Nature reports that organizations calling themselves the European Academy of Engineering, the Austrian Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence have been electing prominent researchers, including Columbia University's Julia Hirschberg, to memberships and leadership roles they never agreed to hold. Hirschberg says she was listed as a rotating chairperson on the EAE website despite never accepting the position, and the group's secretariat told Nature he had "inferred" her consent from an email exchange that contained no such agreement.
nature.com
· 2026-09-25
ASML executive Frank Heemskerk said the company sold no lithography systems to European customers in 2026, down from 1% of revenue in 2025 and 5% in 2024. He attributed this to a lack of new chip factory investment in Europe and said ASML is in talks with EU officials, including Ursula von der Leyen, about boosting demand for European-made chips.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-24
Apple executive chairman Tim Cook met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss the proposed EU Kids Act. Von der Leyen said on X that the two agreed on the importance of privacy, safety and security for children online, part of a wider push by the bloc on child safety regulation.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-22
Polymarket has reportedly held talks with the European Commission, ESMA and the UK's FCA to be regulated under MiFID financial rules rather than gambling law. The prediction-market platform hopes this reclassification would let it reverse bans imposed by Spain and France, which currently require it to hold a gambling license to operate.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-22
Verda, a Finland-based AI cloud infrastructure company, closed an oversubscribed $189 million Series B round led by Emergence Capital, with backing from MUFG Innovation Partners, Supermicro, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance, Lifeline Ventures, 6 Degrees Capital, byFounders, Tesi, and several angel investors. The round pushes Verda's total funding past $450 million in combined equity and debt, and values the company at unicorn status, making it one of Europe's newest billion-dollar startups.
verda.com
· 2026-09-22
The European Commission has proposed requiring data centers with over 500 kW capacity to disclose their energy and water usage through a standardized rating system, similar to appliance energy labels. The rules would not cap power or water consumption but would require operators to report water use relative to local water stress and disclose whether they recycle waste heat back into local energy systems.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-21
The Czech Republic has become the seventh European country to approve Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system, with Tesla saying it will soon roll out availability to Czech drivers. Regulators based their decision on the Dutch RDW's earlier provisional approval from April, after reviewing how the system handles traffic lights, speed limits and driver attention monitoring.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-21
Researchers have formally described Leopardus tilcayo, a small spotted feline native to South America, marking the first new cat species identified by science in over a century. Genetic analysis places it within the tiger cat lineage, distinguishing it from previously known relatives despite its similar leopard-like markings.
nature.com
· 2026-09-21
The European Commission unveiled a plan to bar children under 13 from social media, allowing parent-supervised accounts for ages 13 to 15. To enforce this, Brussels has built its own free, open-source age-verification app, being piloted in Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain, with full EU rollout expected by end of 2026.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-20
The European Commission unveiled the EU Kids Act, a proposal that would ban social media accounts for children under 13, mandate age verification, and force companies like Meta, Google, YouTube and Roblox to prove their platforms are safely designed. President Ursula von der Leyen said the law shifts the burden of proof onto platforms and gives parents more control over children's online experiences. The measure still needs to go through debate and a vote before becoming law.
cnet.com
· 2026-09-18
Researchers have long noted that about 1,000 Ancient Greek words—including labyrinthos, elaia, and names like Odysseus, Athens, and Corinth—cannot be traced to Proto-Indo-European or any known neighboring tongue. A newsletter from linguist Danny Hieber revisits this puzzle, arguing these terms likely survive from a lost 'Pre-Greek' substrate language spoken in the region before Greek speakers arrived.
linguisticdiscovery.com
· 2026-09-18
At the first International Space Summit in Paris on September 10, European leaders including Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron called for the continent to build its own launch and crewed spaceflight capacity rather than relying on NASA and firms like SpaceX. The event took on added significance after reports that the White House discouraged US companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin from attending, which one former satellite executive called a wake-up call.
nature.com
· 2026-09-18
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