Best of bbc.com on Kiwi News
Most upvoted by Kiwi News readers
22 stories from bbc.com have been shared on Kiwi News since 12 June 2023, with 34 upvotes and 5 comments in total. The latest was shared on 19 February 2026. They are listed below, most upvoted first.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- ~3500 subreddits go private as communities protest Reddit's new API access fees
Thousands of Reddit communities went private for 48 hours in protest at new charges Reddit is imposing on developers of third-party apps, which are used to browse the platform. The blackout covers 3,489 subreddits, including five of the ten most popular, such as r/gaming, r/aww, r/Music, r/todayilearned and r/pics, each with more than 30 million members. Christian Selig, developer of the Apollo app, claimed the fees would cost him $20m (£15.9m) to keep operating, while a Reddit spokesperson said Apollo was "notably less efficient" than other apps and that pricing is based on usage levels comparable to Reddit's own costs. All four named third-party apps, Apollo, Reddit is Fun, Sync and ReddPlanet, have said they will shut down.
- Trump orders firing of statistics chief after weak jobs report
Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday, accusing her without providing evidence of manipulating jobs data to help Democrats in the 2024 election. The bureau's updated figures showed fewer jobs created in May and June than previously reported, and July's report showed about 73,000 jobs added. Deputy commissioner William Wiatrowski will serve as acting commissioner, according to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez De-Remer, who supported the decision. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the figures show Trump "is crashing our economy in real time."
- Banksy 'judge' mural scrubbed from Royal Courts of Justice wall
Banksy's mural of a judge looming over a protester has been removed from an external wall of the Queen's Building in the Royal Courts of Justice complex in London. The mural appeared on a Monday and depicted a protester lying on the ground holding a blood-spattered placard while a judge in a wig and gown wields a gavel. HM Courts & Tribunals Service said the work would be removed because the building is listed and legally protected, and the Metropolitan Police stated that inquiries into the mural, reported as criminal damage, were ongoing.
- Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
Apple is removing its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature for UK customers after the UK government demanded access to user data that even Apple cannot currently see. The Home Office issued the request under the Investigatory Powers Act, and Apple said it was "gravely disappointed" and that it has never built a backdoor and never will. From 1500 GMT on Friday, UK users trying to turn on ADP receive an error message, and existing users' access will be disabled at a later date. Critics including Senator Ron Wyden and privacy experts called the move a precedent that threatens privacy, while the NSPCC urged Apple to add child safety measures.
- We're losing our digital history. Can the Internet Archive save it?
Many web pages are disappearing, and the Internet Archive has become a central, but fragile, guardian of digital history. A Pew Research Center study found that a quarter of web pages that existed at some point between 2013 and 2023 no longer work, with 38% of pages from 2013 that Pew tried to access now dead. The Internet Archive, a San Francisco non-profit founded in 1996, holds 866 billion web pages, and its Wayback Machine stores snapshots of sites for posterity. The organisation faces a copyright appeal it lost in September, a music labels lawsuit that could cost it $400m, and a May 2024 distributed denial of service attack.
- UK disorder: What's Elon Musk's game?
Elon Musk is increasingly weighing in openly on the unrest in the UK, and BBC disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring writes that nobody is sure what his game plan is. Following riots after the murder of three girls in Southport, Musk replied to a post by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson), suggested "civil war is inevitable", which the prime minister's spokesperson said had "no justification", and questioned whether Starmer should be concerned about attacks on "all" communities. Spring notes that false claims about the Southport suspect spread widely on X, much of it amplified by blue-tick accounts, and that Musk, with 193 million followers, has been interacting with some of them. The article reports that Musk did not respond to the BBC's interview requests.
- Protesters attempt to storm Germany's Tesla factory
Hundreds of climate protesters clashed with police on Friday after trying to storm Tesla's factory near Berlin, injuring several people, including three police officers. Police made several arrests and prevented activists from entering the facility, while demonstrators blocked a nearby motorway and interrupted railway service. Campaigners have camped in woods in Grünheide, Brandenburg, since February, opposing Tesla's plan to double the factory's size, and Disrupt Tesla spokesman Ole Becker said the protesters aimed to draw attention to "environmental destruction." The Gigafactory currently employs an estimated 12,000 people and makes around 500,000 cars a year.
- Facebook owner Meta to pay $25m to settle Trump lawsuit over ban
Trump has signed a settlement under which Meta will pay roughly $25m (£20m) to resolve his 2021 lawsuit against the company and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg over the suspension of his accounts after the 6 January Capitol riots. The Wall Street Journal first reported the settlement, and about $22m will go to a fund for Trump's presidential library. The balance will cover legal costs and other plaintiffs who joined the suit, and Meta will not admit wrongdoing.
- RedNote: Americans and Chinese share jokes on alternative TikTok as US ban looms
Thousands of American TikTok users have moved to RedNote, a Chinese social media app, as a looming US TikTok ban prompts them to seek a new platform. About 700,000 new users signed up in two days, making RedNote the most downloaded free app in the US App Store, and many Americans say they are joining to spite their government. Chinese and American users are sharing jokes, memes, cat photos and English homework help, while Duolingo reported a 216% jump in its user base compared with the same time last year. The article notes that RedNote may face the same national security concerns that led to the TikTok ban, and that some American users have already received notices that their posts violated guidelines.
- Bitcoin miner's claim to recover £600m in Newport tip thrown out
A judge has struck out James Howells's attempt to sue Newport City Council for access to a landfill site to recover a hard drive holding Bitcoin, now said to be worth about £598m. Judge Keyser KC found there were no "reasonable grounds" for the claim and "no realistic prospect" of success at a full trial. James Goudie KC, for the council, argued that the hard drive became the council's property when it entered the landfill and that environmental permits would forbid excavation. Howells said he was "very upset" and had offered the council 10% of the Bitcoin.
- I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI – and it only took 20 minutes
Thomas Germain, a BBC technology journalist, says he manipulated ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and Gemini into calling him a top competitive hot-dog eater by publishing a single fabricated article on his personal website in about 20 minutes. Chatbots repeated the claims within 24 hours, and Anthropic's Claude did not. Lily Ray and Cooper Quintin, quoted in the piece, warn the technique can be used for scams, reputational damage and misinformation on serious topics such as health and finances. Google says its AI results are 99% spam-free and that the examples shown are uncommon searches, while OpenAI says it works to disrupt covert influence efforts.
- Bitcoin worth $14bn seized in US-UK crackdown on alleged scammers
US prosecutors charged Cambodian national Chen Zhi, founder of the Prince Group, with wire-fraud conspiracy and money laundering, and the US government has seized more than $14bn (£10.5bn) in bitcoin. The US Department of Justice alleges the Prince Group built and operated at least ten scam compounds in Cambodia, and that it used forced labour and "phone farms" to run cryptocurrency and social media scams. The UK government says it has frozen assets from Chen's network, including 19 London properties, and sanctioned the group alongside the US. Chen remains at large, and if convicted he faces a maximum of 40 years in jail.
- World's first AI minister will eliminate corruption, says Albania's PM
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama has introduced Diella, an AI-powered system presented as a cabinet member and minister for public procurement, with the stated goal of making public tenders free of corruption. Rama told the BBC that the team is building the first full AI model in public procurement, aiming to make the process faster, more efficient and totally accountable. The appointment is symbolic rather than official, since Albania's constitution requires ministers to be mentally competent citizens aged at least 18. Diella previously worked as an AI virtual assistant on the e-Albania platform, which Rama says has helped more than a million applications. The opposition Democratic Party called the initiative "ridiculous" and "unconstitutional".
- Cash Isas: No imminent change to tax-free allowance
The Treasury has shelved any immediate plans to cut the tax-free cash Isa allowance, the BBC understands, after strong opposition from banks, building societies and consumer campaigners. The current £20,000 annual Isa allowance covers both cash and stocks and shares products. Chancellor Rachel Reeves had reportedly been considering a reduction to encourage investment in stocks and shares, and changes have not been completely ruled out for the future. Some proposals, such as more investment education and looser rules on regulated advice, are still expected in the Mansion House speech on Tuesday.
- South Africa's political marriage of convenience avoids divorce
South Africa's two largest parties, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), remain in an uneasy Government of National Unity (GNU) that has marked its first anniversary without either side filing for divorce. The coalition formed after the ANC lost its parliamentary majority in last year's elections, and the DA has since clashed publicly with President Ramaphosa over issues including the Expropriation Act and the dismissal of deputy trade minister Andrew Whitfield. DA leader John Steenhuisen said the party's executive had considered a motion of no confidence in the president and might launch one in future. Political analyst Dr Levy Ndou said the parties' fundamental differences will remain a permanent source of conflict.
- DeepSeek: How China's 'AI heroes' overcame US curbs to stun Silicon Valley
DeepSeek, a little-known Chinese AI firm, released a new model that has astonished Silicon Valley, and the company says it is far cheaper than the billions US firms have spent on AI. DeepSeek says it trained its model using 2,000 specialised chips plus thousands of lower-grade chips, though Elon Musk has questioned this claim. Experts quoted in the article say US chip export restrictions forced Chinese firms to innovate, and Marina Zhang of the University of Technology Sydney says state-backed talent programmes helped build the workforce. The article notes that founder Liang Wenfeng, 40, has been hailed as one of China's "three AI heroes" on social media.
- Apple Intelligence: iPhone AI news alerts halted after errors
Apple has suspended its AI-generated notification summaries for news and entertainment apps after repeated errors in summaries of news headlines. The feature falsely told some BBC readers that Luigi Mangione, accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself, and it also inaccurately summarised headlines from Sky News, the New York Times and the Washington Post, according to reports from journalists and others on social media. The BBC complained to Apple in December, and Apple promised a software update in January. Apple said the feature will be temporarily unavailable in the iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3 and macOS Sequoia 15.3 beta releases, and that its summaries for other apps will appear in italicised text.
- El Salvador strikes $1.4bn IMF deal after scaling back Bitcoin policies
El Salvador has agreed a $1.4bn loan deal with the International Monetary Fund after agreeing to scale back its bitcoin policies, which the IMF said reduces the risks of the project. Under the reforms, businesses will be free to decide whether to accept bitcoin, while public sector involvement in bitcoin activities and purchases will be confined. The deal still needs approval from the IMF's executive board. The IMF had previously opposed President Nayib Bukele's crypto-friendly policies, warning they could obstruct financial assistance.
- Your personal data all over the web - is there a better way?
Sir Tim Berners-Lee argues that individuals should regain control of their personal data, and an open source project called Solid is designed to let them do so through a private Personal Online Data Store, or Pod. Users choose which organisations can access their data, for what purpose and for how long. In Flanders, Belgium, Athumi is running several Solid projects, including a diploma-sharing application with recruitment firm Randstad that it plans to scale to 30,000 users during 2024. Inrupt's John Bruce says that spreading data across individual pods, rather than large databases, would make attacks harder, while Amanda Finch of The Chartered Institute of Information Security warns that users taking on more responsibility could create new risks.
- Japan issues 'higher than usual' megaquake risk warning
Japan has for the first time issued an advisory warning of a higher than usual risk of a major earthquake in the near future, telling people to stay alert but not evacuate. The Japanese Meteorological Agency issued the advisory on Thursday night local time, hours after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake off the southern island of Kyushu that reportedly caused no major damage. The epicentre sat at the edge of the Nankai Trough, where Kyodo News reports experts see a 70% to 80% chance of a magnitude 8 or 9 quake in the next 30 years. Official Shinya Tsukada said the advisory does not mean a quake is definitely coming within a set period.
- Woman found with £2bn in Bitcoin convicted of money laundering
Jian Wen, 42, from Hendon in north London, has been convicted at Southwark Crown Court of entering into or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement, linked to Bitcoin worth more than £2bn. The Met Police said the seizure is the largest of its kind in the UK, and that Wen helped convert the currency into assets including multi-million-pound houses and jewellery. The CPS has obtained a freezing order from the High Court while it pursues a civil recovery investigation that could lead to forfeiture of the Bitcoin, which has since risen in value to around £3.4bn. Wen is due to be sentenced on 10 May.
- Is the US trying to kill crypto?
Crypto firms say US regulators have turned increasingly hostile to the sector, with the share of firms in Andrew Durgee's portfolio based in the US falling from most three years ago to about one in 10 this year. Durgee, managing director of the crypto division at Republic, says "the administration really has a target on the industry," while Bart Stephens of Blockchain Capital says a regulatory attack is underway. SEC chairman Gary Gensler defended the enforcement campaign, which culminated this month in legal actions against Coinbase and Binance. Gensler's critics accuse him of "regulation by enforcement," and Stephens says he still sees a bright future for the sector, though possibly outside the US.