Message Invalid character found in the request target The valid characters are defined in RFC 7230 and RFC 3986 Description The server cannot or will not process the request due to something that is perceived to be a client error (e.g. Note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the server logs Anyone who has worked in Brussels for a long time will have thought: “It’s a miracle anything gets done around here” (spoiler alert: nothing gets done around here) But sometimes divine intervention strikes at the most unlikely of moments the Vatican is checking whether a professor walking away pretty much unscathed from a 2021 car crash should lead to the canonization of European Union founding father Robert Schuman Political scientist Hendrik Vos was working on a podcast about Schuman, who was named after a roundabout in Brussels’ EU Quarter (are you sure about this? —Eds) when he was involved in a car crash. According to Der Standaard a “backpack lay against the broken window containing ‘Pour l’Europe,’ the book with which Robert Schuman laid the foundation for the European Union.” The  Catholic Church has been discussing Schuman’s path toward possible sainthood for some time and Vos got in touch to tell them about the ‘Miracle of Waasmunster,’ the town of about 10,000 people where the crash took place the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party will surely need one to win the next election British media have written that Tory members of parliament are shaving off their beards because they have been told voters don’t like facial hair (yeah that’s the reason the Tories will lose the election not Boris Johnson and Liz Truss and …) An unnamed senior Tory told The Sun: “Apparently beards are a turn-off I’ve lost count of the number of times people have said voters are less likely to back you if you have a beard.” But it is going straight back on after the election” — thereby breaking yet another election promise told the same newspaper that Margaret Thatcher used to be very pogonophobic (that’s anti-beard to you and me) and banned facial hair from her Cabinet That’s apparently because she thought beards were too strongly associated with rebellion and the political left how’s the whole ‘man of the people’ campaign getting on?” Can you do better? Email [email protected] or on Twitter/X @pdallisonesque Here’s the best from our postbag — there’s no prize except for the gift of laughter which I think we can all agree is far more valuable than cash or booze “Later I want to become a dictator just like you,” by Bastiaan Deconinck Paul Dallison is POLITICO‘s deputy EU editor You cannot buy an Ursula von der Leyen watch POLITICO has reviewed the declarations of interest of every European Commission nominee Keir Starmer’s sausages/hostages mix-up was a gaffe for the ages WAASMUNSTER - The Belgian woman who killed her twin daughters in the Marriott hotel in Curaçao ten years ago was stabbed in Waasmunster in East Flanders on Saturday.   was at home on Saturday evening when the doorbell rang around eight o'clock According to information from Nieuwsblad.be He lashed out with a knife and stabbed the woman in the stomach is currently in hospital but is not in life-threatening condition.   The victim is no stranger to law enforcement she made headlines for the murder of her two then 6-year-old daughters Amélie and Alexine The twin sisters were found dead in the bathtub of their hotel room in the Marriott Hotel on Curaçao on July 23 The mother was later found screaming in the sea she was admitted to the Capriles Clinic in Curaçao for a year after which she returned to Belgium and was placed under psychiatric treatment.   a long phase of outpatient supervision followed has been living in Waasmunster again for some time.   the father of the murdered girls would have nothing to do with this incident even though the stabbing took place on July 23 exactly ten years after the murder on July 23 Photo: Belgian woman murdered her daughters in Curaçao (credit: Extra) Quantum Commodity Intelligence - Speculation over the start up of the Gulf Coast Ammonia plant in Texas grew on Thursday as Yara's Dancing Brave was confirmed to be heading to the plant's location at  the port of Texas City on 26 March by vessel trackers.The ship was scheduled to load from Algeria this week and it is unclear if the vessel is delivering more cooling ammonia to the GCA plant Yara declined to comment on plans for the vessel Sources told Quantum that cargoes were being offered into Turkey this week at the $405/mt CFR level and not all of these offers were Iranian origin Firm sales were not confirmed by press time but sources indicated some Russian ammonia had been sold at lower levels The Turkey CFR price has been revised down to $425/mt for spot and $430-450/mt for contract cargoes reflecting deliveries from freely-tradeable origins Vessel Max Star (formerly Wind 7) which looks to have loaded mid-February in Iran is scheduled to arrive at Samsun in the coming days chartered by Trafigura is expected to arrive at Samsun on 24 March ARY Holding, which owns Gemlik Gubre, has increased its share holding in Tefken Holding Ust Luga FOB prices dropped to $355/mt on Thursday reflecting the drop in delivered prices to Turkey Netbacks on sales to France and Belgium are potentially higher than this level but no prices are disclosed on these deliveries Trammo will load the Gas Utopia from EBIC shortly The vessel was scheduled to arrive at Suez on Thursday Trammo's Eco Enchanted ex-Trinidad delivered a cargo to Dakar on 8 April and the vessel is scheduled to discharge the balance for OCP The phosphate producer will receive Navigator Jorf ex-Donaldsonville on 18 March as well as the balance cargo on Eco Enchanted in the coming days The Pasco Odin still appears to be waiting to discharge at Jorf Lasfar following a long delay The ship is scheduled to load from Libya later this month for Bayegan BGN is scheduled to load the Navigator Grace shortly from NOC at Mersa al Brega has arrived at Teesport to discharge a cargo NetherlandsThe 40,000cbm Green Power is due to reach Rotterdam on 15 March Hexagon's Sylvie is scheduled to discharge a cargo for UBE at Castellon this week The price of the cargo to UBE is not known but Hexagon purchased an Algerian cargo last month at the $535/mt FOB level Ammonia deliveries out of terminals in the Midwest picked up pace this week as Spring pre-paid volumes were moved out to direct application buyers Sources said March ammonia was being offered at $630/st for much of the Corn Belt this week There have been significant volumes scheduled to move out of Donaldsonville in March OCP's Navigator Jorf loaded a cargo early March along with Waasmunter which is on charter with Trafigura and is heading to Turkey Oceanic Moon is expected at the port on 13 March Trafigura's Astor is expected at Donaldsonville on 19 March Yara's Dancing Brave is showing an ETA of 26 March at Texas City presumed to be for the Gulf Coast Ammonia plant OQ's Gas Melody is scheduled to deliver a cargo via the Red Sea to Jordan again on 15 March The Omani producer's ARD Horizon is on its way to Salalah (ETA 18/3) having passed through Suez following a delivery to Turkey Mitsui is understood to have secured part of the domestic supply contracts to Sumitomo meaning it has a big chunk of the total annual requirement of 200,000 mt The Indian line-up for the week includes the Searambler which will supply 10,000 mt to IFFCO on KIT's account on Saturday which is carrying 10,500 mt for Mahadhan Agritech (Deepak Fertilisers) Local sources indicate that the closing date for SECI's green ammonia tender for 750,000 mt has been pushed to the end of this month following amendments Parna Raya's Marianna 28 is expected to arrive at Haiphong port on Saturday which delivered a cargo to Haiphong on 6 March is expected to arrive at Bontang port on Thursday Formosa will receive a 23,000 mt cargo from Yara on the Leo Sunrise under contract at the end of the month The plastics maker has not scheduled any cargoes in April but will receive a 15,000 mt Middle Eastern cargo in early May Ammonia buyers in Taiwan were expecting demand to increase in Q2 but initial indications have not supported this sentiment 2019 6:22 PMWho’s Listening When You Talk to Your Google Assistant?A Belgian broadcaster obtained recordings of more than 1,000 conversations with Google's automated assistant some including personal details and medical information.Benjamin Sibuet/AlamySave this storySaveSave this storySaveAll products featured on Wired are independently selected by our editors we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links and Apple say their AI-powered virtual assistants make it easier to get things done on smartphones or at home a couple in the Waasmunster area of Belgium got an unexpected lesson in how these supposedly automated helpers really work a journalist with Belgian public broadcaster VRT contacted the couple bearing a mysterious audio file they clearly heard the voices of their son and baby grandchild—as captured by Google’s virtual assistant on a smartphone Verheyden says he gained access to the file and more than 1,000 others from a Google contractor who is part of a worldwide workforce paid to review some audio captured by the assistant from devices including smart speakers One recording contained the couple’s address and other information suggesting they are grandparents the broadcaster says the assistant appears to have activated incorrectly after mishearing its wake word Some of those captured fragments of phone calls and private conversations They include announcements that someone needed the bathroom and what appeared to be discussions on personal topics Google says it transcribes a fraction of audio from the assistant to improve its automated voice-processing technology. Yet the sensitive data in the recordings and instances of Google’s algorithms listening in unbidden make some people—including the worker who shared audio with VRT and some privacy experts—uncomfortable. Privacy scholars say Google’s practices may breach the European Union privacy rules known as GDPR introduced last year which provide special protections for sensitive data such as medical information and require transparency about how personal data is collected and processed In one case, the contractor said, he transcribed a recording in which a woman sounded like she was in distress. “I felt that physical violence was involved,” he said in the English subtitles on VRT’s video report “It becomes real people you are listening to not just voices.” The contractor goes on to say that Google had not provided clear guidelines on what a Google spokesperson said the company has launched an investigation because the contractor breached data security policies The statement said Google uses “language experts around the world” to transcribe audio from the company’s assistant but that they review only around 0.2 percent of all recordings which are not associated with user accounts Google’s reviewers may not see account data but they still get to hear very private information a researcher at the Centre for IT & IP Law at the University of Leuven told VRT that means Google’s system may not comply with GDPR which requires explicit consent to collect health data and more useful to you.” Under the heading “Is Google Home recording all of my conversations?” those pages say that no information leaves the device until its wake word is detected—obscuring the fact that the system can mistakenly detect it a technology policy researcher at the Alan Turing Institute in London says those disclosures don’t appear to meet GDPR requirements even for data not considered sensitive The group of national data protection regulators in charge of applying GDPR has said companies must be transparent about data they collect and how it is processed “You have to be very specific on what you’re implementing and how,” Veale says “I think Google hasn’t done that because it would look creepy.” The Google spokesperson said the company will review how it could clarify to users how data is used to improve the company’s speech technology Corrected, 7-10-19, 7pm ET: The Google contractor who spoke with Belgian TV said he reviewed 1,000 audio clips a week. An earlier version of this article said he reviewed 1,000 clips a month. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking Google employees are systematically listening to audio files recorded by Google Home smart speakers and the Google Assistant smartphone app Throughout the world – so also in Belgium and the Netherlands – people at Google listen to these audio files to improve Google’s search engine VRT NWS was able to listen to more than a thousand recordings Most of these recordings were made consciously but Google also listens to conversations that should never have been recorded some of which contain sensitive information Since Google launched its Google Home device in 2016 millions of people have installed one of these smart speaker devices at home or in their office You can ask it all sorts of trivial questions The analysis of our voices by Google is perfectly acceptable but not listening in to our most intimate moments without our knowledge how’s the traffic heading towards Brussels?’ the device automatically switches on and a computer voice will read out the latest traffic information You can do the same thing with the Google Assistant app on your smartphone Not everyone is aware of the fact that everything you say to your Google smart speakers and your Google Assistant is being recorded and stored But that is clearly stated in Google’s terms and conditions And what people are certainly not aware of simply because Google doesn’t mention it in its terms and conditions is that Google employees can listen to excerpts from those recordings Google has continually claimed that it doesn’t eavesdrop Google Holland even made a smooth YouTube ‘explainer’ to remove any misconceptions about eavesdropping Google employees answer the question ‘Does Google eavesdrop?’ They say that the commands are being stored and transferred to Google for analysis It is true that Google does not eavesdrop directly but VRT NWS discovered that it is listening in We let ordinary Flemish people hear some of their own recordings A couple from Waasmunster immediately recognise the voice of their son and their grandchild VRT NWS was able to listen to more than a thousand excerpts recorded via Google Assistant In these recordings we could clearly hear addresses and other sensitive information This made it easy for us to find the people involved and confront them with the audio recordings we were able to talk to someone who works for a Google subcontractor He let us take a look at the system that collects audio via Google Assistant Thousands of employees worldwide use this system to listen to audio excerpts around a dozen people listen to Dutch recordings Why is Google storing these recordings and why does it have employees listening to them They are not interested in what you are saying Google’s computer system consists of smart And in order to understand the subtle differences and characteristics of the Dutch language Sometimes Google’s search engine has difficulty analysing a certain speech command they put this command in Google’s online tool Crowdsource if you want to help Google get better at describing images and facial expressions We have 3 sources confirming that this is the way Google works is the part where you can describe audio recordings Google subcontracts that task to outside professionals They log in to a secure part of the tool that has a list of the audio excerpts they have to analyse We have three sources confirming that this is the way Google works Speech recognition automatically generates a script of the recordings Employees then have to double check to describe the excerpt as accurately as possible: is it a woman’s voice They write out every cough and every audible comma These descriptions are constantly improving Google’s search engines which results in better reactions to commands One of our sources explains how this works Most recordings made via Google Home smart speakers are very clear Knowing that people who work for Google indirectly are listening to such recordings raises questions about privacy In order to avoid excerpts being automatically linked to a user they are disconnected from the user’s information They delete the user name and replace it with an anonymous serial number it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recover someone’s identity; you simply have to listen carefully to what is being said these employees have to look up every word personal name or company name on Google or on Facebook they often soon discover the identity of the person speaking VRT NWS listened to more than a thousand excerpts 153 of which were conversations that should never have been recorded and during which the command ‘Okay Google’ was clearly not given But as soon as someone in the vicinity utters a word that sounds a bit like ’Okay Google’ This means that a lot of conversations are recorded unintentionally: bedroom conversations conversations between parents and their children but also blazing rows and professional phone calls containing lots of private information Mistaken recordings can also occur when someone presses the wrong button on his or her phone or unintentionally gives a command One of our three independent sources says he had to describe a recording where he heard a woman who was in definite distress What are employees supposed to do with such information We are told that there are no clear guidelines regarding such cases Employees only receive specific directions when it comes to account numbers and passwords The people that analyse these recordings also overhear lots of medical questions You wouldn’t be the first to consult Doctor Google when you have some sort of illness The recordings also strikingly confirm one of the Internet’s rules: men seem to look for porn a lot says: ‘This is shocking.’ He immediately points out the possible dangers: these recordings can be made anywhere Google reacts: "This work is crucial to develop new technologies" Google admits that it works with language experts worldwide to improve speech technology "This happens by making transcripts of of a small number of audio files" He adds that "this work is of crucial importance to develop technologies sustaining products such as the Google Assistant." Google states that their language experts only judge "about 0.2 percent of all audio fragments" These are not linked to any personal or identifiable information If you have a Google Home speaker and don’t want to be recorded unintentionally, read this: How to prevent Google eavesdropping (in Dutch) Google is not the only company that works this way the Bloomberg news agency revealed that American internet giant Amazon also does it Apple subcontracted people to train its well-known Siri search assistant Click here to watch the full video report: