HAMBURG (ANP/RTR) - De Rijn heeft in Duitsland een nieuw dieptepunt bereikt. Dat meldt het Duitse agentschap voor de binnenvaart woensdag. Hierdoor kunnen vrachtschepen vastlopen.

Het agentschap voor de binnenvaart WSV meldde dat de bevaarbare waterdiepte bij Kaub, vlakbij Koblenz, woensdag 11 centimeter bedroeg. De meeste schepen kunnen daarom niet noordwaarts of zuidwaarts langs Kaub varen, waardoor de noord-zuidelijke riviervaart op dit punt feitelijk stil ligt, aldus een lokale grondstoffenhandelaar. De bevaarbare waterdiepte is niet het waterpeil van de Rijn op dat punt. Er is daaronder nog ongeveer een meter water.

Onder meer chemische producenten, nutsbedrijven, staalproducenten en landbouwhandelaren waarschuwen voor hogere kosten, doordat ladingen over meerdere schepen moeten worden verdeeld, om te voorkomen dat ze in ondiep water aan de grond lopen. Volgens meerdere bronnen varen sommige schepen op dit moment met slechts 20 procent van de capaciteit.

Goederentrein

De Duitse spoorwegmaatschappij Deutsche Bahn probeert de vrachtproblemen als gevolg van de lage waterstanden te verlichten door meer goederentransport per spoor aan te bieden. Dochteronderneming DB Cargo zou op korte termijn vierhonderd extra goederenwagons kunnen mobiliseren, aldus de topman van het bedrijf, Bernhard Osburg, tijdens een vergadering op het ministerie van Transport.

De topman zou in de vergadering volgens persbureau DPA gezegd hebben dat "een enkele goederentrein tot tien binnenvaartschepen kan vervangen dankzij de hogere doorlooptijd".

Duitsland probeert al langere tijd oplossingen te vinden om waterwegen te ontzien. Meerdere Duitse deelstaten hebben onlangs het rijverbod voor vrachtwagens op zondag opgeheven om meer transport over de weg mogelijk te maken.

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Donderdagavond wordt in Den Haag een stille tocht gelopen voor de 34-jarige vrouw die vrijdagnacht werd doodgeschoten in een woning aan de New Yorksingel. De dader was de vader van haar kinderen, die op dat moment in huis aanwezig waren.

De tocht, die naast herdenken in het teken staat van de strijd tegen femicide, zal om 19.00 uur van start gaan in de Betje Wolffstraat. Het evenement is in goede afstemming met directe familie van de vrouw opgezet. De organisatie is in handen van een goede vriendin.

De initiatiefneemster wil met de tocht de stem van de doodgeschoten vrouw laten horen. "Vrouwenmoord mag nooit meer gebeuren, dat is wat hen drijft", aldus een woordvoerder van Namens de Familie, die met de organisatie in contact staat.

In de uitnodiging is te lezen dat aanwezigen wordt gevraagd witte kleding te dragen. Namens de Familie verwacht een grote opkomst. De Haagse burgemeester Jan van Zanen zal aanwezig zijn bij de tocht. Op verzoek van de gemeente is er tijdens de tocht politiebegeleiding.

James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:

Like a collage made of layered sheets of colored cellophane, a vibrant new image layers observations of a famous star-forming nebula from NASA space telescopes. The resulting cosmic “craft” reveals new details about the star formation region known as 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula.

Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way about 160,000 light-years from Earth, the Tarantula has thousands of young stars embedded in a vibrant honeycomb-like structure of gas and dust.

The new composite image contains X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has repeatedly observed the Tarantula Nebula over the course of its mission, in the layer that appears in blue. The X-ray data reveals gas blown away by winds from the surfaces of young, massive stars and heated to millions of degrees by shock waves, like sonic booms from supersonic jets.

The red represents infrared data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope showing thousands of young stars, plus swaths of cool dust that will provide the ingredients to form new stars and planets. Optical data in the green layer from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope uncovers hydrogen gas that is warmer than seen with Webb, as well as some individual stars through the nebula.

Read more: chandra.cfa.harvard.edu/photo/2026/30dor/

Image Credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ohio State Univ./J. Rodriguez et al; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds

Visual Description: This release features three images of the Tarantula Nebula, or 30 Doradus, a star-forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Each image represents a different wavelength of light, presented in a different color. When layered atop one another, like sheets of colored cellophane, they combine to produce a vibrant and informative singular image.

The base layer of the nearly square, combined image, features a blanket of wispy blue clouds against a black backdrop. These clouds represent hot gas observed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This layer reveals that gas has been blown from the surfaces of young, massive stars, and heated to millions of degrees by shock waves.

The second layer is a rectangular image cutting diagonally across the cloudy blue square, tilted from our upper left down toward our lower right. This layer features roiling red clouds and tiny, gleaming, red specks. These are swaths of cool, ingredient-rich dust, and scores of young stars. This red layer represents infrared data collected by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

The third layer is a tilted square, or diamond-shaped image, with its points touching the edges of the big blue base layer. Here, curling, sweeping tendrils of warm hydrogen gas swirl around the frame in shades of green. This layer represents data captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

In the center of the combined image, the three translucent layers overlap, resulting in a technicolor marvel; an image of intermingled blue, red, and green clouds that blend to include lively shades of fiery orange, golden yellow, and deep purple.

James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:

How close is too close to a black hole? Asking for a friend. 😬

Webb just revealed dust and water surviving in the extreme environment of a star located near our Milky Way's supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*! Webb recently observed IRS 3, a star near the end of its life cycle, located just over half a light year away from Sgr A*. Similar stars are huge, cool, and luminous, and shed dust-producing gas with their powerful stellar winds. While we know that shedding cosmic dust is an important, and well-known, part of star life cycles, it was unknown if stars so close to a supermassive black hole would produce dust.

Though IRS 3 has been previously studied, Webb’s mid-infrared data revealed the clear signature of oxygen-rich silicate dust, as well as, for the first time, water, in its surrounding dust envelope. Even under the harsh conditions of its environment, stars of this kind can indeed produce dust and other materials, which will help create future generations of stars and planets.

This image shows NIRCam and MIRI data - both near and mid-infrared.

Read more: esawebb.org/news/weic2617/

Image credit: Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, F. Peißker, J. Lu, F. Yusef-Zadeh, N. B. Sabha, C. Chan

Image description: A dense star field fills the entire image, with countless stars scattered across a backdrop of glowing clouds in shades of red, orange, pink, white, and blue. At the centre, a brilliant concentration of stars creates a bright, almost white core surrounded by intricate filaments and wisps of illuminated gas and dust that radiate outward. Dark, irregular patches of opaque dust interrupt the glowing clouds, particularly toward the left side of the image, where they appear as silhouetted shapes against the brighter background. The surrounding stellar population varies in brightness and colour, with cool blue stars and warmer orange and red stars distributed throughout the scene.

James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:

How close is too close to a black hole? Asking for a friend. 😬

Webb just revealed dust and water surviving in the extreme environment of a star located near our Milky Way's supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*! Webb recently observed IRS 3, a star near the end of its life cycle, located just over half a light year away from Sgr A*. Similar stars are huge, cool, and luminous, and shed dust-producing gas with their powerful stellar winds. While we know that shedding cosmic dust is an important, and well-known, part of star life cycles, it was unknown if stars so close to a supermassive black hole would produce dust.

Though IRS 3 has been previously studied, Webb’s mid-infrared data revealed the clear signature of oxygen-rich silicate dust, as well as, for the first time, water, in its surrounding dust envelope. Even under the harsh conditions of its environment, stars of this kind can indeed produce dust and other materials, which will help create future generations of stars and planets.

This image shows mid-infrared MIRI data only.

Read more: esawebb.org/news/weic2617/

Image credit: Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, F. Peißker, J. Lu, F. Yusef-Zadeh, N. B. Sabha, C. Chan

Image description: A bright, densely populated star cluster lies near the center of the image, surrounded by intricate clouds of glowing gas and dust in shades of red, pink, orange, and blue. Dark lanes of dust weave through the nebula, contrasting with the luminous central region. Countless stars are scattered across the field, with a few brighter foreground stars showing Webb's characteristic diffraction spikes. An irregular black region occupies the lower-right corner of the image, indicating an area where no observational data was available.

James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:

How close is too close to a black hole? Asking for a friend. 😬

Webb just revealed dust and water surviving in the extreme environment of a star located near our Milky Way's supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*! Webb recently observed IRS 3, a star near the end of its life cycle, located just over half a light year away from Sgr A*. Similar stars are huge, cool, and luminous, and shed dust-producing gas with their powerful stellar winds. While we know that shedding cosmic dust is an important, and well-known, part of star life cycles, it was unknown if stars so close to a supermassive black hole would produce dust.

Though IRS 3 has been previously studied, Webb’s mid-infrared data revealed the clear signature of oxygen-rich silicate dust, as well as, for the first time, water, in its surrounding dust envelope. Even under the harsh conditions of its environment, stars of this kind can indeed produce dust and other materials, which will help create future generations of stars and planets.

This image shows NIRCam and MIRI data at left, and just NIRCam data at right.

Read more: esawebb.org/news/weic2617/

Image credit: Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, F. Peißker, J. Lu, F. Yusef-Zadeh, N. B. Sabha, C. Chan

Image description: (left) A bright, densely populated star cluster lies near the center of the image, surrounded by intricate clouds of glowing gas and dust in shades of red, pink, orange, and blue. Dark lanes of dust weave through the nebula, contrasting with the luminous central region. Countless stars are scattered across the field, with a few brighter foreground stars showing Webb's characteristic diffraction spikes. A white box surrounds the region of interest. White lines extend from the box. The image is labeled NIRCam + MIRI. (right) An enlarged image of the region of interest. One yellow star is labeled IRS 3. A spot in the middle is labeled Sgr A*. The image is also labeled NIRCam.

PM to look at imposing restriction on devices in public spaces, though campaigners fear it does not go far enough

The government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, Andy Burnham has said.

Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the prime minister’s failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis.

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The Australian-born cook and author shares her recipe for a thick, fragrant Japanese curry – with one secret ingredient

Japanese curry – kare raisu in Japanese – is unlike any “curry” you might know from south Asian countries. That is partly because of the nature of yoshoku (western-influenced) cuisine but also because it made a roundabout route to Japan, via the British Royal Navy during the Meiji Restoration, a period when India was under British colonial rule. It arrived in the form of British “C&B” curry powder, so it was considered western food, not Indian. Curry became a staple in the Japanese naval and army kitchens at the turn of the century and this in turn brought curry into homes and even into school lunches. Today, it is considered a national dish.

Japanese curry needed to be thick enough so that it could be easily eaten with rice, with the help of a spoon. This can be achieved with a French-style roux base of butter, flour and liquid, or it can be thickened in a more Japanese style using a potato starchy slurry right at the end of cooking, which is my preference. Then there is the spice mix. Today, Japanese S&B curry powder is one of the best known, which contains 17 spices such as turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cumin, cinnamon, fennel, ginger and star anise.

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Philippa Northeast is entertaining as Sybylla Melvyn in this adaptation of Miles Franklin’s 1901 novel that has more erotica and a more pronounced love triangle

It’s difficult to believe that Miles Franklin’s wonderfully lively and rebellious novel My Brilliant Career is 125 years old: its prose crackles with life and energy, and the words leap off the page. Notwithstanding some inevitably dated turns of phrase (though I, for one, feel it’s time to return “what the deuce!” to daily conversations), the book feels like it could have been written yesterday. The story is centred around Sybylla Melvyn, a bullheaded author determined to write her own story – literally and otherwise – in a deeply patriarchal world that would prefer her to settle down, shut up and take a man’s hand in marriage.

Whereas Gillian Armstrong’s 1979 film adaptation is a class act, elegant and stately, Netflix’s new six-part series is, perhaps predictably, steamier and more juiced up, with at times Mills & Boon-ish vibes. There’s more erotica, a wilder tone and a more pronounced love triangle for Sybylla, played by Philippa Northeast. Unfortunately, it’s also a tad syrupy and wishy-washy, particularly towards the end (this review encompasses every episode) – the show even deploys one of those cloying photo album-like montages of key moments: the visual equivalent of Green Day’s Good Riddance.

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Following Australia’s first reported automated hacking accident, experts warn deployers – and possibly developers – of AI agents could be held liable for the actions of their bots

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The law is clear, says Prof Jeannie Paterson. “If I deploy an AI agent and it causes harm to someone else, I am responsible for that harm.

“Even if I didn’t intend for that to happen, it was foreseeable, and I should be taking responsibility.”

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Fellow pupils at his primary school have challenged Cambridge academic’s story, though others support it

The story of Jason Arday’s extraordinary rise to becoming the youngest black professor in the history of the University of Cambridge is all the more remarkable for one claim: that he did not learn to speak until just shy of his 12th birthday.

This claim was mentioned in a letter announcing his resignation last week, which came amid mounting questions about both his academic work and statements he had made about his past.

Continue reading...

A mother’s illness threatens to overshadow a stagestruck teen’s big break in a school production

Do you, like me, have a soft spot for both high-school angst and Broadway showtunes – and maybe Douglas Goodhart’s amusing Master It! Insta reels on how to make it in musical theatre? Then you might find yourself giving a pass to this sugary but heartfelt teen weepie from director and co-writer Julia Hart, co-produced by Adam Sandler and starring his daughter Sunny Sandler.

She plays Soph, the shy theatre kid who unexpectedly gets the lead in her school production of the musical Waitress. Her devoted mom Elizabeth (Melanie Lynskey) has cancer, and thinks she should maybe wait until after the run to tell Soph the awful truth, so as not to spoil her big moment. But will that be ... too late?

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A new social engineering and malware campaign targets Android users, stealing card details to make payments or withdraw cash. Group-IB discovered the campaign, calling it WindRelay, and found that several successful attacks were carried out on European victims within the space of a 13-minute phone call. The attack relies on a skilled social engineer walking the victim through the process and two malware strains: An NFC relay malware called WindRelay, first discovered in August 2025, and SpyNote, a remote access trojan (RAT) that was leaked on cybercrime forums as far back as 2016. It goes like this: The attacker calls the target while posing as a helpdesk employee at their bank, convincing the victim-in-waiting that there is a problem with their payment card. While still on the phone, the attacker gets the target to install a version of SpyNote on their Android device. The file name includes the target's name, which the researchers said could suggest that each target is singled out specifically, and a degree of reconnaissance has to be carried out prior to the attack. Once installed, the attacker quickly uses the RAT's remote access to quietly install WindRelay on the attacker's device without their knowledge or input, all while the call was ongoing. The attacker then instructs the target to tap their payment card on their NFC-enabled smartphone and, when prompted, enter their PIN. WindRelay then captures the data from that interaction between the card's chip and the reader, similarly to how genuine point-of-sale machines authorize contactless payments. This is known as a live EMV APDU exchange. In order to fraudulently make payments using this data – without physical access to the payment card or the cardholder – the attacker must have a second device capable of using this data to authorize a payment. This could be a second Android smartphone capable of loading this data and transmitting it to an attacker-controlled POS terminal, which is linked to a fraudulent merchant bank account, or an ATM. The attacker then uses the captured live exchange data to execute fraudulent charges on the victim's card, authorized using the PIN they entered during the call. Group-IB said in its write-up: "In effect, the victim's card and the real terminal are still talking directly to each other – the fraudster's setup is just an invisible relay in between, passing the exchange back and forth across a distance. "Because the terminal is genuinely completing a live handshake with a real card, the transaction goes through and processes the withdrawal or purchase as normal." Doubling down on their access, Group-IB also noted that the attackers in one instance used their RAT access to access the victim's banking app and take out loans in their name. The researchers also said they observed 23 WindRelay-related samples uploaded to VirusTotal between November 2025 and July 2026, with signs pointing toward targeting victims in Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. They were not able to pin down the attacker(s) behind the malware, although they said it was independently developed and the samples they saw uploaded to VirusTotal all contained unique UI elements, such as the victim's name, just like with the RAT. "This suggests the threat actor behind these campaigns most likely has the capability to dynamically build malicious applications tailored to individual victims," said Group-IB. "This case shows that modern fraud rarely relies on one technique," it added. "Here, the fraudster combined three capabilities in a single session – a live social engineering call, a personalized RAT for remote device control, and an NFC relay malware for physical cash-out. "The fraudster also used these capabilities to hit two separate payout channels – a digital loan and card-present purchases – before the bank or victim could react." The attack is similar to previous NFC relay-related campaigns, such as NGate in 2024 (and more recently in 2026), and Ghost Tap, the techniques involved in which closely align with WindRelay. Ghost Tap, also discovered in 2024, relies on a Chinese malware sold throughout the country's cybercrime Telegram communities, and according to Group-IB, it was responsible for losses exceeding $355,000 between November 2024 and August 2025 alone. ®

Enterprises must "feed" their AI ventures with reliable, well-curated data if they want worthwhile returns. But new mandates governing AI deployments also require them to act as careful custodians of their data, along with the infrastructure, supply chain, software and other aspects of their IT landscape. Sovereign AI gives an enterprise, or even a nation state, complete control over how its AI systems are built, deployed, operated, and governed. It emphasizes control over data, infrastructure, models, operations, and policies, often within specific legal, regulatory, or geographic boundaries. Sovereign AI matters for organizations and governments that need AI environments aligned with their own security, compliance, privacy, and governance requirements. For some, that means keeping sensitive data in-country. For others, it means controlling who can access systems, where workloads run, how models are governed, and which local laws apply. The HPE Sovereign AI Factory lets customers in highly-regulated industries keep sensitive data, models, and operations under strict local control, using customized, validated infrastructure integrated with HPE services from deployment to operational support that helps customers with security, compliance, and control across infrastructure, data, and AI models. In this Hot Seat, James Hayes hears from Thierry Pienaar, HPE fellow, Chief Technology Officer for HPC & AI worldwide at HPE, and Kaushik Shirhatti, VP, AI factory at NVIDIA, on how HPE and NVIDIA work together to help customers meet the latest sovereign AI mandates. Pienaar and Shirhatti sit on the frontline of this shift in AI development. In the video they cut through market hype and misunderstandings to identify the key considerations for any organization's sovereign AI program. You will learn: Why a sovereign AI strategy has become a priority so quickly, as governments and highly-regulated sectors seek greater control over their AI systems, data, and innovation plans. The key drivers for sovereign AI, and how it differs from at-scale standard AI workloads. How sovereign AI introduces new rigors of security, such as air-gapping and identity federation. How agentic AI plays into sovereign AI requirements, and how agents can be protected while retaining the freedom to deliver useful results. How HPE and NVIDIA partner to deliver sovereign AI factories that let customers build and run AI models while retaining complete control over sensitive data, infrastructure, and compliance boundaries within their defined borders. Learn more about how the HPE AI factory with NVIDIA addresses the main challenges organizations face when they run AI at-scale here. Sponsored by HPE.

Darren Schiller has added a photo to the pool:

The building at 251 Gouger Street, Adelaide (on the corner of Bailey Street) has operated for over 185 years as a historic licensed hotel site known through various eras as the Angel Inn, Hotel Gouger, and the Director's Hotel, and currently houses a restaurant.

Early Beginnings and Name Changes
1839: First licensed on the corner of Gouger and Bailey Streets as the Angel Inn.
1928–1929: Briefly renamed the Auld Inn from November 1928 to March 1929 before reverting to the Angel Inn.
1947–1974: Renamed and operated as the Hotel Gouger.

Later Decades and Closure
1974–1987: Went through multiple iterations including Hotel Fantasia (1974–1982) and back to the Gouger Hotel (1984–1987).

Final Hotel Era: Operated as the Director's Hotel until its eventual closure as a traditional pub.

Modern Use: The historic building survived subsequent redevelopments of the surrounding precinct and has hosted dining and restaurant spaces, such as Asian cuisine concepts like That Restaurant on Gouger.

Darren Schiller has added a photo to the pool:

Adelaide CBD

Darren Schiller has added a photo to the pool:

283 Gouger Street, Adelaide is a property featuring a building dating back to around 1900 near the western end of Gouger Street close to West Terrace. Historically documented as a residential and mixed-use site, it later housed small enterprises such as Court Textiles & Printery in the 1980s and later underwent retail use including a Liquorland