Latest news with #MichaelSafi
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Australia's mushroom murder trial
Last week, in a trial followed all over Australia and across the world, Erin Patterson took the stand. She is accused of three counts of murder, and one of attempted murder, allegedly by poisoning her relatives with deadly mushrooms inside four separate dishes of beef wellington. As the Guardian Australia justice and courts reporter Nino Bucci explains, Patterson has always denied the charges. Though she admits the lunch she prepared in July 2023 killed her in-laws – as well as her estranged husband's aunt – she maintains it was a tragic accident. As Michael Safi hears, it is a case that has drawn worldwide attention – from daily news reports to dozens of podcast series – and one that is due to reach a verdict soon.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
A trip to Musk city
'This is the future, man,' a SpaceX fan tells Oliver Laughland as they look over at a giant rocket. 'It's a weird combination of the wild wild west and the brand new future!' The rocket stands in Starbase, Texas, and the Guardian US southern bureau chief was visiting at a very particular time: as the area home to Elon Musk's pioneering space company was poised to vote in an election to officially transform the place into its own city. As Laughland tells Michael Safi, he met nearby residents long exasperated by the presence of the company – and its hulking rockets – driving up rents, and accused of spoiling local beaches. But he heard too from SpaceX super-enthusiasts, some of whom have moved across the country just to live close to Starbase, the HQ with ambitions to send people to Mars. Why does Musk want Starbase City? And, as he leaves his official role in Trump's administration in the same month, what does it tell us about his ambitions ahead?
The Guardian
29-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The OpenAI empire
In 2019, before most of the world had heard of the company, the technology journalist Karen Hao spent three days embedded in the offices of OpenAI. What she saw, she tells Michael Safi, was a company vastly at odds with its public image: that of a transparent non-profit developing artificial intelligence technology purely for the benefit of humanity. 'They said that they were transparent. They said that they were collaborative. They were actually very secretive.' Hao spent the next five years following the growth of OpenAI, as it shifted to pursue – in her words – a growth-at-all-costs model. On the one hand, it has been spectacularly successful, with OpenAI now one of the largest companies in the world. On the other, she argues, it has come at a severe cost – to the people whose labour it relies on to operate, and to the planet. In fact, as she describes in her new book, Empire of AI: Inside the reckless race for total domination, it makes sense to think of OpenAI not as a company, but more akin to empires of old.
The Guardian
13-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Back from the brink: India and Pakistan's uneasy truce over Kashmir
On Saturday, Pakistan and India agreed a fragile ceasefire. The announcement, reports the south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen, was made after days of escalation between the two neighbours: drone and missile attacks; cross-border skirmishes; and a world watching on, hoping that these two nuclear states would not go any further. Yet while the US-brokered peace may have reduced the tension, the long-running dispute over Kashmir remains unresolved. Kashmiri journalist Azhar Qadri tells Michael Safi what this latest round of fighting has looked like from inside the region, and how he is preparing for what may come next.
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
India strikes Pakistan: what next? Today in Focus Extra
In the early hours of Wednesday, India launched a series of strikes on Pakistan that killed at least 26 people – a serious escalation of the decades-long dispute between the two nuclear-armed countries over Kashmir. As the Guardian's south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, reports, the onslaught was in response to a terrorist attack in Kashmir two weeks ago that left 26 dead. India claims the group responsible is backed by its neighbour – an accusation Pakistan denies. Now, as Michael Safi hears, India is braced for Pakistan's response. Could this spiral into a full-scale war? Photograph: Rahat Dar/EPA
