Coco Gauff beats Iga Swiatek but Poland best US to reach United Cup final
A statement victory for Coco Gauff over her great rival Iga Świątek proved to be insufficient to the American’s hopes of leading her team into the final of the United Cup.Poland showed their depth in an excellent team performance to close out a 2-1 win over the United States at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney.Poland, who finished runners-up to the US last year, exacted their revenge courtesy of the doubles specialists Jan Zielinski and Katarzyna Kawa, who maintained their unbeaten run in the competition by defeating Christian Harrison and Gauff 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in the decisive third rubber.Poland face Switzerland in the final on Sunday after the Swiss defeated Belgium 2-1.The tie opened with another victory for Hubert Hurkacz, who continued his impressive comeback from injury by defeating the world No 9, Taylor Fritz, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (2).
Gauff put together a brilliant performance against Świątek, winning 6-4, 6-2 to register her fourth consecutive win over the six-time grand slam champion.This has evolved into one of the game’s most fascinating rivalries.Gauff is 21 and Świątek 24, yet the pair have already faced each other on 16 occasions.For a long time, this seemed to be a fatal match-up for Gauff as Świątek won their first seven meetings in straight sets and 11 of their first 12 contests, including the 2022 French Open final and for three consecutive years at Roland Garros.However, Gauff has turned the rivalry on its head.
She is the first player to register four consecutive straight-sets wins over the Pole, reducing the deficit in their head-to-head to 5-11.While this result may prove to be relevant to their future battles, with Gauff’s confidence growing each time she faces Świątek, it did not play a decisive role in the tie.Poland have now reached three consecutive finals at the United Cup, but while their previous two runs were almost entirely due to Świątek’s singular brilliance, this time it was her teammates that stepped up.Świątek had been expected to compete in the mixed doubles at the beginning of the tournament, but Kawa and Zielinski, the latter a two-time mixed doubles grand slam champion, have formed a formidable partnership.They closed out the final rubber, holding their nerve in two tight tie-breaks.
Hurkacz is a former world No 8, but he has been off the tour for seven months after undergoing surgery on a chronic knee injury,He has returned with two top 10 wins in his first week back, beating the world No 3, Alexander Zverev, in his opening match,They will line up against a Swiss team that has reached the final in large part thanks to a series of supreme performances from Belinda Bencic, who is unbeaten in her eight singles and mixed doubles matches this week,Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner enjoyed a leisurely start to the new season as the Spaniard beat his biggest rival 7-5, 7-6 (8) in an exhibition event in South Korea,Recently, they have opted to forgo official competition in the run up to the Australian Open and this year they chose to play a lucrative, low-intensity exhibition event.
The two favourites for Melbourn ehead to Melbourne, where they will train for the first time on Sunday evening.In Brisbane, Aryna Sabalenka continued her imperious start to the season as she calmly navigated her way past Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final.The world No 1 will face Marta Kostyuk after the Ukrainian dismantled Jessica Pegula, the fourth seed, 6-0, 6-3.This was Kostyuk’s third top-10 win of the week after victories over Amanda Anisimova and Mirra Andreeva.
Robots that can do laundry and more, plus unrolling laptops: the standout tech from CES 2026
This year will be filled with robots that can fold your laundry, pick up objects and climb stairs, fridges that you can command to open by voice, laptops with screens that can follow you around the room on motorised hinges and the reimagining of the BlackBerry phone.Those are the predictions from the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas that took place this week. The sprawling event aims to showcase cutting-edge technology developed by startups and big brands.Many of these fancy developments will be available to actually buy, moving from outlandish concepts to production devices, although some are still limited to costly prototypes.The rise of the humanoid robot continues, with the show floor filled with myriad prototypes, some of which operated autonomously rather than being remotely controlled or performing set routines this year
No 10 condemns ‘insulting’ move by X to restrict Grok AI image tool
Downing Street has condemned the move by X to restrict its AI image creation tool to paying subscribers as insulting, saying it simply made the ability to generate explicit and unlawful images a premium service.There has been widespread anger after the image tool for Grok, the AI element of X, was used to manipulate thousands of images of women and sometimes children to remove their clothing or put them in sexual positions.Grok announced in a post on X, which is owned by Elon Musk, that the ability to generate and edit images would be “limited to paying subscribers”. Those who pay have to provide personal details, meaning they could be identified if the function was misused.Asked about the change, a Downing Street spokesperson said it was unacceptable
X UK revenues drop nearly 60% in a year as content concerns spook advertisers
UK revenues at Elon Musk’s X fell by almost 60% in a year as advertisers pulled their spending over concerns about the social media platform’s content.News of the plummeting financial performance comes after X switched off the image creation function on its AI tool Grok for the vast majority of users after a widespread outcry about its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery.In the UK, the social media site recorded a 58.3% fall in revenues from £69.1m in 2023 to £28
Spotify no longer running ICE recruitment ads, after US government campaign ends
Spotify is no long running advertisements for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the streaming service has confirmed, after the Trump administration campaign ended in late 2025.“There are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify,” the Swedish company said in a statement. “The advertisements mentioned were part of a US government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms.”Since April, the government ads have also run on Amazon, YouTube, Hulu and Max among other streaming companies, with the aim of recruiting more than 10,000 deportation officers by the end of 2025.Previously, Spotify said that the ads, which encouraged US listeners to “fulfil your mission to protect America” and offered $50,000 in signing bonuses, did not “violate our advertising policies”
UK ministers considering leaving X amid concern over AI tool images
UK ministers are considering leaving X as a result of the controversy over the platform’s AI tool, which has been allowing users to generate digitally altered pictures of people – including children – with their clothes removed.Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party and a minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office, said on Friday that conversations were happening within the government and Labour about their continued use of the social media platform, which is controlled by Elon Musk.The government has come under mounting pressure to leave X after the site was flooded with images including sexualised and unclothed pictures of children generated by its AI tool, Grok.Turley told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “X, first and foremost, has to get its act together and prevent this. It has the powers to do this, and we need to make sure there are firm consequences for that
Grok turns off image generator for most users after outcry over sexualised AI imagery
Grok, Elon Musk’s AI tool, has switched off its image creation function for the vast majority of users after a widespread outcry about its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery.The move comes after Musk was threatened with fines, regulatory action and reports of a possible ban on X in the UK.The tool had been used to manipulate images of women to remove their clothes and put them in sexualised positions. The function to do so has been switched off except for paying subscribers.Posting on X, Musk’s social media network, Grok said: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers
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