Hezbollah has announced the deaths of five more militants as clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border intensify

NASA has released details from its unidentified anomalous phenomena (a term to describe UFOs that can't be identified) study. When the study started a year ago, NASA set out to identify "how data gathered by civilian government entities, commercial data, and data from other sources can potentially be analysed to shed light on UAPs." They went on to highlight that Thursday's report (14 September) "is not a review or assessment of previous unidentifiable observations." Here are five major things we learned from the 36-page report: NASA should be more proactive when it comes to UFOs The report suggests that the space agency should use better techniques and vices when searching for UAPs. They said the current UAP detection is "often serendipitous," and captured by sensors "that were not designed or calibrated for this purpose, and which lack comprehensive metadata." This means the origin of several UAPs "remain uncertain". "The importance of detecting UAP with multiple, well-calibrated sensors is thus paramount, and accordingly we recommend that Nasa leverage its considerable expertise in this domain to potentially utilize multispectral or hyperspectral data as part of a rigorous data acquisition campaign," they wrote. Many 'credible witnesses' have reported UFOs The report revealed that many "credible" reports of "objects they did not recognise over US airspace" have come through from witnesses, "often military aviators". "Most of these events have since been explained, but a small handful cannot be immediately identified as known human-made or natural phenomena," it read. It noted that one of the problems when it comes to such sightings is that "the data needed to explain these anomalous sightings often do not exist." They added: "This includes eyewitness reports, which on their own can be interesting and compelling, but are not reproducible and usually lack the information needed to make any definitive conclusions." 'No reason to conclude' UFOs are alien While the report disclaimed the galaxy "does not stop at the outskirts of the solar system," it stressed there is "no reason to conclude" that UFO sightings are alien. "Many of NASA's science missions are, at least in part, focused on answering the question of whether life exists beyond Earth," it read. "Those investigations include missions looking for biosignatures, perhaps on Mars or the icy moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn - as well as farther afield, in the ratios of molecules present in exoplanet atmospheres. "Searching for signs of alien technology is a natural extension of those investigations." It adds: "If we recognise the plausibility of any of these, then we should recognise that all are at least plausible." Satellites could potentially be used in the search for aliens "NASA is in an excellent position to contribute to UAP studies within the broader whole-of-government framework," they wrote, going on to explore the potential role of the "US commercial remote-sensing industry" which they say "offers a potent mix of Earth-observing satellites that offer imagery at sub- to several-meter spatial resolution, which is well-matched to the typical spatial scales of known UAP [UFOs]". They continued: "Such commercial constellations could offer a powerful complement to the detection and study of UAP when coincident collection occurs." Artificial intelligence could also help the hunt for aliens "The panel finds that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are essential tools for identifying rare occurrences, potentially including UAP, within vast datasets," they wrote. "However, these powerful techniques will only work on well-characterized data gathered with respect to strong standards." They went on to note that the public "is also a critical aspect of understanding UAP". There's a lot more to learn "The top takeaway from the study is that there is a lot more to learn," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said while releasing the report. "The NASA independent study team did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin, but we don't know what these UAP are." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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The internet and mobile phones may not have a “blanket negative effect” on wellbeing and mental health, researchers say. A large international study used data from two million people aged 15 to 89 in 168 countries, and found smaller associations than would be expected if the internet were causing widespread psychological harm. The researchers say that if the link between internet use and poor health were as universal and robust as many think they would have found it. We looked very hard for a ‘smoking gun’ linking technology and wellbeing and we didn’t find it Professor Andrew Przybylski, Oxford Internet Institute However, the study did not look at social media use, and although the data included some young people, the researchers did not analyse how long people spent online. Professor Andrew Przybylski, of the Oxford Internet Institute, and Assistant Professor Matti Vuorre, Tilburg University, and Research Associate, Oxford Internet Institute, carried out the research into home and mobile broadband use. Prof Przybylski said: “We looked very hard for a ‘smoking gun’ linking technology and wellbeing and we didn’t find it.” He added: “The popular idea that the internet and mobile phones have a blanket negative effect on wellbeing and mental health is not likely to be accurate. “It is indeed possible that there are smaller and more important things going on, but any sweeping claims about the negative impact of the internet globally should be treated with a very high level of scepticism.” Looking at the results by age group and gender did not reveal any specific patterns among internet users, including women and young girls. Instead, the study, which looked at data for the past two decades, found that for the average country, life satisfaction increased more for females over the period. Data from the United Kingdom was included in the study, but the researchers say there was nothing distinctive about the UK compared with other countries. Although the study included a lot of information, the researchers say technology companies need to provide more data, if there is to be conclusive evidence of the impacts of internet use. They explain: “Research on the effects of internet technologies is stalled because the data most urgently needed are collected and held behind closed doors by technology companies and online platforms. “It is crucial to study, in more detail and with more transparency from all stakeholders, data on individual adoption of and engagement with internet-based technologies. “These data exist and are continuously analysed by global technology firms for marketing and product improvement but unfortunately are not accessible for independent research.” For the study, published in the Clinical Psychological Science journal, the researchers looked at data on wellbeing and mental health against a country’s internet users and mobile broadband subscriptions and use, to see if internet adoption predicted psychological wellbeing. In the second study they used data on rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm from 2000-2019 in some 200 countries. Wellbeing was assessed using data from face-to-face and phone surveys by local interviewers, and mental health was assessed using statistical estimates of depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and self-harm in some 200 countries from 2000 to 2019. Read More Young people the biggest users of generative AI, Ofcom study shows Software firm Cloudsmith announces £8.8m investment UK and South Korea issue warning over North Korea-linked cyber attacks Data protection watchdog warns websites over cookie consent alerts Employee data leaked during British Library cyber attack Half of adults who chat online with strangers do not check age – poll

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Apple’s new headset is expensive, not “magical” and is fundamentally different from Meta’s vision for the future, Mark Zuckerberg has said. The Vision One headset was revealed during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference this week. The company showed off both the hardware and a new idea for “spatial computing”, which will be available next year. Apple’s headset costs $3,500, and comes with a range of features including detailed displays and cameras that allow people to see out into the real world while they are using it. It also puts Apple in competition with Meta, which has been producing its own Quest headsets for years. Its headsets are considerably cheaper – with the upcoming Meta Quest 3 costing $499 – though are lacking in some of the same features. Now Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has responded to the launch of that headset, saying that it represents a “vision of the future of computing” that is “not the one I want”. He also said that Meta had already explored all of the technology in Apple’s headset. It had opted to avoid using some of that technology in its own products in part because of the high cost that would be required to do so, he told staff in a meeting that was first reported by The Verge. Mr Zuckerberg suggested that was one of a range of philosophical differences between Meta’s approach to the headset and Apple’s. He also pointed to Meta’s aim to feature social features at the heart of its own headsets, as well as fitness features. “From what I’ve seen initially, I’d say the good news is that there’s no kind of magical solutions that they have to any of the constraints on laws of physics that our teams haven’t already explored and thought of,” he said. “They went with a higher resolution display, and between that and all the technology they put in there to power it, it costs seven times more and now requires so much energy that now you need a battery and a wire attached to it to use it. They made that design trade-off and it might make sense for the cases that they’re going for. “But look, I think that their announcement really showcases the difference in the values and the vision that our companies bring to this in a way that I think is really important. We innovate to make sure that our products are as accessible and affordable to everyone as possible, and that is a core part of what we do. And we have sold tens of millions of Quests. “More importantly, our vision for the metaverse and presence is fundamentally social. It’s about people interacting in new ways and feeling closer in new ways. Our device is also about being active and doing things. By contrast, every demo that they showed was a person sitting on a couch by themself. I mean, that could be the vision of the future of computing, but like, it’s not the one that I want. “There’s a real philosophical difference in terms of how we’re approaching this. And seeing what they put out there and how they’re going to compete just made me even more excited and in a lot of ways optimistic that what we’re doing matters and is going to succeed. But it’s going to be a fun journey.” While Meta and Apple work together in many ways, they have occasionally clashed. Apple’s introduction of privacy features has in recent years curtailed the tracking required for Facebook’s ad business, for instance, which has occasionally to friction between the two.