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FBI arrests Saudi OpenAI engineer over covert recording device, DOJ says <br> United States federal agents arrested a Saudi national who was an OpenAI engineer and charged him with installing a hidden audio recording device in an executive conference room at the AI company, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. The case highlights growing security concerns around sensitive AI research as companies and governments compete fiercely for the talent and technology that could confer economic and strategic advantages. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, had worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, the Justice Department said in a statement. An email sent to an address associated with that name did not elicit a response, and it was not immediately clear who his lawyer was. OpenAI discovered the recording device plugged into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room at one of its San Francisco buildings on September 30, according to the department. Rea...

Meta challenges UK media regulator over fees, fines <br> A UK High Court will hold a hearing Tuesday on a challenge brought by Meta, the tech giant that owns Facebook and Instagram, over fees and potential fines introduced under the country&#39;s Online Safety Act. Meta is challenging Ofcom in the High Court, claiming that the UK media regulator acted unlawfully, specifically regarding their definition of &quot;qualifying worldwide revenue,&quot; which is introduced under the act. The law, which came into force last year, introduced protections against harmful online content, with Ofcom&#39;s operating costs for carrying out its online safety work funded by tech firms. Under regulations introduced in September 2025, the fees are based on a company&#39;s qualifying worldwide revenue and apply to firms earning more than &pound;250 million a year. Meta explicitly argues that Ofcom&#39;s calculation methods are disproportionate and unlawful, while...

China's $7.5b EU hybrid boom faces new curbs under China-EU deal <br> China&#39;s deal to curb hybrid vehicle exports to the European Union is set to deal a fresh blow to electric vehicle makers that ramped up hybrid ​shipments exempt from the bloc&#39;s tariffs on Chinese-made EVs as sales growth slows at home. Beijing&#39;s exports of hybrids to the EU&#39;s 27 member states tripled to $7.5 billion &zwnj;in the first half of this year from $2.5 billion a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data. The figure was nearly nine times the $845 million exported in all of 2021. Since the EU imposed additional tariffs on Chinese-made EVs in 2024, automakers have increasingly turned to plug-in hybrids, which are exempt from the extra duties. Weak charging infrastructure in parts of Europe has also supported demand for plug-in hybrids, which are marketed for their long range and strong ​fuel economy. SAIC, BYD and Chery accounted for more than 90% of ...

Microsoft plans huge deployment of its own AI chips, with an eye on saving costs <br> Microsoft announced the next generation of its custom AI chip on Monday and said it plans to deploy potentially more than a million of them next year to back its internal AI services. The Maia 300, ​as the chip is called, is the third generation of the company&#39;s custom chips ​designed to handle AI data crunching such as coding and carrying out complex business ⁠tasks on a user&#39;s behalf. Its predecessor is already running Microsoft&#39;s in-house AI models, as ​well as models from OpenAI delivered on Microsoft&#39;s Azure cloud computing service. The new version comes amid ​a flurry of custom chips from both cloud computing rivals and AI firms such as OpenAI aimed at loosening the hold of Nvidia on the AI computing market. To construct the chip, Microsoft took a different technical path from Nvidia ​whose AI accelerators use one massive computing chip surrounded by...

Brazil's Lula accuses Meta of election interference <br> The campaign of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused tech giant Meta of election interference on Saturday after his social media content was allegedly blocked on the company&#39;s platforms. The leftist leader is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term in the October 25 runoff, where he will face Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro. In a statement, Lula&#39;s campaign reported instances where platforms owned by Meta -- the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram -- allegedly restricted the distribution of his content. The campaign claimed that in recent days, Meta &quot;prevented President Lula&#39;s profile from promoting Instagram feed posts,&quot; while a post from his official account &quot;experienced an interruption in view counts, which affected its reach.&quot; It also said that prior to last Sunday&#39...

Scientific expedition warns of accelerated glacier melting in NW China's Xinjiang <br> Scientists with China&#39;s Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition announced on Saturday that they had found more than 24,000 glaciers in the region and warned of accelerating melt there. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China ranks first in glacier reserves in the country, followed by Xizang Autonomous Region in southwest China. At a press conference in Urumqi, Xinjiang&#39;s capital, the expedition team released the latest data, saying Xinjiang is home to 24,202 glaciers, covering 23,629 square km. The glacier study is part of a five-year expedition, which was launched in 2021 by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The previous two were conducted in the 1950s and 1980s. The expedition carried out studies on Xinjiang&#39;s ecology, land and agriculture, biodiversity and biological resources, mineral, energy and water resources. Forty-six national research...