Category Archives: Technology

Fears for ‘security of Jews worldwide’ in wake of Elon Musk AfD speech

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Top US Jewish advocate Halie Soifer calls Trump adviser’s address to far-right Germany rally ‘incredibly dangerous’

Elon Musk’s remarks to a German far-right party that Germans should not focus on their country’s Nazi past should prompt “deep concern” about “the security of American Jews” and “of Jews worldwide”, a leading US Jewish advocate has told the Guardian.

“Speaking as a deeply concerned American Jew,” said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), “I am deeply concerned about the security of American Jews, of Jews worldwide, given our president’s clear alignment with dangerous rightwing extremists.”

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Google Maps will rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America in US

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Tech firm to make change in line with Trump’s executive order, using both names in world outside US and Mexico

Google has confirmed it will rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Google Maps in the US, after an executive order from Donald Trump.

It will remain the Gulf of Mexico in Mexico, while users outside of the US and Mexico will see both names on Google Maps. The Alaskan peak Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, will also be changed to Mount McKinley in the US in line with Trump’s executive order on 20 January.

Reuters contributed to this report

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We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan

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The AI app soared up the Apple charts and rocked US stocks, but the Chinese chatbot was reluctant to discuss sensitive questions about China and its government

The launch of a new chatbot by Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek triggered a plunge in US tech stocks as it appeared to perform as well as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI models, but using fewer resources.

By Monday, DeepSeek’s AI assistant had rapidly overtaken ChatGPT as the most popular free app in Apple’s US and UK app stores. Despite its popularity with international users, the app appears to censor answers to sensitive questions about China and its government.

What happened on June 4, 1989 at Tiananmen Square?

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What was the Umbrella Revolution?

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Paul McCartney says change in law over AI could ‘rip off’ artists

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Former Beatles member says government should protect creative workers as consultation on copyright continues

Sir Paul McCartney has warned artificial intelligence could “rip off” artists if a proposed overhaul of copyright law goes ahead.

The proposals could remove the incentive for writers and artists and result in a “loss of creativity”, he told the BBC.

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Calls for Ireland to boost defence of subsea internet cables

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Some say recent suspected sabotage of transatlantic cables serving Europe and UK means Ireland must be able to defend itself

They are the bedrock of the internet, keeping everything from TikTok to emergency services, business, banking systems and political and military communications running smoothly.

But deep under the sea, the network of cables around British and Irish shores are being considered as increasingly attractive targets for military, terrorist or criminal actors after several incidents in the Baltics where internet cables were severed and internet communications were disrupted.

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Australian children who play Roblox spending average of 139 minutes a day on the gaming app, data shows

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Study by parental control software firm Qustodio also shows Roblox is the gaming app most blocked by parents

Australian children who play Roblox are on the app for an average of 139 minutes a day and it is the gaming app most blocked by parents, a new industry report has found.

It comes as new documents reveal the federal government excluded games from the under 16s social media ban due to “regulatory overlap”.

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Why is TikTok working again in the US as Trump takes office?

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App has resumed operations after saying it received assurance over de facto ban, but its future remains uncertain

TikTok is restoring its service in the US after Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order when president to allow the app to continue operating.

It had shut itself down late on Saturday in advance of a Sunday deadline to divest its Chinese shareholders or face a ban, but resumed operations on Sunday, the day before Trump’s inauguration, saying it had received the appropriate assurances from the president-elect.

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Bitcoin hits new record high, dollar dips ahead of Trump inauguration – business live

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Bitcoin rises by 4% past $109,000, reversing earlier losses; Donald Trump meme coin price tanks after wife Melania also launches token

The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will travel to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos this week in the hope of convincing some of the world’s largest companies to invest, with allies saying she will use spending cuts rather than further tax increases to meet her own fiscal rules.

At the same time, the Treasury is considering a push to cut the benefits bill, in a move that is causing nervousness among Labour MPs.

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Who banned TikTok? Politicians toss culpability like a football

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Claiming a threat from a ‘foreign adversary’, the US has yet to prove China shared propaganda or collected US user data

The United States of America deleted TikTok early on the morning of 19 January. A government formed “by the people, for the people”, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, has made scant evidence available to those people as to why. As those in power at the 11th hour realize how unpopular such a paternalistic move might be, each is doing their best to lay blame with the others.

Why did the US ban an app used and beloved by some 170 million Americans? For fear of China’s propaganda and data collection. It’s a far-reaching, unprecedented move. The text of the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed in April and signed by Joe Biden, reads: “This bill prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (eg, TikTok).” Both a federal appeals court and the US supreme court have affirmed that rationale as sufficient.

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TikTok goes dark in the US ahead of ban

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App no longer available on US Apple and Google stores after supreme court upholds lawmakers’ ban

TikTok stopped working in the US late on Saturday, shortly before a federal ban on the Chinese-owned short-video app was due to take effect.

The app was no longer available on Apple’s iOS App Store or Google’s Play Store. The US Congress passed a law in April mandating that parent company ByteDance either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a total shutdown. It chose the latter.

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Trump says he will likely grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve from US ban when he takes office

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President-elect said he’d probably give the company an extension from US ban the supreme court recently upheld

Donald Trump has said he will “most likely” give the Chinese-owned TikTok app a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban in the US after he takes office on Monday morning.

The incoming president said on Saturday, in an interview with NBC News, that he was considering the extension on a Sunday deadline laid down for the parent company of the wildly popular app to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese-buyer or face a ban under US law.

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UK to introduce digital driving licences to ‘transform public services’

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The digital option will be made available through a government app, but will not be mandatory

The UK is to introduce digital driving licences this year as the government looks to use technology to “transform public services”.

The digital version of driving licences will be available in a virtual wallet in a government app, instead of being added to existing Google or Apple wallets. It could be accepted as a form of ID when voting, purchasing alcohol or boarding domestic flights.

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Chinese rival app Xiaohongshu is overwhelmed by ‘TikTok refugees’ in US

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Social media accounts blocked for breaking Beijing rules as millions of users join up before ban takes effect

Nine invaluable things I’ve learned from TikTok

When Angelica Oung received the notification that her Xiaohongshu account had been blocked for violating the social media app’s code of conduct, her mind started racing.

The only picture she had posted on her account, apart from her profile headshot, was of herself wearing an inflatable polar bear suit, holding a sign saying: “I love nuclear”. What could be the problem with that, wondered Oung, a clean energy activist in Taiwan.

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‘You can’t be pro-billionaire and pro-working class’: Biden’s labor chief on return of Trump

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Julie Su, acting labor secretary, fears many of Biden’s pro-worker policies will be undone by the new administration

Even as Donald Trump says he will battle for America’s workers, the acting secretary of labor, Julie Su, is voicing fears that Trump will undo many of Joe Biden’s pro-worker policies, which include protecting workers from extreme heat and extending overtime pay to millions more workers.

In an interview with the Guardian, Su said that Trump might fall far short on delivering for workers considering the first Trump administration’s many anti-worker policies and in light of his having Elon Musk and other billionaires advising him. “It’s one thing to say you’re pro-worker, and it’s quite another thing to do it,” Su said. “You can’t be pro-billionaire and pro-working class. You can’t be pro-Elon Musk and pro-worker.”

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EU asks X for internal documents about algorithms as it steps up investigation

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Musk’s company has been accused of manipulating systems to give far-right posts and politicians greater visibility

The European Commission has asked X to hand over internal documents about its algorithms, as it steps up its investigation into whether Elon Musk’s social media platform has breached EU rules on content moderation.

The EU’s executive branch told the company it wanted to see internal documentation about its “recommender system”, which makes content suggestions to users, and any recent changes made to it, by 15 February.

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Robots, drones and uncrewed vessels ‘likely to be default’ in future Royal Navy

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UK defence chiefs see no need to recruit extra sailors as maritime force will become hybrid with uncrewed systems

The Royal Navy of the future will be dominated by robots, drones and uncrewed vessels, leading chiefs to conclude there is no need to try to recruit extra sailors as part of the forthcoming defence review.

Adm Sir Ben Key, the first sea lord, believes the navy has to focus on recruitment and retention rather than seeking more personnel numbers because crew sizes are inevitably falling as military technology evolves.

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Apple suspends AI-generated news alert service after BBC complaint

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Inaccurate notices branded with broadcaster’s logo sent to iPhone users but tech firm works on improvements

Apple is suspending an artificial intelligence feature that made inaccurate summaries of news headlines.

The tech company received a complaint from the BBC after the AI-generated service issued a news alert branded with the corporation’s logo falsely telling some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, had shot himself.

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UK TikTokers say goodbye to US followers as ban looms: ‘It’s a really beautiful community’

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British content creators, who may lose a big chunk of their audiences, say they see the app as a gateway to Americans

If TikTok disappears from the US, it won’t just be its 170 million American users who will lose out.

British TikTokers and business owners have told the Guardian they will also lose a sizeable chunk of their audiences after a ban. The video app has become a key gateway to Americans for the UK’s online video creators, who make a living from accruing views and making sponsored content deals. With the ban scheduled to go into effect on Sunday, a US-sized hole will appear in the global userbase.

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Donald Trump reportedly weighing up TikTok ban delay

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President-elect ‘has warm spot’ for platform and wants political solution to ‘preserve app but protect data’

Donald Trump is considering suspending a TikTok ban in the US with an executive order when he enters the White House on 20 January, according to a report.

The president-elect is exploring an executive order that would postpone enforcement of a sale-or-ban law due to come into force on 19 January, said the Washington Post. The report added, however, that Trump’s legal grounds for suspending a law passed by Congress are questionable.

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A Chinese app is rocketing up download charts – but in Australia, the sudden uptake is not just about TikTok

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Experts say the flood of users to RedNote highlights flaws in the Albanese government’s social media ban

As the TikTok ban looms in the United States, users have flocked to RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, a China-based app that looks similar to Instagram.

But in Australia, where there is no imminent TikTok ban, the app is also rocketing up the app download charts. And it doesn’t just tell us about TikTok – it also exposes issues with Australia’s forthcoming social media age ban.

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