Sora, an artificial intelligence (AI) video generator program created by startup OpenAI in 2021, is making waves as it has now moved out of the research phase and has been officially released to the public under the new name of Sora Turbo. The launch has triggered an online frenzy among users, causing the company to temporarily halt new account creations after finding itself overwhelmed by an avalanche of traffic. Sora uses text prompts to create content, similar to other content creation programs such as ChatGPT. Unlike traditional AI programs which produce written responses, Sora creates high-quality videos based on a user's text input. Adding it to @everartai asap so you can bring your images to life pic.twitter.com/wMehxOc8cm

A Ukrainian video game is shattering records since its release on November 20, despite many delays and its being a target of a Russian disinformation operation. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is the latest edition of a game series that started in 2007 with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl, developed by GSC Game World, a Ukrainian video games studio. The game surpassed one million downloads and 117,000 concurrent players within 48 hours of its release, making it the most successful Ukrainian-developed title to date. Yet, that landmark achievement in the country's gaming industry was bittersweet. Former GSC Game World developer Volodymyr Yezhov, who worked on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and was known by the nickname "Fresh", was killed in combat near Bakhmut in December 2022, while serving in the Ukrainian military.

Taipei, Taiwan – China has launched an antitrust investigation into chip giant Nvidia in what appears to be Beijing's latest act of retaliation against Washington's sanctions on Chinese tech companies. Chinese state media said on Monday that the California-based chipmaker was being investigated by the State Administration for Market Regulation for potentially violating China's antimonopoly laws. Regulators will also review the company's 6.9bn acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli-American supplier specialising in computer networking products, state media reports said, without providing further details. Chinese regulators approved the deal in 2020 with several restrictive conditions, including a provision that Nvidia would not discriminate against Chinese suppliers. Nvidia, which designs advanced chips used to power artificial intelligence (AI), is one of the world's most valuable companies, with a market capitalisation of more than 3.4 trillion.

Omnicom is buying Interpublic Group in a stock-for-stock deal that will create the largest ad agency in the world with combined annual revenue of almost 26bn. The deal, announced on Monday, could attract regulatory scrutiny as it seeks to merge the world's third-largest ad buyer, Omnicom, with the fourth-largest – Interpublic. The names may be unfamiliar to many Americans, but some of their marketing campaigns are iconic. Those include "Got Milk" for the California Milk Processor Board, "Priceless" for Mastercard, "Because I'm Worth It" for L'Oreal and "Think Different" for Apple. The combined company will be worth more than 30bn.

Yemen's Houthi group says it has carried out a drone attack in central Israel's Tel Aviv area in "a specific military operation" in support of Palestinians in Gaza. The Houthis said in a statement on Monday that their forces struck "a sensitive target of the Israeli enemy". An Israeli military statement said a drone hit a building in the city of Yavne after air defence systems failed to detect it and an investigation into the failure is under way. The Houthis said the operation "achieved its objective" without providing details. No injuries were reported in the attack, which caused damage to several apartments in the building, according to Israeli media reports.

At least 22 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed after Israel launched air and drone attacks across Gaza, while a power outage threatens the lives of more than 100 patients at a hospital in the besieged territory's north. In the latest Israeli attack in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Monday morning, three people were targeted with a missile launched from a drone, instantly killing them, sources told Al Jazeera. "[The victims] were trying to leave their home in search of food in the vicinity of their neighbourhood when they were targeted by a drone," said Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from central Deir el-Balah in Gaza. "They were killed right away. Their bodies are still in the street and nobody has the ability to get to the bombed site and remove the bodies from the street."

Russian air defence units destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones over three western Russia regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app. Ukraine's air force said the country's air defence shot down two missiles and 18 drones launched by Russia overnight. Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Blahodatne in eastern Ukraine, Russia's RIA state news agency reported, citing the Defence Ministry. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. During the same period, an estimated 370,000 soldiers were injured, he added in a post on X. Russian air defence units destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones over three western Russia regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Police are closing in on the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York hotel, the city's mayor has said. New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Sunday that the "net is tightening" around the suspected gunman, who is believed by authorities to have left the city after the killing. "The manner in which they were able to follow his footsteps, to recover evidence – some of it is known, some of it is unknown – but the net is tightening. And we are going to bring this person to justice," Adams told reporters. Asked if authorities had confirmed the suspect's name, Adams declined to comment on his identity.

China has banned the export of rare but critical earth minerals used in the manufacture of important semiconductors to the United States in the latest move in an ongoing tech war between the two superpowers. Beijing's announcement on Tuesday came just one day after the US ramped up restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China, which affects the country's ability to develop advanced weapons systems and artificial intelligence. So why is a "tech war" brewing between China and the US, and why does it matter? For months, the two countries have been involved in tit-for-tat export restrictions. The US hopes to cripple China's military and artificial intelligence (AI) advances as well as hamper its ambitions to become a global leader in clean energy and other technologies.

Despite fears that artificial intelligence (AI) could influence the outcome of elections around the world, the United States technology giant Meta said it detected little impact across its platforms this year. That was in part due to defensive measures designed to prevent coordinated networks of accounts, or bots, from grabbing attention on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg told reporters on Tuesday. "I don't think the use of generative AI was a particularly effective tool for them to evade our trip wires," Clegg said of actors behind coordinated disinformation campaigns. In 2024, Meta says it ran several election operations centres around the world to monitor content issues, including during elections in the US, Bangladesh, Brazil, France, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Most of the covert influence operations it has disrupted in recent years were carried out by actors from Russia, Iran and China, Clegg said, adding that Meta took down about 20 "covert influence operations" on its platform this year.