Chief scientific adviser will head new government body looking at big bets in science and technologyThe government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, has been asked by Boris Johnson to investigate whether the UK’s successful vaccine procurement programme can be replicated in other areas of technology.Vallance, who has become a household name following his appearances at coronavirus press conferences, will take on the new title of national technology adviser, serving alongside his current roles. Continue reading...
The Booker prize-winning author on Mare of Easttown, her favourite lockdown park and the fearsome power of folk musicBorn in Dublin in 1962, Anne Enright studied English and philosophy at Trinity College Dublin and received an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. Formerly an RTE television producer, she has written two collections of stories, published together as Yesterday’s Weather, one book of essays and seven novels, including the 2007 Booker prize-winning The Gathering and The Forgotten Waltz, which was awarded the Andrew Carnegie medal for excellence in fiction. In 2015, she was named the inaugural laureate for Irish fiction. Her latest novel, Actress, published by Vintage, is out in paperback now. Continue reading...
Owner of video-sharing app also reports a 93% increase in gross profit to $19bn in 2020ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, more than doubled its revenues last year as usage of the hugely popular video app boomed.The company, which last year weathered pressure from Donald Trump to sell its US operation as part of a trade war with China, reported a 111% increase in revenues to $34.3bn (£24.7bn). Continue reading...
This year’s online-only E3 video game expo was hardly the usual explosion of blockbuster games, but there were still some standout storiesWe all wanted to see Metroid Prime 4, the long-anticipated first-person science-fiction shooter-adventure that has been in development at Nintendo for an absolute age. But instead we got a whole new Metroid – a 2D one in the vein of the SNES and Game Boy Advance classics, the first game in the series in this style for about 19 years. Metroid Dread features Samus Aran being chased by distressing, transforming drone-robots who appear to be largely impervious to her ever-expanding array of weapons, and it looks genuinely scary. It’ll be out on 8 October on Nintendo Switch. Continue reading...
Firm says sites are slow to act when warned that fake reviews are being solicited on their platformsAmazon has blamed social media companies for its failure to remove fake reviews from its website, arguing that “bad actors” turn to social networks to buy and sell fake product reviews outside the reach of its own technology.The company says it removed more than 200m suspected fake reviews before they were seen by customers in 2020 alone, but nonetheless has faced continued criticism for the enormous scale of fake and misleading reviews that make it on to its store. Continue reading...
The California startup leads a global push toward lab-grown meat. But experts question its bold claimsIn December of last year, a handful of diners sat down to a futuristic meal at 1880, a members-only restaurant in Singapore. The star ingredient was “no-kill” chicken – raised not on a farm but in a laboratory bioreactor. Attendees snacked on lab-grown nuggets paired with crispy maple waffles, bao buns, and black bean puree.For the California entrepreneur Josh Tetrick, it was a breakthrough. His company, Eat Just, had become the first in the world to sell the product after receiving approval from Singapore authorities. Headlines hailed a landmark step in the quest to end animal agriculture, upend the meat industry and redefine our diets. Continue reading...
There was no Switch Pro announcement, but Nintendo brought Zelda, Metroid and WarioWare to its E3 showNintendo showed new footage of the long-awaited sequel Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 during its E3 live stream on Tuesday afternoon, along with a tentative launch date of 2022.The company revealed a new teaser for the game, which is set in the same world as its critically acclaimed predecessor. This time, the action will take in the skies above Hyrule as well as on land, with Link able to fly to islands floating far above the Earth. Continue reading...
After being laid off during Covid, my dad set his heart on a job at Costco. I told Twitter about it – cue a social media explosionNearly a year after he’d been laid off because of Covid, my dad – a jubilant, always-smiling, 58-year-old Michigander best known for befriending everyone he meets – told me he wanted to go back to work.Specifically, he wanted to work at Costco. Continue reading...
A survey shows that nearly half of young, single Americans haven’t had any physical intimacy with anyone since the pandemic started, and two thirds are planning on sticking with virtual intimacy post-Covid
News follows disclosure of competition case brought by small traders against US tech giant and family-run Indian joint venture CloudtailA joint venture between Rishi Sunak’s billionaire in-laws and the internet retailing giant Amazon is in a multimillion-pound dispute with the Indian tax authorities, a Guardian investigation has found.The disclosure adds to the list of legal battles currently involving the joint venture, following news on Friday that India’s competition commission has been given permission to relaunch an investigation into Amazon. Continue reading...
From Halo Infinite to the long anticipated role-playing adventure Starfield, Microsoft is promising a big show for this year’s digital only E3 conference7.43pm BSTVirtual E3 is all a bit weird and disappointing but there were some great-looking games in Microsoft and Bethesda’s line-up. Here’s all the news, for those just joining us:7.23pm BSTIt’s something new from Arkane, makers of Dishonored and Prey. It’s an Xbox exclusive, an open-world shooter that you can apparently play alone or with friends. We’re seeing Heroes-esque young things with telekinetic powers, perusing a destroyed storefront. Then we see what happened: a supernatural firefight against VAMPIRES, assisted by locals who apparently worship them. They have a glowing purple Tardis and a robot dog? I’m into this. It’s called Redfall and it’s out summer next year. Continue reading...
CMA’s move thought to be first time regulator involved at an early stage in new technology creationThe UK Competition and Markets Authority has announced it will take an active role in developing Google’s plans to prevent websites tracking Chrome users.Under the proposals, the CMA would accept legally binding commitments from Google not to use its proposed replacements for tracking cookies, a set of technologies the search engine calls its Privacy Sandbox, in a way that would harm competition. It is thought to be the first time a competition regulator has been involved at such an early stage in the creation of a new technology. Continue reading...
Inquiry will include company’s £1bn-a-year joint venture with Rishi Sunak’s father-in-lawThe Indian competition commission is to relaunch an investigation into Amazon’s selling practices, which will examine the company’s £1bn-a-year joint venture with UK chancellor Rishi Sunak’s billionaire father-in-law.The investigation, originally announced in January 2020, will proceed after an Indian court on Friday dismissed pleas by Amazon and its rival – the Walmart-owned Flipkart – to quash its investigation into the business practices of the huge US retailers. Continue reading...
FEC investigation failed to uncover link to Rally Forge, a firm with close ties to Turning Point USAA digital marketing firm closely linked to the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA was responsible for a series of deceptive Facebook ads promoting Green party candidates during the 2018 US midterm elections, the Guardian can reveal.In an apparent attempt to split the Democratic vote in a number of close races, the ads purported to come from an organization called America Progress Now (APN) and used socialist memes and rhetoric to urge leftwing voters to support Green party candidates. Continue reading...
Gimlet’s smash hit podcast returns from an enforced hiatus this week ... minus one of its hosts. But its future, and that of other shows blighted by controversy, is now precariousLast summer, Reply All’s reputation was at an all-time high. The long-running internet-themed podcast had recently released an episode about a man with a 90s pop song stuck in his head – a piece of music, it seemed, that nobody else on Earth could remember. The show’s hosts, PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman, gamely investigated, leaving no stone unturned and roping in some music heavyweights to help out. Expertly paced and impossible to second-guess, it combined a tantalising conceit with an incredible payoff. The Case of the Missing Hit was heralded by critics as one of the greatest podcast episodes of all time.Mere months later, Reply All was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. At the start of 2021, it launched a spin-off miniseries called The Test Kitchen, which focused on the allegedly toxic and racist workplace culture at the food magazine Bon Appétit. However, after only two episodes had been released, a former colleague accused the team behind The Test Kitchen of promulgating a similar environment at Gimlet Media, the company that makes Reply All. Continue reading...
Could using digital tags to track fish reduce seafood fraud, help conservation and hold everyone in the supply chain to account?In recent weeks, a new $50m (£35m) hybrid vessel set sail from Mauritius and headed out into the Southern Ocean where the crew will spend three months longline fishing for the Patagonian toothfish. By the time the fish are brought back, processed and sent to customers, consumers will know where and when that specific fish was caught, which boat landed it, who processed it and which certifications have been met. The technology enabling this is blockchain.“From the day it’s landed to when it ends up on someone’s plate, blockchain gives toothfish traceability right from the start,” says Steve Paku, captain of the Cape Arkona. “People can just scan the barcode and the whole story is right there in front of them.” Continue reading...
It is not clear if UK government had alternative that would have allowed services to be back online promptlyTuesday morning’s 45-minute internet outage, which knocked out the Gov.uk domain as well as a string of publishers and other websites, cannot easily be dismissed as an isolated event. It demonstrates a lack of resilience at the heart of critical government services.Anybody wanting to book a Covid test in the late morning on Gov.uk would have struggled. There is an alternative method, by phone, but who knows the number to call: 119? Government services that once delivered by form and post, then call centres, now only really exist through online connections. Continue reading...
The average household has more than £300 worth of unused cookery kit. Here, experts offer tips on how to make bread, ice-cream and other delicious foods without fancy contraptionsJacob Kenedy’s home kitchen is full of things he rarely uses: a sushi mat, a coconut grater, a pestle and mortar, even a borrowed turbotière (a kite-shaped pan specifically for poaching turbot). “I’m the worst,” confesses the chef-owner at Bocca di Lupo in central London. “I buy gadgets all the time. I’m a kleptomaniac of other cuisines; I’ve an enormous kitchen island full of crap.”Kenedy is not alone. In a survey last year, tapwarehouse.com found that 41% of tagine owners had never used theirs. Spiralizers, waffle-irons and juicers are all gathering dust, too, with the average household home to £311 of unused kitchen equipment. Continue reading...
Voice assistant will no longer send audio recordings to firm’s servers, instead processing requests ‘on device’Apple will no longer send Siri requests to its servers, the company has announced, in a move to substantially speed up the voice assistant’s operation and address privacy concerns.The new feature comes two years after the Guardian revealed that Apple staff regularly heard confidential details while carrying out quality control for the feature. Continue reading...
Tech giant will pay £189m after settlement found it unfairly favoured its own tools for buying and selling adsGoogle has been fined €220m (£189m) by French competition regulators for abusing its dominance in the online advertising market in a landmark settlement that could rebalance the relationship between tech giants and digital publishers.The settlement with the French competition authority, which found that Google unfairly favoured its own tools for buying and selling adverts online over those of rivals, marks the first time the Silicon Valley company has agreed to make changes to its practices as a result of the investigation. Continue reading...
by Richard Partington Economics correspondent on (#5JRSP)
Reforms force multinationals to pay tax in all countries they operate in, but Amazon could evade new rulesThe G7 group of wealthy nations signed a historic tax agreement to tackle tax abuses by multinationals and online technology companies on Saturday, agreeing to a minimum global corporate tax rate for the first time.Although broadly welcomed by tax campaigners and labelled a moment that would “change the world” by G7 finance ministers, months and possibly years of talks still need to take place before the rules come into force. Continue reading...
Amazon founder’s brother, Mark, and one other person will join Bezos onboard Blue Origin vessel on 20 JulyJeff Bezos will no longer be the richest person on Earth on 20 July because the Amazon founder will be blasting off into space on the first crewed flight of his New Shepard rocket ship.Joining Bezos on the flight will be his younger brother, Mark, a former advertising executive and volunteer firefighter. The third member of the crew is being decided by a charity auction, with the seat currently priced at $2.8m (£2m) five days ahead of the deadline for bids. Continue reading...
Exclusive: communique from ministers suggests deal only applies to ‘profit exceeding a 10% margin’, which could rule out AmazonExperts have raised concerns that Amazon may escape paying significantly more tax in some of its biggest markets unless world leaders close a large loophole in a historic global deal.Finance ministers in London from the G7 group of wealthy nations, including representatives of the UK, US and EU, on Saturday agreed the landmark deal aimed at making the biggest companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook pay more tax. Continue reading...
The AI researcher on how natural resources and human labour drive machine learning and the regressive stereotypes that are baked into its algorithmsKate Crawford studies the social and political implications of artificial intelligence. She is a research professor of communication and science and technology studies at the University of Southern California and a senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research. Her new book, Atlas of AI, looks at what it takes to make AI and what’s at stake as it reshapes our world.You’ve written a book critical of AI but you work for a company that is among the leaders in its deployment. How do you square that circle?
The fashion resale app and its young users represents the likely future of retail: more online, more sustainable, and more socialDepop, the fashion resale app, has joined fellow British tech companies such as Arm Holdings and DeepMind in heading to a deep pool of investment outside its homeland.London-based Depop’s acquisition by Brooklyn-based Etsy for $1.6bn (£1.1bn) last week came just days after Oxford-based WaveOptics, a maker of displays used in augmented-reality glasses, was bought up by the Santa Monica-headquartered owner of Snapchat for $500m. Continue reading...
Wise Bank of England heads are pondering the case for a state-run digital currency this week. But do we really need one?When Google announced that bitcoin traders would be allowed to buy advertising space on its pages from August, central banks were alerted to the next likely surge in publicity for cryptocurrencies.The increasing activity around digital currencies has not gone unnoticed at the Bank of England, and on 7 June Threadneedle Street’s brightest will publish a consultation document, setting out how a publicly operated electronic coinage system – one that would rival bitcoin – might work. Continue reading...
Whether single, curious or just plain horny, many people are planning to make the most of life after lockdowns. Are we ready to get up close and personal?
Christopher Wray also revealed that the agency is investigating about 100 kinds of ransomware cyber-attacksThe FBI has compared a recent string of cyber-attacks on US government and corporate entities to defense difficulties presented by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.Christopher Wray, the FBI director, also revealed that the agency is investigating about 100 kinds of ransomware, with many tracing back to criminal operators in Russia. Continue reading...
Twitter Blue, launched in Australia and Canada, also allows users to manage bookmarks and tweak coloursTwitter has launched its first paid subscription service, offering users the ability to undo tweets, manage their bookmarks and change the colour of their app icon for a monthly fee.The service, Twitter Blue, launched on Thursday in Canada and Australia for CA$3.49 and AU$4.49 a month respectively, offering a smattering of new features for those willing to pay for the premium tier. It is the first consumer-focused subscription product from a leading social network and comes amid growing pressure on app-based advertising. Continue reading...
Over lockdown, comedian, mother of two and former games journalist Ellie Gibson took up livestreaming, loved the community – and learned to love playing againLike so many things in my life, it began as a daft experiment. I love learning new stuff, and over the course of my 43 years I’ve tried all sorts. Some things have stuck, like comedy, running, and having kids. Some haven’t, like kung fu, olives and holidays in Germany. To be honest, I thought that livestreaming games on Twitch would fall into the latter category.For those who aren’t familiar (I wasn’t until this year), Twitch involves playing video games live on the internet while providing a running commentary. People watch you, and chat to you via a message window, and sometimes give you money. It’s sort of like exotic dancing, but with fewer breasts. Continue reading...
Firm says it will help users more safely put computers to work making money – though gains may be negligibleMillions of people will soon be able to mine cryptocurrencies without installing any extra programs after the antivirus company Norton announced plans to add the feature to its LifeLock security software.The company says the new feature, Norton Crypto, is intended to allow users to put their computers to work mining cryptocurrency – and eventually earning real money – without needing to risk using unvetted software. Continue reading...
by Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent on (#5JKYN)
Up to 50 companies dealing in digital assets such as bitcoin could be forced to stop trading immediatelyUp to 50 companies dealing in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin may be forced to close after failing to meet the UK’s anti-money laundering rules.The Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator, announced on Thursday that an “unprecedented number” of companies had withdrawn applications from a temporary permit scheme that allowed firms to continue trading until the regulator could green-light or formally reject their operations. Continue reading...
Tesla CEO and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2019 deal stipulated that Musk would vet any public communicationsThe US securities watchdog told Tesla last year that Elon Musk had twice violated a settlement requiring his tweets to be pre-approved by company lawyers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.Musk and the US Securities and Exchange Commission agreed in 2019 that the electric car maker would vet any material public communications Musk made regarding Tesla. Continue reading...
Structural engineer who had a big hand in the creation of the Severn, Forth and Humber road bridgesMichael Parsons, who has died aged 92, played a key role in the design of Britain’s three major suspension bridges, over the Forth, Severn and Humber estuaries – and was closely involved in the design of the first two suspension bridges over the Bosphorus in Turkey.Working for the consultants Freeman Fox and Partners throughout his career, he was the originator of the streamlined box girder concept first adopted for the suspended deck of the Severn Bridge and taken up on most suspension bridges thereafter. Continue reading...
Working for the app, which feeds users local crime information, ‘is very traumatic’ and the managers ‘don’t appear to care’Susan, a former employee for the crime app Citizen, applied for a job curating the platform’s content and notifications in 2019 “in a pinch”. She had a writing background, was having trouble finding work in New York City, and thought she could make some money while looking for a better fit.By the time she left less than a year later, Susan said, she was drinking to excess because of work stress, had trouble sleeping, and had, at one point, cracked her tooth clenching her jaw while listening to hours of talking on the police scanner. As her mental health declined, her bosses at Citizen were not supportive, Susan said. Continue reading...
After a pandemic-hit slowdown on new content, the PS5 finally has a family game to match its capabilitiesIt’s been six months since the PlayStation 5 launched, and they still fly out of stock minutes after appearing in stores. But anyone still waiting to pick one up can be comforted by the knowledge that as yet, there haven’t been many games to show off what it can do. The only one that has felt strikingly next-generation is the superb horror-sci-fi-shooter Returnal, which is like Groundhog Day on an alien planet where everything is trying to kill you.Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, out 11 June, is also science-fiction, but unlike Returnal, it is more cuddly and approachable. Part of a long-running series about a furry big-eared alien and his unflappable robot companion having adventures in space with a wacky arsenal of weapons, it’s made by Insomniac Games in California, the developer behind PS5 launch game Spider-Man: Miles Morales. And like Miles Morales, it is a bit of a technical showcase. Continue reading...
The ransomware attack on JBS, probably by a Russia-based group, has disrupted meat production in North America and AustraliaA ransomware attack against the world’s largest meatpacking company that has disrupted meat production in North America and Australia originated from a criminal organization probably based in Russia, the White House was informed on Tuesday.The attack on Brazil’s JBS caused its Australian operations to shut down on Monday and has stopped livestock slaughter at its plants in several US states. Continue reading...
Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of photographing the moonWhen a full moon rises, many people will pull out their mobile phones to try and get an Instagram-worthy photograph, but unfortunately the moon is really challenging to get a great photo of.Two reasons: it is very far away and unless you have a telephoto lens (which makes the moon appear closer than it is) it will always appear as a very small glowing dot in the frame. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian