Draft defense bill funds Pentagon at requested discretionary levels but excludes $350 billion in proposed reconciliation spending, casting doubt on Golden Dome and other space programs

The post House appropriators back $55.5 billion Space Force budget, omit reconciliation funds appeared first on SpaceNews.

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about tech politics, tech influence, and tech shenanigans in Washington, DC. (If you're not a subscriber, you can get on board here.) We're back after a two-week hiatus, during most of which I was gallivanting in the Netherlands for a family wedding, and a trip to the Heineken Experience, which is, truly, an ~experience~.

Before I left, I asked everyone in Washington to please chill out while I was gone. This clearly did not happen, and I have returned to a political landscape that can be best described as that meme from Community where the room is on fire. Let's get into th …

Read the full story at The Verge.

US energy secretary Chris Wright featured in seminars to judges when he was a fracking executive

As cities and states sue big oil for billions in damages over allegations that it covered up the dangers of its products, rightwing organizations are attempting to discredit the wave of litigation. They claim the lawyers behind it are teaming up with an environmentally focused legal education non-profit to bias federal judges against oil companies.

But it is actually fossil fuel-backed organizations that are attempting to sway the judiciary in their favor, one of those law firms is countering. Evidence of this includes judicial seminars hosted by one such group featuring pro-industry speakers such as the current energy secretary, Chris Wright, in his former occupation as a fracking executive.

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© Composite: Reuters

© Composite: Reuters

© Composite: Reuters

Meta has been ordered by the European Commission to restore free WhatsApp access for chatbots made by rival AI providers while the regulator finishes its antitrust investigation. The rare interim measure announced on Tuesday was deemed necessary "to prevent serious and irreparable damage to competition" in the general-purpose AI assistant market.

This is only the second time that the EU has used the emergency power in more than 20 years, Politico reports. It follows the launch of a formal investigation in December 2025 into whether Meta was abusing its market dominance by banning third-party AI chatbots from its WhatsApp messaging platform. …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The net zero economy is booming, so claims that prosperity depends on oil and gas are bunkum – unless you’re a Reform backer with fossil fuel interests, of course

Really? You want to destroy a million jobs? Vote Reform UK for mass unemployment: is that your pitch? Hammer these questions home whenever you meet a supporter of the party. Or, for that matter, a Conservative, as their party now takes an almost identical line.

The figures are stark. They were compiled not by Just Stop Oil or the Green party, but by that bastion of conservatism, the Confederation of British Industry. They show that the net zero economy now directly employs more than 300,000 full-time workers, while supporting the jobs of 1.1 million. The net zero sector is worth £100bn to the UK already, and is likely to grow by hundreds of billions more. The rest of the green economy directly employs a further 600,000.

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© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

The Tories have pledged to tear up the requirement in the Equality Act for public-sector bodies to promote equality and diversity following the murder of Henry Nowak.

The post Tories Pledge to Scrap Diversity Rule After Nowak Murder appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Amazon no longer faces a July 30 cutoff for deploying half its planned 3,232 broadband satellites, but the reprieve comes with a temporary loss of spectrum priority that could give SpaceX and other rivals more leverage in orbit.

The post FCC lets Amazon Leo miss deployment deadline with temporary spectrum penalty appeared first on SpaceNews.

We cannot afford to make the same mistake as we did with gas. If tech companies are going to use our land, energy and water for AI, they must pay their fair share of tax

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Over the past few months, tens of thousands of Australians have emailed their local MP calling for a 25% tax on gas exports. More than 2,200 people have even chipped in their own money to fund billboards promoting the idea.

Why?

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© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

John Swinney has finally admitted SNP funds raised for independence were spent on something else. This is fraud and the people of Scotland cannot shrug and move on – the reckoning must begin now.

The post The SNP Must Be Held to Account Over the Embezzlement Scandal appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

For anyone who wasn’t sure whether China was in it to win the space race and dominate the rapidly growing space economy, its filings in December for 200,000 more satellites […]

The post WRC-27: the next arena for U.S.-China space competition appeared first on SpaceNews.

BANGKOK — More than 600 residents of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces embarked May 31 on a roughly 68-kilometer, six-day ‘peace walk’ to demand the Thai government take action on the river pollution crisis that has seen Thai rivers polluted with heavy metals. The ensemble of affected residents, civil society groups, monks and students marched from Tha Ton subdistrict in Chiang Mai to the city of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, reaching their destination on June 5, World Environment Day. For more than a year, Thailand’s Pollution Control Department has reported dangerous levels of arsenic, mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals in rivers across northern Thailand, with mining operations across eastern Myanmar suspected to be responsible for the pollution. “We are walking because our rivers are slowly dying,” Pianporn Deetes, executive director of the Rivers and Rights Foundation, which helped to organize the peace walk, told Mongabay by phone. “Toxic contamination from unregulated mining upstream is already affecting water, fish, food, livelihoods, and public health. We do not want to wait until more people become sick. This is an emergency.” Pianporn said the walk (42 miles) was about taking collective action to share information, document impacts and build public pressure in a bid to force the government to address the issue, which Pianporn said has, so far, been lacking. “Monitoring has improved, but action has not matched the scale of the crisis,” she said. “We need urgent diplomatic engagement with neighboring countries, stronger health monitoring, transparency, and action to…This article was originally published on Mongabay

House Armed Services Committee seeks to preserve a missile-warning satellite program the Pentagon wants to cancel. It also criticizes a recent tactical communications satellite procurement and GPS oversight

The post HASC NDAA markup challenges Space Force on satellite programs appeared first on SpaceNews.

US president announces plans for two new coal plants, in Alaska and West Virginia, using Defense Production Act

Donald Trump is using wartime presidential authority to hand $700m to coal-fired power plants in the US, the latest move by the president to bolster what he called “clean, beautiful coal”, despite it being the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

“Today, we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.

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© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

China is establishing an industrial policy framework to support a push to build space-based computing infrastructure, with the emergence of influential coordinating bodies.

The post China builds institutional framework for space computing push appeared first on SpaceNews.

ESA and China recently launched the joint SMILE magnetosphere mission after a decade of cooperation, but despite similar goals, another collaboration appears distant.

The post After cooperation on SMILE mission, ESA and China chart parallel but separate paths appeared first on SpaceNews.

In a confirmation hearing, Roger Mason said clear government demand signals are needed as private investment transforms the space intelligence market

The post NRO nominee says commercial space, AI are reshaping spy satellite agency appeared first on SpaceNews.

The Federal Reserve has now stopped quantitative tightening (QT), and moved to credit creation, quantitative easing (QE) once again. This signals global expansion of war as the only hope against the desperate condition of global finances, leading to a great depression.

President Donald Trump portrayed himself on his own Truth Social platform as Jesus Christ, but as both a warmonger and a healer of the sick. In reality he is antichrist. Perhaps he was possessed of Lucifer on March 19th as expected by some Jewish rabbis as their Messiah.

Sin abounds in the world today and the majority of Christians do not recognise it. Satan is out in the world and his deceptions are in full sway over the nations especially the evangelicals in the US states supporting wars against innocent civilians who did nothing to America.

Rabbi Elhanan Beck is a Jerusalem-born anti Zionist Jew who discusses with a Muslim reporter why he says that Netanyahu is Amalek. It is a discussion on Muslims and Jews peacefully coexisting in Palestine, the politics of the Zionist state and the religious beliefs of Torah Jews in regards to Israel.