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F1 set for another engine tweak in 2027, and what’s this about V8s?

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F1 set for another engine tweak in 2027, and what’s this about V8s?

Formula 1’s on-track racing might look a bit different in 2026 than it did in 2006 or 1986, but it’s reassuring to know that the sport’s off-track action remains as engrossing as ever. Right now, that involves F1’s stakeholders trying to get out of a corner they painted themselves into with the introduction of new V6 hybrid power units for 2026. We saw the first stab of that in Miami, with small tweaks meant to return some of the spectacle to qualifying, which succeeded. But it seems the sport is in a proactive mood, and further changes are coming to the power balance for 2027. But as we’ll see, trade-offs remain.

F1’s current technical regulations, which came into effect at the beginning of this year, have been in the works for a while. As far back as 2022, we knew there would be a greater emphasis on the electric side, a near-50:50 split with an all-new, supposedly less complex V6 turbo powered by carbon-neutral fuels, and active aerodynamics to cut drag. Two years later, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (which organizes the sport) published the final regulations.

A greater emphasis on the electrical side of the hybrid system was put in place as a sop to the auto industry, and it indeed succeeded in attracting new OEMs. But there were early concerns that the battery capacity would be too small to feed the powerful electric motor for most of a lap. And because there can only be an electric motor at the rear axle, not the front—supposedly out of fear that new entrant Audi would have too much of an advantage—cars could regenerate just a fraction of the total energy possible under braking.

The electric motor can siphon power from the V6 to recharge the battery (a process called super clipping), but any power that goes that route can’t drive the rear wheels, which could create dangerous speed differentials on track, we were told.

Sadly, those warnings proved mostly correct, as was all too clear at the Japanese Grand Prix in March. Refreshingly, there appears to be no defensiveness on the part of the FIA or other stakeholders but rather a desire to respond to the complaints.

2027

The FIA, the teams, the power unit manufacturers, and F1 Management (which controls the commercial side) have agreed—although technically only on principle so far—that for next year, the V6 will become more powerful by 50 kW (67 hp) and the electric motor will be able to deploy 50 kW less, rebalancing the power split to 450 kW (603 hp) from the V6 and 300 kW (402 hp) from the motor-generator unit. The increase in V6 power will be achieved by increasing the engine’s fuel flow.

With less electrical power to deploy, the cars should maintain a higher state of charge throughout a lap. And if the power unit does require some super clipping, the additional V6 output leaves more power available to keep the car driving, reducing those speed differentials. Some other changes are apparently still in discussion. The amount that the electric motor can harvest from the V6 could increase above 350 kW, and the battery capacity could be increased from 4 MJ to 5 MJ.

There are still tradeoffs, though. Absent all of the synthetic fuel partners finding an extra 10 percent energy density in their fuels in the next few months, more powerful V6s with greater fuel flow will either need larger fuel tanks or shorter races. Larger fuel tanks would be preferable; if the races are shorter, everyone from F1TV subscribers to team sponsors might start wondering where their 10 percent refund is. But a larger fuel tank means a redesigned chassis that will now also be bigger and heavier—a trend the 2026 rules finally managed to reverse.

A larger-capacity battery pack would also necessitate a chassis redesign; both the fuel tank and hybrid battery are sandwiched in the middle of the car, behind the driver, ahead of the engine, and as low as possible. Redesigning the chassis takes time and money, and teams will now need to relocate resources under the sport’s tight cost cap to make that happen, particularly the teams that were planning to carry over this year’s carbon-fiber tub into next year.

What’s this about V8s?

Longtime F1 fans will know we haven’t been guaranteed that many exciting grands prix during a season. The cars were light and fast and noisy, but they couldn’t follow each other closely through the corners, and overtaking was so rare that the FIA first reintroduced refueling and then mandatory tire stops to artificially inject some strategy into races.

But many still derived entertainment from the frequent outbreak of hostilities between the teams, the FIA, and the commercial rights holder (then Bernie Ecclestone; now Liberty Media). FIA presidents have almost always been controversial; Jean-Marie Balestre spent much of his time at war with Ecclestone and even precipitated a driver’s strike at the 1982 South African Grand Prix, and Max Mosley’s desire to teach the teams a lesson was responsible for the fiasco that was the 2005 US Grand Prix.

In that context, current FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s statements that the sport will move to simpler power units by 2031 don’t seem particularly objectionable. I agreed with the idea when he discussed it in 2025. At the time, it was naturally aspirated V10s, still running on synthetic carbon-neutral fuels. Now the call is for V8s, which have a little more relevance to the auto industry.

Ben Sulayem is known to have the ear of the F1 drivers, who are increasingly dismayed with the highly computerized nature of their new power units. Too often, the power units behave unpredictably; the wrong gust of wind here or too much wheelspin there can convince their electronic brains to do something different than they did at that point in prior laps. And even drivers with as much talent as Max Verstappen have been caught out by a car sending all 350 kW of hybrid power when they weren’t expecting it. One thing I haven’t heard discussed for the 2027 changes is returning more control to the driver rather than relying on opaque algorithms.

Ben Sulayem’s vision is a much smaller hybrid system and a much more powerful naturally aspirated engine. “You get the sound, less complexity, light weight. You will hear about it very soon, and it will be with a very, very minor electrification,” he said, adding that the change is happening in 2030 if manufacturers agree and 2031 if they don’t.

“I’m positive they want it to happen. But let’s say the manufacturers don’t approve it… The next year, it will happen. In 2031, it’s done anyway. It will be done. V8 is coming,” he said.

A move back to naturally aspirated engines will be a welcome acknowledgment that F1 is not and should not be about road-relevant technology. Concrete examples of technology transfer from racing cars to road cars are rare enough these days in the world of endurance racing or Formula E; instead, the value of participating in F1 comes from training your people to work in new ways under the relentless pressure of a race schedule, and that will continue.

London Metal Exchange must recognize Indonesia’s aluminum boom

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London Metal Exchange must recognize Indonesia’s aluminum boom

There are a multitude of reasons why the London Metal Exchange should approve China’s Tsingshan Holding Group’s request to register aluminum produced in Indonesia.

Not because markets owe Jakarta a favor, nor because China’s industrial champions deserve another victory lap, but because the global metals economy is changing whether the old commodity powers like it or not.

For decades, exchanges such as the LME sat at the center of a world in which industrial legitimacy flowed largely from Europe, North America and a handful of established producers.

Emerging economies supplied ore. Others captured the financing, branding, warehousing and benchmark pricing. Developing nations like Indonesia were expected to remain at the bottom of that hierarchy indefinitely. But that old order is now collapsing.

Tsingshan’s Hua Chin joint venture in Sulawesi — developed with China’s Huafon Group — has now applied to make its aluminum eligible for delivery against LME contracts. If approved, it would become only the second Indonesian aluminum brand to be recognized by the exchange, after state-backed Inalum.

The smelter’s second expansion phase alone carries an annual production capacity of 480,000 metric tons.

LME eligibility is effectively a passport into the core of the global industrial system. Deliverable brands gain credibility with banks, traders and manufacturers. Financing becomes easier, the pool of potential buyers broadens and price discovery improves.

The metal ceases to be viewed as a peripheral supply and instead becomes part of the benchmark structure that shapes world trade. Indonesia has spent the last decade fighting to earn precisely that status.

Jakarta’s mineral policies were frequently mocked in Western capitals as “resource nationalism.” Export restrictions on nickel ore were portrayed as crude protectionism. Downstream processing requirements were dismissed as state meddling. Chinese investment in Indonesian smelters was treated with suspicion bordering on alarmism.

Yet Indonesia persisted, and the strategy worked. The country has transformed itself from a raw-material exporter into a manufacturing and refining center with astonishing speed. Nickel was the first proof-of-concept. Aluminum increasingly looks like the second.

The timing matters as the global aluminum market is entering a period of structural stress. Conflict in the Middle East has disrupted supply routes and intensified fears around Gulf production, helping push aluminum prices sharply higher this year.

At the same time, China — responsible for roughly 60% of global aluminum production — is nearing its official production ceiling, limiting room for future expansion. That combination has triggered a global search for new sources of reliable supply, and Indonesia is emerging as an obvious answer.

Reuters data shows Indonesian aluminum exports surged to their highest level in more than two years this spring, while new smelting capacity continues to come online across the archipelago.

Commodity price reporting agencies like Fastmarkets and other industry analysts now view Indonesia as one of the world’s fastest-growing aluminum hubs, driven largely by Chinese-backed investment and abundant energy-linked industrial infrastructure.

Tsingshan itself is reportedly exploring another US$3 billion aluminum complex in North Maluku with a possible annual capacity of 800,000 tons. This is not opportunistic speculation. It is the construction of an entirely new industrial geography.

Critics warn that greater Indonesian participation on the LME could deepen China’s influence over global metals trading. But this argument misinterprets what is actually happening.

Indonesia is not merely functioning as an offshore extension of Chinese industry. It is leveraging foreign capital to accelerate domestic industrialization on terms increasingly set by Jakarta itself.

That’s because Indonesia’s leadership recognized something many developing countries learned too late: exporting raw resources rarely creates durable prosperity. The real economic leverage comes from refining, manufacturing and participation in price-setting institutions.

The country’s mineral policy has therefore been unapologetically interventionist — and unusually successful. Western governments may dislike the model, but by now they should nonetheless recognize its logic.

The alternative is continued dependence on increasingly fragile supply chains concentrated in politically volatile regions. The war-driven disruptions affecting Middle Eastern aluminum markets have demonstrated exactly how vulnerable the existing system can become when too much production is concentrated in too few places.

A broader supplier base improves resilience while more deliverable metal from Southeast Asia strengthens market flexibility. That should be welcomed by manufacturers from Detroit to Dusseldorf.

There is also an uncomfortable double standard embedded in many criticisms of Indonesia’s industrial ambitions. Wealthy nations industrialized through aggressive state intervention, subsidies, tariff protections and resource extraction. But when developing economies pursue similar strategies, they are suddenly accused of distorting markets.

Indonesia is essentially being told to remain a mine while others remain factories. Jakarta has rejected that arrangement, and rightly so.

None of this means concerns should be ignored. Indonesia’s aluminum expansion still relies heavily on coal-fired power, while environmental transparency remains uneven. The LME’s evolving sustainability framework will inevitably place greater scrutiny on emissions intensity and traceability. Those pressures are legitimate and likely necessary.

But refusing to integrate Indonesian supply into global benchmark systems will not improve sustainability. It will simply push a growing share of the world metal trade outside traditional institutions altogether. That is the deeper issue facing the LME.

The exchange can either adapt to the realities of 21st-century commodity production or cling to an outdated hierarchy in which industrial legitimacy is reserved for legacy producers.

Approving Tsingshan’s Indonesian aluminum would acknowledge a simple truth: the center of gravity in metals markets is moving toward emerging Asia. The old commodity order assumed countries like Indonesia would remain suppliers of cheap ore forever.

Indonesia has decided otherwise. The LME should recognize that reality rather than resisting it.

Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is director of the China-Indonesia Desk at the Jakarta-based Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) independent research institute. Yeta Purnama is a researcher at CELIOS.

Legendary ‘One Life to Live’ Star Dead at 82

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Legendary ‘One Life to Live’ Star Dead at 82


Jennifer Harmon, the veteran Broadway actress who terrified daytime TV fans as scheming villain Cathy Craig Lord on One Life to Live, has died at 82.

Harmon passed away Saturday at her home in New York, her family confirmed, closing the curtain on a career that stretched across Broadway, television, and soap opera history for nearly five decades.

To generations of daytime TV viewers, Harmon will forever be remembered for her unforgettable run as Cathy Craig Lord on the hit ABC soap. She played the role from 1976 to 1978, earning a Daytime Emmy nomination for her chilling performance as the manipulative character who became one of the show’s most talked-about troublemakers.

The role was already famous before Harmon stepped in, but fans say she made Cathy truly unforgettable. Her storyline involving the kidnapping of Viki Lord’s baby became one of the soap’s most explosive plots and remained part of One Life to Live lore for years.

Harmon later returned to the soap in the early 1990s — this time as an attorney representing Erika Slezak’s Viki Lord — bringing longtime viewers a nostalgic full-circle moment.

But Harmon’s career stretched far beyond daytime drama.

The actress appeared on Broadway an astonishing 21 times over nearly 50 years, performing in productions tied to some of the biggest names in theater history. She worked in plays written by legendary playwrights including Tennessee Williams, Neil Simon, Edward Albee, Lillian Hellman, Noël Coward, and Wendy Wasserstein.

Her Broadway résumé included acclaimed productions of Blithe Spirit, The Little Foxes, Barefoot in the Park, The Glass Menagerie, Seascape, and Other Desert Cities.

She also shared the stage — sometimes as an understudy and sometimes as a standby — for some of Hollywood and theater’s most iconic actresses, including Judi Dench, Jessica Lange, Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner, and Marian Seldes.

Born in Pasadena, California, in 1943 and raised in New Orleans, Harmon studied at both the University of Mississippi and the University of Michigan before moving to New York to chase her acting dream.

Before landing her famous role on One Life to Live, Harmon got her start in daytime television on NBC’s How to Survive a Marriage, where her character battled alcoholism, divorce, and remarriage in classic soap fashion.

Over the years, Harmon also appeared on a long list of television hits including Dallas, Barnaby Jones, St. Elsewhere, Homicide: Life on the Street, Oz, Rescue Me, and The Good Wife.

Fans online quickly flooded social media with tributes after news of her death broke, with many remembering her as one of daytime television’s most memorable villains and a powerhouse stage actress whose career quietly spanned generations.

For soap fans and Broadway lovers alike, Jennifer Harmon leaves behind a legacy that won’t soon be forgotten.

Samsung made a “mockery” of Dua Lipa by putting her picture on TV boxes, lawsuit says

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Samsung made a “mockery” of Dua Lipa by putting her picture on TV boxes, lawsuit says

About a year ago, I was in my parents’ living room, where a new TV sat in its box, waiting to be set up. My sister-in-law pointed to a woman on the packaging and said, “Oh, that’s Dua Lipa!” I barely know who she is, so I didn’t think it was unusual for the singer to be featured on the box. But at least one person thinks it’s a big deal: Lipa herself.

On Friday, Lipa filed a lawsuit against Samsung for using her image on some of its TV boxes, alleging that its use constitutes copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and a violation of her right of publicity. The complaint (PDF), filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, says that Lipa owns all “rights, title, and interest in the image titled ‘Dua Lipa – Backstage at Austin City Limits, 2024.’”

“Samsung mass-manufactured, distributed (or caused to be distributed) marketed, and sold in interstate commerce across the United States a vast number of its televisions in various sizes in these cardboard boxes containing the [image],” the lawsuit says.

“Samsung’s infringing conduct—using Ms. Lipa’s assets for zero consideration—makes a mockery of her hard work in establishing a successful brand and has deprived her of the ability to control and monetize her assets,” the complaint reads.

The filing says Lipa learned about the boxes around June 2025 “and immediately demanded that Samsung cease and desist.” However, Samsung was “dismissive and callous, and the Infringing Products remain on the market to this day, still being sold throughout” the US, the filing says. Lipa would not have allowed the image to be used on Samsung TV boxes, the complaint says, adding:

On information and belief, a significant portion of the televisions sold by Samsung in the United States in 2025 and to date bear the… Image on their boxes, the use of which has contributed in no insignificant way to the enormous revenue generated for Samsung by the sales of these televisions.

Lipa’s complaint points to apparent screenshots of X posts as evidence that her image helped Samsung sell TVs. One comment, according to the complaint, says, “I wasn’t even planning on buying a tv but I saw the box so I decided to get it[.]” Another X user reportedly said, “get that tv just because Dua is on it.”

Samsung has declined to comment on the lawsuit, telling Reuters that it can not comment on pending litigation.

Lipa is seeking a jury trial and a permanent injunction preventing Samsung and its affiliates from using the image, including displaying it. The British singer also seeks at least $15 million in damages for copyright and trademark infringement and the “misappropriation” of her likeness, the profits that Samsung made from using the image, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees.

As of this writing, some retailers, including Walmart, are selling Samsung TVs with the image.

That box with Lipa’s image is still in my parents’ house, and it could end up costing Samsung a lot of grief.

Stable weather drives higher number of migrants reaching Crete

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Stable weather drives higher number of migrants reaching Crete


More than 600 migrants have arrived on Crete and Gavdos in recent days, as boats carrying them were either found adrift by the Greek Coast Guard or managed to reach beaches on the two islands and disembark passengers.

Local authorities have expressed concern about the increase in arrivals, which they attribute to favorable weather conditions and fears over what could happen during the summer months.

Last year, 19,948 migrants, mainly from Egypt, Sudan and Bangladesh, arrived on Crete and Gavdos. In 2024, arrivals along the same migration route did not exceed 5,000.

From last Thursday through Sunday night, nearly 500 people arrived on the two islands. On Sunday morning, a boat was located in the sea area between Ierapetra and the village of Psari Forada. The coast guard rescued 44 people, mainly nationals of Bangladesh and Sudan.

Earlier, two inflatable boats reached the beach at Psari Forada about three hours apart, disembarking 34 and 35 people respectively. The migrants remained on the beach until they were found by local residents. According to the migrants, they began their journey on Saturday morning from the Libyan coast near Tobruk before being transferred by bus to Iraklio.

About 30 people are staying at the municipal school in Kalogeroi, while two tents provided by a nearby naval base were set up for arrivals. A migration pact taking effect July 1 foresees screening, identification, detention and returns after asylum applications are denied there.

Via eKathimerini

Arab Israeli Advocate Yoseph Haddad Eyes Knesset Run With Fleur Hassan-Nahoum

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Arab Israeli Advocate Yoseph Haddad Eyes Knesset Run With Fleur Hassan-Nahoum


Arab Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad is working to establish a new political party ahead of Israel’s next general election and is in talks about partnering with former Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday, citing sources close to Haddad. The move would mark a possible shift from pro-Israel advocacy into electoral politics as Israel prepares for elections that must be held no later than October.

Haddad is one of Israel’s most visible Arab public diplomacy figures. A Christian Arab from Nazareth and a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces’ Golani Brigade, he was seriously wounded in the 2006 Second Lebanon War and later founded Together Vouch for Each Other, an organization that promotes Arab integration into Israeli society.

The possible party bid follows months of speculation about whether Haddad could convert his public profile and large social media following into Knesset seats. Israel Hayom reported last week that Haddad had begun taking practical steps toward entering politics, including meeting with a lawyer who specializes in party formation. People close to Haddad told the outlet, “Big things are coming.”

A February Midgam Institute poll, commissioned by people close to Haddad and reported by Israel Hayom, found that a party led by him could win four Knesset seats, enough to cross Israel’s electoral threshold. The same report said such a list could draw votes from Likud, Otzma Yehudit, and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, whose Bennett 2026 party is running on the Together electoral list with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. Haddad’s entry into the race could potentially affect the balance between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposition.

At the time of the February poll, Haddad said, “All options are on the table.”

Hassan-Nahoum, who was born in England, served as deputy mayor of Jerusalem from 2018 to 2023 and previously sat on the Jerusalem City Council. She now serves as special envoy for trade innovation at the Foreign Affairs Ministry and as secretary-general of Kol Israel, a faction of the World Zionist Congress.

A Haddad-Hassan-Nahoum list would likely seek voters looking for a Zionist, civic-integration platform centered on Arab participation in Israeli public life, national service, and a more inclusive Israeli identity. Whether that becomes a viable Knesset bid or another election-season trial balloon will depend on organization, funding, alliances, and the unforgiving math of Israel’s electoral threshold.

Starlink shuts down its GPS-style cheat code. Researchers may unlock it anyway.

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Starlink shuts down its GPS-style cheat code. Researchers may unlock it anyway.

Starlink is unceremoniously shutting down a GPS-style feature that most of the Internet satellite provider’s customers probably never realized existed. But that won’t stop broader momentum toward harnessing Starlink’s satellite constellation as a navigation alternative—especially when GPS jamming and spoofing have become more widespread.

The Starlink satellite constellation owned by SpaceX is designed to provide communications services first and foremost, rather than pinpointing users’ locations like GPS and other global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). However, SpaceX publicly acknowledged in a May 2025 letter to the US Federal Communications Commission that Starlink could deliver positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services. A handful of savvy Starlink customers had even been accessing Starlink PNT capability for several years until Starlink recently decided to shut down access, according to PCMag.

“The beauty of Starlink as a backup to GNSS is that it’s such a different system—frequencies 10 times higher, bandwidths 10 to 100 times wider, power 100 to 1,000 times stronger, satellites 100 times more proliferated,” said Todd Humphreys, director of the Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) and the Radionavigation Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin, in correspondence with Ars.

The built-in location feature was previously accessible through the Starlink mobile app’s Debug Data section. It enabled users to give local networks access to their Starlink dish’s “precise latitude, longitude, and altitude with no authentication required,” according to Paul Sutherland, a software developer, in a blog post.

Starlink dishes have their own GPS receivers to help pinpoint their own locations so they can find the nearest Starlink satellites. But the user location feature also offered an option to “use Starlink positioning exclusively.” Humphreys has described that Starlink PNT capability as a “cheat code for those who knew about it,” because it even worked in regions with GPS interference.

That has proven especially useful for users who installed the latest Starlink dishes on recreational vehicles and boats. In one case study highlighted by PCMag, a sailboat cruising through the Red Sea with the Starlink Mini dish—a user device released in 2024—was able to exclusively rely on Starlink positioning data despite GPS jamming and spoofing.

But on April 21, Starlink users received email notifications telling them that dish location data would no longer be available as of May 20, 2026. There was no specific rationale given for the decision, and SpaceX did not respond to an Ars request for comment.

Why Starlink works when GPS doesn’t

Starlink has drawn increased attention as a navigation alternative at a time when GPS jamming and spoofing have become widespread worldwide, impacting shipping routes from Europe to Asia and disrupting hundreds of flights on a daily basis. Jamming involves broadcasting strong signals to overpower the relatively weak radio signals coming from GPS and other global navigation satellite systems. Spoofing relies on transmitting false signals that mimic authentic satellite signals to trick signal receivers into calculating erroneous positions for aircraft and other users.

Global navigation satellite systems such as GPS are vulnerable to jamming because they transmit relatively weaker signals from higher orbital altitudes farther away from Earth. But Starlink and other low-Earth orbit communication constellations transmit higher-power signals in the Ku-band with wider bandwidths that are difficult for adversaries to disrupt through jamming.

Starlink is also much more resilient to spoofing because its user dishes are phased array antennas capable of focusing in the direction of a fast-moving Starlink satellite to detect its specific signal. Starlink’s PNT capability relies on round-trip time measurements between the user dish and a single satellite at a time, Humphreys said. The two-way communication between the user dish and satellite also relies on encrypted signals and can incorporate user authentication features.

By comparison, civilian GPS receivers mostly use omnidirectional antennas that passively receive unencrypted signals from many different points in the sky—they calculate a user’s position by receiving one-way “pseudorange” measurements from many satellites at once to ensure maximum accuracy. That makes them much more susceptible to false signals from adversarial spoofing.

But Starlink PNT’s accuracy is still limited compared with standard GPS. Humphreys and his colleagues have demonstrated how a mock Starlink service can produce navigation and timing solutions with 10-meter-level accuracy if Starlink supplies the real-time clock and orbit corrections—albeit only after a minutes-long processing delay. “We’re now refining our techniques so it can be done in tens of seconds rather than tens of minutes,” Humphreys told Ars.

One challenge is that Starlink’s round-trip time measurements are currently less accurate than the pseudorange technique used by dedicated global navigation satellite systems, Humphreys said. That is in part because Starlink satellites have less precise timekeeping capabilities compared to dedicated GNSS satellites equipped with atomic clocks.

The fact that Starlink PNT is limited to communication with a single satellite at a time also constrains performance, whereas receiving multiple satellite measurement signals from many different angles could improve its accuracy. That goes back to how Starlink user dishes can only form a beam to a single satellite at any given time, Humphreys said.

Despite the current performance constraints, Starlink customers who used the location data feature have expressed dismay at losing it. But SpaceX may have decided to block access because it didn’t want to deal with the liability of giving users access to a location service with “decent but variable” accuracy, Humphreys said.

Other possibilities include wanting to prevent “bad actors” from using the Starlink PNTT capability, or SpaceX potentially cutting off free access to pave the way for Starlink PNT’s for-pay debut, he suggested. The timing of SpaceX’s decision coincides with the company’s preparations to go public with an IPO as soon as this summer.

Finding the third way

Regardless of what SpaceX chooses to do, researchers have already demonstrated how to independently harness signals from Starlink and other low-Earth orbit communications satellite constellations.

In 2021, a team led by Zak Kassas, director of the Autonomous Systems Perception, Intelligence, and Navigation (ASPIN) Laboratory at The Ohio State University, showed how electronically eavesdropping on signals from six Starlink satellites could pinpoint locations on Earth to within 8 meters of accuracy—although that required 13 minutes of tracking rather than delivering instantaneous results.

Such opportunistic eavesdropping is challenging, because Starlink is consistently optimizing for its primary satellite Internet service by turning beams on and off, or sometimes switching beams as the fast-moving satellites talk to many different users, Kassas explained. That creates unpredictable jumps in the signal timing estimates that the researchers rely upon to calculate positioning data.

To tackle those challenges, Kassas and his colleagues use Doppler measurements of signal frequency changes that reflect satellite motions relative to the receiver, along with software algorithms to correct for timing errors. They have also deployed phased-array antennas—capable of communicating with just one or two satellites at a time—in combination with low-gain, omnidirectional antennas that can capture signals from nearly 10 satellites at a time. By 2025, the researchers had shown how to harness signals from an average of three Starlink satellites to deliver positioning results to within 2 meters of accuracy in just 20 seconds.

But this general eavesdropping strategy is not just limited to Starlink’s thousands of satellites—they have also exploited satellite signals from Orbcomm, Iridium, Starlink, OneWeb, NOAA, and the dedicated PNT constellation, Xona. “I’m not really married to Starlink—I love them all,” Kassas said.

The team has demonstrated this alternative navigation solution with ground vehicles, a high-altitude balloon, and a drone. One of the latest experiments showed how exploiting signals from both Starlink and OneWeb satellites could improve ship navigation accuracy off the west coast of Greenland in the Arctic, meaning that the technique could probably work nearly anywhere on Earth.

All this suggests that people may not have to wait much longer for new GPS alternatives, whether they come directly from Starlink or third parties. Kassas and his team have already licensed their technology to some organizations. “I think people are hungry and hurting in the absence of GPS or GNSS, and they want these solutions,” Kassas told Ars.

Trump-Xi summit to show that everything now is leverage

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Trump-Xi summit to show that everything now is leverage

Trump’s world is not rules-based globalization or full Cold War fragmentation — it’s perpetual leverage economics.

This week’s summit in Beijing between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will showcase that reality more clearly than any major diplomatic encounter since Trump returned to the White House.

Forget the ceremonial choreography and the carefully staged photographs in the Great Hall of the People. What matters is that the world’s two largest economies are now negotiating within a permanently transactional framework in which trade, security, energy, finance and military power are fused.

Trump arrives in Beijing carrying tariffs, sanctions, Taiwan, Iran, semiconductors, Boeing aircraft orders, soybean exports and rare earth minerals all in the same negotiating brief.

Xi receives him as China confronts a far weaker domestic economy than It projected only a few years ago. The property sector remains under severe strain after the collapse of developers, including Evergrande and Country Garden. Exports are slowing under mounting trade friction with the US and Europe. 

Foreign direct investment into China fell sharply again last year as global companies accelerated supply-chain diversification. And its energy security is now in question with the Iran war and dueling blockades of Hormuz.

It appears that nothing is compartmentalized anymore. For instance, Taiwan is tied to trade, trade is tied to security, security is tied to energy, energy is tied to sanctions, and sanctions are tied to investment flows.

This is the new operating system of the global economy. For three decades after the Cold War, markets operated on the assumption that economics would gradually overpower geopolitics. 

Countries could compete strategically while still deepening trade integration, expanding supply chains and increasing capital flows. Investors believed economic interdependence reduced the chances of serious confrontation.

Trump and his policymakers never believed that. The US leader’s worldview has always been aggressively transactional. Economic dependence, military alliance, access to American consumer markets creates leverage, tariffs create leverage and tech access creates leverage. And yes, even uncertainty itself becomes leverage.

The Beijing summit will likely reflect this with extraordinary clarity. Ahead of Trump’s arrival, Washington sanctioned several Chinese satellite companies accused of assisting Iran through imagery and logistical support linked to military operations in the Middle East. The Treasury also targeted entities allegedly connected to Iranian procurement networks.

At the same time, the White House is discussing expanded Chinese purchases of Boeing aircraft, US agricultural exports and possible trade-management mechanisms designed to stabilize commerce in non-sensitive sectors. The contradictions are, of course, not accidental; they’re the strategy.

US-China goods trade still exceeded roughly US$575 billion last year despite years of tariffs, sanctions and escalating strategic hostility. China remains one of the largest export markets for American agriculture, particularly soybeans.

Boeing continues to view China as one of the most critical long-term aviation markets globally, even after years of political tensions and delivery disputes.

Yet Washington is simultaneously tightening restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports, increasing scrutiny of outbound investment into China and accelerating military support for Taiwan.

This isn’t Cold War economics. The Soviet Union was never deeply integrated into the architecture of global trade, manufacturing and capital markets. China is central to all three.

China accounts for around 30% of global manufacturing output. It dominates processing capacity for critical minerals essential to electric vehicles, batteries and defense systems. The US, meanwhile, remains the world’s dominant financial power and China’s largest single export market.

Neither side can afford full rupture. But neither side trusts the other enough to preserve the old rules-based framework either. This superpower tension is increasingly driving markets across Asia.

A decade ago, investors focused overwhelmingly on interest rates, earnings and central-bank policy. Today, geopolitical signaling moves markets almost as powerfully as macroeconomic data.

The Taiwan issue demonstrates the dynamic. Beijing wants Trump to shift the official US language toward explicit opposition to Taiwanese independence. Washington publicly insists policy remains unchanged while preparing another substantial arms package for Taipei after approving more than $11 billion in military sales to Taiwan since Trump returned to office.

Yet reports indicate that the White House delayed formal congressional notification of the latest package, in part, to avoid destabilizing the summit atmosphere. As such, even timing becomes leverage.

China faces enormous contradictions of its own. Beijing wants stable export markets, uninterrupted energy flows and calm financial conditions. It also wants strategic partnerships with Iran and Russia, reduced vulnerability to American pressure and greater geopolitical influence across the developing world.

Those objectives increasingly collide with Trump’s worldview. China imports more than 11 million barrels of crude oil per day and remains heavily dependent on Middle Eastern energy flows. As such, serious disruption hits Asian manufacturing, shipping costs, inflation and financial markets.

Yet Beijing resists fully aligning with Washington’s pressure campaign against Tehran because Iran remains strategically valuable to China, both economically and geopolitically.

China increasingly wants the advantages of geopolitical disruption without absorbing the costs of geopolitical disorder. Trump understands this vulnerability instinctively.

His negotiating style is designed to merge commercial pressure with security pressure until the distinction between the two disappears completely. Previous administrations often compartmentalized disputes, but Trump collapses the walls between them.

The result creates a structurally more volatile world for investors. Traditional globalization was optimized for efficiency. The new system optimizes for strategic resilience, political flexibility and leverage.

Many investors still underestimate how profound this transition is likely to become. The world is not returning to the relatively frictionless globalization model that dominated the 1990s and 2000s.

But it is not entering a clean Cold War split either. Instead, the global economy is moving into a permanently negotiated environment where economic relationships become instruments of strategic pressure.

This week’s Beijing summit between Trump and Xi will likely offer the clearest demonstration of this yet. No side fully decouples, no side fully trusts and no issue remains isolated – for everything now is leverage.

Nigel Green is CEO and founder of the deVere Group

Italy evacuates 72 Palestinian students from Gaza under university program

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Italy evacuates 72 Palestinian students from Gaza under university program

Italy has evacuated 72 Palestinian university students from Gaza under a program aimed at allowing them to continue their studies at universities in Italy and San Marino, Anadolu reports.

Italy’s Foreign Ministry said Monday the students were evacuated through the “university corridor” initiative led by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

According to the ministry, the students are expected to arrive in Jordan’s capital Amman on Monday evening before traveling to Italy on Tuesday.

Of the 72 students, two will continue their education in San Marino, while the others will enroll at 21 universities across Italy.

READ: EU cannot continue to be ‘bystanders’ on Gaza, West Bank, says Irish foreign minister

The initiative aims to relocate students from Gaza so they can pursue higher education in safer conditions abroad.

The ministry said the latest operation brings the total number of students transferred from Gaza since September 2025 to 229.

According to the statement, 157 students were relocated during four separate operations carried out between September and December last year.

Tajani said the initiative continues to provide Palestinian students “a concrete opportunity for a future, education and safety.”

He added that Italy “reaffirms its humanitarian commitment to the civilian population in Gaza and its support for the right to education in such a dramatic context.”

READ: Gaza: Mothers face triple threat of famine, displacement and loss of children

Data center guzzled 30 million gallons of water and nobody noticed for months

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Data center guzzled 30 million gallons of water and nobody noticed for months

A curious case in Georgia serves as a warning for many parts of the US hastily approving data center developments without first updating their water systems to better monitor for severe upticks in usage.

On Friday, Politico reported that one of the country’s biggest data center developments had guzzled nearly 30 million gallons of water without paying for it. Even worse, the water grab came at a time when nearby drought-stricken residents were warned to restrict their personal water consumption and some reported sudden decreases in water pressure.

An investigation conducted by utility officials in Georgia’s Fayette County found that the Quality Technology Services (QTD) facility had two industrial-scale water hookups that weren’t being monitored. “One water connection had been installed without the utility’s knowledge, and the other was not linked to the company’s account and therefore wasn’t being billed,” Politico reported.

QTS eventually paid about $150,000 for the water, but there were no consequences for exceeding peak limits established by the county during the data center planning process. Frustrating residents, the county declined to fine QTS. Fayette County’s water system director, Vanessa Tigert, told Politico that the decision was partly because the county blamed itself and didn’t want to offend QTS.

“They’re our largest customer, and we have to be partners,” Tigert said. “It’s called customer service.”

Notably, the main reason the water usage was overlooked is that the county is transitioning from outdated water meters to a smart, cloud-based system that is supposed to make it easier to track leaks and other unexpected drains on the county’s water system. Tigert also told Politico that the county failed to notice the water usage because it’s understaffed, explaining that the only worker available to inspect meters is “spread pretty thin.”

Ultimately, the county dismissed QTS’s excess water usage as a “procedural mix-up,” Tigert said, retroactively charging QTS at a higher construction rate for the water but imposing no penalties for taking more water than the county expected.

Asked for comment, QTS told Ars that it’s “false and inaccurate” to suggest the facility “used any water improperly.”

“Once this billing issue was flagged, QTS paid all charges,” QTS said. “All water usage followed relevant and applicable regulations.”

QTS also pointed to statements from county officials denying residents’ claims that the facility’s excess water usage had decreased water pressure across the county system. Residents complaining about water pressure relied on wells, the county has said, while QTS does not draw water from wells or groundwater.

Moving forward, the county confirmed that QTS’s water hookups will now be accurately monitored. Additionally, QTS emphasized that after construction, the facility’s water needs will drastically drop.

However, residents are likely still stinging after receiving county notices recommending they restrict their water consumption due to ongoing drought conditions in the area. And some have lost trust in both QTS and the county.

James Clifton, an attorney and property rights advocate who first exposed the QTS controversy after submitting a public records request, told Politico that he’s upset that QTS will face no consequences simply because “most months” they’re the county’s “No. 1 customer.”

“The first thing they do is lean on the individuals and the citizens to stop water consumption when we have QTS that’s just absolutely draining us,” Clifton said.

AI industry can’t easily solve water crisis

Increased demand for water to fuel America’s AI ambitions comes just as crumbling water systems across the country require upgrades, and, unsurprisingly, many AI firms expect AI to help address water supply problems in the industry.

In a report on Monday, The Information explained why the water-supply question is a problem for the entire AI industry to solve—not just data centers, which are already finding ways to reduce and reuse water.

Citing research from a water technology company called Xylem, The Information reported that “the water toll of AI is far greater at semiconductor factories and the power plants electrifying chipmaking and computing than at the data centers themselves.”

However, as hyperscale data centers from tech giants like Meta, Google, and Microsoft perhaps increasingly rely on power for cooling, the demand for water to cool down power plants will explode, experts suggest. And it doesn’t help that 40 percent of data centers and 29 percent of global chip fabs are built in “water-stressed” areas, Xylen reported.

Over the next 25 years, “AI-associated water use will more than double,” Xylem forecasted.

One solution to make up some of the difference could be to recover about 30 percent of the world’s water that is lost to leaks and theft, The Information reported.

That’s why some AI firms, like Microsoft, are paying to install “high-tech water leak detection systems” built by FIDO Tech.

By feeding sensor data into AI, advanced smart meters can detect and “isolate” leaks, speeding up repairs and preventing excess water loss. Such smart meters can also help identify where fixes are most needed, as many areas scrambling to fix their water systems are “cash-starved” and cannot cover all the needed repairs, The Information reported.

In drought-stricken Georgia, QTS claimed it’s also exploring alternative water solutions, such as capturing stormwater or roof runoff.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced in March a system to strengthen and innovative water systems across the US, with early efforts focusing particularly on rural areas where budgets might be most stretched. However, the water sector isn’t completely sure yet how using AI might impact the nation’s systems and is not rushing to implement tech companies’ solutions.

According to a 2026 State of the Water Industry report from the international nonprofit American Water Works Association, “utilities are cautiously exploring new technologies like artificial intelligence, recognizing both their potential benefits and associated risks, especially in the area of cybersecurity.”

Most organizations haven’t implemented comprehensive solutions yet and “are not expecting revolutionary changes in the immediate future, the report said.

Residents fight to protect water sources

For residents in embattled areas like Fayette County, questions about water remain.

Although QTS plans to use a closed-loop cooling system that does not consume water for cooling when the data center is online, construction, which is draining far more water, is expected to continue for up to five more years, Politico reported.

Additionally concerning to residents, data centers relying on “electricity-hungry equipment” for cooling “often entails a trade-off,” Politico noted.

Consumer Reports reached the same conclusion in March, reporting that “generating the electricity to keep data centers powered up requires additional millions of gallons of water, even more than the water used for cooling.”

That’s why communities aren’t satisfied with data centers promising that construction-phase water consumption represents temporary peak usage.

In drought-plagued Arizona, a nonprofit advocacy group called Ceres estimated that data centers around Phoenix “already use approximately 385 million gallons of water per year for direct cooling need,” Consumer Reports noted. Once all that region’s data centers come online, “that amount will skyrocket to 3.7 billion gallons per year,” Ceres forecasted.

In a letter to Congress last month, more than 120 organizations advocating against rushed data center developments warned lawmakers that it’s not enough to focus legislation on addressing spiking electricity bills.

“Water use is equally alarming,” among other harms, groups said.

“In drought-prone regions,” groups explained, data centers consuming up to 5 million gallons a day strain “drinking water supplies, agriculture, and ecosystems.” Meanwhile, closed-loop systems “require the use of toxic chemicals that, if not properly disposed of, can eventually flow and pollute water ways.”

To avoid disastrous consequences for the country’s water supply, groups recommended that Congress pass laws requiring comprehensive environmental reviews prior to construction. They also want Congress to commit to rejecting “any legislation that would fast-track permitting and development for hyperscale, artificial intelligence, and other conventional data centers” through the end of this legislative session.

Some efforts to protect water resources have had limited success, as backlash over secretive deals allowing data center developments without public notice increases.

In Utah, one hyperscale data center in Box Elder County withdrew an application to transfer 1,900 acre-feet of water from a ranch to their facility. About 4,000 residents paid about $15 each to file notices of opposition to block that request, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. But although that battle was won, residents expect the larger fight to be far from over.

As the war against data centers rages on beyond Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board published an op-ed, warning that officials risk eroding trust the more they shrug off residents’ reasonable concerns about things like water supplies, electric bills, air quality, and quality of life.

“Even if the data center isn’t as dreadful as feared—or if it never is actually built—the stench attached to the rushed and secret political process will take a very long time to dissipate,” the editorial board wrote. “If it ever does.”

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