Conflict inflames tensions at Venice Biennale of Art


ByAFP
May 9, 2026


World conflict looms large over the Venice Biennale this year. 

- Copyright AFP MARCO BERTORELLO

Juliette RABAT

World conflict is looming large over the Venice Biennale this year with the simultaneous presence of Russia, Ukraine, Israel and the Palestinians, with one participant described the mix as akin to “inviting a serial killer to a dinner” among friends.

In the gardens where the world’s largest contemporary art event opens to the public Saturday, the Russian pavilion stands just a few paces from a deer sculpture that was rescued from the Ukrainian front lines.

Russia’s return to the Biennale — from which it had been absent since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine — has sparked an international outcry since being announced in early March.

“Having them here in the Biennale is like inviting a serial killer to a dinner with your friends,” Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetiana Berejna said Thursday at Venice.

Those who argue that war should not make a difference when it comes to art and that all should be welcome at the prestigious festival are “absolutely wrong,” Berejna told AFP, adding that 346 Ukrainian artists have been killed by Russia since the war began.

“When Russia comes to our country, they destroy our libraries, they burn our books, they destroy our museums,” she said.

“Culture is targeted during this war.”

Besides Russia and Ukraine, other countries involved in conflicts are represented in Venice, including the United States and Israel, which attacked Iran in late February. Tehran, originally scheduled to participate, ultimately decided not to attend.

This year, Israel has a pavilion at the Arsenale, a former shipyard that serves as additional exhibition space at the Biennale, not far from Ukraine’s.

The Palestinians, whose state is not recognised by Italy, do not have their own pavilion but are represented by an exhibition dedicated to Gaza at the Palazzo Mora, titled “Gaza – No Words – See the Exhibit”.

“There’s really no way to describe the horror that was inflicted upon the Palestinians in Gaza, and I don’t think we would want to be in the same place as the people who did that,” said the exhibition’s curator, Faisal Saleh, founder of the Palestine Museum in the US state of Connecticut.

Police officers stationed near the Russian, Israeli and US pavilions serve as a reminder that the global geopolitical situation makes coexistence between countries at war — including within the realm of art — potentially explosive.

On Friday, a fresh pro-Palestinian demonstration brought together about 2,000 people in Venice, according to the Italian news agency Ansa, to protest against Israel’s presence at the Biennale.

– Artists as spokespeople? –

Russia’s pavilion became the epicentre of protests against Moscow’s presence on Wednesday, as members of the Russian activist group Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian feminist collective Femen staged their first joint action, appearing with hooded faces and breasts bared.

“If the Biennale were to start selecting not works but affiliations, not visions but passports, it would cease to be what it has always been: the place where the world comes together, and all the more so when the world is torn apart,” argued Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco Wednesday.

Israeli artist Belu-Simion Fainaru told AFP that the divisions at the Biennale were “destroying the meaning of art… to unite people”.

“I don’t think we should reduce the art world to a political arena,” added the sculptor, whose installation, “The Rose of Nothingness”, is a water basin fed by a drip irrigation system.

That position was also voiced by Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini who visited the Biennale Friday: “I don’t think American, Chinese, Israeli, or Russian artists are spokespeople for ongoing conflicts.”

At Palazzo Mora, about a hundred pieces of embroidery, hand-woven by Palestinian women in refugee camps, reproduce images “more vivid than photographs” of what has gone on in Gaza over the past two years, explained Saleh.

As if to calm the controversy, three evenings dedicated to reflection and “the theme of peace” were scheduled during the pre-opening week, featuring Russian director Alexander Sokurov and Palestinian writer and architect Suad Amiry.

European minnows bid to challenge social media giants


ByAFP
May 8, 2026


A new crop of European social media apps want to find room in a crowded market dominated by established American and Asian apps - Copyright AFP/File Saeed KHAN

A flurry of new schemes to launch Europe-based social networks faces a steep, rocky road to seduce users away from American and Asian giants in the sector.

Founders nevertheless see opportunity in the disillusionment and distrust of major platforms that have spiked alongside transatlantic tensions under Donald Trump’s second presidency.

“We think the timing is perfect, in a context where relations between Europe and the US are still deteriorating,” said Gregoire Vigroux, co-founder of Croatia-based network eYou.

“It’s time for Europe to equip itself with its own social networks,” he added.

Opening to users on Tuesday, eYou is one of a number of efforts on the old continent, including W — a would-be competitor to X announced in January — or Eurosky, a platform for accessing independent social networks launched last month.

Bulle (French for “bubble”) also launched in January promising a “healthy social network” while Monnett — a hybrid of TikTok and Instagram — is set for full release in July.

“The rejection targeting the (American) platforms is still stronger today” than in the past, said Romain Badouard, a researcher at France’s Inria computing institute specialising in social networks.

He suggested that a “conservative turn in Silicon Valley” had proved unpopular with European users seeing the likes of X owner Elon Musk or Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) chief Mark Zuckerberg cosying up to Trump.

– ‘Enormous graveyard’ –

At W, “the idea is to bring back what was once Twitter in the good old days,” said founder Anna Zeiter ahead of the Saturday launch.

Some interest is apparent among investors and users in the new crop of networks.

In a second fundraising round, eYou garnered 300,000 euros ($353,000) in late 2025, while Monnett claims more than 65,000 users on the beta version of its app.

But such figures would be rounding errors to the giants of the sector, who count in hundreds of millions of users and billions in revenue.

The dominance of incumbent players has left little space for challenge beyond niche offerings like Mastodon or BeReal.

“The world of social networks is an enormous graveyard,” eYou’s Vigroux acknowledged, adding that “99 percent of European social networks launched in the last 10 years have fallen flat.”

Badouard pointed to the so-called “network effect” that powered the snowballing of major platforms’ user numbers as a factor now shielding them from competition.

For users on Instagram and TikTok, “all the people they know and the accounts they follow” are on the existing networks.

But the “technological maturity” of the latest wave of challengers could still count in their favour, he said.

“They’re answering to a lot of the expectations users have,” Badouard said.

– Out of the algorithm? –

There is a familiar litany of criticisms levelled at the big players, including sorting users into “filter bubbles”, unevenly-enforced moderation and addictive design.

European would-be competitors see those as openings to vaunt their own virtues.

W promises to keep all but verified human users from posting, while eYou says it will “promote users sharing content considered trustworthy”.

“It’s really important for us that it’s not an algorithm that determine what’s on your screen, but yourself,” said Christos Floros of Monnett, which is aiming to hit a million users this year.

Such commitments could steepen the path to profitability for the new arrivals, in a market where financial success is still largely determined by raking in advertising sales.

Zeiter said W would have “no crazy hyper-targeted advertising”.

“Right now we are all trying out different business models and different approaches,” she said.

“Maybe in one or two years we see what’s most successful and then we can team up.”

Two new cyberthreats demonstrate how hackers are evolving


By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
May 9, 2026


Image: — © THOMAS SAMSON/AFP // Getty Images

Today, major cybersecurity threats are dominated by AI-driven attacks, ransomware, and supply chain vulnerabilities, with malicious actors focusing on stealing data, disrupting operations, and exploiting trust.

Key risks include phishing, industrial ransomware, and AI-powered data manipulation.
Top Cybersecurity Threats in 2026

AI-Powered Attacks & Deepfakes: Attackers are increasingly using AI to create convincing phishing campaigns and manipulate content.

Ransomware & Multi-layered Extortion: Ransomware remains highly disruptive, with extortionists not just locking data but threatening to publish it.

Targeting Critical Infrastructure & OT: Attacks aimed at Operational Technology (OT) and critical infrastructure, such as energy grids, can cause massive shutdowns.

Supply Chain & Third-Party Attacks: Attacks on vendors or software supply chains allow hackers to compromise many companies at once.

Insider Threats: Employees or contractors, knowingly or unknowingly, bypass security protocols.

Cloud Infrastructure Attacks: Targeting virtual machines and cloud storage, such as hypervisors.

Two key examples of these threats, reported during May 2026, are presented below.
Instructure Hit Again as ShinyHunters Defaces Campus Canvas Portals

ShinyHunters are back, this time defacing Canvas login portals across hundreds of colleges and universities after finding a new vulnerability in Instructure’s platform. ShinyHunters is a notorious cybercriminal group specializing in large-scale data breaches, extortion, and selling stolen data for financial gain.

With the attack, the ShinyHunters extortion group breached Instructure’s Canvas learning platform, potentially exposing names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and private messages of millions of students and teachers nationwide. The incident marks Instructure’s second breach in eight months and comes during finals week, heightening disruption and concern across schools.

Addressing the threat, John Bruggman, CISO at CBTS, explains to Digital Journal just why this hacker group are so troublesome.

Bruggman begins by balancing ‘convenience’ with ‘lowered defences’ for the education sector, noting how: “Everybody loves SaaS convenience, updates and maintenance are handled by the vendor, but when there is an incident, like an account compromise, also known as the identity layer, things can go sideways, quick.”

From this problems develop: “Then one platform issue turns into hundreds of schools trying to figure out what data left the environment, what accounts were exposed, and whether attackers still have access. The defacement gets attention, but the exfiltration is the bigger concern. If attackers access student records, messages, enrolment data, or authentication-related information, schools now have to think beyond the initial breach and focus on the downstream risk that follows. Part of that risk is FERPA compliance, notifying the Department of Education, and notifying students. That part takes time and resources.”

Expanding on these points, Bruggman observes: “There’s a bigger industry problem at play here. Threat groups like ShinyHunters continue to succeed because organizations still struggle with third party risk, managing password resets, identity governance, authentication token security, and, in some cases, understanding how connected cloud platforms actually work together.”

Returning to the recent event, Bruggman recommends: “The IR team working this incident will likely focus on how access was obtained, how long it existed, and whether monitoring and controls kept pace with the complexity of the environment. Patching your stuff still matters more than ever, but governance and operational visibility matter just as much.”

The Play ransomware group have exploited a Windows Common Log File System flaw in zero-day attacks to gain SYSTEM privileges and deploy malware on compromised systems. The targets include organizations across various sectors, including IT, real estate, finance, software, and retail.
Windows system under cyberattack

Considering this matter for Digital Journal is Aditya Sood, VP of Security Engineering and AI Strategy at the firm Aryaka.

Looking into the event, Sood describes: “The Play ransomware gang has exploited a Windows system flaw in zero-day attacks that allowed them to gain SYSTEM privileges and deploy malware on compromised systems. The targets include U.S. information technology and real estate organizations, the Venezuelan financial sector, a Spanish software organization, and the Saudi Arabian retail sector.”

Looking at the hackers in greater detail, Sood distills: “Given that this group is known for double extortion attacks, where its members pressure victims into paying ransoms to avoid having their stolen data leaked online, impacted organizations must be especially watchful. This incident underscores how operational downtime from ransomware can have far-reaching consequences, not just for the affected organization but also for the communities that rely on its services.”

Focusing on the innate weaknesses, Sood pulls out: “Zero-day vulnerabilities are a significant concern because they exploit unknown flaws in software.”

Recommending what businesses need to consider, leads Sood to highlight: “Organizations need to develop proactive and reactive security strategies to combat attacks. To minimize the impact of ransomware, it is important that organizations implement swift containment strategies including network segmentation, virtual local area network (VLAN) quarantining, and zero-trust network access (ZTNA). These measures are critical in restricting the lateral movement of ransomware, limiting its spread, and minimizing downtime. The persistent nature of these attacks further reinforces the need for robust network defences, proactive security protocols, and well-maintained isolated backups to protect against increasingly sophisticated ransomware campaigns.”

Iran Nobel winner released on bail for medical treatment: supporters


By AFP
May 10, 2026


Mohammadi has spent much of the past two decades in and out of prison for her activism - Copyright NARGES MOHAMMADI FOUNDATION/AFP/File -

Stuart Williams

Iranian authorities on Sunday released Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi on bail following growing alarm over her health and she has already been transferred to Tehran for medical treatment, her supporters said.

After 10 days of hospitalisation in Zanjan in northern Iran where she had been serving her sentence, Mohammadi “has been granted a sentence suspension on heavy bail”, her foundation said in a statement, without detailing the amount.

It added she had been transferred by ambulance to a hospital in Tehran “to be treated by her own medical team”.

Her supporters had last week warned that Mohammadi, who won the 2023 prize in recognition of her decades of campaigning for human rights in Iran, was at risk of dying on prison after suffer two suspected heart attacks behind bars in Zanjan.

“Narges Mohammadi’s life hangs in the balance,” her Paris-based husband Taghi Rahmani said in a statement.

“While she is currently hospitalised following a catastrophic health failure, a temporary transfer is not enough. Narges must never be returned to the conditions that broke her health,” he added.

Her foundation said Mohammadi needed specialised care and added that “we must ensure she never returns to prison to face the 18 years remaining on her sentence”.

Her Iranian lawyer Mostafa Nili, writing on X, confirmed she has been transferred to Tehran earlier Sunday “following an order halting her sentence for medical treatment”.



– ‘Unrecognisable’ –



Mohammadi, 54, who has spent much of the past two decades in and out of prison for her activism, was arrested most recently in December after denouncing the Islamic republic at a funeral for a lawyer.

Already suffering from a heart condition, she had two suspected heart attacks, one on March 24 and another on May 1, in prison in Zanjan, according to her supporters.

After the most recent incident, she was rushed to hospital in Zanjan for treatment but remained under constant guard.

Her Paris based-lawyer Chirinne Ardakani said last week Mohammadi has lost 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) in prison, has difficulty speaking and is currently “unrecognisable” from her state before her latest arrest.

Her condition has been affected by the war between Iran and the United States and Israel, with at least three air strikes close to her prison.

Mohammadi strongly backed the 2022-2023 protests sparked by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini but was arrested before the major demonstrations that erupted in January this year.

As well as campaigning against capital punishment and the obligatory headscarf for women, she has also regularly predicted the downfall of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Mohammadi’s twin teenage children Ali and Kiana Rahmani, who live and study in Paris, have now not seen their mother for over a decade. They received the Nobel prize on her behalf while she was in jail.

Climate risks fuel insurance costs, squeezing US households even inland


ByAFP
May 10, 2026


Tony Dunn says his homeowners' insurance has surged almost 30 percent in cost since Hurricane Helene - Copyright AFP Peter Zay

Beiyi SEOW

After Tony Dunn lost his home in a California wildfire, he moved to mountainous North Carolina to avoid more climate disasters. But his neighborhood was devastated in a hurricane six years later — and insurance costs are climbing.

He is among a growing number of US homeowners feeling the pinch from insurance as disasters linked to climate change reach them more frequently, even away from the coast.

Dunn, 69, counts himself as lucky that his new home was not damaged in Hurricane Helene as his neighborhood was wrecked.

But that has not stopped his homeowners’ insurance premiums from surging almost 30 percent to nearly $4,400 a year since Helene in 2024.

“It was a bit of a shock when we got the insurance bill last year,” Dunn told AFP.

He worries about further increases but said: “As much as it costs, you don’t want to be without insurance.”

After he and his wife lost their home in the 2018 California Camp Fire, which claimed 85 lives, insurance payouts helped them rebuild their lives.

While coastal states like Florida have tended to face the worst of price hikes, inland areas have also seen costs rise in recent years following hail storms, wind damage and other disasters.

Climate change is enhancing conditions conducive to the most powerful hurricanes and it intensified Helene, a study by the World Weather Attribution scientists network found in 2024.

In Henderson County, where Dunn lives, homeowners paid an average of $1,979 for insurance in 2024, an 86-percent surge from 2018.

Nationally, rates skyrocketed 58 percent over the same period, according to researchers Benjamin Keys and Philip Mulder, who led a study released last year.

The hit to premiums tend to be larger in areas facing growing climate risk.

Dunn worries about people who forgo insurance coverage as costs rise.

“They’re going to have nothing,” he said. “Something needs to be done.”



– ‘A shock’ –



Inland states like Iowa and Nebraska have also seen sharp cost hikes as climate risks mount.

Rates in Nebraska jumped 20 percent between 2023 and 2025, while those of hail-prone Iowa were up 54 percent, according to Insurify.

A 2025 working paper involving researchers from Columbia Business School, Harvard Business School and others found the average US household “under-insured at mortgage origination, with only 70 percent of the rebuilding costs covered by the insurance contract.”

“We are increasingly inching towards a situation where insurers would need to charge much higher prices because climate risk is going up,” said Ishita Sen, one of the researchers behind the paper.

But households’ willingness are “not catching up,” partly due to financial constraints.

Dee Dee Buckner in Marshall, North Carolina, told AFP she has considered doing away with homeowners’ insurance.

“If they go up any higher, I can’t,” said the 60-year-old.

Buckner lost her home during Helene when the French Broad River swelled and flooded downtown Marshall with over 12 feet (3.7 meters) of water.

“There’s been rain from hurricanes that’s come in here before, but nothing of this magnitude ever. It was just a shock to everyone,” she said.



– ‘Climate epiphany’ –



Since Helene, Buckner said she could only afford a “cheap little policy” for homeowners’ insurance.

But she worries it will not cover much loss if disaster struck again.

Her flood insurance — which is separate — now costs $600 more annually and is up to more than $1,700.

Most US homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage, meaning households end up buying a separate policy if they face flood risks.

Keys and Mulder said in their earlier study that reinsurance — insurers themselves buying protection against risk — has bumped up premiums as firms experienced a “climate epiphany.”

Construction cost inflation and other issues are also pushing up premiums.

But climate “is the most important structural factor,” said research economist Sarah Dickerson of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, a think tank.

The North Carolina Rate Bureau, which represents firms that write insurance policies, said it was the single biggest factor driving rate increases.

There are also indirect effects as insurers drop customers in hurricane-prone areas or withdraw from states. That could lower competition and lead to price changes too.

Dickerson calls it a “misnomer” to dub areas low-risk: “Climate-related losses are impacting all parts of the state.”

AI is quietly denying more insurance claims


By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
May 11, 2026


Image: — © AFP Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV

Artificial intelligence is transforming healthcare administration, but not always in ways that benefit providers. AI is re-focusing many aspects of healthcare administration, in its different forms, as follows:

Scheduling and Capacity Management: AI-powered scheduling tools help balance provider availability, patient demand, and equipment capacity, leading to shorter wait times and better resource utilization.

Revenue Cycle Management: AI improves the accuracy and efficiency of revenue cycle management, which is critical for maintaining organizational stability and financial health.

Documentation and Coding: AI automates documentation and coding processes, reducing the burden on healthcare staff and allowing them to focus more on patient care.
Patient Communication: AI enhances patient communication through automated responses and real-time messaging, improving the overall patient experience.

These advancements are part of a broader trend where AI is being integrated into healthcare administration to address the challenges of rising costs, staffing shortages, and increasing regulatory demands. By leveraging AI, healthcare organizations can create more responsive systems that improve patient care and operational efficiency.

Insurance carriers are increasingly using AI systems to process and deny claims. While these systems promise efficiency and fraud detection, they are also facing legal scrutiny over allegations that algorithm-driven decisions lack nuance and fairness.

Such bias can manifest in various ways, such as underestimating the risk of certain patients or disproportionately denying coverage to protected classes. To address these issues, healthcare insurers are beginning to implement improved governance practices, including transparency, explainability, and fairness requirements. These measures aim to ensure that AI systems do not perpetuate existing biases and promote equitable access to healthcare services.

For dental and healthcare practices, the result is delayed payments, higher administrative costs, and mounting financial pressure.

Jordon Comstock, Founder and CEO of BoomCloud, tells Digital Journal that many practice owners are only just realizing how much leverage they have lost.

“Most dentists don’t see the denial pattern at first,” Comstock explains. “They just feel the cash flow tightening. What’s happening behind the scenes is that algorithms are flagging claims at scale. When that happens, practices become reactive instead of strategic.”

The Legal and Ethical Questions

Recent lawsuits against insurers argue that AI systems can produce wrongful denials by failing to account for individual patient circumstances. Plaintiffs claim that these tools may be biased or overly rigid, prioritizing cost control over patient care.

Comstock believes the bigger issue is transparency: “If an AI system denies a claim, who is accountable? Is it the adjuster? The software vendor? The carrier? Practices are left fighting a black box,” he says. “And small practices don’t have entire legal departments to challenge those decisions.”

The Financial Impact on Practices

AI-driven denials create a ripple effect, as Comstock finds:Increased time spent on appeals
Slower reimbursements
Higher overhead due to billing staff workload
Patient frustration when treatments are delayed

For many practices operating on tight margins, this can be destabilizing.

“Dentistry is already navigating staffing shortages and rising supply costs,” Comstock says. “When insurance payments become unpredictable, it exposes how fragile the traditional PPO model really is.”
A Shift Away From Insurance Dependence

Some practices are responding by reducing reliance on insurance altogether. Comstock points to internal case data from practices using membership plan models. In one example, a dental practice launched a $45 per month membership plan and enrolled more than 1,400 patients.

The results:

Monthly recurring revenue of $63,000
Annual recurring revenue of $756,000

Predictable revenue allowed the practice to drop most PPO contracts and significantly reduce administrative burden: “The turning point for many dentists is realizing they can build their own recurring revenue system,” Comstock says. “Insurance should not be the only way patients access care.”

How Practices Can Protect Themselves Now

Comstock advises practices to take immediate steps. This runs:Strengthen documentation and compliance protocols
Understand each insurer’s denial criteria
Train staff on structured appeal processes
Evaluate direct-to-patient membership models

“Appealing claims is defensive,” he concludes. “Building recurring revenue is offensive. The practices that survive long term are the ones that stop relying entirely on third-party reimbursement.”

Middle East conflicts a danger for whales off S.Africa: study


ByAFP
May 10, 2026


A Southern right whale shown off Muizenberg Beach in False Bay, Cape Town on October 11, 2013 - Copyright AFP ANTHONY WALLACE

Clément VARANGES

Conflicts in the Middle East are increasing dangers for whales off South Africa by shifting sea traffic into their habitats and heightening the risks of collision, researchers told AFP.

The rerouting of shipping around South Africa and away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal since late 2023 has “substantially increased” the chances of ship strikes, they said in new research.

South Africa’s southwestern coast supports globally significant populations of whales as well as increasingly busy shipping corridors, according to a paper presented to an International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting this month.

This “extensive spatial overlap” amplifies the chances of collisions, said the paper, presented by University of Pretoria whale unit lead researcher Els Vermeulen.

Some global sea traffic was diverted from the Red Sea route following the November 2023 hijacking by Houthi rebels of a British-owned vehicle carrier, the Galaxy Leader, near Yemen.

Subsequent attacks and the US-Israel conflict with Iran, which has blocked transit through the Strait of Hormuz, have led shipping companies to reroute more of their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope.

Between March 1 and April 24 this year, an average of 89 commercial vessels sailed around southern Africa, compared with 44 over the same period in 2023, according to the International Monetary Fund’s PortWatch monitor.



– No time to adapt –



Environmental scientists, activists and even social media posts have highlighted the dangers of maritime traffic for sea mammals, Vermeulen said.

“There have been videos of people on cargo vessels that were going through high densities of humpback whales,” she told AFP.

“Obviously, their social media post was all about, ‘Wow, look how many nice whales we see’,” she said.

“My heart stopped — you know that they’re striking a couple of whales.”

In such cases, the creatures may be unaware of the dangers because they are preoccupied, for example, by feeding, she said.

“The fastest traffic, which poses the greatest strike risk, has increased by a factor of four,” said Vermeulen.

“The animals haven’t had time to adapt to shipping,” said Chris Johnson, global lead of WWF’s Whale and Dolphin Conservation initiative.

Blue whales off Los Angeles, for example, merely sink below the surface when they hear a ship, he told AFP.

“You assume that, if you hear a loud noise, you leave. But that’s not the case with some species,” he said.

In some cases, changes in whale behaviour — possibly attributable to climate change — were putting them in harm’s way.

Superpods of humpback whales started feeding seasonally off South Africa’s increasingly busy west coast since 2011, said blue economy consultant Ken Findlay, who contributed to the report.

“That is a change that I think plays into an increased risk of ship strikes,” he told AFP.

Collisions, which are largely underreported, are a “major cause of mortality for whales,” according to a 2024 paper in the journal Science.

However, there are few protection measures in place for the species trying to recover since the 1986 International Whaling ban.



– Alternative route –



The report presented to the International Whaling Commission says that modest shifts to push traffic lanes further offshore could reduce strike exposure by 20-50 percent for certain whale species.

Such alternatives would only add about a negligible 20 nautical miles to journeys that sometimes exceed 10,000 nautical miles.

The world’s largest shipping company, Swiss-based MSC, has already rerouted ships off Greece and Sri Lanka to protect whales.

While more research is necessary, one solution could be to alert ships to the presence of whale superpods via an app or radio message, said Estelle van der Merwe, head of the Ocean Action Network NGO.

There is also research into the use of AI-enabled cameras on vessels.

“All available solutions and mitigation measures will be examined,” South Africa’s environment ministry (DFFE) said in a statement to AFP.

“Once the scientific studies and assessments have been completed, the maritime authorities will be on the front line, alongside the DFFE, to chart the way forward,” it said.

Microsoft boss to testify on his role in OpenAI’s founding


ByAFP
May 11, 2026


Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is expected to testify at a landmark trial that has laid bare the internal strife in Silicon Valley over OpenAI and the future of artificial intelligence - Copyright AFP Peter Zay

Benjamin LEGENDRE

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is expected to take the stand Monday in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, to explain emails that revealed how his company funded the ChatGPT creator’s shift from philanthropic organization to for-profit AI giant.

Nadella’s testimony will precede that of OpenAI boss Sam Altman, whose questioning — likely on Tuesday or Wednesday — will be one of the final stages in a closely watched trial before a federal jury in Oakland, California.

The trial has laid bare the internal strife within a circle of elite Silicon Valley engineers, investors and executives in the years leading up to the high-profile launch of the ChatGPT chatbot in 2022.

In his lawsuit, Musk accuses OpenAI of betraying its original nonprofit mission and misappropriating his founding donations totalling $38 million to build an empire valued at over $850 billion.

The Tesla and SpaceX founder is calling for OpenAI to revert to its original status as a nonprofit — a move that would impact its position in the global artificial intelligence race against Anthropic, Google and China’s Deepseek.

OpenAI counters that Musk left voluntarily after failing to seize majority control and has since become the company’s direct competitor through his own AI venture, xAI.

An “advisory” jury is expected to reach a verdict on any actual wrongdoing by the week of May 18.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will then make the final ruling on both liability and remedies after hearing the jury’s opinion. She has indicated she will likely follow their advice.

If Gonzalez Rogers ultimately sides with Musk, OpenAI’s initial public offering could be jeopardized.

– Attracting investment –

On Monday, Musk’s lawyers are expected to try to convince the jury that Microsoft, by investing in OpenAI in 2019, knew it was helping divert a nonprofit foundation from its original purpose.

He will rely on recently disclosed Microsoft emails from January 2018 to demonstrate that the tech giant only opened its checkbook once a profit appeared possible.

In the emails, Nadella consulted his executives about a discount granted to OpenAI to use the computing power of Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-computing platform.

“Overall I can’t tell what research they are doing and how if shared with us it could help us get ahead,” Nadella wrote. “From what Elon is telling everyone… he feels Open AI is at verge of some big AGI (artificial general intelligence) breakthroughs.”

Skepticism predominated at the time, with Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott fearing OpenAI might “storm off to Amazon in a huff.”

In the months that followed, cash-strapped OpenAI established a for-profit subsidiary to attract investments, rather than relying solely on donations.

In 2019, a year and a half after turning its back on the startup, Microsoft finally invested $1 billion. It would ultimately inject $13 billion in total, a stake now valued at $228 billion — 17 times the initial investment.

The trial has already heard gripping testimony.

Last week, co-founder Greg Brockman — whose stake in OpenAI is valued at $30 billion — came under fire about his 2017 diary entries including one in which he appeared keen on “making money for us.”

Musk’s lawyers seized on the entries to portray Brockman as a calculating opportunist.

Brockman also told lawyers that Musk physically threatened him in 2017 after Musk was refused absolute control of OpenAI.

Musk on Wednesday announced a major partnership with Anthropic, OpenAI’s top rival, to allow it to use the compute capacity at SpaceX’s largest data center.

Nazi-looted portrait found in home of Dutch SS leader’s family: art sleuth

By AFP
May 11, 2026


The painting is part of the world-famous Goudstikker collection - Copyright AFP Handout, Arthur BRAND

Richard CARTER

An artwork plundered by the Nazis from the world-famous Goudstikker collection has surfaced in the family of a notorious SS collaborator in the Netherlands, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand told AFP Monday.

“Portrait of a Young Girl”, by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, had likely been hanging for decades in the home of descendants of Hendrik Seyffardt, Brand said, describing it as “the most bizarre case of my entire career”.

The case has drawn parallels to a find that made global headlines in 2025, when an 18th-century Nazi-looted painting — also from the collection of late Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker — featured in a property ad in Argentina.

In the Dutch case, Brand said he was approached by a man who had recently uncovered two horrifying secrets: he was a descendant of Seyffardt, and his family had displayed the looted art for years.

This family member, who wished to remain anonymous, told Brand he saw the painting hanging in the hallway of the granddaughter of Seyffardt, who was assassinated by Dutch resistance fighters in 1943.

Seyffardt, one of the highest-ranking Dutch collaborators with the Nazis, commanded a Waffen-SS unit of Dutch volunteers on the Eastern Front.

The New York Times splashed news of his death on its front page in 1943, and a lavish Nazi state funeral was held for him in The Hague, complete with a wreath sent by Adolf Hitler.

According to Brand, Seyffardt’s granddaughter told the family member the painting was “Jewish looted art, stolen from Goudstikker. It is unsellable. Don’t tell anyone.”

But the family member wanted the story to go public, so contacted Brand, who has made a name for himself cracking numerous high-profile cases of stolen art.

This family member told De Telegraaf daily: “I feel ashamed. The painting should be returned to the heirs of Goudstikker.”

The grandmother, quoted by the Dutch daily, said the family was discussing whether the painting should be returned to the Goudstikker heirs, and denied knowing it was looted.

“I received it from my mother. Now that you confront me like this, I understand that Goudstikker’s heirs want the painting back. I didn’t know that,” she was quoted as saying.



– ‘Truly tops everything’ –



Brand launched his own investigation. The painting has a Goudstikker label on the back and the number 92 carved into the frame.

He searched the archives of an auction in 1940 where part of the looted Goudstikker collection went under the hammer and found item number 92: “Portrait of a Young Girl” by Toon Kelder.

Hermann Goering, a top Nazi official, plundered Goudstikker’s entire collection when the art dealer fled to England in 1940.

Brand surmises that the Dutch collaborator Seyffardt acquired the painting at the 1940 auction and it was then passed down throughout the generations.

Lawyers for the Goudstikker heirs confirmed to Brand that this painting was looted and have called for its return.

The family member who contacted Brand also wants the painting returned to the Goudstikker heirs, but the police are powerless as the theft has passed the statute of limitations.

The Dutch Restitution Committee, which advises on looted Nazi art, is also hamstrung as it cannot compel private individuals to return artworks.

“The family member sees public exposure as the only way to hopefully return the painting to the Goudstikker heirs, where it rightfully belongs,” Brand told AFP.

Brand, who has been nicknamed the “Indiana Jones of the Art World” for his extraordinary finds, said this surpassed anything he had uncovered before.

“I have recovered Nazi-looted art from World War II before, including pieces in the Louvre, the Dutch Royal Collection, and numerous museums,” he said.

“But discovering a painting from the famous Goudstikker collection, in the possession of the heirs of a notorious Dutch Waffen-SS general, truly tops everything.”

Groundbreaking: ‘Controlled’ quakes triggered under Swiss Alps


ByAFP
May 11, 2026


ETH Zurich professor of geology Domenico Giardini inside the BedrettoLab - Copyright AFP Ennio LEANZA

Nina LARSON

Researchers have made the ground shake in southern Switzerland, triggering thousands of tiny earthquakes in a monitored setting, as they seek to discover seismicity insights that could reduce risks.

“It was a success!” said Domenico Giardini, one of the lead researchers on the project, as he inspected a crack in the rock wall lining a narrow tunnel far below the Swiss Alps.

Wearing a fluorescent orange jumpsuit and helmet, the geology professor at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) switched on his headlight to get a better look.

“We had seismicity,” he said excitedly, explaining that the goal was “to understand what happens at depth when the Earth moves”.

Giardini was standing in the BedrettoLab carved out in the middle of a narrow 5.2-kilometre (3.2-mile) ventilation tunnel leading to the Furka railway tunnel.

Reached by specially adapted electric vehicles that slide through the dank darkness along concrete slabs laid over a muddy dirt floor, the deep underground laboratory is the ideal location to create and study earthquakes, Giardini said.

“It is perfect, because we have a kilometre and a half of mountain on top of us… and we can look very close at the faults, how they move, when they move, and we can make them move ourselves,” he told AFP.

– ‘Earthquake machine’ –

Typically, researchers seeking to study earthquakes place sensors near known faults and wait.

In the BedrettoLab, by contrast, researchers filled a pre-selected fault with sensors and other instruments, and then sought to trigger movement.

For the experiment, dubbed Fault Activation and Earthquake Rupture (FEAR-2), dozens of scientists from across Europe spent four days in late April injecting 750 cubic metres of water into boreholes drilled into the tunnel’s rock walls, aiming to provoke a magnitude-1 earthquake.

“We don’t create a new fault… We only facilitate that it moves,” Giardini said.

During the experiment, no people were in the tunnel for safety reasons, with everything managed remotely from the ETH Zurich lab in northern Switzerland.

When AFP visited the Zurich lab a day into the experiment, scientists were excitedly discussing the first signs of seismicity on the monitors.

“This is kind of pushing the frontier of science,” said Ryan Schultz, a seismologist specialised in man-made earthquakes.

The excitement was interrupted by a sudden power cut in the tunnel that sent the scientists in Zurich scrambling for answers.

“We have our earthquake machine… Now we have to play with the parameters,” said Frederic Massin, a French seismologist and technical expert, as he studied his screen for clues to what had caused the outage.

The glitch was short-lived and pumping soon resumed.

– 8,000 earthquakes –

In the end, some 8,000 small seismic events were induced along the targeted fault, but also, surprisingly, along other faults running perpendicular to the main one, sparking local magnitudes ranging from -5 to -0.14.

“We did not reach the target magnitude that we had set, but we reached just below,” Giardini said.

That alone was a huge success, he insisted, pointing out that although there had been previous efforts to create tiny earthquakes in lab settings, it was “never at this scale and never this deep”.

“It’s simply never been tried.”

The findings, he said, would help determine the best injection angles for reaching magnitude 1 at the BedrettoLab when researchers next give it a try in June.

Magnitudes on the Richter scale are measured logarithmically, with each whole number increase representing ten times more in measured amplitude.

Magnitudes below zero are still palpable. Anyone standing near the fault during the largest triggered quakes, at -0.14, would have felt an acceleration of “1.5 G”, or 1.5 times the standard acceleration due to gravity, Giardini said.

They would have flown “in the air with a big jump”, he explained.

– ‘Safe’ –

Nothing was felt at the surface, and Giardini stressed that by lubricating an existing fault, the team was adding only “about one percent of what is the natural risk”.

The experiment, he insisted, was completely “safe”.

Giardini explained the importance of the research, stressing: “If we master how to produce quakes of a certain size, then we know how not to produce them.”

This was particularly important in connection with underground activities like excavation and extraction, he said, pointing for instance to quakes triggered by disposal of wastewater from the fracking industry in Texas.

He also highlighted South Korea’s 5.4-magnitude Pohang quake in November 2017, triggered by water injections at the country’s first experimental geothermal power plant.

“Without realising it, they started injecting and initiating induced seismicity on a large fault, (creating) a very serious quake,” Giardini pointed out.

“We’re not saying we should not go underground,” he insisted.

“We need to learn how to do it more safely.”

Canada spins off its only compound semiconductor lab


By Digital Journal Staff
May 11, 2026


Photo courtesy of the National Research Council Canada / Conseil national de recherches Canada

The federal government announced last week that it will spin off the National Research Council’s Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (CPFC) into a commercial entity, bringing private capital into the only end-to-end pure play compound semiconductor facility in North America.

The CPFC, based in Ottawa, has spent 20 years working with companies on the design, fabrication, and testing of compound semiconductor wafers. Its components turn up in AI data centres, defence systems, quantum technologies, and telecommunications equipment.

The spin-off is meant to scale that work faster than government structures typically allow, with the goal of creating high-quality jobs, and expanding the supply chain of Canada’s photonic manufacturing capabilities.

Photonics technology is at the heart of Canada’s plan to build up advanced manufacturing sectors and sovereign capabilities, preserve economic resilience, and bring leadership to the global compound semiconductor industry.

As AI compute demand grows, photonic devices are becoming a practical answer to the heat and power problems stacking up inside large data centres. The global AI market, valued at more than $338 billion CAD in 2025, is projected to grow up to 35% annually through 2033.

“Spinning off the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre will strengthen Canada’s leadership in photonics innovation,” says Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly.

“This will attract private-sector investment and create new opportunities for Canadian companies to expand the development of critical technologies that protect our sovereignty and drive productivity and economic growth.”

The government hasn’t disclosed a timeline or named prospective investors. Budget 2025 had already flagged that Ottawa would explore private capital options for the CPFC, so the announcement formalizes a direction that’s been in the works. The facility will stay Canadian-anchored, an explicit condition in the announcement.

Final Shots

Photonic components are already inside AI data centres, defence systems, quantum tech, and telecom infrastructure. The CPFC makes the wafers that make those possible.

Private capital is meant to get Canadian SMEs faster access to fabrication services, something the NRC model hasn’t been able to deliver at speed.

Photonics technology is a key part of Canada’s plan to build up advanced manufacturing sectors and sovereign capabilities.