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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Two arrested after drones delay flights and force cancellations at Gatwick Airport

UK police say they have made two arrests in connection with criminal drone activity at Gatwick Airport, and urged the public and passengers around the airport to remain vigilant. Britain's second-largest airport reopened on Friday after a mystery saboteur wrought 36 hours of travel chaos for more than 100,000 Christmas travellers by using drones to play cat-and-mouse with police snipers and the army. [...] The defence ministry refused to comment on what technology was deployed, but drone experts said airports needed to deploy specialist radar reinforced by thermal imaging technology to detect such unmanned flying vehicles.

See also: Gatwick drones: Two arrested over flight disruption

A 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman, from Crawley, were arrested in the town at about 22:00 GMT on Friday.

Previously: Army Called in Amid UK Drone Chaos (Updated)

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Heavy.com reports that there have been a number of email bomb threats sent out demanding blackmail payments in bitcoin. An example of one message follows:

"Good day. My mercenary has carried the bomb (lead azide) into the building where your business is conducted. My mercenary built the explosive device under my direction. It can be hidden anywhere because of its small size, it is impossible to destroy the supporting building structure by this explosive device, but if it denotates there will be many wounded people.

My recruited person is watching the situation around the building. If he notices any suspicious activity, panic or cops the device will be blown up.

I can call off my man if you make a transfer 20,000 usd is the price for your safety and business. Transfer it to me in Bitcoin and I assure that I have to withdraw my mercenary and the bomb will not detonate. But do not try to deceive me – my guarantee will become valid only after 3 confirmations in blockchain."

So does this sound like somebody who speaks English natively? Can you predict where this is coming from? Can you predict what kind of person sent this? Can you predict what kind of mess this is going to create? Who are you betting is really behind this?

Also at The Register, threatpost, Krebs on Security, and Ars Technica.

Original Submission

United States elections, 2018

Maine's ranked-choice voting will be used in a federal general election for the first time, after previously using it in the primary system.

Live coverage at FiveThirtyEight, CNN, NBC, WSJ, Fox, CBSN (video), and Ballotpedia.

2018 Ballot measures

Update: Democrats have taken the House of Representatives, while Republicans have retained control of the Senate.

takyon writes:

Three Explosive Devices Sent to Clintons, Obama and CNN Offices

Explosive devices were sent to former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as to CNN's offices in New York, sparking an intense investigation on Wednesday into whether a bomber is going after targets that have often been the subject of right-wing ire.

A law enforcement official said the three devices were similar to one found Monday at the home of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and liberal donor.

[...] The device sent to CNN was contained in a manila envelope addressed to John Brennan, who was the C.I.A. director in the Obama administration and is a harsh critic of Mr. Trump. The president revoked Mr. Brennan's security clearance in what was seen as an act of retribution. The return address bore the name of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman who formerly headed the Democratic National Committee.

In a statement, the White House condemned "the attempted violent attacks."

Update 1: The explosive devices have been described as pipe bombs. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says that a device was also sent to his office.

Update 2:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's spokesman has identified the device sent to his office, originally believed to be suspicious, as a thumb drive containing files on the far right group Proud Boys. It does not appear to be related to the explosive devices.

[...] Another suspicious package has been intercepted at a Congressional mail screening facility in Capitol Heights, Maryland, according to CNN. [...] ABC News reported the package was addressed to Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat.

Live updates at The Guardian.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

I first learned of GitHub having problems from a story on Hacker News. Since SoylentNews hosts its code there, I was curious as to what was going on. If it was indeed down, I wanted to pass the word on to the rest of the SoylentNews community.

The comments on that story suggested that GitHub read access was working okay (and a very quick check on my part of our code there confirmed that), but attempts to make changes are failing.

That's strange.

Then I took a look at GitHub's Status Page, where I found something even stranger... how they phrased their status messages! Take a look:

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

22:42 Eastern Standard Time
We continue to repair a data storage system for GitHub.com. You may see inconsistent results during this process.
22:23 Eastern Standard Time
We are continuing to repair a data storage system for GitHub.com. You may see inconsistent results during this process.
22:01 Eastern Standard Time
We continue work to repair a data storage system for GitHub.com. You may see inconsistent results during this process.
21:41 Eastern Standard Time
We are continuing to work to migrate a data storage system in order to restore access to GitHub.com.
21:22 Eastern Standard Time
We continue to work to migrate a data storage system in order to restore access to GitHub.com.
21:02 Eastern Standard Time
We continue to migrate a data storage system in order to restore full access to GitHub.com.
20:43 Eastern Standard Time
We continue to work on migrating a data storage system in order to restore access to GitHub.com.
20:23 Eastern Standard Time
We're continuing to work on migrating a data storage system in order to restore access to GitHub.com.
20:05 Eastern Standard Time
We're failing over a data storage system in order to restore access to GitHub.com.
19:43 Eastern Standard Time
We're investigating problems accessing GitHub.com.
19:13 Eastern Standard Time
We are investigating reports of service unavailability.
19:09 Eastern Standard Time

Seems to me someone on GitHub once spent a little too much time exploring mazes in Colossal Cave. Will they be able to fix the problem before they run out of permutations?

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Just weeks after hurricane Florence battered the US southeast with historic rains and flooding, another major hurricane is now bearing down on the Florida panhandle with 145 mph (~240 kph) winds and heavy rains forecast. From Ars Technica:

Hurricane Michael continued to intensify during Tuesday night, bringing an unprecedentedly strong storm to the northwest Florida coast on Wednesday. This is a serious situation for the Florida Panhandle and downstream areas in southeastern Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

As of the National Hurricane Center's 9am ET update, Michael had 145mph sustained winds, solidly in the range of a Category-4 major hurricane. Winds along the Florida coast were already rising above tropical storm strength at the time, all but closing the window for further evacuations as the storm nears shore and moves inland later today.

Perhaps most concerning, Michael's central pressure continued to fall during the overnight hours, down to 933 millibars by Wednesday morning. This is an indication of the storm's organization, and with Michael's satellite appearance actually improving as the storm approaches land, some slight further intensification is possible today before landfall near Panama City. If Michael's central pressure falls further, to 930 millibars, it would rank among the 10 most intense hurricanes to make landfall in the US on record in terms of central pressure.

Meteorologists are reacting to the rapidly intensifying storm with some measure of alarm. Mike Bettes, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel, noted on Twitter Wednesday morning that his crew was pulling out of Apalachicola, a small coastal community to the right of Michael's projected landfall that will likely bear the brunt of the storm's winds and surge.

If you are in the path of this storm, please take whatever measures necessary to keep yourself safe.

Original Submission

Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The vote was 50-48 in favor of Kavanaugh.

Senators Collins, Flake, and Manchin had already announced their intentions to confirm Kavanaugh before the vote was held. Senator Lisa Murkowski, who was previously ready to vote "no", agreed to vote "present" instead so that Senator Steve Daines could attend his daughter's wedding instead of being present in the Senate to support Kavanaugh.

SCOTUSBlog: Kavanaugh confirmed as 114th justice
Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court

Previously: SCOTUS's Justice Anthony Kennedy to Retire
President Trump Nominates Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court
Trump's Supreme Court Pick: ISPs Have 1st Amendment Right to Block Websites