The Daily Populous

Sunday September 28th, 2025 morning edition

image for How eight seconds of scratchy audio from a VHS tape gave a mum back her voice

"After such a long time, I couldn't really remember my voice," Sarah Ezekiel tells BBC Access All.

The onset of motor neurone disease (MND) left Sarah without a voice and the use of her hands at the age of 34.

As they were growing up, her children Aviva and Eric only ever heard her speak through a machine with an emotionless robotic voice.

But 25 years on, artificial intelligence (AI) has recreated their mum's real voice from just eight seconds of audio on a scratchy VHS tape.

The "miracle" Sarah describes began when Bristol-based assistive technology company, Smartbox, asked her for an hour's worth of audio to recreate her voice.

Eventually, an old VHS tape of Aviva as a baby was found, shot on a family camcorder in the 1990s.

Eventually, Simon managed to set Sarah's voice apart from the sound of the blaring TV using ElevenLabs Voice Isolator. »

King Charles 'persuaded Donald Trump to U-turn on Ukraine', says Volodymyr Zelensky's top aide as he hails state visit's impact

Authored by dailymail.co.uk

King Charles played a key role in Donald Trump’s recent change of mind on the Ukraine war, it has emerged.

Charles’s talks with the US President during his state visit last week were ‘very important’ in the policy reversal, Volodymyr Zelensky’s top adviser has said.

He claimed a 'real military power' would have been able to win the war in less than a week. »

Electronic Arts stock closes up 15% on report company near $50 billion deal to go private

Authored by cnbc.com

Shares of Electronic Arts closed up 15% on Friday following a report in the Wall Street Journal that the video game company is nearing a roughly $50 billion deal to go private.

Investors including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Silver Lake could announce the deal as soon as next week, the report said.

The deal would be the largest leveraged buyout in Wall Street history, surpassing the agreement to take TXU Energy private for about $45 billion in 2007. »

Putin preparing to attack another European country, Zelenskyy says

Authored by theguardian.com

Speaking in Kyiv after his meeting with Donald Trump at the UN in New York, the Ukrainian president said Russia was preparing for a bigger conflict.

Asked to explain this apparent warmer tone towards Ukraine, Zelenskyy said he had briefed Trump about the realities on the battlefield.

Zelenskyy said that if the Kremlin tried to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again this winter its own capital will experience retaliatory blackouts. »