Venezuela says 131 political prisoners freed amid post-Maduro talks
As detainees granted 'alternative' to imprisonment, US welcomes release as crucial step for Venezuela's reconciliation.
Latest News Archive - Page 157
Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy warns Egypt of food supply threat caused by Russian strikes in Black Sea
Kyiv says exports to Egypt under threat from Russian attacks; Moscow dismisses idea of Black Sea ceasefire. What we know on day 1,635 Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of possible food supply shortages caused by Russian strikes on cargo vessels in the Black Sea . “Ukraine is one of the largest food suppliers to Egypt and to a significant number of other countries in Africa and the Middle East. These supplies are now under serious threat because of Russia’s war,” Zelenskyy said on X. “We are already seeing a significant reduction in supplies, and this could have very unpleasant consequences due to rising prices and shortages,” he said, adding that the two countries had agreed to work on solutions. Russia on Friday dismissed the idea of a ceasefire with Ukraine in the Black Sea , saying it saw no grounds for “half-measures” that would offer a respite to the other side. In a statement, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of “brazen acts of terrorism” against shipping, while making no mention of Russia’s own attacks. “We view these attacks (by Ukraine) as a deliberate policy aimed at destabilising civilian shipping in the Black Sea region,” Zakharova said. “At the same time, we see no signs of improvement in the situation and, consequently, no grounds for half-measures that merely grant the Kyiv regime a temporary breathing space.” Both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks in recent weeks against commercial ships in the Black Sea, driving world grain prices higher. Zakharova’s comments followed an earlier Ukraine proposal for both sides to halt their attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea in an apparent attempt to reopen a crucial grain corridor. Kyiv is said to have made the offer through a third party. Russia has intensified its online disinformation campaign in Poland , using a dispute between Warsaw and Kyiv over second world war massacres to inflame tensions between Ukraine and its key ally, Polish officials and researchers say. The messaging, mostly posted on social media accounts in Polish, also tries to foment anger in Poland against refugees, as opinion polls show support for the far-right growing ahead of closely contested parliamentary elections in 2027. The long-running second world war dispute between Poland and Ukraine centres on the Volhynia massacres , in which Poland says Ukrainians killed about 100,000 Poles between 1943 and 1945. The dispute intensified after Zelenskyy named an army unit after insurgents who perpetrated the massacres, prompting hard-right president Karol Nawrocki to strip his Ukrainian counterpart of a top Polish honour in June. Russian authorities acknowledged Friday that some regions face new petrol shortages, as Ukraine continues to attack the country’s oil refineries to blunt Russia’s capacity to pursue the war. Russia has shut down one big refinery at Orsk – about 1,300km (810 miles) from the frontline – for six months after it was attacked this week. “The situation remains tense in several regions of the country regarding fuel supplies to service stations,” the government said in a social media post. Oil companies are “taking the necessary measures to increase deliveries to the most vulnerable regions”, it said. Russian jet-powered drones have struck a home in northern Ukraine, killing a 29-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son . This attack comes after the United Nations reported that July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since the early weeks of Russia’s invasion. At least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 wounded last month. Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones have targeted Russian infrastructure, including a major port north of Moscow. Romania found a second drone in national territory on Friday , in the south-eastern village of Plauru near the Danube border with Ukraine, the defence ministry said on Friday, after a low flying drone undetected by radar systems crashed earlier. The ministry did not specify the origins of the drone. The Nato state has seen Russian drones repeatedly breach its airspace over the last four years. Russian president Vladimir Putin told North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that Moscow and Pyongyang were cooperating across all areas to ensure regional security and stability, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. Putin said in a message to Kim marking the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule that he was confident Russia and North Korea would continue “constructive joint work” on bilateral and international issues, KCNA said. Kim had visited Pyongyang’s Liberation Tower on Friday to pay tribute to Soviet soldiers who fought Japan in the second world war, KCNA reported. Continue reading...
Salem Robotics
Deploy autonomous robots for surveys and manipulation tasks Discussion | Link
Jason Arday, ex-Cambridge professor at centre of plagiarism row, found dead
His family said it was "in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son" after the academic was found dead in London on Friday.
At least two killed as magnitude 7.7 quake hits Indonesia
Authorities urge coastal residents to move inland or to higher ground following the quake near Flores Island.
OpenTrade
Open-source trading harness for Claude Code / Codex. Discussion | Link
Mangione pleads guilty as polarising CEO killing reaches new phase
Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal charges over the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024.
Buenaventura residents criticise state neglect after Colombia’s earthquake
Locals in impoverished areas say the insufficient government response after the earthquake speaks to a broader trend.
Lula holds slim lead over Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil election
A new poll shows Lula leading Bolsonaro, but the gap has closed ahead of Brazil's high-stakes presidential election.
UN urges support for Afghan women’s aid five years into Taliban rule
More than half of women’s organisations operating in Afghanistan could cease operations within next year: UN Women.
Families angered by slow search for loved ones after Colombia quake
Families are demanding answers over loved ones buried under rubble in Cali, Colombia after Monday’s 7.4 magnitude quake.
BBC seeks to subpoena Trump's family members in Panorama lawsuit
The BBC's lawyers argue Trump's family members "have personal knowledge" of his intentions in the speech he gave outside the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Iran war live: Trump vows to make Hormuz US territory ‘pretty soon’
US President Trump says that 'pretty soon' he will declare the Strait of Hormuz a US territory once Iran is defeated.
Mindcase
Extract data from anywhere on the web within minutes Discussion | Link
Indonesia: Strong earthquake hits off coast of Flores island
At least five people have died and several buildings were damaged after the powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake, which was followed by dozens of aftershocks. A tsunami warning has been lifted.
v16.3.1-canary.19
Misc Changes Adopt SelectedMetadata for metadata rendering: #97387 fix(next/image): reject empty image on read/write to disk cache : #97278 Turbopack: remove stale manifests for deleted routes: #97333 Turbopack: make unreachable codegen more generic: #97385 Credits Huge thanks to @gnoff , @styfle , @marcoshernanz , and @mischnic for helping!
Why tech bosses keep sharing their manifestos about AI
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg is the latest Big Tech name to pen a letter thousands of words long about AI.
Lebanon’s PM urges timetable for Israeli withdrawal as Hezbollah slams deal
Hezbollah criticises Beirut’s approach, accusing officials of exposing the Lebanese army to risks and Israeli pressure.
AirBuddy 3
Easily manage devices and switch them between Macs Discussion | Link
Houthi attack on port kills four eroding truce with Yemen’s government
Six Houthi ballistic missiles struck Yemen's government-held al-Makha port, killing at least four.
Multiple redirect URIs and token refresh for OAuth apps
We’ve released multiple updates to the OAuth app and GitHub App platforms to support more secure app development: OAuth apps can opt in to expiring access tokens and refresh tokens.… The post Multiple redirect URIs and token refresh for OAuth apps appeared first on The GitHub Blog .
Donald Trump to declare Hormuz US territory 'soon'
Donald Trump said the strait would become part of the US after Iran is defeated. He also told Americans to accept higher gas prices, which have soared since Iran closed Hormuz in response to US and Israeli attacks.
Trump asks Supreme Court to let White House ballroom construction continue
Justice Department lawyers echoed the US president's claim that the $400 million White House ballroom project is a security necessity.
Don't classify. Hallucinate!
Don't classify. Hallucinate! I still have quite a bit of older content on my blog that I never got round to tagging. My blog has 1,856 tags - likely too many to feed to an LLM in one go and say "which of these tags match the following content". Doug Turnbull has a neat solution. Tell the model to output tags without any details of the existing vocabulary, then use vector embeddings against the existing corpus to find the concrete tags that are closest to the ones the model imagined might fit! His example prompt suggests including an example of the shape of your tags to help the model make a more useful guess: Your task is to create novel, never seen before, furniture, home goods, or hardware classification that best fit a search query. Product classifications might look like: Furniture / Living Room Furniture / Coffee Tables & End Tables / Coffee Tables Décor & Pillows / Decorative Pillows & Blankets / Throw Pillows Furniture / Bedroom Furniture / Dressers & Chests Kitchen & Tabletop / Kitchen Organization / Food Storage & Canisters School Furniture and Supplies / School Furniture / School Chairs & Seating / Stackable Chairs Baby & Kids / Toddler & Kids Bedroom Furniture / Kids Beds Here's the query to generate classifications for: brown coffee table Tags: search , ai , generative-ai , llms , embeddings , doug-turnbull