ŠENČUR (ANP) - De Sloveense wielrenner Primož Roglič is in eigen land voor het eerst Europees kampioen tijdrijden geworden. De 36-jarige routinier was in Šenčur op het parcours van 22,1 kilometer sneller dan de Fransen Bruno Armirail en Maxime Decomble. De Nederlander Sjoerd Bax eindigde op de 23e plaats.

Roglič was al de snelste bij de tussenpunten en had aan de finish zeven seconden voorsprong op Armirail en 28 seconden op Decomble.

De 30-jarige Bax was de enige Nederlandse deelnemer, nadat Axel van der Tuuk zich vanwege ziekte had afgemeld. Daan Hoole, de nummer 9 van het recente wereldkampioenschap in Montreal, ontbrak in Slovenië. Remco Evenepoel, Filippo Ganna en Paul Seixas, de top 3 van de WK-tijdrit, stonden evenmin aan de start.

Bij de vrouwen veroverde Demi Vollering eerder woensdag zilver, achter de Zwitserse Marlen Reusser.

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Minister Pieter Heerma (Binnenlandse Zaken) wil opheldering van de NAM over een uitkering van meer dan een miljard euro aan aandeelhouders Shell en ExxonMobil. Die storting roept vragen op over de "financiële positie en het nakomen van de afspraken", zegt de CDA-minister in een verklaring.

Uit een document waarover het FD woensdag berichtte, blijkt dat de twee aandeelhouders vroegen om een "aanvullende uitkering" van 1,36 miljard euro. In totaal komt de uitkering op 1,43 miljard euro.

Door het geld uit te delen, komt de solvabiliteit van de NAM onder de 25 procent. De solvabiliteit is de verhouding van het eigen vermogen tot het totale vermogen van een bedrijf en geeft daarmee een inschatting of het bedrijf zijn rekeningen kan blijven betalen. De overheid heeft in 2018 met Shell en ExxonMobil afgesproken dat de solvabiliteit van de NAM minstens 25 procent blijft.

In een jaarrapport van de NAM staat dat het bedrijf de uitkering tot en met september 2031 weer kan terugeisen. Door die voorwaarde zou de NAM ondanks de uitkering "robuust" blijven.

APELDOORN (ANP) - Baanwielrenner Harrie Lavreysen is er na zijn zeldzame nederlagen op de sprint dit jaar extra op gebrand er tijdens de WK volgende week in Shanghai weer te staan. De vijfvoudig olympisch kampioen slaat de kilometer tijdrit over om zo vol voor prolongatie van zijn sprinttitel te gaan. Op dat onderdeel was de 29-jarige Brabander sinds 2019 ongeslagen, maar dit jaar verloor hij zowel op de EK als in de wereldbeker.

In februari in de finale van de EK was zijn rivaal Matthew Richardson sterker. En dat heeft de Brit afgelopen zomer tijdens wedstrijden in Japan laten merken ook. "Hij was heel trots op zijn Europese titel en had de EK-strepen overal, bijvoorbeeld op zijn helm. Hij liet me die daar elke dag zien en dat heb ik wel als brandstof gezien. Ik dacht: hou jij die maar, dan ga ik voor de regenboog", zei Lavreysen over de beloning van de WK-winst tijdens een persmoment in Apeldoorn.

Tijdens die wedstrijden in Japan reed Lavreysen samen in een team met Richardson, die hij op de Olympische Spelen van Parijs op zowel de sprint als keirin tot het zilver veroordeelde. "We lagen in Japan zelfs met elkaar op de kamer. Zonder telefoon, want die moesten we inleveren. Dus ik heb meer dan ooit met hem gesproken en dan leer je elkaar wel echt kennen. Ik denk dat ik dat ook in mijn voordeel kan gebruiken. Normaal zie ik hem alleen op het middenterrein en dan lijkt hij nooit zenuwachtig, maar ik merkte nu bij hem veel meer spanning."

The late far-right firebrand remains a fixture in the public consciousness as a political prophet. And his popularity is only growing.

De berichten zijn schimmig. Is er wel of niet een pestuitbraak in Rusland? En komt het deze kant op? Als we dan toch al in een spiraal naar beneden zitten kan dit er ook nog wel…

De Amerikaanse actrice Eva Marie Saint speelde maar in 21 films, maar liet een onuitwisbare indruk achter.

Leaders worry OpenAI is not doing due diligence to vet results and that AI models aren’t accessible to broader field of mathematicians

OpenAI has astounded mathematicians after releasing hundreds of new mathematical findings on Tuesday.

The company published over 370 mathematical results across a variety of topics such as algebra, theoretical computer science and mathematical logic, showcasing what some of its most advanced artificial intelligence models are capable of.

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This year’s harvest expected to be down 2% on mediocre yield in 2025, when production was lowest in nearly 70 years

France’s wine industry is facing a historic low harvest after the country was hit by a series of summer heatwaves.

At about 35m hectolitres, the total harvest would be down 2% on a mediocre 2025 yield and 14% below the 2021-2025 average, according to estimates published on Wednesday by the ministry of agriculture.

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Aphrodite

Feeding the Beast: When Beast Games crash-landed in Toronto, it left a trail of destruction in its wake

(slTorontoLife) Come for the shade against Mr Beast, stay for the exasperation for the state of American money getting tax breaks to create in Canada towards the end of the article.

Putting solar panels over irrigation canals seemed like a win-win idea: we get electricity while reducing evaporation. It turns out it's a win-win-win idea. Canals in California that have done this have generated electricity, reduced evaporation by a stunning 50% to 70%, and saved irrigation districts bunches of money by causing algae and aquatic weed growth to drop by 85%.

"At a busy thoroughfare inside the European Parliament, passing politicians are now confronted with a grotesque and gilded vision of American power: an 8.5-foot-tall statue of President Donald Trump, naked but for a thin layer of 23-karat gold leaf. 'Trump likes gold,' said Danish artist Jens Galschiøt, the statue's creator, over the phone after it was unveiled Tuesday. 'In a way, I think he would like this sculpture.'"

"Titled 'The Orange Plague,' the artwork has been installed in Strasbourg, France, the official seat of the European Parliament. The copper sculpture, also dubbed the 'King of Injustice,' imagines the US president on the shoulders of a frail smaller figure. His thighs and sagging belly wrap tightly around the man's head; his hands clutch at a long golf club and the scales of justice." "'I am sitting on the back of a man,' reads the text [a quote from Leo Tolstoy] on the statue's plinth. 'He is sinking under my burden. I will do anything to help him. Except step down from his back.'" "Galschiøt has exhibited 'The Orange Plague', [or in German, 'Die Orange Pest'] in public several times before, including at [the Danish Parliamentary building,] the Munich Security Conference, and last November's COP30 UN climate conference in Brazil. He also plans to display it at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey next month." "He said his decision to depict Trump naked alludes to Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Emperor's New Clothes," in which a vain emperor parades the city in the nude. 'Dictators don't like you laughing at them,' he explained." "The most recent temporary display is expected to remain on show until Thursday. It is accompanied by over 1,000 3D-printed miniatures of the sculpture, which are being made available to passersby as 'protest tokens.'"

Op de A15 ter hoogte van Hoogvliet is woensdagmiddag een auto over de kop geslagen en achter de vangrail beland. Twee personen zijn naar het ziekenhuis vervoerd. De weg is dicht tussen knooppunt Benelux en Hoogvliet.

Chris Medland runs through the biggest talking points as F1 heads to Singapore for Round 17 of the 2026 season.

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This image from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express shows the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud: the most visually striking cloud on the Red Planet.

The image was taken by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera on 24 June 2024; it shows a region of Mars just under 1250 km across (an area of 780 000 square km), with the cloud stretching out for around 980 km.

This white wisp of water ice emerges downwind of the 20-km-tall Arsia Mons volcano. It forms, grows, and fades on a daily basis, stretching out for up to 1800 km – nearly twice the length of the UK – before quickly evaporating. This cycle repeats every morning for several months.

Researchers now think that exotic physics (known as homogeneous nucleation) might be behind this cloud’s formation – physics related to how water vapour turns into icy cloud particles.

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[Image description: Tan-coloured horizontal rectangle showing part of the surface of Mars imaged by an orbiting satellite. On the right is a ring of concentric circles that indicate a volcano. Stretching to the left of the volcano is a long wisp of white cloud, which seems to emanate from the volcano. We also see the shadow of the cloud just above the cloud itself.]

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This image from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express shows the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud: the most visually striking cloud on the Red Planet. The image is based on data from Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera, and shows the cloud stretching out for around 1500 km.

Researchers using Mars Express now think that exotic physics might be behind this cloud’s formation – physics related to how water vapour turns into icy cloud particles.

The full story

This image was processed by Flickr user J Cowart. It uses data from Mars Express orbit 18627 on 21 September 2018. Original image

[Image description: Tan-coloured horizontal rectangle showing part of the surface of Mars imaged by an orbiting satellite. Above the curved horizon is space. To the lower right of the image is a volcano. Stretching to the left of the volcano is a long wisp of white cloud, which seems to emanate from the volcano. We also see the shadow of the cloud just below the cloud itself.]

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Acknowledgements: J. Cowart

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

Exactly two years after launch, ESA’s Hera planetary defence mission has caught its first glimpse of its destination: the Didymos binary asteroid system, seen from an approximate distance of 236 500 km away.

By combining multiple images and performing photometric analysis, the Hera mission team was able to identify Didymos against the background star field, seen in visible light, smaller than an individual pixel but sufficiently bright to be detected by the camera.

For now, Hera’s destination appears as little more than a single bright point. In reality, it is a binary asteroid system: the 780-m-diameter Didymos is orbited by the 150-m-diameter Dimorphos. In September 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft deliberately impacted Dimorphos, changing its orbit around Didymos and demonstrating asteroid deflection for the first time.

Hera will have to travel much closer before its cameras can resolve the two asteroids separately. But from now on, its destination is no longer just a calculated point in space: Hera can see it.

When Hera reaches Didymos, it will perform a close-up investigation of the impact site and measure in detail how Dimorphos responded to DART’s collision.

These measurements will help turn the DART impact experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique.

Have questions about Hera, its journey or what awaits it at Didymos? Ask the Hera Space Companion — an AI companion connected to the mission and designed to let everyone follow and explore ESA’s first planetary defence mission as it unfolds.

Credits: ESA

The Job Trail, a web game about making it through 52 weeks as a laid-off creative worker. Based on The Oregon Trail. My first try: “You have died of burnout. Week 13. 51 applications, 1 ghosting.”