datacentres

Russia has launched attacks on Ukrainian internet service providers and datacentres, striking at the infrastructure that underpins Ukraine's digital economy. The strikes threaten connectivity for businesses, government services and ordinary users, adding a technological dimension to the conflict. The targeting of critical digital infrastructure highlights the growing importance of cyber and physical attacks on communications networks in the war.

The rapid expansion of data centres in Alberta, Canada, driven by demand for AI computing, is running into hard realities around water use, energy supply and local politics. The discussion highlights tensions between economic development, natural gas power reliance, rural concerns and climate impacts as utilities and governments weigh the costs of the tech rush.

A large hyperscale AI datacentre is being built in a small Indian village, and residents say they were promised benefits that never arrived while their land was confiscated for the project. The report highlights growing tensions between India's push to attract AI infrastructure investment and the villagers displaced by it.

Plans for one of Europe's largest AI datacentre campuses in north Devon, within a Unesco-designated biosphere reserve, have sparked fierce local opposition. Residents are campaigning against the development, citing its scale and the threat to the protected landscape, with organisers saying people are standing up and fighting back against the project.

Critics are accusing the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board of risking the retirement savings of 22 million Canadians by backing gas power plants meant to serve AI data centres. The argument is that the pension fund should act in contributors' best interest, not gamble on fossil fuel infrastructure whose value could erode as clean energy advances and AI demand shifts.