links: 31.07.2026

PBS News: Copenhagen’s famed Noma restaurant prepares to reopen without chef Redzepi at helm PBS reports that Copenhagen’s famed Noma reopens on August 5 without René Redzepi, who stepped away in March after former employees’ allegations of abuse and assault. Its three Michelin stars are gone as well. The kitchen is now led by Pablo Soto, the menu […]

links: 30.07.2026

TechCrunch: Microsoft logs $3.2B from Anthropic investment, but OpenAI was a mixed bag TechCrunch reports that Microsoft booked a $3.2 billion gain on its Anthropic investments for the quarter, while writing down its OpenAI stake by about $600 million over the same period. A single quarter of Anthropic gains nearly matched a full year of OpenAI gains, which […]

links: 28.07.2026

TechCrunch: Satya Nadella says companies that trust one AI for everything may not survive TechCrunch writes that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is warning businesses not to entrust all their AI work to a single model provider. He advises companies to keep their data and usage records so they could one day train a model of their own, and […]

links: 27.07.2026

Le Monde: Searching for Ingmar Bergman’s soul on Sweden’s Fårö island Le Monde writes about Fårö, the Baltic island where Ingmar Bergman shot six of his films and spent the last years of his life. On his 60th birthday he gathered all nine of his children there for the first time; most of them did not share a […]

links: 04.07.2026

PBS News: Lured by Russia, African soldiers end up on deadly front lines of Ukraine war A PBS News segment on men from African countries whom Russia lures into its war against Ukraine with promises of jobs, hefty bonuses and citizenship. Ukrainian authorities estimate that Russia has recruited 27,000 foreign nationals from 130 countries since 2022. African soldiers […]

links: 24.06.2026

Wired: The ‘Parasite of Parasites’ Has Been Discovered in the Tropical Forests of Borneo In the rainforests of Borneo, Malaysian scientists have identified a new fungal species, Pleurocordyceps cornusynnemata — a parasite that feeds on another parasite. Its victim is the so-called zombie fungus (Ophiocordyceps), which infects ants, hijacks their nervous system and drives them to spread its […]

links: 21.06.2026

LSM: Turning all of Pārdaugava into one big Victory Square? An interview with researcher Skaidrīte Lasmane Skaidrīte Lasmane — an emeritus professor, philosopher and historian at the University of Latvia — discusses the history of Riga’s Victory Square (Uzvaras laukums) and the grandiose construction planned under Kārlis Ulmanis, which was deliberately turned into a nationwide volunteer effort, a […]

links: 20.06.2026

PBS / PolitiFact: Comparing the mood of America’s 250th anniversary with its 200th in 1976 As the US approaches its 250th anniversary, historians compare the national mood with the bicentennial of 1976 and see eerie parallels — international conflict, high inflation and gas prices, culture wars and low presidential approval. The key difference: society is far more polarised […]