Even after TikTok removed swastika jewelry from its online shop, I was algorithmically nudged toward a web of Nazi-related products during searches, like "double lightning bolt" and "ss" necklaces. My journey on TikTok Shop started out with a search for "hip hop jewelry." It's an innocuous search query multiple users have likely typed in, hoping to find something to wear. While browsing the cheap jewelry, I was struck by what TikTok's algorithm repeatedly suggested that I might also be interested in: jewelry with blatant Nazi symbolism. TikTok continues to struggle with moderation as its in-app ecommerce store gains traction with younger users.

In these politically divisive times, there's one thing we all agree on--we don't want a giant data center in our backyard. Behold, the hyperscale data center! Massive structures, with thousands of specialized computer chips running in parallel to perform the complex calculations required by advanced AI models. A single facility can cover millions of square feet, built with millions of pounds of steel, aluminum, and concrete; feature hundreds of miles of wiring, connecting some hundreds of thousands of high-end GPU chips, and chewing through hundreds of megawatt-hours of electricity. These facilities run so hot from all that computing power that their cooling systems are triumphs of engineering complexity in themselves. But the star of the show are those chips with their advanced processors.

Elon Musk's X is living up to its name. Shortly after Elon Musk purchased Twitter, in 2022, he claimed that "removing child exploitation is priority #1." It was certainly a noble goal--social-media sites had become havens for distributing abusive materials, including child pornography and revenge porn, and there was perhaps no major platform as openly hospitable to such content as Twitter. Unlike Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, which restricted nudity and pornographic videos, Twitter allowed users to post violent and "consensually produced adult content" to their feeds without consequence. Long before Musk's takeover, Twitter had positioned itself as anti-censorship, the "free-speech wing of the free-speech party," as Tony Wang, the general manager of Twitter in the U.K., once put it--less concerned with policing content than with providing a public square for users to express themselves freely.

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini The government still plans to fully transition to digital right-to-work checks by 2029. Protesters take part in a'No to Digital ID' demonstration. The UK government has backtracked on a plan to require all workers to have a digital ID following a backlash. It will no longer be mandatory to register with the digital ID program to prove one has the right to work in the country, as the reports. The government announced the now-scrapped digital ID requirement in September.

Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok, is being investigated by the UK's media regulator. Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok, is being investigated by the UK's media regulator. "Since discovering Grok AI, regular porn doesn't do it for me anymore, it just sounds absurd now," one enthusiast for the Elon Musk-owned AI chatbot wrote on Reddit. Another agreed: "If I want a really specific person, yes." If those who have been horrified by the distribution of sexualised imagery on Grok hoped that last week's belated safeguards could put the genie back in the bottle, there are many such posts on Reddit and elsewhere that tell a different story.

China announced record export numbers for 2025, a year when US President Donald Trump's tariffs and trade policy caused turmoil in the global economy. Beijing on Wednesday reported the world's largest-ever trade surplus - the value of goods and services sold overseas compared to its imports - at $1.19tn (£890bn). It's the first time China's full-year trade surplus has passed $1tn, beating 2024's record figure of $993bn. China's monthly export surpluses passed $100bn seven times last year - a sign that Trump's tariff campaign have barely affected its overall trade with the rest of the world. Trade with the US did weaken, but this was made up for by a rise in Chinese exports elsewhere, especially to South East Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Africa Cup of Nations: Who will get through to the final? We're at the semi-final stage at the Africa Cup of Nations, where the margins are tighter and the pressure is growing. Samantha Johnson looks at the contenders. Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua: Is this good for Boxing?

You must have heard of Dubai chocolate: the sticky, indulgent confectionary filled with pistachio cream, tahini and shreds of knafeh pastry, which has become a global sensation. Now the decadent bar has inspired South Korea's latest dessert craze. The Dubai chewy cookie has been selling like wildfire - and even restaurants that don't usually offer baked goods are trying to get a nibble of the market. Despite its name, the cookie's texture more closely resembles a rice cake, and is made by stuffing pistachio cream and knafeh shreds into a chocolate marshmallow. Shops are selling hundreds of cookies within minutes and the frenzy has sent prices of key ingredients surging, local media reported.

The chef behind Wales' only two-Michelin-star restaurant has said he is not embarrassed after it was awarded a one-star hygiene rating. Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms, near Machynlleth in Ceredigion, which charges nearly £500 per head, received the rating after a visit by food safety officers on 5 November. According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), a score of one out of five means major improvement is necessary. But chef patron Gareth Ward, a contestant on MasterChef The Professionals, said the restaurant was working at the highest standard in the world and doing something different with how it approaches raw ingredients and techniques. Ynyshir offers a high-end dining experience starting at £468 per person, including a 30-course tasting menu and an in-house DJ.

Donald Trump is the only world leader capable of stopping Vladimir Putin from threatening Europe, according to Poland's President Karol Nawrocki. In an interview with Radio 4's Today programme he said the Russian leader was not to be trusted, but that Europe needed to do everything it could to support President Trump in his efforts to end the war in Ukraine. President Nawrocki was already well-known as a firm supporter of Donald Trump even before he landed in Britain for meetings with PM Sir Keir Starmer and others. Now, he says that with Vladimir Putin's Russia threatening his country as well as central and eastern Europe, the US president was the only person who could, as he put it, solve this problem - as well as ending the war in Ukraine. Referring to last September's mass incursion by Russian drones, when more than 20 uncrewed aircraft crossed into Poland from Belarus and Ukraine, President Nawrocki called it an extraordinary situation, adding that until that time, no Nato member state had experienced a drone attack on that scale.