This shows that right-wing extremists are lying to attack the Schengen area. The migrants arrived in an exclave completely separate from the European mainland and will be barred from travelling there.

Crossposted from https://thebrainbin.org/m/upliftingnews@lemmy.world/t/1840934

The European Union has introduced a new team to regulate AI companies ... amid rising concerns about AI's risks

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has urged Spain to tighten border controls after tens of thousands of migrants entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, saying Madrid must follow Warsaw’s example “if Schengen is to survive.”

With 48 million euros, microagi has raised the largest seed funding for a German startup. Google Cloud becomes the first partner with Nvidia technology.

One. Two. As many as three successive barriers of gendarmes in riot gear, auxiliary forces, and Moroccan border police sealed off the Findeq border (Castillejos during the Spanish Protectorate era) with Ceuta at midnight from Thursday to Friday. Dozens of police vehicles, armored personnel carriers, and even a water cannon truck formed a perfectly organized security deployment designed to seal off the autonomous city. Thousands of undocumented migrants had poured into the city by sea and land throughout Thursday, in a human onslaught unprecedented since 2021.

The officers were keeping at bay the hundreds of young people who were throwing stones at them from the nearby hills, against a backdrop of a battlefield scene with vehicles with smashed windows and barricades made of traffic barriers. They stood firm at their posts, whilst thousands of people, mostly young men and minors, marched silently down the beach, splashing through the high tide, with no one to interrupt their procession of shadows as they made their way towards Ceuta. They passed just a few metres from the police lines, heading towards the breakwater that marks the European Union’s border in North Africa.

“We are expecting reinforcements in the next few hours so that we can stem this flow of people,” said a non-commissioned officer from the auxiliary forces (a para-police unit). The officers said they were awaiting a ‘zero hour’ to disperse the young people gathered on the hills of Castillejos, who were planning to storm the border fence, and to put a stop to the uninterrupted flow of Moroccans, groups of Moroccans and some sub-Saharan Africans into Spain.

Isaías, an official from the Castillejos Cerámica district – the closest to the Tarajal border post – would send women with children to spend the night in the village from the final security checkpoint. Dozens of people were spending the night in parks and camping by bonfires on the Findeq site, waiting to try to reach Spanish soil. “Nobody without papers is going to be able to get through up here,” he stated flatly. “Those going down there along the beach will carry on getting through. That’s a problem Spain has. It’s a matter of diplomacy,” he claimed, offering no further explanation.

No one was going home; whole families with children remained seated beside the access road to the Moroccan border. “We’ve come from Tangier. We have passports, but we don’t have visas. I have a job, but I have no future. We believe a better life awaits us in Spain,” confesses Said, a 47-year-old painter, with a distant look in his eyes, in the fluent Spanish spoken by Tangier natives across several generations. He is accompanied by his wife Nesma, aged 36; his daughter Romaisa, aged 12; and his son Tarik, aged two. “With the children, we can’t cross via the beach and the rocks, like all those other people. We’re hoping the border will open tomorrow and they’ll let us through freely,” said a confident Said, amidst groups of young people marching with swimming rings, ready to take to the water in the middle of the night.

Like many others waiting at midnight in Castillejos, they were confident that the following morning they would be able to cross the border without any problems, as if in a dream. This was based on unfounded information circulating on social media, which many believed with religious fervour beneath the full moon, obscured by the sea mist.

The migratory pressure on Ceuta has also shifted to Melilla, where the border with Morocco has been closed to prevent an influx of irregular migrants. Thousands of people, mostly young, have flocked en masse in recent days to both Spanish cities in a phenomenon amplified by digital media and social media.

Thieves have targeted a museum in Chatillon-sur-Seine for the third time. This time, a unique 2,500-year-old gold necklace has been stolen.

She said the commission should introduce more flexible carbon dioxide emission limits and adjustment mechanisms so that carmakers could help shape the industry's transition.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/40870904

The continent is experiencing some of its biggest fires and highest temperatures ever. Residents are fleeing, leaders are struggling to respond and “it will get worse,” one climate expert said.

“Europe's Wildfire Crisis: Climate Change and Austerity Fuel a Growing Disaster”

by ANA VRAČAR in Savage Minds on Substack

@europe
@grassrootsforeurope
@EUCommission
@euronews

“Firefighters in France and Spain are working hard to contain devastating wildfires ahead of another heatwave expected to hit parts of Europe starting Tuesday, 28 July. Tens of thousands of hectares of land have been scorched, and over 200,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in France alone. Blazes are also ongoing in Italy, and the seasonal prognosis for the entire northern Mediterranean coast remains alarming”

https://open.substack.com/pub/savageminds/p/europes-wildfire-crisis

#Press #SocialMedia #Europe #France #Spain #Wildfire #ClimateCrisis #Austerity

As Europe reels from extreme heatwaves, a German app is helping people stay cool by mapping shaded walking routes. The app uses sun and shadow data to guide commuters away from heat-exposed streets.

Here is more information about the app (archived) including links to the source code, API, and such.

...

Europe is witnessing a summer of unprecedented climate realities ... facing an urgent question: How do we live, move, and survive in cities that are actively overheating?

The answer may lie in a German digital tool developed by the non-profit organisation Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT). Designed to transform daily commutes, the app calculates the coolest, most shaded path through a city, allowing citizens to avoid direct sun exposure.

What started as a region-specific research project is now evolving into a large-scale blueprint for climate-adapted mobility. The app currently offers its routing service in more than 80 major German cities and continues to expand.

...

The Algorithm That Steers People Away From Heat

When the sun shines intensely, open spaces can quickly turn into heat traps. Pedestrians often cross to the shaded side of the street or take a longer route through a park to avoid direct sunlight. The app mimics this behaviour by using high-resolution shadow data to guide people through shaded passages and away from sun-exposed roads.

Julian Psotta, Product Owner for Technical Innovation at HeiGIT, says, "What started as a research question in Heidelberg has now grown into an operational heat-avoiding routing application. We are looking forward to fine-tuning it to the individual needs of different cities and building climate-adapted mobility based on their data."

Through heat-avoiding routing, the app helps municipalities understand their heat risks and respond to them in a targeted manner. But what has created the need for such a tool?

...

How The App Finds The Coolest Route

The app launched its first version in Heidelberg in the summer of 2024. Today, the routing engine runs on openrouteservice (HeiGIT's open-source routing platform) and uses OpenStreetMap data as its underlying road network. A custom Solar Index helps the algorithm avoid hot, sun-baked roads and instead choose shady, tree-lined routes.

Because the sun's position changes constantly, the app is dynamic as well. It offers pedestrians different routes depending on the time of day. For example, a commuter walking from Worms' main train station to the Rhine promenade will receive different route suggestions depending on when they open the app:

• In the morning: The app suggests taking Wilhelm-Leuschner Street, then walking along Martinsgasse and Judengasse to maximise morning shade.
• In the afternoon: As the sun shifts, the coolest route changes entirely, directing pedestrians through Goethe Street.
• The regular route: The slightly shorter, traditional route via Siegfried Street and Berliner Ring is actively bypassed by the algorithm because of its high sun exposure.

The creators say the aim is to make the consequences of urban heat on daily life visible and measurable.

...

From Germany To The World

Now that the application covers all 16 federal states in Germany, the team hopes to expand globally. However, taking a climate tool worldwide requires building trust with local partners first.

Lisa Shkredova, Public Relations Manager at HeiGIT, explains, "Whenever we expand into a new area, it is very important to have local partners who can validate the data. That's why we started small and only later expanded to multiple cities across Germany."

...

Archived