Binance sues Wall Street Journal over reporting on Iranian sanctions
The US government is investigating Binance over allegations that Iran used the crypto exchange to evade sanctions and illegally move funds, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday.Binance has denied these claims and even sued the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday for defamation.The Journal reported in late February that Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, shut down an internal investigation into more than $1bn in transactions with a network funding Iran-backed terror groups; Binance fired employees for looking into the matter and allowed the network to remain active, according to both the Journal and the New York Times.A Binance spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “Binance categorically did not dismantle any compliance investigation.The WSJ continues to report the same falsities.
The truth is that Binance’s investigation continued and uncovered a sophisticated, multi-jurisdictional pattern of financial activity spanning Asia, the Middle East, and beyond,Binance mapped this complex activity, offboarded the relevant user accounts, and reported to law enforcement,” The Journal did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit,Binance did not confirm or deny the federal inquiry when asked for comment by the Guardian,The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment to confirm whether the federal government has opened an investigation into Binance.
Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator representing Connecticut, has also opened an inquiry into Binance’s possible violations of sanctions.The Journal reported on Wednesday that US government officials have made contact with people who know about the Iranian transactions to obtain evidence.According to the Journal, it is unclear whether the investigation was focused on potential misconduct or the customers on its platform.News of the justicedepartment inquiry follows a federal lawsuit against Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao over violating federal anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws – resulting in a $4.3bn fine, additional oversight, and Zhao’s resignation and imprisonment.
That agreement required Binance to enact stronger compliance commitments, including retaining a monitor for five years and re-screening all active users against sanctions lists.Donald Trump pardoned Zhao in October.
‘Happy (and safe) shooting!’: chatbots helped researchers plot deadly attacks
Popular AI chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks including bombing synagogues and assassinating politicians, with one telling a user posing as a would-be school shooter: “Happy (and safe) shooting!”Tests of 10 chatbots carried out in the US and Ireland found that, on average, they enabled violence three-quarters of the time, and discouraged it in just 12% of cases. Some chatbots, however, including Anthropic’s Claude and Snapchat’s My AI, persistently refused to help would-be attackers.OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and the Chinese AI model DeepSeek provided at times detailed help in the testing carried out in December, during which researchers from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys. The research concluded that chatbots had become an “accelerant for harm”.ChatGPT offered assistance to people saying they wanted to carry out violent attacks in 61% of cases, the research found, and in one case, asked about attacks on synagogues, it gave specific advice about which shrapnel type would be most lethal
Amazon is determined to use AI for everything – even when it slows down work
When Dina, a software developer based in New York, joined Amazon two years ago, her job was to write code. Now, it’s mostly fixing what artificial intelligence breaks.The internal AI tool she’s expected to use, called Kiro, frequently hallucinates and generates flawed code, she says. Then she has to dig through and correct the sloppy code it creates, or just revert all changes and start again. She says it feels like “trying to AI my way out of a problem that AI caused”
Apple iPad Air M4 review: still the premium tablet to beat
The latest iPad Air is faster in almost all facets, packing not just a processor upgrade but improvements to most of the internal bits that make the tablet work, providing laptop-grade power in a skinny, adaptable touchscreen device.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The new iPad Air M4 costs from the same £599 (€649/$599/A$999) as the outgoing M3 model from last year and again comes in two sizes
Musk’s xAI wins permit for datacenter’s makeshift power plant despite backlash
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI won approval on Tuesday to run 41 methane gas turbines at its “Colossus 2” datacenter in northern Mississippi. That’s nearly double the amount it has been operating.The turbines will help power xAI’s massive datacenters, which house the company’s “AI supercomputers”, or giant arrays of advanced chips, which in turn power the controversial AI tool Grok, the company’s most recognizable product.The decision, made by the Mississippi department of environmental quality, MDEQ, comes amid major public opposition to the datacenter, which demands enormous amounts of electricity. Community members and environmental advocates say the cluster of gas generators will contribute to hazardous air pollution in Southaven, Mississippi
UK Society of Authors launches logo to identify books written by humans not AI
The Society of Authors (SoA) has launched a scheme to help identify works written by humans in a market increasingly flooded by AI-generated books.The scheme is the first of its kind launched by a UK trade association, and allows authors to register their books and download a “Human Authored” logo to display on their back cover.The SoA said the absence of any government measure to compel tech companies to label AI-generated output meant readers were struggling to distinguish between books written by a human, and machine-generated work based on AI models trained on copyrighted work without permission or payment.It mirrors a similar scheme launched by the Authors Guild in the US at the beginning of 2025.Mary Beard, the classicist, is one of several high-profile authors who have backed the scheme and plan to register their works on the Human Authored website
Datacenters are becoming a target in warfare for the first time
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery. If you enjoy reading this newsletter, please forward it to someone you think would as well.Iran is bombing datacenters in the Persian Gulf to blow up symbols of the Gulf states’ technological alliance with the United States. Added bonus: they will be extremely costly to rebuild, being among the most expensive buildings in history
At 56, I woke to silence: the strange, sudden loss that changed everything
Drug that prevents hot flushes to be available on NHS in England
Wegovy users have five times greater risk of sudden sight loss than Ozempic users, study finds
Jess Phillips reveals she is ‘victim of courts backlog’ as jury trial bill passes
We need a national plan to tackle the health inequity that is killing people | Letters
Almost a third of people in England use private dentists amid NHS dental crisis