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A legal battle over what looks like a cartoon stick could help set the rules over whether creators can claim ownership of their AI-generated characters.

(Image credit: AFP via Getty Images)

У любой незакрытой вакансии есть одна очевидная стоимость — зарплата сотрудника, которую компания пока не платит. На первый взгляд это даже выглядит как экономия. Человек еще не вышел — значит, компания не тратит на него 300 000 рублей в месяц.

Но с точки зрения бизнеса расчет работает немного иначе. Если разработчик действительно нужен проекту, отсутствие человека означает, что компания не получает ту работу, ради которой открыла позицию.

И чем дольше длится поиск, тем дороже становится ожидание.

From Adventure Galley and Queen Anne’s Revenge to a bus station that’s a classic of brutalist architecture, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Emily Firmin was the only human in which children’s TV series?
2 What is the most spoken language written in Devanagari script?
3 Which brothers were, respectively, King of Scots and High King of Ireland?
4 What is the pan-European emergency telephone number?
5 Who has trained a record 12 Epsom Derby winners?
6 Where is the bus station a classic of brutalist architecture?
7 Who is said to have found the True Cross in Jerusalem in the fourth century?
8 Whose last general election victory was in 1906?
What links:
9 Photographed by Luna 3; Berlin 1961-89; Judith Chalmers series; Wind in the Willows, ch 7?
10 Adventure Galley; Fancy; Queen Anne’s Revenge; Royal Fortune; Whydah?
11 Daedalus; George London and Henry Wise; Adrian Fisher?
12 LA Dodgers; San Francisco Giants; New York Jets; New York Giants?
13 Maestro; Taking Sides; Tár; Unfaithfully Yours?
14 Satoshi; Wei; lamport; lovelace?
15 John II; Louis Philippe I; Napoleon III?

In this week’s newsletter: As platforms chase ​s​ubscribers, podcasts are losing their off‑screen charm​, leaving listeners to wonder whether the intimacy of audio can survive the studio lights

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This has been the year that podcasting properly, unapologetically “pivoted to video”. Yes, it’s been a progression that has been in the making for quite a while, arguably ever since Joe Rogan first trained a webcam at himself and whichever guest he was smoking weed with in his studio back in 2009 – but in 2026 the medium’s transformation from purely aural to audio/visual (often with more of an emphasis on the visual) is truly complete.

In January, Netflix started broadcasting video versions of popular podcasts from The Ringer, iHeartMedia, Barstool and more, as well as continuing to make video pods of their own. That landgrab was a slightly desperate response to YouTube’s phenomenal success with visualised pods; after becoming the preferred podcast platform for most Americans in 2024, it managed the same feat in the UK in 2026, overtaking Spotify. No wonder, then, that Spotify has – as part of a wider push to get people sticking to its platform for pods – continued to bolster viewing capabilities for its own pods too.

Amid a jobs slump, award-winning writers, directors and producers taking on sometimes lucrative temp work teaching AI skills such as screenwriting and production

Hollywood creatives are taking gig work to train AI models to replicate their skills in a bid to offset tightening earnings in a trend one compared to being “handed a shovel and asked to dig the grave of my profession”.

Experienced and award-winning writers, directors and producers are being paid from $12 to $200 an hour to teach AI models the intricacies of their jobs, from writing a screenplay to devising a shooting schedule.

Exploring prehistory sites around the Irish Sea – that were old even before the pyramids were built – throws a magical light on our ancestors

The guide was adamant. “I’ve picked human teeth out of there and I’m not doing it again.” The small group of tourists looked suitably aghast, except the boy. He was jiggling the wellington boots on his feet and singing to himself. He looked about 14. I sensed that he was the catalyst, the one to make things happen.

“So, if anyone is planning to leave human remains in this ancient place,” went on the guide, throwing the boy a stern look, “I say, DON’T.”

This snort-aloud Australian comedy is sweet, hilarious – and a surprising examination of male loneliness and mid-life crisis. Who’s a good show then?!

Whenever I’m watching a programme that features an animal and I realise I’m expected to have a specific reaction to that animal, I run into a problem. I call it the Cuteness Assumptive Theory: Subjectivity in Television issue (CATSIT for short). It boils down to this: if the success of your show relies on my finding your lead actor scrumptious-wumptious, you’ve already failed. We all like different things.

The theory applies equally to humans. We all know that moment when some interchangeable heartthrob walks into the scene on a US sitcom. All the characters lose their minds, this being apparently the hottest person on Earth, while you’re sitting thinking, ‘Huh?’ It happens with child stars too. Casting directors have a narrow spectrum of children they think will elicit an “awww” response from audiences. The response usually elicited in me is “Couldn’t they find a better actor?” I’m not trying to be liked here! Anyway, it’s the animal version that came to mind this week, watching Dog Park.

Roman dream of building structure over strait of Messina has been revived by officials, despite claims it is unworkable and protests from locals

For more than 2,000 years, it has been an obsessive dream: a plan to link the Mediterranean Sea’s largest island to mainland Italy. It began with the Romans, who, according to Pliny the Elder, built a bridge of boats and barrels across the strait of Messina in 251BC to transport 140 war elephants captured from the Carthaginians.

Centuries later, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini embraced the same vision, followed by rightwing prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who made the bridge a flagship project. Then, in 2022, after being appointed Italy’s infrastructure minister, Matteo Salvini revived the mythic ambition, claiming that the ferry crossings “cost people more in a year than it would cost to build the bridge”.

Experts say fires caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries, such as those in vapes, are putting lives at risk

Fires at recycling centres caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries such as those found in vapes are occurring at the rate of more than 10 a week, according to new figures.

Experts say the sheer volume of battery fires now occurring at waste facilities has reached a crisis that is putting lives at risk, costing £1bn a year and frustrating fire chiefs.

В далеком 2010 году я решил вступить в партию GameDev ибо на рынке было глухо средь космических стратегий. Знаменитый СтарКвейк на стратегию никак не тянул, в сети главенствовал Огейм и его бесчисленные клоны. Но три ископаемых и достаточно простенький вариант развития колоний давил на меня отсутствием реалистичности. Немного пройдясь по гитхабам было решено писать с нуля.

Вариантов на тот момент особо не было, фронт на Flash бэк на PHP + MySQL - классика того времени. Писалось в одно лицо с привлечением художника и дизайнера, за что им бесконечное спасибо! Проект сначала жил на моем ноутбуке, затем на скромном VPS и под конец перебрался на качественный дедик в хецнере (да, были времена : ) с кучей ядер, памяти и диска. В период расцвета онлайн был 100-150 игроков. Но, как обычно, донат начал снижаться, и когда проект перестал оплачивать сервер я подождал пару лет и понял что "лошадь умерла, можно с нее слезать"

Параллельно проект ушел в 2019 на гитхаб, где был доступен абсолютно всем вплоть до недавнего времени. Единственная проблема - бэкап БД не уцелел, точнее уцелела версия 2012 года, в которой много чего не хватало.

Примерно месяц назад мне закралась мысль, а почему бы не использовать курсор для реанимации БД, ну он же может пройти по коду и все вернуть как надо? Оказалось может...

И тут все понеслось... Сначала мы разобрали исходники Flash и перепилили фронт, потом добили в БД то, чего не хватало, затем обработал напильником все картинки и "мультики", стараясь не уничтожить геймплей. Переработали ископаемые и элементы, все же 60 ископаемых оказались оверкилом. Поправили баланс кораблей и колоний...

Есть довольно соблазнительная идея: если одна из причин низкой рождаемости — жилищная теснота и неуверенность в будущем, почему бы не решить проблему радикально? Не выдавать ещё один сертификат, который неизбежно растворится в стоимости квартиры, а дать семье настоящий дом. С участком. За городом. Лучше сразу с двумя машинами. Глава семьи работает удалённо, жена может заниматься детьми, места хватает на троих или четверых, ипотека не висит над головой. Перед глазами немедленно возникает знакомая по американским фильмам и фотографиям блогеров картинка: белый заборчик, зелёный газон, одинаковые аккуратные домики, школьный автобус, соседи жарят мясо на заднем дворе. «В этом районе живут простые учителя и служащие». Америка вообще в массовом представлении — не столько страна небоскрёбов, сколько страна бесконечных пригородов.

Couple considering suing for wrongful death after coroner found disciplinary process materially contributed to suicide

When a coroner ruled this month that the Treasury “materially contributed” to Chloe Moffat’s death, her parents breathed out in bittersweet relief. For a year, David and Anne Moffat had been forced to become detectives in the worst case any parent could have to solve: why their daughter took her own life.

Chloe, 26, went to her job as a personal assistant at the Treasury on a Monday last May “happy as Larry” after a weekend she’d told her friends was a “10 out of 10”. She was planning a holiday with her sister, Alice, and arranging for friends to come for a dinner party the next weekend. She was, according to her father, living “the best life”.

Experts say fires caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries, such as those in vapes, are putting lives at risk

Fires at recycling centres caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries such as those found in vapes are occurring at the rate of more than 10 a week, according to new figures.

Experts say the sheer volume of battery fires now occurring at waste facilities has reached a crisis that is putting lives at risk, costing £1bn a year and frustrating fire chiefs.

Supermarket’s website and app go offline as customers save more than $100 on some 24-packs

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The Coles website and app have gone offline hours after a viral Reddit post highlighted a nearly 80% discount on 24-packs of premixed alcoholic drinks.

For several hours on Saturday, both the Coles website and app displayed a message advising “we’re currently offline – but not for long”. The website and app came back online, before the website went down again during the afternoon. It was back up at about 4pm AEST.

The 18-year-old remembered as a talented athlete with an infectious smile and ‘one of those people who everyone simply liked’

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Tributes have flowed for 18-year-old Lily Hooper, remembered as an adventurous, multitalented athlete with an infectious smile, after her body was found on Thursday afternoon, eight days after she disappeared while hiking in the New South Wales southern highlands.

The teenager was a fixture across local sporting and community groups in the Wollondilly region, training in martial arts, alongside her job as a Sydney BridgeClimb guide.

Три независимые попытки сделать для PostgreSQL быстрый точный десятичный тип расширением заглохли. Но не потому, что не получилось ускорить арифметику, — арифметику как раз каждое из них ускоряло. Тогда в чём же дело? Здесь я разбираю технические решения в устройстве numeric, которые приводят к высокой стоимости использования этого типа данных. Изучение провожу в сравнении с устройством типа decimal в DuckDB - будучи OLAP СУБД, он свободен от некоторых ограничений PostgreSQL, и гонясь за производительностью, выбирал другой путь развития.

• Australia defeated by New Zealand 66-19 in rugby Test in Auckland

• Sevens star Maddison Levi unable to help end 32-year losing streak

Maddison Levi has been unable to inspire the Wallaroos to a hoodoo-busting victory, the Australians falling flat in an ugly 66-19 defeat to New Zealand.

At Auckland’s Go Media Stadium on Saturday, the Wallaroos – playing in their 100th Test match – were looking to beat the Black Ferns for the first time since their initial game against their rivals in 1994.

Neurodivergence can make an already challenging process far trickier — and in the UK support isn’t automatically available. A new book aims to help mothers prepare

It’s 7am in a postnatal ward. I’ve been brought here having given birth around four hours earlier. I’m hot and have not slept since arriving at the hospital at 9pm for an induction, only to go into labour spontaneously before it could begin. All around me is incandescent hospital light and the sound of crying newborns. This would be challenging enough for someone who isn’t neurodivergent, but coupled with my attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) I could feel my ability to cope unravelling.

I remember looking around, crying, unable to shut off the noise in my brain. “What if I don’t ever sleep again,” the little voice asked. I shut my eyes and the noise grew. Then there was my newborn son, lying next to me in a cot, and the fact that I had absolutely no idea how to look after him. I pressed the emergency buzzer and told the midwife who arrived that I could not breathe and needed to be discharged immediately. She said they couldn’t do that because I was under the mental health team and needed to speak to them first. I cried more.

Social media platforms face public ire after fatal crash involving teenagers filming themselves driving on wrong side

Videos often begin with the camera panning across a glowing dashboard as a gloved hand starts the ignition. The camera turns to show figures with masked faces in the rear seat, who are also filming, and swivels back to show the windscreen. Beyond it, a dark cityscape.

The engine throbs, headlights puncture the night and the journey begins, first down a suburban road, then a motorway. The speedometer shows acceleration, the needle juddering as the car gathers velocity.

Savings bank estimates there will be 308,000 more prizes available in September draw than the month before

Premium bond holders will have more chances of winning prizes after changes announced this week.

From September there will be more prizes up for grabs for the 22 million people who hold the government-backed savings bonds.

The Sussexes are returning to the UK with significantly reduced media deals in an industry where fame alone can no longer guarantee success

Having settled in California in the aftermath of their dramatic decoupling from the royal family in 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced a partnership that appeared to set a clear destination for their new lives outside the House of Windsor.

With every global media stable clamouring for their signature, the couple revealed a deal with Netflix reportedly worth $100m. The ambitions were lofty and broad, including scripted and unscripted projects, shows for all ages and documentaries.