ALAMATA (ANP/AFP) - Pro-regeringstroepen in Ethiopië claimen dat ze de strategisch gelegen plaats Alamata in de regio Tigray hebben ingenomen. Regeringstroepen zijn al dagenlang in gevecht met rebellen uit de noordelijke regio Tigray.

Alamata ligt aan een belangrijke snelweg. Een splintergroepering uit Tigray, de Tigray Peace Force, verkondigde de val van Alamata op Facebook. De groep werkt samen met de federale regering. Conflictmonitor ACLED bevestigt de berichten dat federale troepen de stad hebben ingenomen.

Vorige week begon het Tigray Volksbevrijdingsfront (TPLF), dat de macht heeft in Tigray, met een serie aanvallen op naburige regio's.

In de periode 2020-2022 vond in Ethiopië een bloedige burgeroorlog plaats tussen regeringstroepen en opstandelingen uit Tigray. Naar schatting kwamen daar ongeveer 600.000 mensen bij om het leven.

How has loneliness affected you? Please share your experience

We live in an age where we have better tools for communication and connection than ever before, and yet we are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic.

In 2025, a World Health Organization report identified that 1 in 6 people globally are lonely. The report defined loneliness as “the painful feeling that arises from a gap between desired and actual social connections.” Perhaps, most strikingly, the age bracket that had the highest levels of loneliness was 13–29-year-olds.

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europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

Against the striking backdrop of Lanzarote’s volcanoes, ESA astronaut Pablo Álvarez and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli document the different rock outcrops while keeping in constant contact with the remote science backroom.

During three intensive weeks, the training grows in complexity as the astronauts face challenges in real environments.

A team of instructors, including some of Europe’s top planetary geologists, progressively gives the trainees more time exploring independently.

Credits: ESA/V. Crobu

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

Against the stunning backdrop of the Montaña Señalo volcanic landscape, astronauts Kimiya Yui (JAXA), Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA) and Pablo Álvarez (ESA), are analysing the relationships between various volcanic events in the area.

During three intensive weeks, the training grows in complexity as the astronauts face challenges in real environments.

Credits: ESA/V. Crobu

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui explores Lanzarote's barren landscapes and analyses the presence of large volcanic bombs inside a crater.

During three intensive weeks, ESA's PANGAEA geology training grows in complexity as the astronauts face challenges in real environments.

Credits: ESA/V. Crobu

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

Three space explorers make their way to the top of an ancient volcano called Caldera Blanca in Lanzarote, one of Europe’s volcanic hot spots. From its rim, remnants of recent eruptions lie open for this crew of astronauts learning geology for planetary exploration.

Participants of PANGAEA’s 10th edition are ESA astronaut Pablo Álvarez Fernández, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and Kimiya Yui from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA. During three intensive weeks, the training grows in complexity as the astronauts face challenges in real environments.

Credits: ESA/V. Crobu

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

From right to left, astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA), Kimiya Yui (JAXA) and Pablo Álvarez (ESA) analyse pyroclastic deposits in Lanzarote's Tinguatón area.

During three intensive weeks, ESA's PANGAEA training grows in complexity as the astronauts face challenges in real environments.

Their scientific objectives during this expedition were to study the chronology and morphology of lava flows, and to find evidence of interaction between water and volcanic activity – two key factors in the search for life.

Besides the indispensable rock hammers, the astronauts carry spectrometers and microscopes connected with the ESA-developed Electronic Field Book, an all-in-one tool for future space explorers. Jasmin uses this ‘space tablet’ to map their exploration, keep a record of the samples collected and communicate their observations with the science team.

Credits: ESA/V. Crobu

Microsoft has unveiled its shiny new Copilot super app alongside an “evolved” pricing model to go with it, which means that customers will keep paying for a subscription and then cough up more when they want the really clever stuff. The company outlined the changes alongside its expanded vision for Copilot, which is being turned into a single AI work hub spanning chat, Office apps, coding, and increasingly autonomous agents. Microsoft calls the new pricing setup a combination of a User Subscription License (USL), charged per user per month, and Usage-Based Billing (UBB), which charges according to how much work Copilot does. The regular subscription pays for what Microsoft calls “Everyday AI.” That's Copilot Chat, plus Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Users can pick which model they want, or leave it to Auto, which chooses based on accuracy, speed, and cost. Then there's “Advanced AI.” Customers wanting Copilot to get stuck into more compute-hungry agentic work will also need usage-based billing (UBB). Microsoft says that this includes Cowork, Code, Autopilot, new agentic experiences in SharePoint, and frontier models including Astra and Fable. Crucially, those UBB charges are on top of the user subscription, not an alternative to it. The meter itself isn't entirely new. Microsoft has already used consumption-based pricing for some AI services, including Cowork, and Copilot Credits provide the common currency for eligible services billed by usage. What's changing is how central that model will become as Microsoft pushes Copilot further into agent territory. Exactly how many credits disappear depends on what Copilot is asked to do. Microsoft says consumption can vary by the models used, how much context it has to retrieve, how long the task runs, and which tools it calls. More complicated, multi-step jobs can therefore chew through more credits than simpler tasks. Redmond isn't leaving admins completely at the mercy of an enthusiastic employee and a hungry AI agent. Usage-based features have to be enabled through a billing policy, and administrators can impose organization- and user-level spending limits, configure alerts, and monitor consumption from the Microsoft 365 admin center. That will require a mindset shift for organizations used to knowing what their Copilot seats will cost, according to Simon Baxter at analyst TechMarketView. “Customers that want these agentic capabilities will have to adopt a consumption mindset, along with the cost governance that goes with it,” Baxter said. He pointed to Microsoft's new FinOps tools for managing spending policies, credit approvals, and model access as evidence that Redmond knows customers will need help keeping tabs on the meter. Code and Autopilot could be particularly interesting for whoever holds the purse strings because they're designed to carry on working once they're set up. As Baxter put it, “an agent working without prompts is no longer tied to someone sitting at a keyboard.” That could prove awkward for public sector organizations accustomed to budgeting by headcount. Baxter pointed to NHS England's Copilot rollout, where license allocations across 505,000 staff give buyers a cost that they can plan around. Putting agents used for jobs such as complaints handling or freedom of information requests on a meter leaves trusts with a variable cost and, at least initially, little usage history on which to base a forecast. Microsoft's attempts to bundle Copilot with subscriptions and charge accordingly have already attracted some unwanted attention. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation in July into whether customers were properly informed when Microsoft added Copilot to consumer Microsoft 365 subscriptions and moved them onto more expensive plans unless they opted for a cheaper Classic alternative. This time, Microsoft is drawing a clearer line between the Copilot included in a subscription and the more ambitious stuff that costs extra. That’s becoming more important as Copilot itself grows from a chatbot bolted onto Microsoft's existing applications into what the company is pitching as a “super app.” The super app, then, comes with a super-app-sized ambition – and a meter for the bits that require the most horsepower. ®

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Opgelet! Allemaal stoppen met eurodoomen. Er zijn ook nog gewoon plekken in onze prachtige Europese Unie waar het goed gaat. Waar de welvaart hoogtij viert, waar dingen uitgevonden en gebouwd worden. Zoals in Riga, waar de burgemeester van de Letse hoofdstad trots als een aap met zeven Baltische staarten een ritje maakt op de allereerste outdoor-roltrap (de bouw begon een jaar geleden). Het zijn misschien niet de Rotterdamse beurstrappen, toch is het een schitterend ding. Hij brengt mensen omhoog en hij brengt mensen omlaag zonder dat ze hoeven te lopen, en dat gewoon in de buitenlucht. Feeling like in Europe!

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