Buoyant Carlos Alcaraz to continue with his mid-season party breaks
Carlos Alcaraz says he plans to carry on with his annual post-French Open trips after unwinding from his historic five-set triumph over Jannik Sinner in Paris last weekend with three days of partying in Ibiza.“Probably,” the Spaniard said on Sunday as he was preparing for Queen’s Club, which starts on Monday.“It’s kind of the middle of the season.It’s really, really intense, the clay season.So soon after Roland Garros is the best moment to go anywhere.
My friends are going Ibiza every year,So I thought I’ll go to Ibiza as well,But it doesn’t matter the place you’re going, it’s time to turn off your mind a little bit, to reset physically, mentally and coming back to the grass season as good as I can,”Over the past few years, a short, sweet trip to Ibiza after a clay-court season has become Alcaraz’s annual mid-season excursion and his presence there has received significant attention on social media,His Netflix documentary this year revealed his previous trip had drawn objections from members of his team who believed that he should be more disciplined.
Last year Alcaraz followed up his time off in Ibiza by winning his second Wimbledon title, defeating Novak Djokovic for a second consecutive year in the final.Unsurprisingly, there were no objections this time: “They didn’t [object],” he said.“They knew at the beginning that I was going to go, 100%.”This year, Alcaraz said, his experience was far calmer.“Once I went to bed so late.
That’s the craziest thing [I did],Obviously I did some shots as well, but nothing more than that,More chill and as a normal person does,”During his time away, the Spaniard had more time to reflect on the decisive role he played in one of the great grand slam finals as he recovered from triple championship point down to defeat his great rival after 5hr 29min on court,“[There are] a lot of videos from that match, from that moment, match point down and I still watch it sometimes, and I still don’t believe that I come back from that moment,” he said.
“So sometimes it’s difficult to realise that I’m in this position, that I won the French Open, watching the videos from 40-love, in that moment.So I’m still watching those videos.”Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionAlcaraz is the top seed at Queen’s this week and the second seed is Jack Draper, the British No 1, who will tackle his first grass-court season as a top player and try to navigate all the pressure that comes with it.Draper, who defeated Alcaraz here last year, faces Jenson Brooksby in the first round.
Tell us: what questions do you have about the impacts of smartphones on children?
A quarter of three- and four-year-olds in the UK now own a smartphone, but the impact of that is still being understood. From endless scrolling to constant notifications, smartphones expose children not just to their friends and classmates, but to a world of advertising, influencers, and algorithms. But how is all of this shaping how children see themselves, relate to others, and develop emotionally?In a video series on our It’s Complicated Youtube channel, we’re speaking to experts to explore how smartphones might be affecting children’s mental health, attention, self-esteem and relationships. Are social apps making kids more anxious? What happens when children are targeted by ads that shape their sense of identity from a young age? What do we know, and what don’t we yet understand, about growing up in a world where you’re always online?We want to hear from you. What have you always wondered about children and smartphones? Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or just someone curious about the long-term effects, fill out the form below to share your questions
Disney and Universal sue AI image creator Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement
Disney and Universal sued an artificial intelligence company on Wednesday, alleging copyright infringement. In their lawsuit, the entertainment giants called Midjourney’s popular AI-powered image generator a “bottomless pit of plagiarism” for its alleged reproductions of the studios’ best-known characters.The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims Midjourney pirated the libraries of the two Hollywood studios, making and distributing without permission “innumerable” copies of their marquee characters such as Darth Vader from Star Wars, Elsa from Frozen, and the Minions from Despicable Me. Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The suit by Disney and Universal over images and video represents a new frontier in the raging legal wars over the copyright and the creation of generative artificial intelligence
‘They went too far’: Musk says he regrets some of his posts about Trump
Elon Musk has expressed contrition for some of his tweets about Donald Trump last week, in an apparent effort to retreat from an explosive falling out that has threatened to damage the Tesla boss’s business interests.Musk was by far the biggest donor to Trump’s presidential campaign, but tensions between the two erupted into public view last week and rapidly escalated, as the world’s richest man called for the president’s impeachment and mocked his connections to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a series of posts.On Wednesday, Musk posted on X, the social network he owns: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”Musk’s public apology came after the tech billionaire privately called Trump on Monday night, the New York Times first reported, citing three people familiar with the matter
Meta to announce $15bn investment in bid to achieve computerised ‘superintelligence’
Meta is to announce a $15bn (£11bn) bid to achieve computerised “superintelligence”, according to multiple reports.The Silicon Valley race to dominate artificial intelligence is speeding up despite the patchy performance of many existing AI systems.Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, is expected to announce the company will buy a 49% stake in Scale AI, a startup led by Alexandr Wang and co-founded by Lucy Guo, in a move described by one Silicon Valley analyst as the action of “a wartime CEO”.Superintelligence is described as a type of AI that can perform better than humans at all tasks. Currently AI cannot reach the same level as humans in all tasks, a state known as artificial general intelligence (AGI)
UK students and staff: tell us your experiences with AI at university
The use of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools are becoming increasingly commonplace in UK higher education. A February survey of 1,000 students showed an “explosive increase” in use of generative AI in particular over the previous 12 months.With this in mind, we’d like to find out more about how AI is affecting students at university.How has AI impacted your studies? Have you used AI tools? Have you been suspected of using AI when you haven’t? What guidance have you been given by universities or tutors about using AI? Do you have any concerns?We’d also like to hear from university teaching staff – what is the impact of AI on students’ work? What are the challenges?You can tell us about your experiences with AI at university using this form.Please share your story if you are 18 or over, anonymously if you wish
As big tech grows more involved in Gaza, Muslim workers are wrestling with a spiritual crisis
Is working in big tech halal? Muslim workers are reckoning with the possibility that their jobs go against their religious obligationsBefore Ibtihal Aboussad was fired by Microsoft for protesting the company’s work with the Israeli military during a celebration of the firm’s 50th anniversary, she sent two emails.The first went to all of her colleagues. She appealed to their universal humanity and urged them to stand against Microsoft’s contracts to provide cloud computing software and artificial intelligence products to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).She sent the second to the “Muslims at Microsoft” email list. Its subject line read: “Muslims of Microsoft, Our Code Kills Palestinians
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