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  • UK Foreign Office victim of cyber-attack in October, says Chris Bryant

    Minister says ‘any individual’ at low risk from hack, while Sun reports Chinese cyber gang responsible for breach The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was hacked in October, the minister Chris Bryant has said. Bryant, a trade minister in Keir Starmer’s government, told Sky News there was a low risk to “any individual” from…

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  • George Osborne has a new job in tech, and it doesn’t bode well for Britain | Chris Stokel-Walker

    OpenAI is the latest to make a political hire as big tech spreads its tentacles around the world. So what’s the attraction? George Osborne getting a new job isn’t exactly news. Since leaving frontline politics, the former chancellor has served as the chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, edited (not entirely successfully) the Evening Standard,…

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  • Sony collars Snoopy in £340m deal to take control of Peanuts franchise

    Japanese conglomerate raises its stake in the firm that owns the intellectual property Charles Schulz created to 80% Business live – latest updates Sony has taken control of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts franchise including Snoopy and Charlie Brown in a deal worth C$630m (£340m). The Japanese conglomerate has bought 41% of Peanuts Holdings, which owns the…

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  • TikTok signs Trump-backed deal to avoid US ban

    Joint venture will take over part of app’s US operations, including data protection, algorithm security and content moderation Business live – latest updates US politics live – latest updates TikTok has reached a deal to form a joint venture that will allow it to continue operating in the US, five years after Donald Trump threatened…

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  • Parents of sextortion victim sue Meta for alleged wrongful death

    Exclusive: Lawsuit is the first UK case of its kind, with Ros and Mark Dowey accusing Meta of ‘putting profit before our young people’ The parents of a 16-year-old who took his own life after he fell victim to a sextortion gang on Instagram are suing Meta for the alleged wrongful death of their son,…

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  • AI boom has caused same CO2 emissions in 2025 as New York City, report claims

    Study author says tech companies are reaping benefits of artificial intelligence age but society is left to pay cost The AI boom has caused as much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere in 2025 as emitted by the whole of New York City, it has been claimed. The global environmental impact of the…

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  • Third of UK citizens have used AI for emotional support, research reveals

    AI Security Institute report finds most common type of AI tech used was general purpose assistants such as ChatGPT and Amazon Alexa A third of UK citizens have used artificial intelligence for emotional support, companionship or social interaction, according to the government’s AI security body. The AI Security Institute (AISI) said nearly one in 10…

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  • From Nvidia to OpenAI, Silicon Valley woos Westminster as ex-politicians take tech firm roles

    Commons committee monitoring revolving door that gave jobs to George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Tony Blair When the billionaire chief executive of AI chipmaker Nvidia threw a party in central London for Donald Trump’s state visit in September, the power imbalance between Silicon Valley and British politicians was vividly exposed. Jensen Huang hastened to the…

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  • UK insists US tech deal not dead as Trump threatens penalties against European firms

    Keir Starmer’s office claims UK still in ‘active conversations’ about deal for tech industries in both countries to cooperate Downing Street insists the $40bn Tech Prosperity Deal between the US and UK that is on hold is not permanently stalled. The BBC reported on Tuesday evening that the prime minister’s office claimed that the UK…

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  • US puts £31bn tech ‘prosperity deal’ with Britain on ice

    Pledge to invest billions in UK paused, with Washington citing lack of progress on trade barriers across pond The US has paused its promised multi-billion-pound investment into British tech over trade disagreements, marking a serious setback in US-UK relations. The £31bn “tech prosperity deal”, hailed by Keir Starmer as “a generational stepchange in our relationship…

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