Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan discussed the results of Zelensky's recent visit to Armenia and priority areas for further bilateral cooperation during a phone call.
A panel of judges has found that five members of the 2018 World Junior hockey team violated Hockey Canada’s code of conduct and has recommended extending suspensions for four of them, while immediately reinstating one player.
A jersey logo for Hockey Canada is seen as team Canada practices during their final training camp session in Petawawa, Ont., Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
The vessel was crowded far beyond capacity and was hit by strong waves, the police said. While dozens have been rescued, the search continues for an unknown number of missing people.
Environ 150 chantiers de construction sont ralentis ou paralysés par la grève des ingénieurs du gouvernement, estime l’Association des constructeurs de routes et grands travaux du Québec (ACRGTQ).
Google renouvelle sa gamme de téléphones avec les Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL et Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Cette année, les changements matériels restent relativement modestes. Google concentre plutôt ses efforts sur la photographie, l’intelligence artificielle et plusieurs fonctions destinées à simplifier l’utilisation quotidienne. Les quatre modèles seront livrés à compter […]
Russia has ceased producing its Geran-3 jet-powered attack drone, Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) told the Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi. The agency estimates Russian industry now makes about 3,000 newer Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones per month.
Russia is shifting toward faster jet drones because Ukraine’s low-cost interceptors have become more effective against slower Shaheds. The Geran-4 and Geran-5 leave defenders less time to react, requiring faster interceptors or short-range air defenses. At the reported production rate, these newer Geran models, previously used in limited numbers, could become a regular feature of Russian attacks.
HUR said Russia has established serial assembly of the two newer models at the Alabuga complex in Tatarstan, with other Russian companies supplying components. The agency also said Russia’s Defense Ministry wants to expand Alabuga’s capacity. Construction began in May. Satellite imagery showed large-scale work by early July 2026, although the purpose of the new buildings remains unknown.
From Geran-3 to newer jet drones
Russia first used Geran-3 drones in large numbers during a combined nighttime attack on Ukraine on 30 July 2025. At least eight flew alongside propeller-driven Shaheds and decoys. The model retained the Geran-2 airframe but replaced its piston engine with a Chinese Telefly JT80 turbojet. HUR gave it a speed of 300–370 kilometers per hour and a range of up to 1,000 kilometers.
In May, then-Defense Ministry adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said Ukrainian defenses stopped 95% of incoming Shaheds during the most recent documented strike and predicted Moscow would produce more jet-powered Geran variants.
The newer Geran-4 has a more robust airframe than the Geran-3 and is designed for high-speed flight and maneuvers. It can reach 500 kilometers per hour.
The larger Geran-5 carries a roughly 90-kilogram warhead and has a stated range of up to 1,000 kilometers. HUR has said Russia may equip it with R-73 air-to-air missiles, potentially threatening aircraft sent to intercept it.
The Chinese engines that Russia itself can't build
The Geran line combines Iranian designs, Russian assembly, and imported technology. HUR described the Geran-3 as a localized version of Iran’s Shahed-238. It found 45 foreign components inside, including parts from the United States, China, Switzerland, Germany, Britain, and Japan.
Russia depends on China for the turbojet engines in newer Geran models. HUR deputy chief Vadym Skibitskyi told RBC-Ukraine that Russia remains fully dependent on Chinese turbojet engines for the Geran-4 and Geran-5. Each costs about $35,000–$40,000, he said.
A Chinese XK-F358 mesh radio recovered from a Geran-5 also helps Russian drones resist jamming. Its manufacturer remains outside the US, EU, UK, and Ukrainian sanctions, according to a review by Euromaidan Press.
A Ukrainian court sentenced the former chief engineer of Lyman’s locomotive depot to 15 years in prison with property confiscation for helping Russia target the frontline city, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said on 11 August. Investigators report he sent a Russian handler the locations of Ukrainian positions intended for guided-bomb and artillery strikes.
Lyman blocks Russia’s northern route toward Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which are part of Ukraine's fortress belt in the Donbas. As attacks on supply lines intensify, information about Ukrainian positions can help Russia direct bombs and artillery. The case fits a broader pattern of Russian intelligence recruiting people inside Ukraine to locate targets. Russian services have used money and blackmail, including threats against recruits’ families, to secure their cooperation.
According to the SBU, the former engineer traveled around Lyman and its outskirts to record Ukrainian military bases. He marked possible targets on Google Maps, then sent screenshots to a handler in Russia through a messaging app.
The collaborator operated from basement
The agency said an acquaintance whom it described as a “DNR deputy” in occupied Donetsk Oblast connected him with Russian intelligence. The SBU said the man moved into an apartment building’s basement to shelter himself while directing Russian strikes on the community.
SBU officers detained him in Sloviansk in May 2026. The agency said a seized smartphone contained evidence of his reconnaissance and contacts with the Russian side.
The SBU did not identify the man, the court, or any specific strike enabled by his information.
How Russia turns locals into spotters
The Lyman case involved an acquaintance of the former engineer, but Russian services also use money, blackmail, and online platforms to find recruits. The SBU says minors may initially receive simple assignments, such as taking photographs or painting graffiti, before being directed toward more serious sabotage.
Other recruits have allegedly answered Telegram offers of “easy money.” These include a Zaporizhzhia man later convicted of building bombs and a Dnipro suspect accused of activating more than 1,000 Starlink terminals for Russian forces.
Ukraine has prosecuted similar cases before. In November 2024, a court sentenced another Russian agent to 15 years for guiding missile and drone strikes in Zhytomyr Oblast.
More recent cases remain at the allegation stage. The SBU has accused a Kharkiv Oblast man of installing hidden cameras near military sites and a Poltava student of mapping energy facilities while filming air-defense units.
A fairly overtly radical socialist winning around 40% in a primary like this was unthinkable even a few years ago
The left’s insurgency against the Democratic party establishment has hit its first serious bump in the road in Wisconsin. Democratic socialist Francesca Hong entered Tuesday up by big margins in the polls, the huge betting favorite. She left it just a few thousand votes short of the Democratic nomination. What happened, and how, offers extremely important lessons for both the left and the Democratic establishment.
The first is that the party still matters. Its institutions and leaders matter. We saw that power in Democratic primaries in 2020. After Bernie Sanders won the Nevada caucuses and emerged as the frontrunner, party leaders rapidly consolidated around Joe Biden.
Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC. He worked on the data team for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign and is an active member of the Democratic Socialists of America
President Trump made an appearance at his first-ever Patriot Games in Geneva, Ohio, last night. Zolan Kanno-Youngs dialed in Natalie Kitroeff on “The Call” to break down what he was seeing and how sports have become a defining part of Mr. Trump’s presidency.
The Center for Countering Disinformation under Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council analyzed more than 94,000 publications from nearly 24,000 sources as part of a study of Russian information operations concerning prisoners of war, prisoner exchanges, and missing persons, identifying four main destructive Russian narratives.
Kennedy Center had sued Chuck Redd for canceling Christmas Eve concert after Trump renamed institution
A superior court judge in Washington DC has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay more than $250,000 to a musician who canceled a performance at the arts center after the White House announced that Donald Trump’s name would be added to the venue.
Judge Tanya Jones Bosier ordered the Kennedy Center on Monday to pay $252,479.70 in legal fees and costs to attorneys for musician Chuck Redd within 45 days.
Chaque fois que je passe devant la station de TVA à Pointe-au-Père (enfin, ce qu’il en reste…), il y a comme un petit fond de rage qui remonte à la surface.
Opinion de Harold Michaud, journaliste indépendant et chroniqueur- Collaboration spéciale
Depuis que Pierre Karl Péladeau a mis en échec les stations régionales de TVA pour tenter de garder TVA Sports sous son contrôle, j’ai l’impression que nous avons tous perdu quelque chose.
Nous, les gens des régions du Québec, avons perdu un outil important pour raconter qui nous sommes et parler de nos enjeux.
Je sais, certains me diront :
— Harold, tu es un ancien journaliste de Radio-Canada. C’est quoi ton problème? Tu devrais t’en foutre comme d’une défaite en prolongation du Kraken de Seattle contre les Ducks d’Anaheim.
Mais non.
Voyez-vous, je suis un incorrigible régionaliste.
Et je mesure encore davantage ce que nous avons perdu chaque fois que j’écoute un bulletin de nouvelles produit à des kilomètres de chez nous et censé raconter notre réalité.
Ce n’est pas la faute des journalistes d’ici, qui font ce qu’ils peuvent avec une salle de presse réduite au minimum. C’est simplement qu’une région racontée à distance finit inévitablement par perdre un peu de sa voix, de ses nuances et de son identité.
Au lieu de bien raconter ce qui se passe dans notre région, TVA s’acharne à nous présenter, de manière très récurrente, les mêmes messages publicitaires et surtout, la promotion de ses propres émissions.
Et pendant ce temps-là, TVA Sports demeure.
Il faut dire que la couverture du Canadien de Montréal ne me console pas beaucoup. Certains de ses animateurs passent parfois tellement de temps à rire de leurs propres farces — qu’ils semblent d’ailleurs être les seuls à comprendre — qu’on finit presque par oublier qu’il y a un match de hockey en cours.
Et voilà maintenant que CBC ne diffusera plus les matchs du samedi soir dès cet automne. Moi qui pouvais au moins éviter TVA Sports de temps à autre et regarder le hockey dans la langue de Shakespeare…
Bref, à force de vouloir sauver le hockey à TVA, on a carrément sorti les régions de l’alignement. Une véritable mise en échec par derrière : sale, dangereuse et qui mérite bien plus qu’une simple inconduite de partie.
Marque finale : PKP 1 — téléspectateurs des régions 0.
Twitch is going to train Amazon’s AI models on streamers’ content unless they deliberately go into their settings and opt out, potentially sweeping up a wealth of streamers who either don’t hear about the announcement or follow steps stop it.
On Wednesday Twitch announced a new setting that lets streamers opt-out of the training. The announcement confirms rumors that have percolated over the last week: It is using streamers to train Amazon’s AI models.
The new toggle says, "Allow your channel content to train generative AI content models at Amazon." All users are opted in by default. It's located at the bottom of users' security settings page.
"If you opt-out and decide to not allow your channel content to train Generative AI content models, your streams, VODs, clips, stream chats, and pictures and text on your channel will not be used in future training of a model developed by Amazon whose purpose is to generate or synthesize text, audio, images, or video," Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, says in its new FAQ section about generative AI.
"Opting-out of training generative AI content models does not opt you out of all AI or machine learning uses at Twitch," Twitch's support page says. "For example, Twitch will still run AutoMod, which helps keep our community safe, but does not retain your data and use it to produce content. Twitch may also still use your data to run AI-supported features, like captions, which automatically generate captions for your Clips but does not retain your stream or your clips to train a model that can generate new content."
Twitch is positioning this setting as a favor to users. "We've added a setting that lets you opt out of having your channel content used to train generative AI content models across Amazon," the platform posted on X Wednesday. In practice, Twitch makes this choice for users unless they know about the new setting and proactively turn it off. This was the case on my own Twitch account, and users on social media are reporting the same.
Twitch executives have been talking about using streamers' content to train AI for years. In 2024, Twitch Chief Monetization Officer Mike Minton said Twitch has a “role to play” in training Amazon's generative AI models, adding that Twitch content was already being used “in a prototyping, not in any kind of production scale, capacity.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Twitch's publicly available press email repeatedly bounced.
À quelques semaines du début de la campagne électorale, la CSN demande aux partis politiques de s’engager à augmenter substantiellement le financement de l’enseignement supérieur et de l’éducation.
A cheap currency helps finance the US tech boom. Washington is intervening because allies matter only when they are useful
Japan’s yen has slid back towards 160 to the dollar, despite last month’s extraordinary US-Japanese intervention. Traders are betting that its role as a cheap funding pipeline for global finance will continue. Earlier this month the Trump administration stepped in to help Tokyo stabilise its currency. “Japan’s been very good to us, with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor,” Donald Trump explained. More help is likely to be on its way.
But this is less a rescue of the yen than an attempt by Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, to preserve a cash spigot that benefits the US. Japan’s ultra-cheap money has become a global funding utility: bankers borrow yen, sell them for dollars and buy higher-returning US assets, notably tech shares. Rising American stock markets support collateral and investment. Japan’s “carry trade” is one of the reasons Wall Street can lever hundreds of billions into AI. Research suggests AI sucks up more than 1% of US GDP.
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The agency that polices the industry does not have the staffing, the legal tools or the will to broadly crack down on wagers that are easily manipulated, experts say.
Kalshi, a leading prediction market, referred 32 possible insider traders to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the three months ending in June.
We start this week with Jason’s article about Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for Meta’s AI agents. They don't sound fun at all. After the break, Emanuel tells us how a company offering “100% human-written” medical research is actually all AI. In the subscribers-only section, Joseph explains why some cities are ditching Flock then immediately replacing those cameras with Axon ones.
Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.
En RDC, l’épidémie d’Ebola approche du bilan le plus meurtrier jamais enregistré dans le pays. Le virus a déjà fait 2 011 morts sur 4 381 cas confirmés, contre 2 300 décès lors de l’épidémie de 2018-2020. Les autorités congolaises estiment que le pic n’est pas encore atteint.
Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist running in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor, had a double-digit lead in polls as recently as last week. Then she lost. What happened?
Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, was the front-runner in polls ahead of the Wisconsin Democratic primary for governor. But her bid came up short.
Un avocat en droit public qui enseigne à l’Université d’Ottawa tente de faire invalider la loi qui rend le serment au roi facultatif pour les députés de l’Assemblée nationale.
🇱🇾 En Libye, Fauzi al-Mansouri, chef des renseignements de l’Est a été tué lundi dans un attentat à la voiture piégée à Benghazi. Une attaque qui porte un coup au camp du maréchal Haftar, qui vise à étendre son contrôle sur la Libye.
Justice department asks justices to pause decision that blocked Trump’s order to tighten voting by mail rules
Donald Trump’s administration again asked the US supreme court on Wednesday to intervene to fully implement the president’s executive order restricting the use of mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide control of US Congress.
The US Department of Justice filed a request asking the justices to put on hold a decision made on Tuesday by US district judge Indira Talwani in Boston that blocks the US Postal Service from nationwide enforcement of the directive’s tighter rules for voting by mail.
After his loss in the state’s Republican primary for governor, Mike Lindell, a leading election denier, floated familiar, baseless claims of “anomalies” in his double-digit defeat.
Russian forces attacked three districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region nearly 50 times during the day, damaging several businesses and residential buildings.
Family ‘extremely grateful’ to four-month-old ‘Goosey’ who ran out of fire-billowing building and repeatedly squawked
A pet goose is being credited with helping save a Texas family’s animals after sounding a honking alarm as a fire tore through their barn.
The dramatic moment unfolded on the morning of 4 August in Fort Bend county, where four-month-old Goosey repeatedly squawked outside the burning barn, alerting his owners, the Gerber family, to the danger.
Rumors of plea deal in federal case have been circulating since June for suspect accused of killing Brian Thompson
An unexpected hearing in the federal stalking case against Luigi Mangione has been scheduled, leading to speculation that the alleged United Healthcare CEO assassin was seeking a plea deal that would in turn end a murder prosecution in New York state court beginning next month.
Prosecutors and Mangione’s lawyers filed a joint letter requesting the hearing at 11am on Friday in Manhattan federal court.
À l’occasion de la Journée internationale de la jeunesse, la Coalition Interjeunes a donné le coup d’envoi à sa caravane de mobilisation « Pas de politique jeunesse sans les jeunes », mercredi, devant les locaux de l’organisme Dans la rue, à Montréal.
The agent accused the woman of trying to run him over with her vehicle, a claim she denied. It was the latest tense encounter between a federal agent and a driver.
L'éclipse solaire perturbe les activités de la faune, fait baisser la température et la force du vent. On passe en revue les effets de cette absence momentanée de lumière en plein jour sur l'Environnement.
Russia is turning out its cheap Banderol drone-cruise missile at scale. Russia is capable of producing up to 80 jet-powered weapons a month, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence (HUR) told the defense outlet Militarnyi in response to a query.
The production figure sharpens a threat Ukraine has tracked as the Banderol expands. The missile has a relatively short range of about 500 kilometers, so Russia effectively launches it from Crimea at Odesa. It means Russia can sustain and grow the Banderol strikes on Ukraine's south, a weapon whose ground launcher Ukraine recently found could let Russia fire it without warning and in salvos.
The missile is fast, cheap, and short-range
The Banderol was developed and is made by the Russian company Kronshtadt, reaching a maximum speed of 620 to 650 kilometers per hour and cruising at 520 to 560, with a fragmentation-high-explosive warhead of 114.3 kilograms, of which 49.5 kilograms is explosive.
Its range dictates where it is used. At about 500 kilometers, the Banderol cannot reach far into Ukraine, which is why Russia fires it from occupied Crimea at Odesa, using the peninsula's proximity to strike the southern port city that has borne so much of Russia's missile campaign.
It has launched them at the Kyiv agglomeration to hit Rozetka, Ukraine's largest online retailer.
Banderol's jet propulsion allows speeds that Ukrainian mobile fire teams cannot match with standard ground-based machine guns. Countering the missile requires systems like the Gepard that can track fast-moving targets.
The production runs on Western parts
The 80-a-month figure comes at a cost in effort and imports. To sustain the stated production rate, Russian enterprises work in three shifts, and to make the missiles, Russia uses Western components.
Ukraine's War & Sanctions portal documented over 20 foreign-made components and approximately 20 microchips of foreign origin from 30 different companies in the missile's construction, with a Chinese Swiwin SW800Pro jet engine, available on AliExpress for approximately $16,000, powering the weapon.
Latvia has discovered its first known border tunnel used to enter the country illegally from Belarus, the country’s State Border Guard said on 11 August. Officers intercepted 15 people who had crossed through the underground passage and returned them to Belarus.
Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland accuse Belarus and Russia of directing migrants toward their borders to retaliate for EU sanctions and strain countries supporting Ukraine. Minsk and Moscow deny orchestrating the crossings. Tunnels found in Lithuania and Latvia show organizers adapting to fortified borders, requiring Baltic governments to deploy more personnel and surveillance technology.
The tunnel was about 10 meters from Latvia's fence
Border guards found the group on 10 August in Skrudaliena parish, in Latvia’s southeastern Augšdaugava municipality, and briefed the public on the discovery the following day. The operation involved the State Police, a Lithuanian border-service dog handler, and a rapid-response unit, the Latvian Border Guard said.
While reconstructing the group’s route, officers found the passage near the Silene border post, about 10 meters from Latvia’s fence. The agency said it had received intelligence that a tunnel might be under construction, but had previously found no sign of a breach there.
Riga answered on 11 August 2026 by launching Operation Vilkatis, or “Werewolf,” scheduled to run through the end of August. The government says the operation will improve intelligence-sharing among border guards, police, the military, and security services. It will also expand aerial surveillance and target networks that transport and shelter migrants after they cross.
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The Belarusian tunnel to the EU was almost done. Then Lithuania drilled a hole in exactly the wrong place—for the diggers
Latvia faced 87% of all crossing attempts along the EU-Belarus border by mid-July 2026
Belarus has weaponized migration since 2021, when EU governments accused Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime of bringing people from the Middle East and Africa to the bloc’s frontier in retaliation for sanctions. Belarus denied orchestrating the crisis.
Latvia reported more direct evidence in January 2026. Documents and phones taken from detained migrants linked Belarusian military and border personnel to organized crossings, according to Latvia’s armed forces and Border Guard.
By 13 July, Latvia had recorded 7,791 attempts over 111 consecutive days, 87% of all attempts along the EU-Belarus border by then. Lithuania later found an unfinished tunnel dug from Belarus. Latvia’s tunnel, unlike the unfinished Lithuanian passage, had already been used.
Fustigeant la gestion gouvernementale de l'éclipse partielle de 2026, des personnalités politiques affirment que lors de l’éclipse solaire de 1999, le gouvernement français aurait distribué gratuitement 35 millions de paires de lunettes de protection. Si la mobilisation gouvernementale a été plus importante en 1999 qu'en 2026, plus de la moitié des lunettes avaient cependant été vendues par le secteur marchand.
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