Sunday, 21 September 2025

Ukraine strikes oil refineries in Russia's Saratov and Samara oblasts, military confirms (LINK) 21 September 2025

Russia's 'good-for-nothing' general reported dismissed after Ukraine blunders (LINK) 21 September 2025

Trump calls murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk 'martyr' as his wife forgives shooter (LINK) — ground.news: 254 media reports (LINK) 21 September 2025

German and Swedish jets intercept Russian military reconnaissance plane over Baltic Sea (LINK) 21 September 2025

UK, Canada and Australia formally recognized a Palestinian state (LINK) 21 September 2025

UK recognises Palestinian statehood 108 years after Balfour Declaration backed "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" (LINK) 21 September 2025

Al Jazeera: Is recognising Palestine a way to 'save face' for Western leaders? Needs to come with more action, analysts say (LINK) 21 September 2025

Around two thousand anti-abortion protesters marched through Zurich-Oerlikon on Saturday, carrying crosses, singing hymns, and even pushing an oversized stroller. Dozens of counter-demonstrators tried to block the rally, setting off firecrackers and pushing containers into the road. Zurich police in full force intervened with water cannons and tear gas to keep the groups apart and reopen the streets (LINK) 20 September 2025

Michael Dell, Murdochs will also be involved in TikTok deal, Trump says (LINK) 21 September 2025

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill banning law enforcement and ICE from wearing masks (LINK) 21 September 2025

Speedboat destroyed by U.S. Navy held 1,000 kilos of cocaine in first joint operation against narco terrorism in the Caribbean, Dominican Republic says (LINK) 21 September 2025

The biggest problems with AI coding are only getting worse (LINK) 21 September 2025

— Not only has AI failed to speed up coding work, but that it actually slows programmers down. Code produced with AI is unreliable, and most often leads to dangerous security vulnerabilities. The basic issue is that AI makes mistakes, which means coders must choose between double-checking everything, or crossing their fingers when they commit the code.

I tested Claude, Gemini and Grok with 7 real world prompts — here's which AI beat the others: Gemini (LINK) 21 September 2025

Meta exposé author Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former director of global public policy at Meta's precursor, Facebook, faces bankruptcy after ban on criticising the social media company's dealings with China and its treatment of teenagers (LINK) 21 September 2025

Delays continue to affect thousands as cyberattack hits Europe's airports (LINK) 21 September 2025

Journalists forced to obtain approval to publish stories in new Pentagon restrictions (LINK) 21 September 2025

Scientists find microplastics in human bones that are weakening our skeletons (LINK) 21 September 2025

Using VPN in restrictive states can bear immense risks: 8 'highly problematic VPN providers' with 700 million downloads (LINK) 21 September 2025

Saturday, 20 September 2025

UN 'high seas' treaty clears ratification threshold, to enter into force in January (LINK) 20 September 2025

— It establishes legally binding rules to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity, share benefits from marine genetic resources more fairly, create protected areas, and strengthen scientific cooperation and capacity building.

Big foundations and nonprofits still flood to the sidelines of a diminished United Nations (LINK) — ground.news: 21 media reports (LINK) 20 September 2025

Breakthrough stem cell therapy could provide permanent cancer immunity: stem cells create a lasting immune defence with tumor-targeting T cells (LINK) 20 September 2025

Israel kills 34 people in Gaza, say health officials, ahead of UN meeting (LINK) — ground.news: 181 media reports (LINK) 20 September 2025

Israel presses on with Gaza City assault, at least 60 Palestinians killed (LINK) — ground.news: 14 media reports (LINK) 20 September 2025

Google accused of allowing Israeli government to buy sponsored content spots aimed at humanitarian Global Sumud Flotilla asserting the flotilla particpants are allied with violent, terrorist elements (LINK) 20 September 2025

— Common Dreams: "Sumud Flotilla, sailing toward the coast of Gaza with over 40 vessels in its fleet as a way to break the unlawful blockade of life-saving supplies imposed by Israel and its allies, has no documented connection to any terrorist organization and has made clear repeatedly that it is a completely nonviolent effort by independent groups and individuals who want to see an end to the suffering, starvation, and death taking place in the besieged Palestinian enclave."

Cyberattack hits check-in systems at some of Europe's busiest airports: at Heathrow, Berlin and Brussels, at least 29 departures and arrivals have been cancelled (LINK) 20 September 2025

Virginia attorney says he resigned on Friday under pressure from Trump after sources say he refused to charge NY AG Letitia James: "He didn't quit, I fired him!" Trump posted online (LINK) 20 September 2025

CNN: Fact check: Debunking the fake photos and wild conspiracy theories swirling around the murder of Charlie Kirk (LINK) 20 September 2025

• The man charged with the murder wasn't a Trump donor or a Republican. A Utah man named Tyler Robinson had contributed to Trump's 2020 presidential campaign. But that was a different Tyler Robinson. Prosecutors' charging documents paraphrased Robinson's mother as having said that "over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left — becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.".
• Robinson’s Halloween tracksuit doesn’t mean he was a far-right 'groyper' (White nationalist).
• Some images purporting to show Robinson are fakes or not of him, supposedly wearing political t-shirts — in support of either Trump or his Democratic opponent in the 2024 presidential election, former vice president Kamala Harris.
• Nobody has provided any proof for their suggestions of a broader left-wing conspiracy. Influential far-right Trump ally Laura Loomer speculated that a "trans terror cell with other targets as well" was behind Kirk's murder.
• There is no basis for conspiracy theories about Israeli involvement. Some anti-Israel commentators have promoted false claims that YouTube deleted a video in which Kirk raised critical questions about the Israeli government's handling of the Hamas assault on October 7, 2023. In fact, the video remains online.
• Man in white cap and man with the prosthetic hand weren't involved. The man in the cap is one of Kirk's friends, the man with a prosthetic hand is a Kirk supporter.

Vietnam's Duc Phuc wins Intervision, Russia's family-friendly answer to the Eurovision Song Contest: beat entries from 22 other nations (LINK) — ground.news: 18 media reports (LINK) 20 September 2025

The Parnas Perspective: Disney loses millions as boycotts grow after Kimmel suspension, and more (LINK) 20 September 2025

The first-ever mammal wiped out by human-driven climate change: the Bramble Cay melomys (LINK) 20 September 2025

— Bramble Cay is tiny island, made of sand, about 50 kilometres off the coast of Papua New Guinea. For more than a thousand years, the melomys dwelled and dined on the low-growing plants that clung to the sand, but then humans started changing the climate. As sea levels rose, salt water flooded the island, choking the local flora. Between 2004 and 2014, the volume of leafy plants on Bramble Cay shrank by 97%. With their food source gone, the melomys soon followed.

Switzerland unites with Canada, South Korea, Hungary, Denmark, France, Japan, and more in setting skyrocketing hotel occupancy records with exceptional tourism growth last winter: 2.8% increase in overnight stays, the highest level ever recorded for the season (LINK) 20 September 2025

How big is the Internet? It's projected that by the end of 2025, that figure will be around 181 zettabytes (one zettabyte is equivalent to one trillion gigabytes of data): nearly four billion unique pages indexed by search engines. CERN's particle collider generates petabytes o data a day, rivaling what tech giants handle (LINK) 20 September 2025

Friday, 19 September 2025

Nato intercepts Russian fighter jets on 'reckless' violation of Estonian airspace (LINK) 19 September 2025

— Russia denies what EU calls 'dangerous provocation' after Italian air force heads off three MiG-31s over Gulf of Finland

UK flies first air defence mission over Poland after Russian drone incursion (LINK) 19 September 2025

UN Security Council rejects resolution to extend Iran sanctions relief: vote of 4 to 9 meaning sanctions will return by September 28 if no significant deal is reached beforehand (LINK) 19 September 2025

Trump imposes $100K fee on 3-year+ H-1B visas in new immigration action (LINK) 19 September 2025

— 65,000 H-1B visas are granted annually, with another 20,000 reserved just for people who hold advanced degrees from US higher education institutions. Demand for the visa often exceeds the supply. Tech firms big and small say they need the H-1B programme to hire trained talent that they can’t find at home.

— In a separate order, Trump also directed the creation of a "gold card" immigration pathway that he said would fast-track visas for certain immigrants in exchange for a hefty fee. The policy will expedite visas for foreigners who pay the US $1 million, while allowing a company to pay $2 million to speed up the process for a foreign worker that it sponsors.

European Commission president says EU will sanction Russian export of liquefied natural gas (LINK) 19 September 2025

U.S. CDC panel drops Covid shot recommendations, calling it an individual decision (LINK) — ground.news: 281 media reports (LINK) 19 September 2025

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr's overhaul of vaccine policy involved stopping nearly $500 million in mRNA vaccine research, discontinuing routine COVID vaccinations for kids and expectant mothers, and prioritizing immunizations for seniors and those at higher risk.

'ACIP refuses to warn against COVID shots despite injuries, deaths, and DNA contamination' — (LINK)

U.S. Senate confirms Mike Waltz as UN ambassador: the vote means Waltz will be partially in his role in time for U.N. General Assembly (LINK) 19 September 2025

Heather Cox Richardson: U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday threw out $15 billion lawsuit President Donald J. Trump filed against the New York Times for defamation (LINK) 19 September 2025

NBC: There's a new, longer U.S. citizenship test with more history questions. Can you answer some? (LINK) 19 September 2025

Kimmel's show is off the air because of FCC chair Brendan Carr (LINK) 19 September 2025

New poll shows who still watches late-night TV: only about 25% of Americans say they have watched a late-night talk show or variety show at least monthly in the last year but the ones who do are more likely to be Democrats (LINK) 19 September 2025

Landslide village: foundation stone laid for new Blatten: the symbolic act for Blatten 2020 took place on the scree covering the old buildings (LINK) 19 September 2025

— Various houses will be built. "The aim is for the first residents to be able to return to their homes by the end of 2028, and the majority of the others by 2029," explains Matthias Bellwald, mayor. “The current lake that has formed will eventually disappear" and the site will become increasingly secure.

Thursday, 18 September 2025

On Truth Social Trump says he's designating Antifa as a terrorist organization (LINK) 18 September 2025

Tony Blair plan backed by Trump seeks Gaza authority to replace Hamas: facing scepticism from Palestinians and Israeli far-right. (LINK) 18 September 2025

Ukraine liberates 160km2 in 'counteroffensive operation' in Donetsk Oblast, Zelensky says (LINK) 18 September 2025

São Tomé and Príncipe commits to creating a marine protected area network: 8 marine protected areas (MPAs) covering 93 square kilometre, the country's first formal commitment to marine protection (LINK) 18 September 2025

ABC pulls Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show allegedly after his comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Regulatory threats from Donald Trump's administration. Hollywood Comes to his defence (LINK) 18 September 2025

tom's guide: new AI tool can predict your risk of cancer and 1,000+ diseases: Delphi-2M (LINK) 18 September 2025

— The tool was trained on anonymized health data from nearly 2.3 million people in the UK and Denmark. When researchers asked Delphi-2M to generate synthetic health futures for people at age 60, the projections closely matched population-level outcomes a decade later. Accuracy dropped when applied to Danish data, showing the model isn’t equally reliable across populations. Additionally, like all predictive AI, the model reflects the biases of the datasets it was trained on. For example, the UK Biobank data skews toward wealthier, healthier participants, which could distort risk estimates for underrepresented groups. Researchers warn that Delphi-2M is not a diagnostic tool, but more a useful forecasting engine that can detect general risks and planning preventive care.

Forests are raining plastic: new study reveals shocking pollution (LINK) 18 September 2025

Nvidia to invest $5 billion in struggling rival Intel (LINK) 18 September 2025

2025 Ig Nobel Physics Prize goes to perfect pasta sauce (LINK) 18 September 2025

Wednesday, 17 September 2025

Jerome Powell finally does it: Federal Reserve cuts interest rates a quarter of a percent (LINK) 17 September 2025

Powell says FOMC is divided on additional rate cuts in 2025 (LINK) 17 September 2025

Thousands of Palestinians flee Gaza City as Israeli troops advance: Israel says its aim is to defeat up to 3,000 Hamas fighters who remain there (LINK) 17 September 2025

Europeans tell Iran it has yet to take necessary actions to stop the 'snapback' of UN sanctions (LINK) 17 September 2025

Alexei Navalny's wife says independent biological tests abroad confirm that Putin nemesis was poisoned (LINK) 17 September 2025

— Navalny, 47, died suddenly in February 2024 in prison above the Arctic Circle. He had been serving a sentence of more than 30 years behind bars on charges that he and the EU denounced as politically motivated to suppress his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

techdirt: TikTok to be sold to Trump's right wing billionaire buddies Andreessen Horowitz, Larry Ellison and Silver Lake, and converted into a propaganda mill (LINK) 17 September 2025

FBI director Kash Patel says he's never spoken to Trump about the Epstein files (LINK) 17 September 2025

The 22-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk has been formally charged with aggravated murder and six other charges, including obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Tyler Robinson is also facing the death penalty if convicted, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray announced at a press conference. The accused appeared virtually from jail in an anti-suicide vest before a judge at an initial hearing, with the next court date set for September 29 (LINK) 17 September 2025

Suspect in Charlie Kirk's killing feared being shot by police, sheriff says (LINK) 17 September 2025

Ben & Jerry's co-founder quitting. He says Unilever and Magnum have muzzled the iconoclastic ice-cream company's voice (LINK) 17 September 2025

Maps show the forecast track of Tropical Storm Gabrielle, the 7th named storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season (LINK) 17 September 2025

NASA's tally of planets outside our solar system reaches 6,000 (LINK) 17 September 2025

xStocks (digital transferable stocks) issuer chose Switzerland to avoid whitelisting (restricting holders of) tokenized Tesla and Nvidea shares: CEO (LINK) 17 September 2025

Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point buys Swiss AI company (LINK) 17 September 2025

— Founded in 2021 by former Google and Meta engineers, Lakera develops security solutions for large language models and AI agents. It has R&D offices in Zurich and San Francisco and about 70 employees. Lakera's technology includes real-time protection and red-teaming tools for AI systems. Its Gandalf platform is used to test vulnerabilities in AI models.

Side-by-side USGS glacier national park photos show extent of retreat over the decades (LINK) 17 September 2025

Tuesday, 16 September 2025

US destroys alleged Venezuelan drug boat, killing three (LINK) 16 September 2025

Ukrainian children forcibly taken to over 210 Russian sites for unprecedented system of "re-education" and militarization (LINK) 16 September 2025

Trump sues The New York Times for $15 billion, alleging defamation and libel (LINK) 16 September 2025

— Trump has also brought a $10 billion defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal for its article linking him to an Epstein birthday note.

CNN: Trump team finds someone to throw under the bus on Epstein: former top Trump administration official Alexander Acosta, who was US attorney in Florida in the late 2000s and cut a nonprosecution agreement with Epstein (LINK) 16 September 2025

Iconic greeting cards chain Hallmark files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (LINK) 16 September 2025

WMO says ozone layer is healing, hole could disappear within decades (LINK) 16 September 2025

The 10 most innovative countries: Switzerland still no 1: 66 vs Sweden 62 (LINK) 16 September 2025

What 1.1 million messages say about how ChatGPT is actually used: growing fast, but less a tool in the workplace and more for personal use (LINK) 16 September 2025

Judge dismisses two top charges against Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting: man accused of killing Brian Thompson will not face state terrorism-related murder charges, first-degree murder and second-degree murder, still faces an additional second-degree murder charge, as well as a federal murder charge (LINK) 16 September 2025

— The judge overseeing Luigi Mangione's state criminal case said "the evidence put forth was legally insufficient" for the two terrorism-related charges, in a written decision that was posted during a 15-minute proceeding in Manhattan court.

Swiss economy minister signs Mercosur agreement in Brazil (LINK) 16 September 2025

— The free trade deal will enable tariff savings for Swiss companies of over 155 million Swiss francs ($197 million) per year in commerce with the bloc.

Monday, 15 September 2025

WTO global agreement aimed at reducing overfishing takes effect 3 years after its adoption (LINK) 15 September 2025

Nepal's PM appoints 3 new ministers as interim government prepares to hold fresh elections in March (LINK) 15 September 2025

China says Nvidia and other US chip-makers violated anti-monopoly laws, significantly escalating trade tensions with US (LINK) — ground.news: 168 media reports (LINK) 15 September 2025

Emmys 2025: The full list of winners (LINK) 15 September 2025

ChatGPT passed the Turing Test. Now what? The AI fooled 73% of people into thinking it was human (LINK) 15 September 2025

Trump wants to abolish quarterly earnings reports in favor of biannual (LINK) 15 September 2025

Trump says the US military again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela (LINK) 15 September 2025

MSNBC: Supreme Court erased the Fourth Amendment by OK'ing Trump's immigration sweeps (LINK) 15 September 2025

China News: Youth forum in Geneva, organized by civil associations in the country with support from the Chinese Embassy in Switzerland, calls for peace, cooperation (LINK) 15 September 2025

— marked "the 80th anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War". World Trade Organization Deputy Director-General Zhang Xiangchen stressed that "rules-based trade is a necessity for peace", while United Nations Correspondents Association President Catherine Fiankan Bokonga highlighted the event's symbolic timing ahead of the International Day of Peace.

CNet: Stop eating plastic. Start by trashing these 7 items: check Teflon and nonstick cookware, plastic food containers, plastic utensils, tea bags, plastic-packaged spices, straws, canned food linings (LINK) 15 September 2025

Millions of Thailand's citizens are waking up to frozen bank accounts because of call center fraud: Bitcoin anyone? (LINK) 15 September 2025

Police arrest 20 thieves and pickpockets in Swiss tourism hotspots (LINK) 15 September 2025

Work on U.N.-Ferney tram beginning: line due to open in December 2028 (LINK) 15 September 2025

Europe's summer of extreme weather caused €43bn of short-term losses, EU analysis finds: greatest damage from heat, drought and flooding done in Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Bulgaria (LINK) 15 September 2025

— The economists from the University of Mannheim and the European Central Bank described the results as "conservative" because they did not account for the record-breaking wildfires that torched southern Europe last month or the compounding impact of extreme weather events that strike at the same time.

Melting glaciers mean an uncertain future for Europe's rivers: Zurich ETH research (LINK) 15 September 2025