UK officials say they are monitoring any national security threat to data from the new AI

Experts have urged caution over rapidly embracing the Chinese artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek, citing concerns about it spreading misinformation and how the Chinese state might exploit users’ data.

The government said its use was a personal choice for citizens, but officials were monitoring any national security threat to data from the new AI and said they would not hesitate to take action if threats emerged.The new low-cost AI wiped $1tn off the leading US tech stock index this week and it rapidly became the most downloaded free app in the UK and the US. Donald Trump called it a “wake-up call” for tech firms.

Spokesperson defended new federal measures and said briefing room would now be open to ‘new media’ outlets

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The Trump White House’s 27-year-old press secretary staunchly defended an abrupt freeze on federal grants and proclaimed a new era of aggressive immigration enforcement on Tuesday, marking a confrontational return to Trump-era media relations in the administration’s first official briefing.

Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in history, insisted the controversial funding pause set to activate on Tuesday evening would not affect individual benefits like social security and Medicare, but would target what she called “illegal DEI programs” and the “green new scam” initiatives that she claimed waste taxpayer money.

After 15 months of war, many people in north Gaza know they are returning to a wasteland

For Abdulaziz the return to Sheikh Radwan in northern Gaza was bittersweet. His home was still standing, if damaged, but the life he built around it had been utterly destroyed by 15 months of Israeli attacks.

Relatives, friends, acquaintances are dead. His job as manager of a car rental business is gone because the cars, the office and all their equipment have been destroyed. He is traumatised by more than a year of war and life as a refugee.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, also announced a ‘new grand entrance’, funded by the museum’s own resources

The Mona Lisa, the world’s most famous portrait, is to get a room of its own in the Louvre, as the world’s most visited museum undergoes major new renovation after its director warned that visiting the overcrowded building had become a “physical ordeal”.

Delivering a speech in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s 16th century masterpiece, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he felt “humbled” to be in the presence of the Mona Lisa and announced that the portrait would be given its own “special space” within the Louvre.

Hot, dry conditions, a lack of rain and a longer fire-risk season are all more likely in today’s hotter climate

A triple whammy of climate impacts boosted the risk of the ferocious fires that recently ravaged Los Angeles, a scientific study has shown.

Firstly, the hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the fires were made 35% more likely by the global heating caused by fossil fuel burning. Secondly, the low rainfall seen from October to December is now about 2.4 times more likely than in the preindustrial past, before the climate crisis. Rains during these months have historically brought an end to the wildfire season around LA.

Driver of car that crashed into school, killing two girls, held on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving

The driver of a Land Rover that crashed into a school in Wimbledon, killing two children, has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, the Metropolitan police have said.

Claire Freemantle, 48, previously expressed her “deepest sorrow” for the families of Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau, both eight, who “suffered such dreadful loss and injury” in the July 2023 incident at the Study Prep school in south-west London. Pupils at the school had been celebrating the last day of the summer term when the crash happened.

Prediction by ex M16 counter-terror director comes as security paused around two main detention facilities

Donald Trump has thrown into doubt the security and administration of the main two detention facilities in north-east Syria that hold thousands of Islamic State fighters, the former counter-terrorism director of M16 Richard Barrett says.

The state of limbo has been caused in the short term by the US president unexpectedly suspending all USAid funding for 90 days, and by long-term uncertainty over his willingness to retain troops in Syria.

Office of National Statistics projects population will reach 72.5m by mid-2032, with growth driven by migration

The UK population exceeded that of France for the first time on record, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The UK population is projected to reach 72.5 million by mid-2032, up nearly 5 million from 67.6 million in mid-2022, according to figures from the ONS.

Prosecutor at Old Bailey says Katrin Ivanova was only member of Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off plot

A lab technician has been accused of being the only member of a Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off a plot to steal the mobile numbers of Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, was told by prosecutor Alison Morgan KC at the Old Bailey that she had been described by the plotters’ leader as the most technically adept member of the group and that she was necessary to the planned surveillance in Stuttgart.

‘This was not the enemy,’ says press secretary on flurry of drones spotted in east coast skies in December

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday that the mysterious drones that were spotted in skies around New Jersey and the east coast at the end of last year were “authorized to be flown by the FAA”.

In the first press briefing of Donald Trump’s second administration, Leavitt said that she had “news directly from the president of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office”.