Kimi Antonelli led team mate George Russell as Mercedes locked out the top two positions on the timing screens across the third and final day of 2026’s opening pre-season test in Bahrain.
George Russell has described this week’s pre-season test in Bahrain as “a bit of a reality check” for Mercedes, believing that the team have “taken a step back” in terms of reliability and performance since the Barcelona Shakedown.
Isack Hadjar has admitted that Red Bull’s progress during the first 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain has been “better than we hoped for”, with the Frenchman labelling the squad’s new power unit as “reliable” and “powerful”.
An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that its Chinese rival DeepSeek is using unfair and increasingly sophisticated methods to extract results from leading US AI models to train the next generation of its breakthrough R1 chatbot, according to a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News.
In the memo, sent Thursday to the House Select Committee on China, OpenAI said that DeepSeek had used so-called distillation techniques as part of "ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs." The company said it had detected "new, obfuscated methods" designed to evade OpenAI's defenses against misuse of its models' output.
OpenAI began privately raising concerns about the practice shortly after the R1 model's release last year, when it opened a probe with partner Microsoft Corp. into whether DeepSeek had obtained its data in an unauthorized manner, Bloomberg previously reported. In distillation, one AI model relies on the output of another for training purposes to develop similar capabilities.
Distillation, largely tied to China and occasionally Russia, has persisted and become more sophisticated despite attempts to crack down on users who violate OpenAI's terms of service, the company said in its memo, citing activity it has observed on its platform.
In the memo, sent Thursday to the House Select Committee on China, OpenAI said that DeepSeek had used so-called distillation techniques as part of "ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs." The company said it had detected "new, obfuscated methods" designed to evade OpenAI's defenses against misuse of its models' output.
OpenAI began privately raising concerns about the practice shortly after the R1 model's release last year, when it opened a probe with partner Microsoft Corp. into whether DeepSeek had obtained its data in an unauthorized manner, Bloomberg previously reported. In distillation, one AI model relies on the output of another for training purposes to develop similar capabilities.
Distillation, largely tied to China and occasionally Russia, has persisted and become more sophisticated despite attempts to crack down on users who violate OpenAI's terms of service, the company said in its memo, citing activity it has observed on its platform.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Waymo's autonomous vehicles can transport passengers across six cities without a human driver, but the Alphabet-owned company has discovered that its cars become completely inert if a passenger accidentally leaves a door open. The company confirmed that it is now paying DoorDash drivers in Atlanta to close these doors as part of a pilot program.
A Reddit post from a DoorDash driver showed an offer of $6.25 to drive less than one mile to a Waymo vehicle and close its door, plus an additional $5 after verified completion. Waymo and DoorDash told TechCrunch the post is legitimate. The door-closing partnership began earlier this year and is separate from the autonomous delivery service the two companies launched in Phoenix in October. Waymo has also worked with Honk, a towing service app, in Los Angeles on the same problem. Honk users in L.A. have been offered up to $24 to close a Waymo door. Future Waymo vehicles will have automated door closures.
A Reddit post from a DoorDash driver showed an offer of $6.25 to drive less than one mile to a Waymo vehicle and close its door, plus an additional $5 after verified completion. Waymo and DoorDash told TechCrunch the post is legitimate. The door-closing partnership began earlier this year and is separate from the autonomous delivery service the two companies launched in Phoenix in October. Waymo has also worked with Honk, a towing service app, in Los Angeles on the same problem. Honk users in L.A. have been offered up to $24 to close a Waymo door. Future Waymo vehicles will have automated door closures.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AMSTERDAM (ANP) - Bouwer Heijmans was vrijdag een uitblinker op de Amsterdamse aandelenbeurs dankzij jaarcijfers die goed werden ontvangen door beleggers. Het algehele sentiment op het Damrak was eveneens positief na de forse koersverliezen een dag eerder.
Heijmans was koploper in de MidKap-index voor middelgrote bedrijven in Amsterdam met een stijging van meer dan 15 procent. Het bouwbedrijf zag de winst vorig jaar flink stijgen en verwacht daarnaast dat de "sterke" financiële prestaties in 2026 aanhouden. Branchegenoot BAM liftte mee in de MidKap met een winst van ruim 4 procent.
De AEX-index eindigde 0,6 procent hoger op 993,82 punten, na het verlies van ruim 2 procent een dag eerder. De MidKap steeg 0,8 procent tot 1004,15 punten. De CAC 40 in Parijs verloor 0,4 procent, maar de beurzen in Frankfurt en Londen boekten winsten tot 0,4 procent.
MILAAN (ANP) - Jorrit Bergsma heeft bij de Olympische Spelen in Milaan brons veroverd op de 10 kilometer. De 40-jarige schaatser moest in het Milano Speed Skating met 12.40,48 het goud laten aan Metodej Jilek uit Tsjechië in een tijd van 12.33,43. Vladimir Semirunniy uit Polen veroverde met 12.39,08 het zilver.
Bergsma won olympisch goud op de 10 kilometer bij de Spelen van Sotsji in 2014 en greep vier jaar later het zilver. Bij de Spelen van Beijing in 2022 eindigde hij als vierde. De Zweed Nils van der Poel won.
MILAAN (ANP/RTR) - De Oekraïense skeletonner Vladyslav Jeraskevitsj is door het internationale sporttribunaal CAS in het ongelijk gesteld. Daarmee blijft zijn diskwalificatie, die het IOC hem had opgelegd om het dragen van een helm met afbeeldingen van in de oorlog met Rusland overleden Oekraïense sporters, van kracht.
Jeraskevitsj kwam vrijdag, de tweede dag van het skeletontoernooi, voor bij het sporttribunaal, omdat hij zijn diskwalificatie had aangevochten. Hij miste donderdag de eerste twee runs op de baan in Cortina d'Ampezzo al door de schorsing, en zal ook vrijdag niet in actie komen.
DEN HAAG (ANP) - Het oordeel van de Hoge Raad vorige maand dat de rente voor belastingschulden van bedrijven niet verhoogd mag worden, kost de schatkist dit jaar 264 miljoen euro. Dat schrijft demissionair staatssecretaris Eugène Heijnen (Fiscaliteit) vrijdag aan de Tweede Kamer.
Dit jaar worden de bezwaarmakers gecompenseerd. Dat kost 119 miljoen euro. De uitspraak betekent volgens de bewindsman structureel een tegenvaller van naar schatting 145 miljoen euro per jaar voor Financiën.
Ondernemers hadden de afgelopen jaren bezwaar gemaakt tegen de hogere rente. Het gaat om rente die bedrijven moeten voldoen als ze te laat de vennootschapsbelasting betalen. Sinds 2022 moeten ondernemers een hoger percentage betalen, terwijl dat niet geldt voor andere belastingen. Volgens de Hoge Raad is het hogere rentepercentage in strijd met het gelijkheidsbeginsel.
Feyenoord haalde deze week met Raheem Sterling een grote speler in huis. Toch is het de vraag wat de 82-voudig Engels international kan brengen in Rotterdam. "Daar schuilt het gevaar. Hij is niet wedstrijdfit. Dan heb je zo een blessure, en zeker bij Feyenoord", zegt Harry van der Laan in FC Rijnmond.
Na een paar zachte dagen met temperaturen in de dubbele cijfers keert de winter weer terug in onze regio. Vooral zondag kan een opvallende dag worden: de nieuwste berekeningen laten serieuze sneeuwkansen zien voor Zuid-Holland.
De opsporingsdienst heeft 28 januari een grote partij illegale sigaretten in beslag genomen in de Botlek, Rotterdam. De sigaretten zaten verstopt in een container die geladen was met plastic bakken.
With their profile and vile words, these malign provocateurs are tearing down decency’s guardrails
It lacks the elegance of “greed is good”, but as a distillation of the spirit of the age, it’s right up there. “I feel liberated,” a top banker told the Financial Times shortly after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled … it’s a new dawn.”
So that’s what they meant by “vibe shift”. Though, as the Epstein files reveal daily, the top 0.01% were hardly primly biting their tongues before Trump’s win, at least not in private. Those with telephone-number fortunes and great power felt able to speak, and write, to each other about women in language so vicious, so filled with hate – women discussed as body parts, as “less than human”, in Gordon Brown’s apt phrase – that they didn’t need the encouragement of a “grab ’em by the pussy” president to cast off their inhibitions.
Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist
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europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
Launch of ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot to the International Space Station (ISS) on Crew-12. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, no earlier than Friday 13 February 2026 at 10:15 GMT/11:15 CET (5:15 local time). Sophie flies as Mission Specialist 1 on the Dragon spacecraft. The other Crew-12 members are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, respectively commander and pilot of the mission, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, Mission Specialist 2. The French ESA astronaut is the first of her class, the Hoppers, to fly. Only two years and ten months separate the start of her astronaut training from the launch of her first long-duration mission – a record! Sophie has chosen the name εpsilon for her mission, which may last up to nine months. On board the Station, she will conduct a wide range of tasks, including European-led scientific experiments and medical research, support Earth observation activities, and contribute to operations and maintenance on the Station.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
Launch of ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot to the International Space Station (ISS) on Crew-12. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, no earlier than Friday 13 February 2026 at 10:15 GMT/11:15 CET (5:15 local time). Sophie flies as Mission Specialist 1 on the Dragon spacecraft. The other Crew-12 members are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, respectively commander and pilot of the mission, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, Mission Specialist 2. The French ESA astronaut is the first of her class, the Hoppers, to fly. Only two years and ten months separate the start of her astronaut training from the launch of her first long-duration mission – a record! Sophie has chosen the name εpsilon for her mission, which may last up to nine months. On board the Station, she will conduct a wide range of tasks, including European-led scientific experiments and medical research, support Earth observation activities, and contribute to operations and maintenance on the Station.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
Launch of ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot to the International Space Station (ISS) on Crew-12. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, no earlier than Friday 13 February 2026 at 10:15 GMT/11:15 CET (5:15 local time). Sophie flies as Mission Specialist 1 on the Dragon spacecraft. The other Crew-12 members are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, respectively commander and pilot of the mission, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, Mission Specialist 2. The French ESA astronaut is the first of her class, the Hoppers, to fly. Only two years and ten months separate the start of her astronaut training from the launch of her first long-duration mission – a record! Sophie has chosen the name εpsilon for her mission, which may last up to nine months. On board the Station, she will conduct a wide range of tasks, including European-led scientific experiments and medical research, support Earth observation activities, and contribute to operations and maintenance on the Station.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
Launch of ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot to the International Space Station (ISS) on Crew-12. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, no earlier than Friday 13 February 2026 at 10:15 GMT/11:15 CET (5:15 local time). Sophie flies as Mission Specialist 1 on the Dragon spacecraft. The other Crew-12 members are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, respectively commander and pilot of the mission, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, Mission Specialist 2. The French ESA astronaut is the first of her class, the Hoppers, to fly. Only two years and ten months separate the start of her astronaut training from the launch of her first long-duration mission – a record! Sophie has chosen the name εpsilon for her mission, which may last up to nine months. On board the Station, she will conduct a wide range of tasks, including European-led scientific experiments and medical research, support Earth observation activities, and contribute to operations and maintenance on the Station.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
Launch of ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot to the International Space Station (ISS) on Crew-12. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, no earlier than Friday 13 February 2026 at 10:15 GMT/11:15 CET (5:15 local time). Sophie flies as Mission Specialist 1 on the Dragon spacecraft. The other Crew-12 members are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, respectively commander and pilot of the mission, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, Mission Specialist 2. The French ESA astronaut is the first of her class, the Hoppers, to fly. Only two years and ten months separate the start of her astronaut training from the launch of her first long-duration mission – a record! Sophie has chosen the name εpsilon for her mission, which may last up to nine months. On board the Station, she will conduct a wide range of tasks, including European-led scientific experiments and medical research, support Earth observation activities, and contribute to operations and maintenance on the Station.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Hieu Chau compares his dense, dynamic compositions to his always active mind. Playing with scale and proportion, the Vietnamese artist renders surreal scenes in which flora and fauna converge and figures interact with the outside world as if in a dream. Chau, who was trained as a painter, now works digitally, although his pieces capture the grainy textures and gestures of a physical medium.
The artist recently published a book collecting his projects from the last decade, and you can find explore an archive of these pieces on Instagram.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Surreal Dreams Reign in Hieu Chau’s Digital Illustrations appeared first on Colossal.