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180665818 submission

Submission + - How political leanings affect views on academic freedom: New research (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right on Tuesday January 27, 2026 @12:28PM

alternative_right writes: Instead of asking whether people support "academic freedom" in general, we asked how much they agreed or disagreed with specific scenarios. These included whether universities should protect research that causes offense, and whether academics should be free to publish controversial findings. We also asked whether universities should collaborate with multinational corporations or political regimes accused of human rights abuses.

This approach matters. In surveys, people often express strong support for free inquiry in the abstract. But once academic freedom is tied to real-world trade-offs, such as offense, harm, reputation or political controversy, agreement tends to fracture.

Across both countries, political ideology emerged as one of the strongest predictors of attitudes toward academic freedom.

Right-leaning respondents were consistently more supportive of academic freedom. They were more likely to oppose restrictions on offensive research and more likely to agree that academics should be protected even when their work provokes controversy. This pattern appeared not only in the UK, where universities are deeply entangled in culture-war debates, but also in Japan, where such disputes are less visible in public life.

Left-leaning respondents, by contrast, were more likely to emphasize accountability. They tended to support limits on research perceived as offensive or harmful, reflecting greater concern for social sensitivity and the potential impact of academic work on marginalized groups.

180661372 submission

Submission + - The plans to turn Europe into a new superpower (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by fjo3 on Monday January 26, 2026 @05:01PM

fjo3 writes: Donald Trump’s threats over Greenland have exposed Europe’s weakness. Russia’s Vladimir Putin is waging war on its eastern flank. China’s Xi Jinping is a relentless competitor.

In a brutal new age of world powers, the EU wants to build a bigger, richer, stronger “super Europe” that is able to resist the dangerous whims of the globe’s autocrats.

Turning 27 quarrelsome small and middle-sized powers into a geopolitical heavyweight has been Emmanuel Macron’s largely unheeded call ever since the US president’s first term.

“Let’s take a step back and realise we live in a world where the leader of the free world is willing to upend the Western alliance over something he sees on Fox News,” one EU diplomat said.

180661244 submission

Submission + - Microbes in Space Mutated And Developed a Remarkable Ability (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right on Monday January 26, 2026 @04:33PM

alternative_right writes: "Space fundamentally changes how phages and bacteria interact: infection is slowed, and both organisms evolve along a different trajectory than they do on Earth," the researchers explain.

In the weightlessness of space, bacteria acquired mutations in genes involved in the microbe's stress response and nutrient management. Their surface proteins also changed. After a slow start, the phages mutated in response, so they could continue binding to their victims.

The team found that certain space-specific phage mutations were especially effective at killing Earth-bound bacteria responsible for urinary tract infections (UTIs). More than 90 percent of the bacteria responsible for UTIs are antibiotic-resistant, making phage treatments a promising alternative.

180658588 submission

Submission + - ReactOS celebrates 30 years in pursuit of becoming an open-source Windows (reactos.org)

Submitted by jeditobe on Monday January 26, 2026 @07:02AM

jeditobe writes: ReactOS, the open-source operating system aimed at binary compatibility with Windows, recently marked its 30th anniversary. Launched in 1996, ReactOS has focused on providing a free alternative to Windows, with compatibility for Windows applications and drivers. Though still in development, it has made significant progress in recent years, including improvements to USB support, better hardware compatibility, and enhanced performance with the release of version 0.4.15. The upcoming 0.4.16 release is set to introduce UEFI support, KMDF and WDDM graphics driver support, marking a major step forward in ReactOS's development.
https://www.phoronix.com/news/...

180657794 submission

Submission + - Trump reveals 'discombobulator' weapon was crucial to Venezuela raid (nypost.com)

Submitted by Tablizer on Monday January 26, 2026 @02:45AM

Tablizer writes: Trump commented on the weapon when asked about reports this month that the Biden administration purchased a pulsed energy device suspected of being the type that caused “Havana Syndrome.”

That revelation followed on-the-ground accounts from Venezuela describing how Maduro’s gunmen were brought to their knees, “bleeding through the nose” and vomiting blood.

A self-identified member of the deposed strongman’s team of guards recounted afterward that “suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation.”...

“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it. It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside,” the witness said.

“We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was.”

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