Indian cricket vice-captain Smriti Mandhana is the only Indian on TIME magazine's 2026 list of 100 Most Influential People in Sports. The list recognizes global sports figures, including LeBron James, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Mandhana is honored for her record-breaking achievements and leadership in women's cricket.
Time magazine has included three Chinese companies – Alibaba Group Holding, ByteDance and Zhipu AI – in its inaugural "10 Most Influential AI Companies of 2026" list, marking the first AI-specific sub-list under its Time100 ranking. The list features six US companies and one French company (Mistral AI), highlighting how AI has become a defining force in the global economy. Alibaba's Qwen models have surpassed 1 billion downloads, with the company emphasizing open-source strategies to drive adoption.
Dazzling new additions like V&A East are a source of national pride, but so are much-loved regional institutionsThe V&A East Museum, which opens its doors for the first time in Stratford, London, on Saturday, is the latest addition to the buzzing East Bank cultural quarter on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This £135m architect-designed V&A outpost is a short walk from the V&A East Storehouse (on Time Magazine’s list of The World’s Greatest Places to Visit 2026) and Sadler’s Wells East, both of which arrived last year. The London College of Fashion has been there since 2024 and BBC Music Studios are due to open in 2027. Art, design, dance, fashion and music – welcome to London’s 21st-century culturopolis.This once-neglected area of London – “a place where fridges went to die” as Gus Casely-Hayford, the director of V&A East, put it – has been transformed into a creative mecca. But in many parts of the UK the story is one of falling visitor numbers, job losses and the closure of much-loved music venues and art spaces. These architectural palaces are a far cry from many of the crumbling theatres and museums outside the capital (and their well-maintained European equivalents).Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
