Material 3 Expressive continues to make its way to Android with the Google Account page getting a redesign.
This page is accessible from the Google Account menu of every first-party app by tapping “Manage your Google Account.” Instead of a page with multiple top tabs, the redesign consolidates everything into a list that takes after the system Settings app.
A large profile image, name, and email address appears at the top, with that getting docked as you scroll down. A dropdown lets you switch accounts.
Each menu is placed in a card with rounded corners, colorful icon, and description. For the most part, all the main items fit in one screen. You have:
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Personal info
Security & sign-in, Password Manager, Your devices
Data & privacy
People & sharing, Family group
Payments & subscriptions
Google One storage
“Looking for something else?” at the bottom gives you another way to access search (besides the top-right corner), as well as “See help options” and “Send feedback.”
Other Material 3 Expressive elements as you dive into each include placing elements in containers with curved corners.
We’re seeing this Material 3 Expressive redesign of the Account page rolled out with version 25.25.33 of Google Play services on both Android 16 and 16 QPR1 devices, including Pixel and Samsung.
Google recently also updated At a Glance settings with version B.7 of Android System Intelligence.
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Stars are born in clusters, and the early days in these clusters are messy. Stars move chaotically and haven’t settled into regular routines. Inevitably, some stars are kicked out of their birth clusters through all of the gravitational interactions.
The Large Magellanic Cloud, though much less massive than the Milky Way, is home to a very unusual star cluster named NGC 2070. NGC 2070 is a large open star cluster within the Tarantula Nebula in the LMC. NGC 2070’s central cluster makes astronomers sit up and take notice. It’s called R136, and it holds an extremely dense concentration of massive O-type stars and Wolf-Rayet stars. O-type stars are very hot, and very rare, but since they’re so luminous they’re not difficult to spot. Wolf-Rayet stars are also massive, hot, and highly luminous.
The extraordinary luminosity of the stars in R136, which altogether have about 60,000 solar masses, provides most of the energy that illuminates the entire Tarantula Nebula. For this reason, it’s called a starburst region. It contains many of the most massive and luminous stars astronomers know of.
This JWST image of the Tarantula Nebula highlights the brilliant central cluster R136. This tightly-packed region of extremely luminous stars lights up the nebula. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
R136 is very young, only about one or two million years old. The region is extremely chaotic, and in 2024, astronomers found 55 massive runaway stars coming from the cluster in two waves. A 2024 paper reporting these findings also discovered that 23–33% of the most luminous stars initially born in R136 are runaways.
New research published in Physical Review Letters examined what’s behind some of these stellar ejections, focusing on a binary star named Mel 34. It’s titled “Origin of the Most Recently Ejected OB Runaway Star from the R136 Cluster.” The lead author is Simon Portegies Zwart, Professor of Numerical Star Dynamics at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
The 2024 paper used data from the ESA’s Gaia mission to show that three of R136’s ejected stars were evicted from the core about 60,000 years ago. However, what caused the triple ejection was unknown. In the new research, Portegies Zwart and his co-researchers reconstructed their ejection, showing that there were five stars involved in the expulsion.
Mel 39 is a binary star with two massive stars, one with 140 solar masses, and the other with 80. Mel 39 is travelling away from the R136 cluster at 64 km/s. It’s in the same orbital plane as Mel 34, the other ejected binary. Mel 34 is one of the most massive known binaries, with the larger of the pair having 139 solar masses, and the other one with 127 solar masses. When combined with VFTS 590, the other star involved, and its 46 solar masses, the five stars constitute more than 530 solar masses.
The researchers relied on Gaia’s precise astrometry to untangle the backstory of these five stars and their ejection from R136. Mel 34 was the last of the stars to be ejected, and tracing it backwards in time and space helped the researchers reconstruct the interactions that led up to the ejection.
“Because of the Gaia satellite’s outstanding precision, we can now retrace the most recently ejected binary star, Mel 34, back to the center of R136 and reconstruct the events that 52 000 years ago led to its removal from R136,” the authors write. “The deterministic nature of the Newtonian dynamics in the scattering enables us to reconstruct the encounter that ejected Mel 34.”
Gravitational interactions follow Newton’s laws of motion, which are deterministic. That means the same starting conditions always produce the same results, unlike quantum laws. So by measuring Mel 34’s trajectory, position, and velocity, the researchers ‘mathematically reversed’ Mel 34’s path, and recovered a picture of the expulsion of the stars. In a sense, each star is like a fossil record of its origins that allows backwards tracing.
Runaway stars stand out from the background due to their trajectories and velocities. In 2010, the Hubble Space Telescope found another star ejected from a different part of the Tarantula Nebula. The heavyweight star, called 30 Dor #016, is 90 times more massive than the Sun and is travelling at more than 400,000 kilometers per hour from its home. Image Credit: By NASA, ESA, J. Walsh (ST-ECF) Acknowledgment: Z. Levay (STScI) Credit for ESO image: ESO Acknowledgments: J. Alves (Calar Alto, Spain), B. Vandame, and Y. Beletski (ESO) Processing by B. Fosbury (ST-ECF) – http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1008/, CC BY 3.0.
“We then predict that Mel 39 is a binary star with an 80𝑀⊙ companion star that orbits within ∼1° in the same plane as Mel 34 and escapes the cluster with a velocity of ∼64 km/s,” the authors explain.
The reconstruction simulations show that the ejection involved five stars, the Mel 34 and Mel 39 binaries and VFTS 590. Since two are binaries, the system acts like a triple star, where VFTS 590 and Mel 34 orbit Mel 39. These results were unexpected, according to the authors. “The participation of five stars is unexpected because runaway stars were not expected to result from triple interactions,” they explain in their paper.
These stars are travelling rapidly away from R136 due to the interactions, but there fates are sealed. All five of these massive stars will eventually explode as supernovae in a few million years. “The five stars will undergo supernova explosions in the coming 5 Myr at a distance of ∼180–332 pc from their birth location (R136),” the researchers explain in their paper.
“The resulting black hole binaries, however, are not expected to merge within a Hubble time,” they conclude.
The ejected stars in this study aren’t R136’s only runaway stars. Its 55 runaway stars paint a picture of R136 as an extreme, dynamically active region. With all of these ejected stars, many of them extremely bright, the star cluster is an excellent natural laboratory to study how massive clusters like this one evolve.
New research demonstrates that advancing age and limb motor symptoms in patients with suspected stroke are associated with increased brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) motion artifacts that can reduce accuracy in detecting hemorrhagic lesions.
For the retrospective study, recently published in European Radiology, researchers examined brain MRI data from 775 adult patients (median age of 68) with suspected stroke. The study authors noted 216 cases of acute ischemic lesions, 12 patients with hemorrhagic lesions and 20 cases involving space-occupying lesions.
The researchers found that motion artifacts on brain MRI occurred in 57 patients (7.4 percent). A multivariable analysis determined that advancing age was associated with an odds ratio (OR) per decade of 1.61 for the presence of motion artifacts. Patients with limb motor symptoms had more the double the likelihood of motion artifacts (OR 2.36) on brain MRI, according to the study authors.
Here are a couple of examples of motion artifacts in MRI scans and false negative predictions with AI (left column). For the top images (B), the studied AI tool overlooked bilateral hygromas/subdural hematomas in an 83-year-old man with right-sided facial palsy and hemiparesis. For the bottom images (C), AI did not detect a small right-sided extra-axial tumor in a 66-year-old woman with aphasia. (Images courtesy of European Radiology.)
While researchers did not see a significant impact of motion artifacts on the detection of ischemic and space-occupying lesions, they noted a 21 percent reduction in artificial intelligence (AI) accuracy and a 7 percent reduction in radiologist accuracy for detecting hemorrhagic lesions.
“Our study indicated that motion artifacts were independently associated with higher patient age and motor symptoms. Motion artifacts were associated with lower diagnostic test accuracy and specificity for hemorrhage detection, and they explained up to one-fifth of the incorrect AI hemorrhage predictions,” wrote lead study author Christian Hedeager Krag, M.D., who is affiliated with the Department of Radiology at the University Hospital Copenhagen-Herlev and Gentofte in Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues.
Three Key Takeaways
Advancing age and limb motor symptoms increase motion artifacts. Patients with suspected stroke who are older or have limb motor symptoms are at significantly higher risk of MRI motion artifacts, which can impair diagnostic accuracy.
Motion artifacts may reduce hemorrhage detection accuracy. Motion artifacts were linked to a 21 percent reduction in AI diagnostic accuracy and a 7 percent reduction in radiologist accuracy for detecting hemorrhagic lesions, though they did not significantly affect ischemic or space-occupying lesion detection.
Protocol adjustments may help minimize artifacts. Patients at higher risk for motion artifacts may benefit from tailored MRI protocols, such as shorter sequence acquisitions or the application of deep learning-based artifact reduction techniques.
The researchers noted longer mean sequence acquisition (92.3 seconds vs. 91.9 seconds) in patients with motion artifacts. They also found that 76 percent of patients with motion artifacts had 3D MRI sequences and noted a 21 percent higher incidence of gradient recalled (GR) susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI)/T2 sequences among patients with motion artifacts (53 percent vs. 32 percent).
“Patients with a high predicted risk of motion artifacts could be scheduled for a specific protocol with shorter sequences and deep learning artifact reduction to minimize motion artifacts,” posited Krag and colleagues.
(Editor’s note: For related content, see “Can Abbreviated MRI Have an Impact in Neuroimaging?,” “Could Deep Learning Offer Quicker Acute Stroke Detection on Brain MRI Without the Need for T2WI Sequences?” and “Can Deep Learning MRI Have an Impact in Suspected Stroke Cases?”)
In regard to study limitations, the authors acknowledged that a small number of cases involving hemorrhages and intracranial tumors thwarted a full analysis of the impact of MRI motion artifacts upon these lesions. The researchers also acknowledged that a lack of blinding to clinical information may have had an impact on reported diagnostic accuracy.
Princess Leonor of Spain shared a heartfelt embrace with her younger sister, Infanta Sofia, as she concluded her naval training in Marin on Wednesday.
During the ceremonial event, King Felipe VI awarded his eldest daughter the prestigious Grand Cross of Naval Merit-one of Spain’s highest military honours-while Queen Letizia and Infanta Sofia looked on with pride and applauded.
The 19-year-old heir to the Spanish throne looked radiant in her crisp white naval uniform as she smiled and embraced the 18-year-old sister in a moving moment.
King Felipe, dressed in full military attire, also shared an embrace with Leonor after formally presenting the decoration. After receiving the honour, the princess stepped onto the royal platform to reunite with her family.
Queen Letizia, dressed in an elegant navy ruffled gown, appeared visibly moved as she warmly hugged her daughter.
The event, held at the Spanish Naval Academy, marked the official presentation of Royal Dispatches, symbolising the officers’ transition into active duty.
Princess Leonor wore her hair in a sleek braided beneath her sailor cap, complementing her uniform perfectly. Receiving the Grand Cross of Naval Merit signifies a major milestone in her military journey as she continues her path toward becoming Spain’s future monarch and head of the armed forces.
Syria’s defence ministry headquarters in central Damascus was hit by Israeli strikes
Israel’s military struck the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus and government forces in southern Syria on Wednesday, as deadly sectarian fighting in the mostly Druze province of Suweida continued for a fourth day.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said its forces were “working to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regime’s gangs”. The Syrian foreign ministry accused Israel of “treacherous aggression”.
More than 300 people are reported to have been killed in Suweida since Sunday, when clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes erupted.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was “very worried” about the violence in the south but believed it would end within hours.
“We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight,” he wrote on X on Wednesday evening.
Syria’s foreign ministry said the country “welcomes the efforts made by the US and Arabian sides” to “resolve the current crisis” peacefully.
Israel has not yet commented on the ceasefire bid.
Syrian troops have started to withdraw from Suweida, according to Syria’s state news agency Sana.
It says the military is leaving the city as part of an agreement between the Syrian government and the Suweida’s religious leaders, following the “completion of the army’s pursuit of outlaw groups”.
The Israeli military began striking Syrian security forces and their weapons on Monday, after they were deployed to the city of Suweida for the first time since Sunni Islamist-led rebels overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Minority groups including the Druze – whose religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own unique identity and beliefs – are suspicious of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his government, despite his pledges to protect them.
Their fears have been heightened by several outbreaks of sectarian violence over the past eight months, including one in May in which dozens of people were reportedly killed in clashes between Druze, security forces, and allied Islamist fighters in Damascus and Suweida.
In the wake of that fighting, the government reached an agreement with Druze militias to hire local security forces in Suweida province from their ranks.
Netanyahu has said he is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria because of their deep ties to those living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X on Wednesday afternoon that “the warnings in Damascus” had ended and that the Israeli military would “continue to operate vigorously in Suweida to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until they withdraw completely”.
He later posted that “the painful blows have begun”, above a video clip showing a TV presenter diving under a desk live on camera as an Israeli air strike hit the nearby entrance to the Syrian defence ministry in Umayyad Square, in central Damascus.
Fadi Al Halabi, a London-based Syrian filmmaker who is visiting Damascus, said he was nearby when he heard the Israeli fighter jets approach.
“People’s faces were so afraid. Everyone started running [in] the street. No-one knew where to go. Suddenly the air strike[s] began, targeting some of the most crowded areas, including the ministry of defence,” he told the BBC.
The Israeli military said it also struck a “military target in the area” of the presidential palace in the capital, as well as armoured vehicles loaded with heavy machine guns and weapons on their way to Suweida, and firing posts and weapons storage facilities in southern Syria.
Syria’s foreign ministry said the strikes targeted government institutions and civilian facilities in Damascus and Suweida and killed “several innocent civilians”.
“This flagrant assault, which forms part of a deliberate policy pursued by the Israeli entity to inflame tensions, spread chaos, and undermine security and stability in Syria, constitutes a blatant violation of the United Nations Charter and international humanitarian law,” it added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, meanwhile reported that the humanitarian situation in Suweida city had rapidly deteriorated.
It cited sources as saying there were clashes in several area of the city and that tanks had attacked the national hospital, causing panic among the scores of casualties from the fighting being treated there. They also said there were acute shortages of water and medical supplies.
Later, the Syrian health ministry said government forces had entered the hospital and found “dozens of bodies” after “outlaw groups withdrew”, according to the official Sana news agency.
A man named Hosam told the BBC he was in the centre of Suweida city and had witnessed civilians coming under fire from artillery and snipers.
“I lost my neighbour today on the street. One of the snipers shot him. We tried to [get an] ambulance [to take] him to hospital, but we couldn’t,” he said.
The SOHR says more than 300 people have been killed since Sunday in Suweida province.
They include 69 Druze fighters and 40 civilians, 27 of whom were summarily killed by interior ministry and defence ministry forces, according to the group.
At least 165 members of the government forces and 18 Bedouin tribal fighters have also been killed in the clashes, while 10 members of government forces have been killed in Israeli strikes, it says.
The BBC is not able to verify the SOHR’s casualty figures.
Reuters
The Syrian interior ministry said a ceasefire had been agreed on Wednesday night to end the fighting in Suweida city
The fighting between Bedouin tribes and Druze militias in Suweida is said to have been sparked by the abduction of a Druze merchant on the highway to Damascus last Friday.
On Sunday, armed Druze fighters reportedly encircled and later seized a neighbourhood of Suweida city that is inhabited by Bedouin. The clashes soon spread into other parts of Suweida province, with tribesmen reportedly launching attacks on nearby Druze towns and villages.
Syria’s interior ministry later announced that its forces and those of the defence ministry would intervene and impose order, saying the “dangerous escalation comes in light of the absence of relevant official institutions”.
Earlier this year, Israel’s prime minister demanded the complete demilitarisation of Suweida and two other southern provinces. He said Israel saw President Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as a threat. HTS is a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN and UK, but no longer by the US.
The Israeli military has already carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria to destroy the country’s military assets since the fall of the Assad regime.
And it has sent troops into the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone between the occupied Golan Heights and Syria, as well as several adjoining areas and the summit of Mount Hermon.
July 16 (UPI) — Mobile security company Lookout has found a new system that police departments in China use to extract data from confiscated phones.
The software is called Massistant, created by Chinese company Xiamen Meiya Pico, and it specializes in extracting different types of data, including private communications, multimedia files, geographical tracking records, voice recordings and contact databases. It can even extract messages on Signal.
“It’s a big concern,” said Kristina Balaam, the researcher for Lookout who performed the malware analysis. “I think anybody who’s traveling in the region needs to be aware that the device that they bring into the country could very well be confiscated and anything that’s on it could be collected.”
She found several posts on local Chinese forums in which people said they found the malware installed on their devices after interacting with the police.
“It seems to be pretty broadly used, especially from what I’ve seen in the rumblings on these Chinese forums,” Balaam said.
The malware must get installed on an unlocked device and works with a hardware tower connected to a desktop computer, according to a description and pictures of the system on Xiamen Meiya Pico’s website.
Chinese law on cell phone confiscation has expanded. Since 2024, Chinese security staff can examine electronic devices without a warrant or active criminal case. This is especially the case with border crossings.
“If somebody is moving through a border checkpoint and their device is confiscated, they have to grant access to it,” Balaam said.
Massistant leaves traces of its installation on the seized devices, so users can potentially detect and remove it by finding it on their devices or using Android Debug Bridge to remove the software. But Balaam warned that by the time Massistant is installed, it’s already too late and authorities have access to the user’s data.
She said that Massistant is just one of many spyware/malware created by Chinese surveillance tech companies, something she called “a big ecosystem.”
There’s a common refrain in the autism community: “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” Dozens of behaviors and characteristics are linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and no two people experience it the same way.
Now, a new study published in Nature Genetics expands the contours of the autism spectrum by identifying four clinically and biologically distinct subtypes of the condition.
“The research highlights that there are indeed different types of autism that carry different clinical, genetic, and biological profiles,” says the study’s coauthor Jennifer Foss-Feig, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
“When someone with autism or their caregiver wonders how two people with autism can be quite so different — in development, in symptoms, or in support needs — this research suggests that it’s because they are different,” explains Dr. Foss-Feig, who serves as the vice president and senior scientific officer at the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI).
4 New Autism Subtypes
Autism is characterized by a range of characteristics related to difficulties with social communication and interaction, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, activities, and interests. These characteristics can vary in intensity and presentation from person to person.
“They may have different subtypes of what we currently lump together as autism spectrum disorder,” Foss-Feig says.
The new research analyzed data from more than 5,000 autistic children ages 4 to 18 in SPARK, a nationwide cohort study collecting and tracking genetic and clinical presentations via questionnaires filled out by their parents.
Using a person-centered analysis, researchers considered more than 230 traits, including social interactions, repetitive behaviors, and developmental milestones. Then they used a computational model to group individuals based on trait clusters.
The analysis identified four subtypes — each with distinct developmental, medical, behavioral, and psychiatric traits, as well as genetic and biological patterns, says study coauthor Olga Troyanskaya, PhD, director of Princeton Precision Health and a professor at the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University in New Jersey.
The study is an important step in understanding autism’s genetic relationships and the potential for personalized treatments, Dr. Troyanskaya says. “This is a major advance,” she adds, showing how biological differences could relate to someone’s individual autism presentation.
“This is important research because it’s another brick in the wall of building the foundation of answering important questions” about autism, says Raymond Romanczyk, PhD, a psychology professor and co-director of the Institute for Child Development at Binghamton University in New York, who wasn’t involved in the new study.
Here’s an overview of the subtypes:
Social and Behavioral Challenges
This group made up 37 percent of study participants. Children in this group had social challenges and repetitive behaviors, but generally reached developmental milestones similarly to children without autism. They also typically had co-occurring conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Mixed ASD With Developmental Delay
This group represented about 19 percent of participants. These children usually reached developmental milestones like walking and talking later than children without autism. However, they didn’t exhibit signs of anxiety, depression, or disruptive behaviors. Some experienced repetitive behaviors and social challenges.
Moderate Challenges
Representing about 34 percent of study participants, this group showed core autism behaviors, but not as strongly as other groups. They also usually reached developmental milestones on a similar timeline to children without autism and didn’t have co-occurring psychiatric conditions.
Broadly Affected
This group accounted for 10 percent of study participants. These individuals experienced more severe and wide-ranging challenges, such as developmental delays, social and communication difficulties, repetitive behaviors, and co-occurring psychiatric conditions, including anxiety, depression, and mood dysregulation.
Each Autism Subtype Had Distinct Genetic Features
There is no single known cause of autism. While there are likely many causes, scientists know that genetics play a role. Currently, though, genetic causes can only be identified in about 20 percent of cases.
The new study linked the four subtypes to distinct types of genetic mutations and biological pathways.
“If we know what types of genes are affected and when and where they’re expressed, then we learn more about the biology underlying different types of autism,” Foss-Feig says. “This is key to the goal of precision medicine, where treatments can be tailored — or foregone — based on knowing more about the individual’s genetics, development, and clinical profile.”
For example, children in the Broadly Affected group had the most non-inherited genetic variation in autism-related genes, Foss-Feig says, whereas kids in the Mixed ASD with Developmental Delay group had the most inherited rare variants associated with autism. In other words, children in these two groups shared some symptomatic traits — but, their genetic differences suggest the biological mechanisms behind their autism traits aren’t the same.
This is significant, Dr. Romanczyk says, because it highlights that there is “not just one thing” that potentially causes autism. He hopes that the study will help further dispel misinformation about autism causes, such as the incorrect assertion that it’s linked to childhood vaccines.
The Study Does Have Limitations
The current study included autistic children ages 4 to 18, with an average age of 8.5. Troyanskaya says a “follow-up investigating these stubtypes in adults would be very interesting.”
While the study could set a foundation for how autism is diagnosed and treated in a more personalized way in the future, Roth says more research is needed.
“As with any early-stage research, the findings from this study will need to be replicated in large-scale and more diverse populations — as well as supplemented with objective, clinician-reported data, not just parental reports,” she adds.
There Could Be More Autism Types
While the study defined four subtypes of autism, researchers say it doesn’t mean there are only four groups, Foss-Feig says.
“As more data become available, especially with more detailed clinical information about individuals’ development, growth, and challenges over time, I expect these subtypes will become more refined and additional subtypes will emerge,” she explains.
This research provides a framework for identifying additional subtypes, Foss-Feig says.
“These subtypes align with a view of autism as a complex, multidimensional condition rather than a simple line of severity,” Troyanskaya says. “The subtypes each represent unique sets of traits, with the biology of autism that the field has previously identified ‘dividing’ into parts among these subtypes.”
The research is a “step forward” in how autism is understood, including how underlying genetic variations could account for the “diversity across the spectrum,” says Kristyn Roth, chief marketing officer of the nonprofit advocacy group Autism Society of America.
“Autism is not one singular experience, but a highly variable spectrum with different presentations, strengths, challenges, and support needs,” she says.
Knowing more about autism subtypes will help clinicians make more accurate diagnoses that better account for an individual’s unique development and symptoms, Foss-Feig says. And, if clinicians have information about a patient’s genetics, it could offer clues into the most appropriate diagnosis and symptoms to pay attention to.
“Down the road, the hope is that more precise diagnoses will map to more precise treatment and support plans,” she explains.
Land records are typically maintained by a combination of local, state and federal government agencies. Most deeds, mortgages, encroachments and other interests affecting the title to real property are recorded at the local level. Some counties still rely on fragmented and outdated systems that are paper-based or poorly digitized. Other jurisdictions offer online access to records to allow officials and the public to search property information, plats and transaction histories. Technology innovations, such as digitization, geographic information systems (GIS) and online search tools, are improving the accessibility, reliability and management of land records. Digitization of land records will be required to tokenize residential, commercial, or mixed-use properties and portfolios. Blockchain platforms and smart contracts will need to be developed and deployed to automate token issuance, transfers, distributions and governance.
Blockchain platforms are digital infrastructures that provide the tools and frameworks for building and managing applications that are decentralized, secure and transparent. They record data and transactions across a network of computers and employ protocols to validate transactions across the network. Once information is recorded, it cannot be altered retroactively. Most platforms support smart contracts or self-executing digital agreements that encode deal terms directly into computer code. These agreements automate processes and reduce the need for intermediaries, including attorneys, title companies, notaries and government officials. No single party controls the smart contract or its execution. Smart contracts should be secure, transparent and auditable to prevent manipulation and fraud. Once deployed, they can release funds, transfer digital assets or trigger notifications when specified conditions are met.
The tokenization of real estate involves a number of steps: (1) a property or portfolio is professionally appraised to determine its market value; (2) a special-purpose-legal entity (SPV) is formed to hold the title to the property or portfolio and comply with applicable laws; (3) tokens for the property are issued on a blockchain platform, typically representing fractional ownership or income rights; (4) smart contracts are encoded onto the blockchain platform to automate token issuance and transfers; (5) investor eligibility requirements are defined, and tokens are traded on compliant blockchain platforms to enable secondary-market trading; and (6) transparent record-keeping and governance is handled on the blockchain platform, with regular reporting to investors. Benefits of tokenization include cost efficiencies due to the elimination of intermediaries and trustworthiness due to a blockchain record that cannot be easily tampered with.
Teton County, Wyoming was the first county to implement a blockchain-based system for recording land titles and property records with Medici Land Governance, a subsidiary of Overstock.com (MLG) in 2019. The system is accessible through the clerk’s office and online GIS-ownership maps. It does not currently support property transfers or other transactions. Baltimore, Maryland’s blockchain land records pilot was launched in December 2023 and is focused on recording the city’s inventory of around 13,000 vacant properties. The pilot aims to streamline transactions, reduce title fraud and accelerate the rehabilitation of vacant homes. It was also developed in partnership with MLG, which is deploying similar systems globally, including in Tulum (Mexico), Liberia and Guyana.
RealIT acquires properties in the United States and globally and places each into an SPV. Ownership of the SPV is divided into digital tokens, each representing a fractional interest. Investors purchase these tokens to gain rights to a proportional share of rental income and equity in the property. These tokens are issued on the Ethereum-blockchain platform to ensure transparency, security and ease of transfer. All transactions are recorded on the blockchain to provide confidence to investors. Token holders have voting rights with respect to certain property-management decisions. RealIT partners with local management firms to attract tenants, collect rent and maintain the properties. Since ReaIT commenced its business activities in 2019, over 700 properties have been tokenized in the United States and three other countries.
Manifest uses blockchain technology to create new financial products (DeFi), especially in real estate. It has launched $USH, a tokenized-real-estate asset backed by investments in residential properties in the United States. This platform has expanded access to international investors, including in India. The growing list of companies offering platforms to enable fractional ownership of real estate in 2025 include Propy and AssetBlock in the United States, Polymath in Canada, SolidBlock in Israel, Brickblock in Germany and Antier Solutions in India.
Bergen County, New Jersey, recently announced the largest blockchain-based-land-record-management project in the United States. It entered into a five-year agreement with Balcony, a blockchain-technology firm, in early June. Over 370,000 deeds, representing around $240 billion in real-property value, will be digitized and migrated onto the Avalanche-blockchain platform supporting decentralized applications, smart contracts and a wide range of use cases, including the tokenization of real-world assets. The project will cover all of the municipalities in the county and serve nearly one million residents. The county anticipates that the project will dramatically reduce deed processing times and streamline real estate transactions. The new system will also be designed to improve municipal revenue collection and enhance public trust in official land records.
The Dubai Land Department (DLD) announced a multibillion-dollar-tokenization project to enable fractional ownership of real property in March of this year. This initiative was publicly launched on May 25 and is designed to transform property ownership by 2033, with tokenized assets projected to be valued at around $16 billion. DLD will collaborate with the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the Dubai Future Foundation and the UAE Central Bank. DLD’s platform (Prypco Mint) will be integrated with its traditional land-registry systems. As a result of this project, fractional ownership of real estate will be available to UAE residents and investments will start at around $540. International investors will have access in the future.
As noted above, jurisdictions tend to focus first on digitizing existing land records rather than a complete overhaul of legacy systems with blockchain technology. Bureaucratic resistance to change and opposition from potentially displaced intermediaries slows adoption. Integrating blockchain with legacy systems requires the development of standardized protocols to address risks, such as fraud and data fragmentation. Any transition to blockchain platforms requires substantial investments in infrastructure, training and public support, especially when communities distrust automated systems or government officials. Moreover, blockchain technology has limitations related to data storage, data integrity (if the historical data migrated over is not accurate), coding complexity, privacy features and processing speeds, and public and private networks can be hacked when access controls fail. Another significant concern is the evolving and currently insufficient regulatory framework surrounding the use of blockchain technology and smart contracts.
Notwithstanding these obstacles, the adoption of blockchain platforms to tokenize real estate appears to be gaining traction. Regulatory-compliant solutions should be favored by large and small investors. Tokenization will expand beyond residential and commercial buildings to include data centers and other infrastructure. Citi Ventures has noted that tokenized real estate could serve as an alternative to REITs because it is more transparent, has lower fees and improved liquidity, with a broader reach to medium-income investors.
A&O Shearman advised Igneo Infrastructure Partners (Igneo) on its acquisition of Infinity Aviation Group, a leading fixed base operator (FBO) platform which operates a portfolio of on-airport assets at Boire Field (KASH), a public-use general aviation airport located in New Hampshire. The acquired assets include hangarage, line services, and fueling operations, supporting a broad range of aviation, business, and air cargo customers across the U.S.
Igneo is a global infrastructure investment manager with USD20.5 billion in assets under management, recognized for its investment in high quality, mature, mid-market infrastructure companies and its commitment to building platform businesses. This transaction marks Igneo’s first investment in the North American aviation sector, its sixth platform investment in North America, and its eighth global investment in transportation and logistics.
The multi-disciplinary aspect of the transaction—led by the Energy and Infrastructure team with key support from the Employment, Environment Health and Safety, and Tax teams— demonstrates A&O Shearman’s ability to service a wide range of issues within one firm.
“This deal showcases our depth and breadth of advising on complex infrastructure transactions in strategic sectors,” said Jillian Ashley, A&O Shearman Energy & Infrastructure partner. “Our team’s sector expertise and commercial insight enabled us to provide tailored legal counsel to Igneo as they expand their North American portfolio and invest in the future of aviation infrastructure.”
Supporting the transaction were Energy and Infrastructure associates Nisim (Niso) Matari and Aigul Gaisin, and law clerk Claire Hill. Specialist advice was provided by partner Ken Rivlin and associates Jake Ely and Olivia Kreft on environmental and sanctions matters; partner Brian Jebb and associates Hayde Faria and Alexandra Sentner on employment and compensation aspects; partner Caroline Lapidus, counsel Kara Altman, and associate Amirah Loury on tax; and partner Adam Sofen on real estate.
Games Workshop’s ongoing, fraught relationship with conservative elements of its Warhammer fanbase has led to increasing flashpoints whenever the miniatures maker has attempted to diversify the worldbuilding of its beloved tabletop game. But one lingering back-and-forth among fans simmering long before Games Workshop found itself in the crossfires of the culture war has been brought into light again thanks to the latest edition of one of its games: whether or not a female Space Marine could exist.
Last week Games Workshop opened pre-orders for the third edition of Horus Heresy, a Warhammer spinoff tabletop game set during the titular civil war, 10,000 years before the ongoing events of Warhammer 40K. Inspired by the beloved book series of the same name, Horus Heresy lets players live out the conflict between the loyal forces of the Imperium of Man and the Traitor Legions that fell to the corruption of Chaos under the sway of Horus Lupercal, the primarch of the Luna Wolves Space Marines who turned against the Emperor.
But as reviews and access to the new rulebooks for the latest edition have gotten into players hands, so too have they discovered that Games Workshop has rolled back specific mentions of gender when it comes to the process of creating a Space Marine as described in the lore within the new rulebook. As Wargamer reports, a sidebar section of the new rule book describing the Space Marine creation process titled “Process of Initiation” no longer explicitly acknowledges the necessity of gender for potential recruits
Although, of course, vague—the new rulebook does not go so far as to mention the possibility of female Marines but simply removes any discussion of gender from the process entirely—it stands in stark contrast to the rulebook for the game’s second edition released in 2022, which was criticized by progressives at the time for its specific notation that the creation of a Space Marine requires the “hormonal and biological make-up of the human male,” for its parallels to transphobic language around trans identities.
Putting aside the fact that this is a heavily fictionalized process, the creation of a Space Marine has always been a transhumanist idea regardless of any particular gender binary, even if Warhammer‘s world has, up to this point, kept Space Marines as masculine identities in both the fiction around 40K and the miniatures it offers.
The process of elevating a human into a Space Marine relies on chemical, hormonal, and surgical transformation, adding extra organs and increasing the physical density and strength of their bodies to become a superhuman ideal. Even though the science behind it is fiction, there is nothing inherently gendered about it despite what the previous edition stated. If anything, it’s easy to see why fans have expressed interest in seeing female Marines or reading allegories of trans identity into them.
The question of whether or not female-presenting Space Marines could be possible in Warhammer 40K‘s setting, then, has been the topic of debate for fans for a long time, well before Horus Heresy‘s rulebooks clumsily waded in and out of that debate in the last few years. Games Workshop has, outside of that 2022 rulebook, had a hands-off approach to that debate themselves, largely leaving the Space Marines, 40K‘s most popular faction (and the face of the company, for better or worse), out of its attempts to diversify its storytelling and model offerings. Instead, it’s simply been left open to players themselves to come up with their own custom miniatures and headcanons to incorporate female forces into their own imaginings of the Adeptus Astartes.
The closest Games Workshop itself arguably came to advancing the matter in an official capacity came last year when it introduced a female member of the Emperor’s personal guard, the Adeptus Custodes (a faction that is distinct from, but adjacent to, the Space Marines), for the first time in Warhammer fiction. The addition—alongside a statement from Games Workshop declaring that female Custodes had always existed despite a lack of representation in either the fiction or in physical tabletop product in an official capacity—centered the company as a target of right-wing cultural commentators eager to present the choice as a capitulation to “wokeness.”
It was the latest in a series of recent examples that strained Games Workshop’s reconciliation of its own progressive values and ideas as a company with segments of its audience that do not see Warhammer 40K‘s grim, dark future as the satire of conservative and authoritarian politics that the company has long struggled to communicate the intent of. But the decision to explicitly remove the gendered language from the latest edition of Horus Heresy at least indicates the company’s desire to continue making steps to reflect the broader diversity of Warhammer‘s player base in spite of these struggles with its complicated legacy in the culture war.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Runaway stars stand out from the background due to their trajectories and velocities. In 2010, the Hubble Space Telescope found another star ejected from a different part of the Tarantula Nebula. The heavyweight star, called 30 Dor #016, is 90 times more massive than the Sun and is travelling at more than 400,000 kilometers per hour from its home. Image Credit: By NASA, ESA, J. Walsh (ST-ECF) Acknowledgment: Z. Levay (STScI) Credit for ESO image: ESO Acknowledgments: J. Alves (Calar Alto, Spain), B. Vandame, and Y. Beletski (ESO) Processing by B. Fosbury (ST-ECF) – http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1008/, CC BY 3.0.
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