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The scythe-winged birds have nested in the cracks of the Western Wall and other holy sites in Jerusalem for thousands of years.

We would like to hear about the endings of TV series that brought you the most joy

From Detectorists to The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, the Guardian’s writers have curated their list of TV’s happiest endings. Now, we would like to hear yours. What was the TV series ending that brought you the most joy?

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A walking holiday with a group of strangers to the highest range in the Carpathians promises adventure, stunning views and camaraderie

We are giddy as we reach the summit, breathless with exertion and a guileless, childlike joy. In every direction the jagged peaks of Slovakia’s High Tatras stretch out into the distance, nubs on a colossal spine, glittering lakes embedded like shards of glass far below the rocky, ice-streaked slopes. An eagle wheels above. Somewhere on the lunar landscape a marmot squeaks. Easy laughs ricochet around the group, photos are snapped, backs thumped, words of encouragement offered to the more vertigo-inclined.

The summit of Slovakia’s Kôprovský štít had been playing a Kafkaesque game of mountain mirage with us for several hours, always just over the next ridge which, once conquered, revealed a string of further, seemingly endless ridges. Eight hours and about 23km after we had set off on our hike through the Vysoké Tatry mountain range, an eddy of smiles rippled from person to person (some, granted, of the more clenched-teeth variety). “Yes, team! We did it!” Roman, our high-spirited Slovakian mountain guide, stood atop the tip, clasping each of our hands in congratulation as we crested the peak.

Daniel Siad faced allegations of rape and trafficking in France and appeared in more than 1,000 documents in Epstein files

A modelling scout who recruited women for Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his home near Paris, French officials have said.

Daniel Siad, 69, was under investigation by the prosecutors specialising in human trafficking in France, accused of rape and other charges. His name appeared in more than 1,000 documents in the US Department of Justice Epstein files that were declassified earlier this year.

US secretary of state says international community should ‘join forces’ against authoritarian Ortega regime

Nicaragua’s congress, controlled by the country’s long-serving president, Daniel Ortega, has announced a “work plan” to implement the authoritarian leader’s order that the country should no longer hold elections.

The UN and the US strongly condemned Sunday’s announcement by Ortega, who has been in power since 2007 and, after a controversial constitutional change last year, now governs alongside his wife, Rosario Murillo, as “co-president”.

Bloomsbury has 14,087 titles listed in agreement between AI startup and authors over use of their work

The publisher of Harry Potter has received a multimillion-pound payout as a beneficiary of a $1.5bn (£1.12bn) copyright settlement between the AI startup Anthropic and thousands of authors over the use of their protected work to power chatbots.

Bloomsbury, which is home to the bestselling novelists Sarah J Maas and Susanna Clarke as well as JK Rowling, said it had 14,087 titles listed within the settlement, with a proposed compensation of about $3,000 a title.

Daniel Siad faced allegations of rape and trafficking in France and appeared in more than 1,000 documents in Epstein files

A modelling scout who recruited women for Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his home near Paris, French officials have said.

Daniel Siad, 69, was under investigation by the prosecutors specialising in human trafficking in France, accused of rape and other charges. His name appeared in more than 1,000 documents in the US Department of Justice Epstein files that were declassified earlier this year.

US secretary of state says international community should ‘join forces’ against authoritarian Ortega regime

Nicaragua’s congress, controlled by the country’s long-serving president, Daniel Ortega, has announced a “work plan” to implement the authoritarian leader’s order that the country should no longer hold elections.

The UN and the US strongly condemned Sunday’s announcement by Ortega, who has been in power since 2007 and, after a controversial constitutional change last year, now governs alongside his wife, Rosario Murillo, as “co-president”.

В аналитике больших данных системы массивных параллельных вычислений часто находятся под постоянной нагрузкой в режиме 24/7. Из десятков и сотен тысяч запросов в день многие исполняются одновременно и конкурируют за ограниченные ресурсы вычислительного кластера. Чем рациональнее каждый отдельный запрос их использует, тем больше запросов система сможет обслуживать параллельно. Соответственно, выше пропускная способность за конкретный отрезок времени. Как правило, проблема нехватки ресурсов остро ощущается в пиковые часы нагрузки. Можно бесконечно до совершенства настраивать и править параметры сессии на каждый запрос индивидуально вручную, но нам — команде разработки платформы данных Data Ocean Nova — всегда хочется иметь более системный подход.

В сегодняшней публикации мы расскажем о том, как реализовали идею автоматической системы предсказания потребления ресурсов SQL-запросами для Impala и StarRocks, основанную на ML-принципах, и сделали её частью платформы данных.

Агентство мероприятий и игровых решений Найт Стрит продолжает делиться опытом в сфере командообразования с HR-специалистами и внутрикомами IT- и финтех-компаний.

Первый дайджест наших онлайн-кейсов получил хороший отклик, поэтому с продолжением решили не затягивать. В первой части мы рассмотрели, как подобрать онлайн-тимбилдинг для удалённых команд под конкретную HR-боль, и закончили на том, что универсального решения не бывает.

Допустим, вы всё-таки подобрали формат, и всё в порядке: сценарий утверждён, дата назначена. А дальше вы смотрите на явку, которая оказалась вдвое ниже ожидаемой.

There was an unintentionally revealing moment in acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing last week. After Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Blanche whether he and President Donald Trump are friends, the leader of the United States Department of Justice replied, “I’m his lawyer,” before correcting himself and saying he “was his lawyer.”

Blanche previously defended Trump in three criminal cases brought while the president was out of office, but he is emphatically not supposed to be Trump’s lawyer right now. As acting attorney general — Blanche currently leads the DOJ because the attorney general’s job is vacant and Blanche is the Senate-confirmed deputy attorney general (DAG) — Blanche’s client is the United States, not the person who happens to occupy the White House. 

But it’s easy to see why he misspoke: Blanche has largely acted as Trump’s hammer since he was confirmed as the DOJ’s No. 2 official, overseeing numerous prosecutions of Trump’s perceived enemies. Now Trump wants to promote him to the DOJ’s top job — a sign of Trump’s confidence in his former criminal defense lawyer turned personal enforcer.

It’s unusual for a president to put his own defense lawyer in such a powerful position — indeed, it’s unusual for a president to have a criminal defense lawyer at all. But Trump has a long string of attorneys who’ve defended him and his companies against an equally long string of criminal allegations ranging from tax fraud, to falsifying business records, to illegally taking classified documents, to charges arising from his failed attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election. 

And he’s put at least five of those criminal defense lawyers in top federal jobs. 

Trump’s decision to turn much of his criminal legal team into powerful government officials matters for two big reasons. The first is that two members of that team, Blanche and Solicitor General John Sauer, are leaders within the Justice Department. Next to the military, there is no more fearsome government institution than the DOJ, which has the power to arrest people and try them for federal crimes. 

The DOJ is supposed to exercise this authority with restraint — and often with restraints imposed by the Constitution itself — but Blanche has used the Justice Department’s power against Trump’s political enemies who appear to have committed no crime and removed constraints on Trump and his Justice Department, all while Sauer has worked consistently to convince the Supreme Court to remove other constraints on Trump.

Meanwhile, three of Trump’s former criminal lawyers, Emil Bove, Justin Smith, and Matthew Schwartz, now have lifetime appointments as US Court of Appeals judges, placing them one rung on the judicial ladder down from the Supreme Court. The judiciary, of course, is the branch of government that is supposed to prevent the president from breaking the law, so every Trump loyalist appointed to this branch weakens the remaining legal constraints on Trump and his administration.

Trump, of course, isn’t the only president to place close confidants in the Justice Department or the federal bench. President John F. Kennedy famously named his brother attorney general. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Abe Fortas, who represented him in a 1948 election dispute, to the Supreme Court in 1965.

But Trump’s decision to place someone willing to pursue his personal vendettas in charge of the Justice Department is, at the very least, a break with post-Watergate norms established to prevent the DOJ from becoming a political weapon. And Fortas, who resigned in disgrace after fewer than four years on the bench, is more of a cautionary tale than a model of good governance.

Although the current Supreme Court is dominated by conservative Republicans, some of these justices do break with Trump on questions that divide the Republican Party — such as whether Trump should unilaterally impose high tariffs on many nations. But if Trump gets to turn his personal cronies into justices, that could change quickly. A judiciary controlled by MAGA loyalists means that all remaining checks on Trump’s authority could end. Many of his former-lawyers-turned-appointees are already working to make an unchecked Trump administration a reality.

How are Trump’s former personal lawyers already reshaping American legal norms?

Smith, who worked on the Trump v. United States immunity case, was confirmed last month. And Schwartz, who worked on the false documents case that led to Trump’s conviction, joined the bench last week. So there’s not much to say about these two men’s record in federal office — yet.

But Blanche, Bove, and Sauer have all displayed ruthless cunning in their efforts to advance Trump and his causes.

Blanche has been DAG since March 2025, a role that oversees the federal government’s criminal prosecutions and its 93 regional US attorneys’ offices. He’s led the entire Justice Department since April, after former Attorney General Pam Bondi — another of Trump’s former personal lawyers — left office.

So Blanche oversaw several dubious federal prosecutions targeting people Trump perceives as enemies, including criminal proceedings targeting former FBI Director James Comey and current New York Attorney General Letitia James. There’s also evidence that Blanche has played an unusually direct role in the Justice Department’s decision to bring meritless charges against prominent Democrats.

In May 2025, for example, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, showed up at an ICE detention facility in his New Jersey city and asked to tour it. He was briefly let inside the gate, where he was confronted by about a dozen law enforcement officers and asked to leave, which he did.

But then one of these officers received a phone call. A video, later submitted to a federal court, shows the officer turning to his colleagues after the call and announcing, “We are arresting the mayor right now, per the deputy attorney general of the United States.” That deputy attorney general, of course, was Blanche. (In a September court filing, DOJ confirmed that officers arrested Baraka “after consulting with the Deputy Attorney General.”)

Yet, despite Blanche’s apparent decision to personally order Baraka’s arrest, the DAG forgot to check whether Baraka had actually done something that could support criminal charges. The mayor was only charged with misdemeanor trespassing, and those charges were dismissed two weeks later. At the court hearing formally dropping these charges, a federal magistrate judge admonished prosecutors for “using the immense power of the government to pursue weak cases or to make examples without sufficient cause.”

Blanche also unsuccessfully attempted to establish Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” which would have been used to distribute money to Trump’s allies — including, potentially, Trump supporters who participated in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Although the fund appears dead after it received bipartisan pushback in Congress, a DOJ press release announcing the fund said it was “established” by the attorney general, a role performed by Blanche, and that the fund would be administered by five people chosen by Blanche.

Before Trump took office, Bove was Blanche’s law partner. Shortly before Bove joined the bench, he briefly served as principal associate deputy attorney general — essentially the DAG’s top deputy, which meant that Bove was Blanche’s right-hand man. In that role, he was often described as Trump’s “enforcer.” 

Bove spent only about half a year as Blanche’s lieutenant, but he managed to spark a mini-revolt in one of the Justice Department’s most prestigious offices during his short tenure. After Bove ordered the DOJ to dismiss corruption charges against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams “without prejudice,” a maneuver that would allow the charges to be reinstated if Adams did not cooperate with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, seven federal prosecutors resigned rather than comply with Bove’s order. 

One was Danielle Sassoon, a former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon. Another, Hagan Scotten, wrote in his resignation letter to Bove that “I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.” Scotten clerked for Republican Chief Justice John Roberts and for future Republican Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Meanwhile, a whistleblower complaint by another former DOJ lawyer claims that Bove said, in a meeting about a court decision halting some deportations, “that D.O.J. would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any such order.”

Trump appointed Bove to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit last September. Federal appeals courts typically spend months deciding cases, so his tenure on the Third Circuit has thus far been less eventful than his time at the DOJ. But there are early signs that he remains loyal to Trump even after moving into an independent branch of government. Bove attended a Trump rally in December, a highly unusual move for judges who are supposed to remain nonpartisan. And the background image on his iPhone is reportedly an image of a defiant Trump raising a fist, or at least it was months after he joined the bench.

That leaves Sauer, who, as solicitor general, is tasked with defending federal government programs in the Supreme Court. That includes the Trump tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down last winter, and Trump’s unconstitutional attempt to strip many newborn Americans of their citizenship.

Despite these losses, Sauer has an impressive winning record before the Supreme Court, largely because the Court is controlled by six Republicans who are highly sympathetic to Trump and his agenda. This is, after all, the same Court that said that Trump may use the powers of the presidency to commit crimes, after Sauer argued as much. 

Sauer has been particularly effective in persuading the Republican justices to block lower court rulings against Trump on the Court’s “shadow docket,” a once rarely used mix of emergency motions and other matters that became a routine part of Supreme Court litigation during Trump’s first term.

So Trump has taken several of his personal lawyers and transformed them into some of the most well-credentialed — and in some cases, the most powerful — figures in the legal profession. Thus far, the evidence suggests that these individuals remain loyal to Trump, even when they move into jobs that are supposed to be nonpartisan. Three of them already have lifetime appointments. 

Any nation governed by the rule of law must have government officials who will obey whatever constraints the law imposes — whether they be federal agency leaders who follow the law out of a sense of duty, or judges who rein in executive branch leaders who refuse to do so. Institutions like the Department of Justice also depend on informal norms, many of which are a response to similar abuses of power during the Nixon administration, that have long constrained federal prosecutors.

But Trump’s DOJ is often actively hostile to these norms, and the growing legal power of Trump’s personal lawyers is just the latest example. Their steady reshaping of the judiciary clears the way for a federal government that is not constrained by anything.

Inspired by interactive theatre and fuelled by the motion capture tech used by VTubers, the vampire spies in Red Kiss have personality in spades

‘You look at the news and you’re like, ‘Another pointless war, another pointless bloodshed, another pointless genocide.’ And that can make you a bit hopeless.”

Roy van der Schilden, narrative designer and business director at Wispfire, speaks of a very human feeling. But the protagonist of its upcoming game Red Kiss can relate – despite being a vampire.

The first 48-team World Cup had its positives and negatives – do we need to brace for a 64-team future?

It was less than 12 months after Gianni Infantino succeeded Sepp Blatter as president that Fifa announced the expansion of the men’s World Cup from 32 to 48 teams. The reaction was mixed. Diego Maradona said he was “delighted by Gianni’s initiative” because it allowed each country to dream of reaching the tournament, renewing their passion for football. Joachim Löw, then in charge of world champions Germany, said: “I don’t think it’s a good idea to dilute the sporting value … In the long term, the quality suffers.”

On the evidence of the first 48-team edition, won by Spain after 104 games across five-and-a-half weeks in North America, it’s fair to conclude Maradona and Löw both had a point.

Уже куча народу высказалась по этому поводу - было и “мы все умрём, мы мамонты с лапками, нас заменят роботы”, было и “я сверхсущество, а эта машина лишь инструмент”.

Но я не встретил честной экспертной точки зрения с позиции бизнеса и разработки вместе. Были либо технарские, либо бизнесовые. 

Бизнес хочет либо “срезать косты”, либо “увеличить продажи”. Точнее даже так - об этом активно говорят бизнесмены, которые пытаются продать ИИ. От них только и слышишь маркетинговые лозунги. Написанные через ИИ.

А вот про риски никто не говорит! А это суть предпринимательства - работа с рисками. Сколько крупных игроков откатывают свои ИИ-стратегии сейчас? А ваш бизнес может позволить себе работать пару лет в дикий убыток ради эксперимента?

Технари либо радуются, что теперь он один тащит то, что раньше тащила целая команда, либо те, кто уже “наелся”, рассказывают кейсы про то, как ИИ положила его систему.

И где TRUE/FALSE?

ЕГЭ обычно сдают выпускники, но в мае 2025 его сдавали и мы, командой из 300+ человек, разбросанных по 177 школам Санкт-Петербурга, от центра до Кронштадта. Задача была одна — не дать упасть системе видеонаблюдения. Именно тогда мы поняли, что следующий подобный проект должен быть устроен иначе.

ЦИПР — это площадка, где встречаются вендоры, интеграторы и заказчики. Мы решили показать, что Открытая АСУТП — это не просто концепция, а работающий инструмент, который можно взять и внедрить уже сегодня. Мы привезли стенд, который демонстрирует полный производственный цикл: от разработки модели управления и компьютерного зрения на контроллере до выдачи производственных заданий через MES и их отработки на реальном оборудовании. И всё это — на отечественных и open-source компонентах. В статье расскажем какую бизнес-ценность представляет Открытая АСУТП сегодня.

What does a grownup mermaid look like? It starts with the silhouette …

Before wild swimming was even a twinkle in the eye of the culture, and before ice plunging went viral on TikTok, there were mermaids. Mermaids are the original summer It girls. Who doesn’t want hair that looks great when it’s wet and salty, shell jewellery, killer sex appeal and a life of sun, sea and winding up sailors for kicks? These chicks know how to live.

Mermaidcore is this summer’s hottest style vibe. It is beach chic with a hot-sauce dash of brat energy. Every summer has its own off-duty avatar – tomato girl summer, anyone? – and 2026 is all about mermaids. For legal reasons, please note this column is not endorsing the luring of innocents to certain death. The vibe is Daryl Hannah in Splash, not selkies and sirens.

Researchers listening off the Caribbean island of Dominica found variations in the mammals’ audible clicks when marine traffic was close

Sperm whales produce a specific pattern of clicking noises when they hear the noise of boats, researchers have found. The pattern is so distinct that the scientists who identified it said they can now use it to predict when ships are nearby.

Researchers from Project Ceti (the Cetacean Translation Initiative), a non-profit research organisation working to decode sperm whale communication, spent four years tuning in on the calls of 15 sperm whales off the coast of Dominica.

Brussels talks between senior diplomats now underway in attempt to sign off 21st package of sanctions, after previous failed attempts

The Venice Biennale said it would challenge a European Union decision to withdraw a €2 ⁠million grant in response to the return of Russia to its 2026 edition, despite continuing aggression on Ukraine, Reuters reported.

The Italian government sharply criticised the move, while the European Commission warned it ​would suspend or terminate funding if the Russian ‌pavilion returned.

Former CEO Matthew Wright and three other ex-employees named in criminal proceedings by Environment Agency

The former chief executive of Southern Water is being prosecuted for conspiracy to defraud along with three other former employees, over allegations they manipulated sewage wastewater testing results to avoid tens of millions of pounds in fines.

Matthew Wright is the first water industry boss to face a criminal charge over sewage discharges. He and three others are charged with conspiracy to defraud the Environment Agency and ​the water regulator, Ofwat, between 2012 and 2017 by ⁠creating artificial “no-flow” ​events ​at wastewater treatment ​works to ​influence ‌compliance checks.

Researchers listening off the Caribbean island of Dominica found variations in the mammals’ audible clicks when marine traffic was close

Sperm whales produce a specific pattern of clicking noises when they hear the noise of boats, researchers have found. The pattern is so distinct that the scientists who identified it said they can now use it to predict when ships are nearby.

Researchers from Project Ceti (the Cetacean Translation Initiative), a non-profit research organisation working to decode sperm whale communication, spent four years tuning in on the calls of 15 sperm whales off the coast of Dominica.

Google добавила к семейству Gemini еще три модели - и тем самым лишь сильнее подчеркнула отсутствие самой ожидаемой.

Новые модели Flash решают быстрые, доступные и защитные задачи, а Gemini 4 уже проходит самое масштабное предварительное обучение за всю историю проекта. Однако Gemini 3.5 Pro, призванная конкурировать с лидерами рынка, все еще находится на стадии тестирования.

На днях на официальном портале Министерства цифрового развития, связи и массовых коммуникаций Российской Федерации был опубликован проект указа президента об утверждении Доктрины развития системы противодействия правонарушениям, совершаемым с использованием информационно-коммуникационных технологий. Она призвана определить ключевые направления защиты киберпространства
от угроз на долгосрочную перспективу до 2035 года. Изучив эти обнародованные материалы, мы проследили переход государства к концептуально иной схеме обеспечения безопасности. Вместо точечного устранения последствий инцидентов теперь нам предлагается создание комплексной архитектуры, функционирующей на принципах упреждения рисков.

Особый интерес вызывает прикладной характер заложенных решений, дистанцированный от абстрактных деклараций. Данный проект базируется на требованиях закона № 172-ФЗ о государственном планировании
и развивает ключевые положения Стратегии национальной безопасности,
а также Концепции противодействия преступности в ИКТ-сфере, принятой
в конце 2024 года. План мероприятий по реализации указанной Концепции был утвержден распоряжением Правительства № 2207-р в августе 2025 года. Непосредственным стимулом для появления данных материалов стали поручения председателя правительства Михаила Мишустина по итогам отраслевого координационного совещания. Согласно установленным Кабинетом министров срокам, уполномоченные ведомства должны были подготовить базовые предложения по борьбе с сетевым мошенничеством в первой половине 2026 года. Данная инициатива логически завершает этап формирования нормативного фундамента новой оборонительной политики.

Пару дней назад Cloud.ru выложил исходный код Guardrails Filter в открытый доступ. Это прозрачный обратный прокси между клиентом и LLM-провайдерами, он убирает чувствительные данные из запросов к модели и восстанавливает их в ответах. Я один из разработчиков этого инструмента и хотел бы рассказать подробнее, зачем вам вообще может быть нужно опенсорс-решение, как его можно внедрить в свою инфраструктуру, ну и ответить на вопрос: зачем облаку бесплатно делиться своими наработками с рынком?