A chorus of criticism greeted Friedrich Merz, the favorite to become Germany’s chancellor, last month when he broke a taboo against working with a hard-right party to pass legislation. But it was a lone voice of dissent that rocked the country’s political scene: Angela Merkel, the once-beloved former chancellor, who called Mr. Merz’s decision simply “wrong.”Ms. Merkel and Mr. Merz have famously jockeyed to lead Germany’s Christian Democrats for much of this century. Ms. Merkel won the early rounds, served 16 years as chancellor, and retired in 2021. Mr. Merz finally has a chance to win her old job in…
Author: usaeverydaylife
Google DeepMind co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Demis Hassabis gives a conference during the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 26, 2024.Pau Barrena | Afp | Getty ImagesPARIS — Deepseek’s AI model “is probably the best work” out of China, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind said on Sunday, but added that the company didn’t show any new scientific advances.Last month, China’s Deepseek released a research paper that rattled global markets after claiming its AI model was trained at a fraction of the cost of leading AI players and on less-advanced…
The Athletic has live coverage of Chiefs vs Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, and Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance.(Editor’s note: The Athletic baseball writer Levi Weaver is an accomplished singer, songwriter and musician who has played roughly 1,000 shows in 43 states and 10 countries.)On Sunday, as the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs head to their locker rooms, crews will rapidly set the stage (literally) for what has become one of the most high-profile music performances of each year: the Super Bowl halftime show.This year, headlining will be Kendrick Lamar, who — let’s admit it — has had himself a…
Omer Taha Cetin | Anadolu | Getty ImagesThe geopolitics of artificial intelligence will be in focus at a major summit in France where world leaders, executives and experts will hammer out pledges on guiding the development of the rapidly advancing technology.It’s the latest in a series of global dialogues around AI governance, but one that comes at a fresh inflection point as China’s buzzy and budget-friendly DeepSeek chatbot shakes up the industry.U.S. Vice President JD Vance — making his first trip abroad since taking office — will attend the Paris AI Action Summit starting Feb. 10, while China’s President Xi…
The PlayStation DualSense controller and PlayStation 5 console.Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesSony said on Sunday that all PlayStation Plus members would automatically receive an additional five days of service, after a global outage disrupted the PlayStation Network (PSN) for about 18 hours on Friday and Saturday.”Network services have fully recovered from an operational issue. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank the community for their patience,” the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant said in a post on X on Sunday, without specifying the cause of the outage.The outage, which began late Friday, left users unable to sign in,…
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., Feb. 4, 2025.Leah Millis | ReutersEgypt announced Sunday that it will host an emergency Arab summit on Feb. 27 to discuss “new and dangerous developments” after U.S. President Donald Trump proposed to resettle Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.Trump’s suggestion, made at a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, infuriated the Arab world, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — key allies of Washington.Both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and…
The Athletic has live coverage of Chiefs vs Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, and Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance.NEW ORLEANS — Chiefs All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie is one of the NFL’s best coverage defenders, a player who can stay step-for-step with the best receivers. Most of the time, though, McDuffie’s favorite moment in a game comes when he doesn’t start the play backpedaling.As the linebacker with the green dot on his helmet, Nick Bolton gets the play calls from defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo transmitted in his ear and relays them to his teammates. Bolton loves when he realizes — before his…
Stephen James Hubbard left America behind decades ago, first for Japan, then Cyprus and finally Ukraine. He didn’t like the government — any government, really.He was a wanderer, growing up in a small town in Michigan and traveling the world before ending up alone in the eastern Ukrainian town of Izium when the Russians invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.Now Mr. Hubbard, a retired English teacher who turns 73 on Thursday, has become an unlikely pawn in an international war. The Russians arrested him shortly after invading and accused him of fighting for Ukraine. They moved him to at least five…
Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, arrives for a meeting at the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in Hart building on Monday, December 16, 2024. Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty ImagesRussell Vought, President Donald Trump’s newly installed head of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, instructed staff on Saturday evening to suspend all activities including the supervision of companies overseen by the agency, escalating the new administration’s efforts to neutralize the government watchdog, according to a memo seen by Reuters.Vought also announced on Saturday evening on Elon…
Military vehicles operate in North Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel on Feb. 9, 2025.Amir Cohen | ReutersThe Israeli military has withdrawn from an area of Gaza known as the Netzarim corridor that bisects the enclave, Hamas said on Sunday, a move that was expected under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group.An Israeli security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed the Israeli military was withdrawing from its positions in central Gaza.Israeli forces had already reduced their presence there.Hamas celebrated the withdrawal as a victory…
