A new artificial intelligence tool designed to crack down on fraud has helped the UK government recover almost £500m over the last year, the BBC can reveal. More than a third of the money clawed back related to fraudulent activity during the Covid-19 pandemic, with other cash being recouped from unlawful council tax claims and illegal subletting of social housing. The government will announce later that a new AI tool which has helped to identify the fraud will now be licensed to other countries, including the US and Australia. Civil liberties campaigners have previously criticised the Labour government for its use of AI in trying to counter fraud. The Cabinet Office says the £480m recovered in the 12 months from April 2024 is the largest sum ever reclaimed by government anti-fraud teams in a single year.

Is recognising Palestine a way to'save face' for Western leaders? Organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a Gaza-bound flotilla with pro-Palestinian activists on board carrying aid, reported hearing explosions and seeing multiple drone attacks from their boats situated off Greece from late Tuesday to the early hours of Wednesday. "Multiple drones, unidentified objects dropped, communications jammed and explosions heard from a number of boats," the Global Sumud Flotilla said in a statement, without adding whether there were any casualties. "We are witnessing these psychological operations firsthand, right now, but we will not be intimidated." Suited in a life jacket, Brazilian organiser Tiago Avila updated on his Instagram at midnight on Wednesday that a total of 10 attacks targeted multiple boats with sound bombs and explosive flares.

A South Korean court has handed a 15-year prison sentence to the boss of a lithium battery maker after a deadly fire last year. In June 2024, a blaze at a plant in Hwaseong city, about 45km (28 miles) south of the capital Seoul, killed 23 people, including 18 foreign workers, and injured eight others. The court found the blaze was an anticipated disaster and that Aricell chief executive Park Soon-kwan and other executives had caused the deaths of the workers. It is the longest jail term imposed under the country's industrial safety law, which punishes owners or bosses of firms with at least a year in prison, or fines of up to 1 billion won ($717,000; £530,000), for fatal incidents. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term, arguing that company executives had made changes to the plant that meant it was difficult for workers to escape the fire.

An escalator used by Donald Trump abruptly stopped because of a safety mechanism that may have been triggered by his videographer, the United Nations has said. The videographer had been travelling backwards up the escalator to capture the US president's arrival with First Lady Melania Trump and may have inadvertently triggered the safety function upon reaching the top, a UN spokesperson said. Trump jokingly referred to the incident during his Tuesday speech at the UN building, saying: If the First Lady wasn't in great shape, she would've fallen. The White House had raised concerns that someone deliberately stopped the escalator as the couple were stepping on. If someone at the U.N. intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X after the incident.

The new sites will boost Stargate's planned capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts--about equal to the output of seven large nuclear reactors. An aerial view shows construction underway on a Project Stargate AI infrastructure site in Abilene, Texas on April 23, 2025. OpenAI is planning to build five new data centers in the United States as part of the Stargate initiative, the company announced on Tuesday. The sites, which are being developed in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank, bring Stargate's current planned capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts--roughly the same amount of power as seven large-scale nuclear reactors . "AI is different from the internet in a lot of ways, but one of them is just how much infrastructure it takes," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during a press briefing in Abilene, Texas on Tuesday.

Why is Jimmy Kimmel returning to ABC? What is the H-1B visa programme? Inside Story What are the risks of a global digital divide in AI? UN warns 118 states are way behind leaders in Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence is the tech revolution of our times. But more than 100 countries are falling way behind those leading the surge in AI, and are losing out. That is what the UN General Assembly will hear this week.

Venture capitalist Alexa von Tobel is ready to bet on quantum computing--starting with hardware. Alexa von Tobel is fully aware that her big bet on quantum computing may never pay off. "The risk of being too early is a real risk," she says. She's speaking to me via Zoom from the New York City office of Inspired Capital, the early-stage venture capital firm she runs with former US commerce secretary Penny Pritzker. In addition to personally investing in blue-chip brands like Uber and Airtable, von Tobel has backed a number of AI startups through Inspired Capital, including BrightAI (a platform that monitors critical infrastructure) and PreemptiveAI (a startup building a foundation model to map human physiology and predict health outcomes).

'Joaquinraptor casali' was one of the Cretaceous Era's last apex predators. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Paleontologists have discovered a carnivorous dinosaur in central Patagonia that they believe occupied the top of the Late Cretacean food chain. For additional proof, they point to its likely final meal. According to new analysis published on September 23 in the journal, appears to have died with an ancient, nearly 8-inch-long crocodile leg next to its jaws.

Drone attack kills eight children in Haiti's capital NewsFeed Drone attack kills eight children in Haiti's capital At least 11 people, including eight children, were reported killed in a drone attack in a gang-controlled area of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince. Relatives of the victims said police were targeting a suspected gang leader. Video: Parents carry children's bodies after Israeli attack on Gaza City Protesters outside UN say recognising Palestine isn't enough

Russia's involvement in drone sightings cannot be ruled out, Danish PM says The drone incursion that stopped flights at Copenhagen airport on Monday night was the most severe attack on Danish infrastructure so far, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said. Kastrup airport in Copenhagen was forced to shut for several hours from around 20:30 (18:30 GMT) on Monday following the sighting of a number of drones. It says something about the times we live in and what we as a society must be prepared to deal with, Frederiksen told reporters. Russian involvement could not be ruled out, Frederiksen added - although Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the allegations unfounded. The Danish PM made a link between last night's events in Denmark and the recent Russian drone incursions in Poland and Romania, as well as the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets .