Fewer humans, more bots - just in time for filing season

Tax season 2026 could be an interesting one as the IRS seeks to replace the staff it sent to the unemployment line with AI. Bots could handle tasks ranging from reviewing an org's request for tax-exempt status to processing amended individual filings.…

Harry Wilson, Igor Thiago, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Jack Grealish and Antoine Semenyo have shone for their clubs

By WhoScored

Harry Wilson was often a spectator rather than a player in his first three seasons at Fulham. He made 89 appearances in the league, but 48 of them were from the bench and he was taken off 34 times. Having scored just 12 league goals in three years, he was nearly shipped off to Leeds in the summer.

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Xi Jinping’s ousting of the country’s top general underscores the concentration of power in the hands of a few – with dangers for us all

Sir Keir Starmer is only one of the middle power leaders trekking to Beijing to renew relations. No one has forgotten China’s increasing international forcefulness, its handling of the pandemic and its closer relations with Russia as war engulfed Ukraine. But the wildness of Donald Trump’s first year back in power is spurring Canada, France and others to hedge their bets. This, not whisky tariff cuts, is what the British prime minister sought. Mr Trump called the move “dangerous”, but threatens allies and describes Xi Jinping as a “friend”. Set beside this administration, Beijing looks no more benevolent but does appear relatively predictable.

Yet the important news from Beijing in recent days was not Sir Keir’s visit but the news that Xi Jinping had purged its top general, Zhang Youxia. No one is too mighty to be ousted in a system which, while stable, looks increasingly like a “party of one”. The Chinese leader’s campaign has whittled the Central Military Commission, the top military body, from seven figures to just Mr Xi himself and the armed forces’ anti-corruption chief. He had already toppled officials at all levels of the party, including potential heirs, brushed aside term limits and fostered a personality cult. Now he is completely overhauling the People’s Liberation Army.

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With Donald Trump tearing up the world order, governments across Europe are having to confront the fact that most of the technology they rely on comes from US companies. French officials have taken a step this week to reduce their dependence on US digital infrastructure, announcing they have stopped using Zoom, the US-owned video meeting software, in favour of a French-made program. But how viable is this? And what are the risks? The Guardian’s Michael Safi speaks to the tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker

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Tot grote frustratie van reizigers staan de roltrappen bij metrostation Maashaven in Rotterdam al ruim anderhalf jaar stil. Daar komt snel verandering in: twee roltrappen worden vervangen. “De toegankelijkheid van de stations is natuurlijk een grote prioriteit voor ons.”

WASHINGTON (ANP/AFP) - Iran is bereid "een deal" te sluiten met de VS. Volgens president Trump zou Iran op die manier willen ontkomen aan een militaire escalatie met de VS, die een grote militaire aanwezigheid hebben opgebouwd in wateren nabij Iran. Hij wilde verder niet ingaan op vragen van journalisten over de deadline die hij Iran heeft gesteld om tot een deal te komen. "Alleen zij weten dat."

De VS hebben de afgelopen weken een flinke vloot naar Iran gestuurd, onder meer het vliegdekschip USS Lincoln en de begeleidende vloot. Ook zijn de afgelopen dagen meerdere vliegtuigbewegingen gemeld. Dat ging onder meer om toestellen die andere vliegtuigen in de lucht kunnen bijtanken of kunnen voorzien in de communicatie tussen schepen en troepen op de grond.

Eerder zinspeelde het Witte Huis er al op dat het "tijd is voor een regimewisseling" in Iran, verwijzend naar de nucleaire ambities van Teheran en de gewelddadige wijze waarop het protesten in het land neerslaat.

Formula 1 is introducing Advanced Sustainable Fuels from 2026, as the sport enters a new era with a new set of regulations. They have ground-breaking potential, and with new power units scrapping for every last ounce of energy, F1’s fuel suppliers are going to be waging their own private battle to see who can push this new technology the furthest.

Racing in 2026 doesn’t start until March, but the drivers aren’t slacking to start the year – January might even be the busiest month of all. Here’s the breakdown of their hectic schedule...

The UK government paid consulting firm PwC $5.65 million to build its new AI Skills Hub, a site meant to help 10 million workers gain AI skills by 2030 that functions largely as a bookmarking service, directing users to external training courses that already existed before the contract was awarded.

The hub links to platforms like Salesforce's free Trailhead learning system rather than offering original educational content. PwC has acknowledged the site does not fully meet accessibility standards. The platform also contains factual errors in its course on AI and intellectual property, which references "fair use" -- a legal doctrine specific to the U.S. -- rather than the UK's "fair dealing" framework.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple's call-screening feature, introduced in iOS 26 last year, was designed to combat the more than 2 billion robocalls placed to Americans every month, but as WSJ is reporting, it is now creating friction for the rich and powerful who find themselves subjected to automated interrogation when dialing from unrecognized numbers.

The feature uses an automated voice to ask unknown callers for their names and reasons for calling, transcribes the responses, and lets recipients decide whether to answer -- essentially giving everyone a pocket-sized executive assistant.

Venture capitalist Bradley Tusk said his first reaction when encountering call screening is irritation, though he understands the necessity given the spam problem. Ben Schaechter, who runs cloud-cost management company Vantage, said the feature "dramatically changed my life" after his personal number ended up in founding paperwork and attracted endless sales calls.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.