
Newsflash: 27th June - Last drinks for Arkea - B&B? And No Tao in the Tour.. Again
Tensions around team sponsorships are intensifying in the WorldTour. Lotto Dstny secured a last-minute deal to stay afloat for the Tour de France, but its future beyond 2025 remains uncertain. Arkea-B&B Hotels faces a steeper drop, with both main sponsors withdrawing, and the team needing new backers urgently by 2026.
The Tour de France start list has taken more hits. Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) have withdrawn, as both were unable to regain their race form in time. Benoît Cosnefroy also remains sidelined, further thinning the French hopes at their home Grand Tour.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

ABC News
9 hours ago
- ABC News
F1 live Austrian Grand Prix: Oscar Piastri starts third, McLaren teammate Lando Norris on pole
Oscar Piastri will start Sunday night's Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix from third on the grid, holding a 22-point lead over McLaren teammate Lando Norris in the drivers' championship. Norris starts on pole following a blistering qualifying session from the Brit, with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc joining him on the front row. Follow the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix with the ABC Sport live blog below.

News.com.au
18 hours ago
- News.com.au
Terrifying crash at Austrian Grand Prix as driver flips over cars
A huge crash in Formula Two saw the race suspended as a driver ended up upside down on top of a rival. The F2 Sprint Race in Spielberg, Austria, was halted after just two laps following a three-way collision at Turn 3. With cars still largely bunched up, the tight right-hander did not offer much room for manoeuvre as drivers jostled for position, The Sun reports. And in the midfield pack disaster struck as Sami Meguetounif was squeezed off track as he hit the right-front tyre of Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad. Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer. Meguetounif, 21, was forced to the right side of the track before hitting the kerb and flipping up into the air. As the French driver was in the air he collected British racer Luke Browning, who had been turning the corner just before him. Williams Racing academy driver Browning, 23, remarkably ended up with the Trident car directly on top of his upside down. The momentum carried by the 755kg flying vehicle eventually saw it skid off and come to a rest upside down. Both drivers almost certainly saw their lives saved by the halo safety devices around their heads - a crash-protection system which first came into F1 in 2018 which can withstand up to 12,000kg of force. Fortunately, Meguetounif reported he was okay as the race was suspended and cars brought into the pit lane to clear the debris, while Browning and Lindblad all checked in with positive updates too. After a 30-minute delay, race stewards got the race back underway under a rolling restart led by Joshua Durksen. However, stewards were forced to take action again almost immediately after the safety car was pulled in when Dino Beganovic was left stranded following contact with Oliver Goethe, once again at Turn 3. A final lap incident saw four cars involved in a stunning pile-up at Turn 3 once again, with a spin by Amaury Cordeel left three drivers behind him with nowhere to go except for running into him. Cordeel had been running in 4th, and the three drivers behind who crashed into him all ended up remarkably losing out on points finishes as well. One fan on social media comparing the race to 'bumper cars'. Campos Racing driver Pepe Marti took the chequered flag for the race. After initial controversy over its introduction, the halo has more than proven itself to be a worthwhile addition to open-wheel Formula racing formats. Notable examples of its prowess include Romain Grosjean's horror crash in Bahrain in 2020 and Guanyu Zhou's terrifying high-speed flip at the British Grand Prix in 2022. Lewis Hamilton also hailed the hardware for saving his life after a crash with Max Verstappen at the Italian Grand Prix in 2021 during their title fight when the Dutchman's rear wheel had found its way on top of the Brit's car. In 2023 F1 Academy driver Chloe Grant also hailed the halo system for saving her life in a horror crash that saw her car set on fire. F1 qualifying follows the stunning events of the F2 Sprint Race.

News.com.au
19 hours ago
- News.com.au
Spotify's CEO invests $1 billion into an AI military start-up — and musicians are fuming
Spotify's billionaire CEO Daniel Ek is under heavy fire from artists and industry advocates after announcing a €600 million (A$1.07 bn AUD) investment into Helsing, a military tech start-up developing AI tech for war. Helsing, now valued at around €12 billion (A$19.5bn), builds AI-driven drones, submarines and aircraft and claims to 'develop and deploy these technologies' to 'protect fragile democracies'. Ek's investment, made via his firm Prima Materia, saw him aggressively double down on an earlier €100 million (A$162 million) pledge in 2021. He now chairs the company. But while Ek frames the move as a response to modern geopolitical challenges, many in the music world see it as a betrayal. For an industry largely built around the idea of community and counterculture, the optics are damning. 'This is one of the many reasons I'm not releasing music on Spotify anymore,' said Charlie Waldren, the Sydney artist behind Poolroom. 'People talk about 'no war' while paying $13.99 a month to a company whose boss is doing this, so they can listen to Royel Otis. 'I don't want to fund war with my subscription.' While one subscriber ditching the platform is inconsequential to the Spotify profit machine, Waldren hopes more of his peers get hip to the realities of the world's biggest music streamer. He has returned to releasing on Bandcamp, a website set up specifically with the artist in mind, where users can purchase music and merchandise directly from the uploader. German electronic music producer Skee Mask also made headlines when he scrapped his entire discography from the platform, following Ek's initial investment into Helsing. 'It's done, all my s**t is gone from Spotify,' he wrote. 'My music will be available there again as soon as this company starts (somehow) becoming honest and respectful towards music makers. But the United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) organisation, a group advocating for artist rights, went even harder, claiming on X it looked like 'warmongering' while artists are paid 'poverty wages'. 'To build a fair and just music industry, we also must dismantle imperialism in all its forms.' 'We stand against genocide and against the war machine, and encourage artists to build solidarity across the world.' 'Evil Music CEO': Video Popular music reviewer Anthony Fantano, known online as 'The Needle Drop', joined the chorus with a video published this week titled: ' Evil Music CEO.' 'If you are at all familiar with the history of capitalism, you understand that the entertainment industry being mixed in, in some form or fashion, with some of the worst sectors of our economy. It's nothing new. But it's somehow worsening, thanks to Daniel Ek, CEO over at Spotify,' Fantano told his 2 million subscribers. 'Was music ever really a passion or a driver for him in any way whatsoever?' he asks in the video, while claiming he would now be involved in 'tech designed to kill people'. 'This dude runs his company in a way where he's paying artists poverty wages.' Fantano said that anybody who truly cared about music as a cultural necessity would use at least some of the fortune they made from countless artists to inject some much-needed stimulus into areas that needed it most. 'Now, if that were me, and I had that much money in my pocket — sure, this doesn't make me Jesus or anything — but you know, I would at least put some of that cash back into the music economy to maybe support the artists that are making my livelihood possible, consistently,' he said. Composer Pete Carroll echoed those sentiments on X, urging artists to boycott the platform. 'Take your human creative works off Spotify people. You're supporting a (MAN) now involved with military AI,' he said. Ek has been contacted for comment via Spotify. Streaming is 'poverty' for artists It's all part of a broader pushback against major power brokers in the music industry. Spotify has a chequered history and dubious reputation among grassroots musicians around the globe. The platform, which launched in 2008, has long faced criticism for what many say are razor-thin artist royalties. Spotify's convenience has won over millions of users around the globe. Because of its gargantuan user count, the appeal for artists is 'exposure'. But even if you listened to your favourite band on repeat all day, you'd barely be generating a dollar. In 2024, Spotify's average payout per stream ranged between $0.003 and $0.005 USD, which converts to approximately $0.0045 to $0.0075 AUD per stream. That rate can vary based on factors such as listener location, subscription type (free or premium), and the artist's distribution agreement. For a band of five to make the average wage in Australia purely off streaming payouts, they would need approximately 88.7 million hits annually, or about 7.4 million streams per month. That's roughly the entire population of NSW playing your song at least once a month. And that's all before tax, of course. Because then comes the ATO and the industry's obligatory deductions. Distributors, record labels and all manner of 'necessary middlemen' often take a percentage of an artist's revenue, which can significantly reduce the amount that reaches each musician. For a pop star who does not write their own songs and builds wealth from exterior sponsorships, this is not a big deal. But for small acts that self-produce, the divvying up of meagre payouts is seen as criminal. For example, an independent garage band must pay approximately $20 to a 'distributor' before uploading their song to Spotify. It would then take that song around 10,000 streams a year to 'pay' for itself. Relying solely on Spotify streaming revenue to earn a crust has become a fruitless strategy for start-up projects, which has inevitably led some bands to flip the table. Diversifying income streams through live performances, merchandise sales, and other platforms can provide more financial stability. But a quick glance at Australia's collapsing festival circuit will tell you just how optimistic that sounds for working bands attempting to break through.