Author: Gulf News Week
AFP via Getty ImagesA judge has ruled the US Department of Defense acted unlawfully when it designated artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic a supply chain risk, calling the move “illegal and baseless”.The company argued in the lawsuit that Defense Secretary Pete Hegeth overstepped his authority with the new designation. It followed Anthropic’s refusal to allow the military to use its AI models for things that included surveillance or autonomous weapons.US district judge Rita Lin said in the ruling that citing national security “is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics”.Anthropic welcomed the ruling. The BBC has…
Getty ImagesRatcliffe was taken to Moscow in a US military planePresident Donald Trump said John Ratcliffe’s trip to Russia was a “semi-routine” visit but there is nothing routine about the CIA chief making a secret, 10,000-mile return dash to Moscow.Ratcliffe met Russian intelligence officials on Tuesday – notably his opposite number in Russia’s overseas spy agency, Sergei Naryshkin – after arriving unannounced on a US military plane, the Kremlin confirmed.It’s been nearly five years since his predecessor William Burns made this trip and that was at a similarly tense time, just as Russia was drawing up plans to invade Ukraine.…
ReutersAndrew and Tristan Tate have told a Florida court they should be released from jail so they can fight extradition to the UK on charges of rape and trafficking.Wearing tan jail uniforms, the brothers maintained they did not commit the alleged crimes as they slammed conditions in US custody.Government lawyers argued that the two were a flight risk and had bragged about having multiple passports, while defence attorneys said the two social media influencers’ high profile would make it almost impossible for them to flee.US Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis will issue a written ruling at a later date on whether…
Getty ImagesPeter Cullen voiced Optimus Prime in the original Transformers TV series and then the Hollywood filmsActor Peter Cullen, who voiced popular characters including Optimus Prime in Transformers and Eeyore in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh franchise, has died at the age of 85.The Canadian actor began his most famous role – as the heroic deep-voiced Optimus Prime – for the Transformers TV series in 1984, then returned for seven Hollywood films from 2007 to 2023 and other spin-offs.He voiced depressive donkey Eeyore in TV animation The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh from the late 1980s as well as numerous…
Watch: What is postpartum psychosis and why is it central in the Lindsay Clancy trial?Warning: This story contains distressing details and discussion of attempted suicideThe fate of US mother Lindsay Clancy is now in the hands of a Massachusetts jury, who must decide if she is guilty of first-degree murder – the intentional and premeditated killing of another person – in the deaths of her three children.For five weeks, the trial has gripped the country as Clancy’s lawyers have argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed her children, who ranged in age from eight months to…
AFP via Getty ImagesBeaufort is among the French cheeses to be covered by temporarily relaxed rulesFrance has temporarily relaxed rules for making some of its best-known cheeses after the summer drought drastically reduced the amount of grass available to feed milk herds.Government decrees to grant dispensations to manufacturers of Abondance, Beaufort and Comté cheeses – which come from mountains in eastern France – appeared on Wednesday.Several other cheeses are expected to receive similar waivers, allowing farmers to feed livestock with grass and hay brought in from outside their strict geographical zone.These include Cantal, Bleu d’Auvergne, Fourme d’Ambert, Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage,…
ReutersBosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladić, dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia” for his actions during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, has died in prison.BBC special correspondent Allan Little was there throughout the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and met Mladić in the early months of the Bosnian war.At night, you could watch the fires of ethnic cleansing across the landscape. The flames provided the only light under the night sky and the black valley would glimmer with flecks of orange.You could watch the men of our village move about silently in the shadows of their homes, each armed with some…
Watch: Trump signs executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake AmericaUS President Donald Trump has signed an executive order seeking to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. The move comes after trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed late last week, and the US imposed new 50% tariffs on $20bn (C$28bn) worth of Canadian goods. Canada will implement “dollar for dollar” counter tariffs next month.Trump has repeatedly posted threats about renaming the lake, one of the five Great Lakes that straddle both countries, on social media amid the trade dispute. He said on Thursday the move was “official, effective…
Getty ImagesUN human rights head Volker TürkAll of social media should be designed to be safe for children, the UN human rights chief has said after Meta settled a massive court case in the US.Part of the deal the tech giant struck with almost all US states was to add more child safety measures – but Meta also called on TikTok and YouTube to add the same features.The UN’s high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk said governments needed to “step up rather than wait for courts and companies to act”.He added: “Children should not have to wait for a…
Jury considering verdicts for US mother accused of murdering her three children Lindsay Clancy does not dispute killing her three children, but her lawyers say she had postpartum psychosis at the time.