Author: staff

The Gulf countries and the wider Middle East are bracing for a possible resumption of hostilities in the Iran war amid multiple simultaneous warnings and media reports of increasing intensity and detail, coupled with a massive US military build-up in the Gulf and Israeli and Iranian armies placed on high alert, raising fears of an imminent escalation with devastating consequences for the region. Against the backdrop of growing speculation over the last weeks that the US and Israel may launch a new attack against Iran before or after the mid-term elections in the US and next week’s elections in Israel,…

Artificial intelligence has exposed two critical security flaws in PHP, a programming language that quietly powers most of the internet, sending organisations worldwide scrambling to shut down websites before hackers can exploit them. The bugs sat undetected in PHP’s code for more than a decade. It took cutting-edge AI models from OpenAI and Google to turn a long-suspected weakness into a working attack — and now the race is on to close the door. As AI’s fast-advancing capabilities fuel concern over a new era of cyberattacks, here is what you need to know. Europe reacts The Netherlands pulled its DigiD…

Published on 22/10/2026 – 10:39 GMT+2•Updated 10:41 Warning: Spoilers for Season 6 of Slow Horses. The latest season of Apple TV’s Slow Horses has come to an end, and left audiences with an almighty cliffhanger that seems perfectly almost too perfectly timed when it comes to a certain casting decision… Based on the novels by Mick Herron, the British thriller spy series follows the best of the worst: Slough House’s unit of disgraced MI5 agents, who work under the sweary supervision of Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). The season finale of the show’s sixth season aired yesterday and with it came…

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, while incidents of vandalism and looting affected thousands of businesses and public buildings on the sidelines of the protests. Calls for a fresh round of protests have already begun to emerge online, raising the possibility of a protest movement that becomes a weekly occurrence, as was the case during the 2018-2019 Yellow Vest movement. “The president believes that six months before a presidential election, debate should take place more in TV studios, in newspapers, and ultimately by the choice at the ballot box,” a person close to the French president said.…

Supermarket shelves are running empty in parts of southern Italy as truck drivers protest against soaring fuel prices, disrupting deliveries of food and other essential goods. In Naples, trucks parked near the port on Monday as protesters blocked the loading and unloading of goods at supermarket distribution centres, bringing deliveries to a halt, particularly those of fresh food. Shortages of fresh pasta, packaged cheeses, meat and fruit and vegetables have been reported in Sicily, with panic buying by shoppers adding to the pressure on supplies. Partially empty shelves have also been seen in Calabria and Puglia. The disruption comes as…

The world’s richest man confirmed this week that Tesla and SpaceX are exploring a merger. Together, the companies are worth about $3.5 trillion (€3.1tn), making it potentially the biggest merger ever. It would cap a string of deals tying Elon Musk’s businesses together, and the goal is to complete it while Donald Trump is still the US president, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. A merger between Tesla and SpaceX would be the latest chapter in a story that began a decade ago, when Musk started stitching his companies together. In 2016, Tesla bought SolarCity, a solar…

Published on 22/10/2026 – 12:28 GMT+2 US software company Palantir has sought to reassure European allies that its military AI system used by NATO has no “kill switch”. Palantir’s executive vice president for the UK and Europe, Louis Mosley, told Reuters on Wednesday that neither the company nor the US could switch off the Maven Smart System AI platform used by NATO’s military headquarters and several European armed forces. “What we have seen in the news over the past few days around Starlink is extremely concerning,” Mosley said in an interview in Brussels. “But as concerns Palantir, I can provide…

Published on 22/10/2026 – 13:17 GMT+2 Running a marathon is undoubtedly a bucket list ambition for many people – and the rise of “race-cations” has seen active travellers plan holidays around running and endurance events. But what if you could complete a marathon without watching your pace or hitting the dreaded “wall”, and instead enjoy regular stops for cinnamon buns, festive lights and warming drinks? Sounds pretty good, right? That’s exactly what the Go Vilnius tourism development agency is proposing with its new “Europe’s slowest marathon” campaign, which encourages visitors to explore the Lithuanian capital at a leisurely pace this…

The diplomats — all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely about ongoing talks — said the proposal would involve asking the U.K. to commit to finalizing an agreement on tuition fees within six months. The proposal was first reported by the Financial Times. The EU is pushing for European students to pay the domestic rate for tuition fees when studying at British universities, as they did before Brexit. But one of the diplomats highlighted that the tuition fee demand was still part of a wider “package” linked to the other three agreements slated for the summit, and that…

In the Kharkiv region, a separate wave of Russian attacks killed one person and injured 15 others, including three children, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. In the city of Kharkiv, drones damaged houses, a shop, cars and an office building, while a strike on a lorry park set four lorries, a trailer and a car on fire. In the capital, one person was killed and 22 others injured, including four children, as ballistic missiles and drones struck six districts. Fires broke out in residential and non-residential buildings, while homes, vehicles and infrastructure were damaged. In the Dniprovskyi district, one…