All posts tagged: challenge

Andy Burnham Confirms He Will Challenge Keir Starmer If He Wins Makerfield By-Election

Andy Burnham Confirms He Will Challenge Keir Starmer If He Wins Makerfield By-Election

Published by Sam Flores

Andy Burnham wants to be the next prime minister. Andy Burnham has confirmed he will challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he wins the Makerfield by-election. The Greater Manchester mayor admitted he will launch his bid to be the next prime minister on a special edition of BBC Question Time. Burnham is going head-to-head with Reform UK candidate Robert Kenyon when voters in Makerfield go to the polls on June 18. He has previously said he wants to become an MP again to “change Labour” – but stopped short of admitting he wants to replace Starmer as party leader and PM.  More than 90 Labour MPs publicly called for Starmer to resign in the wake of last month’s elections, in which the party was humiliated in England, Wales and Scotland. Cabinet ministers Shabana Mahmood, Ed Miliband, John Healey and David Lammy – the deputy PM – have also urged Starmer privately to name a date for his departure. Health secretary Wes Streeting also resigned, and has said he will run in any future …

Meta loses challenge against EU gatekeeper label for Messenger

Meta loses challenge against EU gatekeeper label for Messenger

Published by Sam Flores

BRUSSELS, June 3 : Meta Platforms lost its fight on Wednesday against the EU’s labelling of its Messenger app as a powerful ‘gatekeeper’, which places obligations on tech companies with significant influence. Europe’s second-highest court upheld the European Commission’s finding that Messenger is an important gateway for businesses to reach users, triggering obligations under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act. “The Commission did not err in finding that Messenger individually is an important gateway,” judges said. The Luxembourg-based General Court, however, annulled the gatekeeper designation for Meta’s Marketplace platform, saying the Commission failed to adequately explain its reasoning. The ruling is largely academic after the Commission already dropped the label last year when Marketplace fell below the user threshold. “We welcome the Court’s judgment on Marketplace, which confirms that it should not have been designated in the first place. We are reviewing the Court’s finding on Messenger and will consider our options,” a Meta company spokesperson said. The DMA, which became applicable in 2023, sets out a list of dos and don’ts to rein in the …

A startup, Everand, is now bundling ebooks, audiobooks, and book clubs in challenge to Amazon

A startup, Everand, is now bundling ebooks, audiobooks, and book clubs in challenge to Amazon

Published by skeptic

Audiobook, ebook, or both? Now, you won’t have to choose. The Scribd-owned reading subscription service Everand wants to make the choice unnecessary. On Tuesday, the company took the wraps off a combined subscription that brings together Everand’s catalog of over 1.5 million audiobooks and ebooks with the social book club app Fable, which Everand acquired in 2025, into a single plan, directly challenging Amazon’s dominance in digital reading. The new subscription is available to two apps’ 5 million combined readers and provides access to that over 1.5 million title library of audiobooks and ebooks, plus Fable’s nearly 200,000 online book clubs. As you read or listen in one app, that activity is synced to the other. Image Credits:Everand The entry-level plan offers one book for $11.99 per month in the U.S., while a $16.99 per month plan offers three books, and a $28.99 per month plan lets you dive into five. Because the subscription covers both ebooks and audiobooks, that’s a fairly competitive deal compared with Audible Premium Plus ($14.95/month), which offers one credit for …

Rublev staves off Borges challenge to reach French Open last 16

Rublev staves off Borges challenge to reach French Open last 16

Published by Sam Flores

PARIS, May 29 : Russian Andrey Rublev battled into the French Open last 16 for the second straight year as the 11th seed sealed a 7-5 7-6(2) 7-6(2) win over Portugal’s Nuno Borges on a warm Friday morning. • Rublev is among several players looking for their maiden Grand Slam title after the men’s draw was blown wide open following top seed Jannik Sinner’s loss on Thursday. • The twice Paris quarter-finalist, who has never gone past that stage at any of the four Grand Slams, ran into stiff resistance in the opening two sets against Borges. • The unseeded Portuguese did not drop his intensity despite trailing and forced a another tiebreak in the third set as fans on Court Suzanne Lenglen sensed a late comeback. • But Rublev staved off the challenge, losing only two points in the tiebreak again to progress and extend his head-to-head win-loss record against Borges to 5-0. • The Russian takes on either eighth-seed Australian Alex de Minaur or Czech 26th seed Jakub Mensik next. Source link

Tribal coalition urges appeals court to reject Kalshi betting theory challenge in Tennessee

Tribal coalition urges appeals court to reject Kalshi betting theory challenge in Tennessee

Published by skeptic

A coalition of tribal organizations and federally recognized tribes is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling that temporarily blocked Tennessee from enforcing its sports wagering laws against prediction market operator Kalshi. The filing, submitted Tuesday (May 26) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, backs Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and state officials in their challenge to a preliminary injunction granted to Kalshi. Tribal groups argue the company’s legal position would weaken tribal sovereignty, disrupt long-standing gaming regulations, and erode revenue that supports tribal governments. NEW: More than 25 tribes and gaming groups urged a federal appeals court to overturn #Kalshi’s Tennessee injunction victory. @RWW pic.twitter.com/f9JYtqGkZc — Suswati Basu (@suswatibasu) May 28, 2026 The coalition includes more than 25 groups such as the Indian Gaming Association, the National Congress of American Indians, the United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund, regional tribal gaming groups, and tribes from across the country. On the same day, the American Gaming Association also filed its own supporting brief. Why the tribal coalition …

Mistral AI launches Vibe, expands into industrial AI and announces data center push to challenge OpenAI

Mistral AI launches Vibe, expands into industrial AI and announces data center push to challenge OpenAI

Published by skeptic

Mistral AI used its inaugural conference on Wednesday to announce a sweeping expansion into industrial manufacturing, a new inference data center south of Paris, and a rebranding of its consumer-facing assistant — moves that collectively signal the three-year-old French startup’s ambition to become the enterprise AI provider of record for companies that refuse to hand their most sensitive data to American hyperscalers. At the AI NOW Summit, held at a venue in central Paris, co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch took the stage alongside CTO Timothée Lacroix and Chief Scientist Guillaume Lample to lay out a strategy that stretches from bare-metal GPU clusters to physics simulations for aircraft wings. The company disclosed that it now employs 1,000 people and is targeting €1 billion ($1.17B USD) in revenue for 2026 — a figure that, if achieved, would be an extraordinary growth trajectory for a company that began with 15 employees collaborating with its first customer, BNP Paribas, in 2023. “We have two convictions at Mistral,” Mensch told the audience. “The first is that in order to deploy …

Senegal’s ousted PM Sonko elected parliament speaker in challenge to President Faye

Senegal’s ousted PM Sonko elected parliament speaker in challenge to President Faye

Published by Sam Flores

Senegal is mired in a deep political crisis after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Friday sacked the popular Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the government after months of tensions. Sonko’s election as parliament speaker comes a day after Faye named senior economist Ahmadou Al Aminou, former regional central bank official, as prime minister. Read moreSenegal’s President Faye names economist as prime minister after Sonko ouster Senegal is labouring under a huge debt burden amounting to 132 percent of GDP. When Faye and Sonko came to power in 2024, they accused former president Macky Sall’s government of hiding a part of the debt, leading to the suspension of a $1.8 billion IMF aid programme it had agreed in 2023. Faye essentially owes his position to Sonko, his one time mentor who would almost certainly have taken the top job had he not been barred from running in the last presidential election due to a defamation conviction. The two men have fallen out in recent months as Senegal battles public debt. Faye wants to discuss a new aid programme with …

These Dutch students are bringing a world champion solar car to the 2026 Electrek American Solar Challenge

These Dutch students are bringing a world champion solar car to the 2026 Electrek American Solar Challenge

Published by skeptic

This July, the 2026 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) and American Solar Challenge (ASC) head north to Minnesota, and one of the 46 registered teams is making the trip for the very first time. The Delft Solar Team is flying in from the Netherlands, and they aren’t exactly showing up empty-handed. I caught up with Rosa Van Wijngaarden, who runs PR for the team, to talk about who they are, what they’re driving, and what it’s like to prep for a race on a continent the team has never set wheels on. A small group of students with big dreams “I always say that we’re just like a small group of students,” Rosa told me. And she means small. The team is just 14 people this year, each of whom takes a full gap year off from their studies to work on a solar car built from scratch. Everyone has their own discipline too. One does electrical, one does aerodynamics, Rosa does PR, and so on. I knew immediately from our video call that …

Montpellier lift Challenge Cup as routed Ulster’s trophy drought goes on

Montpellier lift Challenge Cup as routed Ulster’s trophy drought goes on

Published by Sam Flores

BILBAO, Spain, May 22 : Montpellier ended Ulster’s hopes of their first trophy in two decades with a commanding 59-26 European Challenge Cup final win on Friday that saw them claim the title for the third time. Ulster made the brighter start, with captain Nick Timoney crossing early, but their momentum was quickly undone by errors that Montpellier exploited with clinical efficiency. Tries from Gabriel N’Gandebe and Donovan Taofifenua turned the tide, and although Cormac Izuchukwu struck back to keep Ulster in touch, the French side steadily asserted control. Montpellier’s power and precision began to tell before halftime, with Billy Vunipola and Alex Becognee both crossing to open a 26-12 lead at the break. Their ability to convert pressure into points exposed Ulster’s frailties and left the Irish club chasing the game. Montpellier pulled clear with a decisive burst in the second half. Taofifenua got his second try before Lenni Nouchi added another, stretching the lead beyond reach with Domingo Miotti’s assured kicking proving a constant source of punishment. Ulster put up brief resistance through …

Want to Challenge How Much You Drink?

Want to Challenge How Much You Drink?

Published by Jenni Sidey

With distillers experimenting with alcohol-free spirits, bartenders getting wildly creative with mocktails, and study after study debunking myths about the health benefits of moderate drinking, it is striking how many people still report having several drinks each night to unwind. I always ask about the amount of alcohol and substance use at the beginning of therapy, because if someone is addicted to—or even dependent upon—a substance, the impact of therapy can be limited. In these situations, the main help I can provide usually relates to aiding a client’s realization that they need to seek substance abuse treatment. How should therapists address and assess for substance abuse disorders? And has the assessment equation changed now that it has become increasingly clear that alcohol may be far more harmful than previously believed? One strategy I find helpful is encouraging clients who report daily or near-daily use — especially those who rationalize higher levels of consumption — to read This Naked Mind by Annie Grace. She opens with a provocative question: “What if, by reversing years of unconscious …