Michael Vaughan criticises Ben Stokes’s ‘staggering’ decision to put India in to bat
The former England captain Michael Vaughan said he was “staggered” that Ben Stokes chose to bowl first after winning the toss on the opening day of the Test series against India,The tourists proceeded to plunder 359 runs for the loss of three wickets on a flat pitch with Yashasvi Jaiswal and the new captain, Shubman Gill, both scoring centuries,The last six Tests played at Headingley had all ended in victory for the side that bowled first, and Vaughan, a former Yorkshire batter, accused England of making their decision based on the history books rather than the conditions on the day,“I am an old-school traditionalist here at Leeds that when the sun is shining, with dry weather, you bat,” said the 50-year-old Vaughan, who played 51 first-class matches at Headingley including four as England captain,“I was staggered when he said he was going to bowl.
Traditions are out the window,You have to pick your decisions on that moment, and not things that you did here years ago,“Tim Southee, the former New Zealand seamer working as England’s bowling consultant, said they had been swayed by the green tinge to the surface on Thursday, before it received its final trim overnight,“With the colour of the wicket yesterday and a little bit of moisture left in it, there was going to be a little bit in it this morning,That was the thinking behind the decision,” he said.
“I think there was a little bit of assistance there [in the first hour], but for the rest of the day it was a pretty good surface, which is encouraging for our guys when we get an opportunity to bat.I guess when you win the toss and bowl you expect to make early inroads, but they negotiated that first hour or so pretty well.We’ve got a new ball still, so hopefully tomorrow morning we can make the most of that and make some early inroads.”England’s decision at the toss may have been intended to expose the relative inexperience in these conditions of India’s top order: of the five players to bat on Friday Jaiswal was playing his first Test in this country, Gill his fourth, and Sai Sudharsan – who got a four-ball duck – was making his Test debut.“Credit to the Indian batsmen – Jaiswal and Gill played a couple of great hands there,” Southee said.
“They’ve not played a lot of cricket but they’re certainly talented cricketers.”
Garmin Forerunner 970 review: the new benchmark for running watches
Garmin’s new top running watch, the Forerunner 970, has very big shoes to fill as it attempts to replace one of the best training and race companions available. Can a built-in torch, a software revamp and voice control really make a difference?The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The new top-of-the-line Forerunner takes the body of the outgoing Forerunner 965 and squeezes in a much brighter display, useful new running analytics and more of the advanced tech from Garmin’s flagship adventure watch the Fenix 8
Israel-linked group hacks Iranian cryptocurrency exchange in $90m heist
An Israel-linked hacking group has claimed responsibility for a $90m (£67m) heist on an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange.The group known as Gonjeshke Darande, Farsi for Predatory Sparrow, said on Wednesday it had hacked the Nobitex exchange, a day after claiming it had destroyed data at Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah.Elliptic, a consultancy specialising in crypto-related crime, said it had so far identified more than $90m in cryptocurrency sent from Nobitex crypto wallets to hacker addresses.The hackers appear to have in effect “burned” those funds, rendering them inaccessible by storing them in “vanity addresses” for which they do not have the cryptographic keys, Elliptic said.Tom Robinson, Elliptic’s co-founder, told the Guardian it would take current computer technology “billions of years” to create the cryptographic key pairs that match the vanity addresses
OpenAI boss accuses Meta of trying to poach staff with $100m sign-on bonuses
The boss of OpenAI has claimed that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has tried to poach his top artificial intelligence experts with “crazy” signing bonuses of $100m (£74m), as the scramble for talent in the booming sector intensifies.Sam Altman spoke about the offers in a podcast on Tuesday. They have not been confirmed by Meta. OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, said it had nothing to add beyond its chief executive’s comments.“They started making these giant offers to a lot of people on our team – $100m signing bonuses, more than that comp [compensation] per year,” Altman told the Uncapped podcast, which is presented by his brother, Jack
‘It’s terrifying’: WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user’s number
The Meta chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, called it “the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use”. But Barry Smethurst, 41, a record shop worker trying to travel by rail from Saddleworth to Manchester Piccadilly, did not agree.Waiting on the platform for a morning train that was nowhere to be seen, he asked Meta’s WhatsApp AI assistant for a contact number for TransPennine Express. The chatbot confidently sent him a mobile phone number for customer services, but it turned out to be the private number of a completely unconnected WhatsApp user 170 miles away in Oxfordshire.It was the beginning of a bizarre exchange of the kind more and more people are having with AI systems, in which chatbots try to negotiate their way out of trouble, deflect attention from their mistakes and contradict themselves, all in an attempt to continue to appear useful
Amazon boss tells staff AI means their jobs are at risk in coming years
The boss of Amazon has told white collar staff at the e-commerce company their jobs could be taken by artificial intelligence in the next few years.Andrew Jassy told employees that AI agents – tools that carry out tasks autonomously – and generative AI systems such as chatbots would require fewer employees in certain areas.“As we roll out more generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,” he said in a memo to staff. “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.“It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce
Up to 70% of streams of AI-generated music on Deezer are fraudulent, says report
Up to seven out of 10 streams of artificial intelligence-generated music on the Deezer platform are fraudulent, according to the French streaming platform.The company said AI-made music accounts for just 0.5% of streams on the music streaming platform but its analysis shows that fraudsters are behind up to 70% of those streams.AI-generated music is a growing problem on streaming platforms. Fraudsters typically generate revenue on platforms such as Deezer by using bots to “listen” to AI-generated songs – and take the subsequent royalty payments, which become sizeable once spread across multiple tracks
One in three across UK are overdue for cervical cancer screening
Jean Robinson obituary
Overseas-trained doctors ‘put off UK due to cost of living and low salaries’
Two Leeds hospitals’ maternity services rated inadequate over safety risks
UK ‘behind curve’ on assisted dying among progressive nations, says Kim Leadbeater
Assisted dying: supporters and opponents of bill on hopes and fears ahead of crucial vote