US gas prices surge to highest level in four years, averaging $4.18 a gallon
US gas prices rose to their highest level in four years on Thursday, reaching an average $4.18 a gallon at the pump as US-Israeli peace talks with Iran remain at a standstill.The last time average US gas prices breached $4.15 a gallon was in April 2022, when oil prices soared shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.Average gas prices are now $1 higher than just a year ago, when they were closer to $3.
15 a gallon,Average gas prices vary heavily by states, with oil-producing states seeing averages as much as $2 a gallon lower than states that import gas,In Texas, gas is $3,72 a gallon while California sees an average of $5,96 a gallon.
By Tuesday morning, Brent crude, the global benchmark, hit $111 a barrel, lower than its high of $119 a barrel that was seen last month but nearly 60% higher than averages seen before the start of the war.WTI crude, the US benchmark, was near $100 a barrel on Tuesday morning.Oil prices went up on Tuesday after news that negotiators remain gridlocked over talks to reopen the strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas would typically pass through.Donald Trump reportedly told advisers on Monday he is not happy with Iran’s proposal to reopen the strait, which would require the US to end its own naval blockade of the strait and does not address a nuclear deal.On Tuesday, Trump said on social media that Iranian leaders told him the country was in a “state of collapse” and said they want to open the strait of Hormuz “as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (which I believe they will be able to do!)”.
Also on Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates announced it would leave the Opec oil cartel, which has been struggling to clear exports through the strait because of the war.The news is a big win for Trump, who has accused the group of “ripping off the rest of the world” by colluding to raise oil prices.Higher oil prices have been a boon for western oil companies, which have found themselves with an advantage over their competitors in the Middle East that have been affected by the war.BP on Tuesday said that its profits had more than doubled in the first quarter of the year, reaching $3.2bn (£2.
4bn).
The personal pettiness of the Elon Musk v OpenAI trial
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you from beneath a cherry blossom tree in Prospect Park in New York City. Spring has arrived!Monday marked the start of a major trial pitting Sam Altman against his OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk, who is suing the maker of ChatGPT for breach of contract.Musk alleges that Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, broke the company’s founding agreement by restructuring and converting much of it to a for-profit enterprise. Altman and OpenAI counter that Musk, who left the firm in 2018 amid internal disputes and has since started his own rival AI business, xAI, is essentially a sore loser
Tell us: have you become emotionally attached to AI?
Lots of people now use chatbots as personal assistants, sometimes to the extent that they have formed an emotional attachment to them.We would like to hear from people who converse with AI chatbots on a personal level. Have you formed an emotional bond to an AI chatbot?You can share your experience using this form.Please include as much detail as possible. Please note, the maximum file size is 5
‘They’re supposed to be handmade’: zine creators fight to resist AI influence
The self-published zine has long been central to cultural revolutions, from queer activism to Black feminism and the riot grrrl punk movement, producing titles such as Sniffin’ Glue and Sweet-Thang along the way. But now the traditionally analogue art form faces a new shift: artificial intelligence.AI may seem incompatible with the these cult DIY booklets, but some creatives, designers and artists have begun to experiment with the technology, causing alarm in parts of the underground publishing world. It has been their Dylan-goes-electric moment.“AI is eliminating a lot of people’s ability to think critically for themselves,” says Rachel Goldfinger, a Philadelphia-based video editor and illustrator who has published an anti-AI zine
MacBook Pro M5 review: serious power, still long battery life
Apple’s Macs have been on a roll this year with the brand new budget MacBook Neo and a faster MacBook Air M5, but now it’s time for its workhorse MacBook Pro to be upgraded with the fastest, most powerful M-series chips.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The latest MacBook Pro comes in two screen sizes and a large range of chip and configuration options
Elon Musk and Sam Altman face off in court over OpenAI’s founding mission
A trial between two of Silicon Valley’s biggest tycoons kicked off on Monday in California, the culmination of a years-long bitter feud. Elon Musk has accused Sam Altman of betraying the founding agreement of the non-profit they started together, OpenAI, by changing it to a for-profit enterprise.Jury selection began at a federal courthouse in Oakland with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers presiding. As she began, she assured the dozens of prospective jurors that this trial wasn’t going to be highly technical, despite it centering around artificial intelligence. “This is just a case about promises and breaches of promises, it won’t get technical at all,” she said
If it’s only AI that’s keeping you up at night, maybe you’re doing OK | Letters
Reading Alexander Hurst’s column on the frictionless experience of life promised – or threatened – by AI algorithms, I was struck by how little I recognised the picture he painted of daily experience being stripped of the friction necessary to furnish it with meaning (To be human is to live with friction. That’s something AI boosters will never understand, 23 April). Rather, isn’t it the case that, bar the mega-rich, we’re all suffering from an excess of friction due to rising living costs, an avoidably dilapidated public realm, poor housing and innumerable related stresses?I belong to a volunteer group that twice a week cooks hot meals for homeless and destitute people in central Liverpool. The hot meal they collect from us may be the only relief they get that day from the constant, grinding analogue hassles of invisibility, illness, disrespect and material poverty: the only recognition they receive that a degree of comfort is a prerequisite for survival. The specific depredations of AI, created and encouraged by men without souls, seem so distant in these cases as to be nonexistent
Singing activists disrupt NatWest meeting over ‘climate backtracking’
UAE quits Opec in ‘pivotal moment’ for oil producing group – as it happened
Europe’s smaller airports ‘under threat’ if fuel shortages cause many cancellations
Barclays cuts back risky lending after £228m hit from UK mortgage firm MFS
BP profits more than double as oil prices soar in Iran war
Deloitte and Zoom’s trims to parental-leave benefits may hurt them in long run, experts say