House Democrats introduced legislation to block AI data centers from federal tax incentives like bonus depreciation and Opportunity Zone benefits amid electricity cost concerns.

Bengio is a prominent voice in the campaign to rein in breakneck AI development. Bengio is a prominent voice in the campaign to rein in breakneck AI development. 'Godfather of AI' says tech regulation is nearing Covid-style pivot moment Concerns over AI safety are reaching a point where governments realise they must act to protect the public, similarly to in the Covid pandemic, according to one of the "godfathers" of the technology. Yoshua Bengio said recent events, including a "swarm" of OpenAI agents hacking a startup and tech insider warnings of an existential threat, were cutting through - making government action more likely. The Canadian computer scientist, a prominent voice in the campaign to rein in breakneck AI development, said he was now "more optimistic than many observers because I see the public moving".

The leaders of eight German states have backed the nation's chancellor amid growing speculation about his political future. The premiers - all of whom are part of Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) - wrote that restoring trust in their party lay in listening and taking political action, not in debates over personnel. Merz, who has only held the post for 16 months, is facing poor approval ratings while the anti-immigration, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is surging, prompting questions about whether he is an electoral liability. He has vowed to carry on but two more state elections on Sunday have been seen as a key test of his leadership. Rumours of a Kanzlertausch - or Chancellor swap - have been around for months, but they have increased since the conservative CDU tumbled to a distant second behind the AfD in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt at the start of September. The AfD shot up to 43.8% of the vote while the CDU plummeted to 17.2%, marking the first time since World War Two that a far-right party has come close to controlling a German state.

Microsoft says AI rival Anthropic could have'disastrous impact' on humanity Microsoft's head of AI has warned Anthropic's approach to training its AI model Claude could have a disastrous impact on the wellbeing of humanity. Mustafa Suleyman said his rival risked creating something impossible to control by treating it like a human - including by telling it it may be conscious and was deserving of independent agency. We must not sleepwalk our way into a decision we later come to bitterly regret, he wrote. The comments are the latest in a series of stark warnings from the AI industry on the possible dangers of the technology. The BBC has contacted Anthropic for comment. AIs are not conscious, he wrote.

Ex-officer jailed over'toxic' WhatsApp culture An ex-police sergeant who asked to share a female suspect's sex video with the lads from footy has been jailed for four years. Former Cambridgeshire Police officer Paul Street, 41, engaged in salacious gossip with former PC Josh Williams after he found intimate pictures and footage on the woman's personal phone. The Old Bailey heard how Street, of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, created a toxic WhatsApp culture at work. He was found guilty of two charges of misconduct in a public office. Judge Mark Lucraft KC said: The public should expect to be able to trust police officers to act fairly in the execution of their powers to prevent, detect and solve crime.

A senior Army officer has been cleared of failing to properly deal with abuse allegations made by a teenage soldier who took her own life. Col Samantha Shepherd has been on trial at Military Court Centre at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire, in connection with the handling of concerns raised by Gunner Jaysley Beck, from Cumbria. The 19-year-old took her own life at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire in 2021 after former Battery Sgt Michael Webber pinned her down and sexually assaulted her. A board - which consisted of an Air Commodore, a Royal Navy captain and an Army colonel - returned a not guilty verdict for Shepherd, on the directions of a judge. Assistant Judge Advocate General Edward Legard had told the board: The Crown has concluded that there is insufficient evidence upon which you can safely convict Colonel Shepherd of the charge she faces.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has accused Russia of plotting to murder Ukrainian allies in the US and Europe. In a statement on Tuesday, the DoJ charged five men allegedly connected to the Russian Intelligence Services (RIS). The men are accused of paying, or trying to pay, people in the US and overseas to target those aligned, or perceived to be aligned, with Ukraine. It is our job to stop America's adversaries from unleashing violence and terror on American soil, Attorney General Todd Blanche. All those accused remain at large.

Northern Ireland's top judge has explained a court's decision to grant convicted killer Gary Anderson temporary release to attend his father's funeral, despite opposition from prison authorities. Anderson, 29, who is one of two brothers jailed for life in 2023 for the murder of Karol Kelly in Londonderry in 2018, failed to return to Maghaberry prison on Monday. The prison service had refused to grant Anderson compassionate temporary release (CTR) to attend the funeral, but that was overturned by a court on Sunday. The Office of the Lady Chief Justice (LCJ) said the court had held that the governor's decision not to grant CTR was not substantiated by the evidence provided to the court. This was an individual judicial decision, and it is not appropriate for this office to make any further comment, the Office of LCJ said.

Wed 16 Sep 2026 07.55 EDTLast modified on Wed 16 Sep 2026 07.56 EDT Large-scale datacentres will face mandatory environmental assessments before they can go ahead, the Scottish government has announced, amid growing public concern about the impact of the AI boom. Ahead of a vote on a moratorium on new hyperscale datacentres in Holyrood on Wednesday, the Scottish government has tightened rules for new projects by requiring any above 50MW to submit environmental impact assessments, but stopped short of agreeing to an outright halt. Scotland has seen a boom in planning applications for large datacentres as global investment in AI infrastructure has exploded. Datacentres are critical for storing and processing data used by AI. One scheme in Auchtertool, Fife, has been billed as the second-largest in the world, and is among more than 20 large datacentres proposed so far.

Kosovo's former president sentenced to 25 years for war crimes The former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of war crimes. A hearing at The Hague on Wednesday sentenced the 58-year-old for crimes during Kosovo's independence war against Serbia in the 1990s, in which more than 10,000 people died. He was convicted after a three-year trial of crimes including murder, illegal arrests, torture and cruel treatment. A number of other allegations against him were not proven. Thaci was a co-founder and commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a group that fought for independence.