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New Amaranth Dragon cyberespionage group exploits WinRAR flaw

A new threat actor called Amaranth Dragon, linked to APT41 state-sponsored Chinese operations, exploited the CVE-2025–8088 vulnerability in WinRAR in espionage attacks on government and law enforcement agencies.

The hackers combined legitimate tools with the custom Amaranth Loader to deliver encrypted payloads from command-and-control (C2) servers behind Cloudflare infrastructure, for more accurate targeting and increased stealth.

According to researchers at cybersecurity company Check Point, Amaranth Dragon targeted organizations in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines.

Viridian inks cooperative agreement with Air Force Research Laboratory

SAN FRANCISCO — Viridian Space Corp. signed a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The five-year CRADA will provide the Southern California startup with access to testing facilities and satellite-operations expertise at AFRL’s Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

“There seems to be a good collaborative opportunity for testing our technology on the ground and, when we fly, collecting and sharing data from the [Very Low Earth Orbit] VLEO environment,” Viridian Space CEO Rostislav Spektor told SpaceNews. “Characterizing the VLEO environment is important for satellites that fly in VLEO and for satellites traveling to higher orbits that fly through VLEO.”

The Milky Way is embedded in a ‘large-scale sheet’ and this explains the motions of nearby galaxies

Computer simulations carried out by astronomers from the University of Groningen in collaboration with researchers from Germany, France and Sweden show that most of the (dark) matter beyond the Local Group of galaxies (which includes the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy) must be organised in an extended plane. Above and below this plane are large voids. The observed motions of nearby galaxies and the joint masses of the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy can only be properly explained with this ‘flat’ mass distribution. The research, led by PhD graduate Ewoud Wempe and Professor Amina Helmi, was published today in Nature Astronomy.

Almost a century ago, astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that virtually all galaxies are moving away from the Milky Way. This is important evidence for the expansion of the universe and for the Big Bang. But even in Hubble’s time, it was clear that there were exceptions. For example, our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda, is moving towards us at a speed of about 100 kilometres per second.

In fact, for half a century, astronomers have been wondering why most large nearby galaxies – with the exception of Andromeda – are moving away from us and do not seem to be affected by the mass and gravity of the so-called Local Group (the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy and dozens of smaller galaxies).

SYRIA UAP 2021 : Military-Filmed Footage / Apparent Instantaneous Acceleration

Investigative journalists Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp have obtained and are revealing, for the first time, military-filmed footage of a UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), officially documented and cataloged within United States Intelligence Community investigations and examinations — as demonstrating “instantaneous acceleration” — one of the signature six observables associated with UAP flight performance. The official designation of UAP was established by the United States Intelligence Community and the Department of War. This designation is currently maintained.

DATE — 2021

LOCATION — Syria / imaged from the border of Jordan (32°05’39.2 N, 36°53’54.4 E)

IMAGING TYPE — Thermographic / Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR)

PLATFORM — MQ-9 Reaper / Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS-B)

EVENT DESCRIPTION — Filmed by a platform operating under the direction of the United States Air Force. The UAP was observed and actively tracked — the Reaper established a weapons-quality lock. The UAP appeared to demonstrate abrupt directional changes, instantaneous acceleration, and intelligent control. Absence of traditional propulsion or thermal signatures during performance — as well as an examination of shape and acceleration — were noted in documentation. Origin, intent, and capabilities remain unknown.

X-rays from SLAC’s synchrotron reveal star maps in a centuries-old manuscript

Pages from the Codex Climaci Rescriptus palimpsest from the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, were brought to the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource to recover erased astronomical text, especially fragments from Hipparchus’ star catalog.

A mesoscale optogenetics system for precise and robust stimulation of the primate cortex

Li et al. present a microLED-based mesoscale optogenetic system for centimeter-scale, million-pixel primate cortical stimulation. Optogenetically evoked saccades with accurate retinotopic organization remain stable for over a year, demonstrating precise, robust, and durable neuromodulation and charting a path toward next-generation optical brain-computer interfaces and visual prostheses.

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