Baftas 2025: Watch the big moments in 100 seconds
Baftas 2025: Watch the big moments in 100 seconds
Papal drama Conclave and immigration epic The Brutalist came away as big winners on the British film industry’s biggest night.
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******* voters demand change as Europe’s biggest economy stalls
******* voters demand change as Europe’s biggest economy stalls
GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany (Reuters) – Lars Baumguertel wants Germany’s politicians to get out their cheque books.
The 58-year-old executive runs one of the last surviving manufacturers in Gelsenkirchen, a former coal town in the industrialized Ruhr Valley.
But his company, like many in the Mittelstand – the tissue of small- and medium-sized manufacturers that powers Germany’s economy – is reeling from high energy costs after the Ukraine war ended supplies of cheap Russian gas.
Europe’s largest economy contracted for a second consecutive year in 2024, its worst performance in two decades. And Gelsenkirchen has been amongst its hardest-hit cities – it has Germany’s highest unemployment rate, which has fuelled a dramatic rise in the popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Ahead of a general election on Sunday, a national debate is raging about how to revive Germany’s economic fortunes.
Baumguertel hopes a new government will provide long-overdue infrastructure investment needed to rebuild Germany’s energy system and to transition to a greener, more modern economy. Germany has pledged to become carbon-neutral by 2045.
“The entire Ruhr region, and Gelsenkirchen in particular, shows how constant change is needed to sustain economic growth,” he told Reuters during a tour of his factory. The family-run firm, founded in 1889, still employs some 2,000 people making galvanizing steel coatings.
But Germany’s constitutional debt brake has prevented successive governments from making vital investments, ranging from public infrastructure to skills training, needed to overhaul Germany’s ailing economic model, economists say.
The brake – part of Germany’s response to the 2009 financial crisis under former chancellor Angela Merkel – limits the federal government’s deficit to a mere 0.35% of output. By comparison, last year the U.S. budget deficit was more than 6% of output.
Reuters spoke to eight residents of Gelsenkirchen, as well as senior politicians and economists, who said that a new government must consider fundamental change to Germany’s austere, export-driven model, including the debt brake, in order to revive the economy.
Friedrich Merz, the conservative who is the runaway favourite to emerge as chancellor of a coalition government after the election, is quietly leaving the door open to reform, party insiders told Reuters.
His official stance is that the debt brake must remain in the constitution and that there are no plans for reform. Indeed, Merz rejected a push last summer by senior members of his CDU party to explicitly mention debt brake reform in its election manifesto, citing its totemic appeal to austerity-minded conservative voters.
But senior party leaders told Reuters Merz had privately accepted that change is inevitable due to Germany’s huge investment needs in the economy and defence, with American engagement in European security no longer a given under President Donald Trump.
“Of course, we will have a reform after the election,” a conservative leader of a ******* federal state told Reuters, asking not to be identified given the sensitivity of the issue.
RESIDENTS WANT CHANGE
In Gelsenkirchen, the signs of a downturn are visible everywhere. While the city played a big part in Germany’s post-war “economic miracle”, the rot set in with the decline of coal and heavy industry in the 1960s. Its population tumbled from 390,000 then to just 260,000 now as the local economy cratered.
The city now has one of Germany’s lowest levels of income per capita and highest rates of child poverty, according to official data.
Many residents no longer feel the economy is working for them and want change.
Klaus Herzmanatus, a fourth-generation coal miner, was forced by pit closures into early retirement in 2000 at the age of 40. He has watched in dismay as the industrial decline in Gelsenkirchen has spread elsewhere in Germany.
“We are an industrial nation. We can’t create chaos in industry,” he told Reuters, voicing a litany of complaints about how politicians in Berlin let Germany down. “There must be affordable energy supply for companies.”
Many residents are turning in desperation to extremist parties.
Once a stronghold of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Ruhr Valley has seen a rise by the far-right AfD, which is now the second-most popular party nationally behind the CDU, according to opinion polls. In Gelsenkirchen, the party garnered 22% of the votes in June’s European election, its strongest result in Germany.
The AfD sees the issue of energy costs as a vote-winner. It blames Germany’s years-long phase-out of nuclear energy, which started in the 2000s and was backed by all mainstream parties.
“We’ve shut down the power plants here – some of the safest nuclear power plants in the world – to import electricity from the nuclear plants in France,” said local AfD official Christian Loose.
When Germany pulled the plug on its last three nuclear power stations in April 2023, it became a net importer of energy from France, which produces 70% of its energy from nuclear. However, French energy imports represent only 3% of Germany’s energy consumption.
The CDU, which is expected to lead a coalition government after the election, has left the door open to reopening these nuclear plants. Its leader, Merz, has described their closure as “a fatal decision.”
While some pro-business voices are urging Germany to defer its net-zero carbon targets, the political consensus is still in favour of an energy transition that would keep climate ambitions on track and promote a new generation of green jobs and growth.
The issue is: where’s the cash for that?
Addressing Germany’s structural challenges – ranging from its energy needs and climate obligations to overdue improvements to housing, transport and training – would cost 600 billion euros in the next decade alone, the IW economic institute estimates.
With debt at around 63% of output last year, Germany has more leeway than most. The United States, by contrast, is running a national debt at 123% of GDP.
For Germany’s right in particular, maintaining the debt brake has become sacrosanct – until now.
One possible reform would be to lift the spending cap imposed on Germany’s 16 federal states, whose regional budgets cover everything from social housing to green transition. The brake is even tougher on them, permitting no annual deficit at all.
“An addition to the debt brake for the federal states is conceivable,” Mathias Middelberg, one of Merz’s top budget aides, told Reuters. “This could certainly be corrected.”
A small increase in the deficit could free up 6.0 billion euros a year, according to the Ifo Institute – not peanuts but certainly no game-changer for the economy.
A ******* step would be if left-leaning Social Democrats and Greens conditioned their entry into a grand coalition led by Merz on him agreeing to remove certain spending items – notably on long-term investment – from the brake altogether.
Merz has ruled out cooperating with the AfD.
“This is the time when Germany needs to invest and everybody else is doing it except Germany,” Nikolaus Wolf, director of the Institute of Economic History at Humboldt University of Berlin, told Reuters. “It’s really kind of suicidal.”
The scope of any reform will depend on the outcome of the election. But one source close to Merz told Reuters in November that when he says publicly he has no plans for debt brake reform, it should be interpreted as meaning that he has no such plans for now.
‘MANY MISTAKES’
Some in Gelsenkirchen say missteps there mirror a wider reluctance of Germany’s leaders to change as advanced economies around the world have gradually moved from industrial to knowledge-based models.
While neighbouring Bochum, also a former coal and steel hub, spotted the trend early and founded the Ruhr region’s first university in 1965, local Gelsenkirchen leaders chose not to follow suit.
Bochum’s unemployment rate of 10% is now more than 3 percentage points lower than Gelsenkirchen’s.
“The mood was ‘We have coal and steel, what do we need with these crazy academics?’,” said Karl-Martin Obermeier, professor at the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, which the city only opened up some 27 years later in 1992.
“We focused solely on large-scale industry, classic coal and steel,” he told Reuters. “Many mistakes have been made.”
Gelsenkirchen’s mayor Karin Welge, a member of Germany’s ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD), said additional fiscal leeway would have helped her city with its structural transformation, in particular redeveloping neighbourhoods and investing in education.
“We are reliant on the support of the state here,” she said. “A reform of the debt brake could also pave the way for the repayment of old debts, which in turn would give us room for investment.”
NO QUICK TURNAROUND
Close observers of the ******* economy do not expect this election to yield dramatic change. Two major economic institutes are already forecasting a third year of economic contraction in 2025, the longest ******* of weakness in Germany’s post-war history.
Franziska Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics, said it was unlikely the next government would prioritise major long-term structural change, not least given the current uncertainties in the global economy.
Policymakers could have more of an impact on Germany’s long-term prospects by focusing on the business environment for new growth sectors, boosting digitalisation and improving the environment for start-ups, Palmas said.
“However, while these issues are included in most parties’ manifestos, we doubt they will be a priority for the next government,” Palmas said.
Back in Gelsenkirchen, the former miner Herzmanatus says he is convinced “we can get out of this hole again”. Once a backer of the Social Democrats who used to be able to count mining towns as their heartlands, he long since switched to the CDU.
To visitors at the mining museum he runs as a volunteer, he gives the customary miners’ salute at the end of a day’s work down a shaft – “Glueck auf” – “good luck for the ascent”.
The same could be said for the ******* economy.
(Reporting by Maria Martinez; additional reporting by Andreas Rinke and Christian Kraemer; editing by Mark John and Daniel Flynn)
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Alaska federal employees disheartened by the reality, or threat, of termination – Alaska's News Source
Alaska federal employees disheartened by the reality, or threat, of termination – Alaska's News Source
Alaska federal employees disheartened by the reality, or threat, of termination Alaska’s News Source‘Took away my hope.’ Federal workers say Trump mass firings upended their lives USA TODAY’We’re under attack by billionaires’: Fired federal workers speak out on terminations ABC News
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Geraint Thomas: Cycling great ponders final season before retiring
Geraint Thomas: Cycling great ponders final season before retiring
Considering how competitive Thomas remains at the highest level, you would be forgiven for wondering why he is retiring.
“This is my 19th year as a professional and I didn’t want to do one year too many and be the grumpy guy in the team,” he explains.
“I’m still really enjoying it, I still feel competitive and the last year has been good, but I think the timing’s right. With my family, I’m looking forward to moving back to Cardiff.
“There’s stuff I think I’ll miss, the racing, being here in Monaco, but it will be nice just to be around more and to take on a new challenge.”
Thomas has not yet decided what that new challenge will be, but he will have plenty of choice.
There is a chance he could stay with Ineos Grenadiers in a new capacity, while there will be no shortage of offers to work in the media.
“Having options is always good,” Thomas says. “I need a purpose. Since I was about 17 or 18, I’ve always been working towards a goal.
“To not be working towards anything would be nice for maybe a month, then I’ll just go crazy, so I’ll definitely have to have some goals.
“I want to do an Ironman. I only run two or three times a year, so that’s something that needs a bit of work! It’s about challenging myself in different ways.”
A future as a triathlete can wait. Once he retires, what Thomas is most looking forward to is spending more time with family and friends, particularly his wife Sara and five-year-old son Macs.
“That’s the main thing, just being around more and not missing events – birthdays, weddings, parties or whatever,” he adds. “I’m looking forward to that side of things.”
Retirement is also bound to bring with it myriad offers to appear on reality TV programmes, although Thomas has been warned off Strictly Come Dancing.
“I reckon the fitness would be the only thing I’ve got. I wouldn’t back myself. Although my parents-in-law tell me ‘please don’t do it, you’ll make a fool of yourself’ and that makes me want to do it,” he laughs.
“That would be the biggest challenge of my life for sure. Maybe I’ve got the hips for it.”
Having completed the 2013 Tour de France despite breaking his pelvis during the opening stage of the three-week race, Thomas has proved that he is ready to test that particular area of his anatomy.
In fact, there are few parts of Thomas’ body that have not been bloodied or bruised at some point over the course of his career, and his physical fortitude has earned him the respect of his peers as well as cycling followers around the world.
Once he has navigated his final Tour de France and one last summer on the road, Thomas plans to bring the curtain down on his career at the Tour of Britain in September.
The route has not yet been finalised but the closing stage could be held in Cardiff, the city where Thomas was born and bred and where he will return to live after retiring.
“It would be epic if that happens. I haven’t really thought about it much, but when I do start thinking about it, it’s going to be emotional. Maybe I’ll shed a tear or two,” Thomas says.
“It would be some way to finish, whether it’s Cardiff or wherever, the Tour of Britain as the final race. It’s full circle, isn’t it? Finishing my career back home.”
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Spud’s Kissing Booth fundraiser for KANE a Valentine’s Day hit in Kununurra
Spud’s Kissing Booth fundraiser for KANE a Valentine’s Day hit in Kununurra
Love was in the air at the Kimberley Vet Centre on Valentine’s Day as residents turned out in droves for Spud’s annual kissing booth, raising much-needed funds for Kununurra Animals Nature and Education.
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North Korean leader watches groundbreaking for new apartments on anniversary of father’s birth
North Korean leader watches groundbreaking for new apartments on anniversary of father’s birth
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a groundbreaking ceremony for new apartment construction on the anniversary of his father’s birthday, state media reported Monday. The project is in the suburbs of the capital Pyongyang, and part of a push to build 50,000 new apartments within 5 years.
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5 All-Star Weekend Takeaways: New game format, dunk contest intrigue and a farewell – NBA.Com
5 All-Star Weekend Takeaways: New game format, dunk contest intrigue and a farewell – NBA.Com
5 All-Star Weekend Takeaways: New game format, dunk contest intrigue and a farewell NBA.ComView Full Coverage on Google News
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Merseyside-based property boss hid fraud jail time behind new name
Merseyside-based property boss hid fraud jail time behind new name
UGC
Scott El Paraiso hid that he had previously been known as Adam Minett and had been jailed for fraud
A property firm boss accused of trying to evict students to pressure their landlords into selling their flats is a convicted conman who hid his criminal past behind a new identity.
Scott El Paraiso, from Liverpool firm Urban Evolution Property Management, was jailed in 2009 for defrauding £25,000 from pensioners while he worked as a plumber under his birth name, Adam Minett.
His offending came to light during a BBC investigation into claims – which he denied – that in 2024 he misled leaseholders that a building needed to close because of issues raised by the fire service, and that he did so in attempt to get them to get them to sell up.
The 41-year-old, from Wirral, also denied that he had manipulated the identity of a former Urban Evolution tenant to make it look as though an investor from the Middle East was buying up properties that were actually being bought by him and his business partner Ross Spencer.
‘Serious dishonesty’UGC
Adam Minett was jailed in 2009 for defrauding mainly elderly customers of his plumbing firm
Adam Minett changed his name to Scott El Paraiso in 2011, half way through a sentence of four years and four months for defrauding mainly elderly customers of his plumbing firm out of about £25,000.
He had also tried to impersonate his landlord to take out two loans in his name and was, a judge said, guilty of a “prolonged campaign of serious dishonesty”.
Under his new name, he helped co-found Urban Evolution Property Management in 2018 and the company went on to manage and rent several thousand student flats and apartments across the north and midlands.
In 2022, leaseholders at a block in Sheffield were given information that Mr El Paraiso was actually Mr Minett, and although his conviction was not yet spent, he denied having a previous identity or a criminal past.
He also used a 10-year US visa he had received in 2014 as evidence that he could not be a convicted criminal.
Lawyer Christi Jackson, an expert in US immigration law at Laura Devine Immigration in London, told the BBC it would be virtually impossible for anyone who had declared that they had convictions for fraud to get a 10-year visa.
She also said someone convicted of fraud would typically need a waiver to go into the USA, and that their visa would be annotated – which Mr El Paraiso’s was not.
Mr El Paraiso said he had changed his name for personal reasons, and that while he no longer had access to the visa paperwork, he would have filled in the application truthfully and disclosed all the information he was required to by law.
Many of the leaseholders in Sheffield appeared to have been convinced by his explanations in 2022, and, when challenged by the BBC, Mr El Paraiso produced testimonials from some of them.
One leaseholder described him as “an absolute hero, helping us, guiding us and advising us through the goodness of his heart”.
It is not clear whether those who wrote in support of Mr El Paraiso were aware he was Mr Minett.
‘Exit option’
Leaseholders in Arndale House were told an Omani investor might be interested in buying them out
In 2022, Urban Evolution took on the management of Arndale House, in Liverpool’s London Road, and applied for up to £10m of funding to replace cladding on the building.
The bid was rejected later that year, and in February 2024 an appeal was turned down. Mr El Paraiso then set up a WhatsApp group called “Arndale House exit options” and told the people who owned properties in the building that he might be able to get an Omani investor he knew to buy their flats.
Mr El Paraiso told the leaseholders the investor had bought flats in nearby Borden Court from landlords who were making a loss on them.
Richard Barker paid about £58,000 for his studio flat in Arndale House
After the leaseholders began to ask for more information about the Omani investor, Mr El Paraiso told them he was no longer interested, saying investors would only be likely to want to buy when buildings were facing closure and flats were at their lowest prices.
Richard Barker, 61, from the Isle of Man, who paid about £56,000 for his flat in 2013, told the BBC: “His goal was very clearly to put us in a state of desperation, a state of having no way out.
“He wanted to be everyone’s saviour by offering everybody a way out.
“The trouble is the way out he was offering you represented a huge loss on the money you’d put in.”
Mr El Paraiso and Urban Evolution denied the allegation, stating they told leaseholders about the possibility of selling the flats as a way to withdraw their investments once it was clear government funding to remove the cladding was not coming.
They said the offer was welcomed by leaseholders.
‘Criminal matter’
Forty-four student bedrooms were bought in this building, Borden Court, in a single day for a cost of £220,000 – or £5,000 each
The BBC has learned that 44 flats in Borden Court had been bought in one day in October 2023 for a total of £220,000 – £5,000 each – by companies registered as being entirely owned by an Omani man called Mr Hamaz Al-Huseini.
Mr El Paraiso and his business partner Mr Spencer, 41, were directors of 34 companies apparently owned by Mr Al-Huseini, including the ones that bought the properties in Borden Court – something the Arndale House leaseholders said was never mentioned to them.
Mr El Paraiso had told them any ***** to the investor would be completely separate from Urban Evolution or its block management arm, BlockEra.
The BBC has found evidence that in 2020, an Omani man of the same age and with the near-identical of name of Hamza Al-Huseini briefly lived in an Urban Evolution building in Liverpool called Parliament Place.
Hamza Al-Huseini
Hamza Al-Huseini said he believed his identity must have been stolen and said the police should investigate
From his home in Oman, where he returned for good in 2020, Mr Al-Huseini, 26, told the BBC he believed his details had been manipulated, adding he did not know Mr El Paraiso or Mr Spencer and “only ever received emails from [Urban Evolution’s] office about rent”.
He added: “I certainly did not know them and am not a business associate of theirs.
“Since this was brought to my attention, I have been contacting Companies House asking them to remove my name, which I believe has been used fraudulently.
“I believe this should be investigated by the police as a criminal matter.”
‘A different Mr Al-Huseini’
Mr El Paraiso said the Mr Al-Huseini he had been in business with was an entirely different person to the one the BBC spoke to, but his lawyers did not respond to the BBC’s request to speak to the man.
Mr El Paraiso also said that his Mr Al-Huseini had not actually bought any properties in the end, and that his name was being removed from the Companies House filings.
At the time the Borden Court properties were bought, a Mr Al-Huseini was listed as the owner of all the companies that purchased them.
Companies House confirmed that to submit false information about a Person with Significant Control (PSC) of a company is a criminal offence.
Days after the last contact from Mr El Paraiso’s lawyers, the BBC received an email, from a Yahoo email account, from someone claiming to be the Mr Al-Huseini who had been considering buying property in Liverpool.
He backed up Mr El Paraiso’s claims. But when asked to provide evidence of his identity, he did not reply.
‘Significant concerns’
In June 2024, Arndale House leaseholders told Mr El Paraiso they might want to bring in a different firm to manage the building.
He told them he had been in contact with Merseyside Fire And Rescue Service (MFRS) and had met its officers on site, and they had wanted assurances that his firm would be running the building.
But MFRS told the BBC its staff had never met him or spoken to him, and would never express a preference for who managed a building.
The fire service said it had identified some problems with the building, including trip hazards, a faulty fire alarm, and other issues that it told the BBC could be “remedied quite readily”.
But on 3 September 2024, Urban Evolution put up notices and posted letters around Arndale House telling the students the building would “close imminently due to significant fire safety concerns raised by Merseyside Fire And Rescue Service”.
Leah Barrow found out she was being evicted just days before she was due to move back into her flat
Leah Barrow, 20, said: “We were given a letter, and they also hung it up, and it basically said to us we had two weeks and we had to be out of the building. We had to find somewhere else to live.”
“Obviously I was very stressed. At the start of university you’re going to be stressed, but knowing you don’t have anywhere to live or where you’re going to end up… is very stressful.”
MFRS told the BBC it had never said the building needed to close, and that the notices were “not an accurate representation of the situation”.
Mr El Paraiso claimed students had only been advised to leave the building for their own safety, had offered to help them find alternative accommodation, and claimed leaseholders had failed to pay for the costs of remedial works necessary to make the building safe.
The company currently managing the building, Haymarket, told the BBC the works required by the fire service had cost about £13,000, which leaseholders said was more than covered by what they had given to Urban Evolution.
MFRS has now signed off the works as complete.
‘Worse than Grenfell’
Messages seen by the BBC suggest Queensland Place was described by Mr El Paraiso as “worse than Grenfell”
While Mr El Paraiso said the safety of tenants was his main concern, the BBC has found evidence that he described another Liverpool building as “worse than Grenfell [Tower]” but continued to let out and sell units in it.
He made the comment about Queensland Place in a 2021 WhatsApp chat with a colleague, and urged a leaseholder to let him sell his units in it for “whatever we can get for them in the next seven days”.
But the WhatsApp messages showed that at the same time, he urged a member of staff to press ahead with the ***** of two units for £65,000 to customers the employee described as “an elderly couple”.
Mr El Paraiso told the employee it was “[the couple’s] job to do their due diligence”.
Queensland Place has never been closed down over fire safety concerns..
But through his lawyers, Mr El Paraiso said the difference between Queensland Place and Arndale House was that the Queensland Place leaseholders paid their service charges, and therefore the fire safety problems could be managed.
When asked for evidence the building was “worse than Grenfell”, he said the building had similar cladding to Grenfell Tower, the Kensington and Chelsea block of flats in which 72 people died in a fire accelerated by flammable cladding.
He also said some of the BBC’s sources had “an axe to grind” against him.
Former Queensland Place tenant Joshua Churcher, 20, said: “If they believed the building genuinely to be so dangerous, we were living there completely unaware as it was never mentioned to us.
“It is shocking that someone would use a tragedy like Grenfell seemingly for their own gain.”
In December, MFRS issued Urban Evolution with an enforcement notice saying it had six months to start work on replacing the cladding and dealing with other fire safety issues that were outstanding, some of them similar to those at Arndale House.
‘Investigation’
Liverpool City Council regeneration cabinet member Nick Small said it was important the allegations were investigated
Liverpool City Council is investigating whether Urban Evolution attempted to illegally evict students from Arndale House, with cabinet member for regeneration Nick Small adding it was important students and leaseholders could have confidence living and investing in the city.
Leaseholder Mr Barker said he and others who had invested in Arndale House would “never had done so if we had known who [Mr El Paraiso] was and what he had done”.
Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson said better regulation was needed to protect leaseholders and tenants, adding: “It is not acceptable that people are having their lives turned upside down by sudden threats of eviction, or that fire safety issues are being used to cause fear and concern unduly.
“For the protection of both tenants and leaseholders, there is a serious case for reform.”
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FaZe Clan Wins Six Invitational 2025 After a Dominant Performance
FaZe Clan Wins Six Invitational 2025 After a Dominant Performance
The all-Brazilian FaZe Clan roster has stepped up in the grand final of the Six Invitational in Boston to hand Team BDS a decisive loss. With a 3 – 1 scoreline, the curtain came down over the $3 million tournament and FaZe Clan took centre stage to lift the iconic hammer. Team BDS had a solid run to reach the final, but ultimately failed to overcome FaZe Clan’s staying power.
Another Year Done
The Six Invitational was a monumental event, which is fast becoming the par for the course with this tournament. As one of the single-biggest esports events in the world, the Six Invitational awards a whopping $1 million to the victor, and nobody goes home empty-handed.
In Boston, in front of a sold-out crowd, FaZe Clan stormed to the top spot and secured that hefty cash prize.
FaZe Clan has competed at every Six Invitational since 2018, but this is the organisation’s first win. It follows a close second-place finish in 2024 when the team lost against w7m Esports in front of a packed crowd in Sao Paolo.
It was a dramatic couple of weeks in the run-up to the grand final. In the qualifying stages, emotions were running high, and M80 faced a fine and a two-year staff suspension when the team’s coach, Budega, exploded against DarkZero. Those scenes came shortly after M80’s Gunnar went on a rant against all comers – then dropped out of the tournament a day later.
FaZe Clan’s finish against Team BDS came after a defiant run through the elimination bracket. It was an epic thing, with FaZe Clan being knocked into the lower bracket by Spacestation at the earliest opportunity.
From there, the team knuckled down and pushed forward, eliminating Team Liquid, Virtus, Falcons, Spacestation, Unwanted, and finally FURIA, which also hails from Brazil. It was one of the most incredible lower-bracket runs in esports history, and it ended with FaZe Clan securing the ultimate win over Team BDS and securing the $1 million prize.
That’s not bad at all.
Just before the grand final took place, Ubisoft jumped on stage to reveal Siege X – find out more here.
Did you enjoy the Six Invitational? Let us know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming esports news, check out the latest about OpTic Texas’ paltry performance in the CDL
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Travis Leon Rodd: Albany man fined for car break-in at Sandpatch Beach and possession of disguise
Travis Leon Rodd: Albany man fined for car break-in at Sandpatch Beach and possession of disguise
An Albany man who stole from cars and admitted to keeping full face masks in his car for further offences, has been fined $800.
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European leaders to begin Paris meeting as Trump forges ahead with Ukraine peace talks – CNN
European leaders to begin Paris meeting as Trump forges ahead with Ukraine peace talks – CNN
European leaders to begin Paris meeting as Trump forges ahead with Ukraine peace talks CNNFast-moving Ukraine diplomacy means Europeans must do more, official says ReutersMacron convenes European leaders for Ukraine summit amid tension with US The GuardianEurope, sidelined by U.S. and Russia, seeks influence in Ukraine talks The Washington PostEuropean leaders regroup in Paris for strategy huddle after Trump diplomatic blitz on Ukraine The Associated Press
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Apple Reportedly Considering Monetising Maps App via Search Advertising
Apple Reportedly Considering Monetising Maps App via Search Advertising
Apple is reportedly considering monetising its Maps app. As per a report, the Cupertino-based tech giant is planning to replicate Google Maps’ business model and offer search advertising to businesses. The company is said to prominently feature its clients in the Maps app’s search results. The tech giant is reportedly exploring this option to increase revenue generation from its services. Notably, the company already displays similar ads on the Apple News and Stocks apps. The ad expansion is also said to support Apple’s recent push into sports.
Apple Maps Could Soon Display Ads
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman stated in his Power On newsletter that the iPhone maker is seriously considering boosting its ad revenue by integrating a sustainable model into the Maps app. Citing unnamed sources, Gurman claimed that the Maps division recently held an “all-hands” meeting where it explored the monetisation options.
During the meeting, executives reportedly suggested exploring search advertising. This model is already being used by Google for its Maps platform where the company prominently features sponsored businesses in search results.
Apple is reportedly planning to replicate this model for its Maps app and offer paying businesses better positioning in search results. However, it is said that no timeline or active engineering work is being done for this.
Notably, Gurman also claimed that Apple employees had discussed integrating search ads into the Maps app a few years ago. However, at the time, the discussion did not lead to any implementation.
If search ads are implemented in the Maps app, this would mean that not all the search results shown are genuine. Usually, the tech giant is transparent with the sponsored information shown in apps, and it is likely that the businesses highlighted via search ads will be labelled to let users know.
With this move, Apple will enter a space where Google already has a strong foothold. However, the iPhone maker offers access to millions of users who use the Maps app, which could be a lucrative proposition for businesses.
Separately, a recent report also claimed that Apple is seriously considering entering the robotics space to manufacture both humanoid and non-humanoid robots. These robots are said to bolster the company’s smart home ecosystem, but are not expected to enter mass production before 2028.
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Nico Gonzalez: Man City’s ‘mini-Rodri’ who ‘makes a massive difference’
Nico Gonzalez: Man City’s ‘mini-Rodri’ who ‘makes a massive difference’
“Without Rodri, and before Gonzalez signed, Lewis was coming into midfield too early, and getting stuck in those central areas. Against Newcastle, however, he had Gonzalez behind him and it allowed him to get forward quicker, and give City more options out wide on the right.
“On top of that, Gonzalez helped Lewis defensively too, although City’s dominance against Newcastle meant this was not as easy to spot.
“Lewis is still a defender, first and foremost, so when City have been losing the ball in the areas I spoke about earlier, he has to decide whether to get back in his right-back slot, or stay in midfield.
“It actually happened on the opposite flank for the Juventus goal I mentioned earlier, when he was at left-back but came across into midfield and left space out wide. With Rodri there, he does not have to come inside when attacks break down, and the same applies with Gonzalez in the team too.
“I loved the way Gonzalez seemed aware of exactly where to be at all times, and he also had the legs to get there quickly when he had to.
“That energy and physicality is something else City have lacked in their midfield, and it is another reason he looks like a gem of a player, who was the perfect signing for Pep.
“Going forward, he’s going to be an important player alongside Rodri, not just instead of him.
“He definitely gives City more hope against Madrid, too. They are not the favourites, but of course they still have a chance of getting through.”
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Saturday Night Live turns 50 with comedy and songs
Saturday Night Live turns 50 with comedy and songs
Music legends Paul Simon and Paul McCartney have appeared on the 50th anniversary celebration of Saturday Night Live.
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OpTic Texas Fails to Win a Map as Pred Steps Back Up
OpTic Texas Fails to Win a Map as Pred Steps Back Up
The CDL Major II qualifiers are in full flow after the competitive season resumed this past weekend, but it hasn’t been fun and games for all involved. In a twist of fate, OpTic Texas – last year’s Call of Duty Championship winner – failed to secure a single map against both Atlanta FaZe and Minnesota Rokkr just days after Pred returned to the starting lineup.
Pred temporarily departed the team late last year to deal with personal issues, and Huke stepped up to fill in for him. Following Huke’s dismissal from the roster, some fans are up in arms, as the change seems to have done more harm than good.
Not The Result You Wanted
To put it in a word, OpTic Texas was decimated this weekend by Atlanta FaZe and Minnesota Rokkr.
Atlanta FaZe is coming into the qualifiers hot off a win at Major I and the first CDL Minor, while OpTic Texas was nursing a sore spot after dropping out of the running at the recent Madrid Major. FaZe now has a relatively ridiculous record over OpTic Texas in the CDL era.
On the other hand, Minnesota Rokkr currently occupies sixth place in the overall standings and hasn’t clashed with OpTic Texas since June 2024. Coincidentally, Rokkr was able to hand OpTic Texas a loss back then, too.
Between these two fixtures, OpTic Texas failed to secure a single map win. On social media, the team was quick to express concerns:
Actually unacceptable from me.
Feel terrible to everyone who supports me, gotta just be better. Simple as that, sucks but I’ve been here before. GGs Faze and MN.
Following the loss against Atlanta FaZe, a clip was captured showing OpTic Texas’ Dashy trying to snap his webcam in half. It has been a tough couple of weeks for the OpTic side, and we’re already a long way from the COD Champs win.
Elsewhere in the Call of Duty League this weekend, LAT continued to lay the smackdown against all comers, wiping the Royal Ravens with a 3 – 0 scoreline and laying waste to the Vegas Falcons. The Falcons are still to grab a single win this season.
LAG M8 lost again, this time against Boston Breach. It started as a close match, with the opening Hardpoint coming down to just a two-point difference, but things quickly fell apart for LAG M8. Presently, the team sits in 11th place in the CDL standings with just two matches won to eight lost.
The Call of Duty League Major II qualifiers will continue this coming weekend, with all eyes resting firmly on the Major II tournament in Texas. It’s set to run between March 20 – 23.
For more Insider Gaming esports coverage, check out the news that CS2 hit another new record on Steam
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‘City-killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 could hit the moon instead of us, scientists say
‘City-killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 could hit the moon instead of us, scientists say
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An asteroid that’s big enough to wipe out a city has a 1-in-43 chance of hitting our planet in the year 2032. But according to new calculations, there’s an even smaller chance that it might ****** into the moon instead.
On Feb. 7, NASA scientists increased the likelihood of asteroid 2024 YR4 colliding with Earth on Dec. 22, 2032, nearly doubling the odds from 1.2% to 2.3%.
The potentially hazardous asteroid measures an estimated 180 feet (55 meters) across — about as wide as Walt Disney World’s Cinderella Castle is tall — and is traveling at nearly 30,000 mph (48,000 kph). Although it is too small to end human civilization, 2024 YR4 could still wipe out a major city, releasing about 8 megatons of energy upon impact — more than 500 times the energy released by the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan. But what if it hurtled into the moon instead?
David Rankin, an operations engineer for the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey, revealed in a post on Bluesky that the asteroid also has a 0.3% chance of hitting our natural satellite. The effects of this unlucky collision would likely be visible from our planet — although we, ourselves, would probably be unaffected.
“There is the possibility this would eject some material back out that could hit the Earth, but I highly doubt it would cause any major threat,” Rankin told New Scientist.
That does not mean we wouldn’t see it. Rankin told Live Science that, based on current estimates, a collision with the moon could release more energy than 340 Hiroshima bombs. “It would likely be very visible from Earth,” he said.
However, Gareth Collins, a professor of planetary science at Imperial College London, told New Scientist that “we would be quite safe on Earth.” He added that any material ejected from the collision would likely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Related: How many space rocks hit the moon every year?
Throughout its history, the moon has been subject to countless asteroid bombardments, as can be seen by its crater-pocked surface. However, if the moon were to take the hit from 2024 YR4, it would be left with a crater up to 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) across, New Scientist reported. (That’s just a pothole compared with the moon’s largest crater, the South Pole-Aitken basin, which spans more than 1,500 miles (2,400 km) in diameter.)
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The probability of the space rock hitting either Earth or the moon is still very low, and an international team of scientists has been granted emergency use of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to learn more about the space rock’s size and trajectory before it leaves Earth’s view for the next few years.
So far, astronomers have only observed 2024 YR4 using telescopes on Earth, and they’ve estimated its size by measuring the amount of light that bounces off the asteroid. But this is a fairly imprecise estimate. Instead, JWST will measure the heat emitted from the asteroid itself, which will create a much clearer picture of the asteroid’s size and surface composition.
“As of now, there is still a 97.9% chance of a miss with respect to Earth,” Rankin told Live Science in an email. “When the odds doubled from 1% to 2%, this caused a lot of noise. It’s not the same thing as going from 40% to 80% though. This asteroid is nothing to lose sleep over.”
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stocks, news, data and earnings
stocks, news, data and earnings
European markets are expected to open in mixed territory Monday.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 1 point lower at 8,718, Germany’s DAX up 40 points at 22,513, France’s CAC up 8 points at 8,181 and Italy’s FTSE MIB 19 points lower at 38,044, according to data from IG. There are no major earnings or data releases Monday.
Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Europe are likely to be a focus for European markets this week as U.S. officials prepare for talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine, with officials in Kyiv and Europe being left out of the discussions.
European leaders are holding an emergency summit in Paris on Monday to discuss how to respond to President Donald Trump’s apparent decision to sideline Europe, and how to guarantee the country’s security in future.
Overnight, Asia-Pacific markets traded mostly higher as investors parsed Japan’s fourth-quarter economic growth data, while awaiting a slew of central bank decisions from Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand this week.
U.S. financial markets are closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.
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Musk Team Seeks Access to I.R.S. System With Taxpayers’ Records – The New York Times
Musk Team Seeks Access to I.R.S. System With Taxpayers’ Records – The New York Times
Musk Team Seeks Access to I.R.S. System With Taxpayers’ Records The New York TimesMusk’s DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS The Washington PostIRS Memo Sets Stage for Musk Adviser to Access Taxpayer Data BloombergMusk’s DOGE seeks access to IRS system with sensitive taxpayer data Axios
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South Korea bans new downloads of China’s DeepSeek AI
South Korea bans new downloads of China’s DeepSeek AI
South Korea has banned new downloads of China’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, according to the country’s personal data protection watchdog.
The government agency said the AI model will become available again to South Korean users when “improvements and remedies” are made to ensure it complies with the country’s personal data protection laws.
In the week after it made global headlines, DeepSeek became hugely popular in South Korea leaping to the top of app stores with over a million weekly users.
But its rise in popularity also attracted scrutiny from countries around the world which have imposed restrictions on the app over privacy and national security concerns.
South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission said the DeepSeek app became unavailable on Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening.
It came after several South Korean government agencies banned their employees from downloading the chatbot to their work devices.
South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok has described Deepseek as a “shock”, that could impact the country’s industries, beyond AI.
Despite the suspension of new downloads, people who already have it on their phones will be able to continue using it or they may just access it via DeepSeek’s website.
China’s Deepseek rocked the technology industry, the markets and America’s confidence in its AI leadership, when it released its latest app at the end of last month.
Its rapid rise as one of the world’s favourite AI chatbots sparked concerns in different jurisdictions.
Aside from South Korea, Taiwan and Australia have also banned it from all government devices.
Italy’s regulator, which briefly banned ChatGPT in 2023, has done the same with DeepSeek, which has been asked to address concerns over its privacy policy before it becomes available again on app stores.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in the US have proposed a bill banning DeepSeek from federal devices, citing surveillance concerns.
At the state-government level, Texas, Virginia and New York, have already introduced such rules for their employees.
DeepSeek’s “large language model” (LLM) has reasoning capabilities that are comparable to US models such as OpenAI’s o1, but reportedly requires a fraction of the cost to train and run.
That has raised questions about the billions of dollars being invested into AI infrastructure in the US and elsewhere.
Additional reporting by Jean Mackenzie in Seoul
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Adil Rashid: Breaking down the numbers behind England’s one-day genius
Adil Rashid: Breaking down the numbers behind England’s one-day genius
Adil Rashid is England’s Mr Consistent – he’s rarely injured and almost never out of form.
Only Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis has played more one-day internationals since the 2015 World Cup, while in T20 internationals Rashid is eclipsed by only Pakistan’s Babar Azam and Ireland’s Paul Stirling in the same time frame.
Despite making his debut in both formats in 2009, it wasn’t until the 2015 rebuild under Morgan that Rashid became a fixture in the side – and he has taken more than 300 wickets in the decade since.
No other bowler in the world has taken more one-day wickets in that *******, and the next three bowlers on the list – Rashid Khan, Adam Zampa and Kuldeep Yadav – are also leg-spinners.
There are ******* turners of the ball (Jeffrey Vandersay) and some get more drift (Yuzvendra Chahal), but none have the complete control and mastery of his art that Rashid offers.
He is the slowest of all the leg-spinners who have bowled 500 deliveries in ODIs in the past five years – which is a quite deliberate tactic.
“Some leg-spinners look to bowl it really quick, short of a length and don’t spin it as much,” Rashid told BBC Sport.
“Some, like myself, like to bowl it a bit slower to try and beat people in the flight and get the drift, dip and spin.
“With T20 cricket, people have started to bowl a bit quicker because they don’t want to get hit for sixes or fours but I’ve been brought up encouraged to get the ball above the eyeline, get the batsman driving, coming towards me and coming for me.”
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Nawaqanitawase undaunted by being centre of attention
Nawaqanitawase undaunted by being centre of attention
Mark Nawaqanitawase is bullish about his prospects of filling the void left by Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii at the Sydney Roosters as he adapts to one of, if not the most, challenging defensive positions in rugby league.
Known almost exclusively as a winger or fullback in rugby union, Nawaqanitawase was named to start at centre in Sunday’s trial match with St George Illawarra.
He also spent time at fullback in the second half but is no chance of usurping captain James Tedesco for the No.1 jersey.
Highly rated youngster Robert Toia is shaping as Trent Robinson’s right centre replacement for Joey Manu, while former Wallaby Nawaqanitawase looks set to fill in at left centre.
Robinson said Nawaqanitawase “could play wing (in the NRL) tomorrow and he’d be fine”.
But the Roosters coach is keen to take a greater risk by deploying Nawaqanitawase in the centres, where understanding the game’s defensive nuances is paramount to ensure the winger is not exposed.
“Robbo is a big defensive guy, that’s what we build on here at the Roosters,” Nawaqanitawase said.
“I’ve had the whole pre-season to get a lot of reps at that position, so I feel like I’ve come out of the pre-season with a lot of confidence in terms of the decision-making and the contact that the centre position will bring.
“We work on our own footage from training and where there’s mistakes we’ve made or things we’ve done well.
“The main focus is on yourself, rather than trying to emulate someone. There’s been past players – Manu, Suaalii – they’ve done it, so if I did ever need to I’d go back there (and look at what they did).”
Sunday’s trial was only Nawaqanitawase’s fifth professional game of league since switching from rugby union, playing one NRL match and three more at NSW Cup level.
With back-rower Angus Crichton and winger Daniel Tupou mainstays of the Roosters’ left edge, Nawaqanitawase will be surrounded by some old pros as he adjusts to life as a league player.
An increase in grappling sessions also helped the 24-year-old handle the intricacies of the NRL’s wrestle-like defence.
“Obviously there’s going to be a lot more attack coming my way,” Nawaqanitawase said.
“(Grappling) is pretty much every day, and the contact.
“Some of the smaller guys – Nat Butcher, Connor Watson – you can tell they’ve been doing it for a while with the strength they have.
“And when I get cooked, they know just how to take advantage of it.”
The 11-cap Wallaby revealed he had a new-found respect for Tedesco after his brief cameo at fullback.
“He’s worth every penny – it’s a different position, fullback, and it’s a credit to him to be able to do that. They (fullbacks) are different beasts,” Nawaqanitawase said.
Robinson is expected to roll out the rest of his big names such as Tedesco, Lindsay Collins and Tupou in Sunday’s trial against Newcastle in Gosford.
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iPhone 17 Series to Sport Samsung’s Latest OLED Screen Technology, Tipster Claims
iPhone 17 Series to Sport Samsung’s Latest OLED Screen Technology, Tipster Claims
Apple’s purported iPhone 17 series of smartphones will arrive with displays featuring Samsung’s latest OLED technology, according to a tipster. The successors to the iPhone 16 series of smartphones is likely to arrive in the second half of 2024, and could be equipped with displays that offer improved brightness and contrast. These displays might also offer better colour reproduction than the iPhone 16 lineup. According to previous reports, the Samsung Galaxy S25 series might have been equipped with the company’s older display technology.
iPhone 17 Series Display Specifications (Leaked)
In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), user @Jukalosreve claims that the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air (or iPhone 17 Slim) will be equipped with Samsung’s M14 panel. Unlike last year, when Apple equipped the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max with the latest M14 OLED screens from Samsung, all four models in the iPhone 17 series could feature the same panel.
Displays built using Samsung’s latest M14 OLED technology are used on the Google Pixel 9 series of smartphones, as well as the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro Max. These displays offer higher brightness levels and better colour accuracy than older OLED panels.
If the tipster’s claims are true, all four models in the iPhone 17 lineup will feature improved displays. The Cupertino company is also said to be working on screens with a higher refresh rate for the standard and ‘Air’ models with the iPhone 17 series.
Last year, it was reported that Samsung was planning to use its older M13 display technology for the recently launched Galaxy S25 series of smartphones. The same OLED panels were reportedly used on the Samsung Galaxy S24 lineup, as well as the standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models.
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Mass. State Police have responded to over 400 crashes as a result of winter storm
Mass. State Police have responded to over 400 crashes as a result of winter storm
The Massachusetts State Police have released data following Saturday night’s snowstorm.
In an email sent out, the data showed that State Police have responded to over 497 crashes from last night, which compares to 186 crashes last weekend and 223 the previous one. Alongside that, they also assisted 398 motorists, which also nearly tripled from last weekend. 17 of those crashes have resulted in injuries, a deduction from the past two weekends of snow.
As of 2:22 PM on Sunday, fortunately, there have been no reported fatalities from crashes.
A speed limit restriction of 40 miles per hour remains in place on the entirety of I-90 eastbound and westbound.
The concern is that saturated roadways could turn to ice.
Drivers who experienced those slippery conditions firsthand over the weekend spoke to Boston 25.
“Literally, the whole way back to Boston you saw crashes left and right.”
Ismael Pena describes a dicey drive from Springfield to Boston on the Pike Saturday night into Sunday morning.
As snow transitioned into a mix of freezing rain, sleet, and ice, he says a drive that normally takes two hours dragged on for six hours because of treacherous conditions
“It was scary at one point. There was one point I was driving my car went to the right and nearly spun out.”
Mass. State Police have also pointed out some notable incidents that occurred:
Last Saturday night, February 15, State Troopers aided local police and firefighters in locating a group of stranded snowmobilers with children who became sick on trails in Rowe. Fortunately, they were located and all medically cleared.
As of 5:30 AM on Sunday, the right-hand lane on R9 West in Newton was closed off due to a water main break. As of 1 PM, the lane has since been reopened.
Around 9 AM, a tractor-trailer, carrying non-hazardous materials, on I95 North in Burlington struck the R3 overpass bridge, resulting in damage to the bridge and truck. MassDOT was dispatched to evaluate the bridge and determined that it was structurally sound, reopening the travel lanes by 10:30 AM.
Roads have been a main concern with this snowstorm, as snow transitions into freezing rain, causing ice to cover the roads.
“It’s terrible. It’s a lot of slush. Slippery roads.” Eschina Orcel of Winthrop said. “I’m just concerned about the ice on the road especially at night
Those concerns are especially being felt in communities dealing with flooded roadways like Route 9 eastbound and Olde Field Road in Newton near Chesnut Hill head where one lane was blocked to traffic because of standing water.
“Route 9 has been flooded out since 8 this morning… now it’s 5:30 and it’s still flooded
Paul Stein says he’s worried about dropping temperatures and the risk for drivers passing through.
“This becomes a total ice sheet and they skid across the road.”
On Wednesday, February 12, recent developments of rock salt and ice melt shortage in Massachusetts have arose.
The Department of Public Works has said that their supply situation is ok for now and added that they have received additional funds to purchase more resources.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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DeepSeek ramps up China-U.S. competition but won’t hurt OpenAI
DeepSeek ramps up China-U.S. competition but won’t hurt OpenAI
Tech bosses largely agree the risk DeepSeek poses to OpenAI remains limited for now.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The technological advances that ******** artificial intelligence lab DeepSeek have displayed show the game is on when it comes to U.S.-Sino competition on AI, top tech executives told CNBC.
In a series of interviews at France’s Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, leaders of several major tech companies told CNBC that the emergence of DeepSeek demonstrates that China can’t be counted out as a serious player when it comes to AI innovation.
Last month, DeepSeek shocked global markets with a technical paper saying that one of its new AI models was created with a total training cost of less than $6 million — far less than the billions upon billions of dollars being spent by Big Tech players and Western AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer at OpenAI, told CNBC that DeepSeek’s advanced, low-cost model confirms there is a “very real competition between U.S.-led, small D democratic AI and CCP [******** ********** Party] China-led autocratic, authoritarian AI.”
Many critics of DeepSeek have pointed to apparent censorship by the model when it comes to sensitive topics. For example, when asked about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, DeepSeek’s AI assistant app responds with: “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.”
“There’s two countries in the world that can build this at scale,” Lehane told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal on the sidelines of the Paris AI summit Monday. “Imagine if there were only two countries in the world that could build electricity at scale. That’s sort of how you have to think about it.”
“For us, what DeepSeek really reinforces and reaffirms is that there is this very real competition with very real stakes,” Lehane added.
Still, tech bosses largely agreed that even though DeepSeek’s breakthrough shows China being further along in the global AI race than previously thought, the threat it poses to OpenAI remains limited for now.
‘The game is on’
DeepSeek says that its new R1 model, an open-source reasoning model, was able to rival the performance of OpenAI’s own similar o1 model — only using a cheaper, less energy-intensive process.
That led experts to question the prevailing wisdom in the West of the last several years, which is that China is behind the U.S. on AI development because of export restrictions that make it harder for firms in the country to get their hands on more advanced Nvidia graphics processing units, or GPUs.
GPUs are necessary for training and running AI applications because they excel at parallel processing, meaning they can perform multiple calculations simultaneously.
Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn and partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, told CNBC Monday that DeepSeek’s new model is “a big deal in showing that the game is on.”
“The competition is afoot with China,” Hoffman said, adding that DeepSeek’s R1 is “a credible, actionable model.”
Abishur Prakash, founder of strategic advisory firm The Geopolitical Business, told CNBC that DeepSeek shows the West’s understanding of China remains limited.
“America’s assumed place as the technological captain of the world is no longer the acceptable belief,” Prakash told CNBC in a phone interview.
“That is the new status quo now, that the space between the U.S. and China has narrowed almost overnight — but it hasn’t narrowed overnight, it’s been years of progress,” Prakash said.
“If there’s one takeaway for the West, it’s that their understanding of China is incredibly limited — and we don’t know what’s coming next,” he added.
No meaningful threat to U.S. AI — yet
Still, leading AI execs aren’t convinced that DeepSeek poses any sort of meaningful risks to the businesses of AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic just yet.
While experts on the whole agree DeepSeek’s AI advances have been impressive, doubts have been raised about the startup’s claims about cost.
A report from semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis last month estimated that DeepSeek’s hardware expenditure is “well higher” than $500 million over the company’s history. DeepSeek was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
The report found that DeepSeek’s research and development costs and expenses related to ownership are significant and that generating “synthetic data” for the model to train on would require “considerable amount of compute.”
Some technologists believe that DeepSeek may have been able to achieve such a high level of performance by training its models on larger U.S. AI systems.
This technique, known as “distillation,” involves having more powerful AI models evaluate the quality of answers being generated by a newer model.
It’s a claim that OpenAI itself has alluded to, telling CNBC in a statement last month that it’s reviewing reports that DeepSeek may have “inappropriately” used output data from its models to develop its AI model, a method referred to as “distillation.”
“Most of the market fear around [DeepSeek] is in fact misplaced,” Hoffman told CNBC. “It still requires large models — it was distilled from large models.”
“I think the short answer everyone should take is: game on — but large models still really matter,” he added.
Victor Riparbelli, CEO of AI video platform Synthesia, told CNBC that although DeepSeek challenged the “paradigm that brute force scaling is the only way to kind of build better and better models,” the idea that companies are going to suddenly shift significant amounts of their AI workloads is misguided.
“I still think that when you look at users of these technologies, all the workflows, I think when we look back in three months’ time, I think 0.01% of those is going to be moved to Deepseek from OpenAI and Anthropic,” Riparbelli said.
Meredith Whitaker, president of the Signal Foundation, said DeepSeek’s development doesn’t move the needle much for the industry as market momentum is still broadly in favor of larger AI models. The Signal Foundation is a nonprofit that supports the encrypted messaging app Signal.
“This is not something that’s going to disrupt the concentration of power or the geopolitical balance at this stage,” Whitaker told CNBC. “I think we have to keep our eye on the ball there and recognize that it’s really this ‘******* is better’ paradigm that is not reduced through efficiency gains historically, that is driving this concentration.”
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