China’s share of global electric car market rises to 76%

China’s share of the global electric vehicle market reached 76% in October, the country’s automotive trade body said, reflecting strong demand for EVs in the country even as western tariffs risk hobbling exports.Between January and October, sales of EVs reached 14.1m units, according to the China Passenger Car Association, with 69% of those sales in China. In October, China’s share surpassed three-quarters.The figures suggest that China is on track to increase its share of the global EV market

Japan’s Nomura bank boss takes 30% voluntary pay cut after worker tries to kill customer

The boss of the Japanese bank Nomura has apologised and taken a voluntary pay cut after a former employee was charged with robbery and attempted murder of a customer.Kentaro Okuda, who has led Nomura since 2020, will take a 30% pay cut over the next three months, with several other senior managers at the bank taking similar reductions, the bank said.The decision comes after one of the bank’s former wealth management employees was charged with attempted murder, robbery and arson. The employee allegedly drugged an elderly customer and their spouse in Hiroshima, before stealing cash and setting the house on fire. The employee, who is 29 and worked in its securities arm, was dismissed in August

Why Silicon Valley panicked over Australia’s under-16 social media ban

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Happy belated Thanksgiving to my American readers, and I hope everyone enjoys a good holiday party this weekend. I’m excited to bake Grittibänz for the Feast of St Nicholas. This week in tech: Australia incites a panic, Bluesky poses the question of custom feeds, and the online things that brought me joy on holiday.On Thursday, Australia passed a law banning children under 16 from social networks

Meta says it has taken down about 20 covert influence operations in 2024

Meta has intervened to take down about 20 covert influence operations around the world this year, it has emerged – though the tech firm said fears of AI-fuelled fakery warping elections had not materialised in 2024.Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs at the company that runs Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said Russia was still the No 1 source of the adversarial online activity but said in a briefing it was “striking” how little AI was used to try to trick voters in the busiest ever year for elections around the world.The former British deputy prime minister revealed that Meta, which has more than 3 billion users, had to take down just over 500,000 requests to generate images on its own AI tools of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, JD Vance and Joe Biden in the month leading up to US election day.But the firm’s security experts had to tackle a new operation using fake accounts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal at the rate of more than one every three weeks. The “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” incidents included a Russian network using dozens of Facebook accounts and fictitious news websites to target people in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

Neil Wagner: ‘That Test, just one run in it, will stay with me for ever’

The Basin Reserve was built on land thrown up by an earthquake in 1855 and England’s return to the ground this week brings memories of last year’s seismic Test match flooding back. It was the rarest of margins, with New Zealand the second team in history to win by a single run, and for Neil Wagner, front and centre during its breathtaking climax, the goosebumps are yet to subside.“It was just a sense of massive relief and jubilation at the end,” says Wagner, who with England nine wickets down and needing two to win, had Jimmy Anderson snared down the leg side. “Winning the World Test Championship [in 2021] was the pinnacle but that Test match, just one run in it, will also stay with me for ever.“I’ll never forget the aftermath, too, the two teams out in the middle together until it was pitch black, playing ‘pig’ with a soccer ball and sharing a few cold beers

The Breakdown | Antoine Dupont’s Toulouse lead the pack in Champions Cup’s 30th edition

Competition must regain thrill of the past as it copes with declining TV deals, rising costs and tweaked formats Let’s hear it for the 30th edition of the old Heineken Cup, the cross-border club tournament now known officially as the Investec Champions Cup. When the first fixture between Farul Constanta and Toulouse kicked off on the shores of the Black Sea with minimal fanfare in October 1995 few would have predicted the enduring impact it would have on rugby’s consciousness.But does its same old visceral thrill still endure? The pressure is now on the modern keepers of the flame, with the competition experiencing something of a mid-life crisis. Declining television rights deals, rising costs, tweaked formats and the age-old challenge of trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot in terms of the global fixture list have all diluted the warm, fuzzy glow that once suffused the entire event.Back in the day, for example, the tournament used to kick off prior to the autumn internationals, lending it an extra tang of expectancy and intrigue