The driving forces behind one of the UK's leading drone insurance providers has given a peek behind the scenes of the business. Flock's CEO, Ed Leon Klinger, and data scientist, Courtenay Mansel, took to the stage at the Data Science London Festival, to talk about Flock's technology and application. The talk covers the basics of Flock's risk analysis and insurance platform, as well as the data science behind it, and its commercial applicability in the drone industry. The talk can be viewed below.

ATAQ, Yemen – Again and again over the past two years, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States has claimed it won decisive victories that drove al-Qaida militants from their strongholds across Yemen and shattered their ability to attack the West. Here's what the victors did not disclose: many of their conquests came without firing a shot. That's because the coalition cut secret deals with al-Qaida fighters, paying some to leave key cities and towns and letting others retreat with weapons, equipment and wads of looted cash, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. Hundreds more were recruited to join the coalition itself. These compromises and alliances have allowed al-Qaida militants to survive to fight another day -- and risk strengthening the most dangerous branch of the terror network that carried out the 9/11 attacks. Key participants in the pacts said the U.S. was aware of the arrangements and held off on any drone strikes.

ADEN, Yemen – Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, is considered the most dangerous branch of the terror network after a series of failed attacks on U.S. soil. AQAP has been enmeshed in conflicts in impoverished Yemen for nearly 20 years -- at times working with the government and at times facing crackdown, all the while building ties among tribes in the mountainous countryside to establish refuges and allies. The first anti-American attack in Yemen linked to al-Qaida took place in 1992 when a group called the Islamic Jihad Movement attacked a hotel in the southern city of Aden housing U.S. troops heading to Somalia, killing a Yemeni and an Australian. The group was made up of jihadis who had returned from Afghanistan, where they fought the Soviets alongside Osama bin Laden. The group fell apart after defections spurred by its cozy relationship with ruling authorities as then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh used AQAP fighters to liquidate his top foes, the socialists.

Often referred to as the Amazon of China, JD.com started in 1998 as a brick-and-mortar store in Beijing, but it has aspirations to be the world's leading e-commerce retailer. Based on its tremendous growth, it might not take long for the company to get there. Richard Liu, the company's founder, CEO, and chairman, has even gone so far to predict his company won't need humans and said, "I hope my company would be 100% automation someday…no human beings anymore, 100% operated by AI and robots." JD.com and its competitors such as Amazon, Alphabet, Tencent, Alibaba and more are not only racing to be the world's largest e-commerce business but to create the operating system for retail in the future. JD.com is driving business with artificial intelligence, big data, and robotics while building the retail infrastructure for the 4th industrial revolution.

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused political foes of trying to kill him during an open-air speech Saturday using explosives-laden drones, prompting a host of questions about the alleged attack and who might have been behind it. Wherever the investigation leads, Maduro's allegations raised the specter of unmanned aerial vehicles being used by militant groups or others to launch bombing, chemical or biological attacks, a tactic that has long worried security experts. The market for commercial drones has flourished in recent years amid widespread availability and falling prices. So-called quadcopters -- drones with four rotors -- that can be operated from more than a mile away (1.6 km) and can fly for more than 20 minutes on one charge cost less than $1,000 to buy online, though they are generally capable of carrying only a limited payload. Militant groups such as Islamic State have used drones to carry out attacks by dropping grenades or crashing into infrastructure.

Venezuela's interior minister says six people have been arrested, after what President Nicolas Maduro says was an assassination attempt against him. The president accuses Colombia and a group of US financiers of trying to kill him. Venezuela's opposition fears the government will launch a crackdown. Colombia's Foreign Affairs Ministry called that accusation absurd, and in Washington, President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton strongly denied any US role.

Venezuelan investigators hunting for a band of assailants allegedly behind a failed attempt to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro with explosives-laden drones have raided hotels and seized vehicles while grilling six suspects for details of the plot.

CARACAS – Authorities detained six people suspected of using explosives-laden drones in a failed bid to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, officials said Sunday, in what one witness described as a terrifying attack that shook her apartment building. The government alleged that opposition factions conspired with assailants in Miami and Bogota, although they offered no specific evidence. Opposition leaders decried Maduro for broadly singling out his political opponents, and they warned he may use it to further suppress his critics. The thwarted attack comes as Venezuela is reeling from a worsening economic and humanitarian crisis and Maduro has grown increasingly isolated. Foreign nations, including the United States, are slapping economic sanctions against a growing list of high-ranking officials and decrying his government as an autocratic regime.

This is a very serious, looming threat that we are currently unprepared to confront,

Maduro often blames the United States, which has imposed sanctions against officials in his government, of "conspiracy" and blamed U.S. politicians of fomenting plans to topple him to end nearly two decades of socialism in Venezuela.