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The best of the long read in 2025

Our 20 favourite pieces of in-depth reporting, essays and profiles from the yearVictor Pelevin made his name in 90s Russia with scathing satires of authoritarianism. But while his literary peers have faced censorship and fled the country, he still sells millions. Has he become a Kremlin apologist? Continue reading…

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MPs question UK Palantir contracts after investigation reveals security concerns

Journalists find Swiss government rejected company over fears US intelligence might gain access to sensitive dataUK MPs have raised concerns about the government’s contracts with Palantir after an investigation published in Switzerland highlighted allegations about the suitability and security of its products.The investigation by the Zurich-based research collective WAV and the Swiss online magazine Republik

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‘Help! I need money. It’s an emergency’: your child’s voicemail that could be a scam

Steps to help combat fraud in which criminals use AI-generated replica of a person’s voice to deceive victimsThe voicemail from your son is alarming. He has just been in a car accident and is highly stressed. He needs money urgently, although it is not clear why, and he gives you some bank details for a

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‘It can be quite a thankless job’: why driving examiners are calling it quits

A staff exodus and a broken booking system are helping to cause huge jams in Britain’s driving test system It has long been a stressful rite of passage for many young people but, in recent years, passing the actual driving test is the easy part. Now, many people seeking a test need to wake up

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The Com: the growing cybercrime network behind recent Pornhub hack

Criminal ecosystem is made up of mostly male native English language speakers aged from 16 to 25Ransomware hacks, data theft, crypto scams and sextortion cover a broad range of cybercrimes carried out by an equally varied list of assailants.But there is also an English-speaking criminal ecosystem carrying out these activities that defies conventional categorisation. Nonetheless,

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UK Foreign Office victim of cyber-attack in October, says Chris Bryant

Minister says risk to ‘any individual’ from cyber-attack is low and that it is still unclear who is responsible The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was hacked in October, a minister has said.Chris Bryant, a trade minister in Keir Starmer’s government, told Sky News there was a low risk to “any individual” from the

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UK’s largest proposed datacentre ‘understating planned water use’

Analysis suggests consumption at Northumberland site could be 50 times higher than US operator QTS estimatesThe UK’s largest proposed datacentre is understating the scale of its planned water use, according to an analysis.The first phase of construction for the hyperscale campus in Cambois in Northumberland has been given the go-ahead by the local council. The

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UK actors vote to refuse to be digitally scanned in pushback against AI

Equity says vote signals strong opposition to AI use and readiness to disrupt productions unless protections are securedActors have voted to refuse digital scanning to prevent their likeness being used by artificial intelligence in a pushback against AI in the arts.Members of the performing arts union Equity were asked if they would refuse to be

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George Osborne has a new job in tech, and it doesn’t bode well for Britain | Chris Stokel-Walker

OpenAI is the latest to make a political hire as big tech spreads its tentacles around the world. So what’s the attraction?George Osborne getting a new job isn’t exactly news. Since leaving frontline politics, the former chancellor has served as the chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, edited (not entirely successfully) the Evening Standard, advised

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AI boom has caused same CO2 emissions in 2025 as New York City, report claims

Study author says tech companies are reaping benefits of artificial intelligence age but society is left to pay costThe AI boom has caused as much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere in 2025 as emitted by the whole of New York City, it has been claimed.The global environmental impact of the rapidly spreading

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