Bradley Cooper, Irina Shayk split

Hollywood star Bradley Cooper and model Irina Shayk have reportedly split after nine months of dating. The pair started dating in April 2015, and appeared to be happier than ever with reports that they were even considering moving in together. But it has now been claimed that Cooper, 41, decided to end his relationship with 30-year-old Shayk following a series of clashes between her and his mother Gloria over the festive period, reported Daily Mirror.

"Irina thought things were going brilliantly with Bradley and is very upset they ended this way. The pair had been getting on really well, but things went south over the Christmas period," a source said. "They spent Christmas together in Los Angeles but arguments started, mainly centering around the fact that Irina and Bradley's mum weren't getting on very well."

According to the insider, Shayk and Gloria got on when she first started dating Cooper. However, following their rows, Cooper is said to have sided with his mother, with whom he is incredibly close.

Tom Hanks named America's most popular movie star

Superstar Tom Hanks has been crowned America's favorite movie star in a new online countdown. Hanks, 59, whose latest film 'The Bridge of Spies' is up for six Oscars, topped a Harris Poll that surveyed more than 2,200 adults in the US about the best Hollywood actor-actress, reported Variety. Hanks also nabbed the title in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2013. Jumping up two spots from last year, Johnny Depp was runner-up.n. 

Depp portrayed notorious gangster Whitey Bulger in 2015's 'Black Mass'. Neither Hanks nor Depp is up for a best actor Oscar, despite early buzz surrounding their performances. Both were also snubbed for a Golden Globe nomination. Denzel Washington, who was absent from the big screen in 2015 and topped last year's list, fell two positions to America's third favorite movie star. The 'Training Day' actor was honored with the coveted Cecil B DeMille Award earlier this month at the Globes.

Google's SkyBender to deliver 5G internet from solar-powered drones

Internet giant Google is working at a spaceport in New Mexico to build and test solar-powered internet drones. According to the Guardian, project is codenamed as SkyBender.

Project SkyBender is using drones to experiment with millimetre-wave radio transmissions, and this technologies could underpin next generation 5G wireless internet access.

The SkyBender is technically part of Google's air balloon Wi-Fi project aimed at a similar goal of bringing remote parts of the world online.

The move is an attempt by the Google to compete with other social networking giants like Facebook to bring internet access to developing countries

How Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella did what Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates couldn't

On Thursday, February 4th, Satya Nadella will celebrate his second anniversary as the CEO of Microsoft. It's been an eventful couple of years.

Microsoft has grown its crucial cloud business, released Windows 10 to a much better reception than its loathed predecessor, launched a bunch of great apps for iPhone and Android, and generally made people like it a lot more.

But the real victory of Satya Nadella - the truly monumental shift - has been within the company. Under Nadella, Microsoft is pointed in one direction for first time in modern memory.

"There is something only a CEO uniquely can do, which is set that tone, which can then capture the soul of the collective. And it's culture," Nadella said in an interview late last year.

One Microsoft
The Microsoft of old was a cutthroat kind of place.

Under Steve Ballmer, Microsoft had become a place where product groups warred with each other for attention and influence, even as products like Windows 8 saw the company's star wane rapidly.

Extremely promising and future-looking products were killed just because they didn't help the Windows business, seen as the center of the company, while rising competitors like Apple and Google were either mocked or ignored until it was too late.

The end result was a lot of warring, independent product groups, all doing their own things. A great example is the Microsoft Xbox video game console, which started off as a project to improve Windows and get a PC in the living room, but which turned into an autonomous part of the company that Wall Street couldn't make heads or tails of.

That trickled over into the company's popular perception, as Microsoft customers and developers came to think of it as a company focused on strongarm sales tactics, not innovation.

"When I came over here, it was just a disaster," Microsoft Technical Fellow John Shewchuk, head of the company's developer experience team since 2013, told Business Insider.

Steve Ballmer recognized the problem. In July 2013, he announced a company-wide reorganization called "One Microsoft," in an attempt to rally the company and get them focused on turning the company around. But it was too little, too late, and Ballmer, under pressure from the board, announced his resignation less than three months later.

Taking off the blinders
This is where the real genius of Satya Nadella comes in -- and you can see it reflected in conversations with the company's highest echelons.

Microsoft's mandate, under Nadella, is to help people "achieve more," if you buy the corporate-speak. In plainer terms, Nadella likes to make sure that Microsoft is focusing on making things that people actually enjoy using, no matter what kind of device they're using it on.

"Revenue is a lagging indicator, usage is a leading indicator," Nadella likes to say, according to Microsoft CVP Brad Anderson.

And the company's executives and developers all love it. Without having to worry about worshipping at the altar of Windows, it can do all kinds of stuff it could never even consider before.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella "A muscle we're developing at Microsoft is determining the soul or essence of these products, and developing accordingly," Microsoft corporate VP of Outlook Javier Soltero, who came to Microsoft in the acquisition of startup Acompli, told us.

A great example: The Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform now supports Linux, the free operating system that developers love, but Ballmer once referred to as "a cancer" and "communism."

"Part of the new Microsoft is being given the permission to meet customers where they're at," Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich told us in 2015. "We're no longer bound by an arbitrary rule."

It's touched Microsoft Office, too. Under Nadella, Office has expanded from a set of document-editing tools into a whole range of products and services that people actually enjoy using, from Microsoft Outlook on the iPhone to the funky futuristic GigJam work-sharing app.

"You buy Microsoft for your business, you want to feel good about the products we've been building," Microsoft Office head Julie Larson-Green told us in 2015.

Windows to the future
Looking forward, Windows 10 is going to accelerate all of this in a big way.

A big piece of Microsoft's strategy hinges on the so-called Windows Universal App platform, where a developer can write an app once, sell it in the Windows Store, and have it work on any Windows 10 device -- from PCs to tablets and back.

But it also gives Microsoft, internally, one platform on which to work, and makes sure that everybody in the company is rowing the same direction.

Case in point: In November 2015, the Xbox One video game console got an update that installed a version of Windows 10 at the core. Right now, Windows 10 is kind of just sitting there. In the not-so-distant future, though, it's going to get a version of the Windows Store app market focused on gaming.

"Everything will be unified at some point," Xbox Group product manager Peter Orullian told us. "This is a really big, important part of that."

Similarly, the Microsoft HoloLens holographic goggles will run a version of Windows 10, too. And Microsoft has made a super-lightweight version of Windows 10 available to gadget-makers and connected appliance manufacturers.

So while Microsoft isn't going to stop building iPhone and Android apps any time soon, it means that Microsoft's internal product teams aren't going to compete with each other -- because there's no competition. Windows is Windows, no matter what device it's running on.

Still, there are challenges ahead for the company, as the PC market shrinks almost faster than Microsoft can sell lucrative Windows licenses. And the Office 365 cloud suite is growing fast enough that it's cannibalizing sales of the boxed Microsoft Office -- meaning that Microsoft has plenty of theoretical revenue that it hasn't hit yet.

But to Nadella's mind, he shared last year, there's only one real challenge: "Getting an entire organization to fall in love with these leading indicators of success," Nadella said in an interview.

Among White House hopefuls, Trump least likely to hit 'follow' button on Twitter

The millions of Twitter users following Donald Trump shouldn't expect a "follow back" from the Republican presidential front-runner anytime soon.

Trump's campaign account @realDonaldTrump has nearly 6 million Twitter followers, the most of any candidate running for president. But he is picky about who he follows, with just 49 accounts listed as of Friday. That means he has the highest ratio of followers to those he is following, in both the Republican and Democratic fields.

In contrast, Ted Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas who has emerged as Trump's strongest rival, follows nearly 14,000 accounts on Twitter and has 755,000 followers, according to his profile as of Friday.

The exclusivity underscores how Trump primarily uses Twitter to broadcast his message as opposed to engaging in a back and forth with users, experts in digital strategy said. While other campaigns use a similar approach, Trump commands the most attention on social media.

Trump's pickiness may indicate a surprising strategy for the freewheeling Republican front-runner: Playing it safe when it comes to pledging his Twitter allegiance with a "follow."

Candidates can't pick and choose their followers, but they have control over when to click the follow button.

"There is more risk in who you follow," said Scott Talan, a communications professor at American University who teaches social media strategy. "If you're actively following someone, you're assuming it's not going to be some religious extremist ... or a prisoner with a record."

And, while some Republican candidates follow each other, Trump follows none of them.

The accounts Trump monitors include those of his children and several hotel properties. Also on the eclectic list are musician Steven Tyler, basketball great Magic Johnson, Vince McMahon, chairman and CEO of WWE Inc, and sisters Lynette "Diamond" Hardaway and Rochelle "Silk" Richardson, former Democrats who now stump for Trump and tweet under the handle @DiamondandSilk.

Despite Trump's highly public battle with Fox News over anchor Megyn Kelly's role as a moderator in last week's Republican debate, Fox shows or news personalities such as Sean Hannity account for better than 10 percent of the handles he follows. Kelly, not surprisingly, did not make the list, but the Fox handles still add up to a larger bloc than any outside of Trump's family or business.

Hannity and other Fox presenters are also widely followed by Trump's rivals for the GOP presidential nomination.

Trump's cautious approach to who he follows hasn't put a damper on his social activity. His account shows more than 30,000 tweets, the highest of any account reviewed by Reuters.

It also hasn't stopped Trump from committing blunders with his retweets, like the one from an account called @WhiteGenocideTM, which gave its location as "Jewmerica" and featured an image that referenced George Lincoln Rockwell, a prominent figure in the neo-Nazi movement in the United States.

"A LOOSE CANNON"

Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, said that Trump operates his own Twitter account. "Everything you see on there is pretty much directly from him," she said. "The strategy behind it is to tell the truth and to call it like he sees it."

On Twitter, Trump goes where his opponents fear to tread. He uses it to launch unfiltered personal attacks on those who cross paths with him. For example, he did not shy from retweeting a post that included photographs of a skimpily dressed Kelly from a magazine shoot and the comment, "And this is the bimbo that's asking presidential questions?"

"He is definitely a loose cannon in terms of how he uses his Twitter account," said Micah Sifry, co-founder of Personal Democracy Media, an online forum on technology and politics. "At the same time, he hasn't been hurt by it yet because apparently a big chunk of what he's saying is popular among Republican voters."

Trump is aware of his social media success. Following the seventh Republican presidential debate on Thursday, he tweeted Twitter data showing that he commanded the most traffic during the event. "Great Twitter poll-and I wasn't even there," he said. 

Twitter matters to campaigns - it is an increasingly important way for candidates to reach their most ardent supporters.

But talking about the issues on Twitter may not always be the most effective means of engaging supporters. A recent Trump tweet wishing retired golfer Jack Nicklaus happy birthday received more than four thousand "likes", roughly twice as many as Clinton's policy-related tweets on the same day

Apple has a huge secret virtual reality team: Report

Apple Inc has assembled a large team of experts in virtual and augmented reality and built prototypes of headsets that could one day rival Facebook's Oculus Rift or Microsoft's Hololens, the Financial Times reported.

A secret research unit, housing hundreds of staff assembled from acquisitions or poached from other companies, is working on next-generation headset technologies, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the initiative.

 

The newspaper had previously reported the hiring of leading virtual reality researcher Doug Bowman by the iPhone maker.

 

Apple was not immediately available to comment.

Barney Jones: Meet the whistleblower who helped expose Google's tax avoidance

Like millions of others this weekend, Barney Jones is filling in his tax returns. The forms detailing earnings and expenditure are not for the faint-hearted, and completing them seldom gives satisfaction - even when you've just played a key role in adding an extra 30m pound to Britain's coffers.

 

The whistleblower who helped to reveal how Google was avoiding paying tax in the UK said that Britain needed to create better incentives to encourage more people to come forward and reveal how multinationals are avoiding paying tax to the exchequer. His call came along with revelations that the European Commission has been asked to investigate other controversial tax deals HMRC is currently negotiating with multinational companies.

 

Mr Jones, 37, a former sales executive, handed over tens of thousands of emails to investigators which laid bare how the search engine firm avoided paying tax in the UK.

 

He readily admits when he handed over the emails three years ago he knew little about tax. He had watched Matt Brittin, his former boss at Google, give evidence to MPs on the Public Accounts Committee with interest but also mounting disquiet. Mr Brittin emphasised to the PAC one reason Google paid so little tax in the UK was that it did so little business here. The bulk of its work was generated through its Dublin headquarters - where corporation tax was lower than in London.

 

Mr Jones, a father of four and a devout Christian, knew that wasn't true. He had worked in the London office from 2002 to 2006 and had his own view of the large turnover of work that was really going on in the UK. He took the facts to PAC chair Margaret Hodge and then on to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC), which took his evidence but wasn't exactly overjoyed by it.

 

"They seemed quite defensive and seemed to be more interested in justifying their position, saying they didn't make the tax laws - they only applied them," he said. "They looked at the emails and spoke to me about them and took it away. I only heard from them briefly a few times after that."

 

When news of Google's 130m pound settlement broke, he felt a small amount of satisfaction at his part but a stronger feeling of disappointment. "On the one hand, I was pleased. I had made my contribution but it was a derisory amount. The reaction from the Chancellor was very disappointing. That figure is pocket change for Google," he said.

 

Motivated only by a sense of right and wrong and the belief he will one day be held to account by God, Mr Jones said he is not surprised there aren't more whistleblowers like him coming forward from multinational giants with controversial tax arrangements.

 

"There really aren't any incentives in this country. Unlike in the US where they pay large rewards, the Revenue gave the impression it wasn't something they liked to do and did so infrequently. Not that I did it for any money, but it may be an incentive to other employees," he told The Independent. "The other thing that is off-putting is HMRC's attitude. To simply say publicly 'We've looked at the tax arrangements and they are OK' does not encourage you to approach them."

 

The taxman needs to be made more accountable, he believes. "I think Margaret Hodge did a remarkable job in trying to hold them to account but a lot more needs to be done," he said.

"HMRC cannot simply say we just apply the laws, we don't make them. They need to advise MPs better about what is required. They need to make clear what criteria they apply and how they apply it when determining who pays what tax."

 

The Google deal is one of those the campaign group Tax Justice Network (TJN) formally asked the European Commission to investigate. Its request came as calculations by The Independent suggested Google may owe as much as 700m pound in UK taxes. The TJN request said it was one of a number of similar deals, it believed.

 

"These tax practices are not only harmful to trade within the European Union, but also harmful to the British public, who have had to suffer severe cuts to public services on the basis that the government has not been able to raise sufficient revenues," said the TJN's John Christensen. "It is our belief the nature of deal announced by the Chancellor suggests that similar deals may have already been reached between the government and other, unknown companies, or may be in the process of being negotiated."

 

Prime Minister David Cameron said he welcomed the EU investigation of the deal.

 

The commission's own anti-tax avoidance proposals, revealed earlier this week, were strongly criticised. Tove Ryding at the European Network on Debt and Development said: "The proposals are woefully inadequate to stem the tsunami of scandalous cases of multinational corporations failing to pay their taxes."

US declares 22 Hillary Clinton emails 'top secret'

The US state department conceded for the first time on Friday that intelligence officials were correct to say that at least 22 emails sent through Hillary Clinton's private server contain some of the government's most sensitive secrets.

 

The seven email chains from Clinton's time as secretary of state, amounting to 22 separate messages, will be withheld from the public as a result because the information in them is classified at the highest level as "top secret," state department spokesman John Kirby said.

 

The announcement came three days before the Iowa caucuses, when the first votes are cast for the presidential nominations and where Clinton is locked in a tight race with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to become the Democratic nominee for the November election.

 

"These documents were not marked classified at the time that they were sent," Kirby said. He added that the department was now investigating whether the information in them was classified at the time it passed through her private clintonemail.com email account run on a server in her New York home.

 

The department and intelligence officials have been arguing about the emails, which are being made public under a federal court order, for at least five months. The State Department initially maintained that Clinton might have obtained the same information independently through non-classified channels.

 

The decision to no longer pursue this argument will add to the questions Clinton has faced for months over her handling of sensitive government information as she seeks to maintain her position as the favorite to become the Democratic nominee.

 

The Clinton campaign criticized the state department's decision as the result of "bureaucratic infighting" and "over-classification run amok," adding that the emails should be released.

 

Some information has been censored in more than 1,300 emails already made public because the state department says it is classified, including the privately shared thoughts of foreign leaders and government officials. But this is the first time that entire chains are being withheld.

 

Congressional Republicans have criticized and investigated Clinton for her use of a private email server for her work as a secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Some of her Republican rivals for the presidency, including New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, have called for her prosecution.

 

Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee's chairman, said in a statement that Clinton had "put our national security and diplomatic efforts at risk."

The government forbids handling of classified information, which may or may not be marked that way, outside secure government-controlled channels, and sometimes prosecutes people who remove it from such channels. The government classifies information as top secret if it deems a leak could cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security.

 

US Representative Adam Schiff of California, the House Intelligence Committee's leading Democrat, defended Clinton in a statement, saying classification determinations are "often very complex" and she was "responding to world events in real time without the benefit of months of analysis after the fact."

 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken Clinton's server and other computer equipment, but has declined to share details of its inquiries.

 

White House spokesman Josh Earnest downplayed questions about whether Clinton might be prosecuted by the Justice Department. "That's not something I'm worried about," he told reporters.

 

Clinton initially said she never sent or received classified information through her email. In recent weeks she has more often said none of her emails were marked that way.

Following a court-ordered schedule, the State Department has already released most of the roughly 30,000 work emails Clinton returned to the department.

 

The department had been ordered to release all the emails by Friday, but last week asked the court for a one-month extension.

 

The state department also said it would agree with a request from the White House that Clinton's emails with President Barack Obama, 18 in all, be withheld from public release for several years under the Presidential Records Act. 

Barbie gets curvy in real-world body makeover

Barbie, the world's most famous doll, has a new body. In fact, she has three new bodies - petite, tall and curvy.

 

Some 57 years after the impossibly busty and narrow-waisted blue-eyed Barbie doll was first introduced, California-based toy maker Mattel on Thursday released the new models, which it says better reflect a changing world.

 

Parents and feminists have long criticized Barbie's original shape as setting an unrealistic body image for girls, despite modifications over the years.

 

The new dolls have seven skin tones, 22 eye colors, 24 hairstyles and new clothes and accessories. They are available for order on website shop.mattel.com starting Thursday and will reach stores later.

 

"We are excited to literally be changing the face of the brand," Evelyn Mazzocco, senior vice president and global general manager of the Barbie brand, said in a statement. "These new dolls represent a line that is more reflective of the world girls see around them - the variety in body type, skin tones and style allows girls to find a doll that speaks to them.

"We believe we have a responsibility to girls and parents to reflect a broader view of beauty," she said.

 

The new curvy Barbie has a bigger bust, behind, thicker thighs and a protruding tummy. She landed on the cover of Time magazine on Thursday with the headline "Now can we stop talking about my body?"

The classic Barbie doll, which was launched in 1959 as a doe-eyed teen in a zebra-striped swimsuit, will remain as part of the Mattel line.

The launch of the new range follows two years of declining sales of Barbie dolls around the world as girls increasingly turn to other dolls, electronic toys and tablets.

 

On her way to becoming a global pop culture icon, Barbie has tried out more than 180 careers, ranging from teacher to astronaut and U.S. president. African-American Barbies and other ethnic versions were introduced starting in the late 1960s.