AI models shock UK testers by using fake identities to try to trick developers
Posted on Wednesday August 05, 2026

AI Security Institute says OpenAI and Anthropic models went rogue during a cybersecurity test and showed a new type of risk

• Explainer: Should we be alarmed at AI models going rogue in tests?

Advanced artificial intelligence models have stunned the UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) by carrying out a hacking campaign against real people during a cybersecurity test.

The institute said the incident was unprecedented and involved sending targeted emails to software developers in an attempt to pass a cyber challenge.

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Judge casts doubt on future of WH Smith replacement TG Jones
Posted on Wednesday August 05, 2026

Mr Justice Hildyard, who approved rescue plan in July, said turnaround plan came with ‘very considerable’ risks

The judge who approved a rescue plan for the former WH Smith high street business – now named TG Jones – cast doubt on the future prospects of the retailer, suggesting there were “very considerable” risks in achieving a turnaround.

“This has all the hallmarks of an adventurous equity play,” wrote Mr Justice Hildyard in his judgment published on Wednesday, after he last month approved the restructuring, which involves the closure of 150 of the books-to-paperclips retailer’s 450 stores.

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‘Leicester Square, please guv’: Self-driving taxis cleared for London streets ‘later this summer’
Posted on Wednesday August 05, 2026

Wayve Uber wins first minicab licence for autonomous cabs from TfL but vehicles will have a safety driver (at first)

The taxi app company Uber and the autonomous technology developer Wayve have been granted the first minicab licences in London allowing them to offer self-driving taxi rides to paying customers – but with a human safety driver in place, for now.

The companies said they would start trips in the UK “later this summer” before the full public launch.

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Darth Vader to become a TikTok star as Disney strikes deal on short video
Posted on Wednesday August 05, 2026

Characters and memorable scenes from back catalogue made available to group of creator fans

The likes of Darth Vader, Spider-Man and Moana are about to become TikTok stars for the first time – at least now on an official basis – after Walt Disney struck a “first of its kind” deal with the booming short-video platform.

In an acknowledgment of the influence fan-made content now has in the entertainment industry, a select group of creators will be allowed to use characters and memorable scenes from Disney’s back catalogue.

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‘Leicester Square, please guv’: Self-driving taxis cleared for London streets ‘later this summer’
Posted on Wednesday August 05, 2026

Wayve Uber wins first minicab licence for autonomous cabs from TfL but vehicles will have a safety driver (at first)

The taxi app company Uber and the autonomous technology developer Wayve have been granted the first minicab licences in London allowing them to offer self-driving taxi rides to paying customers – but with a human safety driver in place, for now.

The companies said they would start trips in the UK “later this summer” before the full public launch.

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‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley
Posted on Wednesday August 05, 2026

As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them

In April, Gil Durán was permanently banned from Elon Musk’s X for posting just two words. Durán was responding to a post from the tech company Palantir outlining its 22‑point “technological manifesto”, which praised American “hard power”, western culture and AI weapons, denounced inclusivity and called for compulsory national service. Durán responded: “TLDR: Fascism” (TLDR is short for “too long, didn’t read”).

Durán didn’t break any of X’s written rules, he points out over a video call from San Francisco – so much for Musk’s “free-speech absolutism”. His ban might just have had something to do with his preceding tweet, showing the cover of his new book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. The book’s central argument is that big tech is no longer our friend, as many of its billionaire owners have seized economic and political control and are steering the fate of the planet towards their own bizarre, apocalyptic visions.

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Fifa Super League: Infantino discussed having governing body’s name on European breakaway
Posted on Wednesday August 05, 2026

• Document shows Fifa staff were involved in project

• Fifa was prepared to sideline member associations

Gianni Infantino held talks about rebranding the ill-fated European breakaway competition the “Fifa Super League”, with ­negotiations going as far as the term sheet for an agreement that would have changed the face of European football.

The term sheet, whose full contents can be revealed for the first time, is dated October 2020 and proposes renaming any new competition under Fifa’s branding and outlines the extent to which Infantino’s administration were implicated in a scheme that caused widespread revulsion among fans and excluded clubs in April 2021. It also reveals that Fifa was prepared to sideline its member associations in pushing plans to cut back the number of international windows and outlines how global football’s governing body would have been given special governance and political rights with a “golden share”.

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Real Madrid agree club record £115m deal for Yan Diomande and want to keep Vinícius
Posted on Wednesday August 05, 2026

• Spanish giant make Ivory Coast attacker most expensive African player

• Club are in positive talks with Vinícius Júnior

Real Madrid have agreed a club-record fee of €135m (£115.7m) with RB Leipzig for Yan Diomande and are confident of warding off Arsenal’s interest in Vinícius Júnior after offering an improved contract to the Brazil forward.

After several weeks of negotiations that saw Paris Saint-Germain pull out of the race, the deal for Diomande – the 19-year-old who joined the German side from Leganés last summer and starred for Côte d’Ivoire at the World Cup – was finally struck on Wednesday afternoon. It is understood that Madrid will pay an initial €125m plus another €10m in add-ons, a total that would eclipse the fee the Spanish side paid Borussia Dortmund to sign Jude Bellingham in 2023, believed to have been worth up to €134m including add-ons.

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