TheRegister
US freezes $42B trade pact with UK over digital tax row
The US government has put a proposed $42 billion (£31 billion) trade pact with the UK on ice because the European country has yet to budge on its Digital Services Tax (DST).…
From Georgia to Essex, AI datacenters are testing public goodwill
Frenzied demand for AI development is driving a wave of datacenter construction, but new projects are facing growing public opposition over concerns about their impact on local communities and the environment.…
Smartphones face a memory cost crunch – and buyers aren't in the mood
AI-nflation The smartphone industry's brief bounce back now looks set to run straight into a wall, with analysts warning that rising memory costs are about to test buyers' patience.…
Mozilla Corporation installs Firefox driver in CEO reboot
Mozilla Corporation on Tuesday said it has appointed Anthony Enzor-DeMeo as Chief Executive Officer, replacing Laura Chambers, who served as interim CEO for the past two years.…
Intel hires ex-Trump fixer as Washington whisperer
Intel has hired a veteran Republican operator as its head of government affairs, just months after Uncle Sam became the struggling chip vendor's biggest shareholder.…
From pr0n to playlists and paperclips, trio of breaches spills data of millions
Three very different companies have now confirmed data breaches affecting millions of users – each insisting the damage stopped well short of passwords and payment details.…
MI6 chief: we'll be as fluent in Python as we are in Russian
MI6's new chief Blaise Metreweli outlined her vision for technology-augmented intelligence gathering in her first public speech on 15 December, warning that the UK operates "in a space between peace and war."…
UK.gov doubles hardware spending framework to £24B in 6 months
The UK government plans to tender a commercial framework for end-user hardware and software worth up to £24 billion ($32.18 billion) including tax - double the £12 billion maximum announced six months ago.…
Bishop of Hong Kong tells peers AI is not the devil's work
The Bishop of Hong Kong said last week that AI was definitely not a gift from the devil at a meeting of his peers across Asia that called for sensible engagement with the technology.…
Ofcom comes knocking after BT, Three mobile outages cut 999 access
Ofcom has opened formal investigations into BT and Three after mobile outages this summer left Britons unable to make calls – including to emergency services.…
No, SoundCloud hasn’t started tuning out VPNs. It’s mopping up after a cyberattack
Music hosting and streaming service SoundCloud has admitted it suffered a cyberattack.…
Ford shifts gears to build batteries for datacenters
Automotive giant Ford has decided to start a business building big batteries, in part to cash in on the datacenter construction boom.…
Repent ye inefficient – the ‘Palantir-ization’ of IT services is upon us
Former Palantir CIO Jim Siders has departed the company to join Shield Technology Partners as CEO, in a bid he says is meant to bring AI to bear in the sprawling managed services landscape.…
Amazon security boss blames Russia's GRU for years-long energy-sector hacks
Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is behind a years-long campaign targeting energy, telecommunications, and tech providers, stealing credentials and compromising misconfigured devices hosted on AWS to give the Kremlin's snoops persistent access to sensitive networks, according to Amazon's security boss.…
Oracle isn't done with Ampere yet as A4 instances arrive on OCI boasting 96 cores
Oracle last week announced that it had divested from Ampere Computing. But while Big Red may no longer own part of the Arm CPU maker, it's not ready to stop using the chips just yet.…
IBM unleashes CUGA, an open-source AI agent that actually completes more than half its tasks
IBM researchers have released an open source AI agent called CUGA that aspires to automate complex enterprise workflows and get it right about half the time, depending on the task.…
ServiceNow mulls buying Armis to gain full visibility into the IT stack
ServiceNow is reportedly nearing a deal to buy security software company Armis for $7.1 billion to give its customers full stack visibility of their IT estate and eliminate security blindspots, according to Bloomberg.…
US gov't launches 'Tech Force' to replace IT staff DOGE fired
After dissolving several federal tech modernization units and shedding large numbers of technologists, the Trump administration has launched a new talent recruitment initiative, suggesting it still needs people to help drag the government's IT into the present.…
Delays? What delays? Oracle insists its $300B cloud contract with OpenAI is on track
Despite Wall Street jitters and reports to the contrary, Oracle insists its $300 billion datacenter deal with OpenAI is on track and proceeding on schedule.…
New Jolla phone and Sailfish 5 offer a break from iOS-Android monotony
hands on After successful crowdfunding, the latest release of the original handheld Linux distro will power a new handset coming in mid-2026.…

