Why warnings went silent in Riyadh

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2026-10-13 12:58

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Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. Saudi Arabia's warning system stayed silent before deadly airport attacks, and AI models may soon self-replicate even without access to data centers.

Plus, after hackers heated French supermarket fridges, we ask: Could hackers get inside your fridge?

Today's Top News

Saudi Arabia stopped issuing public warnings of imminent military attacks days before a series of deadly strikes on Riyadh airport that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 300.
US President Donald Trump said he did not believe that China and Russia were helping Iran "at all," adding that Moscow and Beijing had "too much to lose." Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that a suspected plot targeting the RAF Fairford air base in Britain was "highly likely" to have been coordinated in Iran.
The US's controversial deal to buy Russian diesel draws criticism from Ukraine and lawmakers from both parties who say it may even run counter to US law. Ukraine says it's just another carrot for Moscow, when what's needed is a stick. Gram Slattery has more on the Reuters World News podcast.
Eleven sailors were missing at sea from a ship sunk by a drone attack off the coast of Bulgaria, the second deadly sinking of a cargo vessel in the area in a ‌week, prompting Bulgaria to summon Russia's ambassador.
Top leaders of India's "cockroach" youth movement were detained after they jumped barricades to enter the grounds of a historic observatory popular ‌for protests, chanting slogans demanding the chief election commissioner's resignation over a controversial revision of voter lists.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a defense industry museum displaying an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States, state media KCNA showed.
More than 100 foreign trekkers are stranded at different locations after the flooding of a river in central Nepal at the weekend swept away hiking trails and bridges, an ‌official said.
Hackers raised the temperature of refrigerators and freezers at hundreds of French supermarkets to as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, causing fires and spoiling food. Read our explainer and find out if hackers could get inside your fridge.

Business & Markets

Antonio Filosa, CEO of Stellantis, and actor Omar Sy present the new electric Citroen 2CV concept car at the 2026 Paris Auto Show. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Europe's two auto industry bulwarks, Volkswagen and Stellantis, used this year's Paris auto show to signal growing confidence in their electric vehicles, adopting lessons from the Chinese rivals and partners now reshaping their home market.
A selloff in AI supplier shares is the strongest sign to date that the mood on the trade of the decade is shifting, with worries rising interest rates could scupper a spending spree bigger than America's historic railroad boom.
Anthropic said its experiments suggested small AI models may be months away from being capable enough to self-replicate on commercial internet-of-things (IoT) devices, such as smart ‌ovens and off-brand Android TV boxes.
Banking regulators are stepping up efforts to contain growing AI risks, six people familiar with the matter said, with some pointing to the potential for cyberattacks on banks or rogue agents undermining global financial stability.
Global data traffic depends on a 1.4 million kilometer underwater network that has become a geopolitical battleground. On this episode of The Big View podcast Katja Bego, author of "Deep Connections", tells Peter Thal Larsen why the cables are vulnerable, and whether they can become less so.

AI's push for outside reviews sparks fight over what goes public

People visit an Anthropic booth at Moscone Center during the Dreamforce 2026 technology summit in San Francisco. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

Anthropic and OpenAI have sought significant control over what outside evaluators can publish, according to two people familiar with the discussions, amid concerns that findings could reveal trade secrets.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said last month that external evaluators should have the right to publish key findings "without editorial control.” OpenAI agreed days later, saying assessors should have “editorial independence.”

The AI companies are worried that evaluator staff working inside the companies' walls as part of so-called embedded evaluation ‌could take proprietary information to rivals, according to the people, who declined to be named as the matter was private.

Read our exclusive

And Finally...

Vincent van Gogh's "Chataigniers en fleurs" (Chestnut Trees in Blossom) in Hong Kong, China. REUTERS/Joyce Zhou

Hundreds of people queued in Hong Kong to view a Vincent van Gogh painting that hasn't been publicly exhibited in more than six decades, ahead of a Sotheby's auction in New York where it is expected to fetch about $180 million.

The November 18 ‌auction will test the strength of the high-end art market, in which collectors have continued to compete for scarce trophy works, undeterred by broader economic uncertainty.

Read more

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