Live coverage of the Formula 1 Qualifying session for the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix.
Lando Norris finished fastest in Free Practice 3 ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix, the McLaren driver just beating Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc to the top spot.
Companies like Google, Netflix, TikTok, and Meta may soon owe the French government, reports Tom's Hardware:
France has approved a proposed tax that aims to tax the amount of internet data per gigabyte sent to French users in the country... According to minutes released by the National Assembly, members voted 11-10 in support of the motion on October 30 — which now means the new law has been added to the country's next budget, despite major opposition from the government side and the finance committee rapporteur. The latest amendment, introduced by socialist lawmaker Laurent Lhardit, could see content providers pay €0.055 (roughly $0.06) to the government for every gigabyte of content distributed to French users. With approximately 154 million users and counting in France, the proposal's authors say such a tax could generate around €10 billion ($11.2 billion) in annual revenue for the government.
The said proposal, though yet to be passed as it must survive further parliamentary scrutiny, aims at companies that generate substantial internet traffic as opposed to taxing their advertising revenue, profits and subscriptions. Its explanatory notes particularly mention Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon, and content delivery network Akamai as major potential contributors. Notably, TikTok and other similar platforms could fall under this broader scope depending on how these rules are applied. Internet service providers, including Orange Free and Liad, would be required to measure the volume of data and identify the companies responsible for sending it to French users. The Data will then be collected and submitted quarterly to France's tax administration under the supervision of telecommunications watchdog Arcep.
The measure becomes law if it clears the remaining stages of France's budget process, the article points out, "with parliament scheduled to vote on the budget's first section in early November."
"VideoLAN, the French nonprofit organization behind the VLC media player, warned that the proposed levy could cost it more than €1 million annually," reports CircleID. "Its response illustrates how traffic-based taxation could affect organizations distributing large volumes of data without corresponding commercial revenue."
France has approved a proposed tax that aims to tax the amount of internet data per gigabyte sent to French users in the country... According to minutes released by the National Assembly, members voted 11-10 in support of the motion on October 30 — which now means the new law has been added to the country's next budget, despite major opposition from the government side and the finance committee rapporteur. The latest amendment, introduced by socialist lawmaker Laurent Lhardit, could see content providers pay €0.055 (roughly $0.06) to the government for every gigabyte of content distributed to French users. With approximately 154 million users and counting in France, the proposal's authors say such a tax could generate around €10 billion ($11.2 billion) in annual revenue for the government.
The said proposal, though yet to be passed as it must survive further parliamentary scrutiny, aims at companies that generate substantial internet traffic as opposed to taxing their advertising revenue, profits and subscriptions. Its explanatory notes particularly mention Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon, and content delivery network Akamai as major potential contributors. Notably, TikTok and other similar platforms could fall under this broader scope depending on how these rules are applied. Internet service providers, including Orange Free and Liad, would be required to measure the volume of data and identify the companies responsible for sending it to French users. The Data will then be collected and submitted quarterly to France's tax administration under the supervision of telecommunications watchdog Arcep.
The measure becomes law if it clears the remaining stages of France's budget process, the article points out, "with parliament scheduled to vote on the budget's first section in early November."
"VideoLAN, the French nonprofit organization behind the VLC media player, warned that the proposed levy could cost it more than €1 million annually," reports CircleID. "Its response illustrates how traffic-based taxation could affect organizations distributing large volumes of data without corresponding commercial revenue."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Hubble Space Telescope "will plunge back into the atmosphere in the early-to-mid-2030s," reports Ars Technica.
So now NASA has released a Request For Information (RFI) "asking commercial companies for ideas on how to reboost, service, or a controlled disposal of Hubble."
Specifically, NASA is looking for information about companies' current and near-term capabilities for capturing Hubble and boosting it to an altitude of at least 373 miles (600 km), enhancing the telescope's performance, or guiding Hubble to a controlled reentry. "The requirement includes that the boost and/or servicing mission must not harm the HST and that this mission is expected to occur by 2032," NASA wrote in the RFI. The contractor would be responsible for providing the launch vehicle, servicing spacecraft, mission operations, and "crew if applicable."
NASA is not committing to buying a Hubble rescue mission, but officials want to know who might be interested in mounting such a mission, how much it would cost, and which companies would have a realistic shot at reaching Hubble before it falls out of orbit and burns up on reentry. Orbital dynamicists currently predict that it will likely happen in 2033 or 2034 without intervention, but reentry forecasts can change based on solar activity... A reboost to NASA's requirement of 373 miles (600 km) would likely keep Hubble in orbit for at least 25 more years.
"NASA last raised the orbit of Hubble in 2002," the article points out, "when the Space Shuttle Columbia visited the observatory for a servicing mission."
The final shuttle servicing flight in 2009 did not reboost the telescope's orbit, and with the retirement of the shuttle fleet two years later, Hubble has steadily lost altitude with no way to stave off eventual destruction... NASA's newer flagship observatories, sometimes described as successors to Hubble, are not actually one-for-one replacements. Hubble is tuned to observe the Universe in visible and ultraviolet light, while the Webb and Roman telescopes peer deeper into the infrared Universe. Astronomers will likely have to wait for the launch of NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory in the 2040s for an improvement on Hubble's visible and ultraviolet vision.
So now NASA has released a Request For Information (RFI) "asking commercial companies for ideas on how to reboost, service, or a controlled disposal of Hubble."
Specifically, NASA is looking for information about companies' current and near-term capabilities for capturing Hubble and boosting it to an altitude of at least 373 miles (600 km), enhancing the telescope's performance, or guiding Hubble to a controlled reentry. "The requirement includes that the boost and/or servicing mission must not harm the HST and that this mission is expected to occur by 2032," NASA wrote in the RFI. The contractor would be responsible for providing the launch vehicle, servicing spacecraft, mission operations, and "crew if applicable."
NASA is not committing to buying a Hubble rescue mission, but officials want to know who might be interested in mounting such a mission, how much it would cost, and which companies would have a realistic shot at reaching Hubble before it falls out of orbit and burns up on reentry. Orbital dynamicists currently predict that it will likely happen in 2033 or 2034 without intervention, but reentry forecasts can change based on solar activity... A reboost to NASA's requirement of 373 miles (600 km) would likely keep Hubble in orbit for at least 25 more years.
"NASA last raised the orbit of Hubble in 2002," the article points out, "when the Space Shuttle Columbia visited the observatory for a servicing mission."
The final shuttle servicing flight in 2009 did not reboost the telescope's orbit, and with the retirement of the shuttle fleet two years later, Hubble has steadily lost altitude with no way to stave off eventual destruction... NASA's newer flagship observatories, sometimes described as successors to Hubble, are not actually one-for-one replacements. Hubble is tuned to observe the Universe in visible and ultraviolet light, while the Webb and Roman telescopes peer deeper into the infrared Universe. Astronomers will likely have to wait for the launch of NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory in the 2040s for an improvement on Hubble's visible and ultraviolet vision.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
lynddion has added a photo to the pool:
ATLANTA (ANP/AFP) - De Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Marco Rubio zegt dat Washington niet rechtstreeks betrokken was bij de vlucht van de Braziliaanse ex-presidentskandidaat Flávio Bolsonaro naar de VS. Amerikaanse media schreven eerder dat de vlucht was geregeld door een functionaris van het Witte Huis.
Rubio zei dat Bolsonaro eerder al een visum heeft gehad en dat president Trump hem toegang heeft verleend tot de VS. Maar hij benadrukte dat "de Amerikaanse regering niet rechtstreeks betrokken was" bij het regelen van Bolsonaro's vertrek uit Brazilië.
Onder meer The New York Times en The Wall Street Journal schreven dat een adviseur van president Donald Trump, Jason Miller, de vlucht had geregeld.
Bolsonaro verloor vorige week de Braziliaanse presidentsverkiezingen. Nadat het hooggerechtshof in Brazilië hem had bevolen zijn paspoort in te leveren, reisde hij via Argentinië en Ecuador naar de VS. Er lopen meerdere corruptie- en witwasonderzoeken tegen de rechtse senator.
The manager is not yet in Alex Ferguson and José Mourinho’s league, but his conspiracy theories have reached new levels
English football loves the word “dossier”. It doesn’t love dossiers themselves, of course; they’re for nerds – unless, that is, they’re a “secret dossier”, which have a thrilling redolence of spy dramas, invisible ink and dead drops. Non-secret dossiers, though, are inherently risible: call something a “dossier” in English football and you’re immediately signalling: this is absurd poindextering. Dossiers were preposterous when Don Revie was – imagine the pretension! – drawing up scouting reports on opposing players, and they are preposterous today as Mikel Arteta collates images of rival managers stepping outside their technical area.
Arteta, it should be said, did not use the word “dossier”; rather it was swiftly applied to what he had called “a massive storage of images”. During Arsenal’s 2-0 win against Everton last Saturday, he received his second booking of the season for leaving his technical area. This, it turns out, is another part of the vast conspiracy against Arsenal. Yes, Arteta accepted, he left his technical area (44 times before being booked, according to the former referee Graham Scott), but other managers do it too. “There are managers who have the record in the league, 36 times in 10 minutes [they] leave the touchline – no yellows,” he said. “I am clipping all of that … so if somebody comes to me I can say: ‘I am not in the record yet.’ Somebody else has the record so let’s see. Then it’s 36 yellow cards in 10 minutes for the managers.”
Continue reading...️ F1 updates from 9pm GMT in Mexico City
️ Giles Richards’ race scene-setter | And mail Philip
After last week’s rehearsal in Austin, Kimi Antonelli is going to become world champion this weekend provided he reaches the chequered flag on Sunday. Indeed, he may well do so even if he pulls up before the first corner. To take the title by his own efforts he need only finish in the top nine; if he crashes out on lap one, he will still be crowned if neither George Russell nor Lewis Hamilton wins.
A world champion at 20. OK, he’s no Luke Littler. But if he completes the job tomorrow, at 20 years, two months and seven days, he will be two months and 16 days inside the heavyweight boxing record set by Mike Tyson. And let’s be honest, he looks a lot younger than Littler now, despite being five months older, and younger today than the darts maestro did at 17.
To trust the youngster’s instincts and talent, when the temptation to micromanage him must have been overwhelming, has worked brilliantly. Even as the opposition caught and at times surpassed Mercedes, Antonelli was able to deliver when a win was not on the table. When it was, as at the last round in Austin, he stepped up to sweep it away with a nonchalance that typified why he is world champion elect.
This makes the atmosphere in Mexico City all the more febrile in what is already one of the most vibrant venues on the calendar. Antonelli could barely have chosen a better location to enjoy the celebration of his childhood dream. The fans here embrace F1 with the same passion the Italian has for his trade.
Continue reading...Álvarez challenges for Mbilli’s 168lb title in Riyadh
Mexican star fights for first time since Crawford loss
The undercard is nearing its conclusion as we build towards tonight’s main event between Álvarez and Mbilli, with one preliminary bout remaining before the headliners make their ringwalks. Jaime Munguía is up next to defend his WBA super-middleweight title against Nikita Zon in a scheduled 12-round contest.
In the most recent bout, Rafael Espinoza retained his WBO featherweight title with a third-round TKO of Ricardo Blandon, who was unable to continue after suffering a cut caused by a punch. The unbeaten Mexican improved to 29-0 with 25 knockouts. It should be noted the stoppage felt awfully premature.
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