Businesses in the UK’s food supply chain have been impacted by the cyber-attack which hit supermarket fridges and freezers across Europe on Monday. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) says it is aware of “a couple of instances where vulnerable technology had been exploited in the UK.” The NCSC’s chief executive Dr Richard Horne told the Today programme, on BBC Radio Four, that it had “worked through the night” to alert potentially affected organisations in the UK. The British Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS) told the BBC some of its more than 300 members had unexpectedly become what it called “collateral” as part of the hacks. BBC 

A senior criminal prosecutor has been rebuked for citing a fake case in legal documents, in the latest high-profile example of AI producing mistakes in UK courts. Ravinder Dhillon, a senior prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, admitted that she erroneously included a fictional case in legal documents as part of a dispute over whether a child should be prosecuted for the rape of his younger sister. The legal documents, submitted to the High Court, referenced an entirely made-up case referred to as “R v J [2024]”, which was later discovered never to have existed. Telegraph 

Australia’s landmark social media ban for under-16s faces challenges in court over accusations that it amounts to censorship and creates privacy issues. Two challenges to the world-first legislation have been filed in High Court, almost a year after it took effect last December. Australia’s Online Safety Act 2021 stopped Australians under 16 from holding accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Kick, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Twitch. However, multiple studies – including by Australian regulator the eSafety Commissioner – have found that most teenagers under the cutoff age continue to use since the ban went live. Sky News 

Apple launched the iPad mini (2026) last week, with an OLED screen and the A20 Pro chip. If you were wondering about the rest of the lineup, Apple is allegedly planning a wave of iPad updates for the first half of 2027, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Three models will reportedly be part of it: a new entry-level iPad, an iPad Air with an OLED display, and a faster iPad Pro with a vapor chamber for cooling. Gurman also says you shouldn’t expect any new iPads to launch in the second half of 2027 at all. GSM Arena 

Britain’s most polluting power plant could soon power the country’s largest datacentre under a £20bn deal to build AI infrastructure on the site of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire. The power plant’s FTSE 250 owner has struck a deal with the infrastructure investor Brookfield and ⁠the AI infrastructure platform Radiant to develop a datacentre with an eventual capacity of more than 1 gigawatt that could begin operations by early 2028. In the initial phase, Drax will provide the datacentre project with land and access to the national power grid through existing connections on the site. The Guardian 

The countdown is on for the “big switch off”, as BT plans to retire its old landline network in less than 100 days. Customers will be moved from an analogue to a digital or IP system as telephone providers upgrade the landline network, known as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The current system relies on copper-wire cables, while the new one will be an internet-based network. While the switchover is happening now, landline operators expect the job to be completed by 31 January 2027. Independent 

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