Youngkin, joined by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and other state attorneys general, compared human trafficking enforcement to addressing transnational gangs. "We must have multi-state and federal support in order to dismantle the networks, not just arrest an individual, we've got to unpack the networks," Youngkin told a crowd of a few hundred. The Trump administration has been a boon to human trafficking enforcement efforts, Youngkin said, noting he met with top Justice Department officials at the White House after the inauguration to discuss the matter and found them receptive. Virginia law enforcement has since been coordinating with the federal government to take down foreign gang operations, which Youngkin said overlaps with the human trafficking space. Youngkin used the example of gang crime inside correctional centers, which he said was the first "thread" his team pulled.

Perplexity AI said it has made a 34.5bn unsolicited all-cash offer for Alphabet's Google Chrome browser. The deal, if Alphabet agreed to it, would also require financing above the startup's most recently reported valuation of 18bn. The nearly three-year-old startup's purchase of Chrome, if approved, would give the company access to its more than three billion users as regulatory pressure weighs on Google's control over the tech industry. Perplexity did not disclose on Tuesday how it plans to fund the offer, but has raised 1bn in funding from investors including SoftBank and the semiconductor chip giant Nvidia. Several funds have said they would finance the deal in full if Alphabet accepts, the Reuters news agency reported citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

A mysterious black cube has joined the chilling list of objects spotted hovering over the US during last year's drone invasion. Newly released government reports have revealed five incidents near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio that have never been disclosed since the swarms of UFOs were seen along the East Coast in late 2024. Along with several sightings of unidentified drones around the secretive Air Force base in December 2024, federal officials now say a'black cube'-shaped craft was spotted by a nearby airplane less than 80 miles from Wright-Patterson. Witnesses of the strange object sent their claims to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on December 19, describing how the cube was flying within 500 feet of the plane, which was soaring 16,000 feet above the ground. This would make it incredibly unlikely to be a commercial drone, since those types of devices fly only a few hundred feet above the ground.

Elon Musk has threatened legal action against Apple on behalf of his artificial intelligence startup xAI, accusing the iPhone maker of favoring OpenAI and breaching antitrust regulations in managing the rankings in its App Store. The posts elicited snide responses from Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, and began a spat between the two former business partners on X. "Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. In a post earlier that day, he wrote: "Hey @Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your'Must Have' section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps? OpenAI's ChatGPT currently holds the top spot in the App Store's "Top Free Apps" section in the US, while xAI's Grok ranks fifth. Apple has a partnership with OpenAI that integrates ChatGPT into iPhones, iPads and Macs.

As a federal antitrust investigation into Google's Chrome browser wraps up, rivals are striking: Perplexity has launched an unsolicited bid to buy Chrome for a whopping 34.5 billion, according to reports. Bloomberg reported the proposed deal, confirmed by a Perplexity representative, as did The Wall Street Journal. But there's a hitch: Perplexity doesn't have 34.5 billion to fund the deal with. In fact, the WSJ estimates its own valuation at just 18 billion. This means Perplexity would have to come up with another source of cash, and it appears that it has done just that.

They're the government body behind the dreaded hosepipe bans. But the Environment Agency have come up with another way to save water – by deleting old emails. Historic messages and photos are stored in vast data centres which consume so much energy they require large amounts of water to keep cool. Now, the public is being urged to'play their part' to help reduce pressure on our water systems by having an email clear–out. The advice was issued as Britain endures its fourth heatwave of the summer. Five areas of England are currently officially in drought, with six more in'prolonged dry weather'.

HMRC has confirmed it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor social media posts as part of criminal investigations into suspected tax cheats. It said the tech would not replace "human decision-making" and was subject to legal oversight. "Greater use of AI will enable our staff to spend less time on admin and more time helping taxpayers, as well as better target fraud and evasion to bring in more money for public services," it said in a statement. However, experts warn there are risks with using AI in this way.

My Spotify playlists are undergoing a British invasion this week. Donald Trump announced this week that two US chipmakers would tithe 15% of their revenue from sales in China to the US government. Paying for the license to sell to Chinese customers represents an unprecedented deal. The chipmakers Nvidia and AMD have agreed to give the US government 15% of their revenue from advanced chips sold to China in return for export licences to the key market. The arrangement will lead to Nvidia giving 15% of its revenue from Chinese sales of its H20 chips, and AMD giving 15% of revenue from Chinese sales of its MI308 chips, according to reports citing US officials.

Betro initially fled the scene but returned by taxi just after midnight and fired three shots at the family home. By 13:30 BST, she was at Manchester Airport and flew to the US, prosecutors said. Days later, Nazir followed and according to Betro, the pair rented a car and drove to Seattle "just for a road trip" with stops at an amusement park, Area 51 in Nevada, Los Angeles and San Francisco. She told jurors she did not know there had been a shooting in Measham Grove and Nazir had not mentioned it during his time in the States. The investigation to find Betro and bring her co-conspirators to justice not only spanned several years but was hampered by the pandemic and involved the FBI, National Crime Agency and two UK police forces.

Rising seniors are the last class of students who remember high school before ChatGPT. But only just barely: OpenAI's chatbot was released months into their freshman year. Ever since then, writing essays hasn't required, well, writing. By the time these students graduate next spring, they will have completed almost four full years of AI high school. Gone already are the days when using AI to write an essay meant copying and pasting its response verbatim.