Refining the metal – which is essential for electric car batteries – in Europe would ease the EU’s precarious reliance on ChinaIt has been called the new gold rush – a rush to catch up with China in producing and refining the materials needed in everything from computers to cars: but has it come too late to save Europe’s car industry?Deep inside a former East German town lies the first fruits of the EU’s grand plan to “de-risk” and wean itself off dependency on imports for the green revolution. In Bitterfeld-Wolfen, 140km south-west of Berlin, an Amsterdam-listed company is...

The supermarket has used data from menus, online cuisine and social media posts to shape its Japanese rangeUnder fake pink cherry blossom, guests sipped House of Suntory cocktails and picked at plates of chicken karaage, prawn gyoza and cauliflower tempura from a kaitenzushi-style conveyor belt … This was the London launch of Waitrose’s new Japanese range.But without knowing it, and even if you live hundreds of miles away, your food choices may have had a hand in shaping the supermarket’s 26-dish Japan Menyū range. That is because it was developed with input from Tastewise, an artificial...

An explosion of data use on platforms like Google and Amazon in the last decade has led to massive infrastructure costs. Is the era of cheap all-you-can-watch content about to end?• Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereThe writers and actors strikes in Hollywood have largely focused on streamers like Netflix paying more for the work the artists contribute to the services. On the tech side of things, meanwhile, a similar fight is brewing.Far from the Hollywood picket lines, telecommunications executives are looking at booming broadband use largely...

‘This screws us royally,’ says one disgruntled iiNet user as internet service providers such as Telstra and TPG curtail email accounts for customersFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAfter 30 years, Simon* is facing the prospect of moving.“I think we’ve been using their products since we built the house,” he says. “We’ve gone through dial-up and then eventually there was an ADSL connection.”Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news...

Lifestyle and shopping apps are the latest weapons in Beijing’s information war against its neighbourAriel Lo spends a couple of hours most weeks sharing anime art and memes on Chinese apps, often chatting with friends in China in a Mandarin slightly different from the one she uses at home in Taiwan.“People use English on Instagram, and for Chinese apps they use Chinese phrases. If I am talking to friends in China, I would use them,” Lo said as she picked up a bubble tea at a street market in central Taichung city. Continue reading...

AI’s potential is huge and terrifying. But a new generation of artists is starting to find new uses for the technology, as well showing its many limitationsWhen I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in early June, a fabulous drag cabaret was in full swing. Across seven small screens and a large wall projection, a rotating cast of performers in an array of bold looks danced and lip-synced their hearts out to banger after banger. Highlights included Freedom! 90 by George Michael, Five Years by David Bowie and Beyoncé’s Sweet Dreams.Then the whole thing started again. And again...

Engineers’ work on cycling and public transit have transformed the app – but rural directions remain a sticking pointIn October 2022, New York City officials unveiled a new bike lane on Schermerhorn street, one of the most dangerous and heavily trafficked streets in downtown Brooklyn and somewhere I had always avoided on my bike. Unless I was a religious reader of transportation department press releases (I’m not), I would have no way of knowing the lane existed – except that very same morning, my Apple Maps app sent me on the new Schermerhorn bike lane, instead of hurtling down Dean...

Indian tribal hunting endangers wildlife but now a startup making 3D replicas is giving teeth to conservation effortsIn the lowland rainforests of Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India, tigers, clouded leopards, eagles and hornbills dot the landscape. The area is also home to the Nyishi community, the largest Indigenous tribe in the state, where the men traditionally don a byopa, an elaborate handwoven cane cap with the upper beak and casque of a great hornbill attached to the top edge, and an eagle’s claw at the back. They also wield a machete fitted either with the short, squat jaw of the...

In 2009, two bookshops a week were closing in the UK and the days of physical books seemed numbered. Now, indie stores are booming. What explains the turnaround – and can it be sustained?When Sarah Mullen was asked to set up a children’s book festival in a leafy suburb of Birmingham in 2012, she couldn’t find an independent bookseller to run the bookstall. “So we all rolled up our sleeves and did it ourselves,” she says. Pregnant with her third child, she had recently given up her job as a solicitor to work for the Bournville Village Trust. Mullen’s task was to set up the Bournville...

The company is in a race among big tech firms to exploit the potential of artificial intelligence.

The revised offer "opens the door" to the deal being cleared, the UK competition watchdog says.

The firm's shares were priced at the top of the range that had been indicated to prospective investors.

Apple has been told it must recall every iPhone 12 sold in the country if it cannot fix the problem.

Apple confirms new iPhone 15 will have a common USB-C charging port after EU forces it into the change.

The US Department of Justice says rocket firm discriminated against refugees and asylum seekers.

Mr Trump's first post on the platform formerly called Twitter since January 2021 includes his mugshot.

Test your skills at detecting AI-generated images with Bitesize's monthly AI or real quiz.

Ofcom says popular platforms' terms of service are very long and difficult to understand.

A social media monitoring group says legal threats sent by X Corp are an attempt to "silence criticism".

Greg Rutkowski is among the artists calling for more protection from artificial intelligence tools.

Extra oversight for powers to scan encrypted messages for child abuse images passed by peers.

Concerns over the impact of AI are partly behind the first Hollywood actors' strike in 43 years.

West Midlands Fire Service says the owner of the footage allowed it to be shared to flag the dangers.

The manufacturers of a popular diabetes app have removed it from the App Store after it broke.

As actors strike in Hollywood, unions say they want more protection from artificial intelligence.