Ukraines Zelensky arrives in Britain seeking more arms against Russia

Published

2 years ago

February 8, 2023

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LONDON – Britain will announce an immediate surge of military deliveries to Ukraine to help it fend off an intensifying Russian offensive and pledged to train its pilots as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on a rare visit abroad.

London was Mr Zelenskys first stop on only his second trip abroad since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb 24 after a visit to the United States in December. He is due to travel to Brussels on Thursday where the European Union is holding a summit.

Addressing British lawmakers in Westminster on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky said a victory for Ukraine against Russia would change the world and deter future aggressors.

The victory will change the world and this will be a change that the world has long needed, he said.

Britain, which has been working with Ukrainian troops, said the extra training would ensure Ukrainian pilots were able to fly sophisticated Nato-standard fighter jets in the future, adding it was part of long-term investment in their military.

The wording seemed to suggest that Britain had not yet changed its mind on whether to immediately provide Kyiv with the fighter jets it has asked for something the government has said is not the right approach for now.

Mr Sunak said the visit was a testament to Ukraines courage, determination and fight and … to the unbreakable friendship between our two countries.

I am proud that today we will expand that training from soldiers to marines and fighter jet pilots, ensuring Ukraine has a military able to defend its interests well into the future.

Mr Zelensky will meet King Charles later on Wednesday, a spokesman for Buckingham Palace said. King Charles, who has visited several organisations who help Ukrainians in Britain, has called Russias invasion of Ukraine a brutal aggression.

Britain also set out further sanctions to target those who have helped Russian President Vladimir Putin, including manufacturers of military equipment and eight individuals who helped maintain wealth and power amongst Kremlin elites. Russia readies new assault

Mr Zelensky, who had close ties with ex-prime minister Boris Johnson, visits Britain at a time when Russia is bringing tens of thousands of recently mobilised troops to the battlefield to try to break through Ukrainian defences in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraines allies have promised hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles to help Kyiv resist the assault and recapture territory, but have said it will take time to train Ukrainian forces to use them effectively.

Since Mr Johnson resigned last year, Mr Sunak has pledged to continue to support Ukraine, visiting Kyiv in November to tell the Ukrainian leader: We are with you all the way.

In London, he will tell Mr Zelensky he will accelerate the delivery of military equipment to Ukraine.

Britain has trained 10,000 Ukrainian troops to battle readiness in the last six months and will train a further 20,000 soldiers this year, the government said in a statement.

Last week, Ukrainian troops arrived in Britain to learn how to command Challenger 2 tanks and Mr Sunak will offer to provide Ukraine with longer range capabilities, the statement said.

But London has so far refused to deliver fighter jets, saying it was not the right approach for now. But defence minister Ben Wallace has suggested that stance could change.

Mr Sunaks spokesman said last week that the quickest a pilot could learn to fly a British fighter jet was 35 months. We will continue listening to the Ukrainians and consider what is right for the long term, he said. REUTERS

Technology

How quantum could supercharge Google’s AI ambitions

Published

3 hours ago

April 18, 2025

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How quantum could supercharge Google’s AI ambitions

Inside a secretive set of buildings in Santa Barbara, California, scientists at Alphabet are working on one of the company’s most ambitious bets yet. They’re attempting to develop the world’s most advanced quantum computers.

“In the future, quantum and AI, they could really complement each other back and forth,” said Julian Kelly, director of hardware at Google Quantum AI.

Google has been viewed by many as late to the generative AI boom, because OpenAI broke into the mainstream first with ChatGPT in late 2022.

Late last year, Google made clear that it wouldn’t be caught on the backfoot again. The company unveiled a breakthrough quantum computing chip called Willow, which it says can solve a benchmark problem unimaginably faster than what’s possible with a classical computer, and demonstrated that adding more quantum bits to the chip reduced errors exponentially.

“That’s a milestone for the field,” said John Preskill, director of the Caltech Institute for Quantum Information and Matter. “We’ve been wanting to see that for quite a while.”

Willow may now give Google a chance to take the lead in the next technological era. It also could be a way to turn research into a commercial opportunity, especially as AI hits a data wall. Leading AI models are running out of high-quality data to train on after already scraping much of the data on the internet.

“One of the potential applications that you can think of for a quantum computer is generating new and novel data,” said Kelly.

He uses the example of AlphaFold, an AI model developed by Google DeepMind that helps scientists study protein structures. Its creators won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

“[AlphaFold] trains on data that’s informed by quantum mechanics, but that’s actually not that common,” said Kelly. “So a thing that a quantum computer could do is generate data that AI could then be trained on in order to give it a little more information about how quantum mechanics works.”

Kelly has said that he believes Google is only about five years away from a breakout, practical application that can only be solved on a quantum computer. But for Google to win the next big platform shift, it would have to turn a breakthrough into a business.

Watch the video to learn more.

Environment

Tesla (TSLA) brand damage is destroying used car value: ‘People don’t want them anymore’

Published

3 hours ago

April 18, 2025

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Tesla’s brand damage is eroding the value of used Tesla vehicles at a rapid rate, as owners rush to sell theirs.

It is breaking the used Tesla market as prices are plunging just as the broader used car market is recovering.

After a few tough years for the used car market following the pandemic, it is finally starting to recover over the last month.

Economic uncertainty and a fear of higher inflation due to Trump’s tariffs are prompting some buyers to shift from the new car market to the used car market.

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From March 2024 to March 2025, average used car prices decreased by 2.68% in the US, but the trend has finally reversed.

According to Car Guru‘s used car index, used car prices have risen an impressive 2.17% in the last 30 days alone.

However, there’s an exception: Tesla.

The price of used Tesla vehicles has been falling, like the rest of the used car market, since the pandemic; however, it is not benefiting from the reversal in the current macroeconomic situation.

While average used car prices rose more than 2% in the last 30 days, Tesla’s used car prices decreased by 1.34% in the US.

That’s due to oversupply, as many Tesla owners are selling their vehicles to distance themselves from the Tesla brand, which is associated with CEO Elon Musk and his increasingly divisive political views.

The demand to sell used Tesla vehicles is so high that many used car dealers, who had been fighting to acquire inventory just a year prior, are starting to be reticent about buying Tesla vehicles as the value decreases so rapidly.

In Quebec, Le Journal de Montréal spoke with local used car dealers and attended a car auction where many Tesla vehicles were up for sale, with some selling for half the price they were selling for just over a year ago.

Éric Piuze, owner of a used car dealership on Montreal’s South Shore, said (translated from French):

“People don’t want them anymore. The Elon Musk effect is very real in Quebec.”

The used car dealers at the auction noted that they are not confident they can sell the used Tesla quickly enough to avoid further value decreases.

Furthermore, they note that potential buyers are lowballing on Tesla vehicles because they are aware that inventory is high, creating a buyer’s market.

Dealers are also seeing higher defaults on Tesla car payments, as buyers who took on debt to purchase them just a few years ago struggle to make payments.

Piuze added (translated from French):

People paid a lot of money for Teslas. During the pandemic, we saw many people remortgaging their homes to buy a Tesla. Those days are over.

At its peak, the average used Tesla price was over $60,000 in 2022. Now, the same vehicles are worth a fraction, but their car payments are still high.

Electrek’s Take

Even with the used car market finally getting a breather from crashing prices, Tesla vehicles are not benefiting at all. This highlights a significant issue in the used Tesla market. It’s broken.

The market can’t absorb the surge in people selling their Tesla vehicles.

I wouldn’t want to be a company holding a fleet of Tesla vehicles right now. The value erosion is impressive.

I thought that maybe the Cybertruck was dragging the entire Tesla market down, with a 6.64% decrease in used value over the last 30 days. However, the Model Y alone saw a 1.67% decrease during the same period.

The good news is that the vast majority of people selling their used Tesla vehicles are purchasing other electric vehicles, thereby boosting the EV market. It’s also giving people the chance to get into Tesla vehicles for cheaper, although they should expect the value of those vehicles to decrease rapidly.

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Technology

Nintendo Switch 2 retail preorder to begin April 24 following tariff delays

Published

4 hours ago

April 18, 2025

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Nintendo Switch 2 retail preorder to begin April 24 following tariff delays

An attendee wearing a Super Mario costume uses a Nintendo Switch 2 game console while playing a video game during the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience at the ExCeL London international exhibition and convention centre in London, Britain, April 11, 2025.

Isabel Infantes | Reuters

Nintendo on Friday announced that retail preorder for its Nintendo Switch 2 gaming system will begin on April 24 starting at $449.99.

Preorders for the hotly anticipated console were initially slated for April 9, but Nintendo delayed the date to assess the impact of the far-reaching, aggressive “reciprocal” tariffs that President Donald Trump announced earlier this month.

Most electronics companies, including Nintendo, manufacture their products in Asia. Nintendo’s Switch 1 consoles were made in China and Vietnam, Reuters reported in 2019. Trump has imposed a 145% tariff rate on China and a 10% rate on Vietnam. The latter is down from 46%, after he instituted a 90-day pause to allow for negotiations.

Nintendo said Friday that the Switch 2 will cost $449.99 in the U.S., which is the same price the company first announced on April 2.

“We apologize for the retail pre-order delay, and hope this reduces some of the uncertainty our consumers may be experiencing,” Nintendo said in a statement. “We thank our customers for their patience, and we share their excitement to experience Nintendo Switch 2 starting June 5, 2025.”

The Nintendo Switch 2 and “Mario Kart World“ bundle will cost $499.99, the digital version “Mario Kart World” will cost $79.99 and the digital version of “Donkey Kong Bananza” will cost $69.99, Nintendo said. All of those prices remain unchanged from the company’s initial announcement.

However, accessories for the Nintendo Switch 2 will “experience price adjustments,” the company said, and other future changes in costs are possible for “any Nintendo product.”

It will cost gamers $10 more to by the dock set, $1 more to buy the controller strap and $5 more to buy most other accessories, for instance.

WATCH: Nintendo has ‘a lot of work to do’ to convince casual users to upgrade to Switch 2: Kantan Games