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A former US State Department official who worked on Middle East affairs has been filmed harassing a Muslim street vendor who he abused with Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian remarks.

Russian intelligence services organised the spy network to engage in sabotage and propaganda, claims Warsaw.

Poland has charged a group of 16 foreigners with espionage after it shut down a Russian spy ring earlier this year.

The suspects, who are accused of undertaking sabotage and propaganda activities under the direction of Russian intelligence, have confessed to the charges, Warsaw said on Wednesday. The spy ring was dismantled earlier this year.

“Charges have been filed against 16 foreigners accused of conducting espionage activities on behalf of Russian intelligence services on Polish territory and participating in an organised criminal group,” the office of intelligence service coordinator Mariusz Kaminski said in a statement.

“Their assigned tasks included identifying military facilities and critical infrastructure, monitoring and documenting trains transporting military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and preparing for train derailments,” it added.

The sabotage and propaganda acts also aimed to turn Polish sentiment against neighbouring Ukraine, the statement said.

16 rosyjskich szpiegów staje przed sądem. Lubelscy prokuratorzy skierowali właśnie akty oskarżenia przeciwko członkom groźnej siatki szpiegowskiej – oskarżeni na zlecenie rosyjskiego wywiadu prowadzili działania wywiadowcze wokół portów morskich i jednostek militarnych,…

— Zbigniew Ziobro | SP (@ZiobroPL) November 22, 2023

“Lublin prosecutors have just filed indictments against members of a dangerous spy network – the defendants, commissioned by Russian intelligence, conducted intelligence activities around seaports and military units, prepared acts of sabotage, and also undertook propaganda activities against Poland,” Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro posted on X. “They face 10 years in prison each.”

NATO member Poland is a major hub for Western weapons going to Ukraine in support of its fight against Russia’s invasion.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Poland’s conservative government has focused on strengthening the armed forces and has spent more than $16bn on tanks, missile interceptor systems and fighter jets, many bought from the United States and South Korea.

Baghdad denounces the strikes as a breach of its ‘sovereignty’.

The government in Baghdad has condemned the United States for a series of air raids which killed eight Iran-backed fighters, saying it violated Iraqi sovereignty.

The US did not coordinate the attacks on militia positions south of Baghdad on Tuesday and early Wednesday morning with Iraq, government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said. The strikes constitute an “unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty”, he added.

Pro-Iran militia Kataib Hezbollah, also known as Hezbollah Brigades, confirmed on Wednesday that eight of its fighters were killed in the US strikes. It warned in a statement that the attacks “will not go unpunished”.

US Central Command said the strikes were retaliation for “attacks against US and coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups”.

US positions under fire

The strikes are the first the US has announced against Iran-backed forces in Iraq since those groups launched a flurry of attacks against US targets in response to Washington’s support for Israel in the ongoing Gaza war.

Washington has, however, targeted Iran-backed groups in neighbouring Syria, where its positions have also been under fire.

Since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, US forces deployed in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 66 times, causing injuries to more than 60 personnel, the Pentagon says.

The most recent of these attacks occurred on Monday, with Iran-backed militias firing a “close-range ballistic missile against US and coalition forces at Al-Asad Airbase”, injuring eight people and prompting the US retaliation, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement.

Iraqi spokesperson al-Awadi has denounced the Iran-backed groups whom Washington blames for repeatedly attacking its forces, saying they are engaging in “unlawful” activity and “jeopardising the national interest”.

The Ain al-Assad airbase in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, hosts forces of the US-led coalition fighting ISIL (ISIS) in Iraq.

There are roughly 2,500 US soldiers in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of ISIL.

The Kremlin says only that it is ‘developing military relations’ with Iran as Ukraine reports ‘rare’ drone.

Russia has declined to comment on US claims that Iran could supply it with ballistic missiles. Ukraine said it shot down a “rare” Iran-built drone amid a barrage of attacks overnight.

The Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday that it had downed more than a dozen attack drones and a cruise missile. The overnight assault followed a report by authorities in the southern region of Odesa that a rare Iranian-designed attack and reconnaissance drone had been destroyed.

The air force said the overnight barrage was launched from southeast Russia and that a combination of air defence units in several central regions had “destroyed all 14 enemy Shahed-131/136 drones”.

“The X-22 cruise missile failed to reach its target and landed in Zaporizhia region in an open area, and the blast wave damaged private homes. There were no casualties,” it added in a statement.

Ukraine has been bracing for an increase in Russian attacks on critical infrastructure – particularly energy facilities – as subzero temperatures set in.

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure last winter left many in the cold and dark for long periods. Kyiv has since received more air defence systems from its allies.

‘Rare’ drone

Authorities in the Odesa region said on Tuesday that they had downed a “rare” Mohajer-6 drone.

“The reconnaissance and strike UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] was sneaking up on the Odesa region,” city officials said.

The statement on social media said Russia had purchased 30 of the drones last year and that air defence forces shot one down for the first time last September.

The Mohajer-6 is designed for reconnaissance and attack, can carry four guided missiles and has a range of up to 200km (124 miles) over 12 hours, the statement added.

Iran’s support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has long disturbed the US. The Kremlin declined on Wednesday to comment on a suggestion by White House spokesperson John Kirby that Iran may be considering providing Russia with ballistic missiles for use in its war.

“We are developing relations with Iran, including in the field of military-technical cooperation, but we do not comment on this information,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the accusation.

Kirby said the United States would monitor the situation between Iran and Russia and take appropriate action as needed.

Just when he thought he was in, they pulled him back out.

Emmett Shear had an eventful weekend, appointed interim CEO at ChatGPT maker OpenAI after the sudden and dramatic ousting of Sam Altman last Friday.

It was his first day job since leaving streaming site Twitch in March, a company he ran for over a decade.

A self-anointed AI “doomer” who thinks development of the technology should be slowed down, he didn’t seem an obvious choice. And his hiring drew attention to his prolific social media posts on controversial topics.

But now, after five days of open revolt among OpenAI staff, Mr Altman is set to return as CEO.

Here’s everything we know about his short-lived successor, soon-to-be predecessor, in the role.

Getting started

Growing up in Seattle, it was at school that Mr Shear met Justin Kan.

They bonded over maths and trading card game Magic: The Gathering, and attended Yale University together. They also secured funding for their first tech project – a calendar app called Kiko.

That funding came from Y Combinator, a start-up accelerator company which lists the likes of Airbnb among the internet firms it’s helped establish. For a spell in the 2010s, Mr Altman was its president.

But it was Twitch’s predecessor, Justin.tv, that paved the way for Mr Shear’s success.

What started as a 24/7 live video feed of Mr Kan’s life became a public platform for anyone to stream video online, attracting more than 30 million users a month at its peak.

But few topics were as popular as gaming.

Launch Twitch, get rich

To take advantage, Justin.tv launched Twitch as a spin-off platform.

It would become the go-to platform for gamers to showcase their Fortnite kills and FIFA goals to a live audience.

Twitch became so popular, with millions of people streaming their gameplay and tens of millions more tuning in, Amazon bought it for just shy of $1bn in 2014.

It birthed a new class of celebrity, including stars like Ninja. In a sign of how lucrative game streaming has become, Microsoft was reportedly willing to pay up to $30m to convince him to join its own Twitch rival in 2019.

The price Amazon paid in 2014 now looks relatively modest, and Mr Shear’s 12-year stint as CEO reportedly took his net worth well into the hundreds of millions.

In his LinkedIn recommendation, Twitch co-founder Mr Kan describes his old friend as someone who “works hard, doesn’t complain, and the smartest guy I know”.

Mr Shear’s tenure wasn’t without controversy, however.

He faced criticism for his handling of sexual abuse claims made against some streamers, and in 2020 apologised to those who felt his response had been “dismissive”.

That same year, he also apologised to streamers hit by takedown orders – mainly from the music industry – which forced them offline for using copyrighted material during their broadcasts.

He resigned in March 2023, saying he wanted to spend more time with his newborn son. But since then he’s been a part-time partner at Y Combinator.

AI ‘doomer’ and controversial social media posts

Besides working with Y Combinator and spending time with his son, Mr Shear has been a prolific poster on X (formerly known as Twitter) since calling quits on his Twitch career.

He’s posted more than 10,000 times over the past year, engaging in conversations about tech and societal issues like AI, as well as making controversial comments.

In one post in August, Mr Shear wrote “between 40-60% of women seem to have rape/non-consent fantasies”.

In June, he joined a conversation about a hypothetical situation in which either “the worst people you know” rule the world or a 50/50 coin toss determines whether everyone dies.

“The Nazis were very evil, but I’d rather the actual literal Nazis take over the world forever than flip a coin on the end of all value,” he said.

He’s also posted about how men are “more willing to have casual sex”, and joked about using AI to write chat-up lines.

Sky News contacted Mr Shear for comment about his X posts, but has not received a response.

On AI, he said in September he’s “in favour of slowing down” development.

“If we’re at a speed of 10 right now, a pause is reducing to 0. I think we should aim for a 1-2 instead,” he posted.

Two months prior, he said “there’s a chance” that general artificial intelligence – a super-powerful AI capable of outperforming humans at a variety of tasks – could be “catastrophically dangerous”.

Developing such an AI has been the stated goal of Mr Altman.

Mr Shear has insisted he is a “techno-optimist” and denied accusations of “primitivism”, but in August compared artificial general intelligence to “a pit trap with spikes we have to avoid”.

Following his appointment at OpenAI, he said the issue of safety was vital to his new role.

“I took this job because I believe OpenAI is one of the most important companies currently in existence,” he added.

Read more:
How the chaos at OpenAI unfolded

Why he was chosen – and why he’s already heading out

Mr Shear, 40, won’t have been preparing for the OpenAI gig, saying he joined “rapidly and unexpectedly”.

With staff and major investor Microsoft blindsided by Mr Altman’s departure, Mr Shear acknowledged “it’s clear the process and communications” around the sacking was “handled very badly”.

He’d pledged to hire an “independent investigator” to find out what happened and restore trust.

For the board members who hired the safety-conscious Mr Shear, the appeal appeared to be steering OpenAI back towards its original non-profit remit as a research-focused organisation.

Since the launch of ChatGPT last November, Mr Altman had not been shy of looking to maximise the company’s commercial potential – inviting third parties to leverage GPT tech in their own products, and reportedly holding discussions with ex-Apple designer Jony Ive to build the “iPhone of AI”.

With Mr Altman now heading back to OpenAI, we may never know the real reason behind his departure.

What’s clear is that it did not go down well – and his return coincides with the appointment of a new board, replacing those who fired him.

Mr Shear has said he is “deeply pleased” by the outcome after “72 very intense hours of work”.

He posted on X: “Coming into OpenAI, I wasn’t sure what the right path would be. This was the pathway that maximised safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved.

“I’m glad to have been a part of the solution.”