Author: staff
More than 1,000 employees from leading AI companies signed a petition on Tuesday urging the US government to take steps to “deliberately pace” the development of artificial intelligence. Among the signatories were the Anthropic CEO, the head of research at OpenAI, the strategic lead of Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind and the chief scientist at Meta AI. The petition calls for “the US government [to] support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.” “The world’s leading AI companies believe they could be close to automating AI research. It…
If you’re planning a short- or mid-haul European getaway, it’s tempting to search for airline tickets. But it might be time to rethink taking a flight and boarding a train instead – as it might even be faster. According to Omio, a global online travel booking platform, summer travellers may be better off choosing a plane over a train, with rail bookings on the continent having grown year-on-year by 32% – more than triple that of flight bookings. Omio analysed 25 of Europe’s popular city-to-city travel routes across 1,000 providers, comparing door-to-door journey times, city centre accessibility and ticket prices.…
Earlier this year, Lecornu asked three parliamentarians from his center-right coalition to report on France’s economic security. Obtained by POLITICO, the document called for a “radical change in posture” and urged the government to take “a holistic approach” to protecting strategic assets, securing critical supply chains, reducing dependencies and strengthening technological sovereignty. In a press release on the threshold change, Lecornu’s office said the government would give its response on any proposed foreign investments within 10 days of notification to “avoid placing an undue burden on companies’ ability to raise capital in financial markets.” The move is intended to “guard…
Published on 03/08/2026 – 13:09 GMT+2 The hard-right Reform UK party unveiled plans on Monday if it wins power for “the largest military operation” in the Channel “since World War II” to stop migrants crossing on small boats. The proposal, which experts and other political parties promptly rubbished, comes days after thousands of migrants entered Spain’s North African exclave of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco, reigniting Europe’s debate over irregular migration. Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration party said it would detail proposals to deploy Britain’s navy to return the vessels to France, a policy proposed and swiftly abandoned by the Conservative…
Published on 03/08/2026 – 12:51 GMT+2 Gunmen kidnapped at least 52 people, including children, in a weekend attack on a village and military base in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state, local sources told the AFP news agency on Monday. Kidnappings have become a major source of income for armed groups in Nigeria, including jihadists in the northeast and criminal gangs known locally as “bandits.” Zamfara is one of the hardest hit states in the northwest. The gunmen on motorcycles swept into Kasuwar Daji village in the Kaura Namoda local government area around midnight on Saturday into Sunday, first attacking a military…
Published on 03/08/2026 – 10:32 GMT+2 Chinese tech giant Alibaba says its newest AI model can work alone, unsupervised, for days on end and still deliver results, a feat claimed almost exclusively, until now, by its American rival Anthropic. The model, Qwen3.8-Max, was announced in a post by the Qwen team on Monday, which says it delivers “comprehensive improvements across coding, work, research, and long-horizon tasks”. The claim echoes how Anthropic’s own top model, Claude Fable 5, has been described in the coverage of its release. According to the company, one test saw the model work “completely on its own…
Good news for bad partners: If you’re the type to forget such essential moments as anniversaries because you were busy playing video games, a new AI startup has your back. Orchid is Silicon Valley’s latest disruptor solving problems few people outside Silicon Valley seem to have, offering an AI assistant that can perform tasks for you by texting it as if it were your friend. But that’s not entirely what the product claims to be. The startup argues that Orchid isn’t an assistant but rather “a second brain”, solving life’s most challenging problems for the glassy-eyed, from organising flights to…
U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran would resume Monday, after scrapping a planned military strike over the weekend. Speaking on Sunday, the American leader also refused to set a deadline for reaching a broader deal with Tehran. “They knew the extent of the attack because they saw it forming. Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon, and we’ll see,” said Trump, talking to reporters aboard Air Force One. Asked whether he had imposed a deadline, the U.S. president responded: “Would I rather make a deal? I’m…
Published on 03/08/2026 – 9:16 GMT+2 A cyberattack tapped the data of some 31,000 people in Liechtenstein’s register of people behind companies and foundations in the wealthy principality, the government said. The “register of economic beneficiaries” was accessed at night from Wednesday into Thursday last week, the government said. “According to preliminary findings, an unknown perpetrator gained unauthorised digital access to the VwbP (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution) during the night of July 30, 2026,” a government statement said. It said that the breach was noticed on Thursday, that measures were taken to secure data and the…
New footage shows the aftermath in Pozzuoli after a magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck the Campi Flegrei volcanic area near Naples late on Friday. The shallow quake, recorded at a depth of three kilometers, injured 26 people and was followed by a series of smaller aftershocks. Around 300 residents were evacuated, with most of the damage concentrated in Pozzuoli. Italy’s civil protection service said five people were taken to hospital, while several unoccupied buildings collapsed and landslides were reported. Officials continue to urge caution as seismic and volcanic activity in the area persists.