Tech billionaire Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok is at the center of scandal after posting antisemitic remarks.

Developer xAI announced on Wednesday that it was in the process of removing "inappropriate posts" by Grok on the online platform X.

That comes after complaints from users on social media platform X and the US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that Grok was producing content that had antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler.

<h2>xAI removing 'inappropriate posts'</h2>

In a post on X, Grok said it was "aware of recent posts made by Grok and [is]&nbsp;actively working to remove the inappropriate posts."&nbsp;

"Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved."

The ADL called for Grok, along with other&nbsp;producers of Large Language Model (LLM) software, to avoid "producing content rooted in antisemitic and extremist hate."

"What we are seeing from Grok LLM right now is irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple. This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms," the ADL said on X. 

On Tuesday, Grok suggested Hitler would be best-placed to combat anti-white hatred, saying he would "spot the pattern and handle it decisively."

The AI chatbot also referred to Hitler as "history's mustache man," and said that people with Jewish surnames were responsible for extreme anti-white activism.

Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher

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Musk's Grok chatbot at the center of antisemitic scandal

Large parts of the Czech Republic were left without electricity on Friday following a major blackout, the country's grid operator reported.

"At the moment we can confirm that there is a power outage in our electricity grid," Hana Klimova, a spokeswoman for the grid operator CEPS, told AFP.

"The outage has affected a greater part of the Czech Republic," she added.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala described it as an "extraordinary and unpleasant" situation in a post on X.

<h2>What do we know about the Czech blackout?</h2>

Czech Transport Minister&nbsp;Martin Kupka said train lines in five out of the country's 14 districts had been halted, including in the capital, Prague.

Shortly after the first reports of the blackout, CEPS said that the cause was a fallen power line.

It added that the electricity supply had been returned to the majority of the impacted areas.

Prague's subway network was temporarily knocked offline, but lines A and C were restored within just 15 minutes, and line B was restored within half an hour.

Czech police said on X they had "no information suggesting this is a cyber/terror attack."

E.ON, the company that runs the grid in the southern part of the country, said its supply had not been affected. Neighboring Poland also said it had not registered any problems.

<h2>Why are blackouts significant?</h2>

The Czech blackout comes several months after an even bigger blackout sent&nbsp;Spain and Portugal into darkness for several hours.

That incident was the result of a "voltage surge," but there had been fears at the time that the Iberian peninsula had fallen victim to a cyber attack.

Friday's blackout also comes after a recent heat wave hit Europe. Electricity becomes particularly important to run fans or other cooling systems.

However, Prague on Friday recorded temperatures of only around 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit), down from the 34 degrees recorded on Thursday.

Edited by: Kieran Burke

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Major blackout hits Czech Republic

Canada has canceled its digital services tax (DST) to entice the United States to return to the negotiating table for a long-awaited trade and defense deal.

The tax, which was due to take effect on Monday, would have applied a 3% levy on revenues earned within Canada by companies&nbsp;— from any country&nbsp;— whose services are digitally based and earn more than 20 million Canadian dollars ($14.7 million, €12.4 million) per year.

But the DST was the target on Friday of a now familiar missive from US President Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform. There, he labeled the tax as a "direct and blatant attack" on the US and set the clock ticking on new tariffs for his northern neighbor as he put trade negotiations on ice.

While DSTs from Canada and other nations avoid naming specific companies among their targets, there is an inescapable reality that such instruments catch a swathe of American companies in their nets — among them digital behemoths like Meta, Google, Amazon, Airbnb and Uber.

The tax's impact was compounded by its retroactive nature, capturing all revenues back to 2022, a boon that would have yielded more than $2&nbsp;billion to Canada's finances.

Binning the tax on the day it came into effect has potentially prevented Canada from feeling the brunt of harsher Trump tariffs and the loss of a trade deal with a significant trading partner. At the very least, it's brought the US president back to the negotiating table.

Last year, Canada bought nearly $350 billion in US products and exported more than $412 billion to the US.

"Obviously, the revenue from digital services taxes will be much lower than any costs from potential trade conflicts," said Bertin Martens, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel. "This is the right road to take at this moment for Canada, at least."



<h2>Canada isn't alone in pursuing taxes on digital services</h2>

Big tech companies make billions in revenue globally and there are few places that haven't been touched by the presence of the dominant&nbsp;US players in e-commerce, digital advertising and social media.

But taxation of these businesses largely falls to the country where they are headquartered. For the majors, it's&nbsp;usually in the US, or even low-taxing countries like Ireland or Luxembourg.

It's why other countries are turning to DSTs to recoup revenue for operating within their borders. While Canada's DST has been shelved, other countries across the Atlantic have been reaping revenues for years.

France, Italy, Spain and the UK have revenue taxes for digital services providers, with criteria requiring a company to meet a minimum level of global revenue, a fraction of which is made within their borders. France, Italy and Spain apply a tax of 3% on those revenues, the UK 2%. France is even looking to increase its rate to 5%.

"Big US tech companies that operate in Europe and elsewhere in the world pay very little, if any, taxes in the countries where they operate and collect substantial revenue and profits," Martens told DW. "But nothing of that can be taxed in the country itself, and so, in the absence of an OECD agreement on how to do this, countries have taken this in their own hands."

The US has historically taken a dim view towards foreign digital services taxes under the last three administrations,&nbsp;Democrat and Republican,&nbsp;with a view that they amount to import tariffs on services.

"It's not just Preisdent Trump, it was President Biden too, it is members of the US Congress in both parties, Republican and Democrat, that agree that DSTs are not appropriate for other countries to adopt," said James Hines, a professor of law and economics at the University of Michigan, US.

"A tax that really is designed just to hit hard the American tech companies, which is what DSTs are," Hines said.&nbsp;"I'm sure the Trump administration is very serious about being upset about DSTs, and being willing to retaliate."

That leaves open the question of whether other countries will be pressured to drop theirs.

"I think the EU could also be persuaded to withdraw these taxes, but the problem is that the EU Commission, as a trade negotiator, has no leverage on member states' taxation policies," said Martens. "It can try to pass the message to member states, but whether they will accept it or not is a different matter."



<h2>What's fair when it comes to big digital companies?</h2>

The Biden administration&nbsp;opposed DSTs but&nbsp;worked to broker a global trade deal via the OECD. That agreement was scuttled by Trump upon his return to the White House, leaving the prospect of unilateral DSTs back on the table.&nbsp;

Despite American opposition to these agreements, Allison Christians, a tax law professor at McGill University in Canada, said the idea that major tech corporations should only be taxed in their home country is "antiquated."

"They're headquartered in the US, yes, but they're capitalized all over the world, and they're collecting data all over the world, and they're making profit all over the world," Christians said.&nbsp;

That, she said, makes it harder for local companies to compete with their "highly digitalized" US rivals. Martens agrees that DSTs are a response to the desire for other nations to have a level playing field.

"There is this distorted playing field between local companies and foreign&nbsp;— in this case US&nbsp;— companies, in online markets," Martens said. "Local companies obviously pay local taxes in the country where they are established, and US companies can avoid that or circumvent that through preferential tax deals with tax havens like Ireland or Luxembourg, or even through repatriation of lots of their profits to the US.&nbsp;

Martens said a global agreement like those brokered by the OECD would be a better way to proceed. But without US support, national-level taxes are likely to remain, at least until they appear again as a trade negotiation tool.

"[DSTs] have become tangled up in this Trump administration trade policy debates, and that makes a debate even more complicated," Martens said.

Edited by: Carla Bleiker

Shubhangi Derhgawen contributed to this story.

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Canada axes digital tax to ease Trump trade tensions

Researchers have solved a long-standing mystery about the origins of Uralic languages. They were known to go back thousands of years, but who spoke them originally?&nbsp;

To find out, researchers combined genetic and archeological data to trace the ancestral origins of the people who now speak Uralic languages.

Their study, published in Nature<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 "></path></svg>, describes how they found a 'genetic tracer dye' for the spread of Uralic-speaking populations across Eurasia between 11,000 and 4,000 years ago.

This shows how Uralic people migrated from Siberia as far as the Baltic sea and East Asia, bringing with them technological advancements and the Uralic language.

It also shows how the ~25 million Uralic language speakers living today can trace this ancestry in their DNA.

"This study is incredibly exciting for me as Estonian. We Uralic speakers have this little contribution of Siberian DNA — about 5% [of our total DNA]. Now it seems these genes connect all Uralic people with our ancestral cultures and languages," said Kristiina Tambets, an expert in archaeogenetics at University of Tartu in Estonia, who was not involved in the study.

<h2>What is the ancestral homeland of Uralic people?</h2>

Scientists have previously traced the roots of Indo-European languages. This linguistic root via people migrating from central Asia to Europe and India started 5,000 years ago. Eventually, the language branched out into modern groups like Germanic, Slavic, and Romance.

But Uralic languages are completely different — experts don't fully understand the origins of the language, or who spoke it. That's because Uralic languages, such as those spoken in Estonia, Hungary and Finland, all come from a completely different linguistic origin, compared to Indo-European.&nbsp;

Linguists believe Uralic languages may have originated from somewhere near the Ural Mountains, in modern-day Russia and Kazakhstan. But it's debated where exactly this was, and how Uralic languages spread through Eurasia.

The study authors aimed to solve this mystery by studying the genes of ancient Uralic people. By analyzing patterns and variations in DNA from ancient individuals, they could reconstruct how these populations migrated over many generations.

They tested the genomes of 180 ancient Uralic people, who lived 11,000-4,000 years ago across a huge area of Eurasia — mapping closely with the whole range of modern-day Russia and its neighbors. They compared this ancient genomic data to the DNA from another 1,312 ancient people already studied by scientists.&nbsp;

Their data showed a complex picture of how Uralic people migrated over thousands of years from multiple original areas throughout Siberia.

"This study gives us the origin and mechanism of the spread of Uralic people during the Bronze age," said Tambets.

Tracing the genetics of these migrating peoples, the researchers found that early Proto-Uralic people branched off into several different groups over thousands of years.&nbsp;

One major group went west to the Baltic — areas like Finland, Estonia, and northwest Russia, where Uralic language speakers live today.

Another proto-Uralic group called the Yeniseians branched off around 5,400 years ago to live in central Siberia. There, the only surviving Yeniseian language is Ket.

And another branch migrated to East Asia around 4,500 years ago, which the authors say is why many Uralic-speaking people today have some East Asian ancestry. Some of these people then migrated to the Americas and gave rise to Native Americans.

Other Uralic groups in the central Eurasian steppe lands migrated westwards into Hungary around 3,000 years ago.

This study also supports the idea that the eastern Ural Mountains are the homeland for Uralic languages.&nbsp;

"That said, it's not possible to say what languages people spoke based on their genes," said Tambets.&nbsp;



<h2>Ancient Uralic people influenced modern culture&nbsp;</h2>

Tambets, who is head of the Centre of Excellence of Estonian Roots, said the study is "the way" to solve questions about ancestry.&nbsp;

"It pulls together all these different strands about genetics, language, and archeology. It shows how Uralic-speaking people today can trace how their ancestors followed this [migration] route and spread with super cool technological advancements 4,000 years ago."

By "super cool advancements," Tambets refers to metallurgy, particularly with copper and bronze, and the trade networks that early Uralic people developed.

Migrating Uralic people heavily influenced the cultures who already lived through the Eurasian lands.

"Early [Indo-European] settlers at the Baltic came together with later Uralic-speaking people after this massive migration. I'm a mosaic of this integration," said Tambets.

As well as preserving their own languages, Uralic people also influenced the Indo-European languages that most Europeans speak today. For example, linguists believe words like "water", "pot", and "fish" may have originally stemmed from Proto-Uralic.

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany 

Primary source:

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Who were Uralic people? Researchers solve an ancient mystery

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently announced that his company would reduce its workforce as artificial intelligence (AI) replaces human employees.

He also warned that AI will affect a wide range of jobs<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 "></path></svg> and sectors.

Jassy is not alone, as many other tech firms have issued similar warnings about how AI breakthroughs could reshape their workforce.

In May,&nbsp;the CEO of the AI startup Anthropic told the Arlington, Virginia-based American news website Axios that AI could eliminate&nbsp;half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years.

US public companies have reduced the number of their white-collar staff by a collective 3.5% over the past three years, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing employment data provider Live Data Technologies. Over the past decade, one in five companies in the S&amp;P 500 have shrunk, it said.



Several&nbsp;tech companies, including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Procter &amp; Gamble, have announced layoffs of thousands of workers over the past several months.

Recently, retail service provider Shopify said teams requesting additional staff would first need to prove that AI could not perform the tasks.

Duolingo, a language-learning app, also plans to&nbsp;gradually replace its external workers with AI.

<h2>Fears of mass unemployment</h2>

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has estimated<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 "></path></svg> that a quarter of jobs worldwide are at a high risk of being replaced by AI automation.&nbsp;

But AI is also expected to create new opportunities and boost productivity.

A report by the World Economic Forum earlier this year forecast<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 "></path></svg> that technological transformation would displace about 92 million existing jobs by 2030, while creating 170 million new ones. Jobs in developed economies will likely be more affected by AI than those in developing ones.



A study published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year found that the technology could affect 60% of jobs in developed economies<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 "></path></svg> — around half of them negatively, while the other half will see a positive impact.

The report concluded that about 40% of jobs in emerging markets and 26% of jobs in low-income countries would be hit.

But while these labor markets may see&nbsp;a smaller initial impact from AI, they are also less likely to benefit from the increased productivity that AI promises.

<h2>Who will be most affected?</h2>

During past technological breakthroughs, lower-skilled and blue-collar workers bore the&nbsp;brunt, such as&nbsp;workers on factory floors being replaced by robots.

However, broad AI adoption is expected to hit higher-educated, white-collar workers hard, particularly those with tasks that AI could perform at a similar or&nbsp;better quality than&nbsp;a human worker.

A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in the US found<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 "></path></svg> that occupations involving information gathering and data analysis, such as&nbsp;web developers, technical writers, accountants and data entry workers, among others, would be at high risk of being replaced&nbsp;by AI.

<figure class="image"><img src="" alt="Employees at work in Standard Chartered Bank headquarters in Shanghai" title="Employees at work in Standard Chartered Bank headquarters in Shanghai" class="hq-img"><figcaption class="img-caption">Entry level white-collar jobs are most at risk of being replaced by AI </figcaption></figure>

Labor-intensive jobs that can't be easily automated, like construction workers, child care workers and firefighters, are expected to remain the most resilient.

The possibility of massive job losses has triggered concerns over the disruptive effects of AI on employment and society, drawing the attention of politicians and even religious leaders.&nbsp;Pope Leo XIV, who became the head of the Catholic Church in May, has warned of the threat posed by AI to jobs and human dignity.

<h2>AI concerns overblown?</h2>

Labor market&nbsp;expert Enzo Weber from the Institute of Employment Research&nbsp;in Nuremberg, Germany,&nbsp;believes the concerns over job losses are misplaced.

Speaking with DW, he said AI advancements open up a wide range of economic possibilities and are more likely to help workers than cause mass unemployment.

"AI primarily changes work, but it does not fundamentally eliminate it," said Weber,&nbsp;adding that the technology in most cases helps human workers "develop new tasks and perform their tasks better rather than just replacing them."

A&nbsp;paper<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 "></path></svg>&nbsp;published in January by Harvard economists&nbsp;David Deming, Christopher Ong&nbsp;and&nbsp;Lawrence H. Summers&nbsp;shared a similar view.

The economists argued that the automation of individual job tasks "does not necessarily reduce employment" and may even lead to "job gains in some sectors" of the economy.

"In principle, being able to automate a previously onerous task could make workers so much more productive that the increased output offsets the fact that some of their work is now being done by a machine," they stated in the paper.

Stressing that the impact of AI is likely to be "widespread and long-lasting," they also wrote that "history teaches us that even if AI disrupts the labor market, its impact will unfold over many decades."

<h2>Adapting to a changing tech landscape</h2>

Given that artificial&nbsp;intelligence technology&nbsp;is still in its early stages, its precise longer-term impact on global labor markets remains uncertain.



The efficacy of many AI tools will also depend on how well they are integrated into workplaces, and the willingness and ability of workers to use them.

If workers refrain from making full use of AI out of concern for their jobs, it could compromise the productivity boost the new technology promises.

Labor market expert Weber urged&nbsp;companies and workers to adapt to the changing technology landscape and seize the opportunities because for him AI technology is a "game changer."

"This [technology] presents opportunities, but they need to be seized. Further development and active training of workers are essential. Not just to keep pace, but to get as far ahead as possible."

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

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Will AI really shrink workforces as Amazon boss says?

Microsoft is killing its infamous "Blue Screen of Death" after over four decades. The notorious error message will soon be set against a black background.

The&nbsp;technology giant made the announcement in a&nbsp;blog post<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 "></path></svg> on Thursday as it outlined wider measures to improve the resilience of the Windows operating system.

"Now it's easier than ever to navigate unexpected restarts and recover faster," the company wrote.

The efforts by Microsoft come in light of the 2024 Crowdstike incident which led to a mammoth IT outage, crashing millions of Windows systems across the globe.

<h2>What's new?</h2>

The "Blue Screen of Death" or Blue Screen error&nbsp;was displayed if a serious problem caused Windows to shut down or restart unexpectedly to prevent data loss.

The company said it is&nbsp;"streamlining" what users experience when confronted with "unexpected restarts" that lead to disruptions.

The steps entail revamping the error screen that greeted users — often frustratingly so — for more than 40 years.

The new error message has a much more condensed text displayed across a black backdrop.

"Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart," it will read, according to an image shared by Microsoft in its blog.

The error message is no longer accompanied by a sad face icon and instead shows a percentage completed for the restart process.

The software company said that this "simplified" user interface for unexpected restarts will be available from later this summer on all of its Windows 11 (version 24H2) devices.



Edited by: Sean Sinico

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Microsoft shuts down iconic 'Blue Screen of Death'

US Vice President JD Vance joined social media platform Bluesky&nbsp;and has asked his 4 million followers on X to follow him onto the new platform, which is styled as an alternative to the Elon Musk-owned social network.

On Wednesday, the vice president shared screenshots of his Bluesky page on the X platform and told his users: "Hope to see you guys there."

"Hello Bluesky, I've been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis," Vance wrote in his first post on the platform.

"I'm thrilled to be here to engage with all of you."

Vance's account was briefly suspended&nbsp;due to concerns it could have been set up by an imposter.

But, as of Thursday, Vance's account had over 7,000 followers.

<h2>Vance joins the progressive answer to X</h2>

In 2022, then-Twitter was acquired by tech billionaire Elon Musk in 2022 and rebranded to X, Musk, a former advisor to President Donald Trump, has pushed the platform in a more conservative direction, while replacing fact-checking posts with user-driven "community notes."

Conservatives had complained that social media sites like Twitter were censoring their viewpoints.

X has been criticized for allowing hate speech and misinformation to flourish, which has driven some users towards alternative platforms like Bluesky.

In another one of his first posts, Vance praised the US Supreme Court recently banning gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender youth.

News agency AFP&nbsp;estimates that X has around 600 million active users, while Bluesky has about 30 million.

Edited by: Zac Crellin

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US Vice President JD Vance joins X rival Bluesky

The world's undersea cable network spans roughly 1.4 million kilometers (870,000 miles) and carries over 95% of intercontinental internet traffic, yet it remains vulnerable to accidental damage, such as ship anchors, and deliberate disruption.

Recent incidents in the Baltic Sea and Red Sea&nbsp;have underscored the cables' fragility. Policymakers are now staging&nbsp;international initiatives to safeguard the system.

"We need to work together to defend the entire network," Singaporean Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing said at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier security forum, earlier this month.

"There's no point trying to defend the integrity and security of a submarine cable by looking at a point. We need both ends to be secure," he added.

<h2>NATO nations patrol&nbsp;Baltic Sea as cables fail</h2>

In February 2024, multiple cables in the Red Sea were severed when anchors from a cargo vessel sunk by Houthi militants dragged along the seabed. The damage caused a sharp reduction in internet capacity between Europe and Asia, disrupting everything from financial transactions to video conferencing.

Meanwhile, Europe has struggled with a series of similar faults in the Baltic Sea, with many&nbsp;Western officials hinting those cables were intentionally damaged by ships linked to Russia. Experts have warned, however, that there has been no proof of deliberate damage.



Since January, some NATO members have expanded the&nbsp;deployment&nbsp;of frigates, maritime patrol aircraft and naval drones to conduct regular cable-surveillance missions across vital waterways.

<h2>Beijing using cable projects as leverage in naval disputes</h2>

In Southeast Asia, subsea infrastructure also faces similar geopolitical friction. In February, Taiwanese officials detained a Chinese-crewed ship after an undersea communications cable was damaged near the self-ruled island, which China sees as a breakaway province. China has also&nbsp;increasingly pressured cable consortia laying new links from Japan through the South China Sea to seek Beijing's "permission," effectively doubling down on its claims in internationally disputed waters.

<figure class="image"><img src="https://static.dw.com/image/71432347_906.jpg" alt="A map of the world showing how continents are linked with undersea cables" title="A map of the world showing how continents are linked with undersea cables" class="hq-img loaded"><figcaption class="img-caption">Telecommunication cables are also a linchpin of global trade</figcaption></figure>

"This is just another way that China is trying to assert its sovereignty over the South China Sea," Zachary Abuza, professor at the National War College in Washington, told DW.

China is also reportedly developing "advanced cable-cutting devices capable of targeting armored cables at unprecedented depths," according to a commentary published by Tokyo-based magazine Nikkei Asia this week.

Southeast Asian nations are also worried about the cables being threatened by natural disasters&nbsp;and possibly costing them access to new and expanded renewable energy projects, such as offshore wind farms.

According to Nikkei Asia, investment in the submarine power cable sector is projected to reach $1.95 billion (€1.70) by 2030.

<h2>Hanoi 'cautious not to anger China'</h2>

Vietnam, a nation of 90 million people served by just five undersea cables, lost up to 75% of its data capacity in February 2023 when all five suffered partial or total damage. In June last year, three of the five submarine internet cables failed again.



The cause for those disruptions is still unclear, at least officially. Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, told DW that Hanoi is "cautious not to anger China and tends to dismiss the suspicion that the cables were intentionally damaged."

"They argue that the cables are located in one of the world's busiest shipping routes, hence the chance that fishing vessels unintentionally damage them is high," Vuving added.

"However, this argument leaves unanswered the question of why the rate of incidents rose sharply in recent years."

<h2>EU as a way out of US-China clinch</h2>

Vietnam wants to add up to four new cables in the coming years to significantly boost connectivity speeds and the power supply, as the country looks to progress into higher-end, tech manufacturing.

Hanoi has encouraged Vietnamese telecom&nbsp;companies to spearhead this move. However, laying cables across the ocean floor is costly, and Vietnamese firms are looking for outside investment, mainly from China and the US.

"Many in Vietnam see this as a no-win situation as they do not want to be dependent on either China or the US and certainly do not want to get entangled in the US-China competition," said Vuving.

"European companies can help Vietnam escape this catch-22 situation. The same can be said regarding other countries in Southeast Asia."

<h2>Brussels working on 'cable diplomacy'</h2>

France's Alcatel Submarine Networks is often regarded as the global leader in subsea cable installation, and several European firms operate sizable fleets of cable repair ships.

In February, the EU published its Cable Security Action plan, which called on Brussels to "develop and deploy an advanced cable diplomacy."

"When it comes to addressing incidents," the plan reads, "the [EU] should enhance the exchange of information with, for instance, Indo Pacific partners who are facing similar incidents in relation to critical submarine infrastructures."



Soon thereafter, Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive vice president in charge of tech sovereignty and security, announced that almost €1 billion would be redirected in the EU's budget to boost surveillance of undersea cables and establish a fleet of emergency repair vessels.

<h2>Does US want Europeans in Asia?</h2>

Whether Europe is actually capable of supporting Asia is another matter.

"While Europeans could help build more undersea cable architecture for Southeast Asia, China already dominates the undersea cable network in the region," Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, told DW.

"It would take a massive and very costly effort by Europe to come anywhere near supplanting China's cable network, and I don't think Europe can afford that," he added.



Moreover, there could be pushback from the US, which appears to increasingly believe that Europeans should disengage from the Indo-Pacific region.

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue summit, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued that European states should limit their engagement and investments in regions like Southeast Asia to focus entirely on safeguarding&nbsp;Europe.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, pushed back a day later, arguing that "it's an illusion that these security theaters of Indo-Pacific and Europe are not interlinked."

She called for Europe and Asia to collaborate against covert "shadow fleets" and review maritime security laws to protect submarine cable networks.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic

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EU, Southeast Asia aim to boost security for undersea cables

Japan's second-largest carmaker, Honda, has successfully tested an experimental reusable space rocket on the nothern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the company said in a surprise announcement.

"The test was completed successfully, the first time Honda landed a rocket after reaching an altitude of nearly 300 meters (1,000 feet)," the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The carmarker aims to achieve suborbital space flight in 2029. In 2021, Honda said it was studying space technologies such as reusable rockets but made no announcements prior to Tuesday's test.

"Honda has chosen to take on the technological challenge of developing reusable rockets by utilising Honda technologies amassed in the development of various products and automated driving systems," it said.

The company said it has made no decisions regarding commercialization of this technology but that it has "the potential to contribute more to people's daily lives by launching satellites with its own rockets, that could lead to various services that are also compatible with other Honda business."

It added that growing expectations for a "data system in outer space" will likely increase the demand for satellite launch rockets in coming years.&nbsp;

<h2>The space race returns</h2>

NASA&nbsp;was the first to successfully test a reusable spacecraft with the Space Shuttle beginning&nbsp;in the 1980s. The booster rockets could be salvaged from the ocean and refurbished, while the Shuttle itself was designed to land like an airplane.

More recently,&nbsp;Elon Musk's SpaceX which is known for commercializing reusable rockets that land safely back on Earth. This has been used to establish the global&nbsp;satellite internet network Starlink.

Japan's space agency JAXA is also on a mission to become a major player in satellite launches. Japan's government has set up a multibillion-dollar space venture fund to subsidize private rockets, encouraging several Japanese startups to work on the reusable technology.

Meanwhile Honda's rival Toyota, which is the world's biggest automaker by sales, announced its investment in Japan's rocket maker Interstellar technologies, earlier this year.

Edited by: Zac Crellin

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Honda pulls off surprise reusable rocket test launch

Brazil's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that social media companies can be held accountable for some types of content published by users on their platforms.

The decision could clear the way for the companies to face potential fines for not removing some users' posts in Brazil.

A slim majority of six out of 11 Supreme Court judges backed the ruling, but they did not agree on what types of content would be considered illegal.&nbsp;

The regulation of social media platforms has become a pressing issue in Brazil in the aftermath of the January 8, 2023, riot, when supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in the capital Brasilia.

<h2>When will the court ruling&nbsp;become law?</h2>

The social media proposal would become law once voting is finished. There are still four judges to vote.

Votes previously cast can still be changed, but that is not common.

Only one justice so far has voted not to change the current legislation on the matter. Andre&nbsp;Mendonca's&nbsp;vote was made public last week.

He&nbsp;highlighted that&nbsp;free speech on social media is key for the publication of information that "holds powerful public institutions to account, including governments, political elites and digital platforms."

The current law states that social media companies can only be held responsible for third-party content on their platforms if they do not remove the content after a court order.

Edited by: John Silk

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Brazil rules social media platforms liable for users' posts

<h2>What you need to know:</h2>

<ul>
	<li>The prospect of humans returning to <a class="internal-link" href="/en/the-moon/t-64922459">the moon</a> looks more likely than ever, with&nbsp;<a class="internal-link" href="/en/nasa/t-64526832">NASA</a> and <a class="internal-link" href="/en/european-space-agency-esa/t-18949650">ESA</a> collaborating on the Artemis program</li>
	<li>There have been a number of recent, successful moon missions by China and India</li>
	<li>Space agencies and commercial companies want to use the moon for scientific research and as a base to get to Mars</li>
</ul>

<h2>Growing interest in moon missions</h2>

The Artemis program is a North American, NASA-led human spaceflight program, involving 55 international collaborators, including the European Space Agency (ESA).&nbsp;

NASA aims to establish a permanent base at the moon's south pole and call it Artemis Base Camp. It also aims to launch a new space station, called Gateway, into the moon's orbit.

Meanwhile, a joint China-Russia project&nbsp;involving 13 international partners&nbsp;aims to build a moon base called the International Lunar Research Station&nbsp;by 2035.&nbsp;

Both the Artemis Base Camp and the International Lunar Research Station are proposed as scientific in nature. They will, if successful, host astronauts for short stays and house permanent robotic equipment, which could be operated from Earth.&nbsp;

But the moon has also always been of strategic value. During the Cold War, the US and Soviet-era Russia fought out their ideological differences in space&nbsp;as well as on Earth.

And so it is today, except there are more players. The US, for one, has stated publicly that it considers itself to be in a new space race, which it wants to win.

Here are more reasons why:

<h2>The moon is rich in resources</h2>

Part of the moon's appeal lies in its abundant resources. These include:

<ul>
	<li>Iron&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Silicon&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Hydrogen&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Titanium</li>
	<li><a class="internal-link" href="/en/rare-earth-elements/t-64385013">Rare earth elements</a> (REEs)</li>
</ul>

While the costs of extraction and transportation are high, some of these resources could be brought back to Earth, where resources are dwindling in supply.&nbsp;

Mining operations on the moon could pave the way for extracting an immense mineral wealth held in asteroids, and the moon will be the first place this will be tested.



Most material extracted from the moon will be used to replace materials that would otherwise be needed to be brought from Earth, essentially making lunar bases self-sufficient.&nbsp;

Regolith (lunar soil), for example, could be used as radiation protection and construction material for lunar bases.

Water, which was first discovered on the moon in 2008 by the Indian mission Chandrayaan-1, will be important for drinking, growing food&nbsp;and cooling equipment.&nbsp;

Missions since Chandrayaan-1 have shown there are high concentrations of ice at the poles, which is partly why the first lunar colonies are likely to be built there — and probably at the south pole, even though it is difficult to land there.

These bases could also be used as "transit lounges"&nbsp;for astronauts on their way to Mars.

For energy, solar radiation is already used to power some spacecraft and satellites, but regolith and water ice could also be used to make rocket propellant.

The moon also contains significant amounts of helium-3, a potential fuel for nuclear fusion power.

So, that's another reason future Mars missions are landing for a stopover on the moon as well as to refuel.

<h2>Scientific research on the moon</h2>

Scientific research is at the core of ESA's Moon Exploration Program, as it is for all space agencies, said Sara Pastor, ESA's lunar and gateway program manager, in an email to DW.

Humans have had a continued presence in space for the past 20 years aboard the International Space Station. But the ISS is only 250 miles (about 400 kilometers) away in low Earth orbit, which is as little as four hours after launching from Earth. The moon is 250,000 miles away — about three days' spaceflight — and a far riskier journey for astronauts. The first research on the moon aims to make that journey safer and easier.

Then there's environmental science: "[Scientists] will investigate the nature of lunar environments, how their unique conditions affect human health and performance, and robotic exploration systems, and how human activity affects these environments," said Pastor.

Researchers will want to determine how water, metals&nbsp;and other lunar resources can be used to sustain lunar bases for the long term, and how best to extract them.

"ESA is developing instruments for radiation environment measurements, drilling and in-situ sample analysis, geophysics and lunar space weather," said Pastor.

<h2>Moon tech benefits us all on Earth</h2>

It's often claimed that we owe mobile phones to the Apollo missions of the 1960s and '70s. While our mobile phones are not direct descendants from space tech, the Apollo missions did help miniaturize electronic and telecommunication devices.

Dozens of modern technologies originally developed in the R&amp;D labs of space agencies bring benefits to people on Earth — including home insulation, memory foam (used in mattresses), freeze-dried foods, robotic sensors and limbs&nbsp;and telemedicine.&nbsp;

Scientists are&nbsp;developing medical equipment and health tracking methods to protect astronauts'&nbsp;health when they spend long periods in the extreme conditions of space, especially&nbsp;the human immune system. For example: portable, lightweight diagnostic equipment needed for spaceflight crews without medical training to monitor their health.&nbsp;

These technologies could be used on Earth, too.

<h2>From a lunar hub to a second (or third) home for humans on Mars?</h2>

The long-term goal of building surface and orbital moon bases is so they can serve as a staging post for more distant space travel.&nbsp;

"A colony on the moon will be extremely useful and a key training ground for Mars surface human exploration," said Pastor.

NASA plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.&nbsp;

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany

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Why NASA, ESA and others want to return to moon

What you need to know:

<ul>
	<li>China and Russia&nbsp;plan to build a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2035 to power a permanent lunar base.</li>
	<li>The&nbsp;International Lunar Research Station&nbsp;(ILRS) will rely on the power plant for its scientific research.</li>
	<li>The IRLS involves over a dozen international partners and is seen as a rival program to NASA's Artemis Program.</li>
</ul>

China and Russia&nbsp;plan to build an automated nuclear power station on the moon by 2035.

A&nbsp;memorandum of cooperation for the project was signed&nbsp;between Russia's space agency Roscosmos and the China National Space Administration (CNSA)&nbsp;this week.

The power station will be part of the proposed ILRS lunar base and&nbsp;will provide energy to enable long-term lunar exploration and scientific research.

ILRS&nbsp;is seen as a rival to the US-led Artemis program, which plans to build an orbital lunar space station called "Gateway" from&nbsp;2027.&nbsp;

Artemis involves NASA and the space agencies of 55 other countries, including&nbsp;European Space Agency&nbsp;member states.

<h2>What is the International Lunar Research Station?</h2>

The ILRS project aims to establish a scientific research base on the moon&nbsp;located&nbsp;within&nbsp;100 kilometers&nbsp;(62 miles) of the lunar south pole.

It will feature long-term autonomous operations and short-term human missions.

"The station will conduct fundamental space research and test technology for long-term uncrewed operations of the ILRS, with the prospect of a human being's presence on the Moon," Roscosmos said in a statement.



First announced in 2017, ILRS includes involvement from&nbsp;Pakistan,&nbsp;Venezuela, Belarus, Azerbaijan, South Africa, Egypt, Nicaragua, Thailand, Serbia, Senegal and Kazakhstan.

China will also invite&nbsp;50 countries, 500 international scientific research institutions&nbsp;and 5,000 overseas researchers to join the ILRS as part of its "555 Project," said Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration program in a statement last year.

While the ILRS aims to be a center of scientific research, the Moon's natural resources are also an enticing prospect for spacefaring nations.

The moon holds valuable metal oxides, regolith (lunar soil), rare Earth metals, and possibly significant amounts of helium-3,&nbsp;a potential fuel for nuclear fusion power.&nbsp;

The question of who can actually own bits of the moon is hotly debated among legal experts.

<h2>Will China lead future space exploration?</h2>

ILRS is part of China's mission to be come a leader in space exploration and scientific research.

The first pieces&nbsp;are to be laid by China's Chang'e-8 mission in 2028. This will double as&nbsp;China's first attempt at landing an astronaut on the lunar surface.

China has been landing unmanned rovers on the moon since 2013 and its&nbsp;scientists have led missions that have mapped the lunar surface, including the "dark side of the moon,"&nbsp;which is the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth.

In June 2024, China became the first nation to successfully collect rocks from this hemisphere.&nbsp; The mission was hailed by China, with state news agency Xinhua describing&nbsp;it&nbsp;as "an unprecedented feat in human lunar exploration history."&nbsp;

Edited by: Matthew Ward Agius