5 h. ago Six great reads: Sam Altman’s spectacular comeback, British preppers, and fear and loathing in Starbase, Texas

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days Continue reading...

Politics

30 h. ago Fear, hope and loathing in Elon Musk’s new city: ‘It’s the wild, wild west and the future’

Starbase in Texas, where the world’s richest man has a rocket-launching facility, was incorporated this week. Mars obsessives are flocking there – but some long-term locals are far from happyAlong a flat coastal highway in south-east Texas, surrounded by wetlands and open plains, the artefacts of a new American oligarchy appear in quick succession. Three towering rockets stand upright on the horizon. A fleet of Tesla Cybertrucks speeds by. A large mural of the Shiba Inu “doge” dog stares ahead, its arms crossed. There is a 12ft-tall bust of the world’s richest person, painted in bronze, facing a dusty roadside. “ELON aka MemeLord”, a plaque beneath reads. It’s not exactly romantic poetry, but the whole scene reminds me of the sonnet by Shelley: “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”While old Ozymandias may have seen his fiefdoms crumble, Elon Musk’s empire is possibly only just beginning. Here in Cameron County, on the southern tip of the Lone Star state, where Google Maps prou...

Politics

47 h. ago How Elon Musk ‘colonised’ a corner of Texas to build his own space city

The world’s richest person has placed his mission to Mars in a low-income county near the US-Mexico border. As a small cluster of voters connected to SpaceX decide to incorporate their own ‘Starbase city', Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone meet environmental opponents, space enthusiasts and residents who decry the gentrification Musk's expansion has brought Continue reading...

Technology

2 w. ago Elon Musk creates his own Texas city dubbed Starbase as he works to colonise Mars

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's dream of colonising Mars just got a little more real after he won a vote to create his very own city in Texas dubbed Starbase... yes you heard that right

Politics

2 w. ago Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch site set to become Texas’ newest city

Texans near Boca Chica Beach went to the polls to vote on the measure that would incorporate the neighborhood and call it Starbase

Technology

2 w. ago Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch site could soon become Texas’ newest city

Texans near Boca Chica Beach will head to the polls to vote on the measure that would incorporate the neighborhood and call it Starbase

Technology

3 w. ago Elon Musk’s company town: SpaceX employees to vote on ‘Starbase’

Residents – most of them SpaceX workers – in remote Texas community expected to approve plan to create new cityVoters in a small patch of south Texas are casting their ballots on Saturday in an election that could give Elon Musk a town to call his own. The vote would officially create a new city called Starbase in the area where Musk’s SpaceX holds its Texas rocket launches.A couple of hundred residents of what was previously known as Boca Chica will decide whether to make their unincorporated neighborhoods into a town that would grant them the authority to pass city ordinances. The outcome, which will be decided almost entirely by SpaceX employees and their families, who make up the majority of the local population, is nearly guaranteed to result in incorporation. Continue reading...

Technology

3 w. ago The home of Elon Musk's SpaceX could become an official Texas city called Starbase

Elon Musk has for years made Texas his business home and playground as he launches rockets and builds cars in the Lone Star state

Technology