Technology | The Guardian

As a new book skewers Spotify's effect on music, two Guardian music writers spent a week assessing the limits of living with and without itLaura Snapes, deputy music editor I was set the task of not listening to Spotify for a week, but Alexis, your task was much worse: only listening to Spotify-created playlists, and the songs it suggested to you based on your listening history. How did that go?Alexis Petridis, chief rock and pop critic One day in the car I just listened to nothing instead of facing it again. When it plays me songs I like, it's not what I want to hear at that moment. That's not to say the music it was recommending wasn't good. One morning it played Schizophrenia by Sonic Youth. I love that song but I didn't want to hear it then. It played me Billie Holiday's Riffin' the Scotch followed by My Bloody Valentine, which clearly demonstrates the great breadth of my music taste - but just because I like it all doesn't mean I want to hear it all together. I didn't like that it was untouched by human hands. I always think that the amazing thing about a record collection is that it doesn't make sense to anybody other than you. And yet when it's presented like that, I find it really jarring and difficult - it's all over the place. Continue reading...

When his mum found their old family NES covered in dust and rust, Thomas Hobbs cleaned it up, got it working and reconnected with his childhood and late fatherOne of my earliest memories is watching my mum and dad play the opening level of Super Mario Bros in cooperative mode on the Nintendo Entertainment System. This was the early 1990s, and they were joined at the hip on the sofa, laughing at the idea of two portly plumbers becoming gigantic after consuming copious amounts of magic mushrooms.In this moment I sensed their natural chemistry, while the intoxicating mix of 8-bit visuals and perky, synth-heavy music blew my toddler mind. Although it was irritating seeing them constantly fail to jump high enough to hit the top of the flagpole at the end of the level, I remember being transfixed by the TV screen, and I'm pretty sure this was the first time I connected properly with a video game. Continue reading...

Shares plunge as firm says H20 chip, designed for Chinese market to comply with controls, now needs special licenceNvidia has said it expects a $5.5bn (4.1bn) hit after Donald Trump's administration barred the chip designer from selling crucial artificial intelligence chips in China, sending shares in one of the US's most valuable companies plunging in after-hours trading.The company said in an official filing late on Tuesday that its H20 AI chip, which was designed specifically for the Chinese market, to comply with export controls, would now require a special licence to sell there for the indefinite future". Continue reading...

Testimony that Instagram was better' seems to bolster allegations Meta used buy or bury' tactic to snap up rivalsMeta's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, considered spinning off Instagram in 2018 in anticipation of a potential antitrust suit, documents unveiled at a trial in Washington showed on Tuesday.While most companies resist break-ups, the corporate history is that most companies actually perform better after they've been split up," he wrote in an email at the time. He said there was a there is a non-trivial chance" his company would be forced to spin Instagram and WhatsApp out anyway. Continue reading...

Social media platform formerly known as Twitter says 66.3% revenue drop was down to fall in advertising incomeX's revenues and profits collapsed in the UK in the year after Elon Musk took over the social media platform, the company has admitted.A decline in advertising spending amid concerns about brand safety and/or content moderation" were cited as the reason for the fall, according to accounts filed this week to Companies House. Continue reading...

Warhol for colour, Hopper for volume ... American art world star David Salle is using AI on old paintings of his that had a mixed reception - with wild, sprawling results. Why isn't he afraid of being replaced?By the time you read this article, there's a good chance it will have already been scanned by an artificially intelligent machine. If asked about the artist David Salle, large language models such as ChatGPT or Gemini may repurpose some of the words below to come up with their answer. The bigger the data set, the more convincing the response - and Salle has been written about exhaustively since he first rose to art world stardom in the 1980s. The question is whether AI can ever say anything new about the artist and his work, or if it's for ever condemned to generate more of the same.A similar question lingers beneath the surface of the paintings that Salle has been making since 2023, a new series of which he has just unveiled at Thaddaeus Ropac in London. His New Pastorals were made with the aid of machine-learning software, though that's not immediately apparent from looking at them. Each monumental canvas bears broad, gestural strokes of oil paint seemingly applied by the artist's own hand. Close study however reveals large patches of flat, digitally printed underpainting. This is the mark of the AI model which Salle has been training to generate his work - or at least something uncannily close to it. Continue reading...

Blue Origin crew' | Vanity mission | Privileged ladies | Travel tech | Overheard in hospitalLauren Sanchez, Katy Perry and their companions were no more crew" of the Blue Origin than my family and I were crew of the British Airways flight from Marrakech to Gatwick on Sunday as we returned from holiday (Blue Origin crew including Katy Perry safely returns to Earth after space flight, 14 April). We were all, in fact, passengers.

Plan comes after Donald Trump reiterated import threats and chipmaker's CEO dined at US president's resortThe chip designer Nvidia has said it will build up to $500bn (378bn) worth of artificial intelligence infrastructure in the US over the next four years, in a sign of manufacturers investing in operations on American soil amid Donald Trump's tariffs.The announcement comes after Trump reiterated threats on Sunday to impose imminent tariffs on the semiconductors that Nvidia makes mostly in Taiwan, and after the chipmaker's chief executive, Jensen Huang, dined at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month. Continue reading...

Class-leading camera, top-tier chip, very long battery life, AI and quality software dominate mid-range rivalsGoogle's latest cut-price Pixel offers the best bang for your buck in Android phones and is arguably better in many areas than some models costing twice the price.The Pixel 9a starts at the same 499 (549/$499/A$849) as last year's equally good value model. That makes it 300 or so less than Google's regular Pixel 9 and places it up against mid-rangers such as Nothing's Phone 3a Pro and Samsung's Galaxy A56.Screen: 6.3in 120Hz FHD+ OLED (422ppi)Processor: Google Tensor G4RAM: 8GBStorage: 128 or 256GBOperating system: Android 15Camera: 48MP + 13MP ultrawide, 13MP selfieConnectivity: 5G, Sim/eSim, wifi 6E, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 and GNSSWater resistance: IP68 (1m for 30 minutes)Dimensions: 157.7 x 73.3 x 8.9mmWeight: 185.9g Continue reading...

From virtual wives' to mental health support, more than 100m people are using personified chatbotsMen who have virtual wives" and neurodiverse people using chatbots to help them navigate relationships are among a growing range of ways in which artificial intelligence is transforming human connection and intimacy.Dozens of readers shared their experiences of using personified AI chatbot apps, engineered to simulate human-like interactions by adaptive learning and personalised responses, in response to a Guardian callout. Continue reading...

Analysis finds Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft averaged 18.8%, compared with 29.7% US averageThe big American tech firms known as the Silicon Six" have been accused of paying almost $278bn (211bn) less corporate income tax in the past decade compared with the statutory rate for US companies making the same profits.Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft generated $11tn of revenue and $2.5tn of profits over the past 10 years. Continue reading...

Dr Robert Harrison says that instead of banning devices, we should be teaching students how to navigate online spaces and disinformationIt is incredibly disappointing to read that so many schools in England have implemented an outright ban on phone use (More than 90% of schools in England ban mobile phone use, survey shows, 10 April). While student engagement and the addiction to phones and social media certainly need to be addressed, schools are more likely to support students' development if they teach them how to use technology in ways that are healthy, purposeful and life-enhancing. A balanced, nuanced approach to phone use can still promote social interaction for children of all ages and encourage learning beyond theclassroom.All students should be equipped to access quality information and transfer knowledge quicker in their pursuit of independent learning. Ifphones or tablets can help achieve that goal, maybe we should not be so quick to dismiss them inschools. Continue reading...

Facebook parent faces threats of illegal social media monopoly after spending billions to acquire two platformsFacebook parent Meta Platforms faces a high-stakes trial in Washington starting on Monday on claims it built an illegal social media monopoly by spending billions of dollars to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp, in a case in which US antitrust enforcers seek to unwind the deals.The acquisitions more than a decade ago aimed to eliminate nascent competitors who could threaten Facebook's status as the go-to social media platform for users to connect with friends and family, the US Federal Trade Commission claims. It filed the case in 2020 during Donald Trump's first term. Continue reading...

Looking for love or a new career in San Francisco, Los Angeles or Phoenix? You just might find it in a Waymo autonomous vehicleName: Waymo.Age: Founded in 2009 as the Google Self-Driving Car Project. Continue reading...

This story from Charlie Brooker's dystopian series is set at PC Zone magazine and thrillingly close to true events at one dingy London office in the 90sOut of all the episodes in the excellent seventh season of Black Mirror, it's Plaything that sticks out to me and I suspect to anyone else who played video games in the 1990s. It's the story of socially awkward freelance games journalist, Cameron Walker, who steals the code to a new virtual pet sim named Thronglets from the developer he's meant to be interviewing. When he gets the game home, he realises the cute, intelligent little critters he's caring for on the screen have a darker ambition than simply to perform for his amusement - cue nightmarish exploration of AI and our complicity in its rise.The episode is interesting to me because ... well, I was a socially awkward games journalist in the mid-1990s. But more importantly, so was Charlie Brooker. He began his writing career penning satirical features and blistering reviews for PC Zone magazine, one of the two permanently warring PC mags of the era (I shared an office with the other, PC Gamer). In Plaything, it's PC Zone that Cameron Walker writes for, and there are several scenes taking place in its office, which in the programme is depicted as a reasonably grownup office space with tidy computer workstations and huge windows. I do not think the production design team got this vision from Brooker. Continue reading...

People tell how their children have been negatively affected by the gaming platform or have come to serious harm

Exclusive: Gaming platform accused of troubling disconnect between child-friendly appearance and reality'

The US president has said no one is getting off the hook', as he promises to launch a national security investigation into the semiconductor sectorThe exemption of smartphones, laptops and other electronic products from import tariffs on China will be short-lived, top US officials have said, with Donald Trump warning that no one was getting off the hook."There was no Tariff exception', Trump said in a social media post on Sunday. These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff bucket.'" Continue reading...

Readers respond to Adrian Chiles's piece about the loud use of phones on public transport with no consideration for othersIn response to the article by Adrian Chiles (Where have all the headphones gone on public transport? The noise is eating into my soul, 9 April), I sat next to a guy on a flight who watched the entirety of an explosion- and gunfire-filled action film on his phone with no headphones. We'd spoken a little pre-flight and at the time I realised that that was my best chance to ask someone what the hell they thought they were doing. I also realised that if it went down badly, I had nowhere else to go.So I did what we all do, and sat and stewed in silence. I do regret not asking, and am filled with the same sense of wonder and disgust every time I'm in this situation on a bus or train. Continue reading...

New measures announced to help tariff-hit British firms amid ambitious plans to foster closer ties with EUThe chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has set out the case for far-reaching changes to global trade and economic agreements, admitting that Donald Trump's tariffs will have a profound" effect on the UK and world economies that require a strong international response.In her first significant intervention since the US president caused chaos on the global financial markets by announcing huge levies on imports to the US, Reeves says in a column for the Observer that she is under no illusion about the difficulties that lie ahead". Continue reading...

Amir Makled says immigration officials questioned him about his phone's contents. Experts warn fourth amendment rights have been weakened at the borderAmir Makled thought he was being racially profiled. A Lebanese American who was born and raised in Detroit, the attorney was returning home from a family vacation in the Dominican Republic when he said an immigration official at the Detroit Metro airport asked for a TTRT" agent after scanning his passport on Sunday. Makled said the expression on the agent's face changed. He felt something odd" was happening.So I Googled what TTRT meant. I didn't know," Makled said. And what I found out was it meant Tactical Terrorism Response Team. So immediately I knew they're gonna take me in for questioning. And that's when I felt like I was being racially profiled or targeted because I am Arab." Continue reading...

Meta ending DEI programs, getting rid of factcheckers and changing content moderation policies led to LDF's decisionOn Friday, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) announced its decision to exit Meta's external civil rights advisory group due to its concerns over Meta's content moderation and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) policy changes.In January, Meta made a series of sweeping changes, including ending its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, getting rid of its factcheckers and changing its content moderation policies. These changes, which some saw as aligning Meta with the then incoming Trump administration, informed the LDF's decision to leave the civil rights advisory group. Continue reading...

The Guardian speaks to Manna Aero founder and orders coffee via startup's app to be delivered to a suburban homeOne drone lifts up into the sky at a shopping centre on the outskirts of Dublin, then another. They rise to 70ft (21 metres), tilt forward and zip away in different directions, each carrying a paper bag.On a sleepy morning in the Irish capital the takeoffs build to a steady one every few minutes, with barely anyone glancing at the constant stream of aircraft buzzing back and forth. Continue reading...

Dogubomb/Raw Fury; PC, PS5, Xbox

Carmaker removes order now' buttons for Model S saloon and Model X SUV on its Chinese website amid tariffs war

ChatGPT developer asks US federal judge to stop former founder making any further attacksThe ChatGPT developer OpenAI has countersued Elon Musk, accusing the billionaire of harassment and asking a US federal judge to stop him from any further unlawful and unfair action" against the company.OpenAI was co-founded by Musk and its chief executive, Sam Altman, in 2015. However, the two men have been at loggerheads for years over its direction as it transitions from a complex non-profit structure into a more traditional for-profit business. Continue reading...

Sidelining Fifa's team-focused tactics to put you in the studded boots of a single player, Sloclap's open beta scoresIn the early 00s, offbeat sports games were king. From the slam-dunking shenanigans of NBA Street to Mario Strikers' show-stopping absurdity, once serious competitions were reimagined as wonderfully silly grudge matches. Yet as the live service era arrived, sport sims became less about pulse-pumping plays, and more about collecting increasingly expensive virtual trading cards.Enter Rematch, a refreshingly action-packed reimagining of the beautiful game. Channelling the scrappy thrills of Powerleague five-a-side, Rematch sidelines Fifa's team-focused tactics to put you in the studded boots of a single player. With controls like a third-person action game, developer Sloclap channels its martial arts-heavy experience with previous titles Sifu and Absolver into creating weighty, skill-driven football. It's wonderfully agile, fast and furious stuff. Passes are delivered manually, shots are curled in the heat of the moment, and goalies come sprinting down the halfway line like an Oliver Kahn possessed. Gratuitous slide tackles and bicycle kicks are the order of the day, and as my teammates and I score our respective half-line screamers, I can't stop grinning. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: Momentum is growing for stricter smartphone rules for children, as schools, parents, and the Children's Commissioner push for bans amid rising concernsGood morning. If your child is using their smartphone at school, they are very likely to be breaking the rules. That is the conclusion of a new report from the Children's Commissioner, Rachel de Souza, which says that 90% of secondaries and almost 100% of primaries in England have policies in place limiting use of mobile phones in school hours, with many of them requiring children to leave their devices at home or hand them over when they arrive.Those figures, the most robust evidence yet on how schools handle the issue, might be seen as part of a broader pattern: where once there was little but resignation to the ubiquity of smartphones, there are growing signs of a fightback. Today's newsletter is about the evidence of a shift in how we treat smartphones in childhood - and how it happened much more gradually than it might appear. Here are the headlines.Trump tariffs | After their initial rally in response to Donald Trump's shock retreat on tariffs, US stocks fell again on Thursday. The sell-off deepened after a White House clarification noted that total tariffs on China had been raised by 145% since Trump took office.Women's health | More than a quarter of women in England are living with a serious reproductive health issue, according to the largest survey of its kind, and experts say systemic, operational, structural and cultural issues" prevent women from accessing care.UK Politics | Nigel Farage has rebuffed a suggestion from Kemi Badenoch that Conservative and Reform UK councillors could form coalitions in town halls after the local elections. The Reform leader said his party had no intention" of forming coalitions with the Tories at any level after 1 May.US news | A helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York on Thursday, killing all six people onboard, including the pilot and a family of Spanish tourists with three children. The sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed upside down into the Hudson River.Peerages | Michael Gove is among those to be awarded a peerage in Rishi Sunak's resignation honours list. The veteran Conservative politician and editor of the Spectator, who retired as an MP at the last election, is understood to be on the list due to be published as soon as Friday. Continue reading...

Time without screens doesn't need to feel like homework, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. But it might help to suggest some active alternatives

Campaign group Everyone Hates Elon organised protest with car bound for scrapheap to create debate about wealth inequality'Protective helmets were donned and sledgehammers wielded as Elon Musk critics vented their frustration at the Tesla boss and billionaire by smashing up a disused Tesla bound for the scrapheap.The public art project was organised by the social media campaign group Everyone Hates Elon. A 2014 Tesla Model S was provided by an anonymous donor to create a debate about wealth inequality", a spokesperson for the group said. Continue reading...

Ilyas Nagdee of Amnesty International and others respond to government plans to use personal data to identify people most likely to become killersRe your article (Dystopian' tool aims to predict murder, 9 April), the collection and automation of data has repeatedly led to the targeting of racialised and low-income communities, and must come to an end. This has been found by both Amnesty International in our Automated Racism report and by Statewatch in its findings on the murder prediction" tool.For many years, successive governments have invested in data-driven and data-based systems, stating they will increase public safety - yet individual police forces and Home Office evaluations have found no compelling evidence that these systems have had any impact on reducing crime. Continue reading...

Liftoff not possible' for rocket carrying Project Kuiper satellites, due to clouds that could trigger lightning strikesWeather prevented a rocket carrying the first batch of Amazon satellites designed to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink from lifting off on Wednesday, in a setback for the planned Project Kuiper network.Stubborn cumulus clouds and persistent winds make liftoff not possible within the available window," read a liveblog update from operator United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida had originally been slated for 7pm (2300 GMT). Continue reading...

Tech firm has reportedly flown 600 tonnes of handsets from Indian factories as Chinese goods face huge tariffsApple is reportedly chartering cargo flights to ferry iPhones from its Indian manufacturing plants to the US in an attempt to beat Donald Trump's tariffs.The tech company has flown 600 tonnes of iPhones, or as many as 1.5m handsets, to the US from India since March after ramping up production at its plants in the country, according to Reuters. Continue reading...

Forever running out of juice? Top up your battery-powered devices with our expert picks, from tiny smartphone chargers to portable power banks and even a power hat The best iPhones in 2025: which Apple smartphone is right for youIt's disempowering when your smartphone, laptop or other important gadget runs out of battery. With the flash of a graphic or a plaintive bleep, we lose a way to entertain ourselves, get things done, stay in touch or even get home safely. There's a time and a place for a digital detox - but what is the time, and where am I?Carrying a power bank is your ticket out of electronic oblivion. These pocket-sized cuboids plug into compatible devices and charge them, often via assorted connections, including USB-C and USB-A. Most power banks are made for charging smartphones and smaller gadgets, such as fitness trackers and earbuds, but some models can also charge power-hungrier laptops and large portable speakers.Best power bank overall:

Former Sinn Fein president says Facebook owner included at least seven of his books in trawl of copyright materialThe former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is considering legal action against Meta because it may have used his books to train artificial intelligence.Adams said the tech company included at least seven of his books in a vast trawl of copyright material to develop its AI systems. Meta has used many of my books without my permission. I have placed the issue in the hands of my solicitor," he said. Continue reading...

The billionaire's Doge may be secretly recording meetings in at least two agencies, according to emails from senior officialsAt the Department of Veterans Affairs, a senior official warned employees in an email that virtual meetings were being secretly recorded. Anyone dissatisfied with Donald Trump's decisions should be careful about voicing their opinions, the official cautioned.Over at the state department, IT staff said new monitoring software had been loaded onto computers. Some staffers had started using white noise machines in their offices, or even turned on an office breakroom sink, to muffle conversations in case there might be any hot mics within range. Continue reading...

Pupils to be separated from devices for entire school day from September after trial of digital pause' schemeFrance is to tighten its ban on the use of mobile phones in middle schools, making pupils at the ages of 11 to 15 shut away their devices in a locker or pouch at the start of the day and access them again only as they are leaving.The education minister told the senate she wanted children to be fully separated from their phones throughout the school day in all French middle schools from September. Continue reading...

British startup will license content to train latest model for more human-like performances' from its avatarsA $2bn (1.6bn) British startup that uses artificial intelligence to generate realistic avatars has struck a licensing deal with the stock footage firm Shutterstock to help develop its technology.Synthesia will pay the US-based Shutterstock an undisclosed sum to use its library of corporate video footage to train its latest AI model. It expects that incorporating the clips into its model will produce even more realistic expressions, vocal tones and body language from the avatars. Continue reading...

A new progressivism embracing construction over obstruction must find new allegories for technology and the futureBlack Mirror is more than science fiction - its stories about modernity have become akin to science folklore, shaping our collective view of technology and the future.Each new innovation gets an allegory: smartphones as tools for a new age caste system, robot dogs as overzealous human hunters, drones as a murderous swarm, artificial intelligence as new age necromancy, virtual reality and brain chips as seizure-inducing nightmares, to name a few. Episodes most often channel our collective anxieties about the future - or foment new ones through masterly writing, directing, casting and acting. It is a must-watch, but must we take it so seriously? Continue reading...

Head of National Education Union calls for statutory ban on phones in schools and social media ban for under-16sAlmost all schools in England have banned mobile phone use by pupils, according to the first national survey conducted, as the leader of the largest teaching union called for a statutory ban owing to the damaging impact" on young people.The national survey, ordered by Rachel de Souza, the children's commissioner for England, showed that headteachers have swiftly instituted bans on smartphone use during school hours. The survey of more than 15,000 schools found that 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools have some form of ban. Continue reading...

Five new boxes in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire enable company to cash in on boom in secondhand sellingRoyal Mail has unveiled a solar-powered postbox of the future" with a built-in barcode reader and a hatch to accept parcels larger than letterbox size.In the biggest change to postbox design since their introduction more than 175 years ago", the hi-tech pillar box looks as if it is wearing a jaunty beret. The black, chequered lid is in fact solar panels that power the scanner. Continue reading...

Business owners warn taxes may increase parts prices, making electronics repairs more costly than beforeTariffs that took effect in the US at midnight on Wednesday are expected to make buying new smartphones more expensive. But opting to fix an old or damaged device as a way to save money may not avoid a higher bill.We do expect that we'll have to increase our own parts prices some, too, unfortunately," said Elizabeth Chamberlain, the director of sustainability at the device repair company iFixit. We're actively looking for sources of harvested parts from within the US. Even with higher prices on parts, however, repairs will still be much more economical than buying new." Continue reading...

Former TV doctor who leads $1.5tn Medicare and Medicaid agency also says staff have patriotic duty' to stay healthyDr Mehmet Oz reportedly told federal staffers that artificial intelligence models may be better than frontline human physicians in his first all-staff meeting this week.Oz told staffers that if a patient went to the doctor for a diabetes diagnosis it would cost roughly $100 an hour, compared with $2 an hour for an AI visit, according to unnamed sources who spoke to Wired magazine. He added that patients may prefer an AI avatar. Continue reading...

Experts doubt Trump line that tariffs and company's $500bn investment will shift manufacturing from AsiaThe White House is insisting that Donald Trump's vision of Apple's flagship iPhones being manufactured in the US will come to fruition, despite assertions from analysts and the company itself that it would not be possible.The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters during Tuesday's briefing that the president believed Apple's recently announced $500bn investment, as well as increasing import costs sparked by his trade tariffs, would encourage the company to ramp up manufacturing in the US. Continue reading...

Just one antisocial fellow traveller can ruin a journey. Is it a giant two-fingered gesture to the rest of the world?Some time in the early years of the last decade, a friend and I travelled by train from London to Barcelona, where we would be covering a football match for work. We had a very nice day, playing Scrabble and drinking train wine as we sped south. The only problem was that a kid near us, not 10 years old, was watching a cartoon or playing a game on an iPad without the benefit of headphones. The sound wasn't so much loud as persistent. Slowly but surely it drilled its way into our skulls and started to eat into our souls. I shot the family a couple of glances but got a look back which managed to communicate two things. Firstly that they were sorry. Secondly that if they took the iPad off the kid, we'd all be sorry. So, on he went. And an otherwise perfectly pleasurable journey started to drag.Then I had an idea. I got my headphones out of my bag, caught the mother's eye, and handed them over. After a bit of faff they were connected to the iPad, the wretched noise ceased and I got a round of applause from men, women and children of many nations. I relate this story even though I never think it's a good look to be the hero of your own anecdotes. My excuse is that the incident reminds me of how rare such behaviour was back then. Yes, people were known to yak away too loudly on their phones, but whoever they were talking at remained a stranger to us. And if anyone was watching or listening to something, they'd be using headphones. True, a bit of tinny noise would occasionally leak out, which was annoying, but that was about as bad as things got.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...

The second Trump administration was backed and is staffed by two major - and widely differing - ideological projectsThe start of the second Trump administration has been chaotic, to put it mildly. It is difficult for Americans to understand what exactly the administration is trying to do and how it will affect them. It has been simultaneously a colossal remaking of the US state and the entire global order, but also seemingly haphazard, with significant policy decisions such as spending cuts and tariff rates clearly made with little thought or preparation. Analysts and commentators of all stripes have speculated on the motives and strategy behind the Trump administration's huge overhaul of society. But what is the Trump administration's plan for the US?The primary moves the administration has made are major cuts to federal government capacity through the department of government efficiency" (Doge) and now an unprecedented tariff regime that has sent financial markets into a free fall. Some view these changes as part of a grand overarching strategy to rebuild some version of an imagined past America: globally hegemonic and able to exercise power nakedly over other countries, economically self-sufficient with a large manufacturing base, and a reassertion of the previous social norms and order around gender, race, and sexuality. But a deeper dive into the Trump administration's explanation of their policies and vision reveals that rather than a single, coherent ideological project, the Trump administration is sclerotic and being used as a vehicle for more than one competing ideological project. Continue reading...

Up to five sites with power-hungry supercomputers and datacentres planned to drive AI moonshots'

Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building datacentres in water-scarce parts of five continentsAmazon, Microsoft and Google are operating datacentres that use vast amounts of water in some of the world's driest areas and are building many more, the non-profit investigatory organisation SourceMaterial and the Guardian have found.With Donald Trump pledging to support them, the three technology giants are planning hundreds of datacentres in the US and across the globe, with a potentially huge impact on populations already living with water scarcity. Continue reading...

Ofcom's first investigation to look into whether site took adequate measures to shield users from illegal contentThe UK communications regulator has announced its first investigation under the new digital safety laws with an inquiry into an online suicide forum.Ofcom is investigating whether the site breached the Online Safety Act by failing to put in place adequate measures to shield its users from illegal content. Continue reading...

Astro Bot wins in five categories as the night's most nominated Senua's Saga: Hellblade II victorious in just oneIn a video game year dominated by dark, bloody fantasy adventures - and continued job losses and studio closures - it was a cute robot that stole the night at the 2025 Bafta video game awards. Sony's family-friendly platformer Astro Bot won in five categories at yesterday evening's ceremony, including best game and game design.The rest of the awards were evenly spread across a range of Triple A and independent titles. Oil rig thriller Still Wakes the Deep was the next biggest winner with three awards: new intellectual property, performer in a leading role and performer in a supporting role. Clearly actors looking for Bafta-winning roles need look no further than the North Sea. The only other multiple winner was online shooter Helldivers 2, which won in multiplayer and music. The night's most nominated title, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, was victorious in just the one category: technical achievement. Continue reading...