The drivers and teams report back on all the action from Thursday practice in Baku ahead of the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Discovery of 30-million-year-old fossilised fruit changes evolutionary story.
The fruit has challenged what scientists previously believed about how and when Melastomataceae plants arrived in Australia.
NEW YORK (ANP) - De New Yorkse burgemeester Zohran Mamdani heeft fel uitgehaald naar de Israëlische premier Benjamin Netanyahu. Die nam eerder op donderdag tegenover de Algemene Vergadering van de VN in New York ruim de tijd om Mamdani's vermeende vergoelijking van geweld tegen Joden te bespreken.
Netanyahu verweet Mamdani onder meer dat Joden zich in New York sinds zijn aantreden als burgemeester niet meer veilig voelen, claims die hij slecht of niet onderbouwde.
Mamdani, die zelf niet aanwezig was, hekelde nadien het optreden van de Israëlische premier en zegt dat Netanyahu zo het Israëlische militaire optreden probeert te verhullen. "Geen leugen in de wereld kan het feit veranderen dat er tegen hem een internationaal arrestatiebevel is uitgevaardigd", aldus Mamdani, die eraan toevoegde dat Netanyahu "met ongegronde leugens zijn genocide tegen Palestijnen wil witwassen".
Tegen Netanyahu werd in 2024 door het Internationaal Strafhof een arrestatiebevel uitgevaardigd.
NEW YORK (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - De aandelenbeurzen in New York zijn donderdag overwegend met kleine verliezen gesloten. Beleggers keken met argusogen naar opgelopen rentes op staatsobligaties en verwerkten de stijging van de olieprijzen, die de inflatie verder kan aanjagen.
De Dow-Jonesindex sloot 0,3 procent lager op 51.349,98 punten. De brede S&P 500 verloor een fractie tot 7704,13 punten en techbeurs Nasdaq won een fractie tot 26.939,38 punten.
De rentes op 30-jaars Amerikaans schuldpapier liepen op tot het hoogste niveau sinds 2004. Het tekent de zorgen van beleggers over aanhoudend hoge inflatie, grote overheidsuitgaven en de extra leningen die bedrijven aangaan voor investeringen in tech.
Iraanse blokkade
De olieprijzen gingen omhoog door zorgen over de Iraanse blokkade van de Straat van Hormuz en aanvallen van Houthi-rebellen op Saudische olie-installaties. Een vat Brentolie werd 4,4 procent meer waard op 107,62 dollar per vat. Amerikaanse olie steeg 3,5 procent in prijs tot 95,40 dollar per vat.
Op financiële markten was ook aandacht voor de topontmoeting tussen de Chinese president Xi Jinping en zijn Amerikaanse ambtsgenoot Donald Trump. De VS en China verlengden hun eerdere overeenkomst waarmee ze een staakt-het-vuren in hun handelsoorlog inlasten. In speeches benadrukten Trump en Xi dat ze samenwerking tussen de grootmachten belangrijk vinden.
Paramount
MGM Resorts zakte 11 procent. People Inc, het bedrijf van mediamagnaat Barry Diller, heeft zijn overnamebod op de casino-exploitant ingetrokken.
Mediaconcern Paramount Skydance steeg 2,2 procent. Het bedrijf probeert volgende week 52 miljard dollar aan obligaties op de markt te zetten om de overname van concurrent Warner Bros. Discovery te bekostigen.
GENÈVE (ANP) - De Palestijnse gebieden kampen met verslechterde economische omstandigheden. In de Gazastrook is meer dan 90 procent van alle bedrijven beschadigd of verwoest. Op de Westelijke Jordaanoever kampt de Palestijnse Autoriteit met een economische en financiële crisis die het onderwijs en de gezondheidszorg raakt. Daarvoor waarschuwt VN-organisatie voor handel en ontwikkeling UNCTAD in een nieuw rapport.
De Palestijnse economie groeide vorig jaar weliswaar in vergelijking met 2024, maar blijft nog altijd 20 procent kleiner dan in 2022. In Gaza is de crisis het ergst, na de verwoesting door Israëlische aanvallen als vergelding voor de aanvallen van Hamas op Israëlische burgers in 2023. Volgens UNCTAD is 78 procent van de Gazanen werkloos en leeft vrijwel iedereen in Gaza in armoede.
UNCTAD meldt ook dat de Palestijnse Autoriteit op de Westelijke Jordaanoever veel belastinginkomsten moet missen. Volgens afspraken uit de jaren negentig heft Israël importbelastingen voor de Palestijnse gebieden, maar tussen 2019 en maart 2026 zou Israël daarvan bijna 3,7 miljard dollar hebben ingehouden.
Lokale bankencrisis
De zorg en het onderwijs komen daarmee onder druk te staan. Achterstallige betalingen aan ziekenhuizen en leveranciers van medische hulpmiddelen waren eind 2025 opgelopen tot 1,1 miljard dollar. Door verminderde salarissen voor leraren krijgen scholieren nog maar drie dagen per week les. UNCTAD vreest een lokale bankencrisis, omdat de Palestijnse regering steeds meer moet lenen.
Daarnaast hindert het gebrek aan toegang tot natuurlijke hulpbronnen volgens UNCTAD de economische ontwikkeling van de Palestijnse gebieden, zoals de toegang tot water. Door uitbreidingen van Joodse nederzettingen op door kolonisten bezet gebied is er ook minder toegang tot land.
If something is under $15 and you buy it for me, I will do the same for you next time. This is called trust and this is called reciprocity
Like many women in their 30s, one of my true joys is meeting a friend for a beverage. However, after catching up for a green juice (healthy) with a dear colleague recently, I was on the train home when I got a message saying “Hey! Can you please transfer me $12.50? Thank you!” My response can only be described as … horrified.
The reason that it stuck in my craw is because I firmly believe that you should not request repayment for anything under $15. If we are out together and I shout you a coffee I would rather commit seppuku than be bank-transferred $4.50 ($6 if you are in the CBD, $9 if you are a matcha observant). For context, A$15 is roughly US$10, £8, €9, NZ$19 and 1,680 yen. In this (scary) global economy, that doesn’t stretch much further than a small beverage/snack/Boots meal deal.
Continue reading...Patient groups decry ‘scandalous’ delays as four integrated care boards take step due to soaring demand for diagnoses
NHS bodies are forcing people with suspected attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism to wait at least two years before they can be assessed as they struggle to meet surging demand for diagnoses of neurodiversity.
Four NHS integrated care boards (ICBs) covering large regions of England have adopted the approach because they cannot afford the cost of the number of assessments that people are seeking.
Continue reading...Jürgen Klopp had predicted his bow as Germany manager could be wild, a trait he would accept as long as his team looked lively. He got both in a strange, frayed and at times alarmingly pinball-like game that ended with a dramatic Netherlands equaliser and mounting injury worries. Felix Nmecha’s first-half goal, scored to the chagrin of opponents who felt play should have stopped with Brian Brobbey requiring treatment, seemed to have provided an early shot of positivity.
But a brilliant added-time strike from Cody Gakpo, volleyed in from Ruben van Bommel’s delicious cross, earned the home side a deserved draw to the delight of their debutant head coach Xavi. The fitness of Jamal Musiala and Kai Havertz, who both pulled up lame, may be a longer-term preoccupation for Klopp than this skittish defensive display and will set alarm bells ringing at their clubs.
Continue reading...There was a comic-strip feel to another eventful evening in the world of Cristiano Ronaldo. Where to start? It was the 67th minute when his No 7 went up on the fourth official’s board, prompting Ronaldo to remove the captain’s armband from his left bicep before departing to a universal ovation, but for the pocket of Wales supporters. The referee, Donatas Rumsas, hurried him off the pitch but Ronaldo, his hair glazed copper, was presumably ruminating on a series of missed chances, a sitter from a few yards at the start of the second half, and a disallowed goal. The grandiose “Siu” celebration went to waste, though try telling that to the locals who worship him.
In the end, Portugal earned a narrow Nations League victory courtesy of another Al-Nassr forward, João Félix’s first-half strike from the edge of the box beating Danny Ward in the Wales goal. Nuno Mendes, among the Portugal players who passed up chances, moved infield and located João Félix, who 20 yards from goal sent a shot in via a nick off the Wales captain, Ben Davies. The Wales squad is thin and many of those who started here have been lightly raced of late but they could have snatched an equaliser when Brennan Johnson hit the crossbar and Rúben Dias desperately denied Lewis Koumas.
Continue reading...
Undeterred by a looming Google policy change that could effectively destroy it, open-source Android app store F-Droid has released its largest upgrade in a decade. F-Droid, a third-party app repository that only distributes free and open-source software packages for Google’s Android mobile platform, on Thursday announced version 2.0 of its Android app. The F-Droid team describes version 2.0 as a complete redesign on both the visual side and beyond. “For more than a decade, F-Droid has helped people discover and install free and open source Android apps,” the team said in its announcement. “F-Droid 2.0 builds on that foundation with a modern interface, better app discovery, improved search, and a simpler experience that works well, whether you’re new to F-Droid or have been using it for years.” As mentioned, the F-Droid interface was overhauled to bring it in line with the platform’s current Material Design paradigm. Aside from adding a bunch of new features, the biggest under-the-hood change is the rewriting of key parts of F-Droid in Kotlin, the language that has become standard for modern Android development, with the UI built using Jetpack Compose. The F-Droid team says that transitioning to Kotlin “will help us deliver improvements more quickly in the years ahead,” again standing up to the possibility that it could be lights out for the initiative in short order. Looking at the release, one can’t help but notice a big banner across the top of the F-Droid site describing pending changes from Google that threaten the future of the open-source app distribution platform. Those changes have been a long time coming, and don’t only threaten F-Droid: They threaten indie Android developers who would prefer not to register with Google or subject their apps to its verification regime. Google announced plans to extend developer verification to every single Android app that could be installed on an Android device in August 2025, and the countdown to when that takes effect is growing short. What the Chocolate Factory’s plans mean in practice is that developers who want their apps broadly distributed outside the official Google Play Store will need to register with Google and verify their identities. Google’s Full Distribution option includes paying a one-time $25 fee, handing over a copy of a government-issued ID to verify one’s identity, and conforming to Google’s terms of service. Google also offers a free Limited Distribution option that doesn’t require government ID verification but restricts distribution to 20 authorized devices, while apps from unverified developers can still be installed by users who enable Android’s advanced installation flow. Marc Prud’hommeaux, an F-Droid board member, said in September of last year that Google’s plans would likely spell the end of the F-Droid project. "If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project and other free/open source app distribution sources as we know them today," Prud’hommeaux said last year. F-Droid deliberately operates without user accounts so that it doesn't need to identify or track its users. F-Droid faces oblivion with its 2.0 held high The potential death warrant hanging over its head hasn’t stopped the F-Droid team from rolling out a bunch of new features for an app it says it intends to keep working on for years to come. Alongside the visual update and Kotlin migration mentioned above, F-Droid 2.0 ships with a redesigned Discover screen that showcases the most downloaded apps in the entire repo alongside redesigned and expanded categories that break apps down into more specific spaces to make finding the right open-source solutions easier. F-Droid’s search feature has also been improved, allowing users to search by app descriptions, categories, and translated content. New filters have also been added to help users narrow search results. The team also credited the EU’s many Digital Markets Act decisions against Google for making the installation experience smoother for users. F-Droid can now use a unified installation service for its apps thanks to the availability of a pre-approval API that allows users to approve an installation when they request it, rather than waiting until the app has finished downloading. That, said the F-Droid team, “brings the F-Droid install experience on official Android devices much closer to what the built-in app store can provide.” Additionally, F-Droid 2.0 can fetch and install app updates automatically, which it now does by default. All of those changes, however, won’t matter much if Google pushes ahead undeterred with its plans to force registration onto non-Play Store developers. F-Droid’s announcement on Thursday makes it seem that the team isn’t going to go quietly. However, Google’s compromise after developer blowback on the plan isn’t exactly likely to extend F-Droid’s reach. Google said in March that it would still allow unverified developers to have their apps installed on Android devices, but the workaround is extreme, to say the least: Android users have to confirm no one is forcing them to install an untrusted app, enable developer mode, reboot their device, sit through a 24-hour waiting period, acknowledge a whole bunch of other screens meant to terrify them into not installing the apps, and decide whether to allow their desired software to live for a week or indefinitely. As a coalition of open-source advocates notes on their website pushing for Google to keep Android open to third-party sideloading, that entire workflow runs through Google Play Services, meaning Google could still kill the process at any time without user consent. And here you thought you actually owned your device. The first wave of these restrictions is due to take effect at the end of this month, per Google’s page on the pending lockdown, with Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand the first to be forced to adopt the new developer verification scheme. The rest of the world will be subjected to the new rules beginning in 2027. F-Droid 2.0, in the meantime, will be rolling out in the coming weeks. If you want to give it a try and support all the open-source devs who’ve made their apps available through the platform, now is your chance. As the Keep Android Coalition notes on their site, the more people who install F-Droid and similar open-source apps from outside the Play Store, the better. "Google is clearly shifting the management of Android from the technical people to the competition lawyers," F-Droid technical lead Hans-Christoph Steiner told The Register in an email. "They have to defend those immense monopoly profits. It is sad to see that happen to a platform that I helped build, being involved since 2008." Steiner told us that he sees signs Google knows it needs to change tack on its plans to lock Android down, but he believes the danger that it stays the course is still very real. "Given the anti-trust scrutiny from around the world, I'm optimistic that Android can still be good for users," Steiner said. ®
Homer’s Catalogue of Ships from the Iliad. Where the Greek ships that set out for Troy were from and what they may have looked like. “No Homeric ship survives. What we have are pictures: a handful of painted sherds of the twelfth century BC…”
Who Objects To Sunshine : Drawings and Words by Spiros Halaris