Few populations illustrate the internet's profound effects better than transgender people, whose ability to build wide-ranging networks exploded after the internet became publicly available. Suddenly, after decades of insular community groups and disparate activist campaigns, anyone who believed they were the only trans person on earth could privately hop online, search for keywords they could never speak aloud, and find dozens — no, hundreds, no, thousands — of others from all over the world looking for information, support, and understanding about exactly the same topics.
LEIDEN (ANP) - Niet alleen het Nederlandse koningshuis, maar ook alle andere Europese vorstenhuizen hebben een geschiedenis met een koloniaal verleden en slavernij. De motieven waren "in grote lijnen" dezelfde als die van de Oranjes, staat in het onderzoek naar de rol van het koningshuis in het koloniale verleden.
"De motieven van Europese koningshuizen om het kolonialisme te steunen waren in grote lijnen dezelfde, en stonden afgezien van dynastieke belangen vrijwel gelijk aan statelijke motieven: economisch, geopolitiek, prestige", zegt hoofdonderzoeker Gert Oostindie. Hij benadrukt dat geen enkel vorstenhuis er in het verleden afstand van deed of verzet bood.
Tot dusver heeft alleen koning Willem-Alexander zich uitgebreid uitgesproken tegen het verleden van zijn eigen familie. Zo bood hij excuses aan voor het gebrek aan handelen van voorouders in de slavernij en kolonisatie en vroeg hij ook om vergiffenis. Daarmee onderscheidt hij zich van collega's uit België, Groot-Brittannië, Spanje, Denemarken en Zweden.
De Britse koning Charles en de Belgische koning Filip deden wel spijtbetuigingen voor respectievelijk de rol bij slavenhandel en het Belgische bewind in Congo. De onderzoekers stippen aan dat verschillende families pas de troon bestegen toen hun land al kolonies had of na de afschaffing van de slavernij. "Dit kan een verschil maken voor het gevoel van verantwoordelijkheid dat elk van deze koningen al dan niet persoonlijk voelt over het koloniale verleden", aldus het onderzoek.
BRUSSEL (ANP) - De Europese Commissie wijst een verbod op de export van diesel "volledig van de hand". Dat zei een woordvoerder van de Commissie vrijdag. "Een verbod zou voor niemand voordelig zijn en het zou ons vertrouwen in de Verenigde Staten als betrouwbare partner ondermijnen", voegde ze daaraan toe.
De VS dreigen met het exportverbod als Europa niet meer van zijn brandstofvoorraden vrijgeeft.
De EU is "klaar voor gezamenlijke actie met het Internationaal Energieagentschap (IEA)", zei de woordvoerder. "Het is hun taak om een eventuele vrijgave van voorraden te organiseren", zei ze tijdens een persconferentie.
Vroeger hoorde het erbij: in de herfst alles kort knippen, zodat de tuin er netjes bij lag voor de winter. Maar die klus kan bepaalde planten de kop kosten, samen met de insecten die erin schuilen.
Het was vroeger de normaalste zaak van de wereld om de tuin 'najaarsklaar' te maken. Alles ging kort, zodat het er voor de winter strak uitzag. Inmiddels weten we dat veel planten daar niet bij gebaat zijn. Dat geldt ook voor de grond eronder en voor de insecten die in de planten leven.
Deze planten snoei je nu beter niet
Heesters met bloemknoppen
Sommige heesters beginnen juist in het najaar met bloeien en zijn in april uitgebloeid. Snoei je ze nu, dan haal je de bloemknoppen eraf. Je houdt dan een kale struik over waar niets meer aan groeit. Zonde, want in de herfst en winter zijn deze planten op hun mooist.
Je kunt deze planten makkelijk herkennen, want de bloemknoppen worden nu al zichtbaar. Zie je ze verschijnen? Dan blijf je van de plant af.
Rozen, azalea's en zonnebloemen
Deze planten doen denken aan de zomer, dus veel mensen willen ze in de herfst nog snel bijwerken. Tuinier Christine Froelich waarschuwt in gesprek met lifestyleblog Martha Stewart dat dit geen goed idee is. Je stelt de afgesnoeide planten dan bloot aan de vorst, waardoor ze kunnen afsterven. Het jaar daarop zie je dan duidelijk minder bloemen.
Een verkeerde snoeibeurt is slecht voor de plant, maar ook voor de beestjes die er hun huis van hebben gemaakt. Veel insecten zoeken in de winter hun toevlucht in de stengels van planten en voor de plant is dat niet schadelijk. Knip je te kort, dan vernietig je hun schuilplaats.
Wél snoeien in de herfst
Toch de tuin in met de snoeischaar in de aanslag? Dan kun je je ei heerlijk kwijt bij de vrouwenmantel, de taxushaag, de geranium en buxusbollen. Zorg dat je de takken en stengels schuin afsnijdt. Zo blijft er minder water op de wond staan, is de kans op een schimmelinfectie kleiner en leeft je plant uiteindelijk langer.
AMSTERDAM (ANP) - De erkenning van het Nederlandse slavernijverleden moet volgens het Nationaal Instituut Nederlands Slavernijverleden en Erfenis (NiNsee) het begin zijn van een volgende fase. "Onderzoek krijgt maatschappelijke betekenis wanneer nieuwe historische inzichten bijdragen aan bewustwording", zegt directeur Bianca Groen Gallant. Het NiNsee wil met het Koninklijk Huis en andere betrokkenen in gesprek over de betekenis van de onderzoeksresultaten en mogelijke vervolgstappen.
NiNsee reageert daarmee op het onderzoek naar de rol van het Huis Oranje-Nassau in de koloniale geschiedenis. De organisatie spreekt verder waardering uit voor het initiatief van koning Willem-Alexander om onderzoek te laten uitvoeren. "Het onderzoek doet recht aan het structurele onrecht dat langdurig en met geweld heeft plaatsgevonden tijdens de trans-Atlantische slavernij en slavenhandel", zegt Groen Gallant.
UTRECHT (ANP) - Het ministerie van Landbouw mag de gegevens van boerenbedrijven openbaar maken. Dat oordeelt de rechtbank in Utrecht na een door onder meer brancheverenigingen LTO en POV aangespannen procedure. De rechter vindt dat de openbaarheid van de gegevens zwaarder weegt dan onder meer de privacy van boeren.
Milieuorganisatie MOB had de minister in 2023 om onder meer de aantallen dieren, stalgegevens en de geteelde gewassen van alle boeren gevraagd. Eerst wilde het ministerie die niet delen, maar toenmalig minister Femke Wiersma stemde in februari alsnog in. Daarop stapten de agrarische organisaties naar de rechter.
"De rechtbank oordeelt dat de belangenorganisaties onvoldoende hebben onderbouwd dat de agrariërs ernstig worden benadeeld als de gegevens openbaar worden gemaakt", schrijft de rechtbank.
Het oordeel van de rechter is daarmee in lijn met wat de Raad van State in een andere procedure vorig jaar ook al stelde.
Afgewende vliegramp is kans voor Netanyahu om weer even de held te zijn in aanloop naar verkiezingen
Party leader says outcome of ‘knife edge’ vote in Keir Starmer’s former seat will not affect his position
Zack Polanski has insisted his authority as leader of the Green party of England and Wales does not depend on winning next week’s Holborn and St Pancras byelection, amid suggestions that the party’s popularity has peaked.
Polanski, who is trying to take Keir Starmer’s former seat from Labour, described the contest as “probably 50/50 right now” and “really on a knife edge”.
Continue reading...His hyperactive stylistic shifts and high-speed rhythms have a delirious, head-spinning beauty of their own
From Biafra, Nigeria/Texas, USA
Recommended if you like Los Thuthanaka, Jpegmafia, DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ
Up next Album Cantu of the Sower released via NTS Recordings on 7 October
Many listeners might find blown-out noise, hyperactive stylistic shifts and breakneck rhythms a hellish prospect, and fair enough. But for a certain stripe of sensory freak, such swarming intensity can tip over into a state of heady relaxation. The ultra-prolific Heavensouls’ latest project scratches that itch: the six songs on Cantu of the Sower glitter like rich seams of rare crystal, billowing from arcade glitter to compression-straining bass, sprite-like playfulness to warm, rushing brass. Languid trumpet lines float around trash-compactor crunch; sugary breakbeats reach tweaky maximalist peaks. I don’t know about you, but I could bathe in it.
Continue reading...In the film-maker’s Houston-set film, Ali stars as a devout Muslim who moonlights as a vicious hitman
Mahershala Ali is swinging around a blade in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. That’s not a nod to Ali’s previous attachment to Marvel’s Blade. It’s of a piece with Ali’s character, Latif, a devout Muslim who also happens to be a contract killer, though he fashions himself a righteous killer. Latif justifies his violence as divine retribution, dispensing victims he believes to have offended God. His sword, according to writer and director Bassam Tariq, is a part of Latif’s code, a negotiation with his faith.
“You are forced to strike with intention when you use a sword,” Tariq says, speaking in a recent interview in Toronto.
Continue reading...Have It by John Cooper Clarke; The Dodo Stories by Mary Mulholland; Red River Valley by Ian McMillan; Some Sacred Harbour by Roger Robinson; Otherwhere by Carolyn Forché
Have It by John Cooper Clarke (Picador, £16.99)
The latest collection from the original “people’s poet” displays his characteristic swagger, delivered with a distinctively northern humour. Merging blistering social satire and brash wit, Cooper Clarke irreverently tackles themes from the ridiculous to the sublime, including the malaise of contemporary urban life, the erosion of nature and the environment, money and the prospect of a cashless society, death and ageing, fascism, bachelorhood, popular culture and the NHS. His punk rock values caustically underpin the collection: “Me and my shrinking crowd / Each under our own personal cloud”; “We wish you no serious harm/ However, everybody sucks but us”. There’s heavy use of doggerel and jokes as he stridently proclaims his passion for writing. “It’s a meaningless job but someone’s got to do it / Thank God it’s me”. Overall, Cooper Clarke’s consummate performance skills in playing to the crowd demand applause as he advocates for the “blood royal of the working class”.
Madeleine Finlay hears from Steve Ramirez, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University, whose book How to Change a Memory was shortlisted for this year’s Royal Society Trivedi science book prize. He explains how scientists have been able to locate memories in the brains of rodents, trigger them artificially and even remove them, and reveals what the practical applications of this science could one day be for humans.
Continue reading...This essay was written with Nathan E. Sanders, and originally appeared in The Guardian.
New campaign finance disclosure data shines a light on which US political campaigns are using AI tools and how much they are spending on them.
Candidates’, parties’ and committees’ spending reveals that AI is fast becoming an essential tool of politics. The candidates themselves are quiet about how they are using the technology in their own campaigns. It’s a sensitive issue that we have been tracking closely since we started writing our book, Rewiring Democracy, which examined how AI is beginning to influence politics. A September 2025 Pew survey of Americans found that more than 70% would think less of a candidate if they used AI to help write a speech.
Itemized expenditure disclosure data from the US Federal Election Commission, dating back to 2020, reveals at least $17m in disclosed spending on AI technology vendors across 523 federal candidates and campaigns. Data from four states, California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington, provides a more localized picture going back to 2022.
Beginning with the AI behemoths, at least 80 federal campaigns and committees have reported spending with OpenAI since 2024. The total spending is not huge: only about $50,000 reported, skewing slightly more Republican than Democratic. The Republican National Committee is the largest overall buyer, with nearly $10,000 in reported expenses. Top individual users include the campaigns of Republicans Mike Lawler, John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, as well as the California Democrats Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu. Most of these expenses are listed as office expenses, subscriptions to ChatGPT for staff, or research tools, rather than as specific political services. The company’s policies prohibit some political uses of their ChatGPT tool.
OpenAI’s biggest competitor, Anthropic, has rapidly built a similar level of usage, but with a different split. At least 65 candidates or committees now report paying the Claude maker in 2026, up from essentially zero in previous years, with a nearly two-to-one Democrat-to-Republican ratio. However, the largest individual user is the campaign of Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, who reported more than $4,000 in spend on Anthropic software in his June filing. Other major users are the Montana independent Senate candidate Seth Bodnar and Jason Knapp, who lost a Democratic House primary in Virginia, and the Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola.
Candidates use either Claude or ChatGPT, rarely both, according to the disclosures. Only about 12% of campaigns or committees using either tool reported expenditures to both vendors. The Democratic lean of Anthropic usage may reflect the company’s alleged liberal skew and clashes with the Trump administration.
In contrast, Elon Musk’s xAI caters to Republican interests and, accordingly, its meager usage comes almost entirely from the political right. Just seven federal and two state-level candidates or committees have reported paying xAI, a total of about $5,000, the majority of which was spent by the presidential campaign of RFK Jr in 2024, but also includes Republicans Dave McCormick and Thomas Massie.
More dollars go to the vendors specializing in political campaign applications of AI. For years, AmplifAI, which provides automated text messaging, essentially a new iteration on robocalling technology, was a dominant target of spending, soaking up $4.7m in campaign spending in the 2022 cycle alone. It was used heavily by Democratic candidates including Mark Kelly, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Adam Schiff. Spending on AmplifAI, now owned by the troubled media conglomerate Triller, seems to have tapered off in the years since 2022.
The new rising Democratic solution for AI-powered text messaging is Daisychain, which has so far garnered about $300,000 in reported candidate spend in the 2026 cycle—up from only about $50,000 reported in 2024. More than half of this year’s spending comes from the Senate campaign of Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
The closest equivalent on the Republican side has been Campaign Nucleus, associated with former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale. The AI-powered voter engagement tool has attracted six-figure spending from the Republican National Committee, multiple PACs aligned with Donald Trump, and five-figure investments from Mike Johnson, Kari Lake and other candidates. It is displacing the legacy Republican-serving texting vendor Prompt.io, which has retained about $375,000 in 2026 spending to date, down from more than $500,000 in the 2022 cycle. But it continues to be used: the A More Affordable California PAC sponsored by Uber has single-handedly spent more than $1m on Prompt.io in 2026. The Republican Massachusetts gubernatorial nominee Michael Minogue has been a recurring customer, as has the failed Republican California gubernatorial candidate Ché Ahn and Republican-aligned Super PAC Neighbors for a Better Colorado.
At the state level
At the state level, the AI spending is smaller but growing fast. Across the four states studied, we found a total of at least $92,000 in spending confidently attributable to modern generative AI vendors since 2022. The spending is spread across at least 108 candidates and committees. The growth has been explosive; there has already been about 10 times the amount of state-level AI spending reported in 2026 as there was in all of 2024.
Much of the state spending mirrors federal patterns. Daisychain again has the highest overall spend, and OpenAI and Claude dominate among the general-purpose AI vendors. DonorAtlas—the AI-powered prospect research tool—sticks out for its usage in these states, sitting behind only Daisychain and OpenAI and buoyed up by nearly $4,000 in spending by the California Democratic party.
Even though it has dominated so much media conversation, few candidates seem to be reporting spending on AI tools designed specifically to create synthetic audio and video, also known as “deepfakes”. We found just six federal candidates or committees reporting spending on the popular AI audio generator tool from ElevenLabs, with total spending of about $1,400 led by independent candidate for Colorado’s sixth congressional district Samir Witta. The AI image generator service Midjourney has five reported federal campaign or committee users reporting about $1,600, led by Sholdon Daniels, the Republican primary runner-up in the Texas 30th district. Combined, those two firms had less than $100 in reported spend across the four states.
However, recent data from the Wesleyan Media Project shows that at least 164 political ads in this cycle have included AI-generated media, supported by at least $80m in ad spending. What this illustrates is that candidate and committee disclosure reports are just the tip of the iceberg. They don’t cover spending on AI by political consultants, media firms and other vendors hired by the campaigns or by PACs, or independent committees raising and spending money aimed at boosting candidates’ campaigns. Those entities aren’t required to disclose detailed expenditure reports, and are very likely where the bulk of campaign AI usage is happening.
Since a large fraction of all spending in the campaign cycle will happen in the final weeks leading to November, much remains to be seen about the totality of how campaigns will leverage AI and what impact its use will have on voters’ decisions.
De Pauluskerk in Rotterdam zet zich al lange tijd in voor daklozen, onder meer door kleding aan te bieden. Sokken krijgen ze daarentegen maar nauwelijks binnen. Daar bracht een groot sokkenmerk afgelopen week verandering in, en ook Radio Rijnmond draagt een steentje bij.
Fortinet is warning customers to lock down FortiMail after attackers started exploiting a critical bug that lets them write files to vulnerable systems without logging in. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-104286, carries a CVSS score of 9.8 and affects multiple versions of Fortinet's email security platform. Fortinet describes the vulnerability as a combination of path traversal and improper handling of null characters in FortiMail's web interface. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit it using specially crafted HTTP or HTTPS requests to write arbitrary files to the underlying system. Writing files to certain locations could allow an attacker to execute code or commands on the appliance. Fortinet says the flaw affects FortiMail versions 8.0.0 through 8.0.1, 7.6.0 through 7.6.6, 7.4.0 through 7.4.8, and 7.2.0 through 7.2.9. The vendor's advisory says CVE-2026-104286 "is being exploited in the wild," although it doesn't say when the attacks began, who is behind them, or how many customers may have been compromised. It has, however, published indicators administrators can hunt for on their systems. These include suspicious files and configuration changes, along with IP addresses associated with the attacks. CISA has added CVE-2026-104286 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, directing US federal civilian agencies to carry out forensic triage and apply mitigations by October 4. Fortinet lists fixes for several affected branches as "upcoming," leaving customers on those versions reliant on workarounds until updates arrive. In the meantime, Fortinet recommends disabling Identity Based Encryption if it isn't required. Where that's not possible, customers should prevent the FortiMail management interface from being reachable from the internet and restrict access to trusted private networks. Administrators should also check for signs of compromise: applying a workaround will not remove any files or persistence mechanisms attackers may already have planted. It's not Fortinet's first encounter with attackers making themselves at home on its network appliances this year. In June, credentials linked to around 75,000 FortiGate firewalls turned up in criminal hands, though Fortinet said the data came from previous incidents and brute-force attacks rather than a fresh breach. ®
Novak said that the situation with Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure has remained "tense."
Oranje-Nassaus waren overtuigd van nut en legitimiteit van koloniën en slavernij, maar ‘weinig bepalend’ voor het beleid
Hier teken ik de cartoon:
Overigens, aanstaande dinsdagavond 6 oktober 2026 worden we door NRC-journalist Wilfred Takken geïnterviewd. Dat gebeurt zelden. Nu wel in het kader van de Alumni-week van de UvA in Amsterdam. Er zijn nog plekken, hier kun je je aanmelden:
https://www.uva.nl/content/evenementen/2026/10/alumniweek-interview-met-de-makers-van-fokke--sukke-over-tijd-en-creativiteit.html