Plus: The Russians hoping to become Ukrainian citizens, and Scotlandâs waxwing irruption
| | | | | | | Hello. The tech world is still reeling from the firing of OpenAI’s co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman on Friday. Technology editor Zoe Kleinman tries to make the point of the frantic situation. From Ukraine, correspondent James Waterhouse speaks to the Russian passport holders hoping for a change of citizenship. We also feature a recipe for a South Korean staple and a trove of pictures of Scandinavian birds flocking to Scotland. |
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| | | | Get up to speed | | • | Israel said its forces targeted gunmen who opened fire against their forces from Gaza’s Indonesian hospital, but denied firing shells towards it after the Hamas-run health ministry reported 12 people were killed at the facility in an Israeli air strike overnight. | | • | Albanian opposition politicians set off colourful smoke bombs in the country’s parliament in a bid to stop a vote on the 2024 budget. Watch footage of the protest. | | • | US researchers have found a possible explanation for why some people get headaches after drinking red wine, even in small amounts. |
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| | Questions Answered | | The CEO firing that shocked the tech world | | | | Sam Altman’s firing reportedly took some OpenAI investors by surprise. Credit: Getty Images |
| | Friday’s firing of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman came as a shock to the tech community. The 38-year-old executive had helped launch the artificial intelligence firm behind the ChatGPT chatbot, and his departure sparked outrage among some OpenAI staffers who demanded the board resign. Among those who signed the missive was chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, a board member himself. | | | | Zoe Kleinman, Technology editor |
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| | How did the board justify firing Mr Altman? | | The board accused Mr Altman of not being "consistently candid in his communications", and said as a result they had "lost confidence" in his leadership. | | What does this mean in practice? | | We actually still don't know - but let's consider some options. There are reports that Mr Altman was considering some hardware projects, including the funding and development of an AI chip, which would have been quite a different direction in which to take OpenAI. Had he made some commitments that the board was not aware of? | | What’s another possible reason? | | It could boil down to a very old, and very human tension: money. In an internal memo, the board made it clear that it was not accusing Mr Altman of any "financial malfeasance". But we know that OpenAI was founded as a non-profit organisation. In 2019, a new arm of the firm was formed - and this part of it was profit-orientated. Not everybody was happy about it. OpenAI, however, now finds itself in the happy circumstance of being worth an awful lot of money. A staff stock sale, which has not gone ahead as of yet, was reportedly valued at $86bn (£68bn). Could it be that there were ambitions to make the for-profit side of the business more powerful? | | | | | | |
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| AT THE SCENE | Ukraine | | Russian on paper, but Ukrainian in spirit | | | | Anastasia is serving as a medic in the Ukrainian army. Credit: BBC | | Russian passport holders who live in Ukraine have no way to give up their citizenship. They say access to services in the country is curtailed by their current association to Moscow. | | | | James Waterhouse, Ukraine correspondent |
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| Galina was born in Ukraine. She speaks Ukrainian and her husband is serving in the Ukrainian army. But Galina is legally Russian. As a child, she moved there, where she then became a citizen. Now Galina's temporary Ukrainian passport has expired, she says she feels like a "hostage of Russia". "Changing passports was difficult even before the war - now it's impossible," she says. She pins all her blame on Russia for her situation, as well as her Russian family members who've chosen to support their country in its so-called "special military operation".
Anastasia's relocation followed her online criticism of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and backing of separatist militants, which led to her losing her job in Russia as well as receiving death threats. After Russian troops moved towards Kyiv last year, she volunteered to be a combat medic with Ukrainian forces, as they defended the capital against troops from her own country. "This is what I'm fighting for. Not only for freedom, but for my passport." |
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| | The big picture | | Rescue efforts for trapped workers | | | | A pipe has been installed to send cooked food to the workers. Credit: BBC |
| | The ordeal of 41 workers trapped in a tunnel that caved in after a landslide, in northern India, has entered a second week. Officials looking at new options to rescue the men say they plan to drill two parallel tunnels which could provide an "escape route" to the workers. | | | | |
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| | | For your downtime | | Delicious donkkaseu | | How to make South Korea's beloved crispy golden pork loin, with a glossy brown glaze. | | |
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| | And finally... in Scotland | | A surge in waxwing sightings have been reported across Scotland. Waxwings are annual visitors from Scandinavia but they sometimes come in more significant numbers - known as an irruption - in search of food. See pictures of the birds gorging themselves on berries and having a bath with starlings. |
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