US to announce'substantial' Russia sanctions The US government will impose a substantial pickup in sanctions against Russia as the fighting in Ukraine continues, according to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Bessent's comments came just before Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte was due at the White House, in which he said he hopes to discuss how to deliver Trump's vision of peace in the conflict. Earlier in the day, Rutte said he believes that Trump is the only one who can get this done. At least seven people were killed, including two children, during intense Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine - just hours after Trump said plans for a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Budapest had been shelved. Bessent provided no further details on the incoming sanctions, but said they would be announced either after the close this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning.

No, ICE (Probably) Didn't Buy Guided Missile Warheads A federal contracting database lists an ICE payment for $61,218 with the payment code "guided missile warheads and explosive components." But it appears ICE simply entered the wrong code. On September 19, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement made a $61,218 payment for "guided missile warheads and explosive components," according to the Product and Service Code (PSC) included in the payment record on a federal contracting database. "This award provides multiple distraction devices to support law enforcement operations and ICE-Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs," the record's description section reads. The Substack Popular Information mentioned this payment in a Monday article, which focused on the fact that ICE spending in the "small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing" product category increased by 700 percent between 2024 and 2025.

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck sued Google, alleging that the tech giant's artificial intelligence systems generated "outrageously false" information about him. On Wednesday, Starbuck said in the lawsuit, filed in Delaware state court, that Google's AI systems falsely called him a "child rapist," "serial sexual abuser" and "shooter" in response to user queries and delivered defamatory statements to millions of users. "Hallucinations are a well-known issue for all LLMs, which we disclose and work hard to minimise," Castaneda said. "But as everyone knows, if you're creative enough, you can prompt a chatbot to say something misleading." Starbuck is best known for opposing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Preorders are open now for the Also TM-B ebike, which starts at under $4,000. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. It's hard to remember now that people used to be skeptical about electric bikes . Cyclists didn't want unlicensed motor vehicles in bike lanes; people who bike found them to be dangerous .

Ohio Representative Thaddeus Claggett introduces House Bill 469 to ban AI marriage and classify artificial intelligence systems as nonsentient entities without legal rights.

Experts say outages like the one that Amazon experienced this week are almost inevitable given the complexity and scale of cloud technology--but the duration serves as a warning. A sprawling Amazon Web Services cloud outage that began early Monday morning illustrated the fragile interdependencies of the internet as major communication, financial, health care, education, and government platforms around the world suffered disruptions. As the day wore on, AWS diagnosed and began working to correct the issue, which stemmed from the company's critical US-EAST-1 region based in northern Virginia. But the cascade of impacts took time to fully resolve. Researchers reflecting on the incident particularly highlighted the length of Monday's outage, which started around 3 am ET on Monday, October 20.

Open source language models are crucial to AI innovation. Can open robotics models do the same for physical machines? European roboticists today released a powerful open-source artificial intelligence model that acts as a brain for industrial robots --helping them grasp and manipulate things with new dexterity. The new model, SPEAR-1, was developed by researchers at the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) in Bulgaria. It may help other researchers and startups build and experiment with smarter hardware for factories and warehouses.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Challenges to Pelosi part of broader movement to replace the Democratic Party's old guard Rep. Nancy Pelosi, shown talking to reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 1, has not said whether she will seek another term in 2026. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Younger Democratic candidates are challenging older incumbents amid increasing frustration over the party's ineffective resistance to President Trump.

General Motors' 'Eyes-Off' System Begs the Question: What Happens When Cars Go AI? General Motors' new self-driving system will let the driver speed down the highway without looking at the road. It's one of several features enabled by the adoption of machine intelligence in cars. A new self-driving system coming to Cadillac Escalades will handle the driving on approved highways, enabling the driver to do basically anything they want behind the wheel. General Motors is launching another salvo in the self-driving wars. In 2028, the automaker announced today, it will roll out what it's calling an "eyes-off" driving system on the electric Cadillac Escalade IQ.

How successful is Ukraine's'gas war' against Russia? How will Putin travel to Hungary with an ICC arrest warrant? How much of Europe's oil still comes from Russia? A bystander filmed the moment a Russian drone struck near an apartment building in Sumy, Ukraine, injuring several people. Russia launched a wave of deadly drone and missile attacks on cities across Ukraine on Tuesday.