Orqa, a Croatian manufacturer of FPV and unmanned aerial systems, has expanded its production facility in Osijek to support an annual output of up to 280,000 NDAA-compliant drones. In a statement on December 1, the company said the new capacity allows it to meet growing global demand for defense-grade drones free of Chinese components. The […]

The United States Navy has officially selected the LST 100 design from Dutch shipbuilder Damen for its new class of Medium Landing Ships (LSM), a move aimed at accelerating delivery of critical littoral capabilities to naval forces. The announcement was made on December 5 by Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan and marks a […]

Airbus and Saab are in early talks to develop an unmanned combat aircraft, according to company executives who spoke with Reuters during a recent European defense industry event. The discussions reflect both the rising interest in drone systems and shifting alliances across Europe’s fragmented defense industry. The project would explore drone aircraft designed to support […]

Castelion, a fast-moving defense technology firm founded by SpaceX alumni, announced it has raised $350 million in Series B funding to accelerate production of its Blackbeard hypersonic weapon and expand U.S. industrial capacity for next-generation munitions. The company says this funding will support construction of a large-scale manufacturing facility and operational integration with Army and […]

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV-7 has released footage of a previously unseen air defense system during a recent live-fire training exercise in the Gobi Desert. The system, likely a short-range air defense platform, was shown launching surface-to-air missiles in what appeared to be high-precision strike tests. The new complex features a modular launcher mounted on a […]

The ZX Spectrum is known for a lot of things, but it’s not really known for a rich and deep library of FPS titles. However, there is finally such a game for the platform, thanks to [Jakub Trznadel]—and it’s called World of Spells.

Like so many other games of this type, it was inspired by the 3D raycasting techniques made so popular by Wolfenstein 3D back in the day. For that reason, it has a very similar look in some regards, but a very different look in others—the latter mostly due to the characteristic palette available on the ZX Spectrum. A playable FPS is quite a feat to achieve on such limited hardware, but [Jakub] pulled it off well, with the engine able to reach up to 80 frames per second.

The game is available for download, and you can even order it on tape if you so desire. You might also like to check out the walkthrough on YouTube, where the game is played on an emulator. Don’t worry, though—the game works on real ZX Spectrum 48k hardware just fine.

The Speccy retains a diehard fanbase to this day. You can even build a brand new one thanks to a buoyant supply of aftermarket parts.

[thanks to losr for the tip!]

 

Pepe Coin price remains under pressure below a key support level as it formed a bearish pattern despite the ongoing whale accumulation. Pepe Coin (PEPE), the second-biggest Ethereum meme coin, dropped to $0.000004512, down by 85% from its highest level…

According to the latest on-chain data, BitMine viewed the latest market downturn as an opportunity to further increase its exposure to Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. In two separate fresh buys, the Ethereum treasury firm expanded its holdings by over $199 million worth of Ether tokens.

BitMine Now Holds 3.08% Of Total Ether Supply

In a recent post on the social media platform X, blockchain data firm Lookonchain revealed that BitMine acquired $199 million worth of Ethereum in the past two days. This fresh round of accumulation included two separate buys; 41,946 ETH equivalent to $130.78 million on Friday, December 5 and 22,676 ETH worth $68.67 million on Saturday, December 6.

This latest acquisition spree brings the Ethereum treasury firm’s holdings to around $11.3 billion, solidifying its position as the world’s largest corporate Ether holder. With its continued accumulation of the largest altcoin over the past few months, BitMine now holds about 3.08% of the total Ether supply.

It is worth noting that BitMine’s aggression in the market comes while the hype around digital asset treasuries (DATs) have died down. While crypto asset acquisitions have slowed down among treasury companies, shareholders are losing significant amounts in value—as the market downturn continues to also affect crypto-related stocks.

However, BitMine’s general performance has been quite impressive, with the firm announcing its intention to pay crypto’s first-ever dividend to shareholders. What’s interesting is that the Ethereum treasury firm sits on a cash reserve of nearly $900 million, which could go into additional ETH purchases.

BitMine Buys The Dip While Ethereum Whales Take Profit

BitMine’s continued accumulation of Ether is a proof of its faith in the token’s long-term promise. However, this aggressive purchasing activity has somewhat been opposite to what the market trend is suggesting.

The Ethereum price is hovering around the $3,000 mark after a mild correction from its recent local high around $3,200. According to on-chain data, mid-sized whales (holding between 1,000 and 10,000 ETH) have kept significant selling pressure on the market.

Meanwhile, Alphractal also revealed that the large whales (with over 10,000 ETH) have remained much more in a neutral and calm state, showing only light distribution.

Whales are typically regarded as some of the most influential investors in the market, as their moves often give insights on a coin’s trajectory. While BitMine counts as a whale—due to its significant holdings, it is interesting to see the firm move in the opposite direction of other relevant market participants.

BPCE will let millions of customers buy and sell BTC, ETH, SOL and USDC directly inside its banking apps.

Wired published an article by California-based writer/programmer Sheon Han arguing that Ruby "is not a serious programming language." Han believes that the world of programming has "moved on", and "everything Ruby does, another language now does better, leaving it without a distinct niche. Ruby is easy on the eyes. Its syntax is simple, free of semicolons or brackets. More so even thanPython — a language known for its readability — Ruby reads almost like plain English... Ruby, you might've guessed, is dynamically typed. Python and JavaScript are too, but over the years, those communities have developed sophisticated tools to make them behave more responsibly. None of Ruby's current solutions are on par with those. It's far too conducive to what programmers call "footguns," features that make it all too easy to shoot yourself in the foot. Critically, Ruby's performance profile consistently ranks near the bottom (read: slowest) among major languages. You may remember Twitter's infamous "fail whale," the error screen with a whale lifted by birds that appeared whenever the service went down. You could say that Ruby was largely to blame. Twitter's collapse during the 2010 World Cup served as a wake-up call, and the company resolved to migrate its backend to Scala, a more robust language. The move paid off: By the 2014 World Cup, Twitter handled a record 32 million tweets during the final match without an outage. Its new Scala-based backend could process up to 100 times faster than Ruby. In the 2010s, a wave of companies replaced much of their Ruby infrastructure, and when legacy Ruby code remained, new services were written in higher-performance languages. You may wonderwhy people are still using Ruby in 2025. It survives because of its parasitic relationship with Ruby on Rails, the web framework that enabled Ruby's widespread adoption and continues to anchor its relevance.... Rails was the framework of choice for a new generation of startups. The main code bases of Airbnb, GitHub, Twitter, Shopify, and Stripe were built on it. He points out on Stack Overflow's annual developer survey, Ruby has slipped from a top-10 technology in 2013 to #18 this year — "behind evenAssembly" — calling Ruby "a kind of professional comfort object, sustained by the inertia of legacy code bases and the loyalty of those who first imprinted upon it." But the article drew some criticism on X.com. ("You should do your next piece about how Vim isn't a serious editor and continue building your career around nerd sniping developers.") Other reactions... "Maybe WIRED is just not a serious medium..." "FWIW — Ruby powered Shopify through another Black Friday / Cyber Monday — breaking last year's record." "Maybe you should have taken a look at TypeScript..." Wired's subheading argues that Ruby "survives on affection, not utility. Let's move on." Are they right? Share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments. Is Ruby still a 'serious' programming language?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Liverpool star Mohamed Salah says he has been "thrown under the bus" by the club, and his relationship with manager Arne Slot has broken down.

A message from the French embassy in Benin said gunfire had been reported near the residence of the president.

Images appeared online of unveiled women competing in the race on Friday.

Gunmen stormed a hostel near Pretoria and opened fire, killing 11 people including a three-year-old.

Drone strikes on a town in South Kordofan on Thursday are said to have killed at least 50 people.

For the past two years all public Christmas celebrations have been cancelled in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Japan has begun informal discussions with the Philippines over the possible export of the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Type 03 Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile system, known as Chu-SAM, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government advances plans to end long-standing restrictions on defense exports. According to a report by Kyodo News published on November 30, several government sources […]

Japan’s Ministry of Defense reported new Chinese naval movements near Okinawa and the Miyako Strait, confirming that multiple People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ships—including the aircraft carrier Liaoning (16) —operated close to Japan’s southwestern islands between December 5 and December 6. According to the ministry, at approximately 2:00 p.m. on December 5, the Japan Maritime […]

Japan has asked the United States to step up its public support for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi following a series of threats from China over her recent comments about Taiwan, according to officials in both countries familiar with the discussions. The Japanese government was reportedly disappointed by what it views as insufficient backing from senior […]

Japan’s Ministry of Defense has accused Chinese military aircraft of locking radar on two Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) F-15 fighters over international waters southeast of Okinawa on December 6, escalating tensions in the East China Sea region. According to the Ministry of Defense, Chinese J-15 fighters launched from the aircraft carrier Liaoning directed radar at […]