Space exploration and colonisation: US, China, Russia and others | TheCable – TheCable

Space exploration is dynamic and developments have been ongoing over the years with several countries actively engaged in space exploration; and have demonstrated interest in the long-term goal of space colonization. Three prominent countries at the fore of space exploration and showing interest in colonization include the United States, China, and Russia.

The United States, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), has played a lead role in space exploration since when it was established in 1958. They have a rich history of crewed space missions, which included the Apollo moon landings. In recent years, NASA has paid more attention to projects some of which are:

These are just a few, and NASA is working on various other scientific missions, technological advancements, and international collaborations. For the latest updates and detailed information, its recommended to visit NASAs official website and follow their press releases and mission updates.

Private Companies: SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., founded by Elon Musk in 2002, is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company. They have been driving interesting activity in various space exploration initiatives. This is aimed at revolutionizing space travel and making it more accessible. Some space exploration activities and projects that SpaceX has been working on include:

Another country doing some work is China. China National Space Administration (CNSA) has been actively working on space exploration with some achievements under its belt. It is noteworthy to mention that the space industry is evolving rapidly. Here are some major areas of Chinas space exploration efforts:

Furthermore, the Russian Roscosmos has a long history in space exploration, with a rich history of achievements dating back to the era of the Soviet Union. Here are some major areas of Roscosmoss space exploration efforts:

Besides, several African countries have shown an increasing interest in space exploration and have taken steps to develop their space capabilities. It is important to say that Africas involvement in space activities varies among its countries. Here are some major aspects of space exploration in Africa:

While these examples demonstrate the progress made by some African countries in space exploration, it is important to recognize that the level of involvement varies across the continent, and yes more work can be done through private organizations active involvement. Collaboration and the sharing of resources and expertise have been major conversations in promoting Africas presence in space exploration. Continued efforts and investments are likely to shape Africas role in future space activities.

In conclusion, while space exploration has led to numerous benefits and advancements, some challenges need to be addressed, including cost, environmental impact, and ethical considerations. Continued international collaboration and responsible exploration practices are crucial for ensuring the sustainable development of space activities.

Thank you for the investment in time, and I am open to conversations on furthering these thoughts. To be notified each time I publish a new post, follow my Medium: https://medium.com/@roariyo and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olufemi-ariyo-923ba6130/ or send an email to [emailprotected]

See original here:

Space exploration and colonisation: US, China, Russia and others | TheCable - TheCable

Whites must feel the direct pain from white supremacy – The Philadelphia Tribune

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada

Zip Code

Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

Original post:

Whites must feel the direct pain from white supremacy - The Philadelphia Tribune

US moon lander launched half century after last Apollo lunar mission – The Jerusalem Post

A moon lander built by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was launched from Florida early on Thursday on a mission to conduct the first US lunar touchdown in more than a half century and the first by a privately owned spacecraft.

The company's Nova-C lander, dubbed Odysseus, lifted off shortly after 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT) atop a Falcon 9 rocket flown by Elon Musk' SpaceX from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

A live NASA-SpaceX online video feed showed the two-stage, 25-story rocket roaring off the launch pad and streaking into the dark sky over Florida's Atlantic coast, trailed by a fiery yellowish plume of exhaust.

The launch, previously set for Wednesday morning, was postponed for 24 hours because of irregular temperatures detected in liquid methane used in the lander's propulsion system. SpaceX said the issue was later resolved.

Although considered an Intuitive Machines mission, the IM-1 flight is carrying six NASA payloads of instruments designed to gather data about the lunar environment ahead of NASA's planned return of astronauts to the moon later this decade.

Thursday's launch came a month after the lunar lander of another private firm, Astrobotic Technology, suffered a propulsion system leak on its way to the moon shortly after being placed in orbit on Jan. 8 by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket making its debut flight.

The failure of Astrobotic's Peregrine lander, which was also flying NASA payloads to the moon, marked the third time a private company had been unable to achieve a "soft landing" on the lunar surface, following ill-fated efforts by companies from Israel and Japan.

Those mishaps illustrated the risks NASA faces in leaning more heavily on the commercial sector than it had in the past to realize its spaceflight goals.

Plans call for Intuitive Machines' Nova-C vehicle, a hexagonal cylinder with four legs, to reach its destination after about a weeklong flight on Feb. 22 for a landing at crater Malapert A near the moon's south pole.

If successful, the flight would represent the first controlled descent to the lunar surface by a US spacecraft since the final Apollo crewed moon mission in 1972, and the first by a private company.

The feat also would mark the first journey to the lunar surface under NASA's Artemis moon program, as the US races to return astronauts to Earth's natural satellite before China lands its own crewed spacecraft there.

IM-1 is the latest test of NASA's strategy of paying for the use of spacecraft built and owned by private companies to slash the cost of the Artemis missions, envisioned as precursors to human exploration of Mars.

By contrast, during the Apollo era, NASA bought rockets and other technology from the private sector, but owned and operated them itself.

NASA announced last month that it was delaying its target date for a first crewed Artemis moon landing from 2025 to late 2026, while China has said it was aiming for 2030.

Small landers such as Nova-C are expected to get there first, carrying instruments to closely survey the lunar landscape, its resources and potential hazards. Odysseus will focus on space weather interactions with the moon's surface, radio astronomy, precision landing technologies and navigation.

Intuitive Machine's IM-2 mission is scheduled to land at the lunar south pole in 2024, followed by an IM-3 mission later in the year with several small rovers.

Last month, Japan became the fifth country to place a lander on the moon, with its space agency JAXA achieving an unusually precise "pinpoint" touchdown of its SLIM probe last month. Last year, India became the fourth nation to land on the moon, after Russia failed in an attempt the same month.

The United States, the former Soviet Union and China are the only other countries that have carried out successful soft lunar touchdowns. China scored a world first in 2019 by achieving the first landing on the far side of the moon.

Continue reading here:

US moon lander launched half century after last Apollo lunar mission - The Jerusalem Post

China sends human bone cells to Tiangong space station (video) – Space.com

A Chinese space freighter has delivered human bone cells to the Tiangong space station for on-orbit research.

The Tianzhou 7 cargo spacecraft launched on a Long March 7 rocket from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Jan. 17, reaching the Tiangong space station just over three hours later. Among its cargo of around 12,350 pounds (5,600 kilograms) were more than 60 experiments, including human bone cells for research into bone mineral density.

The cells grow quickly, meaning the experiment needed to be installed just hours ahead of launch to ensure optimal cell activity before they fill the space available for them. Their growth will be closely monitored and data transmitted back to Earth for analysis.

Related: The latest news about China's space program

"Our experimental equipment in space will guarantee the physical and chemical conditions for cell culture like the replacement of nutrient fluid and the gas for bone cells, Shang Peng, a professor at the Northwestern Polytechnical University, told CCTV.

It also carries a fluorescence microscope and ordinary light microscope to monitor the growth of the cells. Some of this information will be recorded and transmitted to the Earth for analysis in real time and in the future."

Astronauts in orbit are instructed to exercise for hours each day to help prevent the bone loss associated with living long-term in a microgravity environment.

This can exercise their skeletal muscles and also prevent their bone loss effectively," Shang said.

Such research, which is also being conducted cooperatively with scientists from other countries, could lead to better ways to tackle bone loss problems experienced on Earth as well as in space.

"We will do further projects in the operation phase of China's space station. Based on these, we will develop relevant medicines and test them. They will not only help taikonauts in space but also humans on the Earth, particularly the elderly. This will be very meaningful," said Wang Jinfu, professor with the Zhejiang University in east China.

China's Tianzhou 1 mission, launched in 2017 as a prototype space station cargo and refueling mission to dock with the Tiangong 1 space lab, carried stem cells. That was a rare opportunity for such tests.

Having the Tiangong space station in its operational phase with the Tianhe core module recently passing 1,000 days in orbit means more and regular opportunities for China's science community to carry out scientific experiments in space.

See the rest here:

China sends human bone cells to Tiangong space station (video) - Space.com

China struggles to rebound a year after lifting COVID restrictions – NPR

An appliance market in Xi'an, China, where Jiang has a construction equipment rental company. He says economic conditions are worse now than during the pandemic, when he started the appliance business, and he isn't selling as much as he used to. John Ruwitch/NPR hide caption

An appliance market in Xi'an, China, where Jiang has a construction equipment rental company. He says economic conditions are worse now than during the pandemic, when he started the appliance business, and he isn't selling as much as he used to.

BEIJING On the northern edge of Xi'an, a 45-year-old man surnamed Jiang tells a typical story of dream-chasing in China's reform era.

He left his home village at the age of 18 to work in a diamond factory in southern China's Guangdong province, a manufacturing juggernaut. The pay was decent, he says, but after a decade he was restless. So he returned home, where he started a small construction equipment rental company.

Business was fine, he said, until state-backed competitors began attracting all the contracts. So he moved again, this time to the northwestern city of Xi'an, China's onetime imperial capital, now home to 13 million people.

"My hopes were big," he says, sitting in the back of the secondhand kitchen appliance shop that he runs with his family, surrounded by refrigerators, stoves and blenders. "Slowly, though, they have been obliterated."

A year ago, China lifted draconian COVID restrictions that were an anvil around the neck of the economy and placed unprecedented controls on a society that, for the previous four decades, had grown accustomed to expanding personal freedoms, not shrinking them.

Many expected the country to bounce back quickly, with economic growth reverting to a slower but respectable mean. That hasn't happened. And as 2024 approaches, there is a crisis of confidence in China that the authorities appear to be doing little to address, instead nibbling at the edges of policy and avoiding bold steps to revive the economy and regain public trust in policymaking.

Jiang is one of several people NPR recently spoke with to try to gauge the mood in post-pandemic China and highlight how things have changed over time.

For Jiang, who did not want his full name used for fear of possible repercussions for speaking candidly to a foreign reporter, economic conditions are actually worse now than during the pandemic, when he started the appliance business, he says. He isn't selling as much as he used to.

Like many in China who have been conditioned to avoid publicly criticizing the ruling Communist Party, he chooses well-worn rhetoric absolving the leadership when asked if he thinks policy might be to blame.

"Whatever the national policy, it's meant to do good for the country and the people. You can't deny that," he said. "But as they say: The higher-ups have their policies and the lower-downs have their ways of getting around them. ... Each policy that comes from the top is discounted on the way down, and then discounted again as it goes down line. The policies are definitely good, but when they get down to the local level, they've completely changed."

At this point, Jiang's ambition the same drive that, multiplied across hundreds of millions of people, fueled China's economic rise has been sapped.

In Beijing, Joerg Wuttke has had a front-row seat to China's spectacular rise. He first came to the country as a businessman from Europe 41 years ago.

"When I was coming in '82, people took pictures with cars and paid for the picture. And now we have 5 million cars in Beijing. So it's a completely different country, with upsides but also with it downsides," he said. (The Beijing government said that at the end of 2022 there were, in fact, more than 7 million motor vehicles registered in the city, and over 12 million drivers.)

Joerg Wuttke, then the European Chamber of Commerce president, at a press conference in Beijing in 2015. Ng Han Guan/AP hide caption

Joerg Wuttke, then the European Chamber of Commerce president, at a press conference in Beijing in 2015.

I first met Wuttke a little over 20 years ago, when our offices were in the same building near Beijing's Liangma River. China had just joined the World Trade Organization. The reform-minded Zhu Rongji was premier.

"It was a China which actually was very open and could sort of give us some indications of where we're heading, you know, to a more open, liberal society. Globalization would be coming into town," said Wuttke, who has been doing business here for most of the past four decades, and lobbying for European companies as head of the European Chamber of Commerce for part of that time.

Today, he says, the Communist Party has become more dominant across society than he thinks it was when he first came to China before reform and opening really started to take off.

"For Xi Jinping, it's clear ideology trumps the economy," he says of China's current leader.

He says that's underpinned an intrusion of politics into business.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping reviews the honor guard at the Great Hall of the People in November in Beijing. Florence Lo/Pool/Getty Images hide caption

Chinese leader Xi Jinping reviews the honor guard at the Great Hall of the People in November in Beijing.

"You have party cells coming up into Chinese private enterprises. You have a far more [and] stronger party awareness on TV or radio than it was maybe in '82. So, yeah, it's, it's more ideologically driven these days than it was 40 years ago," he said.

Combined with geopolitical frictions, Wuttke says it has become "far more complex" to steer any company in China.

In November, quarterly data showed that foreign direct investment in China contracted for the first time on record. Business confidence is down, and the real estate sector is struggling, underpinning weak consumer confidence. The future is less certain than it always seemed to be. The World Bank forecasts that China's GDP growth will slow sharply in the next two years.

"I think the opening-eye moment for me came in 2022," Wuttke says. It was a year when the government hewed for too long to an unbending and unforgiving zero-COVID policy that involved heavy travel restrictions, snap lockdowns and forced quarantines. Wuttke is leaving China, though he says his decision has nothing to do with current events.

In Shanghai, that policy turned a high school teacher into an exiled dissident.

Huang Yicheng taught Chinese language and literature in a northwestern suburb of the country's most cosmopolitan city. He says he was always in favor of the idea of more freedom, but as someone who grew up in China, human rights wasn't something he spent much time thinking about.

Huang Yicheng poses during an interview with Reuters in Hamburg, Germany, in April. He grew up in China and says he never really thought of leaving. But when Shanghai was locked down, he lost faith. Fanny Brodersen/Reuters hide caption

Huang Yicheng poses during an interview with Reuters in Hamburg, Germany, in April. He grew up in China and says he never really thought of leaving. But when Shanghai was locked down, he lost faith.

Instead, "if I could live normally, go to work, have some fun, be with my family, make some money, eat, then it'd all be fine," he said.

But in the spring of 2022, the omicron variant of COVID-19 arrived and the Shanghai government ordered its 26 million residents to stay home to stop the spread. A lockdown that the authorities said would last about a week stretched for two long months.

Huang says being forcibly confined to his home felt like living on an animal farm. He felt unsafe being locked in his apartment with no control, and no end in sight. "It was really scary," he said. "It didn't feel safe."

And it changed something inside him.

"Before the lockdown, I thought Shanghai would be fine," he said. "There was a lot of bad news about the pandemic, and I knew things weren't great, but I thought bad things could happen in other places but Shanghai still had hope."

When his city was locked down, he lost faith.

"I thought everything was fake. The security and order and freedom, it could all be taken away. So I had no faith in this government, in this political system."

Later that year, when protests erupted in Shanghai and elsewhere in China against the draconian COVID policies, Huang got involved. The demonstrations became known as the White Paper Revolution, because many participants took to brandishing blank pages of A4-size paper to symbolize all that could not be said publicly in China.

Protesters hold up blank sheets of paper and chant slogans as they march to protest strict anti-virus measures in Beijing on Nov. 27, 2022. Thousands of people demonstrated across China, waving sheets of white paper to represent the country's strict censorship. Ng Han Guan/AP hide caption

Protesters hold up blank sheets of paper and chant slogans as they march to protest strict anti-virus measures in Beijing on Nov. 27, 2022. Thousands of people demonstrated across China, waving sheets of white paper to represent the country's strict censorship.

"The white paper movement really made me feel hopeful," he said. "Finally, Chinese people were coming out to resist."

He joined a crowd at an intersection in Shanghai's former French concession neighborhood, where protests had taken place the previous night. Huang says he mostly hung back. But when police cleared protesters that night, he was grabbed, roughed up and briefly detained.

Months later, after lying low, he fled to Germany.

"I had never really thought of leaving. Really. I thought, if this country's not good, you don't necessarily need to leave it. You can stay and do some small things to make change," he said.

Instead, the pandemic changed him.

Back in Xi'an, a man whom NPR first talked with a year ago is settling into his new home.

Last year, Lee Shin was squatting in an unfinished apartment he had bought nine years earlier. It was on the 28th floor and there was no electricity.

"We used a tank gas stove, and we had to fetch bottles of water from downstairs," he said. (Lee Shin is a nonstandard Romanization of a nickname he asked NPR to use because police have pressured him not to speak publicly about the construction problem at his apartment complex.)

Not long after Lee bought the unfinished apartment, construction stopped when the property developer allegedly lost money in other investments.

The problem of unfinished apartment complexes is widespread in China and the projects are called lanwei lou, Chinese for "rotten tails."

This year, the building was finally completed and Lee and his wife could fully move in. But after so many years of uncertainty, it was a letdown.

"So when we got the key and opened the door, there was no feeling of excitement. When we went in, we just wanted to cry," he says.

Outside the apartment complex where Lee Shin and his wife finally moved in after years of delay. Not long after Lee bought the unfinished apartment, construction stopped when the property developer allegedly lost money in other investments. John Ruwitch/NPR hide caption

Outside the apartment complex where Lee Shin and his wife finally moved in after years of delay. Not long after Lee bought the unfinished apartment, construction stopped when the property developer allegedly lost money in other investments.

His life plans for an early wedding, for kids were set back by years. And home prices have been falling in China amid a slow-motion crisis unfolding in the property sector, driven in part by government policies. It's unclear how the authorities will manage the fallout from collapsing developers and falling home prices.

But now, finally in their new home, surely things were looking up for Lee and his wife?

He says he has more peace in his life, for the most part. But work is bad in his field of interior design because of the property downturn, and his ambitions have been tempered. Among other things, he says he does not want to have a child now.

"I don't have any aspirations, and I don't think I want to have any aspirations anymore," he said. "None of my wishes have come true."

Aowen Cao contributed reporting from Beijing.

Read the original:

China struggles to rebound a year after lifting COVID restrictions - NPR

Project Veritas First Amendment | US and World News | wvnews.com – WV News

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada

Zip Code

Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

Here is the original post:

Project Veritas First Amendment | US and World News | wvnews.com - WV News

1st Amendment claim struck down in Project Veritas case focused on diary of Biden’s daughter – Bowling Green Daily News

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada

Zip Code

Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

View original post here:

1st Amendment claim struck down in Project Veritas case focused on diary of Biden's daughter - Bowling Green Daily News

1st Amendment claim struck down in Project Veritas case focused on diary of Biden’s daughter – Herald Palladium

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada

Zip Code

Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

Read more from the original source:

1st Amendment claim struck down in Project Veritas case focused on diary of Biden's daughter - Herald Palladium

CNMI proposal to legalize online gambling is another desperate attempt to source new revenue – Asia Gaming Brief

The new proposal by the authorities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to legalize online gambling appears to be yet another desperate attempt to source new revenue for their pension black hole, notes IGamiX Managing Partner Ben Lee.

According to recent reports, lawmakers in CNMI are pushing for a new revenue stream, looking to online gaming.

This comes as the multi-billion-dollar Imperial Pacific International (IPI) casino-resort operator faces calls for dissolution, with investors and creditors coming calling. The operator currently holds a monopoly for casino gaming on the island.

But the new bid for alternative income could bring more woes than benefits, as other jurisdictions, such as the Philippines, have already encountered.

The Philippines POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) as well as Cambodias Sihanoukvilles descent into unmitigated regulatory and policing disasters both appear to hold no lessons for the CNMI, notes Lee.

The Philippines endures an ongoing spat over the worth of offshore online gaming operation (POGOs), after multiple crackdowns, raids and charges linked to human trafficking and money laundering.

Meanwhile, Sihanoukville shut down its online gaming operations entirely after operators, mainly linked to China, set up shop and conducted operations that ran them abreast of authorities.

The CNMI, Saipan inclusive, still falls under United States jurisdiction, with increased scrutiny over activities such as gambling.

Lee notes that the CNMI [] remains subject to certain US Federal Laws, however it is unclear and untested if the CNMI falls outside the grasp of the Federal Wires Act.

The expert questions even if it does, will the CNMI government have sufficient resources to ensure that its online operators do not transgress the boundaries?

The overreach by some online operators has put the Philippines in the spotlight recently, calling for reapplication of POGO licenses and increased oversight of the sector.

And looking at their missteps, Lee outlines a possible way forward for CNMI.

To have a truly credible online gaming industry, the CNMI will have to put in place the proper IT and legal resources to monitor and regulate the operators. Only then can they incubate a transparent and sustainable industry.

One of the primary roadblocks for Saipan is their focus on Chinese clientele. Early within their operations, IPI published monthly rolling chip values that topped even those of Macau the biggest casino hub in the world.

Now, the operators must shift focus, notes Lee, pointing out that the Philippine justified their POGOs by denying that they targeted China and all the other countries that have outlawed online gaming by their nationals within their borders.

Looking to mitigate this problem: ring fencing would have been the solution but was never truly enforced nor was there any real auditing of the POGO servers and revenues.

This has led to particular oversight of the regulatory body in the Philippines, PAGCOR, and calls for the elimination of POGOs altogether, citing a lack of taxation payments and malfeasance.

While online gaming is prevalent in many countries, Asian operators have taken a relaxed or highly stringent approach, with little wiggle room in the more regulated vicinities.

Given its track record of oversight on casinos and video poker clubs, it will be interesting to see how CNMI aims to approach online gaming legislation and how strict (or lax) it may be.

Continue reading here:

CNMI proposal to legalize online gambling is another desperate attempt to source new revenue - Asia Gaming Brief

New hacker group uses old attack methods to breach Asian gambling companies – The Record from Recorded Future News

Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown hacker group that uses simple and dated attack methods to target governments and businesses in the Asia-Pacific region.

Called GambleForce, the group has been active since September and has mainly targeted the gambling industry, according to the report by Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Group-IB.

GambleForce broadened its focus in recent months to include government, retail, and travel websites. As of now, it has 20 known victims in its portfolio, primarily located in Australia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, South Korea, Thailand, and Brazil.

The attackers use a set of publicly available open-source tools designed for penetration-testing. They havent employed any unique modifications and keep almost all default settings on the tools.

They primarily infect their victims using SQL injections a type of cyberattack where an attacker manipulates a web application's database queries by injecting malicious SQL code. Researchers say this is one of the oldest attack methods, yet many companies are still susceptible to it.

SQL attacks persist because they are simple by nature, the researchers said. Companies remain susceptible to such attacks because they fail to address fundamental flaws.

The goal of GambleForces attacks is unclear. In some instances, the attackers stopped after performing reconnaissance, while in other cases, they successfully extracted user databases containing logins and hashed passwords, along with lists of tables from accessible databases, according to the researchers.

The threat actor attempts to exfiltrate any available piece of information within targeted databases, the report said. What the group does with the stolen data remains unknown so far.

After discovering GambleForce's malicious activity, the researchers took down its command and control server. However, they believe that the hackers will most likely regroup and rebuild their infrastructure to launch new attacks.

Group-IB didnt attribute this group to a specific country but said that they found commands written in Chinese. This fact alone is not, however, enough to determine the groups origin, researchers said.

Recorded Future

Intelligence Cloud.

No previous article

No new articles

Daryna Antoniuk is a freelance reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.

Read more here:

New hacker group uses old attack methods to breach Asian gambling companies - The Record from Recorded Future News

Liberal group appeals ruling letting Trump stay on ballot to Michigan Supreme Court – Grand Haven Tribune

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada

Zip Code

Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

Read more here:

Liberal group appeals ruling letting Trump stay on ballot to Michigan Supreme Court - Grand Haven Tribune

Will the Liberal-NDP supply and confidence agreement hold until 2025? – News-Press Now

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada

Zip Code

Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

Read the original post:

Will the Liberal-NDP supply and confidence agreement hold until 2025? - News-Press Now

This Cartoonish New Robot Dog Somehow Looks Even Scarier

Chinese robotics company called Weilan recently showed off a creepy, cartoonish-looking robot dog called

Dog Days

We've come across plenty of robot dogs over the years that can dance, speak using ChatGPT, or even assist doctors in hospitals.

But they all have one thing in common: they look like lifeless machines on four stilts.

In an apparent effort to put the "dog " back into "robodog," a Chinese robotics company called Weilan recently showed off an entirely new class of robotic quadruped called "BabyAlpha" — essentially half cartoon dog and half robot.

The company may have overshot its goal a little bit, though, ending up with an even more terrifying-looking machine that looks like it belongs in a "M3GAN"-esque horror flick.

Robot's Best Friend

The small robot canine has a spotted head, a cute little nose, and two floppy-looking ears.

According to the company's website, which we crudely translated using Google, the robot is "especially designed for family companionship scenarios."

"BabyAlpha likes to be by your side," the website reads adding that the little robot has "endless technological superpowers" thanks to AI. Not creepy at all!

Weilan is also targeting its pet as a way to teach children either English or Chinese or keep track of younger family members through a video call tool.

But we can't shake the feeling that BabyAlpha is exactly the kind of thing that kickstarts a series of unfortunate events in a shlocky horror movie.

In case you do trust your children to be around a BabyAlpha, the companion will cost the equivalent of around $1,700 when it goes on sale.

More on robot dogs: Oh Great, They Put ChatGPT Into a Boston Dynamics Robot Dog

The post This Cartoonish New Robot Dog Somehow Looks Even Scarier appeared first on Futurism.

Read more from the original source:
This Cartoonish New Robot Dog Somehow Looks Even Scarier

ARGENTINA SNUBS BRICS AS ITS FIREBRAND POPULIST LEADER TAKES POWER – The Sunday Guardian

Milei has already begun to backtrack on some of the key proposals of complete dollarisation and shutting down Argentinas central bank, arguing that it will take time to achieve given the economic crisis.

LONDON

Well, that didnt last long. We will not join the BRICS, said Diana Mondino, who will serve as Argentinas top diplomat in the government of President-elect Javier Milei when he is sworn into office today. Only last August at the summit in Johannesburg, members of the bloc consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South America invited Argentina, along with five other countries, to become new members. It was planned that Argentinas membership would have taken effect three weeks tomorrow, along with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Now the expanded BRICS will consist of ten countries on 1 January 2024 instead of the planned eleven. Although Mondinos announcement appeared to be a bolt from the blue, no-one who followed the far-right populist Mileis election campaign would have been surprised. During the campaign he criticised Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva many times, labelling him an angry communist and socialist with a totalitarian vocation. Brazil is Argentinas biggest trading partner. Milei also harshly criticised China, comparing the government to an assassin and threatening to cut off ties. I would not promote relations with communists, whether its Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Nicaragua, or China, he said in an August interview on Bloomberg Television. China has been a major investor in the Argentine economy and Beijing had been concerned that an anti-China administration in Buenos Aires could harm Chinas extensive interests in the country, ranging from mining to a secretive space station China operates in Argentina. Knowing Mileis anti-Beijing stance, President Xi Jinping had bet heavily on the Peronists candidate, former Economic Minister Sergio Massa, even releasing a $6.5 billion in yuan into the two countries bilateral currency swap account just before voting took place, hoping to help prop up the Argentine economy and prevent further currency devaluation prior to the election. It turned out to be a bad bet by Xi.

In the event, Javier Milei won by a surprisingly large margin of twelve points in the presidential election on 19 November. Now the big question is whether he can turn around the countrys crisis-stricken economy. Milei campaigned on the promise of deep spending cuts and dollarisation, the idea of replacing the Argentinian peso with the US dollar. In promising shock therapy for Argentina, Milei also campaigned on plans to shut the central bank and slash spending. But all this will be hard to implement given the countrys political and economic realities. After the result of the poll was announced, Milei made his customary defiant speech. The model of decadence has come to an end and theres no going back, he declared. He then raised the challenges that faced the country: we have monumental problems aheadinflation, lack of work and poverty. The situation is critical and theres no place for tepid half-measures. In fact, Mileis challenges are even greater than monumental. Government coffers are empty and theres also the not-so-small matter of a $44 billion debt program with the International Monetary Fund. The country has a dizzying array of capital controls and a humongous inflation rate nearing 150 percent. In an attempt to curb the runaway inflation, in October Argentinas central bank had raised the benchmark rate of interest to an astonishing 118 percent. Mileis victory marked a profound rupture in Argentinas system of political representation. The 53-year-old economist and former TV personality shattered the hegemony of the two leading political forces that have dominated the countrys politics since the 1940s: the Peronists on the left and Together for Change on the right. His opponent, the 51-year-old Peronist candidate and experienced wheeler-dealer, Sergio Massa, had sought to appeal to voter fears about Mileis plans to cut back the size of the state as well as his volatile character. In the early part of the campaign Milei outrageously carried a chainsaw as a symbol of his planned cuts, but decided to shelve it in the weeks before voting took place in order to help boost his moderate image. Massas appeal went unheeded.

So now the hard work begins. In recent years, Argentina has lurched from one profound economic crisis to another. The country is also currently in recession, fuelled by a three-year drought that has done much damage to agricultural exports. The harvest of soybeans, one of the nations biggest exports, is barely one-third of five years ago. All this is exacerbating the cost of living crisis, which has already driven poverty levels above forty percent. Meanwhile, Argentina holds the unenviable position of being number one on the debtor list of the IMF. Stringent currency controls have made it hard to move money out of the country, which has led to a black market in pesos whose value has also been falling sharply. During election debates, Milei argued that by stopping the central bank from printing more money, which it has relied on to finance public spending, and replacing the peso with the US dollar, inflation would be cured. Sceptical critics claimed that this would be impractical as the central bank would lose control over monetary policy, and in any case Argentina has insufficient currency reserves to implement the plan. Mileis dollarisation plan is also a worry for economists; but political opposition and Argentinas lack of foreign reserves make the chances of that happening narrow at best. As so often when populists meet reality, since his victory Milei has already begun to backtrack on some of the key proposals of complete dollarisation and shutting down Argentinas central bank, arguing that it will take time to achieve this given the economic crisis. His pragmatism is also likely to extend to foreign policy.

While Mileis control over Argentinas economic fate is limited, hell have an element of free reign over the countrys foreign policy. During the campaign he announced some very large shifts in Argentinas relationships with other countries. The outgoing President Alberto Fernandez had pursued a foreign policy aligned with many of his leftist counterparts in South America, including Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Fernandez built political alliances through the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and recently convinced the BRICS member states to make Argentina one of the countries included in the organisations first expansion. The far-right populist Milei plans to undo all that.

During the election campaign, Milei insisted that his foreign policy would strengthen ties with the free world and avoid contact with communist countries. After the primaries, he indicated that he would freeze official trade relations with China, but his campaign rhetoric is already giving way to pragmatism. Since his win, Milei has softened his stance on Beijing in view of China being Argentinas second largest trade partner, accounting for nearly ten percent of all Argentinian exports. He has also sought to mend fences with Brazils President Lula by inviting him to todays inauguration, an invitation which Lula snubbed by nominating his Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in his place. Maybe its also because Lulas arch rival, former Argentine President Jair Bolsonaro, has accepted an invitation to attend. Javier Milei is hardly the first of that countrys leaders to come to power boldly promising a cure for Argentinas extensive economic and social problems. For decades, new leaders on both left and right of the political spectrum have come to power with a radical reform programme breaking with the past. None of them have had more than temporary success in taking the country out of the malaise that has characterised most of its modern history. Will the libertarian populist Milei break the mould? Probably not. He might even change his mind and decide to join the expanded BRICS!

John Dobson is a former British diplomat, who also worked in UK Prime Minister John Majors office between 1995 and 1998. He is currently Visiting Fellow at the University of Plymouth.

See more here:

ARGENTINA SNUBS BRICS AS ITS FIREBRAND POPULIST LEADER TAKES POWER - The Sunday Guardian

Caribbean Currents: As the world changes, the work ethic is disappearing – The Philadelphia Tribune

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada

Zip Code

Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

See more here:

Caribbean Currents: As the world changes, the work ethic is disappearing - The Philadelphia Tribune

The Pentagon’s X-37B "spycraft" is shrouded in mystery and whispers – Earth.com

The Pentagons X-37B, an unmanned drone, is gearing up for a mission that is set to launch today at 8:14 pm Eastern time. This small spacecraft is less than 30 feet in length and under 10 feet in height. It has a pair of compact wings and a rounded, bulldog-like nose.

Often compared to a miniature space shuttle, the purpose and capabilities of X-37B remain shrouded in mystery. Is it a covert weapon, a stealth technology, or something else? These questions linger as the Pentagon maintains its silence.

For the first time, the X-37B will be launched on SpaceXs powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. This shift to a more potent launcher hints at a potential higher orbit speculation that is supported by recent documents.However, the exact nature and purpose of its higher orbit activities remain undisclosed. SpaceX secured the $130 million contract for this launch back in 2018.

The Pentagon remains tight-lipped about the specific activities of the X-37B in its higher orbit, stating only that the mission involves a wide range of test and experimentation objectives. These include operating in new orbital regimes and experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies.

The focus on space domain awareness hints at the X-37Bs potential role in monitoring satellites and guarding against threats in space a mission that closely aligns with the objectives of the U.S. Space Force.

General Chance Saltzman, the Space Forces chief of space operations, emphasized the increasing threats to U.S. space systems.

Our space systems are threatened by a variety of growing anti satellite capabilities, and the joint force is threatened by increasingly sophisticated adversary space-based systems intended to target the joint force, General Saltzman said in a statement to Congress earlier this year.

One thing that is known about X-37Bs mission is that the vehicle will expose plant seeds to the harsh radiation environment of long-duration spaceflight in an experiment for NASA.

The X-37B, built by Boeing, has previously been used to test cutting-edge technologies like a small solar panel for transforming solar energy into microwaves, a concept that could enable space-to-Earth energy transmission. The spacecraft has also deployed small satellites, but their purposes remain undisclosed.

The U.S. government is in this weird place where they brag publicly about how amazing it is and cutting edge, but will not provide any info about it, said Brian Weeden, the director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation.

Weeden suggests that much of the speculation surrounding the vehicle is likely off-base, with its mystique being its most defining trait. Secure World downplays the likelihood of the X-37B being used as an orbital weapons system for attacking ground targets.

The X-37B is more likely employed for the purposes stated by the Pentagon: testing reusable space launch vehicle technologies and on-orbit testing of new sensor technologies and satellite hardware. This hasnt stopped nations like China from perceiving the X-37B as a symbol of U.S. space militarization.

Chinas own secretive reusable space plane, the Shenlong, has completed two missions, with its latest lasting 276 days in orbit. Like the X-37B, the Shenlong is shrouded in secrecy, with no publicly released photos. This apparent mimicry of the American model suggests Chinas interest in similar space capabilities.

The X-37Bs history spans over a decade in space, with each mission exceeding the duration of the last. Its last flight ended in November 2022 after 908 days in orbit. General David Thompson of the Space Force hinted at exciting plans for the X-37B. He acknowledges its role as a remarkable test bed and experimentation vehicle.

The upcoming Mission 7 of the X-37B, launching on the Falcon Heavy, will include a mixture of innocuous civilian NASA science and military experimentation with space domain awareness. This combination of civilian and military objectives underscores the dual nature of the mission.

The X-37Bs development history is intertwined with NASA, the Air Force, and Boeings Phantom Works. Initially envisioned as a lifeboat for the International Space Station, its design evolved to meet various military and experimental needs. The spacecrafts ability to deploy solar arrays in orbit allows for extended missions, a capability unmatched by the Space Shuttle.

The X-37Bs design suggests potential for covert operations, such as retrieving or inspecting foreign satellites without detection. The U.S. has expressed concerns about similar activities by nations like Russia and China, highlighting the strategic importance of space domain awareness.

In summary, the combination of the X-37B and Falcon Heavy opens up possibilities for high-energy orbits and advanced military capabilities in space. While the specifics of the X-37Bs upcoming mission remain classified, its launch signals the U.S.s intent to maintain dominance in space.

Image Credit: AP / U.S. Air Force

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Read the original here:

The Pentagon's X-37B "spycraft" is shrouded in mystery and whispers - Earth.com

SpaceX sends 23 Starlink satellites to orbit on 90th Falcon launch of 2023 Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket stands at the pad at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The rocket is supporting the Starlink 6-33 mission for SpaceX. Image: Adam Bernstein

Update 12:20 a.m. EST: SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket and landed the booster on the droneship.

SpaceX hit another milestone with its overnight Starlink mission launch. The flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station marks the companys 90th orbital launch in 2023 and its 280th Falcon 9 launch to date. Liftoff of the Starlink 6-33 mission took place at 12:07 p.m. EST (0507 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40.

Weather for the mission was ideal at liftoff, but meteorologists kept their eye on the picture downrange as well. Liftoff winds were the only watch item in a forecast that predicts 95 percent favorable weather.

A secondary push of cold air will filter into the area [on Wednesday], bringing clear skies and a stronger pressure gradient over the Space Coast, the launch forecast stated. This will result in gusty surface winds through tomorrow evening which will slowly diminish through the launch window, so liftoff winds remain the only concern.

The forecast also noted that upper-level wind shear is considered low to moderate and was highlighted under the Additional Risk Criteria section.

The Starlink 6-33 mission marks the fourth fastest turnaround for SpaceXs workhorse launchpad, SLC-40, at four days, one hour, six minutes and 40 seconds since the last launch from here. This mission will be the 159th SpaceX orbital launch from this pad.

The first stage booster used for the launch was tail number 1077, which launched on its ninth flight with this mission. Notable previous launches include Crew-5 and GPS 3 Space Vehicle 06.

It landed on the drone ship, Just Read the Instructions, about eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The 23 satellites on board bring the total launched in 2023 up to 1,871.

Reposting an infographic from analytics firm BryceTech, SpaceX founder Elon Musk stated that the company is tracking to launch over 80 percent of all Earth payload to orbit this year. Its Q3 report states that out of the 63 orbital launches around the world, SpaceX accounted for 26 of them.

Broken down further, SpaceX launched significantly more to space than the rest of the world combined. It launched 519 spacecraft during Q3 compared to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the next closest, which launched 24 spacecraft.

The stat that Musk quoted from BryceTech was one that he often likes to hold up, which is spacecraft upmass to orbit. That chart shows in Q3, SpaceX launched 381,278 kg to orbit, followed by CASC at 24,560 kg and Roscosmos with 17,475 kg.

Meanwhile, over at Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center, teams continue to work towards what likely will end up being the final launch from that pad in 2023. The Falcon Heavy supporting the USSF-52 mission rolled back into the adjacent hanger Tuesday evening in anticipation of integrating the X-37B spaceplane onto the rocket.

Launch of the ninth Falcon Heavy to date continues to target Dec. 10.

Read more:

SpaceX sends 23 Starlink satellites to orbit on 90th Falcon launch of 2023 Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

Watch live as astronauts on the ISS celebrate the station’s 25th anniversary today (video) – Space.com

Astronauts on the International Space Station will celebrate 25 years of their vehicle in orbit on Wednesday (Dec. 6), and you can watch the event live.

The six astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 70 crew will mark the 25th anniversary of the Russian Zarya and U.S. Unity modules meeting up Dec. 6, 1998. You can watch the event live here at Space.com, via NASA Television, at 12:25 p.m. EST (1725 GMT).

The Expedition 70 astronauts include commander Andreas Mogensen (European Space Agency), Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA), Satoshi Furukawa (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Loral O'Hara (NASA) and Russian cosmonauts Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. The crew, by coincidence, represents all the largest ISS partners on the orbiting complex.

The Zarya module blasted to space on its own on Nov. 20 1998, using a Russian Proton rocket launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Unity came to space on board the STS-88 space shuttle Endeavour mission that launched on Dec. 4, 1998.

The commander of STS-88, Bob Cabana, will also join the event in his current role as NASA's associate administrator alongside Joel Montalbano, ISS program manager. Cabana was also the first American to enter the ISS, NASA officials said in a release about the anniversary event.

Related: Track the ISS: How and where to see it

The ISS has greatly expanded from its two-room origins into a six-bedroom complex that has hosted 273 individuals from 21 countries, according to NASA statistics. The complex has had nearly 270 spacewalks servicing or assembling the space station, including 198 on the U.S. side and 71 on the Russian side. Crews typically complete hundreds of experiments during missions that can last between six months and 12 months at a time.

In addition to the station itself, the vehicles serving the ISS have changed a lot in the last quarter-century. The early days used the space shuttle and Russian Soyuz for crews, alongside government cargo vehicles from Russia, Japan and Europe. The space shuttle retired in 2011, and for nearly a decade, Soyuz was the exclusive ride to the space station. Soyuz continues to launch all Russian crews today, alongside some U.S. astronauts under an agreement with NASA.

Today, private SpaceX Dragon and Northrop Grumman cargo ships resupply the space station. U.S. companies also have two vehicles on offer for astronauts: SpaceX's Crew Dragon (in service since 2020) and Boeing's Starliner (expected to run its first mission with astronauts in 2024.) Meanwhile, Axiom Space is running independent private missions to the space station for commercial purposes, using paying customers to pay for seats.

Related: Private space station: How Axiom Space plans to build its orbital outpost

The ISS also aims to fly a diverse set of individuals in space, and has celebrated numerous societal milestones in the last five years. A few include the first all-woman spacewalk in 2019, the first long-duration missions by a Black man (NASA astronaut Victor Glover) and Black woman (NASA's Jessica Watkins) and the first long-duration mission by a Native American woman (NASA's Nicole Mann).

Also, this year Hispanic-American Frank Rubio accidentally set the record for longest NASA mission in space, 371 days, following an issue with his Soyuz spacecraft that doubled his stay in orbit. Astronauts from several countries outside the U.S. have set their own records for spacewalking, space station commands, long-duration missions and similar milestones, too.

Most partners of the ISS have committed to extending the partnership until at least 2030, and NASA has committed to funding several private space stations to keep a presence in low Earth orbit in the next decade. Russia will remain with the ISS until at least 2028, although it may be longer. (The ISS is one of Russia's few remaining space partnerships internationally after its unsanctioned invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which is ongoing.)

The moon is the new focus of the ISS partners. NASA has formed the Artemis Accords, a coalition of more than 30 countries that are aiming for peaceful space exploration together; a few of those partners are also working on moon missions with the NASA-led Artemis program. Russia has allied with China, and a few other countries, on its own moon-facing alliance in the coming years.

See original here:

Watch live as astronauts on the ISS celebrate the station's 25th anniversary today (video) - Space.com