Things To Do In SW Florida

An ongoing leak on the Russian side of the International Space Station has prompted the indefinite postponement of a planned human spaceflight from Kennedy Space Center, according to NASA.

Axiom Space was aiming to launch its Ax-4 mission with four private astronauts this week atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A, and had already faced delays because of weather and a liquid oxygen leak on the rocket’s booster.

But while SpaceX was prepared to perform a static fire Thursday to check on the booster repairs, NASA announced the visit from Axiom Space was going on hold because of an investigation with Russian space agency Roscosmos into recent repairs made on the Zvezda service module.

The Zvezda module leaks first began in 2019 but worsened in 2024. To mitigate its effects, Roscosmos has been keeping the hatch to the module closed when not in use as a docking port for Progress resupply and Soyuz spacecraft.

The most recent repairs on the aft-most segment of the module have halted the loss of pressure, NASA stated, but the agency still opted to delay Axiom’s visit. read more

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and ELÉONORE HUGHES

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The majority of justices on Brazil’s Supreme Court have agreed to make social media companies liable for illegal postings by their users, in a landmark case for Latin America with implications for U.S. relations.

Related Articles

• 
  Pope Leo XIV names first Chinese bishop, signaling he is continuing Vatican’s controversial accord

• 
  US reduces the presence of staffers not deemed essential in the Middle East as tensions rise

• 
  Russian attacks kill 3 and wound 64 as drones hit Kharkiv and other parts of Ukraine

• 
  Greenland and Iceland saw record heat in May. What does that mean for the world?

• 
  More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza health officials say

Brazil’s top court decided to rule on two different cases to reach an understanding on how to deal with social media companies as reports of fraud, child pornography and violence among teenagers become rampant online. Critics warn such measures could threaten free speech as platforms preemptively remove content that could be problematic. read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A string of recent cyberattacks and data breaches involving the systems of major retailers have started affecting shoppers.

United Natural Foods, a wholesale distributor that supplies Whole Foods and other grocers, said this week that a breach of its systems was disrupting its ability to fulfill orders — leaving many stores without certain items.

In the U.K., consumers could not order from the website of Marks & Spencer for more than six weeks — and found fewer in-store options after hackers targeted the British clothing, home goods and food retailer. A cyberattack on Co-op, a U.K. grocery chain, also led to empty shelves in some stores.

Cyberattacks have been on the rise across industries. But infiltrations of corporate technology carry their own set of implications when the target is a consumer-facing business.

Beyond potentially halting sales of physical goods, breaches can expose customers’ personal data to future phishing or fraud attempts. read more

By Robbie Sequeira, Stateline.org

Over the past few months, Celina Damian’s phone has been ringing off the hook with one bewildered, anxious question after another: “What kind of loan is this?” “Am I in default?” “Will the government really take my wages?”

“Sometimes they just don’t know where to start,” said Damian, California’s student loan servicing ombudsperson.

“I’m talking to borrowers from all ages, from new borrowers to — I have 80-, 90-year-old borrowers,” she said.

The federal government last month restarted collections on defaulted loans. State student loan ombudspersons such as Damian have become some of the only sources of contact for worried borrowers lost in a tangle of conflicting information at the federal level about their loan status and repayment options.

The U.S. Department of Education began collecting on defaulted student loans in May for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Federal student loans issued by the U.S. Department of Education come with fixed rates, set repayment plans and borrower protections. Private servicers handle billing, repayment-plan enrollments and defaults. read more

By SHAWN CHEN, Associated Press Technology Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Disney and Universal have filed a copyright lawsuit against popular artificial intelligence image-generator Midjourney on Wednesday, marking the first time major Hollywood companies have enter the legal battle over generative AI.

Filed in federal district court in Los Angeles, the complaint claims Midjourney pirated the libraries of the two Hollywood studios to generate and distribute “endless unauthorized copies” of their famed characters, such as Darth Vader from Star Wars and the Minions from Despicable Me.

“Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism. Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing,” the companies state in the complaint.

The studios also claimed the San Francisco-based AI company ignored their requests to stop infringing on their copyrighted works and to take technological measures to halt such image generation. read more