Popular online services across the globe were disrupted Thursday due to ongoing issues at Google Cloud.

Tens of thousands of users of Spotify, Discord and other platforms began noticing issues with their services early in the afternoon, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages.

Spyware from a U.S.-backed Israeli company was used to target the phones of at least three prominent journalists in Europe, two of whom are editors at an investigative news site in Italy, according to digital researchers at Citizen Lab, citing new forensic evidence of the attacks.

The findings come amid a growing questions about what role the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni may have played in spying on journalists and civil society activists critical of her leadership, and raised new concerns about the potential for abuse of commercial spyware, even in democratic countries.

Meta has cut a 20-year deal to secure nuclear power to help meet surging demand for artificial intelligence and other computing needs at Facebook's parent company.

The investment with Meta will also expand the output of a Constellation Energy Illinois nuclear plant.

Artificial intelligence will encourage more people to create music in the future and is not a threat to the industry, the founder and CEO of streaming giant Spotify said.

Artists using machine-learning tools to produce music have given rise to concerns about whether AI-generated music -- even entirely fake artists -- could one day replace human artists.

Strauss' "Blue Danube" is heading into space this month to mark the 200th anniversary of the waltz king's birth.

The classical piece will be beamed into the cosmos as it's performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The celestial send-off on May 31 — livestreamed with free public screenings in Vienna, Madrid and New York — also will celebrate the European Space Agency's founding 50 years ago.

Amazon's first batch of internet satellites rocketed into orbit Monday, the latest entry in the mega constellation market currently dominated by SpaceX's thousands of Starlinks.

The United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket carried up 27 of Amazon's Project Kuiper satellites, named after the frigid fringes of our solar system beyond Neptune. Once released in orbit, the satellites will eventually reach an altitude of nearly 400 miles (630 kilometers).

Hackers linked to Russia's government launched a cyberattack last spring against municipal water plants in rural Texas. At one plant in Muleshoe, population 5,000, water began to overflow. Officials had to unplug the system and run the plant manually.

The hackers weren't trying to taint the water supply. They didn't ask for a ransom. Authorities determined the intrusion was designed to test the vulnerabilities of America's public infrastructure. It was also a warning: In the 21st century, it takes more than oceans and an army to keep the United States safe.

Japanese regulators on Tuesday accused U.S. tech giant Google of violating anti-monopoly laws, echoing similar moves in the U.S. and Europe.

Google Japan said in a statement that it found the action "regrettable." It said it has invested in Japan significantly to promote innovation as a technology leader.

Meta Platforms Inc. faces a historic antitrust trial beginning Monday that could force the tech giant to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, startups it bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social media powerhouses.

The looming antitrust trial will be the first big test of President Donald Trump's Federal Trade Commission's ability to challenge Big Tech. The lawsuit was filed against Meta — then called Facebook — in 2020, during Trump's first term. It claims the company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to squash competition and establish an illegal monopoly in the social media market.

Three genetically engineered wolves that may resemble extinct dire wolves are trotting, sleeping and howling in an undisclosed secure location in the U.S., according to the company that aims to bring back lost species.

The wolf pups, which range in age from three to six months old, have long white hair, muscular jaws and already weigh in at around 80 pounds — on track to reach 140 pounds at maturity, researchers at Colossal Biosciences reported Monday.