“The sky is awash with radio-frequency interference (RFI), but thanks to two astronomers who tracked down a stray TV broadcast reflected off a passing airplane, there may be a new way to wipe out some of the rogue signals that plague our radio telescopes. … [Jonathan Pober and Jade Ducharme] were able to track a television signal back to an airplane traveling at 38,400 feet (11.7 kilometers) in altitude and at a velocity of 492 mile per hour (792 kilometers per hour). They even found that the television signal was on the frequency band used by Australian digital TV channel 7. This signal was being broadcast somewhere outside the radio quiet zone and being reflected off the hull of the airplane. Identifying the source of the RFI opens the door to the interference being modeled so that its pattern can be recognized and ultimately filtered out, keeping the data usable to astronomers.” (02/17/25)
“Newly appointed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claims his family was targeted by the outgoing Biden administration with an audit from the IRS. ‘Of course the outgoing Biden IRS rushed an ‘audit’ of the incoming SecDef. Total sham,’ Hegseth wrote on his official X account Monday, including a photo of an IRS document addressed to him and his wife. The document said the couple owes [sic] the government $33,558.16, which needs to be paid immediately to avoid further penalties. It’s unclear what year or years the document is addressing. ‘The party of ‘norms’ and ‘decency’ strikes again. We will never back down,’ Hegseth added in his tweet. He is not the first cabinet appointee to receive a letter from the IRS. In 2009, it was famously revealed that President Obama’s Treasury Secretary appointee, Timothy Geithner, owed [sic] the IRS about $35,000 in unpaid Social Security and Medicaid taxes.” (02/17/25)
“Argentine lawyers filed fraud complaints against President Javier Milei in criminal court on Sunday for promoting a cryptocurrency on his social media, one of the lawyers told The Associated Press. On Friday, Milei posted on X about $LIBRA, a coin that he said was aimed at ‘encouraging economic growth by funding small businesses and startups.’ He deleted the post a few hours later and the value of the currency collapsed, causing millions of dollars in losses to its brief investors, according to financial site Dexscreener. … The President’s Office said in a Saturday statement that Milei was not involved in any stage of the cryptocurrency’s development and decided to remove the post to avoid speculation and limit further exposure, following the public reaction to the project’s launch.” (02/17/25)
“Israel issued a tender for the construction of nearly 1,000 additional [squatter] homes in the occupied West Bank, an anti-[squat] watchdog said Monday. Peace Now says the development of 974 new housing units would allow the population of the Efrat [squat] to expand by 40% and further block the development of the nearby Palestinian city of Bethlehem. Hagit Ofran, who leads the group’s [squat] monitoring, said construction can begin after the contracting process and issuing of permits, which could take another year at least.” (02/17/25)
“As Americans prepare to file their taxes ahead of the April 15 deadline, two Democratic senators warned Monday that billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk’s arrival at the Internal Revenue Service raises serious privacy concerns and could significantly impact the tens of millions of people who count on their tax refunds each year to pay bills, pad their emergency savings, and afford other essentials. The Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE), the advisory body created by President Donald Trump and headed by Musk, has set its sights on the IRS as it works to gut agencies across the federal government — with the data of millions of ordinary taxpayers now among the troves of personal information DOGE is trying to seize. As The Washington Post reported, the IRS is considering a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to give DOGE employees access to agency systems and datasets including the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS).” (02/17/25)
“A majority of American voters believe most US foreign aid never reaches people in need, a survey has found, underlining the difficulties of defending an agency targeted by Elon Musk’s cost-cutting task force. A poll by Public First for the Financial Times found that almost 60 per cent of respondents agreed that funds set aside for humanitarian causes were ‘wasted on corruption or administration fees.’ Only 12 per cent disagreed with the proposition. The findings come as the US Agency for International Development, a $40bn agency established decades ago with missions in more than 100 countries, continues to be dismantled by Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).” (02/17/25)
“Jack ‘Ziz’ LaSota, leader of a so-called ‘death cult’ linked to at least six deaths across the United States, is in custody after months on the run, officials in Maryland confirmed Sunday. Also in custody is Michelle Zajko, who is a person of interest in the double homicide of her parents in Pennsylvania, and Daniel Blank, another member of the cult. LaSota, 33, was taken into custody on Sunday evening in Allegany County in northwestern Maryland. According to county jail records, LaSota, who uses female pronouns, is being held on charges of trespassing on private property, obstruction and having a handgun in her vehicle. … The three have been on the run since 2023, when they were found by law enforcement officers enacting a search warrant on a Chester City, Pennsylvania hotel.” (02/17/25)
“A Russian court has fined Alphabet’s Google 3.8 million roubles ($41,530) for hosting content on YouTube that included videos instructing Russian soldiers how to surrender, Russia’s TASS news agency reported on Monday. Russia has for several years ordered foreign technology platforms to remove content it deems illegal, such as what it calls ‘fakes’ about the war in Ukraine, issuing small but persistent fines when it sees failures to comply.” (02/17/25)
“Talks between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine are set to begin Tuesday, multiple sources have told CNN. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz are all traveling to Saudi Arabia for the talks. A Saudi official told CNN they would be doing more than just hosting and would be involved in a mediation role. The Saudi team will be led by the country’s national security adviser. A Ukrainian official said they would not be present at the talks though Keith Kellogg, the Trump administration’s Russia-Ukraine envoy, discussed a ‘dual track’ set of negotiations and will be in Kyiv this week. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said the Ukrainians would be part of the negotiations.” (02/16/25)
“President Donald Trump’s bid to expand his power to fire executive branch officials reached the Supreme Court on Sunday — the first of many fast-moving legal challenges during the early weeks of Trump’s second term to land at the high court. Trump asked the justices to lift a lower-court order that temporarily reversed his dismissal of the head of a usually obscure office that enforces laws relating to federal employees. The Trump administration decried the lower court’s order reinstating Office of Special Counsel chief Hampton Dellinger as a grave and unwarranted intrusion on presidential power that threatened the president’s ability to oversee the executive branch.” (02/16/25)
