DWP Retains ID-Verification Supplier as One Login Onboarding Continues
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has signed a one‑year, £508,000 (about $650,000) contract with TransUnion to validate pension‑payment bank accounts while its One Login identity platform is still being onboarded. One Login, a £350 million (≈$448 million) cross‑government sign‑in system, is intended to replace a patchwork of 191 legacy accounts and 44 sign‑in methods. Although the tool is already used by 122 services, the DWP cannot yet rely on it for the State Pension service, prompting the interim credit‑agency deal. The agreement includes TransUnion’s CallValidate tool and a knowledge‑based authentication module.
US: $1.1 Billion to Be Invested Into Railroad Crossing Safety Improvements
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced a $1.1 billion investment to upgrade safety at railroad crossings nationwide. The funding, administered through the FRA’s Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant Program, will support overpasses, underpasses, advanced signaling, track relocations, and public education initiatives....
EirGrid Announces Procurement Package for Irish Offshore Wind
EirGrid announced a procurement package valued at over €100 million (approximately $110 million) for the Powering Up Offshore – South Coast Tonn Nua Substation project. The package includes design, fabrication, installation and commissioning of offshore substations and related high‑voltage equipment. It is...
ICON Launches ICON Prime Defense Unit to Scale 3D Printed Construction for Military and Space Infrastructure
ICON has created a new defense‑focused unit, ICON Prime, to commercialize its large‑scale 3D‑printing construction systems for U.S. military and NASA space projects. Former CIA officer and Congressman Will Hurd was named president, tasked with expanding government partnerships. The unit already...
ITS ISTANBUL: Turkey’s Deputy Minister Showcases 5G ITS Corridor
Turkey’s deputy transport minister Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan highlighted the nation’s 5G‑enabled intelligent transportation initiatives at the 17th ITS European Congress in Istanbul. He showcased a 40‑km corridor linking Hasdal junction to Istanbul Airport—the first deployment of 5G roadside units...
Watch Out UK Taxpayers: 28,000 HMRC Staffers Just Got an AI Copilot
HM Revenue & Customs has equipped 28,000 staff with Microsoft Copilot licences after a Whitehall trial showed an average daily time saving of 26 minutes per user. The rollout follows a 2025 pilot across 20,000 civil servants where over 70%...
Supreme Court Reviews Police Use of Cell Location Data to Find Criminals
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case on Monday challenging the use of geofence warrants, which allow police to collect location data from all cellphones near a crime scene. The case stems from a 2019 robbery of Call Federal...
Powering Up! How a Shared Foundation Model Is Improving Electrical Grid Management
Keen AI’s FoSMo is a shared computer‑vision foundation model funded by Ofgem to automate condition assessments across the UK electricity grid. By processing over a billion images, the model identifies defects on pylons and other assets, replacing manual video reviews...
Istanbul’s Integrated Mobility System Takes Centre Stage as ITS European Congress Opens
Istanbul hosts the ITS European Congress, showcasing its integrated urban mobility system as a live model for scaling beyond pilot projects. The city’s unique position across two continents forces a seamless multimodal network, with 45% of motorised trips using public...
TRAI Seeks Stakeholder Views on Public Wi-Fi Proliferation
India's telecom regulator TRAI has released a consultation paper seeking stakeholder feedback on expanding public Wi‑Fi. The paper follows the PM‑WANI scheme, which has installed 410,000 hotspots as of April 2026, with telecom operators contributing 55,483 hotspots and RailTel covering over...
The International PLUS-Forum Digital Uzbekistan Will Be Held in Tashkent for the Sixth Time
The International PLUS‑Forum Digital Uzbekistan is set to convene in Tashkent for its sixth edition, gathering policymakers, fintech innovators, and e‑commerce leaders from across Central Asia and Europe. The forum will spotlight Uzbekistan’s digital‑economy roadmap, including recent regulatory reforms, blockchain...
‘Once Only’ Won’t Work Until We Fix the First Mile
The UK’s ‘Once Only’ agenda promises citizens won’t have to submit the same information repeatedly, but the effort stalls at the data‑entry stage. Most public agencies still capture information as scanned PDFs, which are image files lacking structure. Without accurate,...
Geovation Launches Its 22nd Accelerator Programme
Geovation, the innovation arm of Ordnance Survey, has opened its 22nd Accelerator Programme, the latest cohort of eight early‑stage startups selected from hundreds of applicants. The programme runs two tracks—Location Intelligence with OS and PropTech with HM Land Registry—supporting solutions...
Planning Data Powers Lead to Standardisation
The UK government has introduced new regulations requiring English local planning authorities to publish key plan‑making data—such as timetables and housing targets—in a standardized digital format. This marks the first use of planning data powers under the Levelling Up and...
KPMG Shares Insights on Digital Euro Functioning as Legal Tender Across Eurozone Under EU Rules
KPMG reports the European Central Bank is accelerating the rollout of a digital euro that will be legal tender across the eurozone under forthcoming EU rules. The CBDC is positioned as a risk‑free, fully backed public‑money alternative to private stablecoins,...
Europe Craves Its Own Superhacking AI
Europe’s cybersecurity chiefs warn that Anthropic’s new Mythos AI, capable of uncovering thousands of high‑severity vulnerabilities, could become a weapon in the hands of adversaries. The model’s limited U.S. rollout has sparked fears of a cyber‑arms race and highlighted Europe’s...
FuelEU Maritime Calculation Error Exposes Operators to Millions in Unintended Penalties
A flaw in EMSA's Thetis compliance system miscalculated ice‑class voyages under the EU FuelEU Maritime rule, causing compliant operators to receive incorrect emission balances. The error persisted past the March 31 2026 verification deadline, locking many pools with inflated compliance figures. EMSA...
Bank Robber Challenges Conviction Based on His Cellphone's Location Data
A federal appeals court is reviewing a 2019 Richmond bank robbery conviction that hinged on a geofence warrant, which harvested cellphone location data from users near the crime scene. The warrant helped police pinpoint suspect Okello Chatrie, leading to a...
Home Office Acknowledges ‘Risk’ Posed by Remote English-Language Tests
The UK Home Office plans to shift its visa English‑language assessment to a fully remote format by late 2027, launching a procurement worth up to £816 million (about $1.03 billion). Ministers warned that AI tools, wearable devices and other technologies pose significant...
MoD Working up Enhanced ‘Commercial Leakage’ Analytics Capability, Perm Sec Says
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is rolling out an enhanced "commercial leakage" analytics capability built on Oracle Fusion Cloud and AI‑driven cloud analytics to spot fraud and errors in its massive invoicing process. Over the past three years the...
Singapore: AI, Digital Innovation Reshape Student-Centred Education
Singapore's Ministry of Education unveiled the EdTech Masterplan 2030, a long‑term strategy to embed AI and digital tools in classrooms. The plan adopts a pedagogy‑first, student‑centred approach, emphasizing personalised learning, digital literacy and cyber‑wellness. It calls for upskilling teachers, building...
Vietnam: UAV Technology to Power Smart Aerial Economy
Vietnam has unveiled a national UAV strategy to build a low‑altitude economy below 1,000 metres, positioning Hanoi as a testbed for smart governance, regulatory sandboxes, and eVTOL trials. The roadmap focuses on four pillars: transport, dual‑use civilian‑defence applications, domestic design...
Malaysia: Predictive AI to Transform Disaster Response, Public Safety
Malaysia’s government is deploying predictive artificial intelligence to overhaul disaster response and public safety. The National Disaster Management Agency will use real‑time monsoon and rainfall analytics to shift from reactive to proactive operations, targeting a 30‑40% cut in emergency response...
UK Government Move to Delay Social Media Ban Faces Pushback in Lords
The UK government has tabled an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would postpone new social‑media restrictions for children by up to three years. The move provoked fierce opposition in the House of Lords, where peers are...
TECH PROFILE: Smarter Intersections with C-ITS and Modelling From PTV Vissim
PTV Group’s Vissim traffic‑simulation platform now incorporates Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C‑ITS) to model vehicle‑to‑infrastructure (V2I) communication at urban intersections. The tool lets planners test adaptive signal‑control strategies—such as emergency‑vehicle priority and bus‑tram prioritisation—using realistic vehicle data without affecting live...
TECH PROFILE: Quarterhill on Turning Fragmented Data Into Trusted Insight
Quarterhill highlights the shift from piling up traffic sensors to extracting reliable, actionable insight from fragmented data. It argues that AI‑enabled, portable roadside sensors can standardize vehicle classification and lane‑geometry detection without invasive installation. By delivering structured data within hours,...
TECH PROFILE: Advanced Technology for Safer Intersections, From Vitronic
Vitronic’s Poliscan Redlight VA uses video and AI to enforce red‑light compliance and other intersection violations without in‑road detectors. The system tracks vehicles, reads license plates, and records infractions with photo‑video evidence, reducing installation costs compared with traditional loop‑based hardware....
TECH PROFILE: Kazakhstan’s HS-WIM Success Story with Intercomp
Kazakhstan has become a regional leader in high‑speed weigh‑in‑motion (HS‑WIM) enforcement by adopting Intercomp’s strain‑gauge strip sensors. After rigorous testing and certification, the sensors were installed on more than 100 lanes by 2025, initially in a semi‑automatic pilot in Astana....
America Trembles as Transportation Secretary Announces Plans for Air Traffic Controllers to Lean on AI Tools
The U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the FAA’s $12 billion Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) program, which will embed AI tools from Palantir, Thales SA and Air Space Intelligence into air‑traffic management. The initiative promises to shift flight...
Kristian Stout and Michael Calabrese: The FCC Lets Satellite Innovation Breathe
The FCC is poised to vote on a draft order that would replace the 1990s‑era Equivalent Power Flux Density (EPFD) limits with a performance‑based framework for non‑geostationary satellite constellations. The new rules would assess actual interference on legacy geostationary systems...
U.S. Looks Into Regulating Prediction Market Sites Like Kalshi and Polymarket
U.S. regulators are probing prediction‑market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket after the first criminal indictment involving a Special Forces soldier who allegedly earned $400,000 by trading on classified military information. The case shows that anonymous crypto‑based accounts can be...
Thailand Pilots AI‑Enabled Custom Fertiliser Programme To Reduce Costs For Farmers
Thailand’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation and the Ministry of Agriculture have launched a six‑month pilot that uses AI to create farm‑specific fertilizer blends. The system, built by the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research, combines...
Withdraw AI Policy, Malatsi Told, as Fake Citations Row Grows
South Africa’s communications minister Solly Malatsi withdrew the 86‑page draft national AI policy after News24 exposed at least six fabricated academic citations within its 67‑reference list. The scandal sparked criticism from opposition parties, the DA’s own senior figures, and former...
Karnataka Drafting Responsible AI Framework To Embrace ‘I-Governance’: Priyank Kharge
Karnataka has formed a responsible‑AI committee to draft a policy framework that will guide the state’s transition from traditional e‑governance to “i‑governance,” an AI‑driven public‑service model. The pilot phase includes semi‑autonomous chatbots for grievance handling, image‑verification tools for crop loss...
New Bill in California Senate Could Turn Your Home Battery Into a Moneymaker
California Senate Bill 913 would let utilities count residential backup batteries as real power plants, enabling them to be bundled into virtual power plants. The bill follows a surge of roughly 8,000 new home batteries each month, adding about 100 MW...
How Bogota Is Using Shared Data to Link Housing, Mobility and Climate
Bogotá’s "Revitaliza tu Barrio" programme is merging housing, mobility and climate resilience into a single territorial strategy, leveraging a shared spatial data platform called IDECA. The initiative has already reached over one million people in 75 neighbourhoods, delivering 289,000 m² of...
Google Wallet Adds Support for Three More Digital Passport IDs on Android
Google Wallet for Android now lets users add passport IDs from Brazil, Singapore and Taiwan, expanding beyond its earlier support for U.S. and U.K. passports. The three‑step onboarding captures a photo of the info page, scans the passport’s embedded NFC...
ADVP and NO2ID Back DVS Framework From Opposing Perspectives
The UK’s Digital Verification Service (DVS) trust framework is gaining backing from both the Association of Document Verification Professionals (ADVP) and the civil‑rights group NO2ID, despite their historically opposite views on centralized identity. ADVP championed DVS‑certified providers as a way...
Federal Approval Clears $319M for North Carolina Broadband Projects
North Carolina received federal clearance for its Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) plan, unlocking $319 million in funding. The first phase will connect more than 93,000 homes, businesses and community anchor institutions by 2030, forming part of the state’s $1.53 billion...
Who Controls AI Systems Once Governments Adopt Them?
African governments are rapidly integrating AI into public services, yet they lack clear control over systems built and maintained abroad. Existing data‑protection laws and AI strategies in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa provide a policy backdrop, but procurement decisions...
Nigeria Is Tightening Tax Enforcement. TaxStreem Wants to Automate Compliance.
TaxStreem, an AI‑powered tax compliance platform, launched in March 2026 to automate Nigerian businesses’ tax calculation, filing and invoicing. The solution reads real‑time transaction data from bank and fintech accounts, assigns the correct VAT, withholding or exemption, and files returns...
Anwar: RTD's Digital Shift Not Just an Upgrade, but a 'Necessity' For Integrity
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim called on Malaysia's Road Transport Department (RTD) to accelerate digital transformation, describing it as essential for integrity and public trust. He argued that digital tools reduce opportunities for abuse, protect officers, and enhance transparency...
This Is Who's Developing Golden Dome's Orbital Interceptors—If They're Ever Built
The U.S. Space Force announced a roster of 12 companies—including SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Anduril, and Booz Allen—receiving up to $3.2 billion in OTA contracts to develop Space‑Based Interceptors (SBIs) for the Golden Dome missile‑defense program. The awards target early‑stage prototypes and aim...
Australia: Satellite-Enabled Communications Strengthens Disaster Resilience
Australian researchers at Swinburne University, funded by SmartSat CRC, have created a low‑power satellite‑enabled communication terminal designed for disaster zones. The system combines a minimalist beacon, software‑defined radio, and LoRa‑satellite hybrid links to deliver text and voice messages when terrestrial...
OPM’s 2027 Budget Proposal Hinges on Modernizing Federal HR
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) submitted its FY 2027 budget request, proposing $375 million in discretionary spending—$43 million less than the House’s $418 million recommendation and below current levels. Despite a shrinking workforce of roughly 2,074 FTEs, OPM earmarks funds for a sweeping...
Malaysia: Integrated Data System Enhances Disaster Preparedness
The National Disaster Management Agency has launched the Malaysian Disaster Information Management System (MDIMS), a mobile app that aggregates real‑time data from multiple technical agencies. The platform delivers location‑based push alerts within a 25‑kilometre radius, live maps of evacuation‑centre capacity,...
India Launches NMBA 2.0 App to Improve Monitoring of Drug Demand Reduction Efforts
India launched the upgraded NMBA 2.0 app on 24 April 2026 to strengthen real‑time monitoring of its nationwide drug demand reduction campaign. The platform links central, state and district agencies, volunteers and treatment centres, allowing activity reporting, dashboards and public features such as...
India Prepares For First Digital Census In 2027 With Mobile Data Collection
India will conduct its first fully digital population census in 2027, deploying mobile‑based data collection, an online self‑enumeration portal in 16 languages, and real‑time monitoring via a new Census Management and Monitoring System. The government has earmarked roughly ₹11,718.24 crore (about...
NBTC Rejects Internet TV Alert System
Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has rejected a proposal to install an emergency alert system on internet‑protocol TV (IPTV) set‑top boxes. The plan, backed by the Universal Service Obligation fund, would have allocated 60 million baht (about $1.6 million) to...
VA Names OIG CIO, Taps Nominee for Department-Wide IT Chief
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced two senior technology appointments: Lance Jenkinson was named Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Management and Administration and CIO of the VA Office of the Inspector General, while the White House nominated Gary Shatswell as...