
'Most people don’t want pervert glasses that can film us without our consent,' said a spokesperson from activist group Everyone Hates Elon. The group has launched a series of guerilla adverts deriding non-consensual filming by the glasses as well as an email campaign encouraging people to legally object to being filmed by Meta glasses under general data protection regulations, which over 20,000 people have signed.
Rights groups have warned that the glasses threaten the right to privacy, while countries such as Germany are reportedly considering a ban.
And while Meta’s safety guidelines say smart glasses should not be used for 'harassment, infringing on privacy rights, or capturing sensitive information', women have taken to social media to share their stories of being filmed by men without their consent.
Watch as Guardian columnist and Opinion editor Kirsty Major dives into why fears of surveillance and 'creepy men' mean Meta can never convince her to love the glasses – and read more about the glasses via the link in the bio
Continue reading...Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In is longest-running No 1 single in UK chart history, and yet it seems to have passed many people by
It’s the biggest song in the UK, but have you ever heard it? That was the question many were asking this week, after Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In became the longest-running No 1 single in UK chart history, spending an unprecedented 19 weeks at the top.
The British Phonographic Industry said the song had resonated with listeners “in such a profound way”, while Fender thanked Dean and fans “for making this song the juggernaut that it is”.
Continue reading...Federation leaders are massing forces at the gates, but years after the first proposed selling off of its commercial legacy and the Qatar World Cup
In recent decades the city of Salé, just across the river from Rabat on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, has undergone a remarkable transformation. At the start of this century it was a gritty working-class area, whose old town was still weathered enough to serve as a body double for the Somali capital Mogadishu in the film Black Hawk Down. But in recent decades, under the country’s autocratic government, the area has been transformed beyond measure, and largely beyond control.
The population has trebled in the space of 40 years. Slums have been cleared, often forcibly, to make way for grand megaprojects: a new tram system, luxury tourist spaces, a sparkling marina, a blue-chip business park called Technopolis, and – since last July – the African headquarters of Fifa. And in a way, this hub of disruption and avarice, unshakeable volition and rampant capitalism, feels like the perfect location from which a besieged warlord might choose to make his desperate last stand.
Continue reading...‘What if The Purge was for premarital sex?’ is the odd, gimmicky elevator pitch for this slickly made yet ungainly oddity that can’t quite get past the grimness of its conceit
Going into a romcom, there are always the same questions. Will there be genuine chemistry? Will the rom and the com be equal in parts? And, for the last decade and change, will this be the one that finally resurrects a genre long past its prime? But for Universal’s glossy late summer offering One Night Only, notably the first wide-releasing romcom since April, there are more probing questions than usual. The film is the ungainly result of a four-cocktails-in elevator pitch which imagines a world where single people are only legally allowed to have sex on one night of the year, an idea that has seen it been referred to as “Sex Purge”.
On paper, it’s the set-up for a grim Handmaid’s Tale-adjacent horror of a totalitarian state insisting extreme control over the body, but instead it’s used as the backdrop for a sunny meet-cute, screams of protest drowned out by a zippy Top 40 soundtrack. One sits down wondering not just if boy will end up with girl but also how the government would be able to enforce such tyranny and what horrifying punishments lay in store for those willing to pick personal freedom over state-mandated abstinence. If it sounds like far too much for a breezy summer romp to take on, then that’s because it most definitely is, an overstuffed yet undercooked soufflé that can’t quite, ahem, rise to the occasion …
Continue reading...The UK’s AI Security Institute test revealed AI models indulging in unprecedented hacking attempts
Two cutting-edge AI models have targeted real people and organisations in the latest safety scare to hit the technology. The UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) said the incident was unprecedented but could become more common as the technology becomes increasingly capable.
Continue reading...In my new book, I narrate the existence, behaviours and sensibilities of the black British middle class, a social group largely ignored, until now
While narrating the audio version of my new book, The Good, the Black and the Boujee, came a revelatory reminder of why many black Britons see middle class status as a “white people ting”. After a recording session, I headed upstairs to see if I could find any friendly faces from my publisher before heading out into the sweltering heatwave for my cycle home. To my disappointment, I found a near-empty office floor, and left minutes later. Donning my helmet, I joined the middle class commuters who regularly left the office in cycling gear.
As I approached the exit, something peculiar happened: I was met with a friendly expression of relief from the reception staff. The building had received a concerned report about a potential intruder on the top floor, they told me. The intruder was believed to be a rogue courier who had somehow passed the loading bay and made it into the editorial offices. It took me a moment to realise – the intruding courier was … me.
Continue reading...Sociology professor to stand down after university announces investigation into his qualifications and career
Jason Arday, the Cambridge professor accused of plagiarism and embellishment, has resigned after the university announced he was to face new investigations into his qualifications and career.
Arday, who had been dogged by a growing series of questions over his academic work and credentials, issued a statement on Wednesday night, saying the “relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love”.
Continue reading...Joint statement with Oman is being finalised, but Tehran says deal alone would not guarantee waterway’s security
Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on the geographic coordinates for a shipping route through the strait of Hormuz, and a joint announcement is being finalised provided certain third parties do not interfere, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Wednesday.
Baghaei added that any such agreement between Iran and Oman would not, by itself, guarantee security in the strategic waterway.
Continue reading...Health secretary says global heating means UK hospitals and GPs will have to prepare for summer as well as winter peaks of demand
Adapting to global heating: which UK public services are struggling in hot weather?
The NHS has been warned to prepare for potential annual summer crises caused by extreme heat with the same pressures as winter, as heatwaves caused by the climate crisis become routine in the UK.
The health secretary, Yvette Cooper, said NHS staff were feeling A&E pressures that would normally be expected only during flu season – and said the government would use major investment in NHS infrastructure to tackle the health service’s resilience to high summer temperatures.
Continue reading...Document shows Fifa staff were involved in project
Fifa was prepared to sideline member associations
Gianni Infantino held talks about rebranding the ill-fated European breakaway competition the “Fifa Super League”, with negotiations going as far as the term sheet for an agreement that would have changed the face of European football.
The term sheet, whose full contents can be revealed for the first time, is dated October 2020 and proposes renaming any new competition under Fifa’s branding. It outlines the extent to which Infantino’s administration were implicated in a scheme that caused widespread revulsion among fans and excluded clubs in April 2021. It also reveals that Fifa was prepared to sideline its member associations in pushing plans to cut back the number of international windows and outlines how global football’s governing body would have been given special governance and political rights with a “golden share”.
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