Photographer Shane Hynan explores the tension between the central role peat bogs play in Irish life and their wider environmental impact
“You can read Ireland’s history in the boglands. They hold millennia in their layers,” says photographer Shane Hynan of his project, Beofhód (meaningBeneath in English).
The boglands, known as portachs in Irish, cover roughly 1.2m to 1.5m hectares or about 14% to 17% of the country’s total land area. The raised bogs of the Irish Midlands are made of peat that forms at a rate of 1mm a year (0.04in) in low-lying, poorly drained basins or former lakes. As the historical geographer Kevin Whelan observes in the Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape, “the bog has been etched as deeply into the human as into the physical record in Ireland – to an extent unrivalled elsewhere.”
Eddie and Con footing turf for domestic use, Knockirr Bog, County Kildare, 2022.
Ferrari has replaced its long-serving chief marketing and commercial officer, Enrico Galliera, just weeks after the rocky debut of the Luce, the automaker’s first electric car.
The company named former BMW Italy boss Massimiliano Di Silvestre as Galliera’s successor, effective July 1, after a launch that wiped roughly 8% off Ferrari’s stock in a single day.
SAN FRANCISCO – Ubotica Technologies, an Irish company focused on artificial intelligence for spacecraft, has raised $11 million to expand commercial sales of its maritime-intelligence platform. The platform, Live Maritime […]
The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal approved a £3 billion class action lawsuit against Apple over its iCloud service, allowing consumer group Which? to proceed with a claim on behalf of nearly 40 million users across the country.
The lawsuit alleges Apple abused its dominant position and breached UK competition law by “trapping” users into using iCloud. Which? argued Apple steered iOS users towards its own cloud storage service and limited visibility of alternative providers, leading to “rip-off” prices and lower levels of free storage.
The case is expected to go to trial in 2028 after the UK court granted Which? a Collective Proceedings Order (CPO), clearing the path for what could become one of the UK’s largest consumer tech claims.
At the centre of the dispute is Apple’s cloud storage model, where users receive 5GB of free storage before being directed towards paid tiers. Pricing then rises across multiple levels, from 99p per month for 50GB to £54.99 for 12TB in the UK. The consumer group argued this structure reflects a lack of competition, with users “locked-in” once their devices become reliant on iCloud for photos, messages and device data backups.
Strong message The claim, first filed in November 2024, will cover consumers living in the UK who used iCloud services between 8 November 2018 and 8 June 2026. Potential compensation is estimated at around £77 per user if it succeeds.
Which? also called on the tech giant to resolve the dispute without litigation, urging the company to offer consumers refunds and open up iOS “to allow users a real choice for cloud services”.
However, Reuters reported Apple previously rejected the allegations, arguing users are not required to use iCloud and that third-party alternatives remain available.
Which? CEO Anabel Hoult said the group “wants to make clear that no company, no matter how powerful, can get away with abusing its position”. “The granting of the CPO means we’re one step closer to getting consumers the redress we believe they are owed from Apple,” she noted, adding, “this should send a strong message to any other companies using anti-competitive tactics”.
UK operator Virgin Media O2 announced plans to begin its 2G network switch-off in Summer 2029, joining rivals BT and VodafoneThree in setting a date to wind down the legacy technology.
Its timeline is similar to that of the country’s other operators, with BT expecting to begin deactivating 2G in May 2029 and VodafoneThree set to turn off its last sites in Spring 2030.
All three operators have signed a voluntary government charter for retirement of the technology. Commitments in that document include undertaking a gradual process starting in trial areas, thorough testing, and work to aid migration of IoT devices supporting “life critical services” which are currently tied to 2G.
VMO2 noted decommissioning 2G would mean it could switch resources to 4G and 5G, having turned off 3G in 2025.
Advantages cited include redeployment of spectrum resources, cutting energy consumption and generally upping service levels for customers.
The operator reports its 2G network currently carries less than 0.5% of all data used by its customers.
VMO2 CTO Jeanie York said “having recently switched off our 3G network and signed up to the government 2G switch-off charter, we know exactly how to do this responsibly and without disrupting customers. While most customers won’t need to take any action at all, some businesses might need to start planning for this now”.
“We will communicate with customers directly and ensure we support everyone as this essential upgrade takes place.”
Does a thought-experiment about US ascendancy in the technology say as much about AI jitters as it does about the reality?
It’s 2031 and the US and China are about to tear Europe into pieces.
The US ploughed vast sums into datacentres and the EU did not. China built robots and Europe did not. American companies “restructured” their workflows around AI and fired people, while EU workers went on long lunch breaks and handed over administrative tasks to the AI model Claude.
Apart from effort to electrify, there were geopolitical tensions around climate science and the 1.5C goal at pre-Cop31 climate talks
Electrifying the world – with electric vehicles, electric heating and cooling, and modernised heavy industry – could be the next biggest step towards phasing out fossil fuels, replacing the 80% of global energy that still comes from hydrocarbons. As using electrical energy is much more efficient than combustion, the move would save billions of dollars for consumers and businesses – global energy demand could be halved, according to one estimate.
For decades, electrification has been a nerdish backwater of global climate action. But in the last two weeks, at preparatory talks in Bonn before the forthcoming UN Cop31 climate summit, the subject finally took centre stage.
Mobile World Live(MWL) brings you our top three picks of the week as Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm stepped down, Anthropic faced a US clampdown on its latest AI models and the UK outlined plans to ban under-16 users from social media.
Ericsson CEO Ekholm set for exit
What happened: Ericsson lined-up a changing of the guard, announcing Borje Ekholm will step down as CEO on 30 September after more than nine years at the helm and lining up current networks boss Per Narvinger to take over.
Why it matters: Ericsson chair Jan Carlson said the incoming CEO brings “deep technical knowledge of our industry as well as extensive commercial experience”, while crediting Ekholm with “extraordinary leadership and strategic advancements”. The chief joined as CEO in 2017 and inherited a business under pressure, steering it through payments scandals, which resulted in a 2019 US fine of more than $1 billion and a $206.7 million. Ekholm will remain at the company as an executive adviser until 15 June 2027.
Narvinger now takes over as 5G spending slows, 6G looms and AI reshapes network demand., He told the Financial Times (FT) the industry is at a “pivotal time”, adding users will “hopefully value your connectivity more” as AI dependence rises. David Hammarwall, currently head of Customer Unit T-Mobile in Market Area Americas, will be Narvinger’s successor as head of the Networks division.
US orders Anthropic to suspend Fable 5, Mythos 5 models
What happened: US President Donald Trump’s administration ordered Anthropic to immediately suspend access to its two most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, over national security concerns.
Why it matters: The order applied to “any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States”, prompting Anthropic to disable the models for all customers globally while it worked out how to comply. Anthropic said it believes officials were responding to a “potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak” affecting cybersecurity safeguards, but argued the issue involved a small number of known minor vulnerabilities which could be replicated on other publicly available models. The company pushed back on the recall, noting Fable 5 had been tested with the US government, the UK AI Safety Institute and private groups before launch. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was among tech executives who raised security concerns about the models with officials. Anthropic called the dispute a “misunderstanding” and is seeking to restore access, adding “if this standard was applied across the industry, we believe it would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers”. Gina Neff, professor of responsible AI at Queen Mary University London, told the BBC the speed of AI development means and government and enterprises “need to be able to build up capabilities to keep our companies safe from cyberattacks”. She explained the restriction could limit safe AI testing and international cooperation, adding “we’re in uncharted territory at this point”. The latest development marks a sharp escalation in US scrutiny of Anthropic, which is already suing the Trump administration after the Department of War (DoW) blacklisted it as a “supply chain risk” earlier this year.
What happened: The UK government laid out plans to ban under-16 users from social media and impose wider child-safety restrictions on gaming, live-streaming and AI platforms, with the landmark online safety measures slated for early 2027.
Why it matters: The proposed ban would apply to platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and X, with messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal excluded from the scope. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the move will “give kids their childhood back”, arguing “tech giants had their chance and failed”. However, Assembly Research analyst Megan Jenkins said the government appeared to choose “what feels like a punitive measure for children” over making platforms “safer by design”. The UK’s plan follows Australia, which became the first country in the world to ban social media for under-16s last year. However, the government added it will “learn the lessons from Australia’s experience” by introducing tougher age verification tools. Technology secretary Liz Kendall told the BBC the government plans to disclose further details in July on VPNs, a potential method for bypassing restrictions, as well as curfews, chatbots and other restrictions. Alex Brown, head of TMT at law firm Simmons and Simmons said the move signals “a clear hardening of approach to online safety”, but warned companies must now “grapple with the difficult task of age verification”.
SpaceX reportedly hit out at a European Commission (EC) plan for distributing satellite spectrum across the bloc, warning current proposals could directly impact connectivity with mobile devices.
Bloomberg reported it had seen a statement from Elon Musk’s rocket company which takes aim at an EC plan to offer only a third of its 2GHz frequency band to companies outside the European Union (EU), keeping the remaining amount for those based in the bloc.
The outlet said the proposal effectively excludes foreign companies, like SpaceX, from offering satellite services to governments and will directly impact the expansion of its Starlink connectivity play.
SpaceX has established a presence in Europe, striking partnerships with European operators including Deutsche Telekom and Orange to offer Starlink D2D services to customers.
However, SpaceX said the EC’s plans will split spectrum “in virtually unusable sub-divided parts”.
It apparently added intentions are inconsistent with international regulations and do not adhere to “Europe’s international obligations and economic reality”.
Ukraine concern Another bone of contention is an EC aim to reserve airwaves for the Europe IRIS2 constellation, with SpaceX arguing this could risk poorer connectivity in Ukraine where Starlink has been used during the country’s war with Russia.
“The proposal creates a significant likelihood that Europeans will be left without direct-to-device satellite services or that new European operations will create global interference problems, including to emergency services like those in Ukraine,” read the statement.
When outlining the plans, EC EVP Henna Virkkunen said earmarking allocations to local operators would encourage diversification of suppliers and incentivise entry into the market.
She also said the 2GHz band was vital for boosting Europe’s competitiveness, security, and fits in with an ongoing drive around technology sovereignty.
Austrian satellite propulsion startup Gate Space has won 6.3 million euros in funding from Europe’s government-backed accelerator program, joining a wave of European companies attracting capital for greater space sovereignty.
Tesla sales are rebounding in Europe even though many people have negative feelings about Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive. We want to know why.
Tesla sales are rebounding in Europe even though many people have negative feelings about Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive. We want to know why.
Tesla’s car sales took a big hit in Europe last year, in part because many people were turned off by the political views of the company’s chief executive, Elon Musk.
Exceptionally preserved skin of Montsecosuchus depereti, an extinct crocodylomorph no larger than a house cat that prowled the tropical wetlands of Early Cretaceous Spain, has allowed paleontologists to reconstruct details of its scales, sensory organs and even possible banded markings along its tail.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis reportedly lobbied for a US-led coalition to shape global AI rules, as Anthropic remained locked in negotiations with the Trump administration over export controls on its newest models.
CNBC reported that during a closed-door lunch at the G7 Summit attended by President Donald Trump and other world leaders, Amodei called for international cooperation to cover structured access to frontier models, a chip and critical components trade framework which excludes China and coordinated responses to AI risks in cybersecurity, bioterrorism and intelligence.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also called for a formal international forum to establish globally accepted testing standards, provide impartial analysis of AI capabilities and risks, and serve as a venue for cooperation among nations, according to an OpenAI briefing.
The outlet reported Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed the US could lead such a coalition, according to people familiar with the discussions.
In addition to Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also in attendance.
Anthropic ban The backdrop of the AI discussions was the export controls imposed by the Trump administration on Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, which went into effect on 12 June after the government cited national security concerns.
News sites have reported Anthropic is currently in negotiations with the Trump administration over the directive.
Financial Times (FT) reported the US decision alarmed European governments and Silicon Valley alike, while raising concerns even allied nations could be cut off from cutting-edge AI.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated the Anthropic dispute clarified what was at stake, warning if the US could “from one day to the next turn off the switch” it would ultimately damage the multitrillion-dollar US companies leading the global AI race.
Macron called for stronger AI regulation and a platform for democratic cooperation to establish common standards. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated democratic nations needed access to frontier models to protect critical infrastructure, according to people familiar with the discussions.
European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen (pictured) called for closer US-European Union (EU) cooperation on AI at the G7 Summit currently being held in France, arguing both sides have a shared interest in accelerating adoption and ensuring powerful models are introduced safely.
In a post on X following a roundtable with partner countries and AI business executives, von der Leyen stated AI is “developing exponentially” and described it as “the most important technology of our time”. She said the technology “comes with immense potential, but also risks for free, democratic societies”, adding Europe and the US should work together because they “represent 70% of the world market”.
According to Reuters, von der Leyen framed AI safety as a shared interest, stating: “We use each other’s trusted technology, and our financial systems are interconnected. “It is in our mutual interest that our citizens and companies can safely use the best AI models,” she added.
New models The remarks follow a US government order issued earlier this week directing Anthropic to suspend access to its most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for foreign nationals over national security concerns.
Although the Trump administration’s letter targeted foreign nationals, Anthropic said compliance would have required verifying the nationality of every user. It therefore shut both models down entirely for all customers.
In an AI sovereignty push earlier this week, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu argued: “We cannot rely on the goodwill of certain partners who, as we have seen in recent days, are capable of cutting off access to the Anthropic model.”
On the issue, von der Leyen said at the summit “the key question of today is how to introduce new models safely,” calling for G7 countries to exchange information and cooperate through independent entities evaluating models before market release.
She also highlighted adoption as a competitive priority, stating Europe and the US are “at par in terms of AI adoption” but that the bloc wants “our own AI future, not in isolation – that is very important – but together with our trusted partners”.
Space surveillance venture Look Up plans to use Skynopy’s ground station network to help automate its proposed low Earth orbit collision avoidance service, the French startups announced June 17.
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