Amazon aims to branch into UK internet market with satellite broadband plan

Amazon is hoping to offer a satellite broadband service in the UK within the next two years as it prepares to launch a constellation of spacecraft that could ultimately deliver a mobile signal even to the most remote areas.The tech company, founded by Jeff Bezos, said it would seek access to British radio frequencies “over the next one to two years” as it prepares to offer satellite internet, according to a regulatory filing first reported by the Sunday Telegraph.Companies are racing to build and launch their own clusters of satellites into low-Earth orbit. If a single system launches enough of the smaller satellites less than 1,000km (620 miles) from Earth’s surface it can offer continuous coverage, without the time delays that are unavoidable for geostationary satellites 35,000km away.Amazon’s Project Kuiper subsidiary is planning to launch 3,000 small satellites in an attempt to compete directly with Starlink, the satellite internet subsidiary of billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX

Barclays suggested ‘mystery shoppers’ could pretend to be blind or deaf

Barclays is facing criticism over adverts for paid “mystery shoppers” which suggested that people could pretend to be blind or deaf to test the services at the British bank’s high street branches.The bank hired market research firm Ipsos to carry out testing at branches. The Barclays-branded instructions said candidates for the roles would ideally be blind or deaf, but also suggested candidates could “fabricate” conditions if necessary, for £45 a visit, according to the Mail on Sunday (MoS).The National Federation of the Blind UK (NFBUK) said the bank should recruit genuinely blind people to test its systems.Ipsos describes mystery shoppers on its website as “essentially an undercover agent posing as a regular customer to evaluate the quality of a service”

‘It’s not just alerts, it’s a state of mind’: How a wildfire monitoring app became essential in the US west

Watch Duty – which began in California and has expanded across 14 states – alerted the public to more than 9,000 wildfires in 2024Cristy Thomas began to panic as she called 911 for the second time on a warm October day but couldn’t get through. She anxiously watched the plume of black smoke pouring over her rural community in central California get larger.Then she heard a familiar ping.Watch Duty, an app that alerts users of wildfire risk and provides critical information about blazes as they unfold, had already registered the fire. She relaxed

‘Don’t feed the troll’: German chancellor responds to Elon Musk comments

When the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was asked in an interview about the barrage of insults being directed at him and other German leaders by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, his reply was: “Don’t feed the troll.”Speaking to the German weekly Stern, Scholz described the criticisms as nothing new. “You have to stay cool,” he said in the interview. “As Social Democrats, we have long been used to the fact that there are rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics – and do not hide their opinions.”He said he would make no efforts to engage with Musk, who has endorsed the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in next month’s federal elections and will host a live discussion on his social media platform X with its candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel

Having conquered the cricket world Pat Cummins must now bridge the generations | Jack Snape

After a hard-fought fifth Test victory over India to clinch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 3-1 margin, the post-series press conference with Pat Cummins, wearing a weary grin under a pink brim, began with a juicy full toss of a question: “As a captain,” the journalist asked, “do you feel you have completed cricket now?”It was in some ways justified. Having become the first Australia Test captain since Mark Taylor on the 1997 Ashes campaign to turn a 0-1 deficit into a five-Test series triumph, Cummins’ side now hold the trophies in every one of their bilateral Test series. They also won the 2023 ODI World Cup in India and will defend their World Test Championship mace against South Africa in the final at Lord’s in June.But the contest in Sydney was hardly a coronation. The Test hung on the batting contribution of Test debutant Beau Webster and the absence of injured India superstar Jasprit Bumrah in the final innings

Let’s champion our mentors as well as sport’s trophy-winners in 2025 | Cath Bishop

As we anticipate what sport will bring us in 2025, we might be tempted to look ahead to the major international tournaments in rugby, cricket and football. But there’s another space to consider, less glamorous but absolutely vital, where sport is making an increasingly significant contribution to society – the growing cadre of sportsmen and women working as mentors in support of young people facing challenges and disadvantages.Organisations such as the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust (DKHT), Dallaglio Rugbyworks, Football Beyond Borders and Streetgames use sportsmen and women to provide support, encouragement and a trusted connection for young people trapped in complex adverse situations around the country. Just turning up at a sports session isn’t enough; it’s about creating a relationship with a trusted mentor within that setting.Successive governments constantly rediscover that there is no straightforward solution to support those “hardest to reach”