Autonomous electric tractor startup Monarch Tractor -- which we covered in 2022 -- warned staff Thursday it may need to lay off more than 100 employees, or possibly even "shut down," according to a company-wide memo obtained by TechCrunch. The report adds: The memo comes after Monarch Tractor was already cutting some positions over the last few weeks at its California corporate facilities and remote teams in India and Singapore, according to multiple former employees who spoke with TechCrunch on the condition of anonymity.

Monarch Tractor was founded in 2018 by a team that included a former top executive at Tesla's first gigafactory and Carlo Mondavi, a scion of the famous winemaking family. The company raised at least $220 million, including $133 million in 2024, as it pursued a goal of making "driver optional" autonomous tractors that could perform tasks at places like wineries and other fruit farms.

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europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

The ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured a glimpse of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on 15–26 October 2026. During this time period, the spacecraft’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument suite spotted the comet crossing its field of view from approximately 358 million km away, or more than twice Earth’s distance from the Sun.

Comet 3I/ATLAS was expected to be too faint for SOHO to see, but detailed image processing and overlaying (or 'stacking') subsequent telescope images ultimately generated this image, where the comet appears as a slight brightening in the centre.

Launched in 1995, SOHO has become the most prolific comet hunter of all time. With the help of citizen scientists participating in the NASA-funded Sungrazer Project, SOHO’s imagery has led to the discovery of more than half of all known comets (over 5186 as of this writing).

Full text from NASA

[Image description: Dark background with a bright yellow-white blob in the centre, covering perhaps a tenth of the width and a tenth of the height of the image. The rest of the image is slightly mottled brown.]

Credits: ESA&NASA/SOHO/LASCO/Qicheng Zhang

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

In July 2025, the Smile spacecraft was removed from the Large Space Simulator at ESA’s technical heart, ESTEC, where it had been undergoing thermal tests.

This manoeuvre required a lot of work and patience to install the lifting device that slowly picks up the spacecraft and moves it out of the chamber. The Large Space Simulator is Europe’s largest vacuum chamber. It is used to ensure that spacecraft are ready for the tough conditions of space – making it crucial to lift spacecraft in and out very carefully.

Read more about the final stages of the Smile test campaign

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

[Image description: A large circular opening frames the view upward into a bright room. Suspended from a yellow overhead crane is a shiny, gold-coloured spacecraft, hanging by red straps and surrounded by cables. The perspective is from inside a dark chamber looking up at the equipment above.]

Credits: ESA-M.Roos

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

The Smile mission team takes a quick break from testing the spacecraft’s instruments to smile for a group photo in front of the spacecraft.

Read more about the final stages of the Smile test campaign

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

[Image description: A group of 16 people wearing white cleanroom suits pose for a photo inside a bright laboratory. They are standing and kneeling in front of a large spacecraft covered in shiny silver and gold thermal material, mounted on a vertical support structure. Some team members wear masks, and the background shows technical equipment and cleanroom walls.]

Credits: ESA-M.Roos

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

The Smile spacecraft will be launched into space on a Vega-C rocket in spring 2026. In September 2025, engineers checked that the spacecraft fits the adapter that will connect it to the rocket. They confirmed that the interface works as expected, and nothing has warped during the spacecraft’s testing phase.

Read more about the final stages of the Smile test campaign

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

[Image description: Close-up of part of a spacecraft inside a cleanroom. The upper section is wrapped in shiny gold thermal foil, while the lower section is a dark cylindrical structure. A metal ring connects the two parts. In the background, there are workbenches with tools, monitors, and cleanroom equipment.]

Credits: ESA-M.Roos

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

In September 2025, engineers had deemed the Smile spacecraft ready for the harsh space environment and the instruments ready to collect scientific data. They carefully packed the spacecraft up ready for a couple of months in storage at ESA’s technical heart, ESTEC.

Whilst in the packing container, engineers regularly flush the instruments with dry nitrogen to keep them clean, dry and in tiptop condition.

Read more about the final stages of the Smile test campaign

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

[Image description: Top-down view of a spacecraft inside a cleanroom. Several large spherical tanks wrapped in shiny silver foil are secured within a circular frame with red supports. The base is covered in gold foil, and cables run across the structure. The spacecraft seems to be sitting inside a large metal box, which is open at the top. A person wearing a hairnet and gloves is working near the bottom edge.]

Credits: ESA-M.Roos

conspectus_bs posted a photo:

Kodak Gold 200 with Mamiya 645 Pro and Sekor 50 mm Shift

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Het initiatiefwetsvoorstel dat het mogelijk maakt dat een kind maximaal vier ouders heeft, is volgens lhbti+ belangenorganisaties COC Nederland en Meer dan Gewenst "een cruciale stap voorwaarts voor meeroudergezinnen".

Tweede Kamerlid Ingrid Michon-Derkzen (VVD) diende donderdag een voorstel in dat rekening houdt met situaties waarin twee vrouwen een kind krijgen met een man, of twee mannen een kind krijgen met een vrouw. Volgens de huidige wetgeving kunnen maar twee mensen officieel ouder zijn van een kind en dat zorgt volgens de VVD voor problemen in het dagelijks leven.

"Kinderen en ouders in meeroudergezinnen verdienen dezelfde wettelijke bescherming als andere gezinnen", aldus COC en Meer dan Gewenst. De organisaties pleiten naar eigen zeggen al bijna twee decennia voor dergelijke erkenning en vinden het goed en noodzakelijk dat de Kamer nu stappen zet, "waar het kabinet recent nog besloot het onderwerp in de ijskast te zetten."

LONDEN (ANP/RTR/AFP) - Als de Britse regering van toenmalig premier Boris Johnson eerder had ingegrepen tijdens de coronapandemie, had dit tienduizenden levens kunnen redden, concludeert een speciale onderzoekscommissie. In Engeland hadden 23.000 sterfgevallen kunnen worden voorkomen als de eerste lockdown, die begon op 23 maart 2020, een week eerder was ingesteld.

Het rapport hekelt het "gebrek aan urgentie" bij Johnsons regering. "Er heerste een giftige en chaotische cultuur binnen de Britse regering tijdens de pandemie", aldus de voorzitter van de onderzoekscommissie Heather Hallett. Ze zei dat als er eerder maatregelen waren genomen om de verspreiding van het virus te voorkomen, er mogelijk helemaal geen lockdown nodig was geweest.

In Groot-Brittannië stierven meer dan 230.000 mensen door corona, een van de hoogste dodentallen van de pandemie in Europa. Het land is nog steeds aan het herstellen van de economische gevolgen.

KYIV (ANP/DPA/RTR/BLOOMBERG) - De Oekraïense president Volodymyr Zelensky heeft vredesvoorstellen van zijn Amerikaanse ambtgenoot Donald Trump voor het einde van de oorlog ontvangen.

Hij zal volgens zijn medewerkers daar "constructief" met de VS over overleggen. Hij gaat in de komende dagen met Trump praten om te kijken welke diplomatieke mogelijkheden het plan biedt. Hij spreekt met Trump "over de bestaande diplomatieke mogelijkheden en de randvoorwaarden om vrede te bereiken".

Zelensky zei zelf dat hij donderdag heeft gesproken met Daniel Driscoll, een civiele topfunctionaris in het Pentagon. De speciale Amerikaanse gezant Steve Witkoff had woensdag in Ankara afgezien van een ontmoeting met Zelensky. Volgens Zelensky bespraken Driscoll en hij "de mogelijkheden om een echte vrede te bereiken". Hij wil ook snel te werk gaan en de punten van het plan van Trump beoordelen.

De Amerikaanse delegatie die Driscoll aanvoert, sprak ook met de premier van Oekraïne Joelia Svyrydenko en de minister van Defensie Denys Sjmyhal.