Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius is the eternal optimist, and for good reason. He has long pushed the European Union to roll back its lofty goal of phasing out new internal combustion engine cars, arguing that weakening the rules was a return to pragmatism and not capitulation to opponents of Europe’s green agenda.
Technology
Europe banned new gas cars after 2035 — now it’s reconsidering
His push is working. The rigid deadlines for phasing out combustion engines after 2035 are “no longer feasible,” Källenius told The Verge in a recent interview, given infrastructure bottlenecks and the sluggish adoption of EVs by consumers. More flexibility was needed to protect jobs and competitiveness, give consumers greater choice, and ensure manufacturers can finance the transition profitably.
“This is not a retreat,” he said in defense of loosening the 2035 deadline. “It is an upgrade to a smarter strategy that matches Europe’s ambitions with a thoughtful plan for success.”
“This is not a retreat.”
When the economy was humming and jobs were plentiful, Europeans largely backed an ambitious climate agenda. Now, with the economy limping and automakers and suppliers slashing tens of thousands of jobs, support has shifted toward slowing down the transition.
Källenius said that carmakers had proved their commitment to fighting global warming with a decade of huge investments in new technology, electric vehicles, and battery plants.
“Taking a more pragmatic approach could be a way of delivering on Europe’s climate goals more effectively,” he said. “The ultimate target of achieving CO2 neutrality in the EU by 2050 remains firmly in place. What changes is the path to get there.”
Reopening the ICE car ban
For now, it is still European law to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines after 2035. To change that, the EU has to either repeal the law or to amend it and create exceptions that would allow the sale of conventional cars to continue beyond the deadline.
At their October summit, European leaders called on the Commission, the bloc’s executive body, to reopen the ICE car ban and present proposals by the end of the year to slow Europe’s once brisk march to a carbon-free future.
The Commission has said it is considering allowing more “technology neutrality,” which analysts say means possibly allowing plug-in hybrids and ICE cars that run on synthetic fuels or biofuels, which produce fewer emissions than conventional fuel. The auto industry has been demanding such a change for years, and wants the Commission to count hybrids and cars that run on synthetic fuels among zero-emission vehicles, even if they have an internal combustion engine beyond the 2035 deadline.
“Turning the EU’s most important automotive regulation into a Swiss cheese will not restore the industry’s competitiveness,” said Lucien Mathieu, cars director at the Brussels-based lobby group Transport & Environment, in a statement in October. “It is a cynical attempt to dismantle a central pillar of Europe’s climate law. If the Commission capitulates to these demands, it will only hand a further competitive advantage to Chinese automakers.”
“Turning the EU’s most important automotive regulation into a Swiss cheese will not restore the industry’s competitiveness.”
Källenius noted that even after 2035 there would still be more than 200 million conventional cars on the road. Without alternative fuels and new ICE cars to replace them they would age, risking “a ‘Havana effect’ that would cause our vehicle fleet to grow even older, harming both the climate and the economy.”
Germany is lobbying to weaken the ban and create a longer transition period. The German economy is barely growing after two years of recession. The auto industry’s troubles go back a lot further. Auto production in Germany peaked in 1998, but fell 25 percent in the wake of covid in 2020, and has declined every year since. And now German automakers face new competition from lower-cost Chinese vehicles.
The country’s political leaders are alarmed because of the nearly 800,000 jobs that the industry provides and because economic uncertainty is fueling a rise of support for right-wing populism. Against this backdrop, the government is throwing its weight behind industry demands to roll back climate goals and throw core gas-powered cars a lifeline.
“There will be no hard cut” in 2035, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged after a meeting with auto industry leaders in September.
Alternative fuels and hybrids
Slowing the shift to electric vehicles aims to give carmakers and suppliers more time to keep earning money from their most profitable models and maintain their competitive edge over rivals, including the new Chinese manufacturers that are fast making inroads into European markets.
There is a danger that slowing the transition to EVs could put the huge investments that have been made in EV charging networks and battery plants at risk, which could also lead to job losses.
“If tomorrow we abandon the 2035 objective, forget European battery factories,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters after the October leaders’ summit, pointing to the gigafactories now being built across the continent as a direct result of the 2035 deadline. Instead, he backed loosening the language of the law to allow alternative fuels and hybrids.
“There will be no hard cut” in 2035.
Allowing automakers to keep selling conventional cars as hybrids or with low-emission fuels is just one part of a compromise. To boost sales of economy EVs, Europeans are also working on incentives for new battery electric vehicle purchases. Manufacturers could be required to use more European-made components to be eligible for EV subsidies as a way to support jobs and push back against cheap Chinese imports.
As politicians discuss how to help automakers, the situation for the industry is increasingly dire.
The only growth in Europe’s automotive markets this year is coming from electric vehicles and hybrids, from which many automakers still struggle to earn any money because of the high costs of developing new technologies, manufacturing in Europe, and the still meager sales volumes of EVs.
Europeans bought 1.3 million battery-electric vehicles in the nine months through September, accounting for about 16 percent of total new car sales, according to ACEA, the continent’s auto lobby. But even the strong performance of electric and hybrid vehicles could not offset the steep decline of ICE cars. Overall, Europe’s new car sales grew just 0.9 percent in the first nine months.
‘We’re asking for a different regime’
For some automakers, the changes that are under discussion don’t go far enough.
BMW CEO Oliver Zipse told reporters in an earnings call that under the EU’s current law, manufacturers get no benefit from their investments in carbon-neutral components such as green steel or for building new, low-emission factories. He slammed the EU’s focus on regulating tailpipe emissions instead of the car’s total carbon footprint.
“We are not asking for the targets to be weakened. We’re asking for a different regime,” Zipse said. “We are continually reducing our CO2 footprint but it has no impact.”
Some green tech lobby groups and think tanks warn against boosting support for plug-in hybrids at the expense of full EVs.
Brussels-based Transport & Environment (T&E), a green tech lobby group, concluded in a recent study that plug-in hybrids emit nearly five times more CO2 in real world driving than shown in official tests. And even when running in electric mode, PHEVs burn more fuel than manufacturers claim because their combustion engines kick in when accelerating or driving uphill, the study concludes.
“We are continually reducing our CO2 footprint but it has no impact.”
The gap hits drivers’ wallets, too: Annual fuel and charging costs are about €500 higher than advertised. With an average sticker price of €55,700 in 2025, plug-in hybrids are also €15,200 more expensive than battery-electrics.
“Plug-in hybrids are one of the biggest cons in automotive history,” said T&E’s Mathieu.
Peter Mock, Europe managing director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, rejected the notion that plug-in hybrids are a “bridge” to electrification. He said evidence shows most drivers who switch to battery-electrics stay with them, while a large share of plug-in hybrid buyers later revert to combustion cars.
Mock pointed to Denmark, where battery-electrics account for about 70 percent of new sales, and Belgium at around 40 percent, as examples of how to accelerate adoption. The key, he said, is a mix of EU CO2 standards and national tax policies that make combustion cars more expensive while lowering costs for EVs — ideally in a self-balancing system where higher ICE taxes fund EV subsidies.
On e-fuels, Mock was blunt: They are too inefficient and costly for cars and trucks. “For road transport, electrification is by far the better option,” he said. “E-fuels are a distraction.”
‘The rest of the world will not stand still’
The EU’s climate policies of the past decade have attracted a lot of investment from pure EV manufacturers, battery manufacturers, and other suppliers along the EV supply chain. That’s why more than 200 business leaders from the industry wrote an open letter calling on the Commission to “Stand firm, don’t step back” in the face of legacy automaker lobbying.
Michael Lohscheller, CEO of Polestar, told The Verge that watering down the 2035 ban would punish companies that have already staked their future on electrification. “It undermines the basis for the investments that companies like us have made,” he said, noting that years of negotiation went into the current framework, including with legacy carmakers now seeking to backtrack.
While a delay might make EV demand less linear, Lohscheller said, “the shift will still happen and is happening, as we see in demand for our cars across most European markets.”
“Stand firm, don’t step back”
He also warned that Europe risks falling behind global competitors if it weakens its climate goals. “We would become even less competitive in the future. The rest of the world will not stand still: they will continue to develop new, better technologies, which would put even more future EU jobs in jeopardy.”
Others agree. Lawrence Hamilton, president of Lucid Motors Europe, said that reopening the debate over the EU’s 2035 combustion car ban risks confusing consumers and slowing electric vehicle adoption. “It remains a distraction in the conversation with the consumers,” he said. “If the ICE ban is rolled back, everybody believes they’ve got longer, and consumer adoption tends to be ‘not now.’ But we want people to be thinking about making the transition to EV now.”
Hamilton stressed that car replacement cycles are long — often seven years or more — which means the industry needs customers to start switching today, not years down the road. He pointed out that EVs are approaching price parity with gas cars, already deliver lower total cost of ownership in many cases, and have largely overcome concerns about range.
If Europe’s automakers want to regain competitiveness — especially against China — the answer is not to slow the shift to electric, but to double down on it and tackle their own structural weaknesses.
“They must close the battery cost gap, pivot to software and AI-driven manufacturing, and rediscover the entrepreneurial urgency their Chinese rivals live by,” said Andy Palmer, who played a key role in driving electric vehicle technology at Nissan and later was CEO of Aston Martin. “Europe still has immense engineering talent, but it’s held back by bureaucracy and legacy thinking. They need to catch up. And fast.”
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Amazon has slowly been teasing out casting details for its live-action adaptation of God of War, and now we have our first look at the show. It’s a single image but a notable one showing protagonist Kratos and his son Atreus. The characters are played by Ryan Hurst and Callum Vinson, respectively, and they look relatively close to their video game counterparts.
There aren’t a lot of other details about the show just yet, but this is Amazon’s official description:
The God of War series storyline follows father and son Kratos and Atreus as they embark on a journey to spread the ashes of their wife and mother, Faye. Through their adventures, Kratos tries to teach his son to be a better god, while Atreus tries to teach his father how to be a better human.
That sounds a lot like the recent soft reboot of the franchise, which started with 2018’s God of War and continued through Ragnarök in 2022. For the Amazon series, Ronald D. Moore, best-known for his work on For All Mankind and Battlestar Galactica, will serve as showrunner. The rest of the cast includes: Mandy Patinkin (Odin), Ed Skrein (Baldur), Max Parker (Heimdall), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Thor), Teresa Palmer (Sif), Alastair Duncan (Mimir), Jeff Gulka (Sindri), and Danny Woodburn (Brok).
While production is underway on the God of War series, there’s no word on when it might start streaming.
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Your web browser may feel like a safe place, especially when you install helpful tools that promise to make your life easier. But security researchers have uncovered a dangerous campaign in which more than 300,000 people installed Chrome extensions pretending to be artificial intelligence (AI) assistants. Instead of helping, these fake tools secretly collect sensitive information like your emails, passwords and browsing activity.
They used familiar names like ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Assistant. If you use Chrome and have installed any AI-related extension, your personal information may already be exposed. Even worse, some of these malicious extensions are still available today, putting more people at risk without their knowing.
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More than 300,000 Chrome users installed fake AI extensions that secretly harvested sensitive data. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What you need to know about fake AI extensions
Security researchers at browser security company LayerX discovered a large campaign involving 30 malicious Chrome extensions disguised as AI-powered assistants (via BleepingComputer). Together, these extensions were installed more than 300,000 times by unsuspecting users.
Some of the most popular extensions included names like AI Sidebar with 70,000 users, AI Assistant with 60,000 users, ChatGPT Translate with 30,000 users, and Google Gemini with 10,000 users. Another extension called Gemini AI Sidebar had 80,000 users before it was removed.
These extensions were distributed through the official Chrome Web Store, which made them appear legitimate and trustworthy. Even more concerning, researchers found that many of these extensions were connected to the same malicious server, showing they were part of a coordinated effort.
While some extensions have since been removed, others remain available. This means new users could still unknowingly install them and expose their personal data. Here’s the list of the affected extensions:
- AI Assistant
- Llama
- Gemini AI Sidebar
- AI Sidebar
- ChatGPT Sidebar
- Grok
- Asking ChatGPT
- ChatGBT
- Chat Bot GPT
- Grok Chatbot
- Chat With Gemini
- XAI
- Google Gemini
- Ask Gemini
- AI Letter Generator
- AI Message Generator
- AI Translator
- AI For Translation
- AI Cover Letter Generator
- AI Image Generator ChatGPT
- Ai Wallpaper Generator
- Ai Picture Generator
- DeepSeek Download
- AI Email Writer
- Email Generator AI
- DeepSeek Chat
- ChatGPT Picture Generator
- ChatGPT Translate
- AI GPT
- ChatGPT Translation
- ChatGPT for Gmail
FAKE AI CHAT RESULTS ARE SPREADING DANGEROUS MAC MALWARE
These malicious tools were listed in the official Chrome Web Store, making them appear legitimate and trustworthy. (LayerX)
How the fake AI Chrome extension attack works
These fake extensions pretend to offer helpful AI features, such as translating text, summarizing emails, or acting as an AI assistant. But behind the scenes, they quietly monitor what you are doing online.
Once installed, the extension gains permission to view and interact with the websites you visit. This allows it to read the contents of web pages, including login screens where you enter your username and password.
In some cases, the extensions specifically targeted Gmail. They could read your email messages directly from your browser, including emails you received and even drafts you were still writing. This means attackers could access private conversations, financial information and sensitive personal details.
The extensions then sent this information to servers controlled by the attackers. Because they loaded content remotely, the attackers could change their behavior at any time without needing to update the extension.
Some versions could also activate voice features through your browser. This could potentially capture spoken conversations near your device and send transcripts back to the attackers.
If you installed one of these extensions, attackers may already have access to extremely sensitive information. This includes your email content, login credentials, browsing habits and possibly even voice recordings.
We reached out to Google for comment, and a spokesperson told CyberGuy that the company “can confirm that the extensions from this report have all been removed from the Google Web Store.”
BROWSER EXTENSION MALWARE INFECTED 8.8M USERS IN DARKSPECTRE ATTACK
Once installed, the extensions could read emails, capture passwords, monitor browsing activity and send the data to attacker-controlled servers. (Bildquelle/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
7 ways you can protect yourself from malicious Chrome extensions
If you have ever installed an AI-related Chrome extension, taking a few simple precautions now can help protect your accounts and prevent further damage.
1) Remove any suspicious or unused browser extensions
On a Windows PC or Mac, open Chrome and type chrome://extensions into the address bar. Review every extension listed. If you see anything unfamiliar, especially AI assistants you don’t remember installing, click “Remove” immediately. Malicious extensions depend on going unnoticed. Removing them stops further data collection and cuts off the attacker’s access to your information.
2) Change your passwords
If you installed any suspicious extension, assume your passwords may be compromised. Start by changing your email password first, since email controls access to most other accounts. Then update passwords for banking, shopping and social media accounts. This prevents attackers from using stolen credentials to break into your accounts.
3) Use a password manager to create and protect strong passwords
A password manager generates unique, complex passwords for each account and stores them securely. This prevents attackers from accessing multiple accounts if one password is stolen. Password managers also alert you if your login credentials appear in known data breaches, helping you respond quickly and protect your identity. Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2026 at Cyberguy.com.
4) Install strong antivirus software and keep it active
Good antivirus software can detect malicious browser extensions, spyware, and other hidden threats. It scans your system for suspicious activity and blocks harmful programs before they can steal your information. This adds an important layer of protection that works continuously in the background to keep your device safe. Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.
5) Use an identity theft protection service
Identity theft protection services monitor your personal data, including email addresses, financial accounts, and Social Security numbers, for signs of misuse. If criminals try to open accounts or commit fraud using your information, you receive alerts quickly. Early detection allows you to act fast and limit financial and personal damage. See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft at Cyberguy.com.
6) Keep your browser and computer fully updated
Software updates fix security vulnerabilities that attackers exploit. Enable automatic updates for Chrome and your operating system so you always have the latest protections. These updates strengthen your defenses against malicious extensions and prevent attackers from taking advantage of known weaknesses.
7) Use a personal data removal service
Personal data removal services scan data broker websites that collect and sell your personal information. They help remove your data from these sites, reducing what attackers can find and use against you. Less exposed information means fewer opportunities for criminals to target you with scams, identity theft or phishing attacks.
Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.
Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.
Kurt’s key takeaway
Even tools designed to make your life easier can become tools for cybercriminals. Malicious extensions often hide behind trusted names and convincing features, making them difficult to spot. You can significantly reduce your risk by reviewing your browser extensions regularly, removing anything suspicious and using protective tools like password managers and strong antivirus software.
Have you checked your browser extensions recently? Let us know your thoughts by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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Anthropic refuses Pentagon’s new terms, standing firm on lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance
Less than 24 hours before the deadline in an ultimatum issued by the Pentagon, Anthropic has refused the Department of Defense’s demands for unrestricted access to its AI.
It’s the culmination of a dramatic exchange of public statements, social media posts, and behind-the-scenes negotiations, coming down to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desire to renegotiate all AI labs’ current contracts with the military. But Anthropic, so far, has refused to back down from its two current red lines: no mass surveillance of Americans, and no lethal autonomous weapons (or weapons with license to kill targets with no human oversight whatsoever). OpenAI and xAI had reportedly already agreed to the new terms, while Anthropic’s refusal had led to CEO Dario Amodei being summoned to the White House this week for a meeting with Hegseth himself, in which the Secretary reportedly issued an ultimatum to the CEO to back down by the end of business day on Friday or else.
In a statement late Thursday, Amodei wrote, “I believe deeply in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies, and to defeat our autocratic adversaries. Anthropic has therefore worked proactively to deploy our models to the Department of War and the intelligence community.”
He added that the company has “never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner” but that in a “narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values” — going on to specifically mention mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. (Amodei mentioned that “partial autonomous weapons … are vital to the defense of democracy” and that fully autonomous weapons may eventually “prove critical for our national defense,” but that “today, frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons.” He did not rule out Anthropic acquiescing to the military’s use of fully autonomous weapons in the future but mentioned that they were not ready now.)
The Pentagon had already reportedly asked major defense contractors to assess their dependence on Anthropic’s Claude, which could be seen as the first step to designating the company a “supply chain risk” – a public threat that the Pentagon had made recently (and a classification usually reserved for threats to national security). The Pentagon was also reportedly considering invoking the Defense Production Act to make Anthropic comply.
Amodei wrote in his statement that the Pentagon’s “threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.” He also wrote that “should the Department choose to offboard Anthropic, we will work to enable a smooth transition to another provider, avoiding any disruption to ongoing military planning, operations, or other critical missions. Our models will be available on the expansive terms we have proposed for as long as required.”
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