Cooling down has become political amid record highs, as experts say row is distracting from work of protecting livesAs the afternoon heat rose to a dizzying 41.7C (107F) in eastern Brandenburg on Sunday, taking German temperatures to unprecedented highs, Mario, 65, took precautions but did not panic. Two years ago, a fierce heatwave had prompted him to buy a powerful device that few Germans own: an air conditioning unit.The summers are slowly getting warmer," says the retired handyman in Neuzelle on the German-Polish border, whose bungalow is now among the 6% of German homes with fixed air-conditioning. And as you get older, the heat gets harder to endure." Continue reading...
Update in England expected to reach about 200,000 patients over the next year as part of 10bn package to overhaul NHS systemsThe NHS will begin using AI on its app to direct patients to the appropriate services, it has been announced.The tool will be used to triage patients and to ascertain if they should be allocated a GP appointment. Some may be advised to attend a pharmacy or their local A&E department instead, depending on the severity of their condition. Continue reading...
Exclusive: 20bn of potential' 30bn AI investment touted by UK ministers appears to have been hypotheticalIt was to be the biggest undertaking in Britain for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Stargate UK - a multibillion-pound UK datacentre project - would represent a major step forward in the US-UK technology partnership".But the plans were paused in April, with an OpenAI spokesperson citing concerns over regulation and high energy costs. Continue reading...
Shifting demands and political ideology have left the industry vulnerable to global competition from cheap Chinese carsEarlier this month, an intriguing new Detroit-based electric vehicle startup hit the market - Slate Auto, a Jeff Bezos-backed venture offering something US buyers rarely see these days - a pick up truck billed as affordable".Its base price is $24,950, making it one of the lowest-cost autos in the US market and close to half the price of the average new vehicle. But as the US contends with sharply rising auto costs, even Slate may be getting left behind in the global electric vehicle (EV) transition. The global EV industry is entering a golden age powered by cheap Chinese cars that can be bought for as little as $10,000. Continue reading...
As allegations of LLM use rock the literary and media worlds, linguists explain what really distinguishes human and machine writing, while novelists including Jennifer Egan and Jeanette Winterson reflect on the future of fiction in an age of ChatGPTThree paragraphs, from three different hotel reviews. Can you tell which, if any, were AIgenerated?The hotel is in a great location for everything. Lots of places to eat and drink. The hotel itself is always abuzz. The tavern located on the ground floor is definitely a must. Food, service, prices and atmosphere were great." Continue reading...
Hundreds of Guardian readers expressed concerns over greed in the White House and a billionaire president unconcerned with high gas and grocery pricesDonald Trump has earned more than $1bn from his crypto businesses since returning to the White House, according to recent financial disclosures.Amid questions of conflict of interest, more than 400 Americans expressed feelings of outrage, disgust and despair at their president. They answered a Guardian call for their views on Trump's fortune. Continue reading...
People across the country are pushing for moratoriums, and electeds who approve projects are being punishedLenoxdatacenter.com went live in May, promoting what it called a proposed advanced technology and data center campus" in Michigan. The site did not state who wanted to build the center. Lenox Township officials denied anyone had applied to build one.Emails obtained by residents through an open records request showed, however, that developers had contacted the township supervisor and deputy supervisor asking for their support to build a datacenter. Continue reading...
Ditched single-use plastic bottles but can't find a good reusable one? I spent months putting dozens through their paces - these are the ones worth buying The best travel mugs and reusable coffee cups, testedIf you think a water bottle is just a water bottle, it's time to wake up. These days, there's a lot riding on your choice of drinking vessel. The heady combination of worrying about the planet and, on a more day-to-day level, staying hydrated has made reusable water bottles a must-have.Once the preserve of hikers and gym-goers, water bottles have become a small but significant act of environmental virtue signalling. Not all bottles are created equal, though. Some are insulated, some leak, some weigh as much as a toddler, and some even infuse your water with hydrogen (more on that later). The choice is dizzying.Best water bottle overall:
With players leaving EA's series once life there felt like a grind beset by ethical concerns, this quirky new sim promises a better life elsewhereFor 26 years, the life-sims genre has been dominated by one series: The Sims. Originally designed by Will Wright, creator of Sim City, EA's virtual dollhouse series has grown into a $5bn [3.8bn] empire with the constant release of new games, expansion packs, and collaborations cementing its place among the bestselling video game franchises of all time. But things are beginning to change. New contenders are emerging and turning the heads of even loyal players in The Sims community.The most recent, and promising, of these is Paralives, once the solo project of indie designer Alex Masse, who is now employing a small team of developers. Released on the PC games platform Steam in May 2026 as an early access title (meaning it's technically unfinished and looking for user feedback), it sold 250,000 copies in just eight hours. On that first day, the concurrent player count hit 78,603 - not far off The Sims 4's all-time peak of 96,328 in 2022. While Paralives is a small project, this success is understandable. Following the news of EA's controversial acquisition by a Saudi-backed business consortium, some simmers are looking for what they see as a more ethical alternative. But this is only part of the game's appeal. The real draw is the game's focus on creativity over realism: the quirky details that made many fans fall in love with The Sims in the first place. Continue reading...
Powered by chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, South Korea is seeing a surge in wealth, but there are questions over who gets to share in the profitsWhen South Korea's most high-profile divorce case returned to court last month, the lawyers were arguing not just about the breakdown of a relationship, but also the exact date at which to value shares in one specific company.The judges' decision in Seoul could change the value of business tycoon Chey Tae-won's assets by billions of dollars. The shares were in the holding company behind SK Hynix, the manufacturer of chips powering AI systems around the world. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Senior political correspondent on (#76QH6)
Culture secretary says her department will stop using platform, citing concerns over far-right content fuelling violence and divisionThe UK's culture and media department will stop using X because the site now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate", Lisa Nandy has announced.The culture secretary's department is the UK's second to quit the Elon Musk-owned platform over increasing concerns about the way it highlights and prioritises often inaccurate far-right and racist content and is used to incite violence and division. Continue reading...
Strong figures suggest Tesla's auto business is regaining momentum after two straight annual sales declinesTesla blew past Wall Street estimates for second-quarter deliveries on Thursday, posting a record for the period as recovering demand in Europe outweighed persistent weakness in North America.The strong figures suggest Tesla's mainstay auto business is regaining momentum after two straight annual sales declines, providing the spending cushion needed to power its ambitions in autonomous driving and artificial intelligence - the main drivers of the company's roughly $1.6tn valuation. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Finance experts warn against investing in bitcoin treasury companies after Stack BTC assets plungeA bitcoin company that Nigel Farage has advertised lost more than 15% of its asset value, prompting finance experts to warn investors against those types of firms.The Reform UK leader has invested 215,000 in a bitcoin treasury company named Stack BTC. A bitcoin treasury buys the cryptocurrency on behalf of its shareholders, and Stack aims to purchase other companies with the increase in value it gets from holding bitcoin. Continue reading...
AI-generated overview found to gloss over allegations of sexual harassment and describes hotel being sued over hygiene as spotless'A hotel being sued for mass food poisonings was described as spotless" and a resort where guests complained of sexual harassment by staff was praised for friendly" service by an AI intended to summarise millions of Tripadvisor reviews.The overviews of customer feedback downplayed serious complaints, ranging from the stench of mould to a lack of mains water, according to an investigation by the consumer campaign organisation Which? Continue reading...
Panel proses shared framework for responsible AI development as adoption grows unevenly across worldA new United Nations report warns that the development of artificial intelligence may exacerbate global inequality and proposes a shared framework for how to responsibly develop AI, as adoption and investment into the technology accelerates unevenly across the world.The more AI advances without shared rules, the less say governments and people will have in the outcome," said Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, at a press conference on Wednesday. Our message to governments is simple: do not wait ... the science is here. We can no longer say we did not know what we do." Continue reading...
With the much-anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI only available as download, Sony is following suitSony said on Wednesday that it would stop releasing new video games for the PlayStation console on disc in January 2028 following a shift in consumer preferences.Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only," the company said on its official PlayStation blog. Continue reading...
Elizabeth Warren and colleagues demand tighter rules on political figures' crypto dealings, citing disclosures of large-scale Trump family profitsDonald Trump has again been accused of brazen crypto corruption" after financial disclosures revealed his family's cryptocurrency ventures generated more than $1bn in his first year back in the White House.A 927-page disclosure, released on Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, showed that the US president had been paid more than $2.2bn last year in total, from real estate, golf resorts, branded merchandise, licensing deals and court settlements. Continue reading...
AI datacentres, memory scarcity and factory capacity are costing consumers -and console makers Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt was once a truth universally acknowledged that an ageing console in possession of good revenue must be in line for a price reduction. Those days may be over. In March, Sony announced a price increase of 90 for the PS5, while last month Microsoft informed gamers that it would be charging at least 75 more for the Xbox Series S and X consoles from August. All three were first released back in 2020. The Switch 2 will also be more expensive globally from September.The main culprit, of course, is AI, or more specifically the exploding demand for semiconductors and memory to power datacentres. Console manufacturers could once source these components cheaply, but now they're in high demand and manufacturers can't keep up, so deals are being struck. Initially, the wave of price increases seen in gaming were driven by tariffs imposed by Donald Trump early last year," says Andy Robinson, editor in chief of gaming news site VGC. Then, in October, OpenAI announced a deal with Samsung and [Korean chip manufacturer] SK Hynix to acquire a huge portion of their DRAM output for datacentres, causing prices to increase by almost 200%. According to Xbox, those prices have since doubled again, and they're not expected to come back down any time soon." Continue reading...
Jamir Nazir's The Serpent in the Grove, which critics allege has obvious markers' of AI use, was described as original, poetic and deeply moving' by the judging chairA story widely accused on social media of being written using AI has gone on to win the overall Commonwealth short story prize.Jamir Nazir's story The Serpent in the Grove went viral after being named as a regional winner in mid-May, with critics on X and Bluesky claiming it showed obvious markers" of AI use. The literary magazine Granta subsequently pulled out of its long-running agreement to publish the Commonwealth winners. Continue reading...
A preview of the forthcoming sci-fi game from Gareth Damian Martin showcases their unmistakable talent for innovation and game designOver the past decade, an impression has taken root among gamers that any real creativity and originality in the industry is to be found in the indie, rather than mainstream, sector. Gareth Damian Martin can claim some responsibility for that. Their first game, 2020's In Other Waters, merged sci-fi and underwater xenobiology in a uniquely calming and thought-provoking manner, while Citizen Sleeper (2022) and Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (2025) were full-blown sci-fi epics with ultraminimal aesthetics and a rare intelligence.Martin has broken with tradition by unveiling their next game, Signet City, far in advance of its 2027 launch. Set in a dystopian monochrome city, it's a narrative role-playing adventure with a curious first-person perspective. You play as a parasite," says Martin. And it felt natural that it should be a game where you see the world through the eyes of your hosts, very literally. You wake up in the mind of a person called Sid at the same time as she's waking up in the river of a city. You're coming to understand what you are, why it is that you're in the mind of this person who doesn't know that you're there, along with what your capabilities are, and what the world is, through Sid." Continue reading...
Poll finds use of AI tools for health advice is correlated with belief in vaccine falsehoods, such as shots causing autismAdults in the US who frequently seek out health advice from artificial intelligence chatbots are more likely to believe myths about vaccines, according to a poll released on Tuesday by health research firm KFF.The survey, which was conducted in May and polled a representative sample of 2,480 US adults, found that use of AI tools and chatbots correlated with belief in falsehoods such as vaccines causing autism or that the measles vaccine poses more danger than the corresponding virus. The connection remained while controlling for factors such as age, race, education and political partisanship. Continue reading...
Low-budget film-maker Uwe Boll sets Hammer up for a further fall from grace by cannibalising all manner of tired tropes in this incoherent schlockerOh, Armie Hammer! Has it come to this? It doesn't seem that long since you were in the Oscar-winning film Call Me By Your Name giving a sensitive liberal performance opposite Timothee Chalamet. Now here you are, striding around the streets and public parks of Zagreb, shooting Muslims, tasering teens and topping complicit deep-state judges to protest against what your character robustly describes as an unfriendly takeover by Islamist extremists and the blind-sided woke left".Much has happened to this once garlanded actor and great-grandson of oil tycoon Armand Hammer. His reputation plummeted after allegations of sexual assault by former partners in 2021, relationships that Hammer has maintained were consensual. Criminal charges were since dropped for lack of evidence, Hammer has now returned to the silver screen - and here he is in a very cheap, incoherent and embarrassingly badly acted schlocker, written, produced and directed by Germany's low-budget exploitation maestro Uwe Boll, which cannibalises all manner of revenge tropes. More importantly, the film has been promoted and publicised globally online with monumental hypocrisy by Elon Musk who like JD Vance is very keen to divert America's attention from its own issues to the fiercely imagined lawless migrant-caliphate of Europe-stan. It's another piece of shit to flood the zone. Continue reading...
Manny Rutinel's House campaign draws millions from big tech as pro- and anti-AI factions spar over regulationPolitical groups funded by top tech executives have been homing in on one local race in Colorado, as the state's Democratic primary vote gets under way on Tuesday. Democrat Manny Rutinel, who's running in the competitive eighth congressional district for a seat in the House, has seen his campaign boosted with at least $2m in donations from committees led by the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and crypto billionaire Chris Larsen.Rutinel is a progressive candidate running against former state representative and centrist Democrat Shannon Bird. During his campaign, he has focused on his Latino heritage and centered his platform around affordability and regulating Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Continue reading...
The US motor company found that the hundreds of AI cameras being used for design and manufacturing checks were prone to pitfallsName: Greybeards."Age: There's a clue in the name. Continue reading...
The markets are souring on artificial intelligence, but is this the bubble being burst? Meanwhile, California proposes a tax on billionairesHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you after fending off sunburns at the beach. Today, we're discussing a rocky week for the AI industry's finances and how California's proposed billionaire's tax is changing the political posture of the state's governor.Impact of social media ban for under-16s in UK hinges on how firm it isUK under-16s social media ban: which apps will be blocked and how will it work?Tech firms are losing the public': social media age bans near tipping pointOpenAI staggers AI model release after Trump administration requestMeta pauses employee tracker for AI training amid privacy concernsIt's dangerous and it's going to erode trust': redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fearsCalifornia billionaire tax will appear on ballot after deadline for deal passes | Technology | The Guardian Continue reading...
The lovefest from Musk's conservative fans completely overlooks the unscrupulous tactics behind his immense wealthFor 12 glorious days in June, Elon Musk experienced something nobody else in the history of humankind has ever experienced: trillionaire status.Did all those zeros make Musk happy? Did the army of children he has sired love him more? Did he find inner peace? We'll never know because Musk was dragged back to being a boring old billionaire last Wednesday, after shares in Tesla and SpaceX plunged amid a broader tech sell-off. Continue reading...
After suffering the schadenfreude of gamers online, the Tony-winning Broadway musical offered redemption to Cliff BleszinskiIt was utterly heartbreaking, to be honest, and it certainly didn't help with my drinking. I'll leave it at that." Cliff Bleszinski is recalling the launch of LawBreakers, the arena first-person shooter he put out in 2017. It had been his first project as the CEO of his own studio, Boss Key Productions. Before that, he was the creative figurehead behind hugely successful sci-fi shooter series, Gears of War, when he was known to millions of gamers as CliffyB.I retired from Epic and all of it, and I missed making neat stuff," he says. And my agent at the time was needling me: Come on, you want to get back in, have your own studio? Look at what [Hideo] Kojima's doing.' And I was like: OK, if Kojima can do it, so can I.' Such hubris, right?" Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#76NFY)
Slimmer, longer lasting and much easier to live with, new Oura sets a very high new bar for health-tracking wearablesOura's new Ring 5 is a massive upgrade for smart rings, dramatically shrinking in size and weight to bring them right into line with standard wedding bands and other jewellery. It is finally a smart ring you can genuinely forget you're wearing.The Ring 5 is a straight replacement for the popular Ring 4 and costs from 399 (399/$399/$A649), though it requires a 5.99 (5.99/$5.99/A$9.99) a month subscription to access anything but basic daily metrics. An Oura is not a cheap proposition. Continue reading...
Since 2017, Iason Gabriel has worked at the tech giant, trying to anticipate - and think through - the impact of AI. But as commercial and geopolitical pressures escalate, can ethicists make any difference?In 2017, a 33-year-old political philosopher named Iason Gabriel was told by a friend that he ought to apply for a job at DeepMind, the London-based subsidiary of Google where much of its AI research was concentrated. The suggestion was not an obvious one.Gabriel was a cheerful but intense junior academic with a passion for Vipassana meditation and what his brother calls enthusiastic" rock climbing. The eldest son of a Greek management professor and a British documentary maker, Gabriel split his time between teaching and international development work. At the University of Oxford, where he was a fellow at St John's College, Gabriel taught courses on political theory and wrote papers on the moral contortions of yuppie ethics" and the ethical blind spots of effective altruism. When he wasn't there, he did crisis work for the United Nations Development Programme in Sudan and Lebanon. Continue reading...
Value of some chip manufacturers have tripled, or more, driving Asia Pacific stock markets sharply higherShares in chipmakers have surged in the first half of this year as investors piled into companies that make the hardware underpinning the AI boom, according to analysis.Investors have driven up the value of semiconductor and memory chip manufacturers, whose profits have soared during 2026, at the expense of some large software companies, which have fallen out of favour this year. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Senior political correspondent on (#76MQ1)
Exclusive: Safety campaigners concerned about plan for widespread deployment on already crowded pavementsLarge numbers of autonomous delivery robots could be coming to towns and cities across England after ministers signalled they were likely to support a change in the law allowing their use, prompting concern from safety campaigners.Low-speed robots, which mainly deliver groceries or takeaway food, are already in use in a handful of places but they operate in a regulatory grey area. The 1835 Highways Act bans carriages" from pavements. Continue reading...
by Sammy Gecsoyler and Charlotte Smith on (#76NG0)
Starship Technologies six-wheelers could soon become a more familiar sight across the country under new lawsDriving down an endless string of identical roundabouts in the dead heat with hardly a human in sight, you see robots roving around on grassy pavements, whizzing past obstacles to hurriedly reach their final destination. This isn't a scene from a Philip K Dick novel, however, but an average Thursday in Milton Keynes.The robots aren't a new arrival to the Buckinghamshire city, the UK's largest new town and a longtime marvel for city planning enthusiasts fascinated by its American-influenced layout and postwar history. They've roamed its streets since 2018 - and could soon be coming to a town or city near you. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#76N1D)
Camera, wifi and design updates bring welcome upgrades to Ring's top model in wired or battery flavourRing's recent revamp of its popular video doorbells with a more modern design is led by the top-of-the-line Video Doorbell Pro 3, which gains much-needed upgrades with a 4K camera and better wifi plus new interesting AI features.The new doorbells are sleeker but keep the unmistakable two-tone Ring colour scheme, button, logo and ringtone. Battery models start at 80 or equivalent, with the top model costing 219.99 (249.99/$249.99/A$329.99) with either a battery or wired, which is roughly in line with the competition. Continue reading...
In 1993, she squeezed a $333m settlement from a Californian energy company in a scandal over contaminated water. Three decades later, she has a new target in her sights - and it's globalWhen Erin Brockovich woke to find 30 emails from people from the same town, she realised something was going on. People email Brockovich all the time because of what happened in 1993, when she was instrumental in suing Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) on behalf of residents of the town of Hinkley, California, whose groundwater had been contaminated. The case resulted in a settlement of $333m - then the largest ever payout for a direct-action lawsuit. When she was immortalised by Julia Roberts in the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, she became the hero we didn't know we needed, a modern day Joan of Arc. She had won against PG&E with no formal legal training.The emails she received a few weeks ago were about datacentres. In April, she put a callout on her website asking for anyone with concerns about one near them to get in touch. Within a month, 3,862 people had replied. Tech companies have needed datacentres to power their technology for ever", she says, but the new ones being built to power AI? This feels like Hinkley on steroids." Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#76M76)
Up to 4,000 community banks fear looming legislation to regulate digital cash will deprive rural firms and farmers of $850bn-worth of loansOn a quiet summer morning, above a small mid-western town, an American flag is waving in the breeze. The camera cuts to a father helping his son at the wheel of a tractor, and flits to a smiling couple on a grass-lined pavement, moments before flashing to grainy images of crypto insiders" in suits.American families don't want experiments with their money," a voice booms. They want jobs, growth, and available credit. When crypto gets a free pass, communities pay the price." Continue reading...
The National Design Studio, staffed by Doge veterans, installed visitor-tracking software on vital federal websitesAn opaque White House office staffed largely by veterans of Elon Musk's department of government efficiency" (Doge) has quietly rebuilt some of the federal government's most sensitive websites - for passport applications, voter registration, prescription-drug pricing and children's savings - in ways critics say appear to violate federal law.The National Design Studio (NDS) was established by a Donald Trump executive order last August, and is led by Trump-aligned Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and staffed by Doge veterans. Continue reading...
A niche type of fraud is lucrative enough for criminals to set up fake websites with dodgy software to harvest your dataAfter holding them for a few years, you have decided it is time to cash in your cryptocurrency holdings. The problem is, it is so long since you set up the digital wallet which manages them on your laptop, you have forgotten the lengthy access code.Stressed at the thought of losing thousands of pounds, you search and download a program which promises to recover the 24-word seed phrase" which gives you access to your cypto assets. Continue reading...
