Category Archives: Technology

Trump agrees deal for UAE to build largest AI campus outside US

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Agreement that would give Gulf country better access to advanced AI chips raises concerns over Chinese influence

The United Arab Emirates and the United States have signed an agreement for the Gulf country to build the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the United States, one of several deals around AI made during Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East.

But the agreement has also raised concerns, since it would have faced restrictions under the previous administration over Washington’s fears that China could access the technology.

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Elon Musk shows he still has the White House’s ear on Trump’s Middle East trip

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Although Musk has pivoted from Doge, the Saudi summit shows how he’s retaining proximity to the US president

Over the course of an eight-minute interview, Elon Musk touted his numerous businesses and vision of a “Star Trek future” while telling the crowd that his Tesla Optimus robots had performed a dance for Donald Trump and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, to the tune of YMCA. He also announced that Starlink, his satellite internet company, had struck a deal for use in Saudi Arabia for maritime and aviation usage; looking to the near future, he expressed his desire to bring Tesla’s self-driving robotaxis to the country.

“We could not be more appreciative of having a lifetime partner and a friend like you, Elon, to the Kingdom,” Saudi Arabia’s minister of communications and IT, Abdullah Alswaha, told Musk.

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Microsoft to lay off 6,000 workers despite streak of profitable quarters

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Cuts follow push to slim management ranks, despite headcount still being up year-on-year in March

Microsoft says it is laying off nearly 3% of its entire workforce.

The tech giant didn’t disclose the total amount of lost jobs, but it will amount to about 6,000 people. Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of last June, the last time it reported its annual headcount. About 55% of those workers were in the U.S.

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Paul McCartney and Dua Lipa among artists urging Starmer to rethink AI copyright plans

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Hundreds of leading figures from UK creative industries urge prime minister not to ‘give our work away’

Hundreds of leading figures and organisations in the UK’s creative industries, including Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Ian McKellen and the Royal Shakespeare Company, have urged the prime minister to protect artists’ copyright and not “give our work away” at the behest of big tech.

In an open letter to Keir Starmer, a host of major artists claim creatives’ livelihoods are under threat as wrangling continues over a government plan to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission.

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Meta blocks major Muslim Instagram page in India amid rising conflict

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Company referred to policy for restricting content when governments say material goes ‘against local law’

Meta has banned a prominent Muslim news page on Instagram in India at the government’s request, the account’s founder said on Wednesday, denouncing the move as “censorship” as hostilities escalate between India and Pakistan.

Instagram users in India trying to access posts from the handle @Muslim – a page with 6.7 million followers – were met with a message stating: “Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.”

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Wikipedia challenging UK law it says exposes it to ‘manipulation and vandalism’

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Wikimedia Foundation seeks judicial review of some requirements of Online Safety Act it claims may endanger safety of volunteer editors

The charity that hosts Wikipedia is challenging the UK’s online safety legislation in the high court, warning some of its regulations would expose the site to “manipulation and vandalism”.

In what could be the first judicial review related to the Online Safety Act, Wikimedia Foundation claims it is at risk of being subjected to the act’s toughest category 1 duties, which impose additional requirements on the biggest sites and apps.

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US media stocks slide on Wall Street after Trump threatens movie tariffs

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Netflix, Amazon, Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount shares fall as studios reel from announcement

Shares in US streamers and production companies fell on Monday, after Donald Trump said he would introduce 100% tariffs on films made abroad, a move that couldsharply raise costs for Hollywood studios.

Trump’s announcement on his Truth Social platform, revived worries about the US president’s trade policy and its impact on the world economy.

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French police investigate spate of cryptocurrency millionaire kidnappings

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Victims have had fingers chopped off by attackers in crimewave targeting entrepreneurs and their families

French police are investigating a series of kidnappings of investors linked to cryptocurrency after a 60-year-old man had a finger chopped off by attackers who demanded his crypto-millionaire son pay a ransom.

In the latest of several kidnappings of cryptocurrency figures in France and western Europe, the man, who owned a cryptocurrency marketing company with his son, was freed from a house south of Paris on Saturday night. He had been held for more than two days.

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Elon Musk’s company town: SpaceX employees vote to create ‘Starbase’

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Residents – most of them SpaceX workers – in remote Texas community approve plan to create new city

Voters in a small patch of south Texas voted on Saturday to give Elon Musk a town to call his own, officially creating a new city called Starbase in the area where Musk’s SpaceX holds rocket launches.

A couple of hundred residents of what was previously known as Boca Chica decided to make their unincorporated neighborhoods into a town that will grant them the authority to pass city ordinances.

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Amazon reports better-than-expected earnings despite tumult of Trump tariffs

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Company exceeds expectations for third quarter in a row as chief executive Andy Jassy admits uncertainty over tariffs

Amazon reported strong first-quarter earnings for the 2025 fiscal year on Thursday after the New York stock exchange closed – results that will be seen in the context of consumer resilience in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff wars.

Amazon reported $1.59 in earnings-per-share (EPS) and revenue of $155.67bn. Analysts had estimated that the company’s EPS would come in at $1.36 on revenue of $155bn. In particular focus: Amazon’s advertising business, which grew 19% in the first quarter of 2025, handily exceeding analyst expectations as well. The company has exceeded Wall Street’s expectations for the previous two quarters.

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Microsoft to report earnings as AI financial boom shows no sign of slowing

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Company has beaten Wall Street expectations in each of its previous three quarterly earnings reports

Microsoft will report its earnings for the third quarter of the fiscal year after the stock market closes on Wednesday. Analysts have predicted that revenue would grow by 10.6% year-over-year to $68.4bn, even as the company plows tens of billions into artificial intelligence as well as earnings-per-share of $3.22. The company has beaten Wall Street’s expectations on each of its previous three quarterly earnings reports.

Analysts said they view the earnings report as a temperature check on Microsoft’s artificial intelligence business, which has announced it will invest around $80bn in this fiscal year alone, though it has also terminated some data center leases in recent months. The company has invested billions in OpenAI in recent years, giving it a large stake in the ChatGPT developer.

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Meta to report quarterly earnings amid tariff uncertainty and AI investment

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Wall Street is projecting the company will post $41.36bn in revenue on $5.21 in earnings per share

Meta is set to report its first quarter earnings on Wednesday after the bell, and investors will be looking for news on whether the company met its quarterly revenue goals of somewhere between $39.5bn and $41.8bn.

Wall Street is projecting the company will post $41.36bn in revenue on $5.21 in earnings per share.

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France says Russian hackers behind attack on Macron’s 2017 presidential campaign

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Foreign ministry says Russian military intelligence has attacked a dozen French entities since 2021 including a TV station

France has accused Russian military intelligence of carrying out a massive cyber-attack on Emmanuel Macron’s first presidential campaign in 2017 as well as several other recent major hacks, including on a TV station and an organisation involved in the Paris Olympics.

The French foreign ministry said for the first time on Tuesday that it was Russian hackers who had targeted Macron’s campaign team in 2017, adding that other Russian targets had included French media and an organisation involved in the 2024 Olympics.

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M&S cyber-attack: when will orders be back, and is my data at risk?

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Marks & Spencer has halted orders on its website and apps, giving customers a refund for those placed after Wednesday

The cyber-attack at Marks & Spencer is continuing to cause chaos for shoppers, with no clarity yet as to when the retailer’s systems will be fully back up and running.

Website orders remain on hold for the fourth day in a row, and those affected also include customers waiting to collect orders or wanting to spend or buy M&S gift cards, as well as users of the retailer’s Sparks customer reward scheme.

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Hakeem Jeffries and Cory Booker livestream sit-in against GOP funding plan

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Democratic House leader and New Jersey senator protest on steps of US Capitol over proposed Republican budget

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and New Jersey senator Cory Booker were holding a sit-in protest and discussion on Sunday on the steps of the US Capitol in opposition to Republicans’ proposed budget plan.

Billed as an “Urgent Conversation with the American People”, the livestreamed discussion comes before Congress’s return to session on Monday, where Democrats hope to stall Republicans’ economic legislative agenda. Throughout the day, they were joined by other Democratic lawmakers, including the senator Raphael Warnock, who spoke as the sit-in passed the 10-hour mark.

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Campaigners sound alarm as European nations move to exit landmine ban

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Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania cite rising threats from Russia to justify once again using one of world’s most indiscriminate weapons

Rights groups have expressed alarm and warned of a slippery slope of again embracing one of the world’s most treacherous weapons, after five European countries said they intend to withdraw from the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines.

In announcing their plans earlier this year, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all pointed to the escalating military threat from Russia. In mid-April, Latvia’s parliament became the first to formally back the idea, after lawmakers voted to pull out of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which bans the use, production and stockpiling of landmines designed for use against humans.

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US food delivery app DoorDash offers to buy UK rival Deliveroo for $3.6bn

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The London-based company, the second largest food deliver app in the UK, said no ‘firm offer’ had been made yet

DoorDash is offering to buy its UK-based rival Deliveroo for $3.6bn (£2.7bn), Deliveroo said on Friday.

Deliveroo said that its board was in talks with DoorDash over the offer and that a firm offer had not been made, according to statement sent to the Guardian. Should a firm offer of £1.80 ($2.40) a share be made, Deliveroo said, “it would be minded to recommend such an offer to Deliveroo shareholders.

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US food delivery app DoorDash offers to buy UK rival Deliveroo for $3.6bn

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The London-based company, the second largest food deliver app in the UK, said no ‘firm offer’ had been made yet

DoorDash is offering to buy its UK-based rival Deliveroo for $3.6bn (£2.7bn), Deliveroo said on Friday.

Deliveroo said that its board was in talks with DoorDash over the offer and that a firm offer had not been made, according to statement sent to the Guardian. Should a firm offer of £1.80 ($2.40) a share be made, Deliveroo said, “it would be minded to recommend such an offer to Deliveroo shareholders.

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What are the Ofcom measures to protect children online – and will they work?

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Communications regulator has brought in more than 40 new rules for tech firms designed to keep under-18s safe

Ofcom announces new rules for tech firms to keep children safe online

The UK communications watchdog has set out more than 40 measures to keep children safe online under a landmark piece of legislation.

The Online Safety Act has a strong focus on protecting under-18s from harmful content and the codes of practice published by Ofcom on Thursday are a significant moment for regulation of the internet.

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AI images of child sexual abuse getting ‘significantly more realistic’, says watchdog

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Internet Watch Foundation report shows 380% increase in illegal AI-generated imagery in 2024, most of it ‘category A’

Images of child sexual abuse created by artificial intelligence are becoming “significantly more realistic”, according to an online safety watchdog.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said advances in AI are being reflected in illegal content created and consumed by paedophiles, saying: “In 2024, the quality of AI-generated videos improved exponentially, and all types of AI imagery assessed appeared significantly more realistic as the technology developed.”

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