Technology happens because people make it happen. We can choose otherwise

“Technology happens because it is possible,” OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, told the New York Times in 2019, consciously paraphrasing Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.

Altman captures a Silicon Valley mantra: technology marches forward inexorably.

A student-led petition against a bill that would reintroduce a banned insecticide is spreading like wildfire. Will the government listen?

A million petition signatures in 10 days? That should tell a government something: that a huge number of citizens aren’t happy with what it has just done, but also that they still believe in their democracy and its ability to course-correct.

In response to pressure from farmers’ unions and the agricultural lobby, on 8 July, the French legislature passed a bill named the loi Duplomb, which contained numerous measures to boost large-scale industrial agriculture – among them, the reauthorisation of a previously banned insecticide, acetamiprid. Beet farmers in particular say they have no alternative to fighting pests. However, there is a growing scientific consensus around acetamiprid (enough, it should be pointed out, for use of the substance to have been banned in France since 2018): it is linked to highly negative effects on bee populations, and, according to the European Food Safety Authority, may adversely impact learning and memory in humans. Studies also show that the whole class of chemicals to which acetamiprid belongs, neonicotinoids, could cause birth defects and reduce male fertility.

Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist

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Human rights officials demand Peter and Barbie Reynolds be moved to hospital and out of ‘degrading’ jail conditions

UN human rights experts have warned that an elderly British couple detained in Afghanistan may die in “degrading conditions” as they demand they be moved to hospital for medical treatment.

Peter and Barbie Reynolds, aged 80 and 75, have been detained by the Taliban without charges in Afghanistan, where they lived, since February and their health has rapidly deteriorated.

It started out as promo for an insurance company and ended up powering an entire industry. As the Opry strikes out for London, can it stay relevant for another century?

It’s the only American radio show that’s been on the air for 100 years, an institution that launched the country music industry as we know it and a stage production that made country fans flock to Nashville in the first place – and keeps them coming for a singular experience today. “I somehow understood the weight of what I was stepping into,” says Marty Stuart of the Grand Ole Opry, specifically the first night he played in 1972 as a mandolin-playing prodigy sitting in with bluegrass star Lester Flatt’s band.

Stuart went on to become a country star, and Opry member, himself, and has now embraced the role of elder on the show: on 26 September, he along with Luke Combs, Darius Rucker, Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce will take part in the Opry’s first-ever overseas broadcast at the Royal Albert Hall, as part of a year-long 100th birthday celebration. “A hundred years of anything, especially in show business, it’s just unheard of,” he marvels.

1.2tn yuan project has broken ground in Tibet, premier says, despite fears of downstream nations India and Bangladesh

Construction of the world’s biggest hydropower megadam has begun, China’s premier has said, calling it the “project of the century”.

The huge structure is being built on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, in Tibetan territory.

Italy’s No 9 has been pivotal to their run to Euro 2025’s semi-finals and is finally getting the recognition she deserves

The clock showed 89 minutes and 18 seconds. That was how close a weary Italy were to extra time against Norway in a tense quarter-final in Geneva. It was clear from the frayed nerves and unusually dishevelled appearance of the coaching staff on Italy’s bench that they were concerned those on the field did not have much left in the tank. All their stamina and emotions had been left on the pitch after almost 90 energy-sapping minutes of a game they knew they should be winning.

What they seemed to forget for a minute, however, was that they have Cristiana Girelli. Their talismanic centre-forward can do many things on a football pitch but nothing is more certain than her scoring goals. They only needed one chance, one delivery and the odds were on that their captain would take it. That moment came: a pinpoint Sofia Cantore cross, an intelligent run by Girelli to lose the full-back and an angled header that had one destination.