International politics today feels like a collective sleepwalk into the abyss. Three trends are particularly alarming. Artificial intelligence is globalising and turbocharging old and new threats. Meanwhile, no state is strong enough to impose order. And, as in earlier periods of global crisis, geopolitical blocs are hardening, with international cooperation increasingly portrayed as weakness. Alas, there is ample reason to fear a repetition of the worst of history.

Why is the UK at the forefront of AI-driven job cuts? AI-linked job losses in the UK are running at twice the rate of US and Germany. Barclays plans to axe 5,000 jobs by the end of 2026 as it turns to artificial intelligence (AI) to cut costs. The bank's chief executive has described AI as the "icing on the cake" of that effort. But unions accuse the bank of using AI as an excuse to reduce its workforce.

Is the war entering a new phase? Romania has blamed Russia for a drone strike that sank a cargo ship off Romania's Black Sea coast, killing one crew member and leaving three others missing. It's the latest drone attack targeting commercial shipping off the coasts of NATO members Romania and Bulgaria, with at least seven cargo ships hit and 30 sailors reported killed or missing in the past two weeks, raising fears of an escalation in Russia's war against Ukraine. The shipping data website MarineTraffic showed the Khoryv departed Turkiye on Wednesday and was headed for Romania's Sulina port, which links the Danube River to the Black Sea. The canal has become the primary route for Ukrainian exporters, which rely on ports on the Danube and Romanian territorial waters, as Russia has attacked Ukraine's own Black Sea ports.

From France to India, young people are in the streets over inequality, failing public services and bleak prospects.

Indian developer turns'Cockroach' protests into video game Indian developer turns'Cockroach' protests into video game A 27-year-old Indian developer has created a satirical video game inspired by the Cockroach Party-led protests over alleged electoral list irregularities. Players can take on the role of protesters facing baton charges, tear gas, water cannons and police attempts to stop them. Share Indian developer turns'Cockroach' protests into video game on social media Tibet rocked by 7.0-magnitude earthquake Can Pakistan save the last two of its four captive African elephants?

How Sudan's shift to drone warfare is fuelling a civilian crisis Share How Sudan's shift to drone warfare is fuelling a civilian crisis on social media In the Imtidad Nasser neighbourhood east of Sudan's capital Khartoum, residents are grappling with a terrifying new reality of skies filled with drones. "We heard the buzz of drones in the sky, but did not pay attention to it at first," Ahmed Abdel Hamid, a resident of the area, told Al Jazeera about a recent drone attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Then, anti-aircraft fire and two huge explosions shook the area, killing three children from a family in the community. A devastating wave of drone attacks across Sudan has killed more than 160 people in recent days, marking a lethal evolution in the conflict between competing military forces which began in April 2023. A rise in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary RSF has pushed the war deep into residential neighbourhoods, driven by shifting battlefield motives and a mutual desire to exhaust the opponent.

Nigeria's first Ebola case matches DR Congo strain, health officials say Share Nigeria's first Ebola case matches DR Congo strain, health officials say on social media Nigerian health officials say test results have confirmed the country's first case of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is behind a major outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), marking the disease's first spread to West Africa in the current outbreak. The case involves a woman who travelled from Uganda to the capital, Abuja, on October 3, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said. Officials confirmed the positive result on Tuesday. "We did three levels of tests, but all molecular. The strain was Bundibugyo," Olajumoke Babatunde, director of the public health laboratory service at the NCDC, said on Wednesday.

The publisher of best-selling Haitian-Canadian writer Thelyson Orelien says it has severed its professional relationship with the author after confirming he used artificial intelligence to help write his novel, "It Was Either That or Die". Boreal said on Wednesday that it conducted a further investigation after allegations surfaced in September to determine whether AI was used to write the novel. Orelien had previously denied allegations surrounding his breakthrough novel, and last week, the Canadian publisher said it was standing by the 38-year-old writer. Boreal said it did not know the extent of AI's use in the writing process "and we will likely never have a definitive answer". It said it gathered all the working versions of the novel and hired an outside party to analyse the various drafts.

A drone attack on a market in Abyei, a border region disputed by South Sudan and Sudan, has killed at least 153 people, according to a South Sudanese official. The Abyei administration's caretaker minister of information on Tuesday blamed the attack, which took place a day earlier on Amiet Market, north of Abyei town, on Sudan's military. He told the news agency Reuters that the "situation is terrible", adding that some bodies had been burned to ashes. Blaming the Sudanese military for the attack, South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said drones hit several locations in the market. It said it has summoned Sudan's ambassador and called for its northern neighbour to "refrain" from acts that endanger civilian lives and property.

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence (AI) company known for creating the chatbot Claude, recorded a net loss of more than $80bn in the first half of 2026, according to the Wall Street Journal, as the market anticipates its looming initial public offering (IPO). The corporation also indicated it could spend up to $750bn in coming years to acquire more computing capacity, including potential deals currently under discussion, the Journal said on Tuesday. The loss figure was up from $13bn a year earlier, according to a draft prospectus, a legal document corporations submit to financial regulators, for its IPO. The figures show the hefty costs of the AI race, even as investors look more closely at whether the money companies are pouring into chips and data centres will pay off. Anthropic also shared a list of potential risk factors, including uncertainty over how to prevent its products from doing harm, whether through sophisticated cyberattacks or blackmail by uncontrolled models.