Times are Europe/Rome, the same as Prague.

Mon 2 Nov · today

• All day · 🏨 Last day of the stay at ARMEX LiveCentrum · Duchcovská, Děčín (31 Oct–2 Nov)

Tue 3 Nov

• Nothing timed.

Wed 4 Nov

• Nothing timed.

Heads-up: your monthly Lítačka coupon expires on Sat 7 Nov (PID Lítačka mail, 1 Nov).

• JP-KONTAKT desk, order 20/2026/4730 (VSS 180/70 height-adjustable desk, white, with assembly) · JP's own delivery to Kubelíkova 39 · arriving this week (2–6 Nov), per JP on 30 Oct · no fixed date yet · logistics will call to set the day, or book a day and time yourself on 778 747 901
• Nothing else · nothing expected or waiting for pickup

Ukraine

• 🕊️ Oleshky truce ends quietly. The six-day local truce around Oleshky (Kherson) ended Sunday night with no reported violations, after nearly 800 civilians were evacuated. Russia hit power infrastructure in four regions, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity. BBC
• 🛢️ Refinery strikes resume. Ukraine resumed long-range strikes on Russian refineries (Kstovo, Samara) and hit a missile-fuel plant in Rostov, despite US pressure for a pause. Guardian
• 🗺️ Russia loses ground again. ISW says Russia lost net ground in October for the second month running, about 27 km² net. ISW/CTP

Iran

• 🇶🇦 Third day of Qatar talks. Iranian negotiators held a third day of Qatar-mediated talks on a plan to reopen Hormuz within two days of a deal with Washington. Tehran wants sanctions relief and a smaller US military presence in exchange. CNBC/Reuters
• ⚖️ After the midterms? Trump says the talks are "going fine" but hasn't ruled out new strikes after Tuesday's midterms, and Israel is reportedly preparing for another round. Al Jazeera

Garlasco, the castle tower (Awd, CC BY-SA 3.0). Wikimedia Commons

• Still waiting on two things. Pavia prosecutors are expected to file for Andrea Sempio to stand trial "within days" (it hadn't been filed as of 1 Nov), and Stasi's defence says it'll file for a review of his conviction around mid-November. Il Messaggero · Il Mattino
• Defence ready. Sempio's lawyer Angela Taccia said on È sempre Cartabianca that a trial is "molto probabile" and they're ready. Oggi, the 21 pieces of evidence

26 Oct – 1 Nov

• Commission: climate resilience (27 Oct). An EU Climate Resilience Framework plus a proposed European Climate Resilience Law, COM(2026) 730. Commission
• Commission: Frontex (27 Oct). A proposal to reinforce Frontex and strengthen the protection of external borders. Commission
• Commission: SAFE (29 Oct). Invited member states to use €21.3 bn under SAFE for defence readiness and support to Ukraine. DG DEFIS
• Council: CAP 2028–34 (26 Oct). Agreed its negotiating position on the CAP part of the 2028–2034 budget. Consilium
• Council: Energy Council and Mauritania (29 Oct). The Energy Council met in Luxembourg, and the Council adopted a €20 m European Peace Facility measure for Mauritania. Consilium
• Parliament. No plenary that week. The last session (19–22 Oct) passed high-speed rail, passenger-rights enforcement and the 2027 budget.

• 🎛️ Bitwig. No new release; 6.1.4 (13 Oct, rekordbox integration) is still the latest. No new tutorial in the last two days; the newest relevant one is rekordbox Integration in Bitwig Studio: How It Works (3 min, two weeks old). YouTube
• 🎚️ Traktor. No new release; Pro 4.5.1 (July) is still the latest, and there's no fresh tutorial worth a link.
• 🐧 Ubuntu tip: list-timers. systemctl list-timers --all shows every scheduled systemd timer, with when it last ran and when it runs next. It's the quickest way to see what wakes up your machine (apt updates, fstrim, logrotate). Add --user to see your own.
• 📦 Package: httpie. sudo apt install httpie: a friendlier curl for APIs. http GET api.example.com/items prints coloured, formatted JSON, and http POST url name=Lorenzo sends JSON without any quoting gymnastics.

Dark evenings, dark theme. Evenings are dark now that the clocks have gone back. You can set Settings → General → Theme to Follow System, and Grok Bot will switch to Dark whenever your computer does. Open Settings with Cmd+, or from the account button at the bottom left of the sidebar.

Last week's changes (v0.77.0 on 26 Oct and v0.78.1 on 27 Oct). Official changelog

• Settings has a new Permissions section listing Auto-review rules under Always Ask and Allow without Asking, and approval cards now stay open for 30 minutes instead of 10.
• The Vault gained a Payments tab for choosing which payment method Bots use first (you still approve every purchase), and Shop Pay can be connected there.
• 1Password connects without a shared vault: you approve each login in 1Password and it fills it in without the Bot seeing it. There's also a new Import Memory option in Settings.
• Bots can ask several questions on one card, and tables in chat get a copy button and full-screen zoom.
• Shopping results now show as product cards, Bots can track orders, and new templates find and cancel unused subscriptions.

An adult California condor in flight (California Department of Fish and Wildlife, CC BY 2.0). Wikimedia Commons

• 🪲 A beetle back after 60 years. Wales rediscovered the short-necked oil beetle after nearly 60 years, and larvae suggest it's breeding. Guardian
• 🦅 Condors home in Yurok Country. Seven California condors were released in Yurok Country. The species has grown from 22 birds in 1982 to more than 600. We Are Home
• 🦧 Orangutans saved from the fires. Nine orangutans rescued from Indonesia's forest fires, including four mother-and-baby pairs, were released into protected Borneo forest. Gulf Times

Bornean orangutans in Tanjung Puting National Park (Thomas Fuhrmann, CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikimedia Commons

Mercury from NASA's MESSENGER probe (NASA/JHUAPL, public domain). Wikimedia Commons

On Mercury, one full day lasts two years. Sunrise to sunrise takes about 176 Earth days, twice its 88-day year. A Mercurian would see two birthdays between one sunrise and the next.

Detail of the frieze, 1912 (public domain). Wikimedia Commons

Giulio Aristide Sartorio, Fregio dell'Aula (1908–1912) · Aula della Camera dei deputati, Palazzo Montecitorio, Rome

Sartorio's frieze runs around the top of the Chamber of Deputies, about 19 m above the floor. It's 50 panels in waxy tempera on canvas, roughly 105 m long and 3.75 m high. It tells the epic story of the Italian people up to the Risorgimento. In the hemicycle, Italy appears as a young woman on a quadriga, with a sun that stands for the future. Sartorio worked in a very modern way, using photography and projecting his sketches onto the canvases. That's why the crowded, wind-swept figures read clearly from far below. The art world later dismissed it as official and rhetorical, which is exactly Sgarbi's point. Camera dei deputati, art catalogue

The frieze above the hemicycle, during President Mattarella's swearing-in (credited on Commons as attribution required, author not stated). Wikimedia Commons

«Per lunghi anni il turbinoso vento che anima il fregio di Giulio Aristide Sartorio nell'aula del parlamento in palazzo di Montecitorio è stato sopraffatto da venti contrari. Oggi che la pittura di questo grande artista potrebbe di nuovo essere assunta da molti a modello, il nome di Sartorio resta in penombra o in luce sinistra rispetto a quelli degli artefici consacrati dell'arte moderna.»

Vittorio Sgarbi, Artisti, p. 185. it.wikiquote

Up close: drone footage of the frieze from Agenparl (2:35) on YouTube.

susurrus: a soft whispering or rustling sound.

• The susurrus of dry leaves followed us through Vítkov park.
• Behind the closed door came the steady susurrus of conversation.

• mlha (MLL-ha): fog. Ráno byla nad Vltavou hustá mlha. (This morning there was thick fog over the Vltava.)
• Dušičky (DOO-shitch-kee): All Souls' Day, which is today, 2 Nov, when Czechs light candles on graves. Na Dušičky jdeme na hřbitov. (On All Souls' Day we go to the cemetery.)

Josef Škvorecký, drawn by Adolf Hoffmeister, 1968 (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikimedia Commons

Josef Škvorecký, Zbabělci (The Cowards, 1958; Italian I vigliacchi)

The last days of the war in a small Bohemian town, seen by a jazz-mad young man who cares far more about girls and his saxophone than about the "revolution". It's funny, irreverent and very Czech. Its irreverence caused an official scandal in 1958, and the book was pulled from the shops. If you love Hrabal's mischief, it's a natural next step.

Get it: Amazon.it · Italian edition, I vigliacchi, Miraggi Edizioni (NováVlna, 2025), transl. Alessandro De Vito, afterword by Alessandro Catalano

Amarcord (1973, Federico Fellini)

A year in a 1930s Rimini-like town, told through school pranks, fascist parades, the passing Rex liner and a family dinner that turns into a brawl. It's Fellini at his warmest, with Nino Rota's score, and it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

The passing of the Rex, a still from the film (public domain in Italy). Wikimedia Commons

Trailer: Janus Films on YouTube

Where to stream: Czechia: not streaming, renting or selling anywhere right now. Italy: not streaming, renting or selling anywhere right now. JustWatch CZ · JustWatch IT

FZ 51/1988 Medailón Bohumila Hrabala · Československý filmový týdeník · Czech, 12:52

A short 1988 portrait of Hrabal from the Czechoslovak newsreel, made a year before the Velvet Revolution. It's a slice of period Czech TV about one of your favourite writers, and good listening practice too. YouTube

• Artificial (Guadagnino) · not on Flora's programme or its upcoming list. The US release is 25 Dec, and there's no Czech date yet.
• The Social Reckoning (Sorkin) · Czech listings put its premiere at 8 Oct (distributor Falcon), but Cinema City Flora isn't showing it and doesn't list it as coming.
• Elon Musk documentary · not listed at Flora. cinemacity.cz Flora programme and upcoming-films list, checked this morning