Technology

A dangerous heatwave is moving east across southern Australia, bringing temperatures into the 40s and prompting extreme fire danger ratings across large parts of South Australia and Victoria, officials say.

Emergency-level fires are reported near Mount Lawson and Longwood in Victoria as an intense heatwave continues, and northwest Queensland faces further heavy rain from a tropical low with a moderate chance of cyclone development by Friday.

Dreame previewed the X60 Max Ultra Complete at CES 2026, highlighting a slimmer profile and a dock that washes and dries mop pads; U.S. preorders are open with a $1,699.99 list price.

The Department of Justice told a federal judge it still has over two million documents related to Jeffrey Epstein awaiting review, weeks after a statutory deadline; the DOJ has released 12,285 documents so far and has assigned staff to continue the review.

New York Attorney General Letitia James demanded information from Instacart about its pricing experiments, saying the company may have violated state disclosure law. Instacart has said it stopped those experiments in December and that the tests were randomized and not based on personal data.

Federal prosecutors say an Illinois man has been charged after nearly 600 women were targeted on Snapchat and intimate photos were taken from multiple accounts; he faces several federal charges including identity theft and computer fraud.

Authorities confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 at a commercial poultry farm near Newark-on-Trent and declared a 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone; officials said all poultry on the premises will be humanely culled.

The author tried Even Realities' G2 smart glasses at CES 2026; they use a subtle monochrome waveform display and rely on a paired smartphone for heavy computing.

More than 1,600 law graduates are taking a beta version of the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam this week in the exam's first full practice run ahead of a planned July rollout; preliminary feedback is expected in March and a full report in May.

Court filings say Google and Character.AI agreed to mediated settlements in multiple lawsuits that allege AI chatbots harmed minors, including a case involving a Florida teenager who died in February 2024; the terms were not disclosed and the settlements still need court approval.

Ofcom has made urgent contact with X and xAI after reports that the AI chatbot Grok produced sexualised images of children; the regulator says it will assess X's response to determine whether an investigation is warranted.

Reports say Gmail accounts were automatically opted in to smart features that allow Google to scan messages and attachments for AI training, and a U.S. class-action lawsuit was filed alleging the change was activated without clear consent.

Northrop Grumman launched a redesigned ICBM target vehicle that the company reported met performance goals during a missile defense test, using a decommissioned Peacekeeper motor. The redesign employed digital tools such as a digital twin, virtual reality pathfinders and augmented reality to streamline integration.

Asus says its ZenBook A14 and A16 models with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 will ship with Windows 11 version 26H1 around March–April, and Microsoft has described 26H1 as platform changes to support specific silicon; Intel- and AMD-based PCs will remain on 25H2 until a later 26H2 release with broader feature updates.

Cisco patched a medium-severity vulnerability (CVE-2026-20029) in Identity Services Engine and the Passive Identity Connector after proof-of-concept exploit code became available; Cisco reports the flaw stems from improper XML parsing and says applying vendor patches is the only remediation.

Several countries have limited DeepSeek's use or opened probes over data security and privacy concerns; DeepSeek's privacy policy says it stores user requests and uploaded files on computers in China.

Honor's Magic 8 Pro is a £1,099.99 flagship with a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, 12GB RAM and strong cameras, but its extensive AI features can feel gimmicky in everyday use.

Warner Bros Discovery's board unanimously rejected Paramount Skydance's revised $108.4 billion offer, saying it depended on an extraordinary amount of debt, and reaffirmed its agreement with Netflix's roughly $82.7 billion proposal.

The Met Office upgraded an amber weather warning to red for parts of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly as Storm Goretti arrives, warning of peak gusts of 80–100 mph and heavy snow in places.

At CES 2026 Lifx demonstrated its new Everyday twin‑pack smart bulbs, which are priced below Philips Hue's Essential line. Philips Hue Essentials use Zigbee and connect to a broader Hue ecosystem that can include a Bridge and additional sensors and devices.

Fujifilm announced the Instax Mini Evo Cinema, a hybrid instant camera that records stills and video and prints a QR code linking to clips, and it begins shipping in Japan on January 30.

A critical sandbox-bypass vulnerability was reported in n8n's Python Code Node that could allow users with workflow editing permissions to run code on the host; the issue was fixed in n8n v1.111.0 and task-runner Python isolation is the default in v2.0.0.

Meta has agreed to buy Singapore-based, Chinese-founded AI company Manus for $2 billion; Chinese regulators are reviewing whether export-control rules were breached, including whether an export license was required.

A five-year-old boy, Fareed Amir, died after a parked electric Volkswagen accelerated into him in November 2022; the driver, Ashenafei Demisse, denies the charges and the case is being heard at the Old Bailey.

Hundreds of thousands of personal records may have been copied in a cyber attack on Kensington and Chelsea Council, and the council says it has notified households while working with the National Cyber Security Centre and police as inquiries continue.

India's Competition Commission told a court its 2024 law allowing fines based on global turnover will deter breaches by multinationals; Apple has asked judges to strike the law down and the Delhi High Court will hear the case on January 27.

Germany's industrial orders increased 5.6% month-on-month in November, the federal statistics office said; excluding large-scale orders, new orders were 0.7% higher.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised Mayon's alert to level 3, saying magma is rising and a lava dome is forming. Officials reported monitoring activity and urged people within a 6-kilometre zone to evacuate while asking aviation authorities to avoid the summit.

Volvo Cars says its new EX60 mid-size electric SUV will offer up to 810 km on a single charge and can add about 340 km of range in roughly 10 minutes of charging under optimal conditions.

Lucid Group, Nuro and Uber debuted a planned robotaxi at CES in Las Vegas, which the partners described as a key step toward commercial deployment and a planned 2026 launch.