Much of modern warfare is shaped by for-profit, commercial AI tech firms. This gives them an unprecedented, non-state influence over geopolitical conflict. X to block Grok AI's undressing feature

Erosion victim warns'trauma tourists' to stay away A woman who lost her home at the start of the year due to coastal erosion has warned visitors to stay away and don't gloat. Shelley Cowlin, whose home of 48 years in Thorpeness, Suffolk, was demolished in January, said tourists turning up to witness other people's suffering and even steal items from their gardens were sick. Now living in a holiday let, which she said did not feel like home, the 89-year-old called on so-called trauma tourists to leave villagers in peace. We don't want people relishing in glee at the tragedy of other people, she said. Following the demolition, Cowlin said there had been incidents of people claiming they were her gardener, or even her grandchildren, and pinching things.

Could Ukraine hold a presidential election right now? Will Europe use frozen Russian assets to fund war? How can Ukraine rebuild China ties? 'Ukraine is running out of men, money and time' At least two people were injured after Russian forces launched a drone and missile attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The attack also damaged apartment buildings, a school, and a kindergarten, he added.

"In my opinion ICE are the bad guys. I am not proud that the company I enjoy so much working for is part of this," one worker wrote on Slack. After federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday, Palantir workers pressed for answers from leadership on the company's work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) --and many questioned whether Palantir should be involved with the agency at all. Leadership defended its work as in part improving "ICE's operational effectiveness." Internal Slack messages reviewed by WIRED reveal growing frustration within Palantir over its relationship with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and in particular, ICE's enforcement and investigations teams.

The technical failure coincided with TikTok's ownership transition, leading users to question whether videos criticizing ICE raids in Minnesota were being intentionally censored. TikTok is currently experiencing a widespread service outage in the US, causing disruptions for millions of users only a few days after the company officially transferred control of its American business to a group of majority-US investors . The technical issues led many TikTok users to speculate about whether the app's new owners were intentionally suppressing videos about political topics, particularly content related to recent federal immigration operations in Minnesota. TikTok has denied the allegations, attributing the problems to a power outage. TikTok users began reporting on Sunday that they were having trouble uploading videos to the app as well as viewing content that had already been posted on the platform.

Google has agreed to pay $68m (£51m) to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly listened to people's private conversations through their phones. Users accused Google Assistant - a virtual assistant present on many Android devices - of recording private conversations after it was inadvertently triggered on their devices. They claimed the recordings were then shared with advertisers in order to send them targeted advertising. The BBC has contacted Google for comment. But in a filing seeking to settle the case, it denied wrongdoing and said it was seeking to avoid litigation.

The home secretary has announced a blueprint for reforming what she called the broken policing model in England and Wales. Shabana Mahmood confirmed the shake-up will create a new National Police Service (NPS) to fight the most complex cross-border crime and could also see the number of local forces in England and Wales cut by around two-thirds. She told the House of Commons she also intends to make better use of technology - including the largest-ever rollout of facial recognition. This government's reforms will ensure we have the right policing in the right place, Mahmood said. I set out reforms that are long overdue and define a new model for policing in this country, with local policing that protects our communities and national policing that protects us all.

The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, regarding the creation of sexually explicit fake images of women and minors. The commission announced on Monday that its investigation would examine whether the AI tool used on X has met its legal obligations under the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires social media companies to address illegal and harmful online content. In a statement to the AFP news agency, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe will not "tolerate unthinkable behaviour, such as digital undressing of women and children". "It is simple - we will not hand over consent and child protection to tech companies to violate and monetise. The harm caused by illegal images is very real," she added.

Three pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been charged with stirring up racial hatred over alleged chants calling for an intifada at a protest in central London last month. The man and two women charged are Abdallah Alanzi, 24, Haya Adam, 21, and Azza Zaki, 60. They were charged on Monday with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred or where it was likely to be stirred up. The trio were arrested on 17 December 2025 at a protest outside the Ministry of Justice. They will appear at Westminster Magistrate's Court on 23 February.

Why is the US Fed chair criminal probe causing alarm? Venezuela's defence minister has accused the United States of using the country as a "weapons laboratory" during the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on January 3. Vladimir Padrino Lopez said last week that the US had used Venezuela as a testing ground for "advanced military technologies" that rely on artificial intelligence and weaponry never used before, according to the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump told the New York Post that US forces had indeed used a weapon he referred to as "the discombobulator". "I'm not allowed to talk about it," he said, adding that the weapon "made equipment not work" during the operation. Details of the US military mission to abduct Maduro have not been made public, but the US has been known to use weapons to disorient soldiers and guards or disable equipment and infrastructure in the past.