A £2 billion (US$2.68 billion) class action will claim that millions of PlayStation users in the UK are overcharged for games on the console in the latest legal challenge against technology firms’ market dominance. The case, brought by consumer champion Alex Neill on behalf of an estimated 12.2 million gamers, accuses Sony of levying “excessive and unfair” charges on downloads from its PlayStation Store. The antitrust claim is set to be heard by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London from...

President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that France could deploy nuclear-armed aircraft to allied countries for the first time as he invited eight European countries to take part in exercises with French deterrent forces. Announcing a new doctrine of “forward deterrence”, Macron said the plans involving partners including Germany, Britain and Poland would “complicate the calculations of our adversaries”. “We must strengthen our nuclear deterrent in the face of multiple threats, and we must...

A federal appeal court on Monday rejected US President Donald Trump’s push to delay legal proceedings linked to refunds of his tariffs, allowing the battle to proceed in a lower court. The Supreme Court last month delivered a stinging rebuke of Trump’s signature economic policy by striking down many of his global tariffs, opening the door to a complicated legal fight as companies sue for their money back. The tariffs ruled illegal by the high court had generated more than US$130 billion for the...

The simmering war in the Middle East fractured Europe on Monday, as allies clashed, tempers flared and the shock waves from the US and Israeli bombing of Iran threatened to reverberate through the continent. The crisis exposed a familiar European fault line: while leaders insist they are the last guardians of the rules-based international order, they remain split over how to respond when allies bend or break those rules. With oil price spikes threatening to compound the European economic...

A triceratops skeleton that stood in a Wyoming museum for decades will be auctioned off, a rare instance of a museum-exhibited dinosaur going to the auction block just as the market for the prehistoric giants has hit record highs. The fossil, dubbed “Trey”, will be open for bidding from March 17 to 31 on Joopiter, an online auction platform founded by Grammy-winning artist and producer Pharrell Williams. It has a pre-auction estimate of US$4.5 million to US$5.5 million. Dating back more than 66...

US President Donald Trump said his troops will continue with “ferocious, unyielding resolve” the mission to “eliminate the intolerable threat posed by this sick and sinister regime” in Iran. “We projected for four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go longer than that,” Trump said, while also saying, “we’re already substantially ahead of our time projection”. In a speech on Monday during a ceremony in the White House, Trump seemed to respond to his critics by outlining the objectives...

The US Treasury Department said on Monday it is ending use of all Anthropic products, following US President Donald Trump’s government-wide ban on the AI start-up after it rejected the Pentagon’s demands. The US Treasury “is terminating all use of Anthropic products, including the use of its Claude platform, within our department”, said Secretary Scott Bessent in a social media statement. The decision comes at the direction of Trump, he added. “Under President Trump no private company will ever...