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  • Starmer overhauls his government after his deputy prime minister resigns over a tax error

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reshuffled his government. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer reshuffled his Cabinet after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner resigned over a tax error related to a property purchase. David Lammy replaced Rayner as deputy prime minister and justice secretary, while Yvette Cooper became foreign secretary and Shabana Mahmood took over as…

  • Veteran politician Anutin Charnvirakul elected Thai prime minister in parliamentary vote

    Thailand’s parliament has selected a new Prime Minister. Veteran Thai politician Anutin Charnvirakul was elected prime minister after winning a parliamentary vote with 311 votes, surpassing the required majority. He replaces Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was dismissed for ethics violations related to a controversial phone call with Cambodia’s Senate President. Anutin, known for his role in…

  • Shiite ministers walk out as Lebanon’s Cabinet debates army plan to disarm Hezbollah

    Proposed plans to disarm Hezbollah have continued to divide Lebanon’s government. Lebanon’s Cabinet reviewed a military plan to disarm Hezbollah and consolidate weapons under state control but backed off from its original year-end deadline due to limited resources and political resistance. Shiite ministers from Hezbollah, Amal, and an independent bloc walked out of the meeting…

  • Fusion cash is everywhere. Is a breakthrough coming?

    Fusion energy is having a moment. Last week, Commonwealth Fusion Energy Systems, which is backed by Google, announced it had raised nearly $3 billion in capital and would start developing a fusion power plant in Virginia. That came as a prominent Department of Energy scientist helped launch a new company to commercialize fusion. The Nuclear…

  • Iran downgrades diplomatic ties with Australia after row over arson attacks

    Iran has downgraded diplomatic ties with Australia, its foreign ministry said on Thursday, a week after Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador over accusations that Tehran directed two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne. “According to diplomatic law and in response to Australia’s action, the Islamic Republic has also reciprocally reduced the…

  • Indonesian students to stage parliament protest, await meeting with government

    Indonesian students will stage protests at the parliament building in the capital Jakarta on Thursday, a student group said, as a proposed meeting with the government on massive demonstrations that have left 10 people dead was yet to materialise. Led by students, workers and rights groups, last week’s protests over police violence and state spending…

  • Nigerian military kill over 28 militia in northeast Borno state

    Nigeria’s air force killed more than 15 Islamist militia fighters in an airstrike on their hideout around the Sambisa forest in the northeastern Borno state, a spokesperson said on Thursday. Nigeria has faced a 16-year Islamist insurgency in the northeast led by Boko Haram and its offshoot ISWAP, causing mass casualties, displacement and a deepening…

  • Congo’s health ministry announces a new Ebola outbreak

    Congo’s health ministry on Thursday announced a new Ebola outbreak, the 16th in the central African country, after a case was confirmed in the southern Kasai province. “To date, the provisional report shows 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths, including 14 in Boulapé and 1 in Mweka, as well as four healthcare workers,” said Samuel-Roger…

  • Death toll from Afghan earthquake jumps to more than 2,200 as aid agencies plead for funds

    Hundreds more bodies have been recovered from houses in mountain villages destroyed by a major earthquake in Afghanistan early this week, pushing the death toll to over 2,200, a Taliban government spokesman said Thursday. The shallow, magnitude-6.0 quake struck the mountainous and remote eastern part of the country late Sunday, leveling villages and trapping people…

  • Nepal moves to block Facebook, X, YouTube and others

    Nepal’s government said Thursday it is blocking most social media platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube because the companies failed to comply with regulations that required them to register with the government. Nepal’s Minister for Communication and Information Prithvi Subba Gurung said about two dozen social network platforms that are widely used in Nepal were…

  • Boat accident in Nigeria leaves at least 31 people dead, authorities say

    A boat accident on a river in north-central Nigeria killed at least 31 people, authorities said Wednesday. The overloaded boat hit a tree trunk in the Borgu area of Niger state while it carried 90 people, according to Hussaini Isah, an official with Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency. Isah said 50 people have been rescued…

  • Dangerous heart conditions detected in seconds with AI stethoscope

    The first artificial intelligence (AI) stethoscope has gone beyond listening to a heartbeat. Researchers at Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust discovered that an AI stethoscope can detect heart failure at an early stage. The TRICORDER study results, published in BMJ Journals, found that the AI-enabled stethoscope can help doctors identify three…

  • The AI Doomsday Machine Is Closer to Reality Than You Think

    Jacquelyn Schneider saw a disturbing pattern, and she didn’t know what to make of it. Last year Schneider, director of the Hoover Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative at Stanford University, began experimenting with war games that gave the latest generation of artificial intelligence the role of strategic decision-makers. In the games, five off-the-shelf large language…

  • New AI model turns photos into explorable 3D worlds, with caveats

    On Tuesday, Tencent released HunyuanWorld-Voyager, a new open-weights AI model that generates 3D-consistent video sequences from a single image, allowing users to pilot a camera path to “explore” virtual scenes. The model simultaneously generates RGB video and depth information to enable direct 3D reconstruction without the need for traditional modeling techniques. However, it won’t be…

  • Army’s Contract With Startup Will Give Soldiers Battlefield AI

    American soldiers are starting to carry artificial intelligence in their pockets and rucksacks, the result of a $98.9 million contract between the U.S. Army and a San Francisco startup. The contract with TurbineOne reflects twin realities of the modern battlefield: Drones and AI have accelerated the speed of combat to a blistering pace, and ubiquitous…

  • Car-sized spy airship powered by hydrogen to fly in NATO’s largest drone drill

    A Finnish technology company, Kelluu, uses an old idea to change modern surveillance. Located in Joensuu, Kelluu has created a small, hydrogen-powered, self-flying airship. This airship is designed for long-lasting use, is environmentally friendly, and has advanced sensors. It is now gaining interest from defense organizations, including NATO. The airship, about the size of a…

  • Why humanoid robots aren’t advancing as fast as AI chatbots

    Chatbots have rapidly advanced in recent years, and so have the large language models, or LLMs, powering them. LLMs use machine learning algorithms trained on vast amounts of text data. Many technology leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, believe a similar approach will make humanoid robots capable of performing surgery,…

  • Nvidia’s Venture Arm Invests in Honeywell’s Quantinuum

    Nvidia Corp.’s venture capital arm is investing in Quantinuum for the first time, valuing the quantum computing company controlled by Honeywell International Inc. at $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Nvidia is the latest big-name backer to join the ranks of Quantinuum’s investor roster through a $600 million funding round that could…

  • China’s DeepSeek Preps AI Agent for End-2025 to Rival OpenAI

    DeepSeek is developing an artificial intelligence model with more advanced AI agent features to compete with US rivals like OpenAI in a newer frontier of the technology, according to people familiar with the matter.The Hangzhou-based startup is building an AI model that’s designed to carry out multi-step actions on a person’s behalf with minimal direction…

  • Nepal blocks Facebook, X, YouTube and others for failing to register with the government

    Nepal has blocked several social media sites. Nepal has banned Facebook, X, and YouTube, citing that the sites did not properly register with the government. This move is part of a broader effort to regulate digital platforms and enforce stricter content moderation. Critics argue the ban may infringe on freedom of expression and disproportionately affect…

  • Mali files ICJ case against Algeria over the destruction of a military reconnaissance drone

    Mali has filed a case against Algeria in the International Court of Justice. Mali has filed a case against Algeria at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of deliberately destroying a Malian military drone near the border town of Tinzaouaten. Mali claims the drone was conducting reconnaissance against armed rebels and that Algeria’s actions…

  • Macron says 26 countries pledge troops as a reassurance force for Ukraine after fighting ends

    France has announced their willingness to lead a coalition to support Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that 26 countries have pledged to send troops to Ukraine as part of a “reassurance force” once the war with Russia ends. This commitment was made during a meeting in Paris with the “coalition of the willing,” which…

  • Belgium moves toward recognizing a Palestinian state, drawing Israeli rebuke

    Belgium has announced that they will recognize a Palestinian state. Belgium has announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state, with the formal declaration expected at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly. However, this recognition is conditional on the release of Israeli hostages and the removal of Hamas from power in Gaza, making immediate action unlikely.…

  • Shield AI Pitches Hivemind-Powered Drone Autonomy to Indian Military

    US defense firm Shield AI has demonstrated its Hivemind autonomy software to the Indian Ministry of Defence as part of a campaign to offer the V-BAT unmanned aerial system to the Indian Army and Indian Air Force. The effort allowed New Delhi to evaluate Hivemind integration on V-BATs for approval. As part of the demonstration…

  • South Sudan clash kills 14 in renewed violence in north

    At least four soldiers and 10 militia members were killed in fighting in an area of South Sudan where previous clashes led to the arrest of First Vice President Riek Machar, the military said on Tuesday. The arrest of Machar – a longtime rival of President Salva Kiir – in March prompted international calls for…

  • Bomb blast kills 11 at rally in southwestern Pakistan, officials say

    A bomb blast killed at least 11 people at a public rally in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta late on Tuesday, officials said. Government official Hamza Shafaat said the rally was held to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Sardar Ataullah Mengal, a nationalist leader and former provincial chief minister. His son Sardar…

  • Trump Says U.S. Attacked Boat Carrying Venezuelan Gang Members, Killing 11

    President Trump said on Tuesday that the United States had carried out a strike against a boat carrying drugs and killed 11 “terrorists,” the administration’s latest military escalation in Mr. Trump’s war against Venezuelan drug cartels that he has blamed for bringing fentanyl into the country. Mr. Trump offered few specifics about the strike during…

  • Thailand’s ruling party seeks new election as a way out of political crisis

    Thailand, which has been under a caretaker government since last week, saw competing efforts to resolve its political crisis on Wednesday, as the country’s main opposition party agreed to support its rival to be the next prime minister while the party in power said it wants a new election. The Pheu Thai party, which heads…

  • Dozens of bodies recovered from village hit by landslide in Darfur as pope prays for victims

    Search teams have recovered around 100 bodies from a remote village that is feared to have been wiped out by a devastating landslide over the weekend in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, a rebel group said Wednesday. The Sudan Liberation Movement-Army has said the death toll from the Aug. 31 landslide in Tarasin, in the…

  • China Is Using the Private Sector to Advance Military AI

    In a study published in January last year, researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University showed how artificial intelligence could be used to deploy weapons systems in automated “kill webs” that would adjust in real time to battlefield changes during combat at sea. Six days later, China’s military announced that the university had won a defense…

  • China showcases military strength at parade as Xi stands alongside Putin and Kim

    Chinese leader Xi Jinping brandished a sophisticated new arsenal in a grand military parade on Wednesday, showcasing weapons and aircraft that Beijing can use to challenge U.S. power in the Asia-Pacific region. The goal, Chinese Maj. Gen. Wu Zeke said, is to “demonstrate our military’s formidable strategic deterrent capability” and “win future wars.” The military…

  • China subsidizes AI computing for small domestic companies

    China is continuing to expand access to AI computing power to its workforce, and has begun using its nationalized data centers to do so. Many of China’s local governments have begun rolling out “computing power voucher” programs, aimed at helping SMEs (small and medium enterprises) access AI training power at heavily subsidized costs. The voucher…

  • EU Court Backs US Data Pact, Avoiding Fresh Privacy Fight

    The European Union’s General Court backed the bloc’s data transfer agreement with the US, rejecting a legal challenge that argued American surveillance laws still fall short of EU privacy standards. Wednesday’s ruling by the Luxembourg-based tribunal is the latest round in a decade-long legal battle over how companies move personal data across the Atlantic. Two…

  • Greek humanoid Olympiad reveals robots are far behind artificial intelligence

    Greece recently witnessed the world’s first International Humanoid Olympiad in Olympia, where humanoid robots played boxing and soccer matches to attain glory. The event, held from August 29 to September 2, was organized by Acumino and Endeavor, who invited industry leaders to line up as speakers, apart from the smart machines displaying their abilities. While…

  • State of the software engineering job market in 2025

    The job market feels pretty weird right now; software engineers applying for roles are finding it harder to get responses – while hiring managers tell me it now takes longer to fill positions even though overall recruitment is, confusingly, slightly up. So, what’s going on with tech vacancies? To learn more, I’ve spent the past…

  • Google, Apple, and Mozilla Win in the Antitrust Case Google Lost

    I had a sneaking suspicion today might be the day where Judge Amit Mehta would come back with the remedies in Google’s antitrust trial. Sure enough… And sure enough, those remedies are pretty much exactly what I expected and have been writing about for months – over a year. While any deals to make Google…

  • The problem of AI chatbots discussing suicide with teenagers

    The world’s top artificial intelligence companies are grappling with the problem of chatbots engaging in conversations about suicide and self-harm, as families claim their products are not doing enough to protect young users. OpenAI and Character.ai are being sued by the parents of dead teenagers, who argue that the companies’ products encouraged and validated suicidal…

  • Google gets to keep Chrome, judge rules in search antitrust case

    Google will not have to sell its Chrome browser in order to address its illegal monopoly in online search, DC District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled on Tuesday. Over a year ago, Judge Mehta found that the search giant had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act; his ruling now determines what Google must do in response.…

  • NATO says it is working to counter Russia’s GPS jamming after interference with EU leader’s plane

    NATO has committed to counter Russia’s GPS jamming. Russia has been increasingly using GPS jamming tactics across Northern and Eastern Europe, disrupting civilian and military navigation systems. NATO officials, including Secretary General Mark Rutte, have raised alarms about the security implications of these electronic warfare strategies. The jamming incidents have affected flights and maritime operations,…

  • 850,000 Syrian refugees have returned home since Assad’s fall, UN says

    Refugees have begun to return to Syria. Large numbers of Syrian refugees have begun to return to Syria. However, several government have criticized the UNHCR for allegedly discouraging refugee returns. Many refugees have said that while they wish to return home, the political situation has not stabilized enough to make the journey safe. Read more:…

  • Burkina Faso bans homosexuality with prison terms and fines for offenders

    Burkina Faso has moved to criminalize homosexuality. Burkina Faso’s government, under President Ibrahim Traoré, has moved to criminalize homosexuality, aligning with a broader trend in parts of Africa. The legislation has sparked concern among human rights organizations, who warn it could worsen discrimination and violence. The law reflects growing sentiment that LGBTQ identities were forced…

  • China displays its weaponry in a tightly controlled military parade

    China carried out a large scale military parade to commemorate the end of World War II China held a large-scale military parade in Beijing to commemorate the end of World War II. The event included participation from several countries, including Russia and North Korea. The parade comes as China has sought to strength ties with…

  • True Anomaly hires former York Space executive as chief operating officer

    True Anomaly, a defense-focused space technology startup based in Colorado, hired satellite industry executive Sarah Walter as chief operating officer, the company announced Sept. 2. The appointment comes as the company prepares for critical space missions, including a Space Force-funded satellite launch. Walter worked most recently at satellite manufacturer York Space Systems, also based in…

  • India warns Pakistan of more cross-border flooding due to heavy monsoon rains

    India warned Pakistan about possible cross-border flooding for the second time in as many weeks as monsoon deluges cause death and widespread destruction in both countries. The disaster management authority in eastern Pakistan announced the warning Tuesday. New Delhi shared the warning with Pakistan on “humanitarian grounds” through New Delhi’s high commission in Islamabad rather…

  • Indonesian police fire tear gas, rubber bullets at student protesters

    Indonesian police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters near two universities in the city of Bandung, student groups and authorities said on Tuesday, stoking concerns over unrest in which 10 people have been killed since last week. The protests began in the capital Jakarta, targeting government spending such as enhanced perks for lawmakers,…

  • Yemen’s Houthi terror group claim attack on ship in northern Red Sea

    Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday that they had attacked a ship in the northern Red Sea with two drones and a missile over its connection to Israel. The group did not say when the attack happened. There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from maritime sources. “The Yemeni armed forces carried out a…

  • New quake shakes devastated Afghan region as death toll exceeds 1400

    An earthquake of magnitude 5.5 shook southeastern Afghanistan on Tuesday (local time), sparking fears of further damage and destruction almost two days after a large quake in the same region killed more than 1400 people and injured thousands more. Tuesday’s quake occurred at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles), the same level…

  • Landslide Kills More Than 1,000 People in Sudan.

    A rebel group in Sudan’s Darfur region appealed for help from international aid organizations on Monday after a landslide it said killed more than 1,000 people in a remote village. The landslide happened on Sunday after heavy rain and leveled the village of Tarasin, located in the remote Marra mountains, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army said…

  • Burkina Faso bans homosexuality with prison terms and fines for offenders

    Burkina Faso’s parliament has passed a law banning homosexuality with offenders facing two to five years in prison, the state broadcaster reported late Monday. The amended family code was approved by the parliament on Monday in an unanimous vote that puts the code into effect more than a year after it was approved by the…

  • AI-Powered Drone Swarms Have Now Entered the Battlefield

    On a recent evening, a trio of Ukrainian drones flew under the cover of darkness to a Russian position and decided among themselves exactly when to strike. The assault was an example of how Ukraine is using artificial intelligence to allow groups of drones to coordinate with each other to attack Russian positions, an innovative…

  • China plans to outpace Neuralink with a state-backed brain chip blitz

    China has just drawn its battle lines in a new frontier of computing. In August, the government published a sweeping policy document (“Implementation Plan for Promoting Innovation and Development of the brain-computer interface (BCI) Industry”) laying out its ambition to build an internationally competitive BCI industry within five years. The blueprint — which illustrates that…

  • Software becomes the next frontier for building quantum computers

    In the decades-long pursuit of quantum computing, most of the effort has gone into the hardware needed to harness delicate quantum mechanical effects for useful calculations. Now, with some claiming those systems are nearly here, attention is shifting to the software that will be needed to do something useful with them. British quantum algorithms company…

  • Homegrown robots help drive China’s global export surge

    China’s homegrown robot makers are driving a wave of low-cost automation that is helping local factories churn out more goods at lower prices, allowing the country to increase its share of exports, even in labour-intensive products. President Xi Jinping’s Made in China 2025 plan and other government initiatives have pushed to build up domestic robot…

  • Chinese delivery giant Meituan unleashes open-source AI model to take on Alibaba, DeepSeek

    On-demand local services giant Meituan has become the latest Chinese Big Tech company to release an open-source large language model (LLM) to market, more than two years after it acquired mainland AI start-up Light Year for US$281 million. Beijing-based Meituan, the long-standing leader of China’s food delivery market, on Monday released and open-sourced its own…

  • AI spending boom helps some factories

    U.S. manufacturing contracted for a sixth straight month in August as factories continued to grapple with the impact of import tariffs, but an artificial intelligence spending boom is lending support to some segments of the industry. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Tuesday its manufacturing PMI edged up to 48.7 last month from…

  • The One Danger That Should Unite the U.S. and China

    China and America don’t know it yet, but the artificial intelligence revolution is going to drive them closer together, not farther apart. The rise of A.I. will force them to fiercely compete for dominance and — at the same time and with equal energy — cooperate at a depth our two countries have never attempted…

  • Maduro vows to declare a ‘republic in arms’ if US forces in the Caribbean attack Venezuela

    Maduro threatens armed resistance to US Caribbean deployment Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declared he would establish “a republic in arms” if US forces attack Venezuela, responding to America’s expanded Caribbean maritime presence aimed at combating drug cartels. The US has deployed multiple warships and plans to send three amphibious assault ships with over 4,000 personnel…

  • Nigerian separatist leader Simon Ekpa sentenced in Finland to 6 years in prison

    Finnish court sentences Nigerian separatist leader to six years Simon Ekpa, who leads the banned Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) from Finland, received a six-year prison sentence for terrorism, tax fraud, and ethical violations. The Finnish court found that Ekpa promoted Nigerian regional independence through illegal means and supplied weapons to groups responsible for hundreds…

  • Earthquake in eastern Afghanistan destroys villages and kills 800 people, with 2,500 injured

    Eastern Afghanistan earthquake kills 800, injures thousands more A 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province late Sunday, killing at least 800 people and injuring over 2,500 according to Taliban government figures. The shallow quake devastated entire villages, trapping families under rubble as residents desperately searched for survivors without adequate rescue equipment. Blocked mountain…

  • Tens of thousands demand justice and protest against populist rule in Serbia

    Serbian students continue protests despite government crackdown threats Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters marched in Belgrade and other Serbian cities on Monday, marking 10 months since a train station canopy collapse killed 16 people in Novi Sad. The student-led demonstrations demand early elections, transparent investigations into the disaster blamed on state corruption, and media…