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upstart writes:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail turns 50:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is widely considered to be among the best comedy films of all time, and it's certainly one of the most quotable. This absurdist masterpiece sending up Arthurian legend turns 50 (!) this year.

It was partly Python member Terry Jones' passion for the Middle Ages and Arthurian legend that inspired Holy Grail and its approach to comedy. (Jones even went on to direct a 2004 documentary, Medieval Lives.) The troupe members wrote several drafts beginning in 1973, and Jones and Terry Gilliam were co-directors—the first full-length feature for each, so filming was one long learning process. Reviews were mixed when Holy Grail was first released—much like they were for Young Frankenstein (1974), another comedic masterpiece—but audiences begged to differ. It was the top-grossing British film screened in the US in 1975. And its reputation has only grown over the ensuing decades.

The film's broad cultural influence extends beyond the entertainment industry. Holy Grail has been the subject of multiple scholarly papers examining such topics as its effectiveness at teaching Arthurian literature or geometric thought and logic, the comedic techniques employed, and why the depiction of a killer rabbit is so fitting (killer rabbits frequently appear drawn in the margins of Gothic manuscripts). My personal favorite was a 2018 tongue-in-cheek paper on whether the Black Knight could have survived long enough to make good on his threat to bite King Arthur's legs off (tl;dr: no).

So it's not at all surprising that Monty Python and the Holy Grail proved to be equally influential and beloved by Ars staffers, several of whom offer their reminiscences below.

They were nerd-gassing before it was cool

The Monty Python troupe famously made Holy Grail on a shoestring budget—so much so that they couldn't afford to have the knights ride actual horses. (There are only a couple of scenes featuring a horse, and apparently it's the same horse.) Rather than throwing up their hands in resignation, that very real constraint fueled the Pythons' creativity. The actors decided the knights would simply pretend to ride horses while their porters followed behind, banging halves of coconut shells together to mimic the sound of horses' hooves—a time-honored Foley effect dating back to the early days of radio.

Being masters of absurdist humor, naturally, they had to call attention to it. Arthur and his trusty servant, Patsy (Gilliam), approach the castle of their first potential recruit. When Arthur informs the guards that they have "ridden the length and breadth of the land," one of the guards isn't having it. "What, ridden on a horse? You're using coconuts! You've got two empty halves of coconut, and you're bangin' 'em together!"

That raises the obvious question: Where did they get the coconuts? What follows is one of the greatest examples of nerd-gassing yet to appear on film. Arthur claims he and Patsy found them, but the guard is incredulous since the coconut is tropical and England is a temperate zone. Arthur counters by invoking the example of migrating swallows. Coconuts do not migrate, but Arthur suggests they could be carried by swallows gripping a coconut by the husk.

The guard still isn't having it. It's a question of getting the weight ratios right, you see, to maintain air-speed velocity. Another guard gets involved, suggesting it might be possible with an African swallow, but that species is non-migratory. And so on. The two are still debating the issue as an exasperated Arthur rides off to find another recruit.

The best part? There's a callback to that scene late in the film when the knights must answer three questions to cross the Bridge of Death or else be chucked into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. When it's Arthur's turn, the third question is "What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" Arthur asks whether this is an African or a European swallow. This stumps the Bridgekeeper, who gets flung into the gorge. Sir Belvedere asks how Arthur came to know so much about swallows. Arthur replies, "Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know."

The plucky Black Knight ("It's just a flesh wound!") will always hold a special place in my heart, but that debate over air-speed velocities of laden versus unladen swallows encapsulates what makes Holy Grail a timeless masterpiece.

taylorvich writes:

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-04-flying-squirrel-drone-foldable-wings.html

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have already proved to be valuable tools for a wide range of applications, ranging from film and entertainment production to defense and security, agriculture, logistics, construction and environmental monitoring. While these technologies are already widely used in many countries worldwide, engineers have been trying to enhance their capabilities further so that they can be used to tackle even more complex problems.

Researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology and the Agency for Defense Development (ADD)'s AI Autonomy Technology Center in South Korea recently developed a drone with foldable wings that could be more maneuverable than conventional drones. Their drone draws inspiration from the winged flying squirrel, a type of squirrel that uses loose flaps of skin attached from their wrists to their ankles to glide from tree to tree.

"The flying squirrel drone is inspired by the movements of flying squirrels, particularly their ability to rapidly decelerate by spreading their wings just before landing on trees," Dohyeon Lee, Jun-Gill Kang and Soohee Han, co-authors of the paper, told Tech Xplore. "We initiated this research with the belief that, like flying squirrels, drones could expand their dynamic capabilities by utilizing aerodynamic drag."

Published on the arXiv preprint server, the most recent paper by Lee, Kang and Han builds on an earlier paper in which they first presented their squirrel-inspired robot. Their previous paper outlined their robot's basic underlying hardware and a reinforcement learning technique that allowed it to rapidly decelerate while performing maneuvers in flight.

"In our new paper, we proposed a novel drone system that utilizes deployable wing membranes, demonstrating superior performance compared to conventional drone systems in executing high-acceleration maneuvers such as rapid stops and sharp turns," said Lee, Kang and Han.

The aerodynamic drag from the robot's wing membrane was previously found to hinder its performance in common flight scenarios (i.e., when the drone was flying in a straight line). In situations where the robot is required to suddenly stop or rapidly change direction to prevent collisions with obstacles, the deployment of wings can produce a sizeable force in the direction opposite to the object that the drone is trying to avoid.

"To safely and reliably operate in these scenarios, the flying squirrel drone must be capable of deciding when to deploy or retract its wings based on the situation, and the rotors must be able to generate appropriate thrust accordingly," explained Lee, Kang and Han.

In their recent study, the researchers also trained artificial neural networks to accurately predict the aerodynamic drag generated by the drone's silicone-based wing membrane. They then developed a Thrust-Wing Coordination Control (TWCC) strategy that utilizes the neural network's predictions to optimally control both the wing membrane and motors, enabling the reliable execution of desired maneuvers.

"Another key contribution of our work is the development of a hardware system that allows for rapid deployment and retraction of the silicone wings, all while maintaining the conventional quadrotor form factor," said Lee, Kang and Han.

"Collectively, we proposed a framework capable of simultaneously controlling the silicone wing membrane—with its complex, non-analytically predictable aerodynamics—and the drone's motors, and the demonstration of high-performance trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance on real hardware."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

China's '2D' chip could soon be used to make silicon-free chips:

Researchers in China say they have created a new silicon-free transistor that could significantly boost performance while reducing energy consumption. The team says this development represents a new direction for transistor research.

The scientists said that the new transistor could be integrated into chips that could one day perform up to 40% faster than the best existing silicon processors made by U.S. companies like Intel. This is according to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Despite that dramatic increase in power, the researchers claim that such chips would also draw 10% less power. The scientists outlined their findings in a recent study published Feb. 13 in the journal Nature.

Lead author of the study Hailin Peng, professor of chemistry at Peking University (PKU) in China, told SCMP: "If chip innovations based on existing materials are considered a 'short cut', then our development of 2D material-based transistors is akin to 'changing lanes'."

The efficiency and performance gains are possible thanks to the chip's unique architecture, the scientists said in the paper, specifically the new two-dimensional silicon-free transistor they created. This transistor is a gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAAFET). Unlike previous leading transistor designs like the fin field-effect transistor (FinFET), a GAAFET transistor wraps sources with a gate on all four sides, instead of just three.

[...] This is because a fully wrapped source provides better electrostatic control (as there is less energy loss to static electricity discharges) and the potential for higher drive currents and faster switching times.

While the GAAFET architecture isn't itself new, the PKU team's use of bismuth oxyselenide as the semiconductor was, as well as the fact they used it to create an "atomically-thin" two-dimensional transistor.

Editor's note: This article was first published March 24, 2025.

See also:

• Low-power 2D gate-all-around logics via epitaxial monolithic 3D integration

Original Submission

upstart writes:

A gas clump in the Milky Way's neighborhood might be a 'dark galaxy':

A potential dark galaxy — one made primarily of dark matter — may have been spotted in the local universe.

Dark galaxies are theoretical, starless systems whose discovery could help astronomers better understand galaxy formation. The new candidate was found within a large, fast-moving cloud of gas first seen in the 1960s. High-resolution observations of the cloud, reported April 18 in Science Advances, revealed a compact clump of gas that might be a dark galaxy.

"This is the first discovery of a potential dark galaxy in the nearby universe," says astronomer Jin-Long Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Not all astronomers agree. The clump's classification as a dark galaxy is plausible, says astronomer Tobias Westmeier, but he finds the evidence lacking. Instead of a relatively distant dark galaxy, Westmeier thinks the object is more likely a regular gas cloud at the edge of the Milky Way.

"I'm very skeptical about the claims that they're making in the paper for a number of reasons," says Westmeier, of the University of Western Australia in Crawley. "There's no convincing evidence."

Since the early 2000s, a handful of candidate dark galaxies have been discovered around the Milky Way. But in most cases, further observations revealed the alleged dark galaxies to be misclassified. Many turned out to have a small population of faint stars that were initially overlooked. So far, none of the candidates have proved to be truly dark.

"People have been trying to find these starless galaxies for many years and so far without much success," Westmeier says.

The new results were compiled from observations using three radio telescopes, including high-resolution images from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope in southern China. In addition to dark matter, dark galaxies contain hydrogen gas, which can be observed at radio wavelengths. Additional observations at visible wavelengths from two stellar surveys suggest that the clump is starless.

Analysis of the radio telescope data allowed the researchers to determine the speed and direction of hydrogen gas in different parts of the clump. The data were also used to indirectly measure the distance to the clump, which the team estimated to be 900,000 light-years from Earth. Rotational movement seen in the clump's gas suggests it could be a disk galaxy, rather than a clump of ordinary gas.

hubie writes:

The company is also pulling Nest thermostats out of Europe entirely, citing "unique" heating challenges:

Google has just announced that it's ending software updates for the first-generation Nest Learning Thermostat, released in 2011, and the second-gen model that came a year later. This decision also affects the European Nest Learning Thermostat from 2014. "You will no longer be able to control them remotely from your phone or with
Google Assistant, but can still adjust the temperature and modify schedules directly on the thermostat," the company wrote in a Friday blog post.

The cutoff date for software updates and general support within the Google Home and Nest apps is October 25th.

In other significant news, Google is flatly stating that it has no plans to release additional Nest thermostats in Europe. "Heating systems in Europe are unique and have a variety of hardware and software requirements that make it challenging to build for the diverse set of homes," the company said. "The Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen, 2015) and Nest Thermostat E (2018) will continue to be sold in Europe while current supplies last."

Losing the ability to control these smart thermostats from a phone will inevitably frustrate customers who've had Nest hardware in their home for many years now. Google's not breaking their core functionality, but a lot of the appeal and convenience will disappear as software support winds down. The early Nest Learning Thermostats can at least be used locally without Wi-Fi, which isn't true of newer models. There's one bright spot for owners of recent Nest Thermostats: Google says owners "will be able to create and adjust schedules" from the Google Home app later this year for the first time.

[...] Still, this type of phase-out is a very real fear tied to smart home devices as companies put screens into more and more appliances. Is 14 years a reasonable lifespan for the these gadgets before their smarts fade away? There's no indication that Google plans to open source the hardware.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Today, open-source software powers the world. It didn't have to be that way. The Open Invention Network's (OIN) origins are rooted in a turbulent era for open source. In the mid-2000s, Linux faced existential threats from copyright and patent litigation. Besides, the infamous SCO lawsuit and Microsoft's claims that Linux infringed on hundreds of its patents cast a shadow over the ecosystem.

Business leaders became worried. While SCO's attacks petered out, patent trolls -- formally known as Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) -- were increasing their attacks. So, open-source friendly industry giants, including IBM, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, and Sony, formed the Open Invention Network (OIN) to create a bulwark against patent threats targeting Linux and open-source technologies. Founded in 2005, the Open Invention Network (OIN) has evolved into a global community comprising over 4,000 participants, ranging from startups to multinational corporations, collectively holding more than three million patents and patent applications.

At the heart of OIN's legal strategy is a royalty-free cross-license agreement. Members agree not to assert their patents against the Linux System, creating a powerful network effect that shields open-source projects from litigation. As OIN CEO Keith Bergelt explained, this model enables "broad-based participation by ensuring patent risk mitigation in key open-source technologies, thereby facilitating open-source adoption."

This approach worked then, and it continues to work today. 

As more companies realized the value of open source, they joined in increasing numbers. Indeed, in 2018, Microsoft not only joined the OIN, but the company also shocked the world by offering its entire 60,000 patent portfolio to all of the open-source patent consortium's members. 

Why? Because it made good business sense. As Microsoft VP and Deputy General Counsel Burton Davis explained in 2022: "Microsoft is committed to open source, and continues to invest and collaborate across the broad open-source landscape. As a beneficiary and active participant in the open-source ecosystem, Microsoft is committed to doing its part, together with the broader open-source community, to protect this valuable resource from patent risk and other challenges."

taylorvich writes:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-left-arm-reveals-vaccination-site.html

Sydney scientists have revealed why receiving a booster vaccine in the same arm as your first dose can generate a more effective immune response more quickly. The study, led by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney and published in the journal Cell, offers new insight that could help improve future vaccination strategies.

The researchers found that when a vaccine is administered, specialized immune cells called macrophages became "primed" inside lymph nodes. These macrophages then direct the positioning of memory B cells to more effectively respond to the booster when given in the same arm.

The findings, made in mice and validated in human participants, provide evidence to refine vaccination approaches and offer a promising new approach for enhancing vaccine effectiveness.

"This is a fundamental discovery in how the immune system organizes itself to respond better to external threats—nature has come up with this brilliant system and we're just now beginning to understand it," says Professor Tri Phan, Director of the Precision Immunology Program at Garvan and co-senior author.

Scientia Professor Anthony Kelleher, Director of the Kirby Institute and co-senior author says, "A unique and elegant aspect of this study is the team's ability to understand the rapid generation of effective vaccine responses. We did this by dissecting the complex biology in mice and then showed similar findings in humans. All this was done at the site of the generation of the vaccine response, the lymph node."

Immunization introduces a harmless version of a pathogen, known as a vaccine antigen, into the body, which is filtered through lymph nodes—immune 'training camps' that train the body to fight off the real pathogen. The researchers previously discovered that memory B cells, which are crucial for generating antibody responses when infections return, linger in the lymph node closest to the injection site.

Using state-of-the-art intravital imaging at Garvan, the team discovered that memory B cells migrate to the outer layer of the local lymph node, where they interact closely with the macrophages that reside there. When a booster was given in the same location, these 'primed' macrophages—already on alert—efficiently captured the antigen and activated the memory B cells to make high-quality antibodies.

"Macrophages are known to gobble up pathogens and clear away dead cells, but our research suggests the ones in the lymph nodes closest to the injection site also play a central role in orchestrating an effective vaccine response the next time around. So location does matter," says Dr. Rama Dhenni, the study's co-first author, who undertook the research as part of his Scientia Ph.D. program at Garvan.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

[Source]: GIZMODO

A California-based fusion company thinks it's cracked one of energy's toughest problems: how to make fusion efficient, powerful, and not absurdly expensive.

TAE Technologies, along with researchers from the University of California, says its reconfigured prototype—cheekily named Norm—could deliver 100 times the power of other fusion devices while running at half the cost of older designs.

The team's research, published in Nature Communications, focuses on improving something called a field-reversed configuration (FRC)—a setup that holds piping hot plasma in place without relying on the gigantic magnets seen in traditional fusion designs like tokamaks. According to a TAE release published this month, FRC-based machines can achieve 100 times the fusion output of typical tokamaks with similar magnetic field strengths and plasma volumes.

[...] If the claims hold up, this could be a major leap toward commercial fusion power, something that's remained perpetually "30 years away" for, well, more decades than that. But it's still early days—Norm is a prototype, not a power plant, though the terms are not mutually exclusive if Da Vinci has anything to say about it in 2030.

Nevertheless, probing new ways of inducing fusion reactions—and streamlining those processes to make them more efficient—is a positive step toward commercial fusion energy. But it's hard to be enthralled by those steps when you consider how many times the fusion timeline has slipped—and will probably keep slipping.

Hype or the real deal. What do you think ?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A new way of generating clean power could run your lights with rain. 

Hydropower typically relies on the movement of water to create electricity through mechanical energy, such as spinning turbines in a dam. But a new method, described April 16 in ACS Central Science, skips the mechanics and harnesses tiny bursts of energy sparked when rain plunks into a narrow tube. 

“There is a lot of energy in rain,” says Siowling Soh, an engineer at the National University of Singapore. “If we can tap into this vast amount of energy, we can move toward a more sustainable society.”

Soh and colleagues’ technique relies on charge separation, a process where oppositely charged particles become spatially divided, creating a voltage between them. It’s the same phenomenon as shuffling across a rug then getting zapped when touching a light switch.

Previous experiments have found that water running through a conductive tube also creates charge separation. As the water flows, negatively charged hydroxide molecules accumulate on the tube’s surface, leaving an excess of positively charged hydrogen ions in the water. But the amount of charge separation is negligible, and the energy produced is outweighed by the power needed to pump water through the system. Soh wanted to find a way around that.

Instead of using a continuous flow of water, he and his team dripped rainlike drops into a tube two millimeters wide, about the width of a grain of rice. Inside the tube, the water driblets flowed with air pockets between them, creating a movement pattern called a plug flow. Plug flows trigger higher amounts of charge separation than continuous flows, Soh says, resulting in roughly 100,000 times as much energy.

canopic jug writes:

Wired has an interview about precautions to take with mobile devices if one cannot avoid crossing into the United States. The advice applies to all electronics.

[...] In some cases, it can involve an electronic search where they hook your phone up to a machine and it sucks all the information off of your phone and then they can do more complex data analysis on it. But what you should know is that if you're a US citizen, or if you're a green card holder, you can refuse to have your device searched at the border without being denied entry into the United States. You can have your phone confiscated, you can be brought into a little room and asked more questions. You will be scrutinized if you deny them the opportunity to search your phone, but they can't keep you from entering the country under normal circumstances.

[...] Lauren Goode: If you're a visa holder or a foreign visitor and you refuse, you can be detained or deported.

[...] Katie Drummond: That's a really interesting point. I feel like that's very smart-in-the-weeds guidance. Mike, here is a follow-up question: If someone turned a device to you and said, "Log into your X account on this computer," can you say, "I'm sorry, officer, I can't help you with that"?

Michael Calore: Yes. And the explanation there, which should be what you actually do so that you're not lying, is that you're using a strong password that is stored in your password manager and that you do not have access to your password manager.

Previously:
(2025) Cell Phone OPSEC for Border Crossings
(2024) 'FYI. a Warrant Isn't Needed': Secret Service Says You Agreed to be Tracked With Location Data
(2024) CBP Needs Warrant To Search Phones, Says Yet Another Judge
(2023) Snowden Ten Years Later - Schneier on Security
(2019) We Got U.S. Border Officials to Testify Under Oath. Here's What We Found Out
(2018) U.S. Border Searches of Electronic Devices Rise 60% in 2017
(2016) US Government Pays $475,000 for Illegally Searching Woman's Vagina
(2016) US Customs Wants to Know Travelers' Social Media Account Names

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Are we getting a Starlink rival soon?

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy just confirmed that the company's Project Kuiper has begun deploying satellites in low-earth orbit. "Important moment for @ProjectKuiper as we just confirmed our first 27 production satellites are operating as expected in low Earth orbit," Jassy said on his status on X (formerly Twitter). "While this is the first step in a much longer journey to launch the rest of our low Earth orbit constellation, it represents an incredible amount of invention and hard work. Am really proud of the collective team."

This deployment will just be the first of many, especially as the company has previously sought permission to launch 3,236 satellites to deliver internet services around the globe. It took six years for Amazon to go from applying for permits from the FCC to launching its satellites, and it will probably take a few more years before it can fully launch the rest of its planned constellation. We will also likely have to wait a few more months before Amazon starts offering satellite internet services to its customers — after all, it took Starlink about one year and five months after the initial launch of its satellites before it could offer subscriptions.

[...] Still, Amazon's offering of a competing satellite internet service is crucial for consumers, as this will allow for competition and give customers the option to pick a service that fits their needs better. Another company is also trying to enter the satellite internet space — China-based SpaceSail already has 648 satellites in low-earth orbit and has agreements in place with Kazakhstan and Brazil, with plans to expand to 15,000 satellites by 2030. These new entrants in the low-earth orbit satellite internet industry will pressure Starlink to offer cheaper and better services. While this might be a cause for concern for Musk and his shareholders, this could be the ultimate win for the end-user.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) is a fork of KDE 3 which maintains the classic KDE approach and style. Trinity has received a new update, version 14.1.4, which introduces several small improvements:

"The key highlights of this version are: support for Unicode surrogate characters and planes above zero (for example emojis); new modern vector wallpapers and new colour themes; new control module to manage deb/rpm alternatives; tab support in kpdf; better context menu for tderandrtray and fixes to the handling of gamma settings; clickable links in calendar events; support for transparency, top and shadow borders and inactive windows in Dekorator; better integration of kxkb with setxkbmap, new options and various fixes for the tray feedback; ability to create VPN connections in tdenetworkmanager once again; several improvements to the codeine player; support for Ubuntu Plucky and upcoming Fedora 43." While not widely used, some projects, such as Q4OS, will likely have packages of Trinity 14.1.4 soon.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Learn about the escalating threat of volcanoes in Iceland and how a new warning system is helping to inform the public when eruptions will occur:

Although volcanic eruptions can strike when least expected, they sometimes give off warning signs that can be captured by advanced technology. One innovative way to monitor eruptions is now being put to the test at the Reykjanes Peninsula, a hotbed of volcanic activity in Iceland.

In a new study, researchers have reported the successful progress of an eruption warning system that uses distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), which can anticipate volcanic activity through magma movements beneath the surface.

The study, published in Science, demonstrates how DAS sensors at the Reykjanes Peninsula can give the public warnings on lava eruptions up to 30 minutes in advance. The key to this method is in fiber-optic cables that react to disturbances underground. With a system to monitor cables, scientists are tapping into unseen volcanic data like never before.

[...] For the past few years, an international team of researchers has been working toward a solution to catch volcanic activity before it can impact the public. This collaboration led to the development of a DAS system focused on an underground fiber-optic cable.

"The deployment was extremely fast," said Jiaxuan Li, the study's first author and a geophysicist at the University of Houston, in a statement. "We were able to set up our system on a 100-kilometer-long fiber cable within 10 days after a substantial magma intrusion event on November 10, 2023. About a month later, we recorded the first eruption with our system."

The DAS system entails directing lasers into unused underground cables; when vibrations pass through the cables (during an earthquake, for example), the lasers go through what is called a "phase-change," allowing researchers to collect data on seismic waves.

The system can be applied to underground volcanic activity as well. As magma moves upward to surge above the surface, it warps and compresses the ground. The researchers say cable sensors can measure changes in the ground much more precisely than GPS or satellite imaging.

Data from the sensors set up in the Reykjanes Peninsula have allowed researchers to create an early-warning system that could inform the public of an eruption 30 minutes to several hours before it occurs.

Journal Reference: DOI: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu0225

Original Submission

braddollar writes:

Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, giving the powerful a dangerous new route to manipulate platforms into removing lawful speech that they simply don't like. President Trump himself has said that he would use the law to censor his critics. The bill passed the Senate in February, and it now heads to the president's desk.

The takedown provision in TAKE IT DOWN applies to a much broader category of content—potentially any images involving intimate or sexual content—than the narrower NCII definitions found elsewhere in the bill.

Original Submission

Analysis-Google, X Next Targets as Europe Stays Tough on Tech Regulation

upstart writes:

Analysis-Google, X next targets as Europe stays tough on tech regulation:

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Alphabet's Google and Elon Musk's X may be the next to face fines from European regulators, as they stay tough on Big Tech despite concerns of retaliatory U.S. tariffs, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

EU antitrust regulators on Wednesday imposed the first penalties under landmark EU legislation aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech, doling out total fines of 700 million euros ($797 million) to Apple and Meta for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and orders to stop anti-competitive practices.

U.S. President Donald Trump has taken issue with the new rules, believing they amount to a tariff on U.S. companies. But EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera dismissed fears that she may cave to U.S. pressure and soften enforcement of the rules.

"Apple and Meta have fallen short of compliance with the DMA by implementing measures that reinforce the dependence of business users and consumers on their platforms," Ribera said in a statement on Wednesday. "All companies operating in the EU must follow our laws and respect European values," she said.

The EU's determination to press ahead with the fines raises a question over possible retaliatory action by the U.S., according to the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

"The U.S. Administration has declared it will consider responsive actions like tariffs to combat certain foreign government policies levied against U.S. companies," said Joe Jones, the IAPP's director of research and insights.

The DMA, which was cited by Trump in an Executive Order in February, sets out a list of dos and don'ts for tech giants to make it easier for people to move between competing online services such as social media platforms, internet browsers and app stores and for smaller rivals to compete.

Imposing the fines shows that the European Commission has "bite" despite Trump's threat to slap tariffs on EU countries that fine U.S. companies, said one senior Commission official, speaking on condition of anonymity.