Month: October 2022
SpaceX cannot keep funding Ukraine Starlink
Starlink works by providing broadband internet through a network of satellites. It has proven vital for Ukraine’s military as it fights to retake Ukrainian land from Russia. Elon Musk has said his rocket firm SpaceX cannot continue indefinitely paying for Ukraine’s Starlink internet service in his latest spat with Kyiv. In February, the world’s richest
E-waste and Environmental pollution
This year, 5.3 billion mobile phones will be thrown away the international waste electrical and electronic equipment. Precious minerals not extracted from waste electronics, such as the copper in wire or the cobalt in rechargeable batteries, have to be mined. There are an estimated 16 billion mobile phones worldwide – and in Europe, almost a
India’s solar-powered future
About 75% of India’s electricity is generated by burning coal, but by 2030 the government wants 40% of its electricity to come from renewable sources like solar. India has Thar desert located in Rajasthan in the northwest of India and temperatures there can top 50C and frequent sandstorms add to the inhospitable conditions. Bhadla is
Netflix ad-supported service to be launched in November
Netflix has been losing customers as competition and cost of living pressures mount. The company lost more than 1 million subscribers in the first half of this year. It is due to provide an update of that figure to investors next week. Netflix is launching a new streaming option with adverts in November, introducing a
AI recruitment failure
Artificially intelligent hiring tools do not reduce bias or improve diversity e.g. in 2018, Amazon announced it had scrapped the development of an AI-powered recruitment engine because it could detect gender from CVs and discriminated against female applicants. The use of AI is becoming widespread – but its analysis of candidate videos or applications is
Germany’s biggest power company, is going green
Germany’s largest power generator has recently taken two big steps towards this goal. On October 1st it agreed to buy the renewable-energy business of Consolidated Edison , an American utility, for $6.8bn. Three days later it signed an agreement with Germany’s regional and federal governments to bring forward plans to stop generating electricity with lignite,
Malaria existence during dry seasons
The mosquitoes that transmit malaria in Africa have short and merry lives. To maintain their populations they must lay eggs in water, in which their larvae then grow and pupate. In theory, malarial mosquitoes should die out entirely during dry spells that go on for months, for their eggs are insufficiently drought-resistant to last that
Sergey Surovikin, Russia’s new commander
General Surovikin was born in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk in 1966 and started his military career in the 1980s with the Soviet special forces in Afghanistan. When hardliners attempted a coup in Russia in 1991, he was one of a tiny number of officers to follow their orders to attack pro-democracy protesters. On october
Higher market rates
Global stock-markets have sold off sharply, and bond portfolios have lost an astonishing 21% this year. The world’s financial markets are going through their most painful adjustment since the global financial crisis. In Europe Britain has poured the fuel of reckless fiscal policy on the fire, causing it to lose the confidence of investors. And
China Communist Party control
The Communist Party has always been obsessed with control. But under President Xi Jinping that obsession has deepened. After three decades of opening and reform under previous leaders, China has in many ways become more closed and autocratic under Mr Xi. Surveillance has broadened. Party cells flex their muscles in private firms. Preserving the party’s