Young Grower of the Year 2025: Jack Haddon wins Pukekohe regional title
Crop manager Jack Haddon has won the Pukekohe 2025 Young Grower regional title.
Haddon, who oversees the cauliflower and cabbage operation for Balle Brothers, pitched his skills against three fellow contestants to take the title last month.
He will now compete against six other regional winners in Horticulture New
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Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Tony Awards 2025 winners: Succession's Sarah Snook kicks off the night as she scores Best Actress award for her Broadway debut
The star-studded 78th Annual Tony Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday. The show celebrated Broadway's brightest talents in singing, acting, dancing and more. Sarah Snook, 37, was the first winner of the night for Best Leading Actress in a Play. Snook delivered an unbelievable performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray, playing all 26 characters. The Succession star made her Broadway debut in the ambitious stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter presented her with the award. 'Thank you so much for this. This means so much for a little Australian girl to be here on Broadway,' Sarah told the crowd as she accepted the award. 'Thank you to my incredible team... and just everybody on stage. It is billed as a one person show and I don't feel alone any night that I do this show.' 'There are so many people on the stage making it work and so many people behind the stage making it work.' She also thanked her husband Dave Lawson: 'And an exceptional thank you, the biggest thank you I can ever give to my husband, my soulsmate, you are so brilliant holding family together and looking after the phones.' The most prestigious ceremony honoring theatre is hosted by three-time Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo, who kicked off the show with a thrilling performance featuring Oprah. This year features major star power in the lead actor and actress categories. George Clooney is competing for his massively successful play Good Night, And Good Luck — an adaptation of the film of the same name that he directed, co-wrote and costarred in — for the lead actor in a play category, while acting legend Mia Farrow is competing against Succession star Sarah Snook and Stranger Things star Sadie Sink in the lead actress in a play category. Darren Criss and Jonathan Groff are adding some star power to the lead actor in a musical category, while Megan Hilty, Nicole Scherzinger and Broadway legend Audra McDonald are some of the biggest names in the lead actress in a musical category. Bob Odenkirk is best known for his film and television work, including his acclaimed run on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, but he's now nominated in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play category for his turn in the revival of David Mamet's iconic drama of desperation, Glengarry Glen Ross. Presenters this year include Charli D'Amelio, Michelle Williams, Hacks' Jean Smart, LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Lea Salonga, all of whom are currently appearing on Broadway. The stage icon Kristin Chenoweth will also be presenting, while Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter will have a Bill and Ted reunion on stage ahead of their upcoming production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot. Glee star Lea Michele will also be joined on stage by Aaron Tveit. Several former Tony winners will be helping to announce awards, including Oprah Winfrey, Bryan Cranston, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sarah Paulson, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Kelli O'Hara and Rachel Bay Jones. And the other presenters aren't exactly slouches, as several of them have Oscars and Grammy Awards to their names. They include Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson, Katie Holmes, Jesse Eisenberg, Allison Janney, Ariana DeBose, Adam Lambert, Carrie Preston, Danielle Brooks and Sara Bareilles. Going into the 2025 ceremony, three musicals are leading the pack with 10 nominations each: Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy. Buena Vista Social Club is inspired by the beloved Cuban ensemble of the same name, which recorded a hit eponymous album in 1997 and was documented in Wim Wenders' acclaimed documentary (also of the same name) in 1999. Death Becomes Her is based on the Robert Zemeckis fantastical black comedy from 1992, which starred Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis. Unlike those musicals, which are adapted from existing music and films, Maybe Happy is a science fiction–romance that originated in South Korea. It follows two android helper-bots who develop feelings for each other, despite the fact that their short life spans threaten any future plans. Dead Outlaw, John Proctor Is The Villain, Sunset Blvd. and The Hills Of California are all tied for seven Tony nominations, while Floyd Collins, Justin In Time, Purpose and The Picture Of Dorian Gray are tied for six. Dead Outlaw and Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical are also competing in the Best Musical category, while English, The Hills Of California, John Proctor Is The Villain, Oh, Mary! and Purpose are vying for Best Play. Purpose and English have already been honored with Pulitzer Prizes. This year's nominated revivals include Eureka Day, Romeo + Juliet, Thornton Wilder's Our Town and David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face in the play category, while Floyd Collins, Gypsy, Pirates! The Penzanze Musical and Sunset Blvd. fill out the Best Revival of a Musical category. The performances this year will highlight all of the new and revived musical nominees, as well as Just In Time and Real Women Have Curves, which weren't nominated in best musical or revival but did receive other major nominations. The 2025 Tonys will look to the past as well with a tribute to Hamilton for its 10th anniversary as the original cast reunites for a performance. Miranda will be accompanied by Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Daveed Diggs, Ariana DeBose, Jonathan Groff and Christopher Jackson, all of whom were part of the original production. Erivo, 38, was better known for her work in the theatre before expanding into a successful film and television career. The Wicked Star — who recently stirred up controversy when she was announced as the star of a production of Jesus Christ Superstar being held at the Hollywood Bowl in August — is already three-quarters of the way toward completing the rare and coveted EGOT after winning an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony. Along the way, she also received nominations for four Golden Globe Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. She previously starred on Broadway in the popular adaptation of The Color Purple, which led to her performing its song I'm Here at the 2016 Tonys. The three-hour show, which starts at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT, can be watched live on CBS or streamed on Paramount+ with Showtime. Users with the Paramount+ Essential subscription will have the option to begin watching the show on the following day. Tony Awards 2025 nominees Best Musical Buena Vista Social Club Dead Outlaw Death Becomes Her Maybe Happy Ending Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical Best Revival of a Play Eureka Day — Author: Jonathan Spector Romeo + Juliet Thornton Wilder's Our Town Yellow Face — Author: David Henry Hwang Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play George Clooney — Good Night, And Good Luck Cole Escola — Oh, Mary! Jon Michael Hill — Purpose Daniel Dae Kim — Yellow Face Harry Lennix — Purpose Louis McCartney — Stranger Things: The First Shadow Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical Darren Criss — Maybe Happy Ending Andrew Durand — Dead Outlaw Tom Francis — Sunset Blvd. Jonathan Groff — Just In Time James Monroe Iglehart — A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical Jeremy Jordan — Floyd Collins Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play Glenn Davis — Purpose Gabriel Ebert — John Proctor Is The Villain Francis Jue — Yellow Face Bob Odenkirk — Glengarry Glen Ross Conrad Ricamora — Oh, Mary! Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical Brooks Ashmanskas —SMASH Jeb Brown — Dead Outlaw Danny Burstein — Gypsy Jak Malone — Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical Taylor Trensch — Floyd Collins Best Direction of a Play Knud Adams — English Sam Mendes — The Hills Of California Sam Pinkleton — Oh, Mary! Danya Taymor — John Proctor Is The Villain Kip Williams — The Picture Of Dorian Gray Best Book of a Musical Buena Vista Social Club — Marco Ramirez Dead Outlaw — Itamar Moses Death Becomes Her — Marco Pennette Maybe Happy Ending — Will Aronson and Hue Park Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical — David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts Best Scenic Design of a Play Marsha Ginsberg — English Rob Howell — The Hills of California Marg Horwell and David Bergman — The Picture of Dorian Gray Miriam Buether and 59 — Stranger Things: The First Shadow Scott Pask — Good Night, and Good Luck Best Costume Design of a Play Brenda Abbandandolo — Good Night, And Good Luck Marg Horwell — The Picture of Dorian Gray Rob Howell — The Hills Of California Holly Pierson — Oh, Mary! Brigitte Reiffenstuel — Stranger Things: The First Shadow Best Lighting Design of a Play Natasha Chivers — The Hills Of California Jon Clark — Stranger Things: The First Shadow Heather Gilbert and David Bengali — Good Night, And Good Luck Natasha Katz and Hannah Wasileski — John Proctor Is The Villain Nick Schlieper — The Picture Of Dorian Gray Best Sound Design of a Play Paul Arditti — Stranger Things: The First Shadow Palmer Hefferan — John Proctor Is The Villain Daniel Kluger — Good Night, And Good Luck Nick Powell — The Hills Of California Clemence Williams — The Picture of Dorian Gray Best Choreography Joshua Bergasse — SMASH Camille A. Brown — Gypsy Christopher Gattelli — Death Becomes Her Jerry Mitchell — BOOP! The Musical Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck — Buena Vista Social Club Best Play English — Author: Sanaz Toossi The Hills of California — Author: Jez Butterworth John Proctor Is The Villain — Author: Kimberly Belflower Oh, Mary! — Author: Cole Escola Purpose — Author: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Best Revival of a Musical Floyd Collins — Book/Additional Lyrics: Tina Landau; Music & Lyrics: Adam Guettel Gypsy Pirates! The Penzance Musical Sunset Blvd. Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play Laura Donnelly — The Hills Of California Mia Farrow — The Roommate LaTanya Richardson Jackson — Purpose Sadie Sink — John Proctor Is The Villain Sarah Snook — The Picture Of Dorian Gray Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical Megan Hilty — Death Becomes Her Audra McDonald — Gypsy Jasmine Amy Rogers — BOOP! The Musical Nicole Scherzinger — Sunset Blvd. Jennifer Simard — Death Becomes Her Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play Tala Ashe — English Jessica Hecht — Eureka Day Marjan Neshat — English Fina Strazza — John Proctor Is The Villain Kara Young — Purpose Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical Natalie Venetia Belcon — Buena Vista Social Club Julia Knitel — Dead Outlaw Gracie Lawrence — Just In Time Justina Machado — Real Women Have Curves: The Musical Joy Woods — Gypsy Best Direction of a Musical Saheem Ali — Buena Vista Social Club Michael Arden — Maybe Happy Ending David Cromer — Dead Outlaw Christopher Gattelli — Death Becomes Her Jamie Lloyd — Sunset Blvd. Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre Dead Outlaw — Music & Lyrics: David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna Death Becomes Her — Music & Lyrics: Julia Mattison and Noel Carey Maybe Happy Ending —Music: Will Aronson; Lyrics: Will Aronson and Hue Park Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical — Music & Lyrics: David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts Real Women Have Curves: The Musical — Music & Lyrics: Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez Best Orchestrations Andrew Resnick and Michael Thurber — Just in Time Will Aronson — Maybe Happy Ending Bruce Coughlin — Floyd Collins Marco Paguia — Buena Vista Social Club David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber — Sunset Blvd. Best Scenic Design of a Musical Rachel Hauck — Swept Away Dane Laffrey and George Reeve — Maybe Happy Ending Arnulfo Maldonado — Buena Vista Social Club Derek McLane — Death Becomes Her Derek McLane — Just In Time Best Costume Design of a Musical Dede Ayite — Buena Vista Social Club Gregg Barnes — BOOP! The Musical Clint Ramos — Maybe Happy Ending Paul Tazewell — Death Becomes Her Catherine Zuber — Just In Time Best Lighting Design of a Musical Jack Knowles — Sunset Blvd. Tyler Micoleau — Buena Vista Social Club Scott Zielinski and Ruey Horng Sun — Floyd Collins Ben Stanton — Maybe Happy Ending Justin Townsend — Death Becomes Her Best Sound Design of a Musical Jonathan Deans — Buena Vista Social Club Adam Fisher — Sunset Blvd. Peter Hylenski — Just In Time Peter Hylenski — Maybe Happy Ending Dan Moses Schreier — Floyd Collins
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
China's AI lab unveils RoboBrain 2.0 model to accelerate humanoid robot development
In a move that will further assert China's bid to scale robotics industry, the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI)—a not for profit research laboratory—unveiled last week a series of new open-source artificial intelligence (AI) models, dubbed RoboBrain 2.0, that will function as the 'brain' of robots. According to BAAI head Wang Zhongyuan, the use of powerful AI models in China's booming robotics market could accelerate the development and adoption of humanoids, as the sector works to overcome key challenges such as limited model capabilities and a lack of high-quality training data. Wang further explained that BAAI is actively seeking collaboration across the embodied intelligence industry, emphasizing the importance of joint efforts to accelerate progress. He noted that the institute is working with more than 20 leading companies in the sector and is looking to expand its network of partners to drive continued growth. Unveiled as part of China's broader push to advance intelligent machines, RoboBrain 2.0 was described by Wang as the world's most powerful open-source AI model designed to enhance a wide range of robots, including humanoids. Its debut positions BAAI as a potential key player in the evolving sector, the South China Morning Post reported. Furthermore, RoboBrain 2.0 introduces major improvements in spatial intelligence and task planning, delivering a 17% boost in speed and a 74% increase in accuracy compared to the previous version launched just three months earlier. With enhanced spatial intelligence, robots can now perceive distances from surrounding objects more precisely, while advanced task planning enables them to autonomously deconstruct complex activities into manageable steps, significantly improving overall performance. The RoboBrain model is part of the Wujie series, which also includes RoboOS 2.0—a cloud platform for deploying robotics AI models—and Emu3, a multimodal system capable of interpreting and generating text, images, and video. BAAI is one of China's early developers of open-source large language models, the technology behind generative AI chatbots. Several former employees have used their experience at BAAI to start their own AI companies, helping to grow the AI startup community in China. China's push to lead in robotics AI involves multiple players, with BAAI joined by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, which earlier this year launched Hui Si Kai Wu—a general-purpose embodied AI platform. The center is also known for developing the Tien Kung humanoid robot, which made headlines after completing a half-marathon in Beijing in April. The Chinese institution aims to have its platform become the "Android of humanoid robots," serving as a standard operating system much like Google's Android does in the smartphone industry. Moreover, this year's edition of the BAAI Conference attracted over 100 AI researchers from around the world and more than 200 industry experts, including leaders from major Chinese tech companies such as Baidu, Huawei Technologies, and Tencent Holdings. Additionally, the Chinese academy also announced a strategic partnership with the Hong Kong Investment Corporation to collaborate on talent development, technology advancement, and capital investment aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the country's AI sector.
Fox News
25 minutes ago
- Fox News
LIV Golf Virginia: Joaquin Niemann wins; Crushers GC take team title
GAINESVILLE, Va. — Joaquin Niemann was once again the man to emerge from a crowded leaderboard to claim victory at LIV Golf Virginia. The Chilean shot an 8-under-63 to earn his sixth LIV Golf win, which is the most of any player. On the team leaderboard, Crushers GC earned its eighth LIV win, which is the most of any team. Crushers GC has now won back-to-back team trophies after finishing first at LIV Golf Korea last month. Captain Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Anirban Lahiri and Charles Howell III have made up the Crushers since the team's inception. The individual leaderboard was jam-packed with superstars, including HyFlyers GC captain Phil Mickelson and DeChambeau, but also featured past major champions looking to win after long droughts. Smash GC's Graeme McDowell and RangeGoats GC captain Bubba Watson were both in contention until the bitter end. The veterans in the mix played well enough, but Niemann showed once again that he's nearly impossible to beat on Sundays when he's in the mix. Lahiri, who was the 36-hole leader, suffered yet another heartbreak. He finished in a tie for 2nd after shooting a 3-under-68. The runner-up was the fifth in Lahiri's LIV Golf career. Martin Kaymer, the 18-hole co-leader, shot a 1-under-70 to finish tied for eighth — his best finish ever on LIV Golf. Ben Campbell of RangeGoats GC set a LIV Golf record for consecutive birdies made in a single round with seven. The Kiwi birdied the 13th hole through the first hole and ended up shooting a 62. Lee Westwood also shot 62 to match Campbell's low round of the week. Westwood's 62 tied his career-low round on LIV Golf. Thomas Pieters of 4Aces GC shot an 8-under-63. Jinichiro Kozuma and Brendan Steele also had impressive Sunday performances and each shot 7-under 64's. Fourteen LIV players will now turn their attention to the U.S. Open next week at Oakmont Country Club before LIV Golf Dallas takes place June 27-29. TEAM SCORES LIV Golf's new scoring format this season now involves all four scores now counting in every round in the team competition. Here are the results and scores for each team after Sunday's Round 3 of LIV Golf Virginia. 1. CRUSHERS GC -362. 4ACES GC -343. SMASH GC -314. TORQUE GC -255. RANGEGOATS GC -246. LEGION XIII -217. STINGER GC -208. HYFLYERS GC -199. CLEEKS GOLF CLUB -1410. IRON HEADS GC -811. MAJESTICKS GC -6T12. RIPPER GC -4T12. FIREBALLS GC -4 This piece is courtesy of Mike McAllister in partnership with LIV Golf. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.
