Latest news with #MichaelSafi
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Film-maker Adam Curtis on why this moment feels so weird
Adam Curtis is a journalist who delves deep into the BBC archive to make films about the ideas and feelings that define our times. In his latest series of films, Shifty, Curtis charts how Margaret Thatcher and her government transformed Britain by transferring power to the world of finance and by promoting a radical individualism. In conversation with Michael Safi, Curtis discusses the way his films try to capture what an idea feels like, how the ideas of the 1980s have led us to feelings of powerlessness and melancholy, and how new ideas are the key to a different future. Support the Guardian today:
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘A declaration of war': Israel's strike on Iran – Today in Focus Extra
Israel has launched an unprecedented strike on Iran. Though in the last couple of years the two rivals in the region have traded a few tit-for-tat attacks, the world woke up on Friday to an extraordinary escalation. As the Guardian's senior international correspondent Julian Borger reports from Jerusalem, this time Israel has attacked Iran's nuclear facilities, as well as killing the head of the Revolutionary Guards, the army chief of staff, and six senior nuclear scientists. So, asks Michael Safi, this time are we really on the brink of a regional war?
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- 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
04-06-2025
- 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.
