Police chief calls for parents to be made accountable over social media crazes
Parents should be held accountable for the actions of children taking part in criminal social media crazes, the chairwoman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) has said. Donna Jones said she believes parents could be fined over the behaviour of youngsters who take part in incidents such as the mass looting seen in London’s Oxford Street last week. She said it is a sign of “societal breakdown” and parents should be disciplining their children and teaching them that such acts are “morally abhorrent” to prevent further incidents. The Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner also highlighted a craze in Southampton in which a “handful” of 15 to 17-year-olds took paracetamol to see who could stay in hospital the longest. The former magistrate told the PA news agency: “This is a real indication of societal breakdown. “This has not just suddenly appeared from nowhere. We’ve seen the warning signs of this coming for a really long time. We know these type of incidents are happening in America, and what happens in America very often gets here within a 12-month period. “Hundreds of young people rampaging through London shops, which are putting their security shutters down… You know, this is Britain in 2023. “This is incredibly worrying, and somebody needs to call it out. The draw on police resources is wholly unacceptable APCC chairwoman Donna Jones “The Home Secretary has said this has got to stop, it’s not good enough. I support her in that but I’m going one step further to say the draw on police resources is wholly unacceptable. “This is mindless vandalism, and it’s also criminal activity in terms of shoplifting and theft, looting, mass looting. “This is taking away police hours from operational policing that they should be doing to keep genuine people that need protecting safe. “We need to send a clear message – this is not acceptable and the parents need to be held accountable.” Ms Jones said parents could be forced to pay the fines for the criminal behaviour of their children under the age of 16, or under 18 if in full-time education. It's criminal, and morally it's also an abhorrent thing to do APCC chairwoman Donna Jones She added: “There have to be formal sanctions taken. We also have to call out the lack of discipline – parents need to be parenting their children and teaching them right from wrong. “Any parent or guardian of a young person who believes that they were in central London last week and could have been involved with that should be sitting down with that young person, having a really strong conversation with them about exactly what they have done, how it’s completely unacceptable. “It’s criminal, and morally it’s also an abhorrent thing to do. That’s certainly what I would be doing if it was my children. “And I’d like to think that’s what all decent good parents and guardians of young people should be doing, otherwise this is never going to stop.” Ms Jones also called on social media companies such as TikTok to investigate and crack down on posts orchestrating flashmobs which encourage criminal behaviour or explain publicly what action they are already taking. TikTok has been approached for comment. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Hackers ’emptied’ victims’ accounts and tried to blackmail GTA maker, court told AI can predict Parkinson’s subtype with up to 95% accuracy, study suggests Oxford scientists find no evidence to suggest Facebook not good for wellbeing
2023-08-15 17:17
Taiwan's Foxconn says it sees 'billions' of dollars in India investments
A month after exiting an ambitious project to help build one of India's first chip factories, Taiwan's Foxconn says it remains bullish about the world's most populous nation and is planning "billions" of dollars in investments there, as multinationals seek to diversify their supply chains beyond China.
2023-08-15 09:46
Elon Musk claims he is driving to Zuckerberg’s home so ‘fight’ breaks outs
Elon Musk says he will drive a Tesla to Mark Zuckerberg’s home in the hope that their on-again-off-again mixed martial arts fight will break out. Mr Musk took to X, the site formerly known as Twitter, to detail his latest plans to try and fight with the Facebook founder after Mr Zuckerberg cancelled it saying that his rival was not serious about the bout. “Knock, knock … challenge accepted … open the door @finkd,” tweeted Mr Musk on Monday. And he added: “For the Tesla FSD test drive in Palo Alto tonight, I will ask the car to drive to @finkd’s house. “Will also test latest X livestream video, so you can monitor our adventure in real-time! If we get lucky and Zuck...actually answers the door, the fight is on!” And in a follow-up post, he took more shots at his tech rival for ditching the contest. “(Zuck thread coming soon about how he would of course love to fight anytime, but blah blah UFC something something)” he wrote. Mr Zuckerberg announced that he was backing out of the fight on Sunday night because Mr Musk would not agree to a format and kept changing details for the bout. “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote. “I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead. “If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.” Read More X: Elon Musk removes last parts of Twitter branding from website Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight: ‘It’s time to move on’ Mark Zuckerberg plays down Elon Musk’s cage fight details ‘Gladiator’: Elon Musk reveals more details of fight with Mark Zuckerberg Musk vs Zuckerberg: UFC president meets Italy’s culture minister to discuss fight at Colosseum The last parts of Twitter are being removed Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight Elon Musk reveals more dramatic details of fight against Mark Zuckerberg
2023-08-15 05:28
Crypto lender Celsius sends bankruptcy plan to creditor vote
By Dietrich Knauth NEW YORK Crypto lender Celsius Network on Monday received a U.S. bankruptcy judge's permission to
2023-08-15 03:47
Hackers ’emptied’ victims’ accounts and tried to blackmail GTA maker, court told
A hacking gang stole victims’ savings and tried to blackmail major companies including the maker of the best-selling Grand Theft Auto videogames, prosecutors claim. Arion Kurtaj, 18, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons are accused of being “key players” in the LapsusS hacking group, a trial at Southwark Crown Court in London has heard. The duo, aided by unknown associates, are alleged to have hacked the servers and data files of broadband provider BT and mobile operator EE before demanding a four million dollar ransom on August 1 2021. Kurtaj is further accused of targeting transport giant Uber, financial technology firm Revolut and Rockstar Games, developer of the Grand Theft Auto series, in quick succession in September 2022, the court has heard. It’s perfectly plain from the evidence that those involved in the attacks were totally serious in this endeavour of hacking companies and stealing valuable data from those companies with the intention of profiting from that, sometimes on a huge scale, whether by blackmail or fraud Prosecutor Kevin Barry He allegedly tried to blackmail Rockstar Games by threatening to “leak the stolen source code for the Grand Theft Auto sequel onto internet forums”, the indictment states. Kurtaj and the youth are also accused of hacking software company Nvidia in February 2022 before threatening to “release Nvidia Corporation’s intellectual property on to the web” if it did not pay them. In a closing speech to the jury on Monday, prosecutor Kevin Barry said: “The victims in this case, and they undoubtedly were victims, they were members of the public who suffered the SIM swap frauds and losses as a result of that. “There were also big corporations who were targeted and attacked. “It hasn’t been suggested by anyone that any of these attacks were just individuals out for larks and laughs. “It’s perfectly plain from the evidence that those involved in the attacks were totally serious in this endeavour of hacking companies and stealing valuable data from those companies with the intention of profiting from that, sometimes on a huge scale, whether by blackmail or fraud.” He said the jury has heard evidence from members of the public who had their data stolen during the BT/EE hack. “They found their lives, some of them, turned upside down with accounts accessed and emptied of savings,” he said. He said one man’s account on Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, had £38,000 taken from it. Mr Barry said “major corporations” were also targeted by the hacking gang and “enormous disruption and costs were suffered by them” as a result. He added: “Make no mistake, in this case, members of the jury, that losses experienced by these companies were real, they were a direct consequence of the defendants’ actions and those of their associates.” He added: “Any loss they suffered through activity like this will ultimately be passed on to their customers, people like us.” He told jurors “each of the defendants has previous convictions for committing computer-enabled offences in the recent past”. Psychiatrists have assessed Kurtaj as unfit to stand trial so the jury must decide whether he committed the acts alleged against him. Kurtaj is charged with 12 offences, including six counts under the Computer Misuse Act, three counts of blackmail and two counts of fraud. The youth is charged with two counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud and three counts under the Computer Misuse Act, relating to the BT/EE and Nvidia allegations. He previously pleaded guilty to one offence under the Computer Misuse Act and one count of fraud. The prosecutor is due to finish his speech on Tuesday.
2023-08-15 02:27
What’s the Difference Between a Router and a Modem?
You need to set up both a router and a modem if you want Wi-Fi internet in your home, but there are major differences between the two devices.
2023-08-15 02:21
X: Elon Musk removes last parts of Twitter branding from website
The last parts of the old Twitter branding are seemingly being removed from Elon Musk’s “X” site. In recent weeks, Mr Musk has announced that he would be rebranding the company he bought last year as “X”, as part of a plan to turn the product into an “everything app”. Mr Musk has had an interest in the letter for much of his career, and has used it across his other companies. That rebrand appeared to have been launched rapidly and initially faltered. When Mr Musk attempted to install an “X” on top of the company’s San Francisco offices, for instance, local authorities objected and it was later removed. Mr Musk now appears to be making progress with that plan, however, removing the Twitter branding from many of the central parts of the website. The logo that appears in the corner of the site had already been swapped from the Twitter bird into the “X” glyph that Mr Musk chose in an online contest, for instance. And in recent days, the company has swapped the “tweet” button that a user presses to make a new post for the more traditional “post” option. Now, Twitter appears to changing the URL of posts from Twitter.com into X.com. For now, that appears to be only happening in limited instances – sharing a post from the Twitter app for iOS generates the new addresses, but doing so on the web still shows the old one – but it is likely that the company will switch to the new branding across sites eventually. Users can also open up any profile by typing it as “X.com” rather than the old branding, though it does for now redirect to the Twitter version of that profile. Still, much of Twitter’s documentation has not been changed at all. The “help” sites on Twitter’s pages still include entirely Twitter branding: the “How to Tweet” article, for instance, has been changed to include some references to “X” but uses the word “tweet”, and “Twitter” liberally. Read More Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight Elon Musk reveals more dramatic details of fight against Mark Zuckerberg UFC boss in talks to stage Musk vs Zuckerberg at Roman Colosseum
2023-08-15 02:18
iPhone 14 and Pro: Apple users say their phone batteries are running down unexpectedly quickly
Some iPhone users say that the latest models are losing power unexpectedly quickly. The iPhone 14 and 14 Pro’s batteries are aging more quickly than those in previous versions of the iPhone, the affected users complain. For years, Apple has offered the ability to see an iPhone’s “maximum capacity”. That is a measure of how much energy can be stored in the battery, and therefore indicates how long it will last on a single charge. As with all lithium-ion batteries of the kind used in the iPhone, that battery will gradually lose their capacity over time. A number of factors will influence how quickly they do so, including the temperature and how often that battery has been used and recharged. But owners of the new iPhone 14 and 14 Pro say that process has been happening more quickly. Some users say they have already lost 15 per cent or more of their capacity after less than a year of owning the phone. Joanna Stern, a personal technology columnist at the Wall Street Journal, said that her phone had already reached 88 per cent battery capacity. She said that she had been told by the Apple Store that her heavy use of the iPhone meant that it had already hit 450 charge cycles – which would represent heavy use of the kind that Apple says can reduce the iPhone’s battery life. But she also suggested the problem could be the result of “heat from fast charging”. But she also suggested that the problem could be the result of heat in the world: iPhones and other electronic devices can suffer when they reach high temperatures, and very hot summers in some part of the world could have degraded their performance. Ms Stern was not alone in her complaint: on Twitter, a number of posts in response to hers and others suggested that other users were surprised by how quickly their battery’s capacity had declined. But others still indicated they were seeing performance in line with previous years, and so it is difficult to know whether there is a problem with this generation’s iPhones more generally. Apple has a support page dedicated to the iPhone’s battery and how it relates to the performance of the phone more generally. There, it says that “a normal battery is designed to retain up to 80 per cent of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles when operating under normal conditions”. The company also notes that defective batteries are covered by the one-year warranty with the phone. If the battery is out of warranty, then Apple will replace it for a charge – or it can also be done under the third-party and DIY repair programmes that the company has supported in recent years. The iPhone 14 first went on sale on 16 September last year, meaning that owners who bought the new models soon after release will now be approaching the end of that one-year warranty period. Apple is expected to announce a new iPhone 15 and 15 Pro around the same time this year, with an increased battery life. The maximum capacity of an iPhone’s battery can be found by opening up the Settings app, navigating to the “Battery” option and clicking “Battery health & charging”. That will show not only the “maximum capacity” of that battery, but also whether it is still operating at its peak performance and the option for “optimised battery charging”, which will control when the iPhone charges to try and protect it from ageing. Apple added those options in iOS 11.3, as part of a broader set of battery tools that were a response to “batterygate”. That event saw users complain that their iPhones were slowing down because of tools that were added to protect iPhones from problems with ageing batteries – but sparked complaints from users that performance of their phone was being changed without their knowledge. Read More Apple is working on a mysterious new project called ‘Watch X’, report claims Apple is planning a host of powerful new Macs, rumours say Apple’s iPhone 15 release date leaked amid reports of ‘severe shortages’ Apple gives update on its plans for AI – and says it is coming to every product Apple results show sales slumping Apple planning new version of AirTags – but not for some time
2023-08-15 01:54
More than 20 million Americans enrolled in a federal program for subsidized internet access
More than 20 million US households are now receiving discounts on internet service as part of a federal program created to close the digital divide, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
2023-08-15 01:47
Watch X: Apple working on dramatic redesign for its wearable, report claims
Apple is working on a “Watch X”, bring a major redesign and new features to its wearable, according to a new report. The new version will be thinner, bring new health features such as a blood pressure sensor and change the technology powering the screen, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. But the new version of the Watch might not arrive until next year, or even the year after that, he reported. As such, the new design would mark the 10th anniversary of the Watch, which went on sale in April 2015. Apple undertook a similar significant redesign for the 10th version of the iPhone, with the iPhone X. That also brought a new look, with a slimmer design and a display that wrapped all the way to the edge of the phone, and new technologies such as facial recognition. This year’s Apple Watch is expected to bring a new processor, which would be the first since 2020’s Series 6. Otherwise, it is expected to stay largely the same on the outside. That might give Apple more time to work on that rumoured “Apple Watch X”, for the years that would follow. As well as the new redesign and features, it might rely on a microLED screen that has not yet been seen in the Apple Watch. Apple has long been rumoured to be working on such screen technology for the Watch, to bring the brighter and more colourful screen technology to the small display. Rumours have suggested however that the company has struggled with the new technology, and hit problems with shrinking it down to the size of the Watch and allowing it to stay affordable. The other major feature update is said to be a blood pressure built into the Watch itself. Chief executive Tim Cook has repeatedly said that health is one of the big focuses of Apple’s work, and has been rumoured to be working on new sensors including blood glucose and blood pressure, presumably for its wearables. The redesign could have some drawbacks. The redesign will bring with it a new, magnetic way of attaching watchbands – which would presumably mean that existing Watch straps will not work with the Watch X. Until now, all versions of the Watch have been compatible with all of Apple’s straps, as long as they are the correct one of two sizes. Mr Gurman did suggest on Twitter that Apple or third-party manufacturers could create adapters to allow old straps to work on new Watches. Read More Apple Watch 7 pre-order: How to buy the new smartwatch in the UK Apple introduces new version of Watch with complete redesign iPhone 13 - live: UK contract deals and prices for Apple, EE and O2
2023-08-15 01:18
Sony Music, Triller end copyright case over platform's music use
By Blake Brittain Sony Music Entertainment has dropped a lawsuit against Triller over allegations the short-form video platform
2023-08-15 00:58
Everyday material from the kitchen could overhaul solar energy after breakthrough
Solar panels and screens could become vastly more easy to make after a major breakthrough, according to the scientists who found it. The new discovery swaps an everyday material for one almost as rare as gold, the researchers say, and so could drastically cut the price of manufacturing the technology that relies on it. The breakthrough came after scientists discovered that chromium compounds can replace the metals osmium and ruthenium, which are used to harvest energy from the Sun and to create displays for uses such as mobile phones. Chromium is a relatively common material, best known for its use in chromium steel in the kitchen, or for the shiny look of motorcycles. It is also relatively easy to find: chromium is 20,000 times more prevalent in the Earth’s crust than osmium, and much cheaper to make. Scientists hope that it can be used for a variety of purposes, including a kind of artificial photosynthesis that will produce solar fuels. Plants are able to use that process to convert energy from sunlights into energy-rich glucose – and the scientists behind the new study say that it could help us do the same. The findings are described in a new paper, ‘Photoredox-active Cr(0) luminophores featuring photophysical properties competitive with Ru(II) and Os(II) complexes’, published in Nature Chemistry. Read More Astronomer uncovers ‘direct evidence’ of gravity breaking down in the universe Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight Vote to empower autonomous ‘robotaxis’ from Cruise and Waymo divides San Francisco
2023-08-14 23:19