📌 EU Defense Plan, Trump Warns Hamas, More

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will discuss with EU leaders today in Brussels an €800B ($863.9 billion) defense plan.

French president Emmanuel Macron warned in a TV address that Russian aggression would not stop at Ukraine and was a direct threat to France and Europe. “Europe’s future should not be decided in Washington or Moscow, and yes, the threat from the east is returning.”

The French president’s move comes in response to a push by German election winner Friedrich Merz, who recently called for a discussion on “nuclear sharing” with France. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre plans to “significantly” increase spending to help Ukraine defend itself.

Støre called the US pause in military aid for Ukraine “very regrettable” and pointedly praised the UK and France for taking a leading role in European support for Ukraine.

EU leaders are expected to largely endorse the €800B “ReArm Europe” plan outlined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier this week.

A leaked draft of the report to be shown to the leaders says: “Europe must become more sovereign, more responsible for its own defense and better equipped to act and deal autonomously with immediate and future challenges and threats.”

A “last warning” to Hamas was issued by President Donald Trump to release all remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Trump directed a sharply worded message after the White House confirmed he had dispatched an envoy for unprecedented direct talks with the militant group. Trump added he was “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job.”

Trump continued on his Truth Social platform: “Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you. Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted!”

US officials on Wednesday engaged in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, stepping away from a long-held policy of not directly engaging with the militant group.

A new plan requires Hamas to release half its remaining hostages — the militant group’s main bargaining chip — in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners, a key component of the first phase.

Leading child doctors have joined calls for a complete ban on smacking children in England.

They say there is no evidence it has any positive effect on their well-being. Currently, smacking is unlawful in England, except in cases where it amounts to a "reasonable punishment.” A paediatrics society wants that legal defense to be removed, and the amendment is making its way through Parliament.

In Scotland and Wales, corporal — or physical — punishment is illegal, but in England and Northern Ireland, the "reasonable punishment" defense still stands. There are reportedly 67 countries with smacking bans, with 20 others planning a ban.

One professor said studies show children punished physically were at an increased risk of serious physical assault. He said a complete ban on smacking would make it easier for the authorities to say there are never any circumstances where the physical punishment of children is ever legal.

Members of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station will participate in exercise and medical research.

The ongoing study aims to build knowledge of how to keep astronauts fit on long-duration missions. Crew members aboard the ISS have access to a training area outfitted with a weight-lifting system, a stationary bike, and a specialized treadmill. But astronauts on long flights will not have large exercise equipment.

Crew members are divided into three groups: one continues exercising normally, using all the available equipment aboard the orbiting complex, another forgoes using the treadmill, relying solely on other equipment, and the third only exercises with an experimental, less bulky machine.

NASA compares the groups' health data collected before, during, and after flight to determine whether the lack of treadmill use negatively impacts the crews' fitness, muscle performance, and recovery after return to Earth.

Results of the study will help researchers determine how treadmill-free workouts may affect crew health, which will, in turn, help NASA build realistic exercise protocols for future deep space missions.

Additional studies will conduct medical exams, provide biological samples, and document spaceflight-related injuries, among other tasks. One study will assess vision, cognitive functions, and MRI scans to provide a clearer picture of how the entire body is affected by space.

A study reveals that large language models recognize when they are studied and change their behavior to seem more likable.

Johannes Eichstaedt, an assistant professor at Stanford University, says his group became interested in probing AI models using techniques from psychology. “We realized we need some mechanism to measure the ‘parameter headspace’ of these models,” he said.

Eichstaedt and his collaborators measured five personality traits common in psychology: openness to experience or imagination, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The LLMs tested were GPT-4, Claude 3 and Llama 3.

The researchers found the models modulated their answers when told they were taking a personality test — and sometimes when they were not explicitly told — offering responses that indicate more extroversion and agreeableness and less neuroticism.

The behavior mirrors how some human subjects will change their answers to make themselves seem more likeable, but the effect was more extreme with the AI models.

That models seemingly know when they are tested and modify their behavior has implications for AI safety because it adds to evidence that AI can be duplicitous.

Getting a rental is becoming more difficult, says a report from RentCafe, an apartment search site.

Apartment construction hit a record high last year as developers completed close to 600,000 multifamily units, according to the US Census. That is the highest since 1974 and a 34% increase from 2023. New York City, Dallas and Austin led the new rentals.

Despite that, national rental competitiveness has risen, says RentCafe, mainly due to more renters staying put. Landlords are offering longer leases, which lead to extended renewals. As a result, available apartments have an average of seven applicants. Occupancy is holding firm at 93.3%, slightly more than last year.

Miami has the highest occupancy rate. It is the most competitive, with an average of 14 applicants for each unit. Suburban Chicago is second. Others include Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids in Michigan, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Rents increased 0.3% in February, the first monthly advance following six consecutive months of declines, according to Apartment List. February is the start of the busy season in the rental market, and rents are expected to rise throughout the summer.

A fishing trip turned “berserk” for three New Zealand men when a dolphin weighing over 900 pounds jumped into their small boat.

The men were fishing near the Hole in the Rock, a picturesque spot off the far north coast of New Zealand’s North Island, while dolphins frolicked ahead.

The men saw a shadow across the bright summer sun and heard an almighty boom — before chaos unfolded. “One minute everything was fine and then just like lightning striking, there’s a big dolphin in our boat thrashing around and breaking everything,” said Dean Harrison, the owner of the nearly 16-foot vessel.

The dolphin’s flailing snapped all fishing rods in the boat and severely damaged the bow as the trio clung to the sides of the vessel, said Harrison. One man had minor injuries to his arm where the juvenile male bottlenose dolphin grazed his back and shoulder. Otherwise, everyone was uninjured.

But lifting the 11-foot dolphin out of the boat and into the sea was not an option. The men alerted New Zealand’s conservation agency and were directed to a boat ramp an hour away, where help waited. On the way, the trio used a hose to keep the dolphin wet and protected it from the sun using a damp towel.

On shore, members of a local Māori tribe prayed for the dolphin before it was returned to the ocean using a tractor. Helpers gave the 2–3-year-old dolphin a name: Tohu, which means “sign” in Māori. Tohu is the new name of Dean Harrison’s boat.