George Russell was delighted to win a “pretty fun” Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, with the Mercedes driver admitting being “caught off guard” by his early battle against Lewis Hamilton for the lead.
George Russell emerged victorious in the first Sprint of the 2026 season in China.
Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a perfect start to the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, taking the lead from George Russell.
George Russell continued his 100% winning start to the Formula 1 season in 2026 with his Sprint triumph.
Live coverage of Saturday's F1 Sprint ahead of the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
Parijs gold lang als hét rijk van de toeterende auto, eeuwig verstopte boulevards en smog over de Seine. Nu is dezelfde stad een onverwacht rolmodel voor de post-autostad. Onder burgemeester Anne Hidalgo daalde het autoverkeer in Parijs in twintig jaar met meer dan de helft, terwijl het netwerk van fietspaden ongeveer zes keer zo groot werd. Inmiddels worden er dagelijks meer ritten per fiets dan per auto gemaakt binnen de stad.[
Die omslag kwam niet netjes geordend tot stand, maar via een mengsel van politieke durf, beleidsexperimenten en georganiseerde chaos. Parkeerplaatsen verdwenen en werden terrassen, kades langs de Seine veranderden in wandelzones, meer dan 300 straten rond scholen werden afgesloten voor auto’s zodat kinderen er kunnen spelen. Tegelijk koos Parijs voor een frontale aanval op de vanzelfsprekendheid van de privéauto in de stad: hogere parkeertarieven, minder ruimte op de weg en een expliciete politieke boodschap dat de stad niet langer “opslagplaats voor blik” is
Een veelgehoord argument van tegenstanders – dat autoluw beleid de economie zou schaden – blijkt voor Parijs vooralsnog niet te kloppen. De Franse hoofdstad staat nog steeds in de wereldwijde top van economisch krachtige steden, terwijl het autoverkeer dus spectaculair is afgenomen. Onderzoek elders laat zien dat loop- en fietsvriendelijke straten gemiddeld meer omzet genereren voor de lokale middenstand dan klassieke autostraten. De vraag is eerder: waarom zouden dure, schaarse vierkante meters in binnensteden nog worden opgeofferd aan stilstaande auto’s?
Opvallend is wel dat de revolutie vooral binnen de stadsgrenzen succesvol is. Slechts 28 procent van de Parijse huishoudens bezit nog een auto, maar in de voorsteden is men veel afhankelijker van de auto en is het OV minder fijnmazig. Parijs investeert daarom miljarden in nieuwe metrolijnen en snellere busverbindingen, terwijl ook e-bikes langere woon-werkafstanden overbrugbaar maken. De les: een autoluwe binnenstad kan niet zonder aantrekkelijk alternatief voor wie van buiten komt.
Een laatste, ongemakkelijke les gaat over de fiets zelf. In Parijs zijn fietsers inmiddels zó dominant dat agressief rijgedrag en rode-lampen-negeren tot nieuwe ergernissen leiden. Ook de fiets vraagt om regels, handhaving en ruimte. Anders ruilt de stad de ene vorm van verkeersdominantie in voor de andere.
Voor Nederlandse steden is Parijs daarmee geen blauwdruk, maar wel een stresstest van het debat: als zelfs de autostad bij uitstek in twintig jaar tijd kan kantelen, hoeveel uitstel hebben wij dan nog?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: A top Senate administrator on Monday gave aides the green light to use three artificial intelligence chatbots for official work, a reflection of how widespread the use of the products has become in workplaces around the globe. The chief information officer for the Senate sergeant-at-arms, who oversees the chamber's computers as well as security, said in a one-page memo reviewed by The New York Times that aides could use Google's Gemini chat, OpenAI's ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, which is already integrated into Senate platforms.
Copilot "can help with routine Senate work, including drafting and editing documents, summarizing information, preparing talking points and briefing material, and conducting research and analysis," the memo said. The document later added that "data shared with Copilot Chat stays within the secure Microsoft 365 Government environment and is protected by the same controls that safeguard other Senate data." It's unclear how widely AI is used in the Senate or how widespread it might become, as individual offices and committees set their own rules. The chamber has also not publicly released comprehensive guidance on chatbots, the report notes.
In contrast, the House has clearer policies allowing the general use of AI for limited internal tasks but restricting it from sensitive data or for being used for deepfakes and certain decision-making activities.
Copilot "can help with routine Senate work, including drafting and editing documents, summarizing information, preparing talking points and briefing material, and conducting research and analysis," the memo said. The document later added that "data shared with Copilot Chat stays within the secure Microsoft 365 Government environment and is protected by the same controls that safeguard other Senate data." It's unclear how widely AI is used in the Senate or how widespread it might become, as individual offices and committees set their own rules. The chamber has also not publicly released comprehensive guidance on chatbots, the report notes.
In contrast, the House has clearer policies allowing the general use of AI for limited internal tasks but restricting it from sensitive data or for being used for deepfakes and certain decision-making activities.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Trump also threatens to hit island’s oil infrastructure if Tehran does not allow passage for ships via Strait of Hormuz
Iraq has downed a drone targeting a US diplomatic centre near Baghdad Airport, Iraqi security sources told Reuters. This follows reports earlier that a missile struck a helipad inside the US Embassy compound in the capital.
US president Donald Trump said Friday that Iran has been “totally defeated” in the US-Israeli military campaign against the country and wanted a deal he would not accept, despite Iranian officials pledging to continue the fight.
The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal - But not a deal that I would accept!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating.
Continue reading...Mercedes driver beats Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in Shanghai Sprint
Lewis Hamilton third after tense opening to Formula One race
George Russell won the opening sprint race of the new Formula One season at the Chinese Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver ultimately took a strong win from pole position but only after a fierce to and fro with Lewis Hamilton during the opening phase of the race.
Charles Leclerc took second for Ferrari, with Hamilton in third, with the victory for Russell further cementing his position as favourite for the world championship and confirming that Mercedes will be remarkably hard to beat this season.
Continue reading...Zelenskyy says urgent need for anti-aircraft missiles, which are used in the Gulf to counter Iranian missiles and drones. What we know on day 1,480
It is understandable the world’s attention has shifted to the Middle East, but the situation is “not good for Ukraine”, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Paris. “There is nothing good for Ukraine in the war in the Middle East. ... It’s understandable that the attention of the world [is] moving to [the] Middle East. It’s not good for us,” the Ukrainian president said during a speech to students at the Sciences Po university on Friday. Kyiv is worried the war in the Middle East is drawing international attention away from the conflict in Ukraine – particularly from its urgent need for anti-aircraft missiles, which are used in large numbers in the Gulf to counter Iranian missiles and drones.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the son of Iran’s last shah that Iran must not cooperate with Russia, as the pair met in Paris on Friday. The Ukrainian president posted on X: “Ukraine truly wants to see a free Iran that will not cooperate with Russia or destabilize the Middle East, Europe, and the world.” Reza Pahlavi lives in exile in the United States and has offered himself as a transitional leader for Iran should the Islamic republic fall. Zelenskyy said: “I am grateful to the Crown Prince for his clear assurances of support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” adding that their teams would “remain in communication”. Zelensky said it was “crucial that the Iranian regime gains nothing” from the conflict and that the Iranian people have the right to “determine their own fate”.
The US had sought a postponement of the latest round of three-sided talks on a settlement to Ukraine’s four-year-old conflict with Russia, Zelenskyy was quoted as saying on Friday. The comments, quoted by various Ukrainian media outlets at the end of the France visit,claimed the US side said its negotiators were not permitted to leave the US in view of circumstances in the Middle East. He said Russia had not wanted to hold the talks in the US and had proposed alternative sites in Switzerland or Turkey.
The US is temporarily easing some of its sanctions on Russian oil, reflecting global worries about sharply higher oil prices due to supply shortages stemming from the Iran war. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said on X the country would lift sanctions on Russian oil that is already aboard tankers for 30 days. That means customers in other countries can buy it without worrying about sanctions punishment. The move, intended to soothe jittery markets over the disruption of Middle Eastern oil and gas supplies, underlines how the Iran war has boosted Moscow’s ability to profit from its energy exports, a pillar of the Kremlin’s budget as it presses its invasion of Ukraine. The Trump administration earlier had granted a 30-day reprieve to refineries in India.
Russian shelling killed one person and wounded six in southeastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the regional governor said on Friday. Oleksander Ganzha, the head of the region’s military administration, said on Telegram that Russian forces attacked two sites in the region. Further southeast, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, said that four people were injured in a Russian attack near the region’s main town, also called Zaporizhzhia. Just over the Russian border in the Belgorod region, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said one resident died in a Ukrainian strike on a village just inside the border.
Russia has named the US-based great-granddaughter of a Soviet leader a “foreign agent”, a term with connotations of spying that Moscow applies to people it views as engaged in anti-Russian activity. Nina Khrushcheva, 62, is a professor at The New School university in New York and has continued to make research trips to Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Her ancestor, Nikita Khrushchev, led the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, when he was ousted by fellow members of the ruling politburo. Contacted by Reuters, Khrushcheva said she was not surprised to be added to Russia’s “foreign agent” list, which, as of Friday, contains 1,164 names, including politicians, journalists, artists, NGOs and media organisations. “It would have been sloppy on their part not to do this sooner or later,” she said, adding that it was too early to say what the practical impact would be.
Continue reading...
Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
De relatie tussen Europa en de Verenigde Staten is in een jaar compleet veranderd. Het bewustzijn groeit: Europa moet autonomer worden. Maar hoe? En wat betekent dat precies?
:format(jpeg):fill(f8f8f8,true)/s3/static.nrc.nl/podcasts/wp-content/blogs.dir/131/files/2020/11/nrcpodcastfeatured-image1280x768v01vandaag.png)
iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:
