• New forward is a priority and Alvarez also on list

• Funds in place to make one marquee signing

Arsenal will reward Mikel Arteta for ending Arsenal’s 22-year wait to be champions by offering him a lucrative new contract that will cement the Spaniard’s status as one of the best-paid managers in the world. The club are also well advanced with plans to strengthen his squad.

Talks over extending Arteta’s deal beyond next summer were put on hold while Arsenal battled it out with Manchester City in the Premier League, although insiders insist there was an expectation he would have stayed even if the season had ended without a trophy. The 44-year-old has become the second-youngest manager to win the Premier League, after José Mourinho with Chelsea in 2004, and matched Kenny Dalglish’s achievement with Liverpool in 1990 in making a team top-flight champions his first senior management job.

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Priya Dogra says broadcaster acted appropriately when concerns raised, but that she is ‘deeply sorry’ for distress of participants

Channel 4’s chief executive has stood by the broadcaster’s treatment of concerns raised by contestants on Married At First Sight, as she said she was “deeply sorry” for the distress of female participants making allegations of rape and sexual misconduct.

Priya Dogra said she believed the channel had acted appropriately at the time of the allegations, but had commissioned an external review to ensure the show was safe for those taking part.

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Republican Congressman defeated by Trump-backed challenger in most expensive House primary in history

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Georgia mayor who fired town’s entire police force resigns, citing family ‘health concerns’

The mayor of Georgia has resigned shortly after firing his community’s entire police department, a step that the local governing council ultimately reversed – but that he nonetheless took amid a political spat pitting him and his wife against members of the force.

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• Walkouts to take place at Friday’s press conferences

• Dispute with grand slams gone on for more than a year

The world’s top players are planning to protest over prize money by reducing their media appearances at the French Open as their public battle with the grand slams intensifies.

Players selected to take part in Friday’s opening press conference at Roland Garros will walk out after 15 minutes, symbolising that the slams allocate an average of 15% of their revenues to prize money. The rest of the draw will refuse to conduct additional interviews with the tournament’s main media rights partners, TNT Sports and Eurosport.

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Nieuw voor mij, gratis WiFi in t vliegtuig. En het werkt nog ook.
#Airbaltic

The UK government may move to forestall objections to datacenter projects via an overhaul of planning regulations that would shield critical energy and infrastructure buildouts from legal challenges. Finance minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, is preparing to unveil reforms allowing Parliament to designate key projects as having critical national importance to prevent them from being subject to judicial review. "For too long, vital infrastructure delivery has been delayed by judicial reviews of projects," a spokesperson for HM Treasury said in a ⁠statement. The Chancellor "is clear that Parliament must take back control to get Britain building the ⁠power plants, wind farms and grid connections that will bring ⁠bills down, strengthen our energy security, and ⁠deliver growth in every part of our country." This does not explicitly mention datacenters, but as The Register has reported previously, massive server farms have already been lumped in with energy generation as projects to be urgently fast-tracked by government. Back in 2024, server farms were given Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) designation - a move that a government a civil servant warned would allow the authorities to override opposition to datacenter sites by local residents. Last year, a datacenter project management biz urged the government go a step further and categorize large datacenter developments as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs). This would shift decision-making from local authorities to the national level, potentially expediting approvals for large projects, while removing any say that local residents may have in developments that affect them. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee also published a report last year on Treasury plans to implement stronger governance to speed large infrastructure schemes, criticizing it for not including “technically complex” projects such as those involving “digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI),” despite the government’s focus on these to deliver economic growth. Some are already welcoming the planning reforms before they have even been officially announced. “Today’s announcement is the right thing to do if we are serious about growth, energy security and getting Britain building again,” said Ben Brittain, director of public affairs at the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE). “For too long, critical infrastructure projects have been delayed by blockers, layers of uncertainty and lengthy legal challenge, driving up costs and holding back investment." But the government should be wary, as public sentiment is turning against the growing number of datacenters being built and the AI technology that is driving their construction. Putting them beyond the reach of any legal challenge could easily exacerbate this. In America, for example, a recent survey found that people would sooner see a nuclear power plant sited in their locality than a datacenter. Gunshots were also fired at the home of an Indianapolis councilor who backed plans for a server farm in his area. In the UK, there have been protests against various datacenter building projects. Activist group Global Action Plan organized several at the end of February at sites including Iver in Buckinghamshire and Potters Bar in Hertfordshire where recently announced campuses are being constructed. HM Treasury had not responded to our requests for further information at the time of publication. ®

In Cannes werd door filmmakers, en zelfs de filmpers, verbolgen gereageerd op de aankondiging dat Canal+ niet meer samenwerkt met kritische filmmakers. Aanleiding is een kritische petitie tegen de invloed van de radicaal-rechtse miljardair Vincent Bolloré.

Zelfs mensen die dagelijks lezingen geven of complexe taken uitvoeren, merken dat hun aandacht voortdurend afdwaalt. Tijdens een vergadering gaat de gedachte al snel naar een volle inbox, het avondeten of een melding op de telefoon. Concentreren lijkt in een wereld vol prikkels steeds moeilijker te worden. Onderzoek bevestigt dat gevoel: onze aandachtsspanne staat onder druk.

Wetenschappers onderzochten hoe lang volwassenen zich gemiddeld op één taak kunnen richten zonder afgeleid te raken. Het resultaat was opvallend: gemiddeld slechts drie minuten. Daarna volgt alweer een nieuwe prikkel, een ander document of een blik op de smartphone. Bij studenten liggen die cijfers nog lager. Uit onderzoek blijkt dat studenten gemiddeld negentien seconden bij één taak blijven voordat ze overschakelen naar iets anders. Een groot deel van de informatie die zij bekijken, krijgt zelfs minder dan vijf seconden aandacht.

Multitasken heeft een prijs

Veel mensen denken goed te kunnen multitasken, maar volgens psychologen heeft voortdurend schakelen tussen taken een duidelijke keerzijde. Zodra iemand tijdens het werk even een berichtje leest of snel sociale media checkt, daalt de concentratie op de oorspronkelijke taak. Dat fenomeen staat bekend als het switch cost effect: iedere onderbreking kost tijd en mentale energie. Het gevolg is dat mensen trager werken en meer fouten maken.

Dat voortdurende schakelen wordt versterkt door de enorme hoeveelheid keuzes en informatie die dagelijks beschikbaar zijn. Van nieuwsapps tot streamingdiensten en sociale media: overal vragen meldingen en updates om aandacht. Onderzoekers ontdekten bovendien dat een overvloed aan keuzes leidt tot mentale vermoeidheid. Mensen raken sneller uitgeput, stellen taken vaker uit en hebben minder zelfcontrole wanneer zij constant beslissingen moeten nemen.

Stress maakt concentreren nog lastiger

Naast digitale afleiding speelt ook stress een belangrijke rol. Het aantal volwassenen dat dagelijks stress ervaart, is de afgelopen twintig jaar sterk toegenomen. Ook angstklachten komen steeds vaker voor, vooral onder jongvolwassenen. Zelfs milde stress blijkt al invloed te hebben op het concentratievermogen. Ernstige stress of trauma kan zelfs samenhangen met aandachtsproblemen zoals ADHD.

Volgens onderzoekers is het daarom belangrijk om bewust momenten van rust in te bouwen. Minder stress zorgt aantoonbaar voor betere aandacht en meer focus. Ook simpele maatregelen kunnen helpen, zoals het wegleggen van de telefoon tijdens geconcentreerd werk. Iedere melding of trilling onderbreekt immers de aandacht.

Terug naar echte focus

Psychologen benadrukken daarnaast het belang van betekenisvolle taken. Mensen kunnen zich beter concentreren wanneer een taak duidelijk, uitdagend en motiverend is. In zulke situaties ontstaat soms een zogenoemde flow” een toestand waarin iemand volledig opgaat in het werk en langdurig gefocust blijft. Daarvoor zijn wel rust en ongestoorde tijd nodig. Geplande pauzes werken bovendien beter dan steeds reageren op spontane afleidingen.

De conclusie van onderzoekers is duidelijk: een combinatie van stress, informatie-overload en constante prikkels maakt het steeds moeilijker om de aandacht erbij te houden. Toch kan bewust omgaan met afleiding en rust helpen om opnieuw grip te krijgen op concentratie en productiviteit.

Bron: Psychology Today

Here is all the information you need to follow the Canadian Grand Prix weekend live on F1 TV.

Ferrari’s Miami upgrade was at least as big as those of Red Bull and McLaren, and although it gained the car performance, the Sprint format combined with the extremely hot tarmac meant that the competitive picture was a little unclear.