The future of the Belt has begun in first trailer for The Expanse S5

The fifth season of the sci-fi series The Expanse will begin streaming on Amazon Prime on December 16, 2020.

Amazon Prime debuted the first trailer (embedded above) for the upcoming fifth season of The Expanse during the series panel at the New York Comic Con's Metaverse today. And the stakes are high. According to the official premise, "The future of The Belt has begun as Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) wages Armageddon against the Inners for a lifetime of oppression and injustice."

(Some spoilers for prior seasons below.)

As we previously reported, The Expanse is based on a series of novels by James S.A. Corey (the pen name for writing team Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), exploring interplanetary tensions that are breaking out all over a Solar System long since colonized by humans—mostly between Earthers, Martians, and "Belters." Part mystery, part political thriller, part classic space opera, The Expanse has earned almost nothing but praise from critics and its devoted fans alike, not just for its gripping storytelling, but also its excellent use of accurate physics. The third and fourth seasons earned a rare 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes (seasons one and two earned 76 percent and 96 percent, respectively).

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DHS warns that Emotet malware is one of the most prevalent threats today

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

The malware known as Emotet has emerged as “one of the most prevalent ongoing threats” as it increasingly targets state and local governments and infects them with other malware, the cybersecurity arm of the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.

Emotet was first identified in 2014 as a relatively simple trojan for stealing banking account credentials. Within a year or two, it had reinvented itself as a formidable downloader or dropper that, after infecting a PC, installed other malware. The Trickbot banking trojan and the Ryuk ransomware are two of the more common follow-ons. Over the past month, Emotet has successfully burrowed into Quebec’s Department of Justice and increased its onslaught on governments in France, Japan, and New Zealand. It has also targeted the Democratic National Committee.

Not to be left out, US state and local governments are also receiving unwanted attention, according to the CISA, short for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Einstein—the agency’s intrusion-detection system for collecting, analyzing, and sharing security information across the federal civilian departments and agencies—has in recent weeks noticed a big uptick, too. In an advisory issued on Tuesday, officials wrote:

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Boom! Hacked page on mobile phone website is stealing customers’ card data

Enlarge / Computer hacker character stealing money online. Vector flat cartoon illustration (credit: GettyImages)

If you’re in the market for a new mobile phone plan, it’s best to avoid turning to Boom! Mobile. That is, unless you don’t mind your sensitive payment card data being sent to criminals in an attack that remained ongoing in the last few hours.

According to researchers from security firm Malwarebytes, Boom! Mobile’s boom.us website is infected with a malicious script that skims payment card data and sends it to a server under the control of a criminal group researchers have dubbed Fullz House. The malicious script is called by a single line that comprises mostly nonsense characters when viewed with the human eye.

(credit: Malwarebytes)

When decoded from Base64 format, the line translates to: paypal-debit[.]com/cdn/ga.js. The JavaScript code ga.js masquerades as a Google Analytics script at one of the many fraudulent domains operated by Fullz House members.

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2020 Subaru Outback is fan service in the best possible way

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  If you love Subaru, you'll love the new Outback. [credit: Eric Bangeman ]

The Ascent may be a surprisingly good three-row SUV and the redesigned Forester has been selling well, but the Outback is still Subaru's best-selling car and its best-known model. The 2020 Outback marks the sixth generation of Subaru's venerable crossover. If you're a long-time Subaru owner looking to upgrade, there's plenty to like here. If you're new to Subaru, the Outback has some selling points that make it stand out from the crowd of compact crossovers.

On the outside, not a lot has changed for the Outback. With 8.7 inches (22cm) of ground clearance, the Outlook still rocks that classic let's-go-off-roading-to-the-grocery-store look. Built on Subaru's global platform, the sixth-generation Outlook looks very similar to the previous year's model. Unless you're looking closely at the grille, which has black accents instead of chrome, or the taillights, you'll be hard-pressed to spot any big differences. The biggest changes come under the hood and inside the cabin.

The 2020 Outlook still comes standard with the naturally aspirated 2.5L boxer engine, but there's now a turbocharged 2.4L power plant that comes with the XT model we tested. Available in an Outback for the first time since 2009, the turbocharged engine is capable of 260hp (191kW) at 5,600rpm and 277lb-ft (376Nm) of torque at 2,00rpm. The standard, horizontally mounted 2.5L engine sees some modest performance gains from last year: 182hp/134kW and 176lb-ft/237Nm, up from 175hp/129kW and 174lb-ft/235Nm—basically the same as the Forester. What hasn't changed is an eight-speed Lineartronic continuously variable transmission, which has the same upside (fuel economy) and downside (noise) as always. The entire Outback lineup now comes equipped with paddle-shifters and an eight-speed manual-mode function.

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This congressperson wants to ramp up COVID-19 testing

Enlarge / Doctor in protection gloves examining & organising test kit for COVID-19 in laboratory. (credit: Tang Ming Tung | Getty Images)

The US's COVID testing failure has unfurled in stages. First, there weren’t close to enough tests, thanks to cascading policy failures and supply chain issues. Once the supply problem gradually came under control, it was replaced by processing backlogs: As cases soared over the summer, many people were having to wait a week or more to get results back. A national survey in August found that only 37 percent of people receiving nasal swab tests were getting results back in the two-day window necessary for effective contract tracing, while nearly a third of tests were taking longer than four days. This delay meant that, as Bill Gates colorfully told WIRED’s Steven Levy in August, “The majority of all US tests are completely garbage.” The root of the problem, Gates said, was that the federal reimbursement rate for the labs that process COVID tests is the same regardless of how long the results take. Change that, he argued, and the labs processing tests “will fix it overnight.”

A new House bill would aim to make Gates’ idea reality. On Thursday, Mikie Sherrill, a freshman congressperson from New Jersey, introduced the SPEEDY Act, which would tie federal reimbursement to test result speeds. (The full name is the “Strictly Pay for Efficient and Expedited Delivery of Your (SPEEDY) COVID-19 Test Act.”) At the outset of the pandemic, the government was paying about $51 per test for people covered by federal health plans. (The average marginal cost of a standard PCR test varies, but at a high-volume lab it runs at about $40.) To encourage labs to increase capacity, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) raised that to $100 in April. Under the SPEEDY Act, tests that deliver results in 24 hours would be rewarded with $125; within 48 hours, the current $100 rate would apply; and for results within 72 hours, labs would go back to the pre-April reimbursement. The government wouldn’t pay at all for results that come back after 72 hours. (To avoid having labs just give up on tests after that window closes, the law would require them to still process the tests in order to participate in Medicare.)

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President Trump: “Melania and I tested positive for COVID-19”

Enlarge / White House in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty)

Hours after White House aide Hope Hicks reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, President Donald Trump told the public that both he and First Lady Melania Trump had also tested positive for the virus, as determined by a test administered on Thursday.

"Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19," Trump stated on his Twitter account on early Friday morning. "We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately." This was followed by White House physician Sean Conley saying he'd "received confirmation" of that news, adding that the couple "plan[s] to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence." As of press time, no further details have been disclosed about either the President or First Lady's physical condition.

Reports about Hicks' contraction of the virus mention a timeline of her exhibiting mild symptoms on Wednesday while traveling with Trump, followed by a reportedly positive test result Wednesday evening. Later on Thursday, after Trump had already traveled to a fundraiser at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ, he described Hicks' test results. Hours later, he disclosed his own test result.

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Going in-depth with Nintendo’s augmented reality Mario Kart RC car

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  Man, now I want a real-life hover-clown-car RC toy. [credit: Nintendo ]

The toy industry has given us plenty of radio-controlled cars that are modeled after the Mario Kart franchise. But the $100 Mario Kart Life: Home Circuit, announced last month, promises to be the first to integrate such a toy car with an augmented reality camera and attendant Switch game experience.

While we haven't gotten any hands-on time with Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit yet, we were able to participate in a recent livestream demo of the RC car/AR app combo ahead of its planned October 16 release. What we saw doesn't quite match up to a full-fledged Mario Kart game, but it looks like it could add a lot of creativity and imaginative play opportunities to the standard RC car experience.

On your mark...

The demo walked us through the Mario Kart Live setup process, which starts off by using the camera on the Kart to scan a QR code found on the free downloadable Switch app (that app won't work at all without the Kart). With that scan, the Kart and Switch are connected directly via Wi-Fi, without the need for any router or live Internet connection.

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Delta IV Heavy scrubs again, ULA chief vows to change readiness operations

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  The Mobile Service Tower rolls back from the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the NROL-44 mission on Wednesday, September 30. [credit: United Launch Alliance ]

Late on Wednesday night, United Launch Alliance's large Delta IV Heavy rocket again came within seconds of lifting off from its Florida launch pad. But once again, the launch was scrubbed.

Following the automated abort of the rocket at T-7 seconds, both the booster and its valuable National Reconnaissance Office payload were said to be safe. Because the abort was triggered just before the rocket's main RS-68 engines had begun to ignite, the delay before the next launch attempt may be less than a week.

"The terminal countdown sequencer rack identified an unexpected condition prior to the engine start sequence," the company stated about an hour after the scrub. "The TCSR, which controls the final 10 seconds of the countdown, performed as intended and safely initiated a hold at T-7 seconds. The team is currently reviewing all data and will determine the path forward."

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Nikola founder bought truck designs from third party

Enlarge / A Nikola Badger pickup truck. (credit: Nikola Motors)

The original design for Nikola’s flagship truck was purchased by founder Trevor Milton from a designer in Croatia, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, despite company claims in a 2018 lawsuit that the vehicle was initially designed by Mr. Milton “in his basement..”

The truck, the Nikola One, is at the centre of a $2 billion lawsuit with Tesla, in which Nikola alleges its rival infringed on its patents. Nikola claims in that lawsuit that Mr. Milton began designing the model in 2013, with other company staff later working on it.

In a rebuttal to the lawsuit filed last week, Tesla alleged that Nikola could not protect the designs because they did not originate from the company itself, but from Adriano Mudri, a designer based in Croatia.

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Judge will rule by midnight tonight if TikTok can stay in app stores

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TikTok will be gone from app stores tomorrow morning unless a federal judge acts to block the Trump administration's ban on the app before midnight tonight.

Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court for DC said today that he will determine whether to grant or reject TikTok's request for an injunction on the ban before the deadline hits at the stroke of 12.

In a hearing on Thursday, Nichols gave the administration until Friday afternoon either to delay or defend the ban. The administration chose to file a response defending the ban but did so under seal, so the filings are not available to the public.

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