A South Korean court has handed a 15-year prison sentence to the boss of a lithium battery maker after a deadly fire last year. In June 2024, a blaze at a plant in Hwaseong city, about 45km (28 miles) south of the capital Seoul, killed 23 people, including 18 foreign workers, and injured eight others. The court found the blaze was an anticipated disaster and that Aricell chief executive Park Soon-kwan and other executives had caused the deaths of the workers. It is the longest jail term imposed under the country's industrial safety law, which punishes owners or bosses of firms with at least a year in prison, or fines of up to 1 billion won ($717,000; £530,000), for fatal incidents. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term, arguing that company executives had made changes to the plant that meant it was difficult for workers to escape the fire.

Australia to spend $1.1bn on underwater'Ghost Shark' attack drones Australia will spend 1.7 billion Australian dollars ($1.1bn) on a fleet of extra-large underwater "Ghost Shark" attack drones, in a move that officials said would supplement the country's plans to acquire sophisticated nuclear-powered submarines. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said on Wednesday that the Ghost Shark autonomous underwater vehicles will complement Australia's naval surface fleet and submarines to provide "a more capable and more lethal navy". "We have consistently articulated that Australia faces the most complex, in some ways, the most threatening, strategic landscape that we have had since the end of the second world war," Marles said. The government said it signed the $1.1bn, five-year contract with Anduril Australia to build, maintain and develop the uncrewed undersea vehicles in Australia. "This is the highest tech capability in the world," Marles said, adding that the drones would have a "very long range" as well as stealth capabilities.

Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg discusses the latest with the Ukraine and Russia war after a deadly Russian attack on'America Reports.' A Russian drone may have crashed in a field in Poland, a move the country's deputy prime minister called a "provocation," as the United States and European leaders continue to push Moscow to end its war in Ukraine. The drone hit a cornfield in the village of Osiny in the eastern Lublin province, about 62 miles from Poland's border with Ukraine, Reuters reported. Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who also serves as defense minister, said Wednesday's incident was similar to cases in which Russian drones flew into Lithuania and Romania, and could be linked to efforts to end the war in Ukraine, according to the outlet. Polish police secure the area of a cornfield where an unidentified flying object has crashed and exploded in the country's east in Osiny on Wednesday.

One humid afternoon in July, José Ramírez-Garofalo drove his large Toyota truck through the lush new hills, valleys, and meadows of Freshkills Park, a twenty-two-hundred-acre green space that the city is constructing on Staten Island. Ramírez-Garofalo, a young man with dark hair, large forearms, and the beginnings of a goatee, drove and talked fast. "It's an impermeable geotextile membrane," he said, referring to the thick plastic that was used, starting in the mid-nineties, to cap the four giant trash mounds of the old Fresh Kills landfill. "On top there is playground soil." The process of capping and terraforming the four mounds that once made up the country's largest dump is complete, but the park won't be fully open until at least 2036.

President Donald Trump has hosted Qatar's prime minister for a private dinner and met with Bahrain's crown prince at the White House as part of a United States effort to address regional issues, including securing a Gaza ceasefire, and promote diplomatic ties with the Gulf region. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister and a member of the country's ruling family, had a private dinner with Trump on Wednesday evening. Before this meal, Trump met with Bahrain Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa in the Oval Office. With little progress to share on the region's most pressing conflicts, including Israel's war on Gaza, Trump was more focused on Wednesday on promoting diplomatic ties as a vehicle for economic growth. Trump has lavished attention on the Gulf, a wealthy region where members of his family have extensive business relationships.

Multiple explosions have been heard and a huge fire seen in Port Sudan, though the exact locations and causes were unclear, as Sudan's civil war rocks the previously quiet city for the third day. Dark plumes of smoke could be seen emerging from the vicinity of the country's main maritime port in the city, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge. Al Jazeera's Hiba Morgan, reporting from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, said residents in the port city reported that attack drones launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hit a fuel depot and other targets. "According to the residents, they believe that it was drone strikes by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – once again. They targeted a fuel depot in the city but also around the port and the air base," Morgan said.

Russian drones attacked Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa early on Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring five, the regional governor said. The attack sparked fires and damaged residential dwellings and infrastructure. In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city in the northeast, the mayor said another Russian drone had struck a petrol station in the city centre, triggering a fire. Ukraine's SBU security agency claimed responsibility for a drone strike on a defence manufacturing facility in Russia. The strike on Murom Instrument-Building Plant, 300km (186 miles) east of Moscow, sparked a fire and damaged two buildings, the region's governor reported.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has personally supervised his country's testing of new AI-equipped suicide and reconnaissance drones and called for unmanned aircraft and artificial intelligence to be prioritised in military modernisation plans. State-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday that Kim oversaw the testing of "various kinds of reconnaissance and suicide drones" produced by North Korea's Unmanned Aerial Technology Complex. The new North Korean drones are capable of "tracking and monitoring different strategic targets and enemy troop activities on the ground and the sea", while the attack drones will "be used for various tactical attack missions", KCNA said, noting that both drone systems have been equipped with "new artificial intelligence". Kim agreed to expand the production capacity of "unmanned equipment and artificial intelligence" and emphasised the importance of creating a long-term plan for North Korea to promote "the rapid development" of "intelligent drones", which is "the trend of modern warfare". Pictures from the tests, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, were said to show attack drones successfully striking ground targets, including military vehicles.

China said on Monday it has launched an investigation into Nvidia over suspected violations of the country's anti-monopoly law, in a move widely seen as a retaliatory shot against Washington's latest curbs on the Chinese chip sector. The statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announcing the investigation did not elaborate on how the US company, known for its artificial intelligence (AI) and gaming chips, might have violated China's anti-monopoly laws. It said that the US chipmaker is, in addition, suspected of violating commitments it made during its acquisition of the Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies under terms outlined in the regulator's 2020 conditional approval of that deal. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company's shares fell 2.2% in pre-market trading in New York after the Chinese regulator's announcement.

Russia has launched a huge strike on Ukraine's energy facilities and military infrastructure, Russian news agencies report, citing the Ministry of Defence. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said Russian forces launched about 120 missiles and 90 drones in a "massive" combined air attack – one of the largest barrages of the near-three-year war. In a message on his Telegram channel, Zelenskyy added that Ukrainian defence forces shot down more than 140 Russian projectiles. A Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv killed at least two people and wounded six others, including children, Zelenskyy said, adding that "all areas" were left without power. Explosions were heard across Ukraine on Sunday, including the capital, Kyiv, the key southern port of Odesa, and the country's west and central regions, according to local reports.