Tesla whistleblower wins latest battle v Elon Musk, Temu and Shein to raise US prices

A Tesla whistleblower who has fought Elon Musk and his company through the courts for years has won the latest round of a long-running legal battle. Engineer Cristina Balan lost her job after she raised a safety concern in 2014 about a design flaw which could affect the cars’ braking. Her defamation claim against the firm seemed to have run out of road when a judge confirmed an arbitration decision dismissing her case – but a panel of appeal judges in California has reversed this decision in her favour. She told BBC News she now wants to face Elon Musk and Tesla in open court. BBC 

Scientists have found what they are calling the strongest sign yet of possible life beyond our solar system after detecting the chemical footprint of gases in an alien planet’s atmosphere that on Earth are only produced by living organisms. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists found traces of two gases – dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) – on a planet named K2-18b. On Earth, those gases are generated primarily by living organisms including algae, suggesting K2-18b could be teeming with microbial life. Sky News 

The iPhone 17 series is expected to launch in September, and one persistent rumor is that the rear camera panel will have a complete redesign. Instead of a squarish raised area in the iPhone’s top left corner, the panel is thought to stretch the width of the phone, a bit like the camera bar on the Google Pixel 9 Pro, for instance. Now, a new render shows an image and video of how the back of the iPhone 17 Pro will look. The report comes from a 3D designer whose X handle is kanedacane tweets. You can see the video here. Forbes 

Two of China’s largest fast fashion retailers, Temu and Shein, have warned US customers that they will face price increases from next week, as Donald Trump’s hefty tariffs on Chinese imports come into force. Both companies will be hit by new import levies, which will mean taxes of up to 145% being applied to Chinese goods. They will also suffer from Trump’s cancellation of the “de minimis” exemption, under which shipments worth less than $800 (£600) could be imported duty-free. The Guardian 

Fitness social network Strava is buying Runna, the training app. Strava said that it had decided to buy the app to help continue what had been “unprecedented growth” last year. London-based Runna offers personalised running plans and coaching to users who might be training for marathons or other races. It was only founded in 2022, but has quickly become one of the world’s most popular training apps and says it has helped “millions” of people train for their first race. Independent

Do you say “Please” or “Thank you” to ChatGPT? If you’re polite to OpenAI‘s chatbot, you could be part of the user base costing the company “Tens of millions of dollars” on electricity bills. User @tomiinlove wrote on X, “I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to their models.” OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, responded, “Tens of millions of dollars well spent – you never know.” Thanks for lowering the world’s anxiety around an AI uprising, Sam. Tech Radar