On 9th July, 2025, Earth completed its shortest day since official records began, spinning approximately 1.3 milliseconds faster than the standard 24-hour rotation. While the change went unnoticed in our daily routines, it triggered global attention among scientists and timekeeping institutions that monitor the planet’s rotation with extreme precision.

Experts believe the Moon played a key role in this rare event. When the Moon is positioned farther from Earth’s equator, it can weaken tidal forces that normally act as a brake on Earth’s spin. Other factors such as movement within the Earth’s molten core, changes in ocean currents, and even shifting weather systems could also have contributed to the faster rotation.

Although the difference was just over a millisecond, such variations carry weight in the world of high-precision technology. Systems like GPS, satellite navigation, and financial trading rely on atomic clocks and exact synchronization with Earth’s rotation. A deviation this small can still affect calculations and require adjustments to maintain global accuracy.

This shortened day is not expected to be an isolated case. Scientists have identified similar anomalies expected later this summer, with projections showing that both 22nd July and 5th August may also be milliseconds shorter than usual. If this pattern continues over the next few years, 2029 could see the introduction of the first-ever negative leap second, where a second is subtracted from coordinated universal time.

While most of us will never feel the effect of a day shortened by fractions of a second, the science behind it is a powerful reminder of Earth’s dynamic nature. Our planet is constantly shifting, rotating, and responding to both internal and external forces, sometimes in ways that subtly but significantly reshape how we measure time itself.

Social media and video networks have become the main source of news in the US, overtaking traditional TV channels and news websites, research suggests.

More than half (54%) of people get news from networks like Facebook, X and YouTube – overtaking TV (50%) and news sites and apps (48%), according to the Reuters Institute.

“The rise of social media and personality-based news is not unique to the United States, but changes seem to be happening faster – and with more impact – than in other countries,” a report found.

Podcaster Joe Rogan was the most widely seen personality, with almost a quarter (22%) of the population saying they had come across news or commentary from him in the previous week.

The report’s author, Nic Newman, said the rise of social video and personality-driven news “represents another significant challenge for traditional publishers”.

The institute also highlighted a trend for some politicians to give their time to sympathetic online hosts rather than mainstream interviewers.

It said populist politicians around the world are “increasingly able to bypass traditional journalism in favour of friendly partisan media, ‘personalities’, and ‘influencers’ who often get special access but rarely ask difficult questions, with many implicated in spreading false narratives or worse”.

Despite their popularity, online influencers and personalities were named as a major source of false or misleading information by almost half of the people worldwide (47%) – putting them level with politicians.

The report also stated that usage of X for news is “stable or increasing across many markets”, with the biggest uplift in the US.

It added that since Elon Musk took over the network in 2022, “many more right-leaning people, notably young men, have flocked to the network, while some progressive audiences have left or are using it less frequently”.

In the US, the proportion that self-identified as being on the right tripled after Musk’s takeover.

In the UK, right-wing X audiences have almost doubled.

Rival networks like Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon are “making little impact globally, with reach of 2% or less for news”, it stated.

Other key findings about news sources:

• TikTok is the fastest-growing social and video network, used for news by 17% of people around the world, up four percentage points since last year.
• The use of AI chatbots to get the news is on the rise, and is twice as popular among under-25s than the population as a whole.
• But most people think AI will make news less transparent, accurate and trustworthy.
• All generations still prize trusted brands with a track record for accuracy, even if they don’t use them as often as they once did

The report is in its 14th year and surveyed almost 100,000 people in 48 countries.

myjoyonline.com

AI tools developed by Elon Musk’s xAI are to be incorporated into the messaging service, Telegram.

Announcing the deal, Telegram boss Pavel Durov said it would see his firm distribute the AI assistant, Grok, to Telegram’s “billion+ users and integrate it into its apps”.

Mr Durov said the arrangement, which is due to last a year, would see his company receive $300m (£223m) in cash and equity from xAI, plus 50% of revenue from xAI subscriptions sold via Telegram.

“Together, we win!”, he posted on social media.

It follows Meta’s incorporating an AI service into its messaging service, WhatsApp – a development it was forced to defend after grumbling from users.

Media analyst Hanna Kahlert at Midia Research told BBC News the move followed the pattern of “social and AI trying to absorb each other”.

She said it was not, however, necessarily what customers actually wanted.

“Users primarily still use social platforms to talk to their friends, and see their friends’ updates,” she added.

“Adding AI into direct messaging inherently supplants that – it reduces trust between users and distracts from the current USP.”
‘Dark web in your pocket’

This tie-up brings together two of the most colourful and sometimes controversial figures in tech.

Mr Durov was arrested in France in August 2024, after being accused of failing to properly moderate his app to reduce criminality.

Critics had branded the platform the “dark web in your pocket” because of what they said was the amount of criminal activity being discussed on the platform.

However, Mr Durov has denied failing to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual abuse content, and fraud.

The platform has also rejected accusations that its moderation policies are not sufficiently robust.

Mr Musk has an incredibly broad range of tech interests, ranging from brain implant start-up Neuralink to his rocket manufacturing firm, SpaceX.

He also has a prominent role in the administration of US President Donald Trump, and campaigned heavily to get him elected – something that analysts say is contributing to slumping sales at his best known firm, electric car maker Tesla.

The world’s richest man has also invested heavily in AI.

He was a co-founder of the world’s best-known AI firm, OpenAI, the company which makes ChatGPT.

He subsequently left and became involved in a long-running row with OpenAI’s boss, Sam Altman, over its future direction.

Earlier this year, Mr Musk spearheaded a failed attempt to buy it.

He has also been seeking to develop xAI as a rival to OpenAI and other industry leaders.

In March, he announced it had purchased X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in a deal that valued xAI at $80bn (£61.8bn).

Source: BBC.com