9/11 remembrance dispute, UK-Israel relations hit new low, and warnings over AI's existential risk

9/11 anniversary marked amid dispute over attendance

The United States this week marked 25 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks. At a private ceremony for victims' families and dignitaries, six bells tolled for the fatal moments in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, with a seventh bell rung for the first time this year to honour those who later died of 9/11-related illnesses. The event was overshadowed by controversy after a petition signed by more than 100,000 people opposed the attendance of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, reviving debate over who holds the right to take part in such remembrance. Separately, attention turned to how al-Qaeda has splintered and spread across regions over the past quarter century.

UK and Israel relations sink further

Britain's new Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, accused the Israeli government of turning a blind eye to "settler terrorism" and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank. Alongside France and Canada, the UK announced a ban on imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements. Israel's Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa'ar, dismissed the claims as "outrageous lies" and a "morally distorted stunt," while President Isaac Herzog called the move a "grave miscalculation." Within hours, Israel shut the British consulate in East Jerusalem and expelled UK personnel from a security training mission in Ramallah as well as from a Gaza aid coordination team. The White House has not commented.

AI researchers sound the alarm

Several figures from leading AI labs issued stark warnings this week about the technology's dangers. Evan Hubinger, a senior researcher at Anthropic, put the odds of humanity being wiped out within three and a half years as high as 10 percent, responding to a viral post by Jacob Coxon, a former OpenAI and Anthropic researcher who resigned this week accusing his former employers of reckless conduct. Coxon's thread, viewed more than 153 million times, warns that AI could wipe out humanity by the end of the decade and accuses tech giants racing toward superintelligence of gambling with human lives.