LOMPOC, Calif. (KEYT) - A new speaker series coming from Vandenberg Space Force Base called ‘Mission Update’ is launching its debut session in Lompoc this evening.

Space Launch Delta 30 is under the new command of Col. James T. Horne III after Col. Mark Shoemaker passed the flag to him last year, so the branding of this free speaker series is new.

Residents of the Central Coast as near to the base as Lompoc, as well as communities as far away as Ventura, have been raising concerns as Vandenberg ramps up the amount and frequency of their rocket launches.

Concerns brought to attention range from noise and vibration impact upon homes in the path of sonic booms, to environmental considerations both on land and at sea.

Space Launch Delta 30 has begun working with universities to conduct research on all mentioned impacts of rocket launches, as well as mitigation strategies.

The new series ‘Mission Update’ features Col. Horne and lead researcher for the ECOBOOM study at Brigham Young University’s Physics Department, Kent Gee.

The series will provide insights into the base’s ongoing efforts at impact mitigation, in addition to the critical role the base plays in national security.

The free series is starting this evening from 4 to 6 pm at the Dick DeWees Community Center in Lompoc.

Upcoming sessions are planned in cities across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and details will be provided for those events when they become available.

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Análisis por Mario González, CNN en Español

La presidenta de México, Claudia Sheinbaum, libra una lucha por el control de su propio mandato. Son muchos frentes de batalla al interior de su gobierno y su movimiento —el de la autollamada “cuarta transformación”—, que van desde dominio territorial del partido Morena y los poderes fácticos a las posiciones ideológicas de las muchas izquierdas que forman parte del grupo en el poder.

Es una lucha interna en donde la oposición formal, la de los partidos contrarios, no juega, al menos abiertamente; un tanto porque no tienen la fuerza necesaria para hacerlo y otro tanto por estrategia, bajo ese principio de la política de que si ves a tu adversario errar, no lo interrumpas.

Sheinbaum llegó a la presidencia de México haciendo historia: la primera mujer en lograrlo y con la más alta votación que se haya registrado. Rompió techos no de cristal sino de hierro, en un país de estructuras machistas que se preguntaba si estaba preparado para que una mujer lo gobernara. La pregunta se contestó sola.

Sin embargo, quizás ese mismo pensamiento llevó a muchos a cuestionarse si la presidenta sería capaz de ejercer el poder o sería conducida por su mentor y líder del movimiento, el expresidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Ante esto la presidenta ha sido muy clara: no habrá rompimiento, hay continuidad, entendimiento. Su predecesor cimentó el primer piso de la cuarta transformación, ella está construyendo el segundo piso.

Pero resulta que muy pronto comenzaron a surgir las diferencias entre el primer piso y el segundo de esa transformación, porque Sheinbaum no es López Obrador y tiene su propio proyecto político. Para llevarlo a cabo necesita de lealtades en lugares clave que al parecer estaban depositadas en otro lado.

Además, la presidenta sabe que para cumplir con sus objetivos, es necesario tener el control del partido, Morena, rumbo a las elecciones federales de 2027, en las que se renueva la totalidad de la cámara de Diputados y la mitad de los estados elegirán gobernador, congresos locales y otros miles de cargos.

Hoy el expresidente López Obrador sigue teniendo un enorme peso en el partido que fundó, ya sea por viejas lealtades o por lazos familiares como su hijo Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, quien se desempeña como secretario de organización del comité ejecutivo nacional del partido (un cargo relevante dentro de la estructura de Morena).

El más reciente capítulo de esta lucha por el control del movimiento se dio recientemente con un funcionario de menor rango: Marx Arriaga. Hasta el viernes pasado se desempeñó como director general de materiales educativos de la Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP). Es la oficina responsable del diseño y rediseño de los libros de texto que produce el gobierno de México para la entrega gratuita de los estudiantes de primaria y secundaria, además de otros materiales educativos.

Arriaga fue nombrado en su cargo directamente por el presidente López Obrador, quien constantemente hablaba con halagos de él y lo consideraba un hombre honesto y de principios. Arriaga era un hombre reconocido por su trabajo partidista con sectores del magisterio y estudiantiles, pero las menciones presidenciales fueron más recurrentes cuando se desató un fuerte debate sobre el contenido de los nuevos libros de texto bajo su encargo: los especialistas en materia educativa cuestionaban el enorme contenido ideológico de los libros para niños y niñas, dejando a un lado principios científicos cruciales para el aprendizaje.

Estos textos fueron diseñados supuestamente en el marco de la Nueva Escuela Mexicana, que instauró López Obrador, para rescatar los valores humanistas de la educación y borrar los vestigios del pensamiento neoliberal, como se explicó reiteradamente.

Antes de su despido como funcionario de la SEP tuvo encuentros partidistas con el magisterio afín a Morena en los que habl

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By Emily R. Condon, CNN

(CNN) — Protesters calling for the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan told CNN they were attacked by security guards protecting the country’s President Ilham Aliyev in Washington, DC on Thursday following President Donald Trumps’s inaugural Board of Peace meeting.

Footage circulated on social media shows protesters being thrown to the ground as a group of suited men physically apprehend them outside the hotel Aliyev was staying in.

The demonstrators had gathered outside of the hotel to advocate for political freedom of political prisoners and journalists. They had intended to be peaceful, according to protester Adil Amrakhly, who spoke to CNN via a translator. The incident happened as the group made its way toward Aliyev’s motorcade, which was returning from the Board of Peace event.

“If his (Aliyev’s) security personnel can attack peaceful protesters in the center of Washington, DC, it raises serious concerns about what happens to opposition members and the more than 400 political prisoners currently detained in Azerbaijan,” Amrakhly said.

Amrakhly told CNN the group was waiting near the hotel’s main entrance for Aliyev’s return and ran toward another entrance when they saw his vehicle approach it instead.

A spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s embassy to the US denied the claims, saying that Aliyev’s guards “had no choice” but to respond when “protesters violently attempted to enter the protected area and took offensive actions against the presidential vehicle.”

They added that the hotel was included in the US Secret Service’s official security perimeter for the event.

Another protester, Rahim Yagublu, whose father, Tofig Yagublu, is imprisoned in Azerbaijan, told CNN, “We did nothing to (the guards.)”

“The videos clearly show that I was only chanting slogans while they were hitting me,” Yagublu said.

The Metropolitan Police Department told CNN it is aware of the incident and no arrests were made. The US Secret Service, which was on the scene, declined to comment and has referred the issue to the State Department, according to MPD.

The State Department did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Amrakhly, who lives in Virginia and is an organizer for the Charter of the American Organization of Azerbaijani Political Refugees, said five people were injured, including one person with a concussion. He said some protesters’ family members, who still live in Azerbaijan, experienced political intimidation on Friday, with questioning at police stations and in their workplaces.

Yagublu told CNN that he is worried about his father now and fears the Azerbaijani government may torture or kill him in response. Last year, Tofig Yagublu was sentenced to nine years in prison for criticizing the government, according to the advocacy group Freedom Now.

Azerbaijan’s embassy did not respond before publication to comments alleging intimidation against the relatives of the protesters.

The incident recalls an incident in 2017 during which security officials for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan beat up protesters outside the country’s embassy in Washington. The US later dropped charges against 11 of the 15 bodyguards who were indicted after the brawl.

CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed to this report.

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The post Protesters say they were attacked by bodyguards for Azerbaijan president after Trump’s Board of Peace meet

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN

(CNN) — A ransomware attack has forced one of Mississippi’s largest health care systems to close clinics across the state on Friday, raising larger concerns about the cybersecurity of medical facilities across the country.

The closure affects all 35 of the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s health clinics, which provide a range of care to patients from cancer treatment to chronic-pain management. The attack also caused the cancelation of elective procedures in what health officials said would be a “multi-day event.”

Doctors at UMMC are now using pen and paper as they treat patients because they are cut off from the electronic health records system they normally use to draw up patient information. A top FBI official in the state said the bureau was “surging resources both locally and nationally” in response to the attack.

The digital outage and cancellation of surgeries could strain a medical system whose $2 billion budget, according to its website, accounts for two percent of the state’s economy.

Emergency rooms remain open and UMMC doctors are drilled on delivering services when computers are down.

“We do not know how long this situation may last,” LouAnn Woodward, a vice chancellor at UMMC, said at a press conference Thursday. “As a precaution, all of our IT systems have been taken down, and risk assessment will be conducted before we bring things back up.”

A disruptive ransomware attack like this is familiar to hundreds of health care organizations across the US, which have suffered attacks in recent years. Other ransomware attacks have threatened patient safety, caused delays in crucial medication being distributed and cost the economy billions of dollars in aggregate. The attacks typically involve the hackers locking or stealing data and then demanding payment from victim hospitals.

It was unclear Friday if the hackers had made ransom demands. In general, hospitals can be vulnerable to extortion by hackers because of the pressure hospital executives face to get critical care functions back online, experts have told CNN.

Officials from the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services have been closely monitoring the UMMC ransomware attack’s impacts since Thursday, sources familiar with the federal response told CNN.

“The attackers have communicated to us and we’re working with the authorities and the specialists on next steps,” Woodward told reporters.

“Ransomware attacks targeting US hospitals and health care continue to increase at a very concerning rate,” said John Riggi, national advisor for cybersecurity and risk at the American Hospital Association.

“Any cyberattack which disrupts or delays health care delivery, poses a risk to patient and community safety,” Riggi said, speaking generally rather than on the Mississippi hack specifically. “This is especially so in rural areas where the next nearest available hospital or trauma center may be over 100 miles away.”

There is a broader concern in the US health care sector about potential blowback in cyberspace if the US military strikes Iran in the coming days, which has prepared to do if ordered by President Donald Trump.

Iranian hackers have been linked to numerous cyberattacks on US health organizations in the past decade, and cyber specialists are preparing for a possible uptick in hacks should the US strike, one expert told CNN. There is no indication that Iran is responsible for the attack in Mississippi.

“We are keeping an elevated threat level and watching this Iran situation for potential impacts,” said one cyber expert focused on health care who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they wer