Meet HMD Fuse, a new smartphone for kids that uses AI to block all nude content
The HMD Fuse blocks social apps and internet by default. HMD claims that restrictions on the Fuse can be reduced as the child grows. Initially, parents can set-up a basic phone with minimal functionalities. With time, some features can be enabled including controlled web access and messaging.Why did HMD make the Fuse?HMD is unlike most mainstream smartphone companies. In recent years, the company has focused on repairability and long-term life of its devices. Now, the Finnish firm has found a new niche in the market - parents buying phones for young children.According to the company, a global survey of 37,000 parents and children showed there was a need for more digital control over smartphones. Privacy concerns over personal data have increased in recent years. Parents have become more cautious over their children's access to the internet, particularly social media apps.The HMD Fuse is positioned as an ideal smartphone for parents who are looking for a restricted device for children.The Fuse has a 6.56-inch HD+ LCD display with 90Hz refresh rate and 600nits of peak brightness. It is powered by the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 and has 5G connectivity. The smartphone comes in a single black colour.The HMD Fuse is currently only available in the UK. Users can purchase the device only via a Vodafone plan of 33 (roughly Rs 3,878) a month with a 30 (roughly Rs 3,526) upfront cost. It is unclear if HMD will launch the phone in India.The company's last smartphone to launch in India was the HMD Fusion in November 2024. It is a device with a modular design, priced at Rs 17,999.- Ends
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Hindustan Times
30 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
A Gold-Trading Dynasty Vies for Power in Oil-Rich Guyana
GEORGETOWN, Guyana—Azruddin Mohamed spent years amassing a collection of Ferraris and Bugattis while racing his dune buggies through rugged back roads here on South America's northwest coast and posting pictures of himself making donations to far-flung indigenous communities. A portrait of Mohamed from his campaign's Facebook page. Now the 38-year-old scion of an influential gold-trading clan is directing his fortune toward a wild-card bid for president. U.S. and Guyanese officials warn it could imperil billions in investment and strain relations with the Trump administration. Mohamed's makeover began last year, after the U.S. sanctioned him along with his father and their businesses for alleged tax evasion, graft and gold smuggling. He says he is being unfairly persecuted. In a rare interview, Mohamed told The Wall Street Journal he was running to root out corruption and government mismanagement while uniting a former British colony still sorely divided between those who trace their lineage to Africa and those whose ancestors came from India. Senior Guyanese government officials in particular see him as a political threat for his flashy persona and charity work, Mohamed said. Among other things, Guyanese authorities have accused him of avoiding a large tax bill by under-declaring the value of a Lamborghini Aventador sports car he imported from the U.S. by around $600,000. 'The public, the people would call me president. Then they [Guyanese officials] got upset about it—very petty,' he said, sitting beside his father at their office, which houses a mosque upstairs. 'The people want a fresh movement with no alignment.' Guyana has a population of around 800,000 people and in some ways is more closely aligned with the island nations of the Caribbean than the South American mainland. But it punches above its weight, especially after new oil fields off its coast began fueling what is now the world's fastest-growing economy. Exxon Mobil's offshore oil project, operated in a consortium with China's Cnooc and incoming partner Chevron, said on Aug. 8 that it had launched a fourth production vessel that would bring Guyana's output to 900,000 barrels a day, making it one of the world's largest crude exporters in per capita terms. A construction boom powered by an influx of Venezuelan migrant laborers is under way onshore. Roads traveled by horse-drawn buggies are being paved, and a new bridge is going up to replace the old floating span. The economy has expanded fivefold since commercial oil production began. Now Mohamed's campaign for the presidential elections on Sept. 1 is unnerving his former friends in government here—his family was a major donor to President Irfaan Ali's first campaign in 2020—as well as U.S. officials, who say electing him would jeopardize bilateral relations, repel investors and derail Guyana's economic transformation. Guyana is undergoing a construction boom thanks to new oil fields. A new bridge is being built over the Demerara River in Georgetown, Guyana.A cargo ship moored at a bauxite mining port on the Demerara River in Linden, Guyana, this month. Mohamed, usually a man of few words, has never held public office. He says he is running to better administer the country's oil windfall, which Rystad Energy, an Olso-based consulting firm, estimates could mean $110 billion in state revenue over the next 10 years. Mohamed's father, Nazar Mohamed, 72 years old, said he started his business in the 1980s by exporting gold to New York in his suitcase. He expanded his trading firm into a conglomerate that owned mines, currency exchange houses and a mall while donating to politicians and the country's Muslim community. The U.S. Treasury in June 2024 blacklisted the family and three of their companies for allegedly bribing a government official to falsify customs declarations and evading at least $50 million in taxes on the export of more than 10 metric tons of gold between 2019 and 2023. Nazar Mohamed, who acknowledges evading some taxes but says he is willing to pay them back, spent years working in Guyana's burgeoning energy industry before the sanctions. He stored equipment at his waterfront properties, he said, before oil companies deployed them to offshore projects. They rented his residential complexes to house oil workers brought in to build the industry from scratch. The Mohameds agreed to build a port with two other Guyanese companies and Exxon. Schreiner Parker, head of emerging markets at Rystad, said he was shocked to see the Mohameds as partners in the 2022 port project. Their foray into the energy industry, he said, brought fresh scrutiny into the family's alleged involvement in smuggling and its links to Guyana's political elite. 'This may be an Icarus story where they may have flown a little too close to the sun and now we're seeing their wings are melting,' Parker said. Exxon declined to comment. An Exxon Mobil office sits next to a dilapidated house in the capital of Mohamed, along with his son Azruddin Mohamed, not pictured, was sanctioned by the U.S. last year for alleged tax evasion, bribery and gold smuggling. Nervous about potential sanctions, Nazar Mohamed said he withdrew from the port project in October 2023 for the sake of partners who worried his family's involvement could paralyze it. When the sanctions hit, he said he was devastated. He has now largely withdrawn from the public eye. His son, however, chose to step into the political limelight, founding a new party to challenge President Ali while communicating frequently on Facebook with his 400,000 followers, an audience larger than those of the government's social-media accounts and the country's established parties. 'Always be ready for survival,' he said in one post last year after the U.S. sanctioned him. 'Some people suddenly change. Today you are important to them, tomorrow you're nothing to them. That's the reality of life.' President Ali said in an interview that Mohamed risks damaging Guyana's international credibility. 'It's almost an election about our national security,' he said. 'It's about putting our financial system at risk, and that is what voters need to take into consideration.' Ali, who like the Mohameds is a member of the Indian Muslim community, said he had been close to the family because of its previous support for his party. 'But that does not say that we don't have a responsibility for our country,' Ali said. 'We do not tolerate gold smuggling or any form of illegal activity.' There is little public polling data, but analysts say Mohamed's party is unlikely to secure the 33 seats it needs to hold a majority in the 65-member Parliament. But even winning a few legislative seats could require the next government to ally with him to form a majority. In 2020, Ali took office with a one-seat majority. 'Mohamed is a game changer,' said Christopher Ram, a lawyer and government transparency advocate in Guyana. 'He can do some damage here.' Azruddin Mohamed meeting with supporters at a rally this month in one of Georgetown's poorer Ali, Guyana's president and the incumbent in September's presidential election, spoke at a campaign rally in Linden, Georgetown, this month. The younger Mohamed in May founded a party called We Invest in Nationhood, or WIN. He has visited indigenous hamlets in the gold-rich hinterland, trying to gain support in regions where in the past he had donated money to build houses and paid for residents' healthcare. That same month, Guyanese authorities leveled fresh charges against Mohamed, alleging he avoided a hefty tax bill by declaring the purchase price of a Lamborghini Aventador he imported from the U.S. at $75,000, though it is valued at nearly $700,000. Guyanese prosecutors said they acted on receipts provided by the U.S. government, drawing allegations from Mohamed's campaign of election meddling by the Trump administration, which U.S. officials deny. Government officials say Mohamed's gambit is a cynical effort to gain political clout and shield his family from criminal prosecution. 'He's trying to save his ass,' Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told supporters at a rally this month. The tax bill the Mohameds skipped out on, Jagdeo said, could pay for 50,000 homes for the poor. Write to Kejal Vyas at A Gold-Trading Dynasty Vies for Power in Oil-Rich Guyana A Gold-Trading Dynasty Vies for Power in Oil-Rich Guyana A Gold-Trading Dynasty Vies for Power in Oil-Rich Guyana A Gold-Trading Dynasty Vies for Power in Oil-Rich Guyana A Gold-Trading Dynasty Vies for Power in Oil-Rich Guyana A Gold-Trading Dynasty Vies for Power in Oil-Rich Guyana
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First Post
an hour ago
- First Post
Starmer aims to build 1.5 mn homes, but is the UK buying? London builders tell a slump story
Despite UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's plans to build 1.5 million homes, London builders are taking longer to start home construction due to numerous reasons. Here are some of them While Starmer plans to build more houses, builders in the UK are struggling to complete projects. Reuters File Despite UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's plans to build 1.5 million homes, London builders are taking longer to start home construction amid a slump in demand. Analysis of about 700 sites of at least 100 private homes in London by broker Knight Frank showed that the media time taken for a housing project to kick off after getting full planning permission rose to a record 16.3 weeks last year. This was 31 per cent longer than the time it took to finish a project in 2023 and a whopping 80 per cent more compared with 2018. According to Bloomberg, British housebuilders have been under pressure from higher borrowing costs, crimping supply, while mortgage costs for buyers have weighed on demand. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As per the latest estimation by Bloomberg, the UK is likely to fall about 25 short of the 300,000 new homes it needs this year to meet its five-year target of 1.5 million homes. According to Knight Frank's analysis, which drew on data from researcher Molior London, housing projects in the UK's capital, London, which began in 2024, took an average of 26 months to start on site from initial planning application. That's an eight per cent jump since last year and eight days longer than in 2018. Why the delay According to the Bloomberg report, the delays have been driven by a lack of staff and funding in local authority planning departments and bottlenecks surrounding the affordable housing push. Not only this, but costlier stamp duty, higher mortgage rates, and tax changes impacting buy-to-let investors have also weakened demand and reduced developers' confidence to build. 'This data should be a serious wake-up call for politicians,' said James Barton, head of London land agency at Knight Frank. 'It sheds light on the realities of development – increasing delays to planning and a dramatic fall in start-on-sites signals a new low for the market.' Despite all these challenges, some UK developers have struck an optimistic tone as mortgage costs decline and government measures aimed at unblocking the planning system begin to take effect. Last week, Persimmon Plc, one of Britain's biggest housebuilders, said that it was on track to sell more homes this year and in 2026 on rising optimism around a recovery in transactions. However, only 3,950 new homes were sold in the first half of 2025 in London, the lowest since 2010, according to Molior. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Amid this, developers in the capital are under increased pressure from regulatory hurdles. According to The Guardian, the British Treasury is now examining the possibility of replacing stamp duty and introducing a new tax on the sale of UK homes worth more than £500,000. However, this is not sitting well with the developers. 'It is nonsensical to keep ramping up tax and regulation and not expect significant unintended consequences,' Knight Frank's Barton said while talking about the analysis. 'There is still huge demand and need for more homes to be delivered in London, but the current system is not effective and too rigid, with local and central policy creating an environment that is simply too high a risk for developers," Barton added.
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
18 Microsoft Employees Arrested During Protest Over Israel Military Ties
Police officers arrested 18 people at worker-led protests at Microsoft headquarters Wednesday as the tech company promises an "urgent" review of the Israeli military's use of its technology during the ongoing war in Gaza. Two consecutive days of protest at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington called for the tech giant to immediately cut its business ties with Israel. But unlike Tuesday, when about 35 protesters occupying a plaza between office buildings left after Microsoft asked them to leave, the protesters on Wednesday "resisted and became aggressive" after the company told police they were trespassing, according to the Redmond Police Department. The protesters also splattered red paint resembling the color of blood over a landmark sign that bears the company logo and spells Microsoft in big gray letters. "We said, 'Please leave or you will be arrested,' and they chose not to leave so they were detained," said police spokesperson Jill Green. Microsoft late last week said it was tapping a law firm to investigate allegations reported by British newspaper The Guardian that the Israeli Defense Forces used Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. "Microsoft's standard terms of service prohibit this type of usage," the company said in a statement posted Friday, adding that the report raises "precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review." In February, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about the tech giant's close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, with military use of commercial artificial intelligence products skyrocketing by nearly 200 times after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The AP reported that the Israeli military uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance, which can then be cross-checked with Israel's in-house AI-enabled targeting systems. Following The AP's report, Microsoft acknowledged the military applications but said a review it commissioned found no evidence that its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that review or say who conducted it. Microsoft said it will share the latest review's findings after it's completed by law firm Covington & Burling. The promise of a second review was insufficient for the employee-led No Azure for Apartheid group, which for months has protested Microsoft's supplying the Israeli military with technology used for its war against Hamas in Gaza. The group said Wednesday the technology is "being used to surveil, starve and kill Palestinians." Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the contracts, and in April, fired two others who interrupted the company's 50th anniversary celebration. On Tuesday, the protesters posted online a call for what they called a "worker intifada," using language evoking the Palestinian uprisings against Israeli military occupation that began in 1987. On Wednesday, the police department said it took 18 people into custody "for multiple charges, including trespassing, malicious mischief, resisting arrest, and obstruction." It wasn't clear how many were Microsoft employees. No injuries were reported. Microsoft said in a statement after the arrests that it "will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
