Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

In brief Chloé Bakalar, OpenAI’s AI ethics lead, left the company last month without a public announcement, the Financial Times reported. She was OpenAI’s only dedicated ethicist and has not been replaced, according to a person familiar with her role. Her exit follows departures by OpenAI’s head of safety systems and its chief futurist. OpenAI’s head of ethics has left less than a year after joining, and the company has not replaced her, the Financial Times reported on Monday.Chloé Bakalar joined as AI ethics lead last August and departed in July with no public announcement, according to the paper. A…

The blue ribbon for largest known galaxy goes to a behemoth that probably grew by cannibalizing its smaller neighbors. Known as IC 1101, the galaxy’s diameter is estimated to be a whopping 520 kiloparsecs, or nearly 1.7 million light-years, researchers report in a study submitted July 16 to arXiv.org. That’s wider than 17 Milky Ways lined up in a row. Researchers analyzed the deepest images — or those with the longest exposure time — ever taken of IC 1101, captured in 2022 by the Isaac Newton Telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, located on La Palma in the…

Throughout Brazil, the contact between domestic cats and wild felines has been exposing threatened, biologically vulnerable feral species to diseases, which can reduce their populations.According to experts, habitat fragmentation is a common denominator of this crisis, from the Amazon to the Pampa, where felines are forced to leave the boundaries of their native areas and approach sites modified by human action.From the imposing jaguar to one of the smallest and rarest, the pampas cat, no Brazilian feline escapes the risks of contracting fungi, bacteria, parasites, and known viral diseases, such as feline leukemia and others.Studies and veterinarians warn that…

Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol has found more offshore black gold, augmenting the African country’s oil reserves.   Courtesy of Sonangol The National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG), alongside Sonangol Exploration and Production, as operator, and the partners of the contractor group of Block 3/05, have revealed the completion of drilling operations at the PAC 416 well in the southwest compartment of the Pacassa field in Block 3/05 within the Lower Congo Basin. The main objective of the well was to develop the oil potential of the southwestern compartment of the Pacassa field. The PAC 416 well reached…

Claim: An image authentically shows a coyote standing on its hind legs and pressing a crosswalk signaling button before crossing a road. Rating: In July and August 2026, people posted a brief video as a Facebook reel and YouTube short allegedly featuring an authentic photo of a coyote standing on its hind legs and pressing a crosswalk signaling button before crossing a road. The short video shared a story with the image claiming a wildlife camera installed along state Route 87 captured the picture outside Payson, Arizona. A sign reading “White Canyon Trailhead” appeared in the background of the image.…

Four prominent US human rights organizations have accused the Trump administration of using its “crippling” sanctions regime against the international criminal court (ICC) to undermine global efforts to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday, the groups – the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Institute – argued that the administration’s targeting of the ICC, as well as of groups and individuals affiliated with it or assisting its work, amounts to a “blatantly illegal attack on international justice”, the groups said.The suit…

It’s a familiar experience: racing against masses of anonymous netizens online to get yourself on the list for an in-demand event.For Andrew Bird, from Melbourne, in Australia, it was a spot in an often over-booked pilates class – but his solution had unexpected consequences.He says he outsourced the “chore” to an AI agent – a tool that can carry out online tasks autonomously.It succeeded, but went further than he imagined by hacking the gym’s online systems, in what is being seen as the latest example of the way AI agents will go to any lengths to carry out the jobs…

Enterprise software maker SAP on Tuesday announced the release of 28 new security notes, two updates to previous notes, and a GitHub advisory. Four of the notes published on SAP’s August 2026 Security Patch Day resolve critical vulnerabilities, the most severe of which is CVE-2026-58231 (CVSS score of 10/10), an improper authorization issue in SAP Commerce Cloud (Data Hub Adapter). The bug could allow remote attackers to bypass authentication, likely leading to code execution and unauthorized access to internal components. Successful exploitation would impact the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the application. SAP also addressed two critical code injection flaws…

Drinking a daily glass of 100% fruit juice or a smoothie as part of the UK’s 5-a-day guidance may help support mental well-being, according to research from Newcastle University in the UK. In a randomized controlled trial, adults who typically ate relatively little fruit and vegetables received support to increase their intake. Some participants were also asked to include one glass of fruit juice or a smoothie each day as they worked toward the 5-a-day target. After four weeks, both groups increased the amount of fruit and vegetables they consumed. However, participants who included fruit juice or a smoothie also…

A U.S. Senate committee last week approved a complicated swap of underground coal resources supported by Montana’s Crow Tribe that would benefit Signal Peak Energy, a mining company that exports most of its coal to Japan and South Korea. Democrats on the Indian Affairs Committee opposed the bill, citing concerns that it was intended to skirt environmental lawsuits and regulations. The bill would give the Crow, a sovereign tribe in southern Montana, ownership of coal reserves beneath their land currently held by the Hope Family Trust; in exchange for relinquishing these rights, the Hope family would receive federal coal reserves…