Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspected in the shooting death of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, has been charged with murder by prosecutors in New York, court records show.

The move follows his arraignment at the Blair county courthouse in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday night, where gun and forgery charges were read against him. The judge asked Mangione if he understood the charges against him, and he said he did. No plea was entered.

Prosecutors in Pennsylvania, citing false IDs and a large sum of cash found on Mangione, argued he was a flight risk and asked that bail be denied, which it was.

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro said he expected Mangione to face charges in New York shortly.

The Mangione family later released a statement saying :“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”

On Monday morning, Mangione was seen at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and was recognized by someone who then called local police.

“Today at 9.14am, Altoona police officers were dispatched to a McDonald’s restaurant for reports of a male matching the description of the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect. Officers made contact with the male who was subsequently arrested on unrelated charges. At this time, the Altoona police department is cooperating with local, state, and federal agencies,” local police said in a statement on Monday.

Police found Mangione in possession of a firearm suppressor, a mask consistent with that worn by the gunman, a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching the ID the man used to check into the New York City hostel before the shooting, and a handwritten document that “speaks to both his motivation and mindset”, Tisch noted.

“This apprehension is thanks to the tireless work of the greatest detectives in the world and, of course, the strong relationships we have with our local law enforcement partners on every level, local, state and federal,” said Jessica Tisch, New York City police commissioner.

Upon arrest, police said that Mangione was in possession of a ghost gun that may have been made on a 3D printer, that had the capability of firing a 9mm round and a suppressor. A ghost gun is a weapon put together with parts sold online, and the one found, police say, matches descriptions of the gun used in the shooting.

Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, officials said, with ties to San Francisco, California, and his last known address was Honolulu, Hawaii.

His LinkedIn page indicates he studied at the University of Pennsylvania for both his undergraduate education and his master’s degree, graduating in 2020.

A Penn spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that Mangione had received his bachelor of science in engineering and master of science in engineering at the school.

His most recent employment appears to have been in Santa Monica, California, per his LinkedIn.

Earlier on Monday, citing a senior law enforcement source, the New York Times reported that the man we now know was Mangione was confronted at a McDonald’s – and showed the same fake New Jersey identification that police believe Thompson’s killer presented when he checked into a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on 24 November. The outlet said an elderly employee had spotted the man and called 911.

Monday’s development came after police on Sunday again searched a Central Park lake for evidence – including the murder weapon – connected to the Midtown shooting.

Law enforcement sources told CBS News that the New York police department and the US marshals had sent investigators to Atlanta to make inquiries and review surveillance footage from Greyhound bus stops on the route from Georgia.

Prior to Mangione’s arrest, two additional images were also released of a masked man in the back of and outside a taxi he used soon after Thompson was fatally shot outside a Midtown hotel the morning of 4 December. Thompson’s killer used a gun with a suppressor, surveillance video showed.

Only one photograph of the suspect without a mask had previously been made public: an image taken at a hostel soon before the murder when he apparently dropped the mask at the request of a front desk employee.

NYPD divers searched Central Park’s lake on Sunday after failing to recover anything from a similar underwater drag a day earlier, police confirmed in Monday’s press conference. That came after a backpack containing a jacket and Monopoly money that is believed to be the Thompson murder suspect’s was found in the park.

In a statement to the Guardian, a UnitedHealthcare spokesperson responded to the news of the arrest of a person of interest in connection with the killing of Brian Thompson.

“Our hope is that today’s apprehension brings some relief to Brian’s family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy,” the statement said. “We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy as they mourn.”

Though his survivors include a widow and two sons aged 16 and 19, Thompson’s death elicited a grim schadenfreude from many in the US who had been mistreated by the country’s rapacious health insurance industry. A private funeral for Thompson was planned for Monday, NBC New York reported.

Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate who has been named as a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has been charged with possession of an illegal weapon, forgery and other crimes in Pennsylvania after being arrested at a McDonald’s on Monday morning.

Thompson’s murder on a midtown Manhattan street in broad daylight shocked many Americans but also sparked a torrent of outrage aimed at the US’s profit-driven healthcare industry. Many online shared personal stories of terrible experiences while others valorized Mangione and called him a hero.

At a press conference on Monday, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro attributed the eventual arrest of Mangione, who had been on the run since the shooting of Thompson last Wednesday, to the widespread attention to the case. But he also condemned the online attention and response Mangione’s suspected actions have garnered. Shapiro said though he understands people have frustrations with the healthcare system in the US, “we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or to express a view point”.

“In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero,” Shapiro said. “Hear me on this, he is no hero. The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 in the McDonald’s this morning.”

While the motive of this shooting is still unknown, early evidence suggests Mangione’s alleged actions could have been a political act. In addition to carrying a gun, a silencer and other items, Mangione was found to have been in possession of a handwritten, three-page “manifesto” criticizing health insurance companies for putting profits above care, according to senior law enforcement officials.

On the first page of the document, one line read, “these parasites had it coming”, according to CNN. “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done,” it continued. The document also indicated Mangione was self-funded and acted alone. The second page included a screed against the healthcare industry. In it, Mangione laments the costs of healthcare and asks why the US has the most expensive healthcare in the world but is rated poorly for life expectancy.

The US ranked 42 in life expectancy in 2007, per an Associated Press story from August 2007, and was ranked 49 as of 2022. However, according to the Instistute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the country is expected to drop to 66th in the world in 2050.

Mangione was arrested in an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s for forgery after Mangione provided police with a fake ID, authorities said at a Monday evening press conference. . Police arrived at the fast-food chain after Mangione was identified by an employee who recognized him.

“He was sitting there eating,” said Joseph Kenny, the New York City police department’s chief of detectives, at Monday afternoon’s press briefing.

Mangione was found carrying identification with his name on it, along with a fake New Jersey ID – the same that the man believed to be the gunman showed when he checked into a hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on 24 November.

According to his LinkedIn page, the suspect lists himself as having both a bachelor’s and master of science engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

A university spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that Mangione had received his bachelor of science in engineering and master of science in engineering at the school.

His LinkedIn page also indicates that he is employed as a data engineer for TrueCar, Inc, where he has worked since 2020. In a statement, TrueCar, Inc told the Guardian that Mangione has not been with the company since 2023.

“While we generally don’t comment on personnel matters, we can confirm that Luigi Mangione has not been an employee of our company since 2023,” they said.

The UPenn graduate, now in custody, arrived in Altoona on a Greyhound bus, according to the New York Times. He is also believed to have taken a Greyhound when he arrived in New York City 10 days before the shooting.

Mangione was a valedictorian at Gilman High School in 2016, where he had expressed his desire to study at the University of Pennsylvania. He was quoted as a video game enthusiast and eventually joined the university’s video game club.

Per the suspect’s social media presence, he appears to have been an active poster up until May or June of 2024 before his activity tapered off. He was also particularly active on Goodreads, where he previously liked online quotes from the “Unabomber”, Ted Kaczynski.

Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and has lived in San Francisco and Honolulu. He has no prior arrest history in New York.

A person of interest has been identified in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Police say they found a “ghost gun” made with a 3D printer on the man, who has been charged in Pennsylvania with weapons, forgery and other crimes. The use of this type of firearm – whether made with a printer or bought online as a kit and assembled at home – has grown increasingly common in the past decade in part because they don’t have serial numbers and can’t be traced by authorities.

Here’s how they’ve gone from a pastime of gun enthusiasts and tinkerers to an increasing part of US gun violence – and the subject of a major supreme court case.

Rupert Murdoch’s three adult children will retain control over their father’s media empire upon his death, a Nevada court has ruled after Murdoch launched a campaign to wrest away their power and give it all to his oldest son.

The New York Times reported on Murdoch’s loss, citing a sealed court decision that was filed on Saturday. The family battle took place outside of the public’s eye, despite attempts from the media to gain access to the trial.

Murdoch took three of his adult children, James, Elisabeth and Prudence, to court as he tried to completely remove their voting power over the trust Murdoch set up. The current trust structure gives all four adult children equal voting power over Murdoch’s empire, which includes Fox News and News Corp, but Murdoch wanted to give Lachlan, his oldest son and most likeminded child, complete control over the media companies. The change would have only impacted the voting power of the siblings, not their financial inheritance.

After reviewing the case, the Nevada commissioner Edmund Gorman concluded that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch had acted in “bad faith” in their attempts to change the terms of an irrevocable trust that divides control of the company between Murdoch’s four oldest children.

In a statement, James, Elisabeth and Prudence told the Times: “We welcome Commissioner Gorman’s decision and hope that we can move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships among all family members.”

The 96-page opinion lambasts the media mogul, according to the Times, accusing him of organizing a “carefully crafted charade” to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” inside the empire “regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust.

Representatives for Murdoch did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Adam Streisand, one of Murdoch’s lawyers, told the Times that Murdoch planned to appeal the decision. Lawyers for James, Elisabeth and Prudence have not spoken publicly about the decision.

Now that the commissioner has issued his decision for the case, it will be up to a district judge in a probate court to ultimately accept the decision.

The ruling revealed Lachlan first pushed the case forward. Murdoch and his eldest son are said to have dubbed the attempt to change the trust “Project Harmony”, with the former believing it would see off the prospect of a power struggle within the family after his death. But his other children were reportedly blindsided by the move.

Murdoch worked with a team of high-profile lawyers for the case. Streisand has been involved in estate disputes of multiple celebrities, including Michael Jackson and Britney Spears. The former attorney general William Barr also helped Murdoch with his attempts to rewrite the trust.

If the decision holds, it is likely to have a major impact on the future of the rightwing media empire, which includes Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the Times and the Sun in the UK and the Australian.

Murdoch, 93, is more politically aligned with Lachlan, his heir apparent. James, Elisabeth and Prudence are regarded as less conservative and James, in particular, has publicly criticized climate denialism in the media and accused US media of “propagating lies” that unleashed “insidious and uncontrollable forces” after the January 6 insurrection. James resigned from his role as a senior executive at News Corp in 2020. That same year, he and his wife donated $600,000 to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, Lachlan, who took over as chair of News Corp in 2023, has privately voiced political opinions similar to his father and has attached himself to the growth in ratings and sales the media empire has seen since Trump’s rise in 2015, according to multiple reports.

Fox’s revenue for fiscal year 2024, which ended over the summer, was nearly $14bn. It is the most-watched cable news show in the US and received a bump in viewers and influence after Donald Trump’s first election in 2016.

Robert Thompson, a media scholar based at Syracuse University, said even after the court loss, the Murdochs may stick with their empire’s right wing-pleasing business model.

“The Fox model has worked very well,” said Thompson. Even if all the siblings have shared control, they will still all have to think about the companies’ bottom line.

“This is such a successful business model that anything that would jeopardize the steady course would be bad for everybody,” Thompson added. “I’m not completely convinced that these Murdochs are going to, in the end, be able to really revolutionize the behemoth that Dad created.”

It measures just 4cm squared but it possesses almost inconceivable speed.

Google has built a computing chip that takes just five minutes to complete tasks that would take 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years for some of the world’s fastest conventional computers to complete.

That’s 10 septillion years, a number that far exceeds the age of our known universe and has the scientists behind the latest quantum computing breakthrough reaching for a distinctly non-technical term: “mindboggling”.

The new chip, called Willow and made in the California beach town of Santa Barbara, is about the dimensions of an After Eight mint, and could supercharge the creation of new drugs by greatly speeding up the experimental phase of development.

Reports of its performance follow a flurry of results since 2021 that suggest we are only about five years away from quantum computing becoming powerful enough to start transforming humankind’s capabilities to research and develop new materials from drugs to batteries, one independent UK expert said. Governments around the world are pouring tens of billions of dollars into research.

Significantly, Willow is claimed to be far less prone to error than previous versions and could swell the potential of the already fast-developing field of artificial intelligence.

Quantum computing – which harnesses the discovery that matter can exist in multiple states at once – is predicted to have the power to carry out far bigger calculations than previously possible and so hasten the creation of nuclear fusion reactors and accelerate the impact of artificial intelligence, notably in medical science. For example, it could allow MRI scans to be read in atom-level detail, unlocking new caches of data about human bodies and disease for AI to process, Google said.

But there are also fears that without guardrails, the technology has the power to crack even the most sophisticated encryption, undermining computer security.

Google Quantum AI is one of numerous groups wrestling with how to harness the computing power of quantum mechanics including Microsoft, Harvard University and Quantinuum, a firm with UK links. A key problem is reducing the fragility of quantum chips as even microscopic material defects, cosmic rays and ionising radiation tend to knock them off course.

“Quantum processors are peeling away at a double exponential rate and will continue to vastly outperform classical computers as we scale up,” said Hartmut Neven, the founder of the firm, who said that the latest test results, published on Monday in Nature magazine, “cracks a key challenge in quantum error correction that the field has pursued for almost 30 years”.

He said the far greater speed of the new chip than classical computers “lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that we live in a multiverse”.

Simply put, if a quantum computer can be in many different states at once, it can get more done at the same time.

Dr Peter Leek, research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Quantum Institute and founder of Oxford Quantum Circuits, said: “It’s definitely thought-provoking to put it that way. What it really does is show that quantum computing technology is rapidly moving forward. It really is working.”

He described the Google results as a “shining example” of improvements in error correction, but he cautioned that the very fast processing results related to calculations that were “not of much real-world use”.

“I’m very optimistic,” he said. “I think we’re going to see a real acceleration over the next five years and then we’ll be able to say, look, this machine has calculated an interesting thing that I can explain to someone, and how it could be used in the real world.”

Asked about the risks of high-powered quantum computers wrecking current systems of encryption, Charina Chou, the director and chief operating officer of Google Quantum AI, said: “Security experts have been working on this, and they’ve had ample time over the last many years to really figure out what the right standards should be, what post-quantum encryption should look like.”

She added: “We’re working with a number of both large companies, as well as academics and startups in this space, right of physics, of chemistry, material science that seems very, very ripe for collaboration.”

Pope Francis has called for commutations for people on death row in the US, as religious leaders, civil rights groups and current and former prosecutors urge Joe Biden to take executive action on capital punishment.

In his Sunday prayer, Pope Francis, who has been a vocal death penalty opponent, said: “It comes to my heart to ask all of you to pray for the prisoners in the United States who are on death row. Let’s pray that their sentence would be commuted [or] changed.”

On Monday, advocates fighting against capital punishment released letters from hundreds of leaders asking the president to clear federal death row before Donald Trump returns to office, with pleas from Black pastors, Catholic leaders, former prison officials, leading civil rights groups and mental health advocates.

Biden has been facing intensifying pressure to grant clemency to people with death sentences after he recently announced that he was using his executive authority to pardon his own son.

Advocates expect the incoming administration to be deadly if Biden doesn’t take action. In the final year of Trump’s first term, the US government executed 13 people in rapid succession, killing more people in the federal system than under the previous 10 presidents combined. The rushed process claimed the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, prevented defendants from presenting new evidence, and involved execution methods that lawyers said were torturous.

Some of Trump’s first-term executions happened despite objections from prosecutors and victims, and took place after the US supreme court quickly overruled lower-court decisions halting the proceedings.

The Catholic Mobilizing Network, which represents 30,000 advocates, including bishops and dioceses, urged Biden, who is Catholic, to commute every federal death row sentence, writing: “We know that the federal death row, just as in the states, is marred by significant arbitrariness, including racial bias and the imposition on vulnerable individuals such as those with intellectual disability, brain damage, and serious mental illness. There is also a risk that innocent people will be put to death.”

Biden has previously opposed capital punishment and issued a moratorium on executions when he became president, but he has not yet indicated whether he will commute sentences.

There are 40 men currently on federal death row, and 38% of them are Black, although Black people comprise 14% of the US population. Nearly one in four of the men were 21 or younger at the time of the crime. And 43% of them come from only three states – Missouri, Texas and Virginia.

In another letter released on Monday, 38 current and former district attorneys, attorneys general and former US prosecutors and justice department officials laid out the flaws in capital punishment.

“We know that we have not always executed the worst of the worst, but often instead put to death the unluckiest of the unlucky – the impoverished, the poorly represented, and the most broken,” they wrote. “Time and again, we have executed people with long histories of debilitating mental illness, childhoods marred by unspeakable physical and mental abuse, and intellectual disabilities that have prevented them from leading independent adult lives. We have also likely executed the innocent.” The group also pointed to studies demonstrating that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent to violence and does not reduce crime.

A group of current prison officials, including some whom have overseen executions, pointed to the harms correctional staff face when carrying out capital punishment: “We have witnessed the depression, suicide, substance abuse, domestic turmoil, and other manifestations of trauma in our colleagues that study after study has documented among correctional staff who are impacted by executions, and on those close to them.”

Families of murder victims also pleaded with Biden, writing that the death penalty “wastes many millions of dollars that could be better invested in programs that actually reduce crime and violence and that address the needs of families like ours”.

Others now urging Biden to act include the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a coalition of Latino advocacy organizations and the Innocence Project.

Trump intensified his pro-death penalty rhetoric during his campaign, calling for executions of “everyone who gets caught selling drugs”. And Trump allies, through the rightwing manifesto Project 2025, have called for the expansion of capital punishment and for the US to do “everything possible to obtain finality” for the 40 people on federal death row.

In an interview before the election, Billie Allen, who is on federal death row and has long maintained his innocence, recounted to the Guardian what it was like to witness rapid executions under Trump’s first term: “I came in at 19. These are people I grew up with. I’m seeing them be carried out, never to return again, never to see them smile or hear them laughing.”

He said he wished wished people recognized death row defendants were capable of change: “The majority of people here become better men for themselves, their family and friends and supporters.”

Donald Trump has said Robert F Kennedy Jr, his nominee for health secretary, may investigate a supposed link between vaccines and autism – despite a consensus among the medical establishment debunking any such connection.

In a wide-ranging interview with NBC, the US president-elect claimed an investigation was justified by the increasing prevalence of autism diagnoses among American children over the past 25 years.

“When you look at what’s going on with disease and sickness in our country, something’s wrong,” Trump said after the interviewer, Kristen Welker, asked him if he wanted to see some vaccines eliminated – a position for which Kennedy has argued.

“If you take a look at autism, go back 25 years, autism was almost nonexistent. It was, you know, one out of 100,000 and now it’s close to one out of 100.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one out of every 36 children in the US were diagnosed with autism in 2020, compared with one in 150 in 2000.

Kennedy, a noted vaccine sceptic, has repeatedly peddled discredited theories that the conditions is caused by childhood vaccinations.

“I do believe that autism does come from vaccines,” he said in a 2023 Fox News interview in which he called for more vaccine testing.

“We should have the same kind of testing place or control trials that we have for other every other medication. Vaccines are exempt from pre-licensing control trials, so that there’s no way that anybody can tell the risk profile of those products, or even the relative benefits of those products before they’re mandated. We should have that kind of testing.”

Trump – who has previously said Kennedy would be allowed to “go wild” on health – said his health secretary pick would not “reinvent the wheel totally”.

“He’s not going to upset any system,” he said.

But on autism, he added: “Somebody has to find out. If you go back 25 years ago, you had very little autism. Now you have it … When you talk about autism, because it was brought up, and you look at the amount we have today versus 20 or 25 years ago, it’s pretty scary.”

Scientists have attributed the rise in autism diagnoses to improved screening methods while saying it is caused by a complex mix of factors, including genetics, environment and conditions during pregnancy and birth.

The World Health Organization has definitely ruled out a connection between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine or other childhood inoculations.

Research led by the British doctor Andrew Wakefield asserting a link between autism and the MMR jab was later discredited, with the Lancet, a medical journal, issuing a full retraction of a paper it had published based on it.

Wakefield was later banned from practicing in Britain after being found by the country’s general medical council to have broken its rules on research and to have acted “dishonestly” and with a “callous disregard” for children’s health.

The Guardian reported in 2018 that Wakefield had attended an inaugural ball marking the start of Trump’s first presidency the previous year at which he was quoted calling for a shakeup of the US medical establishment.

“What we need now is a huge shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – a huge shakeup,” he said. “We need that to change dramatically.”

Donald Trump has said Robert F Kennedy Jr, his nominee for health secretary, may investigate a supposed link between vaccines and autism – despite a consensus among the medical establishment debunking any such connection.

In a wide-ranging interview with NBC, the US president-elect claimed an investigation was justified by the increasing prevalence of autism diagnoses among American children over the past 25 years.

“When you look at what’s going on with disease and sickness in our country, something’s wrong,” Trump said after the interviewer, Kristen Welker, asked him if he wanted to see some vaccines eliminated – a position for which Kennedy has argued.

“If you take a look at autism, go back 25 years, autism was almost nonexistent. It was, you know, one out of 100,000 and now it’s close to one out of 100.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one out of every 36 children in the US were diagnosed with autism in 2020, compared with one in 150 in 2000.

Kennedy, a noted vaccine sceptic, has repeatedly peddled discredited theories that the conditions is caused by childhood vaccinations.

“I do believe that autism does come from vaccines,” he said in a 2023 Fox News interview in which he called for more vaccine testing.

“We should have the same kind of testing place or control trials that we have for other every other medication. Vaccines are exempt from pre-licensing control trials, so that there’s no way that anybody can tell the risk profile of those products, or even the relative benefits of those products before they’re mandated. We should have that kind of testing.”

Trump – who has previously said Kennedy would be allowed to “go wild” on health – said his health secretary pick would not “reinvent the wheel totally”.

“He’s not going to upset any system,” he said.

But on autism, he added: “Somebody has to find out. If you go back 25 years ago, you had very little autism. Now you have it … When you talk about autism, because it was brought up, and you look at the amount we have today versus 20 or 25 years ago, it’s pretty scary.”

Scientists have attributed the rise in autism diagnoses to improved screening methods while saying it is caused by a complex mix of factors, including genetics, environment and conditions during pregnancy and birth.

The World Health Organization has definitely ruled out a connection between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine or other childhood inoculations.

Research led by the British doctor Andrew Wakefield asserting a link between autism and the MMR jab was later discredited, with the Lancet, a medical journal, issuing a full retraction of a paper it had published based on it.

Wakefield was later banned from practicing in Britain after being found by the country’s general medical council to have broken its rules on research and to have acted “dishonestly” and with a “callous disregard” for children’s health.

The Guardian reported in 2018 that Wakefield had attended an inaugural ball marking the start of Trump’s first presidency the previous year at which he was quoted calling for a shakeup of the US medical establishment.

“What we need now is a huge shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – a huge shakeup,” he said. “We need that to change dramatically.”

Anyone in the US can now use OpenAI’s artificial intelligence video generator, Sora, which the company announced on Monday would become publicly available. OpenAI first presented Sora in February, but it was only accessible to select artists, film-makers and safety testers. At multiple points on Monday, though, OpenAI’s website did not allow for new sign-ups for Sora, citing heavy traffic.

Sora is known as a text-to-video generator, a tool that can create AI video clips based on a user’s written prompts. An example on OpenAI’s website has the prompt of “a wide, serene shot of a family of woolly mammoths in an open desert”. Its video shows a group of three of the extinct creatures slowly walking through sand dunes.

“We hope this early version of Sora will enable people everywhere to explore new forms of creativity, tell their stories, and push the boundaries of what’s possible with video storytelling,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post.

OpenAI is known for its popular chatbot ChatGPT, but it has been branching into other forms of generative AI. It is working on a voice-cloning tool and has integrated an image generation tool, Dall-E, into ChatGPT’s functions. The Microsoft-backed company leads the burgeoning AI market and is now valued at nearly $160bn.

Before today’s release of Sora, OpenAI let the tech reviewer Marques Brownlee test the tool. He said the results were “horrifying and inspiring at the same time”. Brownlee said Sora did well with landscapes and stylistic effects but that it struggled to realistically depict basic physics. Some film-makers who were also given a preview said the tool produced strange visual defects.

It is understood that OpenAI is still working through compliance issues with the Online Safety Act in the UK and the Digital Services Act and GDPR in the EU.

Two weeks ago, the company suspended any access to the tool when a group of artists created a backdoor that would allow anyone to use it. In a statement posted to the AI community site Hugging Face, they accused OpenAI of “art washing” a product that would steal the livelihood of artists like them. The “Sora PR Puppets”, as they dubbed themselves, said the company was trying to spin a positive narrative for its product by associating with creative people.

While generative AI has improved considerably over the past year, it is still prone to hallucinations, or incorrect responses, and plagiarism. AI image generators also often produce unrealistic images, such as people with several arms or misplaced facial features.

Critics warn that this type of AI video technology could be misused by bad actors for disinformation, scams and deepfakes. There have already been deepfake videos of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, supposedly calling for a ceasefire and of Kamala Harris supposedly describing herself as “the ultimate diversity hire”.

OpenAI said in its blogpost that it would initially limit uploads of specific people and that it will block content with nudity. The company said that it was additionally “blocking particularly damaging forms of abuse, such as child sexual abuse materials and sexual deepfakes”.

Sora will be available to users who already subscribe and pay for OpenAI’s tools. People in the US and “most countries internationally” will have access to the tool, but it will not be available in the UK or Europe due to copyright issues.

Google on Monday removed derogatory reviews about McDonald’s after the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson was arrested at its restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police say a customer alerted a local employee about him.

The negative comments aimed at McDonald’s were the latest in what is known as “review bombing,” where an establishment is hit with a litany of bad reviews based on a political view or an occurrence unrelated to its actual business.

In this case, the negative and one-star reviews showed up after Luigi Mangione, 26, was captured at a McDonald’s in Altoona. He was spotted eating at the restaurant by a customer who alerted a McDonald’s employee, state police said.

“These reviews violate our policies and have been removed,” a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The policy says that review contributions “should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business” and that “content that has been posted from multiple accounts to manipulate a place’s rating” will be removed.

“This location has rats in the kitchen that will make you sick and your insurance isn’t going to cover it,” one review said.

The insurance executive’s murder unleashed a wave of frustration from Americans who have seen their health insurance claims or care denied, faced unexpected costs or paid more for premiums and medical care – all trends that are rising, according to recent data.

Thompson, 50, was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel early on Wednesday morning by a masked man who appeared to wait for his arrival before shooting the executive from behind.

The suspect ran from the scene and then rode a bike into Central Park. Surveillance video captured him exiting the park and taking a taxi to a bus station in northern Manhattan, where police believe he got on a bus to flee the city. Police said Thompson appeared to be deliberately targeted.

The suspect was arrested after a five-day search.

For cycle-to-work commuters and those who start the day with a brisk walk, the benefits of banking some early exercise is well understood.

Now scientists believe activity is not just a good idea for improving the day ahead – physical activity could be associated with small increase in memory scores the next, too.

A study from University College London has shown that 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity and sleeping for at least six hours at night, could contribute to improved cognitive performance the following day.

“The takeaway is just [that] physical activity is good for your brain and good sleep helps that,” said Dr Mikaela Bloomberg, first author of the study.

The researchers noted physical activity had previously been associated with both short-term improvements in cognitive function and a reduced risk of dementia.

However, Bloomberg noted many studies looking at short-term impacts had been laboratory based, and primarily tracked responses on a timescale of minutes to hours. These studies suggested benefits could be down to an increased blood flow to the brain and stimulation of chemicals known as neurotransmitters.

Now researchers say they have looked at the short-term impact of physical activity carried out in real life, not only finding benefits to the brain but revealing these appear to last longer than expected.

Writing in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, Bloomberg and colleagues report how 76 adults aged 50-83 years old, and who did not have cognitive impairment or dementia, were asked to wear an accelerometer for eight days to track their sleep and physical activity as they carried out their normal life.

Each day, participants were also given simple online cognitive tests to probe their attention, memory and processing speed, among other faculties.

The team said their results reveal that each 30-minute increase in moderate to vigorous physical activity on the previous day corresponded to a 2-5% increase in episodic and working memory scores the next, although only the latter remained once participants’ sleep data was considered.

While Bloomberg noted it is difficult to say whether this corresponds to a tangible – clinical – difference for participants, she said the next step is to carry out similar work in people with cognitive impairments.

“The idea is for people who have mild cognitive impairment, a very minor boost in cognitive performance on a day-to-day basis can make a huge difference,” she said.

The team also found each 30-minute increase in sedentary behaviour was associated with a small drop in working memory scores the next day – although Bloomberg said exactly how sedentary time is spent could be important – while those who slept at least six hours a night had higher scores for episodic memory, attention and physical response speed the next day, after taking into account levels of physical activity, than those who had less sleep.

However, the study has limitations, including that the participants had high levels of education, excellent health and high levels of everyday physical activity.

Bloomberg added it is not clear exactly what is driving the impact of exercise on memory the following day, with benefits from neurotransmitters only thought to last for a few hours. She also noted different mechanisms may be behind long-term benefits of exercise to the brain.

The study ties into a focus on protecting our brains as we age. “We all experience cognitive decline as we get older, it’s a normal part of ageing,” Bloomberg said. “So that’s the age group where we start to think: what are these little things we can do on a day-to-day basis to improve our cognitive function and our independence and social participation?”

A spate of mysterious drone sightings have been reported in New York and Philadelphia as the FBI continues investigating similar sightings across New Jersey over the past month.

Since mid-November, local residents in several counties in New Jersey have reported seeing clusters of drones – and in recent days, additional drone sightings have been reported in parts of Pennsylvania and New York’s Staten Island.

Local residents in the regions have been capturing and sharing footage online that appears to show drones in the sky.

Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Newark office announced it was actively investigating these sightings and was seeking information from the public.

“Witnesses have spotted the cluster of what look to be drones and a possible fixed wing aircraft,” the FBI said. “We have reports from the public and law enforcement dating back several weeks.”

While authorities investigate the reports, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has implemented temporary flight restrictions in the areas over Picatinny Arsenal military base and Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

The origin of the drones remains unknown. However, state leaders and elected officials have said that they are monitoring the sightings and have assured residents that the drones do not pose any immediate threat to the public.

In a post on social media last week, Phil Murphy, New Jersey’s governor, said that he convened with officials from the Department of Homeland Security as well as local authorities and officials in New Jersey to discuss the reported drone activity.

“We are actively monitoring the situation and in close coordination with our federal and law enforcement partners on this matter,” the governor said. He added: “There is no known threat to the public at this time.”

Last week, an FBI spokesperson told local New Jersey outlet, NJ.com: “Unfortunately, we don’t have many answers, and we don’t want to guess or hypothesize about what’s going on.”

“We are doing all we can to figure it out,” they added.

On Monday, a group of 20 mayors in Morris county, New Jersey, reportedly wrote a letter to the state’s governor requesting a full investigation into the origin and purpose of the drones, according to CBS News, which obtained a copy of the letter.

They also called for improved communication with residents and law enforcement, among other things.

In the letter, the mayors said that they have “deep concern regarding the ongoing nighttime drone flights” and that the drones have “raised significant alarm among the more than 500,000 county residents and local officials alike”.

In response to reports of drones over Staten Island’s airspace, the congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis said she asked the FAA to impose temporary drone flight restrictions in the area and had requested immediate briefings from the homeland security department and FBI.

Two weeks ago, drones flying in New Jersey reportedly prevented a medical helicopter from picking up an injured individual after a car crash, according to USA Today.

The police chief of Florham Park, New Jersey, Joseph Orlando, said in a statement on social media last week that several drone sightings had been reported above “critical infrastructure such as water reservoirs, electric transmission lines, rail stations, police departments and military installations.

“Members of the local law enforcement community have been pressuring our partners for answers regarding this activity as their presence around our critical infrastructure is concerning,” the statement reads. “While we currently have no evidence or information to indicate these drones pose an imminent threat at this time, their presence appears nefarious in nature.”

In the statement, authorities urged all residents to remain vigilant and report any drone sightings directly to the FBI.

A US woman who flew to Australia with a gold-plated pistol in her luggage has been sentenced to a year in jail, despite claiming she brought it with her for protection.

Liliana Goodson pleaded guilty to charges of illegally importing an unauthorised firearm and illegally importing ammunition.

On Monday, the 30-year-old was sentenced in Sydney’s Downing Centre local court to the 12-month jail term, of which four months will be served in full-time custody.

Goodson was taken into custody immediately after the hearing and forced to remove her extensive jewellery before being handcuffed and led from the court.

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She was initially arrested at Sydney airport in April 2023 after customs officers uncovered the 24-carat gold-plated pistol, worth about $3,000, in her luggage.

The court was previously told she had come to Australia to attend clown school and claimed she brought the gun for protection.

Goodson had searched online whether she was allowed to bring the weapon into Australia, despite telling officers at the time she forgot she had it with her.

When asked at the airport if she was carrying any prohibited items with her, Goodson claimed she was not, the court was told.

“What about the gun in your bag?” she was asked by a customs officer.

Goodson replied: “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

A review of Goodson’s phone revealed she had searched online “can I have a gun in my suitcase?” and set a calendar entry with a note reminding her to “put gun in suitcase”.

Magistrate Susan Horan said there was a strong need to deter others from committing similar offences in the future, which could only be achieved by way of a period of incarceration.

“Australia has a strong stance against firearms,” she said.

Prosecutors submitted earlier that the gun looks particularly confronting and would “terrify members of the community”, which Horan agreed with.

Goodson told police she was actually “scared” of shooting the gun and hoped simply producing it would be enough to deter potential threats.

“If that didn’t do it I would probably just pistol whip,” Goodson was quoted as having said.

When asked where she planned to store the gun while she was in Australia, she indicated under a vehicle’s passenger seat, the court was told.

The court was told in recent years Goodson was using psychedelic drugs, synthetic cannabis and methamphetamine.