Stories from Abroad

Google lost most of its appeal to overturn the largest antitrust fine it has so far faced globally, a boost to the European Union’s campaign to rein in alleged anticompetitive conduct by big tech companies.

Starlink, Elon Musk’s internet-from-space service provided by SpaceX, is notifying customers with some good news: their monthly subscriptions have been reduced in response to “local market conditions.” “The price reduction factors in your local market conditions and is meant to reflect parity in purchasing power across our customers,” a notice to customers reads. The situation in the US, where the dollar has been surging against foreign currencies, is less clear. 

In early June 2022, around 500 young people from more than 100 countries descended on Kigali, Rwanda for the International Telecommunication Union’s first Generation Connect Global Youth Summit. Throughout my brief visit to Kigali, a number of themes emerged:

Eutelsat Communications SA and OneWeb Ltd. are set to combine in an all-share deal valuing the UK satellite operator at $3.4 billion, a step toward creating a European champion to rival the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. OneWeb shareholders will hold 50% of Eutelsat, which will continue to be listed in Paris and will ask to be listed on the London Stock Exchange.  Both the UK and French governments have stakes in OneWeb and Eutelsat respectively, and the UK will continue to own a special share, giving it certain veto rights over strategic decisions such as the location of the firm’s headquart

On July 5, European Parliament held the final vote on the new Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, following a deal reached between Parliament and Council on 23 April and 24 March respectively. The two bills aim to address the societal and economic effects of the tech industry by setting clear standards for how they operate and provide services in the EU, in line with the EU’s fundamental rights and values.

Pedro Sánchez Pérez Castejón, the President of the Government of Spain, and President Joseph Biden, on the occasion of President Biden’s visit to Spain on June 28-30, 2022, reached a number of understandings including boosting digital, scientific, and technological cooperation. The United States and Spain defend a digital transformation based on a shared respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and democratic values, on reducing the digital divide, on preventing and addressing the disproportionate effects of online forms of violence and abuse on women, children, and other marginali

The study of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption signals that diffusion processes within highly unequal societies produce stratification in the access to digital technologies

One of the most sweeping surveillance states in the world, China has all but closed its borders since the start of the pandemic, accelerating a political turn inward as nationalism is on the rise and foreign ties are treated with suspicion.

On the eve of this week’s rail strikes, it was reported that industry bosses are planning to phase out paper train tickets and shut almost 1,000 station ticket offices in England. The government says nothing has been decided. But the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has made no secret of his desire to see savings delivered in this way; some stations, Mr Shapps likes to point out, sell only a handful of tickets each week and the vast majority of transactions have moved online.

In the days after Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine, Elon Musk made the decision to support Kyiv. Fewer than 48 hours later, Musk’s commercial rocket and satellite business SpaceX dispatched a shipment of Starlink satellite kits to fortify the country’s internet network against Putin’s forces. Musk was commended by the west but his aid was viewed differently by China, a critical growth market for his business empire, where Tesla makes a quarter of its revenues.