A judge ordered Abdulrahman Alfozan to remain in custody, likening the Saudi government's offer to secure the former OpenAI engineer's release to a "blank check." The former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging a company conference room must stay in custody while he awaits trial, a federal judge ruled on Monday after expressing concerns about his ties to Saudi Arabia. US prosecutors alleged Abdulrahman Alfozan is a flight risk because the Saudi Arabian government has offered to support him with no strings attached. They cited, for example, the Saudi consulate's offer to work with a bail bonds firm to help fund Alfozan's release. Federal magistrate judge Alex Tse questioned whether Alfozan is an "asset" for the kingdom and how a bond backed by the government could keep him in the country.

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Senate Republicans pushed the Ratepayer Protection Act to curb data center electricity rates before midterms, but Democrats blocked it, calling it a political ploy.

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An ex-OpenAI engineer accused of planting a recording device in an executive conference room at the AI company appears to have received considerable support from the Saudi government, United States prosecutors have said in a court filing. Federal prosecutors allege that the defendant, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was in frequent communication with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family and that a Saudi military official paid for a one-way plane ticket for Alfozan's wife and young son to return to Saudi Arabia after his arrest, according to the court document, made public late on Sunday. Alfozan, a Saudi national and lawful permanent resident in the US, is scheduled to appear in federal court in San Francisco later on Monday. The case has highlighted security challenges around sensitive AI research as companies and governments compete fiercely for an edge in the transformational technology. "The defendant went to significant lengths to create customized, encrypted recording devices to secretly record highly sensitive meetings involving senior OpenAI personnel and executives, high-level business counterparts, and government officials, all while communicating with individuals of significance in Saudi Arabia and pursuing opportunities in -- and making plans to travel to -- Saudi Arabia," prosecutors wrote in a detention memo.

Ukrainians have died because Kyiv is still not receiving reliable US warnings of incoming Russian attacks, according to a key adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Serhii Flash Beskrestnov told the BBC that lives had been lost because there had not been time to warn citizens about ballistic missile strikes, saying: It's dangerous... I think it's really very bad... The adviser also said restrictions to Ukraine's use of the Starlink internet network were ongoing. The White House said there had been no changes to intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Millions of AI agents are descending on a web built for humans. Websites are trying to keep them out, but the arrival of these new visitors could transform the internet. Until recently, you could divide internet users into just two categories: bots and people. Websites have long allowed bots to perform automated tasks, like capturing the content of web pages, but rules govern what they can access and how they behave. The web, after all, is designed primarily for people, even if we occasionally have to solve puzzles and captchas to prove we are not bots. But this is being entirely upended by the release of personal AI agents, which can do things for you online, like booking flights or hotel rooms.

The US has ordered all artificial intelligence (AI) technology from the Chinese firm DeepSeek to be removed from most government systems. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has banned all use of DeepSeek within civilian government agencies, and any technology built with the aid of its AI models. As a powerful AI model that is open source - meaning it is free to access and less expensive to use - DeepSeek has been seen as a disruptive force in the ongoing AI technology race. While the DHS notice did not detail the exact security concerns surrounding DeepSeek, the White House has this year criticised AI firms from China. The DHS, DeepSeek, and the Chinese embassy in Washington DC have been contacted for comment.

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