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Iran has detailed plans to hit Gulf undersea cables if war resumes, officials say <br> Tehran has drawn up detailed plans to target undersea communications cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel attack Iran again, two senior Iranian security officials ​told Reuters. Their comments followed warnings by Iranian officials that undersea cables in the region could become targets in any renewed conflict if diplomacy with Washington &zwnj;collapses. The two Iranian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave few details and did not say how or where exactly Tehran would carry out such attacks. But one of them said Iran would aim to prevent repairs after any attacks to prolong disruptions to communications, including internet connections. &quot;If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines ... from undersea cables to military bases, including covert ones,&quot; one ​of the officials said. The official warned Washington not to &q...

Microsoft develops AI tool that can diagnose 'sequentially' like a doctor <br> Microsoft researchers say an AI tool that diagnoses patients step by step, as doctors do, was more than twice as accurate as general physicians at solving complex medical cases, according to a study published on Thursday in Science. The model identifies and coordinates the questions that should be asked of a patient, as well as the exams and tests that should be ordered, using an &quot;orchestrator&quot; that organises how AI will tackle a problem by employing a simulated panel of clinical experts collaborating to solve diagnostic cases, according to the report. Existing medical AI models typically take an all-at-once approach that examines all of a patient&#39;s symptoms, lab results and imaging studies to generate a diagnosis. With the orchestrator coordinating the steps to reaching a diagnosis, the AI model first decides what to ask about the patient&rsquo;s history a...

Apple launches into foldable market as iPhone Duo sales begin <br> Sales of Apple&#39;s first folding phone, the iPhone Duo, began on Friday, with market watchers betting on whether the device can reinvent the small foldables market in the same way the iPhone did for smartphones. The Duo&#39;s reception could prove an early test for new CEO John Ternus, the former hardware chief who unveiled the phone barely a week after taking charge in September. It could also have large implications for a niche category in which ⁠rivals such as Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies have sold premium ​offerings for several years. Within minutes of pre-orders opening last Friday, Apple&#39;s estimated delivery dates for the Duo had slipped to late January as demand outpaced supply. The US company called the response from customers &quot;nothing short of extraordinary.&quot; In Sydney, the first Apple store to sell the phones on Friday, a queue of customers form...

Millions of hacking attempts as companies, governments rush to patch PHP flaws <br> Global firms and governments rushed on Thursday ​to patch critical flaws in the PHP programming language that underpins much of the internet, as a cloud firm reported millions of hacking attempts after vulnerabilities were disclosed. The push came &zwnj;after governments in Europe and elsewhere took websites offline as a precaution on Wednesday while website operators scrambled to secure systems running the software. The emergency shutdowns of banking, airline, rail, tax and government services from Tokyo to Helsinki mark one of the most dramatic tests of the decades-old programming tools that keep the web running, exposing how deeply governments and companies depend on code that few people understand. Read: Government websites in Europe, elsewhere go dark as software flaw sparks security scramble &quot;I&#39;ve not seen anything like this in a long, long time,&quot; Micro...

Apple will have limited iPhone Duo units available in stores on Friday <br> Apple has said it will ​have &#39;limited&#39; numbers of its folding iPhone Duo phone available &zwnj;for walk-in customers when the device launches on Friday, after initial online orders sold out in minutes and pushed delivery times for some customers to January. Apple announced ​its first folding phone in September, with analysts expecting it ​to quickly come to dominate a niche segment where ⁠rivals such as Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies have sold premium ​offerings for years. But the iPhone Duo is also a more complex ​product than standard candy-bar iPhones, with a tight-fitting hinge that analysts believe may take time for Apple to learn to manufacture in high volumes. Read: India investigating Tata data leak that exposed Apple iPhone secrets &ldquo;On Friday morning, our ​teams look forward to welcoming customers at Apple Stores to ​experience iPhone Duo and th...

DeepSeek wrapping up $15b fundraising to fuel AI race, sources say <br> Chinese ​AI startup DeepSeek has raised about 100 billion yuan ($14.98 billion) in its latest funding round from investors including chipmaker &zwnj;GigaDevice, food delivery company Meituan and automaker Geely, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and WeChat operator Tencent Holdings, both existing shareholders, were among the biggest investors in the round, said two of the people. Home appliances maker Midea and existing shareholder NetEase also participated, the people ​said. Other investors include Boyu Capital, CPE and Legend Capital, as well as existing shareholder IDG Capital, three of the people said. The ​total number of investors in the funding round exceeded 15, one of the people said. Read: Trump says companies should pay &#39;dividend&#39; to communities to make data centres popular DeepSeek, which sourc...

Electronic Arts to cut 400 jobs, shut down BioWare, cancel next 'Mass Effect' game <br> Electronic Arts (EA) plans to lay off 400 employees, close its BioWare studio and cancel the next &quot;Mass Effect&quot;&nbsp;game, Bloomberg reported on&nbsp;Wednesday. The layoffs will affect 3% of the US video game publisher&rsquo;s workforce, including 50 employees at BioWare, the studio behind the popular &quot;Mass Effect&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;Dragon Age&quot;&nbsp;franchises. In an internal letter, EA executives said the company reviewed its operations and decided to cancel several projects to reduce costs. Read:&nbsp;Saudi-led consortium finalises $55b acquisition of gaming giant EA &ldquo;Across our portfolio, we&rsquo;re making deliberate choices to align talent and investments where we see the greatest opportunities for players and long-term growth,&rdquo; they wrote. EA will also cancel a planned game in ...

Trump says companies should pay 'dividend' to communities to make data centres popular <br> US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that companies ​building data centres should pay a &quot;dividend&quot; to the communities &zwnj;where they are sited if they want to make the developments popular. &quot;I have watched the process closely, and data centres that were highly unpopular in ​a certain area have become extremely popular when a ​financial deal is struck,&quot; Trump said in a Truth Social ⁠post. Data centres fueling the rise of AI have become a ​political flashpoint in communities across the country given the high quantities of ​water and power they require, with opposition uniting voters across ideological lines. The Trump administration, which has prioritised rapid AI development to compete with China, has ​also noted the shifting voter sentiment. Read:&nbsp;&#39;Apartheid automation&#39;: How Israel uses AI to monitor...

US judge dismisses Sam Altman's sister's sexual abuse lawsuit <br> Sam Altman on Tuesday won the dismissal ​of a civil lawsuit filed by his sister accusing the &zwnj;OpenAI co-founder and chief executive of repeated sexual abuse more than two decades ago, an accusation he denies. In dismissing Annie Altman&#39;s lawsuit, US District Judge ​Zachary Bluestone wrote that she had refused to appear for ​an independent medical examination despite warnings that failure to do ⁠so would result in the case&#39;s dismissal. Laura Politi, a lawyer for ​Annie Altman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ​Santos Perez, a lawyer who previously represented Annie Altman in the case but withdrew this month, said in a statement, &quot;I am no longer authorised to comment on ​this case, but I continue to believe in Annie.&quot; Lawyers for Sam ​Altman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sam Altman became a &zwnj;face ⁠of the...

SpaceX, Tesla earnings to test Musk's AI spending ambitions as merger talk grows <br> SpaceX&nbsp;and Tesla will report third-quarter results on consecutive days this week, giving investors a rare side-by-side look at Elon Musk&#39;s two most valuable companies ​as merger speculation gathers momentum. The results will test whether Starlink&#39;s steady growth and Tesla&#39;s car profits can fund the AI spending powering the merger debate. &quot;In &zwnj;terms of metrics, it would have to be Starlink revenue growth more than launch counts and improvement in auto margins for Tesla,&quot; said Shawn Campbell, an adviser at Camelthorn Investments who owns shares in both companies, describing what investors will focus on. Barclays suggested last week that a deal could be announced before Tesla&#39;s annual meeting, with SpaceX the more likely acquirer, though neither company nor Musk has officially committed to pursuing a deal. Tesla ​on Mo...

US banning Chinese AI DeepSeek from government agency IT systems <br> The US Homeland Security Department is ordering the removal of DeepSeek products and third-party services ​using the Chinese AI model from US civilian agency IT systems, according &zwnj;to a notice published on Monday. The department is also banning the acquisition of DeepSeek products and third-party services developed using DeepSeek by US civilian government agencies. DHS said DeepSeek models pose &quot;multiple threat vectors&quot; ​and raised concerns that use of the product &quot;may result in the transfer of ​sensitive data to the PRC if used by US government employees ⁠or vendors.&quot; DHS also said use of DeepSeek by government agencies &quot;could produce actionable ​intelligence on US persons and/or government agencies. The models themselves may contain malware or ​other security vulnerabilities.&quot; Read:&nbsp;US flags DeepSeek, Chinese firms over AI theft a...

Japan to launch historic round-trip mission to Mars moons <br> Japanese scientists are preparing a mission to Mars&rsquo;s moons to retrieve samples that could help unlock the origins of the Solar System and life on Earth, in what aims to be the first round trip to the Martian region. The unmanned Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe, a collaboration with US&nbsp;and European space agencies as well as numerous universities and tech companies, could also help lay the groundwork for eventual human exploration. The flagship H3 rocket carrying the MMX is set to blast off from the Tanegashima Space Centre Tuesday at 4:41 am (1941 GMT Monday), according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Read:&nbsp;NASA&#39;s Perseverance rover breaks record for off-planet driving on Mars &ldquo;Being able to be involved in such a grand mission is incredibly exciting,&rdquo; Makoto Arita, project manager of JAXA&rsquo;s H3 rocket team, told reporters...

AI agents accessed Indian computer systems without authorisation: Cybersecurity agency <br> Autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents accessed Indian computer systems without authorisation during research and testing, India&#39;s cybersecurity agency said on Thursday. In an advisory issued October 15, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) said AI model developers had voluntarily disclosed multiple incidents in which autonomous agents exceeded their assigned tasks and accessed live systems belonging to Indian organisations. According to CERT-In, none of the affected organisations independently detected the unauthorised access. The agency also identified financially motivated cyberattacks involving publicly available AI-powered offensive security tools. Read: Bill Gates warns cyberattacks most imminent AI threat Some organisations were attacked again within days after failing to fully address their security vulnerabilities, it added. CERT-In urged...

Ambani's Reliance breaks silence on Musk, says Jio awaits same clearances as Starlink <br> Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani&#39;s Reliance said it welcomed competition from Elon Musk&#39;s Starlink and that its own satellite services were also &zwnj;awaiting clearance, its first response to &zwnj;accusations that ​Ambani was blocking Starlink&#39;s India launch. Musk, the world&#39;s richest man, ​has repeatedly accused the Indian government &zwnj;and Ambani of stalling Starlink&#39;s ​years-long efforts to launch in a market of more than a billion internet subscribers. India has denied any bias in its approval process. The Friday statement, which did not name ⁠Musk, comes days before Reliance Industries&#39; digital unit Jio Platforms seeks a $108 billion valuation in India&#39;s &zwnj;largest IPO to date. Read:&nbsp;Musk steps up attack on Ambani, shares reports on Reliance-linked BJP donations Jio houses Reliance...

China's Tencent says AI agents showed unintended browsing behaviour <br> Tencent&nbsp;said on ​Friday that AI agents used to evaluate third-party models displayed web-browsing behaviour not intended &zwnj;by the tech giant, in what appears to be the first known incident of rogue&nbsp;agent actions acknowledged by a major Chinese company. The statement followed a report by AI-safety research group Swarmchasers on Wednesday, which said &quot;rogue&quot; agents running on ​infrastructure it linked to Tencent Cloud made repeated attempts between September 28 and October 8 ​to retrieve information from Alibaba&#39;s Amap, China&#39;s equivalent to Google Maps. Tencent Hunyuan, the ⁠company&#39;s artificial intelligence unit, said in a post on X that the activity did not originate ​from its Hunyuan models. Its review found no evidence of deliberate targeting or coordination, it said. The Swarmchasers ​researchers said the agents sought inform...

Rogue AI agents broke into Indian firms' live systems, government says <br> AI models under test broke into Indian organisations&#39; live systems and read confidential records undetected, India&#39;s ​cybersecurity agency said, the country&#39;s first such official &zwnj;account after similar incidents of rogue AI behavior worldwide. AI model providers had voluntarily disclosed that their agents &quot;exceeded the authorisation of their assigned tasks&quot; ​during test runs to access Indian firms&#39; data, including ​business records, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) said ⁠late on Thursday. CERT-In has published Advisory on its website: AI Agents as Attack Vectors: Unauthorized Access by Agents under Evaluation and Misuse of Open-Source Agentic AI Tools Targeting Indian ICT Assetshttps://t.co/oYv3CSMx6c &mdash; CERT-In (@IndianCERT) October 16, 2026 It did not name the providers or the ​affected organisations...

From mainstream to luxury EV: Danial Malik shares Master Changan’s 10-Year vision on PakWheels <br> In an exclusive interview with automotive expert Suneel Munj on PakWheels, Mr Danial Malik, Chief Executive Officer of Master Changan Motors Limited, articulated the strategic vision behind the company&rsquo;s &quot;House of Brands&quot; philosophy and its potential to revolutionise the Pakistani automotive market. To address diverse consumer demographics, Master Changan&#39;s portfolio incorporates four distinct brand identities: Changan caters to mass-market vehicle demand. Nevo focuses on practical, affordable electric mobility. Deepal delivers high-tech, premium electric vehicles Avatr serves as a high-end luxury brand competing directly with traditional European manufacturers. Mr Malik provided insights into the key market dynamics driving electric vehicle (EV) adoption across Pakistan&rsquo;s high-volume A and B vehicle segments, underscoring th...

Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games denies firing workers for union activity <br> A senior executive at Rockstar Games, the developer behind the Grand Theft Auto video game, denied monitoring employees&#39; union membership as an employment tribunal examined the dismissal of 34 workers. Robert Spampinato, the company&#39;s vice president of human resources, told the tribunal in Glasgow, Scotland, that allegations he had instructed managers to &quot;keep tabs&quot; on union membership were &quot;categorically not true.&quot; Twenty-three former employees, most previously based at Rockstar North in Edinburgh, are challenging their October 2025 dismissals with support from the Independent Workers&#39; Union of Great Britain (IWGB). Read:&nbsp;Fired GTA 6 developers launch public union ahead of Rockstar tribunal hearing The union alleges the workers were targeted for trade union activities, while Rockstar maintains they were dismissed fo...

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...

New large docodont fossil sheds light on Jurassic mammaliaform diversity <br> An international team led by Chinese scientists has discovered a new docodont mammaliaform species, the largest known of its kind, in Jurassic strata dating back about 160 million years, enriching scientific understanding of Jurassic mammaliaform diversity. The new species has been named Megacauda sungei. Its fossil specimen, discovered in Ningcheng, north China&#39;s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, measures roughly 52 centimeters in length and is estimated to have weighed around 2 kilograms, making it the largest known docodont mammaliaform. Its skull is clearly preserved, its trunk is robust, and its most striking feature is an unusually long, coiled tail. The specimen also retains well-preserved pelvic bones, hind limbs and tail vertebrae, suggesting it was adapted for swimming. Based on its distinctive teeth, researchers believe it could have hunted small animals living in the same envi...

3 in 5 AI models fail terrorism safety tests: Study <br> Three in five artificial intelligence (AI) models have failed terrorism safety tests, with models stripped of safeguards consistently providing potentially dangerous information, according to research reported by CBC News on Friday. The study, conducted by the UK-based nonprofit Tech Against Terrorism, evaluated more than 130 AI models using hundreds of requests resembling those a terrorist planning an attack might submit. Researchers found that models modified through a process known as &quot;abliteration,&quot; which removes safety safeguards, failed every test. Meta&#39;s Llama 3.1 8B model scored 97 out of 100 on the organization&#39;s safety benchmark before modification, compared with approximately three afterward. Researchers said the modified model provided detailed responses to requests involving attacks, terrorist financing and radicalization, while its original version refused such reques...

Under new regulations, Turkiye bans children under 15 from social media <br> Turkiye has barred social network providers from offering services to minors under the age of 15, according to new Cyber Security Directorate regulations published on Saturday in the Official Gazette. The regulation said providers &quot;cannot provide services to children who have not reached the age of 15.&quot; Providers must also offer differentiated services and take necessary measures for users 15 and older, according to the regulations, adding that they should consider the minor&rsquo;s best interests and their physical, mental, psychological, social, and emotional development. Age verification must prioritise personal data protection, using methods that determine only whether a user meets the age threshold rather than establishing identity, it added. Read:&nbsp;Making sense of AI on social media Saying that providers must make the reliability of verification methods, thei...

Margaret Hamilton, scientist who worked on NASA's Apollo programme, dead at 90 <br> American scientist Margaret Hamilton, who led development of the computer system used by NASA&#39;s Apollo lunar programme, has died at the age of 90, her former employer said Wednesday. In a statement, the Massachussetts Institute of Technology called Hamilton, who taught at the prestigious university from 1959 to the mid-1970s, a &quot;computing pioneer&quot; and said she died on September 30. We&rsquo;ve lost an icon. Margaret Hamilton, a computer science pioneer best known for her work at MIT leading development of the flight software for the Apollo missions to the moon, has died at 90. Read about her legacy via MIT News: https://t.co/ODkbdIsoHw pic.twitter.com/M2xauYYUkU &mdash; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (@MIT) October 7, 2026 &quot;To say Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer &mdash;&nbsp;to say she was ahead of her time &mdash;...

Trump discloses Nvidia stock trades as he prepares to honor CEO Huang <br> President Donald Trump bought as much as $1.6 million and sold as much as $1 million in Nvidia stock ​in August, according to his latest financial disclosure, which &zwnj;was released on Thursday as he prepared to award Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang the nation&#39;s highest honor for scientific achievement. The new disclosure of ​the president&#39;s investment in one of the world&#39;s most ​valuable companies comes as his administration weighs policies ⁠that could shape Nvidia&#39;s fortunes, including rules governing exports of ​its advanced chips. White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement ​to Reuters that third-party financial institutions independently manage the president&#39;s portfolio and replicate &quot;recognised indexes, such as the Schwab 1000.&quot; Read More: US suspends Microsoft, major IT firms from key green card programme Huang is set to r...

India denies Elon Musk's claim Starlink 'blocked by oligarchs' <br> India on Thursday denied Elon Musk&#39;s claim that &ldquo;certain oligarchs&rdquo; were blocking Starlink&#39;s satellite communication services in the country to maintain their monopoly, terming it baseless. Without directly naming Musk, India&rsquo;s Communications Ministry said in a statement that the government has put in place a fair and non-discriminatory authorisation framework for all telecommunication services, including satellite communication services. It said telecom licences have been granted to three global mobile personal communication by Satellite services based on &ldquo;non-geosynchronous satellite orbit based satellite communications.&rdquo; pic.twitter.com/qIOih9RtMp &mdash; PIB_INDIA Ministry of Communications (@pib_comm) October 8, 2026 The statement said security assessment &ldquo;as part of this process is currently under way in ...