General news

• ‘The biggest decision yet’: Jared Kaplan on allowing AI to train itself

  02-12-2025 13:37 via theguardian.com
  Anthropic’s chief scientist says AI autonomy could spark a beneficial ‘intelligence explosion’ – or be the moment humans lose controlHumanity will have to decide by 2030 whether to take the “ultimate risk” of letting artificial intelligence systems train themselves to become more powerful, one of the world’s leading AI scientists has said.Jared Kaplan, the chief scientist and co-owner of the $180bn (£135bn) US startup Anthropic, said a choice was l
  
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• Ukraine-US talks to continue in Berlin as Ukraine willing to drop Nato ambitions – Europe live

  15-12-2025 11:28 via theguardian.com
  Russia say Ukraine not joining Nato was a fundamental question in talks on a possible peace settlementIn his remarks to reporters after Sunday’s talks, Zelenskyy said that while Ukraine was prepared to drop its Nato aspirations, it would still require “Article 5-like” security guarantees from the US and European partners.Article 5 is Nato’s collective defence clause which essentially says “that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America s
  
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• Covid-19 inquiry live: Rishi Sunak to face questions on goverment’s pandemic response

  15-12-2025 11:25 via theguardian.com
  Former chancellor and prime minister will answer questions on the economic impact of the pandemic You can watch the broadcast of today’s hearing in this feed, which is also attached to the top of the blog. We are expecting Sunak to appear in about ten minutes or so:The Covid inquiry, which, according to the IFS, is likely to end up costing in excess of £200m, got under way in 2022 and its final report is not expected until 2027. Continue reading...
  
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• Government announces extra funding for safe housing for domestic abuse survivors – UK politics live

  15-12-2025 11:22 via theguardian.com
  As part of the violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy councils will receive a further £19m Rishi Sunak is giving evidence to the Covid inquiry this morning. The inquiry has moved on to the module looking at the economic response to the pandemic, and Sunak, who was chancellor at the time, is giving evidence all today, and tomorrow morning.Yohannes Lowe is covering it in a separate live blog.The Greens’ leader, Zack Polanski, is currently the most popular party leader with vo
  
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• Roomba maker iRobot bought by Chinese supplier after filing for bankruptcy

  15-12-2025 11:21 via theguardian.com
  US-listed company, whose profits have been in decline since the pandemic, will be taken over by PiceaBusiness live – latest updatesThe US company behind the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner has filed for bankruptcy protection and agreed to be taken over by one of its Chinese suppliers.iRobot, which is best known for debuting the Roomba vacuum cleaner in the early 2000s, will be taken over by a subsidiary of its main supplier, Picea Robotics. Continue reading...
  
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• Poem of the week: Winter Walk by Lynette Roberts

  15-12-2025 11:12 via theguardian.com
  A journey through a visionary landscape, exceptionally bright in icy weather, conjures a surrealsemi-mythical worldWinter Walk She left the hut and bright log fire at noonAnd walked outside on crisp white winter snowTo find the iced slopes shadowed like the moon,The wild wood desolate and bare below;The red trees wet, adrift with icy flow,The evergreens with glassy needled leaves;A bloodstone veined red and white this view weaves. Continue reading...
  
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• Europe’s housing costs akin to ‘new pandemic’, warns Barcelona mayor

  15-12-2025 11:11 via theguardian.com
  Jaume Collboni and 16 other city leaders urge EU to unleash billions in funding as it prepares to tackle crisisThe Guardian view on Europe’s housing crisis: time for the EU to get radicalThe soaring cost of housing is akin to a “new pandemic” sweeping across Europe, the mayor of Barcelona has said, as he and 16 other city leaders urged the EU to respond to the crisis by unleashing billions in funding for the hardest-hit areas.The EU is expected to present its first-ever housing
  
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• The one change that worked: sharing ‘accountability’ notes has made life better for both of us

  15-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Would telling a buddy my to-do list was done – before I’d done it – really make it more likely to happen? But leaving her a voice note every day has increased my productivity, and deepened our friendship When my friend Rosamund suggested we try a productivity technique of leaving each other a voice note every day, I immediately said yes – even if I suspected, deep down, that we might not keep it up for long. I was circumspect because we both lead busy lives, 3,500 miles a
  
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• ‘Oysters are a risk, as is raw meat’: why you get food poisoning – and how to avoid it

  15-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Several kinds of bacteria can give you an upset stomach. Here is how to steer clear of the worst offenders, and what to do if they do make it throughMany people in the modern world, it’s probably fair to say, do not take food poisoning particularly seriously. Yes, most folks wash their hands after handling raw chicken and use different chopping boards for beef and green beans – but who among us can honestly say we’ve never used the same tongs for an entire barbecue or left a st
  
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• ‘Our industry has been strip-mined’: video game workers protest at The Game Awards

  15-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Outside the lavish event, workers called out the ‘greed’ in the industry that has left games ‘being sold for parts to make a few people a lot of money’It’s the night of the 2025 Game Awards, a major industry event where the best games of the year are crowned and major publishers reveal forthcoming projects. In the shadow of the Peacock theater in Los Angeles and next to a giant, demonic statue promoting new game Divinity, which would be announced on stage later that
  
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• Nancy Pelosi calls female US president in her lifetime unlikely: ‘Marble ceiling’

  15-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Former House speaker, 85, expects woman to assume Oval Office this generation but concedes she may not live to see itNancy Pelosi, the outgoing congresswoman and former House speaker, has conceded that she may not see a woman be elected US president in her lifetime.The California Democrat said as much in a USA Today interview published on Sunday with her retirement looming after four decades in Congress – and invoked a turn of phrase referring to a metaphorical barrier impeding advancement
  
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• ‘I consider him my first son’: how living with a baby monkey taught me I’m ready to be a dad

  15-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  I went from selling flats in Paris to being alone in a cabin in Guinea looking after primates. It changed my life, but one relationship marked me like no otherIn 2022, I had a job at an estate agents in Paris selling ridiculously expensive flats, and decided I needed to do something more meaningful with my life. I resigned, and six months later arrived in Guinea.In hindsight I was a young kid, full of anger, not happy with his life. That 26-year-old is definitely not me now – and it was li
  
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• ‘Apocalyptically funny’: why The Mitchells vs the Machines is my feelgood movie

  15-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  The latest in our series of writers explaining their comfort watches is a celebration of 2021’s acclaimed animated adventureAnimation is a great way of allowing you to experience the world through the eyes of another, complete with the colour, energy, imagination and chaos that this can bring. It’s true whether you’re looking at the world from the perspective of a frustrated and talented teenage girl, or from that of a megalomaniacal rogue AI who dreams of blasting every human
  
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• Bondi beach mass shooting: what we know so far about the terrorist attack

  15-12-2025 10:51 via theguardian.com
  Australia suffered one of its deadliest massacres in its history on Sunday when two gunmen opened fire on a Jewish celebrationBondi beach shooting live updatesFull reportVictims named so farAustralia experienced one of its deadliest mass shootings in its history on Sunday when two gunmen opened fire on a Jewish celebration at Bondi in Sydney. At least 16 people are dead, including one of the alleged killers.Here is what we know so far:On Sunday at 6.47pm local time, police and emergency services
  
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• A visual guide to the Bondi terror attack

  15-12-2025 10:47 via theguardian.com
  Photos, maps, drone footage and video show how terror attack that left at least 15 dead unfolded on Sunday eveningWarning: contains content that readers may find distressingAt about 5pm, the “Chanukah by the Sea” event begins at Archer Park, a small, grassy area at the back of Bondi beach. The park is just north of Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving club, and has several small shelters for picnics and a children’s playground. Chanukah by the Sea is a regular event for Bondi’s
  
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• Louvre museum closed as workers begin strike

  15-12-2025 10:22 via theguardian.com
  Crisis-hit Paris institution still reeling from jewel heist in dispute over staffing, renovations and ticket price risesThe crisis-hit Louvre museum in Paris was closed on Monday as workers began a strike to demand urgent renovations and staffing increases, and protested against a rise in ticket prices for most non-EU visitors, including British and American tourists.The world’s most-visited museum – which has had a difficult few months after a jewel heist, a damaging water leak and
  
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• It’s Lionesses v Red Roses v Rory’s Europe as BBC names Spoty team of year shortlist

  15-12-2025 10:22 via theguardian.com
  Public vote will decide winner among back-to-back European champions, Rugby World Cup winners and Team EuropeEngland’s Lionesses will go up against their rugby union counterparts, the Red Roses, and Europe’s winning Ryder Cup side on the shortlist for team of the year at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award.For the first time, the team award will be chosen by the public with voting open until the awards night on 18 December, when the winners will be announced live. Co
  
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• The Great Flood review – Korean apocalypse movie swerves into sinister sci-fi territory

  15-12-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The storytelling is brittle, but there is still enjoyment to be had from this story of a mother and child and rescue from a catastrophic flood in SeoulKim Byung-woo’s chimeric but not unenjoyable sixth feature begins like a normal apocalypse movie, with a deluge inundating Seoul. Then it flirts with taking on social stratification baggage as a beleaguered mother tries to climb up her 30-storey apartment block to escape the rising flood waters. But once it is revealed that An-na (Kim Da-mi)
  
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• Pulse by Cynan Jones review – short stories that show the vitality of the form

  15-12-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The Welsh author vividly captures the solitude, hard labour, dramas and dangers of rural lifeIn these six stories of human frailty and responsibility, Welsh writer Cynan Jones explores the imperatives of love and the labour of making and sustaining lives. Each is told with a compelling immediacy and intensity, and with the quality of returning to a memory.In the story Reindeer a man is seeking a bear, which has been woken by hunger from hibernation and is now raiding livestock from the farms of
  
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• Weather tracker: Bushfires ravage Western Australia as temperatures soar

  15-12-2025 09:54 via theguardian.com
  Extreme heat follows blazes in New South Wales, while winds plunge Brazil’s largest city into darknessExtreme heat and bushfires have ravaged the parched landscape of Western Australia. With temperatures expected to continue soaring above 40C (104F) over the coming days, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe heatwave warning across much of the south-west.The conditions follow bushfires in New South Wales this month, which resulted in the destruction of homes and loss of life. Sever
  
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• Jimmy Lai: conviction of Hong Kong pro-democracy figure decried as attack on press freedom

  15-12-2025 09:51 via theguardian.com
  Rights groups dismiss ‘sham conviction’ of media tycoon on national security offences in city’s most closely watched rulings in decadesThe rise and fall of Jimmy Lai, whose trajectory mirrored that of Hong Kong itselfJimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon, is facing life in prison after being found guilty of national security and sedition offences, in one of the most closely watched rulings since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.Soon after the ruling
  
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• UK house prices ‘could rise by up to 4% in 2026 as interest rates fall’

  15-12-2025 09:27 via theguardian.com
  City watchdog the FCA announces plans to help first-time buyers and self-employed get on the property ladderBusiness live – latest updatesHouse prices in the UK could rise by as much as 4% next year but getting on the property ladder may become slightly less difficult, according to forecasts from the lender Nationwide.Robert Gardner, the chief economist at the building society, said prices were likely to increase by 2-4%. “We expect housing market activity to strengthen a little furt
  
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• Philip Rivers: how a 44-year-old grandpa nearly pulled off one of the NFL’s greatest comebacks

  15-12-2025 09:15 via theguardian.com
  The Colts quarterback was coaching high school football before his surprise return. And he showed brains are almost important as brawn at his positionIs quarterback the most demanding position in sports? It’s close enough to make no difference: players must memorize a complicated playbook, orchestrate an entire offense, scan for open receivers while 280lb opponents sprint toward them with violent intent, and then thread a pass to a target who could be 30 yards downfield amid a crowd of def
  
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• ‘It was a matter of conscience’: Ahmed al-Ahmed’s family reveal why he risked his life to disarm alleged Bondi shooter

  15-12-2025 09:09 via theguardian.com
  Family say al-Ahmed ‘doesn’t discriminate’ and would have done anything to save lives during the attackVictims named so farWhat we know about the Bondi terror attackWhen Ahmed al-Ahmed tackled and wrested a gun from an alleged shooter at Bondi beach, he was simply thinking that he “couldn’t bear to see people dying”, his cousin says.Less than a day later, al-Ahmed remains in a critical but stable condition at St George hospital in Sydney. Since the attack, the
  
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• Cliff Richard reveals year-long prostate cancer treatment and backs screening call

  15-12-2025 09:01 via theguardian.com
  Singer, 85, says disease has ‘gone at the moment’ and hopes to join forces with King Charles to raise awarenessCliff Richard has revealed he has been treated for prostate cancer for the past year. The 85-year-old singer said his cancer had “gone at the moment” and backed calls for a national screening test for men.In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Monday, he said: “I don’t know whether it’s going to come back. We can’t tell t
  
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• Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center should serve as a warning to UK arts institutions | Charlotte Higgins

  15-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Culture is not immune from the advances of the hard right – but it isn’t too late for resistanceInto the pale stone wall of the Kennedy Center, above its elegant terrace on the edge of the Potomac river, are carved bold and idealistic sentiments. “This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. To further the appreciation of culture among all the people, to increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfi
  
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• Prem Rugby to seek investors if RFU backs relegation-free franchise league

  15-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Approval expected next year; US investors interested27% of Prem’s commercial rights were sold to CVC in 2019Prem Rugby is planning to launch a tender process to secure external investment in the competition after it has received formal approval from the Rugby Football Union to become a closed franchise league, which it expects will happen next year.The English top division engaged the investment bank Raine Group and the accountancy firm Deloitte to conduct a review of the sport’s fin
  
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• Is it true that … wearing heels changes the shape of your feet?

  15-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Stilettos are fine for an evening out, but wearing them all day, every day could cause permanent damage‘If you’d asked me that 15 years ago, I would have said: ‘Absolute nonsense – it’s all genetics and shoes aren’t responsible for any problem,’” says Andrew Goldberg, consultant orthopaedic foot and ankle specialist at the Wellington hospital in London. But viewing 3D scans that show how people’s feet look&n
  
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• Is it a Greek epic? A state-of-the-nation drama? No – it’s Shaun the Sheep!

  15-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Who’s that daring young farmyard animal on the flying trapeze? The creatures of Mossy Bottom have been put on stage by ‘edgy’ circus stars Circa – but the burlesque shearing had to go‘It’s a family drama,” says Yaron Lifschitz. “It’s kind of a minor key, gently comic version of the Oresteian trilogy. Without the dismemberment and murder and purple carpets.” Lifschitz is talking about his latest production for Circa, the acclaimed Austra
  
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• Cardiff’s Brian Barry-Murphy: ‘Cole Palmer made me look like a really good coach’

  15-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Former Manchester City youth coach faces his role model Enzo Maresca in Carabao Cup quarter-final against ChelseaWhen it comes to Cole Palmer, a montage of magical moments spring to Brian Barry-Murphy’s mind, but one episode, a little more than four years ago, particularly sticks. Barry-Murphy was in charge of Manchester City’s under-21s on the evening when Palmer – fresh from replacing Bernardo Silva as an 89th-minute substitute in a 2-0 Premier League win against Burnley &nda
  
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