State officials said hundreds of thousands of Rhode Island residents could be affected by a cyberattack on the states online portal for social services, with a high probability that personally identifiable information was breached.According to an update from Governor Dan McKees office, the attack targeted RIBridges, which Rhode Island residents use to apply for and access programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).The attack also targeted the Healthsource RI insurance marketplace. McKees office said any individual who has received or applied for health coverage and/or health and human services programs or benefits could be impacted by this leak.The information accessed by the cyberattackers could include names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and banking information.The RIBridges system is operated by Deloitte, which first notified the state of a potential cyberattack on December 5 but McKees office said it wasnt clear then that sensitive information had been breached. On Friday, December 13, Deloitte confirmed that there was malicious code in the system and worked with the state to proactively take the system down to address the threat.In the meantime, the state said Rhode Island residents can still use paper applications to apply for benefits.The New York Times reports that at a press conference Friday, states chief digital officer Brian Tardiff said cybercriminals claiming responsibility for the attack have threatened to release the data unless they receive a payment.

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, were looking at GMs decision to pull out of the robotaxi business, Google alluding to the existence of multiple universes, and how you can make some serious cash by getting an AI bot to fall in love with you. Lets get into it.General Motors will no longer fund the development of its commercial robotaxi business and will instead absorb Cruise, its self-driving car subsidiary, and combine it with the automakers own efforts to develop driver-assistance features and eventually fully autonomous personal vehicles. Several Cruise employees told TechCrunch they were blindsided by the decision. GM acquired Cruise in 2016 for $1 billion and has since spent more than $10 billion on the companys efforts.OpenAI has finally released the real-time video capabilities for ChatGPT that it demoed nearly seven months ago. ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers can use the app to point their phones at objects and have ChatGPT respond in near real time. The feature can also understand whats on a devices screen through screen sharing. There are still a few more reveals planned for 12 Days of OpenAI, so stay up to date with our live blog.Google this week unveiled its first-ever AI agent that can take actions on the web. Called Project Mariner, the Gemini-powered agent takes control of your Chrome browser, moves the cursor on your screen, clicks buttons, and fills out forms, allowing it to use and navigate websites much like a human would. While still a prototype from its DeepMind division, it represents Googles shift to move users away from interacting with websites directly.If youd like to receive Week in Review in your inbox every Saturday, sign up here!NewsImage Credits:DuolingoDuolingo joins Squid Game: Ahead of the release of the next season of Squid Game, Netflix has teamed up with Duolingo to help viewers learn Korean. The companies also released an exclusive TikTok filter inspired by the shows Red Light, Green Light game. Read moreGoogle soft launches the multiverse: Google announced Willow, its latest quantum computing chip. But tucked into the blog post about the chip is a claim that the chip is so mind-bogglingly fast that it must have borrowed computational power from other universes. Read moreWhat did you Google this year? Google released its annual list of top trending searches for 2024, including the CrowdStrike outage, the late One Direction member Liam Payne, and Dubai chocolate bars. Read moreRIP, Car Thing: Spotify has officially discontinued Car Thing, its in-car streaming device. If you bought one, you have a little more than a month to provide proof of purchase and receive a refund. Read moreBluesky teases a paid subscription: Bluesky has published mock-ups teasing an upcoming subscription tier on its GitHub. It appears that Bluesky is considering paid features for the tier, like custom app icons, post analytics, and bookmark folders. Read moreIs Sora trained on video games? Through our tests of OpenAIs video generator Sora, it appears that at least some of the data it was trained on mightve come from Twitch streams and walkthroughs of games. Legal experts say that could be a problem. Read moreGrok has a new image generator: Grok released its latest image generator, code-named Aurora, that is very unrestricted when it comes to reproducing public figures. This is certainly indicative of my timeline, as Im seeing a ton of AI images of Real Housewives cast members. Read moreKrispy Kreme gets hit with a cyberattack: Doughnut chain Krispy Kreme disclosed a security incident that has caused certain operational disruptions. The company said that its shops are open and there is no interruption to deliveries to retail and restaurant partners. Read moreCan you get an AI bot to fall in love with you? Freysa.ai is creating challenges designed to influence how humans think about AI safety. If youre the first person to successfully trick its AI character Freysa to say I love you, you could win tens of thousands of dollars. Read moreFirefox gets rid of a useless feature: Mozillas Firefox browser has removed its Do Not Track feature. Since websites have no real reason to respect the signal, the setting is effectively useless (and misleading). Read moreYou can now buy a car on Amazon: Amazon is expanding into the online car sales market with the launch of Amazon Autos, an e-commerce business that lets customers find, order, and buy new cars, trucks, and SUVs from dealerships. Read more

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Photo courtesy of Berry Manor InnThe Charles Berry House is located at81 Talbot Avenue in Rockland, Maine, and it is one of the towns finest examples of a residence built in the Colonial Revival style. The house was built forCharles Howard Berry (1849-1909), a businessman whooperated a stage route, livery stables, and later entered the hotel business. He would hire Portland-based architect, Austin Pease, to furnish the plans for the house and adjacent carriage house. The residence features a symmetrical faade with front porch and porte-cochere, Palladian window over the entrance, bowed front, and ornate dormers at the roof. The entire property is lovingly maintained and preserved and is now home to theBerry Manor Inn, an up-scale bed & breakfast that maintains the old charm of Rockland, while providing high-class finishes.

UFC CEO Dana White (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesUFC Saudi Arabia is going to feel like a pay-per-view event.On Saturday, UFC President Dana White announced two huge middleweight fights that could easily be a part of a main card on a pay-per-view event.In the main event of the Feb. 1 event, former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya takes on No. 5 middleweight Nassourdine Imavov. In the co-main event, rising middleweight star and No. 14-ranked contender Shara Magomedov faces Michael Venom Page in the latters first UFC fight at middleweight.Here is a look at Whites announcement.Adesanya comes into the fight ranked No. 2. Hes at the point of his career where his losses will result in him dropping in ranking. Adesanya is coming off a loss to champion Dricus du Plessis in his last fight, and some have wondered if retirement is closing in on the MMA icon.MORE FOR YOUMIAMI, FLORIDA - APRIL 08: Israel Adesanya of Nigeria reacts after knocking out Alex Pereira of ... [+] Brazil in the UFC middleweight championship fight during the UFC 287 event at Kaseya Center on April 08, 2023 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesImavov is on a hot streak.Hes won three in a row, and hes coming off a unanimous decision win over Brendan Allen in September. The main event will tell us a lot about the immediate future of the UFCs middleweight division.The co-main event wont have immediate title implications, but it is a major test for Magomedov and MVP. Magomedov is coming off a historic double spinning backfist KO win, while Page lost a narrow decision to Ian Machado Garry at welterweight.If Page wins, he could have a new division in the UFC. If Magomedov wins, hell be free to continue his ascent up the 185-pound ladder. Well see what else is added to the card, but for now, UFC Saudi Arabia has the looks of being a banger.Robert Whittaker is Stoked For UFC 311s Main EventThe UFC is getting off to a fast start to kick off 2025. Even before the Saudi Arabia event and UFC 312, which will feature two world championship fights, the first pay-per-view show of the year will happen in Los Angeles at the new Intuit Arena.Islam Makhachev defends his UFC lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan and Merab Dvalishvili will defend his UFC bantamweight title against Umar Nurmagomedov.Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker shared his thoughts on the card and the UFC 311 main event.Well, I think that's a banger card, Whittaker said on his MMArcade Podcast. And, uh, Islam versus Arman [Tsarukyan], mate, that's... That fight is just going to answer all the questions every fan has. Period. Yep. Yep. Right. Because I'm not going to go into it too much, but everyone wants to know how good Arman is. And everyone wants to know how good Islam is. And that fight is going to tell you.The promotion is taking three weeks off following Saturday nights UFC Tampa event, but once the ball starts rolling in 2025, the action should be near non-stop for the next 12 months.

Nancy Pelosi, Former US House Speaker, sustains hip fracture while in Luxembourg (Photo by Zach ... [+] Gibson/Getty Images)Getty ImagesFormer United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sustained a fall while in Luxembourg this week, leading to her undergoing hip replacement surgery in Germany just days later. Pelosi, age 84, traveled to Europe as part of the 80th anniversary commemoration of The Battle of the Bulge. Apparently, the former House Speaker, who notably continues to wear high heeled shoes, slipped on a marble floor and injured and likely fractured her hip. She was hospitalized, and just a few days later underwent hip replacement surgery.Nancy Pelosi (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Getty ImagesSuch injuries are common at any age, especially on slick surfaces and when in heels, but bone fractures are much more common in older individuals, and especially in females. The hip, which is a ball-and-socket joint at the upper thigh bone, is most likely to be fractured at its uppermost portion, known as the femoral neck. Over 300,000 people per year sustain hip fractures in the U.S. alone, the majority of who are 65 years and older. The injury is extremely painful, and surgical intervention, either with repair or replacement, is almost always indicated.Close-up anatomy of hip bones. Femur (thigh bone) with thin femoral neck leading to hip socket. gettyHip replacement surgery is often carried out due to chronic hip conditions, such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, chronic wear and tear on the joint from years of stress or strain, or due to childhood chronic hip conditions. It is also performed after chronic or acute injury, the latter of which was the case for Nancy Pelosi. Replacement surgery involves removing the damaged area, typically both the femoral neck and femoral head (the ball portion of the ball-and-socket joint), and replacing it with a metal or ceramic ball and stem structure, providing renewed strength and stability to the damaged bone and/or joint.MORE FOR YOUHip replacement implant placed into the hip socket.gettyA significant risk factor for hip fracture is a condition called osteoporosis, or low bone density. A condition less concerning, although also placing people at risk for fractures is known as osteopenia, also low bone density but to a lesser degree than osteoporosis. Over half of both men and women over age 50 likely have some degree of low bone density. Of these, 1 in 2 women and 1 in 4 men with low bone mass will break a bone if osteoporosis is left untreated.Common causes of and risk factors for osteoporosis:Aging, as bone remodeling declines after age 30.Hormonal changes, most notably declining estrogen levels in peri-menopausal women.Genetic predisposition, which may include small frame and being caucasianCigarette SmokingLack of exercisePoor nutritionExcess Alcohol ConsumptionSeveral chronic medical conditions and use of specific medicationsOsteoporosis Prevention and DiagnosisAdults can, in some cases, prevent osteoporosis, or minimize progression from osteopenia, by maintaining healthy exercise levels routinely, cutting out cigarette smoking and reducing alcohol consumption. Diet, supplement and hormone replacement recommendations should be reviewed and discussed with ones physician, as these can vary from one individual to another.Diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis is made by performing a bone mineral density test, also known as a DEXA or DXA scan. This is a series of X-ray studies looking at the bones of the hips and lower back. A score, based on the density of those bones, is given, and that score can indicate the degree of bone mineralization, or density. Low density bones are then determined to be either osteopenic (moderately low density) or osteoporotic (more significantly low density). Currently the US Preventive Task Force recommends bone density screening for women ages 65 years and older, and for both men and women over age 50 with specific risk factors for osteopenia or osteoporosis.Osteoporosis TreatmentOnce a diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis is made, there are several treatment options available to minimize the increased risk of fractures. In addition to certain lifestyle modifications, which may include diet, exercise, certain supplements or hormone therapies, there are multiple medical treatment options that can either halt the progression of bone weakening, or even reverse the effects, leading to some degree of increased bone density over time. These treatments are often discussed with a specialist such as an endocrinologist or rheumatologist, in concert with ones primary care physician and possibly gynecologist, depending on the treatment option that is best available for each individuals situation.Several celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Sally Field, have shared their diagnosis of osteoporosis publicly. Field, who was 59 years old at the time of diagnosis, has made efforts to draw public awareness to the importance of early screening, diagnosis and treatment, even if one is having no symptoms or overt health issues. Fractures in older adults are a significant source of morbidity and mortality, as these injuries can lead to other complications including pneumonia, blood clots and skin ulcers from needing to be hospitalized and at bed rest after an injury.Actress Sally Field poses during a press conference for Bone Health on April 20, 2006 in New York ... [+] City. (Photo by Fernando Leon/Getty Images)Getty ImagesIt is unclear whether or not Nancy Pelosi has underlying osteoporosis as a risk factor for her hip fracture. It is clear, however, that such injuries need to be addressed swiftly, to minimize further complications. But as with many unplanned hospital stays following injury, prevention is always the best medicine.

Bottom line: While Arm-based PCs face some hurdles, their potential for growth remains significant, driven in particular by claims of superior battery life compared to previous generations. Intel, meanwhile, is making improvements to adapt to new market demands. The PC market is undergoing a significant shift as Arm-based processors gain traction, challenging the long-standing dominance of x86 architecture. However, this transition is not without challenges, as highlighted by Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel, during the Barclays 22nd Annual Global Technology Conference.Johnston Holthaus recently claimed that retailers are grappling with a high return rate of Qualcomm-powered machines. "If you look at the return rate for Arm PCs, you go talk to any retailer, their number one concern is 'I get a large percentage of these back,'" she said, attributing the issue to compatibility problems with common applications.Qualcomm was quick to respond though, "Our device return rates are within industry norms," a representative told CRN. The spokesperson further added that Qualcomm "expects 30% to 50% of laptops to transition to non-x86 platforms within the next five years."Regardless of one claim or the other, Arm-based systems are making inroads into the PC market. While Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite machines currently hold a mere 0.8% market share, the overall Arm-based client PC segment commands approximately 10% of the market. This growth is primarily driven by Apple's M-series processors, which have paved the way for wider Arm adoption.Intel, for its part, is acutely aware of the evolving landscape. "We [will] have more competitors than we have ever had. You will see more competitors enter the marketplace in 2025," Johnston Holthaus said, possibly hinting at rumors of MediaTek and Nvidia entering the Arm-based Windows PC market. // Related StoriesTeam Blue has been improving performance and power efficiency to match Arm-based rivals. "We took too long at Intel to become performance and power-oriented, and we made a massive leap with our Lunar Lake product last year," Johnston Holthaus said.For instance, Intel introduced a hybrid architecture in its latest processor series, combining Efficient-cores (E-cores) with Performance-cores (P-cores) to balance power efficiency with high performance. This design went beyond laptops and desktops and had a notable impact in Xeon 6 datacenter CPUs, which offer 3:1 rack consolidation and up to 2.6x performance-per-watt improvements over their predecessors.Intel is also collaborating with Arm to produce low-power SoCs using its 18A process and is already integrating AI hardware into its processors. The Lunar Lake architecture, for example, features a fourth-gen NPU capable of delivering up to 48 TOPS a fourfold improvement over its predecessor.Laptops featuring Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Pro and Elite chips were the first PCs to support Microsoft's Copilot AI features, positioning them at the forefront of the company's AI PC push. However, most AI PCs are gaining market traction through Intel and AMD's x86 processors instead.In Q3 2024, AI PCs accounted for 20% of all PC shipments, a 49% increase from Q2, driven by greater availability. Despite this growth, consumer interest in AI PCs and GenAI features remains modest. Intel and AMD devices, which represent about half of these shipments, are only beginning to receive support for Copilot.Meanwhile, Snapdragon X laptops are receiving high praises primarily for their extended battery life, often lasting a full day. Additionally, the upcoming end-of-life for Windows 10 is expected to drive a significant sales boost, as users upgrading to Windows 11 may inadvertently adopt AI PCs.

If Kraven the Hunter really is the final film in Sonys Spider-Man Universe, then the franchise is going out fittingly not with a bang but a whimper. Between its early Thursday previews and opening Friday screenings, Variety reports that the J.C. Chandor-directed superhero film has so far grossed only $4.7 million at the domestic box office. If that seems low to you, thats because it is.Earlier this year, Sonys Madame Web, which became the subject of even more mocking memes and poor reviews than Kraven the Hunter, fared better. That Dakota Johnson-starring disappointment topped Kraven the Hunter by raking in $6 million in its Wednesday Valentines Day debut. Madame Web went on to gross just $43 million domestically and only a little over $100 million worldwide an unfortunate fate for a film that reportedly cost around $100 million to produce. Things, however, are looking even worse right now for Kraven the Hunter.Recommended VideosIn addition to its lackluster opening day gross, the film is now expected to make just somewhere between $13 and $15 million this weekend. That is a notably lower sum than the $20 million to $25 million it was projected to earn just a few weeks ago. Like Madame Web, its opening numbers are particularly concerning considering Kraven the Hunter is said to have similarly cost around $110 million to make.Sony Pictures ReleasingNone of this comes as much of a surprise. The future never looked very bright for Kraven the Hunter, a film that was originally supposed to hit theaters in January 2023 and was ultimately delayed three times. This is, however, par for the course for Sonys non-Venom Spider-Man Universe movies. Madame Web and Morbius, after all, both underperformed as well.Please enable Javascript to view this contentMorbius did the best out of the three when it hit theaters in April 2022 grossing $17.3 million on its opening day and $39 million on its first weekend. It went on to earn only $73 million domestically and $167 million worldwide, though. The good news, therefore, is that Kraven the Hunter isnt the only Sony superhero film that has bombed in recent years. The bad news is that it is currently on track to do even worse than its fellow Spider-Man Universe misfires.Kraven the Hunter is now playing in theaters.Editors Recommendations

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsPricing and tiersAdvantages of using ChatGPTAdvantages of using PerplexityWhich is more accurate?The days of Googles undisputed internet search dominance may be coming to an end. The rise of generative AI has ushered in a new means of finding information on the web, with ChatGPT and Perplexity AI leading the way.Unlike traditional Google searches, these platforms scour the internet for information regarding your query, then synthesize an answer using a conversational tone rather than returning a list of websites where the information can be found. This approach has proven popular with users, even though its raised some serious concerns with the content creators that these platforms scrape for their data. But which is best for you to actually use? Lets dig into how these two AI tools differ, and which will be the most helpful for your prompts.Recommended VideosPerplexity is available at two price points: free and Pro. The free tier is available to everybody and offers unlimited Quick searches, 3 Pro searches per day, and access to the standard Perplexity AI model. The Pro plan, which costs $20/month, grants you unlimited Quick searches, 300 Pro searches per day, your choice of AI model (GPT-4o, Claude-3, or LLama 3.1), the ability to upload and analyze unlimited files as well as visualize answers using Playground AI, DALL-E, and SDXL.RelatedOpenAI is structured much the same way. Anyone can sign up for a free account that grants access to GPT-4o-mini, as well as limited access to the larger GPT-4o model, data analysis, file uploads, vision, web browsing, and image generation.The $20/month Plus tier, conversely, offers everything that the free tier does, but in greater quantities. You get five times more messages with GPT-4o, access to the o1 model family, full use of the platforms data analysis, file uploads, vision, web browsing, and image generation features, as well as use of Advanced Voice Mode and OpenAIs answer to Perplexity, ChatGPT Search.The new $200/month Pro plan simply provides unlimited priority access to all of those features and models.Nadeem Sarwar / Digital TrendsEven if you arent a Plus subscriber with access to ChatGPT Search proper, the chatbot platform still has access to the internet and can provide you with up-to-date information. Just as ChatGPTs Dall-E integration eliminated the need for an external image generator, Search is designed to eliminate the need for an external search engine by blending the benefits of a natural language interface with the value of up-to-date sports scores, news, and stock quotes, according to the company.Whats more, the amount you can do with the information retrieved in ChatGPT is far greater than with Perplexity. With ChatGPT you can analyze, summarize, modify, and edit that content, as well as ask the AI follow-up questions.While ChatGPT excels at creative tasks, Perplexity is purpose built for the sole task of information retrieval. As such, its responses tend to be more accurate, with more transparent citations to more sources than ChatGPT, and it responds faster. The so-called answer engine excels at research tasks, such as summarizing white papers or industry studies, and allows users to enact specific filters in their search criteria, like only pulling information from academic, video sharing, or social media sources.As with ChatGPT, Perplexity also allows its users to ask follow-up questions about a query, even enabling its AI to recall relevant snippets from earlier conversations.Nadeem Sarwar / Digital TrendsWhile Perplexity AI is not entirely free of suffering hallucination and misattribution errors, it has proven itself to be a far more accurate source of information than ChatGPT Search, despite the companys questionable data acquisition practices. In fact a recent study from Columbias Tow Center for Digital Journalismfound that ChatGPT Search struggles mightily in returning factually accurate information to its users.From each publisher [of a pool of 20], we selected 10 articles and extracted specific quotes, the researchers wrote. These quotes were chosen because, when entered into search engines like Google or Bing, they reliably returned the source article among the top three results. We then evaluated whether ChatGPTs new search tool accurately identified the original source for each quote.Of the 200 total selected articles, ChatGPT returned partially or entirely incorrect responses on a hundred and fifty-three occasions, though it only acknowledged an inability to accurately respond to a query seven times, the study found. Only in those seven outputs did the chatbot use qualifying words and phrases like appears, its possible, or might, or statements like I couldnt locate the exact article.In its defense, OpenAI accused the Columbia researchers of performing their study incorrectly and withholding data. As it is with all models, certain tasks are better suited for certain models, but it varies widely by the specifics of the prompt.Editors Recommendations

The final days of 2024 Rocket Report: Chinese national flies drone near Falcon 9, Trouble down under "I am convinced that a collaboration between Avio and MaiaSpace could be established." Eric Berger Dec 13, 2024 6:30 am | 117 SpaceX conducted a static fire test of its flight seven Super Heavy booster this week. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX conducted a static fire test of its flight seven Super Heavy booster this week. Credit: SpaceX Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreWelcome to Edition 7.23 of the Rocket Report! We're closing in on the end of the year, with a little less than three weeks remaining in 2024. Can you believe it? I hardly can. The biggest question left in launch is whether Blue Origin will make its deadline for launching New Glenn by the end of this year. It's been a long-time goal of founder Jeff Bezos, but the clock is ticking. We wish them luck!As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.Virgin Galactic studies Italian spaceport. The US-based suborbital space tourism company said Thursday it has signed an "agreement of cooperation" with Italy's civil aviation authority to study the feasibility of Virgin Galactic conducting spaceflight operations from Grottaglie Spaceport in the Puglia region of Southern Italy. Phase one of the study, anticipated to be completed in 2025, will examine Grottaglies airspace compatibility with Virgin Galactics requirements and unique flight profile.Follows earlier flight ... The announcement comes 18 months after members of the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy conducted research aboard Virgin Galactics June 2023 Galactic 01 mission from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The flight marked the companys first commercial spaceflight. It's all well and good to be making such strategic announcements, but this is all dependent upon the company delivering on its new generation of Delta-class spaceships.For some reason, Avio and MaiaSpace may partner. MaiaSpace CEO Johann Leroy has suggested that a partnership with Italian rocket-builder Avio could benefit both companies and bolster Europes independent access to space, European Spaceflight reports. "The goal of MaiaSpace is to design, produce, and operate the mini-launcher, as well as to market the related launch services, and to stay focused and responsive to market developments," said Leroy. "However, I am convinced that a collaboration between Avio and MaiaSpace could be established. It would be an advantage for both companies and for Europe."But it's not clear why ... Founded in early 2022 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ArianeGroup, MaiaSpace is developing a 50-meter tall, two-stage, partially reusable rocket designed to deliver small satellites to orbit. Avio builds solid rocket motors and is best known for its Vega rockets. It's not clear why a reusable launch company would want to partner with a company that builds solids, which are not reusable. (submitted by Ken the Bin) The Ars Technica Rocket Report The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger's and Stephen Clark's reporting on all things space is to sign up for our newsletter. We'll collect their stories and deliver them straight to your inbox.Sign Me Up!Australian space center shuts down. A spaceport in the Northern Territory of Australia will cease operations immediately, the Australian Broadcast Corporation reports. The company running the spaceport, Equatorial Launch Australia, said it was now in conversations with the Queensland government to relocate its operations to Cape York. The space center's claim to fame was the 2022 launch of three NASA sounding rockets from the facility.Disagreements over territory ... The company, Equatorial Launch Australia, had been planning a major expansion of the Arnhem Space Centre at its East Arnhem Land location. However that process apparently got bogged down, and the spaceport company blamed the delays on the Northern Land Council. This council pushed back and described those claims as a "falsehood." The wait for a renewal of orbital launches from Down Under continues. (submitted by Marzipan)Ukrainian launch company finds refuge in Maine. Promin Aerospace, a small launch company from Dnipro, Ukraine, opened its doors in Maine this month with a goal of hiring US engineers to complete development of its first rocket in time for a test launch in mid-2026, Payload reports. Promins goal of launching Ukraines first rocket from the coast of the Black Sea was put on hold after Russia invaded the country in February 2022.Lobsters and launches ... For the past two and a half years, Promin has been developing its unique rocket technology amid power outages, Internet connectivity problems, and sporadic attacks on Dnipro from Russian forces. The search started in Europe but quickly moved across the pond to take advantage of the speed and resources that US industry provides. "[Europe moves] very slow, so a lot of things that we expected would be done by our partners in 2022, theyre only going to be done in 2025," said Misha Rudominski, Promins co-founder and CEO. The Maine Space Corporation was more welcoming. (submitted by Ken the Bin)Long March-8A rocket set for debut. After successfully completing a wet dress rehearsal and other pre-launch tests, the first Long March-8A rocket is set for its debut launch in January 2025, China's state-run news service, Xinhua, reports. The news service adds that the rocket is "designed to serve as China's future primary launch vehicle for medium- and low-Earth orbit missions." The rocket is capable of lofting up to 7 metric tons to a 700-km Sun-synchronous orbit.Satellite workhorse ... The newer rocket offers increased performance over the Long March 8 rocket and a larger 5.2-meter payload fairing. As such, it is being counted on to help deploy one or more of China's planned satellite Internet megaconstellations. "The Long March-8A is an upgraded version of the Long March-8 rocket, specifically developed to meet the launch requirements of large-scale constellation networks in medium- and low-Earth orbits," said Song Zhengyu, chief designer of the Long March-8 rocket. (submitted by gizmo23)Chinese national arrested after flying drone near SpaceX pad. Federal police arrested Yinpiao Zhou on Monday after he was allegedly caught flying a drone over the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, The Telegraph reports. In a criminal complaint, the US Attorneys Office said Zhou flew a drone over the base and took photographs on November 30, the same day a Falcon 9 rocket launched a payload on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office. He has been accused of violating national defense air space and of failing to register an aircraft as required under US law.Is that a drone in your pocket? ... The complaint against Zhou, filed in California, says he admitted to installing software on his drone to evade limits on the height the device could fly at, and over a virtual fence around the Vandenberg base. The drone was allegedly in the air for 59 minutes and took photographs of SpaceX rocket pads and other sensitive areas. The flight was picked up by the bases security team, who traced Zhou to nearby Ocean Park, where he was standing with another man. After initially hiding the drone in his coat, Zhou admitted he had flown it over the base.Blue Origin says New Glenn is ready. Blue Origin said Tuesday that the test payload for the first launch of its new rocket, New Glenn, is ready for liftoff, Ars reports. The company published an image of the "Blue Ring" pathfinder nestled up against one half of the rocket's payload fairing. This week's announcementhistorically Blue Origin has been tight-lipped about new products but is opening up more as it nears the debut of its flagship New Glenn rocketappears to serve a couple of purposes.Still targeting 2024 for liftoff ... First of all, the relatively small payload contrasted with the size of the payload fairing highlights the greater volume the rocket offers over most conventional boosters. Additionally, the company appears to be publicly signaling the Federal Aviation Administration and other regulatory agencies that it believes New Glenn is ready to fly, pending approval to conduct a hot-fire test at Launch Complex-36, and then for a liftoff from Florida. This is a not-so-subtle message to regulators to please hurry up and complete the paperwork necessary for launch activities. A company official said the plan remains to launch New Glenn before the end of 2024.SpaceX static-fires booster for next Starship flight. Only three weeks after Flight 6, SpaceX has static-fired Booster 14 and rolled Ship 33 to Masseys to complete its own engine testing, NASASpaceflight.com reports. Once both vehicles are tested, SpaceX will begin the final drive to Flight 7, potentially launching in January. Booster 14 is more or less identical to Booster 13 on the outside except for the ship engine chill pipe extensions on previous boosters. These are no longer needed, as Block 2 of the ship has its engine chill pipes running through the aft flap fairing with a flare outward at the bottom. This simplifies the connection between the ship and the booster and reduces mass.Block 2 upgrades ... Ship 33 has many changes compared to past ships, as it is the first Block 2 ship. First and foremost for Block 2 are the extended propellant tanks. SpaceX added a ring on the ship, making it 21 rings tall, and moved around the common and forward domes to be able to load 300 more tons of propellant into the ship. This addition will allow SpaceX to increase its payload to orbit with Block 2. The sacrifice was a smaller payload bay section, which went from five rings to three rings. However, SpaceX retained most of its usable payload space, as the nose cone on Block 2 was completely redesigned. (submitted by Ken the Bin)ULA expects to be certified for national security launch soon. United Launch Alliance expects to gain Space Force certification for national security payloads within a few months, company chief executive Tory Bruno told Breaking Defense. He added that no further testing of the Vulcan Centaur will be needed to meet certification, saying the company has met all the requirements from the Pentagon. Two successful launches are requisite to achieve certification for carrying payloads under the Space Forces National Security Space Launch program.Seeking a higher cadence ... A January launch was deemed a success, but there was an anomaly during the second flight in October with one of Vulcans solid rocket boosters that currently is under investigation. Overall, he said, the company has 20 launches manifested for 2025, with 16 Vulcan rockets stored away for use and no worries that production wont be able to keep up with demand. Looking forward, Bruno said he hopes to have 20-30 Vulcan launches a year, about half of which would be for national security. (submitted by Ken the Bin)Super heavy lift is 'essential' to Europe. This week the European Space Agency has published a third iteration of a proposed pathfinder study for the development of a European reusable super heavy-lift rocket capable of delivering 60 metric tons to low-Earth orbit, European Spaceflight reports. Twice before, in November and early December, the space agency published and then deleted a call for a study.While the first and second iterations made no mention of Ariane 6, currently Europes only heavy-lift rocket, the third iteration highlights the limitations of the ArianeGroup-built rocket.A final decision may come next year ... The text states that the development of a European very-heavy launch system is essential for Europes future ambitions in space and represents a necessary step to ensure the continent remains competitive in the global launch market. Once the study is complete, ESA hopes to have a detailed end-to-end development roadmap with a well-defined business case that could be used to move forward with the project quickly. A decision on whether to adopt the program will likely be made at the ESA ministerial meeting in late 2025. (submitted by Ken the Bin)<h2>Next three launches</h2>Dec. 13: Falcon 9 | Starlink 11-2 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 19:28 UTCDec. 14: Electron | Stonehenge | Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia | 00:45 UTDec. 14: Falcon 9 | GPS-3 10 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 01:04 UTCEric BergerSenior Space EditorEric BergerSenior Space Editor Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. 117 Comments