Author: staff
If you’re heading to Japan for an active holiday you should lace up your walking boots and tackle a 320km-long hiking trail that is now fully open. The Hitachinokuni Long Trail, Japan’s longest loop trail, has been in the works for seven years since first announced in 2019 by the Ibaraki Prefecture and the Hitachi Province Trail Club. Now having opened in September, the hiking destination links six cities and towns across the northern Ibaraki Prefecture, less than a two-hour train ride away from Tokyo. Connecting Kitaibaraki, Takahagi, Hitachi, Hitachi Ota, Hitachi Omiya and Daigo, the route takes hikers through…
The humble apple is one of the most affordable, widely grown and popular fruits in our diet. But have you ever wondered how this fruit travelled across continents and eventually landed on your table? For years, the apples’ story was shrouded in mystery. Thanks to genetic research, we now know that two wild apple species, Malus sieversii from Central Asia and Malus sylvestris from Europe, played key roles in the transformation of the apples. Nestled in the Tian Shan mountains of Central Asia, forests of Malus sieversii, or the wild Sievers apple, still thrive. This species was named after the…
Population growth has added pressure in major urban centers. Spain has gained more than 3 million residents since 2015, including 793,000 in Madrid, 556,000 in Barcelona and 279,000 in Valencia — all cities where housing costs have risen sharply. Sánchez has not been blind to the crisis, calling housing the country’s “great constitutional challenge.” In 2023, he pledged to use “all state resources” to provide 184,000 public and affordable rental homes. But when the government last provided a detailed accounting of the effort, in August 2024, it said only 14,000 homes had been “made available to citizens” through a social…
Pedro Sánchez has lost control of the narrative – and that’s why he’s calling a snap election. In eight years in office, the Spanish prime minister has survived every obstacle thrown his way, proving himself as cunning as he is ruthless. He has reshaped Spanish politics, transformed his party and remade the left. He is the ultimate political operator. But that only works if you control the conversation. Since the Ceuta crisis broke – a stampede that saw more than 70,000 migrants cross into the enclave in what became the worst national security breach in modern Spanish history – Sánchez…
Thousands of pilgrims walked through the night to the Basilica of Our Lady of Lujan, one of Argentina’s biggest Catholic gatherings. Crowds queued at dawn to get in, and many held images of the Virgin Mary. Inside, some people rested on the floor, and others had bandages wrapped around their feet after hours on the road. Priests sprinkled holy water on the crowd and celebrated mass. Many in the crowd also brought pictures of Pope Leo XIV, who plans to visit the country in November 2026. For some, that made this year’s walk feel more important.
Published on 05/10/2026 – 12:42 GMT+2•Updated 12:43 Elon Musk is changing the name of his combined AI and space company SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI, embracing US President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming artificial intelligence as super intelligence in all government communication. Musk only recently renamed xAI as SpaceXAI, about 90 days ago, after SpaceX’s June stock market debut and February takeover of the company. The agreement valued SpaceX at $1 trillion (€892bn) and xAI at $250 billion (€223bn). The South African tech tycoon revealed that the company is making the change yesterday in a reply to a user on his social…
“Russia is determined to bring Ukraine to its knees this coming winter,” Jäger said. “We must expect Russian attacks of a severity and brutality that we have not yet seen on this scale. The war in Ukraine is entering a new and extremely dangerous phase.” Jäger’s comments come a day after a politically weakened Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Kyiv in what appeared to be an attempt to show resolve following two first-place finishes by the Kremlin-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in regional elections last month. Those AfD victories, blamed in large part on the chancellor’s historically low domestic approval…
Russian intelligence services are creating fake websites, social media pages, and messenger channels to imitate Ukrainian government agencies, security bodies, media outlets and senior officials, Kyiv has said. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), these fake resources copy official names, logos, photographs and branding in an attempt to appear legitimate. The agency said it had recorded a key increase in such manipulative activities and had already identified and blocked more than 50 resources that copied the SBU’s own branding and appearance. Fake accounts have also been created in the names of senior Ukrainian officials. Previous examples include Telegram…
By Babak Kamiar & Euronews Persian Published on 05/10/2026 – 14:35 GMT+2 Iran’s military said on Monday it retained full control over the Strait of Hormuz despite changes in US tactics, as the rial fell to record lows, the oil minister resigned and Washington claimed Tehran had not exported a single barrel of crude in September. “All movements (in Hormuz) are under the control of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic,” Brigadier General Aziz Jafari, commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Joint Air Defence Headquarters, said Monday. Hours before Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad’s resignation was announced, he said in a video released by…
The recognition is notable because Macron has sought to use his leadership to push AI safety on the global stage, and because the French president is months away from leaving office. After two terms as president, Macron is barred from running in the next election in April 2027. The far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who is leading in the polls, is advocating a policy of deregulation on AI, three senior party officials told POLITICO. Le Pen’s National Rally party also wants to become less dependent on foreign tech companies and is considering reviving a proposal for a sovereign wealth fund…