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Oracle celebrates banner quarter with another round of layoffs
Oracle carried out a fresh round of layoffs this week, even as it reported record quarterly revenue driven by its AI datacentre buildout. Staff first realised they had lost their jobs when they were locked out of corporate systems such as email and Slack, with many complaining on LinkedIn that no notice was sent to…
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British tourists are forced to flee Croatian holiday island on little boats during raging wildfires
British holidaymakers on the Croatian island of Brač were forced to flee into the sea and were rescued by a flotilla of local boats after a wildfire engulfed their resort, with staff having reportedly abandoned guests without an evacuation plan. Tourist Josh Robbins said staff at the Gava Waterman Milna Resort had assured guests as…
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How British Comedy Show ‘Mock the Week’ Found New Life on TLC After BBC Cancellation: ‘Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder’
The BBC panel comedy show “Mock the Week” has been revived by TLC, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network, three years after the BBC axed it in 2022 due to budget cuts. Created in 2005 by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, the satirical news show ran for 17 years on the BBC before returning in February…
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Billboard’s Country Up-And-Comer Mack Geiger Went From Student Paramedic to Hot 100 Hitmaker in Eight Months: ‘It’s Been a Trip’
Australian country singer Mack Geiger has gone from studying to be a paramedic and working on a cattle ranch to landing his debut on the Billboard Hot 100, all within roughly eight months. His breakthrough single “String By” has reached No. 48 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, marking a rapid rise for the Queensland-raised artist…
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Ministers seek law change to make £72m donations to Reform illegal
The UK government is preparing amendments to the Representation of the People Bill in the House of Lords that could retrospectively block Reform UK from accepting £72m in donations from two overseas-based cryptocurrency billionaires. Ministers say the plan predates the donations and stems from earlier Commons pressure for tougher rules on political funding, but the…
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The “pretentious” 1981 song Geddy Lee fell back in love with
Geddy Lee, bassist and vocalist of Rush, has spoken about rediscovering his affection for “The Camera Eye”, the sprawling closing track from the band’s 1981 album Moving Pictures. Lee admitted he initially found parts of the song “pretentious” and felt it had not aged well, but returning to it in later years and reworking it…
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Cross-party growth push, Iran death sentence, Australian rate rise loom over UK bulletin
Burnham courts business at a Downing Street growth summit amid Budget tax fears; an Iranian blogger is sentenced to death, a Malaysian teen acquitted of murder, and Australians face fresh rate hikes, plus GOV.UK’s passkey rollout, an A66 tribute run and new Nightsleeper casting.
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Founder’s cost-cutting obsession drove Unitree lead in cheap humanoid robots
Unitree Robotics, the Chinese firm behind some of the world’s cheapest humanoid robots and robot dogs, owes much of its market lead to founder Wang Xingxing’s intensely hands-on, cost-obsessed management style, according to extensive reporting by Beijing-based Caijing Magazine. Wang, who became hugely wealthy after Unitree’s IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on 19 August,…
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Non-English-speaking artists account for 30% of Live Nation’s top 50 tours, up from 8% pre-COVID – and 47 of the top 75 international markets lack the arenas to host them
Live Nation says non-English-speaking artists now make up 30% of its top 50 tours, up from just 8% before the pandemic, with company president Joe Berchtold predicting the share will soon exceed half. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs investor conference, Berchtold framed this as evidence that live entertainment is still in the “early innings” of…