Mystery death at Russian plague lab triggers sweeping precautions as US watches closely
Russian authorities have quarantined a hospital and placed scores of people under medical observation after a 28-year-old employee at a Siberian plague research institute died from a mysterious case of pneumonia, fueling fears — still unconfirmed — that she may have contracted pneumonic plague.
Darya Shipilova worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. Russian health authorities say extensive testing found no evidence that her illness was caused by pathogens linked to her work, but officials have yet to publicly identify what killed her.
The extraordinary precautions surrounding the case have fueled speculation inside and outside Russia. Reuters reported Oct. 5 that all known contacts had been traced and placed under medical supervision and that authorities said no new cases had been identified among employees of the institute.
An AI “mind-reading” tool can reconstruct what you’re looking at from a brain scan
A new AI tool can guess what you’re looking at just by analyzing your brain scans—and re-create that image with remarkable precision. It can go the other way, too, and predict a person’s brain activity based on what they’re looking at.
In the image above, for example, the left-hand image of each pair is what the user actually saw—and its right-hand counterpart is what the model reconstructed from the brain scan.
Michal Irani, who developed the tool with her colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, hopes her “mind-reading” tool will ultimately reveal more about how the brain works, and could perhaps be used to help locked-in people communicate, or allow scientists to re-create the content of dreams.
Judy Illes, a neuroethicist and professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who was not involved in the research, describes the work as “magnificent.” “The idea [of using this approach] to help people with neurologic conditions … therapeutically is tremendously exciting,” she says.
Germany to launch first drone regiment in 2027
Germany’s army will establish its first dedicated drone regiment in 2027, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Thursday, as the Bundeswehr moves to expand its use of unmanned systems across ground forces.
The new regiment will be an independent unit bringing together drone capabilities for reconnaissance, offensive operations and counter-drone missions, Pistorius said during a visit to an army technology exercise in Bergen, northern Germany.
“The drone regiment will complement our innovation ecosystem,” Pistorius said. “We are focusing on high-tech in our procurement. In doing so, we are monitoring very closely what is happening on the battlefield in Ukraine: data sovereignty, connectivity and innovation cycles determine success or failure. Unmanned systems are also playing an increasingly important role.”
The regiment will operate systems across a range of distances, and bring together unmanned capabilities for reconnaissance, strike operations and the interception of enemy drones. It will also include unmanned ground vehicles and a company specializing in electronic warfare.
UK Plans Passport And Facial Age Checks For Social Media
Ministers in the UK are preparing the ground for new rules that would keep under-16s off major social media platforms, with the strongest surveillance age checks yet, such as passports, driving licenses, credit checks, or facial age estimation.
This latest attempt at a ban on children using social media comes after evidence that a similar one in Australia has been widely circumvented.
The new rules will still apply to platforms that use infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications and unsolicited contact, and are expected to take effect in the spring of 2027.
Among those that will be targeted include Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and X.
Everyone opening a new account will have to go through either facial recognition or upload their ID.
Ukraine Claims Over Half of Russia’s Oil Refining Capacity Taken Out in Missile Strikes
Ukraine says its long-range strikes have neutralized more than half of Russia’s oil refining capacity, hampering Moscow’s ability to supply its forces during its 4 1/2-year-old invasion.
The Defense Ministry said late Sunday that recent strikes on refineries in cities including Moscow, Yaroslavl, Ust-Luga, Perm, Saratov and Syzran had put 51% of Russia’s oil refining capacity out of action. The claim could not be independently verified.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified their aerial assaults as progress along the 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) front line has largely ground to a halt.
Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked refineries from Moscow to Siberia, sparking a widespread fuel crisis in Russia earlier this year that forced authorities to restrict gasoline sales.
AI expert Gary Marcus warns ‘reckless’ technology could lead to deaths as he calls for more regulation
As leading technology companies issue alarming reports about artificial intelligence systems going rogue, including tools carrying out cyberhacks, NYU Professor Emeritus Gary Marcus predicts that artificial intelligence will ultimately lead to a loss of human life.
The AI expert argued that the current regulatory and safety frameworks put forth by the White House may not adequately protect the public from the technology’s potential harms.
“We have not enough regulation, not enough enforcement, and not enough external pressure on the companies to do well. So, of course, things are going to get worse,” Marcus told “The Claman Countdown” on Monday ahead of his testimony to the New York City Council for an AI hearing.
“I expect that some pieces of infrastructure will go down. We’ll lose power in some places in the United States. We might have hospitals lose power, people die, so there’s a lot of problems along those lines,” he told FOX Business anchor Liz Claman.
Chinese Hackers Impersonate Anthropic Employee to Extract AI Secrets
Cybercriminals who appear to be Chinese hackers pretended to be Anthropic researchers and former government officials in a scheme to obtain information about American AI development, according to a report from the Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm Proofpoint.
Per the report, the allegedly China-aligned hacking group, dubbed “TA419,” impersonated AI industry professionals and even an ex-White House staffer to target “AI policy experts at US think tanks, universities, and law firms.” The imposters crafted benign-sounding intro emails inviting targeted experts to join a made-up “AI Policy Advisory Committee” or to contribute to a fictional Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report. After exchanging a few emails, the group then sent its targets malware-laced documents designed to gain access to their cloud accounts.
Americans Turn to AI Chatbots to Decide How to Vote in Midterm Elections
Americans are turning to chatbots created by Silicon Valley leftists to determine how they will vote in the midterm elections. For example, Adam Johnson, a West Virginia Republican who despises the MAGA movement, spent a September evening asking ChatGPT to help him make sense of his midterm ballot.
Nepal Sets December National ID Requirement for Health Insurance
Nepal’s Health Insurance Board has decided to require National ID for citizens aged 16 and above when they enroll in, renew or access services under the national health insurance program. The requirement takes effect on December 16, corresponding to Poush 1 in Nepal’s Bikram Sambat calendar.
Insured families will need to update their details through the HIB e-Portal, the board’s electronic portal. The update applies to both general and targeted beneficiary groups. The board says it is intended to confirm insured people’s identities, control duplicate enrollment, update know-your-customer information and improve claims management.
The December requirement follows an agreement signed in March between the Health Insurance Board and the Department of National ID and Civil Registration. That arrangement enabled identities to be verified digitally using National ID numbers and connected information held by the two agencies.