The Guardian

Girls Gone Bible is on tour in the US, touting a regressive ideal of femininity through discussions of abstinence and mental health struggles At first glance, the crowd gathering outside a music venue in Red Bank, New Jersey, could have passed for a group of sorority rush hopefuls – or Ella Langley fans on their way to the country star’s show. Most of them were under the age of 30. They wore cowb…

FTC alleges in lawsuit that online retailer ‘secretly and systematically overcharged’ advertisers for years The US’s main trade regulator and 22 states sued Amazon on Monday, alleging the online retailer “secretly and systematically overcharged” advertisers on Amazon.com. “Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices. These higher costs were…

Andrew Bailey warns G20 members about risk of cyber-disruption spreading ‘across jurisdictions’ The Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, has joined the throng of figures warning about the global risks posed by the most advanced artificial intelligence technology. In a two-page letter sent to international finance ministers and central bank governors as part of his role as chair of the inter…

Offenders use threats and manipulation to coerce victims to produce imagery or livestream sexually explicit acts, self-harm or animal cruelty. How can you protect your child? Inside the horrifying online network where children coerce others to commit violence and self-harm Authorities globally have warned about a sharp increase in the “sadistic online exploitation” of young people. Amid a wave of…

Restore Britain leader paid up to £1,476 an hour by platform, which critics say is financially incentivising inflammatory content Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore Britain, is on course to earn as much from the social media platform X as he does from his salary as an MP, after surging income from posts that include demands for mass deportations. Lowe has earned £932 an hour for his posts on X, f…

The host also discussed the rise of forgotten monthly subscriptions for anything from dishwashers to litter boxes On the Sunday night episode of his HBO show, John Oliver discussed the rise of subscription-based business models across the worlds of music, film and TV, beauty, food, cleaning services and more. “Subscriptions are now basically everywhere and many of us don’t even realize how much w…

Luke Pollard says government will force platforms to remove content, after latest deadly crash involving a car driving in wrong direction A minister has pressed social media companies to remove content from their platforms showcasing dangerous driving after a fatal collision that killed seven people in Middlesbrough. The crash in the early hours of Saturday, in which PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom …

Value of banknotes in circulation rises from €1bn in 2016 to €1.6bn in 2026 as people advised to keep stash of cash The number of banknotes in circulation in the EU is increasing despite widespread smartphone payments, new data shows, with wildfires ripping through parts of Europe fuelling demand for an emergency stash of cash. While cash plays second fiddle to contactless payments in many cities…

Kyle Spitze of Tennessee faced federal charges for targeting girls online as part of ‘764 network’ investigated by FBI A 27-year-old Tennessee man described by the US justice department as a “nihilistic violent extremist” was sentenced to 77 years in prison on Wednesday for his targeting of girls online as part of the 764 network , an online group the FBI calls a form of “modern-day terrorism”. K…

Racism and misogyny are becoming normalised as a result of rightwing politics and the ‘cesspit’ of social media, says Labour’s Bridget Phillipson. In an extended interview, the minister for women and equalities and new party chair sits down with Kiran Stacey to talk about her fears for British society, the climate crisis, what Burnham is really doing differently from Starmer, and whether her part…

Online ratings | School holiday scam | Back-row kisses | Barking | Champagne populism To Stuart Heritage’s excellent list of words to describe our tech dystopia ( 18 August ), can I add “iRate”? This is when you make an online purchase and, even before you’ve had time to remove the packaging, receive an email asking “How was it for you?”, followed by another a few days later if you fail to review…

Also: AI’s implications on cybersecurity in an era of private attacks Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian. Today in tech, we’re discussing Meta ’s legal danger in the US and the implications of artificial intelligence for cybersecurity in an era of private cyberattacks. Why the US government is banning Chinese robots – video explainer S…

Creators of chase compilations reject any moral qualms and say they show ‘death is waiting’ for those who join war To many observers they will appear dehumanising and offensive. To many Ukrainians, however, they are a brutal reminder of the fate that awaits Russian soldiers who take part in Vladimir Putin’s invasion, as well as a potent propaganda weapon. Over the past year and a half, videos of …

There are many tech irritants that are a scourge of modern life, yet we have lacked the vocabulary to describe them ... until now The “dickover” is the scourge of the modern age. Coined in May by John Gruber, a tech writer, it is defined as “a modal panel, popover, or curtain presented by a website or app, deliberately obscuring its own content to frustrate the user”. Essentially, it is the thing…