Last 24 Hours

Microsoft is finishing this week with two more builds for Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels. If you are in the former, you can download 26200.5651, while the latter received 26120.4441. These updates introduce some welcome improvements for context menus, calendar clock, Recall, Settings app, and more. Starting with Copilot+ PCs, users with Snapdragon-powered PCs (Intel and AMD support is coming soon) can try the new agent in Settings. You can type what you would like to change into the Settings app's search box, and the agent will do it for you. For example, you can say something like "my mouse pointer is too small," and the app will show you suggestions and offer to adjust settings on your behalf. Note: This feature is only available in the Dev build. In the European Economic Area, Recall now prompts users to save a unique code, which is required for exporting snapshots to share them with third-party apps or websites. This code is shown only once during the initial setup experience, so be sure to save it in a reliable place. Note: Today's updates will reset Recall and all your snapshots. Other Recall improvements (available in all countries where Recall is available) include the ability to reset Recall and all its data, a new default value for maximum storage duration (90 days instead of unlimited), and various tips to help you learn about Recall features. Microsoft is also introducing new features for Click to Do. You can now send text or images to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Click to Do can now let you take actions on an email address to schedule meetings or send messages in Teams. Next, we have a much-requested feature coming from Windows 10 to 11: Seconds for the calendar clock. The clock that appears in the calendar flyout can now display seconds if you want it to. Note that, unlike Windows 10, this feature is customizable: you can toggle seconds on or off in date and time settings. Here are other noteworthy changes in builds 26200.5651 and 26120.4441: Context menus now have dividers for common file actions When sharing files with OneDrive, Windows will offer additional sharing options like Nearby Sharing or third-party apps. Windows activation and expiration dialogs now feature modernized visuals. And here is what was fixed (these are rolling out gradually): [Recall (Preview)] The following fixes are rolling out for Recall on Copilot+ PCs: Fixed an issue causing Recall to crash for some Insiders in the last couple flights. [File Explorer] Fixed an issue when opening folders starting from outside of File Explorer, where File Explorer would open it in a new tab, but the tab wasn’t put in focus. Fixed a memory leak impacting some people when navigating through File Explorer folders, impacting performance and reliability over time. We’ve done some more work to improve the performance of extracting archive files – this will particularly help in the case of copy pasting large numbers of files out of large 7z or .rar archives. [Start menu] Fixed an issue for Insiders with the new Start menu, where it was displaying in the wrong direction when using an Arabic or Hebrew display language. Fixed an issue for Insiders with the updated Start menu, where the Move to front / Move right / Move left options from the context menu for pinned apps weren’t working. [Settings] Fixed an underlying issue which was causing some Insiders to see the Settings navigation pane entries in English rather than their preferred language in the last couple flights. [Other] Fixed an underlying issue which was causing fonts in certain app menu items to unexpectedly appear corrupted or overlapped for some people. This also impacted typing in Word – where when using Hebrew a period may unexpectedly show as a 3, and in Thai typing space may show a 2. Fixed an issue where running a script on a remote SMB share might take an unexpectedly long time if the share was an older Windows Server version like Windows Server 2019. And here is the list of known issues: [General] After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue. The option to reset your PC under Settings > System > Recovery will not work on this build. Some Windows Insiders may experience a rollback trying to install this update with a 0x80070005 in Windows Update. We’re working on a fix. [Start menu] The following are known issues for Windows Insiders with the new Start menu: Using touch to navigate the new Start menu may not work reliably. For example, it currently does not support the swipe-up gesture. Drag and drop capabilities are limited from “All” to “Pinned.” In some cases, duplicate entries may appear in folders on the Start menu. [Xbox Controllers] Some Insiders are experiencing an issue where using their Xbox Controller via Bluetooth is causing their PC to bugcheck. Here is how to resolve the issue. Open Device Manager by searching for it via the search box on your taskbar. Once Device Manager is open, click on “View” and then “Devices by Driver”. Find the driver named “oemXXX.inf (XboxGameControllerDriver.inf)” where the “XXX” will be a specific number on your PC. Right-click on that driver and click “Uninstall”. [Click to Do (Preview)] The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Windows Insiders on AMD or Intel™-powered Copilot+ PCs may experience long wait times on the first attempt to perform intelligent text actions in Click to Do after a new build or model update. [Improved Windows Search] [REMINDER] For improved Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs, it is recommended that you plug in your Copilot+ PC for the initial search indexing to get completed. You can check your search indexing status under Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows. [File Explorer] The following are known issues for AI actions in File Explorer: Narrator scan mode may not work properly in the action result canvas window for the Summarize AI action for Microsoft 365 files when reading bulleted lists. As a workaround, you can use Caps + Right key to navigate. [Widgets] Until we complete support for pinning in the new widgets board experience, pinning reverts you back to the previous experience You can find the announcement post here (Dev) and here (Beta). Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

About half a decade ago, Apple released the first Apple Silicon-based Macs with ARM processors, kicking off its chip revolution and severing ties with Intel. These chips were received to critical acclaim, and many developers optimized their apps for ARM relatively quickly—not Valve, though. Valve is only now getting ready to ship a native Steam client for macOS. The latest Steam Beta update is finally optimized for Apple Silicon, which means the app no longer relies on Rosetta 2, Apple's translation layer that emulates x86 applications on ARM-based chips. It is hardly surprising that it took Valve so long to optimize its client for Apple Silicon, considering Apple's low market share on Steam. Valve's monthly Hardware and Software Survey (check out the latest data here) shows that macOS has only 1.85% of all users, which is hardly what you call a priority. The survey's page itself makes it clear that the results help developers decide where to invest their time and effort. In recent years, Apple Silicon has made big strides in terms of graphical performance, which has made Mac a better gaming platform than before. Apple is also not giving up on its ongoing effort to make gaming on Mac more attractive. Every macOS release introduces new tools for developers and gamers (the recently announced iOS/iPadOS/macOS 26 received a new "Gaming" hub). Unfortunately for Apple, Macs still aren't popular for gaming, and the fact that it took Valve five years to optimize Steam for Apple Silicon just shows how difficult it is to convince everyone that Mac can game, too. In addition to native Apple Silicon support, the latest Steam Client Beta introduced improvements for Steam Chat, In-Game Overlay, and SteamOS. The complete changelog is available on the official Steam Community page. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

In November 2023, news emerged about AMD preparing more Ryzen processors with 3D cache for the AM4 platform, which is now nine years old. It took a while for the company to confirm those rumors, but it's finally here. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D is now official, a new entry-level chip with stacked cache to offer good gaming performance to those on tight budgets. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D (first spotted on EEC last year) is basically a clocked-down Ryzen 5 5600X3D. This six-core, twelve-thread AM4 processor operates at a base speed of 3GHz, and it can boost itself up to 4GHz. For comparison, the Ryzen 5 5600X3D has a 3.3GHz base clock and a 4.4GHz boost clock. L3 cache, however, remains unchanged: 96MB, which is a big deal for games (the more cache, the better performance). The same goes for the platform: it is built using TSMC's 7nm process and Zen 3 architecture. Unlike the current AM5 Ryzen chips with 3D cache, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D is not unlocked, which means its modest clocks cannot be overclocked beyond stock values. For comparison, here is AMD's current portfolio of AM4 processors with 3D cache: AM4 3D V-Cache CPUs Platform Core Count Base Clock Boost Clock L3 Cache AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D AM4 8 cores, 16 threads 3.4GHz 4.5GHz 96MB AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D AM4 8 cores, 16 threads 3.0GHz 4.1GHz 96MB AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D AM4 6 cores, 12 threads 3.3GHz 4.4GHz 96MB AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D AM4 6 cores, 12 threads 3.0GHz 4.0GHz 96MB Interestingly, the new Ryzen 5 5500X3D is listed as only available in Latin America (LATAM), which means you are unlikely to see it on sale in the United States or Europe. Therefore, you will have to look at other AM4 processors if you want to get more power without switching platforms. Source: @Zed__Wang on X Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Cloudflare has confirmed that the massive service outage yesterday was not caused by a security incident and no data has been lost. The issue has been largely mitigated. It started 17:52 UTC yesterday when the Workers KV (Key-Value) system went completely offline, causing widespread service losses across multiple edge computing and AI services. Workers KV is a globally distributed, consistent key-value store used by Cloudflare Workers, the company’s serverless computing platform. It is a fundamental piece in many Cloudflare services and a failure can cause cascading issues across many components. The disruption also impacted other services used by millions, most notably the Google Cloud Platform. Workers KV error rate during the incident Source: Cloudflare In a post mortem, Cloudflare explains that the outage lasted almost 2.5 hours and the root cause was a failure in the Workers KV underlying storage infrastructure due to a third-party cloud provider outage. “The cause of this outage was due to a failure in the underlying storage infrastructure used by our Workers KV service, which is a critical dependency for many Cloudflare products and relied upon for configuration, authentication, and asset delivery across the affected services,” Cloudflare says. “Part of this infrastructure is backed by a third-party cloud provider, which experienced an outage today and directly impacted the availability of our KV service.” Cloudflare has determined the impact of the incident on each service: Workers KV – experienced a 90.22% failure rate due to backend storage unavailability, affecting all uncached reads and writes. Access, WARP, Gateway – all suffered critical failures in identity-based authentication, session handling, and policy enforcement due to reliance on Workers KV, with WARP unable to register new devices, and disruption of Gateway proxying and DoH queries. Dashboard, Turnstile, Challenges – experienced widespread login and CAPTCHA verification failures, with token reuse risk introduced due to kill switch activation on Turnstile. Browser Isolation & Browser Rendering – failed to initiate or maintain link-based sessions and browser rendering tasks due to cascading failures in Access and Gateway. Stream, Images, Pages – experienced major functional breakdowns: Stream playback and live streaming failed, image uploads dropped to 0% success, and Pages builds/serving peaked at ~100% failure. Workers AI & AutoRAG – were completely unavailable due to dependence on KV for model configuration, routing, and indexing functions. Durable Objects, D1, Queues – services built on the same storage layer as KV suffered up to 22% error rates or complete unavailability for message queuing and data operations. Realtime & AI Gateway – faced near-total service disruption due to inability to retrieve configuration from Workers KV, with Realtime TURN/SFU and AI Gateway requests heavily impacted. Zaraz & Workers Assets – saw full or partial failure in loading or updating configurations and static assets, though end-user impact was limited in scope. CDN, Workers for Platforms, Workers Builds – experienced increased latency and regional errors in some locations, with new Workers builds failing 100% during the incident. In response to this outage, Cloudflare says it will be accelerating several resilience-focused changes, primarily eliminating reliance on a single third-party cloud provider for Workers KV backend storage. Gradually, the KV’s central store will be migrated to Cloudflare’s own R2 object storage to reduce external dependency. Cloudflare also plans to implement cross-service safeguards and develop new tooling to gradually restore services during storage outages, preventing traffic surges that could overwhelm recovering systems and cause secondary failures. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The French Senate has passed a new anti-piracy bill that opens the door to automated IP-address blocking. This legislative push is bolstered by a parallel, "secret" agreement between sports rightsholders and major ISPs, which aims to automate anti-piracy efforts and streamline direct blocking requests. Rightsholders hope these new powers will help to tackle the "mafia-like" piracy economy. Traditional site-blocking measures that require local ISPs to block subscriber access to popular pirate sites, have been utilized by rightsholders in for years. The aim is to deter piracy by making sites more difficult to find, but these measures are only partially effective. More recently, site blocking requests have targeted other intermediaries. DNS providers including Google and Cloudflare, plus several of the largest VPN providers, were all ordered to make pirate websites unavailable through their services. While several of these orders are still under appeal, rightsholders and lawmakers are pressing ahead. They believe that more can and should be done to tackle online piracy; sports streaming piracy in particular. New Bill Enables Automated Real-Time Blocking A new bill amending Article L. 333-10 of the French Sports Code passed the Senate this week. The ‘Lafon’ bill allows rightsholders to use a fully automated system to block piracy targets, without having to go through the French telecoms regulator Arcom for updates to the blacklisted sites. Targeted intermediaries are required to implement these blockades ‘without delay’. That speeds up the blocking process, which is particularly important when dealing with constantly updating livestreams of pirated sports. Similar blocking regimes are already active in Italy, Spain, and the UK. The proposed bill doesn’t specify any concrete blocking methods, but by allowing judges to target server IP addresses it logically paves the way for IP-address blocking. Blocking IP-addresses Speaking with the French news publication L’Informé, Xavier Spender of the Association for the Protection of Sports Programs (APPS), which represents beIN Sports, Canal+, Eurosport and others, says the aim is to reinforce existing blocking measures. “We want to bring ourselves up to the level of the English, Spanish, and Italians, by implementing IP blocking adapted to the French context. Our goal is to block servers at the head of the network, that is, at the highest possible level of the pirate architecture.” Other stakeholders also view automated and real-time IP address blocking as a must to tackle the country’s pirate streaming epidemic. An estimated 37% of Ligue 1 viewers currently watch football matches illegally. “The adoption of this new system is vital to effectively protect our competitions and our economic model, especially as the LFP is about to launch its own channel,” the Professional Football League (LFP) commented. Brice Daumin, general manager of Ligue 1 broadcaster DAZN notes that “Arcom doesn’t work weekends,” so something had to be done to more effectively tackle the problem. “In England, we can block 10,000 links in two days; in Italy, it’s 18,000. And with Arcom, it’s 5,000 per year.” A ‘Secret’ Blocking Agreement While the bill has yet to pass into law, stakeholders are already preparing a complementary agreement. According to a report from L’Informé’s Marc Rees, sports rightsholder group APPS has reached a private agreement in principle with Internet providers Orange, SFR, Bouygues Télécom, and Free. Reportedly in the works since 2023, the agreement covers the finer details of a new blocking system, including the technical implementation and who will pay for the costs. Thus far, specific details of the blocking system, including any plans for independent oversight, remain unclear. However, a source said that overblocking risks are being taken into account, adding that rightsholders remain responsible for their mistakes. Overblocking and the Mafia Calls for extended blocking powers arrive at a sensitive time, as recent expansions in Spain and Italy have resulted in several overblocking incidents. However, according to APPS general delegate Xavier Spender, there is little to worry about as “everything will be put in place to ensure that there is no risk of over-blocking.” Time will tell whether will be able to prevent collateral damage, but it’s clear that APPS and its rightsholders are eager to implement broader blocking powers to deal with the piracy ‘mafia’. “Today, we are facing mafia groups at the head of a piracy economy, with a model that resembles drug trafficking. To deal in particular with illicit IPTV offers, sold on every street corner, we need to adapt to enable real-time blocking,” Spender says. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Victoria's Secret has restored all critical systems impacted by a May 24 security incident that forced it to shut down corporate systems and the e-commerce website. The company operates around 1,380 retail stores in nearly 70 countries and has reported net sales of $1.353 billion for the first quarter of 2025, with a forecasted net sales range of up to $6.3 billion for the year. In a Thursday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed that all restored critical systems are now fully operational and that it's working with external experts to assess the cyberattack's impact. It also believes the incident will likely have no material impact on its yearly fiscal results, even though it may continue to incur expenses related to the attack. "We immediately enacted our response protocols to contain and eradicate unauthorized network access, and third-party experts were engaged. All critical systems are restored and fully operational," Victoria's Secret said. "We continue to assess the full scope and impact of the incident. This incident has not caused a material disruption to our operations to date and we do not believe it will have a material impact to our fiscal year 2025." Quarterly earnings release delayed As the company revealed after disclosing the incident last month, it was forced to take down corporate systems, some in-store services, and the e-commerce website as a precaution on May 26. A Victoria's Secret spokesperson told BleepingComputer that the fashion retail giant was working to restore operations and had hired external experts to investigate the breach. In a June 3 press release, Victoria's Secret added that it had to postpone releasing financial results for the first quarter because systems needed during this process were unreachable after the attack. "The restoration process has prevented employees from accessing certain systems and information needed to support the Company's release of its financial results for the first quarter ended May 3, 2025," it stated. "As a result, the Company is postponing the date of its previously announced first quarter 2025 earnings release and earnings call webcast." Victoria's Secret didn't reply to an email from BleepingComputer requesting more details on the nature of the incident, and no ransomware operations have claimed responsibility for the attack since then. This security incident follows a series of attacks targeting other fashion companies in recent weeks, including French luxury fashion brands Cartier and Dior. German sportswear giant Adidas was also breached last month, with the threat actors stealing some of its customers' data after hacking into a customer service provider's systems. Starting in April, a campaign linked to Scattered Spider threat actors and the DragonForce ransomware gang has also targeted multiple retailers across the United Kingdom, including Marks & Spencer, Co-op, and Harrods. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The Tianwen-2 probe has sent a self-portrait as it heads toward one of the most enigmatic objects in our space neighborhood: the quasi-moon Kamo‘oalewa. The China National Space Administration has shared the first image from its Tianwen-2 probe, which is en route to Kamo‘oalewa, a near-Earth asteroid. The image was captured by a camera onboard the probe, which is currently more than 3 million kilometers from Earth, and shows one of its wings with its solar panels deployed. It is also the first glimpse the CNSA has offered of its space probe, which launched on May 29 on a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Zeyuan Town, China. The design of Tianwen-2’s panels is similar in appearance to those on Lucy, NASA’s space probe that is exploring asteroids floating near Jupiter. These serve to meet the power demands required for the trip. Tianwen-2’s mission is to land on the surface of Kamo‘oalewa, collect samples, and return to Earth. The spacecraft is scheduled to land on the asteroid’s surface in July 2026. Before then, it will spend several months studying Kamo‘oalewa from a safe distance, to determine its sampling area, before proceeding with landing maneuvers, a particularly difficult task given the asteroid’s low gravity. Once the samples have been collected, Tianwen-2 will travel back to Earth and send its samples down to the surface in a capsule, before then attempting to use Earth’s gravity as a slingshot to head toward 311P/PanSTARRS, an unusual-looking asteroid beyond Mars that has some of the characteristics of a comet, including visible tails. Tianwen-2 is expected to conduct this mission until 2035. The Enigma of the Hawaiian Quasi-Moon Kamo‘oalewa is one of Earth’s seven known quasi-moons—objects that appear to be orbiting our planet, but which aren’t actually gravitationally bound to Earth, and are actually asteroids circling the sun in an orbit similar to Earth’s. Discovered in 2016 by astronomers at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii, Kamo‘oalewa—whose name means “oscillating celestial object” in Hawaiian—is located approximately 4.65 million kilometers from our planet, 12 times further away from Earth than the moon. Kamo‘oalewa is estimated to be roughly 40 to 100 meters in diameter, has maintained its current orbit for 100 years, and will probably maintain it for 300 more. It’s hoped that Tianwen-2 can solve the mystery of Kamo‘oalewa’s origin. One theory is that it’s a chunk of rock that broke off from the moon millions of years ago. The sampling mission will help multiple scientific investigations into the composition of rocky celestial bodies, as well as aid scientists in the search for clues about the formation of the solar system. Observational evidence and modeling suggest that Kamo‘oalewa has been orbiting the sun for millions of years, albeit with an unstable trajectory. A direct exploration of this asteroid could, in addition, expand knowledge about nearby celestial objects that might potentially pose a threat to Earth. This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Canada is the only G7 nation without a launch program. Quebec wants to do something about that. Welcome to Edition 7.48 of the Rocket Report! The shock of last week's public spat between President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has worn off, and Musk expressed regret for some of his comments going after Trump on social media. Musk also backtracked from his threat to begin decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft, currently the only way for the US government to send people to the International Space Station. Nevertheless, there are many people who think Musk's attachment to Trump could end up putting the US space program at risk, and I'm not convinced that danger has passed. As always, we welcome reader submissions. 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. Quebec invests in small launch company. The government of Quebec will invest CA$10 million ($7.3 million) into a Montreal-area company that is developing a system to launch small satellites into space, The Canadian Press reports. Quebec Premier François Legault announced the investment into Reaction Dynamics at the company's facility in Longueuil, a Montreal suburb. The province's economy minister, Christine Fréchette, said the investment will allow the company to begin launching microsatellites into orbit from Canada as early as 2027. Joining its peers ... Canada is the only G7 nation without a domestic satellite launch capability, whether it's through an independent national or commercial program or through membership in the European Space Agency, which funds its own rockets. The Canadian Space Agency has long eschewed any significant spending on developing a Canadian satellite launcher, and a handful of commercial launch startups in Canada haven't gotten very far. Reaction Dynamics was founded in 2017 by Bachar Elzein, formerly a researcher in multiphase and reactive flows at École Polytechnique de Montréal, where he specialized in propulsion and combustion dynamics. Reaction Dynamic plans to launch its first suborbital rocket later this year, before attempting an orbital flight with its Aurora rocket as soon as 2027. (submitted by Joey S-IVB) Another year, another delay for Themis. The European Space Agency’s Themis program has suffered another setback, with the inaugural flight of its reusable booster demonstrator now all but certain to slip to 2026, European Spaceflight reports. It has been nearly six years since the European Space Agency kicked off the Themis program to develop and mature key technologies for future reusable rocket stages. Themis is analogous to SpaceX's Grasshopper reusable rocket prototype tested more than a decade ago, with progressively higher hop tests to demonstrate vertical takeoff and vertical landing techniques. When the program started, an initial hop test of the first Themis demonstrator was expected to take place in 2022. Tethered to terra firma ... ArianeGroup, which manufactures Europe's Ariane rockets, is leading the Themis program under contract to ESA, which recently committed an additional 230 million euros ($266 million) to the effort. This money is slated to go toward the development of a single-engine variant of the Themis program, continued development of the rocket's methane-fueled engine, and upgrades to a test stand at ArianeGroup's propulsion facility in Vernon, . Two months ago, an official update on the Themis program suggested the first Themis launch campaign would begin before the end of the year. Citing sources close to the program, European Spaceflight reports the first Themis integration tests at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden are now almost certain to slip from late 2025 to 2026. French startup tests a novel rocket engine. While Europe's large government-backed rocket initiatives face delays, the continent's space industry startups are moving forward on their own. One of these companies, a French startup named Alpha Impulsion, recently completed a short test-firing of an autophage rocket engine, European Spaceflight reports. These aren't your normal rocket engines that burn conventional kerosene, methane, or hydrogen fuel. An autophage engine literally consumes itself as it burns, using heat from the combustion process to melt its plastic fuselage and feed the molten plastic into the combustion chamber in a controlled manner. Alpha Impulsion called the May 27 ground firing a successful test of the "largest autophage rocket engine in the world." So, why hasn't this been done before? ... The concept of a self-consuming rocket engine sounds like an idea that's so crazy it just might work. But the idea remained conceptual from when it was first patented in 1938 until an autophage engine was fired in a controlled manner for the first time in 2018. The autophage design offers several advantages, including its relative simplicity compared to the complex plumbing of liquid and hybrid rockets. But there are serious challenges associated with autophage engines, including how to feed molten fuel into the combustion chamber and how to scale it up to be large enough to fly on a viable rocket. (submitted by trimeta and EllPeaTea) Rocket trouble delays launch of private crew mission. A propellant leak in a Falcon 9 booster delayed the launch of a fourth Axiom Space private astronaut mission to the International Space Station this week, Space News reports. SpaceX announced the delay Tuesday, saying it needed more time to fix a liquid oxygen leak found in the Falcon 9 booster during inspections following a static-fire test Sunday. "Once complete–and pending Range availability–we will share a new launch date," the company stated. The Ax-4 mission will ferry four commercial astronauts, led by retired NASA commander Peggy Whitson, aboard a Dragon spacecraft to the ISS for an approximately 14-day stay. Whitson will be joined by crewmates from India, Poland, and Hungary. Another problem, too ... While SpaceX engineers worked on resolving the propellant leak on the ground, a leak of another kind in orbit forced officials to order a longer delay to the Ax-4 mission. In a statement Thursday, NASA said it is working with the Russian space agency to understand a "new pressure signature" in the space station's Russian service module. For several years, ground teams have monitored a slow air leak in the aft part of the service module, and NASA officials have identified it as a safety risk. NASA's statement on the matter was vague, only saying that cosmonauts on the station recently inspected the module's interior surfaces and sealed additional "areas of interest." The segment is now holding pressure, according to NASA. (submitted by EllPeaTea) SpaceX tries something new with Falcon 9. With nearly 500 launches under its belt, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket isn't often up to new tricks. But the company tried something new following a launch on June 7 with a radio broadcasting satellite for SiriusXM. The Falcon 9's upper stage placed the SXM-10 satellite into an elongated, high-altitude transfer orbit, as is typical for payloads destined to operate in geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. When a rocket releases a satellite in this type of high-energy orbit, the upper stage has usually burned almost all of its propellant, leaving little fuel to steer itself back into Earth's atmosphere for a destructive reentry. This means these upper stages often remain in space for decades, becoming a piece of space junk that transits across the orbits of many other satellites. Now, a solution ... SpaceX usually deorbits rockets after they deploy payloads like Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, but deorbiting a rocket from a much higher geosynchronous transfer orbit is a different matter. "Last week, SpaceX successfully completed a controlled deorbit of the SiriusXM-10 upper stage after GTO payload deployment," wrote Jon Edwards, SpaceX's vice president of Falcon and Dragon programs. "While we routinely do controlled deorbits for LEO stages (e.g., Starlink), deorbiting from GTO is extremely difficult due to the high energy needed to alter the orbit, making this a rare and remarkable first for us. This was only made possible due to the hard work and brilliance of the Falcon GNC (guidance, navigation, and control) team and exemplifies SpaceX's commitment to leading in both space exploration and public safety." New Glenn gets a tentative launch date. Five months have passed since Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket made its mostly successful debut in January. At one point, the company targeted "late spring" for the second launch of the rocket. However, on Monday, Blue Origin's CEO, Dave Limp, acknowledged on social media that the rocket's next flight will now no longer take place until at least August 15, Ars reports. Although he did not say so, this may well be the only other New Glenn launch this year. The mission, with an undesignated payload, will be named "Never Tell Me the Odds," due to the attempt to land the booster. "One of our key mission objectives will be to land and recover the booster," Limp wrote. "This will take a little bit of luck and a lot of excellent execution. We’re on track to produce eight GS2s [second stages] this year, and the one we’ll fly on this second mission was hot-fired in April." Falling short ... Before 2025 began, Limp set expectations alongside Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos: New Glenn would launch eight times this year. That's not going to happen. It's common for launch companies to take a while ramping up the flight rate for a new rocket, but Bezos told Ars in January that his priority for Blue Origin this year was to hit a higher cadence with New Glenn. Elon Musk's rift with President Donald Trump could open a pathway for Blue Origin to capture more government business if the New Glenn rocket is able to establish a reliable track record. Meanwhile, Limp told Blue Origin employees last month that Jarrett Jones, the manager running the New Glenn program, is taking a sabbatical. Although it appears Jones' leave may have been planned, the timing is curious. Making way for Starship at Cape Canaveral. The US Air Force is moving closer to authorizing SpaceX to move into one of the largest launch pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, with plans to use the facility for up to 76 launches of the company's Starship rocket each year, Ars reports. A draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released by the Department of the Air Force, which includes the Space Force, found SpaceX's planned use of Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral would have no significant negative impacts on local environmental, historical, social, and cultural interests. The Air Force also found SpaceX's plans at SLC-37 will have no significant impact on the company's competitors in the launch industry. Bringing the rumble ... SLC-37 was the previous home to United Launch Alliance's Delta IV rocket, which last flew from the site in April 2024, a couple of months after the military announced SpaceX was interested in using the launch pad. While it doesn't have a lease for full use of the launch site, SpaceX has secured a "right of limited entry" from the Space Force to begin preparatory work. This included the explosive demolition of the launch pad's Delta IV-era service towers and lightning masts Thursday, clearing the way for eventual construction of two Starship launch towers inside the perimeter of SLC-37. The new Starship launch towers at SLC-37 will join other properties in SpaceX's Starship empire, including nearby Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and SpaceX's privately owned facility at Starbase, Texas. Preps continue for Starship Flight 10. Meanwhile, at Starbase, SpaceX is moving forward with preparations for the next Starship test flight, which could happen as soon as next month following three consecutive flights that fell short of expectations. This next launch will be the 10th full-scale test flight of Starship. Last Friday, June 6, SpaceX test-fired the massive Super Heavy booster designated to launch on Flight 10. All 33 of its Raptor engines ignited on the launch pad in South Texas. This is a new Super Heavy booster. On Flight 9 last month, SpaceX flew a reused Super Heavy booster that launched and was recovered on a flight in January. FAA signs off on SpaceX investigation ... The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it has closed the investigation into Starship Flight 8 in March, which spun out of control minutes after liftoff, showering debris along a corridor of ocean near the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. "The FAA oversaw and accepted the findings of the SpaceX-led investigation," an agency spokesperson said. "The final mishap report cites the probable root cause for the loss of the Starship vehicle as a hardware failure in one of the Raptor engines that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition. SpaceX identified eight corrective actions to prevent a reoccurrence of the event." SpaceX implemented the corrective actions prior to Flight 9 last month, when Starship progressed further into its mission before starting to tumble in space. It eventually reentered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. The FAA has mandated a fresh investigation into Flight 9, and that inquiry remains open. Next three launches June 13: Falcon 9 | Starlink 12-26 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 15:21 UTC June 14: Long March 2D | Unknown Payload | Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China | 07:55 UTC June 16: Atlas V | Project Kuiper KA-02| Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 17:25 UTC Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Earlier this week, Japanese manga publisher Shueisha filed a DMCA subpoena application in the U.S., as it continues to pursue the operators of major pirate sites. At the very top of Shueisha's latest list is Mangajikan, a site that appears to have received 185 million visitors in May alone. In Japan, that made Mangajikan more popular than Instagram, Facebook, and ChatGPT. But right now, on what used to be its front page, is a very clear message: Website Closed. The extraordinary online popularity of Japanese manga comics shows no sign of retreat, with pirate site-based consumption at unprecedented levels fueled by billions of visits. Japanese publishers are pursuing pirate site operators all around the world but no matter where they’re physically located, the majority have some kind of infrastructure directly behind a reverse proxy at Cloudflare. All rightsholders have to do is obtain a DMCA subpoena, serve Cloudflare, and sift through the resulting mountain of logs for clues and, in an ideal world, signs of an operator security blunder. Shueisha Targets ~25 Domains Shueisha’s appearance at a U.S. court this week adds to a growing list of actions in the United States by Japanese publishers including Shogakukan, Kadokawa and Kodansha. Shueisha’s subpoena target is Cloudflare and having already served DMCA takedown notices as required, Shueisha should receive data for around two dozen pirate domains. All listed domains are accused of infringing Shueisha’s rights in ONE PIECE, a manga series featuring a search for mythical treasure and a chance to become the next King of the Pirates. The domains of interest to Shueisha look broadly familiar; most feature the word ‘manga’ and the term ‘raw’ (a reference to unmodified comics in their original language) is quite common too. Beyond that, the list represents a typical example of domains that probably won’t be in use for very long. At some point they’re likely to be replaced by others that in many cases will look confusingly similar to their predecessors. It’s Manga Time For those outside the manga piracy community, keeping track of these changes can become a real chore. A site with a new domain, assisted by various means, may appear out of what seems like thin air, before becoming one of the world’s most popular pirate sites in a matter of weeks. Others may disappear into obscurity in what seems like an instant. The screenshot above shows the site at the top of Shueisha’s list. Mangajikan, or ‘cartoon time’ in English, was registered in May 2024 and for the first couple of months of 2025, attracted very little interest from rightsholders. In early March, everything changed. DMCA takedown notices for Google search initially tripled, and then around two weeks later, doubled in volume. Traffic of ‘just’ a few million in January kept increasing; in March, Mangajikan received over 104 million visits, then in April a surprise reduction to ‘just’ 90 million. Then, in May, Mangajikan more than doubled its existing traffic; in just four weeks, 90 million visits became 185 million. This surge made Mangajikan the most popular site in SimilarWeb’s ‘Animation and Comics’ category for the whole of Japan, and the 17th most popular site in the country overall. In such a short period of time, that type of growth could be mistaken for magic. Sleight of hand probably shouldn’t be ruled out, or indeed, a few extra domains up a sleeve donating unwanted traffic. Whatever the technique, Mangajikan was more popular than Facebook, and more visited than ChatGPT. Lagging behind in 24th position, Pornhub didn’t even make the chart. Bye. Website Closed After taking the internet by storm in the blink of an eye, Mangajikan.com’s apparent retreat into the ether was even more swift. The site’s goodbye note is functional, even bilingual, but fairly brief by most standards. The same message appears on mangajikan.to So did the site really shut down or did it just change shape? Organized Instability If we refer back to Shueisha’s list, traffic to most of the domains has either fallen dramatically in the last three months, or increased in much the same way. One of the Mangaraw-branded domains in the list had 27.5 million visits in March but just 7 million in May. Another with the same branding saw visitor numbers fall from 28.4 million to 19.4 million in the same period. A third Mangaraw domain had 20.4 million visits in March, 8.4 million in April, and 3.8 million in May. Visits seem unlikely to have simply dried up. Overall, Vietnam-focused domains may be the biggest movers in the DMCA subpoena application, two in particular. Both had zero traffic in March but during May, one had 27.5m visits which made it the 24th most popular site in the whole of Vietnam. SimilarWeb data shows that the second grew even more quickly – zero visits in March to 77.2 million in May, allowing the domain to take the #9 slot in Vietnam’s most-visited website list with relative ease. A Disappointing Ending For Some There are clear signs that visits to Mangajikan found their way to other domains, one with identical branding and another with a more generic name. According to Semrush data, the latter had a significant visitor boost in May after receiving close to 40% of Mangajikan’s outbound traffic. While that domain also makes an appearance in the DMCA subpoena application, Semrush data reveals that around 20% of outbound traffic went directly to a more suspicious looking domain. For obvious reasons we’re not naming it here. URLQuery reports that Quad9 flagged the domain as ‘malicious’ and then sinkholed it, protecting users of its DNS from what appears to be a Chaturbate-linked or Chaturbate-branded popunder affair, followed by whatever surprises came next. We have no information about the outcome but on the balance of probabilities, it’s unlikely to have involved free Japanese comics. And if there’s no new manga involved, in practical terms that translates to zero interest shown by those eager to consume it. That’s a problem for all current major anti-piracy campaigns globally, regardless of the content they aim to protect. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend