A company behind an AI-powered app called CrimeRadar has apologised for the distress caused by false crime alerts issued to local US communities after a BBC Verify investigation. CrimeRadar uses artificial intelligence to monitor openly available police radio communications, automatically generating a transcript and then producing crime alerts for users across the US. BBC Verify has found multiple instances from Florida to Oregon of CrimeRadar sending misleading and inaccurate alerts about serious crime to local residents - as Thomas Copeland explains. The barge that wrecked in 1918, famous for a dramatic rescue, is now shifting closer to the falls as recent movements carry it further from its original resting spot. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer participated in the annual ceremony that commemorates the eight days of Hanukkah.

The US economy is pumped up on tech-bro vanity. I f AI did not change your life in 2025, next year it will. That is one of few forecasts that can be made with confidence in unpredictable times. This is not an invitation to believe the hype about what the technology can do today, or may one day achieve. The hype doesn't need your credence.

They work 24/7 at high speeds and get searingly hot - but data centre computer chips get plenty of pampering. Some of them basically live at the spa. We'll have fluid that comes up and [then] shower down, or trickle down, onto a component, says Jonathan Ballon, chief executive at liquid cooling firm Iceotope. Some things will get sprayed. In other cases, the industrious gizmos recline in circulating baths of fluid, which ferries away the heat they generate, enabling them to function at very high speeds, known as overclocking.

Vince Zampella, who co-created the widely-popular video game Call of Duty, has died in a single-vehicle Ferrari crash in California, aged 55. Zampella's death was confirmed by Electronic Arts, which owns Respawn Entertainment, a game studio he co-founded. This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince's family, his loved ones, and all those touched by his work, a spokesperson for Electronic Arts told the BBC. Officials said the person on the vehicle's passenger seat was ejected while the driver remained trapped. It is unclear if Zampella was driving the car.

Vince Zampella, the co-creator of the Call of Duty video game series, has died aged 55. The head of the video game developer Respawn Entertainment and the co-founder of Infinity Ward was killed in a car crash in California, NBC Los Angeles reported . Zampella led the creation of the bestselling video game series Call of Duty at Infinity Ward, and at his various studios he was involved in several highly successful game series from Medal of Honor to Titanfall. He is reported to have died in a single-car accident on the Angeles Crest Highway, which was reported to the California highway patrol at 12.45pm on Sunday. The vehicle's driver died at the scene, and a passenger died later in hospital.

A campaigner said: 'This stolen music is almost certain to end up training AI models.' A campaigner said: 'This stolen music is almost certain to end up training AI models.' Platform with 700m users says it is investigating after Anna's Archive claims to have scraped tracks and metadata An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them online. Observers said the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology. A group called Anna's Archive said it had scraped 86m music files from Spotify and 256m rows of metadata such as artist and album names.

The critically endangered chicks, Oscar and Duffy, were born at a New Jersey aquarium. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. An aquarium in New Jersey welcomed two new residents, just in time for the holidays. On December 20, staff at Adventure Aquarium in Camden revealed the recent births of Duffy and Oscar, a pair of African penguins () and some much needed good news in light of ongoing conservation concerns . "These milestones are incredibly important for the critically endangered African penguin population, and we couldn't be more proud to play a role in their future," the aquarium just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania wrote in a social media post .

Russia has intensified its strikes on the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa, causing widespread power cuts and threatening the region's maritime infrastructure. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said Moscow was carrying out systematic attacks on the region. Last week, he warned that the focus of the war may have shifted towards Odesa. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the repeated attacks were an attempt by Moscow to block Ukraine's access to maritime logistics. Earlier in December, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to sever Ukraine's access to the sea as retaliation for drone attacks on tankers of Russia's shadow fleet in the Black Sea.

New Scientist changed the UK's freedom of information laws in 2025 By requesting copies of the then-UK technology secretary's ChatGPT logs, New Scientist set a precedent for how freedom of information laws apply to chatbot interactions, helping to hold governments to account Our successful request for Peter Kyle's ChatGPT logs stunned observers When I fired off an email at the start of 2025, I hadn't intended to set a legal precedent for how the UK government handles its interactions with AI chatbots, but that is exactly what happened. It all began in January when I read an interview with the then-UK tech secretary Peter Kyle in . Trying to suggest he used first-hand the technology his department was set up to regulate, Kyle said that he would often have conversations with ChatGPT. AI may blunt our thinking skills - here's what you can do about it That got me wondering: could I obtain his chat history? Freedom of information (FOI) laws are often deployed to obtain emails and other documents produced by public bodies, but past precedent has suggested that some private data - such as search queries - aren't eligible for release in this way. I was interested to see which way the chatbot conversations would be categorised.

Chinese robotaxis could be set to hit UK roads in 2026 as ride-sharing apps Uber and Lyft announce partnerships with Baidu to trial the tech. The two companies are hoping to obtain approval from regulators to test the autonomous vehicles in London. Baidu's Apollo Go driverless taxi service already operates in dozens of cities, mostly in China, and has accrued millions of rides without a human behind the wheel. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said the news was another vote of confidence in our plans for self-driving vehicles - but many remain sceptical about their safety. We're planning for self-driving cars to carry passengers for the first time from spring, under our pilot scheme - harnessing this technology safely and responsibly to transform travel, Ms Alexander said in a post on X .