Nicolás Maduro blocks X for 10 days in Venezuela amid spat with Elon Musk

President accuses social network’s owner of using it to ‘incite hatred’ after country’s disputed election

President Nicolás Maduro said he had ordered a 10-day block on access to X in Venezuela, accusing the owner, Elon Musk, of using the social network to promote hatred after the country’s disputed presidential election.

Associated Press (AP) journalists in Caracas found that by Thursday night posts had stopped loading on X on two private telephone services and the state-owned Movilnet.

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Online Safety Act not fit for purpose after far-right riots, says Sadiq Khan

Exclusive: London mayor warns law must be revisited ‘very, very quickly’ due to falsehoods that contributed to unrest

Laws designed to counter misinformation are “not fit for purpose” and must be revisited after the spread of online falsehoods contributed to this month’s far-right riots, the mayor of London has said.

Sadiq Khan, one of the UK’s most senior Muslim politicians, said ministers should act “very, very quickly” to review the Online Safety Act after the violent unrest in England and Belfast over the past week. There have been calls to hasten the act’s implementation.

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Labour needs X to get its message out however much it may wish it didn’t

The Elon Musk-owned platform remains a vital tool for politicians despite misinformation about disorder in Britain

When Keir Starmer was running to be Labour leader in 2020, his aides seriously considered whether they should leave Twitter for good.

A number of those who remain close to Starmer as prime minister were then enthusiastic about moving off the platform. The party was still feeling wounded by the brutal election campaign and by the bitterness of the way it had been conducted on social media.

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UK police monitoring TikTok for evidence of criminality at far-right riots

Footage of disorder can reach hundreds of thousands of viewers and often shows faces of those committing crimes

Police officers are watching TikTok in an attempt to catch far-right demonstrators livestreaming self-incriminating footage of their illegal behaviour.

TikTok’s Live function has become one of the defining outlets for coverage of this summer’s riots, with hundreds of thousands of viewers watching live streams of rioting over the last week in cities such as Stoke, Leeds, Hull and Nottingham.

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X to shut down flagship San Francisco office – report

CEO Linda Yaccarino reportedly said Bay Area employees would be relocated to Silicon Valley in an internal email

X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, will shut down its flagship San Francisco office “over the next few weeks”, the New York Times reported. The internal announcement comes after owner Elon Musk stated last month he would be moving the headquarters out of California.

In an email to employees obtained by the Times, chief executive Linda Yaccarino said Bay Area employees will be relocated to Silicon Valley, distributed between an existing office in San Jose and a new office to be built in Palo Alto.

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US chip factory workers say it’s a ‘struggle to survive’ on their wages as industry booms

Companies stand to gain billions in federal funds and tax breaks as employees suffer in poor working conditions

As chip manufacturers grapple for billions of dollars in federal funds and tax breaks designed to boost the US semiconductor industry, they face growing calls from inside their factories to improve working conditions and pay.

Workers and labour unions are urging key companies in the sector to “do the right thing” and prioritize the wellbeing of employees over the wealth of their shareholders.

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Neuralink has implanted second trial patient with brain chip, Elon Musk says

Founder says procedure, aimed at helping paralyzed people use digital devices by thinking alone, went ‘extremely well’

Neuralink has successfully implanted in a second patient its device designed to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone, according to the startup’s owner Elon Musk.

Neuralink is in the process of testing its device, which is intended to help people with spinal cord injuries. The device has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media and move a cursor on his laptop.

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The far right has moved online, where its voice is more dangerous than ever

Social media such as X are fuelling the growth of extremism by allowing its figureheads a platform to direct violence

The resurgence of far-right violence in the UK is in part due to Elon Musk’s decision to allow figures such as Tommy Robinson back on to the social media platform X, researchers say.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and those of his ilk are not leaders in the traditional sense and the far right has no central organisation capable of directing the disorder and violence that has been seen, experts say.

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‘We have to adapt or die’: Daniel Bedingfield says AI is music’s future

Exclusive: Gotta Get Thru This singer argues that ‘neo-luddites’ risk being left behind as technology develops

The growing use of artificial intelligence in the creative industries has been described as an existential threat to jobs and artistic integrity. Earlier this year artists including Billie Eilish and Katy Perry signed an open letter urging tech companies not to “sabotage creativity”, while Nick Cave has called lyrics written by ChatGPT “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”. But according to the musician Daniel Bedingfield, AI is music’s future, and anyone who fights against it faces being left behind.

“AI is now here for ever,” he told the Guardian. “And so I think that there will be two paths: there’ll be the neo-luddite path, and then there’ll be everyone else, most of the planet, who thinks the music’s really good and enjoys it.”

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Starmer’s live facial recognition plan would usher in national ID, campaigners say

PM accused of ignoring civil rights and aping autocracies as he proposes new powers after far-right unrest

Civil liberties campaigners have said that a proposal made by Keir Starmer on Thursday to expand the use of live facial recognition technology would amount to the effective introduction of a national ID card system based on people’s faces.

Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said it was ironic the new prime minister was suggesting a greater use of facial matching on the same day that an EU-wide law largely banning real-time surveillance technology came into force.

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Anger mounts over environmental cost of Google datacentre in Uruguay

Protesters say recently approved tax-free datacentre will ‘provide nothing except toxic waste and greenhouse gases’

Google’s plans to build a datacentre in Uruguay have angered environmentalists, who say the project will release thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide and hazardous waste.

Uruguay’s environmental authorities recently approved the datacentre, which will use air conditioning to cool its servers. The company initially proposed using millions of litres of fresh water to cool its infrastructure, but this caused an outcry in a country that suffered its worst drought since 1950 last year, causing its capital city to run short of drinking water.

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Argentina will use AI to ‘predict future crimes’ but experts worry for citizens’ rights

President Javier Milei creates security unit as some say certain groups may be overly scrutinized by the technology

Argentina’s security forces have announced plans to use artificial intelligence to “predict future crimes” in a move experts have warned could threaten citizens’ rights.

The country’s far-right president Javier Milei this week created the Artificial Intelligence Applied to Security Unit, which the legislation says will use “machine-learning algorithms to analyse historical crime data to predict future crimes”. It is also expected to deploy facial recognition software to identify “wanted persons”, patrol social media, and analyse real-time security camera footage to detect suspicious activities.

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Chip designer Arm Holdings reports 39% surge in revenue but shares fall

Even as shares fall about 9%, chief financial officer says firm is seeing ‘more investment’ in AI than ‘even 90 days ago’

Chip designer Arm Holdings on Wednesday reported a stronger-than-expected 39% surge in quarterly revenue, and forecast fiscal second-quarter sales broadly in line with Wall Street estimates, yet its shares fell about 9% in extended trading.

For the current fiscal second quarter, Arm forecast revenue in a range between $780m and $830m, compared with an average analyst estimate of $804.1m, according to LSEG data.

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Strong earnings report pushes Meta shares up amid heavy AI spending

Stock price grew around 5%, which revealed the company outperformed analysts’ expectations for its second quarter

Meta’s shares rose in after-hours trading on Wednesday off the back of a strong earnings report that comes as the company is spending heavily on AI tools.

The company’s stock price grew around 5% following the report, which revealed the company outperformed analysts’ expectations for its second quarter.

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Chinese firms win record 11% EV share in Europe as buyers rush to beat tariffs

State-owned SAIC, parent of the British brand MG, was responsible for biggest jump in sales in June

Chinese carmakers secured a record 11% of the European electric vehicle market in June, as buyers raced to beat EU tariffs on imported EVs that came into force this month.

The figures, which include the UK, show that about 23,000 battery electric vehicles were registered in June, up 72% on the previous month as consumers raced to beat the price hike in the EU.

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Elon Musk accused of spreading lies over doctored Kamala Harris video

Doctored campaign video featuring US vice-president reposted by Tesla chief executive watched 128m times

Kamala Harris’s election campaign has accused Elon Musk of spreading “manipulated lies” after the Tesla chief executive posted a doctored video featuring the vice-president on his X account.

Musk reposted a manipulated Harris campaign video on Friday evening in which a fake Harris voiceover says: “I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire,” and that anyone who criticises her is “both sexist and racist”.

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Wong announces new digital cable centre to limit China’s influence in Indo-Pacific

The new centre, staffed by Australians, will enable sharing of information and help Pacific island governments regulate important undersea cables

Australia is stepping up its attempts to limit China’s influence in the Pacific, with the establishment of a new “cable connectivity and resilience centre” designed to boost connectivity for Pacific nations.

The foreign Minister, Penny Wong, will announce the centre while in Japan for the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting alongside counterparts from the United States, Japan and India.

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‘High quality, low price and dizzying variety’: how the Chinese switched to electric cars

The country has long been the world’s biggest market – but the government’s interest is more geopolitical than environmental

When Kenzi, an advertising worker in Shanghai, bought an electric vehicle in November she wasn’t even thinking about the environmental benefits. She had read Elon Musk’s biography and thought the Tesla 3 looked good. She also knew that if she bought an EV she could bypass the long wait and cost of getting licence plates, which are rationed by the government.

“It’s not easy to get a licence plate in Shanghai, but you get a licence for free when you buy an EV,” she said.

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Tesla earnings nearly halved as price cuts put pressure on profits

CEO Elon Musk blames ‘bit of a hangover’ from rivals’ discounting but insists challenges are ‘fairly short-term’

Earnings at Tesla almost halved as discounts and price cuts pile pressure on the electric carmaker’s profit margins.

Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, blamed “a bit of a hangover” after rivals cut prices “very substantially, which has made it a bit more difficult for Tesla”.

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Elon Musk claims Tesla will start using humanoid robots next year

Billionaire says Optimus will start performing tasks for carmaker in 2025 and could be ready for sale in 2026

The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has claimed the company will produce “genuinely useful” humanoid robots to start working in its factories next year.

The world’s richest person, who has a penchant for making overambitious claims on social media, posted on his platform X, formerly Twitter, that he also hoped to expand into “high production” mode to make robots with a humanlike form available sell to other companies in 2026.

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