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Upcoming Webinar: NASA CSDA Program Vendor Focus - Tomorrow.io
Jan. 13, 2026
NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) established the Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program to explore the potential of commercial satellite data in advancing the agency's Earth science research and application objectives.
The program aims to identify, assess, and acquire data from commercial providers, which may offer a cost-effective means of supplementing Earth observations collected by NASA, other U.S. Government agencies, and international collaborators.
On Jan. 21, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. ET, Tomorrow.io will present an overview of its space-based sensing capabilities, including the company’s weather satellite constellation and the unique atmospheric measurements it enables.
Speakers will demonstrate how to discover, access, and analyze Tomorrow.io’s NextGen satellite-derived weather datasets—such as precipitation, humidity, temperature, and severe weather indicators—within the CSDA framework.
https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/upcoming-webinar-nasa-csda-program-vendor-focus-tomorrow.io
https://nasaevents.webex.com/webappng/sites/nasaevents/meeting/register/b4a74d17392d49c8b90cbd5981e9722d
NASA Releases Global Temperature Data
Jan 14, 2026
Earth’s global surface temperature in 2025 was slightly warmer than 2023 – but within the margin of error the two years are effectively tied according to an analysis by NASA scientists.
Since record-keeping began in 1880, the hottest year on record remains 2024.
Global temperatures in 2025 were cooler than 2024, with average temperatures of 2.14 degrees Fahrenheit (1.19 degrees Celsius) above the 1951 to 1980 average.
The analysis from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies includes air temperature data acquired by more than 25,000 meteorological stations around the world, from ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations.
The data are analyzed using methods that account for the changing distribution of temperature stations and for urban heating effects that could skew the calculations.
Additionally, independent analyses by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Berkeley Earth, the Hadley Centre (part of the United Kingdom’s weather forecasting Met Office), and Copernicus Climate Services in Europe have concluded the global surface temperature for 2025 was the third warmest on record.
These scientists use much of the same temperature data in their analyses but employ different methodologies and models, which exhibit the same ongoing warming trend.
NASA’s full dataset of global surface temperatures, as well as details of how agency scientists conducted the analysis are available online.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-releases-global-temperature-data/
https://www.giss.nasa.gov/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/
https://nasawatch.com/astrobiology/new-nasa-a-i-effort-for-mars-exploration-ignores-the-search-for-life-e-g-astrobiology/
New NASA A.I. Effort For Mars Exploration Ignores The Search For Life (e.g. Astrobiology)
January 13, 2026
In case you missed it the White House recently went in – big time – on global AI leadership – here’s the plan at ai.gov. One would assume that NASA was paying attention.
They did to some extent. NASA SMD just issued C.12 Foundational Artificial Intelligence for the Moon and Mars (FAIMM) stating that it is “Amended January 13, 2026: This amendment presents this new program element in ROSES-2025.”
One of the prime reasons to explore Mars in the first place for the past six decades with robotics and humans has been the search for life – past or present. The NASA program for this is called “Astrobiology”.
Yet no mention of the words “astrobiology” or “exobiology” or “life” or “biology” is made in c.12. There is no mention on the new NASA Astrobiology site either. Why is that? More below.
There is a big push for the use of Artificial Intelligence(AI) at NASA Astrobiology.
A recent paper titled “Foundation Models for Astrobiology: Paper I — Workshop and Overview“ about a NASA workshop is dripping with references to AI and Machine Learning.
There is an AI-Astrobiology community hosted at NASA Ames but it makes no mention of this new effort outlined in NASA ROSES-2025 C.12
It is baffling that one part of NASA pushes for AI in Astrobiology yet the other parts of NASA that do AI or Astrobiology ignore c.12 – and each other.
And given that the whole Mars exploration effort has life science its nexus point makes this even more baffling.
[FYI you can find more AI/Astrobiology postings here at Astrobiology.com]
Here is what the NASA ROSES-2025 C.12 announcement says about what it encompasses.
Again, given the long standing emphasis on the whole life-on-Mars issue you’d expect something descriptive of that aspect of the AI efforts to be mentioned in that context. Again, no mention of Astrobiology is made.
C.12 Foundational Artificial Intelligence for the Moon and Mars:
Foundational Artificial Intelligence for the Moon and Mars (FAIMM) will enable individual researchers to participate as members of existing teams of scientists and artificial intelligence (AI) researchers who are designing science and exploration applications for large, general AI models known as Foundation Models (FMs).
FMs harness large datasets to, e.g., transform science and exploration on the Moon and Mars and can be applied to a range of AI and Machine Learning (ML) tasks.
Example applications include crater detection, feature identification, landing site assessment, and assessing evidence for the presence of water ice.
The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Office of the Chief Science Data Officer is supporting the development of FMs for each division in the Science Mission Directorate by the NASA Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT), and this program element aims to maximize the benefit of this effort to planetary science and exploration.
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In this collaborative and interdisciplinary effort, selected participants will work with each other, existing project team members, and AI researchers and engineers on one of two teams, one team working on applications for a Lunar FM and one team working on applications for a Martian FM.
This program seeks to expand the personnel, team skills and expertise, datasets, and science and exploration disciplines contributing to large AI models, and no prior AI/ML experience is required.
The FM, training data, and source code will be made publicly available as an open source, open weight model. Open weight refers to publishing the model parameters derived during training.
Each team (Moon or Mars) will collaborate on the following objectives:
Pilot the use of an AI FM to science and/or exploration applications for the target body.
Identify and/or develop benchmarks for transparent, reproducible, and rigorous assessment of the FM’s accuracy.
Contribute to the assessment of sources of error in the FM and assess their impact on the applications.
Contribute to open development of the code base and applications.
Create documentation on how to develop applications, including the process for fine tuning the FM to the application and lessons learned, for open public distribution to enable AI adoption.
Create documentation on how the applications are used, including example code and datasets, for open public distribution to enable AI adoption.
Contribute to publication of science results – including uncertainties and assumptions — in peer reviewed journals.
NASA email announcement issued on 13 January 2026:
C.12 Foundational Artificial Intelligence for the Moon and Mars (FAIMM) is intended to enable individual researchers to participate as members of teams who are designing science and exploration applications for large, general artificial intelligence (AI) models known as Foundation Models (FMs) for the Moon and Mars.
These FMs harness large datasets to transform science and exploration on the Moon and Mars and can be applied to a range of AI and Machine Learning (ML) tasks.
In this collaborative and interdisciplinary effort, selected participants will work with each other, existing project team members, and AI researchers and engineers.
This program seeks to expand the personnel, skills and expertise, datasets, and science and exploration disciplines contributing to large AI models, and no prior AI/ML experience is required.
ROSES-2025 Amendment 37 presents C.12 FAIMM as a new program element in ROSES-2025. Neither Step-1 proposals nor NOIs are requested for this program element. Proposals are due by April 28, 2026.
On or about January 13, 2026, this Amendment to the NASA Research Announcement “Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2025” (NNH25ZDA001N) will be posted on the NASA research opportunity homepage at https://solicitation.nasaprs.com/ROSES2025 and will appear on SARA’s ROSES blog at: https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/solicitations/roses-2025/
Questions concerning C.12 FAIMM may be directed to Rebekah Dawson-Rigas at HQ-FAIMM -at – mail.nasa.gov
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Phages and bacteria accumulate distinctive mutations aboard the International Space Station
January 13, 2026
In a new study, terrestrial bacteria-infecting viruses were still able to infect their E. coli hosts in near-weightless "microgravity" conditions aboard the International Space Station, but the dynamics of virus-bacteria interactions differed from those observed on Earth.
Phil Huss of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues present the findings in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.
Interactions between phages—viruses that infect bacteria—and their hosts play an integral role in microbial ecosystems.
Often described as being in an evolutionary "arms race," bacteria can evolve defenses against phages, while phages develop new ways to thwart defenses.
While virus-bacteria interactions have been studied extensively on Earth, microgravity conditions alter bacterial physiology and the physics of virus-bacteria collisions, disrupting typical interactions.
How microgravity alters phage-bacteria dynamics
However, few studies have explored the specifics of how phage-bacteria dynamics differ in microgravity.
To address that gap, Huss and colleagues compared two sets of bacterial E. coli samples infected with a phage known as T7—one set incubated on Earth and the other aboard the International Space Station.
Analysis of the space-station samples showed that, after an initial delay, the T7 phage successfully infected the E. coli.
However, whole-genome sequencing revealed marked differences in both bacterial and viral genetic mutations between the Earth samples versus the microgravity samples.
The space-station phages gradually accumulated specific mutations that could boost phage infectivity or their ability to bind receptors on bacterial cells.
Meanwhile, the space-station E. coli accumulated mutations that could protect against phages and enhance survival success in near-weightless conditions.
Genetic changes and potential applications
The researchers then applied a high-throughput technique known as deep mutational scanning to more closely examine changes in the T7 receptor binding protein, which plays a key role in infection, revealing further significant differences between microgravity versus Earth conditions.
Additional experiments on Earth linked these microgravity-associated changes in the receptor binding protein to increased activity against E. coli strains that cause urinary tract infections in humans and are normally resistant to T7.
Overall, this study highlights the potential for phage research aboard the ISS to reveal new insights into microbial adaptation, with potential relevance to both space exploration and human health.
The authors add, "Space fundamentally changes how phages and bacteria interact: infection is slowed, and both organisms evolve along a different trajectory than they do on Earth.
By studying those space-driven adaptations, we identified new biological insights that allowed us to engineer phages with far superior activity against drug-resistant pathogens back on Earth."
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-phages-bacteria-accumulate-distinctive-mutations.html
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003568
SpaceX Starlink Mission
January 14, 2026
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is targeting the launch of 29 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the X TV app.
This will be the 13th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-9, RRT-1, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, Fram2, SXM-10, MTG-S1, and six Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-6-98
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75OEdhN2_10
'Death by a thousand cuts': James Webb Space Telescope figures out how black hole murdered Pablo's Galaxy
January 13, 2026
Astronomers have discovered that a young galaxy was gradually starved by its central supermassive black hole, in what was effectively a cosmic "death by a thousand cuts."
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) studied this unfortunate galaxy, known as GS-10578 or by the slightly snappier nickname "Pablo's Galaxy" in honor of the first astronomer to study it in detail.
The light from Pablo's Galaxy has taken around 11 billion years to reach us, meaning the JWST and ALMA allow astronomers to see it as it was just 3 billion years after the Big Bang.
For such an early galaxy, it is exceptionally massive, containing as much mass as around 200 billion suns.
The majority of the stars in Pablo's Galaxy seem to have formed between 12.5 billion and 11.5 billion years ago. However, this galaxy seems to have stopped forming stars and has exhausted its supply of star-forming cold gas despite its relatively young age.
As astronomers define the cessation of star formation and the transition into quiescence as the "death" of a galaxy, that means Pablo's Galaxy "lived fast and died young."
The team behind this study first released results concerning Pablo's Galaxy back in Sept. 2024, using the JWST alone, finding that the supermassive black hole at its heart is pushing away huge amounts of gas at speeds as great as 2.2 million miles per hour (3.5 million km/h).
That's fast enough to allow this star-forming matter to escape the gravitational influence of Pablo's Galaxy entirely.
Adding ALMA, an array of 66 radio telescopes located in the Atacama Desert region of northern Chile, the researchers observed Pablo's Galaxy for a further seven hours searching for carbon monoxide, which they could use as a way to trace cold hydrogen gas, the stuff that forms stars.
However, this search turned up empty-handed. But this in itself was telling.
"What surprised us was how much you can learn by not seeing something," team member Jan Scholtz from Cambridge University in the UK said in a statement.
"Even with one of ALMA's deepest observations of this kind of galaxy, there was essentially no cold gas left. It points to a slow starvation rather than a single dramatic death blow."
Meanwhile, a further 6.5 hours of observations with the JWST revealed that Pablo's Galaxy is losing about 60 suns' worth of mass in gas each year.
At that rate, the galaxy's fuel for star formation could have been exhausted in a timescale of between 16 million and 220 million years.
If that seems like an incredibly long period of time, consider that scientists normally estimate that it takes as long as a billion years to exhaust their fuel for star-formation in a galaxy such as this.
"The galaxy looks like a calm, rotating disc," team co-leader Francesco D'Eugenio of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology said. "That tells us it didn't suffer a major, disruptive merger with another galaxy.
Yet it stopped forming stars 400 million years ago, while the black hole is yet again active.
The team reconstructed the star formation history of Pablo's Galaxy, finding that fresh gas has been prevented by the black hole pushing gas outward from falling back into the galaxy.
This prevents allowing the "fuel tanks" for star birth from being refilled. They also discovered that the supermassive black hole in this young galaxy didn't push away all of its gas at once, but has been experiencing repeated cycles of gas expulsion.
"So the current black hole activity and the outburst of gas we observed didn't cause the shutdown; instead, repeated episodes likely kept the fuel from coming back," D'Eugenio added.
The team's findings could help to explain why the JWST has been discovering lots of old-looking galaxies in the early universe.
"You don't need a single cataclysm to stop a galaxy forming stars, just keep the fresh fuel from coming in. Before Webb, these were unheard of," Scholtz said.
"Now we know they're more common than we thought — and this starvation effect may be why they live fast and die young."
With the effectiveness of the ALMA/JWST telescope tag-team established, astronomers hope that further observations of Pablo's Galaxy can reveal more about the mechanism used by the supermassive black hole to prematurely starve this galaxy to death.
The team's research was published on Tuesday (Nov. 25) in the journal Nature Astronomy.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-james-webb-space-telescope-figures-out-how-black-hole-murdered-pablos-galaxy
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-young-galaxy-ran-out-of-fuel-as-black-hole-choked-off-supplies
Space schedule opens with two launches
Updated: 2026-01-14 23:58
A Long March 8A carrier rocket lifts off on Tuesday from the Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Center in Hainan province.
The rocket deployed the 18th group of low-orbit satellites into preset orbits. Luo yunfei / china news service
China launched two carrier rockets on Tuesday, signaling the start of the country's annual space mission schedule, which will feature a robotic lunar landing and two manned spaceflights.
At 10:16 pm, a Long March 6A rocket blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province, and it soon placed the Yaogan 50A remote-sensing satellite into a preset orbit.
The satellite, built by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, is tasked with obtaining data to support land resource surveys, agricultural yield forecasts, and disaster prevention and mitigation.
Data obtained by the Yaogan family, the major series of remote-sensing spacecraft in China, has been widely used by governments, public service sectors and businesses.
The Long March 6A, which was also developed by the Shanghai academy, is a medium-lift launch vehicle. It comprises a 50-meter liquid-propelled core booster and four solid-fuel side boosters.
The rocket has a liftoff weight of 530 metric tons and is tasked with transporting satellites to multiple types of orbits, including sun-synchronous, low-Earth and intermediate circular ones.
The launch marked China's first space mission in 2026 and the 624th flight of the Long March rocket fleet.
At 11:25 pm, a Long March 8A carrier rocket lifted off from the Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Center, a coastal spaceport in Hainan province, deploying the 18th group of low-orbit satellites for China's State-owned satellite internet network.
These satellites were designed and developed by the China Academy of Space Technology. With their deployment, the State-run mega internet satellite network now has more than 140 satellites operating in low orbits.
The Long March 8A model, developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, is 50.5 meters tall, and it has a core booster and two side boosters.
The carrier rocket has a liftoff weight of 371 tons and a liftoff thrust of about 480 tons.
It is mainly tasked with placing satellites in sun-synchronous orbits, and is capable of transporting payloads weighing up to 7 tons to a typical sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers.
This was the seventh time a Long March 8A rocket deployed low-orbit internet satellites.
Last year, China conducted 93 space missions, setting a new national record for orbital launches in a single year.
Observers said that 2026 will also be a busy year for China's space industry, with several launches scheduled before the end of January.
The Chang'e 7, a key mission in the fourth phase of the country's lunar exploration project, is scheduled for launch this year.
According to the China National Space Administration, the robotic probe is designed to land on the moon's south pole, and it will survey the surface environment, search for ice and volatile components in lunar soil, and carry out high-precision detection and analysis of lunar terrain, its composition and structure.
Program planners said the Chang'e 7 spacecraft will consist of an orbiter, a lander, a rover and a small flying probe capable of reaching lunar pits to search for ice.
This year, two manned missions — the Shenzhou XXIII and the Shenzhou XXIV — are also expected to take place to make crew shifts aboard the Tiangong space station.
One of the three Shenzhou XXIII crew members will stay a whole year aboard the space station, attempting the longest orbital journey by any Chinese astronaut.
Industry insiders said it is highly likely that a Pakistani astronaut will participate in a flight to Tiangong this year, and will become the first foreign national aboard the Chinese space station.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202601/14/WS6967bd39a310d6866eb33c19.html
U.S. Space Force switches rockets for upcoming GPS satellite launch
January 13, 2026
The next Global Positioning System satellite is switching from a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket to a SpaceX Falcon 9, a spokesperson for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command System Delta 80 said Tuesday.
SpaceX could launch the GPS III Space Vehicle 09 (SV09) within the next few weeks, as the satellite was entering the final stages of pre-flight preparations.
As part of the swap, United Launch Alliance (ULA) will instead launch the third of the next generation of Global Positioning System satellites.
The GPS III Follow-on (GPS IIIF) SV13 satellite was originally scheduled to launch on a Falcon Heavy, but will now fly on Vulcan.
“SV09 and SV13 were traded between ULA and SpaceX to get capability to orbit as soon as possible, for the same reason as the prior swap, which resulted in the last GPS launch in May 2025,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The trade results in an overall net cost savings to the government and again demonstrates our sustained commitment to moving at speed to deliver combat-credible capabilities on orbit to meet warfighter needs.”
SV09 was originally awarded to ULA as part of order year five of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract, which was announced on Oct. 31, 2023.
That year, ULA was awarded 11 missions (valued at $1.3 billion), including the mission named GPS III-9, which would’ve launched the SV09 spacecraft.
Originally, SV13 was slated to fly on a Falcon Heavy rocket “in a future calendar year.” That mission was originally awarded to SpaceX as part of the first order year for the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 contract announced on April 7, 2025.
This isn’t the first time that the Space Force has shuffled timelines and switched launch providers for GPS missions.
Back in May 2025, SpaceX launched the GPS III SV08 spacecraft, which was originally assigned to ULA in June 2023. In exchange, ULA was given the SV11 launch, which would have flown on a Falcon Heavy rocket.
In December 2024, the Space Force had SpaceX launch the SV07 spacecraft, which was originally assigned to ULA.
The mission, called the Rapid Response Trailblazer, was designed to “minimize the impact of Vulcan delays” to the Space Force’s launch manifest, according to Col. Doug Pentecost, the deputy program executive officer at the time for Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space program.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/01/13/u-s-space-force-switches-rockets-for-upcoming-gps-satellite-launch/
https://www.spacecom.mil/Newsroom/News/Article-Display/Article/4379076/usspacecom-deputy-commander-visits-smdc/
USSPACECOM deputy commander visits SMDC
Jan. 14, 2026
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. –
Lt. Gen. Richard Zellmann, deputy commander for U.S. Space Command, visited U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command units in Colorado and Alabama to assess new capabilities from one of USSPACECOM’s component commands.
During his visit to the 1st Space Brigade, headquartered at Fort Carson, Colo., brigade Soldiers demonstrated an expeditionary small form factor system, which can rapidly deploy to provide close space support to Army, joint and coalition ground forces.
Marines with the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Space Command, the Marine Corps service component to USSPACECOM, also demonstrated expeditionary space capabilities alongside the Soldiers.
Since 2021, the brigade has trained select Marines on using space-based capabilities to assist warfighters.
“We were happy to demonstrate how Army Space capabilities work to provide close space support to Army and Joint Force commanders,” said Lt. Col. Ryan Stephenson, commander, 1st Space Battalion.
“We showed Lt. Gen. Zellmann how we train alongside our Marine counterparts and deploy to give options to the Joint Force and the Department of War.”
Zellmann, a former 1st Space Brigade commander, said the visit demonstrated how Army space capabilities have expanded to include smaller, tactical systems to meet emerging adversary technologies.
“[1st Space Brigade] has changed a lot,” Zellmann said “We have become more fires-centric, and because we have pivoted away from counter-insurgency operations to now be prepared for peer adversaries and large-scale combat operations, our footprint has become smaller, more agile and more maneuverable,” said Zellmann, who has served in operational space assignments since 2004, including at various levels at USASMDC.
Zellmann also visited USASMDC’s headquarters at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., to meet with Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey, USASMDC commanding general.
He discussed how USASMDC, operating as the Army’s only Service Component Command to USSPACECOM, can utilize those capabilities to support USSPACECOM’s priorities.
“The Army exists to conduct prompt and sustained combat on land, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Army is tied to land,” Zellmann said.
“A two-dimensional battlefield may stretch for hundreds of kilometers in either direction, but if you take your head, rotate 90 degrees and look straight up, that’s space,” Zellmann said.
“All of the Army’s warfighting functions that are important to the standard land domain are also important in that land-space interface, and SMDC is contributing the expertise to bring land and space together.”
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Zellmann, having served as commander of both the 1st Space Brigade and 1st Space Battalion, spoke about how his experience at USASMDC helped prepare him for his current position.
“At that time, the brigade and battalion had allies, Soldiers and officers working in our formation,” Zellmann said. “That was my first opportunity to work with allies integrated into the unit.
The lion's share of our work today is our relations with our allies and partners.”
He said that this experience integrating with allies and partners, paired with several of the technical competencies that are now prominent in the space domain, have allowed him to better lead in USSPACECOM operations.
His experience in Army space operations has also shaped Zellmann’s view on how the Army’s newest military occupational specialty, the MOS 40D Space Operations Specialist, will complement current FA40A officers and help USASMDC’s warfighting capabilities.
Previously, there was no enlisted MOS for Soldiers conducting space operations roles, and Soldiers were “borrowed” from other branches such as the signals and intelligence corps but returned after two or three years.
The MOS will go live on Oct. 1, 2026, and provide a permanent career path for these enlisted personnel.
“When I first got into this career field, we, of course, didn’t have an enlisted MOS,” he said. “We would have Soldiers come to us, and we would spend a year training them on how to do space operations.
Then, we would get two years out of them before they returned [to their original branch],” Zellmann said “With a dedicated MOS, you get a whole new level of expertise.
Someone could serve in this career area for 20 years. Twenty years is wildly different than three years, and the expertise level across the entire force is going to get so much better, because that expertise is going to get deeper and deeper.”
Zellmann said that, in addition to the standup of the 40D MOS, he believes that rapid changes in structure, operations and capabilities of the Army and USASMDC indicate a positive outlook for space operations.
“The Army leadership is moving fast,” he said. “I talked to a number of folks who said [leadership is] moving at a speed that they haven't seen in a long time, and doing it in a manner that allows for the transformation that the chief of staff of the Army is looking to do.
It’s a great time to be in the Army.”
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US Space Force defines new service dress uniform, sets transition policies
Jan. 13, 2026
The U.S. Space Force released updated dress and appearance guidance Jan. 13, formally introducing the design of its new service dress uniform and outlining the transition plan for the force.
The policy, detailed in SPFI 36-2903, is a significant step in establishing the service's unique culture and visual identity.
The new service dress is designed to replace the modified Air Force uniform that Guardians have worn since the service's inception.
“Our service dress uniform represents the unique identity of Guardians, blending heritage with a modern design that reflects our unity and mission,” said Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman.
“From the start, Guardian feedback shaped its design and fit. I know the force will wear it with pride.”
While a final mandatory wear date has not been set, the policy gives Guardians a minimum of 12 months’ notice to transition once a date is established.
In the interim, purchase and wear are optional. However, all personnel transferring into the Space Force will be required to purchase the new uniform effective Jan. 15, 2026.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4377540/us-space-force-defines-new-service-dress-uniform-sets-transition-policies/
https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/ussf/publication/spfi36-2903/spfi36-2903.pdf
Details of high-level Ukrainian vote-buying probe released
14 Jan, 2026 12:48
An anti-corruption agency has released evidence in a cash-for-votes scheme allegedly involving former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko
Western-backed anti-corruption investigators in Ukraine have released what they claim is evidence of attempts to establish a parliamentary vote-buying scheme.
The move comes after an overnight raid on the office of former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko’s party.
The probe involving an unnamed head of a Ukrainian parliamentary faction was announced late on Tuesday. Timoshenko confirmed on Wednesday that her Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party was targeted.
Shortly after, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) confirmed filing formal charges and released audio of a conversation in which a suspect is heard discussing alleged bribes.
Timoshenko is recognizable in a separate partially-blurred video showing her confrontation with investigators over packed dollar bills. The lawmaker denied wrongdoing and accused law enforcement of political persecution orchestrated by her rivals.
In the recording, the female suspect offers three MPs monthly payments of $10,000 each in exchange for voting as directed.
She stated the goal was to undermine the majority held by Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party and its allies in the Verkhovna Rada.
She referenced upcoming government appointments requiring parliamentary approval – apparently ones put to a vote on Tuesday.
“‘Against’ means you can abstain or skip the vote. There just must not be a ‘yes’ vote. ‘For’ means a ‘yes’ vote,” she said, explaining that instructions would come via the encrypted Signal app.
“It’s strongly recommended that there are no hiccups,” she continued. “We want to finish off this majority, so we can’t give them an inch.”
NABU also released text messages it said were sent by the suspect, mentioning individuals whose resignations and nominations were debated in parliament this week.
Last year, Batkivshchina votes helped Zelensky pass a bill stripping NABU and SAPO of their independence. Timoshenko denounced the agencies created after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev as instruments of Western control.
Zelensky reversed the move under pressure from foreign sponsors, who accused him of undermining anti-corruption efforts and threatened to suspend aid.
https://www.rt.com/russia/630948-timoshenko-corruption-record-nabu/
https://www.rt.com/russia/630934-tymoshenko-nabu-buying-votes/
Russia open to further contact with Trump’s envoys – Lavrov
14 Jan, 2026 16:29
Moscow is open to further contact with US President Donald Trump’s senior envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Lavrov noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already met with Witkoff six times.
“I am sure that if they express… interest [for another meeting], then this interest will be met with understanding,” he added.
Also on Wednesday, Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, claimed that Witkoff and Kushner expect to meet with the Russian president, possibly by the end of the month.
According to the publication, the plans have yet to be finalized. If the talks take place, Witkoff and Kushner will present Washington’s latest draft plans for settling the Ukraine conflict to Putin, it added.
Trump’s senior negotiators last visited Moscow in early December 2025. Later that month, Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Miami. Both sides characterized the talks as “constructive.”
US negotiators concurrently held a separate round of talks with Kiev’s representatives and officials from several European countries in Florida.
US-mediated efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict have intensified in recent months, after Trump’s initial peace plan was leaked to the media in November 2025.
The roadmap reportedly envisaged Kiev ceding the remainder of Donbass to Moscow, as well as renouncing its NATO membership aspirations and capping the size of its military, among other points.
Last month, Ukraine and its European backers presented a 20-point counter-proposal, which has significantly watered down or distorted the original US-drafted proposal.
In late December, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stressed that the framework promoted by Vladimir Zelensky “is radically different… from the 27-point [proposal] we were working on with the US side.”
He noted that Moscow is still “fully ready” to resolve the Ukraine conflict as long as its core security concerns are addressed.
https://www.rt.com/russia/630961-lavrov-russia-open-contacts-witkoff-kushner/
Kiev attacked Kazakh-commissioned tanker – Russian military
14 Jan, 2026 12:00
Two Ukrainian drones were involved in an attack on an oil tanker, which took place in the Black Sea on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.
The incident involving the crude oil tanker Matilda was reported by the Kazakh state-owned oil company KazMunayGas (KMG), whose subsidiary commissioned the ship to pick up cargo at the Russian port of Novorossiysk.
The shipment was part of the operations of the international Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which transports fuel extracted in Kazakhstan via Russia to international markets.
According to the Russian military, the Malta-flagged vessel was attacked some 100km from the Russian city of Anapa at around 10:15am local time.
Earlier on Wednesday, footage purportedly showing a kamikaze drone striking the second tanker, the Delta Harmony, surfaced online.
Ukrainian officials have declined to comment on the incidents. Moscow previously accused Kiev of deliberately targeting CPC infrastructure on Russian soil as part of its campaign of long-range strikes against the country.
Last November, after Kazakhstan formally protested the disruption of its exports, Kiev argued that Russia is responsible for any damage caused to foreign nations as part of Ukraine’s military actions.
Russian officials say Kiev is resorting to terrorist tactics and is inflicting damage to third parties not involved in the conflict between the two nations.
https://www.rt.com/russia/630949-black-sea-tanker-ukraine/
https://t.me/stranaua/222906