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Russell Brand trial for rape and sexual assault begins – live updates

Russell Brand back in Southwark crown court today where his rape and sexual assault trial begins

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones has begun proceedings by outlining the charges against Russell Brand to the court.

She told jurors:

Russell Brand, as you may know, and if you didn’t know before this trial, is a celebrity.

He was born on June 4 1975 making him now 51 years old.

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Badenoch and Farage in spat over Chagos Islands, as she calls his offer to Trump ‘humiliating’ – UK politics live

Nigel Farage says Kemi Badenoch misinterpreted his suggestion for a deal with Donald Trump

While in some respects the Nigel Farage/Kemi Badenoch Chagos Islands row (see 9.56am) is just a slightly manufactured spat between two leaders who are not in a position to decide the future of the Chagos Islands anyway, it is revealing about the state of opposition politics, in three respects.

First, this is further evidence that the fight between the Tories and Reform UK is increasingly bitter. Here they are arguing over a policy where, essentially, their views are very similar. This time last year there was informal talk of a potential pact. Now there is an acrimonious fight to be the dominant party on the right.

I’d have gone in and said, ‘Right, you know what, mate? Chagos, it’s yours. Diego Garcia, in perpetuity, the most strategic American military base in the world, which it is.

Outside mainland America, Diego is the most important thing America has for nuclear subs, for long-range bombers, for all of it.

Giving away British territory in return for someone keeping quiet is not a deal. It is humiliating.

There is no pride in our country in the way he talks about us. This is careless, loose talk from a man who wants to be responsible for Britain’s national security.

This is totally dishonest journalism. I make it clear that I am opposed to the surrender of sovereignty to Mauritius. I would offer the use of Diego Garcia to the USA in perpetuity. In return I would want America to go quiet on the Falklands.

No one has fought harder to save the Chagos Islands from being given away than I have, unlike the Tories and Labour trying to give them away. I have even helped repopulate the islands with Chagossians.

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Netflix’s Mike Tyson docuseries offers an incomplete portrait of a troubling figure

The once heroic boxer showcases a frankness in this compelling new series but also an unwillingness to take accountability for his darkest moments

Mike Tyson never envisioned old age. And yet here he still is, having outlived his parents, Brooklynites of ill repute who died when he was a teenager, and the Brownsville tough guys who teased him for being scrawny and having a lisp. Here he is after doing hard time for rape in his prime, winning and losing great fortunes and battling addiction to drink, drugs and fame. Here he still is, 60 years old and a grandfather now, mixing it up with Jake Paul in the ring, opening up to manosphere-adjacent podcasters, bobbing into an impromptu White House press briefing – Māori face-tattoo unmistakably in the frame – while on a DC visit to buck up his old pal as his party faces a bleak midterm forecast. “I don’t have to exist,” the champ says in Tyson, the latest four-part vanity project on his turbulent life and times. “Some reason, something allowed me to exist.”

In his heyday, Tyson was a mesmerizing sporting event unto himself – the ruthless knockout machine who struck fear into opponents at first sight, felled them in seconds and looked back on the carnage with cool nonchalance. His darkest episodes – the combustive relationship with actor Robin Givens, the six-year prison sentence for rape, biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear – only deepened the public fascination with him, adding to the lore of boxing’s baddest man. In the winter of his life, Tyson’s self-reflection, so deep it tips into self-parody, is the enthralling spectacle now. And if generations of Black comedians have proved anything, it’s that the appetite for Mike Tyson impersonations is inexhaustible.

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Is the modern economic system broken? These urban beekeepers think so – and this is their solution

At Bybi in Copenhagen, a dedicated group of staff and volunteers have built a community for all centred on the production of honey – much of which is given away for nothing. Could it be replicated elsewhere?

The bees at Bybi, a collective of beekeepers in Copenhagen, live on the roof. Their home is a complex of Victorian buildings, right in the centre of the city, that looks like an idealised vision of the modern social enterprise, ennobled by the architecture of the past. It’s a place of cottage industry in concert with nature, where the marginalised are brought in from the fringes and corporations stand waiting to help, where jobs happen but a lot of the work is done by volunteers, and where – this bit is important – a lot of time is spent discussing ideas.

Oliver Maxwell, Bybi’s 48-year-old founder, encourages me to examine the buildings more closely. They were once a prison, a workhouse and a hospital; their functions today – a homeless shelter, a young offender institution and, until recently, a job centre – are not so different. Denmark’s Victorian transformation, from “agricultural backwater to industrialised agriculture”, was reflected in how they treated people, Maxwell says.

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Sali Hughes on beauty: worried about hair loss? Here’s a treatment that actually works

Many products claim to stop age-related thinning, but this one really works

I’m 51, perimenopausal, and somewhere between the newly distended stomach and the urge to pick fights with fellow passengers on public transport (why have people stopped wearing headphones?), came hair thinning. Brilliant.

It’s not as though I could claim an abundance in the first place. However, hair-loss products were at least something I could explore professionally, so I tested and tested, figuring there must be a column in there somewhere. There wasn’t.

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The Moscow Times - Independent News From Russia

The Moscow Times offers everything you need to know about Russia: Breaking news, top stories, business, analysis, opinion, multimedia

Ukraine Says SpaceX Limits Starlink Operations, Disrupting Military

Starlink has been the lifeblood of Ukrainian battlefield communications since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Zondag gaat de klok een uur terug: deze apparaten moet je zelf nog verzetten

In de nacht van zaterdag 24 op zondag 25 oktober gaat de klok om 3.00 uur terug naar 2.00 uur. Je krijgt er een uur slaap bij.

Dit jaar begint de wintertijd zo vroeg als het kan. De klok gaat altijd terug op de laatste zondag van oktober, en eerder dan de 25e kan die niet vallen. Dat gebeurde voor het laatst in 2020 en gebeurt pas weer in 2037.

Dit gaat vanzelf

Je telefoon, computer en smartwatch zetten zichzelf om. Controleer wel even of in de instellingen de automatische tijd aan staat.

Dit moet je zelf doen

Andere klokken lopen na zondag een uur voor. Zet ze het liefst zaterdagavond al terug, voordat je gaat slapen.

  • De klok van de oven en de magnetron.
  • De klok in de auto, zeker bij een wat ouder model.
  • De wandklok, de wekker en je horloge.
  • De thermostaat met een klokprogramma. Anders loopt het verwarmingsschema een uur uit de pas.
  • Tijdschakelaars, bijvoorbeeld van de tuinverlichting, de vijverpomp of de kerstverlichting.

“Je telefoon doet het vanzelf. De oven, de auto en de thermostaat niet.”

Zo went je lichaam sneller

Eén uur lijkt weinig, maar je biologische klok raakt er even van in de war. Veel mensen merken dat een paar dagen, als een kleine jetlag.

  • Ga vrijdag een half uur later naar bed en zaterdag een uur later. Zo is de sprong kleiner.
  • Houd daarna vaste tijden aan voor opstaan en slapen, ook in het weekend.
  • Ga overdag zo veel mogelijk naar buiten, want daglicht helpt je ritme.
  • Dim 's avonds de lampen en leg je scherm op tijd weg.

Ben je zondag toch een uur te vroeg wakker? Sta dan gewoon op en geniet van dat extra uur.

Let maandag op in de avondspits

Vanaf maandag 26 oktober valt de avondspits voor een deel in het donker. In het donker is het risico op een ongeluk groter, vooral voor fietsers en voetgangers. Dat hogere risico blijft de hele winter.

Op de snelweg is de avondspits na de overgang naar wintertijd ook drukker. Controleer daarom of je autoverlichting werkt, houd ramen en spiegels schoon en vul de ruitensproeiervloeistof bij.

“Zondag een uur langer slapen, maandag de avondspits in het donker.”

Afschaffen? Voorlopig niet

Het verzetten van de klok is een afspraak in de Europese Unie. Het Europees Parlement stemde in 2019 voor afschaffing. Maar de lidstaten zijn het nooit eens geworden over de vraag of het dan altijd zomertijd of altijd wintertijd moet worden.

De Europese Commissie laat de gevolgen nu eerst verder onderzoeken. Tot er een besluit is, blijft alles bij het oude. Op zondag 28 maart 2027 gaat de klok dus gewoon weer een uur vooruit.

Wintertijd op een rij

  • Wanneer: nacht van zaterdag 24 op zondag 25 oktober, om 3.00 uur terug naar 2.00 uur
  • Gaat vanzelf: telefoon, computer, smartwatch
  • Zelf verzetten: oven, magnetron, auto, wandklok, wekker, thermostaat, tijdschakelaars
  • Volgende keer: zomertijd op zondag 28 maart 2027

Meer weten?

  • Waarom wordt de klok 2 keer per jaar verzet? (Rijksoverheid)
  • 4 tips om snel aan de wintertijd te wennen (Hersenstichting)
  • Wintertijd: houd rekening met drukkere avondspits (Rijkswaterstaat)

VK: Voorpagina

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Wetenschappers roepen op tot internationaal toezicht op AI

Roep niet de columnist maar de leugenachtige screenshotters ter verantwoording

Thomas Hogeling beschouwt wekelijks de publieke opinie. Wat wordt er gezegd en vooral niet gezegd?


The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT — Enterprise Technology News and Analysis

The AI math isn't mathing as infrastructure spending forecast to outstrip expected revenue

AI services are unlikely to deliver enough revenue to cover the expected capital expenditure going into IT infrastructure between now and 2030, and it looks like neocloud operators will largely bow out or be bought out. This is the conclusion from Gartner, which has added up the anticipated investments in AI datacenters over the next several years, estimated the revenue that can be expected from AI-driven applications over the same period, and found the numbers come up short. Gartner's data comes from a report, "Prepare for AI Market Consolidation: Capital Write-Downs Could Exceed $4 Trillion by 2032," which concludes that AI will not generate enough sales to profitably cover all of the planned AI capital spending before 2032 at the earliest. But forecasts typically focus on the end of the decade, so it ran the numbers for 2030 as well. "In 2026, AI providers are expected to spend nearly $1 trillion on AI infrastructure, and are forecast to invest an additional $6 trillion between 2027 and 2030," said Gartner senior director analyst Will Sommer. "However, our research indicates that enterprise and consumer AI revenue will be insufficient to support profitable returns on all planned AI capital expenditures during this period." Assuming a 12 percent return on invested capital (ROIC), which many companies are said to regard as the bar for acceptability, Gartner estimates AI datacenter operators would need to generate a total of $8.5 trillion in revenue to cover capital spending and financing costs while achieving that return. Unfortunately, it forecasts that the total enterprise and consumer AI revenue that can be attributed to AI datacenters during this period will add up to no more than $3.6 trillion. Returns below expectations could force operators to write down assets whose value they can no longer recover, particularly as newer GPUs displace older hardware. The result will be a shake-out of the companies providing AI infrastructure services, and Gartner believes that neocloud operators – "GPU-as-a-service" providers specializing in AI compute – will be the hardest hit. It forecasts that 80 percent of them won't survive as independent companies beyond 2030. "Not everyone is in trouble," Sommer told The Register. "Some will outperform, some will underperform, and some will have to exit the market." Gartner expects the hyperscalers to weather the shake-out better because their businesses extend beyond AI services. Last year, McKinsey & Company warned that neocloud companies need to move up the AI stack and diversify to avoid being commoditized. There has been growing unease in the financial markets over the amount of capex being poured into AI investment, with some money lenders starting to get cold feet. Last month, SoftBank Group found itself facing higher borrowing costs as the tech investment biz sought to drum up further funding for OpenAI. Financial biz Jefferies issued a report this week saying that developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic are facing threats to their profitability from open source and Chinese models that undercut them on price. Management consultant Bain & Company also published a report last month estimating that the AI industry needs to generate $6 trillion in annual revenue by 2031 to keep up funding for the infrastructure needed to meet anticipated demand. Bain also forecast a revenue shortfall unless the industry develops products and use cases not yet identified. Both the IMF and the Bank for International Settlements have voiced concerns about the AI bubble bursting and the effects rippling out across the global economy. ®