Activist group says it has scraped 86m music files from Spotify

Platform with 700m users says it is investigating after Anna’s Archive claims to have scraped tracks and metadata

An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them online.

Observers said the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology.

Published: December 22, 2025, 8:50 pm

When the AI bubble bursts, humans will finally have their chance to take back control | Rafael Behr

The US economy is pumped up on tech-bro vanity. The inevitable correction must prompt a global conversation about intelligent machines, regulation and risk

If AI did not change your life in 2025, next year it will. That is one of few forecasts that can be made with confidence in unpredictable times. This is not an invitation to believe the hype about what the technology can do today, or may one day achieve. The hype doesn’t need your credence. It is puffed up enough on Silicon Valley finance to distort the global economy and fuel geopolitical rivalries, shaping your world regardless of whether the most fanciful claims about AI capability are ever realised.

ChatGPT was launched just over three years ago and became the fastest-growing consumer app in history. Now it has about 800m weekly users. Its parent company, OpenAI, is valued at about $500bn. Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, has negotiated an intricate and, to some eyes, suspiciously opaque network of deals with other players in the sector to build the infrastructure required for the US’s AI-powered future. The value of these commitments is about $1.5tn. This is not real cash, but bear in mind that a person spending $1 every second would need 31,700 years to get through a trillion-dollar stash.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Published: December 23, 2025, 6:00 am

MPs question UK Palantir contracts after investigation reveals security concerns

Journalists find Swiss government rejected company over fears US intelligence might gain access to sensitive data

UK MPs have raised concerns about the government’s contracts with Palantir after an investigation published in Switzerland highlighted allegations about the suitability and security of its products.

The investigation by the Zurich-based research collective WAV and the Swiss online magazine Republik details Palantir’s efforts, over the course of seven years, to sell its products to Swiss federal agencies.

Published: December 22, 2025, 11:26 am

The best iPhones: which Apple smartphone is right for you, according to our expert

Looking for a new iPhone or a good deal on a refurbished one? Samuel Gibbs has tested and rated Apple’s smartphones, including the new iPhone 17

• How to make your smartphone last longer

The best iPhone may be the one you already own. There’s generally no need to buy a fresh phone just because new models have been released, as hardware updates are broadly iterative, adding small bits to an already accomplished package. But if you do want a replacement handset, whether new or refurbished, here are the best devices of the current crop of Apple smartphones.

Many other smartphones are available besides the iPhone, but if you’re an Apple user and don’t fancy switching to Android, there are still a few choices to make. Whether your priority is the longest battery life, the best camera, the biggest screen or simply the optimal balance of features and price, there’s more to choose from in the Apple ecosystem than you may expect, especially after the release of the cheaper iPhone 16e and super-thin iPhone Air.

Best iPhone for most people:
iPhone 17

Published: December 23, 2025, 10:00 am

Biography aims to fill gaps in story of ultra-libertarian Telegram founder Pavel Durov

Like many of his US counterparts, the Russian science prodigy turned hugely successful ‘digital populist’ has a deep suspicion of government constraint

Tech visionary, Kremlin dissident, FSB agent, free speech absolutist, health guru. These are just some of the labels admirers and critics have attached to Pavel Durov over the past decade.

The Russian-born tech entrepreneur founded Russia’s version of Facebook before going on to create the messaging app Telegram, launch a cryptocurrency ecosystem and amass a multibillion-dollar fortune, all while clashing repeatedly with authorities in Russia and beyond.

Published: December 23, 2025, 8:41 am

The best of the long read in 2025

Our 20 favourite pieces of in-depth reporting, essays and profiles from the year

Victor Pelevin made his name in 90s Russia with scathing satires of authoritarianism. But while his literary peers have faced censorship and fled the country, he still sells millions. Has he become a Kremlin apologist?

Published: December 23, 2025, 5:00 am

Terminator 2D: No Fate review – the least bad Terminator game in a long while

PC, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox; Bitmap Bureau/Reef Entertainment
Arcade specialists Bitmap Bureau ply their craft in this retro remake of James Cameron’s action film. But Terminator 2D is at its strongest when colouring outside the director’s lines

Like Arnie’s pulverised cyborg at the end of T2, the Terminator franchise has lumbered on long past the point of being properly functional. Every film since Judgment Day has been a disappointment or an outright disaster, and its video game spinoffs haven’t fared much better. While some half-decent ones have emerged, such as 2019’s Terminator: Resistance, there hasn’t been a great Terminator game in about 30 years.

So it makes perfect sense for Terminator 2D: No Fate to attempt to fix our broken future by travelling back to the past. Developer Bitmap Bureau appeals to the series’ heyday by retelling the story of Judgment Day through a medley of retro 80s and 90s playstyles. The result is a charming and frequently thrilling action throwback, though ironically it is at its strongest when it strays furthest from James Cameron’s film.

Published: December 23, 2025, 10:00 am

Vince Zampella, co-creator of Call of Duty video game series, dies aged 55

Game developer, who was also involved in Medal of Honor and Titanfall, was killed in a car crash

Vince Zampella, the co-creator of the Call of Duty video game series, has died aged 55.

The head of the video game developer Respawn Entertainment and the co-founder of Infinity Ward was killed in a car crash in California, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Published: December 22, 2025, 9:10 pm

State of play: who holds the power in the video games industry in 2025?

This year has brought us many brilliant video games – but as wealth continues to concentrate, and games are used to exert economic and political influence, we need to keep an eye on the top players

I love playing video games, but what interests me most as a journalist are the ways in which games intersect with real life. One of the joys of spending 20 years on this beat has been meeting hundreds of people whose lives have been meaningfully enhanced by games, and as their cultural influence has grown, these stories have become more and more plentiful.

There is another side to this, however. A couple of decades ago, video games were mostly either ignored or vilified by governments and mainstream culture, leading to an underdog mentality that has persisted even as games have become a nearly $200bn industry. As their popularity has grown, so have their political and cultural relevance. And the ways in which games intersect with real life are now coloured by the economic and political realities of our times.

Published: December 22, 2025, 10:00 am

Patches of the moon to become spacecraft graveyards, say researchers

As number of lunar satellites soars, sites will be marked out where defunct hardware can be crash-landed

Patches of the moon are destined to become spacecraft graveyards where dead lunar satellites and other defunct hardware can be crashed into the ground, far away from sites of cultural and scientific importance, researchers say.

The number of satellites circling the moon is set to soar in the next two decades as space agencies and private companies build moon bases and dabble with mining operations and constructing scientific instruments on the barren terrain.

Published: December 22, 2025, 2:00 pm

Organ-tuning books in English churches provide notes on a warming climate

Researchers have realised the records are a ‘goldmine’ to study changes in environmental conditions

Yangang Xing had never heard of organ-tuning books, but his colleague Andrew Knight often played the pipe organ at churches as a teenager.

When the pair, who are researchers at Nottingham Trent University, set out to study how environmental conditions in churches had changed over time, Knight explained that all over the country many organs had notebooks full of data tucked away in their recesses.

This article was first published by The Reengineer

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:05 pm

Five big global health wins in 2025 that will save millions of lives

From HIV to TB, scientists and doctors made breakthroughs in treatment and prevention of some of the world’s deadliest diseases

With humanitarian funding slashed by the US and other countries, including the UK, this year’s global health headlines have made grim reading. But good things have still been happening in vaccine research and the development of new and improved treatments for some of the most intractable illnesses.

Published: December 22, 2025, 12:00 pm

Starwatch: After the Geminids meteor shower, it is the turn of the Ursids

Patient watchers should wrap up warm to witness one of nature’s subtler events on night of 22 to 23 December

If the Geminids whetted your appetite for meteor showers, then you are in luck. This week it is the turn of the Ursids. Admittedly, they are nowhere near as plentiful as the Geminids, producing a maximum of just 10 meteors an hour, but there is a unique satisfaction to witnessing one of nature’s subtler events.

The dust grains that make up the Ursids come from the comet 8P/Tuttle, which was discovered in 1858 by the American astronomer Horace Parnell Tuttle, a prolific comet hunter.

Published: December 22, 2025, 6:00 am

Can you solve it? Are you ready for twenty twenty-six…seven?

The year ahead in numbers

UPDATE: Read the solutions here

As we say goodbye to 2025, let’s delight in its numerical charms one final time. The year was unique this century as being a square number.

44² = 1936

45² = 2025

46² = 2116

Five 9s

Six 8s.

Six 7s.

Six 6s.

Four 5s.

Six 4s.

Four 3s.

Four 2s.

a partridge in a pear tree. (Only joking)

Published: December 22, 2025, 7:10 am

Chance of ‘odd wintry flurry’ of snow in UK for a white Christmas – Met Office

South coast most likely to see snowflakes, though a full festive blanketing has been unlikely for decades now

While ongoing showers might suggest this Christmas will be a washout, experts say a wintry snap is on its way and some areas of the UK might even have a white Christmas.

According to the Met Office, high pressure is building – meaning that, while some areas may experience showers, many will have drier and more settled weather.

Published: December 22, 2025, 2:54 pm

Trump’s shuttering of the National Center for Atmospheric Research is Stalinist | Michael Mann and Bob Ward

This is the latest in the relentless purge of climate researchers who refuse to be co-opted by the fossil fuel industry

The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin would no doubt have understood and even appreciated the latest attack by the Trump administration on climate researchers and their work.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, is to be dismantled after more than 50 years at the forefront of global research on climate science and monitoring.

Professor Michael Mann is the presidential distinguished professor and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-author with Peter Hotez of Science Under Siege; Bob Ward is policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Published: December 22, 2025, 11:00 am

Revisited: why do we age in dramatic bursts, and what can we do about it? – podcast

Scientists are beginning to understand that ageing is not simply a linear process and we age, according to recent research, in three accelerated bursts: at about 40, 60 and 80 years old. In this episode from July, Ian Sample talks to Stanford University’s Prof Michael Snyder, who explains what the drivers of these bursts of ageing could be, and how they might be counteracted

Scientists find humans age dramatically in two bursts – at 44, then 60

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Published: December 23, 2025, 5:00 am

The best of the long read in 2025

Our 20 favourite pieces of in-depth reporting, essays and profiles from the year

Victor Pelevin made his name in 90s Russia with scathing satires of authoritarianism. But while his literary peers have faced censorship and fled the country, he still sells millions. Has he become a Kremlin apologist?

Published: December 23, 2025, 5:00 am

Pink platypus spotted in Gippsland far from a monochrome monotreme

Biologist says specimen filmed by a Victorian fisher is ‘unusual’, but not a rare albino as some had wondered

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Cody Stylianou thought he saw a huge trout. But, skimming just below the surface, it was moving differently than a fish would.

The creature surfaced and, amazed, the Victorian fisher reached for his phone. Swimming in front of him was a pink platypus.

Published: December 22, 2025, 11:11 pm

Did you solve it? Are you ready for twenty twenty-six…seven?

The answers to today’s problems

Earlier today I set you the following set of numerical challenges to celebrate the arrival of 2026.

Auld lang signs

Five 9s

Six 8s.

Six 7s.

Six 6s.

Four 5s.

Six 4s.

Four 3s.

Four 2s.

a partridge in a pair tree. (Only joking)

Published: December 22, 2025, 5:00 pm