Meta Platform’s messaging unit WhatsApp will likely be subject to tough online content rules targeting illegal and harmful content after it met the user threshold under this regulation, a European Commission spokesperson said on Friday.

WhatsApp had about 51.7 million average monthly active users of its WhatsApp Channels in the European Union in the first six months of 2025, above the 45-million-user threshold set out in the Digital Services Act (DSA), Reuters reported.

The DSA requires such large platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content. Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Google’s YouTube, TikTok, Temu and Microsoft’s Linkedin are some of the companies labelled as very large online platforms under the DSA subject to this requirement.

“So the objective for the Commission here is to check what is actually private messaging which doesn’t fall under the scope of the DSA and what are open channels that act more as a social media platform, this falls under the scope of the DSA,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told a daily news briefing.

“So here we would indeed designate potentially WhatsApp for WhatsApp channels and I can confirm that the Commission is actively looking into it and I wouldn’t exclude a future designation,” he said.

WhatsApp was not immediately available to comment.

Companies risk fines of as much as 6% of their global annual revenue for DSA violations.

The offshore energy sector is gearing up for a massive year in 2026, with more than 385 oil and gas pipelines scheduled to commence operations worldwide, including 113 offshore projects, according to GlobalData. While some projects face delays due to political and economic shifts, the largest planned pipelines promise to reshape energy transport across multiple continents.

The longest offshore pipelines set to start in 2026 will mostly transport gas in shallow waters, though major projects will also carry oil in North America. South America, the Middle East, Australia, and Asia will host the five longest pipelines.

Highlights include:

• Vaca Muerta Sur – Argentina: 565km oil pipeline connecting Vaca Muerta oilfields to Punta Colorada export facility. Capacity: 550,000 barrels/day. Cost: $3bn+.

• North Field East – Qatar: 500km gas pipeline expanding LNG production by 50%, including carbon capture facilities. Partners: Shell, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Eni, TotalEnergies.

• Scarborough–Pluto – Australia: 433km LNG pipeline through deep and shallow waters, capacity: 708 million cubic feet/day. Total project cost: $12bn.

• Block B–O Mon – Vietnam: 433km gas pipeline feeding four gas-fired power plants. Capacity: 656 million cubic feet/day.

• Rosmari–Marjoram – Malaysia: 207km deep-water gas pipeline with 800 million cubic feet/day capacity. Operated by Sarawak Shell Berhad.

• Walker Ridge 52–Garden Banks 72 – US: 169km oil pipeline in Gulf of Mexico.

• Darwin Pipeline Duplication – Australia: 123km gas pipeline extending the Bayu Undan export system.

• Texas Gulflink – US: 92km oil pipeline with capacity of 1–2 million barrels/day.

• Aasta Hansteen–Irpa – Norway: 80km gas pipeline operating in extreme deepwater conditions.

• Bintulu–Samalaju – Malaysia: 70km gas pipeline supplying a new 842MW power plant and industrial park.

2026 will see a significant increase in operational offshore pipelines compared to 2025, marking a pivotal year for global energy transport.

Russia plans to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space programme and a joint Russian-Chinese research station, as major powers rush to explore the earth’s only natural satellite.

Ever since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space in 1961, Russia has prided itself as a leading power in space exploration, but in recent decades it has fallen behind the United States and, increasingly, China, Reuters reported.

Russia’s ambitions suffered a massive blow in August 2023 when its unmanned Luna-25 mission smashed into the surface of the moon while attempting to land, and Elon Musk has revolutionised the launch of space vehicles – once a Russian speciality.

IS THAT A NUCLEAR REACTOR ON THE MOON?

Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, said in a statement that it planned to build a lunar power plant by 2036 and signed a contract with the Lavochkin Association aerospace company to do it.

Roscosmos did not say explicitly that the plant would be nuclear but it said the participants included Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia’s leading nuclear research institute.

Roscosmos said the purpose of the plant was to power Russia’s lunar programme, including rovers, an observatory and the infrastructure of the joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research Station.

“The project is an important step towards the creation of a permanently functioning scientific lunar station and the transition from one-time missions to a long-term lunar exploration programme,” Roscosmos said.

The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, said in June that one of the corporation’s aims was to put a nuclear power plant on the moon and to explore Venus, known as earth’s “sister” planet.

The moon, which is 384,400 km (238,855 miles) from our planet, moderates the earth’s wobble on its axis, which ensures a more stable climate. It also causes tides in the world’s oceans.

U.S. ALSO PLANS A REACTOR ON THE MOON

Russia is not the only one with such plans. NASA in August declared its intent to put a nuclear reactor on the moon by the first quarter of fiscal year 2030.

“We’re in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon. And to have a base on the moon, we need energy,” U.S. Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said in August, when asked about the plans.

He added that the United States was currently behind in the race to the moon. He said energy was essential to allow life to be sustained on the moon and thence for humans to get to Mars.

International rules ban putting nuclear weapons in space but there are no bans on putting nuclear energy sources into space – as long as they comply with certain rules.

Some space analysts have predicted a lunar gold rush: NASA says there are estimates of a million tonnes of Helium-3, an isotope of helium that is rare on earth, on the moon.

Rare earth metals – used in smartphones, computers and advanced technologies – are also present on the moon, including scandium, yttrium and the 15 lanthanides, according to research by Boeing.