Finance ministers, central bankers and financiers have expressed serious concerns about a powerful new artificial intelligence (AI) model that could undermine the security of financial systems.

The development of the Claude Mythos model by Anthropic has led to crisis meetings, after it found vulnerabilities in every major operating system and browser.

Experts have warned that the model potentially has an unprecedented ability to identify and exploit cybersecurity weaknesses.

The Canadian finance minister François-Philippe Champagne told the BBC that Mythos had been discussed extensively by his peers at the key International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington DC this week.

“Certainly it is serious enough to warrant the attention of all the finance ministers… The difference with the Strait of Hormuz is that we know where it is and we know how large it is. The issue that we’re facing with Anthropic is that it’s an unknown, unknown.

It requires a lot of attention so that we have safeguards, and we have processes in place to make sure that we ensure the resiliency of our financial system”.

Top bankers are to be given access to the model in advance to test out their systems.

The chief executive of Barclays CS Venkatakrishnan told the BBC: “it’s serious enough that people have to worry. We have to understand it better, and we have to understand the vulnerabilities that are being exposed and fix them quickly”.

He added that “this is what the new world is going to be” referencing a much more connected financial system, with both opportunities and vulnerabilities.

While developer Anthropic has said the model has already exposed multiple security vulnerabilities in some critical operating systems, financial systems and web browsers, governments and banks are being offered access in advance of its public release to help protect their own systems.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey also told the BBC the development had to be taken very seriously: “we are having to look very carefully now what this latest AI development could mean for the risk of cyber crime.

There is a development of AI, of modelling, which makes it easier to detect existing vulnerabilities in, sort of core IT systems, and then obviously cyber criminals that the bad actors could seek to exploit them.”

The US Treasury confirmed it had raised the issue with its major banks encouraging them to test out their systems, before any public release of Mythos by Anthropic.

Financial industry sources indicated that another prominent US AI company could soon release a similarly powerful model but without the same safeguards.

• Listen: The AI model that’s ‘too powerful’ to be released to the public

US President Donald Trump has announced that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire, which took effect from 17:00 EST (21:00 GMT; midnight local time) on 16 April.

There was no mention in Trump’s statement of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, with which Israel has been exchanging fire for the past six weeks. But in a later post on Truth Social, Trump urged the group to abide by the ceasefire, saying, “I hope Hezbollah acts nicely and well during this important period of time.”

Following the announcement, the US president also invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House for further talks.

Here is what we know about the truce.

The terms of the deal specify that the ceasefire is set to last 10 days, with the possibility it being “extended by mutual agreement” if negotiations show signs of progress.

According to further details provided by the US State Department:

• Israel retains its “right to take all necessary measures in self-defence, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks”
• Lebanon must take “meaningful steps” to prevent Hezbollah and all other “rogue non-state armed groups” from carrying attacks against Israeli targets
• Those involved recognise that Lebanon’s security forces have exclusive responsibility for Lebanon’s security
• Israel and Lebanon requested that the US continues to facilitate further direct talks with the objective of “resolving all remaining issues”

The statement added that the truce was a “gesture of goodwill” by Israel intended to enable “good-faith negotiations towards a permanent security and peace agreement” between the two parties.

Israel and Lebanon’s leaders have both welcomed the truce, with Netanyahu calling it an “opportunity to make a historic peace agreement”.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he hopes the agreement will allow those have been displaced by the conflict to return to their homes.

Hezbollah have also signalled a willingness to participate in the ceasefire, but said it must include “a comprehensive halt to attacks” across Lebanon and “no freedom of movement for Israeli forces”.

The Iran-backed group, while deeply embedded in Lebanon, is not part of the Lebanese government’s security apparatus.

Iran’s foreign ministry welcomed the ceasefire, with spokesperson Esmail Baghaei expressing his “solidarity” with Lebanon. Tehran had insisted that its own two-week ceasefire with the US should include Lebanon while the US and Israel said it did not.

UN Secretary General António Guterres commended the role of the US in facilitating the ceasefire, and urged all parties to “fully respect” and “comply with international law at all times”.

President of the European Commission Ursula von ​der Leyen called the deal a “relief”, saying Europe will continue to “call for the full respect of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas added that the ceasefire must be used to “step back from the violence” and create space for talks for “a more lasting peace”.

Despite the agreement, Netanyahu said Israeli troops would maintain a 10km-deep (6.2 mile) “security zone” in southern Lebanon, saying: “We are there, and we are not leaving.”

He added that the buffer zone needed to remain to “block the danger of invasion”.

Israel re-entered southern Lebanon after strikes by Hezbollah in early March, creating a buffer zone it said was necessary to protect communities in northern Israel.

A previous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah – ending 13 months of conflict – still saw near-daily cross-border strikes.

Israel and Lebanon held rare direct talks in Washington earlier this week week aimed at easing the war, which has seen deadly air strikes on part of the Lebanese capital of Beirut and fighting in the country’s south.

Trump’s announcement said the deal came about after “excellent conversations” with Aoun and Netanyahu, but did not mention whether Hezbollah was directly involved in the talks.

He later urged Hezbollah to “act nicely and well during this important period of time” on social media.

Netanyahu, while welcoming the truce, also made clear also made clear that he was making few concessions on the ground.

He said Hezbollah had insisted on two conditions: the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, and a principle of “quiet for quiet”.

However, it appears ceasefire announcement has taken Israel by surprise – reportedly even within the government’s own security cabinet.

A widely respected Israeli news outlet tonight described Netanyahu convening a security cabinet meeting with just five minutes notice, shortly before the ceasefire announcement was made.

Leaks from that meeting say ministers were not given a vote on the ceasefire.

When the ceasefire with Iran was announced, there were mixed messages on whether Lebanon was involved. Pakistani officials, who helped negotiate the deal, and Iranian officials, said it was, but Israel said it was not. US President Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt also later said Lebanon was not part of the deal.

Israel launched strikes on Lebanon on 2 March in response to strikes launched by Hezbollah. This was after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran – prompting retaliation from Tehran against US allies in the Gulf, and from Iran’s proxies, which includes the Lebanese militant group.

Israel and Hezbollah have continued to exchange fire since then, despite pleas from Lebanon’s Prime Minister for both sides to stop doing so.

More than 2,100 people have been killed and 7,000 others wounded in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since 2 March, according to the country’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The number includes at least 260 women and 172 children. The ministry says 91 health professionals have been killed and 208 other wounded in the war, with more than 120 Israeli attacks recorded on ambulances and medical facilities. BBC Verify analysis found more than 1,400 buildings in Lebanon had also been destroyed.

Hezbollah attacks have killed two civilians in Israel over the same period, while 13 Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat in Lebanon, Israeli authorities say.

On Thursday, the Israeli military destroyed the last bridge linking the south to the rest of the country, further isolating the region and renewing fears among many Lebanese that this could lead to a long-term occupation of some areas.

US singer D4vd has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a teenage girl who went missing last year, police say.

The TikTok star, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, was the target of a grand jury investigation into the apparent murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose remains were found in his Tesla in September.

The Los Angeles Police Department said on Thursday that the 21-year-old was being held without bail and the case will be presented to the District Attorney’s office on Monday.

The singer has been virtually silent on the case but his representatives previously said he was cooperating with authorities. The BBC has contacted his representatives about the arrest.

Police said on Thursday they had arrested Burke “for the murder of Celeste Rivas”.

Questions had been mounting since the 8 September discovery of the 14-year-old’s remains in a Hollywood tow yard after authorities received reports of a foul odour coming from the vehicle.

On 8 September 2025, investigators found her decomposed head and torso in a cadaver bag in the front boot of a Tesla car registered to D4vd’s address in Texas, court documents said.

The county’s medical examiner said the body was “severely decomposed” and deferred on making a ruling on how she died pending the death investigation. The girl might have been dead “for several weeks” before the discovery of her body, officials said.

No cause of death in the teen’s case has been announced, with authorities only saying for months that they were treating the case as a death investigation.

A judge ordered that the teen’s death records be sealed in November to ensure officers received information from the medical examiner before the public.

Rivas Hernandez – who lived about 75 miles (120km) away from where her body was discovered – had last been reported missing by her family in April 2024, but it was not the first time she had run away from their Lake Elsinore home. A first-generation daughter of immigrant parents from El Salvador, neighbours recognised her as a girl who would visit the corner store almost daily to buy candy and soda, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The lack of information in the macabre death has fuelled intrigue and ignited an online following, with many hypothesising about the girl’s connection to the Romantic Homicide singer.

A grand jury began hearing evidence in the case in December, but D4vd’s arrest on Thursday marks the first significant development in the case in months.

More details about the case emerged in court filings after the singer’s family was summoned from Texas by a California court to testify before the grand jury.

When Dawud Burke, D4vd’s father, fought against the summons in a Texas court he included material from the California case that had not been previously available to the public.

The filings, obtained by the BBC, confirmed that D4vd had been identified as a “target” of a grand jury investigation in Los Angeles and that he may be subject to proceedings for one count of murder.

Neukgu, the two-year-old wolf who broke loose from a South Korean zoo and captured the nation’s attention, has finally been captured following a nine-day long search.

Neukgu was captured near an expressway on Friday at 00:44 local time (16:44 GMT), according to the government of Daejeon, the central city where his zoo was located.

Upon a medical examination, Neukgu’s pulse and body temperature were normal, authorities said.

Hundreds of rescue officials had been deployed to find the wolf, and there were a couple of times when authorities came close to getting him – but each time the net seemed to be closing in, Neukgu would slink away.

Authorities had nearly caught him earlier this week, when the local fire department received a report on Monday night that Neukgu had been spotted on a mountain about 2km (1.2 miles) away from O-World, the zoo and theme park from which he had broken loose.

A video of the wolf scampering on a road in the dark, illuminated by the headlights of a vehicle, was also uploaded on social media.

Authorities pounced on the lead, launching a search-and-rescue mission, but ultimately he escaped again.

The elusive Neukgu has inspired a meme coin, hailed by its creators as a the “wolf that wouldn’t stay caged” and a “symbol of independence”.

Born in 2024, Neukgu is part of a programme at O-World to restore the Korean wolf, which once roamed the Korean Peninsula but is now considered extinct in the wild.

But after a life in captivity, some worried that he wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild.

Animal rights groups were also concerned that Neukgu would be killed during the capture process – something that happened to Porongi, a puma that had escaped from the same zoo in 2018.

Even South Korea’s president Lee Jae Myung publicly prayed for Neukgu’s safe return home, in a post on social media.

Those fears have been put to rest now that Neukgu has been safely caught.

Authorities launched another search operation in the Anyeong-dong area on Thursday evening after receiving a tip-off. It was there that they finally caught him, shooting him with a tranquilliser gun before whisking him back to the zoo.

A video of the capture operation, posted by the Daejeon city government, showed a limp Neukgu being hauled by rescuers and placed in a carrier. Authorities later posted photos of a sedated Neukgu being attended to in a medical facility.

“Thank you to everyone who worked hard to bring Neukgu home,” the city government wrote on social media.

“To everyone who worried about Neukgu’s safety and cheered us on, thank you all so much.”

Pope Leo has criticised leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants” in unusually forceful comments during a visit to Cameroon.

The pontiff blasted those he said had manipulated “the very name of God” for their own gain, while touring a region ravaged by a deadly insurgency.

The remarks come just days after a high-profile spat with US President Donald Trump, who posted a lengthy attack on the Pope, a vocal critic of the US-Israeli military operation in Iran.

The Pope had voiced his concern about Trump’s threat that “a whole civilisation will die” if Iran did not agree to US demands to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.

Leo, who last year became the first US-born Pope, has previously also questioned the Trump administration’s approach to immigration.

“Leo should get his act together as Pope,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at the time.

The Pope told reporters at the start of his Africa tour that he did not want to get into a debate with Trump but would continue to promote peace.

Speaking in Cameroon, the Pope criticised leaders who “turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to ​be found”.

“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild,” he said on Thursday.

The Pope also condemned “an endless cycle of destabilisation and death” in a “bloodstained” region of Cameroon that has been gripped by insurgency for nearly a decade.

“Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilisation and death,” he told those gathered at a cathedral in the north-western city of Bamenda – the centre of the violence that has left at least 6,000 people dead and displaced many more.

“Peace is not something we must invent: it is something we must embrace by accepting our neighbour as a brother and as our sister,” the Pope said.

Separatist insurgents in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions have been fighting the predominantly Francophone government since 2017.

Following Leo’s address, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said that she stood with the Pope in his “courageous call for a kingdom of peace”.

The war in Iran has increasingly placed the Pope and the Trump administration at odds.

Soon after the first US and Israeli attacks on Iran, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recited a highly controversial prayer at a Pentagon worship service that talked of “overwhelming violence” and “justice executed swiftly and without remorse”.

Then, during a Palm Sunday Mass in St Peter’s Square, the Pope said the conflict between Iran, Israel and the US was “atrocious” and that Jesus could not be used to justify war.

“This is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” he told tens of thousands of worshippers gathered in Vatican City.

“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

The pontiff also quoted the Bible passage Isaiah 1:15: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.”

Earlier this week, Trump launched a scathing attack on the Pope on social media, in which he described the leader of the Catholic Church as “WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy” while portraying himself as a Jesus-like figure.

He later doubled-down on his criticism and refused to apologise – but deleted the AI-generated image of himself.

Asked about the US president’s remarks as he arrived in Algiers, the Pope said he had “no fear” of the Trump administration and that he would continue to speak out against war.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that it was important the Pope understand that Iran was a “threat to the world”, especially if it gained a nuclear weapon.

“The Pope can say what he wants – and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree,” the US president said outside the White House.

The Catholic leader’s wide-ranging Africa tour will include stops in 11 cities across four countries. It is his second major foreign visit since being elected to the papacy last year, and reflects the importance of Catholicism in Africa.

More than a fifth of the world’s Catholics – some 288 million people – live in Africa, according to figures from 2024.