Why the Online Safety Act has become a political nightmare August 11, 2025 The UK’s Online Safety Act, which came into force on 25th July, was conceived with the noble aim of protecting children from harmful online content. It mandates that web service providers implement “highly effective” age verification measures to prevent minors from accessing material that promotes suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, or abusive behaviour, as well as [...]
Bank of England interest rate cut offers modest boost for UK SMEs August 11, 2025 The Bank of England’s recent decision to reduce its base interest rate from 4.25 per cent to four per cent marks the first time borrowing costs have fallen to this level since March 2023, offering a modest reprieve for UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) after two years of elevated rates. According to new analysis [...]
Nvidia and AMD to pay US 15 per cent cut on China chip sales August 11, 2025 US chipmakers Nvidia and AMD have agreed to hand over 15 per cent of their Chinese revenues to Washington in exchange for the green light to resume sales of high-powered AI chips to the country, in what industry analysts have called an “unprecedented” arrangement. The deal, first reported by the Financial Times, applies to Nvidia’s [...]
Elon Musk’s Tesla makes bid to power UK homes August 11, 2025 Elon Musk’s Tesla has applied for a licence to supply electricity to UK homes and businesses, in a move that could see the world’s most famous electric car brand take on Britain’s energy giants as soon as next year. The application was filed late last month by Tesla Energy Ventures, the Manchester-based energy subsidiary of [...]
Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital confirms merger talks August 11, 2025 S4 Capital has confirmed it has received a proposal from MSQ Partners for a possible combination, following weekend media reports linking the London-listed digital advertising group to the US private equity-backed agency network. In a statement published on Monday, the company said the talks were “at a very preliminary stage” and stressed there was “no [...]
Forest’s Hounslow e-bike contract win sparks concerns over cash-first tender model July 31, 2025 Hounslow Council awarded one of its two e-bike contracts to the operator which offered them the highest fees despite scoring demonstrably lower than rivals on other metrics, City AM can reveal. The move, which has attracted fury from rival operators, lays bare the competing interests of cash-strapped local authorities as they weigh which criteria to prioritise [...]
Big tech hits back as CMA flags ‘harmful” cloud dominance by Microsoft and AWS July 31, 2025 Big Tech companies have pushed back against a damning report from the UK’s competition watchdog, which warned that Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance in the £10.5bn cloud computing market is stifling competition and harming UK businesses. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Thursday published the final findings of its 21-month cloud investigation, concluding that Microsoft [...]
Meta and Microsoft face AI earnings test July 30, 2025 Meta, the owner of Facebook, and Microsoft will post second-quarter earnings after US markets close today (Wednesday 30 July) with analysts focused squarely on how both tech titans are monetising their multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence (AI) bets. Shares in both firms have surged around 20 per cent so far this year, fuelled by investor enthusiasm around [...]
Klarna’s AI push takes centre stage ahead of IPO July 30, 2025 Klarna seems to be making all the right steps about its AI ambitions, but is the Swedish fintech giant genuinely building an AI-first model for its users or simply crafting a compelling narrative for its much-anticipated IPO? “I’m not sure it gets a choice in the matter” Chris Jones, managing director at PSE told City [...]
UK backs global AI safety plan with AWS and Anthropic July 30, 2025 The UK has launched a new global research coalition aimed at tackling one of the most pressing but least understood problems in artificial intelligence – ensuring that advanced AI systems behave in ways aligned with human values. Backed by £15m in funding and a wide-ranging group of partners, the so-called ‘Alignment Project’ was unveiled on [...]
