The Guardian

Exclusive: Revelation comes after company’s executive told parliamentary inquiry he did not believe AI had been used to write message Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast OpenAI used AI to help write the email to the Australian government advising that its AI agent had hacked into key departmental websites, Guardian Australia can reveal. On Tuesday, one of the company’s ex…

Former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to the February 2024 murders of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in Sydney Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Photographs of the decomposed bodies of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies have been shown to 15 jurors tasked with deciding whether the two men were murdered. Former police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, has pleaded not gui…

Sources say Firmus is slashing its price and may even shelve initial public offering altogether Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The momentum behind Firmus Technologies’ high-flying valuation is showing severe cracks just weeks out from its anticipated ASX debut. Multiple sources briefed on the matter told Guardian Australia the AI datacentre company is slashing its va…

MIT computer scientist led development of software for moon mission and earned Presidential Medal of Freedom Margaret Hamilton, the computer pioneer whose software powered the first moon landing, has died, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced on Wednesday. She was 90. In an era before titles such as software engineer and computer scientist became mainstream, Hamilton, who die…

The 78-year-old has spent nearly six decades in prison and California governor has overturned last two parole grants Patricia Krenwinkel, a former Charles Manson follower, was granted parole on Tuesday after nearly six decades in prison for her role in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles. This is the third time that Krenwinkel, 78, has been approved for release by California’s board…

Hundred-and-fifty-year-old Wych elm in Newcastle, Co Down has grown sideways owing to strong winds The “astonishing and bizarre” Bendy Tree in Northern Ireland has been crowned the winner of this year’s tree of the year competition. The wych elm tree, located in Newcastle, County Down, owes its name to its near horizontal trunk, which has grown sideways owing to the strong seaside winds coming of…

Jamie Raskin says ‘startling’ email asked whether young woman was ‘for me, or are you keeping her for yourself’ A powerful Democratic lawmaker has called for a criminal investigation into former Bard College president Leon Botstein after congressional investigators uncovered an email from Botstein to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in which he says Botstein asked if a young woman was “for …

In the shadow of the Parthenon, the secretary of state gave a selective reading of history as he urged Europe to ‘awaken from its slumber’ The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, delivered a classically inspired apologia for Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy on Wednesday, giving a sweeping speech to the backdrop of the Parthenon in Athens that appeared tailor-made for campaign ads if …

Ethan Scott Brown died after being wrongly told he would not be eligible to graduate from the University of Glasgow The family of a student who took his own life after being wrongly told he would not be eligible to graduate have said the University of Glasgow “will be held to account”. Ethan Scott Brown, 23, was due to graduate in December 2024 after studying geography. Continue reading...

Maricarmen’s eviction from Madrid apartment after over seven decades set off wave of protests against housing crisis ‘Now is the moment’: housing activists at Madrid encampment pin wary hopes on Spain’s early election María del Carmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction set off a nationwide wave of protests against Spain’s housing crisis, has died. News of her death came two weeks after Maric…

People tell of lives changed beyond recognition after the 7 October attacks by Hamas three years ago and the subsequent Israeli offensive Ahmed Ishtaiwi has six chairs. They are cheap and plastic and battered, but they are among the 43-year-old driver and mechanic’s most valuable possessions. Continue reading...

Overhaul of special education in England could unravel, thinktank finds, because of ‘use it before you lose it’ dynamic Labour’s flagship changes to special education in England are at risk of unravelling because parents are rushing to secure support for their children before the system changes, new analysis has found. The Institute for Government (IfG) thinktank says the government’s plans to la…

Jamaal Howard’s lawyers urge halt, citing risk of another failed execution after Pike’s ordeal in Tennessee Texas on Wednesday is scheduled to carry out the first execution in the US after the the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week. Lawyers for Jamaal Howard, a Texas man on death row for capital murder, are seeking to halt the execution, arguing there are similar risk…

Researchers found the shift from open woodland to dense forest after 1788 led to more intense fires, consistent with loss of cultural burning practices Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here The drastic land use changes wreaked by colonisation created a “catastrophic wildfire loop” that rendered south-east Australia more susceptible to climate-fuel…

‘Transparent information sharing’ from Moscow is required to conduct full risk assessment, UN agency says The World Health Organization has said it does not have the “full picture” from Russia following the suspected death from plague last week of a 28-year-old laboratory worker in Siberia. Darya Shipilova died two days after falling ill with cold-like symptoms . She was an employee at the anti-p…