Israel apologizes after detention of senior UN official: spokesman

Israel's Foreign Ministry has apologized for the brief detention of Gilles Michaud, Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security at the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, at an Israeli airport, attributing the incident to human error, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said at a daily briefing that an apology had been received from Israel's Foreign Ministry over Tuesday's incident in which Gilles Michaud was questioned after arriving at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport.

Haq said Michaud's visit had been aimed at discussing Israel's obligations to ensure the safety of UN personnel in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the wider region. The security of UN staff and humanitarian workers, he said, is an essential precondition for UN's operations.

"Obviously he, like other UN officials, is accorded diplomatic protocols during their travel. In this particular incident in Israel, Under-Secretary-General Gilles Michaud received an apology from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his reception at the airport, and they attributed the matter to human error," said the spokesman.

Israeli media reported on Tuesday that Michaud was briefly detained and questioned after arriving at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main international gateway near Tel Aviv. According to the reports, he was taken to a holding area and kept there for about 45 minutes, during which he was asked about an official visit he made to Gaza in August 2025.

Michaud was stopped and checked by Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency. He later described the treatment as "unusual" for a senior UN official, saying he had "never experienced anything like it" in any other country.

Israel apologizes after detention of senior UN official: spokesman

Chinese scientists have developed a programmable quantum computing prototype called "Jiuzhang 4.0" that has set a new world record for optical quantum information technology, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Led by the University of Science and Technology of China, the team used the prototype to solve the Gaussian boson sampling problem at a speed more than 10 to the 54th times that of the world's most powerful supercomputer, the study said.

The researchers said they manipulated and detected quantum states of up to 3,050 photons -- a significant leap from the 255 photons achieved with the previous "Jiuzhang 3.0."

Current mainstream quantum computing technological routes include superconducting, ion trap, photonic, and neutral atom systems. The "Jiuzhang" series of prototypes encodes quantum bits using photons and performs quantum computation through the manipulation and measurement of these photons.

Since its successful construction in 2020, the series has undergone several upgrades, achieving "quantum computational advantage" and repeatedly setting world records.

Chinese scientists develop 'Jiuzhang 4.0,' setting new world record in quantum computing