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Woman laid to rest in coffin made from mushrooms in Australian first
A woman in her 70s has become the first person in Australia to be buried in a coffin grown from mushrooms, in a bid to reduce the environmental impact of her funeral. Carolyn was laid to rest on Friday at Springwood Cemetery in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, using a casket made by Dutch…
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James Franklin questions ‘un-American’ Virginia Tech penalty for high-fiving military cadets after touchdown
Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin criticised officials after his team was penalised for celebrating a touchdown by high-fiving members of the university’s military cadet corps during a 73-3 rout of VMI. Franklin called the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty “un-American,” questioning why players should not be allowed to celebrate with servicemembers. The incident stood out as…
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Breaking Baz: Léa Seydoux Talks ‘Gentle Monster’s “Complexity” And “Contradictions” & Why She Wants To Take More Risks — Telluride Film Festival
Actor Léa Seydoux discusses her lead role in Marie Kreutzer’s drama Gentle Monster, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival after being acquired by Netflix during Cannes. Speaking to Deadline from her home in Paris, Seydoux explains that at this stage of her career she is drawn to riskier, more emotionally demanding roles, and describes…
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At Telluride Film Festival, Bill Gates Compares Lack of Control Over AI to HAL in ‘2001’: ‘You Could Say “Please Shut Down,” and It Would Say, “OK, I Took That Under Advisement, But…”‘
Speaking at the Telluride Film Festival, Microsoft founder Bill Gates warned that current AI systems lack meaningful human control, comparing them to HAL 9000, the rogue computer from “2001: A Space Odyssey” that ignored direct commands. He argued that instructions to AI systems get weighed against everything else the model has read or been told,…
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EU faces 300,000 factory job cuts as China ‘colonises’ supply chains, industry warns
The European metals industry body Eurometal has warned that EU manufacturing could lose 300,000 jobs by the end of 2026 unless the European Commission acts to curb what it calls the “colonisation” of European supply chains by Chinese component manufacturers. On Monday, the group plans to stage a protest in Brussels, parading 10 symbolic coffins…
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Political heavyweights clash over Budget tax plans and Trump’s Falklands signals
Laffer warns Labour against “taxing Britain to death” as Burnham backs public control; Hitchens questions the special relationship; plus Katie Taylor’s retirement, gambling site data breaches and a big Premier League weekend.
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The Guardian view on Burnham’s devolution plans: power must be accompanied by scrutiny | Editorial
This Guardian editorial examines the accountability gap facing Andy Burnham’s proposed devolution plans, which would grant England’s mayors significant new powers and money, including a share of local income tax. The piece argues that while Burnham is right to want to shift power away from Whitehall towards communities, the local scrutiny infrastructure needed to keep…
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Audible Teases Jonathan Bailey’s ”Seductive” Performance In ‘Dracula’ At Venice Preview Of Ambitious Multilingual Adaptation
Audible previewed its ambitious multilingual audio adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula at the Venice Film Festival, showcasing what it calls its biggest audio production to date. The English-language version stars Jonathan Bailey as Dracula, Ella Purnell as Mina, and Venice jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal as Professor Van Helsing, directed by Mary Lambert in her audio…
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William Fichtner has ‘never’ regretted turning down roles and refuses to cross ‘certain lines’ in Hollywood
Actor William Fichtner has said he has never regretted turning down film or television roles, even lucrative ones, if the material crossed personal boundaries he refuses to breach. Speaking to Fox News Digital, the 69-year-old explained that his decisions are guided by instinct and belief in a project rather than pay, and that he doesn’t…
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China prepares £40bn stimulus for financial sector amid fears over sluggish growth
China is injecting $54bn (£40bn) into its financial sector, as Beijing seeks to strengthen banks and insurers and encourage greater lending and stock market investment amid persistently weak economic growth. The move underlines official concern about the health of the world’s second-largest economy, with authorities relying on state institutions, including the finance ministry and the…