Enhanced security detail makes ex-PM's protection equivalent to that of defense minister; Yisrael Beytenu submits formal complaint after Liberman hit with death threats
Years ago, when people asked Geoffrey Hinton why he worked on artificial intelligence, he would repeat a line from J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the creators of the atomic bomb: “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it.”
Computer scientist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Geoffrey Hinton during the Starmus Festival 2026, held this Tuesday in the municipality of Arona in Tenerife.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said Wednesday he’s keeping his promise to support Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) at the ballot box on Nov. 3 but said his family will not. In a radio interview with “The Nashional Briefing with Kelly Nash,” Graham’s GOP primary opponent reiterated his commitment to supporting Republican candidates in the state. “I’m…
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said Wednesday he’s keeping his promise to support Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) at the ballot box on Nov. 3 but said his family will not. In a radio interview with “The Nashional Briefing with Kelly Nash,” Graham’s GOP primary opponent reiterated his commitment to supporting Republican candidates in the state. “I’m…
"Our heads are much dirtier than what's on camera," says Olivia Colman, who stars alongside Alexander Skarsgård in a romance between a fisherwoman and her wicker husband.
Parliament republished the asset declarations of MPs on its website on Wednesday afternoon, a day after withdrawing them over the accidental posting of material the law does not allow to be made public.
By 8.30pm, statements for 53 of the 56 MPs were online, those missing being Michalis Kounounis, Michalis Paraskevas and Demetris Souglis.
The House said on Tuesday that all former, newly elected and re-elected members had submitted the required statements, which its services would post gradually.
Parts of the statements that the legislation does not provide for publishing were then found to have been posted by mistake, and the declarations were temporarily taken down.
House president Annita Demetriou has ordered an investigation. She asked the services for a report of facts on exactly what happened and for strict compliance with all that the law requires. The issue is expected to go before the House institutions committee.
Alma MP Irene Charalambides wrote to Demetriou saying the House had breached its own legislation.
According to her letter, the site carried material the law expressly bars from publication, including personal data of spouses and reconciliation statements submitted to the tax commissioner.
The statements stayed online until late on Tuesday, despite Parliament’s announcement that they had been withdrawn.
Charalambides said the law was passed by the House “to serve transparency without sacrificing the rights of third parties”.
“The issue is not technical. It is a question of accountability,” she wrote, adding that “a simple apology would not close the matter”.
Disy MP George Pamboridis raised the prospect of criminal liability, saying the Attorney General’s office should prosecute if the data was found to breach the law, and called the presentation of declarations “populism” that “feeds gossip and nothing more”.
The Personal Data Protection Authority has asked for the disputed data and links to be removed from websites where they remain accessible.
It is awaiting formal notification of the breach under Article 33 of the General Data Protection Regulation, which requires this without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours.
The republished statements include those of the party leaders, with Demetriou’s declared net worth being €239,550 as of 4 June 2026, with real estate worth €222,500, deposits of €133,100 and four loans totalling €144,050.
Akel secretary general Stefanos Stefanou declared €116,488, while Elam president Christos Christou declared €52,345.
Diko president Nicolas Papadopoulos declared €958,124, mostly in property received through inheritance.
Alma leader Odysseas Michaelides declared €212,783, including 22 inherited properties declared at zero value, among them property and plots now in the occupied north.
Greek Cypriot negotiator Menelaos Menelaou said on Wednesday that problems over the routing of the Pyroi crossing point “have been overcome”, although a dispute over a second crossing point still stands in the way of an agreement.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Menelaou said the remaining obstacle was the Turkish Cypriot demand that the Louroujina to Lympia crossing be included in any such deal.
He said the Louroujina issue remains open and has not yet been reconciled with the Greek Cypriot proposal for a crossing at Kokkina.
The earlier dispute concerned the route of the proposed road from Athienou through Pyroi to the Nicosia suburb of Aglandjia.
The Greek Cypriot side treats it as a single crossing, while the Turkish Cypriot side objected to a road running through so many kilometres of the buffer zone, arguing that it created security complications.
Menelaou told the Cyprus Mail the route now sits roughly evenly, between the government-controlled areas and the occupied north.
Pyroi is a ruined village in the north, inside a Turkish military zone, whose residents have been displaced since 1974.
Athienou lies on the government-controlled side, and a crossing would cut the drive from there to Nicosia from up to an hour to about ten minutes.
Christodoulides said on Tuesday that he had given Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman two new proposals on crossing points, one of which had already been rejected.
Erhurman separately confirmed late on Tuesday that he had rejected a proposal to open the fenced-off area of Varosha under United Nations administration and the port of Famagusta under European Union control.
He said formal negotiations could not begin until the sides agree on methodology and make progress on confidence-building measures.
New crossing points are the most concrete of those measures, as both sides agreed on a package of four after an enlarged meeting in Geneva in March 2025, when UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told each side to suggest two.
The Greek Cypriot side proposed the Athienou to Aglandjia road, with a crossing at each end, while the Turkish Cypriot side proposed Mia Milia and Louroujina.
The package has since stalled, for during Guterres’ visit in July, sources told the Cyprus Mail that the Greek Cypriot side suggested opening only two of the four, with Louroujina shelved, which the Turkish Cypriot side refused.
He failed us on October 7, and every day since by refusing to answer for it. He clung to power, and now promises the same shameful coalition, with the same divisive and dangerous policies
The commander of an interceptor battalion in Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps said his unit destroyed several thousand Russian aerial targets during Operation Vivaldi, ArmyInform, the Defense Ministry’s news agency, reported on 21 October.
Operation Vivaldi is a Ukrainian counteroffensive north of Lyman in Donetsk Oblast, where the 3rd Army Corps has reported liberating settlements. In its third phase, Ukrainian forces reclaimed five settlements and expanded their gains to 176 square kilometers. Strikes on Russian logistics and electronic warfare likely neutralized Russia’s drone defenses before Ukraine sent in armor, the Institute for the Study of War assessed.
The commander, who uses the callsign “Betsyk,” leads the interceptor battalion of the 1030th Anti-Aircraft Missile-Artillery Regiment “Aquila,” part of the 3rd Army Corps. He said Russian forces deployed large numbers of reconnaissance drones to locate Ukrainian positions after the corps began advancing.
Betsyk named Zala, Orlan, Supercam, Merlin, and Knyaz Veshchiy Oleg among the reconnaissance drones used by Russian forces.
Russia also brought in reinforcements and units operating strike drones, including first-person-view (FPV) quadcopters, Molniya fixed-wing FPV drones, and Lancet crews, he said. At one stage, Russian forces deployed crews from their Rubicon drone unit to disrupt the advance, but the move did not change the situation.
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Ukraine retook Kolodiazi north of Lyman as its drones hit 200-plus Russian vehicles in Operation Vivaldi’s last phase, Ukrainian drone officer says
Betsyk said his battalion’s work deprived Russian forces of the ability to strike Ukrainian troops and track their movements.
Jet-powered Shaheds: speed is the main challenge
The regiment also works against Russian strike drones heading for targets behind the front line. Betsyk said interceptor crews had destroyed some jet-powered drones, but not in significant numbers.
The main difficulty is speed, he said. Interceptor drones need to reach 500–600 km/h to intercept Russian jet-powered attack drones, according to Betsyk.
For now, the regiment mainly uses conventional air-defense systems against these targets: self-propelled anti-aircraft systems, surface-to-air missile systems, and portable surface-to-air missile systems. Betsyk said these systems were historically designed to engage jet-powered targets.
He compared the current challenge with the early use of piston-powered Shaheds. Those drones initially posed a serious threat but later became easier for Ukrainian air defenses to counter. Russia has largely stopped using piston-powered Shaheds on most fronts since summer, he said, but continues to use piston-powered Gerbera drones, which are relatively cheap and can partly exhaust Ukrainian air defenses. The main drones Russian forces use now are jet-powered Shaheds, he said.
Betsyk expects Russian forces to adapt if Ukraine fields effective interceptors against jet-powered drones. They will seek ways to evade the interceptors, increase speed, improve navigation, and change their tactics, he said. However, he added that the battalion had not observed a major evolution so far and did not expect the drones’ speed to double.
What the corps says Vivaldi achieved
Separately, 3rd Army Corps commander Andrii Biletskyi said Ukrainian forces retook 277 square kilometers and 16 settlements during Operation Vivaldi, Ukrainska Pravda reported. Biletskyi also said Russian losses exceeded 8,000 personnel, according to ArmyInform. These figures are Ukrainian claims and have not been independently verified.
Imagine if Sam and Dario and Elon and Mark, along with their boards of directors, bore individual liability for the damage their companies may inflict on society.
Imagine if Sam and Dario and Elon and Mark, along with their boards of directors, bore individual liability for the damage their companies may inflict on society.
In late August, President Donald Trump announced what he called the “biggest oil deal in world history.” Since then, the full text of the accord — which grants the U.S. sweeping access to Venezuela’s oil reserves — has been one of the most sought-after secrets in Washington, DC. ProPublica has reviewed a copy of the […]
Russian drones struck a 24-story apartment building in Kyiv, a university building in Kremenchuk, warehouses, and hypermarkets overnight on 21 October, killing two people in the capital and an elderly couple near Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said. The attack went well beyond Ukraine’s power grid, hitting places where people live, study, and shop. Over the past day, Russian strikes also killed three more civilians and injured dozens across several oblasts.
Russia has kept up nightly drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities through the autumn, mostly aimed at the energy system. It struck Ukraine’s energy 76 times during a US-declared truce, and fired 39 ballistic missiles at the grid three days after Washington announced it. This time the targets also included homes, a university, warehouses, and shops.
Overnight, Russia launched 186 Shahed-type and other attack drones, 88 of them jet-powered, along with Iskander-K cruise missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force said. Air defenses downed or jammed 150 drones. Hits were recorded at 27 locations, and debris fell at 13 more.
Two killed on the 20th floor in Kyiv
A drone hit a 24-story residential building in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district at the level of the 20th floor, starting a fire, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The fire spread over about 70 square meters, and rescuers found the bodies of two people while clearing debris, the State Emergency Service said. Two people were injured and hospitalized, Klitschko said, including a 46-year-old man who was walking past the building, according to the police.
A rescuer carries a cat out after a Russian drone strike on an apartment building in Kyiv, 21 October 2026. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
In the Desnianskyi district, seven parked cars caught fire, the State Emergency Service said; police put the number at about 10. The evening before, drones hit a warehouse building in Desnianskyi and a transport facility in Solomianskyi district.
An elderly couple killed near Kharkiv
In the village of Korotych near Kharkiv, Russian drones killed an 81-year-old woman and an 83-year-old man, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Rescuers recovered their bodies from the rubble of their house, the State Emergency Service said. Eleven people, including a two-month-old boy and an eight-year-old girl, were treated for acute stress, and 13 houses were damaged.
A house destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Korotych, Kharkiv Oblast, 21 October 2026. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
A university, warehouses, and hypermarkets
In Kremenchuk, a drone hit a building of the Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi National University, setting it on fire, the State Emergency Service said. Three people were injured, including a 16-year-old who was hospitalized with a concussion, Poltava Oblast Governor Vitalii Diakivnych said. In the Poltava community, drones damaged an administrative building and warehouses.
Firefighters put out a fire at an enterprise in Lviv district after a Russian attack, 21 October 2026. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
In Lviv Oblast, an attack set fire to an enterprise in a village in Lviv district and injured two people, while a house was damaged in a neighboring village, the State Emergency Service said. In Uman, drones hit a hypermarket and damaged a hotel, injuring one person, Cherkasy Oblast Governor Ihor Taburets said.
A hypermarket in Uman damaged by a Russian drone strike, 21 October 2026. Photo: Cherkasy Oblast Military Administration
On the evening of 20 October, a drone hit an Epicentr hypermarket in Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast, injuring eight people, acting Governor Heorhii Reshetilov said. Russia also struck a hypermarket in Rivne Oblast several times that day, injuring four and forcing rescuers to pull back while they fought the fire, the State Emergency Service said.
More dead and injured over the past day
The overnight strikes followed a day of attacks. In Kyiv, Russian strikes on 20 October killed one person and injured 21, three of them seriously, Klitschko said. An administrative building caught fire, rescuers freed four people trapped on its upper floors, and a healthcare facility was damaged, the State Emergency Service said. In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, two men were killed and seven people injured that day, regional officials said.
In Kharkiv Oblast, Russian attacks over the past day injured 11 more people in Kharkiv, Derhachi, and Shestakove, Syniehubov said. In Kherson Oblast, 13 people were injured, three of them children, the regional administration reported. In the Chernihiv region, an 89-year-old woman and a young woman were hurt in strikes on villages and on Novhorod-Siverskyi, Governor Viacheslav Chaus said, and a 21-year-old woman was injured in the Sumy community, according to the Sumy regional administration.
More than 5,000 subscribers lost power in Volyn Oblast’s Lutsk district, Governor Roman Romaniuk said. In Ternopil Oblast’s Kremenets district, 7,949 subscribers remained without power after earlier Russian strikes on energy facilities, the regional administration reported.
Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman late on Tuesday night confirmed that he had rejected a proposal put forward to him by President Nikos Christodoulides to open and repopulate the fenced-off area of Varosha under the United Nations’ administration and open the port of Famagusta under the European Union’s control.
“Handing over Varosha to the United Nations’ administration, within the framework of the security council resolutions, and opening the port of Famagusta under EU control. That is what is being said,” he told political talk show Er Meydani.
However, he said, “the port of Famagusta is an open port, it is not a closed port”, before elaborating that “the problem with our ports is that we cannot trade directly with the European Union”.
Asked whether the opening of the port of Famagusta would entail the implementation of the EU’s direct trade regulation, which has remained dormant since 2004 after it was drafted following the Greek Cypriot side’s rejection of that year’s Annan plan referendum, he answered in the negative.
“Is this the entry into force of the direct trade regulation? No, it is not the entry into force of the regulation, but since [the port] would be under EU control, direct trade would begin,” he said.
As such, he said, the proposal was unbalanced.
“Why is this the price for handing over Varosha to the UN’s administration? Are these balanced things?” he asked, before pointing out that the same proposal had been put forward in 2006, when Mehmet Ali Talat was Turkish Cypriot leader.
“This formula was presented in 2006 during Talat’s presidency, so 20 years have passed since then, and it has been brought up as if it were a new formula after 20 years. This is something I cannot accept.”
‘When I counted, I never reached 19’
He then spoke about Christodoulides’ 19 points for discussion, and said that he had never received a document listing those 19 points, but that instead, a number of suggestions had been voiced to him during their bilateral meetings.
“He only mentioned a few things verbally. I took notes. When I counted, I never reached 19 in terms of suggestions,” he said.
Then asked about the content of those suggestions, he said that it “would not be in accordance with diplomatic protocol” to disclose them, given that Christodoulides has not yet done so publicly, and that instead, “Christodoulides can make a statement regarding the proposals if he wishes, and when he does, I will discuss it”.
On this front, he said that last Saturday’s joint visit to the bicommunal festival in the Larnaca district village of Pyla was among the suggestions Christodoulides had put forward, and that other joint excursions, including meetings with bicommunal technical committees, also featured among Christodoulides’ suggestions.
He was then asked about accusations that he is “running away” from negotiations, and stressed that “I am not running away from the negotiating table at all”.
‘When I sit at the negotiating table, know that we are very close to a solution’
Instead, he said, he wishes for the next steps to be taken on the Cyprus problem to be “results-orientated”.
“I do not hold meetings for the sake of having meetings. I do not negotiate just for the sake of negotiating. I will not hold a five-plus-one meeting just for the sake of holding a five-plus-one meeting. Why will I do it? To find a solution. To produce something,” he said.
A “five-plus-one” meeting is another term used to describe an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, involving the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN.
Erhurman stressed that negotiations cannot begin until an agreement is reached between the two sides on their methodology and “progress is achieved on confidence-building measures”, but equally said that a solution to the Cyprus problem may not be as far away as it currently appears.
“When I sit at the negotiating table, know what we are very close to a solution. I cannot say 100 per cent, but it is very likely. Only then will I sit down. I do not negotiate just for the sake of negotiating. I promised I would not keep you waiting at the table for another ten years. I stand by my word,” he said.
In “The Muqaddimah”, the 14th-century historian Ibn Khaldun wrote that “great dynasties often decline after three generations because they fail to produce capable successors.” Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia now asks this question precisely: Has he weakened the very dynasty he was meant to strengthen and secure? The kingdom is under mounting […]
Hace años, cuando la gente preguntaba a Geoffrey Hinton por qué trabajaba con la inteligencia artificial, él repetía una frase de Oppenheimer, uno de los creadores de la bomba atómica: “Cuando ves algo grandioso, sigues adelante y lo llevas a cabo”. Ya no lo dice. Ahora se dedica a alertar sobre los peligros de continuar la carrera que él mismo empezó. Confiesa que, en parte, se arrepiente del trabajo al que ha dedicado una vida. Su reconversión de padrino de la IA a profeta de la catástrofe marcó un punto de inflexión en la industria. Sucedió en 2023, cuando abandonó su puesto como vicepresidente de Google entre advertencias funestas. Entonces, algunos vieron su reacción exagerada. Tres años después, muchos han seguido sus pasos.
El científico computacional y Premio Nobel de Física Geoffrey Hinton durante el Festival Starmus 2026 que se celebra este martes en el municipio de Arona en Tenerife.
Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Commissioner Cathy Engelbert revealed in a letter that “only women are eligible” to compete in the WNBA. In a letter addressed to Reps. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Erin Houchin (R-IN), and Zach Nunn
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