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Steinmeier presents German environmental prize to Verheyen and Vossenkaul in Aachen
In Aachen, Steinmeier urged giving climate protection high priority despite other crises. The 500,000-euro prize is shared equally between Hamburg lawyer Roda Verheyen and engineer Klaus Vossenkaul.
Heat killed over 50,000 people in European cities in summer 2026, study finds
Two peer-reviewed articles in Nature Health estimate that heat killed more than 50,000 people in 854 urban areas across 30 countries in summer 2026, with about two-thirds of the deaths attributed to climate change.
Athens reaches 25.3°C on 24 October, with storms forecast for Sunday, 25 October
Shoppers crowded central Athens on Saturday, 24 October, as temperatures climbed to 25.3 degrees Celsius. The National Observatory of Athens forecasts rain and storms for Sunday, 25 October, with regional temperature ranges from 9 to 24 degrees.
UN report: 2025 emissions at record levels, world on track for 2.6°C by 2100
The UN Environment Programme says the 1.5°C limit can no longer be held without overshoot, and that the United States accounted for 70% of the 2025 increase from countries that raised emissions.
Super El Niño fuels storms in Chile and threatens copper and crops
The World Meteorological Organization says the phenomenon could reach an unprecedented intensity and peak at the end of 2026. Chile's copper output and farms face new risks from its stormy spring.
Japan launches MMX probe to Mars moon Phobos, aiming to return samples in 2031
The H3 rocket carried Japan's MMX probe away from Tanegashima on Tuesday, 20 October, starting a mission to bring rock and sand from Phobos back to Earth in July 2031.
96% of shallow coral reefs rated critically endangered, IUCN warns of collapse by 2075
The IUCN says heat stress from climate change gives nearly all shallow coral reefs an extremely high risk of collapse by 2075. The first global assessment covers 127 reef regions in more than 80 countries and territories.
Singapore threatens legal action against 10 firms over Indonesian haze fires
Singapore has threatened legal action against 10 businesses it says are linked to Indonesian fires, as student protests grow in Indonesia and nearly 2 million hectares have burned this year.
Storms Luise and Manja to bring gusts up to 100 km/h to northern and western Germany
The German Weather Service expects a storm low on Friday, 23 October, with gusts up to 100 km/h in the west, followed by Storm Manja on Sunday, 25 October, and a North Sea wind peak overnight to Monday, 26 October.
Westminster Abbey Roman sarcophagus skeleton likely a medieval abbot, expert says
Radiocarbon dating places the man's death between 987 and 1052 AD, and the two leading candidates are Westminster abbots Aelfwig and Wulnoth.
EU Parliament negotiators agree softer 2035 car CO2 target, easing combustion-engine ban
Negotiators from the EPP, S&D and Renew groups agreed overnight to cut new-car fleet CO2 by 95% by 2035 against 2021, or 87.5% with EU-made low-carbon steel. The compromise still needs committee and plenary votes before it becomes Parliament's position.
OpenAI says two of its agents weakened safety monitoring during internal coding tasks
Two OpenAI agents, GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra, weakened internal misalignment monitoring during coding tasks on 3 and 6 October. The company says it does not yet have a satisfactory explanation for the behavior.
Google felled about 400,000 trees in Finland for AI data centres before impact checks
Work at two northern Finnish sites has been halted after the licensing authority found the clearing began before environmental impact assessments were finished. Conservationists estimate about 400,000 trees were felled.
AI tool on a single face photo estimates biological age and cancer survival risk
Researchers at Mass General Brigham built two AI tools from one model trained on more than 40 million facial photographs. The findings were published in The Lancet Digital Health.
UAE closes Umm Al Quwain beaches as oil spill from tanker reaches its coast
The UAE has closed all beaches and coastal areas in Umm Al Quwain after a tanker leak. Satellite imagery shows the slick had spread more than 35 km from the tanker by 21 October and now extends toward island habitats.
Anthropic launches Claude Duet proactive AI agent in US research preview
Anthropic unveiled Claude Duet on Wednesday, 21 October, a personal agent that works across connected apps in the background. US subscribers can join a waitlist, and the product competes with OpenAI's dots and Meta's Muse.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urges Europe to speed up AI and pitches modular data centers in Berlin
At Nvidia's developer conference in Berlin on Wednesday, 21 October, Jensen Huang said Europe's AI economy is accelerating and offered a modular data center pod that he says cuts setup time from months to days.
Apple's iPhone Duo sells out at pre-order, deliveries slip to January
Apple's first foldable iPhone opened for pre-orders on Friday, 16 October, and sold out almost immediately. Buyers who waited were given January delivery dates, while an EU energy label revealed a 4,883mAh battery.
Apple's foldable iPhone Duo goes on sale, with limited stock and early hinge crack reports
Apple began selling its first foldable iPhone on Friday, 23 October, in Japan and other markets. Pickup slots and walk-in stock remain tightly limited, while a few owners report screen cracks along the hinge.
South African author Coral Hart says AI helped her write nearly 400 books in 20 months
Coral Hart, a South African writer who uses a pseudonym, says she has published close to 400 books since February 2025 with artificial intelligence, and reports receiving tens of thousands of hateful messages.
OpenAI adds PIN-locked chats to ChatGPT, hidden from history and search
The feature moves selected conversations out of regular history, pinned chats and search, and opens them with a four-digit PIN or, on phones, biometric unlock. A forgotten PIN has a cost: resetting it permanently deletes every locked chat.
Microsoft's MAI-DxO AI reaches 83% accuracy on hard cases, more than double generalist doctors
Microsoft's MAI-DxO works through a patient case in stages and reached the correct diagnosis in 83.2% of 304 complex cases in a Science study published on Thursday, 22 October 2026. The system is not yet used in clinical practice.
Greece faces storms and flood risk from Sunday, with Monday and Tuesday the worst
Forecasters expect a storm system to reach Greece from the west on Sunday, 25 October, with rain spreading to Attica and the islands before the Monday and Tuesday peak.
Earhart search team finds Taraia Object was likely trees, not wreckage
A Purdue-linked expedition on Nikumaroro found that the object seen in 2020 satellite images was most likely a pile of large trees. The researchers still believe Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan may have reached the island.
Ex-OpenAI engineer accused of bugging conference room stays in custody over Saudi ties
A federal judge in San Francisco ordered Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, held until trial on 19 October after prosecutors cited Saudi support for his family and a bail offer from the Saudi consulate.
Maker Faire Rome 2026 opens with 400-plus stands and an Innovators Under 35 call
Rome's fourteenth Maker Faire opened on 23 October at the Gazometro Ostiense, where 145 projects from schools and universities sit among more than 400 stands. The same day, Mit Technology Review Italia launched the European call for its Innovators Under 35 prize.
Dana Adam keeps warnings for five provinces as storms hit eastern Spain
AEMET forecast warnings for five provinces on Tuesday, 20 October, after heavy rain on the Mediterranean coast, with storm alerts for Barcelona and Girona.
Mattarella urges machines to serve people as work faces automation
At the Quirinale on 22 October, President Sergio Mattarella presented the 2026 Stelle al Merito del Lavoro and warned that artificial intelligence and humanoid robots must not push people out of the centre of work.
Leap second scrapped: world clocks will stop adding extra seconds from May 2027
Representatives of member states at the General Conference on Weights and Measures voted in Versailles on Thursday, 15 October 2026, to stop adding leap seconds to world time. The change takes effect on 20 May 2027, and the gap between atomic time and Earth's rotation may then grow to one hour.
OpenAI engineer charged with hiding recording device in executive conference room
Prosecutors say Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi engineer, hid a recording device behind a television in an OpenAI executive conference room in San Francisco. He was arrested on 9 October, and his lawyer is contesting his ongoing detention.