KATHMANDU (ANP/RTR) - In Nepal wordt maandag een dag van nationale rouw gehouden voor de slachtoffers van de dodelijke vloedgolf bijna twee weken terug. Toch organiseert de regering geen herdenkingen, omdat reddingswerkers bij zoekacties nog altijd hopen overlevenden te vinden.

De vloedgolf, veroorzaakt door het afbreken van een gletsjer, kostte al zeker 1380 mensen het leven, maar nog meer dan 5500 mensen worden vermist. Grote stromen modder, steen en aarde hebben hele dorpen overspoeld.

Ook de ingangen van tunnels zijn geblokkeerd, maar de hulpdiensten hebben hoop dat daar nog levende mensen vastzitten. De afgelopen dagen konden daar vier mensen worden gered.

De rouwdag komt volgens de hindoeïstische traditie op de dertiende dag na de ramp. Vlaggen van overheidsgebouwen worden halfstok gehangen.

RAAMSDONKSVEER (ANP) - Het Nederlandse PAL-V kan de productie starten van de eerste vliegende auto ter wereld. Dat zegt topman Robert Dingemanse in een interview in Het Financieele Dagblad. In 2028 moet de vliegende auto volledig goedgekeurd de lucht in gaan.

Het bedrijf uit Raamsdonksveer heeft een belangrijke certificering binnen van de Europese luchtvaartautoriteit EASA, waarmee het bedrijf vliegende auto's mag gaan produceren. Luchtcertificering is daarmee nog slechts een formaliteit, stelt het bedrijf in het FD.

Over anderhalf jaar denkt Dingemanse een zogeheten typecertificaat te krijgen van EASA, waarmee een vliegend voertuig veilig is verklaard. "We hebben hiervoor een traject van achttien maanden afgesproken met de EASA", legt hij uit. PAL-V is naar eigen zeggen nu een stuk verder dan concurrenten uit China en Slowakije.

De PAL-V heeft drie wielen en kan op de openbare weg rijden. De auto vliegt als een gyrokopter, die lijkt op een helikopter, maar niet verticaal kan opstijgen.

Het jaar 2025 begon dramatisch voor Isar Aerospace. Hun raket Spectrum steeg op vanuit het Noorse Andøya en minder dan een minuut later stortte hij alweer neer. Oorzaak: een per ongeluk geopend ventiel en verlies van controle bij een draaimanoeuvre.

Maar het bedrijf is niet voor één gat te vangen. Afgelopen weekend probeerden ze het opnieuw en dít keer ging het goed. Heel goed zelfs.

Space race

Zaterdag bracht Isar Aerospace zijn Spectrum-raket met succes in een baan om de Aarde, vanuit het Arctische Noorwegen. Daarmee is het de eerste commerciële raket die dat ooit vanaf het Europese vasteland voor elkaar krijgt. Aan boord: vijf kleine satellieten en een technologisch experiment.

Isar Aerospace is geen oude, logge ruimtevaartreus. Het bedrijf werd in 2018 opgericht door drie studenten van de TU München en acht jaar later staat er dus een eigen raket in een baan om de Aarde.

Duitsland is trots

Zelfs de Duitse bondskanselier liet zich niet onbetuigd. Friedrich Merz noemde de lancering "het begin van een nieuw tijdperk" en bezocht in maart nog zelf de lanceerbasis. Ook vanuit Brussel kwam applaus: EU-commissaris voor Ruimtevaart Andrius Kubilius schreef dat Europa's onafhankelijke toegang tot de ruimte "zojuist een flinke impuls" kreeg.

Dat enthousiasme is niet voor niets. Europa is de afgelopen jaren steeds meer afhankelijk geraakt van SpaceX van Elon Musk om satellieten de ruimte in te schieten. Russische Sojoez-raketten zijn door de geopolitieke spanningen namelijk niet meer beschikbaar en het eigen Ariane 6-programma kampt met vertragingen. Een Europese, commerciële speler die het zelf kan, is dan ook precies waar de sector op zat te wachten.

En nu?

Isar is niet van plan om het hierbij te laten. Volgens medeoprichter en CEO Daniel Metzler is capaciteit op dit moment het grootste knelpunt in de hele lanceerindustrie. Het bedrijf wil dan ook snel meer satellieten gaan lanceren. Geld is daarbij geen probleem: er staat al voor bijna een miljard euro aan orders klaar.

Bekijk hieronder de beelden van de lancering op Youtube – Isar Aerospace:

A new streaming TV channel shows films made with genAI, reports Engadget. "Fairground AI Creator TV" is free — and supported with ads — describing its material as "AI Cinema":


"AI-generated" can make it sound as though someone typed a sentence into a machine and came back five minutes later to find a finished movie. Fairground's catalog shows why that description can be too simple. Take Lost Garden: The Awakening of the Lantern Knight. According to its Fairground page, creator Frank Houbre wrote the world, characters, mythology, emotional arc and screenplay himself. AI tools were used mainly for animation and visual production, with other tools helping create voices and music before the episode was assembled in conventional video-editing software.

There's still one question, the article notes: "whether viewers actually want an AI-focused TV channel." More than 100 AI creators have contributed to the 24-hour slate of programming, although Variety points out several of them were discovered on social media.

The channel was recently profiled in an article by the Guardian. Its headline? "'Nightmare fodder': Roku's AI slop channel is even worse than expected." (And its subheading calls it "a 24/7 channel devoted to low-quality AI content for viewers sick of watching real people move...")
What about people who hate plot and vision and the sight of people speaking convincing dialogue that synchronises perfectly with the movement of their lips? What about the people who just want to watch an unyielding torrent of eerily weightless nightmare fodder? Well, good news. Roku has finally caught up... Early reactions were, to put it mildly, not great. The Verge compared it to eating from a trough, while Futurism called it "bottom-of-the-barrel slop"...

On the plus side, the channel is evidence that artificial intelligence has come on in leaps and bounds over the last couple of years... However, it is still awful. Categorically, catastrophically awful. The channel doesn't so much offer shows as a drifting dreamscape of bad ideas rendered as horribly as possible with no thought paid to scheduling. At one point on Wednesday, a shrill high-frequency anime gave way to a long and staid German-language short about Nazi bureaucracy. After that came a sort of Gladiator ripoff that had all the dynamism of an exhibit you'd see at the fourth-best museum on a poorly planned family holiday.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Kieren Perkins expresses concern over some traditional sports

• Door is open to likes of cricket and netball for Games in Australia

Former gold-medal winning swimmer and Australia’s most senior sport executive, Kieren Perkins, has called on the IOC to modernise the sporting program for Brisbane 2032, arguing that some current Olympic sports “have no modern relevance whatsoever”.

The IOC has indicated it wishes to curb a long-term trend of a rise in the number of sports at the Games. Sydney 2000 featured 28 sports, while Los Angeles 2028 is set to feature 36, including many with more than one discipline – for example road and track cycling – that require multiple venues.

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In an extract from a new book, the Danish former referee recalls sending off the England midfielder for his infamous kick on Diego Simeone

At half-time on 30 June 1998, Kim Milton Nielsen stepped into the changing room at the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium in Saint-Étienne. The air reeked of wet towels. He hugged his assistants. They’d just taken charge of the best half of football they’d ever officiated.

Argentina v England. World Cup round of 16. Michael Owen had terrorised Argentina with blistering runs and his breakout goal. A clever free-kick had outsmarted the English defence. Nielsen had awarded two penalties. He couldn’t wait for the second half, but he didn’t know what was coming.

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We sat in the park, laughing for hours, talking about nothing. Today’s childhoods are digital – and the result is an epidemic of loneliness

I saw an old friend recently – the kind you’ve known for so long that you clear a whole day for them, as you might a family member. We laughed and laughed like we were teenagers again, and drank martinis before lunch, and it felt almost like it always did when we were young, except we could afford better than cheap cider, and he owns a house and I’m someone’s mother.

Another old friend – one I’ve known even longer, since I was six – described me and the other girls who made up our little group as “fake siblings”. That is how lifelong friendships feel. There’s an easiness and acceptance that comes with longstanding intimacy. You know each other’s secrets, you’ve been inside each other’s parents’ houses, shared beds and cigarettes, witnessed heartbreak and foolishness, tears and whiteys, before the more serious stuff piles up: weddings, births, illnesses, life crises, deaths. You talk about the serious stuff, of course (there has always been some serious stuff, but teenage friendships often provide a refuge from it), but when you need it that old friendship is a portal, transporting many of us to a time of lightness and freedom that is otherwise hard to access.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide September 1983

Two runways are currently closed at Miami International Airport after an Amazon-branded cargo plane overran a runway, resulting in five fatalities. The leased 767, which bears the “Prime Air” brand Amazon uses for its air freight and drone operations, landed but was unable to stop before the end of the 2850-meter runway 30. The plane appears to have exited the runway and the airport grounds, crossed a road, and come to a halt in what looks like a carpark. As it ran across grass beyond the runway, the plane’s nose pitched down into the ground, its starboard engine caught fire, and the craft sustained extensive damage. Local authorities have confirmed that five people died, and three are severely injured. A statement from Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel says the company is”heartbroken to learn that five people lost their lives in today’s incident at Miami International Airport.” The statement identifies the operator of the plane as 21Air, a company that leases cargo planes and crew to its customers. 21Air CEO Keith Winters said “We are devastated by the accident involving one of our aircraft in Miami today. Our deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives. Our immediate priorities are supporting those affected, assisting the authorities, and ensuring that accurate information is communicated as it becomes available.” At the time of writing, the crash is just over 12 hours in the past, so investigators’ work has just begun. A video purportedly showing the plane landing depicts dark storm clouds and rain around the airport. That weather could conceivably have created gusty conditions that made landing unusually challenging. Federal records indicate the plane rolled off the Boeing production line in 1994. According to Planespotters, its first owner was Belgian carrier Sobelair, and it was later bought by carriers from Vietnam, Spain, Kenya, and Russia, before freight airline Atlas acquired it in 2015 and converted it from passenger to freight operations. That’s a common fate for older planes, which passenger airlines sell at very low prices. Cargo airlines can therefore pick up well-maintained planes at very low prices, meaning they have lower borrowing or leasing costs. That cheap purchase price offsets the higher maintenance and operating costs that come with older planes. All commercial aircraft, however, share strict airworthiness requirements. This is the second major crash involving a 767 leased by Amazon, after the 2019 incident that saw a plane unexpectedly nose-dive. ®