McDonald’s has taken down a Christmas advert made with Artificial Intelligence (AI) following online backlash.

The 45-second advert was produced with generative AI clips and released publicly on McDonald’s Netherlands YouTube channel on 6 December.

Viewers on social media denounced the use of AI in the film, with one commenter calling it “the most god-awful ad I’ve seen this year”.

On 9 December McDonald’s Netherlands removed the video, adding in a statement to BBC News that the moment served as “an important learning” as the company explored “the effective use of AI”.

The advert was created for McDonald’s by Dutch company TBWA\Neboko and US production company The Sweetshop.

Adverts which include generative AI have become a growing trend among major brands, such as Coca-Cola, particularly for the Christmas season.

The McDonald’s advert depicted things that can go wrong during the Christmas break, using the slogan “the most terrible time of the year”, and suggesting the time was better spent in the company of the fast food giant.

Following its release, viewers criticised the film’s uncanny-looking characters and large number of stitched together clips, calling it “creepy” and “poorly edited”.

As clips made using generative AI are more likely to distort the longer they run for – most clips made using the process tend to be roughly six to 10 seconds long – even a 45-second advert would likely consist of many videos edited together.

The video also provoked concerns for job displacement in the industry, with one Instagram comment noting: “No actors, no camera team..welcome to the future of filmmaking. And it sucks.”

Following the video being made private on the McDonald’s Netherlands YouTube channel, The Sweetshop’s chief executive Melanie Bridge defended the advert.

As quoted in Futurism, she said the production process took “seven weeks” where the team “hardly slept” and created “thousands of takes – then shaped them in the edit just as we would on any high-craft production”.

“This wasn’t an AI trick,” she said. “It was a film.”

In a statement to BBC News, McDonald’s Netherlands said the video was meant to “reflect the stressful moments that can occur during the holidays” but had decided to remove the advert.

“This moment serves as an important learning as we explore the effective use of AI,” it said.

Where normally a high-publicity Christmas campaign could take up to a year to pull off, companies have begun to look to firms which can produce films in a much shorter time span, using prompts from generative AI tools to create new video content.

Coca-Cola seems to have been able to sway at least some of the general public with its second AI-generated Christmas ad in a row.

While the use of AI to create the advert has been divisive, a report from analytics company Social Sprout found it had a 61% “positive sentiment rating” from commenters online.

But several other businesses such as the Italian luxury fashion house Valentino have come under fire for using the technique in their campaigns, with critics calling Valentino’s advert “cheap” and “lazy”.

BBC News has contacted The Sweetshop and TBWA\Neboko for comment.

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Incels – the male ‘involuntarily celibates’ who hate women – aspire to be as attractive as models like David Gandy and Jordan Barrett, a new study shows. 

Scientists at the University of Portsmouth analysed online ‘incel’ communities on social platforms including TikTok and forums including looksmax.org. 

In a new paper, they present the PSL scale, a hierarchical rating system used by incels to assess male attractiveness. 

Incels believe they can work their way up the scale with ‘looksmaxxing’ – using various methods to maximise physical attractiveness. 

‘Looksmaxxing’ includes seemingly harmless beauty hacks, like following a skincare routine or using minoxidil to combat hair loss. 

But other drastic and more dangerous methods include growth hormones to boost height, extreme cosmetic surgeries, and DIY ‘bonesmashing’ techniques aimed at reshaping the face. 

Study author Anda Solea, criminologist at the University of Portsmouth, warns that the looksmaxxing trend makes incel ideology more ‘accessible and relatable’.

‘Platform algorithms, trending features, and viral content mechanisms supercharge this spread, exposing millions to harmful ideologies,’ she said.  

According to the incel beauty scale, men such as David Gandy (left) and Australian model Jordan Barrett (right) are considered ‘gods’ in terms of their physical attractiveness 

The PSL scale, presented by researchers based on their research into incel online communities, goes from ‘subhuman’ at the very bottom (e.g. the Elephant Man) to ‘Tera Chad’ at the very top (e.g. Australian supermodel Jordan Barrett)

According to the PSL scale of male attractiveness, the very bottom level (PSL 0) is for ‘subhumans’ such as the Elephant Man with facial deformities and genetic defects.

Level 1 is men whose unattractiveness is ‘deemed so extreme that living with such features is likened to a monk’s life with no sexual contact’. 

Level 2 is ‘real incels’ whose physical unattractiveness cannot be improved through common looksmaxxing techniques, their unattractiveness being purely genetic. 

‘It can be inferred that most, if not all, incel men would fall into this category,’ the researchers explain. 

According to incels, some famous males who fall into level 2 include actor Aziz Ansari, rapper Jay Z and Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi. 

Getting slightly more attractive at level 3 and 4 are ‘normies’ who have average attractiveness (level 3 have some ‘below-average’ physical characteristics that put them lower).

Examples of normies are actors Steve Buscemi and Adam Driver (level 3) and Daniel Wu and Shia Lebouf (level 4). 

The term ‘sub5’ – used interchangeably with or instead of ‘incel’, sometimes to avoid detection online – refers to males at level 4 or lower. 

This image from TikTok presents fellow incels with the ‘attractive male attributes starting pack’. It gives incels examples of what they need to aspire to if they want to boost their appeal to women

The Incel Beauty Scale

Level 0

‘Subhumans’ with facial deformities and genetic defects.

Level 1 

Unattractiveness ‘deemed so extreme that living with such features is likened to a monk’s life with no sexual contact’.

Level 2 

‘Real incels’ whose unattractiveness cannot be improved through common looksmaxxing techniques.

Levels 3 and 4

‘Normies’ with average attractiveness.

Levels 5, 6 and 7

‘Chads’ – physically attractive alpha male figures almost at the top of the male hierarchy.

Level 8 

‘Tera chads’ with ‘godly features, outshining everybody else’.

Next, we move into the ‘chad’ categories – physically attractive alpha male figures at the top of the male hierarchy. 

There’s low-level chads such as Timothee Chalamet (level 5), ‘true chads’ such as Johnny Depp and Zayn Malik (level 6) and ‘giga chads’ like David Gandy and Sean O’Pry (level 7). 

Finally, right at the very top are ‘tera chads’ such as Australian supermodel Jordan Barrett and American actor Jon Erik Hexum (level 8). 

Making up barely over 0 per cent of the male population, tera chads are ‘the most perfect-looking type of man’, with ‘godly features, outshining everybody else’. 

The researchers say levels 7 and 8 are considered by incels to be ‘gods’ in terms of their attractiveness, but at the same time incels resent them.

Highly-attractive males (chads and gods) are seen as part of the problem by incels, essentially because woman are drawn to them at the expense of incels. 

The term ‘PSL’ is an acronym originating from the name of three now-defunct incel-adjacent forums (Puahate.com, Sluthate.com, and Lookism.net) and is a well-known incel term. 

The team found hashtags linked to the incel community such as ‘PSL’, ‘pslgod’, ‘looksmaxxing’, and ‘mogging’ (the act of dominating another person) have racked up billions of views on TikTok.

American actor and model Jon-Erik Hexum (pictured) is considered by incels to be the very top tier (level 8) of male attractiveness 

As Netflix series Adolescence (pictured) explained, incels believe in the 80/20 principle – the belief that 80 per cent of women are attracted to 20 per cent of men 

Some, such as ‘pslgods’, have hundreds of millions of views, while others like ‘pslscale’ are in the hundreds of thousands. 

Terms like this still aren’t really known to the general public, which helps incels keep their activities fairly secret. 

New terms are being coined all the time which sometimes can only be understood in context, making it very difficult for outsiders to follow. 

The study, published in Crime, Media, Culture, gives ‘critical insights into the evolving mechanisms of online misogynist extremism’. 

The authors say extreme ideas from isolated online communities spread to mainstream social media platforms, where they can quickly reach millions. 

‘The findings underscore an urgent need for greater awareness among policymakers, educators, and practitioners about how formerly fringe misogynistic and racist ideologies are becoming embedded within everyday digital discourse – particularly among younger audiences,’ they conclude. 

The incel glossary

• Incel/sub5 – males who view themselves as unattractive, rejected, or mistreated by women
• PSL – acronym originating from the name of three now-defunct incel-adjacent forums (Puahate.com, Sluthate.com, and Lookism.net) 
• PSLgods – international male supermodels like Jordan Barrett and David Gandy which young people are encouraged to emulate 
• PSL scale – attractiveness scale that incels want to work their way up
• Looksmaxxing – a trend that encourages people to change their appearance to attract women

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What does a human resources leader at one of the most impactful startups operating in Africa look for when hiring? “You can have the best engineer in the world who has a brilliant jerk attitude and just disrupts your whole company,” says Juliet Oshagbemi, Zipline’s Chief People & Culture Officer, Africa. 

For a drone technology company where technical skills are critical, Oshagbemi says character and attitude can take precedence.

This can range from a talent’s humility and vulnerability, the kind that encourages taking responsibility for mistakes, to being entrepreneurial, curious, and willing to share informed and direct feedback without stripping a person of their dignity. When she asks for your past career experience in an interview, it’s less about where you’ve worked or for how long, and more about how you articulate those past experiences. For a global company with distributed teams, the ability to articulate and communicate your work and output is crucial.

At Zipline, she looks for people who are “able to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty” across various roles, in typical startup fashion. It’s grit, resilience, and being “good at collaborating cross-functionally.” 

“I think the other piece is looking [for] someone who has leadership potential, someone that could lead a team in the future,” Oshagbemi says. “At Zipline, we’re very quick to identify people that could lead and give you the skills you need to lead.”

Finding purpose in uncertainty

More than two decades ago, long before Zipline, Oshagbemi sat before a recruiter at Blue Arrow, a recruitment agency for seasonal workers in London, to find out if any jobs had shored up. She’d dropped her resume at the agency a week earlier, on her way home from a part-time job at Marks & Spencer, eager for an inroad into a more stable career path. Already, she’d left behind studies in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “I just couldn’t deal with not being in control of the outcome,” she says of her time in the medical sciences. 

Just minutes before she’d walked into the agency, however, the recruiter had trashed her resume. “I just threw your CV away!” Oshagbemi recalls the recruiter telling her before reaching back into the trash to retrieve the resume and attempt to straighten it out. 

She was asked to sit and, within half an hour, was placed in a supporting role for the recruitment team at the Metropolitan Police. At the station, she was tasked with putting together recruitment packs for individuals who’d expressed interest in the police force. There was nothing particularly exciting about this job, but Oshagbemi recalls doing it with fervour: listening to music from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m. at the station along Brook Street, sorting some 30 pages of recruitment information, gathering them in a file, sending it off to a would-be police officer, repeat. 

Someone was taking note. Three weeks in, she says, the station’s recruitment manager bumped her into the recruitment team where she was tasked with hiring police officers who respond to 999 calls. 

“I absolutely did not like it,” she says.

It was too routine, like checking the same items off the same lists over and over. So a year and a half later, she moved into generalist HR and climbed the ranks, from deputy HR manager to a HR manager responsible for about 900 staff. She was around 23.  

You won’t be remiss to say her foray into personnel management was accidental, but nearly a decade later, Oshagbemi says seeking out the best talent in Africa and creating work environments that allow them to thrive has become a life’s mission.  

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A life-changing experience

After eight years at the Met Police, Oshagbemi truly cut her teeth as an HR professional at the Dangote Group. At the time, she did not know she was interviewing for a role at the conglomerate until late in the process. After interviewing with an all-male hiring panel in fishnet tights and a forwardness not often expected of women in corporate settings, she was surprised to learn she’d been hired. 

“I think it was August 31st, 2009. I walked into Marble House, and I was responsible for learning and development for the group,” she says.  

At the time, the conglomerate was looking for disruptors, a leader who could transform the group’s approach to personnel management. They’d appreciated the forwardness she’d brought to the interviews, her refusal to respond in ways “people wanted to hear”, and were confident that she could drive the change the company needed. 

“Apparently, they were deadlocked. I think out of the panel—there were six—four wanted me to be hired, two did not,” she says. Those two would later tell her that “they were happy that they agreed in the end.” 

At Dangote Group, Oshagbemi truly grew as an HR leader. From maintaining a high-quality talent pipeline, identifying and budgeting for personnel learning and development to recruiting, relationship building and succession planning, the size and complexity of the business presented a rare opportunity to work across every aspect of human resources management. 

But after more than a decade working across those subsidiaries, Oshabegemi says she was ready to move on to newer opportunities. It was in the process of figuring out what this next move was that she was head-hunted by Zipline. 

Oshagbemi says she’d never heard of the company when she was approached to join the team. She Googled them, of course, and took a preliminary conversation with the recruiter, “and I still wasn’t very convinced.” For one, the company had about a tenth of the staff capacity at Dangote, and it was going to be a significant downgrade in the scale of responsibilities she’d been handling for almost 13 years. 

“Of course, another lesson learned for me was, just don’t look at the number of employees. Look at other things,” she reflects.

That ‘other thing’ took a visit to one of Zipline’s distribution centres in Ghana. 

“When I walked into that distribution centre, and I heard the drone being launched, I think that was like a life-changing moment for me.”

Oshagbemi lost her father in 1999. Tragically. He’d been shot six times in the stomach, she recalled. At the hospital, five of the bullets were extracted, but the lone remaining bullet was lodged in his intestine, and he was losing so much blood that they couldn’t save him.  

“Now imagine me, fast forward to many, many years later, at a facility where they were putting blood into a drone to send it to a hospital to save a life,” she says quietly.

She knew for sure that she was going to join the Zipline team then, to continue a career trend of working in companies whose impact is often ubiquitous and central to everyday survival. 

At the time, the company was scouting for someone to lead learning and development, but after conversations with the recruiter and realising they needed more human resources structures in place, the role broadened in scope. She joined Zipline as its Chief People & Culture Officer in March 2022. 

Culture as currency

Long gone are the days when a human resources leader’s role entailed payroll management, hiring, and firing. Today, human resources leaders are not only maintaining a healthy talent pipeline, establishing and fostering healthy work cultures, and handling change management, but they’ve also become, according to Oshagbemi, critical business partners to a company’s leadership. To contribute meaningfully, HR leaders of today must understand the numbers, how they influence decision-making, how profit and loss (P&L) works, how balance sheets work, and, for companies like Zipline that are heavily regulated, how regulation impacts business operations. 

Especially for startups, an HR leader may need to wear more than one hat—Oshagbemi supports procurement, logistics, and security efforts at Zipline—and must embed themselves into the companies they work with to truly understand how to advocate for staff. 

“You need to know what people are doing, what their pain points are,” Oshagbemi says. “You need to do a day in the life of someone in operations so that when you’re making that policy or when you are aligning on a decision at [the] board level, you have the right data points.”

At Zipline, “operations is our bread and butter,” she adds. “I need to understand what operations need, what are their priorities, or even speak the operation language.” 

This capacity and intent to place oneself in the shoes of staff members with the aim of understanding their motivations and pain points are captured by the principle of ethical leadership. To create an enabling environment in which human capital thrives, where talent has the freedom and encouragement to do their best work, as well as the psychological safety to fail and learn without reproach, an ethical leader leads by example and with integrity. They embody the traits and cultures they want to see in their organisations and empathise with the limitations of those tasked with bringing the company’s vision to life.

“I can sit here and talk to you about performance management, talent management, chain management, and all those things,” she says. “But I think without having [an] enabling environment, all those things are just, you know, words.”

Though some studies show limitations, this style of leadership is largely regarded as beneficial. According to Legal Research Network’s Benchmark of Ethical Culture, which surveyed more than 8,500 full-time employees across 13 industries and 15 countries (African countries not included), companies with strong ethical cultures outperform companies without by about 50% across metrics such as customer satisfaction, adaptability, innovation, growth, and employee loyalty. This style of leadership fosters, perhaps crucially, psychological safety—a term coined in 1999 that describes an environment where staff can speak up without fear of embarrassment or retribution when things go awry. 

For some leaders, empathy and ethical behaviour might be innate, while for others, especially younger leaders and middle managers, they have to be learned, Oshagbemi says. 

In addition to ethical leadership, enabling work environments are corporate cultures that favour expertise over the personal preferences of a single, often top company leader, according to Vivian Offodile-Adukwu, a human resources expert with over a decade of experience, including in tech startups.

“​​I always say that if you recruit me or if you bring me on board your team, it means that you have value or trust in the experience that I bring,” Offodile-Adukwu says. 

In other words, great benefits and pensions are no longer enough to keep a multigenerational talent pool truly committed.  “When I was in the police force, you’d have people wanting to work there for 30, 35 years because there was a great pension and there were great benefits. That has changed now,” Oshagbemi says. At Dangote, people stayed on for a decade, two, more,  “because they were growing, because they were given opportunities to do other things.”

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The “brilliant jerk” trap

The concept of ethical leadership—modelling healthy culture and empathy towards staff—is especially critical in startups where entrepreneurs often zero in on product and marketfit, fundraising, and scaling, while people management falls to the side. 

“People will probably hire the CTO before they hire an HR person. Or the CFO. But why are you not looking at people person first and being able to build a solid culture for your company from the beginning, [rather] than making it an afterthought?” Oshagbemi asks. 

Offodile-Adukwu agrees, adding that when founders fail to establish healthy corporate culture strategies and protocols from the start, there’s a higher chance that the culture will become unhealthy and toxic, leading to high attrition rates. And when fixes are eventually pursued, often without expert change management personnel or processes in place, the same results occur: talent leave. 

“Your policies, your structure, reporting chain, modus operandi, everything has to reflect the culture that you see your company or startup [looking] like in the next 5, 10 years,” Offodile-Adukwu says. 

When companies place greater emphasis on technical skills, which Offodile-Adukwu argues can be taught or developed, they can miss out on soft skills that often can’t be taught or are harder to teach in adulthood, but which have dire consequences for a team when they’re absent.

Global corporate culture and legacy

Zipline’s drone technology enables the company to deliver essential medical supplies, food, and other consumer products with speed and efficiency. The company was founded in America and now operates in eight countries across four continents. Bridging the gap between different corporate cultures and aligning them with the central global strategy is another critical part of Oshagbemi’s job. 

“My role and the role of the other people partners in the company is to be a bridge, right? It’s to educate people on the cultural differences,” she says. 

To do this requires cultural intelligence and awareness of how simple things like salutations, language, and sociocultural norms can creep into the ways people work and do business. It means communicating these nuances across the company’s various markets or organising cultural awareness workshops for American staff coming to Africa and vice versa to make cross-cultural interactions less nerve-racking and more beneficial. 

Why does all of this work matter to Oshagbemi?

Africa has great talent, and many go undiscovered or unsupported to reach whatever summits they dream of in their careers, she argues. In addition to her role at Zipline, she works as a career coach, “because people do make wrong career decisions” and sometimes need assistance to get things right. 

But when she looks back at her career in years to come, Oshagbemi says a worthwhile legacy is one that reflects her contributions to developing ethical leaders whose personal and company impact is felt beyond their individual companies, across entire industries and for years to come.

Recommended Read: Hannah Kates was at Stears; now, she’s mapping Lagos’ ferry routes for free

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Enhanced geothermal startup Fervo Energy has raised $462 million to complete its first large-scale power plant and begin development on several others as it races to provide electricity to a power-hungry grid.

The new funds will help the company continue work on its 500-megawatt Cape Station power plant in Utah while starting development on several others, Sara Jewett, senior vice president of strategy at Fervo, told TechCrunch.

The new round was led by B Capital with participation from AllianceBernstein, Atacama Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, CalSTRS, Capricorn Investment Group, Carbon Equity, Centaurus Capital, Climate First, Congruent Ventures, CPP Investments, Devon Energy, Echelon, Galvanize, Google, Impact Science Ventures, Kris Singh, JB Straubel, Liberty Mutual Investments, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, Mercuria, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsui and Co., and Sabanci Climate Ventures.

Fervo has an existing deal with Google to supply it with electricity for its data centers.

Fervo has targeted 2026 to bring the first phase of Cape Station online, and Jewett confirmed that it will be “mechanically complete” this year. “It’s very real and very tangible.”

The new round comes six months after the startup announced a $206 million financing package, including loans and project-level preferred equity, for Cape Station. Last year, Fervo raised nearly $500 million in equity and debt.

Enhanced geothermal has been in development for years but has recently soared as favorable conditions have lifted its prospects. 

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Chief among them is rising data center demand. Large tech companies like Google and Meta have been eyeing geothermal as a potential solution to their energy needs. Earlier this year, an analysis by the Rhodium Group found that by 2030, enhanced geothermal could provide nearly two-thirds of new data center demand at or below what operators are paying today.

Geothermal is also viewed favorably within the Trump administration. Energy secretary Chris Wright’s previous company, Liberty Energy, participated in a $138 million round that Fervo raised in 2022. Like many of its peers, the company uses fracking and directional drilling techniques borrowed from the oil and gas industry. Many Fervo employees used to work in oil and gas, applying their knowledge of drilling and subsurface development to a new challenge.

Fervo is considered a frontrunner among enhanced geothermal startups, which drill deeper than existing geothermal developers to tap hotter rocks and deliver more power.

That knowledge has helped Fervo bring down the time it takes to drill a new well. The company’s first wells took about a month, but this summer, Fervo announced that it had completed one in 16 days. “We are in the mid-teens these days, on average, for our well drilling times,” Jewett said. “That is pretty good, but we always have more improvements to make.”

The company’s obsession with drilling time is both economic and a point of pride. “Roughly half the cost of wells is in the drilling time,” Jewett said. Shorter drilling times mean that Fervo can complete power plants more quickly, bringing in revenue sooner. They’re also a sign of mastery. “It’s also a good representation of how much you’re investing in the well, how much you’re troubleshooting, how many issues are plaguing you that end up costing money,” she said.

For now, Fervo is focused on the Western U.S., where hot rocks sit closer to the surface. At the company’s Cape Station site in Utah, for example, Fervo has to drill down 8,500 feet to tap into 450˚ F rock. 

“If you go to Pennsylvania or West Virginia, [the hot rock] exists much lower,” Jewett said. Only after the company is comfortable with how quickly it can drill a well in the West will it expand elsewhere, including abroad.

“There are a lot of really high-potential places across the world,” she said.

Within the U.S., though, there are plenty of different types of rock for Fervo to drill through, giving it the potential to build up sufficient technical experience before heading to other countries. By that point, Jewett expects that differences in regulations will be the primary hurdle.

Given skyrocketing energy demand from data centers and Fervo’s progress at Cape Station, there have been rumors that the company might file for go public in the coming year or so. Jewett wouldn’t comment on those, but she said that the company is seeing “off-the-charts demand.”

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PlayStation has revealed part of its 2026 game lineup, and one title fans were hoping to see is still missing: Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6). The announcement, shared on X, highlighted upcoming releases such as Pragmata, Wolverine, Halo Campaign Evolved, First Light, Saros, Resident Evil Requiem, and Nioh, but Rockstar’s long-awaited sequel wasn’t mentioned.

That absence became clearer shortly after. Rockstar confirmed that GTA 6, originally targeting May 2026, will now launch on November 19, 2026. The news closes the loop on weeks of speculation, including theories sparked by a timestamp on Jason’s smartwatch in the second trailer that some players believed hinted at an early November update.

2026 is looking big!

Level up your new year with these upcoming #PS5 games. pic.twitter.com/KRfs0arpmQ

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) December 9, 2025

Reactions across gaming forums and social media have been mixed. Some fans expressed predictable frustration, while others argued that a delay from Rockstar usually means more polish, not trouble. Given the scale of the project, that logic tracks.

Development began nearly a decade ago, and estimates put the combined budget for development, marketing, and post-launch support at roughly $2 billion. The story follows Jason and Lucia, two lovers drawn into a sprawling criminal world across the neon-drenched state of Leonida, Rockstar’s fictional reimagining of Florida.

For PlayStation’s 2026 rollout, the delay creates a temporary gap in blockbuster titles. For Rockstar, it reflects the studio’s willingness to take its time as it positions GTA 6 to become one of the most ambitious releases in modern gaming.

GTA 6 Delayed Again: Why Rockstar’s $2 Billion Game Won’t Arrive Until November 2026

Gamers have to wait an extra year for the most anticipated game

The takeaway

GTA 6’s absence from PlayStation’s early 2026 lineup underscores the scale of expectations surrounding Rockstar’s next flagship title. With nearly ten years of development behind it and a budget that could make it the most expensive game ever produced, the delay signals a focus on refinement rather than rushing to market. When it arrives in November, GTA 6 is expected to be more than a major release; it’s likely to be a global event that reshapes industry standards.

Updated

December 10, 2025

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The House of Representatives has summoned the CEOs of GTBank, Zenith Bank, and Access Bank to appear before its investigative panel following allegations of unauthorised deductions from customers’ accounts. The committee, chaired by Kelechi Nwogu, is looking into the charges applied to civil servants, public employees, and other account holders.

Speaking during Tuesday’s session in Abuja, Nwogu emphasised that bank CEOs must appear in person.

“You cannot appear here without an identity. We are not here on our own. We are here on the mandate of the people who elected us into parliament,” he said.

House of Reps

The panel has given the banks a four-day ultimatum to submit all necessary documents before the next meeting scheduled for Wednesday. Nwogu warned that any bank failing to comply risks facing sanctions. “We will review all the documents, and we will place you under oath,” he added.

Direct accountability at the top from the bank CEOs

The committee’s insistence on the personal appearance of the CEOs underscores its commitment to transparency and accountability at the highest levels of Nigeria’s banking sector. In addition to the banks, the investigation also involves the Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Accountant General, and the EFCC, which is responsible for tracking deductions and ensuring compliance.

“Commercial banks are perpetrating illegality by deducting inexplicable charges from civil servants, public servants, and other customers’ accounts without remittances,” Nwogu said.

By requiring top executives to answer directly, the House aims to establish clear responsibility for the charges and prevent evasions through proxies.

Also read: NCC Uncovers Forceful Deductions by Telcos, to Order Refund to Affected Subscribers

The four-day deadline comes with specific consequences. Failing to submit the requested documents or appear before the panel may lead to sanctions, increasing pressure on banks to comply fully and promptly.

For customers, the investigation provides an opportunity to understand why certain deductions occurred and if they were lawful. For the banks, it is a crucial moment to showcase compliance, rebuild trust, and avoid penalties.

“The panel is not leaving any stone unturned to unravel why the commercial banks engaged in spurious deductions from their customers’ accounts,” Nwogu concluded, signaling a no-nonsense approach to the probe.

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Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, has taken a suspicious tumble in a new demo.

In a viral clip, the robot suddenly jerks back, reaches up as if to remove something from its head, and tumbles backwards with a crash.

Many have compared the robot’s strange movements to the distinctive gesture of someone taking off a virtual reality headset.

On social media, this has sparked a flurry of rumours that the supposedly autonomous robot is really controlled by a human.

The shocking moment was captured by a Reddit user who was filming Optimus handing out bottles of water at the Tesla The Future of Autonomy Visualized event in Miami.

In a post, the user wrote: ‘I think Optimus needs an update.’

As the video spread online, others were quick to accuse Tesla of overstating its bot’s ability to function on its own.

One commenter wrote: ‘Honestly looks like the dude teleworking this bad boy took off his headset.’

Elon Musk’s Tesla Optimus robot has taken a suspicious tumble in a viral video, as it appears to make the motion of removing a VR headset

On social media, tech fans have taken this as evidence that the robot was being remotely controlled by a teleoperator rather than operating autonomously 

Commenters have mocked Tesla for the blunder, with one joking that robots would at least not be taking human jobs

The embarrassing video has caused hilarity for online tech fans, as one dubbed it ‘my favourite video of all time.’

”At least humans will have jobs,’ another commenter joked.

While another chimed in: ‘idk looks to me like that robot just killed itself.’

Although Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly insisted that the Optimus robots are autonomous, many social media users have been quick to suggest that it could be teleoperated.

Teleoperated robots are controlled by a human wearing a VR headset, who acts out motions for the robot to mimic.

In the past, Tesla has come under fire for using teleoperated robots at its events while continuing to suggest that they are fully autonomous.

For example, the robots at Tesla’s ‘We Robot’ event were largely controlled by remote operators, despite Tesla not explicitly making this clear to the public.

Now, the strange behaviour of this Optimus robot moments before its collapse has led many to believe that it was also being teleoperated.

The video was captured at Tesla’s ‘The Future of Autonomy Visualized’ event in Miami, where Optimus was handing out bottles of water 

Many fans pointed out that the robot’s motion towards its head has a clear resemblance to the gesture of someone removing a VR headset, which would make sense if it were being controlled remotely 

Many commenters joked about the supposed teleoperator’s speedy exit, with one suggesting that they felt a spider running up their leg 

Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus

Height: 5ft 8in (173cm)

Weight: 57kg (125 lbs)

Carrying capacity: 20kg

Predicted price: £15,000–£22,000 ($20,000-$30,000)

Intended use: Manual labour in Tesla factories

One commenter wrote: ‘Looks like the operator took off their VR headset.’

‘And spilled hot coffee on his lap right before that lol,’ another chimed in.

Others made fun of the supposed teleoperator’s speedy exit, with one writing: ‘Teleoperator logged out early that day.’

Another joked: ‘Looks like the operator felt a spider running up his / her leg and panicked.’

Meanwhile, one frustrated commenter added: ‘It all feels very Wizard of Oz. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain – our product is right around the corner!’

These accusations may be especially embarrassing for Tesla since the fall occurred at an event intended to showcase ‘Autopilot technology and Optimus’.

However, the robot’s supposed teleoperation isn’t the only thing that is causing concern.

As the Tesla Optimus falls out of control, the video shows its hands swinging down with such force that they crush a bottle of water on the table.

This comes after Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, specifically insisted that Optimus was controlled by AI and was not teleoperated 

Tesla has not confirmed whether the robot which collapsed was being controlled by AI or remotely by a human 

Some commenters on X were more concerned by the power of Optimus’ crash, which easily crushed a nearby water bottle 

One Tesla fan branded the bot as ‘too dangerous’ and questioned whether the robot’s swinging hand could ‘crack a human skull’ 

‘Interesting how easily Optimus crushed the bottle,’ one commenter wrote.

Another added: ‘I wonder if Optimus can crack a skull with that punch, too dangerous.’

‘The spray on that little karate chop was pretty impressive don’t let one of these fall on your dog or something,’ a concerned commenter chimed in.

This comes amidst a boom of humanoid robots as investors bet that autonomous labour will replace humans in the future.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been a major champion of using robots for labour, and has frequently said that they could be used to replace humans in environments like factories to perform repetitive or dangerous tasks.

To achieve this, he hopes to massively scale up the production of robots and reduce their cost.

According to Musk, when Optimus finally launches in 2026, it will retail for $20,000 to $30,000 (£15,000–£22,000) with the potential for the price to fall further in the future.

Speaking at a tech conference in Saudi Arabia last year, Musk predicted that there could be as many as 10 billion humanoid robots on Earth by 2040.

Elon Musk has been a major champion of using robots to replace human labour in factories. However, this will only be possible if his Optimus robots (pictured) can operate autonomously 

However, for robots to be a genuine replacement for humans, they will need the ability to operate autonomously without human intervention.

So far, Optimus has only been seen performing sequences of pre–programmed moves or following the commands of a teleoperator.  

And if this recent video really shows that Optimus is still not autonomous, Musk’s dreams of a robot workforce may still be far from being realised.

Tesla has been contacted for comment.

Elon Musk’s hatred of AI explained: Billionaire believes it will spell the end of humans – a fear Stephen Hawking shared

Elon Musk pictured in 2022

Elon Musk wants to push technology to its absolute limit, from space travel to self-driving cars — but he draws the line at artificial intelligence. 

The billionaire first shared his distaste for AI in 2014, calling it humanity’s ‘biggest existential threat’ and comparing it to ‘summoning the demon’.

At the time, Musk also revealed he was investing in AI companies not to make money but to keep an eye on the technology in case it gets out of hand. 

His main fear is that in the wrong hands, if AI becomes advanced, it could overtake humans and spell the end of mankind, which is known as The Singularity.

That concern is shared among many brilliant minds, including the late Stephen Hawking, who told the BBC in 2014: ‘The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.

‘It would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate.’ 

Despite his fear of AI, Musk has invested in the San Francisco-based AI group Vicarious, in DeepMind – which has since been acquired by Google – and OpenAI, creating the popular ChatGPT program that has taken the world by storm in recent months.

During a 2016 interview, Musk noted that he and OpenAI created the company to ‘have democratisation of AI technology to make it widely available’.

Musk founded OpenAI with Sam Altman, the company’s CEO, but in 2018 the billionaire attempted to take control of the start-up.

His request was rejected, forcing him to quit OpenAI and move on with his other projects.

In November, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, which became an instant success worldwide.

The chatbot uses ‘large language model’ software to train itself by scouring a massive amount of text data so it can learn to generate eerily human-like text in response to a given prompt. 

ChatGPT is used to write research papers, books, news articles, emails and more.

But while Altman is basking in its glory, Musk is attacking ChatGPT.

He says the AI is ‘woke’ and deviates from OpenAI’s original non-profit mission.

‘OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it ‘Open’ AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft, Musk tweeted in February.

The Singularity is making waves worldwide as artificial intelligence advances in ways only seen in science fiction – but what does it actually mean?

In simple terms, it describes a hypothetical future where technology surpasses human intelligence and changes the path of our evolution.

Experts have said that once AI reaches this point, it will be able to innovate much faster than humans. 

There are two ways the advancement could play out, with the first leading to humans and machines working together to create a world better suited for humanity.

For example, humans could scan their consciousness and store it in a computer in which they will live forever.

The second scenario is that AI becomes more powerful than humans, taking control and making humans its slaves – but if this is true, it is far off in the distant future.

Researchers are now looking for signs of AI reaching The Singularity, such as the technology’s ability to translate speech with the accuracy of a human and perform tasks faster.

Former Google engineer Ray Kurzweil predicts it will be reached by 2045.

He has made 147 predictions about technology advancements since the early 1990s – and 86 per cent have been correct. 

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If you’ve ever played a skateboarding game and felt something was missing, Skate Story takes that idea in an entirely different direction. Instead of placing players in realistic plazas or sunlit skateparks, it drops them into a vaporwave-styled underworld where you control a character made of glass and pain.

The result is a skateboarding experience built as much around atmosphere and storytelling as mechanics, offering a version of the genre that feels unlike anything else on the market.

Skate Story’s gameplay controls are simple but deliberate. One button triggers an ollie, while a shoulder button shapes tricks into kickflips, heelflips, pop shuvits, and other familiar moves. Animations focus heavily on precision, highlighting foot placement, posture, and weight shifts. Falls play out in a first-person blur that mimics the disorientation of real skating, adding a physical dimension that sits alongside the more stylized visuals.

Image credit: Skate Story

The game’s world also alternates between tight, high-speed tunnels that demand focus and larger open spaces populated with surreal characters a rabbit mystic, a pigeon writing a script, a ghost waiting in a laundromat. Neon accents, vaporwave hues, and a pulsing electronic soundtrack give the environments a strong sense of mood without overwhelming the actual gameplay.

While the premise of skating to the moon and swallowing it is abstract, it anchors the game’s pacing and progression. Instead of chasing points or mastering fixed routes, players move through environments that use tone and visual storytelling to shape the experience. The narrative leans into themes of repetition, challenge, and persistence, using its surreal setting to explore emotions not usually foregrounded in skateboarding games.

SKATE STORY

OUT TOMORROW (9AM PST/NOON EST)

PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2 pic.twitter.com/wvrOVTUiQm

— SKATE STORY (@skatestorygame) December 7, 2025

Skate Story’s approach sits closer to indie documentaries about skate culture than to mainstream series like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater or Skate. Its design prioritizes atmosphere, internal momentum, and creative world-building rather than high scores or competitive mastery. By blending expressive visuals with tight mechanical control, it pushes the genre toward something more interpretive, where movement is tied as much to mood as to technique.

The takeaway

Skate Story shows how a skateboarding game can stretch beyond traditional goals of tricks and scoring. Its mix of stylized environments, narrative framing, and precise mechanics offers a version of skating that’s more reflective and experimental than most titles in the genre.

For developers, it’s an interesting example of how sports mechanics can be reimagined through art-driven design. For players, it’s a reminder that skate games don’t always need to recreate real-world parks to explore what skating feels like. You can jump in whether you’re on PC, PS5, or the Nintendo Switch 2, so no matter your setup, the underworld is open to you.

Red Dead Redemption rolls out on Netflix, iOS, Android, PS5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch 2

Red Dead Redemption is letting players play anywhere at anytime following launch.

Updated

December 10, 2025

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Tech giants Amazon and Microsoft have announced a combined $52.5bn (£39.4bn) investment plan for India over the coming years.

Amazon said on Wednesday it was pumping in $35bn into India by 2030 to advance AI-driven digitisation, export growth and job creation, a day after Microsoft committed $17.5bn strengthen the country’s AI ecosystem.

India, which is an emerging AI and cloud infrastructure hub, has witnessed a surge of global tech investments recently.

In October, Google announced a $15bn investment to build an AI data hub, and earlier this week Intel announced a collaboration with Mumbai-based Tata Electronics as its first major customer in the latter’s $14bn semiconductor manufacturing plans.

“When it comes to AI, the world is optimistic about India,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X, after meeting Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday.

Amazon’s $35bn investment will build on the $40bn already invested in India – establishing the company as “the largest foreign investor” in India, the company said in a statement.

A key component of it will go into local cloud and AI infrastructure.

Microsoft’s fresh commitment follows a $3bn investment announced by the company earlier this year.

It includes a new “hyperscale cloud region” – a cluster of data centres – in the southern India’s Hyderabad city, set to go live in mid-2026, the company said in a statement.

Data centres are centralised physical facilities that host computer servers, IT infrastructure and network equipment, and are a key component of the AI value chain that India is focusing on despite concerns around water shortages.

India will also be given access to Microsoft’s “sovereign public cloud”, which offers tools to help organisations run their data and applications while keeping sensitive information within the country.

The India investment is part of Microsoft’s $23bn AI expansion across countries including Canada, Portugal and the UAE, as the company vies with rivals such as Amazon and Google.

In a statement Microsoft said it also aims to integrate AI into Indian government platforms, supporting around 310 million informal workers.

The announcements come as India steps up activity in semiconductor manufacturing, with several state-backed and private projects aiming to build a domestic chipmaking industry.

While India is a big market for AI – with a billion internet users and a big tech talent pool – it still lags behind global leaders like China and the US.

However, the country has been drawing billions in investments in key computing technologies such as chips, with the government’s semiconductor mission offering generous subsidies to firms setting up chip-making facilities.

India’s sovereign AI model is also expected to be unveiled in February next year.

Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

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Next year, we’ll mostly be indulging in maximalist circus decor, working on our poetcore, hunting for the ethereal or eating cabbage in a bid for “individuality and self-preservation”, according to Pinterest.

The organisation’s predictions for Australian trends in 2026 have landed, which – according to the platform used by interior decorators, fashion lovers and creatives of all stripes – includes 1980s, aliens, vampires and “forest magic”.

The bookish and weird is the inspiration for ‘the poet aesthetic’, which jumped in search popularity this year. Photograph: Naomi Rahim/WireImage

Among the Pinterest 2026 trends report’s top 21 themes are “Afrohemian” decor (searches for the term are on the rise by baby boomers and Gen X); “glitchy glam” (asymmetric haircuts and mismatching nails); and “cool blue” (drinks, wedding dresses and makeup with a “glacier aesthetic”).

Pinterest compared English-language search data from September 2024 to August 2025 with those of the year before and claims it has an 88% accuracy rate. More than 9 million Australians use Pinterest each month.

Wednesday’s report found searches for 1980s luxury soared by 225%, “Scotland Highlands aesthetic” by 465% and “the poet aesthetic” by 175%. “Poetcore” – a key trend for Gen Z and millennials – takes its inspiration from the bookish: turtlenecks, fountain pens, satchels and ties.

Photograph: Eugenio Marongiu/Getty Images/Image SourceWill millenials be going poetcore in 2026? Photograph: Alexander Spatari/Getty Images

Driven by Gen Z and millennials, lace will be in, according to the data, including in doily, bandana and makeup form – as will khaki, field jackets and pleated trousers, aka the “paleontologist aesthetic”.

They’ll also be working an intergalactic “aliencore aesthetic”.

For Gen Z and millennials, travel will be adrenaline-seeking; for baby boomers, it will be to places that are “mystical” and “ethereal”. Searches for “Faroe Island aesthetic” almost doubled.

‘Gummy bears aesthetic’ searches aren’t looking for candy – it’s more about makeup products and nail art. Photograph: Anna Efetova/Getty Images

Pinterest predicts boomer and Gen X food trends to be cruciferous, with kimchi, dumplings and golumpki soup all raising the cabbage’s status. A younger trend for a “gummy bears aesthetic” goes beyond sweets and into makeup products and rubberised nail art.

And “niche perfume collection” is having its moment in the sun, as are “perfume layering combinations”.

Pinterest said there was a theme uniting trends as disparate as masquerades and operas, dragonfly wing-patterned nails and animal-inspired outfits, forecasting a move towards individuality and away from imitation.

The future is now for devotees of aliencore aesthetics. Photograph: Jacob Wackerhausen/Getty Images

Melinda Petrunoff, the managing director for Pinterest ANZ, told Guardian Australia that “people are craving comfort, authenticity and grounded optimism in a world that feels increasingly fast and often noisy”.

“What’s driving this is a desire for individuality and self-preservation – people are moving towards curating rather than copying, choosing to engage with what truly resonates with them instead of chasing every viral moment,” she said.

“We’re moving away from one-size-fits-all aesthetics and endless trend cycles that leave people feeling overwhelmed and disconnected.”

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