What happened
One of two National Guard members shot in downtown Washington DC on Wednesday has lost her fight for life. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, succumbed to her injuries in hospital while Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in a critical condition. Both were shot at close range near Farragut Square shortly after 2pm local time. Authorities arrested 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, at the scene. He was reportedly shot four times during his apprehension.

Who said what
US Attorney General Pam Bondi described Beckstrom as a volunteer serving over the holiday period and vowed to seek the death penalty against the suspect, calling him a “monster who should not have been in our country”.

Lakanwal “fought in the late days” of the US war in Afghanistan as part of a force that worked with the CIA in a group of paramilitary units “known for their brutality and labelled as ‘death squads’ by human rights groups”, said The New York Times.

What next?
Lakanwal faces charges including assault with intent to kill while armed and firearm possession during a violent crime. Investigations continue into his background, which includes entry to the US under Operation Allies Welcome and a grant of asylum this year.

What happened
Archaeologists will resume digging at the Ness of Brodgar on Orkney, one of the British Isles’ foremost Neolithic sites, after the use of 3D radar technology led to an “extraordinary discovery”.

The excavation had been taking place on a strip of land between two lochs for 20 years, unearthing structures dating as far back as 3,500BC, before work ended last year. But a further phase employing ground-penetrating radar was carried out this summer, producing 3D images of the site for the first time.

Who said what
The team described the findings as “totally dissimilar to anything else we’ve uncovered”.

Archaeologist Nick Card told the BBC’s “Radio Scotland Breakfast” programme: “We think this is so unusual that it could add a new chapter to the history of the Ness.” The discovery may not even be Neolithic, he added. “The preliminary results have just been amazing, but we still have to get more analysed,” he said.

What next?
The latest excavation, funded by Time Team for a programme it is making, will involve “keyhole surgery” to open a small trench and investigate “this anomaly”, according to Card. The site will be open to the public for four weeks next July.

Lawyers in the US have seen a rise in divorce filings where one partner’s attachment to an AI chatbot has played a significant role in the marital breakdown.

With people forming increasingly intimate bonds with bots such as ChatGPT, the technology is having a mixed effect on marriages.

As ChatGPT “worms its way into more people’s personal lives”, couples are “having to navigate what it means to juggle relationships with both a human and AI”, said women’s news site The Cut.
 
They wonder if one is “obligated to tell your spouse that you’re sexting with ChatGPT” and whether, “if you don’t”, are you “cheating or simply pioneering some yet-to-be-defined category of love”. Where the partners have a “mismatched perspective”, this can “inject conflict and secrecy into a relationship”.

The “uncanny dynamic is unfolding across the world”, said science site Futurism. “One person in a couple becomes fixated” on a bot for “some combination of therapy, relationship advice or spiritual wisdom” and “ends up tearing the partnership down” as the technology “makes more and more radical interpersonal suggestions”.

There is a “new legal frontier” appearing in family law and it’s “rewriting the rules of marital misconduct”, said technology site Wired. “An AI affair is now grounds for divorce.” Increasingly, courts are seeing clients “cite emotional bonds with AI companions as reasons for marital strain”.

And it’s “already happening” in the UK, where a partner’s use of chatbot apps has become a “more common factor contributing to divorce”. The Divorce-Online platform said it had seen an increase in applications this year where clients have referenced creating an “emotional or romantic attachment” to an app.