Fuelled by $15bn in financing, Northvolt was supposed to be Europe’s great battery success story — a homegrown champion capable of competing with Asian and American giants.   So when Northvolt filed for bankruptcy last week, after months of job cuts, restructuring, and multiple failed attempts to raise more money, it dealt a massive blow to Europe’s ambitions to ramp up domestic production of lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from EVs to smartphones.  In the wake of Northvolt’s precipitous fall from grace, everyone from politicians and investors to the company’s own employees has voiced their opinions on what went wrong. Among…

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The United States has long understood a simple truth: war is won not by size alone, but by speed and creativity. Indeed, innovation has always been crucial in conflict. Armour made knights safe until the crossbow came along. High walls protected cities until cannons emerged. Trenches were made obsolete by fast-moving mechanised forces. The lesson: a military that cannot innovate is one that falls behind. Yet Europe remains stuck with an outdated model of defence procurement – one that favours a handful of bloated contractors doing the same old thing over the fresh ideas of startups and entrepreneurs. Against a…

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Finnish startup Distance Technologies emerged from stealth last year with a technology it claims can turn any transparent surface into a mixed reality (MR) display. Now, it has teamed up with Patria to trial the tech on the defence firm’s armoured vehicles. The partners will jointly develop a heads-up display for Patria’s six-wheel drive armoured personnel carrier. The system will display 3D tactical data, terrain mapping, and AI-driven military insights directly onto the windshield, allowing military personnel to see in low-visibility environments like darkness and smoke.  The MR technology promises to eliminate the need for additional screens or clunky headsets.…

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With the compliance deadline for the European Accessibility Act (EAA) fast approaching, companies are urgently trying to ensure their websites meet the requirements of the EU directive.  One appealing solution is accessibility widgets — small add-ons with features like text resizing, contrast adjustments, and text-to-speech functions. However, while these widgets promise fast and inexpensive compliance, they often fail to address the real issues of accessibility. In fact, they can even make websites harder for people with disabilities to navigate.  Here’s why relying on widgets is a short-sighted solution and what web developers should focus on instead to create truly accessible…

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The European Space Agency has released the first major batch of data from its “dark universe” telescope Euclid. What’s inside could change our understanding of dark matter and the expansion of the universe. The data comprises just one week’s worth of deep field images from three points in space. They make up just 0.4% of the vast area Euclid will capture, which scientists say will be the largest 3D map of the sky ever created. With one scan of each region so far, Euclid has already spotted 26 million galaxies, each potentially containing millions of stars and billions of planets.…

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