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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Columbus police officers said a person died Saturday afternoon on the far Southside of Columbus. Officers arrived to the 1200 block of Faber Ave. on an unknown complaint, where they found Randelle Bowman, 67, suffering from trauma to her body, a media release said. Bowman was pronounced dead at 1:44 p.m. [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel has a message for Ohioans: grab your unclaimed funds while you can. Tressel is the figurehead in a campaign encouraging Ohioans to claim their portions of $4.8 billion currently in custody of Ohio before it becomes state property. The campaign, in partnership with the Ohio Department of [...]

WESTERVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) -- The Westerville Area Chamber Music and Arts Festival is happening this weekend. This is the festival's 52nd year. Organizers say they want to showcase Central Ohio's vibrant arts scene. Ceramics, wood, metal, paint — a little something for everyone. “We are walking around enjoying all of the art. Talking to all [...]

AMSAT News Service ANS-193
July 12, 2026

In this edition:

• May/June 2026 issue of The AMSAT Journal is now available
• AMSAT-UK ahowcase at EMF2026 – July 16th to July 17th
• Space X launches Transporter-17 among concerns about the future  
• 14 million tracks and counting: How SATNOGS hit a new milestone and caught a spinning satellite 
• Securing the future – The orbit stabilization of Swift Observatory
• Changes to AMSAT TLE distribution for July 10 20206
• ARISS News
• AMSAT Ambassador Activities
• Satellite Shorts From All Over

The AMSAT® News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information service of AMSAT, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.

ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.

The news feed on https://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor [at] amsat.org

You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

May/June 2026 issue of The AMSAT Journal is now available

The May/June 2026 issue of The AMSAT Journal is now available to members on AMSAT’s Member Portal.

The AMSAT Journal is a bi-monthly digital magazine for amateur radio in space enthusiasts, published by the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT). Each issue is your source for hardware and software projects, technical tips, STEM initiatives, operational activities, and news from around the world.

Inside the Current Issue

• Apogee View – Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA
• Educational Relations Update – Alan Johnston, Ph.D., KU2Y
• CardSat: A Full Satellite Station Controller in Your Pocket – Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
• OrbitDeck: A Free, Cross-Platform Satellite Tracker – Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
• How Field Day Inspired My Parks on the Air Portable Satellite Station – Roger Weed, Ph.D., KV4I
• Hamvention 2026 Takeaways: A Record Crowd – and a Signal for AMSAT – Joe Kornowski, KB6IGK
• Hamvention 2026 Gallery

Not yet a member of AMSAT? Join now to access this issue, and the library of past issues of The AMSAT Journal, in addition to other member benefits.

[ANS thanks Joe Kornowski, KB6IGK, Editor-in-Chief, and The AMSAT Journal staff, for the above information.]

AMSAT-UK Showcase at Electromagnetic Field 2026 – July 16-19 Amateur radio satellites will feature at the Electromagnetic Field EMF 2026 event taking place July 16-19 at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Eastnor, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 1EN, UK.   AMSAT-UK, the British Amateur Television Club (BATC), and the UK Microwave Group (UKuG) are teaming up to showcase satellite communications, amateur television, and microwave radio experimentation.   The 2018 EMF event (Photo credit: AMSAT-UK)   Throughout the weekend they plan to demonstrate how radio amateurs communicate via satellites in both low-Earth orbit and geostationary orbit, including contacts and digital amateur television through the QO-100 satellite. They also hope to demonstrate microwave operating techniques and experimental radio systems used on the higher amateur bands.   Visitors can see live satellite ground-station setups, microwave equipment, and amateur television demonstrations, and learn how hobbyists build and operate space-related radio technology. The village will also be active on the air using the EMF special event callsign GB26EMF.

For those attending EMF 2026, the amateur radio village will be open throughout the weekend to explore everything from video-over-radio to the upper reaches of the microwave spectrum.

More details on the festival villages can be found via the EMF Camp Village Directory. Updates will also be shared throughout the weekend by @emfcamp and @AmsatUK on X.

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

LIMITED TIME OFFER!!!

AMSAT is offering a limited-time promotion for new and renewing members that includes a free digital copy of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites. The promotion is being offered as AMSAT begins the 2026 membership year.

Anyone who joins or renews their AMSAT membership during the promotional period will receive a download link for the latest edition of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites in their membership confirmation email. JOIN TODAY at https://launch.amsat.org/ (Remember! Students join for FREE!)

SpaceX Launches Transporter-17 Amid Concerns About the Future

SpaceX launched the latest in its Transporter series of rideshare missions July 7 as industry concerns increase about the program’s future.

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 0712 UTC on the Transporter-17 mission to sun-synchronous orbit. The mission carried 81 payloads, according to SpaceX, including MarmotSat, a 3U CubeSat designed and built by students at the University of Victoria, Canada; MARINA, a cubesat built by Technical University of Košice, Slovakia; HADES-E2, a 1.5P PocketQube from AMSAT-EA; KOSTKA, a 1U Cubesat from Brno University of Technology, Czechia; and Maveric 3U CubeSat from the University of Southern California.

The flight model of the MARMOTSat CubeSat. (Photo: Alexander Doknjas and the University of Victoria.)

MarmotSat carries a VHF digipeater uplink and downlink on 145.875 MHz; a CW telemetry beacon on both 145.875 MHz and 29.410 MHz; and a DVB-S2 digital video beacon and a linear-frequency-modulation sounding downlink, both on 29.410 MHz in the 10-meter amateur satellite allocation. A separate telemetry, tracking and command subsystem operates on 436.125 MHz. (See AMSAT News Service bulletins ANS-186 from July 5 for details.)

MARINA serves as an experimental communication platform providing global HAM operators with an active digital transponder and Earth-imaging capabilities. The transponder supports GFSK AX.25 G3RUH 9600 Baud communication. It also transmits Earth observation images utilizing the robust SSDV (Slow Scan Digital Video) protocol. It has a VHF downlink at 145.925 MHz for digital transponder and telemetry, as well as a UHF downlink at 436.680 MHz for SSDV transmissions, CW beacon, and SatNOGS integration.

HADES-E2, also known as UNNE-1B, was built in cooperation with Universidad de Nebrija. It carries an SDR-based FM and FSK repeater. It also broadcasts a Codec2 digital voice message and includes an educational “guessing game” where clues are hidden weekly in its telemetry. Frequency coordination is in progress, but AMSAT-EA has proposed a 145.925 MHz uplink for modes: FM voice (no subtone) and FSK 200 bps, AFSK, AX.25, APRS 1200/2400 bps, and a 436.888 MHz downlink for modes: voice FM, CW, FSK 200bps-2400bps.

KOSTKA has a UHF downlink at 436.870 MHz for 9k6 AX.25 G3RUH GFSK telemetry, SSDV image transmission, a digipeater service, and a CW beacon.

Maveric carries spectral imaging experiments and has a 9k6 UHF downlink using Golay framing with GMSK at 437.575 MHz.

Like other Transporter missions, this launch carried a mix of new and returning customers, including those building out or refreshing constellations. Iceye had four radar-imaging satellites on the mission, while Spire had 10 of its Lemur satellites on the launch. Axelspace, a Japanese Earth observation company, flew seven of its GRUS-3 medium-resolution imaging spacecraft on the mission.

These and other companies have relied heavily on SpaceX rideshare missions for low-cost access to space on a regular schedule. However, there are growing concerns within the industry that SpaceX is winding down this program, at least using its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.

In recent weeks, several partners and customers of those rideshare missions said SpaceX is not accepting Transporter reservations beyond late 2028 or early 2029. They added the missions on the manifest until then are nearly full. That has led companies like Exolaunch and SEOPS, which have arranged launches on Transporter missions, to buy their own Falcon 9 rideshare launches.

SpaceX has not commented on those claims, and its webcast for the Transporter-17 launch did not discuss any changes to the rideshare program.

However, anxiety extends to the availability of the Falcon 9 itself. SpaceX officials said last year they were near the peak of Falcon 9 launch activity and expected the number of launches to start to decline as the company ramps up Starship, its fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle.

[ANS thanks the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) and SpaceNews for the above information. See the full article at https://spacenews.com/spacex-launches-transporter-17-amid-concerns-about-rideshare-programs-future/.]

AMSAT Remove Before Flight Key Tags Now Available Yes, These are the Real Thing! Your $20 Donation Goes to Help Fly a FoxPlus Satellite Includes First Class Postage (Sorry – U.S. Addresses Only) Order Today at https://www.amsat.org/product/amsat-remove-before-flight-keychain   14 Million Tracks and Counting: SatNOGS Hits Huge Milestone and Spots Spinning Satellite

Satellite Networked Open Ground Station (SatNOGS) is the biggest open network of satellite ground stations in the world. It is run by volunteers and managed by the Libre Space Foundation. Essentially, it gives anyone a web interface to remotely schedule and control ground stations across the globe. 

One of the most significant aspects is that it relies entirely on regular people building their own setups at home. They use cheap, easy-to-find gear like a Raspberry Pi, a simple USB radio receiver, and basic antennas. Because the software handles all the tracking automatically using orbital data, the stations tune in and catch signals the exact moment a satellite flies overhead.

Big Milestones and Daily Tracking

On May 6, 2026, the network hit a massive milestone when it passed 14 million total observations. It was fitting for the amateur radio community that the record-breaking track happened to be LUSAT, which was Argentina’s very first mini-satellite. The network is incredibly busy right now, bringing in roughly 10,000 observations every single day.

Catching Anomalies in Real Time

SatNOGS does more than just routine tracking. It has turned out to be an amazing tool for spotting when things go wrong in space.

Back in May 2026, everyday users looking at SatNOGS signal charts noticed something weird with India’s Drishti satellite. By analyzing how the signal was fading in and out, independent trackers figured out that the spacecraft was actually tumbling in orbit at 3 degrees per second. This public data gave the world early proof that the satellite was in major trouble, months before official reports finally confirmed it was lost because of a solar storm.

Benefits to AMSAT Community

For AMSAT organizations, SatNOGS offers distinct advantages:

Global Backup: A dense, worldwide network ensures reliable backups if a local station misses a satellite pass.

LEOP Support: It helps teams identify and track new amateur spacecraft during the critical Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP).

Asset Preservation: It ensures that historical assets like LUSAT continue to be actively monitored by enthusiasts worldwide.

Explore the Data

The community makes public observations, waterfall charts, and transmitter details completely open to the public. Real-time tracking data, along with guides on how to build a local ground station, can be found on the official website at https://satnogs.org/.

[ANS thanks Libre Space and SatNOGS website, for the above information]

The 2026 President’s Club Coin is Now Here! Help Support GOLF and FoxPlus.

Annual memberships start at only $120

Join the AMSAT President’s Club today and help Keep Amateur Radio in Space! https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/

Securing the Future: Orbit Stabilization of Swift Observatory  The Swift Rescue Mission (SRM), also referred to as the Swift Boost Mission, is a pioneering satellite-servicing project designed to recover and extend the life of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Developed by Katalyst Space Technologies, the mission utilizes a robotic servicing spacecraft named LINK to stabilize the observatory’s orbit and prevent its uncontrolled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.     The SWIFT observatory being prepared for launch at Kennedy Space Center in November of 2004 (Photo credit: NASA)   Key details of the mission include:

• The Objective: The Swift Observatory has operated since 2004, but after two decades, atmospheric drag has caused its orbit to decay significantly. Without intervention, there is a high probability that it would reenter the atmosphere in 2026. The mission aims to raise Swift’s orbit to approximately 600 km to preserve its unique capability for detecting gamma-ray bursts.
• The Spacecraft (LINK): LINK is a 425 kg spacecraft equipped with two 6-meter solar arrays and three xenon-fueled ion thrusters. It features autonomous navigation systems and three robotic arms specifically designed for non-cooperative capture.
• Innovative Methodology: This mission represents the first attempt to recover an “unprepared” spacecraft — one that was never designed with docking fixtures or grappling points. LINK will autonomously approach Swift, perform a visual inspection, and use its specialized robotic mechanism to secure a structural feature of the observatory without damaging its sensitive instrument.
• Current Status: LINK was launched on July 3, 2026, from Kwajalein Island aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus-XL rocket. Teams have successfully established communications with the spacecraft, which is currently undergoing several weeks of checkout procedures for its propulsion and navigation systems before beginning its rendezvous with Swift.

Once the capture is secured, LINK will spend several months gradually raising Swift’s altitude before detaching and performing its own controlled reentry into the atmosphere.   Note: As this mission is currently in its commissioning phase as of July 2026, further technical details regarding the final docking and reboost performance will be released by NASA as the mission progresses

[ANS thanks NASA, NASA Official Swift Blog, and Reuters, for the above information. See the full article at https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/space-startup-katalyst-launches-orbital-rescue-mission-aging-nasa-observatory-2026-07-03/.]

Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for July 10, 2026

Two Line Elements or TLEs, often referred to as Keplerian elements or keps in the amateur community, are the inputs to the SGP4 standard mathematical model of spacecraft orbits used by most amateur tracking programs. Weekly updates are completely adequate for most amateur satellites. TLE bulletin files are updated daily in the first hour of the UTC day. New bulletin files will be posted immediately after reliable elements become available for new amateur satellites. More information may be found at https://www.amsat.org/keplerian-elements-resources/.

• HORYU-4 NORAD Cat ID 41340 Decayed from orbit on or about 2026 July 2

General Perturbations Data Support

AMSAT is pleased to announce that modern forms of what are called General Perturbations data are being disseminated via modern formats including JSON, XML and KVN at https://newark192.amsat.org/gpdata/current/. The reason this change is being made is that we are running out of 5-digit catalog numbers and the TLE format is not viable for satellites launched after July of this year. See https://celestrak.org/NORAD/documentation/gp-data-formats.php for details.

These data are presently considered in beta test for the next two months while hosted on the test server newark192.amsat.org, and we are very open to community feedback at webmaster at amsat.org. Testers may experience outages and errors while we make improvements. We intend to put this into production on our main web server in July as we expect that satellites launched after this summer will require one of the new formats to accommodate longer object numbers. AMSAT will continue to publish TLE bulletins for satellites launched before July 2026 indefinitely.

[ANS thanks Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, for the above information]

Buying from DX Engineering?
Add AMSAT’s Getting Started With Amateur Satellites to your order.Available for $30 from DX Engineering (free shipping on most orders over $99)
https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/amt-satellites ARISS News

Amateurs and others around the world may listen in on contacts between amateurs operating in schools and allowing students to interact with astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The downlink frequency on which to listen is 145.800 MHz worldwide.

Recently completed:

The International Aerospace School named after the USSR test cosmonaut U.N. Sultanov, Ufa, Russia, direct via UD9W
The ISS callsign was RSØISS
The crewmember was Andrey Fedyaev
The ARISS mentor is RV3DR
Contact was for Fri 2026-07-10 19:29 UTC

Due to summer school vacations, no upcoming contacts currently scheduled.

As always, if there is an EVA, a docking, or an undocking; the ARISS radios are turned off as part of the safety protocol.
Radio will be powered down in support of Soyuz docking:
Power down: July 14 at 14:00 UTC
Power up: July 15 at 12:35 UTC

The crossband repeater remains configured in the Columbus Module (145.990 MHz up {PL 67} & 437.800 MHz down). If a crewmember decides to pick up the microphone and turn up the volume, you may hear them on the air—so keep listening, as you never know when activity might occur.

Kenwood D710GA in the Zvezda Service Module – Call sign RSØISS. Please note that ARISS is still in the process of troubleshooting and testing this radio. APRS is currently active on 437.825 MHz. Feel free to check out status reports at https://ariss-usa.org/ARISS_APRS/. 

​HamTV in the Columbus Module (2395.00 MHz) is currently transmitting a test signal. The color bar test generator portion of the system is experiencing technical issues, and troubleshooting is underway. For more information, visit the ARISS Ham TV Live site at https://live.ariss.org/hamtv/.

Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time.

The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html

The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html

[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors for the above information.]

Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition? Get an AMSAT car flag and other neat stuff from our Zazzle store!

25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space AMSAT Ambassador Activities

AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.

July 18, 2026
Moon Day
Frontiers of Flight Museum
6911 Lemmon Avenue
Dallas, TX 75209
https://flightmuseum.com/events/moonday/
N5HYP

October 8-11, 2026
44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Membership Meeting
Crowne Plaza JAX Airport
14670 Duval Road
Jacksonville, FL 32218
Details to follow

Interested in becoming an AMSAT Ambassador? AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events. For more information go to: https://www.amsat.org/ambassador/

[ANS thanks Bo Lowrey, W4FCL, Director – AMSAT Ambassador Program, for the above information]

Satellite Shorts from All Over

+ AMSAT SA 2026 Space Symposium will be held Saturday, 1 August 2026. The event is conducted online from 10:00 – 14:00 SAST (08:00 – 12:00 UTC) to enable wide attendance without incurring large travel costs. The theme is “The new Amateur Radio World in Space,” exploring practical hands-on aspects of space activities and emerging technologies. Presentations will include outcomes of proposals for new geostationary amateur satellites, including innovative ground-based systems to link LEO and GEO satellite.  Registration is free for members of IARU member societies, while non-members pay a small fee. Visit the AMSAT-SA website for registration details. (ANS thanks AMSAT-SA, for the above information.)

+ NASA’s Moon and Mars Exploration Analog (MMEA) continues to recruit research participants for its upcoming yearlong simulation season. Because the mission’s integrated habitats at the Johnson Space Center in Houston are designed to simulate deep space, participants will operate under the isolated conditions expected during crewed missions to the Moon or Mars. The current recruitment period is active for the year-long mission beginning no earlier than August 2027, during which continuous simulation operations in confined environments could be possible. The mission is HERA/CHAPEA only (HERA habitat spacecraft simulation, CHAPEA habitat base simulation). Volunteers are reminded to meet specific physical and educational requirements and to pass NASA’s physical and psychological assessments, so the mission results can be shared with the Human Research Program to help keep future astronauts safe and mission-ready. (ANS thanks NASA, the Human Research Program and the Artemis mission for the above information.)

+ NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (LSST) continues to reward the global scientific community as it begins its 10-year campaign to create the most comprehensive cinematic record of the Universe in history. Because the observatory’s 3200-megapixel camera—the largest digital camera ever built—has successfully completed system optimization, it is now capturing new, detailed images of the southern sky approximately every 40 seconds. The current Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) runs through the next ten years, during which continuous filming of the dynamic Universe and the production of trillions of measurements should be possible. The survey is Wide-Field/Time-Lapse only (producing 10 terabytes of data and up to 7 million alerts of changes in the night sky every night). Researchers are reminded to utilize automated alert brokers to classify these changes and to ensure timely follow-up of fleeting cosmic events, so this unprecedented resource can be shared by as many scientists and members of the public as possible worldwide. (ANS thanks NSF, DOE, NOIRLab, and SLAC for the above information.)

  Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

• Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
• Students are eligible for FREE membership up to age 25.
• Memberships are available for annual and lifetime terms.

Contact info [at] amsat.org for additional membership information.

73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!

This week’s ANS Editor,
Vidya Gopalakrishnan, K4VGK

ANS is a service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, 712 H Street NE, Suite 1653, Washington, DC 20002. AMSAT is a registered trademark of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The annual Columbus book festival is back in its fourth year. Thousands of people packed Columbus main library for day one of the event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Leaders like Dorcas Jones noted that this is a special celebration for this community.    "Over the past four years we have [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – One person is seriously injured following a shooting in south Columbus on Saturday morning. Officers with the Columbus Division of Police were called to the 900 block of South 22nd Street in the Southern Orchards neighborhood on the report of a shooting at 9:18 a.m., according to a police dispatcher. One [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A Dublin man found with a child-sized crawl space in his home could be facing a life sentence after pleading guilty to enticing and coercing minors into sexual activity. According to federal prosecutors, Wade Christofferson, 73, pleaded guilty in federal court after being charged with attempting to sexually exploit a minor [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A Columbus man who has been criminally indicted 11 times in Franklin County has now pleaded guilty to federal firearm charges. According to federal prosecutors, Antonio Triplett, on the day his jury trial was to begin, entered a plea of guilty for illegally possessing a firearm as a previously convicted felon. [...]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The longtime Ohio State leader behind the most successful fundraising campaign in university history will retire in January. Michael Eicher, Ohio State's senior vice president for external affairs and president of the Ohio State University Foundation, will retire this year. Eicher founded the Advancement Leadership Lab, led key fundraising campaigns and [...]

Fireflies are putting on an especially dazzling show across central Ohio this summer due to the combination of a wet spring and hot, humid summer nights creating ideal conditions for a busy lightning bug season.

In this episode, Ray Cochrane breaks down AI distillation, the teacher-student technique frontier labs now lean on to train smaller, cheaper models. He also covers GPT-5.6’s government-vetted rollout, Claude Sonnet 5 landing on AWS, Maryland’s two-year data center pause, and Microsoft’s climbing carbon numbers. Finally, he wraps with Apple’s $30 billion Broadcom deal, Meta’s tamper-proof recording light, Michigan’s parasite outbreak, and a simulation that erased a super El Niño.

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Full Summary

Cochrane opens with a quick personal update. Longer days have him outdoors, including a float trip on the Sandy River at Dabney State Park, where he found clearer water, clay-like sand, and easy footing. Next week brings both a move and a trip home, so he is stocking up on Trader Joe’s “Power Berries” and IKEA bags at his mom’s request. Then he turns to the lead story.

AI Distillation Explained: How Frontier Models Teach Each Other

Cochrane’s featured story comes from Hugging Face engineer Sergio Paniego. Distillation is teacher-student training for AI: a capable model generates the training signal, and a smaller student learns to match it. The classic off-policy version compresses giant models into cheap students, either through soft labels or piles of worked answers. Google’s Gemma models and DeepSeek’s R1-Distill line were built exactly this way.

However, the industry is now converging on multi-teacher on-policy distillation, or MOPD. Labs build reinforcement-learning specialists for math, coding, and agentic work, then have them grade a single student, word by word, as the student generates its own answers. DeepSeek-V4, MiMo-V2-Flash, and NVIDIA’s Nemotron 3 Ultra all run versions of the recipe, and the Qwen3 team reported better results at roughly a tenth of the GPU hours of raw reinforcement learning. Finally, self-distillation lets models like Cursor’s Composer 2.5 learn from better-prompted versions of themselves.

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GPT-5.6 Arrives With a Government-Vetted Rollout

OpenAI shipped GPT-5.6 as a three-tier family: Sol, Terra, and Luna. Sol costs five dollars in and thirty dollars out per million tokens, half of Claude Fable 5’s rate. The benchmarks split: Sol Ultra wins Terminal-Bench at 91.9 percent, while Claude Fable 5 still leads SWE-Bench Pro. Notably, the API launched in limited preview to roughly 20 partners vetted by the U.S. government, though the model went live in Microsoft 365 Copilot on day one.

Claude Sonnet 5 Lands on AWS, Plus Quick AWS Wins

Claude Sonnet 5 arrived on AWS through Bedrock, pitched as top-tier intelligence at Sonnet pricing. Additionally, Amazon WorkSpaces for AI agents reached general availability, enabling agents to drive full desktop applications securely. OpenSearch gained a log-analytics engine claiming four times the price-performance, and SageMaker now scales inference about twice as fast. Cochrane also flags that Kendra and Q Business move to maintenance mode at the end of July.

Anthropic Wants You to Reflect on Your Claude Habits

Anthropic launched Reflect, a beta feature that analyzes your past Claude conversations and visualizes how you actually use the assistant. It requires Memory, excludes incognito and health-related chats, and keeps its insights inside the tool. Cochrane loves the idea. He reviews his own transcripts to extract prompt patterns and turn them into reusable skills, and he suggests listeners simply ask their AI to do the same.

AlphaEvolve Goes GA on Google Cloud

Google made AlphaEvolve generally available to Google Cloud customers on the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. The agent acts as an evolutionary collaborator: provide a baseline algorithm and your goals, and it searches for better, human-readable code. BASF, JetBrains, and Kinaxis are the named early adopters. Meanwhile, Cochrane renews his standing wish that DeepMind release AlphaGo as a playable teacher.

Google Adds “How This Ad Was Made” AI Labels

Google is adding a “How this ad was made” section to My Ad Center across Search, YouTube, and Discover. Ads built with Google’s own AI tools automatically get the disclosure, backed by invisible watermarks. However, ads made with outside tools rely on advertiser self-declaration. Cochrane points out the limits of voluntary disclosure in an AI-flooded content economy.

Microsoft’s Carbon Emissions Climb 25 Percent

Microsoft’s new sustainability report shows emissions up 25% in 2025, driven by a data center construction spree. The gross figure is 34 million metric tons before offsets, while other coverage puts the net figure at around 20 million. Water consumption also jumped thirty-four percent, even as Microsoft claims its first water-positive year. Cochrane argues regulation needs to catch up, since Google and Amazon report similar increases.

Prince George’s County Pauses Data Centers for Two Years

Prince George’s County adopted a two-year moratorium on new data center development, the longest pause in Maryland so far. The resolution blocks new applications, including hyperscale projects, until the council passes real regulations. Water and energy impacts remain open questions the county intends to study. Cochrane gives kudos to residents for making their voices heard.

Apple and Broadcom Ink a $30 Billion U.S. Chip Deal

Apple is expanding its partnership with Broadcom with a multiyear agreement expected to exceed $30 billion. The deal covers custom silicon and wireless components, with more than fifteen billion chips to be made on American soil. Broadcom’s Fort Collins, Colorado plant anchors the work with a $1.5 billion equipment expansion. Tim Cook framed the deal as accelerating Apple’s commitment to American manufacturing.

MSI and Intel Ship the First Arc G3 Extreme Handheld

Intel detailed how it co-engineered the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, the first handheld on the Arc G3 Extreme processor. Highlights include a heat-spreading board layout and game-tuning loops that Intel says run Cyberpunk 2077 up to thirty-seven percent faster. The device is on sale now in void purple for around $1,500. At that price, Cochrane jokes he would rather buy a computer.

Meta’s Glasses Get a Tamper-Proof Recording Light

Meta answered the most common privacy questions about its AI glasses. Photos stay private on the device until the wearer imports or shares them, and a white capture LED blinks during any recording with no off switch. Moreover, newer glasses disable the camera if the LED is blocked, tampered with, or destroyed. Cochrane reminds listeners these claims are Meta grading its own homework, but the blink signal is worth recognizing in public.

Michigan’s Parasite Outbreak Tops 1,200 Cases

Michigan’s cyclosporiasis outbreak reached 1,251 cases since June 22, with roughly forty hospitalizations along the way. Northwest Ohio adds more than five hundred cases. The parasite typically spreads through contaminated fresh produce, and investigators still have not found the source. Cochrane’s advice: wash your produce, and get tested if your symptoms fit.

AI Finds the San Andreas Fault’s Silent Slips

Researchers paired AI with borehole strainmeters to detect dozens of hidden slow-slip events beneath the San Andreas Fault’s Parkfield section. Each silent slip releases stress within hours and is reliably followed by low-frequency earthquakes. Together, the findings support a continuous spectrum from silent creep to destructive quakes. The study appears in Nature Communications, and Cochrane hopes it will lead to better earthquake prediction.

Cloud Brightening Erased a Super El Niño, in a Simulation

Finally, a Science Advances study simulated marine cloud brightening in response to the 1997 and 2015 super El Niño events. Seeding clouds over the eastern Pacific erased the events entirely inside the model. Real deployment would take roughly 2,400 ships spraying continuously, and the simulations showed side effects like extra warming over Europe and Asia. Cochrane finds the weather-machine concept fascinating, yet he questions the consequences of altering cycles the planet runs for a reason.

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joel fixes his tent, well maybe..