u/chota-kaka

Attackers breached a Polish combined heat and power plant through a private cellular APN used to access remote infrastructure.

After pivoting from a compromised wind-farm network, they reached the plant’s OT environment, where a controller was still using default admin credentials. The attackers ultimately put multiple Siemens PLCs into STOP mode, shutting down a steam turbine and process-water treatment system.

The interesting part no malware was required. The attackers abused legitimate device functions and existing industrial protocols. Despite the disruption, the plant continued supplying heat and electricity to roughly 50,000 residents.

The Royal Navy has stripped internet connectivity from cameras on its new K3 Scout surveillance drones after discovering they were sending data to an address in China. Although the drone ships were UK built, the UK manufacturer had outsourced the camera production to China.

The drones haven't actually been put into active service. This issue was identified before they were implemented.

Additional info:

https://www.theregister.com/edge-and-iot/2026/08/10/cyber-vulnerability-sweep-picks-up-royal-navy-drones-sending-data-to-china/5285430

For decades, Mexico was known for large families and one of the fastest-growing populations in the world.

Today, that story is changing.

Mexico's birth rate has fallen dramatically over the last 60 years, and the country is entering a demographic transition that could reshape its economy, labor force, pension system, housing market, and global competitiveness.

The books are:

1. Doughnut Economics - Kate Raworth
2. The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions - Jason Hickel
3. The Collapse of Complex Societies - Joseph A. Tainter
4. Apologies to the Grandchildren: Reflections on Our Ecological Predicament, Its Deeper Causes, and Its Political Consequences - William Ophuls
5. Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change - William R. Catton Jr.
6. The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age - John Michael Greer
7. Limits to Growth - Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, Jørgen Randers, William W. Behrens III
8. Breaking Together: A Freedom-loving Response to Collapse - Jem Bendell

Every AI request quietly drinks cooling water in a data centre you will never see. This film follows that water from your screen to rivers, aquifers, and towns already running dry.

This year, two powerful AI CEOs said they want to stop building it and will… if everyone else agrees to stop too. Yet they race ahead with stock market valuations premised on making millions of workers redundant. If you wanted to stoke a popular revolt against AI, you couldn't design a better plan.

Stuart Russell, the founder of UC Berkeley's Center for Human-Compatible AI, describes a $15 quadrillion prize, a singularity from the future sucking nearly all the money on Earth into its depths. If such a dangerous system gets loose, the only answer is the size of the problem: we would probably have to shut down the internet.

P.S.

My apologies for the length of the podcast. But it's worth listening

White House launches cybersecurity clearinghouse to patch software flaws discovered by AI

The 'Gold Eagle' initiative seeks to help federal agencies, critical infrastructure operators and artificial intelligence developers patch crucial security flaws uncovered by advanced AI models.

Greece is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations – more than 30 million visitors travel there every year. But extraordinarily, Greece itself is in danger of running out of Greeks.The population is in freefall with predictions it will drop by twenty percent by 2050.

Right across the country, ghost towns are becoming all too common. There are far more deaths than births, young people have left in droves and migration is deeply unpopular. If modern Greece can't solve its population problem, it's at risk of joining its ancient ancestors as a living museum.

From 15 July, the border between Spain and Gibraltar has been removed, allowing freedom of movement between Spain and Gibraltar.

This is part of a carefully negotiated agreement between the European Union and the UK following the latter's exit from the bloc. Sharing a land border with the EU meant that Gibraltar posed a particular challenge in the post-Brexit era.

The removal of the border is therefore expected to have major economic benefits, facilitating the flow of people back and forth, and possibly going some way to redress the imbalance between the two territories.

The world is unwittingly walking into a male reproductive crisis, scientists warned this week as they presented data that revealed an apparent halving of average male testosterone levels over the past 50 years.

“It is mind-blowing that testosterone has declined by 50%,” Prof Hagai Levine, who led the work, told the Guardian. “This is a lot. Wake up people. Wake up.”

The European Space Agency (ESA) is warning that collision risks in low-Earth orbit are rising as the number of active satellites and tracked debris objects continues to grow. ESA's 2025 Space Environment Report found that satellite operators are facing more frequent close approaches, forcing spacecraft to perform avoidance maneuvers that consume fuel and complicate mission planning.

According to ESA, more than 44,000 tracked objects larger than 10 cm are now being monitored in orbit, including active satellites, inactive spacecraft, spent rocket bodies, and fragments from earlier collisions or breakups. Scientists also estimate that more than 1 million smaller debris fragments remain too small to track reliably but can still damage satellites because of their high orbital speeds.

The growing debris environment is creating operational challenges for public and commercial satellite missions that support communications, navigation, weather forecasting, Earth observation, climate monitoring, and scientific research. Each avoidance maneuver uses fuel that would otherwise support mission operations, potentially shortening the useful life of satellites and increasing costs for agencies and private operators.

ESA said the long-term risk can be reduced through better debris mitigation, improved tracking, responsible satellite disposal, and stronger international coordination on space traffic management. The agency has urged satellite operators to remove defunct spacecraft from orbit more reliably and design future missions with end-of-life disposal plans to help prevent additional debris from accumulating.

Do you think governments should require stricter debris-removal plans before companies are allowed to launch large satellite constellations?