The rebooted GCHQ digital warfare series has more zip than its predecessor – but people bashing away on computers in a bunker near Cheltenham is inherently unsexy

If the espionage battles of the future are going to be fought online, TV thrillers will have to reflect that fact, much as they might not want to. Cyber-attacks, cross-border malware and digital misinformation just aren’t especially televisual: whatever you do, you always end up with a speed-typing nerd muttering “Shit!” as gobbledegook scrolls across a monitor and red lights flash in the distance.

In 2022, Channel 4’s missable drama The Undeclared War tried to crack the problem by throwing heavyweight film-making pedigree at it. Peter Kosminsky, the esteemed director behind Wolf Hall and The Government Inspector, had evidently researched the back end out of the subject, presenting the details of an imagined campaign of Russian interference in Britain’s daily digital functionality – and, from there, the democratic process of an election – in a way that real-life sleepless nerds said was credible enough.

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Staff ‘raised on multiple occasions’ risks of tech mogul’s philanthropic body associating with disgraced financier

A new external review commissioned by the Gates Foundation has found that there were “roughly 30 meetings” between Jeffrey Epstein and foundation leaders and staff – including Bill Gates – between 2011 and 2014, even as foundation staff “raised on multiple occasions the risks of associating with Epstein because of his prior conviction”.

The Gates foundation commissioned the review in March, following the justice department’s release earlier this year of millions of documents related to Epstein. The files included numerous references to Gates, several photographs of him, and records showing that he met with Epstein on multiple occasions, which prompted renewed scrutiny of Gates’s past ties to the disgraced financier.

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FIFA World Cup 2026? The FIFA World Cup? is football's most prestigious international tournament, bringing together the world's leading national teams in a global celebration of sport, culture and identity. First held in 1930, the competition takes place every four years and has produced some of the most memorable moments and influential figures in sporting history. The FIFA World Cup 2026? marks a new chapter for the tournament. Hosted across Canada, Mexico and the United States, it is the first edition to be staged across three nations. Featuring a record 48 teams, 104 matches and 16 host cities, the tournament represents the largest and most inclusive FIFA World Cup? ever held. Defined by passion, national pride and unpredictable drama, the World Cup extends far beyond the pitch. Football intersects with fashion, art, music and popular culture, while each nation expresses its own visual identity through uniforms, symbols and supporter traditions. Players such as Pelé, Diego Marado

A federal judge has approved Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement over pirated books used to train its Claude chatbot, with authors and publishers set to receive about $3,000 per book. The case produced a mixed ruling for the AI industry: training on copyrighted books was found not to be illegal, but Anthropic's use of pirated copies from shadow libraries was. The Associated Press reports: District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin said in a Monday ruling that the class-action settlement provides "meaningful relief" to affected authors and publishers. About 91% of the more than 482,000 books covered by the ruling have been claimed by authors or publishers who are now due payment. Plaintiff attorney Justin Nelson said in a statement that the settlement was "the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible."

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The White Stripes

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De reisadviezen voor verschillende landen in het Midden-Oosten zijn aangescherpt. Dat komt omdat de veiligheidssituatie daar is verslechterd, aldus het Nederlandse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken. "De situatie in het Midden-Oosten blijft onvoorspelbaar."

De reisadviezen voor Qatar, Jordanië, Saudi-Arabië, Koeweit en de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten zijn inmiddels oranje. Dat betekent dat het ministerie adviseert om er alleen heen te reizen als dat noodzakelijk is en er niet op vakantie te gaan. Bij problemen kunnen Nederlandse ambassades in de landen minder goed helpen. De oranje kleurcode geldt ook voor delen van Oman.

Het reisadvies voor Bahrein is rood. "Wat uw situatie ook is: reis er niet heen. Het is er te gevaarlijk", meldt het ministerie. Nederlanders die in Bahrein zijn, worden opgeroepen om het land te verlaten, mits dat op een veilige manier kan.

KYIV (ANP) - De gewezen Oekraïense minister van Defensie Mychajlo Fedorov is blij dat president Volodymyr Zelensky een nieuwe commandant der strijdkrachten heeft aangewezen. Op sociale media spreekt Fedorov van "een frisse wind en een bron van nieuwe hoop in de strijd van het vrije volk voor vrijheid en gerechtigheid".

Fedorov werd afgelopen week tot veler verbazing door Zelensky ontheven uit zijn ambt, ondanks zijn populariteit en succes als minister van Defensie. Dat zou naar verluidt verband houden met zijn banden met commandant der strijdkrachten Oleksandr Syrsky, met wie Fedorov slecht overweg kon. Zo zou Fedorov er bij Zelensky op hebben aangedrongen om Syrsky te ontslaan. Het ontslag van Fedorov leidde op meerdere plekken in Oekraïne tot demonstraties en de roep om hem weer defensieminister te maken.

Zelensky kondigde na beraad met Syrsky dinsdag aan hem te vervangen door Mychajlo Drapaty, een andere hooggeplaatste militair.