🐤 Webb telescope snaps a first

🎥 MCU drops big news at the D23 Expo. The D23 on Saturday in Anaheim, California, saw a slew of news regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe that will keep fans full for years to come. The Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) led Secret Invasion trailer dropped. Don Cheadle (also in Secret Invasion was announced to start in fellow Disney+ series Armor Wars, and Matt Shakman was announced as the director in Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four, which is hitting theaters on November 8, 2024. For the full list of announcements, click here.

⚔️ Ukraine's counter-offensive continues the momentum. In the latest major counter-offensive from the Ukraine military, it would seem their forces captured Colonel General Andrei Sychevoi near Kharkiv. His capture hasn't been confirmed by either Russia or Ukraine. On Sunday, the momentum continued as Ukrainian troops pressed their advantage in the northeastern part of the country, causing Russian troops to withdraw -- leaving weapons and munitions behind.

🧠 Vanadium Dioxide is 'brain-like.' Mohammed Samizadeh Nikoo, a Ph.D. student, made an exciting finding. Vanadium Dioxide (VO2), when relaxed at room temperature, has an insulating phase and experiences a sharp insulator-to-mental transition at 68 degrees Celsius. According to Nikoo, regarding the experiments, "...The [electric]current moved across the material, following a path until it exited on the other side," and VO2 seemed to remember the first phase transition and anticipate the next, displaying a memory function.

🍟 Fast food chains say, 'eat at home.' Digital kitchens are becoming a thing. Chipotle, Dunkin' Donuts, Panera, and Taco Bell have begun a move toward taking away dining areas (while other franchises are entirely virtual). The pandemic led to customers preferring to eat at home, and not having dining rooms saves money on real estate and labor. Many companies are offering rewards for those using mobile apps for orders. This trend looks like it will only become more popular with time.

James Webb Space Telescope captures its first exoplanet.

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to impress astronomers and space fans around the world. Recently, the telescope was able to capture an image of an exoplanet for the first time.

The world in question is seven times heavier than Jupiter and orbits a star nearly 400 light-years away.

What is an exoplanet? An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star outside the solar system, simply enough. Regarding the photo, Aarynn Carter, an astronomer at UC Santa Cruz and part of the team that processed the image, was understandably excited. "It’s exhilarating; the result is, honestly, excellent."

The planet is currently called HIP 65426 b. The James Webb Space Telescope blocked the light of the planet's host star using a device known as a coronagraph. The use of the coronagraph revealed the world, allowing the photo to be snapped.

The James Webb Space Telescope took decades to construct, floats a million miles from Eather, and only became fully operational this summer. The telescope has observed distant galaxies and has taken amazing photos of Jupiter.

What will the James Webb Space Telescope capture next? Let your imaginations go wild.

Amazon announces acquisition of machinery and robotics maker Cloostermans.

Last Friday, Amazon announced the acquisition of Belgian company, Cloostermans -- a company that makes technology used in warehouses. The terms of the financial package associated with the purchase were not disclosed publicly.

"Amazon’s investments in robotics and technology are supporting how we build a better and safer workplace for our employees and deliver for our customers," said Ian Simpson, Vice President of Global Robotics at Amazon in a press release. "As we continue to broaden and accelerate the robotics and technology we design, engineer and deploy across our operations, we look forward to welcoming Cloostermans to Amazon and are excited to see what we can build together."

What does this mean for the Cloostermans team? The approximately 200 employees of Cloostermans will join the Amazon Global Robotics group in Europe. Last year, Amazon launched the European Innovation Lab in Italy, and this move looks like a calculated attempt to expand Amazon's presence in Europe.

Another proposed rationale is robotics will improve warehouse safety, however, a recent study suggests Amazon's warehouses with robots have higher instances of injury. Amazon is currently dealing with a rash of warehouse safety concerns, while the company fights unionization efforts.

European leaders are looking to undermine Vladimir Putin. Earlier this month, the non-democratically elected President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and his government issued an ultimatum to the European Union (EU). Russia says the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will not resume until sanctions against Russia are lifted.

Current sanctions are in place due to the war Putin launched against Ukraine earlier this year. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen did not back down when addressing the situation several days ago, claiming Russia is "actively manipulating the gas market" and insisted Europe would "diversify away from Russian fossil fuels."

In March, United States President Joe Biden and von der Leyen announced a joint Task Force to reduce European dependence on Russian fossil fuels, hoping to secure the continents' energy freedom.

How Europe can avoid an energy crisis

Last year, the EU imported about 155bn cubic meters of Russian gas, approximately 40% of its supply; this year, that number has dropped to 9%, leading to a suspected crisis over the winter months.

Recently, the European Commission put forward proposals that included a suggestion to skim off the profits of energy companies and recycle the proceeds to households and businesses, an effort to ease those hit by extremely high energy bills.

Other proposals are price caps, which would stop the prices of fossil fuels from rising past a certain amount. However, several countries' representatives fear such a move would cause Putin to cut off all supplies to Europe.

Arguments over which plan is the best course of action continue to be debated as Europe looks to find a way to undermine Putin's threat.