The Amazon-backed OpenAI rival was valued at $18 billion last year.

No more fact-checkers Meta axes third-party fact-checkers in time for second Trump term Zuckerberg says Meta will "work with President Trump" to fight censorship. Jon Brodkin Jan 7, 2025 12:46 pm | 76 Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California on September 25, 2024. Credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California on September 25, 2024. Credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreMeta announced today that it's ending the third-party fact-checking program it introduced in 2016, and will rely instead on a Community Notes approach similar to what's used on Elon Musk's X platform.The end of third-party fact-checking and related changes to Meta policies could help the company make friends in the Trump administration and in governments of conservative-leaning states that have tried to impose legal limits on content moderation. The operator of Facebook and Instagram announced the changes in a blog post and a video message recorded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg."Governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more. A lot of this is clearly political," Zuckerberg said. He said the recent elections "feel like a cultural tipping point toward once again prioritizing speech.""We're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes, similar to X, starting in the US," Zuckerberg said. "After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy. We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US."Meta says the soon-to-be-discontinued fact-checking program includes over 90 third-party organizations that evaluate posts in over 60 languages. The US-based fact-checkers are AFP USA, Check Your Fact, Factcheck.org, Lead Stories, PolitiFact, Science Feedback, Reuters Fact Check, TelevisaUnivision, The Dispatch, and USA Today.The independent fact-checkers rate the accuracy of posts and apply ratings such as False, Altered, Partly False, Missing Context, Satire, and True. Meta adds notices to posts rated as false or misleading and notifies users before they try to share the content or if they shared it in the past.Meta: Experts have their own biasesIn the blog post that accompanied Zuckerberg's video message, Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said the 2016 decision to use independent fact-checkers seemed like "the best and most reasonable choice at the time... The intention of the program was to have these independent experts give people more information about the things they see online, particularly viral hoaxes, so they were able to judge for themselves what they saw and read."But experts "have their own biases and perspectives," and the program imposed "intrusive labels and reduced distribution" of content "that people would understand to be legitimate political speech and debate," Kaplan wrote.The X-style Community Notes system lets the community "decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see... Just like they do on X, Community Notes [on Meta sites] will require agreement between people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings," Kaplan wrote.The end of third-party fact-checking will be implemented in the US before other countries. Meta will also move its internal trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, Zuckerberg said. "Our US-based content review is going to be based in Texas. As we work to promote free expression, I think it will help us build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about the bias of our teams," he said. Meta will continue to take "legitimately bad stuff" like drugs, terrorism, and child exploitation "very seriously," Zuckerberg said.Zuckerberg pledges to work with TrumpMeta will "phase in a more comprehensive community notes system" over the next couple of months, Zuckerberg said. Meta, which donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, will also "work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more," Zuckerberg said.Zuckerberg said that "Europe has an ever-increasing number of laws institutionalizing censorship," that "Latin American countries have secret courts that can quietly order companies to take things down," and that "China has censored apps from even working in the country." Meta needs "the support of the US government" to push back against other countries' content-restriction orders, he said."That's why it's been so difficult over the past four years when even the US government has pushed for censorship," Zuckerberg said, referring to the Biden administration. "By going after US and other American companies, it has emboldened other governments to go even further. But now we have the opportunity to restore free expression, and I am excited to take it."Brendan Carr, Trump's pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, praised Meta's policy changes. Carr has promised to shift the FCC's focus from regulating telecom companies to cracking down on Big Tech and media companies that he alleges are part of a "censorship cartel.""President Trump's resolute and strong support for the free speech rights of everyday Americans is already paying dividends," Carr wrote on X today. "Facebook's announcements is [sic] a good step in the right direction. I look forward to monitoring these developments and their implementation. The work continues until the censorship cartel is completely dismantled and destroyed."Group: Meta is saying the truth doesnt matterMeta's changes were criticized by Public Citizen, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader. "Asking users to fact-check themselves is tantamount to Meta saying the truth doesn't matter," Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said. "Misinformation will flow more freely with this policy change, as we cannot assume that corrections will be made when false information proliferates. The American people deserve accurate information about our elections, health risks, the environment, and much more."Media advocacy group Free Press said that "Zuckerberg is one of many billionaires who are cozying up to dangerous demagogues like Trump and pushing initiatives that favor their bottom lines at the expense of everything and everyone else." Meta appears to be abandoning its "responsibility to protect its many users, and align[ing] the company more closely with an incoming president who's a known enemy of accountability," Free Press Senior Counsel Nora Benavidez said.X's Community Notes system was criticized in a recent report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which said it "found that 74 percent of accurate community notes on US election misinformation never get shown to users." (X previously sued the CCDH, but the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge.)Previewing other changes, Zuckerberg said that Meta will eliminate content restrictions "that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse" and change how it enforces policies "to reduce the mistakes that account for the vast majority of censorship on our platforms.""We used to have filters that scanned for any policy violation. Now, we're going to focus those filters on tackling illegal and high-severity violations, and for lower severity violations, we're going to rely on someone reporting an issue before we take action," he said. "The problem is the filters make mistakes, and they take down a lot of content that they shouldn't. So by dialing them back, we're going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms."Meta to relax filters, recommend more political contentZuckerberg said Meta will re-tune content filters "to require much higher confidence before taking down content." He said this means Meta will "catch less bad stuff" but will "also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down."Meta has "built a lot of complex systems to moderate content," he noted. Even if these systems "accidentally censor just 1 percent of posts, that's millions of people, and we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship," he said.Kaplan wrote that Meta has censored too much harmless content and that "too many people find themselves wrongly locked up in 'Facebook jail.'""In recent years we've developed increasingly complex systems to manage content across our platforms, partly in response to societal and political pressure to moderate content," Kaplan wrote. "This approach has gone too far. As well-intentioned as many of these efforts have been, they have expanded over time to the point where we are making too many mistakes, frustrating our users and too often getting in the way of the free expression we set out to enable."Another upcoming change is that Meta will recommend more political posts. "For a while, the community asked to see less politics because it was making people stressed, so we stopped recommending these posts," Zuckerberg said. "But it feels like we're in a new era now, and we're starting to get feedback that people want to see this content again, so we're going to start phasing this back into Facebook, Instagram, and Threads while working to keep the communities friendly and positive."Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 76 Comments

Break out the mousepads Switch 2 leaks point to controllers that work like computer mice Circumstantial rumors suggest a new hybrid hardware gimmick might be in the works. Kyle Orland Jan 7, 2025 11:59 am | 17 A Reddit user demonstrates how the Switch 2's mouse functionality might look (using an original Switch Joy-Con) Credit: Reddit / RNOWRONG A Reddit user demonstrates how the Switch 2's mouse functionality might look (using an original Switch Joy-Con) Credit: Reddit / RNOWRONG Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreHere at Ars, we're judicious about which of the many, many Switch 2 rumors we decide to highlight on this page. For every report on hardware power or magnetic Joy-Cons that we share, there are probably five others we see and decide are too lightly sourced, too unlikely, or just too plain obscure to spread here.But when we started hearing reports that the Switch 2's Joy-Cons could be cradled on their sides and manipulated like a full-fledged gaming mouse, we knew the concept was one you'd want to hear about.The rumors of mouse-like functionality on the Switch 2's included controllers got supercharged over the weekend when a Reddit poster shared detailed photos of purported Switch 2 Joy-Cons, sourced from an unnamed Chinese social media user. In between the longer shoulder buttons along the Joy-Con's inner edge (SL and SR) and a new central connector port, eagle-eyed viewers noticed what looks suspiciously like the optical sensor that sits on the bottom of practically every mouse these days.That could suggest a mode where you stand the controller up vertically against a hard surface and slide it around like a mouse. The layout would even allow a user to put a thumb on the face buttons and an index finger on the shoulder buttons for various "click" functions.Reddit users quickly started experimenting to see if cradling a Joy-Con like an (extremely thin) mouse would even work. Some even started referring back to leaked Switch 2 component shipping data that referred to a mysterious "mouse sole," whatever that means.The new hybrid?The appearance of that optical sensor in leaked photos aligns somewhat with a (seemingly reliable) December leak suggesting that the new Joy-Cons would have new functionality related to "lasers." In response to a comment, the leaker guessed that this "laser" functionality might be similar to that on the Lenovo Legion Go, which features a circular controller stand that can be used in conjunction with detachable controllers for a mouse-like "FPS mode."At this point, it's still an awful lot of speculation based on circumstantial evidence. Still, after the portable/TV hybrid concept of the original Switch, a controller/mouse hybrid setup for the Switch 2 would serve as an interesting hardware gimmick from a company that's known for them. One thing's for sure: A mouse-like Joy-Con would certainly be an interesting twist in the never-ending battle between mouse and controller players in modern shooters.With an official announcement for the Switch 2 already promised before the end of March, we won't have to wait too much longer to find out if these latest rumors pan out.Kyle OrlandSenior Gaming EditorKyle OrlandSenior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. 17 Comments

Time to check the ol' phone drawer Google Pixel 4a gets an unexpected update: Lower battery life It's intentional, and eligible users can get cash or free battery replacements. Kevin Purdy Jan 7, 2025 11:41 am | 27 Credit: Ron Amadeo Credit: Ron Amadeo Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe Pixel 4a, a well-regarded release in Google's line of budget-minded phones with nice cameras and decent stock software, was not supposed to get any more updates. This week, it will receive a rather uncommon oneone that intends to lower its reported battery life.The Pixel 4a, released in the summer of 2020, was discontinued at the end of 2022. It received its last official software update in the summer of 2023, followed by a surprise security update in November 2023. Throughout 2024, there were no updates. This week, owners of the 4a (and likely many former owners) are getting a new update, along with an email titled "Changes coming to your Pixel 4a."The email addresses "an upcoming software update for your Pixel 4a that will affect the overall performance and stability of its battery." The automatic software update to Android 13 "introduces new battery management features to improve the stability of your device," which will "reduce your battery's runtime and charging performance."Google goes into more detail on a support page about the "Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program," noting that only some "Impacted Devices" will see the reduced capacity and charging performance. Those with such devices (determined by a survey) have three options beyond just taking the hit: sending their phone in for a free battery replacement, receiving $50 (or the non-US equivalent) payment, or getting $100 toward a new Pixel phone from the Google Store. Those with impacted phones have one year from the scheduled software update on January 8, 2025, to choose an "appeasement option."Google has skipped the details on why "available battery capacity and charging performance" are taking a hit and what makes a device "Impacted," stating only that the company has "determined that certain Pixel 4a phones" need to "improve the stability of their battery's performance." But there are some educated guesses to be made. Given that the batteries in most Pixel 4a phones are somewhere between two to five years old and some of them were likely kept in capacity-diminishing low states of charge, many are in rough shape.Being in such rough shape, they may not provide all the power demanded by the phone, especially in notably cold or hot conditions. By constraining the battery levels at which the phone can operate, Google can prevent phones from dealing with inconsistent power that can result in unexpected behavior or shutdowns. It's akin to what happened with older iPhones being slowed down in late 2017, except Google is coming out in front of its software fix and compensating users for the change rather than waiting for it to play out in the courts.Ars has contacted Google for comment and will update this post if we receive a response.Kevin PurdySenior Technology ReporterKevin PurdySenior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 27 Comments

Shane Snider, Senior Writer, InformationWeekJanuary 7, 20252 Min ReadBorka Kiss via Alamy Stock The United Kingdoms antitrust watchdog on Tuesday said it would launch investigations into three areas of digital activity as the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act comes into full force -- giving regulatory power over major players like Apple and Google.While the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) did not specify which companies would be investigated, under its strict strategic market status (SMS) designation, only the largest tech firms would be considered.The announcement says two investigations would begin immediately and a third would begin in about six months. Once a company receives SMS designation, the CMA would have the authority to curtail practices like using access to customer data to gain unfair advantage, make it easier for consumers to switch providers, and more.A CMA report released in November called out Apple and Googles dominant market positions in mobile as potential investigation targets, saying a revenue-sharing agreement between the two companies stifled competition.We are committed to implementing the regime in a way that is predictable and proportionate, moving at pace whilst respecting fair process, CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said in a statement. The process for designing any interventions will also be participative and transparent, with the aim of keeping innovation-led markets open and bringing firms on the journey with us.Related:The investigations will be complete within the statutory limit of nine months, the CMA said. Significant fines -- up to 10% of the companys global turnover -- could be levied if the CMA finds a breach in consumer protection law.US tech firms are facing increasing scrutiny from regulators abroad. The EUs Digital Markets Act is also taking aim at antitrust concerns, with probes targeting Apple, Google, and Amazon in March. Possible fines could also reach 10% of those companies global turnover, potentially costing the companies billions of dollars.CMAs Impact on M&A, and US Firm FocusIn a blog post, lawyers with Morgan Lewis said the UKs new rules could have a profound impact on potential mergers and acquisitions for the worlds leading tech companies.The UK CMA has gained a reputation in recent years as an aggressive and impactful antitrust enforcer, lawyers Joshua Goodman, Omar Shah, R. Ryan Hoak, and Jack Ashfield wrote. The UK DMCC only bolsters its powers and as such it is more relevant that ever to consider the role of and approach to the UK SMA as part of the global merger review process.Related:Critics of newly granted antitrust regulation powers like DMCC say the rules discriminate against US firms and jeopardize investment and cooperation between countries. Given that the United Kingdoms digital sector accounted for nearly 1.9 million jobs in 2022 and contributed over [$174 billion] to the UK economy in 2020, the UK government should tread carefully, writes Meredith Broadbent, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, in a post.InformationWeek has reached out to Google and Apple for comment and will update with any response.Read more about:RegulationAntitrustAbout the AuthorShane SniderSenior Writer, InformationWeekShane Snider is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of industry experience. He started his career as a general assignment reporter and has covered government, business, education, technology and much more. He was a reporter for the Triangle Business Journal, Raleigh News and Observer and most recently a tech reporter for CRN. He was also a top wedding photographer for many years, traveling across the country and around the world. He lives in Raleigh with his wife and two children.See more from Shane SniderNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is taking inspiration from X owner Elon MuskAlessandro Gandolfi/Panos PicturesHas the battle for content moderation, long one of the thorniest problems facing social media companies and other online platforms, finally been lost? A new move by Meta suggests so.Were going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms, said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a video statement published to his Facebook page. This means, he explained, getting rid of fact-checkers and replacing them with community notes, similar to

MindWe have long suspected that music has restorative qualities, but Daniel Levitin is now providing rigorous evidence that it can help treat many conditions, including depression, speech loss and Alzheimer's 7 January 2025 Neuroscientist David Levitin explores how music can help heal us in his new bookNatalie FossMost of us already know that music can have a profound effect on mind and body. Consider the feeling of empowerment when you slip on some headphones and go for a run, the rush of nostalgia you get from hearing your favourite song from your childhood or the joy of singalongs in the car music moves us, literally and figuratively. It can make us happy when we are sad, sad when we are happy, as well as make us dance, laugh and relax.But what if it could do more than that what if music had the power to actually heal us? In his new book I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as medicine, neuroscientist Daniel Levitin explains why he believes it can.Read more: Why music therapy is making a comebackThe idea that music is medicine isnt new there is evidence that shamans and healers in cultures across the world have used music, especially drumming, to treat people for thousands of years.Only in recent decades, however, has science offered a rational basis for music as a mechanism for healing, demonstrating that it has a direct and measurable impact on our nervous system.Advances in neuroimaging coupled with more rigorous experimentation drawing on music theory, cognitive psychology and physiology suggest that music can be useful in aiding everything from Parkinsons disease to Alzheimers and depression.Levitin spoke to New Scientist about these health benefits, and how music might be added to our medical toolkit.Linda Rodriguez-McRobbie: It seems intuitive that

A redox flow battery at a power plant in Japan. A new process could replace rare metals in these batteries with an industrial byproductAlessandro Gandolfi/Panos PicturesAn industrial waste product has been converted into a component for batteries that can stably store large amounts of charge. Such batteries could perform a vital function for power grids by smoothing out the peaks and troughs of renewable energy.Redox flow batteries (RFBs) store energy as two liquids called an anolyte and a catholyte in a pair of tanks. When these fluids are pumped into a central chamber, separated by a thin membrane, they chemically react and produce electrons to generate energy. The process can be reversed to recharge the battery by placing a current across the membrane. AdvertisementSuch batteries are cheap, but they have downsides. They are bulky, often as big as a shipping container, and require constant maintenance because of the moving parts involved in pumping the liquid. They also rely on metals like lithium and cobalt, which are in short supply.Now, Emily Mahoney at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and her colleagues have discovered a simple process that can turn a previously useless industrial waste product into a useful anolyte, which could potentially replace these rare metals.Their process takes triphenylphosphine oxide, created in the manufacture of products including vitamin tablets, and converts it into cyclic triphenylphosphine oxide, which has a high potential for storing negative charge. When used as an anolyte, it shows no reduction in effectiveness even after 350 charging and draining cycles. The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day.Sign up to newsletterHaving an anolyte with a highly negative potential increases the overall cell potential and therefore the efficacy of the battery, says Mahoney. However, often the increase in potential is coupled with stability issues, so having a compound that can be both stable and highly negative is exciting.Mahoney says RFBs are designed to be safe and have large capacities, so they could be used to store energy from wind and solar generation, but they are unlikely to replace lithium-ion batteries in cars or smartphones because of their bulk.Journal reference:Journal of the American Chemical Society DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c07750.s001Topics:batteries

The Netflix docuseries "Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action" premiered on Tuesday.It explores the controversial rise of Springer's daytime talk show, which gained fame for its brawls.Former producers describe manipulative tactics they used to get guests riled up and ready to fight.The unruly guests on "The Jerry Springer Show" were not professional actors but their infamous brawls were encouraged and teased out behind the scenes, producers say.Netflix's new two-part documentary, "Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action," unpacks the show's outrageous premise and its rise to the top of daytime TV ratings in the late '90s. It features several interviews with former producers, who describe the tactics they used to recruit real people with real problems and coax them into having emotional meltdowns on air."Just like any other manipulative situation, you need to instinctually pull out of them those points of tension that create a soap opera," Melinda Chait Mele, a producer who'd been hired from the tabloid world, says in the doc."A lot of the guests were earnest. They literally did think they were coming on to solve a problem. You wouldn't believe how many people said to me on the telephone, 'I can't wait to meet Jerry. I really hope he can help me with this,'" Mele tells the camera. "Jerry didn't help anybody with any of it. He just stood there and did his thing." Guests fighting on "The Jerry Springer Show." Virginia Sherwood/NBCUniversal via Getty Images As the show was gaining popularity and producers were under more pressure to orchestrate shock and awe, Mele hired Toby Yoshimura, a former bartender with no talk show experience. He proved exceptionally skilled at convincing people to publicly air their grievances."These are small-town folk, right? And you're really trying to sell it to them, like, 'You've got this great story. We want to give people an opportunity to see that,'" Yoshimura explains. "In order for them to deliver, they have to like you. So you treat them like they're kings."Yoshimura says producers would send limousines to ferry guests to and from the airport. A "Jerry Springer" guest identified as Melanie says they were also supplied with plenty of alcohol."They did everything in their power to get us as crazy as possible," Melanie says. "They were like, 'Go hog wild! Have fun!' And so we got wasted." By the time she arrived on set the following morning, Melanie says she was hungover, sleep-deprived, and "ready to fuck it up." Meanwhile, producers were with her backstage, coaching her on "what to say and how to act."Yoshimura describes the environment as a "pressure cooker" and admits that some stories went too far. (Some of the show's most controversial episodes include "I'm Pregnant By My Brother" and "I Married a Horse.")"You had to reach into their brain and tap on the thing that would make them laugh, cry, scream, or fight. You rev 'em up to tornado level, and then you send 'em out onstage," Yoshimura says, adding later, "This was basically the Stanford Prison Experiment, in that you were playing with people's psyches until you get a result."This methodology was designed to generate higher ratings, which spiked after an episode that saw a member of the Jewish Defense League start a fistfight with members of the Ku Klux Klan."It was brilliant. And it rated through the roof," says Richard Dominick, the executive producer for "Jerry Springer" who's widely credited as the show's mastermind. "If you're producing a show that you want to be insane, and unlike anything that's ever been on TV before, there's your goal. That's what you want."From that point onward, producers were instructed to pursue on-camera confrontations and for a while, Dominick's method got results. In 1998, Springer even beat out Oprah Winfrey in the ratings for the most-watched daytime talk show, a feat that producers previously thought was impossible."There was no question: Jerry and Richard were on top of the world. I mean, the riches that it gave them, and the fame, were very compelling," says Robert Feder, a longtime media critic who worked for the Chicago Sun-Times during the "Jerry Springer" era."But what did they have to do in order to achieve it?" Feder continues. "The degree to which Jerry sold himself out, and the degree to which he was complicit with Richard in exploiting the people who came on the show, is something that had serious consequences.""The Jerry Springer Show" ran for 27 seasons before it was canceled in 2018; Springer died of pancreatic cancer in 2023. In the final years of his life, Springer disavowed his own show and publicly apologized for the role he played, declaring, "What have I done? I've ruined the culture.""I look at some of the stuff that's being done now, and I go, 'We're kind of responsible for this crap,'" Dominick says in the doc, which pairs the quote with clips from "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," and "The Apprentice." He adds: "Maybe I am gonna go to hell."However, Yoshimura suggests the show's success reflects just as negatively on viewers including any viewers of the Netflix doc today as it does on hosts, creators, and producers."Look at the history of the show. A guy punches a girl in the face, it gets huge ratings. We put a girl without clothes on the show, everybody loses their mind," he explains. "All you guys wanna talk about is all that shit.""But, you know, we're the problem," he adds. "If none of that happened, there's no documentary on Netflix. Full stop."

A Russian attack submarine that was stationed in Syria has officially left the Mediterranean Sea.The departure of the Kilo-class Novorossiysk leaves Russia without any known submarines in the region.The uncertain fate of Russia's naval presence in Syria amid other setbacks could spell trouble for its submarine force.Strategic Russian naval bases have been upended by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, creating headaches for the Kremlin's navy, including its submarine force.Moscow no longer appears to have any attack submarines in the Mediterranean Sea after NATO forces spotted its last known submarine leaving the region last week.Portugal's military said that it observed a Russian Kilo-class submarine moving through the country's continental exclusive economic zone near northern Spain on Friday. NATO Maritime Command later identified the vessel as the Novorossiysk.The Novorossiysk was spotted several weeks earlier at Tartus, a naval base in Syria that Russia had used for years. The future of Moscow's military footprint at the facility and in the country in general was, however, thrown into uncertainty after the shocking collapse of the Assad regime last month.There are indications that Russia is drawing down forces at its bases in Syria. Losing Tartus for good would be a significant blow to Moscow's navy including its capable submarine force which relies on the warm-water port to project power across the region and beyond.Early December satellite imagery showed the Novorossiysk docked in Tartus, but by the middle of the month, it was gone, along with the rest of the Russian warships that had been there. Some of the Russian naval vessels have been spotted in recent weeks loitering off the Syrian coast, but the whereabouts of this submarine were less certain. Russian crew members board the Novorossiysk in Saint Petersburg in August 2014. OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP via Getty Images Should Syria's new leadership decide Russia can no longer station its forces at Tartus, it would mark another setback for Moscow's navy, which has suffered a string of stunning losses in the nearby Black Sea since the start of the full-scale Ukraine war nearly three years ago.Ukrainian forces have used missiles and naval drones to damage or destroy dozens of Russian naval vessels, including one of six improved Kilo-class submarines Moscow's Black Sea Fleet operates, during the conflict.These attacks have forced Moscow to withdraw the Black Sea Fleet from its long-held headquarters in Sevastopol, a major city in the southwestern corner of the occupied Crimean peninsula, across the region to the port of Novorossiysk along western Russia's coast. If Russia is unable to move back into Sevastopol, that creates complications.For Russia, losing the ability to keep submarines at Sevastopol and Tartus is less than ideal.Bryan Clark, a former US Navy officer and defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, said that the remainder of the Kilo-class vessels are based in St. Petersburg, where there is a large naval facility and dry docks for maintenance."The Russians are now having to redeploy their submarine force back up to the north" instead of relying on warm-water ports that "you could get in and out of them year-round," Clark told Business Insider. "St. Petersburg, you can't get in and out of year-round." An overview of the naval facility at Tartus on January 6. Satellite image 2025 Maxar Technologies. Recent developments also seriously undermine Russia's military influence in the Mediterranean and southern Europe, Clark said.The Novorossiysk is a newer improved Kilo sub. Submarines of this class are diesel-electric vessels and formidable long-range strike platforms that can attack ships and land targets, deploy for weeks on end, and stay relatively undetected. They are effectively Russia's most capable non-nuclear subs and can carry Kalibr missiles.Russia has kept a Kilo-class vessel in the region for years. The boat's departure from the region, though Russia could ultimately opt to move another sub into the area later, may signal a broader decline in Russian naval might in the Mediterranean.In four years, Russia appears to have gone "from being a pretty big player in the Med in terms of naval forces to now being a nonexistent player," Clark said.Russia's basing challenges could ultimately hinder its ability to project power. The uncertainty with Tartus and nearby Hmeimim Air Base underscores a broader issue for the Russian military.Satellite imagery captured on Monday by Maxar Technologies, a commercial imaging company, shows no obvious signs of any major Russian naval vessels at Tartus, as has been the case for weeks. Ukraine's military intelligence agency has said Russia is withdrawing from the base.Whether Moscow is able to negotiate an arrangement with the new Syrian leadership to stay in the country or is forced to relocate to a new hub in North Africa to sustain its operations remains to be seen.