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Nigel Farage received £270,000 from gold marketer he promotes
Reform UK leader’s Direct Bullion payment is double his fee from 2025UK politics live – latest updatesNigel Farage received £270,000 from a gold marketer for which he is a brand ambassador, his single biggest payment as an MP.The Reform UK leader has been criticised in the past over his £400,000-a-year second job promoting the idea…
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UK watchdog plans to break Apple and Google’s ‘effective duopoly’ on mobile app stores
CMA says developers should be able to steer users away from app stores for payments to increase competitionBusiness live – latest updatesThe UK’s competition watchdog is challenging Apple and Google’s “effective duopoly” over mobile platforms by allowing developers to steer users away from their app stores to make purchases.The Competition and Markets Authority argues that…
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Rocky week for AI as shares slump but no sign of crash – yet
The markets are souring on artificial intelligence, but is this the bubble being burst? Meanwhile, California proposes a tax on billionairesHello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you after fending off sunburns at the beach. Today, we’re discussing a rocky week for the AI industry’s finances…
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“I would fail, and here’s why I would fail” Why Baldur’s Gate 2 co-lead turned down Hasbro’s request to make Baldur’s Gate 4
After Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian passed on the opportunity to make a sequel, brand owner Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast went looking for someone else to do it. And, as it turns out, the company already works with some of the leads behind Baldur’s Gate 2. Read more
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Who did it best? USA 1994 versus World Cup 2026 – then and now
From the hairstyles to the stadiums, the kits to the celebrations, we take a look at the changing face of the game.Tap on the images below to fade between the visualsIt’s 32 years since Diego Maradona went berserk down the barrel of a TV camera after scoring for Argentina; since Bebeto rocked an imaginary baby…
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Generative AI is a “virulent plague” and even using it to eliminate “drudgery” has downsides, reckons long-time Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider
Former Dragon Age wordsmith David Gaider isn’t keen on the use of generative AI in game development, at least in the tech’s current form. In the veteran developer’s view, even if it can be used as a means to speed up the handling of more mundane tasks – which is the way many execs have…
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“We were only three votes away”: Stop Killing Games-backed California bill to keep online games playable fails to win over senate committee
A Californian bill aiming to force publishers shutting down servers for online games to provide a version of the game players can keep on playing independently of said servers or issue full refunds has failed to pass a committee vote in the state’s senate. That means the bill’s march through the legislature, which has been…
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Valve dropped that Steam Machine Companion Cube case down the legal incinerator after its makers neglected to get their permission
Steam Machine stock may be in short supply, but hey, at least it hasn’t been taken off sale and scoured from the Internet, never to be seen again. That’s just the fate of Dbrand’s unofficial Steam Machine Companion Cube case, a smartly made (if overpriced and kind of pointless) Portal-themed accessory that it turns out…
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‘A very good gadget’: taking delivery from the robots of Milton Keynes
Starship Technologies six-wheelers could soon become a more familiar sight across the country under new lawsDriving down an endless string of identical roundabouts in the dead heat with hardly a human in sight, you see robots roving around on grassy pavements, whizzing past obstacles to hurriedly reach their final destination. This isn’t a scene from…
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‘We’re up against forces that have all the money in the world’: Erin Brockovich on her battle against AI datacentres
In 1993, she squeezed a $333m settlement from a Californian energy company in a scandal over contaminated water. Three decades later, she has a new target in her sights – and it’s globalWhen Erin Brockovich woke to find 30 emails from people from the same town, she realised something was going on. People email Brockovich…