Author: staff
The Spanish Film Academy has chosen ‘La bola negra’ to carry Spain’s hopes of securing a new Oscar in the Best International Feature Film category, a feat achieved only four times in the history of the American awards; the last time thanks to Alejandro Amenábar’s ‘Mar adentro’ (“The Sea Inside”) in 2005. This ensemble story about desire and queer repression, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and closely linked to the figure of Federico García Lorca, has already won the award for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival after competing in other categories, including the Palme…
Nandy said the companies disclosed inconsistent approaches to removing names and addresses of people shared online — and accused Elon Musk’s X of “contempt” for failing to send a representative to the meeting. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. More broadly, Nandy said the U.K. government would be “moving at pace to make sure that we keep people safe and we clean up our online space, which has been left to the private sector to police for far too long.” “Our government intends to be more interventionist in this area,” she said. In a separate interview…
By Alessio Dell’Anna & video by Maud Zaba Published on 16/09/2026 – 11:34 GMT+2 European homes and businesses appear to be getting safer. The number of break-ins across the EU has dropped by more than a third in just a decade (35%), falling to 1.2 million from to 2014 to 2024, according to new Eurostat data. These figures cover both residential and business premises, yet despite the good news, Europe continues to be a battleground between intruders and private citizens and business owners, with many countries having a significant rate of burglaries relative to their populations. Austria faces a huge wave of burglaries,…
Yemen’s Houthis on Wednesday said they shot down a Saudi fighter jet, claiming they used munitions made by the group to target the warplane. “The Yemeni Armed Forces, with Allah’s aid and grace, succeeded in shooting down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet while it was carrying out hostile operations,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on social media, while accusing Saudi Arabia of launching 450 strikes. He said the aircraft had been targeted “using a locally made air-to-air missile”. The spokesman also dismissed Saudi claims that the Houthis had targeted Islam’s holy city of Mecca. “Our operations target its oil…
Crypto markets dropped late on Tuesday and early Wednesday, as investors digested a defeat that few in the industry had expected. The procedural motion on the CLARITY Act drew 49 votes in favour and 50 against, 11 short of the 60 required to advance, dealing a major setback to efforts to pass market structure legislation this year. The CLARITY Act, formally the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, was meant to divide supervision of digital assets between the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing a fragmented system in which classification has largely been settled through…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents spontaneously developed words and communication conventions that became difficult for humans to understand, according to a new study by a US AI start-up, Emergence. The experiment involved leading AI models including Claude, Gemini, Grok, OpenAI, Qwen, DeepSeek and Mistral, with up to half of agent-to-agent messages becoming difficult for humans to understand. For the experiment, researchers placed groups of autonomous AI agents in virtual societies designed to mimic real-world environments and let them interact over extended periods. The agents began developing shorthand and assigning new meanings to words and phrases. Some remained understandable to researchers, while…
Europe has once again dominated The 50 Best Hotels list, with 21 properties on the continent making the cut for 2026. Asia came in a close second, with 18 hotels, followed by North America with six, South America and Africa with two apiece, and one in Oceania. The World’s Best Hotel gong went to Rosewood Hong Kong, which first took the title last year, having been placed third in 2024. The ranking is now in its fourth edition. The 413-key skyscraper property above Victoria Harbour was praised for its foodie credentials, with 11 restaurants and bars across the 65 storeys,…
While in previous years, the Commission president’s annual address has been about a list of ideas and policies the EU should implement, this time a combination of more fragile national governments and the myriad challenges facing the world meant von der Leyen sounded more like she was delivering a direct appeal to Europeans about what kind of place they want to live in. And in this more fragmented world, as Carney’s attendance signaled, for von der Leyen, “Europe” now means more than just the European Union. “This is a Europe that stands up for each other,” she said, referencing two…
Published on 16/09/2026 – 10:17 GMT+2•Updated 10:18 Five people have been killed and at least seven are injured after a Russian drone strike hit a bus carrying passengers near the frontline in southern Ukraine. The bus was travelling on a known route in the Nikopol district. In a post on Telegram, the regional governor of Dnipropetrovsk, Oleksandr Ganzha said: “Five people have been killed and at least seven wounded as a result of an enemy strike on a minibus in the Nikopol district. The Russians hit the bus with a drone,”. Photos provided by the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration show…
Robots are getting to grips with the physical world in Tokyo, where technology companies are showcasing machines designed to handle objects, perform industrial tasks and work alongside humans. The demonstrations offer a glimpse of how AI could move beyond screens and software, giving machines the ability to interact with their surroundings and carry out physical tasks. Among the prototypes on display is a machine developed by THK, which picks up bottles, bags and boxes under the remote control of a single operator. Its articulated arms and grippers also allow it to hammer a nail into a piece of wood, demonstrating…