SPACE

NASA weighs SpaceX rescue for stranded Boeing Starliner crew


By AFP

August 7, 2024

A final decision on whether to persist with Starliner -- seen here docked with the ISS -- is expected later this month, officials said - Copyright Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies/AFP/File -
Issam AHMED

What was meant to be a weeklong trip to the International Space Station (ISS) for the first NASA astronauts to fly with Boeing could extend to eight months, with the agency considering bringing them home on a SpaceX spaceship.

A final decision on whether to persist with Boeing’s Starliner — which experienced concerning propulsion system problems as it flew up to the orbital platform in June — is expected later this month, officials said Wednesday in a call with reporters.

Detailed planning is already under way with Boeing’s rival SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, to potentially launch their scheduled Crew-9 mission in September with just two astronauts rather than the usual four.

The Crew Dragon capsule would then be able to return to Earth with Starliner’s crew of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, revealed that there had been intense discussions on the best way forward, with Boeing expressing confidence in its spacecraft after carrying out ground testing to replicate the technical issues seen in space.

“I think the NASA community in general would like to understand a little bit more of the root cause and the physics,” he said.

Notably absent from the briefing were representatives from Boeing, heightening the perception of a rift.

On August 2, the company released a blog update stating it “remains confident in the Starliner spacecraft and its ability to return safely with crew.”



– Design flaws –



NASA and Boeing have been conducting tests at the White Sands Testing Facility in New Mexico to better understand why some of Starliner’s thrusters experienced a loss of power as it approached the ISS, and why it sprung several leaks of helium, used to pressurize the propulsion system.

Stich said the latest analysis of why the thrusters failed pointed to a “poppet” valve swelling and choking the flow of fuel, as well as overheating causing some fuel to vaporize.

Officials previously said the helium leaks might be due to the use of undersized seals.

NASA’s Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, insisted that returning with Starliner remained the “prime option.”

However, if Wilmore and Williams return with SpaceX, it would mark the biggest setback to date for Boeing’s space program, as the aerospace giant continues to reel from the safety crisis affecting its commercial jets.

Both Boeing and SpaceX were awarded multibillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to provide the US space agency with rides to the ISS, with SpaceX succeeding in 2020 and carrying dozens of people since.

Boeing’s program, by contrast, has faced numerous delays amid setbacks ranging from a software bug that put the spaceship on a bad trajectory on its first uncrewed test, to the discovery that the cabin was filled with flammable electrical tape after the second.

The crewed test itself experienced two aborted launch attempts that came as the astronauts were strapped in and ready for liftoff.

Yunus says ‘looking forward’ to helping Bangladesh ‘get out of trouble’


By AFP
August 7, 2024


Bangladesh's finance pioneer Muhammad Yunus appeared happy to be returning home - Copyright AFP/File Federico PARRA

Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who is due to head an interim government in Bangladesh after the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said Wednesday he was looking forward to helping the country overcome its current turbulence.

“I’m looking forward to going back home, see what’s happening and how we can organise ourselves to get out of the trouble we are in,” he told reporters before boarding a flight at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for Dubai where he was to connect to Dhaka.

He headed for the boarding zone pushing a small wheeled piece of luggage, waving goodbye.

The Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer will head the interim government after longtime and autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country.

The appointment came quickly after student leaders called on the 84-year-old Yunus — credited with lifting millions out of poverty in the South Asian country — to lead.

Hasina, 76, who had been in power since 2009, resigned on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Dhaka demanding she stand down.

Swiss mining giant Glencore drops plan to exit coal

By AFP
August 7, 2024


Glencore has a 'managed decline' strategy to phase out its coal mines - Copyright AFP/File CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

Swiss commodities giant Glencore announced Wednesday that it had decided against spinning off its coal business for now after consulting shareholders who view the polluting fossil fuel as a cash-generating activity.

Glencore completed its takeover of the steelmaking coal unit of Teck Resources in July following a protracted battle over the business with the Canadian company.

The Swiss mining and commodities trading group had considered merging the newly acquired business, Elk Valley Resources, with its own coal activities and spinning it off.

But Glencore said that after consulting its shareholders, most expressed a preference for retaining the coal and carbon steel materials business.

“Following extensive consultation with our shareholders, whose views were very clear, and our own analysis, the Board believes retention offers the lowest risk pathway to create value for Glencore shareholders today,” chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi said.

“The expected cash generative capacity of the coal and carbon steel materials business significantly enhances the quality of our portfolio,” Madhavpeddi added in a statement.

The company said shareholders preferred to keep the coal business “primarily on the basis that retention should enhance Glencore’s cash generating capacity to fund opportunities in our transition metals portfolio” such as copper.

They also concluded that it would “accelerate and optimise the return of excess cash flows to shareholders”.

Oil, gas and coal companies are under pressure to transition away from fossil fuels, the biggest contributor to climate change.

While Glencore’s Australian rival Rio Tinto and British group Anglo American are exiting coal, the Swiss company has a “managed decline” strategy to ensure a “responsible” phase out its coal operations.

Glencore said Wednesday that while it has decided to keep coal, its board “preserves the option to consider a demerger of all or part of this business in the future if circumstances change”.

Separately, Glencore posted a $233-million loss for the first half of the year, after earning $4.6 billion over the same period last year, as commodity prices fell, “particularly thermal coal”.

Judge dismisses $10 bn Mexico lawsuit against six US gunmakers

ByAFP
August 7, 2024

Glock was among the gun manufacturers which had filed the dismissal plea - Copyright AFP/File Albari ROSA

A US judge on Wednesday dismissed a $10 billion lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against six gun manufacturers based in the United States that sought to hold them responsible for deaths from guns trafficked into Mexico.

Judge Dennis Saylor dismissed the suit based on a lack of jurisdiction, ruling that the connections of the gun manufacturers to the state of Massachusetts, where the suit was brought, were not substantial.

“As to those defendants, the connection of this matter to Massachusetts is gossamer-thin at best,” Saylor’s verdict read.

Mexico tightly controls weapons sales, making them practically impossible to obtain legally.

But drug-related violence involving firearms remains widespread — with more than half a million weapons trafficked into Mexico from the United States annually, according to the Mexican government.

In recent years, it has filed suits in the US states of Massachusetts and Arizona seeking to hold US-based gun manufacturers and dealers responsible.

Wednesday’s ruling sees the charges against gunmakers Beretta USA, Colt, Glock, Barrett, Century International, and Sturm, Ruger and Company dismissed in Massachusetts.

Judge Saylor ruled that the six defendants against whom charges were dismissed did not have a sufficient link to Massachusetts to establish jurisdiction, and that the data presented by the Mexican government in the suit relied on assumptions and did not prove a direct link.

“In short, plaintiff has been unable to muster sufficient proof to establish a sufficient relationship between the claimed injuries and the business transactions of any of the six defendants in Massachusetts,” the verdict read.

The suit brought in the border state of Arizona seeks sanctions against five dealers that sold guns which were used in serious crimes in Mexico.

Op-Ed: Bringing back mammoths – Yes and No with too many caveats for both


ByPaul Wallis
August 6, 2024

DIGITAL JOURNAL

The Steppe mammoth was the first stage in the evolution of the steppe and tundra elephants and the ancestor of the woolly mammoth and Columbian mammoth of the later Pleistocene. — Source: Mauricio Antón (CC BY 2.5)

There’s not a single simple or straightforward issue in the Bring Back the Mammoth proposal. The idea of reincarnating the mammoths isn’t just some sort of scientific fad. This science is far too valuable to avoid. It includes a limitless range of useful biology that could be applied to just about anything living.

The degree of difficulty is also very high, but so what? All new science is tough. It’d be the first time a species had been reborn. At the genetic level, the whole process of reviving the mammoths would be all breakthroughs.

There’s another strong recommendation for mammoths in particular. A vast amount of study, actual tissues, and about a century’s worth at least of analysis can be used to do it.

This isn’t the mammalian version of Jurassic Park. This science already exists, with tissues as blueprint references for the whole animals. Every biological element in the process can be cross-checked.

None of these things makes any of it simple.

For example:

How does an ancient animal survive in what is effectively a different world?

Are they prone to disease and resistant to modern diseases?

How do you do basic maintenance for a huge animal like a mammoth?

What sort of habitat can be provided for them?

What happens if you revive them, and they just die?

How do you maintain a mammoth throughout its growth cycle, let alone for generations?

What do you feed them, and can you deliver that food in sufficient quantities?

What about warming? Big animals and heat are a foreseeable issue.

What sort of range do they need to exist independently?

How do you fix an injured mammoth?

What if anything at all goes wrong, as it may be expected to do?

These are just the basics. These basics can evolve to the point of being a bit queasiness-inducing and much less obvious:

How safe is the huge volume of very tricky and demanding science from bad actors?

Do we get great science followed by McMammoth burgers 5 minutes later? (Admittedly prehistoric burgers would probably be safer.)

Theme parks, anyone? Novelty tends to produce tackiness.

Genetic science often generates “Offshoot science” or more accurately in some cases “Oafshoot science”. Genetic hybrids and similar highly dubious science-swiping options are a possible issue. It has produced some pretty bizarre ideas, like crossing rats and humans, presumably to keep the sociologists happy. Solutions to this issue, if any?

Microbiology is one of the most productive and most contentious, minefield-ridden forms of science. Is there any risk of an intellectual property stampede ripping off the mammoth project science? How do you protect the science? You’d need keystone genetics IP at the very least.

If you’re somehow getting the mystic impression that I don’t trust the commercial environment for good science, let alone for this much critical science, bingo.

Let’s face it – The sheer scale of scientific fraud, plagiarism and disingenuity of recent years is no incentive to be trusting. “Bad actors” is more than a euphemism. Nor is the salivating, money-mad IP sector any great aesthetic relief.

Science is in the midst of its own MESA (Make Everything Sleazy Again) Era. At risk of extinction are talent, real science, and a lot of high-value IP. The mammoth project would be the epitome of a horrific learning curve nobody needs or wants to do.

Let’s hope the science survives its likely environment, too.

‘No evidence’ of Venezuela vote hacking, says Carter Center mission chief


ByAFP
August 7, 2024

Venezuela's CNE president Elvis Amoroso shakes hands with the Carter Center's principal advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean Jennie Lincoln in Caracas in April 2024 - Copyright AFP/File Juan BARRETO
Javier TOVAR

There is no evidence that Venezuela’s electoral system was the target of a cyber attack during elections last month, the head of the Carter Center’s observation mission told AFP, confirming figures that give the opposition candidate a victory.

On election night, the president of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, declared a win for President Nicolas Maduro without providing data from polling stations, stating that the CNE had been the victim of a computer attack.

“We have no evidence of that whatsoever,” Jennie Lincoln, head of the Carter Center delegation that was invited to monitor the Venezuela election, told AFP.

The CNE has not published detailed results from the vote and claims the delay is due to a hack, while Maduro has denounced what he calls a “criminal cyber-fascist coup d’etat.”

“There are companies that monitor and know when there is a denial of service, that there was no denial of service in Venezuela on an election day or election night,” Lincoln said, speaking from Atlanta, Georgia where the center is located.

Meanwhile transmission of voting data “is done over telephone lines and satellite phones. So that’s not even done with the computer,” she said.

Opponents and many observers believe that the delay is meant to help avoid giving actual results that would show opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won.

The CNE ratified Maduro’s victory Friday with 52 percent of the vote, still without making public the polling station numbers.

Meanwhile the opposition has uploaded voting records onto a website which it claims show that Gonzalez Urrutia won with 67 percent.

“Even though the playing field was very uneven, the Venezuelan people went to vote,” Lincoln said.

“The big irregularity of the election day was the lack of transparency of the CNE and the blatant disregard for their rules of the game in terms of producing the true vote of the Venezuelan people,” she said.

The center “ran the same numbers” from the available data that the opposition used and — along with other organizations and universities — confirmed Gonzalez as the winner with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Maduro and Jorge Rodriguez, his close aide who is Venezuela’s National Assembly president, have claimed the figures are false, with Rodriguez even showing documents that he says prove so.

“I think that was theater,” Lincoln said.

Multiple countries, including the United States and several Latin American nations, have recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner, and have called on Venezuela to publish election data.

Brazil, Colombia and Mexico — which have maintained good relations with Maduro’s government — urged an “impartial verification” of the result.

Climate change is fuelling rise in hot nights: analysis


ByAFP
August 7, 2024


This year has seen heat records tumble, with the four hottest days ever observed by scientists etched into the history books in July - Copyright AFP DAMIR SENCAR

Human-induced climate change is significantly increasing the number of hot nights for nearly one in three people around the world, a global analysis said Thursday.

High nighttime temperatures can become dangerous if they prevent the human body from cooling off and recovering from daytime heat.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends keeping room temperature at or below 24 degrees Celsius during the night — a threshold above which sleep can be uncomfortable.

This is especially important for vulnerable people, such as babies, the elderly and people with chronic health conditions, according to the WHO.

But burning coal, oil and gas which releases climate-warming emissions into the atmosphere is fuelling a rise in nights above 25C, according to Climate Central, an independent group of scientists and climate communicators.



– ‘Cascading impacts’ –



Around 2.4 billion people experienced at least two additional weeks on average per year over the past decade when the thermometer didn’t fall below 25C at night, it found.

“Warmer nighttime temperatures, particularly during hot times of the year, can harm sleep and can reduce physical recovery from hot daytime temperatures, both of which can have cascading impacts on health outcomes,” Nick Obradovich, a chief scientist at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, told AFP.

This year has seen heat records tumble, with extreme temperatures gripping vast swathes of the world from India to Saudi Arabia and Mexico, often staying high at night.

The analysis compared the annual average of hot nights between 2014 and 2023 with a counterfactual world without human-caused climate change based on a peer-reviewed methodology using models that incorporate historical data.

Long-term historical data being patchy or missing for many countries, researchers decided to compare their findings with an imaginary world where the only thing that has changed is the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

The Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago experienced the largest increase of any country, with an extra 47 nights per year above 25C. The Indian city of Mumbai endured an additional two months of hot nights.

The 25C threshold “isn’t some hard-and-fast number below which health is fine and above which health is harmed,” Obradovich, who was not involved in the analysis, explained.

“Hotter nighttime temperatures, on average, are worse for health,” he added, but the impacts on people vary.

However, when heat is coupled with high humidity levels, the consequences can turn deadly.

Several studies have shown that nocturnal temperatures above 25C deteriorate the quality and length of sleep — which is vital for humans to function — and increase the risks of strokes, cardiovascular conditions and mortality.

The elderly and people on lower-income are disproportionally affected, researchers previously found.

Chile’s largest steelmaker suspends production, blames China


By AFP
August 7, 2024

The Chilean government described the Huachipato plant's decision as 'irresponsible' - Copyright AFP GUILLERMO SALGADO

Chile’s largest steel plant announced on Wednesday that it had suspended operations because it could not sustain itself financially, despite new tariffs on Chinese steel meant to protect local production.

The Chilean government described the Huachipato plant’s decision as “irresponsible,” with at least 2,700 workers directly affected and as many as 20,000 jobs indirectly linked to the plant.

The company’s board of directors said the decision to “indefinitely suspend” operations was made because it was impossible to competitively price its steel in the face of “the intensification of Chinese dumping,” even with the tariffs in place.

The decision came after the finance ministry in April imposed temporary tariffs on Chinese imports of steel bars and balls of 24.9 percent and 33.5 percent respectively.

Both products are key inputs in copper production, in which Chile is the world leader.

“Almost four months after the measure was implemented, market behavior has made it impossible to correct the imbalances and to transfer these tariffs to the price,” the company said in a statement.

Huachipato’s board of directors concluded that the application of surcharges would not be enough to generate structural changes in the market to ensure the financial viability of the steel business in its current form.

The suspension of the steel company’s activities will be gradual, with the process to be completed in September, the company said.

Huachipato, located in Talcahuano, about 310 miles (500 kilometers) south of Santiago, had earlier suspended operations in March, demanding the imposition of the new tariffs on Chinese steel to continue operations.

In the last two decades, China has increased its share of the world steel market from 15 percent to 54 percent, according to the Latin American Steel Association (Alacero).

Marxists.orgwww.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1924/impacck/index.htm

Imperialism and the Accumulation of Capital - Nikolai Bukharin - 1924

Source: Rosa Luxemburg and Nikolai Bukharin Imperialism and the Accumulation of capital. Edited with an Introduction by Kenneth J. Tarbuck. (Allen Lane The ...

Op-Ed: Markets finally get it — Recession inbound, Main Street on bread and water


ByPaul Wallis
DIGITAL JOURNAL
August 5, 2024

Wall street: — © Digital Journal

It’s taken two years for the Masters Morons of the Universe to see the obvious. Heavily indebted birdbrained corporations and maxed-out bad debt have no level of resistance to reality. They’ve just noticed.

2008 could well have been just the entrée to what’s possible now. They haven’t learned a thing. Big capital could get vaporized.

This will be the World’s Dumbest Recession, or perhaps depression. This is what happens when you talk yourself into believing that “debt is good” and borrow your way into bankruptcy for a few decades with help from an illiterate, irresponsible credit sector that doesn’t know its own business.

The finance sector must have the combined IQ of an empty KFC bucket. Nothing in there except the memory of a smell. The sector usually notices nothing, particularly its own self-inflicted disasters. Real money is vanishing in huge amounts in “adjustments” to a situation that never needed to exist.

It’s come to this. The world’s stock markets have just wiped out a lot of money in a fit of uncharacteristic realism. That’s a lot of money people thought they had, gone in a day or so. You can expect that to turn into a stampede if things get worse.

Also remember those investments were already losing money in real terms due to real-world price increases. Not “inflation”, which is an averaged-out euphemism. Real costs and prices have spiked, and any averages are irrelevant.

Let’s clarify, bozos – Every single price rise means your money is worth less.

Every price rise impacts the costs of the entire supply chain. Your buying power, the only real measure of wealth, decreases. These bigger numbers can never be “great numbers”.

Unemployment, that other unconvincing excuse for everything, is rising. Given that interest rates supposedly reflected anti-inflation measures because of higher employment, what now?

It’s hard to figure out the rationales. Is the logic that because people don’t have jobs you can make money cheaper for rich corporate lenders? So the millions of struggling people can borrow for a bit less?

If so, it’s another disaster in progress. If people with no money have to borrow, a booming market in bad personal loans and fake credit is the more likely scenario. It’ll take at least 5 years for these vacuous financial geniuses to figure it out.

Of course, all the other uncompromised capital is getting very reluctantly dragged into the black hole as costs rise. Prices rise anyway. Credit gets more expensive. None of that solves anything. It just makes it worse. More debt is self-destructive. Getting a few bucks extra means nothing when you need more bucks than you’re making.

Interest rates at central bank level are the least of the issues. It doesn’t matter if the rates go up or down by a few basis points. It doesn’t affect your financial reality directly, if at all. Your bills and costs don’t go down by a few basis points.

The problem is that people have no money coming in. It’s all going out on expenses only a ghoul could have predicted. Nor does anyone seem to know where more money can come from.

Nor are there any controls in place. You’d have to go back to COVID economics to make this house of cards stand up again.

The property sector, the big support beam of the capital market, is trapped in itself by itself. Cash buyers are OK. Everyone else is trying not to go broke and avoid losing money if they can. Mortgage defaults have been escalating for at least a year. There are a few lazy trillions that nobody needs, right?

You have rental properties that nobody can afford to rent. Maintenance and other overheads are getting more expensive. You have condos nobody can afford to buy because of charges. Property taxes are gnawing the bones. Forced sales, if you can actually sell anything, are inevitable.

In the commercial environment, this has translated dollar for dollar into a choice of lousy and truly tough calls. You have no customers because they have no money. Inventories are turning into stale money going nowhere.

Nor is there much actual “management” of the macroeconomic disasters in process. A totally unfocused, constipated, and effectively irrelevant political chaos created this mess.

The worst damage is to the credibility of investment as a whole. What are the incentives for investment? Nostalgia? Because that’s about all that’s on the table right now. Who’s going to believe this collection of train wrecks is a good investment environment? Who’s going to believe a word, whether the information is good or not?

On the purely domestic level, there are no excuses. Pew Research did a survey years ago that found that American households couldn’t handle a $400 hit to the monthly budget. Since then, costs of living have exploded.

Simple auto loans and other mainstream credit defaults are at plague levels. They can’t get better until the heat goes out of price rises. That fictional money is evaporating faster than anything else and it’s already hitting the books hard. Portfolios are going to start looking bad soon enough.

What are the solutions, you ask from your palatial twig?

Deflation. These costs can never work.

Writedowns. Unavoidable anyway.

Debt regulation enforcement. Like you’ve got a choice.

Lose the “buy a degree” idiots and hangers-on. These guys couldn’t run a dunghill.

Ditch those damn debts before they kill you. Your debts are who you are. They’re also be who you will be, if you’re not careful.

Get some really good sales guys to invent courses for kids in grade school for financial management.

X’s AI chatbot spread election misinformation, US officials say


ByAFP
August 6, 2024

The Elon Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter, is seen as a hotbed of misinformation in a major election year. - Copyright GETTY IMAGES/AFP Apu Gomes
Anuj CHOPRA

Five US states sent an open letter Monday to Elon Musk, urging him to fix his social media platform X’s AI chatbot after it shared misinformation about the upcoming presidential election.

The letter comes as researchers express concern that the influential site, formerly named Twitter, is a hotbed of political misinformation, while Musk — who has endorsed Donald Trump — appears to be swaying voters ahead of the November election by spreading falsehoods on his personal account, which has nearly 193 million followers.

Hours after President Joe Biden stepped down from the presidential race last month and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, the chatbot called Grok churned out false information about ballot deadlines, which was amplified by other platforms.

“We are calling on you to immediately implement changes to… Grok to ensure voters have accurate information in this critical election year,” the letter said.

The letter was signed by the secretaries of state of Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Washington, and New Mexico. In some American states these officials are responsible for overseeing elections.

The chatbot wrongly told users that the ballot deadline had passed for nine states. The message effectively implied that Harris was not eligible to replace Biden on the ballot.

“This is false. In all nine states the opposite is true,” the letter said.

“The ballots are not closed, and upcoming ballot deadlines would allow for changes to candidates listed on the ballot for the offices of president and vice president of the United States.”

X did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.

The letter added that Grok continued to repeat this false information –- which was amplified by multiple posts, reaching millions of people — for more than a week until it was corrected on July 31.

“As tens of millions of voters in the US seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to ensure all voters using your platform have access to guidance that reflects true and accurate information about their constitutional right to vote,” the letter said.

In what is widely billed as America’s first AI election in November, researchers warn that AI-enabled misinformation could be used to manipulate voters, stoking tensions in an already hyperpolarized environment.

Last week, Musk faced a firehose of criticism for sharing with his followers an AI deepfake video featuring Harris.

In it, a voiceover mimicking Harris calls Biden senile before declaring that she does not “know the first thing about running the country.”

The video, viewed by millions, carried no indication that it was parody — save for a laughing emoji. Only later did Musk clarify that the video was meant as satire.

Researchers voiced concern that viewers could have falsely concluded that Harris was deriding herself and sullying Biden.

X, which researchers say has scaled back content moderation efforts and reinstated once-banned accounts of known misinformation spreaders, has also faced criticism for stoking tensions during recent far-right riots across England.

On Sunday, Musk triggered fresh criticism for posting that “civil war is inevitable” in response to another user blaming the riots on “the effects of mass migration and open borders”.

Elon Musk’s X sues advertisers over boycott


By AFP
August 6, 2024


Elon Musk bought Twitter, now known as X for $44 billion

 - Copyright AFP Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV

Elon Musk’s X sued an advertising group and several large corporations on Tuesday accusing them of causing billions of dollars of losses by “illegally” boycotting the social media platform.

“We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war,” the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX said on X, which he acquired in late 2022.

The antitrust suit, filed in a federal court in Texas, targets the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), Uniliver, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted, a Danish energy company.

It accuses WFA, through an initiative known as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), of conspiring with the companies and others to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X, formerly Twitter.

A number of advertisers left Twitter following Musk’s takeover amid concerns about the level of content moderation under the new ownership and Musk’s own controversial musings on the site.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino, in a video posted on the platform on Tuesday, said X was the victim of a “systematic illegal boycott.”

“They conspired to boycott X which threatens our ability to thrive in the future,” Yaccarino said. “No small group of people should be able to monopolize what gets monetized.”

X is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.

Elon Musk’s X filed an antitrust lawsuit against an advertising group accusing it of engaging in an ‘illegal boycott’ – Copyright GETTY IMAGES/AFP Apu Gomes

The lawsuit was filed one day after Musk filed suit in California against OpenAI, accusing its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of betraying the artificial intelligence company’s founding mission.

Musk invested in the San Francisco-based OpenAI in 2015 but left three years later.

He is accusing OpenAI, Altman and Brockman of fraud, conspiracy and false advertising.