England call up Noah Caluori for Argentina Test after triple injury blow
England have been hit by a triple injury blow before their final autumn Test with Ollie Lawrence, Jamie George and Tom Roebuck all ruled out of the game against Argentina on Sunday.The 19‑year-old uncapped wing Noah Caluori has been called into the squad and could profit from Roebuck’s absence.All three injured players started the 33-19 win against the All Blacks on Saturday, forcing Steve Borthwick into a significant reshuffle as his side targets an 11th successive victory and a clean sweep of four November Tests for the first time since Eddie Jones’s first autumn in charge in 2016.As revealed by the Guardian, Lawrence’s participation to face the Pumas was in grave doubt after he picked up a hamstring injury in the closing stages of the win on Saturday.His absence is a blow to Borthwick given how his centre partnership with Fraser Dingwall has blossomed.
It is also a considerable setback for Lawrence, who battled back from a long-term achilles problem ahead of schedule after missing the British & Irish Lions tour of Australia,The contenders to replace him include Elliot Daly, who is considered available for a first appearance since breaking his arm on the Lions tour , as well as Max Ojomoh and Henry Slade,More radical options include Henry Pollock, who was named on Tuesday on a four-man shortlist for the world breakthrough player of the year award, and Ben Earl,When Lawrence was replaced in the 79th minute against the All Blacks, Pollock moved to the backline,George also has a hamstring injury and, though he endured lineout problems against New Zealand, the former captain’s experience will be sorely missed.
Borthwick preferred to use Luke Cowan-Dickie as part of the “Pom Squad” against the All Blacks but could now hand the Sale hooker a start, while Theo Dan and the recalled Jamie Blamire will compete to take George’s place in the matchday 23.Roebuck misses out with a foot injury, as was the case against Fiji this month.The 24-year-old battled back to take his place against New Zealand and again impressed on the right wing, scoring the late try that put England out of sight.With Tommy Freeman also absent Borthwick’s wing options are suddenly depleted but Henry Arundell, who came off the bench against Fiji to score a stunning try, is in the frame, as is the versatile Daly.Alternatively, Borthwick may give a debut to the 6ft 4in Caluori, who has earned rave reviews for his aerial ability and scored five tries on his first Prem start for Saracens last month.
He was also on the scoresheet for England A in their 29‑25 win against Spain at the weekend.Before the start of the autumn campaign, Borthwick said: “I think he could certainly feature this autumn.He has been on the radar for a considerable period of time.”The head coach has also talked up the idea of deploying Pollock out of position.“We’ve been looking at Henry Pollock on the wing,” said Borthwick, who has also added Charlie Ewels to the squad in place of Ollie Chessum, who is still out after missing the All Blacks game with a foot injury.
“[Henry’s] pace is the match of a lot of wingers.That kind of versatility is really important to us.”Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionIn better news for Borthwick, Freddie Steward is available despite going off on Saturday after 22 minutes with a head injury.He has passed stages two and three of the head injury assessment protocols following his permanent removal against the All Blacks.
Cloudflare outage causes error messages across the internet
A key piece of the internet’s usually hidden infrastructure suffered a global outage on Tuesday, causing error messages to flash up across websites.Cloudflare, a US company whose services include defending millions of websites against malicious attacks, experienced an unidentified problem that meant internet users could not access some of its customers’ websites.Some site owners could not access their performance dashboards. Sites including X and OpenAI suffered increased outages at the same time as Cloudflare’s problems, according to Downdetector.The outage was reported at 11
Amazon vs Perplexity: the AI agent war has arrived
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery.A tech titan and a startup are fighting over who controls the next phase of artificial intelligence.Amazon has sued Perplexity AI, a prominent artificial intelligence startup, over a shopping feature in that company’s browser that allows it to automate placing orders for users. Amazon accused Perplexity AI of covertly accessing customer accounts and disguising AI activity as human browsing
Crypto market sheds more than $1tn in six weeks amid fears of tech bubble
More than $1tn (£760bn) has been wiped off the value of the cryptocurrency market in the past six weeks amid fears of a tech bubble and fading expectations for a US rate cut next month.Tracking more than 18,500 coins, the value of the crypto market has fallen by a quarter since a high in early October, according to the data company CoinGecko.Bitcoin has fallen by 27% over the same period to $91,212, its lowest level since April.Investors around the world are on edge as fears mount over an artificial intelligence bubble in the stock market, with even the boss of Google’s parent company warning that “no company” will be immune if the bubble bursts.The UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 1
‘Fear really drives him’: is Alex Karp of Palantir the world’s scariest CEO?
His company is potentially creating the ultimate state surveillance tool, and Karp has recently been on a striking political and philosophical journey. His biographer reveals what makes him tickIn a recent interview, Alex Karp said that his company Palantir was “the most important software company in America and therefore in the world”. He may well be right. To some, Palantir is also the scariest company in the world, what with its involvement in the Trump administration’s authoritarian agenda. The potential end point of Palantir’s tech is an all-powerful government system amalgamating citizens’ tax records, biometric data and other personal information – the ultimate state surveillance tool
Don’t blindly trust everything AI tools say, warns Alphabet boss
The head of Google’s parent company has said people should not “blindly trust” everything artificial intelligence tools tell them.In an interview with the BBC, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Alphabet, said AI models were “prone to errors” and urged people to use them alongside other tools.In the same interview, Pichai warned that no company would be immune if the AI bubble burst.Since May, Google has introduced an “AI Mode” into its search using its Gemini chatbot, which aims to give users the experience of talking to an expert.Google’s consumer AI model, Gemini 3
UK consumers warned over AI chatbots giving inaccurate financial advice
Artificial intelligence chatbots are giving inaccurate money tips, offering British consumers misleading tax advice and suggesting they buy unnecessary travel insurance, research has revealed.Tests on the most popular chatbots found Microsoft’s Copilot and ChatGPT advised breaking HMRC investment limits on Isas; ChatGPT wrongly said it was mandatory to have travel insurance to visit most EU countries; and Meta’s AI gave incorrect information about how to claim compensation for delayed flights.Google’s Gemini advised withholding money from a builder if a job went wrong, a move that the consumer organisation Which? said risked exposing the consumer to a claim of breach of contract.Which? said its research, conducted by putting 40 questions to the rival AI tools, “uncovered far too many inaccuracies and misleading statements for comfort, especially when leaning on AI for important issues like financial or legal queries”.Meta’s AI received the worst score, followed by ChatGPT; Copilot and Gemini scored slightly higher
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