Times are Europe/Rome, the same as Prague.

Sat 31 Oct · today

• Nothing timed.

Sun 1 Nov

• Nothing timed.

Mon 2 Nov

• Nothing timed.

• JP Kontakt desk (order 20/2026/4730, VSS 180/70 height-adjustable, white, with assembly) · due next week (2–6 Nov) · Anita Uhlířová at JP answered your question on 30 Oct: "s dodáním počítejte v průběhu příštího týdne". There's no exact day yet; logistics will call, or you can book the day yourself on 778 747 901.
• Nothing else · no other parcels expected

Ukraine

• 500 Patriots approved, but years away. The US approved the sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine for about $2.1bn. Zelensky says deliveries may begin "only in a few years" and wants allies to hand over stockpiled PAC-3s now. Guardian
• Lavrov snubbed at the G20. In Atlanta, Kaja Kallas said Lavrov told "a lot of lies" and that Moscow isn't ready for peace, and the ministers' family photo was dropped. Rubio spoke briefly with Lavrov ahead of the Russia–Ukraine–US talks expected in November. Guardian
• Oleshky evacuation begins. On the fourth day of the local truce, bus convoys started taking people out of the occupied town, and the roughly 2,000 residents left could choose Ukrainian- or Russian-held territory. AP

Iran

• Tankers hit in Hormuz. The IRGC says four oil tankers using "unauthorised routes" were stopped after "incidents" or mine hits, and Oman rescued 25 crew from a burning Panama-flagged tanker. CENTCOM denies the mine claims and says the main routes are clear; UKMTO puts shipping about 70% below pre-war levels. Al Jazeera · gCaptain
• Pakistan "cautiously optimistic". Pakistan's military spokesman says Field Marshal Munir's two trips to Tehran this month are a positive sign for his US–Iran mediation, though there are still "powerful spoilers". Reuters via Arab News
• Markets brace for after Tuesday. Reuters says oil traders are preparing for a possible escalation of the eight-month war after the US midterms on 3 Nov. Reuters via Euronext

• More from Sempio's devices. Il Giornale (30 Oct) quotes diary entries about violent dreams found on Andrea Sempio's devices. It also quotes a WhatsApp in which his mother Daniela Ferrari wonders whether the suspicions began with a tip from his friend Alessandro Biasibetti; he replied "non fare voli mentali". il Giornale
• The TV and X round. On Friday Mattino Cinque aired Sempio's old web searches, which come from a hard disk seized in 2025 and were already in the May carabinieri report. On Quarto Grado that night, lawyer Angela Taccia said his phrases about rape were things he'd read and was studying; most X reaction was hostile. Mattino5 on X · Clip on X
• Still no request for trial. The Pavia prosecutors haven't filed anything yet. Stasi's lawyer De Rensis expects it "non oltre i prossimi dieci giorni" (he said that on 28 Oct) and the Stasi revision request around mid-November. Il Mattino

• Bitwig. Nothing new; 6.1.4 (13 Oct) is still current. Bitwig
• Traktor. Nothing new; Pro 4.5.1 (9 Jul) is still current. NI Community
• Tutorial: Drone Techno with The Remnant drone synth in Bitwig (28 Oct). The Bitwig Mycelium (Omri Cohen) builds a drone-techno patch around The Remnant drone synth in Bitwig, 35 minutes. It's three days old, just outside the two-day window, but nothing newer was worth it. YouTube
• Ubuntu tip: "target is busy" when ejecting. If a USB stick won't unmount, fuser -vm /media/$USER/STICK lists every process (with PID and user) that's still holding a file or folder on it. Close that app, or cd your terminal out of the stick, then eject again.
• Package: magic-wormhole. sudo apt install magic-wormhole, then wormhole send file.pdf prints a short code like 7-guitar-sunset, and wormhole receive on the other machine downloads it, encrypted end to end. It's the easiest way to move a file between two computers with no cloud, USB stick or SSH setup.

Your bots can keep logins and cards in the Vault. Press Cmd+, and look for the Vault tab between Computer and Usage & Billing; it only shows up when it's enabled for your account. Bots can save logins, cards and contact info there and fill them in to sign in or check out, and its Payments tab lets you pick the method they try first. You still approve every purchase. Grok Bot changelog

A Texas horned lizard (Robert Burton, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, public domain). Wikimedia Commons

• 🌍 The world is restoring 252 million hectares. A new UN report, "Nature's Comeback", counts restoration under way in 149 countries, creating more than a million green jobs. It names 35 flagship projects, including India's Ganges river dolphins, mountain gorillas in East Africa and snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan. New Indian Express
• 🦎 Horned lizards go home. San Antonio Zoo and Zoo Miami released 55 more Texas horned lizards on Monday, bringing the reintroduction project to 428 animals. The species has been declining for six decades, and there are signs released lizards may be breeding. San Antonio Current
• 🐈 A fishing cat back in the wild. In Bangladesh, a male fishing cat found with a dislocated jaw and weighing barely 5 kg was nursed back to 12 kg and released on a tea estate with a satellite collar. Mongabay

The bone chandelier in the Sedlec Ossuary (BrokenSphere, CC BY-SA 3.0). Wikimedia Commons

An hour from Prague hangs a chandelier made of human bones. In the Sedlec Ossuary at Kutná Hora, the remains of an estimated 40,000 to 70,000 people are arranged into decorations, and the chandelier is said to contain at least one of every bone in the human body. Woodcarver František Rint arranged them in 1870 and signed his work on the wall, in bone too. Wikipedia

Apostles from the Last Judgment (Sailko, CC BY 3.0). Wikimedia Commons

Pietro Cavallini, Giudizio Universale (c. 1289–1293) · Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome

Christ sits in judgment at the centre, surrounded by angels, with the apostles enthroned in a row on either side. What survives is the upper part of a big fresco on the entrance wall, now seen from the Benedictine nuns' choir. The apostles are the marvel: solid, calm men with real weight under their robes and faces lit from one side, painted in Rome at the same moment the old flat Byzantine style was giving way. In 1724 the frescoes were plastered over during a remodelling, and the new choir floor cut across the Judgment; it was only rediscovered in 1900. That helps explain why Cavallini, a pioneer of the new naturalism that spread to Florence and Siena, is still far less known than Giotto. You can see it during limited weekday hours for a small fee paid to the nuns. Wikipedia · Wikipedia

«Pietro Cavallini con il suo Giudizio, dove gli Apostoli e le schiere di angeli sembrano chiamati ai loro ranghi nell'alto consesso del cielo, scavalca d'un tratto l'intera tradizione bizantina e la terragna fantasia di Cimabue, non sappiamo per quale sovrumana capacità d'intendere e restituire l'umano.»

Vittorio Sgarbi, Artisti, p. 37 (listed on Wikiquote under Davanti all'immagine, Rizzoli, 1989). Wikiquote

defenestration (dee-fen-uh-STRAY-shun): the act of throwing someone or something out of a window; also a quick, rough dismissal from a job or office.

• Prague is famous for its defenestrations, the 1618 one included.
• The board's defenestration of the CEO took less than a week.

• hřbitov (HRZHBI-tof): cemetery. O Dušičkách chodí lidé na hřbitov. (Around All Souls' Day people go to the cemetery.)
• svíčka (SVEECH-ka): candle. Zapálili jsme babičce na hrob svíčku. (We lit a candle on Grandma's grave.)

The Twelve Chairs monument on Derybasivska Street, Odesa (ideyuli, CC BY 2.0). Wikimedia Commons

Ilf and Petrov, Dvenadtsat stulyev (The Twelve Chairs, 1928)

Ippolit Vorobyaninov, a former marshal of the nobility now stuck as a provincial registry clerk, learns from his dying mother-in-law that she sewed her diamonds into one of twelve dining chairs that the Revolution scattered across the Soviet Union. He teams up with Ostap Bender, the "great schemer", and races a greedy priest from chair to chair. It's a picaresque romp in the line of Hašek and Gogol, packed with con jobs and quotable lines, and a sly satire of early Soviet life that Russians still quote today.

Get it: Amazon.it · Italian edition, Le 12 sedie, Voland 2025, transl. Emanuela Bonacorsi, illustrated by Carlo Cagni

Lásky jedné plavovlásky (Loves of a Blonde, 1965, Miloš Forman)

In a small Czech shoe-factory town where the girls far outnumber the men, the management brings in a troop of reservists for a dance, and they turn out to be paunchy and married. Andula (Hana Brejchová) ends up with Milda, the young pianist from Prague, and later turns up at his parents' flat with her suitcase. Shot on location with mostly non-actors and lots of improvisation, it's funny, tender and a bit cruel, a key film of the Czech New Wave, and it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Trailer: Národní filmový archiv on YouTube

Where to stream: Czechia: Oneplay, Lepší.TV, free with ads on Prima Plus; rent or buy on Apple TV. Italy (Gli amori di una bionda): not streaming right now. JustWatch CZ · JustWatch IT

Cormac McCarthy's Most Profound Story · Like Stories of Old (Tom van der Linden, Netherlands) · English, 39:18, published 30 Apr 2026

Tom van der Linden unpacks the tale of a heretic and a priest that he found inside McCarthy's The Crossing, reading it alongside films like Train Dreams, Winter Light, First Reformed and A Hidden Life. It's a slow, thoughtful essay about faith, doubt and what makes a life mean something, made for a quiet Saturday. YouTube

• Artificial · not listed at Flora.
• The Social Reckoning · not listed at Flora.
• Elon Musk documentary · not listed at Flora. Cinema City Flora