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Musk Activates Starlink Internet Service in Ukraine

A SpaceX Starlink satellite is seen passing in the night sky in Denmark in April 2020 Mads Claus Rasmussen Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/File
A SpaceX Starlink satellite is seen passing in the night sky in Denmark in April 2020 Mads Claus Rasmussen Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/File
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Musk Activates Starlink Internet Service in Ukraine

A SpaceX Starlink satellite is seen passing in the night sky in Denmark in April 2020 Mads Claus Rasmussen Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/File
A SpaceX Starlink satellite is seen passing in the night sky in Denmark in April 2020 Mads Claus Rasmussen Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/File

Elon Musk said Saturday his company SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband service had been activated in Ukraine, after a Kyiv official urged the tech titan to provide his embattled country with stations.

"Starlink service is now active in Ukraine," Musk tweeted, adding "more terminals en route."

The tweet came some 10 hours after Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov urged Musk to provide Starlink services to Ukraine, days after it was invaded by neighboring Russia.

"While you try to colonize Mars -- Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space -- Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations," Fedorov tweeted at Musk, AFP reported.

He also called on the billionaire "to address sane Russians to stand" against their government's invasion.

Internet monitor NetBlocks said Ukraine has seen a "series of significant disruptions to internet service" since Thursday, when Russia launched military operations in the country.

Starlink operates a constellation of more than 2,000 satellites that aim to provide internet access across the planet.

The company on Friday launched a further 50 Starlink satellites and many more are slated to be put into Earth's orbit.

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US Bans Red Food Dye over Possible Cancer Risk

Fruit by the Foot, a product that uses Red Dye No 3, can be seen on a shelf at a supermarket in this illustration photograph on December 27, 2024 - AFP
Fruit by the Foot, a product that uses Red Dye No 3, can be seen on a shelf at a supermarket in this illustration photograph on December 27, 2024 - AFP
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US Bans Red Food Dye over Possible Cancer Risk

Fruit by the Foot, a product that uses Red Dye No 3, can be seen on a shelf at a supermarket in this illustration photograph on December 27, 2024 - AFP
Fruit by the Foot, a product that uses Red Dye No 3, can be seen on a shelf at a supermarket in this illustration photograph on December 27, 2024 - AFP

Outgoing US President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced a ban on Red Dye No 3, a controversial food and drug coloring long known to cause cancer in animals.

Decades after scientific evidence first raised alarm, Red 3, as it is also called, is currently used in nearly 3,000 food products in the United States, according to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

"FDA is revoking the authorized uses in food and ingested drugs of FD&C Red No 3 in the color additive regulations," said a document from the Department of Health and Human Services, published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, AFP reported.

The decision follows a petition filed in November 2022 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and other advocacy groups, which cited the "Delaney Clause" -- a provision mandating the prohibition of any color additive shown to cause cancer in humans or animals.

Notably, the FDA determined as early as 1990 that Red 3 should be banned in cosmetics because of its link to thyroid cancer in lab rats.

However, the additive continued to be used in foods, largely due to resistance from the food industry. Manufacturers of maraschino cherries, for example, relied on Red 3 to maintain the iconic red hue of their products.

It's also present in thousands of candies, snacks and fruit products.

The United States is one of the last major economies to take action on the dye. The European Union prohibited its use in 1994, with similar bans implemented in Japan, China, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

CSPI hailed the decision as overdue and expressed hope it would lead to further action against other potentially harmful chemicals in food.

"They don't add any nutritional value, they don't preserve the food -- they're just there to make food look pretty," Thomas Galligan, a scientist with CSPI, told AFP.

"There's growing discussion across the political spectrum about food additives and chemicals, which reflects ongoing failures by the FDA."