PHOTO: REUTERS
While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Sept 9, 2026
· The Straits TimesUS accuses Chinese AI firms of ‘malicious’ copying
The US government on Sept 8 accused Chinese artificial intelligence companies of maliciously copying technology from American AI firms, potentially complicating relations ahead of a planned meeting between leaders of the world’s two biggest economies later this month.
The Chinese companies copied US AI labs’ intellectual property through a technique known as distillation, according to a statement from US law enforcement and intelligence officials.
Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones as part of an effort to lower the costs of training a new AI tool.
US officials accused six Chinese companies, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba, of tapping variants of American-made AI models to train their AI products more quickly.
Israel to close UK consulate over West Bank import ban
Israel said on Sept 8 it was closing Britain’s consulate in East Jerusalem in response to plans by the UK, France and Canada to block imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Britain will also no longer participate in a US-led coordination mission for Gaza and some British officials, including former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and other nationals will be banned from entering Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.
“The British move is morally distorted, and constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and its electoral process,” he said, describing comments by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband about ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel as accusations that were “outrageous lies”.
Air traffic control issue disrupts flights at UK airports
Flights at major British airports were disrupted on Sept 8 by a technical fault at air traffic control provider NATS, the latest in a series of failures that renewed questions about the resilience of Britain’s aviation infrastructure.
The cancellation of hundreds of flights and delays to hundreds more renews scrutiny on NATS three years after a flight-plan processing failure caused even more widespread disruption.
As passengers waited for information in departure halls across the country on Sept 8, airlines questioned whether the country’s air traffic control system was fit for purpose.
HK’s first chief executive Tung Chee Hwa dies, aged 89
Hong Kong’s first chief executive, Tung Chee Hwa, who was China’s choice for the city’s leader but whose administration faced a number of challenges, including the Asian financial crisis, widespread protests, and the Sars outbreak, died on Sept 8, aged 89.
Tung died peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones, official Hong Kong broadcaster RTHK reported early on Sept 9.
Tung was Hong Kong’s first local leader after the city’s handover from British colonial rule to Beijing in 1997, and he governed the city until he resigned in 2005, citing health problems.
Journalists missing in Indonesia after volcano mission
Indonesian rescue teams were searching on Sept 8 for eight people including five journalists who had gone missing while travelling to cover the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau, the national rescue agency said.
The group set out on a speedboat from an area near the capital Jakarta on the afternoon of Sept 7, but “until now they have not returned, and the boat owner has not received any information from the crew”, the agency said.
The five Indonesian journalists on board were sent to capture photos and video of the volcano’s eruption, which since Sept 5 has paralysed several airports and blanketed Jakarta and neighbouring cities in volcanic ash.