New Nasa chief, Jared Isaacman, has outlined several changes to flagship moon programme Artemis

Nasa is cancelling plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and will instead use its components to construct a $20bn base on the moon’s surface over the next seven years, its new chief, Jared Isaacman, said on Tuesday.

Isaacman, who was sworn in at the agency in December, made the announcement at the opening of a day-long event at Nasa’s Washington headquarters at which he outlinedchanges he is making to the agency’s flagship moon programme Artemis.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A new hacking group has been rampaging the Internet in a persistent campaign that spreads a self-propagating and never-before-seen backdoor -- and curiously a data wiper that targets Iranian machines. The group, tracked under the name TeamPCP, first gained visibility in December, when researchers from security firm Flare observed it unleashing a worm that targeted cloud-hosted platforms that weren't properly secured. The objective was to build a distributed proxy and scanning infrastructure and then use it to compromise servers for exfiltrating data, deploying ransomware, conducting extortion, and mining cryptocurrency. The group is notable for its skill in large-scale automation and integration of well-known attack techniques. More recently, TeamPCP has waged a relentless campaign that uses continuously evolving malware to bring ever more systems under its control. Late last week, it compromised virtually all versions of the widely used Trivy vulnerability scanner in a supply-chain attack after gaining privileged access to the GitHub account of Aqua Security, the Trivy creator. Over the weekend, researchers said they observed TeamPCP spreading potent malware that was also worm-enabled, meaning it had the potential to spread to new machines automatically, with no interaction required of victims behind the keyboard. [...] As the weekend progressed, CanisterWorm [as Aikido has named the malware] was updated to add an additional payload: a wiper that targets machines exclusively in Iran. When the updated worm infects machines, it checks if the machine is in the Iranian timezone or is configured for use in that country. When either condition was met, the malware no longer activated the credential stealer and instead triggered a novel wiper that TeamPCP developers named Kamikaze. Eriksen said in an email that there's no indication yet that the worm caused actual damage to Iranian machines, but that there was "clear potential for large-scale impact if it achieves active spread." It's unclear what the motive is for TeamPCP. Aikido researcher Charlie Eriksen wrote: "While there may be an ideological component, it could just as easily be a deliberate attempt to draw attention to the group. Historically, TeamPCP has appeared to be financially motivated, but there are signs that visibility is becoming a goal in itself. By going after security tools and open-source projects, including Checkmarx as of today, they are sending a clear and deliberate signal."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

California governor backtracks and says he meant to apply term to Israel’s future if it continues on present trajectory

The California governor, Gavin Newsom, backtracked on earlier remarks likening Israel to an “apartheid state” in a new interview with Politico published on Tuesday.

In the interview, the Democrat, who is widely expected to launch a presidential bid in 2028, said that when he used the term three weeks ago, he meant it to apply to Israel’s future should it continue on its present trajectory.

White House is defending US authority to turn away asylum seekers when officials deem the border too overburdened

US supreme court justices indicated sympathy on Tuesday toward Donald Trump’s administration in its defense of the government’s authority to turn away asylum seekers when officials deem US-Mexico border crossings too overburdened to handle additional claims.

The legal dispute centers on a policy called “metering” that the Republican president’s administration may seek to revive after it was dropped by Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden in 2021. The policy allowed US immigration officials to stop asylum seekers at the border and indefinitely decline to process their claims.

• French superstar played 10 years for Atlético

• Forward will join Orlando in July on a deal through 2029

• Atlético plays Barcelona in Copa del Rey final in April

Orlando City SC completed the long-anticipated signing of Atlético Madrid superstar Antoine Griezmann on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old French attacker is signed from July 2026 through the 2027-28 season with an option for 2028-29. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Greg Bovino says Trump’s immigration crackdown hasn’t gone far enough in exit interview with the New York Times

As his retirement looms, Gregory Bovino, the US border patrol’s former commander-at-large, has contended that efforts to curb illegal immigration by Donald Trump’s administration have not gone far enough – showing no remorse over federal agents’ killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis in January.

“I wish I’d caught even more illegal aliens,” he told the New York Times on Tuesday in an exit interview, during which he also referred to the Republican president as “the Trumpster” and acknowledged his retirement at the end of March was not entirely voluntary.

The homeland security shutdown has snarled airport lines and halted pay for some, even as lawmakers negotiate a deal

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Republican senators are considering a bipartisan deal to restore funding to most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that would initially exclude money for arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to media reports.

Under the potential agreement, Republicans would accede to Democratic demands to restore funding to all parts of the department except for those involved in immigration enforcement operations, according to Politico and the Associated Press. The GOP would then move to pay for those enforcement operations using the budget reconciliation process, in which they can address spending and revenue issues without relying on votes from Democrats.