‘He’s an idiot’: Musk and Ryanair boss trade insults in Starlink row January 17, 2026 A spat over in-flight Wi-Fi has spiralled into a verbal brawl between Elon Musk and Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary. The clash tumbled into the open after O’Leary dismissed Musk and his satellite internet business Starlink in a radio interview on Ireland’s Newstalk, calling him “an idiot”. The verbal row widened to O’Leary telling listeners [...]
Musk-Altman rift widens as judge approves court battle January 16, 2026 OpenAI and Microsoft have lost their final bid to avoid a courtroom battle with Elon Musk, with a US judge ruling that the Tesla and xAI founder can proceed to trial over claims that the start-up breached its original charitable mission. The case, set for a jury trial in late April at the District Court [...]
Liz Kendall welcomes X’s Grok changes as Ofcom probe continues January 15, 2026 The government has welcomed new safety measures introduced by Elon Musk’s X to curb abuse linked to its Grok AI tool, as the UK’s online safety regulator presses ahead with a formal investigation into the platform. Tech secretary Liz Kendall said she “welcomed” X’s move to restrict Grok’s image generation capabilities, but stressed that regulators [...]
Free countries should not be banning Twitter January 15, 2026 Obscene images generated by Grok are being used as a thinly veiled excuse by Labour to pursue a political vendetta against Elon Musk. That is the behaviour of a banana republic, not an advanced democracy like Britain, says Tom Harwood We have all watched with horror at the slithers of news that flicker through the [...]
Monzo outage hits app as digital bank wobbles January 13, 2026 Monzo Bank’s customers were left frustrated after the online bank suffered a widespread app outage, temporarily knocking out key features while core banking services continued to work. Shortly after 3 pm on Tuesday, users across the UK began reporting problems accessing parts of the bank’s app, according to outage-tracking site DownDetector. Reports seemed to spike [...]
X outage hits as Grok scrutiny and UK regulation collide January 13, 2026 X has been hit by a widespread outage, leaving millions of its users unable to load posts, photos or entire timelines, a tech stumble that has landed at an acute moment for Elon Musk’s platform. By early afternoon on Tuesday, over 7,000 X users in both the UK and across the pond reported problems to [...]
Grok AI key to Sport England suspending X account January 13, 2026 Sport England has suspended its activity on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, citing an environment that is “hostile to women and girls”. X, formerly known as Twitter, has been at the centre of a storm relating to its associated Grok AI and claims that it allows users to generate sexually explicit images, including of [...]
After Grok, should the UK opt for an Australia-style social media ban? January 13, 2026 When, in December, Australia enacted a nationwide ban of social media platforms for under-16s, critics called it heavy-handed, and easy to bypass. This week, as Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok flooded the social media platform, X, with AI-generated explicit photos of women and girls, some even involving minors, that argument begins to lose its legs. [...]
Ofcom investigation launched into Grok AI deepfakes on X January 12, 2026 The media and online safety watchdog has announced an investigation into Elon Musk’s X, to determine whether the platform has done enough to protect Brits from explicit deepfakes generated by its Grok AI. Ofcom pointed to “deeply concerning reports of the Grok AI chatbot account on X being used to create and share undressed images [...]
Trump official warns UK on ‘Russia-style’ X ban after Grok row January 11, 2026 A key Trump administration official has sent the UK a firm warning following speculation Elon Musk’s X platform may face a ban after a scandal around AI-generated images. Sarah Rogers, under-secretary for public diplomacy at the US State Department, issued a series of messages criticising the UK on the rumoured ban. Rogers said the UK [...]