Russia

A research project has analysed the Twitter discourse related to deepfakes in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, studying almost 5,000 tweets related to these videos. Deepfakes are synthetic media that mix an original video with content generated by artificial intelligence, often with the aim of mimicking a person. The research, published in PLoS ONE, looks at the lack of literacy about deepfakes and the scepticism and misinformation that can arise when real media is mistakenly identified as fake. The authors warn that efforts to raise public awareness of this phenomenon can undermine trust in other legitimate media, that can also be seen as suspect.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he is suspending Russia's participation in the New START treaty, a bilateral agreement signed with the United States that has been in force since 2011 and that limits and controls the nuclear armament of both powers.

A study estimates that household energy expenditure has increased by 62.6 to 112.9 % in 2022, following the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This represents an increase of 2.7 to 4.8 % of overall household expenditure. The analysis, published in Nature Energy, warns that this increase could push between 78 and 141 million people worldwide into extreme poverty.

Today the International Space Station (ISS) is completely dependent on Russia to keep it in orbit. Space X spacecraft, which NASA contracts, carry astronauts but cannot propel the ISS to maintain its altitude. A new American spacecraft, Cygnus, which has already conducted a successful propulsion test, is expected to be able to do so.