Peter Nichols obituary
My friend and former sports-writing colleague at the Observer Peter Nichols, who has died from Parkinson’s-related dementia aged 79, was a man of many talents: drama teacher, Time Out cabaret correspondent, athletics correspondent, London Marathon international race organiser, publisher and award-winning radio scriptwriter.Pete was a sporting Google long before Google was invented.He was a sharer, the go-to source at the seven Olympiads he covered.“Pete was utterly invaluable,” recalls the former Guardian head of sport Ben Clissitt.“His input was the Guardian playbook for our Olympic coverage.
”His smiling, twinkle-eyed persona was a presence in press rooms round the world.He was a charming contrarian, rarely accepting received wisdom, fighting his corner, as the local council in his home town, Brighton, once discovered when Pete accumulated several hundred parking tickets and eventually won his case to have them cancelled because of misleading signage.Witty, pedantic, generous, argumentative, he took Robert Frost’s “road less travelled” as his preferred pathway, be it a pub off the beaten track or the trumpeting of a minor sport.He was a man of broad tastes, at ease discussing Emil Zátopek or Emile Zola.Peter was born in London, in Homerton, Hackney, the son of Albert, a surgical salesman, and Agnes (nee Kuch), a secretary.
Educated at Harrow county school, Pete spent time in Australia before returning to study English and American studies (1974-77) at the University of East Anglia as a mature student.He went on to take up a drama teaching post in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, following a Cert Ed course at Goldsmiths College.There was a writing itch that needed to be addressed, though, and Pete was soon covering the comedy circuit for Time Out, and gave Paul Merton one of his first reviews.Athletics was his great love, and Pete came to national attention when he worked with Pat Butcher, a UEA pal who became the Times athletics correspondent, on a groundbreaking exposé of drugs in sport in the Times in 1987.Cheats never slept easy when that pair were on the job.
Pete’s inquisitive mind saw him generate an eclectic output.He spent his later years working alongside his wife, Karen Rose, at her award-winning radio production company, Sweet Talk Productions.His play Esterhazy, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006, was a highly commended runner-up for the Richard Imison award the following year.Pete and Karen first met in London in 1985, and they married in 2016.Peter is survived by Karen and his son, Will, as well as by his older sister, Judy.
Bank of England expects budget will cut inflation by up to half a percentage point
The Bank of England expects Rachel Reeves’s budget will reduce the UK’s headline inflation rate by as much as half a percentage point next year.In a boost for the chancellor after last month’s high-stakes tax and spending statement, Clare Lombardelli, a deputy governor at the central bank, said its early analysis showed the policies would lower the annual inflation rate by 0.4 to 0.5 percentage points for a year from mid-2026.Reeves made cutting inflation a central ambition of her budget alongside a sweeping £26bn package of tax increases to cover a shortfall in the public finances and fund scrapping the two-child benefit policy
Ofgem approves early investment in three UK electricity ‘superhighways’
Three major UK electricity “superhighways” could move ahead sooner than expected to help limit the amount that households pay for windfarms to turn off during periods of high power generation.Current grid bottlenecks mean there is not enough capacity to transport the abundance of electricity generated in periods of strong winds to areas where energy demand is highest.The new high-voltage cable projects linking windfarms in Scotland and off the North Sea coast to densely populated areas in the south of the country could start operations by the early 2030s rather than towards the end of the decade, according to the sector regulator.This should help to cut the rising cost of paying windfarms to turn off when they generate more electricity than the grid can transport. Without better interconnection these payments, which consumers cover via their energy bills, are expected to reach more than £12bn a year by the end of the decade
Trump clears way for Nvidia to sell powerful AI chips to China
Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO, Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country.Before Monday’s announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China over national security concerns.Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday: “I have informed President Xi, of China, that the United States will allow NVIDIA to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other Countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security. President Xi responded positively!”Trump said the Department of Commerce was finalising the details and that he was planning to make the same offer to other chip companies, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel. Nvidia’s H200 chips are the company’s second most powerful, and far more advanced than the H20, which was originally designed as a lower-powered model for the Chinese market that would not breach restrictions, but which the US banned anyway in April
AI researchers are to blame for serving up slop | Letter
I’m not surprised to read that the field of artificial intelligence research is being overwhelmed by the very slop that it has pioneered (Artificial intelligence research has a slop problem, academics say: ‘It’s a mess’, 6 December). But this is a bit like bears getting indignant about all the shit in the woods.It serves AI researchers right for the irresponsible innovations that they’ve unleashed on the world, without ever bothering to ask the rest of us whether we wanted it.But what about the rest of us? The problem is not restricted to AI research – their slop generators have flooded other disciplines that bear no blame for this revolution. As a peer reviewer for top ethics journals, I’ve had to point out that submissions are AI-generated slop
Questions over Champ playoffs with only two clubs applying for promotion
Behind-the-scenes arguments about the proposed transformation of the top tier of English club rugby into a franchise-based league are intensifying with just two Champ clubs now eligible for promotion this season. Only Ealing Trailfinders and Doncaster Knights have formally applied to be promoted to the Prem with Worcester Warriors having declined to do so.A Rugby Football Union spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that Worcester have taken the decision because the club is still “getting back on its feet” after its financial collapse in September 2022 with debts of over £25m. But with Ealing unable to satisfy the Prem minimum standards for the last two seasons and Doncaster currently off the pace in 10th place, it raises fresh questions about the raison d’être of the scheduled new end-of-season Champ playoffs, unveiled amid much fanfare earlier this year.Originally it had been intended that the playoff winner should qualify for a merit-based, two-leg showdown with the Prem’s bottom side but other scenarios have since emerged
England’s Ashes approach is scrambling the brains of the next cricketing generation | Mark Ramprakash
The cracks are starting to show with this England team and with the narrative we’ve been fed for three years after another defeat. Their identity of always taking the aggressive option, of relentlessly putting pressure on their opponents, isn’t holding up to scrutiny. So far in this series they haven’t had the strength needed to achieve it, and they haven’t had the skills either.I was confident that they could win the Ashes this time, mainly because I thought there was quality in the squad and that they had adapted their game to add intelligence and adaptability to their armoury. It’s becoming clear that neither of those beliefs were completely true
Reform campaign for Farage’s Clacton seat was a ‘juggernaut’, say candidates
Foreign states using AI videos to undermine support for Ukraine, says Yvette Cooper
Tony Blair reportedly dropped from Trump’s Gaza ‘board of peace’ shortlist
‘Could do a better job than Keir Starmer’: who could replace the PM if he is forced out?
For once, Nigel Farage is the dog that doesn’t bark | John Crace
UK will go further to stop ‘abusive’ Slapps lawsuits, Lammy says