Ukraine knocks out a third Yandex data centre in four days, and Iran's security chief threatens the Gulf's data centres and cables

The rest of the day

16 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Nvidia in talks over Reflection AI

   Nvidia, which makes the chips most AI runs on, is in early talks to invest more in Reflection AI or to buy it, the Financial Times reported on Saturday. [8] Reflection was founded in 2024 by two former researchers from DeepMind, Google's AI lab, and builds AI that writes software. [8] Nvidia has already put in $800m. [8] One option is to hire Reflection's staff and license its technology, which could avoid a long government review. [8] Bloomberg says the options also include a bigger Nvidia stake or more computing power for Reflection. [9]

   Why it matters — Nvidia used that shape for Groq, a chip start-up, in December, licensing its technology and hiring its leaders. [10] Two former Groq engineers sued on 2 October. They say $17bn went to the licence, and that Groq's shareholders were paid too little. [10]

2. 03

   Amazon in talks to buy Decart for about $7bn

   Amazon is in talks to buy Decart, an AI start-up, for around $7bn, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. [11][12] Decart's Lucy model edits live video as it plays, and its Oasis model builds pretend worlds for testing robots and self-driving cars. [11] Decart was valued at nearly $4bn in May, when it raised $300m with Nvidia among the investors. [11] Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI, looked at buying it for about $6bn in August, then dropped the idea last month. [11]

   $4bnDecart's value in May

   vsvs

   $7bnAmazon's reported price

   Why it matters — A deal could come soon if the talks hold and no rival bidder appears. [12][11] At $7bn, Decart's price would be close to double its value in May.

3. 04

   Brazil's election court gives Meta 48 hours

   Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, which runs the country's elections, gave Meta 48 hours on Saturday to say whether it cut the reach of President Lula's campaign posts. [13][14] Meta owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. [13] Lula's campaign says Instagram stopped his profile from promoting posts, and that his account vanished from Instagram's search before the first round. [13][14] Meta's Brazil office called the claims 'simply false' and said many of the glitches were not limited to Brazil. [14]

   Why it matters — Lula faces Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of the former president, in a run-off on 25 October, after Bolsonaro came first in round one. [13] The court told Meta to list every step it took on Lula's accounts, profile by profile. [14]

4. 05

   US trade body opens a patent case against 20 firms

   The US International Trade Commission, which can bar goods from entering the country, opened a patent case on Friday against 20 companies. [15] It acted on a complaint from Vicor, a US maker of power chips. [15] The case covers parts that feed power to top AI chips from directly below them, and the servers that use them. [15] Foxconn, Luxshare, Quanta, Delta Electronics, Infineon and Celestica are among the firms named, and Vicor wants their products kept out of the US. [15]

   Why it matters — Luxshare, an Apple supplier, said the parts are still being tested by customers and are not mass-produced, so it expects little effect. [15] Any import ban could come only after a full hearing and a final ruling. [15]

5. 06

   Britain's AI minister to press AI firms on safety

   Kanishka Narayan, Britain's AI minister, will say in a speech in west London that companies building the most advanced AI must do more on safety, the Guardian reports. [16] He will say Britain cannot rely on the companies to police their own models, and needs more AI computers of its own. [16] Geoffrey Irving, a former chief scientist at Britain's AI Security Institute, told the paper that AI companies could not stop a hostile country stealing their models. [16]

   Why it matters — Leaders of Finland, France, Germany, Australia and others have signed a call for shared AI safety standards, and Britain and the US have not. [16] Last week leaders from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ briefed the cabinet on AI's threat to national security, the Sunday Times reported. [16]

6. 07

   AI agents break into a test factory

   Booz Allen Hamilton, a US consulting firm that works for governments, let two of the newest AI models attack a copy of a factory's control systems. [17] The models reached their goal in all eight tests, including finding a robot arm and making it move within minutes. [17] In one test they went from the edge of the network to the factory's controls in just over 16 minutes. [17] Humans had to approve every step that could cause physical harm. [17]

   Why it matters — Once someone is inside the network, many factory, water and power controllers ask for no login and use no encryption, The Register notes. [17] The report says knowing these machines well is no longer a real barrier to attack. [17]

7. 08

   Driverless trucks may skip the warning triangles

   US rules say a truck driver who breaks down must put reflective warning triangles on the road within 10 minutes. [18] A truck with nobody in it cannot do that, and Aurora Innovation, a self-driving truck company, went to court over the rule and lost its first request. [18] This week the US truck-safety agency gave self-driving truck firms a five-year exemption to use warning beacons fixed to the cab instead. [18] Kodiak AI also opened a 435-mile self-driving route between Dallas and Laredo, Texas. [18]

   Why it matters — TechCrunch called the triangle rule a big barrier to selling self-driving freight. [18] Kodiak says the change helps bring in driverless freight on US roads. [18]

8. 09

   College could not get Flock's cameras removed

   Elgin Community College, near Chicago, asked Flock Safety to remove its six cameras in October 2025, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. [19] Flock makes cameras that read car number plates. [18] The college feared Flock shared data with US border officials and that police and Flock staff misused it. [19] Flock said it had not broken the contract and refused, even when the college offered to pay for the last five months. [19] Staff covered the cameras with bin bags, and workers in an unmarked vehicle, who the college's president believed were Flock's, kept removing them. [19]

   Why it matters — The cameras stayed until the contract ran out in April, six months after the college asked. [19] Flock has cut 18% of its staff as backlash against its plate readers grows. [18]

9. 10

   Car apps send owners' car IDs to ad firms

   Researchers at Northeastern University tested 21 recent cars and 30 carmaker apps with Consumer Reports, the US product-testing group, between October 2024 and August 2025. [20] Seven apps passed details such as the car's VIN, email addresses and exact location to advertising and analytics firms. [20] A VIN is a car's permanent serial number, and unlike a phone's ad ID it cannot be reset. [20] Four of the seven apps were General Motors', and each sent VINs to 10 companies. [20]

   7 of 30

   carmaker apps that passed IDs or locations to ad and analytics firms

   Why it matters — A fixed number joined to an email lets ad companies link an owner to what they do on other apps and websites. [20] Honda appears to be the only carmaker to change anything: it asked an analytics firm to delete the location data. [20]

10. 11

    California county sues a 3D-printer plastic maker

    Lawyers for San Diego County sued Polymaker, one of the world's biggest makers of 3D-printer plastic, on 5 October. [21] The plastic is legal, but California law covers anything marketed to become the frame of a working gun. [21] The suit says Polymaker courted people who print guns at home, partly by hiring Sean Aranda, a 3D-printing YouTuber and gun enthusiast whom YouTube banned in 2023. [21] The county wants Polymaker's profits from the sales, fines and a court order. [21]

    Why it matters — Polymaker is based in Shanghai, with its US arm in Houston. [21] Tom's Hardware warns that a win could let one state hold a supplier in another liable for how buyers use an ordinary material. [21]

11. 12

    US software job ads rise, mostly for seniors

    US job ads for software developers rose almost 15% from late February 2025, while job ads overall fell 7%, Indeed's Hiring Lab says. [22] Senior roles made up 71% of the rise between May 2025 and May 2026. [22] Jobs with AI in the title made up 37%. [22] Developer job ads are still about 27.5% below where they were before the pandemic. [22]

    Software developer job ads15%

    All US job ads−7%

    Why it matters — Stanford's 2026 AI Index found employment of developers aged 22 to 25 fell about 20%. [22] An Indeed economist warns that employers who hire no juniors now will lack senior staff 10 years from now. [22]

12. 13

    McKinsey: 11 million Americans may change jobs

    McKinsey researchers, writing in Fortune, say the US will have more jobs in 2035 than today, but a different mix. [23] About 11 million Americans may need to leave a shrinking job for a different kind of work. [23] That is about 770,000 people a year, 3.6 times the usual rate. [23] Office and admin support faces the biggest job losses, and automation could take on 80% of the hours worked there. [23]

    Why it matters — Credentials are required in 85% of growing jobs: the law demands them in 38% of growing jobs, and employers simply prefer them in another 47%. [23] Credentials are the most common hurdle workers face, the researchers write. [23]

13. 14

    Data-centre firms paid Australia's big parties

    Amazon made 34 payments totalling A$538,000 to Australia's Labor and Liberal parties over six years, a Guardian investigation found. [24] One, of A$46,500 to Labor, came days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Amazon in Seattle in June 2025 and heard its A$20bn data-centre plan. [24] Macquarie Technology Group has paid A$2.2m to the two parties since 2000. [24] Amazon says its payments are not linked to its investments, and Macquarie says its payments do not sway planning decisions. [24]

    Why it matters — The payments are legal, but they come as Australian communities push back against fast-tracked data centres. [24] A former Queensland premier, Rob Borbidge, now lobbies officials for one data-centre company. [24]

14. 15

    Korean team controls where thin chip crystals grow

    Researchers at KAIST, a Korean university, and the start-up TDS Innovation showed a way to control where atom-thin chip crystals start growing, in Nature on 7 October. [25] These 2D materials, such as molybdenum disulfide, are being studied for future transistors. [25] On a wafer their crystals usually start at random spots, and the seams where they meet weaken the chip's electrical performance. [25] The new method grew a single crystal at 397 of 400 marked spots. [25]

    Why it matters — That is promising for making these chips at scale, but it is not yet commercial chip production, The Register notes. [25] TDS Innovation is aiming for commercial use around 2030. [25]

15. 16

    Fake meetings land in work calendars

    Scammers are sending fake calendar invites that appear in Google Calendar even if nobody opens the email, the Guardian reports. [26] Sublime Security, an email-security company, says it has seen 'exponential growth' in the trick. [26] The entries pose as meetings, voicemails or bill renewals, and link to fake Microsoft, Google or PayPal login pages. [26] Some are sent through real services such as Zoom, which makes them hard to block. [26]

    Why it matters — An entry in a calendar sits next to a dentist appointment or a weekly meeting, so people trust it more, Sublime says. [26] Blocking invites from those services would also block real meetings, says Cofense, another security firm. [26]

16. 17

    Tim Cook makes a third China trip this year

    Tim Cook, Apple's executive chairman, began his third visit to China this year, the South China Morning Post reported. [27] He met Meng Fanli, governor of Guangdong province, on Sunday, and said Apple wants to grow there, including in smart manufacturing and sales. [27] Cook handed the chief executive job to John Ternus in September. [28] He says he now spends his time on policy and dealing with governments. [28]

    Why it matters — The trip follows the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo, Apple's first folding phone. [27] The paper calls Guangdong, a manufacturing powerhouse, essential to Apple's growth in China. [27]