On Call

The chief executive of Anthropic, the US artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot, is calling for stronger government regulation of AI. The comments were made in an exclusive interview with ABC News. The appeal from one of the industry's own leading figures is likely to fuel debate over how quickly lawmakers should move to rein in powerful AI systems.

Air raid alert in Kyiv has been called off, according to the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. The alert followed a night in which Ukrainian cities again faced the threat of Russian air attacks. Residents were told the danger had passed and normal activity could resume.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for accountability from those providing support that fuels the war in Sudan, where fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. He is urging an end to outside backing for the warring parties and pressure on those responsible for atrocities.

Former players are already naming their picks for the 2026 Ballon d'Or. Troy Deeney says one player 'has completed football' and has revealed his top five ranking for the award, while Samuel Eto'o has also named the player he expects to win, calling him 'a talented genius'. Their comments are fuelling debate among fans about who deserves football's top individual prize.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has dissolved parliament and called a snap election for November 29, 2026, moving the vote forward from its originally scheduled date in 2027. The decision follows a major parliamentary defeat on October 2, when the right-wing opposition handed his minority government a significant loss. The move ends his Socialist-led coalition's term early and sets up a snap national campaign.

Cal Newport has published an essay arguing it is time to formally investigate the leading AI laboratories. The piece contends that companies racing to build powerful artificial intelligence systems deserve greater scrutiny over their safety practices, claims, and societal impact. The argument is drawing attention among technology commentators, with debate centering on whether external oversight of AI labs is overdue.

News reports say Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has died, setting in motion the process of filling his Senate seat. Under state law, the governor would call a special election to choose a successor. Details about the circumstances of his death and the timeline for replacing him were not included in the reports.

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts delivered what Heavy.com called a perfect response to a quip from a rival, amid chatter around the San Diego Padres ownership. The exchange between the two National League West rivals drew attention from baseball fans. Roberts, who has managed the Dodgers since 2016, is no stranger to the rivalry with San Diego.

Donald Trump responded to reports of a potential plague case in Russia, calling it a 'big problem'. The remarks came as health officials monitored the situation and raised concerns about the possibility of the disease spreading across borders. The comment has drawn wide attention as people debate the seriousness of the outbreak and the response it may require.

The Netherlands is enjoying a late stretch of summer weather, with temperatures reaching around 22 degrees on Tuesday and even tropical levels again on Wednesday. De Telegraaf calls it the last warm day of an Indian summer, warning that showers will bring an abrupt end to the summery conditions, with a significant change in weather expected from midweek.

A new open-source project called REA is gaining attention on GitHub, ranking among the top trending repositories globally. Built in TypeScript, it uses AI agents to reverse engineer software of any kind, from application behavior down to native binaries. Developers are discussing its potential for security research, debugging, and understanding undocumented code.

Spanish news anchor Vicente Vallés is being widely searched as Spain's political debate intensifies ahead of the 29 November general election. Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo are trading campaign pledges, with Feijóo demanding an immediate election call and promising a million homes and 600,000 jobs in his first month in office, keeping broadcasters like Vallés in the spotlight.

A project called tester-army/e2e, written in TypeScript, describes itself as a next generation end-to-end testing framework for web and mobile applications. It is gaining early attention on GitHub, where it currently has around 16 stars and is trending among developers. Details on its features, maturity and adoption remain limited, so interest so far appears to come from developers browsing for testing tools rather than any major release announcement.

Meta AI scientist and Turing Award winner Yann LeCun says he has 'zero concerns' about artificial intelligence causing human extinction, calling Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei deluded in comments reported by Fortune. LeCun dismissed recent 'rogue' AI incidents, deepening the long-running split between AI leaders who see existential risk as real and those who consider it overblown.

Italy is facing a sharp turn to autumn weather, with orange alerts issued for heavy thunderstorms and hydrogeological risk, including in Livorno from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday evening. Six regions are under severe weather warnings for storms, hail and strong winds. Meteorologist Giuliacci calls it the autumn turning point, while climatologists warn that unusually warm seas raise the risk of intense downpours.

Bankruptcy is a top search term in the United States. The evidence gathered alongside it points to sports business news: Jon Rahm is reportedly set to leave LIV Golf over what he called 'unacceptable' terms for the league's proposed 2.0 format, fuelling speculation about the league's finances. No confirmed bankruptcy filing has been identified.

Spanish unions have called a general strike for 2026, though they have softened it into what they describe as a 'day of struggle' rather than a full stoppage. Business confederation representatives are studying whether to take legal action to challenge the strike call, arguing over its legitimacy, while unions defend the mobilisation as a valid labour protest.

Major League Baseball's division series are reaching decisive games, with four potential clinches on the schedule. Andrew Friedman spoke about the Dodgers advancing to the NLCS, while Atlanta's season ended with a quiet offensive showing, drawing criticism of the Braves' bats. In South Korea, attention is on Kim Ha-seong and Kim Hye-seong, both expected to make World Series rosters, with Kim Hye-seong called the fastest position player on the Dodgers.

Weather is a top search topic today. In Nghe An, Vietnam, the forecast for 2 October 2026 calls for warm and sunny conditions during the day, with rain showers arriving in the evening and overnight. People are checking the outlook to plan their day around the expected shift from dry, sunny weather to nighttime rain.

A new open-source project called OpenDLSS offers a Vulkan-based reimplementation of Nvidia's DLSS 5 neural rendering network, published on GitHub. It aims to recreate the AI upscaling technology without Nvidia's proprietary stack, potentially letting more hardware benefit from neural rendering techniques. The project is drawing attention among graphics programmers discussing the feasibility of open reimplementations of vendor-specific upscaling tech.

Developer and educator Matt Pocock has published a GitHub repository called 'skills', described as 'Skills for Real Engineers', containing files taken directly from his personal .agents directory. The collection offers reusable configuration for AI coding agents, and it has quickly gained traction, drawing significant attention from developers interested in how experienced engineers structure their AI-assisted workflows.

Italian financial police have arrested a certified accountant, identified in reports as Daniele Moretti, in connection with an investigation into so-called 'usa e getta' — 'use and throw away' — cooperatives. RaiNews covered the detention. The scheme reportedly involves shell cooperatives used improperly, and the arrest signals continued pressure by Italy's finance police on consultants accused of enabling such structures.

An Iranian journalist directly questioned Vladimir Putin about what Russia can do to help end the war in Gaza and protect Palestinian children. The exchange, aired by DRM News, is drawing wide attention, with viewers highlighting the pointed framing of the question and interest in how the Russian leader responded to calls for action on behalf of civilians in Gaza.

Argentina are preparing a friendly against Burkina Faso, but the match is under threat of cancellation after the Burkina Faso squad, the Etalons, became stranded in Morocco. Papu Gómez has also been an unexpected talking point around Lionel Messi's latest appearance for Argentina. Interest in Benin and nearby countries is rising as fans follow whether the game will go ahead.

Scam-baiting channel Scammer Payback has released a new video in which a scammer reportedly ends up begging for cryptocurrency during a confrontation. The video has drawn over a million likes, with viewers praising the channel's tactic of turning the tables on fraudsters. Scam-baiting content continues to attract large audiences by exposing how call-center scammers operate and embarrassing them on camera.

Spanish coach and former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero has responded to criticism over the possibility of training Jannik Sinner, saying those who call it unethical are not thinking of him. 'It would be foolish to close that door,' he told Cadena SER. His comments come amid discussion in Italy and Germany about whether Sinner might work with the longtime coach of Carlos Alcaraz.

German crime show 'Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst' is appealing for tips on the unsolved killing of the so-called Beer King of Mallorca, shot dead near the Ballermann party strip. Outlets including tagesschau, Hessenschau and Bild are covering the cold case, with Bild asking whether the mafia was behind the shooting and the show also hunting 'Traces of Crime' leads.