Last week, Alphabet 's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) Google unveiled TurboQuant, an algorithm that marked a significant advancement in artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers said the algorithm reduces memory usage "by at least 6x and delivers up to 8x speedup, all with zero accuracy loss, redefining AI efficiency." This could reduce the amount of memory needed by as much as 83%. In the wake of...
Last week, Alphabet 's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) Google unveiled TurboQuant, an algorithm that marked a significant advancement in artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers said the algorithm reduces memory usage "by at least 6x and delivers up to 8x speedup, all with zero accuracy loss, redefining AI efficiency." This could reduce the amount of memory needed by as much as 83%. In the wake of this news, shares of memory chipmakers Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) and Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) fell 10% and 14%, respectively, amid fears that demand for their semiconductors would fall off a cliff thanks to Google's AI breakthrough. However, some experts are cautioning that these fears could be overblown, pointing to an obscure economic concept known as the Jevons paradox, which suggests the breakthrough could represent a buying opportunity. Continue reading
The world is discovering what happens when the oceans are not free for global commerce. It has been less than a month since the Strait of Hormuz was closed, and it is already causing disruptions worldwide for countries that cannot access oil and petroleum products. In the future, the United States and its allies will want to invest in modern defense technologies to maintain subsea superiority and ...
The world is discovering what happens when the oceans are not free for global commerce. It has been less than a month since the Strait of Hormuz was closed, and it is already causing disruptions worldwide for countries that cannot access oil and petroleum products. In the future, the United States and its allies will want to invest in modern defense technologies to maintain subsea superiority and keep global trade flowing. One way to do this is by monitoring the oceans with subsea drones from the likes of private company Anduril. There is a public company that is key to the subsea defense supply chain, and it should benefit as countries invest to make sure this debacle does not happen again. Its name is Kraken Robotics (OTC: KRKNF) . Here's why this small Canadian company's subsea battery technology will see massive demand in the years ahead. Continue reading
It was the anal bead theory that caused a global sensation. Now, a new Netflix film tells the tale of two grandmasters, one scandal – and a whole lot of bad blood Chess Mates (Netflix, Tuesday) has an unsettling early gambit: the face of Piers Morgan, looming via archive footage. “Have you ever used anal beads while playing chess?” Morgan asks down camera, as if prepping an ill-advised phone-in. “...
It was the anal bead theory that caused a global sensation. Now, a new Netflix film tells the tale of two grandmasters, one scandal – and a whole lot of bad blood Chess Mates (Netflix, Tuesday) has an unsettling early gambit: the face of Piers Morgan, looming via archive footage. “Have you ever used anal beads while playing chess?” Morgan asks down camera, as if prepping an ill-advised phone-in. “Your curiosity is concerning. Maybe you’re personally interested?” shoots back his interviewee, Hans Niemann (above). The minds of chess masters, as glimpsed in this fantastic documentary, are almost as compelling as any back-passage shenanigans on the table. It’s worth looking up the whole clip, from when Niemann found himself at the centre of a cheating scandal. The 19-year-old had come from nowhere; in a match at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, he did the impossible and beat the Goat. That’s Norwegian Magnus Carlsen: an undisputed titan who sees lines of play like Neo sees the Matrix, and has held the world No 1 spot, unbroken, since 2011. Suspecting foul play, Carlsen withdrew from the competition. Ever since, suspicion has swirled round his American rival. Which is where the beads enter. So to speak. Continue reading...
In turbulent times, experts recommend building up a store of food if possible – focusing on long-life, no-cook items People should have an emergency stockpile of food in their homes in case conflicts, extreme weather or cyber-attacks shut down supplies, leading UK experts have told the Guardian. In an ever more turbulent world, they say it is essential to choose long-life items that can be eaten w...
In turbulent times, experts recommend building up a store of food if possible – focusing on long-life, no-cook items People should have an emergency stockpile of food in their homes in case conflicts, extreme weather or cyber-attacks shut down supplies, leading UK experts have told the Guardian. In an ever more turbulent world, they say it is essential to choose long-life items that can be eaten without cooking – think tinned beans, vegetables and fish, rice crackers, and oats that can be soaked. But it is also important to choose items you actually like to eat, and some treats such as chocolate or crisps to keep your spirits up. You will also need water – lots of it – not just to drink but for washing too. Continue reading...
The key takeaways for who is eligible and how to seek redress from the new FCA motor finance scheme Complain now to be at the front of the queue. That is the message from the City regulator and the consumer champion Martin Lewis as a scheme gets under way to pay out about £7.5bn in total to millions of motorists mis-sold car loans. More information emerged this week about how much money the differ...
The key takeaways for who is eligible and how to seek redress from the new FCA motor finance scheme Complain now to be at the front of the queue. That is the message from the City regulator and the consumer champion Martin Lewis as a scheme gets under way to pay out about £7.5bn in total to millions of motorists mis-sold car loans. More information emerged this week about how much money the different categories of people might get and how it will all work after Monday’s announcement that an industry-wide compensation scheme for victims of the UK’s car finance scandal is definitely going ahead. Continue reading...
From the Arconia and a nine-dart finish to madder, weld and woad, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz 1 What unique structure carries the Bridgewater canal over the Manchester ship canal? 2 Melanistic leopards are more commonly known as what? 3 Which European national flag features seven castles? 4 The Arconia is the apartment block in the title of what TV series? 5 Station Island in Donega...
From the Arconia and a nine-dart finish to madder, weld and woad, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz 1 What unique structure carries the Bridgewater canal over the Manchester ship canal? 2 Melanistic leopards are more commonly known as what? 3 Which European national flag features seven castles? 4 The Arconia is the apartment block in the title of what TV series? 5 Station Island in Donegal is claimed to be an entrance to where? 6 Which woman hit a nine-dart finish in a PDC event in February? 7 The experimental boats Ra and Ra II were chiefly made from what? 8 Who did Henry VIII describe as a “rose without a thorn”? What links: 9 King’s Cross station; McDonald’s, Kings Norton; Parliament Hill; Stonehenge; Uffington? 10 Choice; HD; Knowledge; Select; 2W? 11 Book of Job beast; Tom Hanks age swap film; John Lithgow as Roald Dahl; PT Barnum elephant? 12 Glock firearms; Red Bull energy drink; Swarovski crystals? 13 Merle Oberon; Juliette Binoche; Kaya Scodelario; Margot Robbie? 14 Madder; weld; woad? 15 Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra; Punjab; Guangdong and Shandong? Continue reading...
Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes Submit a question Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun , a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book , as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: Al...
Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes Submit a question Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun , a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book , as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World . Continue reading...
Reports on English policies seen in Wales as relating to whole of UK contribute to widespread confusion, researchers say UK media is failing to report properly on devolved issues in Wales, leaving voters ill-informed about May’s Senedd elections, a report has found. A Cardiff University study of more than 3,000 news items found repeated patterns in coverage across different broadcasters and platfo...
Reports on English policies seen in Wales as relating to whole of UK contribute to widespread confusion, researchers say UK media is failing to report properly on devolved issues in Wales, leaving voters ill-informed about May’s Senedd elections, a report has found. A Cardiff University study of more than 3,000 news items found repeated patterns in coverage across different broadcasters and platforms, including not signposting whether an issue was relevant to England or England and Wales only, widespread references to “the government” rather than “the UK government”, and the use of “you” and “your” in contexts that apply only to people living in England. Continue reading...
Use of unmanned ground vehicles has grown exponentially since 2024 turning the war into a technological contest Victor Pavlov showed off Ukraine’s newest and most versatile weapon: a battery-powered land robot. The unmanned ground vehicles come in various shapes and sizes. One runs on caterpillar tracks and resembles a roofless milk float. Another has wheels and antennas. A third carries anti-tank...
Use of unmanned ground vehicles has grown exponentially since 2024 turning the war into a technological contest Victor Pavlov showed off Ukraine’s newest and most versatile weapon: a battery-powered land robot. The unmanned ground vehicles come in various shapes and sizes. One runs on caterpillar tracks and resembles a roofless milk float. Another has wheels and antennas. A third carries anti-tank mines. Since spring 2024 their use has grown exponentially. Continue reading...
The RN7 road to the Côte d’Azur is enjoying a renaissance among lovers of slow travel in search of offbeat France ‘We were five people in my parents’ 2CV; we would set out at 3am and by 10am, around about Lyon, my father would need a break. My mother would set up a deckchair for him under a tree by the side of the road and he would sleep before driving the rest of the way to Toulon.” On a recent r...
The RN7 road to the Côte d’Azur is enjoying a renaissance among lovers of slow travel in search of offbeat France ‘We were five people in my parents’ 2CV; we would set out at 3am and by 10am, around about Lyon, my father would need a break. My mother would set up a deckchair for him under a tree by the side of the road and he would sleep before driving the rest of the way to Toulon.” On a recent road trip through France, I met up with Thierry Doillon, a vintage car fanatic who helped restore a 1950s petrol station on the Route Nationale 7. I wanted to talk about the heyday of this iconic road (so famous that singer-songwriter Charles Trenet released a song about it in 1955) and why it’s enjoying a renaissance with holidaymakers. Continue reading...
My upbringing denied me access to the arts and led to me bottling up my feelings about what was happening to me. Then I saw Eminem taking control of his destiny, and decided I needed to do the same At 15, I had never been to the cinema, or even watched a movie. I grew up in a strictly Orthodox Charedi Jewish household, the daughter of a rabbi, in Glasgow, where we had next to no exposure to cultur...
My upbringing denied me access to the arts and led to me bottling up my feelings about what was happening to me. Then I saw Eminem taking control of his destiny, and decided I needed to do the same At 15, I had never been to the cinema, or even watched a movie. I grew up in a strictly Orthodox Charedi Jewish household, the daughter of a rabbi, in Glasgow, where we had next to no exposure to cultural influences beyond our religious world. The bookshelves were stacked with biblical texts and teachings, we sang in Yiddish and I only saw TV at my less religious grandparents’ house, where we could watch the end of the tennis if it was finishing as we arrived. By my mid-teens, my parents had moved to Jerusalem and sent me to live in Manchester, with a scholar who would later abuse me. The abuse went on for six months while his family slept or when they were out. I had no one to turn to or tell; even if I had, no one had taught me the words for what was happening to me. It was a complicated, lonely time without adults to rely on. Continue reading...
In this week’s newsletter: A new memoir by Fred Brathwaite offers an insight into the city’s emerging underground scene in the 70s and 80s – and shows us the power of subcultures in difficult times • Don’t get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Hello everyone, I’m Coco Khan, covering for Gwilym Mumford, and this week, as the sun started to peep out from behind the clouds, I counted fi...
A team of researchers in China has unveiled what they describe as the world’s first open-source flight control system designed specifically for bamboo-frame drones, offering a potential breakthrough in the push for low-cost, eco-friendly unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The system, developed by researchers at Northwestern Polytechnical University’s school of civil aviation, aims to solve a long-st...
A team of researchers in China has unveiled what they describe as the world’s first open-source flight control system designed specifically for bamboo-frame drones, offering a potential breakthrough in the push for low-cost, eco-friendly unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The system, developed by researchers at Northwestern Polytechnical University’s school of civil aviation, aims to solve a long-standing bottleneck in sustainable drone design: integrating non-traditional materials such as bamboo...
A Chinese woman who sacrificed her job and life to get revenge on a neighbour who poisoned her pet dog to death has shown her face publicly for the first time. After her beloved pet dog Papi, a 13-year-old white West Highland Terrier, was poisoned and killed in a children’s playground in her residential compound in Beijing in 2022, Li Yihan has dedicated her life to defending the animal’s rights. ...
A Chinese woman who sacrificed her job and life to get revenge on a neighbour who poisoned her pet dog to death has shown her face publicly for the first time. After her beloved pet dog Papi, a 13-year-old white West Highland Terrier, was poisoned and killed in a children’s playground in her residential compound in Beijing in 2022, Li Yihan has dedicated her life to defending the animal’s rights. Police found a 65-year-old man surnamed Zhang, who lived in the neighbourhood, to be the...
It wasn’t long ago that counting on a mega cap tech stock to rise was a pretty safe bet, but that certainty has been turned on its head this year. The tech-heavy index has dropped 5.9% in 2026, partly from the uncertainty due to the Iran war. A tech selloff isn’t unusual when the market abruptly shifts into risk off mode, said John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds.
It wasn’t long ago that counting on a mega cap tech stock to rise was a pretty safe bet, but that certainty has been turned on its head this year. The tech-heavy index has dropped 5.9% in 2026, partly from the uncertainty due to the Iran war. A tech selloff isn’t unusual when the market abruptly shifts into risk off mode, said John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds.