© Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters
Zelenskyy says Moscow is capitalising on shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors to lower morale in capital
At least 12 people have been killed in and around Kyiv overnight as Ukraine’s capital endured a sixth consecutive night of Russian drone and missile attacks aimed at shattering infrastructure and lowering the morale of the city.
Eight of the dead were reported killed in Kyiv, including seven at a railway depot on the city’s left bank, and four more in the surrounding region, after hours of air alerts culminating in a wave of strikes at about 2.30am.
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© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images
Zelenskyy says Moscow is capitalising on shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors to lower morale in capital
At least 12 people have been killed in and around Kyiv overnight as Ukraine’s capital endured a sixth consecutive night of Russian drone and missile attacks aimed at shattering infrastructure and lowering the morale of the city.
Eight of the dead were reported killed in Kyiv, including seven at a railway depot on the city’s left bank, and four more in the surrounding region, after hours of air alerts culminating in a wave of strikes at about 2.30am.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images
Police responding to explosives reported in Turnow-Preilack, near the coal-fired Jänschwalde power plant
Over in Brussels, the European Commission is just starting its first midday briefing of the autumn.
It opens with an announcement that Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will receive Nato’s Mark Rutte tomorrow. This comes amid growing scrutiny of Russia’s activities on the eastern flank.
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© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
The chicken liver sponge has sailed through a test of its ability to filter pollutants in a harbour in Spain’s Costa Brava
In the polluted waters of Marina Palamós on Spain’s Costa Brava, Manuel Maldonado, a sponge biologist, noticed something unusual last month: red starfish had started settling in the area.
Nearly two years earlier, the Spanish National Research Council scientist and his colleagues had begun transplanting sea sponges into the port to study whether they could survive in its polluted waters.
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© Photograph: Carlota Escarré
© Photograph: Carlota Escarré
© Photograph: Carlota Escarré
Police responding to explosives reported in Turnow-Preilack, near the coal-fired Jänschwalde power plant
Over in Brussels, the European Commission is just starting its first midday briefing of the autumn.
It opens with an announcement that Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will receive Nato’s Mark Rutte tomorrow. This comes amid growing scrutiny of Russia’s activities on the eastern flank.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
Who dreams of having a Euro summer now when staying in an ancient, uncooled building in the Old Town is like trying to sleep in a wood-fired pizza oven?
This week the Euro summer comes to an end – and so does a certain type of posting on Instagram.
Waiting at the bus stop in the grey winter dawn, a slanting rain soaking your trouser leg, you can warm yourself by scrolling your feed and seeing pictures of Australians enjoying a Euro summer. There it is again – azure Greek coves, plates of barbecued sardines, the yachts rented by the hour, and selfies on the balcony of some Paris Airbnb, drinking wine in the long, blue night.
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© Photograph: Annice Lyn/Getty Images
© Photograph: Annice Lyn/Getty Images
© Photograph: Annice Lyn/Getty Images
City council emphasises economic case for Madring amid local outrage over disruption and environmental impact
Opponents of Madrid’s newly constructed Formula One circuit have accused the regional authorities of putting profit before people’s wellbeing after tests for the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at the track later this month yielded noise levels that were many times the legal decibel limit.
The regional government of Madrid and the city council are hoping that the 5.4km-long (3.3 miles) Madring circuit – which has been built in the north-east of the Spanish capital at a cost of €83m (£71m) – will attract visitors, boost the local economy and put the city firmly on the motor racing map. The Madring bills itself as “a perfectly connected circuit: just 20 minutes from the city centre”.
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© Photograph: Aaron Heredia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Aaron Heredia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Aaron Heredia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
An EU export ban on Dutch tech giant ASML’s machines could force the pause we all need
At this point, it should be clear that AI is a choose-your-own-adventure book where every option ends in disaster. Exploding carbon emissions and ecological collapse? Turn to page 37. Other outcomes include some or all of: the bubble bursting and an ensuing financial crisis; mass unemployment via automation; the end of democracy and the rise of authoritarian surveillance states; raving cults who believe the pattern-matching algorithm is a consciousness; terrorists who create devastating bioweapons; nation states that deploy autonomous weapons systems that act on non-human timeframes; nation states or terrorists that hack all the myriad systems we depend on; or an AI that, conscious or not, pursues directives that are at odds with human wellbeing.
Imagining that people such as Elon Musk, the OpenAI boss, Sam Altman, Palantir’s Peter Thiel and the Trump administration tech adviser Marc Andreessen will lead us to a utopian future of flourishing environmentalism, social harmony and endless leisure requires hallucination and sycophancy so great that that choose-your-own-adventure scenario could only have been written by ChatGPT.
Alexander Hurst writes for Guardian Europe from Paris. His memoir Generation Desperation is out now
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© Photograph: Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie/AS/Reuters
© Photograph: Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie/AS/Reuters
© Photograph: Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie/AS/Reuters
A yes to membership would have given Brussels a boost but Icelanders have not voted to isolate themselves
Iceland’s 52.8% to 47.2% vote against reopening EU accession talks is, undeniably, a blow for Brussels. But claiming it as a Brexit-style victory for “national sovereignty” or evidence of broad rejection of the EU misrepresents the reality of the island’s relationship with the bloc.
For the EU, Iceland was a dream candidate: small, stable, prosperous and strategically located in an increasingly contested Arctic. Eager as it is to wield more geopolitical clout and revive flagging momentum around enlargement, a vote in favour would have given Brussels a very welcome boost.
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© Photograph: Marco Di Marco/AP
© Photograph: Marco Di Marco/AP
© Photograph: Marco Di Marco/AP
City council emphasises economic case for Madring amid local outrage over disruption and environmental impact
Opponents of Madrid’s newly constructed Formula One circuit have accused the regional authorities of putting profit before people’s wellbeing after tests for the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at the track later this month yielded noise levels that were many times the legal decibel limit.
The regional government of Madrid and the city council are hoping that the 5.4km-long (3.3 miles) Madring circuit – which has been built in the north-east of the Spanish capital at a cost of €83m (£71m) – will attract visitors, boost the local economy and put the city firmly on the motor racing map. The Madring bills itself as “a perfectly connected circuit: just 20 minutes from the city centre”.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Aaron Heredia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Aaron Heredia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Aaron Heredia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
A yes to membership would have given Brussels a boost but Icelanders have not voted to isolate themselves
Iceland’s 52.8% to 47.2% vote against reopening EU accession talks is, undeniably, a blow for Brussels. But claiming it as a Brexit-style victory for “national sovereignty” or evidence of broad rejection of the EU misrepresents the reality of the island’s relationship with the bloc.
For the EU, Iceland was a dream candidate: small, stable, prosperous and strategically located in an increasingly contested Arctic. Eager as it is to wield more geopolitical clout and revive flagging momentum around enlargement, a vote in favour would have given Brussels a very welcome boost.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Marco Di Marco/AP
© Photograph: Marco Di Marco/AP
© Photograph: Marco Di Marco/AP
US treasury secretary speaks with Russian counterpart who is controversially attending G20 talks; India’s Modi says war must end. What we know on day 1,651
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© Photograph: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters
© Photograph: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters
© Photograph: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters
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