KEY POINTS

• Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of Twitter, on Wednesday announced the debut of a new AI company, xAI, with the goal to "understand the true nature of the universe."
• According to the company's website, Musk and his team will share more information in a live Twitter Spaces chat on Friday.

Availability and pricing

As with the United States, folks around the world can place a pre-order for the Nothing Phone 2 starting on July 11. General availability begins on July 17.

Our friends up north in Canada will pay CAD $929 for the base 8/128GB model. The 12/256GB version will cost CAD $999, and the highest end 12/512GB version will cost CAD $1,099.

In the UK, the Nothing Phone 2’s 8/128GB model is £579, the 12/256GB model is £629, and the 12/512GB model is £699.

In other regions in Europe, you’ll need to fork over €679 for the 8/128GB variant of the Nothing Phone 2, €729 for the 12/256GB variant, and €849 for the high-end 12/512GB model.

The Nothing Phone 2 will also be available in India, Australia, and a few other areas. Pricing and full availability details are coming soon.

The BBC suspended one of its male presenters on Sunday after he was accused of spending £35,000 buying explicit images from a young person who spent the money on crack cocaine.

From the article:

The move comes less than a year after the companies announced plans to set up the facility in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat.

Some analysts say it marks a setback to the nation's technology industry goals.

However, a government minister says it will have no impact on the country's chip making ambitions.

Taiwan-headquartered Foxconn told the BBC that it will now "explore more diverse development opportunities".

The firm also said the decision was made in "mutual agreement" with Vedanta, which has assumed full ownership of the venture, but did not give details on why it withdrew from the deal.

"We will continue to strongly support the government's 'Make in India' ambitions and establish a diversity of local partnerships that meet the needs of stakeholders," Foxconn added.

New Delhi-based Vedanta said it had "lined up other partners to set up India's first [chip] foundry".

"The surprise pull-out of Foxconn is a considerable blow to India's semiconductor ambitions," Paul Triolo from global advisory firm Albright Stonebridge Group told the BBC.

"The apparent cause of the pull-out is the lack of a clear technology partner and path for the joint venture," he added. "Neither party had significant experience with developing and managing a large-scale semiconductor manufacturing operation."

However, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India's Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, said on Twitter that Foxconn's decision had "no impact on India's semiconductor fab[rication] goals. None."

Mr Chandrasekhar added that Foxconn and Vedanta were "valued investors" in the country and "will now pursue their strategies in India independently".

The Indian government has been working on strategies to support the chipmaking industry.

Last year, it created a $10bn fund to attract more investors to the sector, in a bid to become less reliant on foreign chipmakers.

Prime Minister Modi's flagship 'Make in India' scheme, which launched in 2014, is aimed at transforming the country into a global manufacturing hub to rival China.

In recent years, several other firms have announced plans to build semiconductor factories in India.

Last month, US memory chip giant Micron said it would invest up to $825m to build a semiconductor assembly and test facility in India.

Micron said that the construction of the new facility in Gujarat will begin this year. The project is expected to directly create up to 5,000 roles, and another 15,000 jobs in the area.

From the article:

That Google memo about having “no moat” in AI was real — and Google’s AI boss disagrees with it

Just a couple of months ago, a leaked memo said to be from a Google researcher cast doubt on the company’s future in AI, stating that it has “no moat” in the industry — and now, we seemingly have confirmation that it was real. In an interview with Decoder, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google’s DeepMind, told The Verge that although he believes the memo was legitimate, he disagrees with its conclusions.

“I think that memo was real. I think engineers at Google often write various documents, and sometimes they get leaked and go viral,” Hassabis said. “I think it’s interesting to listen to them, and then you’ve got to chart your own course. And I haven’t read that specific memo in detail, but I disagree with the conclusions from that.”

The memo, which was obtained by SemiAnalysis from a public Discord server, says that neither Google nor OpenAI have what they need to succeed in the AI industry. Instead, the researcher claims “a third faction has been quietly eating our lunch”: open-source AI models that the researcher says are “faster, more customizable, more private, and pound-for-pound more capable.”

But Hassabis is less pessimistic about Google’s future in the AI industry. He believes that the competitive nature of the company’s researchers will help push Google to the forefront of AI, adding that the newly merged Google Brain and Google DeepMind teams, which Hassabis was asked to lead, will likely result in more breakthroughs.

“Look at the history of what Google and DeepMind have done in terms of coming up with new innovations and breakthroughs,” Hassabis said. “I would bet on us, and I’m certainly very confident that that will continue and actually be even more true over the next decade in terms of us producing the next key breakthroughs just like we did in the past.”

The firm, which represented Twitter as Musk tried to back out of his deal to buy Twitter, received a $90 million fee for getting the deal over the finish line, according to The New York Times. Elon Musk’s Twitter alleges the payment is “unjust enrichment” and wants the fee to be returned.

From the article:

The Dutch government collapsed Friday, June 7, 2023, because of irreconcilable differences within the four-party coalition about how to rein in migration, a divisive issue that has split nations across Europe. The resignation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the longest-serving premier of the nation, means the country will face a general election later this year. Rutte and his government will remain in office in a caretaker capacity until a new ruling coalition is chosen.

“It is no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on migration policy,” Rutte told reporters in The Hague. “And today, unfortunately, we have to draw the conclusion that those differences are irreconcilable. That is why I will immediately … offer the resignation of the entire Cabinet to the king in writing” Opposition lawmakers wasted no time in calling for fresh elections even before Rutte formally confirmed his resignation. Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Party for Freedom, tweeted, “Quick elections now.” Across the political spectrum, Green Left leader Jesse Klaver also called for elections and told Dutch broadcaster NOS: “This country needs a change of direction.”

Rutte had presided over late-night meetings Wednesday and Thursday that failed to result in a deal on migration policy. At one final round of talks Friday evening, the parties decided unanimously that they could not agree and, as a result, could not remain together in the coalition. The decision underscored ideological divisions that existed from the day the coalition was sworn in just over 18 months ago between parties that do not support a strict crackdown on migration — D66 and fellow centrist party ChristenUnie, or Christian Union — and the two that favor tougher measures — Rutte’s conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and the Christian Democrats. Similar discussions are going on across political divides elsewhere in Europe as migrants fleeing conflict or seeking a better life make perilous sea crossings from northern Africa to reach the continent. Hundreds of thousands of people also have fled the grinding war in Ukraine.

Migration is set to be an essential theme of European Union parliamentary elections next year, but the issue hit early in the Netherlands, a nation that has long been torn between a welcoming international outreach and increasing resistance to foreign influences.

Rutte’s coalition tried for months to hash out a deal to reduce the flow of new migrants arriving in the country of nearly 18 million people. Proposals reportedly included creating two classes of asylum — a temporary one for people fleeing conflicts and a permanent one for people trying to escape persecution — and reducing the number of family members who are allowed to join asylum-seekers in the Netherlands.

Last year, hundreds of asylum-seekers were forced to sleep outdoors in squalid conditions near an overcrowded reception center as the number of people arriving in the Netherlands outstripped the available beds. Dutch aid agencies provided assistance.

Just over 21,500 people from outside Europe sought asylum in the Netherlands in 2022, according to the country’s statistics office. Tens of thousands more moved to the Netherlands to work and study.

The numbers have put a strain on housing that already was in short supply in the densely populated country. Rutte’s government worked for a law that could compel municipalities to provide accommodations for newly arrived asylum-seekers, but the legislation has yet to pass through both houses of parliament. The prime minister also promoted European Union efforts to slow migration to the 27-nation bloc. Rutte visited Tunisia last month with his Italian counterpart and the president of the EU’s executive commission to offer more than 1 billion euros in financial aid to rescue the North African nation’s teetering economy and to stem migration from its shores to Europe. Rutte’s coalition government, the fourth he has led, took office in January 2022 following the longest coalition negotiations in Dutch political history.

The election for the lower house of the Dutch parliament later this year will take place in a polarized and splintered political landscape — there are 20 parties in the 150-seat lower house.

During provincial elections earlier this year, a populist pro-farmer party put Rutte’s party into second place. The defeat was seen as a possible incentive for Rutte to do his utmost to hold together his coalition until its term ends in 2025.

Here is a summary of the article:

• French President Emmanuel Macron has said the government should have the power to control social media networks during periods of unrest.

• Macron made the comments during an interview with a French TV station. He was referring to recent protests in France against the government's cost of living policies.

• Macron said during periods of crisis, the government needs the power to "block content that goes against republican values and is clearly creating confusion and putting people's lives at risk."

• Critics say Macron's call for more government control of social media raises concerns about censorship and freedom of speech.

• Opposition politicians accused Macron of attacking fundamental French freedoms and wanting to restrict the free flow of information.

• Macron countered that social media networks are already heavily regulated in France over issues like hate speech and terrorist propaganda. He argued the government needed similar powers during unrest.