Elon Musk has posted a series of explicit tweets about Mark Zuckerberg, including This week, Mr Musk tweeted that “Zuck is a cuck”, and followed it up with a post in which he proposed a “literal dick measuring contest”, alongside a ruler emoji. On Monday, he then responded to a post in which another user speculated that Mr Musk would lose such a contest. “This would so inappropriate & lacking in dignity … let’s do it!!!” Mr Musk wrote in a reply. It is just the latest in Mr Musk’s often intense responses to the launch of Threads, a Twitter competitor launched by Mr Zuckerberg’s company, Meta. He has also threatened to sue Meta over the similarities with his app, suggested that it is falsely joyful, and boosted posts that suggested the launch of Threads had actually helped the launch of Twitter. Mr Musk has also attempted to suggest that Twitter is both free of censorship and the pressure to be happy. “You are free to be your true self here,” he wrote in his most recent post on the topic. He has also promoted a post from Twitter’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, in which she suggested that Threads’ success had actually helped Twitter’s growth. “Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread… but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves!” she wrote. “Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.” It is not clear how much the launch of Threads has boosted or hurt Twitter’s usage. But external estimates suggest that the site’s usage is “tanking”, according to experts. Meta’s Threads surged past 100 million signups in its first five days, according to Mark Zuckerberg. In doing so, it became the fastest online platform to hit the milestone, overtaking ChatGPT. The app has been setting new records for user additions since its launch on Wednesday, with celebrities from Jennifer Lopez to Kim Kardashian joining the platform seen as the first serious threat to the Elon Musk-owned microblogging app. Twitter has responded by threatening to sue Meta over the app, alleging that the social media behemoth used its trade secrets and other confidential information. That claim, legal experts say, could be hard to prove. Threads shares some resemblance to Twitter, as do the numerous other social media sites that have cropped up in recent months. It allows posts that are up to 500 characters long and include links, photos and videos of up to 5 minutes. The app’s sprint to 100 million users was much faster than the two months OpenAI-owned ChatGPT took in January, which had made it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study. Still, Threads has some catching up to do. Twitter had nearly 240 million monetizable daily active users, according to a company statement in July last year. Additional reporting by Reuters Read More Twitter gets strange endorsement from Taliban over rival Threads Tucker Carlson’s Twitter show is haemorrhaging viewers, reports says Twitter traffic ‘tanking’ after record-breaking Threads launch SpaceX smashes reusable rocket record as Elon Musk makes bold Starship claim Twitter restores TweetDeck’s old, ‘better’ version – but for how long? Account tracking Elon Musk’s jet is now on Threads after Twitter suspended it

Bad news for banana lovers – scientists have warned that the fruit could face extinction, after a fungal disease outbreak. Crops of the Cavendish banana have been hit by an infection called Panama disease, with those in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and central America particularly badly affected. The disease, which is also known as banana wilt, starts in the roots of the banana tree and then spreads through its vascular system. Ultimately, it stops the plant from absorbing water or carrying out photosynthesis, eventually killing the tree. For Cavendish banana growers, it could spell disaster. While there are more than 1,000 varieties of bananas, about 47 per cent that humans eat are Cavendish. Cavendish has historically dominated the global banana market since the 1950s, partly because of its resistance to the main banana-killing diseases. It also has a long shelf life, making it more attractive for international import and export, and the plant also produces more bananas than other varieties on the same amount of land. Part of the reason scientists think it could be endangered is because of what happened to another popular banana variety called the Gros Michel. Gros Michel was the main export banana in the early 20th century, but was practically wiped out by a predecessor disease to the one hitting Cavendishes now. The first infections of Gros Michel farms began in the late 19th century and took several decades to affect production to the point where growers were looking for a new variety to sell. Cavendish, meanwhile, was first hit by the current strain of Panama disease in 1997, and it has now spread across several continents. However, scientists are working on a genetically modified version of the banana to fight to infection. James Dale, a professor and leader of the banana biotechnology program at Queensland University of Technology, is working on the project. He told Insider: “The disease moves slowly, so we have at least a decade before the impact is drastic.” “I would say with certainty that there will be a solution before the export market for Cavendish is severely affected.” Let’s hope he’s right. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A new study has revealed that black holes could be lurking much closer to Earth than anticipated. A black hole in space is when "gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out," NASA explains. "The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying." Due to no light being present, they are invisible. Only special tools can pick up on them. There are said to be around 10 million to 1 billion mass black holes in the Milky Way, according to Science Alert. However, astrologers only know of about 20 of them. Now, a recent study has revealed that they could be a lot closer to Earth than previously thought after investigating the Hyades cluster, "a group of stars located 150 light-years away". In a statement, astrophysicist Stefano Torniamenti of the University of Padua explained: "Our simulations can only simultaneously match the mass and size of the Hyades if some black holes are present at the centre of the cluster today (or until recently). The Hyades with hundreds of stars is said to be approximately 625 million years old. Due to its packed environment, "higher rates of collisions and mergers" are expected. At 153 light-years away, it is considered the closest star cluster to Earth. Researchers were able to observe two or three black holes in the Hyades, which are either still present or ejected less than 150 million years ago and hovering around the outskirts. "This observation helps us understand how the presence of black holes affects the evolution of star clusters and how star clusters in turn contribute to gravitational wave sources," Professor Mark Gieles of the University of Barcelona said. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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