The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has accused Russia of plotting to murder Ukrainian allies in the US and Europe. In a statement on Tuesday, the DoJ charged five men allegedly connected to the Russian Intelligence Services (RIS). The men are accused of paying, or trying to pay, people in the US and overseas to target those aligned, or perceived to be aligned, with Ukraine. It is our job to stop America's adversaries from unleashing violence and terror on American soil, Attorney General Todd Blanche. All those accused remain at large.

Creator Playbook Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more In My Bag Say More Trending Now Mashable Selects Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net All Series How to watch Sunderland vs. AZ Alkmaar online for free Live stream select fixtures from the Europa League without spending anything. Joseph Green is the Global Shopping Editor for Mashable. He covers VPNs, headphones, fitness gear, dating sites, streaming, and shopping events like Black Friday and Prime Day. All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.

Creator Playbook Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more In My Bag Say More Trending Now Mashable Selects Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net All Series How to watch Milan vs. Benfica online for free Live stream select fixtures from the Europa League without spending anything. Joseph Green is the Global Shopping Editor for Mashable. He covers VPNs, headphones, fitness gear, dating sites, streaming, and shopping events like Black Friday and Prime Day. All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.

Northern Ireland's top judge has explained a court's decision to grant convicted killer Gary Anderson temporary release to attend his father's funeral, despite opposition from prison authorities. Anderson, 29, who is one of two brothers jailed for life in 2023 for the murder of Karol Kelly in Londonderry in 2018, failed to return to Maghaberry prison on Monday. The prison service had refused to grant Anderson compassionate temporary release (CTR) to attend the funeral, but that was overturned by a court on Sunday. The Office of the Lady Chief Justice (LCJ) said the court had held that the governor's decision not to grant CTR was not substantiated by the evidence provided to the court. This was an individual judicial decision, and it is not appropriate for this office to make any further comment, the Office of LCJ said.

Wed 16 Sep 2026 07.55 EDTLast modified on Wed 16 Sep 2026 07.56 EDT Large-scale datacentres will face mandatory environmental assessments before they can go ahead, the Scottish government has announced, amid growing public concern about the impact of the AI boom. Ahead of a vote on a moratorium on new hyperscale datacentres in Holyrood on Wednesday, the Scottish government has tightened rules for new projects by requiring any above 50MW to submit environmental impact assessments, but stopped short of agreeing to an outright halt. Scotland has seen a boom in planning applications for large datacentres as global investment in AI infrastructure has exploded. Datacentres are critical for storing and processing data used by AI. One scheme in Auchtertool, Fife, has been billed as the second-largest in the world, and is among more than 20 large datacentres proposed so far.

Kosovo's former president sentenced to 25 years for war crimes The former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of war crimes. A hearing at The Hague on Wednesday sentenced the 58-year-old for crimes during Kosovo's independence war against Serbia in the 1990s, in which more than 10,000 people died. He was convicted after a three-year trial of crimes including murder, illegal arrests, torture and cruel treatment. A number of other allegations against him were not proven. Thaci was a co-founder and commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a group that fought for independence.

MSPs asked to pause Scotland's AI data centre boom Scotland has a new boom industry, at least if planning applications are taken at face value. The term "hyperscale data centre", rarely heard a few years ago, is now dividing opinion across the country as a rush of applications are made to build them. A debate at Holyrood later, led by the Scottish Greens, will call for planning applications to be put on hold until promised new national guidelines are in force, with an emphasis on energy demand and the environment. Ahead of the debate, ministers announced that all new applications for AI data centres will have to undergo an environmental impact assessment. The growth of AI is happening at lightning pace, so what are the advantages and disadvantages of Scotland being at the forefront?

A man who drugged and raped his wife for more than 20 years without her knowledge will no longer be involved in a trial involving other defendants, a jury has heard. The husband, aged in his 60s and from the Stockport area of Greater Manchester, has admitted a total of 60 offences against the woman including rape, assault by penetration, administering a substance with intent and sharing indecent images without her consent. Twelve other men are still due to go on trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court accused of serious sexual offences - including rape - against the same woman. The nine women and three men of the jury, plus two female reserve jurors, have been asked to return to court on 5 October. The court has heard the husband, who cannot be named to protect his wife's legal right to anonymity, has admitted abusing his wife since 2004.

The parents of a child injured in the Southport attack have said they are devastated after court files were accessed without authorisation. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said an urgent investigation had been launched after court files detailing victims, their families and survivors of the attack on the dance class in July 2024 were accessed without authorisation. It comes after it emerged earlier this year that the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) was looking into whether staff inappropriately accessed the records of victims. The parents of one of the injured children said: Our family has once again been devastated by two data breaches that involve our daughter, NWAS and now the MoJ. The parents, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, continued: This culture of snooping across agencies and services must end and that will only happen if those individuals are held to account and not protected by the very confidentiality laws they flouted to access our daughter's information.

Image caption, Juan López was one of the environmentalists killed in Latin America recent years. The anti-mining activist was shot in Honduras in 2024. Colombia has again topped the list of countries with the highest number of killings of land and environmental activists, according to an annual report by campaign group Global Witness, external . Out of at least 124 activists killed globally in 2025, 39 were murdered in Colombia, followed by Brazil with 26. Global Witness says that 85% of the documented killings took place in Latin America, making it the deadliest region for every year since the group started publishing its reports in 2012.