One of the largest sunspot formations of the past several years is currently visible on the sun. The group, catalogued as AR 4294-4298, is so large that several of the dark regions exceed the Earth’s diameter. According to Newsweek, these are the largest sunspots in a decade. With binoculars or a telescope and an appropriate solar filter, the spots on the western side of the sun can be clearly identified. NASA’s solar probe Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recently documented a solar flare in this region. Possible effects on Earth The sunspots are currently pointing towards Earth. The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that coronal mass ejections (CME) from the active regions have not yet hit Earth. Nevertheless, experts predict that they could turn to more favorable positions over the next week, such that activities like solar flares could also be felt on Earth. For those of us on Earth, this could mean a special visual spectacle: auroras are possible when the plasma hurled into space by the sun hits the Earth’s magnetic field. The sunspot AR 4274 already caused spectacular northern lights some time ago. After rotating around the sun’s axis, the sunspot is now back under the new designation AR 4294-4298 and it’s significantly larger than before. Historical comparison and risks SpaceWeather.com draws a comparison with the sunspot region of 1859, which triggered the so-called “Carrington Event,” which was the strongest documented solar storm to date. The current formation is around 90 percent the size of that historical one. Although the exact impact on Earth and technology is still unclear, strong solar storms can jeopardize satellites, including systems like Starlink as well as GPS-based navigation systems. According to some studies, underwater internet repeaters could be particularly vulnerable, leading to regional or even global outages. Land-based fiber optic connections are less affected, so the US is somewhat less at risk. Experts are monitoring the sunspot activity closely so that they can react in good time in the event of an emergency. Read...

It’s been a while since the new version of Outlook overtook the old classic version, but users are still unhappy with it. The latest issue? Certain Excel attachments aren’t opening in Outlook anymore, and the problem has been kicking around for about two weeks already. Microsoft has confirmed the issue with a new service alert with ID EX1189359 (spotted by BleepingComputer), with the earliest reference to this particular problem dating back to November 23rd, 2025. Outlook users will see the following message when trying to open an affected Excel attachment: “Try opening the file again later.” The cause appears to be the use of non-ASCII characters in file names. Microsoft describes it like so: “Any user may be unable to open Excel files attached to email messages in the new Outlook client if the attachment contains non-ASCII characters.” In a recent update to the service alert, Microsoft continues: “We’ve developed a fix to address the missing encoding in the requests used to open files. We’re validating this deployment while we work to understand why this encoding error is occurring.” In other words, Microsoft is already working on a patch to address it, but no release date has been given for the fix. Some major international organizations, such as the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, have previously reported this issue: “Users may be unable to open Excel files attached to email messages in new Outlook and receive an error.” Further reading: Key tips for the new Outlook app Read...

Arms from the rarely-seen species were discovered at an Aberdeenshire national nature reserve. Read...

According to a criminal complaint, Rahmanullah Lakanwal shouted `Allahu Akbar` as he fired and was reloading when a Guard member shot him. Read...

The Children`s Homes Association says there is no clear national plan and government must `fix the system`. Read...

A National MP laughed as the Police Minister was asked when the Government would make good on its promise of hiring 500 new police officers. Read...

The Australian national is serving a sentence without the possibility of parole for murdering 51 people, attempting to murder 40 others and committing a terrorist act. Read...

Just-released survey figures show 500,300 live listeners in a typical week for RNZ National aged 10 or older, up from 475,800 in the last survey. Read...

Explainer - What happens if National or Labour MPs decide to challenge their party`s leaders? Here`s what you need to know. Read...

MPs have voiced concerns at the affordability of the government`s Roads of National Significance project at the start of Scrutiny Week. Read...