The debate around the schools protests is angry and polarised. I fear this is a foretaste of how election tensions next year will play out

• Helen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist who lives in Paris

It would be tough to argue that the demands of France’s protesting high school students are not reasonable ones, worth taking to the streets for: investment in crumbling schools, replacing absent teachers, reducing class sizes and overstuffed timetables, and bridging the inequality gap between schools in different areas.

The protests across the country on Tuesday, which demonstrators dubbed l’acte III (Act 3), or la grande mobilisation, were billed as the most dramatic day of action yet, with more school blockades and a march through central Paris in the afternoon. More than 400 schools closed preventively, including my elder daughter’s, a combined collège (for 11- to 15-year-olds) and lycée.

Helen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist and editor who lives in Paris

Continue reading...

I was sentenced to three years in jail for insulting government institutions. Now I am free, I will carry on fighting for the women I met in prison

‘Why don’t you just drive your tuk-tuk and do your work?” the judge asked me after videos from my social media accounts were shown during my court hearing. I had spoken on TikTok and Facebook about issues in Somalia that concerned me: forced evictions in the capital, Mogadishu, high fuel prices and nepotism in government.

I had described how, when I applied for work in hospitals and government departments, I was told on three occasions that I’d have to give a sexual favour in return.

Continue reading...

From blood pressure to ageing, research suggests the first 1,000 days of sugar exposure could leave a decades-long mark on health

They were born into a Britain still recovering from the hardships of war. Though the air-raid sirens had fallen silent, many everyday foods remained rationed, including sugar. Adults were restricted to about 3 tablespoons (40g) a day to stretch between cups of tea, baking and desserts; children were limited to less than a tablespoon. Babies and very young children were expected to have little or no added sugar.

Then, in 1953, the brakes came off. Separate restrictions on sweets and chocolate were lifted in February, followed by sugar in September. By the second half of 1954, average sugar consumption had almost doubled.

Continue reading...

Research has shown that colourful and patterned species are the subject of more studies, and receive more conservation funding

Large and beautiful butterflies attract far more attention than species that are smaller and dull. Now a new study has shown that this bias towards beauty results in the boring butterflies being overlooked in conservation programmes.

To understand the link between beauty and conservation, researchers surveyed more than 21,000 people from more than 100 countries, asking them to look at photos of European butterflies and rate their beauty on a scale of 1 to 10 based on their first impression. The results, which are published in Current Biology, reveal that larger more colourful and patterned butterflies, like the yellow swallowtail, were consistently rated more attractive than the smaller, less conspicuous brownish species, such as the alpine grayling. That bias also extended into scientific research, with more studies on attractive species, and more funding and resource going into conservation of showier species.

Continue reading...

Russian officials said a Liberian-flagged tanker was attacked and a crew of 23 Indian nationals rescued

An oil tanker off Russia’s Black Sea coast was struck by a naval drone, triggering a huge fire and black smoke cloud that blanketed parts of the resort city of Sochi, Russia’s transport ministry has said.

The transport ministry said a Liberian-flagged tanker had been attacked and that “crude oil is burning openly in the waters of the Black Sea”.

Continue reading...

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De huurprijzen in de vrije sector zijn in het derde kwartaal van 2026 met zo'n 2 procent gestegen ten opzichte van een kwartaal eerder. Dat melden woningplatforms Huurwoningen.nl en Pararius. De stijging volgt op een lichte daling in het tweede kwartaal.

Huurders betaalden in de maanden juli, augustus en september gemiddeld 20,92 euro per vierkante meter. De doorsnee huurprijs voor een vrije-sectorwoning kwam daarmee uit op 1914 euro per maand. Een woning valt binnen de vrije sector wanneer de huur minimaal 1228,07 euro per maand bedraagt. Er is geen maximumhuurprijs. Volgens Pararius vragen verhuurders doorgaans een brutomaandinkomen van minimaal drie keer de maandhuur. Hierdoor is inmiddels een inkomen van 5742 euro per maand nodig om een gemiddelde vrijesectorwoning te kunnen huren.

Vergeleken met het derde kwartaal een jaar eerder stegen de huren gemiddeld 4,4 procent. Daarmee gingen de huurprijzen harder omhoog dan de inflatie en prijzen van koopwoningen.

Krapte

Daarnaast houdt de krapte op de huurmarkt aan. Zo zijn er in het derde kwartaal meer woningen verhuurd dan dat er nieuwe huurwoningen beschikbaar kwamen. Hierdoor waren er per saldo ruim 1500 minder woonruimten te huur. Voornamelijk het aantal huurwoningen in de vrije sector met de laagste huurprijs neemt in aanbod af. De daling in deze prijsklasse bedraagt ruim 23 procent ten opzichte van een jaar eerder.

De laatste jaren zijn veel huurwoningen door vastgoedinvesteerders in de verkoop gezet. Door veranderingen in de wetgeving in 2024 is het namelijk minder rendabel geworden om deze te verhuren. Dit betrof aanvankelijk vooral middenhuurwoningen, maar verschuift volgens Pararius steeds meer naar het duurdere segment. Zo had in het derde kwartaal van 2026 bijna een derde van de verkochte voormalige huurwoningen een maandelijkse huurprijs van meer dan 2000 euro.

Functional scars move a correction your AI coding agent keeps forgetting into a runtime check: why they exist, how they work, and three cases I measured myself.

Read All

Een vrachtwagen is in de nacht van dinsdag op woensdag op zijn kant terechtgekomen na een botsing op de A15. De vrachtwagen lag daardoor overdwars op de weg. Eén iemand raakte gewond.