The Guardian

The billionaire – who had no government experience – left various federal agencies in disarray while overseeing an ‘efficiency’ drive across Washington As Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, splurged more than $250m on Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign, the US president commissioned his new ally to oversee a sweeping “efficiency” drive across the federal government. The Tesla and SpaceX…

Company had hoped the virtual reality device would herald a new era in ‘spatial computing’ Poor sales have reportedly forced Apple to cut production of the Vision Pro headset that it had hoped would herald a new era in “spatial computing”. The tech company also reduced marketing for Vision Pro by more than 95% last year, according to the market intelligence group Sensor Tower in figures first rep…

Tesla endured tough year in part thanks to some consumers’ distaste for Elon Musk’s embrace of rightwing politics Tesla has taken the unusual step of publishing sales forecasts that suggest 2025 deliveries will be lower than expected and future years’ sales will be well below targets set by its chief executive, Elon Musk. The US electric vehicle maker published figures from analysts suggesting it…

New year fitness goals? An elliptical will put you through your paces without the joint strain – our reviewer worked up a sweat testing the best • The best treadmills A quick admission: I absolutely love an elliptical or cross trainer. They don’t always get the plaudits they deserve, but these low-impact cardio machines not only put less strain on your joints than a treadmill but also help you ge…

How the tech CEO and ‘Dogefather’ made a mess of the year – from an apparent Nazi salute during his White House tenure to Tesla sales slumps and Starship explosions The year of 2025 was dizzying for Elon Musk . The tech titan began the year holding court with Donald Trump in Washington DC. As the months ticked by, one public appearance after another baffled the US and the world. Musk appeared to …

In this week’s newsletter: The year’s most popular stories reveal how play, power and politics collided in the past 12 months – and what you’re psyched for in 2026 • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here With the best games of the year duly noted ( yours and ours ), I’d like to highlight some of the work we’ve done covering them. Reviewing the top-performing articles tha…

Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio warns against granting legal rights to cutting-edge technology A pioneer of AI has criticised calls to grant the technology rights , warning that it was showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be prepared to pull the plug if needed. Yoshua Bengio said giving legal status to cutting-edge AIs would be akin to giving citizenship to hostile extra…

Safety researchers feel excessive financial rewards and an irresponsible work culture have led some to ignore a catastrophic risk to human life On the other side of San Francisco bay from Silicon Valley, where the world’s biggest technology companies tear towards superhuman artificial intelligence, looms a tower from which fearful warnings emerge. At 2150 Shattuck Avenue, in the heart of Berkeley…

As 007 makes his gaming return, you can climb a mountain in Cairn, play a scaredy-cat in Resident Evil, and play a criminal couple in GTA VI Live your mountaineering fantasies and brave the elements in a wonderfully illustrated climbing game. You must carefully place climber Aava’s hands and feet to make your way up a forbidding mountain, camping on ledges and bandaging her fingers as you go. Lik…

Exclusive: CST highlights volume of IS-supporting accounts and says social media firms ‘putting all of us in danger’ Facebook hosted terrorist propaganda that celebrated the murder of Jews and praised Islamic State, a leading anti-hate group has alleged. The posts included celebrations of the Bondi beach massacre that the Community Security Trust says Facebook has been too slow to take down. The …

From Stanley Tucci’s imperious tech titan to Lex Luthor’s distractingly hot CEO and Elon Musk-esque blowhards, films this year took us inside the billionaire mindset Between the slash-and-burn US government reboot led by a dank meme fan and the relentless pushing of AI by venture capital-backed blowhards, 2025 has felt like peak obnoxious tech bro. Fittingly, jargon-spouting, self-regarding digit…

Online audiences seeking out authentic and passionate voices as antidote to AI-generated content For years, social media fame has been associated with the red carpet glamour of the Kardashians and Cristiano Ronaldo’s megawatt sporting celebrity, but millions of users globally are increasingly turning their attention to unassuming heroes drawn from everyday life. TikTok says a range of accounts, f…

Cybersecurity experts reveal what they do for high-profile clients targeted by hackers such as Scattered Spider They call it “stopping the bleeding”: the vital window to prevent an entire database from being ransacked by criminals or a production line grinding to a halt. When a call comes into the cybersecurity firm S-RM, headquartered on Whitechapel High Street in east London, a hacked business …

PC, Xbox, PlayStation 5; Embark Studios The breakout hit, which has players coming together (or turning on each other) to battle intimidating robots in an apocalyptic future, is worth the hype Arc Raiders is an extraction shooter from Embark Studios – so, a game where you deploy into a map full of other players and do as much shooting and looting as you can before making an escape. This is my fir…

There was no shortage of fun and video games in the Diamond household in the last 12 months. Which ones did we play so much our thumbs hurt? And which one saved my soul? Let the ceremony begin … • The 20 best video games of 2025 So, how was 2025 for your household? Was it really all as good as you pretended it was on Facebook? Full of A-grades for the kids and riotous themed fancy dress birthday …