Technology | The Guardian

I understand the pressure on AI companies to rush forward. But employees are right to be concernedLast month, more than a thousand employees at frontier AI companies signed a letter asking the US government to find a way to pace" AI development, citing the risk of the technology spiraling out of human control as it begins to build itself.They were right to be concerned: just days earlier, two AI models that OpenAI was testing internally escaped the test environment, then autonomously hacked the company Hugging Face and at least three other online services. A few days after that, Anthropic announced that some of their models had also broken out and hacked other companies during testing. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Planning documents show annual emissions from North Ockendon project would be equivalent to 8,480 flights to New YorkA hyperscale" datacentre in outer London would generate more than 1m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to the carbon footprint of 8,480 flights from London to New York, planning documents show.The East Havering Data Centre Campus (EHDCC) in North Ockendon would be one of the largest datacentres in Europe if approved by Havering council, using 218 hectares of green belt to run servers and data storage systems for AI and cloud computing. Its developer, Digital Reef, has described the scheme as a unique opportunity to create a sustainable datacentre campus of the future". Continue reading...

The Elden Ring creator is known for epic single-player RPGs, but its new action game is all about multiplayer interactions: fighting, chasing, befriending, even ... proposing?Lowanro City's skyline is dominated by an oppressive clock tower, silhouetted against a moody red sky and an impossibly large, ominous moon. A retractable bridge splits the map in two, and a network of slimy sewers runs beneath the city streets, offering flanking routes for crafty players. This layered and multi-tiered map bears all the hallmarks of the team behind some of the most memorable stomping grounds in video games.But The Duskbloods, which I recently spent two days playing in Tokyo, is a strange departure from developer FromSoftware's usual offerings. These have included massive single-player RPGs with light, experimental multiplayer components such as Elden Ring and Bloodborne. Those games have always attracted duellists - players who love to invade other people's games to fight them to the death - but this Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive is a different proposition entirely. Continue reading...

Crustaceans are the subject of tests to see if alkalis added to seawater, so it absorbs more CO2, harm marine life. But Trump's halt to funding threatens to scupper the researchFor many in the US region of New England, the lobster roll is synonymous with summertime. Loaded into a toasted bun, chunks of the sweet meat are served hot and soaked in butter, or chilled and slathered in mayonnaise with celery and herbs.The only thing more debated than the recipe is the price: the once-humble roll now routinely fetches $30 (22), or even $50, in a sign of the changing times - and seas.Scott Lord brings in his catch of lobster to the wharf in Tenants Harbor, Maine Continue reading...

New owner is said to be involved in AI industry, as new class of multimillionaires is entering the real estate raceA luxury Lake Como-inspired estate in the San Francisco Bay Area has sold to a buyer in the AI world" for a record $70m, in the latest sign of a new tech wealth boom that's pushing home prices to extraordinary heights in the regionThe property south of San Francisco not only becomes the most expensive sale in its affluent town of Hillsborough, doubling a previous record, but is also the most expensive sale in northern California this year, according to listing agent Jennifer Gilson of Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty. Continue reading...

After Australia's first reported automated hacking accident, experts warn deployers - and possibly developers - of AI agents could be held liable for the actions of their bots

Fairground TV is a 24/7 channel devoted to low-quality AI content for viewers sick of watching real people move in ways that won't haunt youThe appeal of Roku is that, whatever you happen to want to watch, there will almost certainly be a live channel for it. Just want to watch Little House on the Prairie? There's a channel for it. Just want to watch Duck Dynasty? There's a channel for that too. Purely want to watch nothing but local news from Wisconsin? Guess what: there's a channel for that too.But despite this wealth, a section of the population was still to see its needs fulfilled. What about people who hate plot and vision and the sight of people speaking convincing dialogue that synchronises perfectly with the movement of their lips? What about the people who just want to watch an unyielding torrent of eerily weightless nightmare fodder? Well, good news. Roku has finally caught up. Continue reading...

As millennials return to the games of their youth, remakes of Star Fox and Halo suggest there is still plenty to learn from the past Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereAs much as some people more or less cease to listen to new music in their 30s, I have noticed a retreat to safe, familiar gaming territory among some of my fellow millennial gamers.Retro collections are started, or resumed; jewel-cases of PS1 classics or cardboard boxes with SNES or Mega Drive games have started to colonise the living-room shelves. People are replaying things from their university days, or sticking to comfort games such as Stardew Valley. Many of the friends I used to game with never bothered to pick up a PlayStation 5 at its launch, and now that current-generation consoles are becoming prohibitively expensive, they see no need. With thousands of great older games, why bother playing something new? Continue reading...

The AI jobs apocalypse never showed up. Still, jobs are changing and economists expect more to comeThe prediction was stark: artificial intelligence advancements would wipe out jobs en masse. Half" of all entry-level white collar jobs would vanish, Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, said in May 2025. A month later, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, went further, foreseeing the end of certain job categories". Companies began citing AI in their layoffs. Workers organized. And students reconsidered their future careers.But a year later, the mass carnage hasn't shown up. Continue reading...

After the success of space horror Mouthwashing, Swedish developer Wrong Organ has created a Battlefield-inspired co-op with a supernatural twistClaustrophobic", oppressive", pretty depressing" - these are the words Jeffrey Tomec and Dave van Egdom volunteer when I ask them to reflect on their work as part of Swedish indie developer Wrong Organ. I'd add nightmare-inducing", too. Their last game, Mouthwashing, was an acclaimed work of horror storytelling set on a scuttled space freighter, in which players uncover the horrible things its desperate crew have done to each other.When you're planning a follow-up to something so pitilessly nasty, how do you raise the stakes? Well, you could set the entire game in the stifling crew compartment of a heavily armoured tank, a coffin-like interior you share with two other players as you co-operatively attempt to pilot your beleaguered war machine to safety through the crumbling remains of a city in enemy territory. Continue reading...

PlayStation 5, PC; Arc System Works/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Pre-Covid, the movie landscape was dramatically different: YouTubers weren't dominating the box office, video game spin-offs rarely made an impact and Winnie-the-Pooh wasn't yet the star of a slasher movie. Why such a flurry of innovation - and what will be next?Cinema has always been a medium of research and development. At any given point, the industry is searching for yet another breakthrough that can drive it into the future. Synchronised sound in the 1920s. Technicolor in the 1930s. The invention of the modern blockbuster in the 1970s.Conversely, the consensus is that, if the 2020s has a defining trend, then it is one of decline. The theatrical experience is under attack from all angles: streaming, YouTube, a once-in-a-century health crisis that shut cinemas down entirely. And yet, if you look closer, this has actually been one of the most innovative decades that cinema has ever seen. Whether down to technology or desperation, the film industry has spent these last few years figuring out new ways to make films that simply could not have existed even at the turn of the decade. Continue reading...

Renovate rooms, investigate the supernatural and watch people burst into song in this surreal British ghost storyA young American man arrives in a dilapidated British seaside town to take on the renovations of an equally run-down hotel, inherited from a mysteriously absent father he never knew. His power tools talk to him in a Scottish accent, the local people speak in baffling slang, and occasionally people burst into song. Oh, and there are ghosts.There Are No Ghosts at the Grand is a novel mix of genres - no bad thing in these times of sequels and remakes - but, according to the creative director of independent developers Friday Sundae, Anil Glendinning, it grew organically from a single goal: to tell a very British ghost story. Continue reading...

Two men in their 20s were found within five hours thanks to an artificial intelligence-powered drone, which used thermal imaging to locate them. Two hikers veered off a walking track in Kosciuszko national park, New South Wales, on Tuesday, and were found about half a kilometre off the track. It was the first time the FRNSW drone's AI detection system had been used to rescue missing people

Exclusive: Researchers call for urgent investigation of risks to babies of tablets, smartphones and other digital devicesScreen time for babies and toddlers under the age of two has been linked with long-term negative effects on health and quality of life and should be avoided, according to a landmark study.It warns that using screens during that period may lead to wide-ranging developmental concerns and calls for further urgent investigation of the risks smartphones, tablets and other digital devices pose to infants. Continue reading...

As a host of countries move to rein in social media use by children, could this be technology's big tobacco moment? Continue reading...

Fire and Rescue NSW uses thermal imaging and a mobile phone red light to quickly locate men who veered off walking track near Jindabyne

Sam Altman announces limited preview of GPT 5.6 in move that echoes launch of Anthropic's Mythos

RJ Scaringe says firms focused on selling fossil fuel engines risk being woefully behind' on technology by end of decadeCarmakers that focus on selling fossil fuel engines are at risk of being woefully behind" on technology by the end of the decade, according to the boss of Rivian, an Amazon-backed US electric carmaker.RJ Scaringe, Rivian's founder and chief executive, said the car industry has reached a fork in the road" in the choice between short-term profits and the heavy investments, particularly in software, that will be required to survive. Continue reading...

Independent senator warns budget reform could drive tech investment offshore, as PM thanks startups for very flattering' images

OpenAI's plans now seem all but guaranteed, given that the world's richest man couldn't put a stop to themOn Monday morning, a jury in Oakland, California, handed a resounding victory to Sam Altman and OpenAI in their long, bitter courtroom battle with Elon Musk.The federal jury found Altman, OpenAI and its president, Greg Brockman, not liable for Elon Musk's claims that they unjustly enriched themselves and broke a founding contract made with Musk when founding the startup. The unanimous verdict, delivered after less than two hours of deliberation, is a stark rebuke of Musk and his lawyer's claims that Altman stole a charity" through his leadership of OpenAI.Nick Robins-Early contributed reporting Continue reading...

Tracker of attitudes towards artificial intelligence also finds almost half of the public would prefer to avoid itOne in three university students think AI will wipe out jobs so rapidly it will trigger civil unrest, according to a survey by King's College London (KCL).Students are among the heaviest users of AI, the poll found, with 77% using it at least a few times a month - compared with 46% of workers - and 27% using it daily or almost daily. Continue reading...

OpenAI CEO and president found not liable for breaking contracts made with Musk when founding the startupA jury ruled in favor of Sam Altman in the culmination of a long and bitter legal battle that pitted the richest person in the world against a leader of the AI boom.The federal jury in Oakland, California, found Altman, OpenAI and its president, Greg Brockman, not liable for Elon Musk's claims that they unjustly enriched themselves and broke a founding contract made with Musk when founding the startup. Continue reading...

The pope's encyclical will address the protection of the human person in the age of AI', the Vatican saysIn the first major text of his papacy, Pope Leo will address the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.The Chicago-born pontiff will present the document, known as an encyclical, at the Vatican next week during an event attended by Christopher Olah, the co-founder of Anthropic - a US-based AI firm that has clashed with Donald Trump's administration. Continue reading...

From Gates to Musk and Altman, today's ultra-rich steer AI and tech, raising questions about who decides the futureWhen Bill Gates became the first modern IT mogul to reach the apex of wealth and power in 1992, the world was a very different place. Gates joined the top 10 on Forbes magazine's billionaires list alongside Japanese, German, Canadian, South Korean and Swedish billionaires, including those with family fortunes from Britain and America. A broad mix of industries was on the list: Retail and media, property management and packaging, an investment firm and a couple of industrial conglomerates. Their fortunes almost added up to $100bn - equivalent to about 0.4% of the US's GDP that year.The oligarchy has changed drastically since then. Bernard Arnault, of French luxury group LVMH, Amancio Ortega, the Spanish clothing mogul, and Warren Buffett, the US investor, were the only old-school billionaires among the top 10 in 2025. The rest largely made their money from high-tech: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Steve Ballmer and Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The top 10 amassed over $16trn, which is about 8% of US GDP. Continue reading...

Tech firms condemned for lack of controls with Meta AI and Gemini even offering advice on how to bypass UK gambling and addiction checksAI chatbots are recommending illegal online casinos to vulnerable social media users, putting them at increased risk of fraud, addiction and even suicide.Analysis of five AI products, owned by some of the world's largest tech companies, found that all could easily be prompted to list the best" unlicensed casinos and offer tips on how to use them. Continue reading...

With the wait for the new Winds and Waves games set to stretch into 2027, Pokemon's 30th anniversary celebrations have plugged the gap with a deluge of nostalgia bait. Is the franchise in danger of losing its heart? Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt has been almost impossible to escape Pokemon for the past few weeks. To mark the 30th anniversary of the original games, the Pokemon Company has been on an unprecedented promotional nostalgia trip for the entire month: there was a campaign where celebrities gushed about their favourite Pokemon, gifting us the memorable sight of Lady Gaga singing with a Jigglypuff, and Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen (great Game Boy Advance remakes of the original 1996 games) were rereleased on the Nintendo Switch. The Natural History Museum in London has opened a special Pokemon pop-up shop, and a limited-edition greyscale Pikachu plush toy sold out in about three seconds (they will be making more, to the disappointment of scalpers everywhere).And all that is just the start. We've seen the opening of a Pokemon theme park in Tokyo, the announcement of a tiny Game Boy-shaped music player that plays the games' soundtrack, a collaboration with high-fashion brand JimmyPaul that had its own runway show ... it's been endless. Regular readers will know that I am exactly the target audience for this festival of Pokemon nostalgia: the first generation of Pokemon kids and now hurtling towards 40. And yet I have been unmoved by most of this, even slightly annoyed by it. Continue reading...

From the ghostly Shutter Story to road trip adventure Outbound and strategy puzzler Titanium Court, here are the titles we enjoyed the most from this year's Steam Next Fest showcaseThese days, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that every new indie game is either a co-op extraction shooter or a roguelike deck-builder - fortunately that's not quite the case. Each February, the week-long Steam Next Fest is a vast and varied showcase of forthcoming titles, all with downloadable demos, and only a minority of them adhere to those dominant genres. It's a lovely chance to dig into the sometimes bewildering Steam store and pick out interesting treats - and that's exactly what I've been doing. Here are five of my favourites. Continue reading...

Campaign groups write to technology secretary amid concerns that sites could double overall electricity demandDatacentre developers are facing pressure to reveal whether their projects will increase the UK's net greenhouse gas emissions, amid concerns the sites could double national electricity demand.Campaign groups have written to the UK technology secretary, Liz Kendall, warning that the energy required by new AI infrastructure poses a serious threat to efforts to decarbonise the electricity grid". Continue reading...

Kate Fox says Joe Ceccanti was the most hopeful person' before he started spending 12 hours a day with a chatbotOn 7 August, Kate Fox received a phone call that upended her life. A medical examiner said that her husband, Joe Ceccanti - who had been missing for several hours - had jumped from a railway overpass and died. He was 48.Fox couldn't believe it. Ceccanti had no history of depression, she said, nor was he suicidal - he was the most hopeful person" she had ever known. In fact, according to the witness accounts shared with Fox later, just before Ceccanti jumped, he smiled and yelled: I'm great!" to the rail yard attendants below when they asked him if he was OK. Continue reading...

Feature for supervised accounts rolls out as Meta platform faces US trials over alleged harms to childrenInstagram will start alerting parents if their kids repeatedly search for terms clearly associated with suicide or self-harm.The announcement on Thursday comes as Instagram's parent company, Meta, is in the midst of two trials over harms to children. Continue reading...

Pete Hegseth has threatened to cancel $200m contract unless it is given unfettered access to Claude modelAnthropic said Thursday it cannot in good conscience" comply with a demand from the Pentagon to remove safety precautions from its artificial intelligence model and grant the US military unfettered access to its AI capabilities.The Department of Defense had threatened to cancel a $200m contract and deem Anthropic a supply chain risk", a designation with serious financial implications, if the company did not comply with the request by Friday. Continue reading...

Fear, fights and feverish fanservice collide in this celebration of Resident Evil's recent and retro legacy

A handful of companies monopolise the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical - and often distinctively European - alternativesThere's not much to love about big tech these days. So many ills can be laid at its door: social media harms, misinformation, polarisation, mining and misuse of personal data, environmental negligence, tax avoidance, the list goes on. Added to which, Silicon Valley's leaders seem all too keen to cosy up to the Trump administration, to shower the president with bribes - sorry, gifts - and remain silent about his worsening political overreach. And that's before we get to the rampant enshittification", as the tech writer Cory Doctorow describes it, which means that by design many big tech products have become less useful and more extractive than they were when we originally signed up to them.We've entered into a Faustian pact with these companies: While it's brilliant to have access to high-quality products and software, very often for free', it's important to remember that there is a trade-off involved - often of our personal data and privacy," says Lisa Barber, tech editor at Which? We give these companies our attention and our information, which they then turn into big bucks and apparently unassailable monopolies. Continue reading...

When the most profound human emotion becomes an automated transaction in an online shop, the techlords have wonThe Guardian reported on the arrival of Fate" and, friends, I laughed. Or maybe I cried.It's apparently the first agentic AI dating app". An AI personality named Fate" interviews users, runs data matches on their hopes and dreams, then suggests five potential matches based on the hard data of observable complementary language patterning, No swiping involved!". Continue reading...

Exclusive: England and Wales charity to examine safeguards after Guardian exposed very dangerous' advice on Google AI Overviews

Data analytics firm moves from Denver after about six years and joins host of businesses relocating to south FloridaPalantir announced on Tuesday that it has moved its headquarters to Miami from Denver. The data analytics company, criticized for its role in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, joins a host of other businesses and billionaires that recently moved to Florida in search of a more business-friendly climate.Palantir's move across state lines comes after its chair, Peter Thiel, announced on 31 December that he opened a Miami office for his private investment firm. Thiel already has a mansion in Miami Beach. The company, previously headquartered in Palo Alto, announced the move on X but did not provide further details or respond to a request for comment. Palantir's stay in Colorado lasted about six years; the company exited California in August 2020 - with its CEO, Alex Karp, citing disagreements with the state's values. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ICE more than tripled the amount of data stored in Microsoft's cloud at the same time that its arsenal of surveillance technology balloonedImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deepened its reliance on Microsoft's cloud technology last year as the agency ramped up arrest and deportation operations, leaked documents reveal.ICE more than tripled the amount of data it stored in Microsoft's Azure cloud platform in the six months leading up to January 2026, a period in which the agency's budget swelled and its workforce rapidly expanded, according to the files. Continue reading...

Maker of chatbot with coding ability says annualised revenue grew tenfold in each of past three years, to $14bnAnthropic, the US AI startup behind the Claude chatbot, has raised $30bn (22bn) in a funding round that more than doubled its valuation to $380bn.The company's previous funding round in September achieved a value of $183bn, with further improvements in the technology since then spurring even greater investor interest. Continue reading...

Exclusive: in 2025 briefing to Wes Streeting, officials warned reputation of tech firm behind US ICE operations would hinder rollout of data system in UKHealth officials fear Palantir's reputation will hinder the delivery of a vital" 330m NHS contract, according to briefings seen by the Guardian, sparking fresh calls for the deal to be scrapped.In 2023, ministers selected Palantir, a US surveillance technology company that also works for the Israeli military and Donald Trump's ICE operation, to build an AI-enabled data platform to connect disparate health information across the NHS. Continue reading...

Many social media posts by Tesla CEO on his platform are indiscernible from those of white supremacists, say expertsElon Musk's longtime fixation on a white racial majority is intensifying. The richest man in the world posted about how the white race was under threat, made allusions to race science or promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days in January, according to the Guardian's analysis of his social media output. The posts, made on his platform X, reflect a renewed embrace of what extremism experts describe as white supremacist material.Whites are a rapidly dying minority," Musk said on 22 January, a short time before taking the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, while reposting an Irish anti-immigrant influencer's video about demographic change. Continue reading...

We explore the cosy world-building spin-off with Game Freak's Shigeru Ohmori and his fellow developers - and learn how it began with a Pokemon-hunting dreamPokemon is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, and everybody knows what to expect from these games by now. The concept is simple: head into a cartoonish paradise full of whimsical creatures, capture them in red-and-white balls and assemble a team of warriors from them, before battling other aspiring Pokemon masters. But the latest entry in the series is different - a game that's more about building than battling.In Pokopia, a refreshingly pacific twist on the series, players are dropped into a virtual world where Pokemon are freed from their spherical prisons and happily roam their natural habitats. There's one minor caveat - you have to create those habitats by hand, building them from what you can find. Continue reading...

With many unable to access or afford qualified therapists, AI is filling the mental healthcare vacuum, amid calls for tighter regulationOn a quiet evening in her Abuja hotel, Joy Adeboye, 23, sits on her bed clutching her phone, her mind racing and chest tightening. On her screen is yet another abusive message from her stalker - a man she had met nine months earlier at her church.He had asked Adeboye out; when she declined, he began sending her intimidating, insulting and blackmailing messages on social media, as well as spreading false information about her online. There were even death threats. Continue reading...

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Switch 2; Tarsier Studios

The YouTube gaming star's weird and divisive adaptation of his obscure horror film is a game within a film about a game - and hints at new directions for storytelling Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereSomething weird struck me early on while watching the movie Iron Lung, which has so far taken $32m at the box office, despite being a grungy low-budget sci-fi thriller adapted from an independent video game few people outside of the horror gaming community have even heard of. Set after a galactic apocalypse, it follows a convict who must buy his freedom by piloting a rusty submarine through an ocean of human blood on a distant planet. Ostensibly, he's looking for relics that may prove vital for scientific research, but what he finds is much more ghastly. So far, so strange.The film was also written, directed and financed by one person - the YouTube gaming superstar Mark Markiplier" Fischbach - who also stars. But that's not the weird part, either. The weird part is that watching the film Iron Lung feels like watching Fischbach play Iron Lung the game. Maybe it's the fact that he spends most of the movie sitting at the sub's controls, trying to figure out how to use them correctly - like a gamer would. Maybe it's that, as the film progresses, he has to solve a series of environmental puzzles linked by various codes, computer read-outs and little injections of narrative - just like in a video game. Long periods of the movie involve Fischbach trying to decide what to do next, the camera close up on his confused face. This is incredibly similar to watching his YouTube videos about playing Iron Lung, an experience he often found bewildering. It was the most metatextual experience I've had in the cinema since The Truman Show - but I'm not sure this is what Fischbach intended. Continue reading...

As AI job losses rise in the professional sector, many are switching to more traditional trades. But how do they feel about accepting lower pay - and, in some cases, giving up their vocation?

Tech giants Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta to collectively invest $600bn on artificial intelligence this yearHello, and welcome to TechScape. Today in tech, we're discussing the Persian Gulf countries making a play for sovereignty over their own artificial intelligence in response to an unstable United States. That, and US tech giants' plans to spend more than $600bn this year alone.Bitcoin loses half its value in three months amid crypto crunchHow cryptocurrency's second-largest coin missed out on the industry's boomFiles cast light on Jeffrey Epstein's ties to cryptocurrencyWhy has Elon Musk merged his rocket company with his AI startup?Hail our new robot overlords! Amazon warehouse tour offers glimpse of futureSocial media companies are being sued for harming their users' mental health - but are the platforms addictive?Anthropic's launch of AI legal tool hits shares in European data companies Continue reading...

Some jobs will be moved offshore in wake of telco's $700m partnership with tech consultancy Accenture

He has been jailed, tracked and threatened by China's government. What was it like pay a visit home? As he publishes a polemic about surveillance and state control, the artist relives a momentous trip to see his motherAi Weiwei is talking me through the decision-making process before his first visit to China in over a decade. The artist, known around the world as the most famous critic of the Chinese communist regime, had to do some fraught arithmetic before deciding to head back home.Before boarding a flight with his son, who had never met the artist's elderly mother, Ai thought back to his time in detention when his captors told him he would spend the next 13 years in custody on bogus charges: They said, When you come out, your son won't recognise you.' That was very heavy and really the only moment that touched me." Continue reading...

As the wheels of justice begin to turn in Britain, a spotlight should also shine on the financier's wealthy enablers in the USThe more Epstein documents get released, the more we see how he had so many powerful friends, and that's ultimately what helped him," commented the US lawyer Lisa Bloom in an interview with the Guardian this week. As Ms Bloom, who represents 11 of Jeffrey Epstein's dogged and brave victims, drily notes: That's not the way the justice system is supposed to work."From the outset, the Epstein affair has offered a textbook example of the ability of the influential and well-connected to avoid scrutiny and intimidate those who would exert it. A ruthless pursuit of transparency, both institutional and personal, is the only way to combat such tactics and hold power to account. In the extraordinary days following the release of further Epstein files last week, the wheels of justice in Britain are belatedly beginning to turn on that basis.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...