Russia plans to build own version of US billionaire’s satellite communications to help attack Ukraine
Vladimir Putin praised Elon Musk’s genius and said he was in touch with Starlink’s controlling shareholder as Russia develops its own satellite communications for its military to use against Ukraine.
The Russian president, speaking at a summit with African leaders in Moscow, was comparing the Earth-orbiting network built by Musk’s SpaceX with Russia’s gradual efforts to build its own Rassvet constellation.
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© Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/Reuters
© Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/Reuters
© Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/Reuters
Russia plans to build own version of US billionaire’s satellite communications to help attack Ukraine
Vladimir Putin praised Elon Musk’s genius and said he was in touch with Starlink’s controlling shareholder as Russia develops its own satellite communications for its military to use against Ukraine.
The Russian president, speaking at a summit with African leaders in Moscow, was comparing the Earth-orbiting network built by Musk’s SpaceX with Russia’s gradual efforts to build its own Rassvet constellation.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/Reuters
© Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/Reuters
© Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/Reuters
Elon Musk vuole acquistare una città in Mississippi: si chiama Southaven, ospita una centrale elettrica fondamentale per alimentare i data center della sua intelligenza artificiale, e da alcuni media americani è stata già ribattezzata “Elonville“. Il piano del miliardario prevede l’acquisto di 418 case a un prezzo di mercato di 180.000 dollari; come parte della compravendita è previsto anche un accordo con i proprietari in cui rinunciano a partecipare a una causa legale contro l’azienda. Diciotto proprietari avrebbero già accettato.
La proposta indecente di Musk agli abitanti di questo piccolo centro è: vendetemi le vostre case e trasferitevi altrove. E non è neanche una di quelle offerte che non si possono rifiutare. Pare, infatti, che il miliardario non voglia andare oltre il prezzo di mercato, 180.000 dollari. Secondo quanto riferito dal sindaco della città, le case serviranno ad accogliere il personale di xAI, la società di intelligenza artificiale di Musk confluita in SpaceX a febbraio che sta vivendo una fase di espansione rapidissima nell’area.
Negli ultimi due anni, infatti, l’azienda ha realizzato tre data center tra Southaven e la vicina Memphis, in Tennessee. Ed è lì che Musk trascorre almeno tre notti a settimana, dormendo in un caravan, nemmeno di super lusso, per supervisionare direttamente il progetto. D’altra parte Musk ha investito circa mezzo miliardo di dollari per sostenere l’elezione di candidati repubblicani negli ultimi due cicli elettorali e il suo fervore per i data center è condiviso da Donald Trump e dalla sua amministrazione.
Non si può invece dire che i residenti di Southaven siano entusiasti. Per quanto alcuni abitanti siano propensi ad accettare l’offerta dell’uomo più ricco del mondo e lasciare la città, altri intendono dare battaglia. A giugno tre residenti della zona, esasperati dal frastuono causato dai lavori di espansione dell’impianto di xAI, hanno intentato una causa, lamentando “rumori costanti, vibrazioni e altri disagi” a causa delle turbine a gas necessarie per l’alimentazione.
L'articolo Elonville, la città che Musk vuole comprare per i suoi data center dell’intelligenza artificiale proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Once our eyes adjusted to the aggressive glare of the freshly painted white walls around the yard, we began to make out figures, dozens of them dressed in navy blue, clinging to the inner walls of this surreal space.
It was a scorching June day in western Ukraine, and we
A test satellite for a future communications network under Ukrainian control is working in orbit, Ukraine’s Himera and Denmark’s GomSpace said on 27 October. The companies say it will work for Ukraine’s strategic security, and that the long-term aim is to rely less on foreign communications providers. Public launch records for the mission do not list a satellite by that name, though some of its objects are still unidentified.
Ukraine fights Russia on satellite links it doesn’t control, and the announcement comes two weeks after it saw what depending on an outside provider can cost. The satellite, the companies say, went up on 1 October, before that trouble began. Overnight on 14 October, Starlink and its military version, Starshield, began dropping links on fast-moving terminals, and Ukrainian officials said the cap disrupted drone missions. On 24 October, 10 days after the cap began, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported speeds restored. Who ordered the cap remains contested. That same day, Elon Musk wrote that Ukraine’s military had violated Starlink’s terms of service and that “that loophole was closed last week,” a claim a Ukrainian presidential adviser disputed.
Obria Nano flew on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission, the release said. Aalborg-based GomSpace built it on Himera’s order, Himera co-founder and CEO Misha Rudominski wrote on Facebook. He added that the team received the first signals the next day and that the satellite is now working. Its tests are meant to inform the design of the full Obria system, the release said.
No satellite called Obria Nano appears on SpaceX’s published list for the mission, The Insider found. Public tracking catalogs show one Ukrainian satellite from that launch, named UASAT-Nano. Another 26 objects from the mission are still listed with placeholder names and no confirmed owner. The outlet said it is unclear whether the two names refer to one satellite.
UASAT-Nano is the satellite network Stetman, another Ukrainian company, is building, and its founder said the network’s first test satellite would launch in October. In April, Stetman and GomSpace agreed to set up a joint venture called UASAT and planned a first launch for fall 2026. The Obria release does not mention Stetman or UASAT.
Rudominski wrote that Himera’s next stage is to produce satellites and ground terminals in Ukraine. He called it important not only to use the technology but also to gradually build domestic expertise and manufacturing.
“For us, this project is about more than launching a satellite. It is an opportunity to lay the foundation for an independent communications network for Ukraine,” Rudominski said in the release.
In the long run, the network would cover all of Ukraine and complement European satellite networks, the release said. The network does not exist yet, and Himera has given no timeline.
Replacing Starlink will not be quick. Lance Hunter, a political scientist at Augusta University, told Time that Ukraine cannot quickly swap out such technology, since diversifying it “takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of resources.” Meanwhile, one Ukrainian interceptor-drone maker has begun rethinking its air-launched designs after the slowdown.
Elon Musk is under attack! Countless Democrats are admitting they plan to investigate or even jail him if they take back power on Congress in the midterms. They can't tell you what he specifically did wrong, but they'll come up with something.
Just as bad, or even worse, however, is that some of his critics want to nationalize his companies, including Starlink, which provides crucial infrastructure to Ukraine. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, a far-left populist Democrat, thinks Starlink is too important to be left under Musk's control, and that the federal government would do a better job administering it. I doubt that, but let's hear what he had to say:
NEW: Robert Reich calls for the "defunding" of Elon Musk, calls for Democrats to go after Musk's companies.
"Democrats ought to [start] laying the groundwork for nationalizing Starlink & SpaceX… It should be a public corporation."
Does he want Musk to drop another $50M on the… pic.twitter.com/0jiljf0CtG
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 25, 2026
From the horse's mouth: Reich thinks Democrats should be laying the groundwork to nationalize Starlink and SpaceX. This idea is crazy and reckless—and even dangerous. Here's why.
Now it's important to go over some of the background here. Starlink is a product that Ukraine uses to provide internet to its people, but only for civilian uses. Musk has maintained that while he is very happy to provide internet to Ukraine in the face of unrelenting invasion, Starlink cannot be used for offensive military purposes, because this would make his satellites a legitimate target of Russia in terms of their war effort. We want to avoid that. Separately, Starshield, a different system, is administered by the Pentagon, and Musk claims he has no control over it.
What happened last week is that a slowdown of the Starshield system resulted in reduced effectiveness of Ukraine's counterstrikes against Russia. And look, that was a problem. I traveled to Ukraine earlier this summer as part of a delegation arranged by a pro-Ukrainian nonprofit. I saw up close how important Starshield is to the defense of a free Ukraine. Moreover, there's entirely too much griping about Ukraine coming from some corners of right-wing media. Some people often seem to forget that Russia is invading Ukraine, not the other way around. It's Russia that won't accept a peace deal. When President Donald Trump called for an immediate ceasefire, Ukraine stopped hitting energy infrastructure in Russia—but Russia kept attacking anyway. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to immediately stop fighting and freeze the conflict along the current lines, just like Trump wants. It's Russian President Vladimir Putin who won't negotiate.
We don't know for sure who ordered the Starshield slowdown. The U.S. government has denied doing so. Musk has, however, claimed Ukraine violated the terms of service of Starlink, using it for offensive military purposes, and thus that system was slowed down. I understand why that might be frustrating for the Ukrainians, but the fact is that it's Musk's company, so he makes the rules. It belongs to him.
And importantly, it has to stay that way. Nationalizing the company would be an insane step to take in response to a tech owner having a say in how his product is used. Do we really trust the government to operate these companies as efficiently as their founders? Of course not. Moreover, in this specific case, it might bring us closer to a direct confrontation with Russia—and as much as it's a good thing to undermine the Russian conquest of Ukraine, we do not want to start World War III.
And there are the broader philosophical harms. We are experiencing an unprecedented flourishing in the tech space, with AI, driverless cars, robotics, and such. When the government nationalizes a successful tech company, it sends a warning to all the others: If you're too good at what you do, we might take you over. We might punish you. This disincentivizes investment and innovation at a time when they're desperately needed.
Nationalizing Musk's companies is doing Ukraine no favors. But it will hurt America's interests too. We want to encourage Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, and all the rest to compete with one another to design products that make life better, earning them profits along the way. It doesn't work if the government butts in. Unfortunately, far-left thinkers like Reich, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.), and many of the people who are about to be elected to Congress for the first time actually want to slow down the pace of tech. That's how much they hate Musk.
The post Democrats Want to Punish Elon Musk. Nationalizing SpaceX Would Punish Innovation. appeared first on Reason Magazine.
No private individual should have the power to determine US foreign policy, as Musk has attempted to do in Ukraine
He’s Exhibit A on why billionaire wealth should be taxed, why we must get big money out of politics, why billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to buy up major media, and why our government shouldn’t give them huge military contracts.
I’m talking about Elon Musk, of course.
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© Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP
© Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP
© Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP
Elon Musk, empresário multibilionário e aliado do presidente dos Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, questionou nesta segunda-feira (26) a legitimidade dos resultados das eleições brasileiras após o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) vencer o senador Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) por uma diferença de três pontos percentuais.
O dono da Tesla questionou o ganho de 9,3 milhões de votos do candidato do PT em uma publicação no X. “A conta não fecha”, afirmou o empresário ao repostar outro post sobre o tema.
Além dele, Steve Bannon, ex-conselheiro da Casa Branca e outro aliado de Trump, também criticou o pleito, chamando o resultado de “ilegítimo”.
Ele afirmou em seu podcast, Bannon’s Warroom, que a virada de Lula representava um “governo marxista ilegal”.
O aliado de Trump também pediu que o secretário de Estado dos EUA, Marco Rubio, e o presidente americano cortassem todas as relações com o Brasil.
“O Secretário de Estado e o Presidente (Trump) precisam sair agora, cortar as relações diplomáticas e fechar tudo com o Brasil”, afirmou Bannon.
Os comentários foram feitos após a extensão do período de votação para até as 19h do domingo (25), devido a relatos de problemas no transporte público em diversas regiões do país.
A decisão da prorrogação do horário da votação foi tomada pelo ministro Cristiano Zanin, do Supremo Tribunal Federal, por volta das 17h, horário inicialmente previsto para o encerramento do pleito, e provocou um impasse operacional, já que milhares de urnas haviam sido fechadas.
Posteriormente, o Tribunal Superior Eleitoral esclareceu que a prorrogação valeria apenas para as seções eleitorais que ainda estivessem abertas, sem possibilidade de reabrir equipamentos já encerrados.
Apesar das dificuldades, o presidente do TSE, ministro Kassio Nunes Marques, afirmou que a medida não comprometeu o resultado das eleições, que confirmaram a reeleição do presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), com 51,79% dos votos, contra 48,21% de Flávio Bolsonaro (PL).
A diferença de votos entre o petista e o filho do ex-presidente Jair Bolsonaro foi de 4,4 milhões de votos. Esse número foi duas vezes superior à vitória de Lula contra Jair Bolsonaro (PL) em 2022, quando o petista teve uma vantagem de 2,1 milhões de votos.
“Volto a dizer: não houve nenhuma alteração advinda da decisão judicial. Temos absoluta confiança em todo o processo eleitoral”, declarou Nunes Marques, após a divulgação do resultado.
*sob supervisão de Tiago Tortella, da CNN Brasil
It has been a wild few weeks for the US-Ukraine relationship as Trump, more and more, has been able to be what he always wanted to be: a friend and supporter of Vladimir Putin. It started openly with the diesel deal, which drove a coach and horses through the sanctions regime leveled on Russia, a […]
The post In the Starlink case Trump reacted to pressure, not flattery appeared first on Asia Times.
"We should (have) some sympathy for the poor Russian conscripts too. Those kids have no choice but to fight and die in drone strikes."
For anyone watching and understanding Ukraine's years-long struggle for survival, the words of SpaceX founder and world's richest man Elon
In the midst of Donald Trump's attempt to turn Russian diesel into a political asset to help him avoid disaster in November's midterm elections, the internet went out on the front lines.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian forces have relied on Starlink to
L’ultimo endorsement di richiamo per lui arriva dal figlio dell’ex presidente George H.W. Bush e fratello dell’altro ex commander in chief George W.Bush. Anche Neil Bush si smarca da Donald Trump e sceglie James Talarico, astro nascente dei democratici, che corre per il Senato nello Stato di famiglia, il Texas. È da più di tre decenni che i democratici non vincono un’elezione nazionale, ma ora il seggio del Congresso è contendibile. Talarico, 37enne ex seminarista presbiteriano, ex insegnante di scuola media, è in vantaggio di 5 punti percentuali sul repubblicano Ken Paxton, attuale procuratore generale dello Stato sostenuto dal capo della Casa Bianca.
Famiglia, amore per i propri vicini e poi, ovviamente, fede: le parole d’ordine, da texano di ottava generazione, della campagna di Talarico sono spiazzanti per la retorica di Paxton e Donald Trump – che lo descrivono come un democratico estremista sotto mentite spoglie – e tutta la potente macchina finanziaria repubblicana, Elon Musk in testa, scesa in campo in queste ultime decisive settimane per scongiurare la possibilità che Talarico, che gli ultimi sondaggi danno avanti di due, tre anche 4 punti, possa far centrare il sogno, fino a pochi mesi fa impensabile, di una vittoria al Senato in uno stato come il Texas dove sono oltre 30 anni che i democratici non vincono a livello nazionale. Il candidato dem, peraltro, è spesso del mirino di Trump, che gli ha affibbiato il nomignolo di ‘Tala-freak-o‘, dandogli del vegano, negli sforzi per tracciare un profilo non in linea con lo stereotipo texano.
“In queste elezioni non c’entra il partito democratico o il partito repubblicano, è una cosa più grande, queste elezioni devono puntare alla visione di quello che il nostro stato può essere”, ha detto in uno dei suoi ultimi comizi il democratico ribadendo il messaggio bipartisan, quello che in America si chiama della ‘big tent’, con cui promette che dal Senato di Washington guiderà “la lotta contro i finanziatori mega miliardari e i politici burattini che hanno preso il controllo del Texas“, come recita il programma. Un messaggio che ha non solo galvanizzato e riunito le varie anime del partito democratico, ma sta attirando repubblicani, delusi da Trump e in generale dai repubblicani per la questione del carovita, del prezzo della benzina e, elemento molto rilevante in Texas, la costruzione dei data center per l’intelligenza artificiale. Ma forse l’elemento che ha aiutato e sta aiutando maggiormente la sorpresa Talarico nei sondaggi è il fatto che come avversario ha una delle figure politiche più controverse del Texas, l’attuale procuratore generale Paxton.
Paxton ha vinto le primarie perché sostenuto vigorosamente da Trump che ha voluto così togliere il seggio a John Cornyn, senatore al quarto mandato che il tycoon ha voluto punire perché ‘sleale’. Non ha aiutato la candidatura di Paxton il fatto che la moglie Angela, anche lei esponente repubblicana texana, abbia chiesto il divorzio nell’estate del 2025 accusandolo, con tanto di citazioni biblica, di adulterio. Salvo poi chiedere alle elettrici texane di tapparsi il naso e votare per tutti i candidati repubblicani a novembre “a prescindere dalle loro debolezze’.
E dal vecchio establishment repubblicano texano, di cui Cornyn fa parte e che ha un punto di riferimento al clan dei Bush – anche se quella che era un tempo la dinastia politica repubblicana sta perdendo progressivamente influenza nel Gop controllo dal mai amato Trump -, sono arrivati dubbi, reticenze e vere e proprie prese di distanze nei confronti di Paxton . E, sebbene George W. Bush non abbia preso una posizione ufficiale, il Nyt scrive che ha escluso Paxton da una raccolta di fondi organizzata per candidati Gop al Senato. Invece hanno preso posizioni pubbliche contro Paxton il suo ex stratega Karl Rove, e per decenni il deus ex machina della politica repubblicana texana, e ora il fratello minore dell’ex presidente, Neil, ha annunciato di aver votato in anticipo per Talarico perché “profondamente preoccupato” per la condotta di Paxton e invece “enormemente impressionati” dai principi pragmatici del democratico. Il candidato repubblicano ha però dalla sua la pioggia di milioni di dollari che stanno arrivando, in particolare da Musk, che gli permettono di spendere tre volte di più del dem in questi ultimi giorni decisivi. Tanto che si prevede che alla fine la sua campagna, tra primarie e elezioni, arriverà a spendere 380 milioni di dollari, una cifra astronomica per un’elezione al Senato in uno stato considerato una roccaforte Gop.
L'articolo James Talarico, speranza dem in Texas per vincere il seggio al Senato: chi è il 37enne che sfida il candidato sostenuto da Trump proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
SpaceX ha raccolto 40 miliardi di dollari in prestiti destinati all’acquisto di nuovi chip per l’intelligenza artificiale. Lo ha annunciato Elon Musk attraverso un messaggio pubblicato sul suo social X, spiegando che le risorse serviranno principalmente a finanziare l’acquisto di GPU, le unità di elaborazione grafica fondamentali per lo sviluppo dei sistemi di intelligenza artificiale, la cui consegna è prevista tra il primo e il secondo trimestre del 2027. “Si tratta principalmente del rimborso del debito contratto per l’acquisto di GPU che arriveranno nel primo e nel secondo trimestre”, ha scritto Musk rispondendo a un investitore, senza precisare né la scadenza né il tasso di interesse del finanziamento.
La notizia arriva dopo che il gruppo, presentando i risultati finanziari martedì scorso, aveva annunciato investimenti compresi tra 35 e 40 miliardi di dollari nell’ultimo trimestre dell’anno, una cifra doppia rispetto a quella del trimestre precedente. I nuovi fondi, attesi all’inizio del 2027, confermano la volontà di mantenere elevato il ritmo degli investimenti nel settore dell’intelligenza artificiale.
Dopo la fusione con xAI all’inizio dell’anno, SpaceX, con sede a Starbase, in Texas, ha rafforzato la propria presenza nel comparto dell’intelligenza artificiale. Nel terzo trimestre, secondo quanto riportato, il gruppo ha registrato il primo utile netto della sua storia, grazie soprattutto ai ricavi derivanti dall’affitto della capacità dei propri data center a clienti esterni, tra cui Anthropic.
Prosegue intanto l’ampliamento del data center Colossus II, al confine tra Mississippi e Tennessee, mentre Musk punta a trasformare SpaceX in un conglomerato tecnologico, valutando anche l’acquisizione di Tesla, l’altra grande azienda da lui guidata.
L'articolo SpaceX, Elon Musk scommette forte sull’IA: annunciato un finanziamento da 40 miliardi per l’acquisto di chip proviene da Affaritaliani.it.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that if Ukraine fires through Starlink, Russia would be entitled to shoot the network down. That is why Starlink must remain a civilian operation and cannot be used for outright offensive strikes that would put its very existence at risk.
The warning lands in the middle of a fight over Musk’s own hand on that network. Weeks ago, his company unexpectedly throttled the service Ukraine’s drones depend on amid US President Donald Trump diesel deal with Russia, which led to the disruption of a few operations on the front.
The US Treasury authorized the sale, delivery, offloading, and import of Russian-origin diesel fuel, effectively suspending sanctions on that trade until 7 April 2027, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on its website on 9 October.
The diesel deal combining intelligence halt and military Starlink, with pressure on Ukraine to make a quick peace deal, has angered both Democrats and Republicans ahead of the US elections on 3 November, where Democrats could win.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official interprets Musk's talk of strikes as an attempt to build an alibi before a possible investigation into that decision.
Musk was responding to a post warning that if Starlink shifted from a civilian network into a military system, Russia could treat it as a target for retaliation, and that destroying satellites in orbit could scatter enough debris to make space unusable for years or centuries.
“An adversary blowing up Starlink satellites would create a domino effect of destruction that would generate a vast field of debris, making space unusable," he writes.
Overnight into 14 October, SpaceX quietly capped the speed of Starshield, the military version Ukraine’s drones run on, without telling Kyiv. Ukrainian units said the limit broke a series of missions, with connections dropping mid-flight and leaving drones hard to control.
At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine relies on the network for air defense, not attack, to intercept the Russian drones Moscow sends to its cities, and that once the speed was cut, his forces could no longer stop some of them as effectively as before.
Simultaneously, Ukraine's other American lifeline also went dark: for about three days, the US stopped passing the intelligence that warns of Russian ballistic launches. On 12 October, Russian ballistic missiles hit Kyiv before the air-raid alert reached people, with no advance data from partners. In a strike during that window, three people were killed in the capital, the sirens sounding only after the blasts.
Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, the ex-head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, read Musk’s statement as self-protection rather than physics
“Musk, having taken responsibility for the restrictions on Starlink and Starshield for Ukraine, is now trying to build himself an alibi before a possible investigation into that decision,” he wrote.
He said that regardless of who was behind the idea of restricting Starlink and Starshield access for Ukraine, it represents a strategic setback for the US in the long run, as it risks portraying the country as an unreliable partner that may fail to honor its commitments.
"Europe purchases around 60% of its imported weapons from the US. Trust in the US as a security guarantor directly supports sales for American defense companies. Moves like this only undermine that trust and encourage European countries to develop their own systems," he said.
The US has sent a message that its guarantees may not be reliable and that even paid-for services can be subject to political decisions, Kovalenko stressed.
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