Category: Science

The U.S. Department of Justice dropped a proposal Friday to force Alphabet’s Google to sell its investments in artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI competitor Anthropic, to boost competition in online search.

The DOJ and a coalition of 38 state attorneys general still seek a court order requiring Google to sell its Chrome browser and take other measures aimed at addressing what a judge said was Google’s illegal search monopoly, according to court papers filed in Washington.

“The American dream is about higher values than just cheap goods and ‘free’ online services. These values include freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom to innovate, and freedom to compete in a market undistorted by the controlling hand of a monopolist,” prosecutors wrote.

A spokesperson for Google said the “sweeping proposals continue to go miles beyond the court’s decision, and would harm America’s consumers, economy and national security.”

A spokesperson for Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would continue a crackdown on Big Tech, which began during his first term and continued into former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration. Trump has tapped veteran antitrust attorney Gail Slater to lead the DOJ’s efforts.

Google holds a minority stake worth billions of dollars in Anthropic. Losing the investment would give a competitive advantage to OpenAI and its partner Microsoft, Anthropic wrote to the court in February.

Evidence prosecutors obtained since making their draft recommendation in November showed a risk that banning Google from AI investments “could cause unintended consequences in the evolving AI space,” they said in the final proposal Friday. They asked that Google be required to give prior notice to the government about future investments in generative AI.

Google, which has said it will appeal, has made its own proposal that would loosen agreements with Apple and others to set Google as the default search engine on new devices. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta has scheduled a trial on the proposals for April.

The blockbuster case is one of several U.S. antitrust cases against Big Tech companies. Apple, Meta Platforms and Amazon.com also face allegations of maintaining illegal monopolies in their respective markets.

Since Trump’s reelection, Google has sought to make the case that the DOJ’s approach in the case would hobble the company’s ability to compete in AI and “jeopardize America’s global economic and technological leadership.”

Many of the measures prosecutors proposed in November remain intact with a few tweaks.

For example, a requirement that Google share search query data with competitors now says that Google can charge a marginal fee for access and that the competitors must not pose a national security risk.

The proposal drew statements of support from Democratic and Republican attorneys general as well as the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA.
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CAIRO — Nearly 100 people died of cholera in two weeks since the waterborne disease outbreak began in Sudan’s White Nile State, an international aid group said.

Doctors Without Borders — also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF — said Thursday that 2,700 people have contracted the disease since Feb. 20, including 92 people who died.

Of the cholera patients who died, 18 were children, including five no older than 5 and five others no older than 9, Marta Cazorla, MSF emergency coordinator for Sudan, told The Associated Press.

Sudan plunged into war nearly two years ago when tensions simmered between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group, or RSF, with battles in Khartoum and elsewhere across the country.

RSF launched intense attacks last month in the White Nile State, killing hundreds of civilians, including infants. The Sudanese military announced at the time that it made advances there, cutting crucial supply routes to RSF.

During the RSF attacks in the state on Feb. 16, the group fired a projectile that hit the Rabak power plant, causing a mass power outage and triggering the latest wave of cholera, according to MSF. Subsequently, people in the area had to rely mainly on water obtained from donkey carts because water pumps were no longer operational.

“Attacks on critical infrastructure have long-term detrimental effects on the health of vulnerable communities,” Cazorla said.

The cholera outbreak in the state peaked between Feb. 20 and 24, when patients and their families rushed to Kosti Teaching Hospital, overwhelming the facility beyond its capacity, according to MSF. Most patients were severely dehydrated. MSF provided 25 tons of logistical items such as beds and tents to Kosti to help absorb more cholera patients.

Cazorla said that numbers in the cholera treatment center had been declining and were at low levels until this latest outbreak.

The White Nile State Health Ministry responded to the outbreak by providing the community access to clean water and banning the use of donkey carts to transport water. Health officials also administered a vaccination campaign when the outbreak began.

Sudan’s health ministry said Tuesday that there were 57,135 cholera cases, including 1,506 deaths, across 12 of the 18 states in Sudan. The cholera outbreak was officially declared on Aug. 12 by the health ministry after a new wave of cases was reported starting July 22.

The war in Sudan has killed at least 20,000 people, though the number is likely far higher. The war has driven more than 14 million people from their homes, pushed parts of the country into famine and caused disease outbreaks.
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Just as discoveries of fossil fuel reserves helped to shape the 20th century, the race for critical minerals is shaping the 21st. These minerals are seen as strategically crucial for modern economies, including those used in construction, energy and manufacturing — particularly for semiconductors and other technology applications.

Where mineral resources are located and extracted has often played a major role in geopolitical and economic relations. Today, the world’s attention is turning to two places believed to be rich in untapped reserves — but accessing each of them comes with unique challenges.

Afghanistan

Sitting at the intersection of multiple tectonic plates, Afghanistan’s geology has resulted in extensive and diverse mineral deposits. Historically, its territory was a primary source of copper and gold as well as gems and semiprecious stones, particularly lapis lazuli, a stone prized for its intense blue color.

Today, Afghanistan is estimated to hold nearly $1 trillion worth of mineral reserves. This includes 60 million tons of copper, 183 million tons of aluminum and 2.2 billion tons of iron ore. Gold is mined on an artisanal scale in the northern and eastern provinces, while the mountainous north contains valuable marble and limestone deposits used in construction.

The China National Petroleum Corporation also pumps oil in the north, though Afghanistan has no domestic refining capability and is reliant on neighbors such as Turkmenistan, Iran and Kyrgyzstan for fuel.

Most of the international focus, however, is on Afghanistan’s other metal deposits, many of which are crucial to emerging technologies. These include cobalt, lithium and niobium, used in batteries and other electronics. The country’s unexplored lithium reserves may even exceed those of Bolivia, currently the world’s largest.

Afghanistan also holds major deposits of rare earth metals like lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, which are used for magnets and semiconductors as well as other specialized manufacturing applications.

One obstacle to extracting Afghanistan’s minerals is its terrain, considered the eighth most mountainous in the world. But security has been a much bigger impediment. Amid the political instability that followed the first fall of the Taliban in 2001, many gemstone and copper mines operated illegally under the command of local militants. With workers paid very little and the product smuggled out to be sold in neighboring Pakistan, the Afghan people saw little benefit from these extraction operations.

Since retaking power in 2021, the Taliban, who have been eager to make use of the country’s mineral wealth and increase exports, are hampered by a lack of diplomatic recognition and their designation as a terrorist group by multiple nations. This is, however, beginning to change, as some countries establish de facto diplomatic ties.

In 2024, the Taliban government’s resource ministry announced that it had secured investments from China, Qatar, Turkey, Iran and the United Kingdom. China, which was the first nation to accredit a Taliban-appointed ambassador, is expected to be a major player in Afghanistan’s extractive industries as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.

However, as newly discovered deposits require an average of 16 years to develop into operational mines, harnessing Afghanistan’s mineral potential will take a great deal of investment and time — if the political and security issues can somehow be worked out.

Greenland

For millions of years, Greenland has been mostly covered by an ice sheet, habitable only along coastal areas. Despite some offshore petroleum and gas exploration, fishing and whaling have remained the primary nongovernment industries.

Now, as ice recedes amid climate change, the large island’s frozen interior offers new opportunities in untapped mineral resources. These include more common metals such as copper and gold, as well as titanium and graphite. But as elsewhere, there is even greater interest in Greenland’s deposits of technology-critical minerals.

The autonomous Danish territory is estimated to contain deposits of 43 of the 50 minerals designated by the United States as crucial to national security. Among these are the sought-after rare earth metals, in addition to other metals with technological applications such as vanadium and chromium.

Currently, a majority of the world’s rare earth metals are mined in China, making Greenland’s deposits vital for countries seeking to reduce their dependence on Chinese imports. This strategic importance is one of the factors that led U.S. President Donald Trump to propose buying Greenland from Denmark.

Greenland’s government has issued nearly 100 mining licenses to companies like KoBold Metals and Rio Tinto. But these have mostly involved exploration, with only two mines currently operating in the country. Getting a mine to production can take as long as a decade, because it involves several unique challenges.

One such hurdle is Greenland’s strong environmentalist movement, which has successfully shut down mining projects for safety concerns. Rare earths pose a particular issue, because they must be extracted from other ores — a process that can cause waste and pollution. At the Kvanefjeld site in the south, metals were to be extracted from uranium ore until the fear of radioactive pollution led to a ban.

The receding ice and warming climate have made extraction easier not only by revealing more territory but also by extending possible working hours and easing ship navigation. However, the environment remains harsh and inhospitable, and the island suffers from a lack of infrastructure, with few roads or energy facilities outside major settlements. Nevertheless, Greenland’s government considers the mining industry to be an important means of developing the economy.

Conclusion

Shaped by both politics and geography, Greenland and Afghanistan have become two major frontiers in the global scramble for critical minerals. Which parties will have the opportunity to benefit from their resources will depend on the interplay of military power, economics and diplomacy. 
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday hosts top cryptocurrency players at the White House, a political boost for an industry that has struggled to gain legitimacy — and where the Republican president faces conflict of interest concerns.

The president’s “crypto czar,” Silicon Valley investor David Sacks, has invited prominent founders, CEOs and investors along with members of a Trump working group, to craft policies aimed at accelerating crypto growth, and providing legitimacy that the industry has long sought.

On Thursday night, Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” a move that Sacks said made good on a campaign promise to an increasingly important component of his coalition.

Summit guests include twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of crypto platform Gemini, as well as Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and Michael Saylor, the boss of major bitcoin investor MicroStrategy.

In a post on X, Sacks said the event would take place as a roundtable, and despite industry interest, the White House would have to “keep it small.”

For believers, cryptocurrencies represent a financial revolution that reduces dependence on centralized authorities while offering individuals an alternative to traditional banking systems.

Bitcoin, the world’s most traded cryptocurrency, is heralded by advocates as a substitute for gold or a hedge against currency devaluation and political instability.

Memecoins

Critics, meanwhile, maintain that these assets function primarily as speculative investments with questionable real-world utility that could leave taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up if the market crashes.

The proliferation of “memecoins” — cryptocurrencies based on celebrities, internet memes, or pop culture items rather than technical utility — presents another challenge.

Much of the crypto industry frowns upon these tokens, fearing they tarnish the sector’s credibility, amid reports of quick pump-and-dump schemes that leave unwitting buyers paying for assets that end up worthless.

Trump also faces conflict of interest concerns.

U.S. crypto investors were major supporters of Trump’s presidential campaign, contributing millions of dollars toward his victory in hopes of ending the Biden administration’s deep skepticism toward digital currencies.

Trump also has significant financial ties to the sector, partnering with exchange platform World Liberty Financial and launching the “Trump” memecoin in January, as did his wife, Melania.

Once hostile to the crypto industry, Trump has already taken significant steps to clear regulatory hurdles.

Under Thursday’s executive order, the bitcoin stockpile will be composed of digital currency seized in U.S. criminal proceedings.

The use of these assets “means it will not cost taxpayers a dime,” Sacks said in a post Thursday night on X.

Sacks has said that if previous administrations had held onto their digital holdings over the past decade, they would be worth $17 billion today.

Trump also appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Under Atkins, the SEC has dropped legal proceedings against major platforms like Coinbase and Kraken that were initiated during Biden’s term.

The previous administration had implemented restrictions on banks holding cryptocurrencies — which have since been lifted — and allowed former SEC chairman Gary Gensler to pursue aggressive enforcement.

However, meaningful change will likely require congressional action, where crypto legislation has remained stalled despite intense lobbying efforts led by investors, including Trump ally Marc Andreessen, an influential venture capitalist.
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Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart.

This time, wreckage from the explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up.

The 123-meter rocket blasted off from Texas. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost as the spacecraft went into an out-of-control spin.

Starship reached nearly 150 kilometers in altitude before trouble struck and before four mock satellites could be deployed. It was not immediately clear where it came down, but images of flaming debris were captured from Florida, including near Cape Canaveral, and posted online.

“Unfortunately, this happened last time too, so we have some practice at this now,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said from the launch site.

SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” during the ascent engine firing. “Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” the company said in a statement posted online.

Starship didn’t make it quite as high or as far as last time.

NASA has booked Starship to land its astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX’s Elon Musk is aiming for Mars with Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

Like last time, Starship had mock satellites to release once the craft reached space on this eighth test flight as a practice for future missions. They resembled SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, thousands of which orbit Earth, and were meant to fall back down following their brief taste of space.

During the last demo, SpaceX captured the booster at the launch pad, but the spacecraft blew up several minutes later over the Atlantic. No injuries or major damage were reported.

According to an investigation that remains ongoing, leaking fuel triggered a series of fires that shut down the spacecraft’s engines. The on-board self-destruct system kicked in as planned.

SpaceX said it made several improvements to the spacecraft following the accident, and the Federal Aviation Administration recently cleared Starship once more for launch.
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A New Mexico resident who has died, tested positive for measles, the state health department said on Thursday, marking the second measles-related death in the United States in more than a decade.

The unvaccinated adult patient did not seek medical care before death and was the first measles-related death in the state in more than 40 years, according to David Morgan, Public Information Officer for the New Mexico Department of Health.

The cause of death is still under investigation by the state medical examiner, Morgan said.

The death brings to 10 the number of measles cases that occurred in Lea County, located adjacent to Gaines County, Texas, where more than 100 cases and one death in an unvaccinated child have been reported.

The outbreak, one of the largest the United States has seen in the past decade, has put U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine skeptic, to the test.

In a Cabinet meeting last week, Kennedy initially downplayed news that a school-aged child had died of measles, calling such outbreaks ordinary and failing to mention the role of vaccination to prevent measles.

Over the weekend, Kennedy published an opinion piece on Fox News that promoted the role of vaccination, but downplayed the role of vaccines by telling parents vaccination was a personal choice and urging them to consult with their physician.

He also stressed the role of vitamin A, overstating evidence for its use, which has only been shown to decrease measles severity in developing countries among individuals who are malnourished and vitamin A deficient, said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious diseases expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“It’s not clear to me that’s true in the developed world, where vitamin A malnutrition is uncommon,” he said.

As of Feb. 27, 164 measles cases have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in nine jurisdictions: Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Rhode Island, and Texas.

Measles typically kills one to three people per 1,000 cases, said Dr. Tina Tan, an infectious disease expert at Northwestern University in Chicago.

She said two deaths out of a total of 164 cases suggest “a much higher mortality rate than we would normally see,” adding that there are probably many undetected cases.

The cases in New Mexico included six adults and four children under the age of 17. Seven of these cases were unvaccinated, while the vaccination history of the remaining three was not yet known.

The Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closely monitoring the situation and in communication with state health authorities. “CDC recommends vaccination as the best protection against measles infections,” he said.

New Mexico’s health department said it will host two community vaccination clinics on March 11. 
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President Donald Trump is signaling a major change in how the U.S. will support growth in key domestic industries such as semiconductors. Michelle Quinn reports.
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PARIS — An Ariane 6 rocket roared skyward with a French military reconnaissance satellite aboard Thursday in the first commercial flight for the European heavy-lift launcher.

The rocket took off smoothly from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, quickly disappearing into thick clouds. Video images beamed back from the rocket showed the Earth’s beautiful colors and curvature.

The rocket’s mission was to deliver the CSO-3 military observation satellite into orbit at an altitude of around 800 kilometers.

It was the first commercial mission for Ariane 6 after its maiden flight in July 2024.
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Canada is seeing a noticeable increase in measles cases this year, with more reported in the first two months of 2025 than all of last year, the country’s health agency said on Thursday and urged citizens to get vaccinated. 

The Public Health Agency of Canada said it has recorded 227 measles cases as of March 6, with many patients requiring hospitalization.  

“I strongly urge all Canadians to ensure they are vaccinated against measles,” said Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer. 

The agency said most of the patients are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children exposed in community settings such as social events, day cares, schools and health care facilities. 

Cases can also arise when unvaccinated individuals travel to or from regions where measles is prevalent. 

“As we move through spring break travel season, I am concerned that the global rise in measles cases, combined with declining vaccination rates among school-aged children in Canada, could lead to more illness and more community transmission,” Tam said.  

Canada reported a total of 146 measles cases last year, according to government data.  

In the week ending Feb. 15, there were 96 confirmed cases of measles, a serious airborne disease caused by a virus that can lead to severe complications and even death. 

The surge is linked to outbreaks of the disease in New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, the agency said. 

The agency noted that recent cases in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia occurred after travelers were exposed to measles in other countries, and urged individuals to get vaccinated before traveling. 

If needed, the vaccine should be administered at least two weeks before departure, but even last-minute vaccinations offer protection, the agency said. 

Last week, an unvaccinated child died of measles in Texas, the center of one of the largest outbreaks of the disease that the United States has seen in the past decade.
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Collisions with boats are the cause of at least 20% of manatee deaths in Florida every year. But as Valdya Baraputri reports, that’s not the only threat faced by these gentle giants of the sea. Camera: Laurentius Wahyudi and Nabila Ganinda
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WASHINGTON — A drill to search for ice. A 4G network test. Three rovers and a first-of-its-kind hopping drone.

After becoming the first private firm to land on the moon last year, Intuitive Machines is aiming for its second lunar touchdown on Thursday, carrying cutting-edge payloads to support future human missions.

The Houston-based company is targeting no earlier than 12:32 p.m. ET (1732 GMT) at Mons Mouton, a plateau near the lunar south pole — farther south than any robot has ventured.

NASA will livestream the landing an hour before touchdown as Athena, the 4.8-meter hexagonal lander — about the height of a giraffe — begins its descent.

“It kind of feels like this mission is straight out of one of our favorite sci-fi movies,” said Nicky Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science.

Intuitive Machines’ first landing in February 2024 was a landmark achievement but ended with its lander tipping onto its side, an outcome the company is determined to avoid this time.

The pressure is on after Texas rival Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost lander on Sunday, becoming the second private company to reach the moon.

Both missions are part of NASA’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which partners with private industry to cut costs and support Artemis, the initiative to return astronauts to the moon and eventually reach Mars.

A hopper named Grace

Athena is targeting highland terrain about 160 kilometers from the moon’s south pole, where it will deploy three rovers and a unique hopping drone named Grace, after late computer science pioneer Grace Hopper.

One of Grace’s boldest objectives is a hop into a permanently shadowed crater, a place where sunlight has never shone — a first for humanity.

While NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter proved flight is possible on Mars, the moon’s lack of atmosphere makes traditional flying impossible, positioning hoppers like Grace as a key technology for future exploration.

MAPP, the largest of Athena’s rovers and roughly the size of a beagle, will assist in testing a Nokia Bell Labs 4G cellular network linking the lander, itself, and Grace — technology designed to one day integrate into astronaut spacesuits.

Yaoki, a more compact rover from Japanese company Dymon, is designed to survive drops in any orientation, making it highly adaptable.

Meanwhile, the tiny AstroAnt rover, equipped with magnetic wheels, will cling to MAPP and use its sensors to measure temperature variations on the larger robot.

Also aboard Athena is PRIME-1, a NASA instrument carrying a drill to search for ice and other chemicals beneath the lunar surface, paired with a spectrometer to analyze its findings.

Sticking the landing

Before any experiments can begin, Intuitive Machines must stick the landing — a challenge made harder by the moon’s lack of atmosphere, which rules out parachutes and forces spacecraft to rely on precise thrusts and navigation over hazardous terrain.

Until Intuitive Machines’ first mission, only national space agencies had achieved the feat, with NASA’s last landing dating back to Apollo 17 in 1972.

The company’s first lander, Odysseus, came in too fast, caught a foot on the surface and toppled over, cutting the mission short when its solar panels could not generate enough power.

This time, the company has made critical upgrades, including better cabling for the laser altimeter, which provides altitude and velocity readings to ensure a safe touchdown.

Athena launched last Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which also carried NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer probe — but not everything has gone smoothly. Ground controllers are struggling to re-establish contact with the small satellite, designed to map the moon’s water distribution.

These missions come at a delicate time for NASA, amid speculation that the agency may scale back or even cancel the crewed moon missions in favor of prioritizing Mars — a goal championed by U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk. 
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NEW DELHI — The U.S. government will stop sharing air quality data gathered from its embassies and consulates, worrying local scientists and experts who say the effort was vital to monitor global air quality and improve public health.

In response to an inquiry from The Associated Press, the State Department said Wednesday that its air quality monitoring program would no longer transmit air pollution data from embassies and consulates to the Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow app and other platforms, which allowed locals in various countries, along with scientists around the world, to see and analyze air quality.

The change was “due to funding constraints that have caused the Department to turn off the underlying network” the department said in a statement. However, it added, embassies and consulates were directed to keep their monitors running and the sharing of data could resume if funded is restored. The funding cut, first reported by The New York Times, is one of many under President Donald Trump.

The U.S. air quality monitors measured dangerous fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, which can penetrate deep into the lungs and lead to respiratory diseases, heart conditions, and premature death. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills around 7 million people each year.

Reaction was immediate from scientists who said the data were reliable, allowed for air quality monitoring around the world and helped prompt governments to clean up the air.

Bhargav Krishna, an air pollution expert at New Delhi-based Sustainable Futures Collaborative, called the loss of data “a big blow” to air quality research.

“They were part of a handful of sensors in many developing countries and served as a reference for understanding what air quality was like,” Krishna said. “They were also seen to be a well-calibrated and unbiased source of data to cross-check local data if there were concerns about quality,” he added.

“It’s a real shame,” said Alejandro Piracoca Mayorga, a Bogota-based freelance air quality consultant. U.S. embassies and consulates in Lima, Sao Paulo and Bogota had the air monitoring. “It was a source of access to air quality information independent of local monitoring networks. They provided another source of information for comparison.”

Khalid Khan, an environmental expert and advocate based in Pakistan, agreed, saying the shutdown of air quality monitoring will “have significant consequences.”

Khan noted that the monitors in the city of Peshawar in Pakistan, one of the most polluted cities in the world, “provided crucial real-time data” which helped policymakers, researchers and the public to make decisions on their health.

“Their removal means a critical gap in environmental monitoring, leaving residents without accurate information on hazardous air conditions,” Khan said. He said vulnerable people in Pakistan and around the world are particularly at risk because they are the least likely to have access to other reliable data.

In Africa, the program provided air quality data for over a dozen countries including Senegal, Nigeria, Chad and Madagascar. Some of those countries depend almost entirely on the U.S. monitoring systems for their air quality data.

The WHO’s air quality database will also be affected by the closing of U.S. program. Many poor countries don’t track air quality because stations are too expensive and complex to maintain, meaning they are entirely reliant on U.S. embassy monitoring data.

In some places, however, the U.S. air quality monitors propelled nations to start their own air quality research and raised awareness, Krishna said.

In China, for example, data from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing famously contradicted official government reports, showing worse pollution levels than authorities acknowledged. It led to China improving air quality. 
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — A U.S. judge on Tuesday denied Elon Musk’s request to prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit business in a loss for the Tesla tycoon amid his feud with Sam Altman. 

U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Musk and his xAI startup failed to prove an injunction against OpenAI was necessary as the case heads to trial. 

Musk sued in California federal court to stop OpenAI from transitioning from a nonprofit to a for-profit business, arguing the startup violated antitrust law and betrayed his trust in their mission as a co-founder of OpenAI. 

The judge wrote that, while Musk did not prove the need for an injunction, she is prepared to expedite a trial on that claim later this year. 

The ruling leaves OpenAI free to continue its transition from nonprofit to for-profit enterprise. 

Musk’s injunction bid argued that OpenAI’s co-founders, including chief executive Altman, “took advantage of Musk’s altruism in order to lure him into funding the venture,” according to court documents. 

Musk contended in filings that it was clear his backing of OpenAI was contingent on it remaining a nonprofit, offering a few email exchanges to support the claim. 

“Whether Musk’s emails and social media posts constitute a writing sufficient to constitute an actual contract or charitable trust between the parties is debatable,” the judge said in her ruling. 

OpenAI’s board chairman in February rejected a Musk-led offer to buy the valuable artificial intelligence company for $97.4 billion. 

“OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition,” OpenAI Board Chair Bret Taylor said in a statement posted by the company on Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter. 

OpenAI currently operates in a hybrid structure, as a nonprofit with a money-making subsidiary. 

The change to a for-profit model, one that Altman says is crucial for the company’s development, has exacerbated ongoing tensions with Musk. 

Musk and Altman were among the 11-person team that founded OpenAI in 2015, with the former providing initial funding of $45 million.  

Three years later, Musk left the company, with OpenAI citing “a potential future conflict for Elon … as Tesla continues to become more focused on AI.” 

Musk established his own artificial intelligence company, dubbed xAI, in early 2023 after OpenAI ignited global fervor over the technology. 

The massive cost of designing, training, and deploying AI models has compelled OpenAI to seek a new corporate structure that would give investors equity and provide more stable governance. 
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Ukrainians in Czechia raised nearly 19,000 dollars to help a Ukrainian war veteran and dancer get back on the floor. Yevhen Skripnichuk lost his leg while fighting the Russians. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Camera:  Yuriy Dankevych     
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MELBOURNE, Australia — James Harrison, whose blood plasma donations are credited with An Australian man credited with saving 2.4 million babies through his record-breaking blood plasma donations over six decades, has died at 88, his family said Tuesday.

James Harrison, a retired state railway department clerk, died in a nursing home on the central coast of New South Wales state on Feb. 17, according to his grandson, Jarrod Mellowship.

Harrison had been surprised to be recognized by Guinness World Records in 2005 as the person who had donated the most blood plasma in the world, Mellowship said.

Despite an aversion to needles, he made 1,173 donations after he turned 18 in 1954 until he was forced to retire in 2018 at age 81.

“He did it for the right reasons. As humble as he was, he did like the attention. But he would never do it for the attention,” Mellowship said.

The record was beaten in 2022 by American Brett Cooper from Walker, Michigan.

Australian Red Cross Blood Service pays tribute to donor

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service said Harrison was renowned as the “Man with the Golden Arm.”

He was credited with saving the lives of 2.4 million babies through his plasma donations, the national agency responsible for collecting and distributing blood products, also known as Lifeblood, said in a statement.

Harrison’s plasma contained a rare antibody known as anti-D. The antibody is used to make injections that protect unborn babies from hemolytic disease of the newborn, in which a pregnant woman’s immune system attacks her fetus’ red blood cells. The disease is most common when a woman has an Rh negative blood type and her baby’s is Rh positive.

Australia has only 200 anti-D donors who help 45,000 mothers and their babies annually.

Lifeblood chief executive Stephen Cornelissen said Harrison had hoped that someone in Australia would one day beat his donation record.

“James was a remarkable, stoically kind and generous person, who was committed to a lifetime of giving, and he captured the hearts of many people around the world,” Cornelissen said in a statement.

“It was James’ belief that his donations were no more important than any other donors’ and that everyone can be special in the same way that he was,” Cornelissen added.

Antibody helps donor’s family

Mellowship said his mother, Tracey Mellowship, Harrison’s daughter, needed the treatment when he and his brother Scott were born.

Jarrod Mellowship said his own wife, Rebecca Mellowship, also needed the treatment when three of their four children were born.

There is speculation that Harrison developed a high concentrations of anti-D as a result of his own blood transfusions during major lung surgery when he was 14 years old.

“After the surgery, his dad Reg told grandad, you’re only really alive because people donated blood,” Jarrod Mellowship said. “The day he turned 18, he started donating.”

The application of anti-D in fighting hemolytic disease of the newborn was not discovered until the 1960s.

Harrison was born in Junee in New South Wales. He is survived by his sister Margaret Thrift, his daughter, two grandsons and four great grandchildren.
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Chinese tech firms and state media have spotlighted humanoid robots, which have grown in popularity since the Unitree G1 appeared to run, jump, dance and perform martial arts-like movements in a recent demonstration.

Both the United States and China are leaders in humanoid robot technology. But industry analysts believe that the United States is superior in AI technology, which is responsible for the robot’s “brain,” while Chinese technology companies have flourished in the hardware manufacturing capabilities of the robot’s “body.”

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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The United States may become the second country after Australia to ban China’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence on government devices.

U.S. Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Darin LaHood introduced a bipartisan bill proposing the ban.

In their letter to 47 U.S. governors and the mayor of Washington, the congressmen warned that DeepSeek could pose security risks to sensitive government data and cybersecurity and Americans’ privacy, NBC News reported on March 3.

China denies the allegations. However, concerns highlighted by the U.S. lawmakers and state officials are not without merit, experts say.

The Chinese government has reportedly also used AI models like DeepSeek for mass surveillance, including the collection of biometric data and social media listening models that report to China’s security services and the military, as well as for information attacks on U.S. and Chinese dissidents abroad.

At least three leading Chinese surveillance and security companies — TopSec, QAX and NetEase — announced the integration of DeepSeek to enhance their services. 

All three companies provide services to the Chinese government, and some made it clear that DeepSeek will improve their cyber censorship and surveillance capabilities. This includes AI-driven biometric data capturing, face recognition and surveillance technologies such as “smart cities,” the Skynet Project, and the Xueliang Project, which can monitor all aspects of an individual’s public life, Wenhao Ma of VOA’s China Division reported.

In January, Canadian cybersecurity firm Feroot Security uncovered a code imbedded in DeepSeek’s login processes that shares user information with Chinese state-owned communication company China Mobile, AP reported.

The Associated Press described the code as a “heavily obfuscated computer script that when deciphered shows connections to computer infrastructure owned by China Mobile.”

The U.S. banned China Mobile in 2019 following intelligence reports that it serves as the Chinese military’s spy arm.

China-based actors have been using ChatGPT along with DeepSeek models to generate phishing email and disinformation attacks on the U.S. “on behalf of unspecified clients in China,” OpenAI said in its February report.

OpenAI identified and blocked a cluster of China-originated accounts involved in malicious activities, such as Qianyue Overseas Public Opinion AI Assistant, reportedly designed to ingest and analyze posts and comments related to Chinese politics and human rights from platforms such as X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram and Reddit.

The purpose of the operation was reportedly “to feed the resulting insights to the Chinese authorities” such as “Chinese embassies abroad, and to intelligence agents monitoring protests in countries including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom,” OpenAI said.

A set of ChatGPT accounts that OpenAI banned in February had been involved in Chinese influence operations focused on generating short comments in English and long-form Spanish-language articles critical of the United States published in local and national media outlets across Latin America and Spain.

One of the Chinese companies planting the articles in the Spanish-language outlets was Jilin Yousen Culture Communication Co., a subsidiary of the government-tied Beijing United Publishing House.

VOA reviewed nine of the Chinese AI-generated articles published in Spanish-language media between October and November 2024 as identified by OpenAI.

Two — in Mexico’s El Universal and Peru’s El Popular — criticized the United States’ use of sanctions targeting foreign governments and individuals.

The El Universal op-ed described the U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil industry for Tehran’s backing of terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as exposing the U.S.’ “impotence” in dealing with global politics and the “rapid decline” of its “moral standing.”

Similarly, El Popular painted U.S. sanctions on a Hamas affiliate as “insane” and an “attack on the rights of Palestinian people.”

An article in Peru’s La Republica presented the U.S. as the biggest beneficiary of the Russian war in Ukraine, replicating the Kremlin’s key narrative. It criticized the U.S. for providing military aid to Kyiv, framing the American support as an escalation of the war.

China, however, has been a key provider of military technologies and weapons to Russia, which Moscow uses in daily attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

Another China-planted piece in La Republica described U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policy as “undermining U.S. global leadership position.”

Three pieces in Peru’s Wapa, El Popular and El Plural exploited the issues of homelessness, child nutrition and crime in the U.S. — all presented as extremely acute and dangerous.

For example, the child nutrition piece claimed that most children in the U.S. “go hungry on weekends and holidays” due to the government’s neglect of children’s food security.

While the topics of these articles vary from human rights and social issues in the U.S. to foreign and domestic politics, they all paint a picture of a dysfunctional state with failing moral values and declining international influence, matching Beijing’s standard narrative.
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WASHINGTON — Chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced on Monday plans to make an additional $100 billion investment in the United States and build five additional chips factories in the coming years.

TSMC CEO C.C. Wei announced the plan in a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump.

“We must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here,” Trump said. “It’s a matter of national security for us.”

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is a leading supplier to major U.S. hardware manufacturers.

The $100 billion outlay, which would boost domestic production and make the United States less reliant on semiconductors made in Asia, is in addition to a major prior investment announcement. TSMC agreed in April to expand its planned U.S. investment by $25 billion to $65 billion and to add a third Arizona factory by 2030.

With his Nov. 5 election victory largely driven by voters’ economic concerns, Trump has stepped up efforts to bolster investments in domestic industries to create jobs.

The TSMC announcement is the latest in a string of such developments. In February, Apple said it would invest $500 billion in the next four years. Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani and SoftBank also have promised multibillion-dollar investments in the U.S.

TSMC said on Monday it looks “forward to discussing our shared vision for innovation and growth in the semiconductor industry, as well as exploring ways to bolster the technology sector along with our customers.”

The U.S. Commerce Department under then President Joe Biden finalized a $6.6 billion government subsidy in November for TSMC’s U.S. unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona.

Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act legislation in 2022 to provide $52.7 billion in subsidies for American semiconductor production and research.

Taiwan’s dominant position as a maker of chips used in technology from cellphones and cars to fighter jets has sparked concerns of over-reliance on the island, especially as China ramps up pressure to assert its sovereignty claims.

China claims Taiwan as its territory, but the democratically elected government in Taipei rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

Under Biden, the Commerce Department convinced all five leading-edge semiconductor firms to locate factories in the U.S. as part of the program to address national security risks from imported chips.

Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told lawmakers last month that the program was “an excellent down payment” to rebuild the sector, but he has declined to commit grants that have already been approved by the department, saying he wanted to “read them and analyze them and understand them.”

A TSMC spokesperson said last month the company had received $1.5 billion in CHIPS Act money before the new administration came in as per the milestone terms of its agreement.

TSMC last year agreed to produce the world’s most advanced 2-nanometer technology at its second Arizona factory expected to begin production in 2028. TSMC also agreed to use its most advanced chip manufacturing technology called “A16” in Arizona.

TSMC has already begun producing advanced 4-nanometer chips for U.S. customers in Arizona.

The TSMC award included up to $5 billion in low-cost government loans.

 
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