Author: staff
As investigators worked to identify the cause of a deadly train crash in Spain, unfounded theories about the origins of the tragedy have surfaced online. On 18 January in Adamuz, southern Spain, three carriages on a train operated by the private company Iryo derailed and crossed onto a separate track before colliding with another train operated by Spain’s state-owned Renfe rail operator, which crashed into an embankment. At least 45 people died in one of the worst train crashes in the country’s history. Days later, a train driver was killed in a separate derailment near Barcelona, and another train crashed…
Belgian biathlete Maya Cloetens can’t help but think about the future of winter sports as she trains for next month’s Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy. Evidence of climate change is all around her in the mountains above Grenoble, France, where the 24-year-old fell in love with the sport that combines cross-country skiing and shooting. Grenoble hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics, but its winters are shorter and milder nowadays, and with less consistent heavy snowfall. When the games return to the French Alps in 2030, Grenoble won’t be the focal point. “I grew up there, and I really see…
This year’s Sundance Film Festival will be the last held in its longtime home of Park City, Utah. The film festival, the brainchild of the late Robert Redford, will relocate to its new setting in Boulder, Colorado, next year, and while attendees of this year’s edition have paid homage to Park City and Redford, current events have overshadowed the festivities. Just two weeks after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minnesota, an ICU nurse by the name of Alex Pretti – also 37 – was fatally shot on Saturday by ICE agents. Footage of…
The new investigation will look into whether the company properly assessed and mitigated the risks of integrating Grok, particularly those of “manipulated sexually explicit images” including some that “may amount to child sexual abuse material,” the Commission said. But the investigation “is much broader” than these images, a senior Commission official said during a briefing. The chatbot may have generated as many as 3 million non-consensual sexual images and 20,000 child sexual abuse images in the 11 days before it made changes to stop the spread of such photos, an estimate by civil society found. On top of the new…
By Alessio Dell’Anna & Baptiste Goudier Published on 26/01/2026 – 12:02 GMT+1 The EU’s woodland is marginally growing, with a reported 0.1% year-on-year increase, according to Eurostat. Taking into account both forest expansion and losses, whether from logging or natural events like fires, droughts and pests, Ireland leads, way above the EU average, with a net 1.2% annual growth in wooded area. Next are Estonia (+0.33%), Bulgaria (+0.26%) and France (+0.25%). Only a few countries reported (minimal) drops — all between -0.06% and -0.01% — namely Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and Poland. What’s the controversy behind Portugal’s forest growth? Woodland losses aside,…
Published on 26/01/2026 – 12:01 GMT+1 •Updated 12:08 Swathes of the United States were hit by a colossal winter storm over the weekend, leaving at least 10 people dead across the country, and prompting warnings to stay off the roads, mass flight cancelations and power outages. Freezing conditions persisted into Monday, as officials cautioned that an Arctic air mass behind the system would see temperatures fall dangerously low for days, prolonging disruptions to daily life. The US National Weather Service (NWS) told Americans to expect more of the same weather conditions into Monday morning. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said…
Published on 18/01/2026 – 7:00 GMT+1 The 2026 Winter Olympics is under growing pressure to “clean up its act” and ditch a trio of polluting sponsors. Scientists and athletes have joined forces ahead of the Games, which are being held in Italy this year, to highlight how deals with huge corporations are making its carbon footprint spiral. Milan Cortina 2026 will be scattered across the mountains of northern Italy, most of which are within the Dolomites – an area under growing threat from climate change. The 2026 organising committee has already said it plans to make 2.4 million cubic meters…
In an attempt to fight back, Kallas tried to appoint a powerful deputy secretary general in the form of Martin Selmayr, Juncker’s feared former chief of staff, but the move was blocked by von der Leyen’s office. Kallas “privately complains that she [von der Leyen] is a dictator but there’s little or nothing she can do about that,” said one senior official. Kallas also comes from tiny Estonia, and her party, the liberals, is small, making her position even weaker than Borrell’s (a socialist from Spain). Kallas’ office did not reply to a request for a comment. Bálint Ódor, Hungarian…
AI has shifted from a niche technology, to the backbone of global power. The US and China pour tens of billions into their AI growth, rolling out powerful models with the support of tech giants and massive data centres. Europe, by contrast, is still struggling to turn its strong research base into world-leading AI companies and technologies. It is lagging behind competitors as the window to dominate the AI space gets narrow. Money matters, and the gap is stark: US investment in AI vastly outweighs Europe’s, which means that many EU-trained engineers leave the bloc for better funded opportunities in…
Residents of all ages flocked to a small hill near downtown Oklahoma City in the US on Sunday to take advantage of the winter weather, turning Scissortail Park into a hub for snowball fights and sledding. Gil White drove from his home in Blanchard, Oklahoma, about 30 miles south of the city to go sledding with his 12-year-old son Thapelo White. “Yesterday, we had absolutely no sunshine at all, so I stayed in the truck. It was way too cold for me. Today is much better. I’m able to bear it. It’s windy, but with the sun being out, it…