Author: staff

Published on 07/10/2026 – 14:46 GMT+2 France has suspended police use of stun grenades at high school student protests, after a 15-year-old lost a hand and allegations of police brutality mounted. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced the move on RTL radio early on Wednesday. The teenager was injured on Monday after police fired a stun grenade. “I am suspending their use in the high school student protests until the facts of the incident have been clarified,” Nunez said. He stressed that the suspension applied only to those protests and would last just long enough to establish what happened. Police have…

A one-minute siren sounded in Tel Aviv on Wednesday as Israelis marked three years since the October 7, 2023 attacks. People gathered along the beach holding photographs of those killed, while an art installation commemorating victims and hostages was displayed nearby with the word “Failure” written in large letters. The October 7 attacks killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage, according to Israeli figures. The anniversary has also renewed calls from some Israelis for an independent inquiry into the events.

Switzerland’s UBS stands alone for Europe in the top ten of an annual league table measuring how far major banks have gone in putting AI to work, as North American lenders led by JPMorgan Chase pull further ahead. The ranking, published on Tuesday by Evident, a firm that tracks AI adoption in financial services, rates 50 large lenders in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific using only public data. Banks are deploying the technology to catch fraud, write software, vet loans and help advisers serve clients, and the 50 lenders have made public over 1,100 distinct uses of AI since 2021.…

Pressure is growing worldwide to rein in the most powerful artificial intelligence systems, and the world’s three top AI heavyweights are answering in three very different ways. The worries are much the same everywhere, starting from AI-powered cyberattacks, threats to national security and chatbots linked to children’s suicides. The responses, it seems, are significantly different. The EU has bet on binding rules, though it has already loosened some of them under pressure from industry. The US relies on voluntary promises and executive orders meant to keep its AI boom going. China is building its own rulebook under tight state control…

Winter in Europe means time for outdoor adventures – often on the slopes. Few destinations offer quite the same combination of skiing, snowboarding, chilly winter hikes and other activities like in the continent’s Alpine resorts. In central Switzerland, between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, Interlaken sits in the heart of the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps. Despite the lower temperatures, the year-round resort surprisingly offers accessible hikes and kayak routes during the colder season. While around 370 kilometres to the east, Innsbruck makes an equally strong claim for holidaymakers’ attention. The capital of Austria’s Tyrol state, it’s also…

A pilot project to send migrants who have been denied the right to stay in the EU to designated ‘return’ countries will be in place by early next year, Greece’s migration minister told POLITICO. Sep 29 4 mins read

Published on 07/10/2026 – 13:02 GMT+2 The European Commission announced on Wednesday that €1.24 billion had been released for Ukraine to purchase domestically manufactured drones, drone interceptors, drone ammunition and munitions. The president of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, said the funding allocation would help protect “people and infrastructure” in Ukraine against Russia’s “deliberate strategy of terror”. “Today’s disbursement will help strengthen Ukraine’s defence industry. And Ukraine’s ability to defend itself,” she said. The funding announcement comes as Russia continues its full-scale invasion against Ukraine. In recent weeks, this has resembled an increasingly aggressive aerial campaign, putting its…

Published on 07/10/2026 – 14:18 GMT+2 Scientists have identified a new crocodile genus from a 45-million-year-old Egyptian fossil after using CT scans to re-examine a skull recovered nearly a century ago. The fossil comes from the Mokattam Formation, the same limestone formation from which the Great Sphinx was carved. Like the monument, the skull is missing the tip of its snout. Researchers from Egypt, the UK, Sweden and Germany have named the animal Herugavialis cairensis. The findings were published in Royal Society Open Science. The animal was first described in 1927 as Tomistoma cairense, placing it in the same genus…

Published on 07/10/2026 – 9:27 GMT+2 India’s central bank has switched to tightening, delivering a quarter-percentage-point increase as the fallout from the Iran war lifts prices and drags on the national currency. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted its benchmark repo rate, the rate it charges commercial banks for loans, by 25 basis points to 5.50%, with all six members of its monetary policy committee voting in favour. The move puts India alongside several other central banks that have tightened policy to rein in inflation or prop up their currencies. The RBI had kept rates on hold since the…

More than 200 people had initially been placed under observation following the woman’s death. In a statement sent to the WHO Tuesday, Russian health authorities said they conducted an investigation “following the identification of a case of community acquired pneumonia” and that “no pathogens of dangerous infectious diseases were detected among any of the contacts.” The WHO said they have remained in contact with Russian authorities and “offered technical support.” The EU and the U.S. are both monitoring the situation closely. The European Commission and countries are set to discuss the case at Wednesday’s Health Security Meeting, according to a…