The Guardian World

After discovery of severe bug in the PHP programming language, executives warn of ‘vulnerability tsunami’

Leaders in cybersecurity are sounding the alarm after the discovery of a major vulnerability this week. They are predicting that artificial intelligence tools will expose more fundamental weaknesses in global internet infrastructure in the months to come.

“I no longer think we’re going to be able to patch all bugs,” said Sam Altman on Thursday evening, joining the chorus of executives. In the midst of what’s being called “Black October”, for which researchers used AI to help identify critical flaws in a coding language that is used across millions of websites and may have been unpatched for years, tech executives are warning about the ways AI will be used both to identify and exploit security vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale and pace.

Unidentified object vanished suddenly and silently, anonymous senior military observers claim

Two senior military observers say they watched a mysterious black triangular object flying at an extraordinarily high speed over a sensitive site in the western US earlier this year, in the latest tranche of reported UFO sightings released on Friday by the Trump administration.

The unidentified object showed none of the characteristics of a conventional military aircraft, their report to the defense department said, and it vanished suddenly and silently within seconds, leaving no exhaust trail or other evidence of its existence.

The board change is the latest development for the renowned New York hospital plagued by revelations related to Jeffrey Epstein

The hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, one of several Wall Street figures whose relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is facing scrutiny, has stepped down from the board of Mount Sinai hospital, according to sources close to the renowned New York institution.

The revelation follows news earlier this year that Mount Sinai, which has long ranked as a top medical provider in New York City, had reportedly formed a committee to review its longstanding ties to the late accused sex trafficker. The hospital features prominently in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice, including an incident in which a Mount Sinai doctor appears to have operated on a young Russian woman inside Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse after she got hurt during a stay on his Caribbean island.

At least one injured after flooding in Four Corners region – which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah

Severe flooding in the Four Corners region on Friday led to water rescues – some from rooftops – and impassable roads, with some residents being told to evacuate low-lying areas of Colorado and New Mexico and others advised to shelter in place until water levels go down.

It followed several busy days of flooding in the region that swamped dozens of homes in Utah. Earlier in the week, tornadoes blew off roofs, knocked trees on to houses and downed power lines in Arizona. At least one person was injured.

Houses being targeted because they are thought to hold immigrants, with dozens of properties affected in recent weeks

Criminals are recruiting vulnerable people, including children, to damage houses suspected of being HMOs, police in Manchester believe.

In recent weeks, dozens of properties have been targeted across Greater Manchester, mostly in Salford, but also in Stockport and Tameside.

Government’s emergency planning advice has sparked sales of essentials but no panic stockpiling, say prepping shop owners

When the UK government launched its “Protect and Survive” public information campaign in 1980 on how to survive a nuclear attack, it was met with a combination of scepticism, disbelief and derision.

The advice included how to build a “fallout room” at home, how to whitewash windows to protect from a blast, and how to store a dead body for up to five days.

Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers promise demolitions and forced displacement after deadly gunfight

Israel has launched a campaign of collective punishment against Palestinians in Hebron after gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three near a checkpoint outside the city.

Benjamin Netanyahu announced a siege on Hebron and neighbouring Halhul and said residents of the gunmen’s home neighbourhoods would all be forced out. He promised mass demolitions of homes.

Multinational ‘anti-war bloc’ uses Istanbul summit to call for a diplomatic solution to Middle East crisis

Foreign ministers at a summit of eight European and Middle Eastern countries have urged the US and Israel not to renews their attacks on Iran, warning a fresh outbreak of fighting would spread conflict and push oil prices even higher.

The development of a new multinational “anti-war bloc” represents a challenge to the increasingly open plans by the US and Israel to relaunch strikes on Iran while talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme remain deadlocked.

Prosecution says Robinson guilty of harassment of Daily Mail journalists because we do not live in a ‘vigilante world’

Tommy Robinson is guilty of harassing two journalists because we do not live in a “vigilante world”, jurors have been told, as the prosecution sought to use the far-right activist’s words against him.

Robinson had posted a video in which he told Daily Mail journalists he would find them after they wrote about his alleged role influencing England’s 2024 riots. He told them he had obtained details of where they and their families lived and warned them to abide by “men’s rules”.

Meghan reveals she was made aware of ‘disturbing allegations’ against him in 2018 by Met police

The Duchess of Sussex has said she is “deeply distressed” over accusations involving child sexual abuse images against her estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr, and revealed she was made aware of “disturbing allegations” against him in 2018 by the Metropolitan police.

Meghan issued a statement after the Sun newspaper published claims that her half-brother Thomas Markle Jr alleged he had found a stash of images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines.

Despite distraction and distortion, voters know what issues will be informing their votes in this election

• This was originally published in The Stakes 2026, a newsletter about the midterm elections. Sign up to get it in your inbox

Elections too often get pigeonholed. The hot take, or simplistic analysis, would have it that just one issue – often the issue the source so happens to be most animated about – will decide the entire result.

Tens of millions of Americans will go to the polls next month. Will they be galvanized by affordability? Maybe it’s Iran. Or healthcare? Taxes, perhaps. Or crime.

Brent crude increase follows Tehran threatening retaliatory attacks on Gulf refineries and datacentres

Oil has hit its highest level in more than six months as fears of fresh escalation in the Middle East conflict grip the energy markets.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, rose by about 3.5% on Friday to pass $117 a barrel at one point – its highest level since April.

Party insiders say they expect initial verdict to be against leader and are preparing to appeal against adverse findings

Nigel Farage’s Reform is braced for a negative report from the standards commissioner over his failure to declare a £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne and plans to appeal against any adverse findings.

The party is on tenterhooks over the report, with multiple Reform insiders saying they are readying for a fightback through the appeals process and fully expect the initial verdict to find against their leader.

Hunter Foster fired at vehicle during a shoplifting call at a Walmart, killing one-year-old Kohen Wiley

Hunter Foster, the Mississippi police officer who shot into a vehicle and killed one-year-old Kohen Wiley, has resigned from the Senatobia police department. Earlier this week, Mississippi’s attorney general, Lynn Fitch, announced that the shooting was “justified”.

The Senatobia board of aldermen accepted Foster’s resignation on 21 October and the resignation took effect immediately. Foster was placed on leave on 16 June, days after the 14 June shooting. Yesterday, the Mississippi department of public safety released body-camera and surveillance footage from the shooting, at a Walmart in Senatobia, during which the toddler died in his mother’s arms after being shot.

Video shows AI likenesses of people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party appearing to admit to wrongdoing

A political ad from Spain’s main opposition party that used a deepfake video of the prime minister’s wife has sparked outrage and set off a wider debate on AI, as the deeply polarised country gears up for general elections next month.

Launched this week across the social media channels of the conservative People’s party (PP), the video used artificial intelligence to manipulate the likenesses of various people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party and appeared to show them admitting to acts such as soliciting prostitutes and taking kickbacks.

Historic England archaeologist says some inns’ claims to date back 1,000 years are inaccurate and oldest is from 1430

With their low ceilings, timber beams and roaring fires, many of England’s inns lay claim to being the oldest in the land and to have been visited by Vikings and Saxons.

But an archaeologist working for Historic England says not one of the more than two dozen pubs that make this claim is being accurate.

People in Russian-occupied city facing severe shortages of food, water and electricity, with some reportedly surviving on weeds

The White House has said that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, where a deepening humanitarian crisis has left thousands of civilians struggling to survive.

In a statement on Friday, the White House said both sides had agreed to halt all military operations in the city from 27 October to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and preparations for the evacuation of civilians.

Contents of laptop of Joe Biden’s son were part of a bizarre saga in the final weeks of 2020 presidential election

Two former FBI intelligence officials who specialized in foreign election interference were charged on Friday with making false statements about their roles in investigating the origins of Hunter Biden’s laptop in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.

Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides surrendered on Friday and made their first appearance in federal court in Washington DC. Floris’s legal team expressed outrage at the development coming from the US Department of Justice, the parent agency of the FBI.

Duchess of Sussex’s decision to cut ties with elderly father cast in new light as he faces sexual abuse image claims

• Meghan ‘deeply distressed’ by allegations against father

The depiction of the Duchess of Sussex by certain sections of the media has often been one of a fame-hungry daughter casting off an elderly father in his declining years and keeping him from his grandchildren as she embraces the international celebrity stage.

Their estrangement has been the subject of countless headlines since her marriage to Prince Harry. But her statement today, released after child sexual abuse image allegations made against Thomas Markle Sr, 82, suggests deeper, darker fears as the cause.

Guardian Europe columnists Rokhaya Diallo and Alexander Hurst answered your questions about the recent protests in France, the role of the French police, foreign influence and the upcoming presidential election.

Michael Wolfcarius asks: I cannot understand why the Guardian is selecting dots instead of joining them. France may have developed into the big story for many reasons, many of which have yet to be discussed, but it is not the only place where seemingly small incidents grew into massive protests, some also quite violent; Spain, Italy, Serbia and Albania come to mind. The crystallising reason may be different but the conditions leading up to it are quite similar. Can you put all these events into perspective, context and relation? There are obviously underlying currents making it difficult for people to refrain from making themselves ‘heard’.

Rokhaya: I agree that these movements deserve to be considered together, while at the same time, recognising their different specific national contexts. Housing in Spain, living costs and public services in Italy and France, and corruption in Serbia and Albania are bringing people onto the streets. These concerns touch the foundations of a decent life and people’s ability to shape their future.

What connects them, in my view, is the widening gap between what people need and what political institutions seem willing to deliver. These incidents that have led to protests are not “small .” Serbia’s movement began after a deadly railway-station canopy collapse, which became a focus for anger over corruption and accountability. My reading is that these protests express a crisis of political responsiveness.

Alexander: I think people in all these places – Albania, Spain, France – feel that the political systems that exist aren’t capable of dealing with the sheer scale and nature of the crises facing us, and they’re responding to a sense of ‘loss of control’ (the Brexit campaign really did strike upon a brilliant slogan) over where their societies are headed. There is a general social sense that has flipped from “this is broken, but things can and will get better”, which gives people a stake in the institutions around them, to “this is broken and things can and will get worse”.

The impact of the arrival of AI has been understated. Not just on labour markets, or on the environment, but ontologically. The investment pitch of the most powerful companies in the world, the ones amassing trillion dollar valuations, isn’t just that X-subset of jobs are replaceable, it’s that human beings themselves are replaceable. That the things we do fundamentally don’t matter, and that their goal is to bring this into being. I think that feeling is there even if we don’t immediately put our finger on it in those terms.