All posts tagged: delivering

A year after nationalisation, is South Western Railway delivering? | Rail transport

A year after nationalisation, is South Western Railway delivering? | Rail transport

Published by Sam Flores

South Western Railway’s newest train, wrapped in union jack-inspired Great British Railways livery, may divide opinion on aesthetics, but the interior is certainly an upgrade: air-conditioned carriages, more space and greater passenger capacity. For ministers, the fact that it is the 45th Arterio model brought into service since the SWR network was nationalised is vindication of the GBR approach. As the first operator to be renationalised under Labour’s plans, SWR has attracted some scrutiny. Ministers said its GBR badge was a right to be earned, only for punctuality to plunge amid a cascade of failures of tracks, trains and staffing. However, exactly 12 months on, SWR has reached the threshold where half – and soon a majority – of the new £1bn fleet of 90 commuter trains is running after years of delay since the order was placed under the old privatised and fragmented system. Speaking at the launch at London Waterloo, Peter Hendy, the rail minister, said the accelerated rollout since May 2025 showed the difference reforms were already making. A single managing director …

Delivering Mail on Ukraine’s Front Line

Delivering Mail on Ukraine’s Front Line

Published by Sam Flores

Larysa Navrotska is part of a quiet, but brave army of postal workers connecting remote Ukrainian communities close to the battlefield with the outside world. Working for the national postal service in eastern Ukraine often means entering dangerous frontline areas where drones dominate and cause the vast majority of this war’s casualties. Theirs is a dangerous job. In four years of war, Russian attacks have damaged or completely destroyed more than 500 Ukrainian post offices. Ukrposhta says delivery trucks like Larysa’s are also targeted because they carry things such as drone parts to frontline troops. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At least nine postal workers have been killed on the job. Larysa and her driver, Vitalii, typically serve roughly 6,500 people each month. Today, they are visiting three villages. Their most loyal customers are retirees awaiting their monthly check. Larysa delivers more than just mail. She brings income and also groceries, medicines, the news and a familiar face to chat with for those living in isolation. …

AI stocks are cooling — this ChatGPT trading tool keeps delivering

AI stocks are cooling — this ChatGPT trading tool keeps delivering

Published by skeptic

TL;DR: A ChatGPT-powered investing platform that helps you find and manage stocks with clearer signals—lifetime access for a one-time $54.97. Credit: Sterling Stock Picker The AI trade has seemingly had its moment — big runs, big headlines, big expectations. The AI fun is not over by any means. But now that things are settling, the real question is what comes next? Instead of chasing whatever’s trending, Sterling Stock Picker leans into a more grounded approach: using a ChatGPT-powered assistant (Finley) to help you understand what’s actually happening inside a stock. You can ask questions about companies, sectors, or your own portfolio and get explanations that are tied to real data — not just surface-level summaries. Mashable Deals By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. It also handles the heavy lifting …

Pope Leo XIV Challenges Angola’s Leaders While Delivering a Message of Encouragement for Its People

Pope Leo XIV Challenges Angola’s Leaders While Delivering a Message of Encouragement for Its People

Published by Sam Flores

LUANDA, Angola (AP) — Pope Leo XIV challenged Angola’s leaders to break the “cycle of interests” that have plundered and exploited Africa for centuries as he arrived in the southern African country on Saturday with a message of encouragement for its long-suffering people. Leo, history’s first U.S.-born pope, said that it was “not in my interest at all” to debate Trump, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace, justice and brotherhood in Africa. U.S. Vice President JD Vance later wrote on social media that “I am grateful to Pope Leo for saying this.” Vance, a Catholic convert, suggested earlier in the week that Leo “be careful” when speaking about theology. In Angola, Leo met with President Joao Lourenco and delivered his first speech to Angolan government authorities, in which he referred repeatedly to Angola’s tortured history of colonial plunder and civil war. “I desire to meet you in the spirit born of peace and to affirm that your people possess treasures that cannot be bought or stolen,” he said. “There dwells …

An irresistible adventure activity for New Zealand visitors? Delivering the mail by boat | New Zealand holidays

An irresistible adventure activity for New Zealand visitors? Delivering the mail by boat | New Zealand holidays

Published by Sam Flores

For a travel destination famous for offering the adrenaline rush of extreme sports, from bungee jumping to the parachute drop, it’s an unlikely tourist activity – but an irresistible one. If you’re travelling in New Zealand, don’t miss out on the chance to deliver the mail. By boat. It happens in the Queen Charlotte Sound, part of the Marlborough Sounds in the stretch of water that separates New Zealand’s North and South Islands. For over 160 years, New Zealand Post has ensured the handful of families who live on the bays and inlets of the sound receive the same mail service as every other resident of the country, no matter that they live in isolated homes accessible only by boat. Six days a week, the mailboat leaves from Picton, the skipper doubling as postman for the three- or four-hour voyage – and these days passengers can come along for the ride. The truth is, it’s the passengers who make it possible. If it weren’t for them, the mailboat run would have been abandoned decades ago, …

How NiCE Cognigy envisions the human-agent balancing act for delivering top customer service

How NiCE Cognigy envisions the human-agent balancing act for delivering top customer service

Published by skeptic

J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways NiCE Cognigy has outlined its strategic direction and innovations.  The firm is building an orchestration layer for AI and human agents. Human agency is still crucial to success in an age of agentic AI. This month’s NiCE Cognigy Nexus 2026 offered enterprise CX leaders a valuable preview of agentic AI at scale and the freshly merged companies’ unified platform vision. The March 11-12 showcase in Munich, Germany, was the first combined customer event since NiCE acquired Cognigy in 2025. Initial joint events following major acquisitions tend to be revealing: they typically indicate whether a deal has a coherent strategic logic or the underlying rationale is still being worked out internally.  Based on two days of keynotes, customer presentations, product demonstrations, and direct conversations with executives and practitioners, the integration has a clear strategic direction that is ahead of comparably complex deals at this stage. Also: 5 ways to use AI when your budget is tight The observations below cover …

AI Agents are delivering real ROI — Here’s what 1,100 developers and CTOs reveal about scaling them

AI Agents are delivering real ROI — Here’s what 1,100 developers and CTOs reveal about scaling them

Published by skeptic

Presented by DigitalOcean From refactoring codebases to debugging production code, AI agents are already proving their value. But scaling them in production remains the exception, not the rule. In DigitalOcean’s 2026 Currents research report, based on a survey of more than 1,100 developers, CTOs, and founders, 67% of organizations using agents report productivity gains. Meanwhile, 60% of respondents say applications and agents represent the greatest long-term value in the AI stack. Yet, only 10% are scaling agents in production.  The top blocker? Forty-nine percent cite the high cost of inference. It’s not just the price of a single API call. It’s the compounding cost as agents chain tasks and run autonomously. Nearly half of respondents now spend 76–100% of their AI budget on inference alone. This is a problem DigitalOcean is working to solve. What’s needed is infrastructure designed around inference economics: predictable performance, cost control under load, and fewer moving parts. That’s how 2026 becomes the year agents graduate from pilot to product. 52% of companies are actively implementing AI solutions (including agents) Just …

Overwatch’s New Season 1 Launches Today, Delivering on Decade-Long Potential

Overwatch’s New Season 1 Launches Today, Delivering on Decade-Long Potential

Published by skeptic

In late January, I was among a group of journalists from around the world, packed into the Blizzard Theater in Irvine, California, to watch the 40-minute Overwatch spotlight and hear from Blizzard execs about where the game was headed next. I was not prepared for what we saw. Nor were the other journalists, who gasped, laughed and sometimes comically swore as the video showed us what’s coming next for the hero shooter franchise — which turns a decade old later this year. What stirred up such audible reactions? An ongoing story that’s reflected directly in the game. New subroles with distinct passive abilities. Ten new heroes are coming this year, five of which arrived with the new season. One of the later heroes is freaking Jetpack Cat, who was dreamed up in concept art and scrapped before the game was even released. And maybe most surprisingly, dropping the 2 so the game returns to simply being Overwatch.  One of the first questions to that group of execs was about changing the title from Overwatch 2 back to …

Politics Home | Labour Must “Start Delivering For Working People”, Says Head Of Firefighters’ Union

Politics Home | Labour Must “Start Delivering For Working People”, Says Head Of Firefighters’ Union

Published by Sam Flores

FBU general secretary Steve Wright (Photography by Dinendra Haria) 3 min read52 min Exclusive: Steve Wright, general secretary of the Labour-affiliated Fire Brigades Union, has declared that Keir Starmer’s government “needs to start delivering for working people”. In an interview with The House magazine, the union leader – a firefighter who was newly elected as general secretary last year – said Starmer was now being given his “last chance”. “There have been a lot of own goals,” Wright said, pointing, for example, to the government’s original refusal to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which is now set for removal in April. The FBU head described Reform UK as “the real threat”, saying: “I want to see Labour in a position to fight that off. And I’m not sure who’s best to do that at the moment.” Asked whether all 11 of the affiliated trade unions could come together and tell Starmer it is time for him to go if the May elections are as painful for the party as predicted, Wright replied: “I …