Into the two big foreign policy arenas sucking up much of the Trump administration's time and effort come two major challenges in less than 24 hours. Israel's air raid on the offices of Hamas in Doha and a Russian drone incursion deep into Polish airspace represent two massive headaches for the White House. After all, these are conflicts - Ukraine and Gaza - US President Donald Trump said he would deal with swiftly and decisively. In each case, a leader he sees as a natural, if problematic ally - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - has thrown a massive spanner in the wheels of White House peace-making. The Doha raid came just two days after the Trump administration delivered its latest proposals to end the war in Gaza.

WHEN New Scientist editors sat down to discuss the biggest story of 2023, one topic shot straight to the top of the list. It can't have escaped anyone's notice that artificial intelligence rocketed to prominence this year, with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, becoming a household name. Hundreds of millions of people are now using large language models on a regular basis, in a rapid roll-out of technology that is essentially unprecedented.