World No 1 wins 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-3
Italian overcomes a fall and bleeding foot
For one uncomfortable month, in the aftermath of the most shocking collapse of his career, the discourse around Jannik Sinner focused on his lack of durability. Not only was he so vulnerable in remotely warm conditions, but to many his five‑set record of six wins and 12 defeats was unworthy of a player of his stature.
It was only fitting, then, that Sinner immediately found himself embroiled in another fifth set on his return to the match court. This time, the world No 1 kept his composure and held firm physically at the climax to recover from two sets to one down against a courageous challenger in Miomir Kecmanovic, opening his title defence with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-3 win on Centre Court.
Continue reading...Expected next prime minister focuses on restoring faith in politics, cost of living and devolution in major speech
Andy Burnham has set out his blueprint to transform the UK with a promise to improve living standards and restore faith in politics through the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has ever seen”.
The person widely expected to be the next prime minister said the current system was “broken” and that “more of the same” would not be enough to tackle the significant challenges faced by the country.
A long-term ambition of greater public control of essential services such as water, housing, energy and transport to help curb the cost of living.
A No 10 North hub to oversee the distribution of power and resources from Whitehall across the country, which the Guardian revealed would be run by his former chief executive in Manchester.
The biggest council housing building programme since the postwar period, and a high street “renaissance” through reform of business rates.
Rebalancing an education system that he said had been too focused on the university route and putting academic and technical courses on an equal footing.
Continue reading...Teams meet in round of 32 in New York on Tuesday
‘We’ve been labelled as favourites … we are confident’
Didier Deschamps has warned France’s rivals that the team will not change their attacking approach to this World Cup, saying as he prepared for the last-32 tie against Sweden on Tuesday: “We have a capacity for danger, and I want us to keep it.”
The France head coach said it was “good to be busy” as he returned to the camp after time at home following the death of his mother last week. Deschamps expressed gratitude for the support he had received from his team after his bereavement, in another sign of the tight bond among Les Bleus this summer.
Continue reading...
/s3/static.nrc.nl/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/29215218/290626SPO_2034843843_Oranje.jpg)
/s3/static.nrc.nl/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/29201919/290626VER_2034847112_.jpg)
Music streaming service Tidal announced it won’t pay royalties for AI-generated music in an email to users and an announcement on its website published Monday. “Tidal’s priority is ensuring royalties go to original works directly produced, written, and performed by people,” the announcement reads. “We will therefore not knowingly attribute royalties to music we identify as wholly AI-generated.”
Like much of the internet, music streaming services are awash in AI-generated slop. Spotify promised to fight AI spam with labeling and filtering but also embraced the broader trend of AI music. AI-generated bands like The Velvet Sundown and Breaking Rust have millions of listens on Spotify and make the service money. In May, Spotify announced a deal with Universal that would let fans create “covers and remixes of their favorite songs.”Soon Spotify customers will be able to push a button and discover what Metallica would sound like if it were a reggae band.
Tidal is trying something different. The streaming service isn’t a giant in the field — Apple Music, YouTube, and Spotify dominate the charts — but it’s built a reputation by collaborating with artists, giving them a bigger cut of the streaming profits, and focusing on delivering high quality versions of audio. Tidal is the streaming service for listeners obsessed with bit-rate and FLAC. It’s for people who have $200 digital-to-analog converters next to their computer.
The company said it won’t pay for “wholly” AI-generated music but it also said it won’t remove AI-tainted music from the platform entirely. Like Spotify before it, Tidal said it’s going to work to identify the AI slop on its platform, label it, and hold AI-generated music to a “higher standard of content integrity.” Spotify said something similar last year, but there are still plenty of unlabeled AI-generated tracks on the platform.
Tidal also said it won’t remove AI-tainted music entirely. “Artists should have the freedom to create with AI tools, and listeners should have the autonomy to choose the type of content they consume,” it said. As of this writing, The Velvet Sundown and Breaking Rust are both live on Tidal. Breaking Rust’s bio identified it as AI-generated country music, but The Velvet Sundown had no bio at all.
“Tidal will not allow music that is 100% AI-generated to be monetized. No royalties will go to such releases, nor will AI-generated uploads be eligible for direct-to-fan sales,” the company said in an email to its users.
It elaborated on its website. “Starting today, AI-generated music will not be monetizable,” it said. “We are only in the beginning of the era of AI-generated music. We acknowledge the ongoing debate regarding whether certain AI-generated music (e.g. AI-generated music developed from fairly and properly licensed models) should be entitled to earn royalties. This debate will continue as the technology advances and rightsholders and AI music platforms develop licensing models.”
It’s unclear if The Velvet Sundown and other bands like it will keep making money on Tidal. These bands are black boxes. Are they wholly AI-generated and therefore exempted from compensation from Tidal? Or are they human-directed enough that the streaming service will continue to compensate them. 404 Media reached out to Tidal to ask but did not hear back.
On June 28, the day before Tidal’s announcement, The Velvet Sundown released a cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” on Spotify and Tidal. It’s atrocious and it’s not labeled as AI-generated on either service.
“We exist to confuse music journalists, comfort robots, and help Spotify executives sleep at night,” says the frontpage of The Velvet Sundown’s website. “We were basically built for it, engineered to fill playlists, avoid royalties, and haunt your Discover Weekly like a ghost with good taste. Is it art? Is it a loophole? Either way, it streams beautifully."