We go behind the scenes at the world’s largest nuclear fusion device attempting to harness energy from the same reaction that powers the Sun and stars.
In the heart of Provence, some of the brightest scientific minds on the planet are setting the stage for what is being called the world’s largest and most ambitious science experiment.
"We are building arguably the most complex machine ever designed," confides Laban Coblentz.
The task at hand is to demonstrate the feasibility of harnessing nuclear fusion - the same reaction powering our Sun and stars - at an industrial scale.
To do this, the world’s largest magnetic confinement chamber, or tokamak, is under construction in the south of France to generate net energy.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project agreement was formally signed in 2006 by the US, EU, Russia, China, India, and South Korea at the Elysée Palace in Paris. READ MORE...
Google has signed a new agreement to pay French publishers for the right to display their news content online. The deal means that media organisations in France will be fairly renumerated when their news articles appear on the search engine's results pages.
A new agreement was unveiled on Thursday by Google and the Alliance for the General Information Press (Apig), which brings together nearly 300 national, regional and local news groups. The deal replaces a previous agreement that was announced last January.
Facebook reached a similar agreement with Agip in October to pay French publishers over the copyright of their content.
The dispute over so-called "neighbouring rights" has soured relations between French news organisations and the US tech giant for more than two years. Google and Facebook have long argued against the principle, stating that French publishers are already exposed on their platforms and promoted to customers.
But in 2019, a European Union Directive entrenched "neighbouring rights" into law, a move that France swiftly adopted. Although Google and Agip reached an agreement last year, the US company was fined €500 million for not having negotiated with French publishers "in good faith".
A French watchdog had asked Google to resume negotiations and propose a new compensation offer.
Google and Agip said in a joint statement that the new agreement on "neighbouring rights" was a "historic step". The exact amount of compensation offered to French news organisations has not been made public.
Google also hopes to sign a similar deal with another French media group, SEPM, in the future.
Malta’s new cannabis rules should serve as a model for other European states of how to end the unnecessary prosecution of low-level drug users and strike a blow against organised crime, according to the minister responsible for the law, Owen Bonnici.
Bonnici, a former justice minister and now minister for equality, research and innovation, said the new law, passed by the Maltese parliament in December 2021, prevented recreational users from being dragged through the courts or tribunal process for possession of small amounts of cannabis.
But it also allows for users and, eventually, non-profit organisations to grow cannabis plants and distribute it to other smokers via cannabis associations, meaning they no longer have to source the drug via the black market and put money into the pockets of international criminal gangs.
Malta’s law allows users to carry seven grams of the drug and store up to 50 grams at home, making it the first EU state to legalise cannabis.
German Chancellor Olof Scholz is in favour of legalisation but the country’s new government has not set a time limit on the reforms.
Although the Netherlands is world-famous for the availability of cannabis, it remains illegal for individuals to sell or possess it and the "coffee shops" that are licensed to sell it have to buy their product in bulk on the black market, incentivising criminals that grow and traffic it.
A number of European states, including Italy, Spain, Belgium and Ireland, have done away with prison sentences for marijuana possession, but in 14 of 28 European states -- including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria -- minor cannabis possession can still lead to jail time.
Even in European states where cannabis has been “decriminalised”, meaning that those caught with small amounts of the product are not be arrested, users still need to buy the drug from dealers. READ MORE...
