Month: November 2023
war fatigue in the West
Ukraine faces a bleak winter amid great uncertainty: its counter-offensive has failed to break through Russian lines; its enemy is increasing its arms production; and its vital ally is paralysed by political turmoil and distracted by Israel’s war in Gaza.The effect is being felt at the front as America tries to stretch its dwindling funds.
ByteDance cuts gaming Jobs
ByteDance’s creation of its gaming division Nuverse in 2019 was widely seen as a major push into a once booming sector. In 2021, the company formalised its status as one of six business units under a broader structural overhaul. ByteDance has confirmed that it will significantly downsize its gaming business after reports of job cuts.The
The Israel-Gaza battles raging on TikTok
The algorithms work in a similar way for other social media platforms too and it means some users are being driven towards increasingly divisive content about Israel and Gaza that only entrench their existing views and biases. It matters because conversations on social media can shape public opinion – and normalise rhetoric that spills offline,
Google cloud customers locked out of files
Drive is part of Google Workspace, a suite of applications which has more than three billion users worldwide. Google Drive users have reacted angrily to a glitch leaving some unable to access files from the last six months. It is not known how many customers are affected, but people in multiple countries have reported problems.
Elon Musk visits Israel
After Gaza experienced major internet disruption and outages as Israel intensified its military operations, Mr Musk had suggested giving Starlink to major aid organisations in the territory. But Israel argued the tech would be used by Hamas. Israel’s president has told Elon Musk he has “an important role” in preventing antisemitism, which both he and
Carbon-dioxide removal
In a world where every delay in emissions reduction was accompanied by compensating investments in Carbon-dioxide removal designed to make sure the technology would be available at the appropriate scale by the time it was needed, that temporal trade off might make some sort of sense. This is not that world. It is, instead, a
The summit presidency’s Action Agenda
The summit presidency’s Action Agenda is designed to support the parties at every step. It comes in four parts, focused on fast-tracking a just and orderly energy transition; addressing climate finance; putting nature, lives and livelihoods at the heart of climate action; and fostering inclusivity. In this age of polarisation, the world desperately needs good
Russia Superiority in electronic warfare
Growing Russian success in the drone war is partly explained by the density of electronic warfare systems it is able to field, thanks to those years of investment. The system has a 10km range and can take over control of the drone, while acquiring the co-ordinates of the place from where it is being piloted,
wars and crises
The large powers are becoming more polarised on issues where they might once have pushed in the same direction. In the Middle East, for instance, Russia has moved closer to Hamas, tearing up years of careful diplomacy with Israel. China, which in past wars issued bland statements urging de-escalation, has exploited the crisis to criticise
The state of war in Ukraine
Its counter-offensive, which began in June, made modest progress on the flanks of Bakhmut, an eastern town that Russia had captured in May, and in the south, in Zaporizhia province. A combination of weary units, limited ammunition and wet weather will slow offensives during the winter, though some small-unit infantry attacks will continue. The evidence