Carmakers chose to cheat to sell cars rather than comply with emissions law, ‘dieselgate’ trial told

Car manufacturers decided they would rather cheat to prioritise “customer convenience” and sell cars than comply with the law on deadly pollutants, the first day of the largest group action trial in English legal history has been told.More than a decade after the original “dieselgate” scandal broke, lawyers representing 1.6 million diesel car owners in the UK argue that manufacturers deliberately installed software to rig emissions tests.They allege the “prohibited defeat devices” could detect when the cars were under test conditions and ensure that harmful NOx emissions were kept within legal limits, duping regulators and drivers.Should the claim be upheld, estimated damages could exceed £6bn

Vodafone outage: thousands of broadband and mobile users report problems

Tens of thousands of Vodafone customers in the UK have reported they could not access services including the internet and making mobile phone calls.Consumers started reporting problems on the website of the outage monitor Downdetector from about 3pm on Monday.By 3.20pm the number of reports of service disruption had risen to more than 135,000. According to a breakdown of the reported incidents, more than two-thirds related to customers who have Vodafone’s internet broadband services to their homes

AI could make it harder to establish blame for medical failings, experts say

The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare could create a legally complex blame game when it comes to establishing liability for medical failings, experts have warned.The development of AI for clinical use has boomed, with researchers creating a host of tools, from algorithms to help interpret scans to systems that can aid with diagnoses. AI is also being developed to help manage hospitals, from optimising bed capacity to tackling supply chains.But while experts say the technology could bring myriad benefits for healthcare, they say there is also cause for concern, from a lack of testing of the effectiveness of AI tools to questions over who is responsible should a patient have a negative outcome.Prof Derek Angus, of the University of Pittsburgh, said: “There’s definitely going to be instances where there’s the perception that something went wrong and people will look around to blame someone

UK MPs urged to investigate TikTok’s plans to cut 439 content moderator jobs

Trade unions and online safety experts have urged MPs to investigate TikTok’s plans to make hundreds of jobs for UK-based content moderators redundant.The video app company is planning 439 redundancies in its trust and safety team in London, leading to warnings that the jobs losses will have implications for online safety.The Trades Union Congress, Communication Workers Union and leading figures in online safety have signed an open letter to Chi Onwurah MP, the Labour chair of the science, innovation and technology committee, calling for an investigation into the proposals.The letter warns the cuts could expose children to harmful content, citing estimates from the UK’s data watchdog that up to 1.4 million TikTok users are under 13

‘Not difficult’: Wane explains omission of Jake Connor from England Ashes squad

The England head coach, Shaun Wane, has said the decision to leave Super League’s Man of Steel, Jake Connor, out of his squad for the Ashes was “not really difficult”. He added that he does not understand the obsession surrounding the exile of the Leeds Rhinos half-back.Connor is by far the most notable omission from the 24-man squad to take on Australia in the first Ashes series since 2003. It begins on 25 October at Wembley, with Tests at Everton and Headingley to follow on successive Saturdays. There are a number of surprise inclusions, including a returnfor Hull KR’s Joe Burgess after his two-try performance in the Super League Grand Final on Saturday

Champion Stakes at Ascot attracts the best but faces fight to maintain status

The Champion Stakes at Ascot, the highlight of the track’s Champions Day card this weekend, has barely figured in the official annual assessment of the “World’s Best Horse Race” since the prize – which is based on the average end-of-year rating of the first four horses home – was first awarded in 2015.The 2022 Champion, in which Bay Bridge beat Adayar with the previously unbeaten Baaeed fourth, was the runner-up behind Flightline’s sign-off win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic a couple of weeks later, but five of the past 10 runnings have failed to make even the top 10 globally. To date, York’s International Stakes, in 2020 and 2024, is the only British race to finish at the top of the pile.Ascot’s executives will quietly fancy their chances this year, however, after three of the top 12 horses worldwide at any distance all stood their ground for Saturday’s £1.3m Champion Stakes at Monday’s five-day stage