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For the first time, AI is playing a major role in Israel's elections. Observers warn that deepfakes, bots and influence campaigns could sway voters.
For the first time, AI is playing a major role in Israel's elections. Observers warn that deepfakes, bots and influence campaigns could sway voters.
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<p>Exclusive: Using test accounts acting as 13-year-olds, Tech Transparency Project downloaded 135 apps with features to generate nonconsensual nude imagery</p><p>In December 2025, Morgan Dorfman received distressing news: a student at her daughter’s Pennsylvania high school was making AI-generated pornographic material using the daughter’s image.</p><p>He was using an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/artificialintelligenceai">artificial intelligence</a> image-editing app called Movely to create sexual videos from pictures of her daughter and five other girls.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/19/us-teens-nudify-apps-apple-google-parental-controls">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Two-thirds of population face crisis levels of food insecurity and 200,000 people are in danger of famine</p><p>This winter is likely to deepen hunger for Palestinians in Gaza, after sweeping aid cuts forced the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) to end support for more than half a million people each month, the agency’s director for Palestine said.</p><p>More than a year after a Trump-brokered ceasefire came into force, promised reconstruction has not begun, there are few jobs and the vast majority in Gaza still rely on aid to eat.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/19/cuts-world-food-programme-end-support-palestinians-gaza">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Third-quarter GDP up by 4.5% compared with last year as industrial output is buoyed by electronics demand</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2026/oct/19/exports-lift-china-economic-growth-french-protests-pressure-euro-bonds-latest-business-live-updates">Business live – latest updates</a></p></li></ul><p>Roaring exports lifted China’s economic growth in the third quarter of this year, with factory output growing much faster than consumer spending.</p><p>China’s GDP grew by 4.5% year-on-year between July and September, the National Bureau of Statistics of China reported on Monday. The figures were better than economists had expected and up from the second quarter’s growth rate of 4.3%.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/19/china-economy-grows-faster-than-forecast-after-ai-boom-boosted-exports">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Trudy weakens to tropical storm after warnings of strong winds and heavy rain, while one person killed in Greece</p><p>In contrast to the quiet Atlantic hurricane season, the Pacific has seen continued activity, with Trudy the 22nd and latest named system. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/17/hurricane-trudy-mexico">category 2 hurricane</a> remained roughly 100 miles south-west of the coast of Mexico, meaning the worst of the conditions stayed offshore. However, the US National Hurricane Center put coastal parts of the states of Jalisco, Michoacán and Colima under hurricane warnings, with sustained winds of up to 60-90mph forecast on Sunday.</p><p>Rainfall totals of 100-150mm were likely for these areas, prompting warnings of flooding and landslides. Warnings also covered the risk of a dangerous storm surge accompanied by damaging waves in areas of onshore winds across the coast of south-western Mexico. By Monday morning, Trudy had weakened and been downgraded to a tropical storm, with coastal warnings lifted.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/oct/19/hurricane-trudy-mexico-pacific-coast-greece-floods">Continue reading...</a>