67 m. ago Elon Musk’s stubborn spin on Grok’s sexualized images controversy

Musk attempts to recast AI tool’s misuse. Plus, tech billionaires plot against a proposed California tax on their fortunesHello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor for the Guardian. Today, we discuss Elon Musk’s rosy depiction of Grok’s image generation controversy; the seven-figure panic among Silicon Valley billionaires over a proposed wealth tax in California, though with one notable exception; and how AI and robotics have revitalized the Consumer Electronics Showcase.Under a tax proposal that could be put to voters this November, any California resident worth more than $1bn would have to pay a one-off, 5% tax on their assets to help cover education, food assistance and healthcare programs in the state.Several Silicon Valley figures have already threatened to leave California and take their business elsewhere. But Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, whose net worth is nearly $159bn, told Bloomberg Television this week that he is “perfectly fine...

Politics

2 h. ago These are the best (or the least crowded) days to visit Disney World

Disney previously announced that, beginning after October 2026, single-day tickets, annual passes and certain renewals will see price increases

Politics

2 h. ago Trump administration lawyers blessed US operation to remove Maduro from power, memo shows

A legal memo that came out days before the U.S. military operation against Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro said such a move would “not rise to the level of a war in the constitutional sense” and would serve “important national interests

Politics

2 h. ago The reasons your visa or ESTA to visit the US can be canceled that you might not know about

The Trump administration has boasted about revoking more than 100,000 visas since the current president took office

Politics

2 h. ago How Reform UK's 12,000 Scottish members are being snubbed by Nigel Farage

Reform UK members have had no say in the selection of their new leader in Scotland, widely expected to be Malcolm Offord

Politics

2 h. ago Rachel Reeves wants North to ‘feel the benefits’ of rail scheme by ‘early 2030s’

The Chancellor spoke during a visit to a rail depot in Leeds.

Politics

2 h. ago Reform ‘recycling machine for Tory party’ – Swinney ahead of leader announcement

Scotland’s First Minister made the comments ahead of Nigel Farage announcing the party’s Scottish leader.

Politics

3 h. ago The 20 best villages in Scotland to visit in 2026 from the Borders to the Highlands

Here is a roundup of places to head this year for a staycation or day out.

Politics

3 h. ago Larry the cat causes chaos during Polish president’s visit to Downing Street

Larry the cat tripped up a photographer as he exited Downing Street following Polish president Karol Nawrocki's meeting with Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday, 13 January.

Politics

3 h. ago Edinburgh Developments 2026: Here are 20 new hotels that will add over 3,500 rooms for visitors to Scotland's Capital

The 20 developments are set to add a total of 3,578 hotel rooms across Edinburgh.

Politics

4 h. ago Nigel Davies admits Dwayne Peel 'probably didn't want to see me' as he reveals what happened

The Scarlets this week announced a significant change, with Nigel Davies returning to the club above Dwayne Peel

Politics

4 h. ago He lived in a cage, jumped from a window and spent a year roped to a friend: is Tehching Hsieh the most extreme performance artist ever?

He has broken his ankles, endured 365 days in a cell and faced down the 20th century’s worst winter. Yet he says he is not a masochist. We meet the man Marina Abramovich calls ‘the master’For one year, beginning on 30 September 1978, Tehching Hsieh lived in an 11ft 6in x 9ft wooden cage. He was not permitted to speak, read or consume any media, but every day a friend visited with food and to remove his waste.The vital context here is that this incarceration was voluntary: Hsieh is a Taiwanese-American artist whose chosen practice is performance art, undertaking durational “actions” for long periods. Marina Abramović has called him the “master” of the form. In 1980, seven months after the end of Cage Piece, Hsieh began another year-long work, Time Clock Piece, which required him to punch a factory-style clock-in machine in his studio, every hour of each day for 365 days. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago Pub manager's sister in tears as licence to be revoked in 21 days

"We’ve tried to do our best and were not aware of any complaints until the police visited"

Politics

5 h. ago All you need to know about the Scottish city that was named UK's best place to visit

Time Out highlighted the city’s historic landmarks and scenic surroundings as key attractions.

Politics

5 h. ago Prince William and Kate to travel to Scotland to meet Team GB and try curling

The royal couple will visit the National Curling Academy in Stirling next week to meet the stars of Team GB and ParalympicsGB

Politics

6 h. ago London's proposed tourist tax set to raise £350 million a year

Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan received powers last year to levy a tax on overnight visitors, which he said would 'directly support the capital's economy'.

Economics

6 h. ago Inside the European country so small you can cross it in 45 minutes

With the seemingly endless rain, snow and wind that the UK is blessed with during the winter months, many Brits are looking for a warmer place to visit. 

Politics

6 h. ago A Day with David Bowie: how a visit to a psychiatric clinic changed him – and his music

In 1994, Bowie and Brian Eno spent a day with ‘outsider’ artists. Intimate photographs, showing in Australia for the first time, reveal the effect it hadFrom the Thin White Duke to Ziggy Stardust, the Berlin recluse to the late-career elegist, David Bowie’s oeuvre is defined by reinvention. As an artist, he was relentlessly attuned to the conditions that might provoke the next creative rupture. One defining moment, however, has largely slipped from the popular imagination: a day spent inside a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Vienna – one that would prove unexpectedly formative.In September 1994, Bowie and Brian Eno – who had recently reunited to develop new music – accepted an invitation from the Austrian artist André Heller to visit the Maria Gugging Psychiatric Clinic. The site’s Haus der Künstler, established in 1981 as a communal home and studio, is known internationally as a centre for Art Brut – or “Outsider Art” – produced by residents, many living with schizophrenia...

Science

6 h. ago 'Don't talk down London', says Keir Starmer as he slams Nigel Farage's Reform UK at PMQs after homicide rate falls

The PM criticised Reform after its London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham said the capital was ‘burning’

Politics

7 h. ago Love Island host Maya Jama's terrifying ordeal that forced her to sleep 'with blanket over my head' in Cape Town

The TV presenter had an unwanted visitor in her room as she remains holed up in South Africa amid Love Island: All Stars launch delay

Economics