His blunt, brash scepticism has made the podcaster and writer something of a cult figure. But as concern over large language models builds, he’s no longer the outsider he once was If some time in an entirely possible future they come to make a movie about “how the AI bubble burst”, Ed Zitron will doubtless be a main character. He’s the perfect outsider figure: the eccentric loner who saw all this coming and screamed from the sidelines that the sky was falling, but nobody would listen. Just as Christian Bale portrayed Michael Burry, the investor who predicted the 2008 financial crash, in The Big Short, you can well imagine Robert Pattinson fighting Paul Mescal, say, to portray Zitron, the animated, colourfully obnoxious but doggedly detail-oriented Brit, who’s become one of big tech’s noisiest critics. This is not to say the AI bubble will burst, necessarily, but against a tidal wave of AI boosterism, Zitron’s blunt, brash scepticism has made him something of a cult figure. His tech newsletter, Where’s Your Ed At, now has more than 80,000 subscribers; his weekly podcast, Better Offline, is well within the Top 20 on the tech charts; he’s a regular dissenting voice in the media; and his subreddit has become a safe space for AI sceptics, including those within the tech industry itself – one user describes him as “a lighthouse in a storm of insane hypercapitalist bullshit”. Continue reading...

I was a bit nervous when I first joined a pop choir that included a weekly pub singalong. I needn’t have worried When I walked into Auberge, a pub near Waterloo station in London, on Thursday 21 October 2021, I didn’t know a soul. By kicking-out time, I had 50 new friends. I’ve been back almost every Thursday since. Continue reading...

She started out performing in her living room, charging £1.50 a ticket. Now, having blazed through Love Island and silenced her Strictly haters, the Welsh sensation is really hitting the big time At the end of last year’s Strictly Come Dancing semi-final, pro dancer Nikita Kuzmin made a tearful appeal to camera, “I speak to the audience at home: guys, just please, please be kind!” His celebrity partner, Love Island winner, Dancing on Ice contestant and musical theatre actor Amber Davies, had been getting a lot of flak online. “You have had so much hate, every single day,” said Kuzmin. Isn’t it crazy that we have to remind people to be nice to other humans who are just doing their job, I say to Davies, when we meet in a London hotel bar. “I genuinely think it’s getting worse,” says Davies, who has been in the public eye since 2017. “With TikTok, when people jump on a bandwagon, they go for it,” she adds. “But I feel like the nasty comments I was getting [on Strictly] weren’t actually coming from the younger audience, they came from the older audience.” Continue reading...

Los Angeles Rams 20-17 Chicago Bears (OT) Rams will play Seahawks for place in Super Bowl Patriots face Broncos in AFC championship Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams survived an incredible throw by Caleb Williams that forced overtime, beating the Chicago Bears 20-17 on Sunday night to advance to the NFC championship game. Harrison Mevis kicked a 42-yard field goal in OT after Kam Curl intercepted a deep pass by Williams on the Bears’ first possession of the extra period. Stafford completed a 16-yard pass to Puka Nacua to get the Rams into field-goal range and set up Mevis, known as the “Thiccer Kicker,” for the game-ending kick. He was mobbed by teammates while a crowd that was rocking earlier watched in near silence. Continue reading...

American third seed beats Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2, 6-3 ‘I just want to win the tournament,’ says 21-year-old Coco Gauff made a solid start to the Australian Open as she secured a relatively straightforward victory on Rod Laver Arena, moving past Kamilla Rakhimova of Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-3 to reach the second round at Melbourne Park. Gauff, the third seed, put together a solid opening performance as she attempts to follow up her second grand slam triumph at Roland Garros last year by winning her first title in Melbourne. Despite her usual serving difficulties at the beginning and end of the match, Gauff completely outmatched her Uzbek challenger from the baseline with her supreme defensive skills and court sense, smartly choosing her moments to step inside the baseline and dictate. Continue reading...

Queensland police appeal for witnesses after 19-year-old, reportedly a Canadian citizen, found on beach north of the Maheno shipwreck Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A crime scene has been established on a popular tourist island off the Queensland coast after a 19-year-old woman died on Monday morning. The national broadcaster reported the young woman found on the beach north of the Maheno shipwreck on K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) was a Canadian citizen. Continue reading...

The segment, reported by Sharyn Alfonsi, was supposed to air on 21 December but was pulled by editor in chief Bari Weiss Nearly a month after CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss ignited controversy by shelving a 60 Minutes segment about Venezuelan prisoners, telling staffers that it needed more reporting, the piece finally aired on Sunday night. Weiss had originally instructed 60 Minutes to hold the segment about the Cecot prison in El Salvador, which had already been scheduled, in part because it lacked “the administration’s argument”. Continue reading...

Updates as Australia’s No 1 meets the American lucky loser Tournament preview: De Minaur out to break new ground Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email Jack Snape has taken a closer look at the leading man of Australian tennis. De Minaur’s time on tour has been marked by his consistency to perform at a high level, including the last four years in and around the world’s top 10. He has returned to his career-high rank of No 6 this month. But the summit has so far eluded him. He has reached the quarter-finals at a grand slam six times – including at Melbourne Park last year – without being able to take that next step. The defeat at home last year against Jannik Sinner, when the Italian swamped De Minaur 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 in just 108 minutes, was the defending champion’s 10th victory in a row against the Australian. Continue reading...

A return to nuclear power is at the heart of Japan’s energy policy but, in the wake of the 2011 disaster, residents’ fears about tsunamis, earthquakes and evacuation plans remain The activity around the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant is reaching its peak: workers remove earth to expand the width of a main road, while lorries arrive at its heavily guarded entrance. A long perimeter fence is lined with countless coils of razor wire, and in a layby, a police patrol car monitors visitors to the beach – one of the few locations with a clear view of the reactors, framed by a snowy Mount Yoneyama. When all seven of its reactors are working, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa generates 8.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power millions of households. Occupying 4.2 sq km of land in Niigata prefecture on the Japan Sea coast, it is the biggest nuclear power plant in the world. Continue reading...

Kyiv’s forces say 30 Russian strikes recorded across 15 locations while hundreds of thousands left without electricity in occupied Zaporizhzhia. What we know on day 1,426 Moscow kept up its hammering of Ukraine’s energy grid in attacks that killed at least two people overnight to Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials. At least six people were wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the emergency service said. Russia also targeted energy infrastructure in Odesa region, it said. A fire broke out and was promptly extinguished. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram that repairing the country’s energy system remained challenging “but we are doing everything we can to restore everything as quickly as possible”. The Ukrainian president said two people were killed in overnight attacks across the country that struck Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa and included more than 200 drones. The military said 30 strikes had been recorded across 15 locations. One person was killed in the second-largest city of Kharkiv, said mayor Ihor Terekhov. Ukrainian drone strikes damaged energy networks in Russia-occupied parts of southern Ukraine, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power, according to Kremlin-installed authorities there. More than 200,000 households in the occupied part of southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region had no electricity on Sunday, the Kremlin-installed local governor said. Nearly 400 settlements have had their supply cut because of damage to power networks from Ukrainian drone strikes, Yevgeny Balitsky said on Telegram. Ukrainian crews have started repair works on the backup power line connecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the power grid, under a ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based UN organisation said on X post on Sunday. The fate of the plant – occupied by Russia and the largest in Europe – is a central issue in ongoing US-brokered peace talks. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has said a US invasion of Greenland would make Russian president Vladimir Putin “the happiest man on Earth” in a newspaper interview. Sanchez said any military action by the US against Denmark’s Arctic territory would damage Nato and legitimise the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. “If we focus on Greenland, I have to say that a US invasion of that territory would make Vladimir Putin the happiest man in the world. Why? Because it would legitimise his attempted invasion of Ukraine,” Sanchez said in an interview in La Vanguardia newspaper published on Sunday. “If the United States were to use force, it would be the death knell for Nato. Putin would be doubly happy.“ Ukraine’s top negotiator said talks with US officials on ending the war with Russia would continue at the World Economic Forum opening this week in the Swiss resort of Davos. Rustem Umerov, writing on Telegram, said on Sunday that two days of talks in Florida with a US team including envoy Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had focused on security guarantees and a postwar recovery plan for Ukraine. Continue reading...

Moderate socialist Antonio Jose Seguro came out on top in the first round, followed by Andre Ventura of the far-right Chega party Moderate socialist Antonio Jose Seguro came out on top in the first round of Portugal’s presidential election on Sunday, followed by the far-right leader Andre Ventura, and the two will face off in a runoff on 8 February. In the five decades since Portugal threw off its fascist dictatorship, a presidential election has only once before required a runoff – in 1986 – highlighting how fragmented the political landscape has become with the rise of the far right and voter disenchantment with mainstream parties. Continue reading...

Despite much soul-searching over UK’s inability to build infrastructure, two sections of HS2 under Chilterns are being hailed for their engineering Seventy metres down, in deep incognito beneath a disguised ventilation shaft in the Chilterns countryside, lies HS2’s buried treasure: two 10-mile tunnels, built to avoid an area of outstanding natural beauty, eerily spectacular in gleaming concrete. They are, laments a staffer on the high-speed railway scheme, what all of the route should look like by now: pristine, fully constructed, and just waiting for a railway to run through them. Continue reading...

Gunners top list for first time with £22.2m revenue NWSL clubs not included on Deloitte’s yearly ranking Some of the richest clubs in women’s football saw their revenues increase by 35% last year, with Arsenal generating the largest revenue in Europe for the first time since Deloitte began charting the top earners in the women’s game. The north London side had revenues of €25.6m (£22.2m), narrowly overtaking Chelsea, thanks largely to their €7m of matchday revenue, which was nearly twice as much as anyone else, boosted by their move to play all of their home league fixtures at the Emirates Stadium. So far this season they have attracted an average home attendance of just over 35,000 fans. Continue reading...

Thousands of new mothers feel unsafe, unsupported and overwhelmed, according to the National Childbirth Trust Women in the UK are being failed by a postnatal care system that is “dangerously underfunded and understaffed”, a damning report has warned. Thousands of new mothers feel unsafe, unsupported and overwhelmed in the weeks and months after giving birth, according to the National Childbirth Trust (NCT). Continue reading...

Governments opting for oligarchy while brutally repressing protests over austerity and lack of jobs, charity report says The world saw a record number of billionaires created last year, with a collective wealth of $18.3tn (£13.7tn), while global efforts stalled in the fight against poverty and hunger. Oxfam’s annual survey of global inequality has revealed that the number of billionaires surpassed 3,000 for the first time during 2025. Since 2020, their collective wealth grew by 81%, or $8.2tn, which the charity claims would be enough to eradicate global poverty 26 times over. Continue reading...

US army issues prepare-to-deploy orders amid tension over ICE killing, though it is unclear if units will be sent The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers in Alaska to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the site of large protests against the government’s deportation drive, two US officials told Reuters on Sunday. The US army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the midwestern state escalates, the officials said, though it is not clear whether any of them will be sent. Continue reading...

Houston Texans 16-28 New England Patriots New England intercept Houston QB four times Broncos and Patriots will play for place in Super Bowl Drake Maye threw three touchdown passes, Marcus Jones returned one of CJ Stroud’s four interceptions for a score and the New England Patriots defeated the Houston Texans 28-16 on Sunday to advance to the AFC championship game for the first time in seven years, where they will play the Denver Broncos. In Mike Vrabel’s first season as head coach, the Patriots will make their 16th conference championship game appearance and first since their run to their sixth Super Bowl title under Bill Belichick in the 2018 season. New England have won their last nine divisional round games. Maye finished 16 of 27 for 179 yards, but had an interception and fumbled four times, losing two in cold conditions as snow and rain fell throughout the game. One of Maye’s fumbles set up Houston’s first touchdown. Continue reading...

In 2020, Trump DoJ investigated police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis, leading to four officers’ convictions Six years after the US justice department launched an immediate criminal investigation of the video-recorded killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, deputy attorney general Todd Blanche confirmed on Sunday that the department is “not investigating” the fatal 7 January shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in the same city. The killing of Good, less than a mile from where Floyd was murdered in May 2020, was recorded on at least five phones, including one held by the ICE agent who shot her, Jonathan Ross. Continue reading...

World No 2 defeats ‘legend and idol’ 10-6 in final ‘I’m trying not to cry because it means so much’ Kyren Wilson collected his first Masters title to end John Higgins’ hopes of making more history after a cagey final replete with uncharacteristic errors from both players. Higgins was seeking a third Masters title at Alexandra Palace – 20 years after he last lifted the trophy – and at 50, the Scot had become the oldest player to reach the final of a triple crown event. Continue reading...

South East Water treatment works fault, power outage and burst mains leave homes with no water or low pressure Thousands of residents across Kent are still dealing with water supply issues after yet more outages from under-fire operator South East Water. The water supply of more than 5,500 households was affected on Sunday evening due to a treatment works fault, a power outage and two burst mains. Continue reading...

This had been, by general agreement, the most predictable, least dramatic Cup of Nations in living memory. And that was true, until eight minutes into injury time in the final, when a video assistant referee decision contrived to produce perhaps the most ludicrous finale to any major final in history. Senegal won it, but that is a tiny detail in the denouement that erupted. There was a walk-off in protest, a missed Panenka and a brilliant winning goal from Pape Gueye. The chaos began two minutes into injury time when Abdoulaye Seck was penalised for a slight push on Achraf Hakimi as he headed against the post. Ismaïla Sarr nodded in, but the whistle had already gone. Four minutes later, Adam Masina was penalised, following a VAR review, for a pull on Morocco’s Brahim Díaz as he defended a corner. For Senegal, already convinced there was a plot against them, that was too much and the majority of their players stormed off. Sadio Mané seemed notably reluctant to go, and it was he who eventually ran down the tunnel to bring them back from the dressing room after the veteran coach of multiple African sides Claude Le Roy materialised to act as an improbable peacemaker. Continue reading...

Frank under intense pressure after West Ham defeat Irate supporters call for his sacking with team 14th Thomas Frank oversaw training at Tottenham on Sunday and maintained a business-as-usual front before the club’s Champions League tie against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night – despite the uncertainty that is raging over this future. The manager’s continued employment is in the balance after Spurs’ last-gasp 2-1 home defeat against West Ham on Saturday when the club’s supporters called for him to be “sacked in the morning”. The result kept Tottenham 14th in the Premier League and continued their miserable run in the competition. They have won only two of their past 13 games in the league. Continue reading...

This crime drama’s lead is as luminous as ever in a show that’s a cut above the norm – even if it increasingly feels like it’s retreading old ground Most crime dramas don’t even attempt to elevate themselves above their genre. Someone gets killed, suspects abound, the detectives pootle around for a bit, then the culprit is caught and everyone forgets about what they just watched. No harm in that. A select few, however, are so good they break out of their category: the likes of Happy Valley and Line of Duty do have cops collecting clues to try to nail a villain, but are so well made they leave regular crime behind and rise up to mix it with the swankiest prestige dramas. Then there are the shows that are somewhere in between. Premium genre pieces, you could call them: they stick to the template of sleuthfests that air on weeknights on terrestrial channels at 9pm, and can be enjoyed purely on that level, but they’re pushing at the edges, adding quality where they could easily not bother. Unforgotten is one; in 2024, the first season of writer Mick Ford’s Yorkshire-set series After the Flood was another. Continue reading...

Saracens to play Prem champions after losing to Warriors Harlequins defeat La Rochelle to help Leicester progress Saracens will travel to face Bath in the round of 16 after being beaten 28-3 by Glasgow in their final pool match at Scotstoun. Most of the points came in the first half, with the Warriors scoring three converted tries through Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn and George Horne while Saracens replied with an Owen Farrell penalty. Seb Stephen then rumbled over in the closing seconds of the match to secure a fourth successive bonus-point pool-stage victory for Glasgow. Their reward for topping pool 1 is a last-16 tie against the Bulls on the first weekend of April. Continue reading...

Two trains derail near Adamuz, Cordóba province, leaving scores injured, state-owned broadcaster reports Two high-speed trains have derailed in southern Spain, the rail network operator said, with reports from the country’s state-owned broadcaster that seven people had died and 100 were injured – 25 seriously. The accident happened near Adamuz in the province of Córdoba. An unknown number of passengers had been injured, RTVE said, citing civil guard sources. Continue reading...