Google has been ordered to stop work on two data centers. Finland has become a key location for data centers amid the AI boom.

GoogleFinlanddata centersartificial intelligence

A Finnish supervisory agency has ordered work to stop on Google-linked data centre projects in Muhos and Kajaani until compulsory environmental impact assessments are completed. It is investigating whether hundreds of hectares of forest were cleared without the required assessment. Google acknowledged shortcomings and said it would follow the agency’s guidance.

Googledata centresFinlandenvironmental assessment

Finland’s supervisory authority ordered environmentally significant preparatory work at Google’s planned data center sites in Muhos and Kajaani to stop until legally required impact assessments are complete. Google said it would follow the authorities’ instructions; the assessments are expected to finish later this year.

Googledata centersenvironmental assessmentFinland

Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet the permanent members of the Security Council on October 7, his 74th birthday, after completing a series of international phone calls, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Vladimir PutinRussiaSecurity Council

Russia’s Defense Ministry says its air force struck temporary deployment sites of Ukrainian forces near Krasny Molochar in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Orekhov in the Zaporozhye Region. It said FAB-500 and FAB-3000 bombs fitted with universal glide and correction modules were used and released footage of the strikes.

Russia-Ukraine warairstrikesDonetskZaporizhzhia

Moscow’s Tagansky District Court has again fined Telegram 3.8 million rubles, or $44,336, for failing to remove inaccurate information about the special military operation that Russia bans from dissemination. Telegram’s unpaid fines for violating Russian laws now exceed 40 million rubles, or $466,690.

TelegramRussiacourt fine

EU ambassadors agreed to advance Ukraine and Moldova’s membership bids, paving the way for talks on the internal market and competitiveness clusters next week. Ukraine must still submit its negotiating position, secure an EU common position and pass a minorities education law. If all goes as planned, the clusters could open in Luxembourg on Oct. 13, potentially allowing Ukraine to gain EU benefits as reforms progress.

Ukraine accessionEU enlargementinternal marketminority rights

The European Commission announced a €1.24 billion defense-support disbursement to Ukraine. The money will fund drones, drone interceptors, drone ammunition and missiles made by Ukrainian entities, as part of the EU’s €90 billion support loan for Kyiv.

EUUkrainedefense support

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Europe is “obsessed” with militarizing the EU and turning the economic bloc into a military-political one. He said Russia is on guard after France tested a new nuclear missile and called the EU’s Russia-focused defense policy a “dead-end path.” Russia is taking security measures but remains open to dialogue with EU nations. France’s submarine-launched test missile carried no nuclear warhead; Emmanuel Macron called it a “loud and clear message.”

RussiaEuropean UnionFrancemilitarizationmissile test

The death of Daria Shipilova, a laboratory technician at a plague research centre in Siberia, prompted fears of a possible lab leak after Russian officials initially linked it to plague. Authorities later said she died of pneumonia of unknown cause and found no work-related microorganisms, while reports of a second victim and a St Petersburg lockdown remain unverified.

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Donald Trump said he plans to call Vladimir Putin soon about a possible plague outbreak in Russia and will share what U.S. intelligence agencies are reporting “tomorrow.” The claims began after an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute died in Shelekhov, with reports suggesting pneumonic plague and quarantine measures at hospitals. Authorities have not confirmed the reports; Rospotrebnadzor cited pneumonia of undetermined etiology.

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Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst says plague may seem like something from the medieval era, but cases are reported every year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar. He adds that the laboratory link makes this incident “a little more serious”.

Siberiaplaguepublic health

Russia is investigating the death of laboratory worker Darya Shipilova at a plague research centre in Siberia’s Irkutsk region. Nearly 200 contacts are being monitored and have tested negative for pneumonic plague. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Moscow to share more information, while Russian officials played down reports and denied claims of special measures.

RussiaplagueIrkutskpublic health

Residents of Kyiv took refuge in metro stations and prepared to spend the night underground during a Russian missile and drone attack that killed at least eight people.

KyivRussian attacksmissiles and dronesUkraine war

Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv and more than a dozen Ukrainian regions overnight into Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said. At least 12 civilians, including three children, were killed and more than 40 people were wounded in what officials described as Moscow’s latest devastating barrage.

Russia-Ukraine warmissile strikesdrone attacks

Russian strikes on Ukraine have killed 11 people, while Kyiv and Moscow exchanged attacks overnight. Images showed the aftermath of a Russian strike on Kyiv.

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At least two people died in a Kyiv fire after what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “massive strikes” on the capital on Wednesday. Russian attacks have intensified in recent weeks, hitting energy infrastructure as well as rail and road transport.

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The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to two scientists for unraveling the mystery of how molecules exist as non-identical mirror images of one another.

Nobel Prize in Chemistrychemistryasymmetric organic synthesis

Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for discovering nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.

Nobel Prize in Chemistryorganic synthesisscientific research

France’s Henri Kagan and Japan’s Kenso Soai have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The award recognizes their discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis, according to the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Nobel Prizechemistryasymmetric organic synthesis

French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japan’s Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for explaining why life uses one mirror-image form of certain molecules. Their work showed how chemical reactions can be designed to produce more of the desired form, a finding with importance for drug development.

Nobel Prize in Chemistrychiralitymolecular chemistry

Scientists Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis, the Nobel award body said on Wednesday.

Nobel Prize in Chemistrychemistryasymmetric organic synthesis

Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai have been awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.

Nobel Prizechemistryasymmetric organic synthesis

Donald Trump says he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” about a plague-related incident in Russia. The CDC is monitoring the situation.

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US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would speak “very soon” with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the reported plague death of a laboratory technician. Washington and the World Health Organization are pressing Moscow for greater transparency and clarification of conflicting accounts surrounding the incident in Siberia.

Donald TrumpVladimir PutinRussiaplague

President Donald Trump said he plans to speak with Vladimir Putin about a possible pneumonic plague case in Russia. The death of a staffer at an anti-plague laboratory has raised global public health concerns, while the U.S. has said it was willing to help.

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US President Donald Trump said he expects to speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon. Asked at the White House whether he had already spoken with Putin, Trump said a call was scheduled and would take place “very soon.”

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