Author: Gulf News Week

How did AI discover the internet’s massive cyber-security risk?The BBC’s technology correspondent Joe Tidy explains how it happened, and what it means for you.1 hr agoTechnology

AFP via Getty ImagesA car lies abandoned after severe rainfall in Saint-Mitre-les-Remparts, near MarseilleAt least four people have died in France, and one other has been injured, after flooding caused by Storm Adam. The storm triggered widespread flooding across southern France on Tuesday, inundating streets and disrupting transport.The deaths included two women aged 86 and 26 who were found drowned in a cellar in the Bouches-du-Rhône region.Corsica was also hit by severe weather. Local media reported that a 4×4 vehicle was swept away by floodwaters on Tuesday – one of the occupants escaped through a window, but another man was…

Christoph GreztmacherEva Greztmacher, 76, had spent many years in Niger as an aid workerTwo women – a Swiss and an Austrian – have been freed after more than a year in captivity in Niger and handed over to authorities in the Libyan city of Benghazi.Austrian national Eva Gretzmacher, 76, and Swiss Claudia Abbt, 69, were kidnapped separately in the northern Nigerien city of Agadez in January and April last year.No details have been given about who was holding them or their demands, although some reports have previously linked the kidnapping to Islamic State militants. The circumstances of their release were…

Is the UK set to green-light a huge untapped oil field?Scotland editor James Cook visits Rosebank – the UK’s largest known untapped oilfield – in the North Atlantic.4 hrs agoUK

Watch: BBC follows operation to rescue shark stranded in South Korean canalA famed dusky shark in South Korea is still lingering near a canal that it was guided out of on Wednesday.The shark, nicknamed Bukangi, became an unlikely sensation after it was spotted swimming in a canal in the south-eastern port city of Busan last month.For weeks, rescuers tried in vain to get her back to the open sea, using nets to move it out.On Thursday, authorities said they had reinforced barriers to prevent Bukangi from returning. But it has yet to swim out into the open sea, and instead…

ReutersRussia has in recent weeks intensified its deadly missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian citiesUkraine’s capital has come under a new missile attack, hours after Russia said it was “ready in principle” to resume peace talks and the US president said the world was “the closest we’ve been” to ending the war.Several houses were hit on Wednesday night, injuring six people, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.The attack came amid a new diplomatic push led by Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Witkoff met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in the city of St Petersburg on Wednesday…

Dame Judi Dench: ‘I can’t be on stage, I can’t do a film, I can’t read anymore’Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench says her eye condition has left her unable to perform on stage or read, more than a decade after she was diagnosed.Dench was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2012, a condition that affects her vision and has made it incredibly difficult to even recognise faces.Speaking to Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said: “I can’t be on stage. I can’t do a play anymore. I can’t do a film anymore. I can’t read anymore.”She…

Getty ImagesFor more than a decade, serious flaws had gone undetected in the technology underpinning much of the internet. It took artificial intelligence (AI) to bring them to light and caused a global cyber-security alert.The vulnerabilities lie within a programming language called PHP, which has been used internationally since the 2000s to build websites.Governments and cyber-security agencies around the world scrambled to contain the fallout of this discovery on Wednesday, and have urged website operators to install a new emergency fix or consider taking their platforms offline.OpenAI, whose technology was used to find the flaws, called the discovery “one of…

Getty ImagesThe UK government says it is working to identify any potential exposure in its online services, after critical cyber-security flaws were identified in the PHP programming language that underpins a significant number of the world’s websites. Governments and some of the world’s biggest companies, including Amazon, are rushing to protect systems that use PHP before hackers can exploit the flaws.The flaws were first discovered by AI, after which governments urged anyone who uses PHP to address them.Amazon was targeted in multiple attempts, which it said occurred before an embargo on the warning was lifted. It added that it was…

BBCA clinical trial has been launched in the UK which scientists hope could cut years from the search for new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.It will test multiple drugs simultaneously, starting with two repurposed medicines already used to treat type 2 diabetes and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).The study will examine whether the drugs can lessen symptoms such as memory and thinking problems, and help people maintain their quality of life.Angela Bucksey, 67, from Cambridgeshire, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in January and is the first person to begin treatment on the trial, called AD-SMART.”My mother had it and my aunts, so…