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Mysterious blobs discovered inside Mars may be remnants of ‘failed planets’
(Web Desk) – Giant impact structures, including the potential remains of ancient “protoplanets,” may be lurking deep beneath the surface of Mars, new research hints. The mysterious lumps, which have been perfectly preserved within the Red Planet’s immobile innards for billions of years, may date back to the beginning of the solar system.
In a new study, published Aug. 28 in the journal Science, researchers analyzed “Marsquake” data collected by NASA’s InSight lander, which monitored tremors beneath the Martian surface from 2018 until 2022, when it met an untimely demise from dust blocking its solar panels. By looking at how these Marsquakes vibrated through the Red Planet’s unmoving mantle, the team discovered several never-before-seen blobs that were much denser than the surrounding material.
The researchers have identified dozens of potential structures, measuring up to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) across, at various depths within Mars’ mantle, which is made of 960 miles (1,550 km) of solid rock that can reach temperatures as high as 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit (1,500 degrees Celsius).
“We’ve never seen the inside of a planet in such fine detail and clarity before,” study lead author Constantinos Charalambous, a planetary scientist at Imperial College London, said in a NASA statement. “What we’re seeing is a mantle studded with ancient fragments.”
Based on the hidden objects’ size and depth, the researchers think the structures were made when objects slammed into Mars up to 4.5 billion years ago, during the early days of the solar system. Some of the objects were likely protoplanets — giant rocks that were capable of growing into full-size planets if they had remained undisturbed, the researchers wrote.
The researchers first noticed the buried structures when they found that some of the Marsquake signals took longer to pass through parts of the mantle than others. By tracing back these signals, they identified regions with higher densities than the surrounding rock, suggesting that those sections did not originate there. Mars is a single-plate planet, meaning that its crust remains fully intact, unlike Earth’s, which is divided into tectonic plates. As pieces of Earth’s crust subduct through plate boundaries, they sink into the mantle, which causes the molten rock within our planet to rise and fall via convection. But on Mars, this does not happen, which means its mantle is fixed in place and does not fully melt.
The newly discovered blobs are further proof that Mars’ interior is much less active than Earth’s.
“Their survival to this day tells us Mars’ mantle has evolved sluggishly over billions of years,” Charalambous said. “On Earth, features like these may well have been largely erased.”
Because Mars has no tectonic activity, Marsquakes are instead triggered by landslides, cracking rocks or meteoroid impacts, which frequently pepper the planet’s surface. These tremors have also been used to detect other hidden objects beneath the Red Planet’s surface, including a giant underground ocean discovered using InSight data last year.
In total, InSight captured data on 1,319 Marsquakes during its roughly four-year-long mission. However, scientists were still surprised that they could map the planet’s insides in such great detail.
“We knew Mars was a time capsule bearing records of its early formation, but we didn’t anticipate just how clearly we’d be able to see with InSight,” study co-author Tom Pike, a space exploration engineer at Imperial College London, said in the statement.
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Trump asks Supreme Court to take tariff appeal
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Wednesday night asked the Supreme Court to quickly accept and rule on an appeal seeking to overturn lower court decisions that found most of his tariffs are illegal.
The request comes five days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a 7-4 ruling, said that Trump overstepped his authority when he implemented the steep levies on virtually every country.
That decision threw a central pillar of Trump’s trade agenda into doubt.
Trump is asking the Supreme Court to hear arguments on his appeal in early November and issue a final decision on the legality of the disputed tariffs soon afterward, according to filings obtained by NBC News from the plaintiffs in the case.
Normally, the Supreme Court would take as long as early next summer to issue such a decision.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a declaration attached to Trump’s request, said the appeals court ruling “gravely undermines the President’s ability to conduct real-world diplomacy and his ability to protect the national security and economy of the United States,” the filing noted.
Filings by Trump also say that “delaying a ruling until June 2026 could result in a scenario in which $750 billion-$1 trillion in tariffs have already been collected, and unwinding them could cause significant disruption.”
Trump used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose steep levies on trading partners, declaring the United States’ federal deficit with other nations a national emergency.
But the appeals court said that “tariffs are a core Congressional power,” not a presidential authority.
“The core Congressional power to impose taxes such as tariffs is vested exclusively in the legislative branch by the Constitution,” the court said.
The appeals court paused its ruling from taking effect until Oct. 14, giving Trump time to ask the Supreme Court to hear his appeal, and the high court to potentially issue an indefinite stay of the decision until it resolves the appeal.
Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, which represented plaintiffs who successfully sued to block the tariffs, in a statement said, “The government has now asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review this case. Both federal courts that considered the issue agreed that IEEPA does not give the President unchecked tariff authority.”
“We are confident that our legal arguments against the so‑called ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs will ultimately prevail,” Schwab said.
“These unlawful tariffs are inflicting serious harm on small businesses and jeopardizing their survival. We hope for a prompt resolution of this case for our clients.”
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New provinces
The news of creating new provinces by subdividing the existing ones is circulating on the national scene. A similar plan was made in 2020, when a Saraiki province was to be created during Yousuf Raza Gilani’s stint as prime minister. Politicians from southern Punjab demanded the division of Punjab. Even a South Punjab secretariat was made functional and a list of senior bureaucrats appeared in the newspapers. The main question, however, is whether the creation of new provinces will serve the people better or the bureaucrats whose number will likely increase manifold.
The best course of action is to adhere to certain policies that some countries have followed and then progressed meteorically. Singapore is an example to follow. At one stage, it was as underdeveloped as Pakistan, but prime minister Lee Kuan Yew turned it into one of the most modern and developed nations. The salient features of Yew’s policy were promotion of higher education and medical care, professionalism in all national spheres of life, no nepotism whatsoever, and above all rule of law. His government attracted direct foreign investment because of his administrative acumen. As a result of his policies, Singapore transitioned from a developing country to a developed country. The Southeast Asian state has neither as many natural resources, mines and minerals as Pakistan has, nor agricultural facilities and vast tracts of land.
Singapore was a British colony, which gained full independence in 1965. The progress that both Singapore and Pakistan made after their independence remains poles apart. Had Pakistan been bestowed with a leader like Yew, our fate might have been different.
The serious problem Pakistan faces is not that its political leaders and bureaucrats don’t know what’s lacking in the administrative policies, but that the lopsided policies suit them. The old saying goes that no system is good or bad; it all depends on how it’s followed. What if the country is divided into twelve provinces, and even then, the provincial administrations don’t meet the expectations of the nation?
The country is bedevilled by a huge government. As the plan goes, four provinces in the country would be converted into twelve, will the bureaucracy be multiplied three times? Already, the country maintains a huge bureaucracy, and the public impression is that even if it were halved in size, the people would find no change in the administration’s functioning. Logically, a think-tank must be established to determine the size of the bureaucracy and oversee its functioning.
We follow the administrative system established during the British era. The British were the occupiers of this land; their style of management was different – based on honesty. On the other hand, our bureaucrats, so-called rulers, live in huge houses, drive expensive vehicles and maintain a distance from the public, typical of the rulers and the ruled.
Some argue in favour of more provinces due to the country’s rapidly growing population. But the counterargument suggests that we should control the population explosion in the country, as Bangladesh and other countries in the region have done and progressed. The haphazard population growth in our country is a scourge that the political leaders hesitate to address. They cannot withstand the pressure from the country’s religious sector. Let’s keep in mind that it’s the overpopulation that has prompted the need to create new provinces. It’s also believed that in an ethnically diverse country, the creation of more provinces will create fragmentation and violence between them.
Carving new provinces must be a thoroughly debated project on the public forums. Will the decision rejuvenate the ailing economy and improve the economic conditions of the people? Or will it mainly serve the bureaucracy to increase its size by extensive promotions and the people would hardly witness any change in their daily lives?
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore. He can be reached at: pinecity@gmail.com
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HIDIZS launches high-end HiFi audio DAC, evolved nostalgia
There are a handful of up-and-coming audio companies that are really taking the audio space by storm, and HIDIZS is one of them. Their flagship devices like the AP80 PRO MAX, and their in-ear monitors like the MK10 ArcSonics are built with the highest possible quality components like gold-plated diaphragms, the latest Bluetooth chipsets, 32bit/384kHz PCM audio and MQA 16X hardware decoding, an all aluminum chassis, and even a HD touchscreen come together to provide a high end tactile experience you might have gotten with the iPod, but with far higher quality. If any of that sounds like something that’d pique your audiophile interests, then read on!
Global HiFi audio brand HIDIZS, who have made their mark among loyal fans with their robust catalog of affordably priced high-end audio equipment and their unique industrial design inspirations and materials, are expanding their reach further with the release of the new AP80 PRO MAX All-in-One Hi-Res Streaming Music Player. Portable Hi-Res streaming music players are often priced beyond the reach of most listeners. Why pay so much when you can just stream music with your smartphone and TWS earbuds? This is where the AP80 PRO MAX changes everything — an affordable, pocket-sized HiFi player that puts true high-resolution music right in your hands.
With built-in 2.4GHz WiFi, you can stream high resolution audio directly from platforms like Tidal and Qobuz — no downloads, no latency, no compromises. More than just a streaming device, the AP80 PRO MAX is a complete portable music companion: enjoy lossless playback via microSD card, connect wirelessly through Bluetooth, or instantly enhance your existing headphones with its powerful DAC/AMP features.
Coupled with high-end active noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones, these should blow anything you’ll get out of your phone right out of the water, being purpose driven to do precisely that. Lossless playback, expandable via microSD, and you can even use Tidal and Qobuz, if those platforms are your jam.
While the in-ear monitors haven’t shipped yet (later this month), you can snap up the AP80 Pro Max right now. With support for DLNA & AirPlay, and Bluetooth 5.1 with Apt-X, LDAC, HiBy UAT, and HiBy Link codecs, this device also makes a solid addition to a car that might need an upgrade to its infotainment or audio head unit. Surprisingly, despite the high-end DAC/DAP components, the AP80 Pro Max doesn’t have a stiff price – just $149 at the time of writing. Let us know in the comments – have you used a dedicated DAP device like this recently, or are you still sticking with a device like your phone for your audio needs?
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Cooley Adds Emerging Companies and Venture Capital Partner in Singapore // Cooley // Global Law Firm
Singapore – September 4, 2025 – David He has joined Cooley as an emerging companies and venture capital partner in the firm’s Singapore office. He brings more than a decade of experience advising venture capital and private equity funds, as well as startups and technology companies across the world. During this time, he was based in New York, Silicon Valley and Asia.
He’s practice covers the life cycle of high-growth emerging companies, from pre-seed through pre-initial public offering (IPO), along with traditional and corporate venture capital funds, private equity funds and growth equity funds making private investments. His experience spans cross-border equity and debt financings, buy-side and sell-side acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, board advisory and general corporate governance. He arrives at Cooley from Gunderson Dettmer’s Singapore office.
“David is an excellent addition to our emerging companies and venture capital team and brings a wealth of experience and a strong base of connections in Singapore and across Asia,” said Cooley partner Matthew Bartus, co-chair of the firm’s emerging companies and venture capital practice group and a founding partner of the Singapore office. “We are delighted to welcome him to Cooley.”
“We are constantly on the lookout for rising star talent, like David, with exceptional reputations and deep client relationships in our core sectors providing life cycle representation of fast-growing, disruptive companies, as well as venture capital and private equity funds,” said Patrick Loofbourrow, Cooley partner and co-chair of the firm’s China corporate practice. “David’s experience will strengthen our capabilities in our growing practice in Singapore and across South and Southeast Asia, as well as more broadly across the Asia region, as we have seen significant client demand across the region.”
He has advised on hundreds of successful venture-backed transactions and led negotiations involving institutional investors and management teams based in the US, India, China, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Australia and across Southeast Asia. He regularly represents emerging companies incorporated in Singapore, the US, the Cayman Islands and various other jurisdictions, with operating entities around the world.
He is recognized as a “Next Generation Partner” in the Startup and Venture Capital – Foreign Firms in Singapore category by The Legal 500. He also was named one of the top 100 India-focused lawyers at international law firms on the India Business Law Journal’s 2025 International A-List and was included on Asian Legal Business’ list of Asia’s 40 Under 40 Lawyers in 2022. He is recognized in Chambers and Partners’ Asia-Pacific Guide 2025 for Startups & Emerging Companies.
“Cooley’s global platform and deep technical bench align perfectly with the needs of my clients as they continue to raise domestic and foreign capital and scale their businesses across borders,” said He. “I am thrilled to join this talented and collaborative team and contribute to the firm’s growth in India and Asia.”
Cooley is the go-to advisor to innovators and disruptors. As one of the most active firms globally in advising on early- and late-stage financings, IPOs and M&A, Cooley combines a multidisciplinary platform with efficient, tech-enabled resources designed to provide clients with premium counsel through each stage as they scale. Cooley is deeply connected in the venture ecosystem, working with startups, boards, management teams and investors to support 7,000+ high-growth private companies reshaping the global economy.
About Cooley LLP
Clients partner with Cooley on transformative deals, complex IP and regulatory matters, and high-stakes litigation.
Cooley has nearly 1,400 lawyers across 19 offices in the United States, Asia and Europe, and a total workforce of more than 3,000 people.
This content is provided for general informational purposes only, and your access or use of the content does not create an attorney-client relationship between you or your organization and Cooley LLP, Cooley (UK) LLP, or any other affiliated practice or entity (collectively referred to as “Cooley”). By accessing this content, you agree that the information provided does not constitute legal or other professional advice. This content is not a substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction, and you should not act or refrain from acting based on this content. This content may be changed without notice. It is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up to date, and it may not reflect the most current legal developments. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Do not send any confidential information to Cooley, as we do not have any duty to keep any information you provide to us confidential. When advising companies, our attorney-client relationship is with the company, not with any individual. This content may have been generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence (Al) in accordance with our Al Principles, may be considered Attorney Advertising and is subject to our legal notices.
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Tech war: China advances in AI agentic tools as Tencent, ByteDance weigh in
China is making progress in artificial intelligence “agentic frameworks”, the tools required to make AI agents, as the country’s tech giants begin to take on US players such as AutoGen and OpenAI Swarm.
Tencent Holdings was the latest to join the fray after the Shenzhen-based company open-sourced its new Youtu-Agent agentic framework on Tuesday. Developed by Youtu Labs, Tencent’s AI research department, the framework was released on Microsoft’s open-source code-hosting platform GitHub last week.
The company said that a Youtu-Agent agent built on the open-source DeepSeek-V3.1 model achieved a score of 71.47 per cent on WebWalkerQA, a web traversal benchmark.
The move followed ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, which open-sourced its agent development platform, Coze Studio, in July. Meanwhile, Alibaba Group Holding open-sourced its agent framework Qwen-Agent in March.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Tencent’s headquarters in Shenzhen. Photo: AFP Agentic frameworks are software platforms that provide the tools and components to build, deploy and manage AI agents. Agents, such as Chinese start-up Butterfly Effect’s Manus and OpenAI’s Operator, are capable of autonomously performing complex tasks for users by planning and executing a series of subtasks.
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Rubrik appoints Stefan Compagnoni as Channel Director for ANZ region
Rubrik has announced the appointment of Stefan Compagnoni as Channel Director for Australia and New Zealand.
Compagnoni joins Rubrik following five years at Extreme Networks, where he held a number of channel roles including Head of Channel and Distribution for Australia and New Zealand. His previous experience also includes multiple sales and enablement positions at distributor Arrow ECS ANZ, bringing over a decade of combined experience on both the vendor and distributor sides of the channel.
Rubrik outlined that Compagnoni brings a diverse background, familiarity with the local partner ecosystem, and a focus on developing robust relationships with channel partners across Australia and New Zealand.
Compagnoni stated that several elements influenced his decision to take on the new role at Rubrik, including the company’s cyber recovery solutions and organisational leadership. He detailed his reasons for joining Rubrik, noting the company’s position in key technology sectors and its approach to partner relations.
“What initially appealed to me about Rubrik was its leadership position in increasingly critical technology segments; data security and cyber resilience,” Compagnoni said. “Beyond the capability of its offering, it was clear during my conversations that Rubrik had a great relationship with its channel partners – one built on and defined by mutual trust – and that’s something I’ll be looking to enhance with our partners.”
He went on to stress the importance of trust in fostering successful business partnerships within the channel ecosystem. Drawing on his broad experience, Compagnoni said, “Having worked on the partner-side of the ecosystem, I know first-hand that with trust front-and-centre in the relationship, the world’s your oyster. You can have the best technology or the most demand in the world, but without trust you will not get any traction with partners.”
David Rajkovic, Regional Vice President, Rubrik ANZ, commented on Compagnoni’s appointment, highlighting how his experience aligns with Rubrik’s channel-based strategy.
“As a completely channel-driven organisation, our partners are at the heart of everything we do. Stefan’s appointment reinforces our commitment to strengthening those local relationships and establishing new ones,” Rajkovic said. “We recently launched Agent Rewind to give enterprises the power to reverse mistakes made by agentic AI, offering greater transparency, visibility, and control over changes to applications and data. Agent Rewind is an industry-first and Stefan’s trusted reputation will be instrumental in enabling and guiding our partners, strengthening their capabilities, and driving increased profitability.”
Agent Rewind, which Rubrik noted is due to become generally available in the coming months, is positioned by the company as a solution that helps enterprises address issues arising from agentic AI, providing tools for transparency and better management of data and applications.
The company describes itself as operating at the intersection of data protection, cyber resilience, and enterprise AI acceleration, with its Rubrik Security Cloud platform delivering cyber resilience and recovery, including identity resilience, built on secure metadata and a data lake. Additional offerings include Predibase, designed to help secure and deploy generative AI while supporting agentic applications.
Rubrik emphasised that strengthening local partner relationships continues to be a priority and that Compagnoni’s established network and understanding of both the vendor and distributor landscapes will be key to supporting that effort in the Australia and New Zealand region.
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Insider Stock Buying Reaches AU$1.05m On Botala Energy
In the last year, multiple insiders have substantially increased their holdings of Botala Energy Limited (ASX:BTE) stock, indicating that insiders’ optimism about the company’s prospects has increased.
While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.
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Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by Executive Chairman Wolf Martinick for AU$970k worth of shares, at about AU$0.068 per share. So it’s clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being AU$0.065). Their view may have changed since then, but at least it shows they felt optimistic at the time. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock if insiders have bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price.
Botala Energy insiders may have bought shares in the last year, but they didn’t sell any. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!
View our latest analysis for Botala Energy
ASX:BTE Insider Trading Volume September 4th 2025 There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. If investing in lesser known companies is your style, you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).
There was some insider buying at Botala Energy over the last quarter. Executive Chairman Wolf Martinick purchased AU$8.7k worth of shares in that period. It’s great to see that insiders are only buying, not selling. However, in this case the amount invested recently is quite small.
I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. I reckon it’s a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Botala Energy insiders own 40% of the company, currently worth about AU$7.3m based on the recent share price. Most shareholders would be happy to see this sort of insider ownership, since it suggests that management incentives are well aligned with other shareholders.
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What lifestyle changes can lower your risk?
Colon cancer is no longer just an older person’s disease. In recent years, doctors have been sounding the alarm as more young adults under 50 are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, a trend that has surprised both patients and experts. Projections suggest that if the current pace continues, this cancer could become the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in young adults worldwide by 2030.
For decades, colorectal cancer was considered an age-related illness, largely kept in check among older populations thanks to better screening programs and lifestyle awareness. But now, high-income nations like the United States, Australia, and parts of Europe are reporting rising numbers in younger groups. Similar patterns are also emerging in Asia and Latin America, pointing to a global problem.
The shift has researchers looking closely at modern lifestyles, sedentary routines, processed diets, alcohol, and smoking, all factors that may be raising risks earlier in life.
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