The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel's strikes on a residential compound in the Qatari capital Doha, which targeted senior members of Hamas. The statement - which did not directly name Israel - was backed by all 15 Security Council members, including the US, which traditionally blocks actions against its close ally. Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar, read the statement, drafted by the UK and France. Israel defended its decision to mount the attack. Qatar has played a key role in brokering diplomatic efforts to end the Israel-Gaza war, serving as a mediator of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

In July, Elon Musk made a bold prediction: that his artificial intelligence startup xAI would release "the most powerful AI in the world," a model called Grok 3, by this December. The bulk of that AI's training, Musk said, would happen at a "massive new training center" in Memphis, which he bragged had been built in 19 days. But many residents of Memphis were taken by surprise, including city council members who said they were given no input about the project or its potential impacts on the city. And in the months since, an outcry has grown among community members and environmental groups, who warn of the plant's potential negative impact on air quality, water access, and grid stability, especially for nearby neighborhoods that have suffered from industrial pollution for decades. These activists also contend that the company is illegally operating gas turbines.

Amid lingering concerns about surveillance and safety, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to accept the donation of a nearly $280,000 dog-like robot for the police department's use. The 8-4 vote followed more than a dozen public comments urging council members to vote against the controversial device, which would be paid for with a donation from the Los Angeles Police Foundation. Council members also approved a plan to have the LAPD provide quarterly reports on deployment of the device, including where and why it was deployed, the outcome and any issues. "This item is being painted as merely an acceptance of a donation, but it really represents an expansion of the current boundaries around policing and surveillance," Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez said before voting no. "This is not the vision of the community that I believe Los Angeles should be."

Avodah, a transformative SaaS company powering artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that operates healthcare division AvodahMed, added four new members to the AvodahMed Medical Advisory Council. "We are delighted to welcome Dr. Koppel, Dr. Lytle, Will, and Tony to our multidisciplinary team of the most established and distinguished professionals" Mark Koppel, M.D., Bruce Lytle, M.D., Will Rideout, and Anthony Black will join existing Council members whose collective role is to provide strategic guidance, clinical leadership, and scientific and ethical direction to advance AvodahMed. The Council members will focus on the company's Nsight conversational AI solution's development roadmap designed to detect and boost a medical practice's care management, cost savings, and revenue-boosting opportunities. The solution is also aimed at reducing physician burnout. Mark Koppel, M.D., is a seasoned executive with nearly 20 years of experience in the business of medicine and healthcare.

Corruption has again been exposed at Los Angeles City Hall, with one council member under indictment in a development scandal and another having pleaded guilty to his part in it. The transgressions highlight the real-world consequences of failing to modernize outdated planning codes and leaving decision-making power over development projects in the hands of City Council members. To try to prevent future corruption, the city needs to fix what's broken about L.A. planning -- by fully updating planning and zoning laws according to the recommendations of an outside commission, not the council. Some City Council members have proposed incremental reforms in reaction to the indictment of council member Jose Huizar, who has been charged with a running a "pay-to-play" scheme to shake down real estate developers for cash bribes and campaign donations in exchange for his help getting high-rise development projects approved. Former council member Mitch Englander pleaded guilty to falsifying material facts related to the scheme.

In the mid-nineteen-seventies, the West German Army, the Bundeswehr, built a vast underground bunker near the town of Traben-Trarbach. It was five stories deep, had nearly sixty thousand square feet of floor space, and was designed to withstand a nuclear attack. Eighty days' worth of survival provisions were stored inside, including an emergency power supply and more than a million litres of drinking water. You entered the facility through an air lock; the interior temperature was set to seventy degrees. The walls were concrete, thirty-one inches thick, and some were lined with copper.

The government's peak advisory body on tech and science has turned its attention to the development of an artificial intelligence ethics framework and lifelong learning of STEM skills. The National Science and Technology Council met for the third time in Brisbane last week, after it was launched to replace the Commonwealth Science Council in February this year. The meeting was chaired by Industry Minister Karen Andrews, with education minister Dan Tehan also in attendance. Council members include Professor Genevieve Bell, Professor Barbara Howlett, Professor Debra Henly and Professor Brian Schmidt. They were briefed on the government's progress in developing a national artificial intelligence ethics framework, and the "strong engagement" from stakeholders during consultation.

It sounds like the plot of a James Bond movie: A charismatic billionaire wants to build a network of high tech tunnels beneath America's cities and slay an enemy in the process. In addition to building electric vehicles, launching rockets, and colonizing Mars, Musk wants to reinvent tunneling and destroy soul-sucking traffic. Just how Musk's latest venture, the wonderfully named Boring Company, will do that remains rather opaque, perhaps even to Musk himself. "We're just going to figure out what it takes to improve tunneling speed by, I think, somewhere between 500 and 1,000 percent," he said in February, with the nonchalance of someone ordering a latte. "We have no idea what we're doing--I want to be clear about that."