Major outage hits TPG, Vodafone, iiNet, Internode and Kogan customers amid wild NSW weather

One of Australia’s largest internet providers has been hit with a major outage, leaving thousands businesses and individuals without broadband access.In a statement on Monday evening, TPG Telecom said it was working to resolve a “technical issue”, which was causing disruption to its fixed broadband services for consumer and business customers.“This issue is affecting broadband services for TPG, Vodafone, iiNet, Internode and Kogan fixed internet customers,” they said.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email“Our technical teams have identified the issue and are working to restore services as quickly as possible for all customers.“We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused

AI race must be led by ‘western, liberal, democratic’ countries, says UK minister

The artificial intelligence race must be led by “western, liberal, democratic” countries, said the UK technology secretary in a veiled warning over China’s role in the contest, before a global AI summit in Paris.Peter Kyle spoke as political leaders and tech company bosses gather in France, and after the emergence of a new Chinese force in AI, DeepSeek, rattled US investors and upended assumptions about Silicon Valley’s leadership in the technology.The tech minister told the Guardian he would use the summit to explain why Britain should be at the forefront of developing AI.As well as allowing global leaders and companies to “come together and learn from each other”, the summit would give the UK a chance to show why it had the “skills and the scientific pedigree” that were “going to be essential if western, liberal, democratic countries are to remain at the forefront of this critical technology”, he said.Kyle added that AI would have an impact on every part of the economy and society, including national security and defence

From Dogecoin to $Trump: everything you need know about the wild world of meme coins

Are they the same as crypto, why has the US president launched one, and who’s really coining it in? Here’s a complete guide to the latest digital money maniaThree days before his inauguration as US president, Donald Trump made an unusual move. He launched $Trump, a so-called meme coin that fans and speculators could buy in the hopes it would gain value. Initially, $Trump soared from a value of $7 to $75 per coin in a day, according to crypto price-tracking website CoinMarketCap. Two days later, it dropped to about $40 – just as incoming first lady Melania Trump launched her own meme coin, $Melania. Even the pastor at Trump’s inauguration ceremony, Lorenzo Sewell, got swept up in the meme coin frenzy, promoting a $Lorenzo version the same afternoon

We didn’t click ‘consent’ on any gambling website. So how did Facebook know where we’d been?

A Facebook user logs into their account and is bombarded with dozens of gambling ads. The promotions for online casinos and betting sites offer free spins, “bet boosts”, discounts and bonuses.But the person has never placed a bet or played a game on a gambling site before – let alone consented to being targeted. How can that happen?The Observer conducted an experiment to find out how potential gambling customers are being tracked, profiled and targeted online.To do this, we visited 150 gambling websites run by companies with licences to operate in the UK

AI is developing fast, but regulators must be faster | Letters

The recent open letter regarding AI consciousness on which you report (AI systems could be ‘caused to suffer’ if consciousness achieved, says research, 3 February) highlights a genuine moral problem: if we create conscious AI (whether deliberately or inadvertently) then we would have a duty not to cause it to suffer. What the letter fails to do, however, is to capture what a big “if” this is.Some promising theories of consciousness do indeed open the door to AI consciousness. But other equally promising theories suggest that being conscious requires being an organism. Although we can look for indicators of consciousness in AI, it is very difficult – perhaps impossible – to know whether an AI is actually conscious or merely presenting the outward signs of consciousness

How some objects can have a mind of their own | Brief letters

I have great empathy with Adrian Chiles’ protectiveness of inanimate objects (Why am I so sad about seeing a robot get beaten up?, 5 February), but these objects can exercise tyranny, so we should beware the jacket that won’t let you put it on, the paper serviette that it is impervious to fluid and, of course, any self-hiding object.Jonathan HauxwellCrosshills, North Yorkshire If President Trump thinks that it is reasonable to relocate 2 million people from the Gaza Strip in the interests of peace (Report, 6 February), presumably the same logic should apply to the 500,000 Jewish settlers illegally occupying lands in the Palestinian West Bank.Ian MartinFalmouth, Cornwall If Donald Trump Jr decided to eat the rare duck he’s alleged to have shot in the Venice lagoon (Report, 5 February), would he get the orange sauce from his dad?David ProtheroHarlington, Bedfordshire When did laundry become the word for getting clothes at home clean (Pass notes, 5 February)? I still do the washing.Janet MansfieldAspatria, Cumbria A case of cutting his nose off despite his face (Makeup artist tried to remove Adrien Brody’s nose by mistake on set of The Brutalist, 6 February).Steve BarnesLondon Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section