Ed Sheeran surprises singers at new Ipswich choir school
Lucy Taylor Photography Ed Sheeran met choristers, listened to them rehearse and answered their questions Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has surprised choristers rehearsing their Christmas carol services when he officially opened their new music school. Just under 40 young people are part of the St Mary-le-Tower choir in Ipswich. It has recently been able to open […]
Microsoft-led team retracts quantum ‘breakthrough’
Microsoft/Getty Images A Microsoft-led team has withdrawn a controversial research paper into quantum computing, published in 2018. The journal Nature has published a retraction. And the paper’s authors have apologised for “insufficient scientific rigour”. But the company has said it remains confident of its wider efforts on quantum computing. Leap forward The paper had been […]
BT told to share poles for ultrafast fibre internet
Getty Images BT must make it easier for rival internet providers to use its telegraph poles, telecoms regulator Ofcom says. Ofcom has published a list of new measures to make it cheaper for companies to install ultrafast full fibre broadband infrastructure. Connecting homes directly to the fibre network delivers much faster internet speeds than copper […]
Are you ready to break up with your phone?
Getty Images There is a growing sense of unease among many smartphone owners about the amount of time we’re spending on our devices. Google told me that around 70% of the Android users it spoke to wanted to “find a better balance” in their tech use. But this puts the tech sector in an awkward […]
Delays to trials ‘prolong trauma’ for victims
PA Media By June there was backlog of 42,707 outstanding crown court cases in England and Wales Victims of crime say delays to court cases caused by coronavirus are preventing them from processing the trauma of their abuse. One woman said she had not “been able to properly live” while she waited for her case […]
Twitter boss Linda Yaccarino gives first hint on shake-up plans
Getty Images Twitter chief executive Linda Yaccarino The new boss of social media firm Twitter, Linda Yaccarino, has outlined her plans for “Twitter 2.0.”, after taking over from Elon Musk a week ago. She says the company is “on a mission to become the world’s most accurate real-time information source”. Since Mr Musk bought Twitter […]
What did the starvation cult leader preach?
YOUTUBE Pastor Mackenzie often delivers his fiery sermons to a large congregation The leader of a Christian cult in Kenya is to remain in police custody for another month, as the exhumation of bodies found in mass graves on his land continues. At least 130 have been discovered so far. Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie has […]
What the North Korean internet really looks like
So how did this great unveiling happen? It went like this: North Korea’s main Domain Name System (DNS) server was sent a frequent and automated request by a US-based engineer for access to all the internet domains in the country, possibly merely out of mischief. The server is usually configured to reject this. But for […]
Poultry farmer feels ‘conned’ over energy scheme
BBC Colin Watt said he was “paying the price” of mistakes made by others A County Tyrone poultry farmer has said he feels “conned” by the government over the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. Colin Watt borrowed £380,000 to invest in the technology. He said he did it on the strength of promises and encouragement […]
Russian general killed in Moscow explosion
A high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces has been killed in an explosion in Moscow. Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC), was leaving a residential block early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. It added that Kirillov’s assistant […]