A NEW Russian launch vehicle, Soyuz-5, is undergoing its final tests and is “absolutely ready” for use in space projects, Russia’s top space official said on Saturday.

Dmitry Bakanov, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, was presenting details of the rocket to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the 65^th anniversary of the first flight in space by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Mr. Bakanov said the Soyuz-5 would be the first new launch vehicle developed in Russia since 2014.

“The new Soyuz-5 launch vehicle is absolutely ready. This is our joint project with our partners in Kazakhstan known as Baiterek,” Russian news agencies quoted Mr. Bakanov as saying.

“Currently, tests of all units and assemblies are underway.”

Mr. Bakanov said the rocket had already been placed during tests in a vertical position as preparations proceeded.

Plans call for the new two-stage rocket, capable of placing payloads of up to 17 metric tons in orbit, to be used in place of Zenit rockets.

Launches will be conducted at the Baikonur space center dating from Soviet times and now located in Kazakhstan.

Mr. Putin, quoted by Russian news agencies, said Russia’s space industry was now “feeling more confident. I know that many problems had accumulated there over a long period of time.” — Reuters

WASHINGTON — The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it may bar three major Chinese telecommunications companies from operating their data centers in the US and could ban telecom carriers from connecting with those Chinese carriers.

The FCC said it has tentatively concluded it should prohibit American and other telecommunications carriers operating in the US from interconnecting with companies on the so-called “Covered List” that it says pose national security concerns, including China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom.

The FCC said it was also considering prohibiting Chinese telecoms that own data centers or so-called Points of Presence that sit at internet exchange points from interconnecting with other companies. The agency also said it was considering extending the ban on providing US telecom services to some affiliates of companies on the national security list.

The FCC could also prohibit telecommunications carriers from interconnecting with companies that have installed equipment from companies on the list including Huawei and ZTE.

The FCC plans to take an initial vote on the proposal at its April 30 meeting.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said China “consistently opposes the overstretching of the concept of national security and the abuse of state power to suppress Chinese enterprises.” The FCC has aggressively moved to clamp down on Beijing.

On Oct. 15, the FCC said it was moving to revoke the ability of HKT, a leading Hong Kong telecom carrier and subsidiary of PCCW, to operate in the US, citing national security concerns.

In December, the FCC said it could bar China Mobile, Telecom and Unicom from connecting to US networks, in an effort to prevent robocalls.

Previously, the FCC barred the three companies from operating in the US. In 2019, it rejected China Mobile’s bid to provide US telecommunications services. It revoked US operations authorization for China Unicom, Pacific Networks and its wholly owned subsidiary ComNet in 2021 and China Telecom Americas in 2022.

On Wednesday, the FCC said it will also vote on April 30 a proposal to bar all Chinese labs from testing electronic devices such as smartphones, cameras and computers for use in the US, widening a previous action targeting Beijing.

Last Friday, the FCC proposed to ban the import of equipment from Chinese manufacturers on its Covered List. In 2022, the agency barred approvals of new models by those companies.

In December, the FCC banned the import of all new models of Chinese drones, and last month, it banned imports of new models of Chinese-made consumer routers, the boxes connecting computers, phones, and smart devices to the internet. — Reuters

CHICAGO — Meta Platforms said on Thursday it is pulling ads from Facebook and Instagram aimed at recruiting new plaintiffs for ongoing litigation accusing it and other social media companies of designing their platforms to be addictive to young users.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company is actively defending itself against the lawsuits, which include thousands of cases in both state and federal courts in California, and is removing the ads.

“We will not allow trial lawyers to profit from our platforms while simultaneously claiming they are harmful,” Mr. Stone said in a statement.

The move follows Meta’s loss in two key trials over the allegations.

At the end of March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Alphabet’s Google liable for a young woman’s depression and suicidal thoughts after she said she became addicted to Instagram and Google’s YouTube at a young age, ordering them to pay a combined $6 million in damages.

In a separate New Mexico case that wrapped up just a day earlier, jurors ordered Meta to pay $375 million after finding the company misled users about the safety of its products for young users and enabled the sexual exploitation of children on its platforms.

More than 3,300 lawsuits involving addiction claims are pending in California state court against Meta, Google, Snapchat parent Snap Inc. and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. Another 2,400 lawsuits brought by individuals, municipalities, states and school districts have been centralized in California federal court, according to court records.

The companies have denied the allegations and say they take extensive steps to keep teens and young users safe on their platforms.

The state court cases largely involve individuals suing the companies over claims that addiction to social media caused mental health harms. The federal litigation includes more lawsuits filed by public entities such as school districts, states and municipalities, which claim the platforms harmed the mental health of young people, forcing the government entities to spend money to address the fallout. 

FINDING PLAINTIFFS
Law firms representing plaintiffs in these types of cases typically work on contingency, so they are only paid if a plaintiff wins damages or receives a settlement. Often, firms in mass cases are seeking to represent as many plaintiffs as possible to make the cases financially viable. Ads on television, radio and online are aimed at recruiting individual plaintiffs, who may not know about the litigation otherwise.

Law firms such as Morgan & Morgan, which represents plaintiffs in the litigation and was part of the trial team that won the Los Angeles case, are among the firms that placed ads on Facebook.

Morgan & Morgan attorney Emily Jeffcott said in a statement that Meta’s resources would be better spent improving user safety.

“Blocking the ads doesn’t make the harms go away. It just makes it harder on victims,” Ms. Jeffcott said.

Companies that seek to connect potential clients with law firms, such as Tennessee-based White Heart Legal, are also advertising the litigation on social media, according to X Ante, a company that tracks mass tort advertising.

White Heart Legal did not respond to a request for comment.

X Ante founder Rustin Silverstein said social media has become an increasingly popular place for advertisers seeking potential law clients in mass tort litigation, but accounts for only a portion of the ads that have been airing this year for the social media cases.

A total of 671 television ads promoting social media claims aired nationwide in March — more than in any month since July 2024, Mr. Silverstein said. The number of radio ads in March nearly tripled to 20,000 after the verdicts, he said.

There are also ads on Google’s platforms for the litigation. Social Media Victims Law Center, one of the law firms leading the wave of lawsuits, advertises on Google, according to Google records.

Google did not respond to a question about whether it would also be pulling the ads related to the cases. — Reuters

TAIPEI — TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, on Friday reported a 35% surge in first-quarter revenue, beating market forecasts, thanks to unabated interest in artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

January-March revenue reached T$1.134 trillion ($35.71 billion) compared with T$839.3 billion in the same period a year earlier, TSMC said in a statement without elaborating.

The result topped a London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) SmartEstimates of T$1.125 trillion drawn from 20 analysts, and was in line with TSMC’s January guidance of $34.6 billion to $35.8 billion given at its last earnings call. TSMC only issues guidance in US dollars.

TSMC’s latest record-smashing quarterly revenue comes as war in the Middle East is raising energy costs and upending global markets. That in turn threatens to disrupt the supply of production materials for semiconductors which analysts said could force companies to delay AI data center investment.

Analysts nevertheless raised their forecast for TSMC’s April-June revenue by 2.3% over the last 30 days to a record T$1.2 trillion, LSEG data showed, betting on constrained capacity for advanced AI chip production to boost the firm’s earnings.

TSMC will report first-quarter earnings on April 16 along with an updated outlook for the current quarter and full year.

The chipmaker, whose customers include Nvidia, has been a major beneficiary of advances in AI, which has more than offset a tapering-off in pandemic-led demand for chips used in consumer electronics such as tablet computers.

Its Taipei-listed shares have gained 29% this year versus a rise of 22% in the benchmark share price index. The stock closed up 2.3% on Friday ahead of its sales announcement.

Compatriot Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and Nvidia’s biggest server maker, has also reported bumper first-quarter sales with an on-year rise of 30%. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — IBM has agreed to pay $17 million to settle a US government probe over the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, which President Donald J. Trump’s administration has cracked down on during his second term in office.

The settlement marks the first resolution from the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) unit formed last year called the “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative” to crack down on DEI policies using a civil anti-fraud law.

Mr. Trump has targeted public and private organizations — from government agencies to private universities — over DEI practices that civil rights advocates say help address historic inequities for marginalized groups like women and ethnic minorities.

In a settlement signed by the DoJ and IBM, the US government alleged that IBM’s practices included using a “diversity modifier” that “tied bonus compensation to achieving demographic targets,” among other claims.

The settlement also said IBM terminated or modified various programs and policies, but that the company denied engaging in unlawful conduct.

“This agreement is neither an admission of liability by IBM nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well-founded,” the agreement said.

The White House casts DEI as anti-merit and discriminatory against groups like white people and men. Mr. Trump has signed executive orders asking federal contractors ‌and subcontractors to eliminate DEI.

Many US companies scaled back or modified diversity policies after Mr. Trump’s orders. — Reuters

AMSTERDAM/SAN FRANCISCO — Dutch regulators approved the use of Tesla’s self-driving software with required human supervision on highways and city streets in a European first for the electric car maker, which hopes to see similar action from the rest of the European Union (EU).

Wide full self-driving (FSD) adoption is central to Tesla’s growth strategy. Much of the company’s $1-trillion valuation hinges on Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s bet that artificial intelligence (AI)-driven self-driving software and robotaxis will become a major revenue stream.

The Netherlands’ approval for the technology, called Full Self-Driving Supervised, which can steer, brake and accelerate a car, follows more than 18 months of tests and analysis by the Dutch vehicle authority RDW.

“Proper use of this driver assistance system makes a positive contribution to road safety,” RDW said in a statement on Friday, adding that it would also submit an application for the technology to be used throughout the EU.

Tesla is also counting on self-driving software to boost vehicle sales, which have slowed in Europe due to its aging electric vehicle lineup and Mr. Musk’s far-right political rhetoric that has alienated some consumers. Tesla’s sales in Europe rose in February for the first time in more than a year.

“I expect FSD approval by the Dutch authority and subsequent European regulators will lead to improved sales in Europe over the coming months as consumers are excited to try FSD,” said Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein.

Tesla shares rose about 0.7% in aftermarket trading on Friday. Its shares have fallen 23% this year, lagging the US stock market.

“We’re excited to bring FSD Supervised to more European countries soon,” Tesla said in a post on social media platform X, adding that it will start rolling out the technology in the Netherlands shortly.

The software is already available as a subscription for US drivers, where it is also facing consumer lawsuits and federal investigations after crashes and reports of traffic violations.

RDW said the EU sets stricter requirements for safety during vehicle approvals than the US. “This means that the FSD Supervised version in the US is not comparable to the FSD Supervised version in the EU,” it said, without providing further details.

AIMING FOR EUROPE-WIDE ADOPTION
Tesla is the most popular maker of electric cars in the Netherlands, with around 100,000 Model 3 and Model Ys combined that would be eligible for FSD software.

Many companies are working on self-driving systems. Most use several hardware sensors to track the driving environment, while Tesla relies primarily on cameras and AI.

Other carmakers including Mercedes, Ford, and BMW have introduced “hands-free” driving technology on select highways and at limited speeds, mostly in Germany. Tesla’s is the first that will be usable in a wider range of situations.

RDW said it would now submit the application for authentication within the entire EU to the European Commission. All member states will then vote on the application, which requires a majority within the responsible committee for the system to become valid EU-wide.

If it does not win a majority, individual countries may still decide to allow it. Tesla said last month it was anticipating possible EU-wide approval during the summer. — Reuters

SINGAPORE/PERTH — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held talks in Singapore on Friday with counterpart Lawrence Wong, in which they vowed closer cooperation to ensure energy security in the face of disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict.

Asia’s oil trading hub of Singapore is the largest supplier of petrol and a major supplier of diesel and jet fuel to Australia, where tight domestic supplies of diesel are rattling the farming and mining sectors, its key users.

The leaders said they agreed to ensure the flow of essential supplies including diesel and LNG, making “maximum efforts” to boost their energy security.

“We reaffirmed our commitment to working together, particularly during crises, to support a resilient, rules-based multilateral trading system that underpins stability during periods of global disruption,” they said in a joint statement.

SOME AUSTRALIAN PETROL STATIONS RUN DRY

Panic buying has caused several petrol stations to run dry across Australia, which has limited stockpiles and far-flung distribution networks.

Australia supplies about a third of Singapore’s imports of liquefied natural gas, while getting about 26% of its refined fuel from the city-state, Mr. Albanese said.

“It’s vitally important that we coordinate our response to the global fuel crisis and cooperate,” he said during a joint news conference with Wong. “This is a win-win.”

Singapore had no plans to curb exports despite the global energy shock, Mr. Wong added.

“We didn’t have to do so even in the darkest days of COVID, and we will not do so during this energy crisis,” he said. “It won’t happen.”

Friday’s commitments would be reflected in a legally binding protocol to their existing free trade pact, said the leaders, who visited an LNG terminal and the Singapore Refining Co in the city state.

CLOSURE OF THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ

Australia is among the Asian countries worried about fuel supplies after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited before the Middle East conflict.

Ship traffic along the Strait remains at a near standstill despite a fragile peace deal between the US and Iran.

Australia, which uses roughly a million barrels of oil a day and imported 84% of its petroleum product demand last year, has two refineries, down from eight in 2005.

Singapore is a major refining center in Asia with three refineries that have combined capacity of about 1.2 million barrels per day, though refineries have cut output after crude supplies were disrupted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Statistics from insurer NRMA late in March showed Singapore accounted for 54.7% of Australia’s petrol imports, or close to 6 billion liters. South Korea was second with 22.5%, and India third, with 11.5% or 1.25 billion liters.

Mr. Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have held talks with Asian counterparts on fuel supplies since early March.

Australia has said it has held talks with Brunei, China Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea, among others. — Reuters