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Submission + - Russian Satellite's Close Shadowing of Radar Imaging Satellite Is A Big Deal (twz.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Russia's Kosmos 2612 came very close to ICEYE X36, which reportedly has Ukraine connections, after weeks of highly unusual maneuvering.

Kosmos 2612, may have passed within approximately 85 feet (26 meters) of a U.S.-registered satellite belonging to commercial imagery provider ICEYE. This would be an extraordinarily close and potentially dangerous pass-by for two objects in space traveling at thousands of miles per hour. For weeks beforehand, ICEYE-X36, which would be of special interest to Russia, had already found itself in increasingly close orbital alignment with its pursuer. The two satellites now look to be drifting further and further apart, but the episode has been a clear sign of what is to come as the potential for conflict in space only continues to grow.

Publicly available space tracking data from the satellitemap.space and orbitalradar.com websites show that Kosmos 2612 (also written sometimes Cosmos 2612 and abbreviated K2612) and ICEYE X36 had their especially close encounter at approximately 16:07 UTC today. Private space services company LeoLabs also told TWZ today that it could not "confirm or contradict what other data sources have stated publicly," but that it has "high-confidence that the objects came within approximately [emphasis in the original] 500 meters [1,640 feet] of each other." Kosmos 2612 had been making progressively closer passes by ICEYE X36 in recent days.

Submission + - EU plans to fast-track antitrust approval of SpaceX rival (archive.is)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:

The European Union is working toward fast-track antitrust approval for a satellite joint venture between Leonardo SpA, Airbus SE, and Thales SA, which is positioned as Europe's response to SpaceX.

Over the past year, discussions have focused on identifying and resolving potential competition concerns before the project receives formal notification for approval, according to the person who requested anonymity. The companies have not yet filed their application, but EU officials anticipate a submission in the coming weeks, the report said.

The initiative, called Project Bromo, has received praise from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as a potential European champion worthy of high-level support. Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera, who serves as von der Leyen's second-in-command, cautioned that the project would not receive automatic approval from regulators.

Submission + - FBI arrests cybersecurity executive in major hack on agents' data (cnn.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The FBI arrested a Canadian cybersecurity executive and ransomware expert as part of the investigation of a damaging hack that exposed the sensitive data of current and former FBI employees, according to court documents and people familiar the investigation.

Edward Dubrovsky was arrested in the Philadelphia area in recent days and appeared in federal court there Thursday, where a magistrate judge appointed a federal public defender to represent him. Dubrovsky is facing charges related to extortion and making threats. He has been transferred to Texas’s Eastern District for a scheduled detention hearing, according to court records and a law enforcement official.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest on Friday but did not disclose where it occurred or what role the man is suspected of playing in the hack. Patel also didn’t name Dubrovsky, but CNN confirmed the defendant is believed to be tied to the FBI hack through multiple people familiar with the investigation.

A LinkedIn profile under Dubrovsky’s name lists years of experience in the Canadian cybersecurity industry and describes Dubrovsky as a “globally recognized cybersecurity expert.” An Ed Dubrovsky is also the author of a book on handling ransomware negotiations with cybercriminals.

Submission + - Vance suspends Microsoft, others from foreign workers applying for green cards, (foxbusiness.com)

Submitted by Kingduck
Kingduck writes: Vice President JD Vance and Labor Department officials announced Thursday that the Trump administration is suspending Microsoft, Adobe and others from a key employment-based, green-card program, accusing major tech firms and outsourcing companies of abusing the visa system at the expense of American workers.

Submission + - After 9 years of waiting - Will Tesla roadster live up to the hype? (wsj.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The new Roadster, a sequel to Tesla’s first car, was first unveiled in November 2017. Tesla has accepted reservations for the sports car off and on since, with hopeful owners paying at least $50,000, and sometimes much more, to get on the wait list.

Tesla originally said production would begin in 2020. That didn’t happen.

Tesla is now moving forward with what is likely to be its most expensive model in company history even as its core auto business has taken a back seat. Musk has said that the new Roadster will be the final human-driven vehicle that Tesla ever produces because the company’s future lies in autonomy, artificial intelligence and robotics. The automaker didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Bringing an ultracostly, niche vehicle to market could improve the company’s cash flow while longer-term bets, like humanoid robotics, might take a while to pay off, said Jon McNeill, a former Tesla president.

“I think Ferrari proves the point that you can make a lot of money in the automotive business at low volumes, at a high price point,” McNeill said.

Musk in 2017 said the car would be able to go from zero to 60 miles an hour in 1.9 seconds, top 250 miles an hour and drive up to 620 miles on a full charge. He upped the ante in 2024 by saying that the Roadster would hit 60 mph from zero in less than one second. “And that is the least interesting part,” he said.

Comment Countries that do not change clocks use ST (Score 3, Informative) 282

Even though some regions or countries stay on a shifted time offset year-round (which might look or feel like being "ahead" like daylight saving time), standard time is legally and geographically considered the baseline time zone for those areas. They simply choose not to participate in the biannual clock adjustments.

Countries & Regions That Do Not Change Clocks
Most of Asia: This includes major industrialized nations like China, India, Japan, and South Korea, as well as most of Southeast and Central Asia.

Most of Africa: Almost the entire African continent stays on a single standard time year-round.

Parts of the Middle East: While countries like Iran and formerly parts of the Levant have experimented with it, places like Turkey and several neighbors maintain fixed times.

Parts of Europe: Iceland, Belarus, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan do not practice seasonal time changes. (The European Union has debated abolishing the practice entirely, but member states still currently shift together).

Much of South and Central America: Countries like Argentina, Brazil (which abandoned nationwide DST a few years ago), and most of their neighbors remain on permanent standard time.

Submission + - Wisconsin U–Madison Prof Francis Halzen named 2026 Nobel laureate in physi (wisc.edu)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Halzen is the principal investigator of the NSF IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the world’s largest — and perhaps strangest — telescope. The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded observatory is operated by an international collaboration of scientists led by the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center based at UW–Madison.

Embedded in a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice, IceCube uses thousands of light sensors to survey the universe for neutrinos, nearly massless particles that rarely interact with other matter. Neutrinos provide information about the workings of black holes, galaxies and other objects in the cosmos.

“IceCube is like no other telescope in the world,” says UW–Madison interim Chancellor Eric M. Wilcots. “And there is no other scientist quite like Francis Halzen, whose idea to create a neutrino detector under almost a mile of ice has led to a remarkable multinational and multi-institutional scientific collaboration and a fundamental shift in how we think about the universe.”

Submission + - Pneumonic plague outbreak hits Siberia as lab worker, 28, dies (hotair.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A suspected plague outbreak has erupted in Russia — killing a young lab worker, forcing nearly 200 people into isolation and triggering accusations that Vladimir Putin’s regime is trying to keep the infection’s possible spread under wraps.

The alarm was raised in Siberia after a worker at an anti-plague laboratory died of the disease, which killed tens of millions in the medieval Black Death, according to a report from The Moscow Times.

Anna Popova, who heads Russia’s public-health watchdog, then rushed 2,600 miles from Moscow to the Irkutsk region as authorities quarantined a hospital and placed scores of people who had come into contact with the victim under medical observation.

"FSB units accompanying ambulances transporting people who had been in contact with [lab tech] Shipilova for medical examination," as per local news. This is significant. FSB is Russia's domestic security / counterintelligence service, tasked w/implementing the national security of Russia." (Its predecessor was the KGB). This suggests quarantine was not voluntary.

It also means Russian authorities are treating the lab accident and plague outbreak as a national security issue, involving a lot more than routine public health.

https://x.com/AnnieJacobsen/st...

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