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Meta loses bid to dismiss US states' claims that Facebook, Instagram addict children <br> A federal judge rejected Meta Platforms&rsquo; bid to dismiss a lawsuit by 29 US state attorneys general accusing it of designing Facebook and Instagram to addict children and knowingly concealing the harm from the public. In a decision late on Monday, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, denied Meta&#39;s motion to dismiss claims based on deception, unfair practices and violations of the federal Children&#39;s Online Privacy Protection Act. The judge also said Meta did not comply with that law&#39;s notice and parental consent requirements, and granted summary judgment to the states on that issue. Meta said in a statement: &ldquo;We strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.&quot; Gonzalez Rogers also oversees related multidistrict l...

Consortium including Visa, Mastercard jointly launch new global stablecoin <br> A consortium including Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase on Tuesday launched a new joint stablecoin in a bid to broaden the adoption of the digital tokens. The venture, ​called Open Standard, brings together more than 140 businesses for the stablecoin &zwnj;network and will issue a new US-dollar pegged stablecoin called Open USD, which is expected to go live later this year. It is aimed at accelerating the usage of the digital tokens worldwide ​by addressing hurdles that businesses face in scaling stablecoin adoption, Open ​Standard said. &quot;Existing stablecoins have great strengths, but to use them at ⁠scale, businesses need something that&#39;s open, low-cost, high-throughput, broadly accessible, and aligned ​to their interests,&quot; Open Standard founding CEO Zach Abrams said. https://ift.tt/1i8TEMG It will let businesses ​mint and redeem Open USD without any cost and limi...

Apple iPhone 18 Pro supplier list, parts and photos exposed in Tata data leak <br> Sensitive lists of components and suppliers, and photos of Apple&#39;s upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models are part of&nbsp;files&nbsp;posted on the &zwnj;dark web by the ransomware group that stole data from the US&nbsp;firm&#39;s Indian supplier Tata Electronics, according to documents and a source. The exposure threatens the carefully negotiated business of building the iPhone, which Apple assembles from a thicket of suppliers worldwide. It could also upset Apple and its relationship with Tata, given most of the supplier arrangements are fiercely protected by Apple, and could also hand ​rivals, counterfeiters and its own vendors a view of who makes what. Tata, which both supplies parts and assembles iPhones as a contract manufacturer, is emerging as ​one of Apple&#39;s most important manufacturing partners outside China, an expansion that is a cornerstone of Prime Mi...

WhatsApp messenger to begin offering usernames <br> The hundreds of millions who use Meta-owned messenger WhatsApp to chat with family, friends or businesses will no longer need to share phone numbers under a coming update, the company said Monday. Instead, people will be able to pick unique usernames to share with others, in a move &quot;designed to protect the privacy of your phone number,&quot; WhatsApp said in a statement. Restricting access to phone numbers would mean they are not shared automatically in cases such as being added to a large group chat or messaging a person or business for the first time, the company added. What&#39;s more, &quot;there&#39;s no directory to browse and no suggestions, so people need to know your exact username to contact you,&quot; Meta said. As with other social media services, the sheer number of people -- Meta claims over three billion -- using WhatsApp means many may not get their first-choice handle. Read...

Apple accuses India of 'copy-pasting' rivals' claims in antitrust investigation <br> Apple has accused Indian antitrust investigators of &quot;copy-pasting&quot; its rivals&#39; claims and failing to properly conduct its own investigation in concluding the United States&nbsp;tech giant breached competition laws, ​calling for the findings to be quashed, regulatory papers reviewed by Reuters showed. The June 25 Apple&nbsp;submission, being reported for the first time, marks the sharpest escalation &zwnj;yet in Apple&#39;s fight with the Competition Commission of India (CCI), where Tinder-owner Match&nbsp;and Indian startups are among its opponents. In 2024, CCI investigators privately issued a report saying Apple engaged in&nbsp;&quot;abusive conduct&quot;&nbsp;on the app platform of its iOS operating system, and wrongly mandated the use of its payment system. Apple has denied the allegations. It said in its submis...

Austria urges Europe to host Anthropic following US curbs on AI access <br> Austria has proposed that the European Union should consider hosting Anthropic within ​the bloc&#39;s borders in order to counter efforts &zwnj;by the United States to block foreigners from using the AI company&#39;s most advanced models. In a letter to EU Technology Commissioner Henna ​Virkkunen released by the Austrian government, Austria&#39;s State ​Secretary for Digitalisation, Alexander Proell, wrote it was ⁠important that Europe was not cut off from major ​innovations. &quot;Let us jointly explore the strategic establishment and participation of ​Anthropic within the European Union. With legal certainty, market access, capital and a set of values that suit this company,&quot; Proell ​said in the letter. Read More: Google limits Meta&rsquo;s use of its Gemini AI models, FT reports He did not say how the ​step could be taken and acknowledged there would be sceptic...

Google limits Meta’s use of its Gemini AI models, FT reports <br> Google&nbsp;has put&nbsp;limits&nbsp;on Meta&rsquo;s use&nbsp;of&nbsp;its&nbsp;Gemini&nbsp;AI&nbsp;models&nbsp;after the social media company sought more computing capacity than the rival tech group could provide, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Google, owned by Alphabet, told Meta around March it could not meet the full&nbsp;Gemini&nbsp;capacity the company had sought to purchase, the newspaper said, adding that the shortfall disrupted and delayed some of Meta&rsquo;s internal&nbsp;AI&nbsp;projects. Read:&nbsp;Italian mother takes on Meta, TikTok after daughter&#39;s death Several other&nbsp;Google&nbsp;clients have also been affected, though to a lesser extent, according to the report. Meta has been particularly impacted due to&nbsp;its&nbsp;exceptionally high demand for&nbsp;Google&rsquo;s&nbsp;models,...

World's largest particle smasher halts for upgrade to boost hunt for dark matter <br> The world&#39;s most powerful particle accelerator will Monday shutter operations for four years of renovations to dramatically boost its collision-capacity and the potential for unlocking one of the greatest mysteries of the Universe: dark matter. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) -- a 27-kilometre proton-smashing circular tunnel at the heart of Europe&#39;s physics lab CERN near Geneva -- has most famously been used to prove the existence of the Higgs boson, dubbed &quot;the God particle&quot;. In the tunnel, running about 100 metres below the French-Swiss border area, superconducting magnets and accelerating structures propel particles to extreme energies and then smash them together at phenomenal speeds. But from Monday, activity will stop, as the extraordinary device undergoes upgrades aimed to further increase the precision and intensity of particle collisions. O...

US allows limited re-release of Anthropic's Mythos 5 AI model <br> The United States government has allowed artificial intelligence company Anthropic to re-release its Mythos 5 model to a select group of customers and partners after previously restricting access over national security concerns, media reports said on Friday. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick informed the company that a set of trusted users could once again access the model, according to a letter seen by NBC News. Read More: Anthropic says Alibaba illicitly extracted Claude AI model capabilities Anthropic said on&nbsp;X: &ldquo;The government notified us that Mythos 5, our strongest cybersecurity model, can be redeployed to a set of US organisations that operate and defend critical infrastructure.&rdquo; Since June 12, we&rsquo;ve been working closely with the US government to restore access to Claude Mythos 5 and Fable 5. Today, the government notified us that Mythos 5, our strongest...

EU targets Amazon, Microsoft cloud units for Big Tech 'gatekeeper' rules <br> European Union antitrust regulators said Amazon and Microsoft&rsquo;s cloud computing services should be designated as &ldquo;gatekeepers&rdquo; under landmark tech rules, ​a step that would subject them to strict obligations aimed at curbing market &zwnj;power. The designation under the Digital Markets Act would impose a set of obligations and bans on the world&#39;s two largest cloud providers, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, including limits on self-preferencing and ​requirements to ensure interoperability and data portability. So far, EU regulators have targeted core ​platform services such as search, social media and app stores to rein ⁠in Big Tech. Extending the DMA to cloud infrastructure would mark a significant expansion ​into a sector seen as critical to AI. The preliminary findings follow a seven-month-long investigation. &quot;Cloud ​services...

Afghanistan's Taliban government imposes smartphone ban on government officials <br> Afghanistan&#39;s Taliban government has ordered a nationwide ban on civil servants&#39; smartphone use, a military court order showed, prompting ​warnings from rights activists that the move could further restrict access &zwnj;to information. The court order seen by Reuters states that smartphone use by &quot;all officials of the military and civilian institutions, including judges&quot;, will be prohibited from June 16. Violators will ​have their cellphones smashed and face punishment under the law, the ​order said. The Taliban administration did not respond to a request ⁠for comment.&nbsp;However, The Kabul Tribune (KT) reported that Afghanistan&#39;s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology denied measures to curtail the use of smartphones. According to KT, the ministry, through a statement issued on June 18, said claims by some media outle...

Anthropic's Mythos model found vulnerabilities in classified US government systems, AP reports <br> Anthropic&#39;s Mythos model identified vulnerabilities in highly sensitive US government computer systems during a ​testing exercise, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. Anthropic teamed &zwnj;up with Washington&#39;s intelligence agencies to conduct tests using Mythos under Project Glasswing, the AP said, referring to a restricted program designed to find ​and fix vulnerabilities in critical software before attackers can ​exploit them. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia referred to the ⁠testing in a congressional hearing this month, saying he ​had been informed by National Security Agency Chief Joshua Rudd that ​Mythos &quot;broke into almost all of our classified systems, not in weeks, but in hours.&quot; Citing an unidentified US official, the AP said that although Mythos ​identified certain vulnerabilities within hours, that did not mean the ...

China beats US with world's fastest supercomputer, but race not geared for AI work <br> China ​has overtaken the US&nbsp;to win the top spot on a list of the world&#39;s fastest supercomputers, but the results may &zwnj;say more about Beijing&#39;s desire to show self-sufficiency in computing systems than its standing in the global AI race, experts said. The LineShine system at the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen, China, uses domestically designed chips and won the top spot on the TOP500, a biannual global ranking of supercomputers, with the country&#39;s first listing in three years. The ​ranking comes as the US&nbsp;and China are increasingly competing in advanced computing, with US&nbsp;President&nbsp;Donald Trump&nbsp;on Monday signing an&nbsp;executive order&nbsp;that aims to put the US&nbsp;ahead of China in the emerging field of quantum computing. In the June 2026 ⁠edition of TOP500, LineShine beat out ...

Review committee proposes overhaul of contentious telecom bill's provisions, upholds property rights <br> A committee constituted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to review the controversial Pakistan Telecommunication Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2026, has proposed sweeping changes to the legislation, ruling out any access to or use of private property without the owner&#39;s consent and calling for clearer wording in several provisions to remove ambiguity. The development comes a week after the prime minister formed the committee following strong criticism from both government allies and opposition lawmakers, who demanded thorough scrutiny of the bill and amendments to its contentious clauses. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice on Wednesday, the committee reviewing the bill&#39;s Right of Way provisions&nbsp;submitted its interim report after conducting a detailed review of the proposed amendments and the existing legal ...

Indian startup head appointed as new WhatsApp boss <br> Meta has tapped Indian fintech founder Kunal Shah as the new head of WhatsApp, as the US tech giant seeks ways to monetise the messaging app&#39;s massive user base. The announcement, made Monday night, was accompanied by news that Meta would also lead a $900 million funding round in Shah&#39;s consumer finance firm CRED. &quot;Kunal built CRED into one of India&#39;s most important technology companies,&quot; Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. &quot;He brings the kind of builder mentality and global perspective that will serve him well in running the world&#39;s biggest messaging app.&quot; Shah, a serial entrepreneur and influential figure in India&#39;s fintech world, started CRED in 2018 after selling an earlier payments startup to Indian e-commerce giant Snapdeal for roughly $400 million. He is also one of India&#39;s most prolific angel investors, according...

Meta launches cheaper range of AI smart glasses starting at $299 <br> Meta Platforms and EssilorLuxottica on Tuesday announced a new range of lower-cost AI smart ​glasses, building on the success of their Ray-Ban wearable devices. The new &zwnj;Meta Glasses start at $299, making them far more affordable than the $800 Ray-Ban Display glasses launched last year. The Facebook parent has invested billions of dollars in ​its pursuit of &quot;personal intelligence&quot;, betting that advanced gadgets and ​electronics would bring the benefits of AI to ⁠individual users. Although built in collaboration with Luxottica, the new range ​of glasses are the first to not be associated with ​any of the eyewear firm&#39;s popular brands such as Ray-Ban or Oakley. The glasses come in new colors and shapes, including a rectangle look, ​and a slim oval frame collection designed in partnership with media ​personality Kylie Jenner. The devices are also the first AI glasses fr...

UN chief calls on AI firms to come clean on environmental costs <br> The United Nations &zwnj;called on major artificial intelligence companies on Tuesday to publicly disclose the full environmental cost of their data centres and use renewable power, as he launched a transparency initiative for the sector. The rapid development of data centres ​globally to fuel the AI revolution has&nbsp;drawn scrutiny&nbsp;from environmental groups for their ​high energy and water use and lack of transparency. &ldquo;By 2030, they could use ⁠more power than all but five countries &ndash; and enough water to meet the basic needs ​of all 1.3 billion residents of sub‑Saharan Africa for an entire year,&rdquo; UN Secretary-General Ant&oacute;nio Guterres said ​at an address during London Climate Action Week. He called on AI firms to measure and publicly disclose their water, carbon and land use impacts and commit to powering all data centres with renewable energy b...

China beats US with world's fastest supercomputer, but race not geared for AI work <br> China ​has overtaken the United States to win the top spot on a list of the world&#39;s fastest supercomputers, but the results may &zwnj;say more about Beijing&#39;s desire to show self-sufficiency in computing systems than its standing in the global AI race, experts said. The LineShine system at the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen, China, uses domestically designed chips and won the top spot on the TOP500, a biannual global ranking of supercomputers, with the country&#39;s first listing in three years. The ​ranking comes as the US and China are increasingly competing in advanced computing, with US President Donald Trump on Monday signing an executive order ​that aims to put the US ahead of China in the emerging field of quantum computing. In the June 2026 ⁠edition of TOP500, LineShine beat out the previous titleholder, El Capitan, a supercomputer housed...

The golden age of art - on Instagram <br> I always hated Facebook. I have a Facebook account and I used to, at one time in my life, post and argue endlessly with propagandists when Facebook was fresh and new. But the platform annoys me. It&rsquo;s bulky and slow, like a brontosaurus lumbering through the land and crushing the undergrowth with their long tails and solid oak legs. Instagram, on the other hand, is fun. Instagram is visual and pretty and clean. The interface has minimal distractions and the content, once, was all about art. For someone coming back to art after a break of 25 years, Instagram is a low-stress, no-pressure environment to get feedback on what I sometimes feel are clumsy, amateur attempts at watercolours. Although it has evolved into something else entirely now, when it was first launched, Instagram was a boon for artists across the world. Like all digital tools, the platform was disruptive, a form of disintermediation that sidelined centuries of...

Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school <br> Norway is imposing a near ban on the use of generative AI tools by elementary school pupils while also restricting their use in the education of older children to prevent a negative impact on learning, the country&rsquo;s prime minister said on Friday. Facing a broad decline in education test scores, the government in 2024 banned smartphones from schools and gave teachers more powers to enforce discipline in the classroom. Using AI increases the risk that young children skip important steps in their education, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told a press conference. &ldquo;The most important thing in school is that our children learn to read, write and do mathematics,&rdquo; Store said, adding that the new standards will be imposed from the new school year beginning in late August. Read More: The Indian workers training AI robots to take their jobs Pupils from first through seventh grade (ages 6 to 13) ...

GTA VI pre-orders set for June 25 as Rockstar reveals cover art ahead of launch <br> Rockstar Games has confirmed that pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI will open on June 25, providing the clearest indication yet that the highly anticipated game remains on track for its planned launch on November 19 2026. The announcement was made on June 18 and was accompanied by the reveal of the game&#39;s official cover art, marking one of Rockstar&#39;s most significant updates on GTA VI in recent months. According to the developers, players will be able to pre-order the game through digital storefronts and selected retailers. The update follows months of speculation surrounding pre-order dates, fuelled by retailer listings, online leaks and comments from Take-Two Interactive executives. Rockstar also released a short promotional video showcasing the cover art. The artwork places protagonists Jason and Lucia at the centre of the image and features several elements associate...

Tata's iPhone parts factory faces India health probe after farmer contamination complaints <br> An Indian state health authority is investigating how liquid discharged from Apple supplier Tata&#39;s iPhone components factory has affected farmers, some of whom complained about skin issues from contamination in their farmlands, according to three officials and a document ​reviewed by Reuters. The health investigation opens a new front in an environmental dispute that has become a test case for India&#39;s push to become a major manufacturing hub for Apple iPhones. The Tata Electronics plant in &zwnj;Hosur in southern Tamil Nadu state was sent a warning notice by the state pollution control board on May 25 for allegedly contaminating groundwater in adjacent farms. Tata said in a statement this week that the pollution board had dropped its scrutiny after confirming its analysis of recently collected water samples from inside the facility did &quot;not indic...

Police register case as Karachi trader alleges $500,000 crypto robbery after abduction <br> The Karachi police filed a case on Thursday against suspects for robbing a trader of cryptoassets after abducting him. Crypto trader Jan Sher Khan, alias JS Rao, was allegedly forced at gunpoint to transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars from his digital wallets. CCTV footage of the incident reportedly shows a car colliding with a motorcycle to stop it. The motorcyclist then flees&nbsp;but three suspects chase him down, capture him, assault him&nbsp;and force him into the car before driving away. Police at Gulistan-e-Jauhar Police Station&nbsp;registered a case based on Rao&#39;s complaint and launched an investigation. Authorities are using additional CCTV footage from the area in an effort to identify the suspects and trace their vehicle. Speaking to The Express Tribune, Rao said that he worked as a freelancer. On Tuesday night, his friend&nbsp;dropped him o...

NA panel approves 5pc withholding tax on YouTube, social media earnings <br> The National Assembly&#39;s Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday approved a series of recommendations for the proposed Finance Bill 2026-27, including the imposition of a 5% withholding income tax earned through social media platforms. Other recommendations included&nbsp;the abolition of a 1%&nbsp;advance tax on exporters&nbsp;and changes to the taxation of inherited properties. The committee, chaired by Syed Naveed Qamar, resumed its meeting after a lunch break to examine the proposed finance bill for the upcoming fiscal year. During the session, officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) briefed lawmakers on a range of tax reforms and proposed measures. Among the key proposals approved was a 5%&nbsp;withholding income tax earned through social media platforms, particularly YouTube. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue met under the Cha...

UAE sets minimum social media age at 15, mandates age checks <br> The United Arab Emirates has set a minimum age of 15 for social media use, becoming the first Arab ​country to introduce such a restriction as governments worldwide seek to &zwnj;address growing concerns over the impact of online platforms on children. Under a resolution approved on Thursday, children under 15 will be prohibited from creating, using or operating ​personal social media accounts. The ban means they will not ​be able to post content, comment, share or join public ⁠groups, the government&#39;s media office said. Teenagers aged 15 and 16 will ​be allowed to use social media platforms subject to enhanced safeguards, including ​age-appropriate content controls, restrictions on interaction with unknown users, screen-time management tools and parental supervision features. The rules apply to all social media platforms operating in the UAE and ​require companies to implement robust age-verifi...