch an attack against NATO by the end of this decade at the latest.”  Kahl underscored that the Kremlin — which has been waging all-out war on neighboring Ukraine since February 2022 — is spending much more on its military than European countries do on theirs and is significantly bolstering its conventional forces in the strategic direction west along NATO’s eastern flank,” Kahl said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ultimate aim out of Europe” and to restore NATO boundaries of the late 1990s thereby creating a “Russian sphere of influence” and establishing a “new world order.” the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution — Germany’s domestic intelligence agency — said his agency is observing “aggressive behavior by the Russian intelligence services,” and that espionage and sabotage by Russian actors in Germany had increased “both quantitatively and qualitatively” with Russia even willing to “put human lives at risk.” Earlier this year, CNN reported that U.S and German intelligence authorities had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate the CEO of arms manufacturer Rheinmetall which has been manufacturing weapons that German authorities have sent to Ukraine Military spending surged last year in ways unseen since the Cold War Budapest has opened the door to using AI facial recognition to identify LGBTQ+ protestors Ukraine’s supporters promised a record new round of military aid MAGA’s biggest cheerleaders struggle to justify “Make America Wealthy Again” measures Germany's Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) President Bruno Kahl, in an interview with DW confirmed the country’s intention to continue cooperation with the US despite changes in US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy He also warned of possible aggression from Russia after the war in Ukraine ends Bruno Kahl said the country intends to continue its partnership with the US despite changes in Donald Trump’s foreign policy Kahl emphasized that Russia could try to test NATO’s collective security guarantees especially if the war in Ukraine comes to an end the end of the conflict could increase the likelihood of aggressive actions from Russia which would test Western unity and the effectiveness of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty He also pointed out that if the war in Ukraine ends by 2029-2030 Russia could become an even more serious threat to Europe It could concentrate its forces against European nations Kahl noted that Russia may use the period after the war to reorient its aggression Russia is attempting to restore the world order of the 1990s when its sphere of influence expanded westward and the US intended to withdraw its troops from Europe US President Donald Trump is considering the possibility of withdrawing around 35,000 US troops from Germany Such a move could further worsen relations between the US and Europe which are already under strain over security and defense issues Trump has become increasingly frustrated with Europe accusing the continent of "pushing for war." The president has repeatedly urged European nations to increase their defense spending instead of relying on US assistance He has also criticized NATO for failing to meet defense spending commitments which should amount to 2% of each member country’s GDP IPL 2025: Seven teams fighting for four spots  NEPA chief drums up support for Afghanistan’s participation at COP30 Over 250,000 Afghan refugees return home from Pakistan and Iran in April Harry Kane claims first career title as Bayern Munich win 34th Bundesliga title More than 40,000 tourists visited Panjshir in past six weeks: officials Israel may seize all Gaza in expanded operation Putin says Russia has the strength to finish Ukraine operation US court halts ruling ordering Voice of America employees back to work unclear if Trump will sign – Reuters Trump ousts White House national security adviser Waltz Iran’s foreign minister urges restraint in India Iran says it will strike back if US or Israel attack Pakistan diplomat warns of ‘nuclear response’ if India strikes Islamabad India bans imports from Pakistan amid tension over tourist killings Israel attacks target near Syrian presidential palace Tahawol: Economic activities in Afghanistan discussed Tahawol: Escalating tensions in the Middle East discussed Tahawol: Overview of Afghanistan’s media situation Tahawol: Shelter crisis amid historic migrant repatriation discussed Tahawol: Urban plan implementation in Kabul reviewed Chinese company keen to invest $50 million in automobile industry in Afghanistan Kyrgyzstan exports 25 million liters of petrol to Afghanistan in 2 months threatens secondary sanctions on purchasers Iran-Afghanistan trade conference held on sidelines of Iran Expo 2025 Afghanistan-India trade volume totalled $890 million in last solar year Afghanistan climb to No.7 in ICC ODI rankings IPL 2025: League boss says tournament could grow to 94-match format in 2028 Afghanistan A to play one-off Test against Sri Lanka A Patel and Mendis help Sunrisers beat Kings in Dhoni’s 400th T20 Sri Lanka A defeats Afghanistan A by 4 wickets in Abu Dhabi Did the US just get lured into war with the Houthis OPED: Is the West’s conscience being overshadowed by its political ego OPINION: The awful truth about growing up in Afghanistan Germany’s President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) says his organization is collecting information from Afghanistan which will aid the German federal government in deciding how to engage with the Islamic Emirate Kahl said: “This is a question for politicians to answer our duty is to gather critical information so the federal government can make informed decisions and that is exactly what we are doing in Afghanistan.” the deputy spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate Hamdullah Fitrat said that Afghanistan and Germany have historically maintained good relations and now seek to preserve these ties to secure the interests of both countries “Afghanistan wants good relations with all countries with whom we have a strong historical relationship Afghanistan desires to maintain this relation with Germany,” he said This comes after Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry declared visas and documents issued by over ten Afghan embassies and diplomatic missions in Europe invalid the consular documents from Afghanistan’s consulate in Munich Kabul Airport bombing suspect not a top-level planner of deadly attack: FBI UNAMA chief briefs Security Council on Afghanistan situation Afghanistan strengthens healthcare system through collaborations with UNDP and UNFPA Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans are comfortably placed With only 15 matches to go in the league stage of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) seven teams are still in contention to make it to the playoffs but no team has secured a place in the top four yet here’s what each of these seven teams needs to do to qualify have 16 points and has three matches still to play The washout between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Delhi Capitals (DC) means that Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are now only one win away from securing their place in the playoffs That’s because five teams can make it to 18 points only if at least a couple of teams get there due to two washouts Since the number of wins is the first tie-breaker for teams on equal points RCB will go through on the basis of nine wins They can also make the top four with 16 points if other results go their way two wins will not guarantee a top-two finish yet as three teams can still finish with 20 or more points The still have three matches to play – against Delhi Capitals Punjab Kings (PBKS) need to win a couple of games and move up to 19 points If they win each of their three remaining games they’ll be assured of a top-two finish Two of their three remaining games are against teams in the top five which makes those results extremely vital for PBKS MI have so far also played 11 matches and are sitting with 14 points They also still have three matches to play – against Gujarat Titans Mumbai Indians (MI) are undoubtedly the form team of the tournament at the moment Not only have they won six consecutive matches they have done so by convincing margins – four of those victories have been by either 50-plus runs or by more than 25 balls to spare That has helped lift their NRR to an enviable 1.274 A couple of wins will guarantee a place in the playoffs while 20 will likely ensure a top-two finish given their excellent NRR several other results will need to go in their favour since their three remaining games are against sides that are all in contention Three defeats will take all those teams above MI The Titans have played only 10 matches so far and are sitting with 14 points They have four matches still to play – against MI They have an excellent NRR of 0.867 – which is second only to MI’s Gujarat Titans also need at least a win to stay in contention while two wins will guarantee qualification they will be eliminated if they lose each of their four remaining games and stay on 14 with their last two games scheduled at home where they have a formidable 4-1 record so far this season Delhi Capitals have played 11 matches so far and have 13 points They have three matches still to play – against PBKS A lucky point against SRH halted a two-match losing sequence for DC and gave them a bit of a breather Fifteen points will push them into the top four only if several other results go in their favour while 17 could also place them at the mercy of other results – it’s still possible for six teams to finish on 17 or more points Wins in all three remaining matches will ensure qualification but that will require a huge reversal of form given that they have only won one of their last five matches KKR has also played 11 matches and have three to go Their three remaining matches are against CSK Fifteen points could give Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) an outside chance based on other results they’ll need 17 to stay in contention it could come down to other results and net run rates LSG have 11 matches ticked off and have 10 points in total They still need to play three matches – against RCB Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are also struggling for momentum The best they can do now is win their three remaining matches and hope that a couple of in-form teams suffer a sudden reversal of fortunes will see Match 56 play out at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai when Mumbai Indians will take on Gujarat Titans The match starts at 5:30 pm Kabul time and will be broadcast live and exclusively on Ariana Television across Afghanistan This comes after Khalis’ meeting last week with Kazakhstan’s Chargé d’Affaires where he also called for Afghanistan to be included in the year’s summit In a bid to garner support for Afghanistan’s inclusion in this year’s climate change summit the head of the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) this week met with Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Kabul Ilham Mammadov Khalis noted Azerbaijan had successfully hosted COP29 last year and urged Azerbaijan to support Afghanistan’s wish to actively participate in COP30 The two officials discussed the impact of climate change on their shared geographic area and Khalis emphasised the importance of enhancing bilateral cooperation in the field of environmental protection highlighted the importance of including Afghanistan in global climate processes and underscored the country’s vulnerability to climate change He noted the devastating impact of recent floods in Afghanistan and added that Azerbaijan is ready to share its expertise in renewable energy as it gradually phases out the use of fossil fuels Highlighting shared challenges and commonalities between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan Khalis called for enhanced bilateral cooperation in areas such as climate adaptation the resumption of stalled environmental projects in Afghanistan “Kazakhstan has valuable experience in these fields,” Khalis said “We can greatly benefit from their expertise in responding to climate change.” despite contributing minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions is among the countries most severely affected by climate change Khalis stressed that Afghan voices must be included in global climate discussions Chargé d’Affaires Akbasov reaffirmed Kazakhstan’s support for Afghanistan saying: “Our mission is to assist Afghanistan in humanitarian and infrastructure development We will strive to ensure Afghan voices are heard at international forums because climate change and environmental challenges are shared across the region and require collective action.” Afghanistan was invited as an observer to COP29 marking the first time the Islamic Emirate attended a climate summit since they regained power in 2021 The IEA government has been actively seeking to participate in COP summits arguing that their political isolation shouldn’t prevent them from engaging in international climate discussions Many refugees who have returned from Pakistan have had to leave mostly everything behind More than 250,000 Afghan refugees returned home from neighboring Pakistan and Iran in April the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported late Sunday who face an uncertain future with restrictions on education safe and dignified,” the UNHCR said in a post on X Nearly seven million Afghan refugees are living outside the country – a large percentage of whom live in Pakistan and Iran the Pakistani government said it would expel as many as three million Afghans this year Iran have also called on undocumented Afghans living in the country to return home with the high levels of poverty and unemployment in Afghanistan the returning refugees are in urgent need of assistance Transit camps have been set up at the border crossings to accommodate the return refugees have been striving to ease the return of the refugees as much as possible funding cuts in humanitarian assistance has had a huge impact on the level of assistance that organizations can provide the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned that an even deeper humanitarian crisis is looming in Afghanistan as tens of thousands of Afghan refugees return from neighbouring countries UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said that the agency urgently needs $71 million to assist those arriving home Baloch said these refugees face desperate conditions once in the country more than 251,000 Afghans returned in adverse circumstances from Iran and Pakistan He said the UNHCR continues to advocate with the governments of Iran and Pakistan that returns to Afghanistan must be voluntary “Forcing or putting pressure on Afghans to return is unsustainable and could destabilize the region,” he said “While UNHCR recognizes the many challenges – including economic pressures – facing these countries that have hosted millions of Afghans for decades we have also consistently shared our concerns that regardless of their legal status people forced to return to Afghanistan may encounter serious protection risks,” Baloch said more than 3.4 million Afghans have returned or been deported from Iran and Pakistan The UNHCR said such mass returns have strained the capacity of many provinces in Afghanistan and exacerbated the risk of further internal displacement The organization also warned that there has been new displacement into Iran and Pakistan and heightened risks of onward movements towards Europe Afghans became the largest group (41 percent) of irregular arrivals from the Asia-Pacific region into Europe US aid to Afghanistan in food and healthcare sectors also terminated: SIGAR Omari: Agricultural progress key to ending poverty in Afghanistan Russia to aid IEA in counter-Daesh efforts Pakistan allows 150 stranded Afghan cargo trucks to deliver goods to India China occupies Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan: Trump either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content With warnings swirling over a possible war with Russia in a matter of years, NATO's European members have already started laying the groundwork for defenses should Russian troops set foot on alliance soil "Russia is preparing for a war with the West," Bruno Kahl the head of Germany's foreign intelligence service But it's not likely to be a large-scale attack into NATO territory Moscow could opt for a limited incursion or upping its hybrid warfare tactics to probe the alliance's conviction NATO is trying to prepare for both scenarios: an all-out war and less obvious techniques designed to undermine stability in the alliance's member countries "There are multiple options for Russia to test the cohesion of the alliance," including limited land grabs the former head of NATO's Multinational Corps Northeast based in northwest Poland Lieutenant General Jürgen-Joachim von Sandrart told Newsweek just before leaving his post in November Estonia's foreign intelligence service warned in February NATO "could face a Soviet-style mass army in the next decade" if Russia successfully reforms its military The army would be "technologically inferior" to NATO forces in areas other than electronic warfare and long-range strikes but its "military potential would be significant." then that is the time for us to properly prepare "This means we have to take quick decisions The main catalyst is Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine prompting Sweden and Finland to abandon their long-held policies of non-alignment and join NATO lengthening Russia's border with the alliance NATO is now battling to raise defense spending up and beyond the two percent of GDP requested—but not enforced—by the alliance Many countries have historically fallen far short of this benchmark in the decades since the end of the Cold War But times are changing. European nations have pledged to meet or exceed the target, and officials and experts broadly expect the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump to double down on pressure on Europe to increase military spending further The countries snaking along NATO's eastern flank are way ahead How quickly Europe will be able to pull up spending and prop up the companies producing more equipment said in late last November that businesses "need to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly." "While it may be the military who wins battles it's the economies that win wars." Bauer said there are visible signs of preparations across Europe particularly striking in the countries closest to Russia's borders Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said in July that NATO was "not ready now" for a possible war with Russia but that they "will be ready" in the future "They are already preparing for a conflict with the Russian Federation and are preparing much faster than some people would like to see in every sense," he told Serbian television in remarks reported by Russian state media they are preparing for a military conflict," Vučić said Germany has started putting together plans for how Berlin would would shield important buildings and installations in the event of an attack and how Germany would be a conduit for hundreds of thousands of soldiers heading further east in Europe labeled "Operationsplan Deutschland," is 1,000 pages long The three Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia signed an agreement back in January this year to beef up protection along their land borders with Russia and Belarus and the Kremlin used Belarusian territory to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 The country also links Russia with its isolated Kaliningrad exclave sandwiched between NATO members Poland and Lithuania "We are undertaking this effort so that the people of Estonia can feel safe we would be ready for various developments more promptly," said Estonia's defense minister Tallinn said there would be a "network of bunkers support points and distribution lines" along the border Lithuania's defense ministry said in early September that it had "set up a blockade" on and near the bridge in Panemunė the Lithuanian border settlement that connects the NATO country with Kaliningrad Dragon's teeth are concrete blocks used to halt tank advances and prevent mechanized infantry from gaining territory. This type of anti-tank fortification has littered Ukraine "This is a precautionary step to ensure more effective defense," Lithuania's government said The Latvian government has said around €303 million ($318 million) will be funneled into building up defenses on its eastern border with Russia over five years There will be outposts for support personnel anti-tank trenches and storage dumps for ammunition and mines "We will be able to slow down and block the movement of potential aggressors more efficiently," Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds said in a statement in January Riga said that obstacles designed to hamper military movements were now being "procured and transported to temporary storage areas near Latvia's eastern border." Russia lies to the east of Latvia Estonia's ERR broadcaster reported in October that the Latvian military was testing barriers making up the Baltic Defense Line said the military had used a T-55 tank to "simulate conditions similar to those our eastern neighbors might present." The T-55 is a Soviet-era main battle tank "The anti-tank barriers held up well," Lazdinš told the broadcaster adding: "The concrete blocks successfully protected people and infrastructure from direct fire." Poland has started construction of what it has called its "East Shield," costing over $2.5 billion and described by Warsaw as "the largest operation to strengthen Poland's eastern border Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk visited the Polish border with Kaliningrad over the weekend to inspect fortifications being built on Warsaw's territory "Poland's investments have been a mix of building up both defensive capabilities and offensive capabilities designed to deter Russia by convincing them that any attack would fail to achieve its objectives and come at very high cost," said William Freer a research fellow in national security at the U.K.-based think tank "Poland's 'East Shield' fortifications build on the lessons of the fighting in Ukraine which have shown how hard it is to push through heavily entrenched defenders," Freer told Newsweek "In combination with traditional fortifications such as dragon's teeth East Shield will make use of a suite of electronic warfare and surveillance systems." published a brochure it said helped the country's residents to "learn how to prepare for in case of crisis or war." The pamphlet outlines what a heightened state of alert would mean how each inhabitant would pitch in to a war-time effort "Military threat levels are increasing," the leaflet warns the Scandinavian country's citizens "We must be prepared for the worst-case scenario—an armed attack on Sweden." has published a leaflet on how to deal with "extreme weather sabotage—and in the worst case acts of war." Finland has publicly-available guides on how it prepares for "the worst possible threat said in September that each of the country's local authorities had to quickly draw up evacuation plans that are "ready" to be put in motion "It is important to note that we are at the forefront, so today civil defense has become a priority on our agenda," Bilotaitė said The Lithuanian minister has urged neighbouring countries to do the same Latvian Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis said in September that the Baltic state had roughly 5,000 underground buildings that Riga hoped to have "ready for use as shelters by November." Bilotaitė said in October that Vilnius would spend €12 billion in 2025 to install and upgrade shelters we could shelter two cities like Vilnius underground," Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas said in remarks reported by domestic media Germany's government has also said it is putting together a list of bomb shelters that will be available for citizens to see where their closest shelter is the Baltic states also stressed the need they felt to build up NATO air defenses on the eastern flank said in November that Budapest will place an air defense system in the northeastern region of the country "We still trust that there will be peace as soon as possible through diplomacy instead of a military solution," Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in a video address I ordered the recently purchased air control and air defense systems and the capabilities built on them to be installed in the northeast." Europe has a chronic shortage of air defenses although military and political officials have swerved providing specifics have significantly upped defense investment "It is no coincidence that the greatest increases in defense spending in NATO are coming from those closest to Russia," Freer said other allies are acting with less urgency and have proven far less willing to increase investment at the same level." was in a "slightly weaker" position than many countries closer to Russian soil "We don't have some of the civil aspects or planning aspects that other countries within NATO have as part of their traditions," Radakin said has committed to increasing defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP France is on course to hit the NATO target of 2 percent this year Estonia's defense spending is hovering at around 3.4 percent of its GDP with plans to hike this to 3.7 percent by 2026 Lithuania said in March it would raise defense spending to 3 percent from 2025 and its defense minister has floated hitting 4 percent to finance new long-range air defenses and other equipment Poland has said it will spend 5 percent of its GDP on the military in 2025 Western European countries are taking "some meaningful steps," Freer added Countries in the alliance are looking at how to improve NATO's integrated air and missile defense capabilities pulling lessons from Russia's hammering of Ukraine Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all BERLIN — High-ranking officials in Russia's defense ministry doubt whether NATO countries would adhere to the "mutual defense" clause enshrined in the NATO Treaty if an ally was attacked according to the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service While a large-scale attack on a NATO country is not expected, Moscow could, for example, stage a limited intervention under the pretext of protecting Russian minorities The idea would be to test NATO's resolve to invoke Article 5 of the treaty which obliges alliance members to provide assistance in case of an attack on another NATO country "But if such views gain the upper hand in the government headquarters in Moscow the risk of a military conflict will grow in the coming years,” he said “From Russia's point of view, [success] would be achieved if Article 5 had no effect in the event of an attack,” Kahl added NATO’s Article 5 clause is a major safeguard especially for more vulnerable countries like the Baltics that the United States would intervene with all its military power if Russia attacked — acting as a powerful deterrent But there have been growing worries in Europe over the reliability of the decades-old U.S. commitment to European security too. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he would "encourage" Russia to attack any NATO member country that didn’t meet its financial obligations to the defense alliance be in a position to launch an attack against NATO by the end of the decade adding that Russia's focus would “certainly not be on a large-scale land grab” but rather on creating a split inside NATO Kahl also warned about Russian interference in the run-up to Germany’s snap election planned for Feb The Kremlin’s aim is to stir up social conflicts by analyzing issues such as climate politics in detail which are then “naively parroted” by the right and left fringes of the political spectrum in Germany In a separate diplomatic rift, Moscow on Wednesday expelled two journalists from Germany’s public broadcaster ARD in response to German moves against reporters from Russia. That led the foreign ministry in Berlin to summon the Russian ambassador on Thursday The conservative leader’s wafer-thin majority is exposed after failing to get parliamentary support This failure is unprecedented in Germany’s postwar history Friedrich Merz presides over a coalition of crumbling mainstream parties Germany’s junior coalition partner hands key ministries to familiar faces — and springs a few surprises Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker It’s as relevant to an artist or musician as it is to a scientist or business executive On Sunday, April 7, the University of Rhode Island will showcase 10 presenters who are using big ideas to promote innovation in a wide range of fields – from health care and inclusive music education, to energy and technology – with “TEDxURI 2024: Innovation.” The event starts at 2 p.m. in Edwards Hall, 64 Upper College Road, Kingston. For tickets, go to the event webpage a teacher of classical guitar at URI and founder and director of the popular URI Guitar Festival “is the art of sculpting tomorrow’s possibilities from the raw clay of today’s limitations daring to blend imagination with ingenuity to forge pathways where none existed before.” While innovation is vital to Levin’s career as a performer who has reached the Billboard classical charts with several albums it is also prominent in his work to spread a love of music will focus on his work with the Kithara Project a non-profit he co-founded that is redefining access to classical guitar education the initiative offers tuition-free group and individual classical guitar lessons as well as cultural exchange activities to connect the guitar programs “The organization is breaking down barriers and making classical guitar education more inclusive and accessible,” says Levin “This innovative approach not only expands opportunities for aspiring musicians but it enriches cultural diversity and promotes social inclusion through the power of music.” a URI doctoral student in supply chain management from Cumberland sees an urgency in harnessing innovation to foster sustainability in the face of climate change along with using its ability to revolutionize the arts and social sciences he will discuss how generative artificial intelligence can improve the ability to connect knowledge acquired through academics and research with practice “Innovation involves creativity and a willingness to challenge the status quo,” Dubois says the domain is very concerned with innovative practices to improve operational effectiveness within commerce innovation contains so many dimensions around creativity and ensuring that a person doesn’t put walls around themselves or ideas Openness to diversity and a support of imagination can lead to incredible things.” innovation resonates in wide and intimate ways She says it can mean creating seminal ideas to improve a product process or community—or to improve herself “I try to innovate my everyday life every now and then by implementing a new approach into my behavior,” says Herbst who is pursuing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and finishing a Master of Science degree from URI and the Technical University Darmstadt in Germany creating new ways and perspectives and implementing them are crucial to staying curious and open-minded.”  who is also seeking a double master’s degree from URI and TU Darmstadt and helped organize TEDxTU Vad will discuss promoting hydrogen as a future energy storage solution “It’s a story of enormous potential,” he says this can also lead to overzealous and hasty commitments without taking all the facts into account The innovation I present really is the future innovation enabled through our research.” Additional TEDxURI presenters for Sunday’s event are: is the founder and president of What Fray Was Here?: Social Justice Shakespeare and the co-composer and playwright of the hip-hop adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet.” senior director of innovation at DEPT Digital Products was recognized by CNET in 2016 as one of the most influential Latinos in technology With a belief that technology should serve a purpose beyond functionality he is dedicated to pioneering an approach to innovation that prioritizes empathy I will share how play makes life better,” he says “Using the power of play in our daily experiences enables us to innovate ultimately leading to a more fulfilling life.” designer and consultant with a focus on whole systems design and ethnoecology from Occidental eco-resilient design offers a new perspective on social and environmental health and adaptability,” he says It provides an understanding of whole systems design and the interconnectedness of systems It provides answers and solutions that can be integrated into our lives.” a URI senior double majoring in data science and business innovation and entrepreneurship from Concord will explore the journey from creative idea to innovative action From starting a business when she was young through her major in business innovation at URI she has always been passionate about innovation “Innovation is important because it takes ideas out of our heads and puts them into the real world,” Jones says “Innovating and putting an idea into action is like testing a hypothesis You never know what will happen unless you test it out.” a URI doctor of pharmacy student from Houston is an innovation and entrepreneurship intern with the URI Research Foundation where he supports students with ideas to improve health outcomes and impact society Njeru will use symbol of a bridge – similar to the one he crossed during a global health study aboard trip to Costa Rica – to show how people’s inner-conviction resourcefulness and willingness to improve are foundations for innovation we all encounter obstacles hindering us from our potential,” says Njeru “Innovation helps to overcome these constraints It begins with an idea and a willingness to carry it forward.” is pursuing a doctor of pharmacy degree and a master’s degree in health outcomes along with serving as URI’s student body president who will speak on “Breaking the cycle: Innovating beyond ideas,” also takes part in groundbreaking research providing crucial clinical data for patients with rare diseases while leading the develop of an innovative AI-driven health care application self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience where x = independently organized TED event TED Talks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program Copyright © 2025 University of Rhode Island | University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881, USA | 1.401.874.1000 URI is an equal opportunity employer committed to the principles of affirmative action. had for months been providing Internet access across Ukraine allowing the country’s forces to plan attacks and to defend themselves the forces had found their connectivity severed as they entered territory contested by Russia SpaceX had recently given the Pentagon an ultimatum: if it didn’t assume the cost of providing service in Ukraine which the company calculated at some four hundred million dollars annually “We started to get a little panicked,” the senior defense official one of four who described the standoff to me Musk “could turn it off at any given moment And that would have real operational impact for the Ukrainians.” but in this situation that was an advantage: although a nationwide network of dishes was required it would be difficult for Russia to completely dismantle Ukrainian connectivity Three people involved in bringing Starlink to Ukraine all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they worried that Musk told me that they originally overlooked the significance of his personal control “Nobody thought about it back then,” one of them fund-raising in Silicon Valley’s Ukrainian community Agency for International Development and with European governments and pro-bono contributions from SpaceX facilitated the transfer of thousands of Starlink units to Ukraine A soldier in Ukraine’s signal corps who was responsible for maintaining Starlink access on the front lines and who asked to be identified only by his first name “It’s the essential backbone of communication on the battlefield.” “My followers expect higher-quality vacation content than this.”Cartoon by Emily FlakeCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copied “We had a whole series of meetings internal to the department to try to figure out what we could do about this.” Musk’s singular role presented unfamiliar challenges as did the government’s role as intermediary “It wasn’t like we could hold him in breach of contract or something,” the official continued The Pentagon would need to reach a contractual arrangement with SpaceX so that Musk “couldn’t wake up one morning and just decide he didn’t want to do this anymore.” Kahl added “It was kind of a way for us to lock in services across Ukraine It could at least prevent Musk from turning off the switch altogether.” such a negotiation would be handled by the Pentagon’s acquisitions department But Musk had become more than just a vender like Boeing According to unclassified talking points for the call he thanked Musk for his efforts in Ukraine acknowledged the steep costs he’d incurred and pleaded for even a few weeks to devise a contract it doesn’t end the war,” Kahl recalled telling Musk “My inference was that he was getting nervous that Starlink’s involvement was increasingly seen in Russia as enabling the Ukrainian war effort and was looking for a way to placate Russian concerns,” Kahl told me Musk volunteered that he had spoken with Putin personally Another individual told me that Musk had made the same assertion in the weeks before he tweeted his pro-Russia peace plan and had said that his consultations with the Kremlin were regular (Musk later denied having spoken with Putin about Ukraine.) On the phone Musk said that he was looking at his laptop and could see “the entire war unfolding” through a map of Starlink activity I had this great conversation with Putin,’ ” the senior defense official told me this is not good.’ ” Musk told Kahl that the vivid illustration of how technology he had designed for peaceful ends was being used to wage war gave him pause Musk agreed to give the Pentagon more time after public blowback and with evident annoyance walked back his threats to cut off service “Even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $ we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.” This June the Department of Defense announced that it had reached a deal with SpaceX The meddling of oligarchs and other monied interests in the fate of nations is not new Morgan lent vast sums to the Allied powers; afterward poured money into the fledgling League of Nations The investor George Soros’s Open Society Foundations underwrote civil-society reform in post-Soviet Europe and the casino mogul Sheldon Adelson funded right-wing media in Israel as part of his support of Benjamin Netanyahu The automaker has seeded so much of the country with its proprietary charging stations that the Biden Administration relaxed an early push for a universal charging standard disliked by Musk His stations are eligible for billions of dollars in subsidies so long as Tesla makes them compatible with the other charging standard against a backdrop of crumbling infrastructure and declining trust in institutions Musk has sought out business opportunities in crucial areas where but struggles to respond to his risk-taking and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration told me that Musk’s influence had become inescapable in their work and several of them said that they now treat him like a sort of unelected official One Pentagon spokesman said that he was keeping Musk apprised of my inquiries about his role in Ukraine and would grant an interview with an official about the matter only with Musk’s permission “We’ll talk to you if Elon wants us to,” he told me Musk was asked whether he has more influence than the American government “In some ways.” Reid Hoffman told me that Musk’s attitude is “like Louis XIV: ‘L’état But the nature and the scope of his power are less widely understood More than thirty of Musk’s current and former colleagues in various industries and a dozen individuals in his personal life spoke to me about their experiences with him. Sam Altman with whom Musk has both worked and sparred “Elon desperately wants the world to be saved But only if he can be the one to save it.” The terms of the Starlink deal have not been made public Ukrainian officials say that they have not faced further service interruptions But Musk has continued to express ambivalence about how the technology is being used “We will not enable escalation of conflict that may lead to WW3.” He said that he was sincerely attempting to navigate the moral dilemmas of his role: “We’re trying hard to do the right thing where the ‘right thing’ is an extremely difficult moral question.” he responded to questions about China’s efforts to assert control over Taiwan by floating another peace plan could become a jointly controlled administrative zone an outcome that Taiwanese leaders see as ending the country’s independence Musk was welcomed with what Reuters summarized as “flattery and feasts.” He met with senior officials and posed for the kinds of awkwardly smiling formal photos that are more typical of world leaders “ ‘Ram them.’ That’s your suggestion for everything.”Cartoon by John KlossnerCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copied Musk has said that he has Asperger’s syndrome a form of what is now known as autism-spectrum disorder which is characterized by difficulty with social interactions he would sometimes fall into trancelike states of deep thought during which he was so unresponsive that his mother eventually took him to a doctor to check his hearing Musk’s quiet side persists—in my own interactions with him I have found him to be thoughtful and measured (Musk declined to answer questions for this story.) He can also be as he joked during a stilted “Saturday Night Live” monologue Musk escaped into science fiction and video games was video games,” he said at a gaming-industry convention several years ago Musk coded an eight-bit shooter game in the style of Space Invaders called Blastar Musk.” The premise was basic: “MISSION: DESTROY ALIEN FREIGHTER CARRYING DEADLY HYDROGEN BOMBS AND STATUS BEAM MACHINES.” But it won recognition from a South African trade magazine which published the game’s hundred and sixty-seven lines of code and paid Musk a small sum and for a while he changed his Twitter profile picture to an image of the protagonist of the game which turns on a manufactured plague designed to control the masses like “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” is a fundamentally anti-capitalist text in which the plague is the culmination of unrestrained corporate power and the villain is the world’s richest man a media-darling tech entrepreneur with global aspirations and political leaders under his control Musk stood outside his Bay Area home to accept the delivery of a million-dollar McLaren F1 sports car “Some could interpret purchasing this car as behavior characteristic of an imperialist brat,” he told a CNN news crew saying that there were only about sixty such cars in the world “but I’m not consciously aware of my values having changed.” Musk’s fiancée That we lose a sense of appreciation and perspective.” The McLaren Musk had moved to Canada when he was in his late teens and met Wilson when they both attended Queen’s University He later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania graduating with degrees in economics and physics he and Kimbal founded a company that came to be called Zip2 an online city directory that they sold to newspapers Musk has often described the company’s humble origins saying that he and his brother lived and worked in a small studio apartment (Errol at one point gave his sons twenty-eight thousand dollars who has a tendency to fuss over questions of credit has stated that his father’s contribution came “much later,” in a round of funding that “would’ve happened anyway.”) At Zip2 Musk developed what he describes as his “hard-core” work style; even after he had his own apartment the company’s investors stripped him of his leadership role and installed a more experienced chief executive Musk believed that the startup should have been targeting not just newspapers but consumers Investors pursued a more modest vision instead Zip2 was sold to Compaq for three hundred and seven million dollars earning Musk more than twenty million dollars “I am the alpha in this relationship.” A messy divorce ensued leading to a legal dispute over their postnuptial financial agreement “He had grown up in the male-dominated culture of South Africa,” Justine wrote “The will to compete and dominate that made him so successful in business did not magically shut off when he came home.” (Musk wrote a response to Justine’s account in Business Insider but he did not address Justine’s characterizations of his behavior.) In events that have since become Silicon Valley lore Musk and Thiel battled for control of the company Various accounts apportion blame differently citing the story as an example of Musk’s disingenuousness that Musk had pushed for the merger by highlighting the leadership of his company’s seasoned executive only to force out the executive and place himself in the top role ‘I was lying to you intensely while we were dating let me tell you about the herpes.’ ” People who have worked with Musk often describe him as controlling he has a very hard time sharing the spotlight or not being the center of attention.” In the fall of 2000 executed while Musk was on a long-delayed honeymoon with Justine overthrew Musk and installed Thiel as the company’s head Perhaps the most revealing moment in the PayPal saga happened at its outset an artery that cuts through Silicon Valley and sent the car airborne and spinning before it slammed back onto the pavement blowing out its suspension and its windows Musk’s critics have used the story to illustrate his reckless showboating but it also underscores how often Musk has been rewarded for that behavior: he repaired the McLaren asked whether there were parallels with his approach to building companies “I hope not.” Appearing to consider the idea that could be awkward with a rocket launch.” SpaceX may be the one that most fundamentally reflects his appetite for risk spent December of 2020 preparing for the launch of a rocket known as SN8 then the newest prototype in the company’s Starship program which it hopes will eventually transport humans to orbit in the mission Musk speaks about with the most passion had approved an initial launch date for the rocket But an engine issue forced SpaceX to delay by a day according to its model of the wind’s speed and direction if the rocket exploded it could create a blast wave that risked damaging the windows of nearby houses with SpaceX presenting its own modelling to establish that the launch was safe then the head of the agency’s space division was leaving an event at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station when he received a frustrated call from Musk “You’re not cleared to launch.” Musk acknowledged the order Cartoon by Maggie LarsonCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copied “I had no more money left,” Musk told Bridenstine “We managed to put together enough spare parts to do a fourth launch.” Had that failed “SpaceX would have died.” The launch was successful and NASA soon awarded SpaceX a $1.6-billion contract to resupply the International Space Station the company flew its first manned mission there—ending nearly a decade of American reliance on Russian craft for the task SpaceX now launches more satellites than any other private company with four thousand five hundred and nineteen in orbit as of July “Once the carrying capacity of an orbit is maxed out you’ve basically blocked everyone from trying to compete in that market,” Bridenstine told me There are competitors in the field including Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic The new space race has the potential to shape the global balance of power Satellites enable the navigation of drones and missiles and generate imagery used for intelligence and they are mostly under the control of private companies government is in massive catch-up to build a more resilient space architecture,” Kahl “And that only works if you can leverage the explosion of commercial space.” Several officials told me that they were alarmed by NASA’s reliance on SpaceX for essential services “There is only one thing worse than a government monopoly And that is a private monopoly that the government is dependent on,” Bridenstine said “I do worry that we have put all of our eggs into one basket Even Musk’s critics concede that his tendency to push against constraints has helped catalyze SpaceX’s success A number of officials suggested to me that despite the tensions related to the company it has made government bureaucracies nimbler we work closer to optimal speed,” Kenneth Bowersox NASA’s associate administrator for space operations even ones who think that Musk’s rockets are basically safe fear that concentrating so much power in private companies progress will be thwarted when there’s an accident and people won’t be confident in the capabilities commercial companies have,” Bridenstine said we just saw this submersible going down to visit the Titanic implode I think we have to think about the non-regulatory environment as sometimes hurting the industry more than the regulatory environment.” then the deputy administrator of the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration learned that potentially tens of thousands of Tesla vehicles had a feature that he found concerning Tesla has been working to create a totally self-driving car Now Cliff was told that a version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software an experimental feature that lets the cars navigate with little intervention from a driver a surprising conversation about safety and artificial intelligence played out “you should not be able to program a computer to break the law for you.” They demanded that Tesla update all the affected cars “There was a lot of back-and-forth,” Cliff told me they blinked and ended up recalling the rolling-stop feature.” (Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.) (He has spent years defending the formative nature of his role and was eventually one of several people granted permission to use the term “co-founder.”) Musk was again entering a market bound by entrenched private interests and stringent regulation which opened him up to more clashes with regulators Tesla for a time included in its vehicles the ability to replace the humming noises that electric cars must emit—since their engines make little sound—with goat bleats Tesla argued with regulators for more than a year “It’s a little like Mom and Dad and children How far can I push Mom and Dad until they push back?” Cliff said “And that’s not a recipe for a strong safety culture.” which were first reported by the Washington Post have shown an uptick in accidents—and fatalities—involving Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Tesla has been secretive about the specifics told me that the company instructed the agency to redact specifics about whether driver-assistance software was in use during crashes regulators must abide by such requests for confidentiality unless they decide to contest them in court.) Pete Buttigieg recently said that there were “concerns” about the marketing of Autopilot Cliff told me he had seen data that showed Teslas were involved in “a disproportionate number of crashes involving emergency vehicles,” though he said that the agency had not yet determined whether the technology or the human drivers was the cause Officials who have worked at OSHA and at an equivalent California agency told me that Musk’s influence which is urgently trying to reduce reliance on fossil fuels has concluded that it needs to work with Musk because of his dominant position in the electric-car market And Musk’s personal wealth dwarfs the entire budget of OSHA which is tasked with monitoring the conditions in his workplaces “You add on the fact that he considers himself to be a master of the universe and these rules just don’t apply to people like him,” Jordan Barab a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor at OSHA “There’s a lot of underreporting in industry in general And Elon Musk kind of seems to raise that to an art form.” Garrett Brown a former field-compliance inspector at California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health “We have a bad health-and-safety situation throughout the country And it’s worse in companies run by people like Elon Musk who was ideologically opposed to the idea of government enforcement of public-health regulations.” telling them that he intended to violate orders and show up at work and downplaying the significance of COVID-19 he lost an initial fight to keep a factory in Alameda County—Tesla’s most productive in the U.S.—open after county officials extended shelter-in-place orders Musk was on a conference call with outside financial analysts to an extent that would have been uncharacteristic just a few years earlier “I would call it forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all of their constitutional rights,” he told the analysts Give people back their goddam freedom.” The pandemic seems to have sparked a pronounced shift in Musk The lockdowns represented an example of what Hoffman told me Musk considered to be a cardinal sin: “getting in the way of the mission.” threatening to file suit against Alameda County and to flout the rules and reopen his factory The county essentially rubber-stamped the reopening soon afterward—a far cry from what Musk had invited “I will be on the line with everyone else,” he had tweeted or center.” He has said that he donated to Hillary Clinton the more radical perspective that characterized his diatribes about Covid has come to the fore Twitter restricted the account of the satirical Web site the Babylon Bee after the site misgendered a government official in texts later disclosed during the Twitter-acquisition process Musk’s contact “TJ” (identified by Bloomberg as his ex-wife Talulah Riley) expressed frustration with the development and urged him to purchase Twitter to “fight woke-ism.” The following week Musk polled his followers about whether Twitter respected free speech and in a phone call to the Babylon Bee’s C.E.O. he offered forty-four billion dollars for the company and in October he assumed control of the company the husband of the former Speaker of the House had followed a meeting with a male prostitute and retweeted suggestions that reports accurately identifying a mass shooter as a white supremacist were a “psyop.” Some people who know Musk well still struggle to make sense of his political shift “There was nothing political about him ever,” a close associate told me and had lots of deep conversations with the man at all hours of the day—never heard a fucking word about this.” reducing the number of employees by about fifty per cent His department was responsible for determining Twitter’s rules; during the Trump Administration After the company began rolling out a new fact-checking policy that labelled two of Trump’s tweets as misinformation went on “Fox & Friends” and read out Roth’s full name and spelled his username “He’s about to get more followers.” Trump then held up a New York Post cover mocking Roth and Twitter users began recirculating tweets that Roth had written criticizing conservative candidates But when Musk took over he resisted calls to fire Roth but I want to be clear that I support Yoel,” he tweeted in October and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.” That evening he followed up with a screenshot of a tweet from Roth that described Mitch McConnell as “a bag of farts.” Musk added Cartoon by David OstowCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copied Musk replied to a Twitter user surfacing a 2010 tweet from Roth in which he’d shared a link to a Salon article about a teacher’s being charged with having sex with an eighteen-year-old student and asked “Can high school students ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers?” “That explains a lot,” Musk tweeted in reply he posted an image showing a portion of Roth’s doctoral dissertation which focussed on the gay-hookup app Grindr and its user data Roth argued that such platforms will inevitably be used by people under eighteen so they should do more to keep those individuals safe “Looks like Yoel is in favor of children being able to access adult internet services,” Musk wrote The attack fit a pattern: Musk’s trolling has increasingly taken on the vernacular of hard-right social media and human trafficking are associated with liberalism when a Thai youth soccer team was trapped in a cave Musk travelled to Thailand to offer a custom-made miniature submarine to rescuers stunt,” Musk called him a “pedo guy.” (Unsworth sued Musk for defamation characterizing the harassment he received from Musk’s followers as “a life sentence without parole.” A judge ruled in favor of Musk who argued that he hadn’t been accusing Unsworth of actual pedophilia Musk’s tweet about Roth got nearly seventeen thousand quote tweets and retweets “The moment that it went from being a moderation conversation to being a Pizzagate conversation “I spent my career looking at the absolute worst things that the Internet could do to people But this is probably up there.” Roth and his husband were forced to flee their house that they’d purchased just two years earlier packing our stuff and leaving and getting the dog loaded into the car and whatever the Daily Mail publishes an article that gives people more or less a map to my house,” Roth said we’re leaving this house potentially for the last time.’ ” Twitter’s cheerful blue bird logo came down from the roof of the company’s headquarters and was replaced with a strobing “X.” The new entity is a marriage between two parts of Musk There’s his career-long quest to create an everything app—integrating services ranging from communication to banking and shopping Sitting alongside that pragmatic goal is a newer embodied by his desire to take back the town square from what he sees as woke discourse but numerous prominent advertisers have departed a competitor that shamelessly emulates the old Twitter pledging to live-stream it and donate the proceeds to charity citing a back injury.) The illuminated sign atop X’s headquarters after complaints to the Department of Building Inspection Some of Musk’s associates connected his erratic behavior to efforts to self-medicate who says he now spends much of his time in a modest house in the wetlands of South Texas “I feel quite lonely.” He has said that his career consists of “great highs terrible lows and unrelenting stress.” One close colleague told me He goes to sleep and wakes up answering e-mails Ninety-nine per cent of people will never know someone that obsessed and with that high a tolerance for sacrifice in their personal life.” which has gained popularity both as a depression treatment and as a party drug and several people familiar with his habits have confirmed this declined to comment on the reporting that he uses ketamine “Zombifying people with SSRIs for sure happens way too much,” he tweeted referring to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ketamine taken occasionally is a better option.” Associates suggested that Musk’s use has escalated in recent years alongside his isolation and his increasingly embattled relationship with the press might contribute to his tendency to make chaotic and impulsive statements and decisions told me that it can contribute to unpredictable behavior “A little bit of ketamine has an effect similar to alcohol where you do and say things you otherwise would not,” he said which is dissociation: you feel detached from your body and surroundings.” He added “You can feel grandiose and like you have special powers or special talents his entry into a field that promises to alter much about life as we know it He tweeted an image of the new company’s Web site featuring a characteristically theatrical mission statement: the firm’s goal was “to understand the true nature of the universe.” In the image Musk highlighted the date and explained its significance “42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life and Everything.” It was a reference to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” In the series an immensely complex artificial intelligence is asked to answer that question and answers with Adams’s most famous punch line: 42 is that you’ve never actually known what the question is,” the computer says are ultimately revealed to be a still larger computer Adams does not portray this satirical vision as positive Musk’s announcement suggested more optimism: “Once you know the right question to ask Musk has made a habit of trashing the company why he hasn’t received a return on his investment why doesn’t everyone do it?” he tweeted recently It is difficult to say whether Musk’s interest in A.I is driven by scientific wonder and altruism or by a desire to dominate a new and potentially powerful industry Several entrepreneurs who have co-founded businesses with Musk suggested that the arrival of Google and Microsoft in the field had made it a new brass ring as space and electric vehicles had been earlier Musk has maintained that he is motivated by his fear of the technology’s destructive potential recalled Musk joking about an A.I.-dominated future signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause in the development of advanced A.I “Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth?” the letter said Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber Yet in the period during which Musk endorsed a pause according to someone with knowledge of the conversation He has said little about how the company will differ from preëxisting A.I but generally has framed it in terms of competition although starting very late in the game of course,” he told the Washington Post “That third option hopefully does more good than harm.” Through A.I research and development already under way at Tesla and the trove of data he now commands through Twitter (which he recently barred OpenAI from scraping in order to train its chatbots) as he applies his sensibilities and his world view to that race the principles and priorities of the leaders in the field will matter: “We want the construction of this to be not people with Messiah complexes.” At one point in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide,” Adams introduces the architects of the Earth supercomputer They’re powerful beings who have been living among us and they began considering talk-show and lecture deals Earth is demolished in the name of commerce and their path to existential clarity along with it alongside questions about the apocalyptic potential of artificial intelligence was one that reflects on the sectors of government and industry that Musk has come to shape “Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?” he and his fellow-entrepreneurs wrote “Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders.” ♦ A long-ago crime, suddenly remembered A limousine driver watches her passengers transform The day Muhammad Ali punched me What is it like to be keenly intelligent but deeply alienated from simple emotions? Temple Grandin knows The harsh realm of “gentle parenting.”  Retirement the Margaritaville way Fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Thank You for the Light.”  Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. the Isar-2 nuclear plant near Munich will begin winding down its power generation in steps of 10 megawatts per minute it will drop to 30% capacity and automatically sever from the national electricity grid will by then be in the midst of a similar process ending Germany’s tumultuous six-decade reliance on nuclear energy which collectively provided Germany with 6% of its power last year Europe’s largest economy will face an unprecedented challenge: securing its energy supply without nuclear or Russian natural gas and with renewables expanding at a slower pace than needed The decision to phase out the emissions-free power source — first codified in a 2002 law and finalized after the 2011 Fukushima disaster — also comes at a moment in which many countries are moving in the opposite direction While Germans have historically been deeply opposed to nuclear energy that has shifted in recent years as it has come to be viewed as something like the least bad option in the transition to a green economy Critics worry that until Germany has sufficient clean-energy infrastructure in place the country will draw even more heavily on polluting fuels like coal to compensate for the loss Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has criticized the move away from nuclear some 69% of the German public say they would support some form of continued nuclear power use until renewables were able to replace it as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Chancellor Olaf Scholz to shatter many major taboos of post-World War II German politics the idea that the country could double down on its commitment to nuclear energy did not seem so far flung In a groundbreaking speech delivered three days after the war began Scholz announced his intent to massively increase military spending and break ties with Russia With Europe’s peace and stability at stake even the country’s deep-rooted aversion to nuclear energy seemed up for debate and after scrambling late last year to secure a roughly 100-day extension for sunsetting the nuclear plants policymakers have shown no intention of reversing their decision which sees nuclear opposition as the crux of its political identity joined the federal government in 2021 as a member of the ruling coalition It was reluctant to agree to last year’s extension and has pushed hard to shut down the plants claiming that the dangers they pose far outweigh the advantages Moving away from the “high-risk form of energy” won’t threaten Germany’s energy supply Environmental Minister Steffi Lemke from the Green party said in an interview adding that eliminating the risk of “devastating environmental disasters” will ultimately make the country safer it will represent the culmination of a decades-long process to wean Germany off nuclear energy atomic power represented almost 30% of all electricity generated in Germany that dropped to less than 4% — an amount that Mario Ragwitz director of the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Systems anticipates “is roughly equivalent to what will be added next year in terms of solar and wind power.” Yet that’s not certain to meet Germany’s power needs To sidestep a possible electricity shortfall Germany may need to import more nuclear power from neighboring France Germany’s grid operators don’t expect France to have enough output for exports as the country has been grappling for more than a year with extensive reactor repairs and outages That may force Berlin to also seek power from other neighbors — or to repeat last winter’s strategy of burning more coal the country now has “higher levels of gas storage and additional coal-fired power plants on the market.” Germany was able to construct several new liquefied gas terminals within a year of Russia’s invasion But when it comes to building new solar and wind farms companies complain that there is still too much red tape The apparent trade-off of clean sources for energy security is one indication of how Germany is struggling on multiple fronts to secure its emissions-free future the Scholz government is also aiming to shut down coal plants by the end of the decade — 8 years ahead of schedule — to cut carbon emissions and has called for the construction of new gas-power plants that can eventually be converted to hydrogen ​Germany isn’t the only country committed to walking away from nuclear — Italy gave up the technology in 1990 and Lithuania recently struck a deal to dismantle its Soviet-era reactors Finland will start regular power production at Europe’s newest and biggest reactor The 1,600-megawatt Olkiluoto-3 unit that faced years of delays had been planned to enter commercial production on Monday France is planning to build at least six new reactors by 2050 as well as experiment with smaller the Czech Republic and the Netherlands are among other European nations that are also planning to build atomic plants to refuced their reliance on fossil fuels after a decade of paralysis following nuclear accident in Fukushima the public is warming up to the use of nuclear power The Japanese government wants to restart reactors that have sat idle since the disaster and to extend the lifespan of existing units But one reason why many nuclear plants are still running may simply be because it’s hard to shut them down When Germans wake up on Sunday in a country without nuclear energy they will be faced with another question — what to do with the plants themselves Dismantling nuclear infrastructure — and finding appropriate locations to store radioactive waste — is a complicated process that can take decades to implement which was built on an industrial site where lignite had been mined half a century earlier The Bavaria-based plant was completely dismantled in 2010 after 25 years in operation yet the site is once again in the business of energy generation: it now hosts companies that produce e-car batteries and components for charging stations and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" May I ask what “greener pastures” are they seeking A huge mistake for a supposedly advanced industrial nation Do Germans really think they’ll be safer from nuclear disasters by shutting down their own plants when they’re surrounded by countries that continue to operate nuclear plants Nuclear disasters don’t recognize borders. It is kind of like the carbon in the atmosphere thing as well This article quotes and follows many quality people in business and government as well as experts in the energy business To top that off you give a platform to an idiot child who’s only skill is stopmping her foot Gruyere gold mine joint venture partners Gold Fields and Gold Road Resources reach agreement on a friendly deal to consolidate ownership. The initiative will be delivered through the regional joint venture established by Fleet Space Technologies and Tahreez. The US central bank is widely expected to hold rates steady in this meeting. Romania has major reserves of rare earths, gold and copper, which have attracted interest from Canadian and American firms. You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience German PV production equipment provider Singulus will supply the vacuum coating systems for the new production The Chinese conglomerate currently operates CIGS panel production facilities at four different locations in China From pv magazine Germany The Chinese group wants to significantly increase its production capacities for both technologies in the coming years and is planning further investments at several unspecified locations in China the new CdTe panel production may have an annual capacity of over 1 GW The new vacuum coating systems are intended to further reduce production costs while increasing cell performance and production output “Our vacuum coating machines are a key step for the entire production process,” said Singulus CEO “In addition to machines applying sputtering technology we are also offering machines working on the principles of thermal evaporation.” The Chinese conglomerate currently operates CIGS production facilities at four different locations.  One of them is located at a factory in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province CNBM was the first of several organizations to bring large-scale CIGS production online in China More articles from Sandra Enkhardt I know this article is over 3 years old but could you help guide me through how the development is going and what the potential for this is In our thesis the goal or question is if the technology can be used to coat or be applied within the facades of building in cities and thereafter be capable of producing renewable energy at a more local level Please be mindful of our community standards By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" This website uses cookies to anonymously count visitor numbers. View our privacy policy. × The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this Close sabotage and more: dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness,” warned Ken McCallum Britain’s domestic security and counter-intelligence agency “The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets,” he said on October 8th Other European intelligence agencies are equally concerned said that Russia’s covert measures had reached a “level previously unseen” the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence services told lawmakers that an act of sabotage had almost caused a plane to crash earlier this year as he warned that “aggressive behaviour” by Russian spies was putting lives at risk This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Going feral” Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents It will galvanise international co-operation over writing rules for the ocean bed The once-banned weapons are making a comeback to deter Russia Russia’s European neighbours hate landmines. They are installing them anyway The Isar 2 nuclear power plant (left) near Landshut Winter is coming and Klaus Zilian is worried He lives with his wife and two children in Neustadt in the northwestern German state of Schleswig-Holstein in the single-family home the couple bought 14 years ago – 160 square meters (1,500 square feet) seven rooms and insulating plaster the color of champagne The electricity comes from the municipal utility company the house is heated with gas and the Baltic Sea is only a five-minute walk away The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 32/2022 (August 6th The family will be able to handle the fact that the energy prices are going up due to the Russian reduction of the flows of natural gas into Germany But what if the house suddenly gets cold because there's just not enough gas "I can already see us cuddling under blankets," says Zilian He has backed away from a formerly held conviction "I was always in favor of the plan to phase out nuclear power," the 54-year-old says of Germany's plan to take all of its atomic energy plants offline by the end of this year He says the situation changed because of the crisis with Russia He says he supports keeping nuclear power plants online to prevent having to use natural gas to generate electricity "We should use the existing nuclear power plants for as long as the crisis lasts," he says The Zillian family in Neustadt in the state of Schleswig-Holstein A poll commissioned by DER SPIEGEL has revealed some rather shocking numbers According to the survey carried out by the online polling firm Civey only 22 percent of those surveyed are in favor of shutting down the three nuclear plants that are still in operation in Germany – Isar 2 Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland – as planned at the end of the year Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed are in favor of continuing to operate the plants until the summer of 2023 a variant that is being discussed in the political sphere as a "stretch operation" – in other words continuing to keep them online for a few months but without the acquisition of new fuel rods Is it a pragmatic view centered on the idea that it's just a few months and they won't change anything about the planned phaseout of nuclear power The answers suggest that the attitude of Germans toward nuclear power has changed significantly Sixty-seven percent are in favor of continuing to operate the nuclear plants for the next five years The only group without a clear majority in favor of running the plants for the next five years are the supporters of the Green Party Backers of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) as well as those supporting the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) are over 80 percent in favor of having the nuclear plants running for that long On the question of whether Germany should build new nuclear power plants because of the energy crisis 41 percent of respondents answered "yes," meaning they favor an approach that isn't even up for debate in Germany a polling institute asked a similar question on behalf of DER SPIEGEL only a miniscule 3 percent of respondents thought Germany should build new plants German is supposed to be transitioning to green energies but these polling figures suggest that people may be interested in returning to the old energy status quo It had already become clear in recent years that support for the nuclear phaseout was already slowly crumbling The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has now accelerated this shift calling into question many old certainties Formerly staunch pacifists now support weapons deliveries A Green Party economics minister is going on a gas-shopping spree to Qatar The energy security that people took for granted for decades in Germany has been shaken ever since Russia cut gas deliveries and costs rose The result being that an old German dogma now seems to be crumbling: the rejection of nuclear energy Concerns are either being put on the backburner or are evaporating Those are things you worry about when you have working heat some people believe nuclear power is both ecologically and morally sound – Ulrike von Waitz The 53-year-old's thinking on the issue began shifting a few years ago after she witnessed a tree lose its leaves The entrepreneur lives with her family in Kahl am Main the hottest year since the beginning of weather records in Germany Waitz saw trees losing their foliage in the middle of the summer drought "That's the first time I saw that the climate catastrophe is a real threat," she says Pro-nuclear power activist Ulrike von Waitz at the former research reactor in Kahl She campaigned on behalf of Human Rights Watch and she and her husband recently set up a shelter for 20 Ukrainian children When von Waitz noticed the signs of climate change in her environment She had done a lot of reading and was convinced by the arguments of those who say that nuclear power can protect the climate is a technology we need," she says on the phone She then joined a group called Mothers for Nuclear all concerned about their children's future but they feel like they've got some momentum The mothers want to draw attention to how much CO2 they believe the technology could save How should politicians respond to the resurrection of an issue that had long been consigned to the dustbin of history Driven by the fear of angry voters unsure about their energy supply more and more decision-makers are showing themselves to be willing to make concessions Even Chancellor Olaf Scholz said a few days ago that an extension of the lifespan of nuclear plants could "make sense" when he visited a Gazprom turbine intended for the Nord Stream I gas pipeline from Russia for a bizarre photo op and press event a man who once wore a "no thanks" to nuclear power button on his lapel at demonstrations can also imagine a "possible time-limited extension." The heads of the CDU and the CSU were just photographed together in a joint visit to the Isar 2 power plant which they would like to see continue operating until 2024 the nuclear debate is causing intrigue and increasing nervousness Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck had a fairly relaxed approach to the nuclear question The speed of the change is making some Greens dizzy – and they are already worried that their own people might change their minds A majority in favor of a limited extension of the operating span of nuclear power plants both among the party's base and the public more broadly has been pushing for extending the plants' operations FDP leader and Finance Minister Christian Lindner and FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai have been poking at their Green Party government coalition partner Lindner proposed allowing the three remaining German nuclear power plants to keep operating until 2024 "if necessary." For Lindner it's not only a question of providing a steady energy supply for Germans but also about keeping his own party's ratings stable in the polls FDP politician Bijan Djir-Sarai: "Stretching the operations doesn't solve any problem "The FDP must be the voice of reason in the coalition," says Djir-Sarai who seems to consider nuclear power and reason as congruent Lindner and his allies are not calling for a broad renaissance of nuclear power or an about-face on the exit from nuclear power in the long term – a position which they know would spell the end of their governing coalition with the Social Democrats and the Greens Stretching operations could be the compromise approach – but how long can things be stretched before it gets painful Leading Greens unanimously reject an extension that would require the acquisition of new fuel rods saying that this would be a red line they are unwilling to cross "Stretching the operations doesn't solve any problem When Florian Ruckeisen drives to Grevenbroich from the south he can see the steam billowing from the cooling towers of the Neurath lignite-fired power plant he drives past the open pit mine in Garzweiler his home in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia used to proudly call itself the "city of energy." Ruckeisen basically lives in the middle of Germany's fossil fuel landscape "we have to exit coal-fired power generation as quickly as possible." Ruckeisen is an engineer who sees himself as being on the political left and who is worried about climate change he is neither a member of the anti-nuclear 1968 generation nor of the young generation of climate activists He was five years old at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear accident he could be seen as a representative of the large open-minded middle group that was "somehow against" nuclear energy for a long time but without any strong passion or idea of why they adopted that position The engineer says that his opinion is based on a general mood in the country When former Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to phase out nuclear power in 2011 Ruckeisen started looking into the pros and cons of nuclear energy "I wanted arguments for my position against it," he says Since the Fukushima disaster in Japan and the 2011 decision to phase out nuclear power as much a part of German identity as Oktoberfest Gone were the days when hundreds of police officers had to drag protesters from the train tracks so that the "Castor transports" of nuclear waste could pass And few still take notice of the tractor protests in Gorleben it's the climate activists who are gluing themselves to the streets and embracing civil disobedience blocking highways and lignite excavators and other symbols of the fossil fuel age It's their actions that are getting media attention But the fight against nuclear power isn't that central to Fridays for Future Extinction Rebellion and the other climate protection movements "Anti-nuclear activists are very emotionally moved when it comes to the phaseout of nuclear energy That's not the case for me and many others in the climate movement," says Helena Marschall an activist with Fridays for Future Germany She says it's a "done deal." Or so people thought Many are irritated by the renewed debate about nuclear power a shifting of the discourse away from the real problems "A lot of time is being wasted here that we don't have in the climate crisis," says Marschall Fridays for Future is focused on resisting the new fossil fuel infrastructure being created in the form of liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals off the German coasts and the new gas fields being developed in countries like Senegal to keep Germans warm They are worried about Germany potentially missing its climate targets in the coming years and tend to view the debate about nuclear power from the sidelines How do the old enemies of nuclear power and the associated waste see their fellow Germans' new fondness for nuclear power The Hahlbohm family in the Wendland region: three generations of resistance to nuclear power from Lemgow in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony who lives in a house with three generations of opponents of nuclear power their potato and grain fields need to be harvested Their farm is located in the Wendland region which has been the focus of the anti-nuclear movement for decades a salt dome that was intended as a repository for nuclear waste and where 113 containers are currently stored The protests against the Castor transports have left their mark on the family Hannover and Berlin with our tractor," says Marika Hahlbohm of course." Hahlbohm says she experienced her first protests over 40 years ago Her son-in-law Jörg Buttnop has been taking part since the 1980s "They beat me up and put me in jail," he says "I'm absolutely against questioning the phaseout." Her daughter Marlitt and granddaughter Carlotta see it the same way she can understand "that people in the city are afraid they will have to freeze in the winter." The family has wood gasification heating and a solar panel on the roof Then a discussion unfolds around the multigenerational family table that may be symptomatic of a country in a time of shifting worldviews "I'm not so sure about that," says the son-in-law "If the fuel rods of the Isar 2 power plant in Bavaria can actually produce electricity at full load for another 150 days then we should consider whether that makes sense." He says he could imagine letting the reactors continue running another year or two I'm even asking myself if that for which we fought for the last 30 years was all correct." joins in and pleads for the continued operation of the power plants and then it will continue like that forever," counters the grandmother Are extended operating spans or the recommissioning of nuclear reactors and the other scenarios even technically feasible Can the phaseout even still be stopped at this point Anyone who operates a nuclear power plant after Jan because that's when the "operational authorization" for the last three German nuclear power plants will expire Emsland and Isar 2 will have to be taken off the grid regardless of the fact that each of them could produce up to 11 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year in a pinch Uwe Stoll is the CEO of the German Corporation for Reactor Safety (GRS) a man with 35 years of experience in the nuclear sector He doesn't believe that the end of nuclear power in Germany is upon us the number of operating nuclear plants in the country will be "greater than zero." Stoll believes that the German government will change the nuclear law to allow the continued availability of nuclear power He says it would technically not be problematic to continue operating the three facilities over a long period in part because of the state's precarious energy situation as the state doesn't have any wind power or power lines from the north Isar 2 is actually intended to be run at full power until the last day after which the fuel rods will be exhausted CDU leader Friedrich Merz (left) and CSU leader Markus Söder on a visit to the Isar 2 nuclear power plant But those fuel rods won't be gone – a nuclear plant can produce electricity even with old elements Although the output then decreases by up to 0.5 percent a day If Berlin does decide to keep the nuclear power plants online a second question will arise that is likely to hit the Greens especially hard: From the technical perspective it would be hard to argue against putting the three power plants shut down in 2021 back online Although some power lines have been cut at Brokdorf the actual dismantling process hasn't properly begun The spent fuel elements need to stay in the plants' decay pools for at least five years to lose enough radioactivity and heat radiation Even a decommissioned power plant needs to remain largely intact during this period to ensure key functions Stoll believes that each of these old nuclear power plants could be refurbished within six months The pressure to keep or reopen German nuclear plants isn't just coming from within Germany the European Union partners with whom Germany will have to jointly overcome the energy and Ukraine crises Many EU member states have not forgotten that the German government pushed through the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the face of fierce opposition It's not only the Eastern Europeans who are irritated that Berlin is now calling for solidarity from all EU member states even as it refuses to compromise on nuclear energy Germany is now dependent on the support of its partners Germany consumes more gas than any other EU country Slovakian Economics Minister Richard Sulík said that if Germany wants to save gas it should "first keep three of its nuclear power plants running." The extension of the operations is becoming a symbol of German solidarity the German government can ill afford to shut them all down at the end of the year In the small town of Ahaus in North Rhine-Westphalia 71-year-old Felix Ruwe is sitting in his backyard Ruwe is a pensioner and deputy chairman of the No Nuclear Waste in Ahaus citizens' initiative which was founded 45 years ago and reached its heyday around 1998 and 2005 when the Castor transports with spent fuel rods arrived in Ahaus Ruwe has a degree in electrical engineering and talks like someone who does moderator rods and the differences between MTR2 and MTR3 castors He knows what is stored in Ahaus (enriched uranium) the number of castor containers there (329) and how long the interim storage facility's license will last (until 2036) which can pose a burden to future generations for thousands of years When asked who is still involved in the citizens' initiative these days "We have to admit that we're all old farts now." He says there's no young new blood coming to continue the fight Thomas Haldenwang, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence service, shared the story on Monday in front of a parliamentary committee at the Bundestag Haldenwang said it was "only a lucky coincidence" that the package caught fire on the ground and not during the flight RND's report cited the German Press Agency (DPA) as saying the package happened to be delayed in Leipzig which meant it only set fire to a freight container rather than a plane He added that debris could have hit people in Germany who sympathize with Vladimir Putin The intelligence boss didn't name any suspects, but the DPA reported security services were working on the assumption that the attack was connected to Russia, per the Financial Times It is also unclear where the package was meant to be shipped Monday's parliamentary committee saw the heads of Germany's three intelligence services give an annual report on the overall situation The growing threat from Russia was a major topic said Moscow's willingness to use covert measures had reached a new level and further escalation is "anything but unlikely." There's a lot more to bodybuilding competitions than just posing on a stage Written by Roger LockridgeLast updated on April 1st Bodybuilding has a decades-long following. Many enter contests to pursue a personal fitness goal, but some want to reach the sport’s ultimate stage: the Olympia.  Whether you’re checking off something on a bucket list, aspiring to turn pro, or are a new fan interested in the sport, we have the “101” entry-level course to get educated on the ins and outs of bodybuilding competitions, focusing specifically on the IFBB Professional League. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Samson Dauda (@samson__dauda) [Related: Best Biceps Exercises for Bodybuilding] If a new fan looked up bodybuilding and saw pictures of Ronnie Coleman or Jay Cutler there may be some concern about whether they could compete.  Bodybuilding has many different categories for men and women. The IFBB Professional League has 11 pro divisions, with a 12th that started at the amateur level in 2025 and is expected to be added in 2026. The divisions are below; learn more about how each category is judged here. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kelby Haynes (@_khcreative) [Related: Best Mass Gainer Supplements] The Fit Model division is a new category added to the NPC beginning in 2025. There are pro qualifiers for this category, but pro shows will not be held until the 2026 season. These athletes are only eligible to enter the Fit Model contests. They cannot crossover into other divisions. The road to becoming a pro may appear simple, but it is not easy. The amateur level of the IFBB Professional League is the National Physique Committee (NPC) and NPC Worldwide for international shows.  Amateurs enter local or regional contests simply by signing up for an NPC membership and paying the entry fee for the smaller shows. They must win local or smaller shows to qualify for the pro-qualifying stage. From there, amateurs must win a pro-qualifying event (or place second in some cases) to be eligible to enter IFBB Professional League shows. The pro card is a membership that comes with a yearly cost. There are numerous pro-qualifying events worldwide, but some of the biggest annual contests are: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sam Sulek (@sam_sulek) [Related: Best Creatine Supplements] Some shows feature amateur contests that award pro status to the winners who are then eligible to enter the pro show on the following day There have been cases when an amateur entered a pro qualifier and left that contest with an Olympia qualification that weekend Once pro status is earned, the next step to the Olympia is winning a pro show. Athletes can enter any pro contest they like (except for the Arnold Classic and the Olympia) by contacting the promoter and signing a contract to compete They can enter as many shows as they choose.  The IFBB Professional League has well over 100 contests every season across all 11 divisions in many different countries on six continents Many of those contests feature multiple divisions All pro shows for Open competitors (pros under 40 years of age) are Olympia qualifiers.  The Arnold Classic is the only non-Olympia show with a different process Athletes must apply to compete and receive invites to participate in their contests There are no official tiers in bodybuilding but there are some shows that have greater historical significance than others because of their longevity and list of winners These are shows that many competitors want to win to validate themselves as contenders for the Olympia Some of the more notable bodybuilding competitions on the schedule include: *The Pittsburgh Pro used to have a Men’s Open guest posing event, but they will have a full Men’s Open contest starting in 2025. The sport’s biggest stage is the Olympia, which crowns world champions in all 11 pro divisions. The competitors who walk on the Olympia stage are considered the best in the world for that year within their division. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mr. Olympia LLC (@mrolympiallc) [Related: Ultimate Workout Split] There are four ways to qualify for the Olympia: The other recent special invite went to Derek Lunford to compete in the Men’s Open at the Olympia in 2022 He ranked runner-up to Hadi Choopan in 2022 but won the Mr Olympia title in 2023 to become the first and only athlete to ever win Olympia titles in more than one division Prize money has evolved over the years, but it is hard for a bodybuilder to make a living by competing alone. Many competitors have full-time jobs, while the biggest stars make a living through sponsorships so they can afford to compete There are some shows that offer immense purses for the Men’s Open division which is considered the top division in the sport The biggest prizes on the pro circuit (as of 2025) for the Men’s Open are below Some shows have significant first-place purses that range from $20,000 to $50,000 All pro shows that host Men’s Open events must reward their champions with at least $15,000 Prize money for other divisions varies from show to show The Rising Phoenix is the second major show for Women’s Bodybuilding offering $50,000 to its champion every year They have also awarded vehicles in previous years the smaller shows award the following prizes for the top three in each category: Some shows offer prizes for fourth and fifth place.  Fans new to bodybuilding may not know the road a competitor must take to succeed at the highest level A bodybuilder’s journey is unique and depends on how successful the competitor is on the amateur level and whether they are able to win an Olympia qualifier once they become professional Each athlete’s career is unique and can inspire fans to begin their own journeys which is how the sport continues to move forward and grow Featured Image: Istvan Csak / Shutterstock Roger "Rock" Lockridge has been writing professionally for 10 years and has been training for 20 His work in the fitness industry has been seen in numerous outlets and has been a part of coverage for several events including the Mr He's also shared his own personal success story in several interviews and articles Lockridge lives in West Virginia with his wife and son The views expressed on this site may come from individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the view of BarBend or any other organization BarBend is the Official Media Partner of USA Weightlifting Copyright © 2025 · BarBend Inc · Sitemap Metrics details The capacity to propagate magnetic domain walls with spin-polarized currents underpins several schemes for information storage and processing using spintronic devices A key question involves the internal structure of the domain walls which governs their response to certain current-driven torques such as the spin Hall effect Here we show that magnetic microscopy based on a single nitrogen-vacancy defect in diamond can provide a direct determination of the internal wall structure in ultrathin ferromagnetic films under ambient conditions We find pure Bloch walls in Ta/CoFeB(1 nm)/MgO while left-handed Néel walls are observed in Pt/Co(0.6 nm)/AlOx The latter indicates the presence of a sizable interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction which has strong bearing on the feasibility of exploiting novel chiral states such as skyrmions for information technologies We first apply the method to a Ta/Co40Fe40B20 (1 nm)/MgO magnetic wire and find clear signature of pure Bloch DWs we observe left-handed Néel DWs in a Pt/Co(0.6 nm)/AlOx wire providing direct evidence for the presence of a sizable DMI in this multilayer stack This method offers a new path for exploring interfacial DMI in ultrathin ferromagnets and elucidating the physics of DW motion under current (a) Schematic side view of a DW in a perpendicularly magnetized film The black arrows indicate the internal magnetization while the grey arrows represent the magnetic field lines generated above the film (b) Top view of the DW structure in a left-handed Bloch (top panel) or right-handed Néel (bottom panel) configuration or an intermediate case characterized by the angle ψ (c,d) Calculated stray field components (c) and (d) at a distance d=120 nm above the magnetic layer where t is the film thickness. These approximate formulae are valid in the limit of (i) t≪d, (ii) ΔDW≪d and (iii) for an infinitely long DW along the y axis. On the other hand, the in-plane magnetization, with amplitude , can be oriented with an angle ψ with respect to the x axis (Fig. 1b) This angle is linked to the nature of the DW: ψ=±π/2 for a Bloch DW The two possible values define the chirality (right or left) of the DW The spatial variation of the in-plane magnetization adds a contribution to the stray field The net stray field above the DW is finally expressed as which shows the stray field components and for various DW configurations while using d=120 nm and ΔDW=20 nm which are typical parameters of the experiments considered below on a Ta/CoFeB(1 nm)/MgO trilayer system (f) Theoretical two-dimensional Zeeman shift maps for the same three DW configurations the Bloch hypothesis is the one that best reproduces the data Zeeman shift maps above a DW in a Ta/CoFeB/MgO wire recorded with different magnetometer’s projection axes (middle panels) The right panels show the corresponding calculated maps assuming a Bloch-type DW The spherical angles (θ,ϕ) characterizing the projection axis are indicated on the left panels where a significant deviation towards Néel DWs was inferred from current-induced DW motion experiments our method indicates the nature of the DW at rest Our results therefore motivate a systematic study of the DW structure as a function of the composition of the trilayer stack The nature of domain walls in ultrathin ferromagnets revealed by scanning nanomagnetometry Fast current-induced domain-wall motion controlled by the Rashba effect Chiral spin torque at magnetic domain walls Current-driven dynamics of chiral ferromagnetic domain walls Domain wall depinning governed by the spin Hall effect Layer thickness dependence of the current-induced effective field vector in Ta/CoFeB/MgO Symmetry and magnitude of spin-orbit torques in ferromagnetic heterostructures Current-driven domain wall motion along high perpendicular anisotropy multilayers: the role of the Rashba field Dynamics of Dzyaloshinskii domain walls in ultrathin magnetic films Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interactions induced by symmetry breaking at a surface Real-space observation of a right-rotating inhomogeneous cycloidal spin spiral by spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy in a triple axes vector magnet Tailoring the chirality of magnetic domain walls by interface engineering Interface control of the magnetic chirality in CoFeB/MgO heterostructures with heavy metal underlayers Asymmetric magnetic domain-wall motion by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction High-sensitivity diamond magnetometer with nanoscale resolution Nanoscale imaging magnetometry with diamond spins under ambient conditions Magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond Stray-field imaging of magnetic vortices with a single diamond spin Quantitative stray field imaging of a magnetic vortex core Nanoscale imaging and control of domain-wall hopping with a nitrogen-vacancy center microscope Nanoscale magnetic field mapping with a single spin scanning probe magnetometer Low depinning fields in Ta-CoFeB-MgO ultrathin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy Measurement of magnetization using domain compressibility in CoFeB films with perpendicular anisotropy Version 1.0 Interagency Report NISTIR 6376 National Institute of Standards and Technology (1999) Skyrmion confinement in ultrathin film nanostructures in the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction Spin Hall torque magnetometry of Dzyaloshinskii domain walls Chirality-induced asymmetric magnetic nucleation in Pt/Co/AlOx ultrathin microstructures Chiral spin torque arising from proximity-induced magnetization Download references This research has been partially funded by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under Grant Agreement no the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche through the projects DIAMAG and Esperado Hingant: These authors contributed equally to this work analysed the data and wrote the manuscript All authors discussed the data and commented on the manuscript The authors declare no competing financial interests Supplementary Notes 1-5 and Supplementary References (PDF 2407 kb) Download citation Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Nobiskrug Managing Director Holger Kahl speaking to The Peninsula As the Middle East has anchored itself among the most important superyacht market in the world a global market leader said Qatar has all the potential to contribute to the larger share of global yacht market Doha has emerged as the main centre for all marine leisure activities With fantastic waters and a world-class infrastructure Qatar can help enhance the region’s leisure tourism proposition Managing Director of Germany’s superyachts builder Nobiskrug said a regular attendee at top global boat shows is making its debut at the 6th edition of Qatar International Boat Show The 22nd century superyachts builder Nobiskrug is credited with the delivery of more than 800 vessels and numerous conversions to date Kahl said : “ Qatar is a very interesting and fascinating spot The architecture I see in this marina gives me assurance that the country is very much interested in the development of a perfect marina Nobiskrug has been in the yacht business for several decades and Qatar is really an interesting market for us” Waterfront development of residential properties that we see here is ideal for increasing the demand for private boats and yachts Kahl said opportunities for Nobiskrug in Qatar are something very special we don’t offer any products that you can buy straight from the shelf We are interested in delivering something that really matches to the dreams of our customers develop fantastic exteriors or just interiors or both of them combine and create something what exactly our clients are looking for as they can enjoy on the sea” said Nobiskrug normally does not share details of the potential customers and the market enquiries and possible demands “There is a reason why we are here and I am also appreciating the interests of the country in our products Our products are really ‘Made in Germany’ and they are of course top in the world.” It doesn’t really care about whether the economy is growing or slowing down “As long as we have projects and as long as we are building yachts we are creating these things On Nobiskrug’s deal expectations from Qatar International Boat Show we are indeed really silent on deal makings at Shows we have lot of interests in Qatar and we are sure lot of contacts will come to us and we will initiative talks and meet prospective customers.” The boat market in Qatar is an import-dependent market with 3,500 leisure boats and 5 full service marinas Outboard powered small boats form 90 percent of the total boat market in the country coastline developments to promote the boat industry as a part of its efforts to diversify the economy The region accounts for 12 percent of the world’s superyachts which denotes that the individuals in the region have a high propensity to buy The marine infrastructure development and evolution of tourism are expected to open up new opportunities in the boat market 19:15Lesezeit: 3 Min.Bildbeschreibung ausklappenChristoph Gramm vom Militärischen Abschirmdienst Thomas Haldenwang vom Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz Bruno Kahl vom Bundesnachrichtendienst und Armin Schuster Präsident des Parlamentarischen Kontrollgremiums des Bundestags.EPAAnders als die Vereinigten Staaten hat sich die Bundesregierung dagegen entschieden Huawei beim Aufbau der 5G-Infrastruktur explizit auszuschließen Nun warnt der Bundesnachrichtendienst vor den Gefahren Das 5G-Netz sei die „entscheidende kritische Infrastruktur der Zukunft“ sagte der BND-Präsident Bruno Kahl am Dienstag in einer Anhörung des Parlamentarischen Kontrollgremiums des Bundestages TeilenVerschenken Merken Drucken Anhören Zur StartseiteSchlagworte: Ein großer Stromausfall wie in Spanien und Portugal kann auch Deutschland treffen. 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