Hobbycraft issues full recall of asbestos-tainted children’s play sand

Hobbycraft has issued a full recall of children’s coloured play sand after confirming some bottles contained asbestos, presenting “a risk to health”.The Guardian revealed at the weekend that the craft retailer had stopped selling the kit after being alerted to the risk but had stopped short of alerting customers who had already bought the item.The asbestos was discovered by a customer whose children had played with the sand at a party. The parent, who did not wish to be named, recognised it from reports of a recall in Australia and New Zealand and paid for a lab test.She alerted Hobbycraft when three of the five bottles in its Giant Box of Craft set were found to contain fibrous tremolite asbestos

‘It’s a hospitality-wide problem’: night-time traders react to business rates relief plan

Gyms, local shops, restaurants, nightclubs and pharmacies have criticised the government for not extending business rates support beyond pubs and live music venues.The Treasury announced on Tuesday that every pub and live music venue in England would get 15% off its new business rates bill from 1 April, worth an average of £1,650 for each, with bills frozen in real terms for a further two years.However, there was no support announced for other sectors affected by the changes to rates, although there will also be a review of the methodology used to calculate how much hotels should pay alongside a parallel review for pubs.Leading trade bodies said that those overlooked still faced “severe challenges”. They accused ministers of having “suffocated employment opportunities” and said the decision to focus help just on pubs was “simply outrageous”

UK ministers accept $1m from Meta amid social media ban consultation

Ministers have accepted $1m (£728,000) from Meta, the US tech and social media company, to build AI systems for defence, national security and transport, sparking warnings about the UK government’s “alarmingly close relationship with Trump-supporting US tech giants”.The money from Mark Zuckerberg’s company will be used to pay experts to “develop cutting-edge AI solutions … to support national security and defence teams”, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) announced on Tuesday.The money will pay for four British AI experts, coordinated by the government-funded Alan Turing Institute, to “play a pivotal role in rewiring our healthcare, police, transport systems and more”, said Ian Murray, the minister for data and digital government.The move comes after Meta executives had 50 meetings with ministers in the last two years for which data was available, one of the highest levels of direct access of any technology company, a Guardian investigation found.The government is consulting on a ban on social media use by under-16s, which would have a major effect on Meta’s Instagram platform

At Davos, tech CEOs laid out their vision for AI’s world domination

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week’s edition is a team effort: my colleague Heather Stewart reports on the plans for AI’s world domination at Davos; I examine how huge investments have followed AI companies with little to their names but drama and dreams; and Nick Robins-Early spotlights how lax regulation of autonomous driving in Texas allowed Tesla to thrive.When they weren’t discussing Donald Trump, delegates at the World Economic Forum last week were being dazzled by the prospects for artificial intelligence.Up and down the main street of the Swiss Alps town, almost every shopfront was temporarily emblazoned with the neon slogan of a tech firm – or a consultancy promising to tell executives how to incorporate AI into their business. Cloudflare’s wood-panelled HQ urged delegates to “connect, protect and build together”, and Wipro’s shouted: “Dream Solve Prove Repeat

England beat Sri Lanka by 53 runs to win third men’s ODI and series – as it happened

Harry Brook’s first masterpiece of the winter, lost in defeat, seems an age ago. It was in his side’s first one-day international against New Zealand back in October, his 101-ball 135 somehow landing in the middle of nine single-figure England scores.The nightclub bouncer’s punch followed, the Ashes tour went wrong and then came the reveal of the former. A lot has happened, but moments of genius in the middle always lurk close by when it comes to Brook. Here, in their final ODI of the winter, he brought it all together with an unbeaten 136 off 66 balls, taking England to a prized series victory in Sri Lanka, the decider won by 53 runs

Harry Brook’s brutal century sets up England for ODI series win in Sri Lanka

Harry Brook’s first masterpiece of the winter, lost in defeat, seems an age ago. It was in his side’s first one-day international against New Zealand back in October, his 101-ball 135 somehow landing in the middle of nine single-figure England scores.The nightclub bouncer’s punch followed, the Ashes tour went wrong and then came the reveal of the former. A lot has happened, but moments of genius in the middle always lurk close by when it comes to Brook. Here, in their final ODI of the winter, he brought it all together with an unbeaten 136 off 66 balls, taking England to a prized series victory in Sri Lanka, the decider won by 53 runs