Semi-retired professor Carolyn Marvin became a local celebrity facing down Philadelphia’s growing robot delivery army: ‘It’s my first amendment right to protest’“One of you needs to be on the lookout for cops, while I block the robot, OK?”It is a crisp fall morning in Philadelphia. Tucked away in a dingy alley, opposite a garage called Patriot Parking, 78-year-old Carolyn Marvin is laying out some ground rules for a robot-disrupting expedition. Once a suitable target is identified, we will follow it to a busy sidewalk and Marvin will stand in front of the robot, blocking its way. The photographer and I will take turns ensuring we’re not all carted off by the police. Continue reading...
DataVita has revised plan for Chapelhall development to be wholly powered by 1GW of renewable energyA datacentre company that said it would power a massive AI development near Glasgow with renewable energy has admitted that the scheme will be entirely served by the National Grid.DataVita, a key plank of the UK’s AI strategy, had promised that the Lanarkshire project would draw 1GW – the equivalent output of a small nuclear reactor, or Britain’s largest windfarm – from green sources. But when the Guardian raised questions about the pledge, it said the arrangement was “subject to final commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes”. Continue reading...
Power and water constraints are pressuring what seemed like a juggernaut of growth for the region just months agoIn early 2026, Thailand’s datacentre industry was on a roll. The country’s board of investment had recently announced approval of datacentre projects from Tiktok, a UAE-based Skyline datacentre and Singapore’s Bridge datacentres, totalling a planned investment of $27bn.As the year has passed, however, what once seemed like a new industrial juggernaut has ground to a halt. Thailand paused construction on 49 projects and approval decisions on 117 more in September 2026, amidst growing concern about the lack of sufficient details for regulation and monitoring. It is not alone in reconsidering datacentre projects. In neighbouring Indonesia, the governor of the country’s most populous province of West Java halted construction on a datacentre due to lack of permits and an incomplete environmental assessment process. Continue reading...
Researchers say popular performers covertly market OnlyFans content and tell followers about wealthy lifestyleTikTok is helping to promote and normalise the sex industry, allowing “sexfluencers” to post videos aimed at marketing pornographic content they have uploaded elsewhere on sites such as OnlyFans, a report indicates.After studying non-explicit content posted on TikTok over the course of a year by some of OnlyFans’ most popular young female performers, researchers said the women buried coded references to pornography in “girly lifestyle content” that showed them shopping, playing with their pets, baking or offering skincare advice. Continue reading...
Samuel Gibbs doubted he could cut costs and still keep warm by putting tech in control. The results surprised himCan smart thermostats and AI reduce your heating bills? Every manufacturer claims the answer is yes, quoting average savings in the 25%, or £180 a year range. But all of these promises are heavily caveated and, with energy costs changing regularly, it can be very difficult to tell what is having an impact.To find out if technology can really help, I spent the last two years comparing my miserly manual control and basic heating schedule to an AI-governed system. The results surprised me. Continue reading...
Susan Lawrence, elected to Wolverhampton city council, sits on committee overseeing financial reporting of multimillion-pound budgetA woman who promoted a notorious cryptocurrency scam has been elected as a Reform UK councillor and now sits on the audit and risk committee of a major city council.Susan Lawrence was one of the main UK promoters of the HyperVerse cryptocurrency scheme, which was named in US court documents as an alleged “pyramid and Ponzi scheme” that cheated investors worldwide out of a “staggering” $1.89bn (£1.41bn). Continue reading...
Acts of greyzone aggression aim to spread panic. Europe has to show the saboteurs that we are resilientIt was as though a ghostly hand had switched the settings on supermarket freezers across Europe from “freeze” to “defrost”. From Finland to Ireland, they suddenly began heating up, many reaching 50C and food worth millions of euros had to be thrown away. But no actual hand was needed to cause the meltdown. This was a cyber-attack, or rather a chain of attacks. Like pretty much everything else in 2026, supermarket freezers are digitally enabled. That makes them smarter and more efficient, but like everything else that is connected to the internet, it also makes them more vulnerable.Russian hacktivists claimed they were behind some of the supermarket sabotage, but no one knows for sure. It could also be Iran, Iranian proxies, North Korea – or unaffiliated bedroom hackers. When Transport for London suffered a devastating hack two years ago, the culprits turned out to be two British teenagers. Governments regularly warn retailers and other companies about cyber-attacks and even provide cyber-defence training to businesses. The lessons of costly ransomware and cyber-attacks also mean many big organisations and retailers have become much better at keeping their payments and logistics systems safe.Elisabeth Braw is a Swedish security expert and the author of The Undersea War: The International Battle for Supremacy at the Bottom of the World Continue reading...
Separate actions also take place outside fence and across Europe in backlash against impact of AI boomActivists have stormed the site of a Microsoft datacentre being built in Amsterdam, as the backlash to the social and environmental harms of the AI boom spreads across Europe.Protesters from Geef Tegengas, a Dutch direct action group, clashed with police while breaking into a construction site at Westpoort, Amsterdam, where some members climbed a crane, lit flares and tied helium balloons to equipment. Continue reading...
In this month's MicroScope, we look at how wars, rising energy costs, stubborn inflation and component shortages are affecting channel business. We also hear from Softcat's CEO on its financial success and the importance of investing in future growth. And we find out what investors want to see from managed service providers. Read the issue now.
Responsibility for the Teachers’ Pension Scheme has now transferred from Capita to Tata Consultancy Services, but members are surprised not everything is available
The European Data Protection Supervisor is investigating Europol’s data processing environment, after an investigation by Computer Weekly, Correctiv and Solomon exposed serious data protection and security failures
IT operators must manage cloud utilisation and site selection to reduce emissions. Shared responsibility with providers requires right-sizing resources and targeting green energy
The insurer has used Quantexa’s data analytics technology to uncover £109.3m in insurance fraud over the past year, including so-called crash-for-cash scams
A Home Office-commissioned study into the views of minority groups with low trust in the police found that while they were not outright opposed to the use of facial recognition technologies, strict rules are needed to ensure accountability and rebuild trust
The Home Office has announced plans to renew AWS cloud hosting at a cost of £881.6m over two years
US tech suppliers provide the artificial intelligence models behind most tools deployed by UK central government