EURONEWS/   María del Carmen Abascal, known to everyone as Maricarmen, is no longer a resident of Retiro in central Madrid. On Wednesday, at 87 years old, she was evicted from the flat at 46 Alcalde Sainz de Baranda Street, where she had lived since 1956.  

This was the fourth attempt to evict her and, this time, court officials went through with it after several postponements. Police cleared hundreds of people who had gathered in an attempt to stop the eviction.  

From the early hours of Wednesday morning, dozens of people had gathered around the entrance to the building, until police set up a cordon blocking access to the press and supporters. At around 10:30 am, after an hour of talks between Maricarmen's lawyer and court officers, it was confirmed that the eviction would go ahead.

Officers then removed protesters by force, and an ambulance parked in front of the doorway, with medics entering the building with a stretcher to take the elderly woman out. According to several Spanish media outlets, activists tried to block the eviction in the street, on the stairwell and inside the flat itself. They were removed by police.  

Her lawyer, Beatriz Duro, made one final attempt at negotiation, asking for a few days so that Maricarmen could find somewhere to live. The company refused to grant any leeway. “They refused to give her a few hours to remove her belongings,” the lawyer complained.  

The roots of the dispute go back almost 70 years. The old-style regulated tenancy was signed by Maricarmen's parents in 1956, with her father as the tenant. After his death, it passed to his wife and, when she died in 2005, there was a second succession in favour of Maricarmen.

The property had belonged to a private family for decades, but it was sold in 2018 and ended up in the hands of Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión S.L., a property company based in Madrid and Valladolid that invests in buildings, homes, land, commercial premises, offices and hotels.

The company argued that the second succession was invalid and that the contract had lapsed. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of the owners in March, overturning a first-instance ruling that had backed Maricarmen.

Maricarmen receives a pension lower than the €2,500 monthly rent demanded by the company, several times higher than her previous rent. Maricarmen, who has a disability, was never able to afford that amount.

Urbagestión is also claiming €10,000 from the Madrid Tenants' Union for damages arising from the campaign in support of Maricarmen.

The first eviction attempt was in October 2025 and was halted by the court the day before. There was another attempt on 2 June this year, which was also postponed at the last minute.  

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights called on the Spanish government to stop the eviction and ensure that Maricarmen had access to adequate housing. The request, made in June, was not enough to prevent the eviction.

In Spain's Congress, Socialist spokesperson Patxi López defended the government's actions and shifted responsibility to Madrid City Council and the regional government, which are responsible for housing, noting that the owners had rejected every offer to buy the flat.

Maricarmen is now leaving the home where she had lived since she was 17 and where her parents died. The case brings to a close, as far as the flat is concerned, a years-long legal battle that made her one of the most recognisable faces of Madrid's housing crisis.

Madrid City Council has sought to defuse the controversy sparked by the eviction, insisting that it had already offered Maricarmen various housing options on previous occasions and during earlier attempts to carry out the eviction.  

The city's mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida also stressed that municipal services had contacted her beforehand. He avoided giving further details out of respect for her privacy.

The City Hall housing department maintains that Maricarmen explicitly rejected every accommodation option offered to her. The same situation was repeated on Wednesday after the eviction, when Samur Social again offered her a place in a residential facility. She declined and ultimately chose to move in with relatives.

EURONEWS/  The Norwegian government says it is aiming to have a plan in place to develop mining facilities at Europe’s largest known rare-earths deposit by the year 2028 at the latest. 

The Fen Complex, around 150 km southwest of Oslo, is estimated to contain 15.9 million tonnes of rare-earth oxides, including neodymium and praseodymium, which are used in powerful magnets for electric vehicles, renewable energy technology and defence equipment.

Environmental concerns have long delayed the project. Surveys in the area identified 78 endangered animal and plant species, including rare beetles, trees, mosses and fungi. 

Rare Earths Norway (REN), the company that owns the extraction rights, has said the mine itself would be “invisible”, with extraction and crushing taking place below ground. However, surface processing facilities would still be required. 

Earlier this year, Norway’s government took over the planning work from the municipality, including the study of alternative locations for surface installations.

“The objective is to have a plan in place by 2028 at the latest, but preferably before then,” Industry Minister Cecilie Myrseth told a press conference on Wednesday.

The government says the Fen Complex could help strengthen European and wider Western supply chains for critical minerals. No rare-earth deposits are currently being mined in Europe, leaving the continent heavily dependent on China for supplies.

Rare earth metals are crucial in the production of products ranging from smartphones and electric cars to fighter jets, and are classified as critical by the European Union.

REN says it hopes to start mining in the first half of the 2030s.

AA.COM.TR/ Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella ordered the immediate militarization of Santa Marta on Tuesday night, deploying troops and launching low-altitude air patrols to regain control of the Caribbean port city following a violent offensive by a powerful narco-paramilitary cartel.

The security crisis erupted after the military killed a senior leader of the Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada (ACSN) along with six associates during an operation in the region. In retaliation, the armed group declared an "armed strike," threatening merchants and drivers to enforce a commercial lockout and transport shutdown across Santa Marta and neighboring Cienaga, local media reported.

The intimidation campaign paralyzed the coastal city of almost 600,000 residents, a major domestic and international tourism hub renowned for its beaches and proximity to Tayrona National Natural Park. Local business representatives estimated that around 95% of commercial establishments remained closed Wednesday morning, while public transit services suspended operations and schools closed.

Throughout Tuesday and into Wednesday, armed men on motorcycles set fire to trucks and buses, engaged in sporadic shootouts with security forces, and forced shopkeepers to pull down their shutters.

President De La Espriella traveled to Santa Marta late Tuesday night, posting video footage on social media showing him walking through heavily guarded streets to reassure residents.

"Those who do not submit will be taken down, and I will not allow them to continue bringing our people to their knees through terror," De La Espriella declared, confirming that three suspects had been arrested in connection with the arson attacks and threats.

In office since August, De La Espriella has pursued a militarized strategy against illegal armed groups, backed by enhanced security cooperation with the US. He emphasized that organizations such as the ACSN, Los Pachenca, and the Gulf Clan would face the full force of state power.

"We are going after all those bandits without mercy," the president said.

The ACSN traces its origins to legacy far-right paramilitary groups that originally formed to fight leftist guerrilla forces in the 1990s and 2000s. Today, the heavily armed criminal network finances its operations through international cocaine trafficking, illegal mining, and systematic extortion.

AA.COM.TR/ Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic criticized Serbia on Tuesday at the UN General Assembly for according official honors to the late convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic, calling the move an affront to justice.

"The military and official honors accorded to Mladic in Serbia were an affront to his victims and to the judgments of international courts," Plenkovic told world leaders during the 81st UN General Debate in New York.

Plenkovic argued that authentic reconciliation across Europe requires confronting historical crimes directly, insisting that states must respect victims and reject the institutional glorification of perpetrators. State participation in events praising Mladic remains "totally incompatible with the values of a union Serbia seeks to join," he added.

He recalled that while Mladic's atrocities culminated in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, his actions began earlier with the bombardment of Croatian cities, civilian murders and the destruction of cultural and industrial infrastructure.

Mladic, widely known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," received a life sentence from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2017 for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-1995 conflict before dying in custody in The Hague in August this year.

Turning to the Middle East, Plenkovic emphasized that the international community must apply the same legal standards to protect civilians and secure unhindered humanitarian access in Gaza. He reaffirmed Croatia's support for a negotiated two-state solution to enable Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security.

EURONEWS / Thousands of brands brought their latest products and ideas to IFA Berlin 2026, one of the world’s biggest consumer electronics trade fairs. But one trend was stood out: smart devices, working together.  

TCL placed that idea at the heart of its “AI-inspired Life” concept, combining AI, energy solutions and next-generation displays to create a more connected home. The idea is for different devices to work together and respond to the way people use them, instead of functioning as separate products.

Innovative gadgets that focused on mobility, health and wellbeing were also on display as well as humanoid robots that played football on the RoboCup competition.

IFA 2026 offered a snapshot of how AI and automation are already making life better and showed how fast innovations are reaching our homes.

AA.COM.TR/  US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has emerged as a leading candidate to become the administration's new artificial intelligence (AI) adviser, the US news website Semafor reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.

Other potential contenders under consideration include White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, a longtime technology policy adviser to US President Donald Trump, and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, who previously departed venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to join the administration.

"Any reporting about personnel decisions that have not been officially announced by the administration should be regarded as baseless speculation," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in response to inquiries regarding the prospective role.

The prospective appointment follows an announcement by Trump on his Truth Social platform Saturday, where he revealed plans to designate an "AI czar" alongside creating an "AI force." Trump did not provide operational specifics regarding either project or outline how the administration intends to execute them.

The news came as intense debate over artificial intelligence governance, corporate liability and technological pacing continues.

RT/  

Forces in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have reportedly taken control of the airport in its capital, Mekelle, prompting state-owned Ethiopian Airlines to suspend services to three local destinations. The takeover marks a sharp escalation nearly four years after a peace deal ended a brutal two-year civil war in the East African country.

The carrier announced in a social media post on Wednesday that services to Mekelle, Shire, and Axum have been halted “due to the current situation in Tigray region,” without elaborating. “We sincerely apologize to our valued customers for any inconvenience caused by this suspension. We will inform you when flight operations resume,” the state-owned airline stated.

Two local sources told Reuters that Tigrayan forces have taken control of Mekelle airport from federal police in an overnight operation.

In a statement on Wednesday, Tigray’s regional government said its forces have entered a defensive war against federal troops. It accused the federal government of launching a ground offensive after air and artillery strikes across parts of Tigray on Tuesday. 

The federal government has yet to publicly comment on the alleged takeover and the airstrikes.

The development came days after seven armed groups, including the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party that runs Tigray, announced an alliance seeking to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and establish a transitional administration. In a statement on Sunday, the coalition, known as the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival, accused the ruling Prosperity Party of imposing “dictatorial” rule and pushing the East African country toward disintegration.  

On Monday, Abiy’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, accused the alliance of collaborating with financial backing from neighboring Eritrea. The authorities in Eritrea have repeatedly denied backing the groups.

Ethiopia has struggled to secure lasting stability in Tigray since a 2022 peace agreement ended the two-year war between federal forces and the TPLF. The conflict killed hundreds of thousands of people. Recent clashes and reported drone strikes have threatened the fragile peace. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned last month that Ethiopia was on the brink of renewed war.

The latest disruption to Ethiopian Airlines schedule follows an earlier suspension of flights to Tigray in January amid reports of renewed military activity. At the time, passengers received cancellation messages citing unplanned circumstances, while a security official linked the interruption to fighting between federal and regional forces.

 GLOBAL TIMES/    Tesla CEO Elon Musk has credited the company's Chinese workforce for the success of its Shanghai Gigafactory, praising the team's talent, dedication and manufacturing efficiency in an interview with CCTV Finance released on Wednesday.
Musk said China has an inherent strength in manufacturing, describing the Shanghai plant's success as being closely tied to its Chinese employees, according to a video clip released by the Chinese broadcaster on September 23. He described Tesla's China team as exceptionally talented, hardworking and trustworthy.
"The quality is excellent, and the efficiency is excellent," Musk said. "In terms of the Shanghai factory, it's a gem. It's beautiful." 
Musk also praised China's broader manufacturing strengths, saying the country has a strong inherent ability to manufacture, a capability he suggested was rooted in its longstanding industrial experience, according to the CCTV Finance interview.
His remarks highlighted the central role of China's manufacturing capabilities and local workforce in Tesla's global operations, as the US electric vehicle maker continues to expand its production and technological footprint in the country.
The Shanghai Gigafactory offers a measure of that strength. In less than a year after construction began in January 2019, the plant started delivering China-made Model 3 vehicles in December that year. It has since become Tesla's largest vehicle export hub, serving both domestic and overseas markets.
The plant has produced more than 4.5 million vehicles, accounting for over 45 percent of Tesla's cumulative global output. In July, Tesla became the world's first automaker to produce 10 million fully electric vehicles, with the Shanghai plant contributing nearly half the total, according to the Shanghai municipal government.
The China team's role has also expanded beyond production. The Model Y L, a six-seat SUV developed and manufactured under the leadership of Tesla's China team, has entered multiple overseas markets.
Tesla China’s wholesale sales, including exports from its Shanghai plant, rose 25.6 percent year-on-year to 647,694 vehicles in the first eight months of 2026, extending a run of year-on-year growth to 10 consecutive months in August, according to industry data. The export volume in the same period was 331,443 cars, up 114.7 percent from the same period last year.
Beyond Tesla's operations, Musk used the latest interview to encourage people around the world to experience China firsthand, recommending destinations including Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an.
Recalling a high-speed rail journey from Beijing to Xi'an, Musk praised China's railway stations and the scenery along the route. He also spoke of the country's cultural heritage, including the Terracotta Warriors, according to a separate short video released by CCTV Finance. 
Musk's latest remarks also echoed his previous expressions of appreciation for China. In August, he recommended visiting the country on social media, describing China as an extraordinary destination. His mother, Maye Musk, subsequently spoke positively about her visits to China and the Shanghai factory in a separate interview. 
In the interview, Musk also shared his views on China's market, emerging technologies and future cooperation. CCTV Finance noted that he has repeatedly shared videos and images of Chinese humanoid robots and said in a July interview with The Economist that Chinese AI companies had "a good chance" of becoming global leaders.

 

EURONEWS/   

Residents of a small Austrian town are taking on Google over plans for a data center the size of around 70 football pitches.  

Around 400 people protested against the planned 50-hectare complex earlier this month outside the headquarters of the Upper Austrian regional government in Linz.

Kronstorf, where the data center is being built, has around 3,500 inhabitants.

Construction works on Google's first data center in Austria began in April, with the first phase expected to become operational in 2027. 

The US tech giant says the center will support growing demand for cloud and AI services, create around 100 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs, help strengthen Austria's digital infrastructure, and contribute to local sustainability initiatives.

At the groundbreaking ceremony attended by politicians and company representatives, Thomas Stelzer, the governor of Upper Austria, said the center would send "a strong signal for Upper Austria as a business and innovation location".

However, residents are concerned about a lack of transparency around the project and unanswered questions about the cooling systems, water use and their impact on the River Enns.  

"I believe we need a rethink when it comes to this endless growth and expansion," said Christina Gruber, an organizer of the protest, freelance artist and aquatic ecologist.

Andrea Kollmann, a 53-year-old lawyer, travelled from Vienna for the protest. Kollmann said the project had advanced "much too quickly" and that "everything is extremely non-transparent, nobody knows anything".

Google says its data centers are among the most energy-efficient in the world, but critics argue that even highly efficient facilities can consume vast amounts of electricity and water.

Data centers contain thousands of servers packed with computing chips that run around the clock, drawing large amounts of electricity and generating heat that cooling systems, often using water, must remove.

In Kronstorf, the first phase alone could consume up to 1.31 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, according to media reports, equivalent to roughly the annual consumption of 375,000 households. 

Europe is already home to hundreds of data centers across the continent while it lags far behind the United States in data centre capacity.

As the continent races to expand its AI and cloud infrastructure, the growing number of proposed data centers has also triggered protests over their environmental impact.

Earlier in September, Scotland halted new hyperscale AI data center approvals amid environmental concerns.

In Spain, residents of the Aragon region have launched legal action against a massive data center buildout by Amazon, while the Dutch city of Amsterdam has imposed a moratorium on construction of new data centres over space and power concerns.

Denmark has moved data centres to the bottom of its priority list for grid connections, warning of the strain on its power grid.  

Protests have exposed "tension between this rapid expansion of AI and climate objectives" and raised broader questions about digital governance in Europe, according to Francesca Musiani, an internet specialist at the French National Center for Scientific Research.

"For me, this is part of what sovereignty should mean in practice: the capacity of different levels of society to participate in shaping the infrastructures on which they depend."

TECHRADAR/ If you were to ask iOS users how they felt about Apple’s decision to insert ads into Apple Maps, it would quickly become obvious that it was not a popular move. So when iPhone fans discovered that Apple has been inserting prompts for its own products into iOS, the reaction was predictably swift and furious.

The ‘ads’ in question appear in the Settings app in iOS. They can be found near the top of the iPhone’s display and promote several products to the user, including paid-for iCloud+ storage, free trials for services like Apple Music and Apple TV, and the AppleCare+ extended warranty.

Infuriatingly for iOS users, the only way to disable these promos is to either let them expire — which in many cases could take weeks or even months, leaving a persistent notification badge on the Settings app in the meantime — or pay for the service being offered. There is not always a “dismiss” button to shoo them away for good, and when there is, some people have reported that it doesn’t seem to work.

 Many people have taken to social media to vent their frustrations with Apple’s actions. “I’m feeling like this is nearly on-par with the ens***ification that Microsoft introduced with Start menu ads,” said one aggravated user. “I wish Apple would just stop that crap,” stated another. Many other people have taken to Reddit to express their exasperation, suggesting that the discontent is widespread.

Some of these ads and offers — such as the one for Apple Music — appear after you’ve bought a new Apple product. With the company launching the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro range recently, it’s perhaps unsurprising that we’re seeing a sudden influx of posts flush with irritation and indignation.

 On the face of it, Apple’s decision to include promotions like this in its operating system might seem like a strange one. After all, Apple has long positioned itself as a premium company where the user experience is paramount. From that viewpoint, repeatedly attempting to prod customers towards even more of the company’s products might seem cheap, even distasteful. And when you’ve just shelled out a record fee for an iPhone after Apple’s painful price rises, that can just feel like nickel and diming.

But Apple has been putting increasing emphasis on its services in recent years, of which products like iCloud+, Apple Music, Apple TV and AppleCare+ are all a part. With limited room for growth in the smartphone market, the company is turning to areas where it thinks it can make more progress.

 And unfortunately for users, that means more ads like this on their devices. While they are far from the most obnoxious ads around, the fact that many cannot be dismissed is clearly rubbing users the wrong way — as is the fact that the promos even exist at all in an Apple product.

There is also the possibility that at least some of these adverts are appearing due to a bug. The iCloud+ one in particular has drawn comments from users who are already subscribed to iCloud+ and thus, one would think, should not need to see any ads like this. Time will tell how that plays out and whether Apple fixes this ‘bug’ or leaves the ads in place. If the latter transpires, it would suggest that they are not appearing erroneously.

 With Apple’s services push showing no signs of slowing down and further ads supposedly planned for the likes of the firm’s Visual Intelligence system, don’t expect Apple to have a change of heart any time soon.
 

AA.COM.TR/ Israel has issued three military orders to remove wild vegetation and uproot trees from 339 dunams (83.8 acres) of Palestinian land in the northern and central West Bank, a Palestinian commission said Tuesday.

One order targets 178.71 dunams (44.2 acres) of land in Jenin and Qabatiya in the northern West Bank and calls for the removal of wild vegetation and olive trees, the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said in a statement.

“The order gives landowners seven days to file objections, but the period begins after the measure is implemented rather than beforehand,” it added.

Another order targets an additional 128.77 dunams (31.8 acres) in Jenin and Qabatiya and gives landowners 12 hours to remove wild vegetation and olive trees, the commission said.

“The order also limits the period for filing objections to 12 hours after the tour,” it said.

In the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate, a third military order targets two areas in the town of Beit Rima covering 15.137 dunams (3.7 acres) and 16.401 dunams (4.1 acres), with a total of 31.538 dunams (7.8 acres).

About 10 dunams (2.5 acres) of the targeted area in Beit Rima overlap with land classified as Area B under the Oslo Accords, while the order calls for removing wild vegetation, olive trees and other trees, the commission said.

Under the 1995 Oslo II Accord, which was intended as an interim arrangement, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C. Area A is under full Palestinian control.

Area B is under Palestinian civil control and Israeli security control, while Area C is under full Israeli control and makes up around 60% of the West Bank.

“The danger posed by the orders extends beyond the size of the targeted areas to the nature of the measures, which allow rapid changes to the land and the removal of vegetation and trees under a ‘security’ designation,” the commission said.

“The short deadlines, particularly the 12-hour period, significantly limit landowners' ability to object before damage occurs,” it said.

“Maps attached to the orders show that contiguous blocks of agricultural land are being targeted,” the commission added.

It called for field monitoring to determine the number of trees affected, identify properties falling within the orders' boundaries and assess the impact on Palestinians' ability to access and use their land.

The orders come as farmers prepare for the olive harvest season, which usually begins after mid-October and is considered one of the most important agricultural seasons in Palestinian towns and villages.

Last month, the Israeli army issued military orders to remove trees and vegetation from around 310 dunams (76.6 acres) of land in Jenin governorate, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Since Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 8, 2023, the Israeli army and occupiers have intensified attacks across the occupied West Bank, involving killings, arrests, displacement, the bulldozing of agricultural land, home demolitions and illegal settlement expansion.
 

EURONEWS/  Alibaba is expanding its overseas data centers to Europe, the Chinese tech giant announced Wednesday at its annual conference.  

The company said it would "establish its first cloud regions" in Finland, the Netherlands and Turkey, while expanding its data center footprint in Germany, France, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Hong Kong over the next 12 months.

“Today, the total volume of Machine Thinking is less than 3% of all Human Thinking,” said Eddie Wu, CEO of Alibaba Group.

He suggested machine thinking could eventually grow to 1,000 times human capacity. 

“With this in mind, our target is that by 2032, the global data center capacity operated by Alibaba Cloud will surpass 20GW, fueling the industry’s exponentially rising demand for AI,” Wu said.

The expansion will further increase Alibaba Cloud's global computing capacity, the company said in an announcement.

Alibaba is one of the frontrunners in China's artificial intelligence (AI) industry, with its Qwen models among the world's most downloaded AI models.

Wu said on Tuesday that it will further expand its AI’s capacity with five to ten trillion parameters, which would make it several times bigger than the current largest Chinese model.  

The Chinese tech giant also unveiled a new AI chip at the conference, which Wu called “the most powerful AI chip in China today”.

Alibaba’s new Zhenwu V900 chip, widely believed to be twice as powerful as Nvidia’s H20 designed for China, comes amid US efforts to curb China’s AI progress.

Washington’s longstanding export controls have restricted access to advanced chips, prompting Beijing to urge Chinese companies to use domestic alternatives.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to meet in Washington this week, with trade tensions, chip restrictions and AI threats to national security expected to feature in their talks.