Author: staff
Dan Elkayam, a 27-year-old French national from the Paris region, was one of the 15 people killed in an attack on a Jewish Hanukkah festival at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday. Elkayam held a master’s degree in computer engineering and had been working in Sydney since December 2024. The director of his former engineering school in Paris, the École Supérieure de Génie Informatique (ESGI). Kamal Hennou described the former student as “bursting with talent” and someone “who enlightened those around him with kindness and goodness.” “We are all devastated,” Hennou told Euronews. The teacher praised Elkayam’s commitment to his studies,…
China’s economic slowdown became more entrenched in November, with retail sales recording their lowest month of year-on-year growth since 2022. All major domestic indicators disappointed in November, underscoring the challenge facing policymakers as they seek to make household spending, rather than exports and investment, the main driver of growth from 2026 onwards. “Boosting domestic demand in 2026 looks to be a top priority for policymakers, according to recent communications from the Politburo meeting and the Central Economic Work Conference,” said a report from ING bank. The Chinese leadership plans to implement “special actions to boost consumption”, along with initiatives to…
The EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) started its gradual rollout in October. At airports where the new digital technology is in place, visa-exempt travellers from the UK, US and other non-EU countries must register their biometric data at dedicated kiosks. The new border checks are already causing headaches for passengers, who have reported long lines as people navigate the processing procedures for the first time. In some cases, delays have resulted in passengers missing their flights. In the coming months, more and more airports will be introducing the system, which aims to be fully operational across the Schengen borders by…
A French supermarket’s Christmas advert has become a viral sensation and is being praised worldwide for doing something other companies simply can’t get right anymore: connecting with people, all without a single frame of generative AI. The ad, “Le mal aimé” (“Unloved”), for Intermarché, opens with a young boy who is scared of a toy wolf. His father tells him the simple story of a lonely wolf who is feared by other animals. Transition to animation. We see how the wolf tries hard to connect with his forest neighbours but fails to assuage their fears. He then decides to change…
In what appeared to be a message to spendthrift ministers, he warned: “There is no room for complacency. Our would-be opponents are investing billions. We have to step up or we will lose that advantage. We cannot let that happen.” 3. Spy games everywhere U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey called reporters to Downing Street last month to condemn the “deeply dangerous” entry of the Russian spy ship — the Yantar — into U.K. waters. Britain deployed a Royal Navy frigate and Royal Air Force P8 planes to monitor and track the vessel, Healey said. After detailing the incursion, the U.K.…
More than 40 flights were cancelled and several dozens delayed. Over 50 trains arriving and departing from New Delhi were delayed by several hours, authorities said. New Delhi’s air pollution levels have remained at what the federal government calls a “severe” level for the last two days, which the government says can cause respiratory effects to healthy people and seriously affect the health of people with heart or lung disease. The hazardous air quality has prompted the Commission for Air Quality Management, or CAQM, to invoke Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan, the strictest emergency measures to control…
Published on 15/12/2025 – 14:19 GMT+1 An artificial intelligence (AI) agent outperformed most human hackers after it spent 16 hours crawling a university’s site for vulnerabilities, a new study has found. The study comes as hackers from Russia, North Korea, Iran and Chinese-backed groups are using large language models (LLMs) to refine cyberattacks, according to Microsoft and OpenAI this year. Militant groups such as pro-Islamic State groups are also experimenting with AI to mount attacks. Stanford University found that its newly developed ARTEMIS AI agent came second out of ten in an experiment with human hackers. Researchers said their AI…
“This [reparations loan] is what we’re working on. We are not there yet and it is increasingly difficult, but we’re doing the work and we still have some days,” she said. Belgium has long been opposed to using Russia’s frozen assets to help Ukraine, arguing that this would imperil the peace process and expose Brussels to legal retaliation from Russia. In recent days, Italy, Bulgaria and Malta came out against the scheme, while Hungary and Slovakia have previously voiced opposition. Over the weekend, Czechia’s newly-installed prime minister, Andrej Babiš, came out against the loan, saying Prague would not provide any financial guarantees…
From 2028, European Union countries will be able to expand cross-border energy infrastructure, like grids and pipelines, and renewable energy projects, as energy ministers overwhelmingly backed on Monday the architecture of the bloc’s multi-annual energy budget for 2028-2034. The funds, under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), will target grid infrastructure and renewable energy projects to boost solar and wind power, as outlined in the European Commission’s recent initiative to modernise electricity infrastructure and support cross-border projects. Hydrogen and natural gas infrastructure are also on the list, with critics arguing that the money will continue to prop up fossil fuels, as…
A spirited 10-year-old girl, a prominent assistant rabbi, a Ukrainian-born Holocaust survivor and a young network engineer from France were among roughly 15 people killed when two gunmen opened fire on families celebrating Hanukkah at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach on Sunday. Australian authorities, who classified the shooting as a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community, have not yet released an official list of victims. However, a day after one of the deadliest mass shootings in Australia, the identities of several victims emerged through social media posts, news reports, and the official website of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, whose Bondi Beach chapter…