The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Tuesday claimed that it had made its deepest attack into Israel since October, striking a barracks north of the city of Acre with drones and setting off sirens across the country's northern coastline. The Israeli military, however, said that no bases had been hit and no casualties reported, adding that three drones had been identified and intercepted. Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful regional proxy, has been engaged in escalating cross-border strikes with Israeli forces since the war in Gaza began more than six months ago. In the latest strike, it maintained it had launched a drone attack on an Israeli military barracks roughly 10 miles from the Lebanese border. Footage that circulated Tuesday on Hezbollah-affiliated Telegram channels, and geolocated by The New York Times, shows people on a beach in Acre looking up at the sky as sirens go off and an explosion is heard.

Recently Jon Stewart did a segment poking satire at the promises of AI highlighted by tech CEOs. I don't think automating your toasters is the best way to show the potential of AI, as Jon did, but I do agree with the central premise of his argument that disruption caused by AI will be harnessed to prioritize profits over people. It will likely cause one of the largest and fastest labor displacements in human history. I run an AI company based in Silicon Valley focused on solving climate change, and I am a former policymaker for the government of India. At the World Economic Forum Davos 2024, my discussions with media, heads of state, and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies underscored global perspectives on AI, where AI was widely discussed to unlock the next productivity revolution, foster wealth creation, and uplift people out of poverty by democratizing and reducing the cost of access to information/education.

The'pink-haired liberal' has become something of a stereotype, but AI can now predict someone's politics based solely on their looks. A new program can spot tiny nuances in people's facial features that correlate to their political leaning - with over 70 percent accuracy. It was trained on hundreds of photos and voting habits of Americans. The results found that liberals tended to have smaller lower faces, their chins were smaller and their lips and noses pointed downward, while conservatives have larger, wider features in the lower halves of their faces. Dr. Michal Kosinski, the study's lead author, warned that facial recognition tools are dangerous if they fall into the wrong hands because millions of people's information could be accessed without their consent.

Tiffany Henyard, the embattled mayor of Dolton, Illinois, faced such an outcry of anger from town residents that many had to be kept outside the building. Much like Dolton, Illinois self-declared "Super Mayor" Tiffany Henyard, Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal has been slammed with allegations of wild offenses ranging from spending department money on promotional items like trading cards with her likeness to having bogus news stories about her being generated by AI. While Bilal testified before the City Council last year that her department is underfunded to the point it "jeopardizes the lives and safety of our sworn and civilian personnel," her department's spending habits indicate that money may have been used in questionable ways, according to a new report from The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Philadelphia Sheriff's Office allegedly spent 9,250 on a new mascot, an African-American Wild Western-style female sheriff named Deputy Sheriff Justice, who debuted at the Thanksgiving Day parade, made by a company that makes some of the world's most recognizable mascot costumes, like that of the Geico gecko. Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal speaks at a news conference, Philadelphia, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023.

While policymakers and regulators from Brussels to Washington are racing to craft legislation restricting AI-powered audio, images and videos on the campaign trail, a regulatory vacuum is emerging. In the U.S. Congress, bipartisan legislation that would ban falsely depicting federal candidates using AI is unlikely to become law before November elections. A handful of U.S. states have enacted laws penalizing people who make deceptive videos about politicians, creating a policy patchwork across the country.

Jason Matheny is a delight to speak with, provided you're up for a lengthy conversation about potential technological and biomedical catastrophe. Now CEO and president of Rand Corporation, Matheny has built a career out of thinking about such gloomy scenarios. An economist by training with a focus on public health, he dived into the worlds of pharmaceutical development and cultivated meat before turning his attention to national security. As director of Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the US intelligence community's research agency, he pushed for more attention to the dangers of biological weapons and badly designed artificial intelligence. In 2021, Matheny was tapped to be President Biden's senior adviser on technology and national security issues.

After an anti-Israel protest escalated at New York University on Monday – requiring city police presence – the university released a statement explaining while it supports students' rights to protest, safety remains its priority. HATE RAGES – Elite university reverses on NYPD presence as antisemitic mob takes over campus and more top headlines. POISON IVY – Columbia University shifts to hybrid learning as escalating anti-Israel protests cause safety concerns. NO COFFEE, NO PEACE – Angry Alec Baldwin smacks anti-Israel agitator's phone after hounding actor. TRUMP TRIAL – Judge to hear gag order arguments after former president's all-caps rant on social media.

This time, the company had bowed to orders from the Chinese state to remove WhatsApp and Threads, two of the last Meta apps still available in the country. Apple confirmed it had withdrawn the two apps – both owned by Meta, also the owner of Facebook – under instruction from the Cyberspace Administration of China, which regulates and censors China's highly restricted internet and online content. "The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns," Apple said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree." The reader, perhaps, is intended to infer a final clause in that statement, and conclude that Apple does indeed disagree with the order.

Google employees based in the United States staged protests at the tech giant's offices in New York City, California and Seattle last week to oppose a 1.2bn contract with the Israeli government. Known as Project Nimbus, the joint contract between Google and Amazon signed in 2021 aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology services to the Israeli government and its military, which has faced condemnation for its ongoing war on Gaza. Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians, and destroyed vast swaths of the Palestinian coastal enclave since it launched the military offensive last October. The country has justified the offensive saying it is targeting Hamas fighters who carried out a deadly attack on October 7. Here is a look at why tech workers are opposing military collaborations amid misuse of AI and other technologies in conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine among others.

Amazon customers in California won't be able to get drone deliveries anymore. The e-commerce company has closed its delivery site in Lockeford, which has been operational since 2022, and will now offer its personnel in the area opportunities at other sites. Amazon made the revelation almost as an aside in an announcement that it's launching drone deliveries in the West Valley Phoenix Metro area later this year. Its drones will be deployed from facilities near its Tolleson fulfillment center. Amazon says it's the first time drone deliveries will be fully integrated into its network, and it will allow the company to fulfill and deliver purchases more quickly.