Bumble divides users by ditching its signature'women-first' chat rule Dating app Bumble has divided its users by dropping its signature rule which allowed only women to send the first message to a match. When the app launched 2014, founder and boss Whitney Wolfe Herd said it distinguished itself from rivals like Tinder by allowing women to make the first move. But the thing that made Bumble famous will now be ditched following a trial which showed more engagement - and a survey among users which found 66% of women prefer men to send the first message. Reaction across online forums has highlighted a divide among users about whether the update will get more people using Bumble - or if it makes it just like any other dating app. Previously, only same-sex relationships did not have to follow the strict women-first rule.

'The fish is in the right' says man bitten by blue shark while angling A man who was bitten by a shark on a boat off the coast of County Waterford is due to undergo surgery. Sebastian Achim was part of a crew tagging sharks for research off Ram Head, Ardmore, when the incident happened on Tuesday. The crew, who were experienced fishermen, were catching the sharks, tagging them and then releasing them back into the sea. Later in the day, Achim caught another shark and was bitten in the leg after pulling it into the boat. 'The fish is in the right' Speaking to RTÉ Radio One's Morning Ireland, external programme, Achim said the plan was to hook the shark, tag it and release it.

Luxury department store Harvey Nichols has been bought by the owners of Sports Direct, who warn significant restructuring will be needed to ensure the 200-year-old business remains sustainable. Mike Ashley's Frasers Group will take control of the Harvey Nichols stores, including its flagship in Knightsbridge, as well as the international franchise. The department store was immortalised in BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, but had faced challenges in recent years. The firm had appointed administrators in June. Frasers Group's chief executive Michael Murray called the store a British institution with significant potential but added clear meaningful change is needed.

Plus: Trump has authorized businesses to conduct cyberattacks on criminals. When we set out to talk to kids about AI, we thought we knew what we'd hear. We expected stories about cheating, inspiring uses, and concerns like deepfakes or job destruction. But what we actually heard from kids aged 10 to 18 had tons of nuance. Many were so deeply against AI or uninterested in making it part of their lives that they didn't want to talk about it at all. Others worried about cheating, the environmental impact, or AI's effect on creativity and critical thinking.

Water companies have been given the green light to increase bills for customers by an extra £3.4bn in coming years to meet increased pressures on infrastructure and the environment. Nearly a third of the extra funding provisionally approved for 13 water companies in England and Wales is earmarked for making sure water services are maintained. The rest will be used to meet rising demand from housebuilding and data centres and to address pollutants known as forever chemicals. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the proposal was real money out of family budgets at a time when they are struggling with the cost of living, and an environmental group described the decision as an insult. The regulator, Ofwat, said the extra spending would enable the firms to support growth and better environmental outcomes, and ensure important upgrades were not delayed.

Zero hours crackdown could cost firms up to £2.9bn a year Businesses could face costs of up to £2.9bn a year because of a crackdown on zero hours contracts, according to the government's own analysis. Labour's employment reforms are set to cut the number of hours staff can work before they must be offered guaranteed time. Official analysis released on Wednesday showed it could cost employers between £350m and £2.9bn, based on the eventual threshold of hours the policy impacts. Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said the reforms would ensure workers are fairly paid but business groups said the cost to employers was disproportionate compared to how much it would help workers. Government analysis said there were potential trade-offs that include more administrative costs and less flexibility for companies, including making it harder for employers to respond to changes in demand.

Records obtained by WIRED detail hundreds of allegations of Customs and Border Protection workers misusing internal tools to look up romantic interests and track colleagues' cell phones. Internal records obtained by WIRED reveal how, for years, United States Customs and Border Protection employees and contractors were accused of abusing sensitive government databases for reasons that had nothing to do with their jobs. The records contain hundreds of allegations of misuse of law enforcement databases, including federal agents querying data to look up romantic interests, monitor family members, expose various personal information and, in some cases, provide intelligence to suspected smugglers or drug-trafficking organizations. Acquired through Freedom of Information Act requests to CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, the records reveal the breadth of alleged database abuse by CBP employees spanning more than a decade. As immigration and border authorities expand their surveillance through facial recognition, license plate readers, mobile-device searches, and commercially purchased location information generated by ordinary apps, the sheer range of these records, which date from 2009 through 2022, highlights how US residents can be--and have been--targeted by federal government employees with access to highly sensitive data and powerful tools.

Does an AI-filled future seem like promise or peril to today's teens and tweens? We went right to the source. When we set out to talk to kids about artificial intelligence, we thought we knew what we'd hear. We expected some to tell us they were using it to cheat a little, the way Millennials and Gen Xers opened up CliffsNotes or programmed formulas into their TI-82s, and others to share inspiring ways they were using it. We were also listening for concerns that were less kid-specific, like deepfakes or job destruction. But what we actually heard when we asked kids aged 10 to 18 about AI had tons of nuance. Many of the same kids who can go on and on about music, rock climbing, or soccer met our questions with words like "bruh" and "meh"--or were so deeply against AI or uninterested in making it part of their lives that they didn't want to talk about it at all. One teen said his peers use it for things they know they shouldn't, like writing papers. One told us she won't touch AI because of the environmental impact. A few said they find the whole field disheartening: "AI isn't the solution to our problems," said Winter, a 17-year-old.

Twitch has been criticised by users after it emerged the popular streaming platform allowed their content to be used to train Amazon's artificial intelligence (AI) models. Amazon owns Twitch and a setting allowing the US tech giant to take data generated by creators and audiences to train AI is turned on by default. Users can now opt out of that, Twitch said on Wednesday, but the announcement sparked a backlash with some users questioning why it was allowed in the first place. Twitch's chief product officer Mike Minton, said it's respecting users by letting them opt out but on why data was collected by default, he admitted: If it's opt-in, nobody would opt-in. Users who remain opted in could have any of their channel content used for training, Minton said during a livestream, adding that the data collected will not be re-sold to other companies.

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