Category Archives: Technology

Elizabeth Holmes tried to ‘flee’ US with one-way Mexico ticket, prosecutors say

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New court filing says ex-Theranos founder booked flight departing 26 January last year, shortly after fraud conviction

The disgraced founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, made an “attempt to flee the country” by purchasing a one-way ticket to Mexico after she was found guilty on four counts of fraud last January, according to prosecutors.

In the new filing on Thursday, prosecutors said that “contrary to defendant’s assertion that she has a ‘flawless record with US Pretrial Services’ and claim that no evidence suggests she will flee while she pursues her appeal … the incentive to flee has never been higher and defendant has the means to act on that incentive.”

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Musk tells Tesla trial: ‘Just because I tweet doesn’t mean people believe it’

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The carmaker founder said Twitter was the most democratic way to communicate but tweets didn’t affect stock as he expected

Elon Musk testified on Friday as part of a trial over a 2018 tweet in which he claimed to have “funding secured” to take Tesla private, a tweet that shareholders allege cost them millions in trading losses.

The Tesla CEO appeared in a San Francisco federal courtroom and defended himself by saying that “just because I tweet something does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly”.

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Google parent firm Alphabet to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide

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It is latest US tech company to announce sweeping job losses as global outlook weakens

Google’s parent company is to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide as it becomes the latest US tech major to cut staff.

Alphabet’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said the redundancies followed a “rigorous review” of the business. The cuts come days after Microsoft said it would cut 10,00 jobs, citing a post-pandemic shift in digital spending habits and weakness in the global economy.

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Microsoft to cut 10,000 jobs in March as tech firms, including Amazon, thin ranks

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Sector reacts to post-pandemic shift in digital spending and gloomy economic outlook for 2023

Microsoft is cutting 10,000 jobs as it cited a post-pandemic shift in digital spending habits and weakness in the global economy.

The tech group joined a list of US peers making extensive job cuts, including Facebook owner Meta, Amazon, and business software-maker Salesforce, who have scaled back on workforce expansions stoked by a pandemic-related boom in demand for their services and products that have lost momentum.

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Trump pleads with Meta to restore Facebook account

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Former president’s lawyers petition company to allow access following ban from platform in wake of 2021 Capitol attack

Donald Trump has petitioned Meta to restore his access to Facebook, as he reportedly looks to shift his 2024 presidential campaign into a higher gear.

The former president was banned from Facebook more than two years ago, after his followers attacked the US Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

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Where does the Britishvolt collapse leave UK’s dream of an electric future?

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Britain’s car industry relies on petrol or diesel vehicles – and every failure to be part of the electric revolution makes it more exposed

The battery startup Britishvolt eyed a big opportunity. With the looming UK ban on sales of internal combustion engine cars after 2035, big demand for batteries was guaranteed. The problem was actually building the batteries.

The company’s efforts have now come to nothing. It collapsed into administration on Tuesday after funding talks failed, leaving a string of disappointed backers ranging from the FTSE 100 companies Glencore and Ashtead to the property investor Tritax, owned by investment group abrdn, which had committed to fund a battery “gigafactory” in Northumberland.

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‘A little off his rocker’: jurors grilled over views of Elon Musk for shareholder trial

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Despite Musk’s claim he can’t get a fair trial in Twitter’s hometown, judge sits San Francisco jury for Tesla suit

The shareholder case against Tesla CEO Elon Musk got off to a slow start on Tuesday, as potential jurors who variously described the controversial tech billionaire as “narcissistic”, “unpredictable”, “a little off his rocker”, “a genius” and “another arrogant rich guy” were questioned about their impartiality by the judge.

But, by the end of the day, nine jurors had been selected to sit on the jury for the San Francisco trial, which hinges on whether Musk cheated investors of “billions” by asserting in 2018 tweets that he had “secured” financing to take the electric automaker private.

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Saudi prosecutors seek death penalty for academic over social media use

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Court documents reveal reasons for Awad Al-Qarni’s arrest – even though rulers are major investors in social media platforms

A prominent pro-reform law professor in Saudi Arabia is facing the death penalty for alleged crimes including having a Twitter account and using WhatsApp to share news considered “hostile” to the kingdom, according to court documents seen by the Guardian.

The arrest of Awad Al-Qarni, 65, in September 2017 represented the start of a crackdown against dissent by the then newly named crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

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‘Out of your league’: Shakira song mocking ex Gerard Piqué breaks YouTube record

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Video with DJ Bizarrap ridiculing footballer’s new relationship racks up 63m views in 24 hours

A savage new song by Shakira in which the Colombian star, philanthropist and committed believer in the veracity of hips ridicules her former partner Gerard Piqué has logged more than 63m YouTube views in 24 hours, making it the most watched new Latin song in the platform’s history.

Shakira and Piqué, who played football for Barcelona, Manchester United and the Spanish national team, separated last year after more than a decade and have two children. The former centre-back, 35, has since begun a relationship with a 23-year-old woman, Clara Chía.

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China to take ‘golden shares’ in tech firms Alibaba and Tencent

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Move marks shift in focus by Beijing as it tries to extend influence and keep sector in check

China is to take “golden shares” in two of its biggest tech companies, Alibaba and Tencent, as Beijing extends its influence on the country’s star tech firms and its most powerful and wealthy business people.

Beijing’s move marks a shift away from imposing hefty fines and sanctions in its two-year tech crackdown, which was launched after Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, criticised regulators,

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Apple’s Tim Cook to take 50% pay hit after shareholder feedback

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‘Target compensation’ for CEO down from $99.4m in 2022 to an expected $49m for current year

The Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, is expected to have his pay cut by almost 50% this year to about $49m (£40m) after the billionaire boss asked the company to “adjust his compensation” in the light of feedback from shareholders disappointed at the fall in the company’s share price.

Cook, 62, who became CEO after the death of the co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, was paid $99.4m in 2022 and $98.8m in 2021. But the company said in a regulatory filing late on Thursday night that it had set a “target compensation” of $49m for 2023.

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Obscure Indonesia-linked investor circles UK’s Britishvolt with £160m deal

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Talks on rescue deal for battery startup led by DeaLab, which has been involved in fossil fuel transactions

The battery startup Britishvolt is in talks with an Indonesia-linked oil and gas investor for a £160m rescue deal that would almost wipe out the value of existing shareholders’ stakes.

The investor consortium is led by DeaLab Group, a UK-based private equity investor that has been involved in several fossil fuel and renewable energy transactions in Indonesia, and an associated metals business, Barracuda Group.

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Ex-secretary of state George Shultz was besotted by Theranos fraudster Holmes, book says

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He was either ‘corrupt’, ‘in love’ or had ‘completely lost’ his mental edge, says grandson who blew whistle on Holmes’s scheme

Former US secretary of state George Shultz’s support for Elizabeth Holmes and her fraudulent blood testing company, Theranos, which devastated his family and caused a bitter feud with his grandson, receives fresh scrutiny in a biography published on Tuesday.

Shultz was Ronald Reagan’s top diplomat at the end of the cold war. Before that, he was secretary of the treasury and secretary of labor under Richard Nixon. He is now the subject of In the Nation’s Service, written by Philip Taubman, a former New York Times reporter.

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Elon Musk seeks to move trial out of San Francisco, claiming he can’t get fair trial

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Musk says negative local media coverage of shareholder lawsuit over 2018 Tesla tweet has biased jurors against him

Elon Musk has urged a federal judge to shift a trial in a shareholder lawsuit out of San Francisco because he says negative local media coverage has biased potential jurors against him.

Instead, in a filing submitted late Friday – less than two weeks before the trial was set to begin on 17 January – Musk’s lawyers argue it should be moved to the federal court in the western district of Texas. That district includes the state capital of Austin, which is where Musk relocated his electric car company, Tesla, in late 2021.

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‘Urgent need’ to understand link between teens self-diagnosing disorders and social media use, experts say

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Sufferers may be driven online because of the difficulty in accessing affordable GP appointments, professor says

There is an “urgent need” to investigate the increasing number of children and teenagers self-diagnosing with neurological conditions, mental illnesses, and personality disorders, a trend being driven by social media and difficulty accessing healthcare, psychiatrists and paediatricians say.

A paper published in January in the journal Comprehensive Psychiatry describes how prolonged social media use, especially on video-sharing platforms like TikTok, is exposing young people to a growing number of content creators making videos about their self-described tics, Tourette syndrome and other self-diagnosed disorders.

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Chameleon cars, urine scanners and other standouts from CES 2023

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AI-ovens, dual-display or 3D screen laptops and satellite SOS texting shine at Las Vegas tech show

From colour-changing cars, dual-screen laptops and satellite emergency texts to AI-ovens and a urine-scanning smart toilet upgrade, the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas had more concepts of the future on show than ever before.

The biggest consumer gadget show of the year was still quieter than pre-pandemic levels, with the global economic slowdown biting big tech along with everything else.

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Saudi Arabia jails two Wikipedia staff in ‘bid to control content’

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Administrators jailed for 32 years, and eight years, as activists warn of ploy to infiltrate website

Saudi Arabia has infiltrated Wikipedia and jailed two administrators in a bid to control content on the website, weeks after a former Twitter worker was jailed in the US for spying for the Saudis.

One administrator was jailed for 32 years, and another was sentenced to eight years, the activists said.

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Meta dealt blow by EU ruling that could result in data use ‘opt-in’

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Irish regulator fines Facebook owner €390m after EU rejects argument for use of data to drive personalised ads

The business model of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta empire has been dealt a blow following a ruling that its legal justification for targeting users with personalised ads broke EU data laws.

Campaigners said the move could force the Facebook and Instagram owner to ask users to “opt in” to having their data used for targeted ads.

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Coinbase reaches $100m settlement with New York regulators

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Agreement caps regulator’s investigation into cryptocurrency’s compliance with requirements to prevent money laundering

US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has reached a $100m settlement with New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS), the exchange and the regulator said in statements on Wednesday.

The settlement, which includes a $50m penalty, caps the regulator’s investigation into the firm’s compliance with requirements to prevent money laundering.

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FTX assets worth $3.5bn held by Bahamas securities regulator

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Authority says it is holding digital assets until they can be returned to creditors and former customers

The Bahamas securities regulator has said it has seized assets worth $3.5bn (£2.9bn) from the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and plans to return them to creditors and former customers.

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said it had transferred all digital assets under the custody or control of FTX Digital Markets, a Bahamas subsidiary of the FTX operation, to its own digital wallets for “safekeeping”.

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