From Elon Musk to his own board, anyone who has come up against the OpenAI CEO has lost. In a gripping new account of the battle for AI supremacy, writer Karen Hao says we should all be wary of the power he now wields

The short-lived firing of Sam Altman, the CEO of possibly the world’s most important AI company, was sensational. When he was sacked by OpenAI’s board members, some of them believed the stakes could not have been higher – the future of humanity – if the organisation continued under Altman. Imagine Succession, with added apocalypse vibes. In early November 2023, after three weeks of secret calls and varying degrees of paranoia, the OpenAI board agreed: Altman had to go.

The drama didn’t stop there. After his removal, Altman’s most loyal staff resigned, and others signed an open letter calling for his reinstatement. Investors, including its biggest, Microsoft, got spooked. Without talent or funding, OpenAI – which developed ChatGPT and was worth billions – wouldn’t even exist. Some who had been involved in the decision to fire Altman switched sides and within days, he was reinstated. Is he now untouchable? “Certainly he has entrenched his power,” says Karen Hao, the tech journalist whose new book, Empire of AI, details this saga in a tense and absorbing history of OpenAI. The current board is “much more allied with his interests,” she says.

More and more cafes offer you the chance to pet a cat as you sip your cappuccino. Some see themselves as shelters more than businesses. Why do animal protection charities want them closed?

It’s just gone 3pm on a sunny Wednesday in Norwich, and the mid-afternoon, midweek slump is hitting hard at the cafe on Dereham Road. Almost everyone here is asleep – before they’re roused by the rattle of the Dreamies tub, that is. The Cat House, which opened nearly two years ago, is the city’s first cat cafe. From Wednesday to Sunday, for a cover charge of £10, punters can spend 60 minutes (or £13 for 90 minutes) enjoying feline company over a beverage and a snack. There are a few people already here – as well as the 20 resident cats dotted around the spacious converted building. They’re curled up above eye level in cat trees, hunkering in boxes and tunnels, weaving in between the table legs. The visitors hover respectfully in their orbit, hoping to be favoured by their attention. From the hushed voices, sound of the water fountain, and nature scenes playing on the TV, the Cat House resembles a library more than a cafe. There’s no clue to the controversy about whether it should be in operation at all.

Two months ago, the RSPCA and Cats Protection made a joint call for cat cafes to be phased out, saying that it was “almost impossible” for them to guarantee the animals’ welfare. Once a novelty, the concept has become relatively common in the UK, and not just in big cities. According to a freedom of information request lodged by the RSPCA and Cats Protection, there are 32 cat cafes licensed across England (and none in Wales). With 44% of those licences granted in the last financial year, their number may be set to rise further. Not all areas require licences, meaning the charities also suspect more are operating without any oversight. The sudden increase in cat cafes has led both organisations to take a joint stand, calling on local authorities to decline applications for new licences and not renew existing ones.

Veterans are using sport as a form of rehabilitation from severe injuries and, as one organiser explains: ‘It’s about emotional gain, helping them rediscover this will to live’

A little more than four months ago, Konstantyn Moskal arrived at a new position close to Ukraine’s frontline. He had been serving in the army for six years and, as a native of the almost entirely occupied Luhansk region, knew the price of war better than most. It was soon to take a horrifying toll from him. Moskal stepped on a landmine shortly after the rotation and life changed irrevocably. The evacuation procedure went smoothly, in the circumstances, but his lower left leg could not be saved. It was hard not to think dark thoughts after two operations; tougher still given a prosthetic was nowhere on the horizon.

Now it is mid-May. Wearing the red, yellow-trimmed shirt of FK Khrestonostsi, Moskal puffs out his cheeks before sitting in the dugout. He props his crutch against the neighbouring seat. The second half of the final is starting and he will take a breather. He smiles at his wife, Alina, who watches from the front row. This time he has remembered to wear his talisman, a metallic cross fastened around his neck, and he tells her it is the reason for his two goals. Soon he will almost certainly win his first football tournament. “Rest up or you won’t be able to lift the trophy,” a teammate advises.

Ki Soon-do’s soy sauce has been served to Donald Trump and gained Unesco heritage protection. It is recognition that is 370 years in the making

In the lush foothills of Damyang county, South Jeolla province, rows of earthenware jars stand under the Korean sky. Inside each clay vessel, a quiet transformation is taking place, one that has been occurring on this land for centuries.

This is the domain of Ki Soon-do, South Korea’s sole grand master of traditional aged soy sauce, where patience isn’t just a virtue but the essential ingredient in her craft.

They have been quick to brand the new pope an ‘anti-Trump’ ‘total Marxist’. In return, he is already critiquing their worldview

In the outer reaches of the Magasphere, it would be fair to say the advent of the first pope from the US has not been greeted with unbridled enthusiasm. Take Laura Loomer, the thirtysomething influencer and conspiracy theorist, whose verdict on Leo XIV was as instant as it was theologically uninformed: “Anti-Trump, anti-Maga, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis.” Also doing the rounds on X was a short summary of Leo’s supposed transgressions before ascending to St Peter’s chair: “Trashed Trump, trashed Vance, trashed border enforcement, endorsed DREAMer-style illegal immigration, repeatedly praised and honored George Floyd, and endorsed a Democrat senator’s call for more gun control.”

So far, so tedious. The comic-book casting of the new pope as a globalist villain in the US culture wars is traceable back to his predecessor’s impact on liberal opinion a decade ago. Pope Francis’s sometimes lonely championing of progressive causes, such as the rights of migrants, gave him a kind of liberal celebrity and led Time magazine to name him “person of the year” in 2013. Pope Leo, born in Chicago, has been pre-emptively caricatured by much of the Maga right as a continuity pontiff who will, in effect, front up the religious wing of the Democratic party.

Julian Coman is a Guardian associate editor

The actor, who has died aged 76, was best known for the perpetually sweaty character to whom the bar gave a huge cheer each episode – ‘NOOOORM!’

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From the first episode of Cheers to the very last, a decade later, George Wendt’s teddy bear barfly Norm Peterson was a fully formed sitcom dream. Like Howard Borden before him and Cosmo Kramer after him, his entrance alone was a highlight in every episode – and Wendt, who has died aged 76, appeared in all 275 episodes of Cheers, a feat matched by only Ted Danson and Rhea Perlman.

Every single time he opened the door, perpetually sweaty and tie always askew, the bar gave a huge cheer – “NOOOORM!” – as he trudged to his favourite stool for that first beer. Every weary walk to his seat came with a zinger. (The very first: “Norm! Whattya know?” “Not enough.”)

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Government to loosen eligibility rules for pensioners in face of backlash against decision to means test benefit

• UK politics live – latest updates

Keir Starmer has confirmed that his government will loosen the eligibility rules for winter fuel payments to pensioners after a backlash against the decision to means test the benefit.

Speaking at prime minister’s questions, Starmer said that more pensioners would be eligible for the payment.

Andriy Portnov, ex-aide to pro-Russia former president, was dropping off children when he was targeted by gunmen

Unidentified gunmen have shot and killed a former Ukrainian politician, Andriy Portnov, outside a school in an upmarket suburb of Madrid.

The killing of Portnov, who had worked as a senior aide to Ukraine’s pro-Russia former president, Viktor Yanukovych, took place on Wednesday morning outside the American School of Madrid in Pozuelo de Alarcón.

Aid group says deliveries are just ‘a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over’

• Israel still blocking aid for Gaza despite promise to lift siege, says UN

Reuters has spoken to Mahmoud al-Haw at one of the soup kitchens in Gaza. The father-of-four says he has been regularly waiting in crowds for up to six hours to obtain food, and sometimes returns empty-handed.

“I have a sick daughter. I can’t provide her with anything. There is no bread, there is nothing,” the 39-year-old told the news agency.

Exclusive: Former Reform UK MP made comment during a meeting with staff earlier this year, leaked video shows

Rupert Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, made an antisemitic comment during a meeting in parliament earlier this year, the Guardian can reveal.

Lowe, who was suspended from Reform UK earlier this year after a fallout with Nigel Farage, made the remark at a meeting where parliamentary staff were present.