Remains of “love flower” seeds—a plant that today survives only in a remote corner of Ankara—have been discovered inside a 4,000-year-old Hittite vessel


Announcing the severing of diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday, September 10, Algeria summoned the Emirati envoy and gave him 48 hours to leave the country.
“Algeria has exercised a great deal of restraint and a high sense of responsibility,” despite the increasingly “provocative or hostile actions emanating from” the Gulf power, the North African country’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Despite these numerous warnings, the United Arab Emirates continued to persist in these actions, which have reached limits where they can no longer be considered acceptable or tolerable within the framework of relations between two sovereign states, nor remain without a response.”
Later that day, its defense ministry announced that the UAE’s military and civilian aircraft are banned from using Algerian airspace from Friday. The only exemption is for commercial civilian planes, which can continue to fly over Algeria until the existing contract expires at the end of the year.
Algeria had already initiated the termination of the air services agreement with the UAE in February, when President Abdelmadjid Tebboune alleged attempted Emirati interference in its elections.
Multiple Algerian media outlets aligned with the state have reported that the UAE has been supporting the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), a separatist group Algeria designated as a terrorist organization in 2021.
Algeria and the UAE also find themselves on opposing sides on several fronts of international relations.
The support for the national liberation struggle of Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco immediately after it won independence from Spanish colonialism, has been a central plank of Algeria’s foreign policy.
In 2021, Algeria severed diplomatic relations with Morocco, accusing it of supporting the MAK in retaliation for Algerian support to the Polisario Front (PF), which is fighting for Western Sahara’s national liberation. But there is no equivalence between the PF and the MAK.
The MAK, which has long had close links to Israel, largely operates from Europe and is based in France, Algeria’s former colonizer. The PF, on the other hand, is fighting for Western Sahara’s liberation, with its military operating in its liberated territory adjoining Algeria. The UN recognizes the PF as the sole representative of the people of Western Sahara, a country it lists among the last few pending decolonization.
Despite funding and arming the Moroccan occupation, the US had not officially recognized Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over Western Sahara until December 2020, when Morocco signed the Abraham Accords to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel.
The first Trump administration, in turn, proclaimed that the US “recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory” and went on to open a consulate in Dakhla, a major city in the occupied region.
The UAE was a step ahead, setting a precedent before the American move by opening its consulate on the occupied land in November 2020, a month before Morocco normalized relations with Israel. The UAE had already normalized relations with Israel that September.
In contrast, Algeria refuses to normalize relations with Israel until the Palestinians have secured their statehood. Algerian media often refers to the UAE as an “Israeli vassal”.
Algeria’s diplomatic break was foreseeable since at least July, when President Tebboune said in a thinly veiled reference to the UAE in a televised interview, “Wherever they set foot, blood flows… We want them to stay away, so that blood does not flow in our country.” He gave the example of Mali, Libya and Sudan.
A month later, in August, the UN confirmed that the USD 50 million transferred to the Al Qaeda-affiliated JNIM in the form of ransom helped fuel its attack across Mali. A Reuters investigation identified the UAE as the source of this payment to JNIM. The group has also attacked its neighbors, Burkina Faso and Niger, both of which have followed in Mali’s footsteps by expelling French troops.
The UAE’s supply of arms and mercenaries to the Libyan warlord General Khalifa Haftar, who has been fighting Libya’s UN-recognized government, is also well-documented in multiple UN reports since 2017.
Tebboune’s reference to “blood” flowing from Emirati interference is best demonstrated in war-torn Sudan, where the UAE is funding and arming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose depopulation campaign in El Fasher had all the “hallmarks of genocide”, according to the UN.
He added in the July interview that a “diplomatic break” with the UAE “would have happened long ago.” Algeria, he explained, had refrained only to avoid adding to the already existing divisions in the Arabic-speaking world.
When the break finally came on Thursday, the UAE’s foreign ministry said it hoped that it “will be temporary, in a manner that preserves the fraternal ties between the two brotherly peoples.”
In an apparent reference to the absence of explicitly stated reasons in Algeria’s statement, Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic advisor to the UAE’s president, Mohamed bin Zayed, said, “Diplomatic relations are managed through reason, communication, and clarity of interests, not through puzzles and signals that require decoding.”
He went on to preach that “successful diplomacy is built on clarity of positions, sound management of interests and differences.”
Gargash’s statement “is revealing above all for what it carefully conceals. Not a word about the actions of this arsonist, predatory state, which thrives on chaos wherever it sticks its nose in Yemen, Sudan, the DRC, Somaliland, and elsewhere,” retorted former Algerian diplomat, Amar Belani.
Describing the UAE as a “state that has made other nations’ instability its economic model,” Belani concluded his response, saying: “As for the lesson on ‘reason and clarity of interests’, Abu Dhabi would do better to reserve it for its partners in the Abraham Accords, with whom it shares complicity in the face of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide committed against the Palestinian people.”
This sentiment against the UAE is not limited to the government or the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), which led Algeria’s liberation struggle against French colonialism and has ruled since, except for a few years in the 1990s.
Mass protests erupted in 2019 against corruption and increasing economic capture by the military elite, strangling an economy already suffering under neoliberal austerity. This movement, known as the Hirak, forced the then president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a veteran of the FLN, to resign.
But even in these protests against the government and the ruling FLN, “Down with the UAE” and “No to the UAE in the country of martyrs”, were among the popular placards and slogans.




Mary Austin was the woman behind Freddie Mercury, quietly supporting him for decades, from their intense early romance to the long years they remained close friends after accepting that he was gay. The vast legacy he left her—his home, much of his fortune, and his most personal belongings—has been a mixed blessing that she has spent her life trying to navigate with loyalty and discretion. As Simon Hattenstone explores Austin’s life in this interview, the unresolved emotion of the shared past with Mercury is still palpable.
Did the piano change him? “Yes, there was much more purposeful energy. He would sit at the piano, play the odd key, hum a bit and he looked very happy. Transported.” By now they were spending less time together. When she was working at Biba, he would often be sleeping. When she returned home, he would be preparing for a gig.
They’d been living together for four years when Mercury said he had something to tell her. He struggled to get the words out. He said, ‘I think I’m bisexual.’ I said ‘No, Freddie, I think you’re gay.’” He didn’t argue. Was that a huge upset? “No, it was a huge relief, because I wasn’t sure whether we were travelling in the same direction any more. Some time earlier I saw a dress and thought, that would be a really nice wedding dress. I asked Freddie, is it worth me buying it, and he looked at me and shook his head. So I knew from there on …”
The Yara Sluiskil plant, the largest commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Europe has started its operations in Sluikil, a village in the Zeeland province of the Netherlands.
The CO2 will be transported by ship and permanently stored under the Norwegian North Sea at the Northern Lights facility, funded by the EU under the Connecting Europe Facility. The industrial ammonia and fertiliser facility is expected to capture and liquefy up to 800 000 tons of CO₂ annually from ammonia production.
This cross-border project is a direct result of the EU-Norway Green Alliance signed in 2023 – a powerful example of the benefits of European cooperation, combining private investment and public support and bringing together industry, the EU, its Member States, and Norway. Today's inauguration ceremony, attended by Commissioner for Climate, Net-Zero and Clean Growth, Wopke Hoekstra, reflected this partnership with the presence of Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten and President and CEO of Yara International, Svein Tore Holsether.
Yara's Sluiskil plant is a strategic investment in Europe's industrial decarbonisation and competitiveness. It is expected to capture and store around 12 million tons of CO₂ over the next 15 years. It will promote the reduction of emissions from energy intensive industries like fertilisers and ammonia. It will foster innovation, the creation of a strong industrial base and the development of this clean technology, as underlined in the Clean Industrial Deal and the recent proposal for the EU Emissions Trading System review.
In his keynote speech at the opening ceremony, Commissioner Hoekstra (pictured) said:
"Europe needs practical climate solutions that deliver real emissions reductions while strengthening industrial competitiveness. The carbon capture and storage project at Sluiskil shows what is possible when innovation and cross-border cooperation come together. This is exactly the kind of project Europe needs to combine climate ambition with a strong and resilient industrial base."
You can follow the speech of the Commissioner on EBS.
A man named Donald Liebenberg tops eclipse-chaser-log.com with a whopping 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 41 seconds of darkness from 27 total eclipses—stats I didn’t even know people tracked until I read Rudi Zygadlo’s piece. It turns out there’s a dedicated subculture of umbraphiles logging every second of totality. Zygadlo meets a veteran British couple who’ve built their lives around these fleeting events, then travels to Spain in August 2026 to see his own first total eclipse. Adding 1 minute 38 seconds to the board earns him a place near the bottom, but judging by the awe he feels in those brief moments of darkness, he may be moving up the league yet.
There are various eclipse-chasing guests in our hotel. You can identify many of them from themed caps and T-shirts. The largest party is an alumni group from UCLA. We meet several by the pool. A couple from Minnesota, a sommelier from New York. “I was in Montreal for 2024,” says Mees from the Netherlands, treading water. “My wife is a virgin.” Everyone is friendly, but somewhat shifty when it comes to the issue of where to watch. We are too.
By 6pm on the day of, we are stationed on the infernal hillside, on a dusty path beneath pine trees and an immaculate sky. There are better vantage points but we have some degree of privacy here. We can hear others, but we can’t see them. The partial phase begins with a yodel at 7:34pm when the sun is eight degrees — or a fist’s length — above the horizon and my father-in-law produces a bottle of local white, which immediately turns warm in the glass. The nibble of the moon turns into a bite then into a crescent and I’m surprised how well my bottom-of-the-range bridge camera with a solar filter over the lens captures the partial phases. Later I’ll wish I never turned the thing on. Meara is quiet. Glowing. She is more pregnant than ever.


Great Wi-Fi, affordable rent and a laptop-friendly café have long been the checklist for the perfect digital nomad city. But they say little about what it is actually like to live there. Look beyond the usual rankings and a different picture begins to emerge. New research from Holafly finds that 32.2% of frequent and long-stay travellers have experienced burnout linked to their travel lifestyle. 32.3% have felt isolated from their usual social or emotional support network. And even some of the most ordinary parts of daily life — sleeping well, exercising regularly or eating healthily — become harder to maintain when home keeps changing.
Digital nomads are clear about what gets in the way. 33.7% point to unpredictable schedules or changing time zones as their main challenge, 18.8% to the cost of gyms, classes or healthy food, and 20.7% simply to not knowing what is available around them. That led Holafly to examine a question largely missing from traditional digital nomad rankings: which popular nomad destinations actually make it hardest to live well? Holafly analysed 25 established digital nomad hubs across eight wellbeing factors, including community, noise, green space, exercise, healthy food, daylight, cost of living and healthcare.
Using data from official public sources, the World Health Organization, Mercer and Google Maps, each city received a deficit score from 0 to 100. The resulting Holafly Plans Wellbeing Index 2026 reveals how differently some familiar nomad hotspots perform once the laptop closes. The research is part of Holafly's broader focus on the growing number of people living across borders for longer. Holafly Plans, its global eSIM subscription, is designed specifically for frequent travellers and digital nomads, giving them one plan they can use across destinations rather than starting again every time they move.
Lima, Hanoi and Cusco emerge as the three most challenging cities for digital nomad wellbeing in 2026. 1. Lima, Peru 2. Hanoi, Vietnam 3. Cusco, Peru 4. Bogotá, Colombia 5. Da Nang, Vietnam 6. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 7. Cancún, Mexico 8. Medellín, Colombia 9. Tbilisi, Georgia 10. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lima ranks as the toughest city for digital nomad wellbeing, with a deficit score of 85.3/100. The Peruvian capital records the lowest levels of daylight among all 25 destinations analysed, alongside high noise levels and limited green space. Hanoi follows at 82.7/100, ranking worst for noise and exercise access and tying for the weakest green space, while Cusco takes third place at 76.3/100, largely because it has the weakest social and community network in the study. The ranking also uncovers a broader pattern: six of the eight worst-performing cities — Lima, Hanoi, Cusco, Bogotá, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City — are classic budget-friendly nomad destinations.
It points to a trade-off rarely captured in traditional nomad rankings: a city can be cheap and easy to move to without necessarily being easy to live well in. About Holafly Holafly is the global leader in eSIMs for travellers, offering coverage in over 200 destinations. With a 4.7/5 rating on Trustpilot and more than 25 million eSIMs sold, it has become a preferred choice for international travellers. Its unlimited data and built-in backup data ensures total peace of mind anywhere in the world.
Un barchino con otto migranti a bordo avrebbe tentato di raggiungere la riva a forte velocità davanti allo stabilimento El Tiburon Beach, a Santa Margherita di Pula, nel Cagliaritano. L’episodio è avvenuto intorno alle 15 e, secondo quanto riferito da alcuni testimoni, si è concluso con una rapida inversione di rotta dell’imbarcazione dopo la reazione dei bagnanti.
Il conducente, mentre il natante si avvicinava alla battigia, avrebbe poi puntato nuovamente verso il largo dirigendosi a tutta velocità in direzione di Cagliari. La scena ha suscitato preoccupazione tra le persone presenti in spiaggia, anche alla luce del precedente incidente avvenuto a Tuerredda lo scorso 16 agosto, quando una turista era stata travolta da un’imbarcazione con a bordo migranti mentre faceva il bagno. Nell’occasione la donna aveva riportato gravi ferite ed era stata soccorsa dopo aver rischiato di annegare. Per quell’episodio era stato arrestato uno scafista algerino di 28 anni.
“Si è rischiata l’ennesima tragedia sulle coste di Santa Margherita”, denuncia Massimo Vargiu, segretario provinciale del Siulp. “Siamo sconcertati che imbarcazioni a motore riescano ad arrivare fino a riva con il motore acceso. Evidentemente sulle nostre coste non c’è nessun controllo. I cittadini in vacanza o al mare devono sentirsi sicuri e tutelati”.
Secondo i dati citati dal sindacato, nella sola giornata di oggi sono stati registrati una trentina di sbarchi nel Sulcis e nel Sud Sardegna, in particolare nella zona di Porto Pino.



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La testata usufruisce del contributo della Regione Sardegna Assessorato della Pubblica Istruzione, Beni Culturali, Informazione, Spettacolo e Sport. legge regionale 13 aprile 2017 n. 5, art. 8 comma 13
L'articolo Un barchino di migranti tenta lo sbarco a Santa Margherita di Pula, messo in fuga dai bagnanti proviene da Blondet & Friends.
SE NON TRADIVA LA SUA CULTURA POLITICA – E NON HA FATTO. LE OCCASIONI MANCATE DELLA SOVRANISTA DELLA GARBATELLA (e non si trovi giustificazioni nella cosiddetta “realpolitik” perché questa è soltanto un momentaneo compromesso in circostanze date, mentre qui stiamo parlando di trasformismo ovvero di ripudio della “destra sociale” per abbracciare il conservatorismo liberale: né più ne meno di ciò che a suo tempo fece Gianfranco Fini). L.C.
Travaglio non è simpaticissimo, ma quando ha (sostanzialmente) ragione, ha ragione (Massimo Maraviglia):
Quattro anni fa Giorgia Meloni aveva una grande occasione: spogliarsi degli abiti di capofazione per indossare quelli di rappresentante di tutti e conquistare consensi fuori dal suo recinto, senza recidere le radici del suo passato. Che non è il fascismo del Duce, come troppi superficialmente dicono, ma la destra sociale, legalitaria, multipolare, eurocritica e antiamericana: quella che, oltre a tanti brutti ceffi e fenomeni da baraccone, affascinava anche Paolo Borsellino e tuttora vanta intellettuali irregolari come Cardini, Tarchi, Veneziani, Buttafuoco, Foa.
La Meloni avrebbe potuto scegliersi un ministro della Giustizia borselliniano, anziché il berlusconiano Nordio. Mettere agli Esteri e alla Difesa due uomini del dialogo col Sud e l’Est del mondo, anziché i pappagalli Nato Tajani e Crosetto. Piazzare all’Economia e al Lavoro esponenti della destra sociale anziché il rigorista Giorgetti e l’imbarazzante Calderone. Difendere e magari affinare il reddito di cittadinanza, anziché gettare sul lastrico centinaia di migliaia di famiglie. Tassare i profitti extra di banche, assicurazioni, Big Pharma, Big Tech e Big Oil e combattere l’evasione, rastrellando risorse per politiche espansive su investimenti, salari, caro-energia, sanità e lotta all’immigrazione irregolare. Far funzionare la giustizia anziché sfasciarla e perder tempo (e schiantarsi) sulla separazione delle carriere. Infilarsi nelle spaccature di un’Ue sfarinata per fare alleanze pragmatiche con chiunque, a destra (Orbán) e a sinistra (Sánchez), mettesse in dubbio gli euro-dogmi dell’austerità, del bellicismo, del riarmo, della russofobia e della sudditanza a Kiev e a Tel Aviv. Aiutare gli ucraini e i russi, gli israeliani e i palestinesi con l’unica opzione utile: i negoziati, candidando Roma come campo neutro per ospitarli. Sfruttare l’amicizia con Trump per dirgli Sì quando ci conveniva – cioè sulla fine della guerra ucraina e dello sterminio a Gaza – e No sui dazi, il 5% di Pil alla Nato, il suo Gnl al quadruplo del prezzo russo, gli acquisti di armi da regalare a Zelensky, le aggressioni al Venezuela e all’Iran: invece gli ha detto No quando doveva dire Sì e viceversa.
L'articolo Quel che la Meloni avrebbe potuto fare proviene da Blondet & Friends.










MEPs are pushing for an EU solidarity mechanism to help patients pay for treatment abroad, arguing that financial barriers are preventing Europeans from exercising rights they have had on paper for more than a decade.
The calls came as Parliament discussed a report commissioned to inform its own-initiative report on modernising patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare. The study found that cross-border care accounts for just 0.004% of EU public health expenditure, despite patients continuing to face upfront costs, complex reimbursement procedures and prior-authorisation requirements.
Tomislav Sokol (EPP, Croatia) called the proposed solidarity mechanism a potential “game changer” for vulnerable patients, but challenged Parliament to spell out how it would work.
“How would it work in practice? How would it be financed? Would this be part of the EU budget?” Sokol asked. “We need to know it now, so that we can also use this in negotiations on the future EU budget, in the next MFF.”

