Three people have been charged in connection with an investigation into cash machine raids across the Midlands and Wales. David Price, 43, of Blakenhall, Adam Walker, 38, of Moseley and Joanne McGregor, aged 40, of Wednesfield - all in Wolverhampton - were arrested on Thursday. They are accused of raids since February, in which 27 cash machines targeted and more than £300,000 stolen in the West Midlands, as well as Staffordshire, Derbyshire, the West Mercia Police region and Denbighshire. All three are accused of conspiracy to burgle, conspiracy to handle stolen goods, and possession of criminal property. Source link

Meanwhile, Caf has increased the prize money for the winners of Afcon from $7m (£5.2m) to $10m (£7.5m). The surprise announcement about the future of Afcon was made by Motsepe after a meeting of Caf's executive committee in Morocco before the start of the 2025 finals in Rabat on Sunday. The biennial hosting of Afcon has long caused issues with the football calendar - with the vast majority of recent tournaments held midway through the European club season. Caf had made a resolution for Afcon to be held in a June-July slot from 2019 onwards and began its new plan in Egypt that year.

The new pearOS distro is a Romanian project that picks up the concepts behind the original Pear Linux from 2011 and updates them. It's not going to turn the distro world upside down, but it's fun, interesting, and a showcase for the versatility and customizability of the Linux desktop. Pear Linux was a French distro by David Tavares, based on Ubuntu and GNOME but heavily themed with custom fonts, icons, menu layouts, and more, all intended to make it visually resemble Apple's Mac OS X as closely as possible. As…

Google The 55-year-old man died at the scene, the Met Police said A murder investigation has been launched by the Metropolitan Police after a 55-year-old man was fatally shot in north-west London. Officers were called to reports of a shooting on West End Close, Stonebridge, Brent at 21:35 GMT on Friday. They administered emergency first aid but he died at the scene. No arrests have been made and his next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, the force added. Det Ch Insp Neil John said: "Enquiries are well under way, and my team is working at pace to determine the circumstances that led to this man's tragic death."

India have dropped Test and one-day international captain Shubman Gill from their 15-man squad for the men's T20 World Cup. The 26-year-old's omission follows him scoring 291 in his 15 T20 matches in 2025, with India's chief selector Ajit Agarkar saying the batter was "short of runs at the moment". Gill missed the T20 international against South Africa on Friday as India won the match to claim a 3-1 series victory. Suryakumar Yadav scored five runs in that game and, despite his tally of 218 runs in his 19 T20 outings this year, he retained the captaincy.

If you were hoping for some relief from stratospheric memory pricing, don't hold your breath. DRAM prices aren't expected to peak until at least 2026, TechInsights analyst James Sanders tells El Reg. DRAM is an incredibly broad category and includes everything from the DDR5 found in desktops and servers to the GDDR7 and HBM used by graphics cards and AI accelerators. The market is also notoriously volatile and prone to wild swings in pricing, spiking as inventories are drawn down and cratering as new capacity is brought online, Sanders explains.

England are on the brink of an Ashes series defeat after Australia's Nathan Lyon broke their resistance late on the fourth day of the third Test in Adelaide. Off-spinner Lyon removed a reverse-sweeping Harry Brook, bowled Ben Stokes and, crucially, had Zak Crawley stumped to move the home side within touching distance of the urn. Crawley compiled an impressive 85, but when he was seduced by a delirious Lyon, England were left 194-6 in pursuit of a notional target of 435. Australia will return on Sunday needing four more wickets to go 3-0 up after three Tests, retain the Ashes after only 11 days of cricket and win a fourth consecutive home series against England.

Salah delivered the corner from which Hugo Ekitike scored Liverpool's second goal in a 2-0 win at Anfield against Brighton and that was the cue for home fans to sing his chant. He did a lap of the pitch at full-time in his final appearance before joining up with Egypt for the Africa Cup of Nations. However, his comments after the Leeds game have put a question mark over his Liverpool future, especially with Saudi Pro League clubs interested in him and the January transfer window coming up. Former Reds defender Jamie Carragher described Salah's aside as a "disgrace", while ex-Blackburn and Celtic striker Chris Sutton said the controversial remarks had caused "carnage" at the club.

Already £1.4 billion over budget and four years late, a tech transformation project at a UK state-owned bank is outside HM Treasury spending limits and timetable under a revised plan from systems integrator Capgemini. Speaking to MPs this week, Dax Harkins, chief executive of National Savings and Investments (NS&I), said he could not guarantee the troubled project would not be hit by further setbacks requiring the extension of a contract with incumbent supplier Atos, which is due to end in 2028. "We are working through the first version of the integrated plan we hoped would give us that .

yacobchuk/Getty MIT researchers used electroencephalography to record brain activity while people used generative AI What was the last thing you asked an AI chatbot to do for you? Maybe you asked it for an essay structure to help answer a tricky question, provide an insightful analysis of a chunky data set, or to check if your cover letter matches the job description. Some experts worry that outsourcing these kinds of tasks means your brain is working less - and could even be harming your critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published a study showing that people who used ChatGPT to write essays showed less activity in brain networks associated with cognitive processing while undertaking the exercise.

Jake Paul has gone to hospital with a suspected broken jaw after he was stopped by Anthony Joshua in their heavyweight fight in Miami. The American went six rounds with the two-time heavyweight world champion but failed to beat the count following repeated knockdowns. The YouTuber-turned-boxer hit the canvas twice in the fifth and sixth rounds and said in his post-fight comments he believed his jaw was "definitely" broken. The 28-year-old missed the post-fight news conference as a result and Most Valuable Promotions chief Nakisa Bidarian confirmed Paul had gone to hospital.

WatchGuard is in emergency patch mode after confirming that a critical remote code execution flaw in its Firebox firewalls is under active attack. In an advisory published this week, the network security vendor warned customers that attackers are exploiting CVE-2025-32978, a 9.3-rated vulnerability affecting Firebox firewalls. The bug allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary commands remotely, effectively handing over control of the firewall if the device is reachable over the internet. WatchGuard said the bug resides in the Fireware OS Internet Key Exchange (IKE) service and can be exploited remotely, without authentication, to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable Firebox devices.

Pantone Cloud Dancer has been named Pantone's Colour of the Year For anyone who has spent years renting, staring at the same landlord-approved magnolia walls and dreaming of one day adding some actual personality to their home, Pantone's 2026 Colour of the Year might feel like a personal attack. This year, Pantone has chosen white as its colour of the year. More specifically, Cloud Dancer - a white described as "lofty" and "billowy" which "serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection". …

Dubois fought early in the night on the prelims in front of a lightly filled Kaseya Center - the 20,000-seat home of the Miami Heat. She walked to the ring singing along to Whitney Houston's 'I'm Every Woman' and started confidently, moving in and out of range and repeatedly beating Panatta to the punch. A straight left from the champion's southpaw stance landed cleanly and regularly in the third round as the gap in class became increasingly clear. "Lovely, Caroline, keep going," shouted stablemate and former cruiserweight world champion Chris Billam-Smith from the crowd as Dubois pressed forward.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has a Christmas gift for the AI industry in the shape of agreements for collaboration in the Trump administration's Genesis Mission, which aims to use AI to drive scientific discoveries. On Thursday, the DOE said it had signed agreements with 24 organizations interested in working to advance the Genesis project. The list includes the usual AI ecosystem suspects, with developers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI; major cloud operators AWS, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle; server makers Dell and HPE; chip suppliers AMD, Intel, and Nvidia; plus everyone's favorite Bond villain organization, Palantir.

Getty Images There can be a lot to think about at Christmas, from whether public transport is running to when shops and services are open. With UK bank holidays on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, and a fourth holiday in Scotland on 2 January, here are some tips to help you win the festive period. When are roads likely to be busiest? Motoring organisations the RAC and AA predict that 2025 could see the busiest festive getaway on record. The RAC expects 37.5 million trips to take place in the week running up to Christmas Day.

Manchester United open talks with Antoine Semenyo but Kobbie Mainoo keen to leave Old Trafford, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace in for Brennan Johnson and three Premier League clubs interested in Denzel Dumfries. England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, 20, sees no future for himself at Manchester United under manager Ruben Amorim and would consider a permanent move away from his boyhood club in January. (Mail - subscription required), external Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham have opened talks with 25-year-old Ghana winger Antoine Semenyo over a £65m move but must wrap up a deal with Bournemouth by 10 January to secure his services.

A Venezuelan gang described by US officials as "a ruthless terrorist organization" faces charges over alleged deployment of malware on ATMs across the country, illegally siphoning millions of dollars. Two indictments were returned in Nebraska, collectively charging 54 alleged members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang in connection with a spate of ATM jackpotting attacks. The gang allegedly deployed a variant of Ploutus malware on ATMs across the US. Court documents assert that TdA members would travel in groups and compromise ATMs managed by certain banks and credit unions.

Robert Ghement/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock Andrew Tate looks on as his brother Tristan speaks to media More than £1m seized from controversial social influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan from bank accounts in Devon will be used to combat violence against women and girls, police have said. It follows a December 2024 court ruling which found the brothers had not paid tax on £21m of revenue from their online business and had laundered money through bank accounts based in Devon. Westminster Magistrates' Court ruled Devon and Cornwall Police could seize more than £2.9m in money and assets, which included cryptocurrency.

Collum agreed with the VAR decision not to award a penalty against Fernandez in Rangers' 2-2 draw with Dundee United at Tannadice. On that occasion, the ball appeared to clip the defender's arm as it dropped from a United throw-in. The head of refereeing said the incident was "not punishable in any shape or form" and also agreed with the awarding of a late Rangers penalty, which Nedim Bajrami converted after a foul by Will Ferry on Max Aarons. Collum similarly backed the decision not to award a spot-kick against Hearts' Harry Milne as he blocked a Kyrell Wilson shot on the line as hosts Falkirk attacked.

hands on Infinite Machine, a New York-based electric vehicle startup, began with a stolen Vespa.  Eddie Cohen, president and co-founder of the company, told The Register that he and his brother Joseph were living together during the COVID outbreak. "His Vespa had gotten stolen and we just kinda had this crazy idea … if we were to design one for the future that was all-electric, had the best technology, what would it look like? What would it feel like?" Cohen explained. As I stood beside P1, a $10,000 electric seated scooter, and…

Neil HendersonOld Bailey, London PA Media The attack happened in Shaftesbury Avenue in central London A driver who killed a man and mowed down others in a drink-fuelled rampage in London's West End on Christmas Day has been convicted of murder. Anthony Gilheaney, 31, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering 25-year-old Aidan Chapman and attempting to murder two other men in a series of attacks in the early hours of 25 December 2024. Mr Chapman suffered catastrophic head injuries and died in hospital on New Year's Eve.

Wawrinka, who turned pro in 2002, has won 16 tour-level trophies during his career, including a Masters 1000 title at Monte Carlo in 2014. He also secured gold for Switzerland in doubles at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing partnering Roger Federer. Known for his one-handed backhand, Wawrinka beat the world number one player in all three of his Grand Slam finals. Wawrinka, who will turn 41 in March, has struggled with injuries in recent years and is currently ranked outside the top 150. "I still want to push my limits and finish this journey on the best note possible," Wawrinka added.

The University of Sydney is ringing around thousands of current and former staff and students after admitting attackers helped themselves to historical personal data stashed inside one of its online code repositories. In a message published on December 18, the vice president of operations at the University of Sydney, Nicole Gower, said the university was alerted last week to "suspicious activity in one of our online IT code libraries." She said this had triggered an emergency lockdown of the system. While the repository was meant for software development, Gower acknowledged that "there were also historical data files in this code library containing personal information about some members of our community."

BBC The family of nine-year-old Aria Thorpe, who was stabbed to death in Weston-super-Mare on Monday, have described her as "the most beautiful little soul". In a statement, they added: "Our hearts are broken in a way we never imagined possible." Aria's father, Tom Thorpe, said her death was "devastating" and added: "You will be greatly missed, you special little angel. A life gone far too early but I hope a life lived well. We all love you dearly. Goodnight darling." A 15-year-old boy appeared at Bristol Crown Court on Friday…