Four-day week may be considered a sign of failure, England councils told

The secretary for local government has written to all councils to warn that adopting a four-day week for staff puts them at risk of being declared a failing authority, according to reports.Twenty-five councils have discussed a four-day week policy and one, South Cambridgeshire district council, has already moved to the pattern.While councils are free to set their own policies, the government has the power to take control if an authority is deemed to be failing.In a letter to councils seen by the Daily Telegraph, Steve Reed said that staff doing “part-time work for full-time pay” could be an indicator of “failure”.He said: “The provision the current guidance makes in relation to the four-day week remains in force … I take this issue very seriously, in particular that ‘council staff undertaking part-time work for full-time pay without compelling justification’ would be considered an indicator, among a wide range of factors, of potential failure

Tesla’s EU sales slump continues as Chinese rivals thrive

Tesla continued a run of weak sales in the EU in November, with new car registrations of Elon Musk’s brand down a third, while Chinese carmakers’ sales soared.Tesla sold 12,130 new cars across the EU last month, down from 18,430 in November 2024, shrinking its market share from 2.1% to 1.4%, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (Acea), a lobby group.The Chinese carmaker BYD recorded by far the fastest sales growth, with registrations across Europe almost tripling year on year up to November, to 42,500

MPs question UK Palantir contracts after investigation reveals security concerns

UK MPs have raised concerns about the government’s contracts with Palantir after an investigation published in Switzerland highlighted allegations about the suitability and security of its products.The investigation by the Zurich-based research collective WAV and the Swiss online magazine Republik details Palantir’s efforts, over the course of seven years, to sell its products to Swiss federal agencies.Palantir is a US company that provides software to integrate and analyse data scattered across different systems, such as in the health service. It also provides artificial intelligence-enabled military targeting systems.The investigation cites an expert report, internal to the Swiss army, that assessed Palantir’s status as a US company meant there was a possibility sensitive data shared with it could be accessed by the US government and intelligence services

Extremists are using AI voice cloning to supercharge propaganda. Experts say it’s helping them grow

While the artificial intelligence boom is upending sections of the music industry, voice generating bots are also becoming a boon to another unlikely corner of the internet: extremist movements that are using them to recreate the voices and speeches of major figures in their milieu, and experts say it is helping them grow.“The adoption of AI-enabled translation by terrorists and extremists marks a significant evolution in digital propaganda strategies,” said Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism and a research fellow at the Soufan Center. Webber specializes in monitoring the online tools of terrorist groups and extremists around the world.“Earlier methods relied on human translators or rudimentary machine translation, often limited by language fidelity and stylistic nuance,” he said. “Now, with the rise of advanced generative AI tools, these groups are able to produce seamless, contextually accurate translations that preserve tone, emotion, and ideological intensity across multiple languages

Pat Cummins out of rest of Ashes series as Australia make two changes for MCG Test

Australia coach Andrew McDonald has revealed the extreme risk selectors took with captain Pat Cummins, who starred in the third Ashes Test in Adelaide on his return to the side, but has now been ruled out for the rest of the series.McDonald and the other selectors named a 15-player squad on Tuesday for the Boxing Day Test, which includes back-up pace trio Jhye Richardson, Brendan Doggett and second Test hero Michael Neser, as well as Victorian off-spinner Todd Murphy as a replacement for the injured Nathan Lyon.The coach said although Cummins “pulled up fine” in his first match since July following a serious back injury, it was not worth exposing him to possible injury again given the series has now been won.“We were taking on some risk [with his return] but we’ve now won the series and that was the goal,” the coach said. “To position him for further risk and jeopardise him long term is not something that we want to do, and Pat’s really comfortable with that

Rob Key to investigate England’s ‘stag do’ drinking habits on Noosa mid-Ashes break

Rob Key has defended England’s mid-tour break in Noosa but confirmed he will look into reports that excessive drinking by players in between the second and third Ashes Tests turned it into a “glorified stag do”.Sitting 3-0 down to Australia, the Ashes having gone, the team director, Key, has followed the head coach, Brendon McCullum, in stating that his future now rests in the hands of senior figures at the England and Wales Cricket Board.Among the questions that will be asked in a post-series review is whether the four-night break on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast best prepared them for the pivotal Adelaide Test. According to the BBC, a number of players spent six days drinking, having begun after the eight-wicket defeat in Brisbane.“If there’s things where people are saying that our players went out and drank excessively then of course we’ll be looking into that,” Key said