Eurotopics.net

Incidents involving drones are on the rise in Europe: a train travelling from Kyiv to Warsaw was attacked on Sunday, Nato fighter jets shot down another drone that entered Lithuanian airspace on Tuesday, and a drone containing explosives was found and defused at Leipzig airport a few weeks ago. Commentators examine the background to these events and the impact on different regions.

Leading tech entrepreneurs from the US have called for the development of AI to be slowed down. In a post on his blog, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has stressed the need to pace AI development and allow the industry more time for risk prevention. Otherwise we run the risk of losing control of AI systems in six to twelve months, he wrote. Amodei's statements were echoed by Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google.

The results of the 2025 Pisa study, for which 760,000 15-year-olds from 91 countries were tested, were published on Tuesday. The international trend pointed to a further decline in performance in reading, maths and science. In Europe, countries such as Estonia, Ireland, Poland and Switzerland did well whereas Germany's results hit an all-time low. The press looks at causes and consequences.

The UK has announced plans to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This is part of a wider re-calibration in its relations with Israel, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on Tuesday in London. France, Canada, Denmark and other countries have also announced import bans and sanctions. Will this have an impact on the upcoming elections in Israel?