Novak Djokovic confident Wimbledon is his ‘best chance’ of extending slam record
Novak Djokovic believes that this year’s Wimbledon likely represents his best chance of winning a record-extending 25th grand slam title as he tries to disrupt the dominance established by Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz at the biggest tournaments in the world.“I would probably agree that Wimbledon could be the best chance because of the results I had, because of how I feel, how I play at Wimbledon, just getting that extra push mentally and motivation to perform the best tennis at the highest level,” said Djokovic.The seven-time champion at SW19 returns to the All England Club in an intriguing position.After defeating Alcaraz, the world No 2, en route to the Australian Open semi-finals in January, Djokovic reached the French Open semi-finals with a stellar win over the world No 3, Alexander Zverev, before losing in three tight sets to Sinner.The Serb departed Paris as the third best performer at the grand slam tournaments so far this year and he continues to compete at an extremely high level.
At 38, long past his physical peak, the faster, less attritional grass courts are more conducive to his game.“This year I played two semi-finals.Unfortunately in Australia I had to retire.In Roland Garros I was outplayed by Sinner.I think I still played a decent level of tennis that showed me that I can still play on a very high level at the later stages.
That’s what is also giving me an extra, I guess motivation to keep going,Obviously clay court, yeah, probably slightly less chances to win compared to grass,”Djokovic, the sixth seed this year, is attempting to break his tie with Pete Sampras and become the joint record holder at the All England Club alongside his great rival Roger Federer with eight titles,A victory would also mark him as the oldest grand slam champion in history,As was the case at the French Open, he is unsure of whether this will be his final appearance at Wimbledon.
At such an advanced age in the sport, he has resolved to take things one tournament at a time.Should both players live up to their rankings, Djokovic would face Jack Draper, the British No 1, in the quarter-finals.The fourth seed continued his preparations for Wimbledon on Saturday by working through a friendly practice match with Jacob Fearnley, the British No 2.After suffering with tonsillitis during his semi-final run at Queen’s last week, Draper again stressed that he is feeling much better.He rested for two days after Queen’s but he has trained consistently since Tuesday.
In addition to the challenge of tackling Wimbledon as a top contender for the first time, Draper has been handed an extremely difficult draw with a potential third-round match against Alexander Bublik, the Halle champion and his conqueror at the French Open,Unsurprisingly, Draper has had to field countless questions in interviews on his ability to handle the pressure that comes with his new status,“Obviously you guys have asked me a lot about the pressure and all that sort of stuff,I’m not thinking about that at all,” he said,“I’m thinking about how I can play my tennis out there.
I’m aware that the crowd is going to really be behind me and support me and want me to drive forward in the tournament,That gives me a huge source of motivation to want to keep on trying to find my level and to try to beat these guys,So I feel good,That’s the only thing I can say,”Meanwhile, Sinner, the top seed, declined to elaborate on his surprise decision to part ways with the fitness trainer Marco Panichi and the physiotherapist Ulises Badio after his second-round defeat at Halle last week.
“Nothing major happened,” said Sinner.“Nothing big happened.I parted ways not long ago, but it’s not affecting me.I feel ready to compete.I feel free.
I feel me and my team, we are ready to do the best we can,I’m here to play good tennis,I think that’s my main goal, the main reason why I’m here,“We’ve reached incredible results in the past with them, so obviously huge thanks to them,We made some great job, but I decided to do something different.
”
Inside a plan to use AI to amplify doubts about the dangers of pollutants
An industry-backed researcher who has forged a career sowing doubt about the dangers of pollutants is attempting to use artificial intelligence (AI) to amplify his perspective.Louis Anthony “Tony” Cox Jr, a Denver-based risk analyst and former Trump adviser who once reportedly claimed there is no proof that cleaning air saves lives, is developing an AI application to scan academic research for what he sees as the false conflation of correlation with causation.Cox has described the project as an attempt to weed “propaganda” out of epidemiological research and perform “critical thinking at scale” in emails to industry researchers, which were obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests by the Energy and Policy Institute, a non-profit advocacy group, and exclusively reviewed by the Guardian.He has long leveled accusations of flimsiness at research linking exposure to chemical compounds with health dangers, including on behalf of polluting interests such as cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA and the American Petroleum Institute – a fossil fuel lobbying group he has even allowed to “copy edit” his findings. (Cox says the edit “amounted to suggesting a small change” and noted that he has also obtained public research funding
Trump’s tax bill seeks to prevent AI regulations. Experts fear a heavy toll on the planet
US Republicans are pushing to pass a major spending bill that includes provisions to prevent states from enacting regulations on artificial intelligence. Such untamed growth in AI will take a heavy toll upon the world’s dangerously overheating climate, experts have warned.About 1bn tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide are set to be emitted in the US just from AI over the next decade if no restraints are placed on the industry’s enormous electricity consumption, according to estimates by researchers at Harvard University and provided to the Guardian.This 10-year timeframe, a period of time in which Republicans want a “pause” of state-level regulations upon AI, will see so much electricity use in data centers for AI purposes that the US will add more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than Japan does annually, or three times the yearly total from the UK.The exact amount of emissions will depend on power plant efficiency and how much clean energy will be used in the coming years, but the blocking of regulations will also be a factor, said Gianluca Guidi, visiting scholar at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features
The Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice.The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities with what it believes to be the first law of its kind in Europe.Having secured broad cross-party agreement, the department of culture plans to submit a proposal to amend the current law for consultation before the summer recess and then submit the amendment in the autumn.It defines a deepfake as a very realistic digital representation of a person, including their appearance and voice.The Danish culture minister, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, said he hoped the bill before parliament would send an “unequivocal message” that everybody had the right to the way they looked and sounded
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez arrive in Venice for divisive wedding
The billionaire Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, and the former TV journalist Lauren Sánchez have arrived in Venice as they prepare to tie the knot in a lavish three-day celebration that has divided the lagoon city.Scores of celebrities and other members of the world’s super-rich will also join the pair in Italy, arriving on superyachts and private jets.Bezos, the world’s fourth-richest person, and Sánchez were seen stepping off a water taxi on Wednesday as they entered the exclusive Aman Venice hotel on the Grand Canal, where many of the celebrities will stay.More than 90 private jets are expected to land in Venice before the celebrations officially begin on Thursday, bringing in guests for an event that some have called the “wedding of the century” and is rumoured to involve everything from pyjama parties to elegant dinners.Among the first guests to arrive were Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, her husband, Jared Kushner, and their children
Group of high-profile authors sue Microsoft over use of their books in AI training
A group of authors has accused Microsoft of using nearly 200,000 pirated books to create an artificial intelligence model, the latest allegation in the long legal fight over copyrighted works between creative professionals and technology companies.Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, Daniel Okrent and several others alleged that Microsoft used pirated digital versions of their books to teach its Megatron AI to respond to human prompts. Their lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, is one of several high-stakes cases brought by authors, news outlets and other copyright holders against tech companies including Meta Platforms, Anthropic and Microsoft-backed OpenAI over alleged misuse of their material in AI training.The authors requested a court order blocking Microsoft’s infringement and statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work that Microsoft allegedly misused.Generative artificial intelligence products like Megatron produce text, music, images and videos in response to users’ prompts
Meta wins AI copyright lawsuit as US judge rules against authors
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has won the backing of a judge in a copyright lawsuit brought by a group of authors, in the second legal victory for the US artificial intelligence industry this week.The writers, who included Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, had argued that the Facebook owner had breached copyright law by using their books without permission to train its AI system.The ruling comes after a decision on Monday that Anthropic, another major player in the AI field, had not infringed authors’ copyright.The US district judge Vince Chhabria, in San Francisco, said in his decision on the Meta case that the authors had not presented enough evidence that the technology company’s AI would cause “market dilution” by flooding the market with work similar to theirs. As a consequence Meta’s use of their work was judged a “fair use” – a legal doctrine that allows use of copyright protected work without permission – and no copyright liability applied
A clear set of actions is needed to improve NHS maternity services | Letters
‘I don’t think my brain should have gone through that’: five young people on their experience of smartphones as teens
Felicity Whittaker obituary
Triple threat of smoking, drinking and weight ‘puts a million in England at risk of early death’
As a carer, I’m not special – but sometimes I need to be reminded how important my role is | Natasha Sholl
People dying early of cancer costs UK economy £10.3bn a year, study finds