By DAVID KLEPPER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Russia held its Victory Day parade this year, hackers backing the Kremlin hijacked an orbiting satellite that provides television service to Ukraine.

Instead of normal programing, Ukrainian viewers saw parade footage beamed in from Moscow: waves of tanks, soldiers and weaponry. The message was meant to intimidate and was an illustration that 21st-century war is waged not just on land, sea and air but also in cyberspace and the reaches of outer space.

Disabling a satellite could deal a devastating blow without one bullet, and it can be done by targeting the satellite’s security software or disrupting its ability to send or receive signals from Earth.

“If you can impede a satellite’s ability to communicate, you can cause a significant disruption,” said Tom Pace, CEO of NetRise, a cybersecurity firm focused on protecting supply chains.

“Think about GPS,” said Pace, who served in the Marines before working on cyber issues at the Department of Energy. “Imagine if a population lost that and the confusion it would cause.”

Satellites are the short-term challenge

More than 12,000 operating satellites now orbit the planet, playing a critical role not just in broadcast communications but also in military operations, navigation systems like GPS, intelligence gathering and economic supply chains. They are also key to early launch-detection efforts, which can warn of approaching missiles.

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That makes them a significant national security vulnerability, and a prime target for anyone looking to undermine an adversary’s economy or military readiness — or deliver a psychological blow like the hackers supporting Russia did when they hijacked television signals to Ukraine.

Hackers typically look for the weakest link in the software or hardware that supports a satellite or controls its communications with Earth. The actual orbiting device may be secure, but if it’s running on outdated software, it can be easily exploited.

As Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, someone targeted Viasat, the U.S.-based satellite company used by Ukraine’s government and military. The hack, which Kyiv blamed on Moscow, used malware to infect tens of thousands of modems, creating an outage affecting wide swaths of Europe.

National security officials say Russia is developing a nuclear, space-based weapon designed to take out virtually every satellite in low-Earth orbit at once. The weapon would combine a physical attack that would ripple outward, destroying more satellites, while the nuclear component is used to fry their electronics.

U.S. officials declassified information about the weapon after Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, issued a public warning about the technology. Turner has pushed for the Department of Defense to provide a classified briefing to lawmakers on the weapon, which, if deployed, would violate an international treaty prohibiting weapons of mass destruction in space.

Turner said such a weapon could render low-Earth orbit unusable for satellites for as long as a year. If it were used, the effects would be devastating: potentially leaving the U.S. and its allies vulnerable to economic upheaval and even a nuclear attack.

Russia and China also would lose satellites, though they are believed to be less reliant on the same kinds of satellites as the U.S.

Turner compared the weapon, which is not yet ready for deployment, to Sputnik, the Russian satellite that launched the space age in 1957.

“If this anti-satellite nuclear weapon would be put in space, it would be the end of the space age,” Turner said. “It should never be permitted to go into outer space. This is the Cuban Missile Crisis in space.”

Mining the moon and beyond

Valuable minerals and other materials found on the moon and in asteroids could lead to future conflicts as nations look to exploit new technologies and energy sources.

Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy announced plans this month to send a small nuclear reactor to the moon, saying it’s important the U.S. does so before China or Russia.

FILE – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a SXM-9 digital, audio radio satellite payload, lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

“We’re in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon,” Duffy said. “To have a base on the moon, we need energy and some of the key locations on the moon. … We want to get there first and claim that for America.”

The moon is rich in a material known as helium 3, which scientists believe could be used in nuclear fusion to generate huge amounts of energy. While that technology is decades away, control over the moon in the intervening years could determine which countries emerge as superpowers, according to Joseph Rooke, a London-based cybersecurity expert who has worked in the U.K. defense industry and is now director of risk insights at the firm Recorded Future.

The end of the Cold War temporarily halted a lot of investments in space, but competition is likely to increase as the promise of mining the moon becomes a reality.

“This isn’t sci-fi. It’s quickly becoming a reality,” Rooke said. “If you dominate Earth’s energy needs, that’s game over.”

China and Russia have announced plans for their own nuclear plants on the moon in the coming years, while the U.S. is planning missions to the moon and Mars. Artificial intelligence is likely to speed up the competition, as is the demand for the energy that AI requires.

Messages left with Russia’s Embassy in Washington were not returned.

Despite its steps into outer space, China opposes any extraterrestrial arms race, according to Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s Embassy in Washington. He said it is the U.S. that is threatening to militarize the final frontier.

“It has kept expanding military strength in space, created space military alliances, and attempted to turn space into a war zone,” Liu said. “China urges the U.S. to stop spreading irresponsible rhetoric, stop expanding military build-up in space, and make due contribution to upholding the lasting peace and security in space.”

What the US is doing about security in space

Nations are scrambling to create their own rocket and space programs to exploit commercial prospects and ensure they aren’t dependent on foreign satellites. It’s an expensive and difficult proposition, as demonstrated last week when the first Australian-made rocket crashed after 14 seconds of flight.

This photo provided by United States Space Force the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7), the U.S. Space Force’s dynamic unmanned spaceplane, successfully deorbited and landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., March 7, 2025. (United States Space Force via AP)

The U.S. Space Force was created in 2019 to protect American interests in space and to defend U.S. satellites from attacks from adversaries.

The space service is far smaller than the more well-established services like the Army, Navy or Air Force, but it’s growing, and the White House is expected to announce a location for its headquarters soon. Colorado and Alabama are both candidates.

The U.S. military operates an unmanned space shuttle used to conduct classified military missions and research. The craft, known as the X-37B, recently returned to Earth after more than a year in orbit.

The Space Force called access to space a vital national security interest.

“Space is a warfighting domain, and it is the Space Force’s job to contest and control its environment to achieve national security objectives,” it said in the statement.

American dominance in space has been largely unquestioned for decades following the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. But the new threats and competition posed by Russia and China show the need for an aggressive response, U.S. officials say.

The hope, Turner said, is that the U.S. can take steps to ensure Russia and China can’t get the upper hand, and the frightening potential of space weapons is not realized.

“You have to pay attention to these things so they don’t happen,” Turner said.

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Media Writer

Television’s MSNBC news network is changing its name to My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW for short, as part of its corporate divorce from NBC.

The network, which appeals to liberal audiences with a stable of personalities including Rachel Maddow, Ari Melber and Nicole Wallace, has been building its own separate news division from NBC News. It will also remove NBC’s peacock symbol from its logo as part of the change, which will take effect later this year.

The name change was ordered by NBC Universal, which last November spun off cable networks USA, CNBC, MSNBC, E! Entertainment, Oxygen and the Golf Channel into its own company, called Versant. None of the other networks are changing their name.

This image released by Versant shows the logo for My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW. (Versant via AP)

MSNBC got its name upon its formation in 1996, as a partnership then between Microsoft and NBC.

Name changes always carry an inherent risk, and MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said that for employees, it is hard to imagine the network under a different name. “This was not a decision that was made quickly or without significant debate,” she said in a memo to staff.

“During this time of transition, NBC Universal decided that our brand requires a new, separate identity,” she said. “This decision now allows us to set our own course and assert our indepedence as we continue to build our own modern newsgathering organization.”

Still, it’s noteworthy that the business channel CNBC is leaving “NBC” in its name. MSNBC argues that CNBC has always maintained a greater separation and, with its business focus, is less likely to cover many of the same topics.

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Still, the affiliation between a news division that tries to play it safe and one that doesn’t hide its liberal bent has long caused tension. President Donald Trump refers to the cable network as “MSDNC,” for Democratic National Committee. Even before the corporate change, NBC News has been reducing the use of its personalities on MSNBC.

Some NBC News personalities, like Jacob Soboroff, Vaughn Hillyard, Brandy Zadrozny and Antonia Hylton, have joined MSNBC. The network has also hired Carol Leoning, Catherine Rampell and Jackie Alemany from the Washington Post, and Eugene Daniels from Politico.

Maddow, in a recent episode of Pivot, noted that MSNBC will no longer have to compete with NBC News programs for reporting product from out in the field — meaning it will no longer get the “leftovers.”

“In this case, we can apply our own instincts, our own queries, our own priorities, to getting stuff that we need from reporters and correspondents,” Maddow said. “And so it’s gonna be better.”

Vacationers looking to get in their daily step goal will have no problem achieving that while on board Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas.

The world’s largest cruise ship, which arrived at Port Canaveral earlier this month as the company’s second Icon-class ship, has plenty of spaces to relax, new technology and adventurous ways to spend time onboard. At 248,663 gross tons, the ship has 20 decks, seven pools, six waterslides and more than 40 venues for dining and drinking. It can accommodate 5,610 passengers at double occupancy and more than 7,000 passengers at full capacity, plus 2,350 crew.

The Star of the Seas feels like a floating city, complete with its own Central Park in the middle and eight neighborhoods, each designed for different activities and age groups. It’s bright, artsy, colorful and has scenes of idyllic vacations playing out around every corner.

Most passengers embark on Deck 5, where they are greeted by The Pearl, a three-deck art installation with 3,600 computer-driven kinetic tiles that move with music. The sphere sits in the middle of the Royal Promenade where guests can find shopping options, bars and eateries — including Spotlight Karaoke on Deck 5, right across from New York pizza restaurant Sorrento’s, and a dueling piano bar on Deck 6.

Deck 4 is home to Casino Royale and the Music Hall, while the main dining room is at the aft of the ship on decks 3-5. In addition to housing the Royal Promenade, Deck 5 is where guests can find the fitness center, outdoor jogging track, the Royal Theater, the location of the “Back to the Future” musical, and Absolute Zero, an ice arena for the “Sol” skating show that’s accessible from Deck 6.

Deck 7 has the Surfside neighborhood at the aft of the ship, which is geared toward families with a carousel, Surfside Eatery, ice cream and a water playground called Splashaway Bay. Dozens of staterooms overlook this neighborhood, some with their own balconies.

That is also the case with a selection of staterooms that overlook Central Park on Deck 8. The interior neighborhood features greenery, bars and dining venues such as Chops Grille, Izumi Hibachi & Sushi and Park Cafe. Moving toward the fore of the ship, guests can see the exclusive Lincoln Park Supper Club, a formal upscale dining venue with limited space.

Decks 9-14 consist mostly of cabins, except for the Vitality Spa accessed on Deck 14.

On Deck 15, passengers can visit the Windjammer Marketplace, a buffet-style eatery, or head out to the Chill Island pool deck. Nearby the Royal Bay Pool sits The Lime & Coconut Bar as well as El Loco Fresh, which serves up Mexican food. At the aft of the ship, guests ages 18 and older can visit The Hideaway, which includes an infinity pool and a bar for adults only.

At the fore of Deck 15 sits the 82-foot-tall, 164-foot-wide, glass-and-metal AquaDome. The entertainment venue hosts the “Torque” show and sits adjacent to Hooked Seafood, Chef’s Table and Celebration Table. On the opposite side, the AquaDome Market has five stands serving different cuisines, including Thai food, barbecue, South American staples, Mediterranean bites and crepes.

Deck 16 has the continuation of Chill Island, which includes the Swim & Tonic, a pool with a swim-up bar, and a dry slide down to Deck 15. The chills quickly turn into thrills when heading to the aft of the ship.

Thrill Island is the access point for Crown’s Edge, a harnessed ropes course and skywalk that dangles guests out over the ocean. That area of Deck 16 is also where guests can find the Adrenaline Peak rock-climbing wall, the Lost Dunes mini golf course and the stairs to access the Category 6 Waterpark.

More high adventure can be found on Deck 17 during a visit to the sports court or the FlowRider surf simulator at the aft of the ship. The fore of the ship has access to the Suite Neighborhood on decks 16-18 with pools and eateries reserved for guests staying in suites.

Star of the Seas will sail seven-night alternating Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries from Port Canaveral, which also serves as homeport to Royal’s Utopia of the Seas. That ship debuted in summer 2024 at Port Canaveral and will continue three- and four-night Bahamas itineraries. Many sailings include a stop at Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Find me @PConnPie on Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com. Stay up to date with our latest travel, arts and events coverage by subscribing to our newsletters at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

By TRÂN NGUYỄN and SOPHIE AUSTIN, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Democrats are making a partisan push to draw new congressional districts and reshape the state’s U.S. House representation in their favor, but to pull it off, lawmakers returning to the Capitol on Monday face a tight deadline and must still win voters’ approval.

Limits on federal immigration raids and advancing racial justice efforts are also among the hundreds of proposals the Legislature will vote on before the session ends in September.

Here’s a look at what’s ahead for lawmakers in their last month in session:

New political maps

Lawmakers are expected to spend the first week back after summer break advancing the new congressional map at the urging of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The new map aims at winning Democrats five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterms and is a direct response to President Donald Trump’s efforts to redraw Texas’ map to help Republicans retain their control of the U.S. House.

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So far, California is the only state beyond Texas that has officially waded into the redistricting fight, although others have signaled they might launch their own efforts.

California Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both chambers, unveiled the new map Friday. State lawmakers in both houses will hold hearings on the map and vote to put it to voters in a special election in November.

If voters agree, the new map would replace the one drawn by an independent commission that took effect in 2022. The new map would only take effect if Texas or another Republican-led state moves forward with their own mid-decade redistricting and would remain through the 2030 elections.

Democrats said they will return the map-making power to the commission after the next census. The current effort is to save democracy and counter Trump’s agenda, they said.

State Republicans vowed to legally challenge the effort, arguing that voters in 2010 already voted to remove partisan influence from how maps are drawn.

Climate change

State lawmakers are contending with how to balance meeting the state’s climate goals with lowering utility and gas prices. Those discussions have been colored by the planned closures of two oil refineries that account for nearly 18% of the state’s refining capacity, according to air regulators.

The Legislature will have to respond to those concerns when it debates whether to reauthorize the state’s cap-and-trade program, which is set to expire in 2030. The program allows large greenhouse gas emitters to buy allowances from the state equivalent to what they plan to emit. Over time, fewer allowances are made available with the goal of spurring companies to pollute less.

A large portion of revenues from the program goes into a fund that helps pay for climate, affordable housing and transportation projects. The program also funds a credit that Californians receive twice a year on their utility bills.

Newsom wants lawmakers to extend the program through 2045, commit $1 billion annually from the fund for the state’s long-delayed high-speed rail project and set aside $1.5 billion a year for state fire response.

Many environmental groups want the state to update the program by ending free allowances for industrial emitters, ensuring low-income households receive a higher credit on their utility bills, and ending or strengthening an offset program that helps companies comply by supporting projects aimed at reducing planet-warming emissions.

Response to mass immigration raids

Lawmakers will vote on a host of proposals introduced in response to the escalation of federal immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and across the state. That includes legislation that would make it a misdemeanor for local, state and federal law enforcement officers to cover their faces while conducting official business.

The proposal makes exceptions for officers wearing a medical grade mask, coverings designed to protect against exposure to smoke during a wildfire, and other protective gear used by SWAT officers while performing their duties. Proponents said the measure would boost transparency and public trust in law enforcement while also preventing people from trying to impersonate law enforcement.

Opponents, including law enforcement, said the bill would disrupt local undercover operations without addressing the issue because California doesn’t have authority over federal agents.

Another proposal would require law enforcement to identify themselves during official business.

State Democrats are also championing several proposals that would limit immigration agents without warrants from entering school campuses, hospitals and homeless or domestic violence shelters.

Racial justice

A first-in-the-nation state task force released a report in 2023 with more than 100 recommendations for how the state should repair historic wrongdoings against Black Californians descended from enslaved people.

The California Legislative Black Caucus introduced a reparations package last year inspired by that work, but the measures did not include direct payments for descendants, and the most ambitious proposals were blocked.

The caucus introduced another package this year aimed at offering redress to Black Californians.

One of the bills would authorize universities to give admissions priority to descendants of enslaved people. Another would ensure 10% of funds from a state program providing loans to first-time homebuyers goes to descendants. A third would allow the state to set aside $6 million to fund research by California State University on how to confirm residents’ eligibility for any reparations programs.

Some reparations advocates say the proposals fall short. They say many of the measures are ways to delay implementing one of the task force’s key recommendations: direct compensation to descendants of slavery.