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Roadmap for increasing department’s share of GDP will be deferred until next year’s review

The chancellor will delay setting out when the UK will meet the target of allocating 3% of GDP on defence until next year’s spending review, the Treasury has confirmed.

John Healey resigned as defence secretary in June under Keir Starmer’s leadership, accusing the prime minister of being “unable” and the Treasury “unwilling” to “commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country”.

My mom was excited and confused when she opened her Apple Watch at Christmas a few years ago. “What a nice gift!” A pause. “What am I supposed to do with this?” We told her the truth: A smartwatch can do all kinds of useful things.

Fitness tracking became the thing my mom latched onto. She loved counting her steps and seeing how many miles she walked in a day. It motivated her to become more active, too. We didn’t tell her until much later that the Apple Watch’s fall detection feature was the real reason we got her the watch. The feature worked, too.

On the coldest day of the year, this past winter, my mom tripped on an uneven sidewalk and broke her wrist. The Apple Watch called 911 almost as soon as she hit the ground, and we took an ambulance to the hospital, where my sister, who was nearly a thousand miles away, texted and asked what was wrong. She’d been watching my mom’s location on Apple’s Find My app, a fact that we revealed to my mom for the first time when she was in the emergency room. We also had to confess that the Nest security cam we’d set up in her living room was indeed useful in spotting intruders but also let us check in on her from time to time. 

My mom wasn’t thrilled about any of this. She realized that these handy gadgets doubled as surveillance devices, and we’d essentially be spying on her.

But at the same time, she recognized why we wanted to keep an eye on her. If she’d fallen alone at home alone, for instance, an easy way to call for help could’ve been a lifesaver. 

Perhaps grappling with how to spy on your aging parents — ethically! — is something you’re grappling with, too. A growing number of people are weighing the privacy trade-off as boomers get older and their millennial children get more involved. Roughly 59 million Americans now help take care of an adult over 50, up from 34 million a decade ago. A third of those are sandwich-generation caregivers, meaning they’re looking after their parents and their own children at the same time. It can be an overwhelming task. So enlisting a home security system, like Nest, or a wearable, like an Apple Watch, to keep an eye on their parents seems like a time-saving way to gain some peace of mind. It certainly helped my sister and I feel better about our mom aging in place.

It turns out, a growing community of researchers and tech developers has thought a lot about this problem that many of us are now facing. There are labs focused on how technology can make growing older more humane, as well as federally funded research efforts and startup accelerators from groups like AARP working on solutions. All of the experts I spoke to for this story told me the same thing: Good communication is essential.

And there’s a whole cottage industry of tech for older adults, known as age-tech, that includes everything from healthcare gadgets, like the Hero Smart Pill Dispenser, and more futuristic devices, like the social robot ElliQ, that promise to help seniors combat loneliness. Many of these products and services are designed to help keep older adults safe and to help them age in place. Some, like the Haelo smart ring, are designed to do it all, everything from fall detection to health tracking to emergency alerts if something suddenly looks wrong. Others, like Life360, use software designed to track kids to keep an eye on their grandparents.

The big challenge with all of this, however, is finding a way to implement it in a way that respects the aging loved one’s privacy and independence. Boomers and Gen Xers didn’t grow up with as much tech in their lives as younger generations — much less gadgets that could double as monitoring devices — so introducing these tools stands to alienate them. And beyond that, it’s an ongoing challenge to ensure that technology reduces a caregiver’s mental load rather than add to it. After all, too much tech can create new problems rather than solve existing ones. If the overwhelm becomes too much to bear, everyone involved might just abandon the effort. 

“Start with: What do they need support for and what is the best solution for that?” Wendy Rogers, director of the Human Factors and Aging Lab at the University of Illinois, told me. “Sometimes it’s technology, sometimes it’s not.” 

You might be surprised by what technology can do, when it’s purposefully designed and properly introduced into an aging person’s life.

If you’re a caregiver — Rogers prefers the term “care partners” — you should think of this problem-solving project as a collaboration. Start the conversation with your parents or loved ones early and maintain an open dialogue about how it’s working out. Perhaps most importantly, keep updating the plan as time goes on and lives change. And this might go without saying, but try to avoid any big surprises.

Don’t wait until an emergency

It’s difficult to know when to offer an older adult help, even if that help is as simple as a smartwatch. On one hand, you don’t want to offend or infantilize them. On the other, if you wait too long, you might find yourself trying to set up a monitoring system when it’s no longer optional, like after a fall or other health scare. In these instances, you risk rushing to a solution before you identify the specific problem. 

Waiting until an emergency to start thinking about this also necessarily means there’s less time to plan. That sets the younger person up for a situation in which they’re inundated with more information than they can manage. If you set up a smart camera, like a Nest, to notify you every time your parent wakes up and goes into the kitchen, you’re bound to face a huge stack of notifications every time you open your phone and no real strategy for separating the signal from the noise. Good planning helps you to avoid looking at all that raw data and instead look for deviations from the norm. Once I involved my mom in this process, we had the chance to clarify not only the details of her routine but also our goal in keeping tabs on her. In the end, she had no doubt this all came from a place of love.

“In those cases, the technology serves as a safety net, not to check every day what’s going on but to be notified when something doesn’t seem to be happening the way it was supposed to,” said George Demiris, a professor of informatics at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school. 

You can imagine the broader implications of this safety net concept. If your goal is to make sure your parent is going about their daily routine, you don’t actually need cameras at all. Motion sensors can do the job just as well, all while maintaining privacy. There are even camera-free systems, like Nomo Smart Care and Silvie, designed to spot worrisome deviations from an older person’s routine. Even still, the benefits of planning — at the very least, identifying a specific problem in need of a solution — will make it more likely that you’ll maximize the technology’s benefit.

Make privacy and empathy central to your approach

The first step in planning to use tech to monitor your parents is simply talking. You should have a conversation with them to find out what worries they have and consider those alongside your own. Ask what level of monitoring they’d be comfortable with. When the time comes, teach them how to use the tech you’re introducing into their life. Give them the agency to make changes and even turn off the tech when they want.

One way to go about this is to try reversing the roles. Consider how you’d feel if someone wanted to install a bunch of surveillance cameras in your home and track your every move. If you’re asking an older loved one to wear a health tracker, think about why a device like that might be useful to you. Heck, you could even buy matching Apple Watches and start sharing your step count in order to show that you’re trying to stay active and healthy together.

“Saying, ‘Okay, let me stop for a second. Let me imagine I’m their age and my kid wants to do this thing — what would that be like?’” said Amanda Lazar, an associate professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Information. “I think that can help you approach it more sensitively and in a more understanding way.”

The privacy question deserves extra attention. While motion sensor-based monitoring systems can offer extra privacy, there might be situations where you do want a camera. You should talk to your parent or loved one about where they’re comfortable with having a camera and what level of control they’d like to have over it. If you’re thinking about tracking someone with an AirTag or through an app, tell them you’re doing it and explain how it works. They won’t enjoy being surprised if you pull a Big Brother and start asking about specific whereabouts.

All that said, if the person you’re helping care for has dementia or other cognitive issues, these conversations are more complicated. You should talk to their doctor about their individual needs, potential tech solutions, and the possibility of involving professional caregivers.

Start simple and with tech people actually want to use

There’s a reason my sister and I bought my mom an Apple Watch and not a Life Alert pendant. We knew she’d like it, if not for the fitness tracking, then at least as a fashion accessory. And, as a direct result of liking it, she’d wear it. Indeed, we were nervous about her falling, so the fall detection feature was a selling point. But as someone who’s spent a lot of time thinking and writing about gadgets like these, I knew that some of the health tracking features could help be active and have fun doing so. Now, every other time I call, she tells me how many miles she walked that day.

If you’re considering a monitoring device for your parents or an older loved one, think about what they might actually want to use. For many people, smart speakers are a great way to introduce potentially lifesaving tech into the home. Your dad might like asking Alexa for recipe advice, and you might find comfort in the fact that he can also ask Alexa to call 911 if he falls. “Engaging people with technology tools early on and making it part of their everyday repertoire can be very helpful,” said Rogers, “and then as their needs change you can increase the support.” 

Down the line, it’s relatively seamless to connect cameras, motion sensors, smart locks, or smoke alarms to systems like these. And because the older adult has been in the loop from the start, you can teach them how to use these devices, and they can remain aware of what you can see on your end. Again, the empathy-focused approach is more likely to win someone over.

Change your plan when life changes

Like anything related to tech, you’ll need to do some software updates along the way. And I don’t mean making sure your Nest camera firmware is up to date. You’ll want to revisit your conversation about monitoring with your parents or loved ones at least once a year. You might try doing it over the holidays when you’re all together or when there’s a need for some tech support. Regardless, it’s essential to communicate about what’s working and what’s not.

These conversations can also be opportunities to talk about other ways you might help. Beyond monitoring their physical space, some aging parents could benefit from some help in the digital world, especially as they’re being targeted by a growing number of AI-powered scams. Do they need help managing their finances or keeping track of login credentials? Do your parents know what a passcode is? They might not ask you for help with these things, and again, it’s better to get out in front of issues before an emergency happens.

“Everyone’s in denial,” said Amelia Hay, a vice president at AARP Innovation Labs. “Everyone’s thinking their parents are fine, whatever, and then something happens where you’re in a state of emergency.”

So don’t wait. And don’t be in denial. Aging, as much as some tech billionaires would like to deny it, is one of those things in life that’s inevitable. If everything seems fine now, that means it’s a great time to start planning for when things go sideways.

Проект может собрать опытных аналитиков, разработчиков и руководителей — и все равно столкнуться с задержками, конфликтами и потерей качества. Причина нередко не в уровне экспертизы, а в том, что участники по-разному понимают задачи, избегают сложных разговоров или не умеют договариваться в условиях изменений.

Этим вопросам посвятят секцию «Soft skills, управление командой проекта» на INFOSTART A&PM EVENT 2026.

В центре внимания — практические ситуации, с которыми сталкиваются проектные команды...

Меня зовут Дарья Беляева, я — Tech Lead и архитектор решений на стыке BIM, CDE и Revit API. Мы с коллегой, Андреем Прохоровым, за два месяца с нуля сделали AGR.Checker — плагин для Revit, который проверяет ЦИМ на соответствие требованиям IDS перед сдачей в составе АГР. В этой статье — конкретные инженерные решения, которые легли в основу плагина, и то, с чем мы разобрались при регистрации прав на программу в Роспатенте.

На прошлой неделе вышел Bun 1.4. В этом релизе Bun переписан с Zig на Rust: более миллиона новых строк кода. Смена языка вызвала волну обсуждений в сообществе, но главное здесь другое: как именно выполнялась миграция и какого масштаба она достигла. Детали этой истории, мой собственный опыт и уже близкие достижения ИИ убеждают меня: мы пришли к концу программирования в привычном смысле.

Речь о том, что ручное написание кода с его последующей человеческой ревью как способ создания работающего программного обеспечения движется к исчезновению. Точнее, этот подход утонет в лавине работающего ПО, которое будут создавать агенты, а люди будут проверять лишь конечный результат, а не сам код. Программного обеспечения станет больше, чем когда-либо, но большую часть кода не напишет и не прочитает ни один человек.

Have you been following the big stories in football, athletics, rugby league, cricket, boxing, tennis and cycling?

From secluded coves in Ireland to an evening passeggiata on Italy’s Aeolian islands, readers share their discoveries
• Tell us about your most memorable food and drink discoveries in Europe

Giant griffon vultures glided parallel with my bus as it reached the highest point of Cres, the least populated of the four main islands in the Kvarner Gulf at the very north of the Croatian Adriatic. Covered in scrubby heath, olive groves and lavender, with small towns and villages on its coastline, its wildness is its appeal. Some, like Cres town, are unobtrusively set up for holidaymakers; in others local people just quietly get on with the life they’ve lived since the Venetians ruled here. All are lapped by the turquoise, crystal seas Croatia is known for.
Rhiannon

В этой статье описано создание многоступенчатого ускорителя масс «Гаусса» с описанием каждого из его компонентов, сборкой и испытаниями!

Soaring demand for services has led to tenfold increase in spending in a year in some areas, says NHS Alliance

NHS leaders have warned that the costs of meeting soaring demand for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism services in England are “running out of control” and have become unsustainable, with spending in some areas rising by as much as tenfold over the course of a year.

The NHS Alliance, which represents health managers, said the rise in demand since the coronavirus pandemic was forcing some to close waiting lists and look at reining in other services they provide.

Я руковожу проектом по внедрению цифровых сотрудников в компании, которая занимается разработкой, внедрением и поддержкой ПО для автоматизации дистрибуции. В этой статье расскажу, почему первым большим сценарием мы выбрали поддержку, как начинали с помощника инженера и что получили после выхода в реальный поток.

Формулировка встречается в политиках конфиденциальности постоянно и звучит успокаивающе. На деле она означает одно из двух: либо в компании действительно шифруют пароли — и это плохо, — либо там не различают шифрование и хеширование, что тоже не добавляет уверенности.

America’s second biggest sporting obsession returns this weekend, which means marching bands, 100,000-seat stadiums, ancient rivalries and, increasingly, the operating model of a sport being invented in real time

Is college football healthy? It’s a seductive question, one that now comes up every year around this time. Actually, it never recedes, so it’s just with the sport all the time. It’s also the wrong question, because whoever answers it is free to choose their own adventure. The television ratings are way up there in the galaxy. Money rains down on dozens of programs and thousands of players. Marching bands continue to march. Yet a lot of teams are stranded by realignment or an economic inability to keep up in a transfer arms race. Their fans – actually any team’s fans – may be exhausted by escalating asks for their dollars.

If you have been checked out of the sport for a while ahead of this weekend’s first set of games, you may feel like your body has been frozen for a few decades. Indiana, (yes, really) are the defending national champs, fresh off a 16-0 season that puts them on the list of the handful of best teams ever. Texas Tech, once likened to Siberia by a former coach who is now a US senator, are the fiercest program in the Big 12. Ole Miss are good for the first time since integration. At least Ohio State and Georgia are still powerhouses.

The site once paired news and scores with distinctive voices. Its overhaul under Sinclair Media is the latest sign that serious tennis writing in the US is becoming endangered

A few weeks ago, as I often do, I went to the Tennis.com site to get an update about a match and to check out the commentary from my fellow tennis journalists. I was taken aback when, instead of the usual colorful graphics and info, I was greeted with a rudimentary-looking homepage that displayed only scores and rankings.

At first I thought it was a glitch of some sort. But sadly, no. As it turns out, Tennis.com, originally the online site of Tennis Magazine, is under a complete overhaul and will no longer be the home of esteemed writers such as Steve Tignor and Pete Bodo, robbing fans of unique and personal takes on the sport. It appears the longest running American tennis-specific publication is no longer alive in any form.

Winning the Europa League and finishing fourth did not inoculate Villa and Spurs were not hampered by a season of woe

In theory Aston Villa supporters should have been rubbing their hands together at the prospect of a Champions League season. Equally, Tottenham fans could have been despondent after a relegation battle that went to the wire. A 17th-place finish meant Spurs earned about £35m less in Premier League merit payments, which are based on final league position, than Villa.

Yet the mood in the two camps is reversed. Spurs have spent an estimated £322m in the transfer window, and that excludes the loan of Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush, for whom they are committed to paying £55m after this season. Sales have reduced the outlay to a net £140m, but Spurs fans seemed buoyant, at least until the first match, when they were soundly thrashed by one of the data scientists’ teacher’s pets, Brentford.

Ollie Robinson took 4-11 and Jofra Archer bowled ferociously as England dominated Pakistan’s batters and opened a 261-lead at Lord’s

62nd over: England 266-9 (Atkinson 38, Tongue 14) Scrap that: Atkinson takes a leg-bye off the second ball of this over. As Tongue prepares to face Abbas, the keeper, Mohammad Rizwan, calls for a helmet and goes up to the stumps – so Josh Tongue is now being treated like Joe Root. The ploy could backfire by making Tongue’s nicks harder for the slips to pick up. And it doesn’t seem to bother Tongue, who plays an uppish flick for a single to steal the strike.

61st over: England 264-9 (Atkinson 38, Tongue 13) Ali bowls to Atkinson, who promptly steps away to leg, dreaming of a six over backward point, but connects only with thin air. The over ends in a flurry of singles – one to each batter and then a tight one to Atkinson, who may have decided that he needs to protect Tongue from Abbas.

Сегодня в рубрике — книга об экономическом возрождении Германии и Японии после 1945 года. Автор — профессор Университета Глазго, специалист по истории бизнеса, технологий и экономической политики. Он десятилетиями изучал историю обеих стран, провёл сравнительный анализ и на основе архивных материалов показал, как конкретные люди — министры, инженеры, менеджеры, рабочие — перестраивали экономику двух побеждённых государств.

Для контекста. Выход на второе и пятое места в мире по ВВП после тотального поражения — это результат конкретных решений. Стоукс выделяет три ключевых рычага: переориентацию на экспорт, Германия увеличила экспорт в 17 раз к 1970 году, Япония — в 23,5; кооперативные модели труда, в Германии — представительство рабочих в советах директоров, в Японии — пожизненный наём и кружки качества; и новую промышленную политику, немецкие отраслевые ассоциации вроде VCI и японское ММТП, которое координировало целые сектора.

В этом материале мы сосредоточимся на четвёртом, возможно, самом наглядном слагаемом успеха — изобретательной адаптации зарубежных технологий. Речь не о копировании, а о переосмыслении чужих наработок под свои реалии: брали принцип, но пересобирали технологию под свои задачи, часто делая её лучше, дешевле или доступнее. Собрали примеры из книги — каждый из них показывает, как именно технологическая адаптация работала на практике и почему Стоукс считает её одним из главных двигателей послевоенного рывка.

Когда собираешь свой новый компьютер, есть несколько важных цифр, на которых держится буквально все. Одна из них — максимальная высота кулера. Ее производитель корпуса указывает в характеристиках, а мы принимаем на веру. Кажется, что все просто: посмотрел на характеристики корпуса, сверил цифру с высотой кулера из его спеков и понял, встанет или нет. Иногда запас составляет всего пару миллиметров, и мы думаем, что этого достаточно, и со спокойной душой оформляем заказ. В итоге начинаем собирать компьютер, а кулер либо не влезает вовсе, либо упирается в стекло боковой панели. Неприятно? А оказывается, этот риск выше, чем многие думают.

Если у вас есть ребенок, и вы мечтаете, чтобы свой досуг он проводил не просто, играя в игры на телефоне, а еще и с пользой для себя, своих родителей, своей школы, то у нас есть для него замечательная книга.

А если ребенок к тому же пытается превратить домашний робот-пылесос в боевого робота или хочет разобрать умную колонку, то есть реальный шанс направить его энергию в нужное русло. Жизнь показала, что уже тысячи детей и подростков успешно сделали первые шаги в мире программирования и робототехники с помощью первых двух изданий книги Юрия Винницкого «Scratch и Arduino для юных программистов и конструкторов».

Всем привет! Это Денис Сметнев. Я тут рассказываю про вайбкодинг, про то, как один человек теперь может заменить команду, и как узкое горлышко переместилось из разработки в сторону маркетинга. При этом я наставник у ребят, которые пилят SaaS, но не справились бы без разработчиков. Речь про Reels-Boss — сервис, который нарезает длинные видео на вирусные вертикальные куски для Shorts, Reels и TikTok. Рассказываю, как ребята втроем обслуживают 50 000 клиентов и почему вайбкодеры не справятся с таким сервисом.

Недавно в одном из постов в Telegram мне попалась статья о том, как реализовали шахматы на основе Rich-текста — это «Rich Text Chess». Меня это зацепило: Rich-сообщения не уводят пользователя из Telegram, и клиенту гораздо проще взаимодействовать с ботом, не покидая привычный интерфейс.

Their raucous pop music has made Katseye the biggest girl band in two decades. Can they weather toxic fandom, critical pans and a dwindling member count?

Before screenings of their new documentary, the members of Katseye appear in a video message to thank fans for their support. Their followers, Eyekons, have played a critical role in their rise to stardom, so it makes sense that Katseye: Wild Hearts, released in global theaters this month, takes a beat to shout out to them. Perhaps more than many other big music groups today, the group’s rise has depended on their relationship with their devotees who ensure that few corners of the world are safe from Katseye mania.

Katseye’s multinational members – Daniela, Lara, Manon, Megan, Sophia and Yoonchae – were selected through a combination of fan votes and judge scores on the 2023 YouTube reality competition The Debut: Dream Academy. The joint project between the American record label Geffen Records and Korean entertainment company Hybe aimed to create a global girl group, with hopefuls participating in a rigorous bootcamp to test their singing and dancing skills. The following year, Netflix’s docu-series Pop Star Academy: Katseye – which documented the group’s nascent era, behind-the-scenes drama and all – catapulted them to a new level of visibility.