The EU has opened an investigation into Google over its artificial intelligence (AI) summaries which appear above search results. The European Commission said it would examine whether the firm used data from websites to provide this service - and if it failed to offer appropriate compensation to publishers. It is also investigating how YouTube videos may have been used to improve its broader AI systems, and whether content creators were able to opt-out. A Google spokesperson said the probe risks stifling innovation in a market that is more competitive than ever. Europeans deserve to benefit from the latest technologies and we will continue to work closely with the news and creative industries as they transition to the AI era, they said.

Ben & Jerry's brand could be destroyed, says co-founder Ben & Jerry's will be destroyed as a brand if it remains with parent company Magnum, the company's co-founder Ben Cohen has told the BBC. His remarks are the latest in a long-running spat between the ice cream brand and its parent company over its ability to express its social activism and the continued independence of its board. The comments came on the day that the Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC) started trading on the European stock market - spinning off from owner Unilever. A spokesperson for Magnum said the firm wanted to build and strengthen Ben & Jerry's powerful, non-partisan values-based position in the world. Ben & Jerry's was sold to Unilever in 2000 in a deal which allowed it to retain an independent board and the right to make decisions about its social mission.

Rachael Dunfell knew two things about her husband's 21-year-old cousin: that he liked specialised racing bikes and that he was interested in the Vikings. But those pieces of information yielded few ideas for a suitable Christmas gift. So Rachael, 33, from Manchester, turned to artificial intelligence. She inputted his age, his hobby and his interest into Copilot, the Microsoft-owned chatbot, which led her to the website of a niche retailer that sells Viking-themed metal bike parts. It's just something that I really would never have known existed, she said, but it was perfect.

Ukraine is preparing to present a revised peace plan to the White House, as it seeks to avoid making territorial concessions to Russia. Kyiv is set propose alternatives to the US after President Volodymyr Zelensky again ruled out surrendering land, saying he had no right to do so under Ukrainian or international law. He made the comments as he met European and Nato leaders on Monday, part of a collective push to deter the US from backing a peace deal which includes major concessions for Ukraine, and which allies fear would leave it vulnerable to a future invasion. Meanwhile, the city of Sumy in north-western Ukraine was left without power overnight after a Russian drone attack. The region's governor said more than a dozen drones had hit power infrastructure, the latest in Russia's nightly attacks.

US President Donald Trump has announced that he will allow AI chip giant Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to approved customers in China. We will protect National Security, create American Jobs, and keep America's lead in AI, Trump said on social media on Monday. The decision will apply to other US chip companies like AMD and comes after extensive lobbying by Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, who visited Washington last week to drum up support. Nvidia - both the world's leading chip firm and most valuable company - has found itself at the centre of a geopolitical tug-of-war between the US and China in recent months, and had been banned from selling its most advanced chips to Beijing. Trump reversed the chip-selling ban in July, but demanded that Nvidia pay 15% of its Chinese revenues to the US government. Beijing then reportedly ordered its tech companies to stop buying Nvidia chips manufactured for use in the Chinese market.

Sudan's air force has carried out bombings in which at least 1,700 civilians have died in attacks on residential neighbourhoods, markets, schools and camps for displaced people, according to an investigation into air raids in the country's civil war. The Sudan Witness Project says it has compiled the largest known dataset of military airstrikes in the conflict, which began in April 2023. Its analysis indicates that the air force has used unguided bombs in populated areas. The data focuses on attacks by warplanes, which only the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is capable of operating. Its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) does not have aircraft.

Agglomerative hierarchical clustering is one of the most widely used approaches for exploring how observations in a dataset relate to each other. However, its greedy nature makes it highly sensitive to small perturbations in the data, often producing different clustering results and making it difficult to separate genuine structure from spurious patterns. In this paper, we show how randomizing hierarchical clustering can be useful not just for measuring stability but also for designing valid hypothesis testing procedures based on the clustering results. We propose a simple randomization scheme together with a method for constructing a valid p-value at each node of the hierarchical clustering dendrogram that quantifies evidence against performing the greedy merge. Our test controls the Type I error rate, works with any hierarchical linkage without case-specific derivations, and simulations show it is substantially more powerful than existing selective inference approaches. To demonstrate the practical utility of our p-values, we develop an adaptive $α$-spending procedure that estimates the number of clusters, with a probabilistic guarantee on overestimation. Experiments on simulated and real data show that this estimate yields powerful clustering and can be used, for example, to assess clustering stability across multiple runs of the randomized algorithm.

A therapy that would once have been considered a feat of science fiction has reversed aggressive and incurable blood cancers in some patients, doctors report. The treatment involves precisely editing the DNA in white blood cells to transform them into a cancer-fighting living drug. The first girl to be treated, whose story we reported in 2022, is still free of the disease and now plans to become a cancer scientist. Now eight more children and two adults with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia have been treated, with almost two thirds (64%) of patients in remission. T-cells are supposed to be the body's guardians - seeking out and destroying threats - but in this form of leukaemia, they grow out of control.

Activewear brand Sweaty Betty has become involved in a new dispute over advertising slogans, which a period underwear company claims were copied. Kelly Newton said Sweaty Betty's use of two taglines that were very similar to her firm Nixi Body's seemed a little off, and while she could not get them trademarked she felt Sweaty Betty was taking from other female founders. Sweaty Betty said the No ifs. Ms Newton said she was speaking out after seeing personal trainer Georgina Cox reveal Sweaty Betty had offered her a settlement over a disputed slogan . Ms Newton, who co-founded Nixi Body in 2019, said the company has advertised its leak-proof period underwear with the lines Keeping you moving through menstruation, motherhood and menopause and No leaks.

Environment Conservation Ocean Underwater robot survives voyage to'never-accessed region of the planet' An Argo float delivered unprecedented data after eight months beneath Antarctic ice. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Thanks to an underwater survey robot, oceanographers are getting the first-ever readings collected from underneath East Antarctic's vast ice shelves . But for a moment, it wasn't clear when(or if) the bright yellow float would return to the ocean's surface after it dove underneath the ice. "We got lucky," Steve Rintoul, an oceanographer with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), said in a statement .