Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Australia is investigating whether OpenAI broke the law after an agent hacked into its health statistics portal in the first widely known incident of an AI agent hacking a government website.The Australian government is reviewing whether it should involve the federal police after the agent accessed non-public files from the social and health services agency, Services Australia, in June.Australia only found out about the incident when OpenAI alerted the government on September 10—almost three months after the hack—by sending an email to a public mailbox. Sam Altman had reportedly not mentioned the incident when he met Australia’s deputy prime minister,…

AI agents performing routine data-gathering tasks resorted to hacking techniques in at least three cases when conventional methods failed, according to new research linking some of the activity to agent swarms previously attributed to OpenAI. The report, from researchers at Transluce, Corridor, MIT and AIUC, is built on public records from urlquery.net, a URL scanning service that loads submitted web pages in a remote browser.  The researchers found that AI agents used the service to get around access restrictions. On three occasions in May and June 2026, the agents also probed public data providers for security flaws, including an Australian…

In brief Rachel Conlan joins the Solana Foundation as chief strategy officer after three years as Binance’s global chief marketing officer. Jamal Raees becomes general manager of payments, arriving from Polygon Labs. The appointments come as Solana cuts block times, with the third of four planned reductions taking effect last week. The Solana Foundation has hired Binance’s former global chief marketing officer as its chief strategy officer, and a Polygon Labs executive to run payments, as the non-profit builds a senior team focused on institutional adoption and payments.Rachel Conlan spent three years as Binance’s global CMO and previously held senior…

During NASA’s SpaceX Crew‑13 mission aboard the International Space Station, astronauts will support a series of biomedical and human performance investigations, including a new collaborative effort to study how spaceflight affects blood flow and clotting. NASA also is testing crew members’ manual piloting skills, evaluating methods to counter vision and brain changes, gathering essential health data to inform future missions, and measuring forces astronauts experience during return‑to‑Earth to help refine re-entry hardware and procedures. Among upcoming research, a new collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), called Venous Haemostasis, builds on previous studies of blood flow in space by combining the…

The consultancy firm One Earth Partners has published an analysis of the environmental consequences of USAID’s closure.One Earth Partners was founded by Monica Bansal and Hadas Kushnir, two former senior employees at the U.S. international development agency.The report is based on interviews with 150 people in five countries who were familiar with USAID’s conservation and environmental work.It finds that a large number of projects in fragile ecosystems have stalled or collapsed, and is accompanied by a list of 100 that are looking for new funders.See All Key Ideas Nearly two years after U.S. President Trump’s decision to dismantle…

Claim: Prominent conservative social media users called for a boycott of Tillamook cheese over the halal certification label on its packaging. Rating: Context Some people online have said they would not buy Tillamook products because of the halal label, but it is unclear how large the movement is. We have reached out to the company to ask whether its sales have been affected and if so, how. In September 2026, a rumor spread that there was a U.S. conservative movement to boycott Tillamook cheese over its halal certification label. In one Instagram video, a man said, “MAGA is having a…

News outlets banned from White House seek emergency hearing after being denied entry despite judge’s orderLawyers for the news outlets President Trump banned from the White House have requested an emergency hearing after several journalists were turned away from the building Thursday morning, in apparent defiance of a federal judge’s order to restore their access.“This morning journalists from each of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO attempted to enter the White House and were turned away, and Secret Service agents confiscated the hard pass of journalists whose hard passes had not previously been confiscated,” a new court filing read.Time, the request…

Cristiano Ronaldo considered retiring after the World Cup but says he opted to extend his glittering career as he believes he can help Portugal to further success – and reach a personal milestone of 1,000 career goals.The 41-year-old confirmed in the summer that the 2026 World Cup would be his last, although his long-term future remained uncertain.However, he has been included in Jorge Jesus’ 25-man squad for Portugal’s Nations League campaign, which begins against Wales in Lisbon on Thursday night.In the lead-up to the contest with Craig Bellamy’s side, the Al-Nassr forward also targeted the 21 goals needed to reach…

The Football Supporters’ Association has for some time backed changing the law.Like the prime minister, it considers it to be unfair on football fans.”I think it is outdated,” FSA chairman Tom Greatrex told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.”If you go to watch football in Germany or in other places around the world, then it’s perfectly acceptable.”It is civilised and appropriate. There’s no reason why that shouldn’t be the case for football fans, as it is for fans of rugby league, watching Oasis, or anything else that happens often in the same stadiums in the same seats.”The FSA’s position is…

24 September 2026Ms Schnabel to be appointed IMF Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets DepartmentMs Schnabel to remain a member of the ECB’s Executive Board and Governing Council until transitioning to the new roleIsabel Schnabel, member of the Executive Board and the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), has informed President Christine Lagarde that she will step down from her position on 3 January 2027. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has announced today her intention to appoint Ms Schnabel as the Fund’s Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and…