Two new poetry collections tackle themes of trauma, exile, resistance and love amid conflict in Gaza

Poetry may not be the best response to aerial bombardment, but for many Palestinians it has become a line of defence amid the rubble and ongoing killings in Gaza.

“Poetry keeps hope alive. Even in the darkest moments, Palestinian poetry continues to imagine a future,” Nazmi al-Masri, professor of languages at the Islamic University of Gaza, says at an online poetry event held by his students.

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The unsettling performance artist, who has made some electrifying stage shows in his time, is taking a leap into literature with an eye-opening book, In Pursuit of a Wonderful Nothing. A hard sell, he thinks

There are commercial strategies to promote your first book, and then there’s what Kim Noble planned. “I asked the publishers if I could hire a digger, then go to a roundabout, dig a massive hole and bury the books under the roundabout,” he tells me, deadpan over coffee. “They didn’t think it was a good idea.” You don’t say, Kim. This is a book that has been decades in the making, Noble reports – while his conversation makes clear why previous efforts came to naught. “Someone once approached me to write a book about a show I’d made. I started to do drawings for it. But I didn’t give them to the publisher, I left them around London in public toilets, so the publisher had to go out and search for them.

“And then,” he adds dolefully, “they decided to do another book instead.”

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Dramatic coastal scenery and train rides make a winning combination. Our rail expert picks journeys over and along the sea

Route Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh
Which side should I sit? The right initially, then switch to left
Distance 83 miles (133km)
Time 2hrs 40mins
Frequency 4 trains a day (2 on Sundays)
Ticket £32 single
Operator ScotRail

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JERUZALEM (ANP) - Israël heeft de evacuatie bevolen van de inwoners van tien plaatsen in het zuiden van Libanon, in de regio's Nabatieh en Jezzine. "In het licht van de schendingen van de afspraken van het bestand door de terreurorganisatie Hezbollah, ziet de Israëlische krijgsmacht zich gedwongen met geweld op te treden. Het doel is niet jullie te schaden", aldus legerzegsman Avichay Adraee tegen de inwoners van het gebied.

Eerder op maandag meldde Al Jazeera al op gezag van het Libanese staatspersbureau NNA dat in het district Nabatieh drie personen waren omgekomen. Onduidelijk is of het gaat om dezelfde aangekondigde aanval, of om een losstaand voorval.

Rogier Meijer is de nieuwe trainer van Sparta. Hij komt over van Bayer 04 Leverkusen, waar hij als assistent-trainer werkzaam was bij het eerste elftal. Meijer heeft op het Kasteel een contract getekend tot de zomer van 2028.

Vandaag was de laatse dag van de 35ste editie van de Roparun. Met een stralende zon beloofde het een mooie en emotionele dag te worden. In dit liveblog hielden we je op de hoogte van het leukste en mooiste nieuws.

Met een stralende zon belooft de derde en laatste dag van de Roparun een prachtig einde te krijgen. Zo ver is het alleen nog niet: er gebeurt nog van alles op en rondom het parcours dat lopers afleggen. In dit liveblog houden we je op de hoogte van de meest bijzondere en mooie momenten.

Met een stralende zon belooft de derde en laatste dag van de Roparun een prachtig einde te krijgen. Zo ver is het alleen nog niet: er gebeurt nog van alles op en rondom het parcours dat lopers afleggen. In dit liveblog houden we je op de hoogte van de meest bijzondere en mooie momenten.

Met een stralende zon belooft de derde en laatste dag van de Roparun een prachtig einde te krijgen. Zo ver is het alleen nog niet: er gebeurt nog van alles op en rondom het parcours dat lopers afleggen. In dit liveblog houden we je op de hoogte van de meest bijzondere en mooie momenten.

Thursday California's governor issued an executive order "directing state agencies to prepare workers and businesses for AI-driven workforce disruption," reports San Francisco's KQED. In a statement the governor said "This moment demands that we reimagine the entire system — how we work, how we govern, how we prepare people for the future."
The order mandates agencies to explore a range of policy options, including severance standards, expanded unemployment insurance, job retraining programs aimed specifically at white-collar workers, worker ownership models and a concept the governor called "universal basic capital," giving all residents a stake in assets such as corporate stocks, bonds or wealth funds...

Tom Kemp, executive director of the California Privacy Protection Agency, applauded the fact that the order named data privacy as a consumer protection concern and highlighted the CPPA's automated decision-making technology regulations, which he called "the nation's most comprehensive." Others are more skeptical. "Catastrophic job loss from AI is not inevitable, it's a political choice," Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, wrote in a statement. However, Gonzalez noted one area of genuine agreement: the order's emphasis on collective bargaining as a tool for protecting workers from AI displacement...

According to Stanford HAI's 2026 AI Index, software developers ages 22 to 25 are among those most likely to see their skills made redundant earliest. This year, U.S. employment fell nearly 20% from 2024, even as headcount for older developers continued to grow. Following the job cuts announced at Meta, a union of Alphabet workers in the U.S. and Canada released a statement that suggests Silicon Valley's own labor force may seek to organize... "It's undeniable that our whole industry is being transformed by the corporate push to adopt new AI tools," [Alphabet Workers Union-CWA Local 9009 said in a statement]. "It's hard not to feel anxiety and fear when we can see more and more tech companies cutting huge portions of their workforce both in anticipation of replacing them with AI, and to fund their multi-billion-dollar bets on AI as the future of the industry..."

In February, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Gonzalez delivered what amounted to an ultimatum to Newsom: regulate AI or lose labor's support for any future presidential run. Shuler called a potential AI-driven economic collapse a coming "crisis." In August 2025, Newsom announced a partnership with Google, Microsoft, IBM and Adobe to expand AI education in California schools and community colleges, a workforce preparation push that now looks like a precursor to Thursday's more sweeping order.
The article notes that after signing the bill the governor shared this comment on X.com. "California will pursue new policies that make sure working Californians — not just Big Tech — benefit from the wealth and breakthroughs coming out of this space."

Newsom telegraphed Thursday's order earlier this week, when he appeared at the Center for American Progress IDEAS Conference in Washington. "Businesses are going to make a fortune, and that's why you cannot continue to have a payroll tax system that taxes jobs and then subsidizes automation."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.