To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. At least two people have died and more than 17 others are injured after a building in New York City collapsed into an open construction site, officials have said. It sparked a massive search-and-rescue operation, with more than 250 first responders at the scene in Brooklyn, trying to find survivors who may have been trapped under the rubble of the three-storey building. Hours later, aerial video showed firefighters pulling a survivor, covered in dust, out of the debris on a stretcher. Authorities are yet to determine what caused the sudden collapse at about 16:00 local time (21:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

Will the new Congress regulate artificial intelligence? Sign up to receive our twice-weekly News & Politics newsletter. The New Yorker staff writer and historian Jill Lepore joins Tyler Foggatt for a conversation about how public feeling around artificial intelligence, and the backlash to the industry, affected the recent midterm elections. They discuss how voters rejected data centers in forty out of forty-one local ballot initiatives, whether the rising tide of fury at Big Tech will prompt the new Congress to pursue regulation of A.I., and what the scandal surrounding Nvidia's C.E.O., Jensen Huang, could mean for the future of Silicon Valley. "Is A.I. Above the Law?," by Jill Lepore "Is Jensen Huang's Affair a Crisis for the A.I. Boom?," by John Cassidy Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

The state's research center will check AI companies' work instead of taking their word. As the federal government essentially leaves us all at the mercy of the AI industry, New York is taking matters into its own hands. On Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul launched the nation's first state-run AI testing program. Instead of trusting AI companies to police themselves, New York's system will task independent researchers with checking their work. The stakes are too high to simply take AI companies at their word, Hochul stated in a press release. The work will be handled by the New York Center for AI Responsibility and Research at Binghamton University.

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Look Up Say More Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Trending Now Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Safety Net Mashable @Home In My Bag Versus Creator Playbook Getting Technical with Mashable All Series The senator-elect made a surprise cameo days after flipping Texas in the midterms. Olivia Tauber is the deputy editor of digital culture, covering creators, media, movies, beauty, and more. Based in New York, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Cut, Teen Vogue, Complex, and Interview Magazine. She holds a Master's degree in Journalism from NYU and a Bachelor's from the University of Michigan. She also runs Fan Mail, a weekly pop-culture newsletter.

When Jontay Porter was ten, his father woke him up most mornings before dawn. He and his siblings piled into the family's Sprinter van and drove to an empty field house off the highway. Then, while their friends slept, they ran basketball drills with their father. "All I remember is it still being pitch-black outside, and the two dreaded double doors on the side of the building that would always be left open for us," Jontay told me recently. In the bleary moments just before one of his siblings tugged the field-house doors open, Jontay always secretly wished that they'd be locked. And, one morning, they were. Jontay smiled as he climbed back into the van and drifted off to sleep. But his brother Michael, Jr., who was seventeen months older, was furious. "Michael was the opposite," Jontay said. Jontay grew up in Columbia, Missouri, the fourth of eight children. His father, Michael, Sr., worked in Christian ministry, and his mother, Lisa, homeschooled the children. Both had played college basketball--Lisa, as a high-school senior, had averaged a nearly impossible fifty-eight points per game--and they saw the sport as their children's ticket to college. All eight of the kids eventually got basketball scholarships. By the time Jontay was sixteen, he was six feet ten. In most families, as a five-star high-school recruit, Jontay would have been the main attraction. In 2010, their father got a job on the coaching staff for the women's team at the University of Missouri. The men's coach spotted Michael shooting alone in the arena one night and offered him a full scholarship; he was still in seventh grade. When he accepted it, as a high-school senior, he was the top recruit in the country. His highlight reels had racked up millions of views on YouTube. N.B.A. scouts believed that he could be the next Kevin Durant. "He's a game-changer," a league executive told the New York . Big state schools turn their best athletes into local celebrities, but the hype that followed Michael to Missouri's campus on his recruiting visits was closer to Beatlemania. Fans asked for autographs and took selfies. Jontay, who came along, was seduced by the hysteria. "Frat houses are putting up posters, and he's literally treated like a king," he recalled. "I wanted to be a part of that circus." He skipped his senior year of high school to join the team, too. The brothers were best friends. Still, it was sometimes hard to be one of the top players in the country but just the second best in his family. "He got all the attention," Jontay said.

Three foreign nationals were arrested and charged with using AI to allegedly impersonate corporate CEOs and attorneys to steal over $100m, according to an indictment that was newly unsealed by the US Department of Justice. According to a press release from the United States attorney's office for the southern district of New York, three men - Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit - were arrested for using AI to alter and impersonate the voices and images of executives and attorneys at various companies in order to convince employees to send over large payments. Soall and Hazan were arrested in Spain over the summer, while Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September. The alleged fraud took place between 2024 and 2026. With the help of AI, the men allegedly acted as a corporate executive, targeting employees of various companies and telling them they needed their help with sensitive financial transactions.

Say More Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Trending Now Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Safety Net Mashable @Home In My Bag Versus Creator Playbook Getting Technical with Mashable All Series Kalshi's claim to be a commodities trader is being rejected by courts California tribes won the nation's first injunction to block Kalshi sporting contracts. Chase joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2020, covering online stories about digital activism, climate justice, accessibility, and media representation. States square off against the federal government in a push to subject Kalshi to gambling laws. State courts have struck another blow against online prediction market Kalshi, which has sought to remain outside of gaming law, claiming it's a trading -- not gambling -- platform. On Wednesday, a US District judge granted a preliminary injunction to California tribes, prohibiting Kalshi from offering sports contracts (AKA trades or swaps) on tribal land .

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'Our Risk, Their Reward': Zohran Mamdani on AI and Data Centers Ahead of the midterms, WIRED talked to New York City's mayor about data centers, AI in schools, and the future of the Democratic party. If you think you had a wild year, just imagine how New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani must feel. In October 2025, weeks before his historic election win, WIRED sat down with Mamdani for an interview at his campaign office. I remember, vividly, the energy that he carried into the room. This was a man, after all, who'd just pulled off a stunning political feat, rising from being an unknown to becoming the mayoral front-runner in a matter of months. In part, that was because of his message, which focused squarely on affordability and the working class. But much of Mamdani's campaign success can be attributed to how that message was delivered, namely through a mastery of social media that made every other politician in America look like they were still figuring out how to open Instagram. Mamdani, then just about to turn 34, radiated in our first conversation with what I can best describe as a supernatural electricity. It lit up the room, and in a subsequent photo shoot on a bustling Manhattan street, drew passersby as if by magic. New Yorkers hooted and hollered at the candidate who, seemingly overnight, had made the mundanity of local politics feel like a cultural revolution. Fast-forward one year, and the Mamdani electricity is still there--it just might be a little bit more tired. The daily grind of governing, after all, doesn't offer quite the same excitement as a rocket-ship campaign. Not to mention that Mamdani, particularly given his massive reach online, has now become a lightning rod for polarizing conversations, from Israel to the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as a beacon of political hope for millions across the country and even around the world. Mamdani's approval rating among Big Apple voters sits at a stunning 69 percent, and he's become among the most influential figures on the American left; he's also been described, by his harshest critics, as a dangerous radical whose politics threaten the very city he's been elected to lead.