Kasasa island, in the Seto Inland Sea, has only seven residents but its fate is strongly intertwined with relations between Tokyo and Beijing

His island home is shrouded in mist, but his union jack woolly hat makes Hideya Yagi easy to spot as he greets the approaching boat. The 80-year-old, a former president of a construction company, is pleased to see the small group of passengers disembark, mainly because he is one of only seven registered residents at their destination, Kasasa island.

Kasasa is known as the “Hawaii” of Japan’s inland sea because of its warm climate and beautiful coastline. Yagi and his wife, Mihoko, eke out a quiet life alongside just one other couple and an elderly woman. The other two residents are almost always absent.

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Ukrainian president hopes for reciprocal support for Kyiv in repelling Russian forces. What we know on day 1,474

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Kyiv’s drone experts will be on site in the Middle East “next week”, as he seeks US air defence missiles in exchange for drone expertise. Ukraine is facing a shortage of the expensive US PAC-3 air defence ammunition and Kyiv fears a longer Middle East war could disrupt supplies even further. When asked how exactly he wants to help the United States and its Gulf allies repel the drones, Zelensky said: “It is too early to say anything else at this stage”, adding: “I think that next week, when the experts are on site, they will look at the situation and help.”

Zelenskyy said he and Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten discussed joint arms production during his visit to Kyiv on Sunday, and he stressed Ukraine’s unique experience in defending against Iranian-made drones used by Russia. “We would very much like this to be an opportunity for both sides,” Zelenskyy told a press conference after a meeting with Jetten. “It is important that we are producing weapons together with the Netherlands – and we will certainly continue and expand this joint work,” Zelenskyy said, adding they had discussed investments and possible production volumes in detail. The Netherlands are an important donor to the PURL program through which Europe buys US weapons for Ukraine, so far contributing $870m to it.

Demand for Ukraine’s drone defence technology could lead to new defence partnerships for Kyiv, but equally could mean fewer drones for Ukraine itself in a stretched market, says Shaun Walker, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent. Ukraine has significant experience battling the Shahed drones now being used by Iran to attack its Gulf neighbours, something that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly said he is ready to share in return for help against Russia. “We are ready to help, and expect that our people will also receive the necessary support,” he said over the weekend. However, the attention of the White House is now elsewhere, perhaps drawing momentum away from peace talks with Moscow, and the attack on Iran seems to reinforce Vladimir Putin’s view of the world, in which stronger nations can target their weaker adversaries with impunity.

Global weapons flows have grown by almost 10% in the past five years, with Europe more than tripling imports in the wake of the war in Ukraine, a report showed on Monday. The surge can be explained, in part at least, by the fact European countries are buying in weapons to supply to Ukraine and because they are seeking to boost their own military capabilities against a perceived threat from Russia, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said. While imports of weapons to Europe are still not at the levels seen during the cold war, “Europe is now the largest recipient of arms [globally],” Mathew George, director of SIPRI’s Arms Transfers Programme, told AFP.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its air defence units had intercepted 234 drones over various parts of central and southern Russia over a nine-hour period, including six drones headed for Moscow. The ministry reported no damage or casualties during the period, extending from 2pm to 11pm.

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Huge improvements in prevention, diagnosis and treatment have driven the fall, Cancer Research UK says

The rate of people dying from cancer in the UK has fallen by almost a third since the 1980s amid seismic progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, a report has found.

About 247 in every 100,000 people die from cancer each year, a 29% drop from the peak in 1989 of about 355 per 100,000, according to an analysis by Cancer Research UK (CRUK).

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What we think is a decline in literacy is a design problem. Librarian Carlo Iacono on what he sees is the real problem with screens and literacy.

"The choice isn't between books and screens. The choice is between intentional design and profitable chaos. Between habitats that cultivate human potential and platforms that extract human attention

qsh is a local-first, privacy-focused CLI that gives your terminal "semantic brains" using a 0.8B Qwen model. It lets you pipe images into a vision-language query, filter text by intent rather than strings, and translate natural language into safe, executable Bash commands—all running 100% offline on your own hardware.

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Selected illustration portfolio work from 2025 including landscapes and portraits for advertising, editorial and publishing contexts.

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

Weer voor Rotterdam ☁️ - 09-03-2026 01:16 CET

In één oogopslag:
• 5.9°C · Gedeeltelijk bewolkt ☁️ | Min 3.8°C / Max 17.4°C | Kans op neerslag 1%

Verwachting voor vandaag:
• Min 3.8°C, Max 17.4°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.3 mm, Kans op neerslag 1%, 🧭 1020.0 hPa ↘️ -1.7 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 10.1 km/u (2.8 m/s), richting: ↙ 61°

Uurlijkse voorspelling voor de komende 12 uur:

• 02:00: 5.9°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1021.7 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 4.7 km/u (1.3 m/s), richting: ↓ 344°
• 03:00: 5.7°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1021.5 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 5.4 km/u (1.5 m/s), richting: ↓ 357°
• 04:00: 5.9°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1021.0 hPa ↘️ -0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 5.8 km/u (1.6 m/s), richting: ↓ 4°
• 05:00: 5.4°C (Helder) 🌕, 🧭 1020.7 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 6.5 km/u (1.8 m/s), richting: ↓ 344°
• 06:00: 4.9°C (Helder) 🌕, 🧭 1020.6 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 5.8 km/u (1.6 m/s), richting: ↓ 7°
• 07:00: 3.8°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1020.6 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 6.1 km/u (1.7 m/s), richting: ↓ 346°
• 08:00: 3.8°C (Mist) 🌫️, 🧭 1020.8 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 4.0 km/u (1.1 m/s), richting: ↓ 15°
• 09:00: 5.2°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt) ⛅, 🧭 1021.2 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 3.2 km/u (0.9 m/s), richting: ↓ 21°
• 10:00: 7.8°C (Zonnig) ☀️, 🧭 1021.2 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 3.6 km/u (1.0 m/s), richting: ↙ 32°
• 11:00: 10.4°C (Zonnig) ☀️, 🧭 1021.1 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 4.3 km/u (1.2 m/s), richting: ↙ 55°
• 12:00: 12.8°C (Zonnig) ☀️, 🧭 1020.9 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 4.7 km/u (1.3 m/s), richting: ↙ 66°
• 13:00: 14.6°C (Zonnig) ☀️, 🧭 1020.6 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 4.7 km/u (1.3 m/s), richting: ← 87°

Voorspelling voor de komende dagen:

• dinsdag 10 maart: Min 8.6°C, Max 12.2°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 1.0 mm, Kans op neerslag 10%, 🧭 1016.7 hPa ↘️ -3.3 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 15.8 km/u (4.4 m/s), richting: ↗ 221°
• woensdag 11 maart: Min 5.9°C, Max 10.0°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 4.4 mm, Kans op neerslag 39%, 🧭 1013.2 hPa ↘️ -3.5 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 21.5 km/u (6.0 m/s), richting: ↗ 213°
• donderdag 12 maart: Min 4.2°C, Max 11.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 8%, 🧭 1016.6 hPa ↗️ +3.4 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 22.9 km/u (6.4 m/s), richting: ↗ 209°
• vrijdag 13 maart: Min 4.8°C, Max 8.8°C (Lichte regen) 🌧️, Neerslag 8.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 55%, 🧭 1002.8 hPa ↘️ -13.8 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 28.0 km/u (7.8 m/s), richting: ↗ 212°
• zaterdag 14 maart: Min 3.6°C, Max 8.7°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.9 mm, Kans op neerslag 30%, 🧭 1004.9 hPa ↗️ +2.1 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 18.1 km/u (5.0 m/s), richting: ↗ 229°
• zondag 15 maart: Min 1.8°C, Max 10.4°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 25%, 🧭 1016.3 hPa ↗️ +11.4 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 11.1 km/u (3.1 m/s), richting: → 277°

Details:
• 🌡️ Huidige temperatuur (om 01:15): 5.9°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt)
• 🤚 Gevoelstemperatuur: 3.8°C (-2.1°C)
• 💨 Windsnelheid: 4.3 km/u (1.2 m/s), richting: ↓ 354°
• 🌬️ Windstoten: 6.5 km/h (1.8 m/s)
• 💧 Luchtvochtigheid: 86%
• 🧭 Luchtdruk: 1021.7 hPa ↘️ -0.7 hPa/3h
• 👁️ Zichtbaarheid: 11.4 km
• ☀️ UV-index: 0.0
• 🌅 Zonsopgang: 07:09 · 🌇 Zonsondergang: 18:35

Luchtkwaliteit:
• AQI: 92 🟡 (Matig)
• PM2.5: 45.5 μg/m³
• PM10: 60.4 μg/m³

Gegevens geleverd door Open-Meteo

#Rotterdam #Meteo #MeteoBot #MeteoNetherlands #OpenMeteo #FediMeteo

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo: