US dominance of the AI landscape is under threat with the release of Kimi K3, the newest model developed by a Chinese start-up called Moonshot AI.

Kimi K3 is as “powerful as the most advanced AI systems” from the US, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, while being “cheaper to run”, said The Telegraph. It is available for people to freely download and is an “open-weight model”. This allows developers to download, modify and run K3 on their own servers for free, “positioning it for easier adoption and a wider market globally”, said CNN.

How good is K3?
K3 is “beating” Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 model and OpenAI’s 5.5 in most coding and “general AI agent benchmarks”, according to results released by Beijing-based Moonshot. And while it has been “falling short” of Anthropic’s Fable model, said the FT, K3 cost “about a third of Anthropic’s Opus 4.8”. 

Unlike the “closed” and “proprietary” American systems, K3’s “open nature” allows global users to “modify the system for advanced reasoning and complex software development”, said the BBC. 

How have Anthropic and OpenAI reacted?
Anthropic and OpenAI have accused Chinese companies of “improperly harvesting data” from their systems to “accelerate” their own models’ development, said The New York Times. But after years of “operating under export controls” and “tight computing constraints”, China’s advances “cannot be explained by distillation alone”. There is “real innovation going on”, Stanford University professor Graham Webster told the paper.

The “steady stream” of Chinese open-source AI models, including K3, that rival the performance of “costly systems from Silicon Valley” have become the “preferred choice” for developers, said the outlet. 

What does this mean for US dominance in AI?
US AI leaders and policymakers had taken “comfort” from “estimates that China remained six to 12 months behind”, even with Chinese open-weight models “gaining momentum”, said Axios. But the release of Kimi K3 suggests that “cushion may have collapsed far faster than expected”. With the “entire game changed”, this could “trigger some code red for some”, said AI analyst Kim Isenberg.

American labs are “hardly out of ammunition” with OpenAI and Anthropic “racing ahead” to build newer systems like GPT-6 and Claude Opus 5, said Axios. But even if the US “pulls ahead” again, China has shown it can “close the gap quickly”.

“No remnants of Nazi influence remain” at Salzburger Vorstadt 15, the building in the Austrian town of Braunau where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889, said The New York Times. The former guesthouse has been remodelled into a police station, in an estimated £15 million renovation that concludes a “years-long effort” to prevent the site from becoming “an attraction for Nazi sympathisers”.

‘Never again fascism’
The Austrian government acquired Salzburger Vorstadt 15 from private ownership in 2016. It then remained empty while a commission decided the future of the building, forcing the town to decide whether to “confront or erase this past”, said Katja Hoyer in The Telegraph.

As a police station, the building will be seen as a place of “democracy, the rule of law, security, freedom and human dignity”, said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. “Our police is the opposite of the darkest times of our history,” he said at the opening ceremony. However, “memory will not disappear”.

Although there will be no information plaque at the site, a memorial stone remains at the front of the building. The stone, taken from Austria’s largest Nazi concentration camp at Mauthausen, bears the inscription: “For peace, freedom and democracy. Never again fascism. The millions of dead remind us.”

‘Concerns on several levels’
Braunau residents had become “fed up” with “extremists and drunken revellers” who “posed for pictures” outside the building with the “straight-armed Hitler salute”, or laid “roses and wreaths” to mark the dictator’s birthday, said The Guardian. But choosing what to do with the site was no easy task. Turning it into a museum of Nazi atrocities could have continued “to draw right-wing extremists”, while demolishing the building would “obfuscate an important chapter of local history”.

It was felt that a police station would “discourage Hitler admirers” from visiting the site, commission member Oliver Rathkolb told Deutsche Welle. However, in a 2023 poll, only 6% of respondents were in support of the police station idea, possibly due to concerns over the role of the Gestapo secret police as “one of the regime’s principal instruments of terror”, said the paper. Salzburger Vorstadt 15 should have become “a place dedicated to peace, freedom, democracy and tolerance”, said one local resident. Turning it into a police station “raises concerns on several levels”.

Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogačar races past the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on his way to winning a record-tying fifth Tour de France title. The 27-year-old joins Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurain, Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the most successful riders in the event’s history. 

Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP / Getty Images

The perfect summer cocktail used to include “enough sugar to make a dessert blush”, said The Times. But now “Britain’s drinks cabinets are taking a decidedly saltier turn”, as consumers opt for a “splash of pickle juice” or a sprinkle of chilli flakes in their cocktails.

Waitrose has reported “rising sales of sauces, citrus juices and seasonings” as shoppers stock up for savoury cocktails, said Grocery Trade News. Amid the increased popularity of foodstuffs such as hot honey and chilli crisp, it’s only natural that drinks follow suit.

If you want to delve into the world of savoury cocktails but don’t know where to start, try a gibson cocktail. The “punchy tipple” is “garnished with a pickled onion that’s been charred in a hot, non-stick frying pan”, said Good Food. Similar to a classic martini, the gibson is made by mixing dry vermouth and gin and adding some ice cubes. Give it a stir “for around 30 seconds” before straining into a “chilled cocktail glass”.

Another twist on a classic is a Mediterranean savoury gin and tonic, which adds tomatoes and ginger to the traditional recipe. Garnish with a halved cherry tomato on a cocktail stick and sprinkle in some drops of “good-quality extra virgin olive oil” before serving, for an “elegant finish”. 

Military bosses say climate change is now a national security threat – ministers must not ignore them
John Gummer in The Independent
A military report on the national security implications of the climate crisis “so frightened government ministers” that only “a pared-down version” was made public, writes John Gummer, former chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. Leaks have now revealed the full, bleak picture: food shortages, mass migration, even the potential for “nuclear engagement” over water resources. These are not predictions by “tree-hugging environmental campaigners, but top-level, hard-bitten military men”, sounding the alarm that “our homeland is not safe”.

Gianni Infantino’s rambling World Cup rant shows FIFA boss has gone ‘full Donald Trump’
Andy Dunn in The Mirror
Gianni Infantino has rejected criticism of the World Cup, in a “lengthy outburst” on Instagram, writes Andy Dunn. He insists this year’s tournament was nothing but “‘joy and happiness’”, and that those who say otherwise are “spreading hate”. “But no-one was ‘spreading hate’ when denouncing” the “suspension of Folarin Balogun’s automatic one-game ban” and the refusal to allow “African football’s best referee” onto US soil. Infantino “has been hanging around with” Donald Trump so much that he’s “been made truly delusional by power”.

Labour should love school uniforms – they are a great equaliser
Matthew Easter in The Telegraph
The government claims an incoming cap on the number of school-branded items that pupils are required to wear “will save parents money”, because “they can buy the rest of their items from any shop or supermarket”, writes the Schoolwear Association’s Matthew Easter. But uniforms are generally cheaper than children’s fashionwear, the cost of which has “spiralled”. Uniforms reduce “visible inequalities between pupils” by protecting those whose parents “don’t have the financial luxury” to buy them the “latest trendy” brands.