Stories from Abroad

As Venezuela and Iran grapple with immense political tumult, Starlink has become a lifeline for internet access. Iranian activists have disseminated images of troops suppressing protestors by connecting to Starlink, while Venezuelans are relying on the service to get information on President Nicolás Maduro’s removal.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots—such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Google AI Mode or the Washington Post’s “Ask the Post AI”—are software products that simulate human-like conversations and generate responses across a wide range of topics.

The European Commission wants to make it easier for telecommunications operators to upgrade Europe’s critical networks by giving them more access to spectrum and phasing out copper networks over the next decade. The European Union’s executive branch said it would introduce a mandatory phase-out of copper networks for EU member states and a transition to advanced networks between 2030 and 2035 under the Digital Networks Act—a planned piece of legislation unveiled in January 2026.

xAI announced a groundbreaking partnership with the Government of El Salvador to launch the world's first nationwide AI-powered education program. Over the next two years, xAI will deploy Grok across more than 5,000 public schools, delivering personalized learning to over one million students and empowering thousands of teachers as collaborative partners in education.

For most of Iran, the internet was shut off on January 8—the most severe blackout the country has seen in years of internet shutdowns, coming after days of escalating anti-government protests. For a very small sliver of the country, it is still possible to get photos and videos to the outside world, and even to make calls. The Telegram channel Vahid Online posted photos of dead bodies lying next to a street in Kahrizak, on the southern outskirts of Tehran; it also shared a video of Iranians chanting “death to Khamenei” at a funeral.

Iran's internet shutdown represents a “new high-water mark” in terms of its sophistication and severity—and could last a long time. As the blackout kicked in, 90 percent of internet traffic to Iran evaporated. International calls to the country appeared blocked, and domestic mobile phones had no service, said Amir Rashidi, an Iranian digital rights expert. This is far from the first time a country has blocked the internet for political reasons.

When you think of Big Tech these days, Yahoo is probably not top of mind. But for a 62-year-old Chinese dissident named Xu Wanping, the company still looms large—and has for nearly two decades. In 2005, Xu was arrested for signing online petitions relating to anti-Japanese protests. He didn’t use his real name, but he did use his Yahoo email address. At the time, Yahoo was among Silicon Valley’s largest and most influential technology companies. And Yahoo China, its Chinese subsidiary, was busy tapping into the country’s nascent but potentially enormous internet market.

President Trump has offered a variety of reasons for his intense, pugilistic ambitions in Venezuela, Greenland, and other hemispheric players.

The State Department is barring five Europeans it accused of leading efforts to pressure U.S.

As AI becomes a central element of national and global development strategies, actors are promoting AI literacy through policies that foster highly skilled talent and equip citizens to engage with AI in everyday life. This study conducts a comparative policy analysis of 41 AI literacy policies from the European Union, United States, India, and China, examining convergences and divergences in domestic talent cultivation and international talent attraction strategies.