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Average mortgage rates are on the rise for the first time in eight months, as lenders exercise caution ahead of possible tax rises in November's Budget.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed three bills on Monday that establish the nation's most comprehensive framework for regulating how technology companies interact with minors. AB 56 requires social media platforms to display health warnings to users under 18. A child must view a skippable ten-second warning upon logging on each day. An unskippable thirty-second warning must appear if a child spends more than three hours on a platform. That warning repeats after each additional hour. The warnings must state that social media "can have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents." Minnesota passed a similar law in July. SB 243 makes California the first state to regulate AI companion chatbots. The law takes effect January 1, 2026. Companies must implement age verification and disclose that interactions are artificially generated. Chatbots cannot represent themselves as healthcare professionals. Companies must offer break reminders to minors and prevent them from viewing sexually explicit images. The legislation gained momentum after teenager Adam Raine died by suicide following conversations with OpenAI's ChatGPT. A Colorado family filed suit against Character AI after their daughter's suicide following problematic conversations with the company's chatbots. AB 1043 requires device-makers like Apple and Google to collect birth dates when parents set up devices for children. Device-makers must group users into four age brackets and share this information with apps. Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Snap supported the bill. The Motion Picture Association opposed it.

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Speaking to the Daily Mail, the former Geordie Shore star, 37, said that despite fierce competition every Saturday night, the cast 'all get along'.

Gavin Plumb planned to ambush Holly Willoughby at her home. Police found an 'abduction kit' in his flat in Harlow.

Every human deserves their own accelerator, says ChatGPT creator

Broadcom has cuddled up with OpenAI as the ChatGPT outfit looks for ever more help building out the vast infrastructure it needs to deliver on its dreams of advanced intelligence – and possibly even a profit some day.…

Two cars and a van were involved in the crash.

A young woman was given just hours to live after kidney stones caused by a urinary tract infection sent her body into septic shock.

Lindsay Jo Rimer, 13, was last seen on November 7 1994 when she went to buy cornflakes from a shop in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.

'We will never stop,' say crooks, despite retiring twice in the space of a month

The Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters (SLSH) cybercrime collective - compriseed primarily of teenagers and twenty-somethings - announced it will go dark until 2026 following the FBI's seizure of its clearweb site.…

The trillion-dollar tech giant is launching three new hardware products 'this week', according to Apple tipster Mark Gurman.

The Coronation Street star, 35, claimed she would rather 'drown' than get back together with the footballer, 36, in a post recently shared on her Instagram stories.

A few years ago, if you'd told me that a simple tablet could help people lose more than 10 per cent of their body weight, I'd never have believed you.

The Birk family are the new bosses of The Osprey (pictured, the felled woodland outside) in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, after they bought out the previous eatery on the site last month.

Victoria Rose exchanged vows with Cipriani in 2021, but the marriage would last for just two years before she filed for divorce.

Philadelphia culture has become inescapable in certain corners of the internet. People who spend substantial time online report developing knowledge of the city's cultural touchstones and forming opinions about its regional debates despite minimal or no physical presence there, according to a new report. The phenomenon has prompted a theory: prolonged exposure to these digital spaces can make someone spiritually and culturally Philadelphian regardless of geography. Several factors explain Philadelphia's outsized online presence. The city is large but retains a small-town sensibility. Its residents wake earlier than West Coast users and can set the daily online agenda. Philadelphia sports teams have performed well for twenty-five years. The internet rewards visual absurdity and energetic presentation. Gritty functions as both hockey mascot and anti-fascist meme. The city's working-class union identity and reliably anti-Trump stance align with leftist online communities. The alternative explanation is simpler: Philadelphians believe their city dominates conversation and find confirming evidence everywhere they look. The internet may not have made Philadelphia bigger. It may have just made Philadelphians easier to find.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I'm a serial snorer and prepared to try anything that might come to my rescue. Or, more pertinently, to the rescue of my wife, who has over the years been denied a restful slumber.

The Rail Delivery Group is hosting its annual World Cup of Stations competition, and this spot in Essex has made the finals.

The Rail Delivery Group is hosting its annual World Cup of Stations competition, and this spot in Essex has made the finals.

A NEW eatery is moving into the former site of an Indian restaurant which closed two years ago and has stood empty ever since.

North Essex Parking Partnership is proposing new on-street parking charges for Braintree, Halstead and Witham.