How a boardroom flare-up sparked an international boycott – and a looming defamation battle It began as a quiet programming dispute in the genteel city of churches. But by Wednesday morning, a frantic, six-day war of words had culminated in the end of the 2026 Adelaide writers’ week and total institutional collapse. Continue reading...
Ashley St Clair files lawsuit in state of New York over deepfakes that appeared on social media platform X The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children is suing his company alleging explicit images were generated by his Grok AI tool, including one in which she was underage. Ashley St Clair has filed a lawsuit with the supreme court of the state of New York against xAI, alleging that Grok, which is used on the social media platform X, promised to stop generating explicit images but continued to do so. Continue reading...
Despite two crises that have left thousands without running water, David Hinton is in line for multiple pay awards and bonuses Can David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, stay in his job long enough to bag a £400,000 bonus for turning up to work? With four-and-a-half years to go, one can’t say his chances of landing the retention payment – or “service award” – are good. In fact, it will be surprising if he’s still infuriating the residents of Tunbridge Wells four-and-a-half weeks from now. In the latest episode of this long-running double saga of outages that has left thousands of households in Kent and Sussex without running water for days , Ofwat has opened a first-of-its-kind investigation into whether South East complied with its obligation to provide “high standards of customer service and support”. That comes a day after Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence . Continue reading...
The trend of invading newsrooms, in violation of federal law, has now spread to the highest levels of the federal government The raid of a journalist’s home, along with the jailing of their alleged source, are shocking acts of authoritarianism. And they are in line with Trump’s willingness to use the national security state as a weapon against the press, which is a serious threat to our democracy. But those weapons were not invented by Trump nor did he pioneer their use against free press. The raid of Hannah Natanson, is a shocking escalation, not a rupture. The United States has been backsliding to this point – at both the federal and local levels – for quite some time. Seth Stern is the Director of Advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation and a first amendment lawyer Chip Gibbons is the policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent . A journalist and researcher focusing on the US national security state, Gibbons is currently working on The Imperial Bureau, forthcoming from Verso Books; based heavily on archival research and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act Continue reading...
The use of anti-terror law against Palestine Action aims to block scrutiny of the UK’s role in Gaza's devastation.
Internet Watch Foundation found the majority of the AI-generated videos fell into Category A, the most extreme classification
Civil rights organization says federal immigration agents are violating US citizens’ constitutional rights The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration , accusing federal immigration authorities in Minnesota of racial profiling and unlawful arrests amid widespread Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. In a 72-page lawsuit filed on Thursday on behalf of three community members who are all US citizens, the ACLU accused federal immigration agents of violating citizens’ constitutional rights, arguing that Somali and Latino communities in the state have been disproportionately targeted. Continue reading...
Mr. Trump made threat after a federal officer shot a man in the leg in Minneapolis on January 16, after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle. The incident further heightened the sense of fear and anger radiating across the city a week after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the head
The actor starred in the West Wing TV series and is also known for the baseball film Field of Dreams.
Labour MPs expect a "politically inept" U-turn from the government on banning social media for under-16s amid Conservative plans to force a vote on the issue.
Supply failures dramatic example of how climate crisis threatens basic human need – and with it political stability Iran protests – live updates Gripped by a terrible drought now entering its sixth year, Iran’s cities are on the brink of what its meteorological organisation calls “ water day zero ”: the boundary beyond which supply systems no longer function. This was crossed by Chennai in India in summer 2019 and is now threatening Mashhad, Tabriz and Tehran, where taps in the city’s southern districts had already run dry by early December. Nightly “pressure cuts” , in which the water supply is halted to whole districts in the capital, have already become the norm. Protesters demanding “Water, electricity, life – our basic right ” over the summer were already risking a clampdown. Continue reading...
The type of oil held by Venezuela makes it particularly lucrative for US refineries, analysts say.
The secret discussions, bombshell leak and sacking which led to Robert Jenrick defecting to the Reform party.
The indictment alleges that over three years individuals influenced or fixed men's basketball games.
Reagan-appointed judge rips into Trump’s ‘fear’ of First Amendment protections in case involving pro-Palestine protests
Their cause drew global attention and they influenced a £2bn defence contract decision but some key demands were not met Three Palestine Action protesters end their hunger strike As the hunger strike by Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners dragged on, it seemed to be moving towards an inexorable and grim conclusion . With those taking part steadfast in their demands and ministers refusing to even meet their representatives, it began to seem that only a death might end the protest; and even then it was unclear what the others refusing food would do. Continue reading...
$1.6m project drew outrage over ethical questions about withholding vaccines proven to prevent disease The controversial US-funded study on hepatitis B vaccines among newborns in Guinea-Bissau has been halted, according to Yap Boum, a senior official at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “The study has been cancelled,” Boum told journalists at a press conference on Thursday morning. Continue reading...
Latest accident intensifies scrutiny of safety standards of country’s major infrastructure projects
• Report claims Hibatullah Akhundzada ‘spooked’ by possibility of schism between his hardline base in the south, more pragmatic ministers in the capital• Zabihullah Mujahid ‘confirms’ existence of audio recording, but terms BBC claim ‘unfounded’
One Palestinian man is shot and wounded, and at least 80 people are detained in mass overnight raids.
The US president vowed to ‘end childhood cancer’. But his administration is dismantling the search for a cure and sending families scrambling for treatment For seven years, Jenn Janosko cared for children with cancer on the ninth floor of New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital. It’s the happiest sad place she knows. Continue reading...
Craig Guildford remains in post after damning report into decision to ban Israeli fans from football match, despite calls for his resignation The police watchdog is considering the use of special legal powers to place West Midlands police’s chief constable under investigation. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it was studying the devastating official report on the force’s banning of Israeli fans from a football match in Birmingham last year, which led the home secretary to declare she had lost confidence in Craig Guildford. Continue reading...
Amid recent mass protests and an internet blackout, there have been conflicting death toll reports from Iran.
More than 180,000 people follow the Bush Legend’s accounts across Meta platforms, but its Aboriginal host is a work of digital fiction Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast With a mop of dark curls and brown eyes, Jarren stands in the thick of the Australian outback, red dirt at his feet, a snake unfurling in front of him. In a series of online videos, the social media star, known online as the Bush Legend, walks through dense forests or drives along deserted roads on the hunt for wedge-tailed eagles. Many of the videos are set to pulsating percussion instruments and yidakis (didgeridoo). Continue reading...
As chair of the Board of Peace, Trump said he supports a Palestinian technocratic committee appointed this week to manage Gaza during what he described as a period of transition. 'These Palestinian leaders are unwaveringly committed to a PEACEFUL future,' he said
Many cities have been plunged into darkness and sub-zero temperatures by Russian assaults
Jafar Panahi, director of Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, says Iranian leaders want to destroy country The Khamenei regime will not be able to maintain control over Iranian society after the violent suppression of the latest wave of protests, one of the country’s leading film-makers has predicted. “It is impossible for this government to sustain itself in this situation,” the director Jafar Panahi told the Guardian. “They know it too. They know that it will be impossible to rule over people. Perhaps their only goal right now is to bring the country to the verge of complete collapse and try to destroy it.” Continue reading...
A woman in Canada has become a global symbol of defiance against Iran's regime
Tournament to be played every four years from 2028 Federation denies statutes breached in making decision The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has been accused of pushing through its controversial decision to stage the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) every four years without properly consulting member federations. Several presidents of African football federations have told the Guardian they were not informed of the decision until it was surprisingly announced by the Caf president, Patrice Motsepe, on 20 December, prompting claims that the confederation breached its statutes by failing to seek approval at a general assembly. Continue reading...
‘Parents should not have to cross continents to fight multinational technology companies just to find out what happened to their child,’ bereaved mother says
Ellen Roome, from Gloucestershire, is one of a group of parents suing TikTok over online challenges.
Palestinians fear decisions imposed from outside fail to address justice, freedom, and lived realities in Gaza.
Political watchers in Rivers State are worried as the political battle between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Chief Nyesom Wike and his political godson, Siminalayi Fubara, takes a toll on governance in the state. DAILY POST reports that it did not take much longer after the 2023 governorship election in Rivers State […] Rivers crisis: Concerned Nigerians worry as Wike, Fubara fight stifle governance
Lawsuit accuses federal officials of using ‘police-state tactics’ and carrying out mass racial profiling of Somalis and Latinos
The Venezuelan opposition leader said she presented Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize, an honour he has long coveted.
The creators behind the chart-topping song believe their creative process has been misunderstood.
Multiple sources have told BBC Persian that security forces will not release bodies unless relatives hand over money.
A prosecutor has told a jury that a prison guard should be convicted of manslaughter for failing to intervene in the brutal beating of an inmate by other guards
Ellen Greenberg, 27, was found dead by her fiancé, Sam Goldberg, at their apartment on January 26, 2011
FoIs show integrated care boards saving money by curbing assessments have not informed GPs or patients facing long waits The NHS is restricting people’s ability to be assessed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in order to save money but not telling GPs or patients, despite soaring demand for the service. More than half of the NHS’s 42 integrated care boards (ICBs) in England have imposed limits on how many people can get assessed for ADHD during 2025/26, freedom of information responses show. Continue reading...
The US president delights in his inconsistency. But his short-term victories have profound long-term costs for his country and the world The Middle East was braced on Wednesday night, but the anxious petitioning of Gulf states and Iran’s attempts to appease the US president appeared to win out – at least for the moment. No bombs fell on Tehran. After all his threats, and with military options under discussion in Washington, Donald Trump stepped back , announcing that “the killing [of protesters] has stopped”. Despite the telecommunications blackout, it seems clear that a ruthless regime has shed still more blood than in previous protest crackdowns. Rights groups say that thousands have been killed and vast numbers arrested; one official spoke of 2,000 deaths. Witnesses compared the streets to a war zone. If the large-scale killings have indeed ebbed, that is probably because Iranians have been terrified out of the streets – for now, at least. Iran’s foreign minister chose Fox News to insist no hangings were imminent, in case the identity of the message’s one-man audience was in any doubt. But while retribution may have been postponed , it will not be cancelled as it should be: the calls for the regime’s downfall are seen as an existential threat. The Iranian authorities can wait. Mr Trump will move on. Continue reading...
Elon Musk's AI assistant, Grok, is facing scrutiny from governments worldwide
Survivors of the regime like me are reliving our nightmares as brave Iranians fight for their freedom. They say they have nothing to lose but their chains It has been more than 40 years since I was imprisoned in Iran for speaking out against human rights abuses and state executions, and for defending women’s rights. I spent eight years behind bars in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. I was tortured. I remember it as if it happened yesterday. Every few years, uprisings erupt across Iran – and each wave of resistance is deeper and more widespread than the one before. In 2022, it was women who led the Woman, Life, Freedom movement after the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by the country’s “morality police”, and it revolutionised my country. Today, women wear what they want, go out in public with their boyfriends – even live with them – without fear of being arrested. Women earned these rights with their lives. In late December 2025, the spark was once again lit – this time in an old bazaar in Tehran . Nasrin Parvaz is a women’s rights activist and torture survivor from Iran. Her books include A Prison Memoir: One Woman’s Struggle in Iran, and the novel The Secret Letters from X to A Continue reading...
Gavin Newsom says state will reject Louisiana’s ask, citing laws protecting providers from out-of-state prosecution California will defy Louisiana’s request to extradite a doctor indicted for mailing abortion pills into the southern state, Gavin Newsom , California’s governor, said Wednesday. “Louisiana’s request is denied,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We will not allow extremist politicians from other states to reach into California and try to punish doctors based on allegations that they provided reproductive health care services. Not today. Not ever.” Continue reading...
Three House members claim they’re being targeted for saying that troops don’t need to comply with illegal orders Three House Democrats confirmed on Wednesday they have been approached by federal prosecutors investigating their participation in a November video about military duty, widening the circle of legislators being targeted by the Trump administration. Representatives Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania disclosed that the US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, had requested interviews about the 90-second video in which they said troops don’t need to comply with illegal orders. Continue reading...
UK users will no longer be able to create sexualised images of real people using @Grok X account, with Grok app also expected to be restricted Elon Musk’s X has announced it will stop the Grok AI tool from allowing users to manipulate images of people to show them in revealing clothing such as bikinis. The furore over Grok, which is integrated with the X platform, has sparked a public and political backlash as well as a formal investigation by Ofcom , the UK’s communications watchdog. Continue reading...
Human Rights Watch criticizes the Syrian government for lacking accountability in sectarian violence
A mum whose home flooded during works carried out by a now-folded company says she is trying to "rebuild" her life.
Ofcom has welcomed restrictions on Grok, X's AI chatbot, to prevent the generation of sexualised images.
Federal prosecutors have revealed a sprawling scheme to rig men’s college basketball games while yielding big payouts to gamblers