(Reuters) -Carmakers must pay compensation for diesel vehicles fitted with illegal emissions controlling devices, Germany's highest federal court ruled on

Future space missions might use all-female crews because they are more “efficient”, a new study has suggested. Many space agencies around the world are already preparing for the first human trips to Mars and perhaps other planets. But those trips will be incredibly resource-intensive, with the food and other material required to support a crew over years being an important consideration. One way to minimise that demand on resources would be to send all-female crews, a new study conducted by the European Space Agency suggests. It found that female astronauts would be likely to need less water to stay hydrated, expend less energy, need less oxygen and carbon dioxide and produce less heat than their male counterparts. That in turn would require less space to store the equipment needed to allow those astronauts to live, and therefore make the journey theoretically easier for engineers. The exact difference between a male and female crew would depend on the stature and other details of the astronauts that were chosen. But in all situations, the all-female crew were found to use less energy. That was because they are lighter than their male counterparts, and tend to use less oxygen when they are exercising. The difference remained true even when the astronauts were modelled as if they were engaging in the kind of exercise that astronauts have done on the International Space Station, which is required to ensure they stay fit and healthy without the usual gravity on Earth. The fact that women also tend to be smaller would be another advantage the scientists note, since it would mean that engineers would be able to build them smaller space habitat modules. “There may be a number of operational advantages to all-female crews during future human space exploration missions,” the team conclude in a new paper. The work was theoretical and used already published data on female astronauts and physiological research. The research is published in a new paper, ‘Effects of body size and countermeasure exercise on estimates of life support resources during all-female crewed exploration missions’, in Scientific Reports. Read More Why is Elon Musk purging Twitter accounts? Apple finally launches two professional apps on the iPad AI robots figure out how to play football in shambolic footage

CoreWeave, a cloud computing provider that’s becoming one of the hottest startups in the artificial intelligence race, is

More than half of broadband customers have experienced problems with their connection over the past year, despite providers inflicting inflation-busting price hikes, a survey suggests. The latest “broadband satisfaction survey” by Which? found that 53% of the nearly 4,000 broadband customers polled had experienced connection issues in the year to January, most commonly frequent connection dropouts, “very” slow speeds and slow uploads and downloads. The issues were “persistent” across all the providers, with narrow margins between the best and worst offenders for poor customer experiences. It's completely unacceptable that customers who have faced these eye-watering increases are also experiencing so many problems with their connection Which? The watchdog noted that the scale of problems added “insult to injury” as many customers saw their bills jump by more than 14% after many providers chose to impose inflation-based price increases earlier this year. Providers often link their annual price rises to January’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Retail Price Index (RPI), which were 10.5% and 13.4% respectively – an amount which would have been unforeseeable for customers signing up to their contract 18 or 24 months previously. The current system forces millions of customers to choose between paying more each month or exorbitant exit fees, which can exceed £200. Industry watchdog Ofcom is currently investigating whether inflation-linked, mid-contract price rises give customers sufficient certainty and clarity when signing up to new contracts. Of the UK’s biggest providers, Sky, Virgin Media, and EE had the lowest proportion of customers who had not experienced any issues, with just 32%, 35% and 37% of their customers not reporting any problems. Of the major providers, BT fared best with 49% of its customers not experiencing a performance issue in the past year. Hyperoptic, Shell Energy Broadband and Utility Warehouse performed better, with half or more of their customers not experiencing any performance issue over the 12 months. However, even with these providers, at least four in 10 customers said they had experienced at least one problem. Frequent connection drop outs were the most common broadband issue, experienced by 19% of those who had suffered a problem. Some 17% suffered slow speeds, while 15% experienced slow uploads and downloads. One in seven (14%) said they had been left without a connection for at least an hour. One in 10 (12%) experienced slow or disrupted streaming when listening to music or watching videos and 8% said they were left without connection for more than a day. Overall, around four in 10 (44%) said they had experienced some kind of customer service issue and 11% said they had either found it difficult to get in touch with their provider or struggled to get their issue resolved. It’s absolutely critical that Ofcom’s review of inflation linked mid-contract hikes results in changes that ensure customers are never trapped in this situation again Rocio Concha, Which? Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: “A reliable connection is essential to modern life. Earlier this year, many broadband consumers were hit with mid-contract price hikes of more than 14% – meaning that it’s more important than ever that their provider offers a reliable connection and good customer service. “It’s completely unacceptable that customers who have faced these eye-watering increases are also experiencing so many problems with their connection. Broadband firms need to work harder to resolve these issues and offer a better service. “While some customers are able to switch away to better service and prices, many are trapped in contracts where they either have to accept above inflation price hikes in the spring or pay exorbitant exit fees to leave the contract early. “It’s absolutely critical that Ofcom’s review of inflation linked mid-contract hikes results in changes that ensure customers are never trapped in this situation again.” A Sky spokeswoman said: “We are committed to providing the best service to our customers. “We do not believe this is a representative survey – Ofcom’s quarterly complaints data shows we are consistently one of the least complained about broadband providers and, in Ofcom’s latest report, we received the fewest complaints out of all broadband providers.” A Virgin Media spokesman said: “While these findings are only taken from a small sample of customers, the latest, fuller data from Ofcom shows that our customers benefit from the fastest download speeds, and customer complaints on our broadband services fell by 22% in the first quarter of this year.” EE said: “Ofcom’s latest complaints report shows that we remain one of the least complained about broadband providers, with complaints remaining well below the industry average throughout recent years. “We have proudly led the way with social tariffs since 2008, with around 80% of the total market being supported on BT social tariffs. “Customers who are struggling financially and are eligible for our social tariffs can move penalty-free at any point in their contract, this also includes EE and Plusnet customers. “ Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Will.i.am hails AI technology as ‘new renaissance’ in music Heart transplant woman’s daughter twice saved her life using Alexa Dolly Parton on AI and not wanting to leave her soul ‘here on earth’

'Batman: Arkham Trilogy' is coming to Nintendo Switch later this year.

A plan to prevent Milwaukee from going bankrupt is expected to win bipartisan approval in the Wisconsin Legislature

By Anna Tong, Krystal Hu and Jody Godoy (Reuters) -Some investors in OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT, are exploring legal recourse

Gabe Amatangelo is directing the 'Cyberpunk 2077' sequel.

Network infrastructure and 5G-technology provider Nokia has signed a new long-term patent license agreement with Apple to replace the current deal between the two companies that is set to expire at the end of the year

Reddit has been filled with images of John Oliver, as user’s protests against the site’s management take a bizarre new turn. In recent weeks, controversy has been brewing on Reddit after the site announced that it would be charging new fees to developers who wanted to get access to its data. The company said that the change was required to offset the costs incurred by running the site. Third-party developers said that the site’s prices were too high, and many developers – including those behind the most popular apps, such as Apollo – said they would instead shut down. That prompted outcry from the moderators who run the site. In protest, thousands of the site’s forums, or subreddits, went “dark” earlier this month. Administrators turned the forums private so that users were unable to see them, in a protest that ran from 12 to 14 June. That protest led to no change from Reddit. Its chief executive, Steve Huffman, said instead that users would get over the changes and staff suggested those administrators could be removed from their posts. Since then, many of the site’s biggest forums have been discussing how to continue the protest, given that their demands had not been met. And many – including its “aww”, “pics” and “gifs” subreddits, which rank among the site’s most popular – have committed instead to post pictures of TV comedian John Oliver. Oliver appeared to enjoy the attention. On Twitter, he wrote “Dear Reddit, excellent work” and went on to share a large thread of pictures of himself, apparently to ensure that users had enough to post. Other subreddits have continued the protest in their own ways. The subreddit devoted to Apple has filled with posts of its chief executive Tim Cook, for instance. And two of the site’s top 10 most popular forums – those focused on science and music – are no longer dark, but new posts cannot be added. Read More Reddit says people will get over outrage and causes further outrage Reddit hit by outage as fight over its future escalates Reddit just went ‘dark’, and the site is in chaos

European Union and US antitrust regulators may have gone their separate ways of late. But they can still

The Biden administration is announcing an investment of $251 million in carbon capture and storage projects in seven states