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The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is ordering all of its technology leaders to temporarily wall off the organization's open source projects over concerns relating to advanced AI and Anthropic's Mythos.…
As a cheap, easy solution for when you’re away from home for a few days, it quietly does its job
The problem
Going away for a week and leaving your plants to fend for themselves is a specific kind of anxiety. You water thoroughly before you leave, move them out of direct sunlight, group them together and then spend your holiday picturing a wilted peace lily.
The hack
One hack suggests wrapping damp towels around the base and sides of your pots, creating a slow-release moisture jacket that keeps the root zone cooler and hydrated, while also acting as an insulating layer that slows evaporation from the soil surface. Unlike wicking systems that actively draw water in, this is purely about retention – holding on to the moisture that’s already there.
An exodus of workers will be damaging – and electoral change might help Britain escape instability and low growth
While all eyes are on the Middle East and the risk of a global recession, a possible scenario with significant downside risk for the UK economy after the next general election is building: the impact of anti-immigration policies.
We do not know enough about the actual policy changes a Reform UK-led government would impose, but if we get forced repatriation (including of some who were born in Britain) combined with a climate of fear, the economic disruption could be highly significant.
Continue reading...Robert Cyr Jr, a US navy airman, had gone missing in 1944 when his seaplane crashed in the Segond channel
The remains of a US military aviator who went missing after his crew crashed during the second world war were recovered and identified through DNA analysis and his family recently laid him to rest in Florida, according to officials.
US navy airman Robert Cyr Jr’s burial in Clearwater, Florida, brought to an end a decades-long saga that began on 22 January 1944, when he and eight fellow crewmates crashed while they were aboard a seaplane as it took off in the Segond channel in what is now the south Pacific’s Republic of Vanuatu.
Continue reading...The film’s villain is a conniving tech oligarch seeking to buy his way into fashion’s inner circle. Sound familiar?
In The Devil Wears Prada 2, we’re introduced to a very different Miranda Priestly. There was a time where the all-powerful queen of fashion – who is played by Meryl Streep and based on Vogue’s longest-serving editor, Anna Wintour – could end careers with a glance. But this time, she spends most of the movie taking orders herself. First, we see her at the behest of advertisers, then publishing magnate Irv Ravitz and his irritating nepo baby son. And it isn’t long before Benji Barnes, an eccentric billionaire, shows up and threatens to dismantle the excellence she has spent her entire career championing.
In the film, Benji is played – scarily well, I should add – by Justin Theroux. After a high-profile divorce, he has had a “glow-up”, which loosely translates to losing weight and boasting a deep mahogany tan. Post-divorce, he is now in a relationship with Emily – Miranda’s acerbic former assistant, played by the scene-stealing Emily Blunt, who is described as “every girl who ignored him in high school”. Benji’s inclusion in the story feels representative of the wider media landscape, where the whims of billionaires decide which parts of the old, pre-social media world get to survive. And for Emily, she’s learning that being associated with someone so powerful has the potential to help her finally step out of Miranda’s shadow. The romance between these diametric opposites – Type A fashion queen and a nerd who grew up to become one of the world’s richest men – provides a stream of comic relief. But beyond the laughs are a deeper – and bleaker – statement about how people with enough money can buy cultural power.
Continue reading...The Cuban-American artist likes to paint pretty young white men – inspired by his fascination with Holden Caulfield. So why do his portraits have a sinister edge?
Hernan Bas has been living in Venice this year, painting tourists. He’s aware of the ironies. (He is the kind of tourist, he tells me, who started looking at Venetian property prices, oh, about a week into his stay.) The Cuban-American artist is from Miami, and he knows about mass tourism all too intimately: he lives in an neighbourhood that has now been so thoroughly colonised by Airbnbs that when he comes home from the airport, taxi drivers ask him where he’s visiting from, and he has to explain that no, this is his own house.
Here – his studio looking out over the lulling lap of the lagoon – he can be the tourist as innocent, as amnesiac, drinking in the beauties of the city and forgetting about the violence and catastrophe unfurling beyond. “I can pretend nothing’s happening in the world. And I’ve done a very, very good job of that for the last seven weeks,” he tells me when we meet in the spring. For a moment his mind drifts back despairingly to his home town and the fraught politics of his country. “It was so mind boggling how much the Latin community went for Trump, and now everyone is eating dirt because they’re hiding from ICE,” he says. “Those same people who were gung ho for Trump are now getting deported.”
Continue reading...My girlfriends and I have more fun, more adventures, more independence than ever before. And as for the sex …
I met my boyfriend when he was playing Bach in the park. I was taking my usual jog past London zoo and around the Regent’s Park boating lake when I was stopped in my tracks by the most beautiful music. Wafting across the rose garden was an exquisite guitar rendition of Bach’s prelude in E major. When the final notes hung in the air like gossamer, I congratulated the musician. A twinkly-eyed bloke smiled up at me. “Ah, no bother,” he said in a soft Irish burr.
At the sound of his mellifluous, velvety voice, my heart beat so loudly I felt as though it was coming through stereo speakers. His eyes seemed to smoke their way into me. I stared at him for what I estimate to be about, oh, a decade, but was probably only two seconds, before asking him for coffee. Pathetic, I know. A romcom “meet-cute” like this is not just cheesy; it’s deep-fried Brie in a bechamel sauce on a bed of melted cheddar.
Continue reading...‘Russia could cease fire at any moment, and this would stop the war,’ Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in sharp criticism of Putin
Meanwhile, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, responded to US president Donald Trump’s latest threats on car tariffs.
Blindsiding Brussels late on Friday, a public holiday in much of Europe, Trump announced that he would be increasing tariffs on cars and lorries imported into the US from the EU from 15% to 25% from next week.
“A deal is a deal, and we have a deal, and the essence of this deal is prosperity, common rules and reliability. Now we are both implementing this deal while respecting the different democratic procedures we have on both sides.
On the European Union side, we are now in the final stages of implementing the remaining tariff commitments. At the same time, the US has the commitment, for example, where alignment with the agreed ceiling is still outstanding.
Continue reading...KYIV (ANP) - Oekraïne heeft de voorbije maand het aantal middellangeafstandsaanvallen op Rusland verdubbeld, en is van plan om die aanvallen te blijven opvoeren. Dat schrijft president Volodymyr Zelensky op X. Hij zegt ook dat de productie van drones en robots, zoals autonome karretjes voor op het slagveld, de komende tijd verder verhoogd wordt.
In april heeft Oekraïne volgens Zelensky dubbel zoveel aanvallen uitgevoerd over 20 kilometer of meer als in maart. "En er zullen er nog meer komen. Dit gebied heeft prioriteit", zo schrijft hij. Absolute aantallen noemt hij niet, en hij zegt ook niets over het effect van die aanvallen. Wel stelt hij dat in april 35.000 Russen zijn gedood of ernstig verwond.
"Het is absoluut essentieel om het aantal robotische missies te verhogen", schrijft de president verder. Hij schrijft dat onbemande voertuigen, zogenoemde UGV's, in april ruim 10.000 logistieke en evacuatiemissies gereden hebben. Zelensky zegt dat aan het front "veel meer van dit soort werk" nodig is.
WASHINGTON (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - Elon Musk wil een rechtszaak over mogelijke misleiding van beleggers afsluiten door 1,5 miljoen dollar te betalen. De Amerikaanse beurswaakhond, de Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), klaagde 's werelds rijkste persoon aan omdat hij in 2022 te laat meldde dat hij een belang in berichtenplatform Twitter had opgebouwd. Hoewel hij bereid is een boete te betalen, ontkent Musk schuldig te zijn, meldt de SEC.
Voordat Musk Twitter helemaal overnam en omdoopte tot X, kocht hij al grote hoeveelheden aandelen in het socialemediaplatform. Maar hij verzuimde in 2022 beleggers op tijd te informeren over het belang van 5 procent dat hij had opgebouwd. Toen uiteindelijk bekend werd dat Musk zich had ingekocht, steeg de beurswaarde van Twitter hard. Volgens de SEC liepen beleggers ruim 150 miljoen dollar schade op doordat ze te laat werden ingelicht.
De rechter moet nog instemmen met een boete, die erg laag uitvalt vergeleken met Musks rijkdom. De geldstraf is ook veel lager dan de 200 miljoen dollar die de SEC eind 2024 als schikkingsbedrag voorstelde.