Kristalina Georgieva, before the start of the IMF-World Bank annual meeting in Singapore, said economic policy chiefs could not keep delaying action. Kristalina Georgieva, before the start of the IMF-World Bank annual meeting in Singapore, said economic policy chiefs could not keep delaying action. Kristalina Georgieva says big economies will have to make'very touch choices' as soaring bond yields hit budgets The head of the International Monetary Fund has called on governments across big economies to tighten their belts as soaring bond yields hit budgets. Speaking in Singapore, the IMF's managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said global debt-to-GDP ratios were at their highest level since the second world war and on course to hit 100% in the coming years. She said governments could not rely on rapid economic growth to lift the burden of debt - and instead would have to make "very tough political choices".

The United States stock market has hit an all-time high as excitement around artificial intelligence continues to fuel a buying frenzy on Wall Street. The S&P 500, the benchmark stock index, closed 0.58 percent higher on Tuesday, topping the previous peak reached in mid-August. Tech stocks were among the top performers, with each of the "Magnificent Seven" apart from Meta closing higher. Amazon led the pack with a 1.95 percent gain, followed by Microsoft and Tesla, which rose 0.78 percent and 0.51 percent, respectively. Apple and Alphabet both rose 0.22 percent, while Nvidia gained 0.14 percent.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries President Yasuhiko Hashimoto poses with a prototype of the company's dog-like robot, Home Leo, in Tokyo on Tuesday. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has unveiled a prototype of a dog-shaped social robot that helps older people with life at home. Leveraging physical artificial intelligence, the robot, Home Leo, can talk to people, recognize its surroundings, make appropriate decisions according to the situation and act autonomously, according to the Japanese firm. Home Leo was presented at a business briefing the company held in Tokyo on Tuesday. The robot will stay close to the older people it lives with, offering companionship through conversation, watching over them and assisting with their daily activities, Kawasaki Heavy said.

Australia's privacy regulator launched an investigation into the China-based company behind the HeyCyan app in Kmart's Anko-branded discount version of Meta's smartglasses. Australia's privacy regulator launched an investigation into the China-based company behind the HeyCyan app in Kmart's Anko-branded discount version of Meta's smartglasses. Privacy watchdog launches investigation into China-based company behind Kmart'pervert glasses' app Tue 6 Oct 2026 22.00 EDTFirst published on Tue 6 Oct 2026 19.02 EDT The Australian privacy regulator has opened an investigation into the China-based software company behind the HeyCyan app in Kmart's $89 smartglasses, following public outrage over the covert use of the devices. In August, Guardian Australia reported Kmart had sold out of the Anko-branded discount version of Meta's smartglasses that can capture images and record high-definition video, which led to widespread concern and calls to ban or restrict their use. The glasses were removed from Kmart's website as of Wednesday.

President Donald Trump says he will speak with Vladimir Putin "very soon" as the U.S. tracks reports of a suspected pneumonic plague death in Russia's Siberia region.

A cargo ship sank in the Black Sea off NATO member Bulgaria after a combined aerial and maritime drone attack. Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russia as search and rescue efforts continue.

The origin story of Sam Altman's company is reimagined as a campy comedy starring Andrew Garfield O n the day that Luca Guadagnino's film about Sam Altman and OpenAI premiered, Vanity Fair released a cover story on Altman. Alongside glossy portraits from Annie Leibovitz, the world's pre-eminent portrait photographer, the story describes him as the Oppenheimer of his day, evoking the image of a man leading humanity towards its own inevitable demise at the hands of sentient robots. Altman doesn't seem to be grappling with much existential angst about the whole thing though: in an interview also released this week, he said that we should be prepared to accept "bad things" in return for the benefits of AI. Club Kid review - Jordan Firstman's heartfelt comedy is irresistible How much worse can things get? AI agents have already gone rogue, hacking into government systems and "bruteforcing" UN databases.

A Togo-flagged merchant ship sank off Bulgaria after a drone attack, with its crew missing. A second ship was also hit and its crew was rescued. Bulgaria's prime minister called the attacks a'flagrant violation' of international and maritime law. Yemen's Taiz residents fear food and fuel crisis amid fighting Is Europe preparing for a wider war with Russia? What we know about Russia's suspected plague case France's student protests grow as hundreds of schools close

Mistral Says Its New AI Model'Le Chonk' Is the Best Open-Weight Offering Outside of China With the release of its new trillion-parameter model, Mistral is hoping to demonstrate it's "still in the race" to build frontier-level artificial intelligence. As tensions mount over who gets access to top-end artificial intelligence, French company Mistral has released a new freely-available model that it claims can compete with the very best from the US and China. The new one trillion-parameter model, Mistral Large 4--nicknamed Le Chonk--can be used and customized by anyone. It's currently available in preview, with a final version to follow by the end of the month. Though Le Chonk is built to compete with leading general purpose models, it's optimized specifically for coding and cyberdefense, as well as tasks particular to manufacturing, finance, electrical engineering, and other niches.

Spotify got on the BTS bandwagon earlier this year, celebrating the band's return to the studio with a trivia game about the K-pop idol group. Now, that Music Quiz feature has been expanded to test fans' knowledge of more than 2,000 artists with questions about "music trivia, album cover art reveals, and audio track previews spanning an artist's music, career, and defining moments." Music Quiz is beginning to roll out today for Premium subscribers in the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India, Nigeria, South Africa and Indonesia. The content will be in English at launch, but additional languages and artists will be added over time. The streaming service has built a reputation for offering fun widgets and insights into listening habits, from the splashy year-end Wrapped reports to the liner notes-esque SongDNA to the unfortunately necessary labels for music that's not generative AI.