Month: May 2019

The 28 EU member states, comprising some 512 million people will take to the polls to elect a total of 751 MEPs between now and Sunday, but what’s at stake and what can we expect? Elections for the ninth European parliament come at a critical juncture for European politics, with rising geopolitical tensions worldwide thanks…

A plan by Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar to wipe out “terrorists” has sparked concern in Moscow as it is unclear who is considered a target. It comes as the UN warns that Libya is on the verge of a new civil war. If Haftar genuinely seeks to free Libya from terrorists, he should…

Tel Aviv is considering seeking help from “friendly” neighbors as the country was hit by an extreme heatwave and subsequent wildfires that have already destroyed dozens of houses and displaced some 3,500 people. Raging fires forced evacuation of several small towns in central Israel on Thursday. The blazes affected wooded areas between Jerusalem and Tel…

A man sitting in a massive copper pot over a burning fire may sound like grim fairytale material. But it’s actually among the content on the YouTube channel of one Russian fundamentalist businessman. The man in the pot is scandalous Christian tycoon German Sterligov himself. He explained in the footage that this was a great…

At least two people have been killed and 16 others injured as an explosion rocked a mosque full of people during Friday prayers in the Afghan capital Kabul, according to the interior ministry. “We have rushed ambulances to the blast site,” said a senior official in Kabul. “The mosque was filled with many men praying.”…

The US government’s indictment of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange on 17 additional charges under the Espionage Act has shocked and horrified journalists who are calling it an unprecedented attack on press freedom. The new indictment claims Assange endangered the lives of individuals working for the US government when Wikileaks published leaked documents received from intelligence…

Mark Sirangelo, who joined NASA less than two months ago as special assistant to agency chief Jim Bridenstine on the Artemis project, has left his post after his proposal for a “sustainable lunar campaign” was nixed by Congress. Sirangelo “was escorted out of NASA’s headquarters in Washington” after he resigned, according to two sources who…

Default feminine voices used in AI assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri promote gender stereotypes of female subservience, a new UN report has claimed, prompting the internet to ask the question: “Can you harass code?” The report, released Wednesday by the UN’s cultural and scientific body UNESCO, found that the majority of AI assistant…

In just under seven months’ time, a saga spanning nine films, three generations and 42 years will finally be over, bringing the epic story of the Skywalker family to a close. After steering The Force Awakens into favourable regard with fans, JJ Abrams has returned to co-write and direct the final movie in Disney’s semi-rebooted…

Beanie Feldstein is eating ice-cream in a red dress that is as bright as strawberry sauce. “This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever worn?” she says, her inflection rising at the end, as it often does, lending even her most confident assertions an equivocal note. The 25-year-old star of Lady Bird, Bad Neighbours…