Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI is to go to trial after a US judge said there is plenty of evidence to support the billionaire’s case.
The world’s richest man, who co-founded OpenAI, is suing the ChatGPT developer and its chief executive, Sam Altman, over claims its leaders violated the organisation’s founding mission by shifting to a for-profit model.
Ukrainian president says he has received no ‘unequivocal answer’ from European allies about how they would defend Ukraine if Russia attacked again. What we know on day 1,415
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has received no “unequivocal answer” from European allies about how they would defend Ukraine if Russia attacked again after a peace deal was reached. On Tuesday, European leaders and US envoys announced they had agreed key security guarantees for Kyiv, including a European multinational force that would be deployed if a ceasefire could be reached. But when asked if he was sure that European allies would step in and defend his country in the event of another Russian invasion, Zelensky said on Wednesday he had no “clear” answer on that.
“I personally very much want to get a very simple answer: yes, if there is aggression again, all partners will give a strong response to the Russians. And that’s the exact question I put to all our partners. And so far I haven’t received a clear, unequivocal answer,” Zelensky said. He said there was “political will” from Kyiv’s allies to “give us strong security guarantees”. “But until we have such security guarantees – legal ones, backed by parliaments, backed by the United States Congress – we cannot answer this question.”
UK prime minister Keir Starmer said British MPs will have the opportunity to vote on the final number of troops deployed to Ukraine should a peace deal be reached, Peter Walker reports. Downing Street could not say, however, whether the Commons vote, which would take place before deployment, would tie the government’s hands should MPs reject the prospect of British boots on the ground.
British troops would “conduct deterrent operations and to construct and protect military hubs”, Starmer told parliament on Wednesday. “The number will be determined in accordance with our military plans, which we are drawing up and looking to other members to support. So the number I will put before the house before we were to deploy.”
During the session in the Commons, the Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty said that “the presence of boots on the ground in Ukraine was a red line for Putin, and I worry that this potentially might be a stick that he beats us with in order to push back on any peace deal.”
Russian strikes late on Wednesday knocked out power supplies almost entirely in two regions of south-eastern Ukraine, the energy ministry said. “As a result of the attack, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions are almost completely without electricity,” the ministry said on Telegram. Ukraine’s prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said impending snowfalls and temperatures plunging overnight to minus 20C were likely to compound disruptions to power and heating.
Russia attacked two seaports in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring eight others, Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine’s seaport administration said the attacked ports were Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi, both key export arteries for Ukraine’s commodity-heavy economy. “This is yet another attack by a terrorist country on port infrastructure that is involved in ensuring global food security,” deputy prime minister, Oleksiy Kuleba, said.
Ukraine’s foreign currency reserves grew to a record high of $57.3bn at the start of January as the country continues to draw substantial flows of foreign support, the central bank said on Wednesday. Ukrainian military spending surged from around $7bn in 2021, the last year before the invasion, to a record of more than $70bn last year. The government depends heavily on financial aid to pay for humanitarian and social spending, as well as defence.
Median sale price was at $410,800 last year, according to the Census Bureau, even as Trump campaigned on affordability
Donald Trump said his administration was moving to ban large institutional investors from buying single-family homes in a bid to reduce home prices.
In a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, the US president said he will be asking Congress to codify the measure and will be discussing additional housing and affordability proposals in a speech at the Davos World Economic Forum.
On the fifth anniversary of the January 6 riots, late-night hosts discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to rewrite history as ‘peaceful protests’
Late-night hosts observed the fifth anniversary of the January 6 insurrection and recapped Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s first day in a US court.
Elvis fever has taken over Australia’s largest railway station, as die-hard fans and curious first-timers join the annual train pilgrimage to Parkes to pay homage to the King
Mass demonstrations against compulsory service law have been taking place as Israel’s military tries to solve its manpower shortages
A mass ultra-Orthodox Jewish rally against military conscription turned deadly in Jerusalem on Tuesday, when a teenage boy was crushed and killed after a man driving a bus hit the crowd.
The Israeli police said they detained the driver and are investigating.
Deal indicates Venezuelan government is responding to Trump’s demand that they open up to US oil companies or risk more military intervention
Donald Trump has said Venezuela will be “turning over” $2bn worth of Venezuelan crude to the United States, a flagship negotiation that would divert supplies from China while helping Venezuela avoid deeper oil production cuts.
“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump said in a post online.
Late-night hosts react to Trump’s shocking attack on Venezuela and surprise capture of Nicolás Maduro
Late-night hosts tore into the Trump administration’s surprise military attack on Caracas, capture of president Nicolás Maduro and vague plans to “run” Venezuela.
The conveniences of modern life such as Uber Eats and ChatGPT are robbing us of satisfaction – and worse still, infantilising us. But should we really go back to the basics?
From a thriving miniature city inside a Cairo cemetery to a goat sacrifice in Nigeria, the photojournalist’s eye-opening images are celebrated in a new book
•Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing
Agreement finalised by the OECD waters down a landmark 2021 deal that set a minimum global corporate tax of 15%
Nearly 150 countries have agreed on a landmark plan to stop large global companies shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions, but the US will be exempt from the deal, angering tax transparency groups.
The plan, finalised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, excludes large US-based multinational corporations from the 15% global minimum tax after negotiations between the Trump administration and other members of the G7.
Suit against San Francisco-area cities Petaluma and Morgan Hill latest attack on policies that seek to rein in oil and gas
The Trump administration sued two California cities on Monday, seeking to block local laws that restrict natural gas infrastructure and appliances in new construction.
The lawsuit is the administration’s latest attack on energy policies that seek to rein in the use of fossil fuels to combat the climate crisis. California, a Democratic stronghold, has among the most aggressive climate change policies in the world.
Overnight attacks trigger evacuations ‘under fire’ at Kyiv medical facility while European leaders gather to seek peace plan breakthrough. What we know on day 1,413
If the nine-to-five is getting in the way of your childcare routine, gym sessions or side hustle, this new form of flexible working could be the answer
Trump has called on Venezuela’s interim leader to adhere to US demands as top Republicans scramble to answer questions about what happens next – key US politics stories from 4 January 2026
Proclaiming the US would “run” Venezuela after abducting its president and his wife, president Trump has now qualified his claim. Amid questions, including from top Republicans, Trump has now called on Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, to accommodate US demands or face the possibility of a fresh military intervention.
Rodríguez, 56, who had on Saturday pledged fealty to ousted president Nicolás Maduro and condemned his capture as an “atrocity”, appears to be adhering to the US line.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had targeted Moscow with drones every day of 2026 so far. What we know on day 1,412
Russia’s defence ministry claimed that Ukraine has targeted Moscow with drones every day of 2026 so far, in what would mark an escalation from earlier, more sporadic attacks on the Russian capital. By midnight on Sunday alone, Russian air defence systems had destroyed 57 drones over the Moscow region out of 437 downed over Russia, the ministry said. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, but Kyiv has increasingly used long range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia. Ukraine says such attacks aim to disrupt military logistics and energy infrastructure, raise costs for Moscow’s war effort and respond to repeated Russian missile and drone attacks in the war that Russia launched nearly four years ago.
Three out of four of Moscow’s airports shut to air traffic on Sunday after Ukraine launched dozens of drones, authorities said. The attacks led to multiple flight delays, including at Moscow’s second-busiest airport of Vnukovo, Russian media reported. The disruption comes during Russia’s extended New Year and Orthodox Christmas break, when many Russians take vacations and travel domestically and abroad, making it one of the country’s busiest periods for transport and tourism.
Two people were killed in Ukrainian drone strikes in Russian border regions, local officials said on Sunday. Belgorod’s governor said one person died and two others, including a young child, were wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a car. Another person was killed in a drone strike on a village in the Kursk region, the region’s governor said.
Russia launched overnight strikes on Kyiv province killed two people, Ukrainian authorities said Monday, after a countrywide air alert was issued. One person was killed in the capital, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration. And in the neighbouring city of Fastiv, a man in his 70s also died, Mykola Kalashnyk, the Kyiv regional governor, said.
In Ukraine, three people were wounded in the Kharkiv region in drone strikes from Saturday into Sunday, the country’s state emergency service said. Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile attack on the city of Kharkiv on Friday increased to five when body parts were found under the rubble of a building, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire in an industrial zone in the town of Yelets in Russia’s Lipetsk region, the regional governor said. There were no casualties reported. Yelets is home to the Energiya battery plant, a major producer of batteries and accumulators for Russia’s defence industry, which Ukraine said it has hit in the past.
With 2025 but a distant memory, it’s time to get stuck into a huge year of entertainment. To help with this daunting task, we’ve provided a handy, alphabetised guide to the big releases and trends coming in the next 12 months, from AI’s continued rise to a whole lot of Zendaya
Bad news: the intellectual property equivalent of The Terminator is here to obliterate the concept that the mug who actually wrote something matters somewhat. Better news: cinemas are fighting back against AI with films anxious about the new tech, including Gore Verbinski’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (13 February), in which a man apparently from the future (Sam Rockwell) wants to warn people about an incoming AI hellscape, followed by The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (title says it all really), from the film-makers behind Everything Everywhere All at Once, in March. Then, later in the year, Luca Guadagnino unveils Artificial, his biopic of Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. Catherine Bray
Donald Trump has announced that US forces 'captured' the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and have flown them out of the country. The US has carried out an overnight strike across the region with explosions rocking the capital, Caracas, before dawn
Suspected offences include homicide by negligence, causing bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence
The two managers of a bar where a blaze on New Year’s Day killed at least 40 people have been placed under criminal investigation, Swiss prosecutors have said.
French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti owned and managed the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, which was crammed with young new year’s revellers when a blaze began at about 1.30am local time (12.30am GMT) on Thursday, killing about 40 people and injuring more than 100.
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