Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Towards the end of Keir Starmer’s time in office, his senior ministers, alarmed by the latest developments in artificial intelligence, began drawing up plans for a new AI safety law.They ordered a review of existing legislation to see what powers they already had, according to those briefed on the plans, and were exploring whether they could force the world’s most advanced technology companies to submit their products for safety testing before launching them.In the midst of the political chaos that engulfed the former prime minister as he fought to remain in office, however, the plans fell by the wayside.Now, after…

This article is an on-site version of our Swamp Notes newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Monday and Friday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersHere is my market-shaking prediction for the state dinner Donald Trump is hosting for Xi Jinping next week: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang (and probably OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk) will make the guest list; Anthropic’s Dario Amodei will not. Trump’s selections will have little to do with Xi’s sensitivities and everything to do with his administration’s Kremlinology. Amodei, who is calling for his…

Before two of its alleged members were arrested and charged in Australia last month, the hacker group known as TeamPCP carried out a hacking spree unlike any other in history. It tainted hundreds of open-source programs with its malware, stole developer accounts to perpetuate that software supply-chain hacking, and even released a Dune-themed self-spreading worm to automate the process, ultimately breaching more than a thousand companies.Now Google’s threat intelligence group has revealed that during a key moment of TeamPCP’s rampage, the company’s own undercover researcher had infiltrated the group—allowing Google to monitor the hacking spree from the inside, warn breach…

Ravie LakshmananSep 18, 2026Malware / Cyber Espionage The Pakistan-aligned threat group tracked as Transparent Tribe (aka APT36 and Earth Karkaddan) has been attributed to a fresh set of cyber attacks targeting government and defense entities in India and Afghanistan. The attacks, per Zscaler ThreatLabz, involve the use of previously undocumented tools called RUSTYSHADE, RUSTYMOVE, PSNATCH, and BASHNATCH. The activity has been codenamed Operation RapidRust. “APT36 has maintained a high operational tempo and updated their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) in continued attacks targeting government and defense organizations in India and Afghanistan,” Sudeep Singh, senior manager of APT Research at Zscaler…

The London-based firm provides portfolio, risk-management and trade-data infrastructure to institutional digital-asset firms. Its platform connects with centralized exchanges, custodians, blockchains and decentralized-finance (DeFi) protocols, giving clients a consolidated view of their positions, transactions and risk exposure.“GSR has not been impacted by any rumored breach,” a company spokesperson said. Bitcoin Suisse, Flowdesk, 3iQ, M2, Ampersan, MNNC and Trovio did not reply to requests for comment before publication time.A small amount of client funds was stolen, the people said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is private. Smaller hedge funds with weaker security controls may have been particularly…

To continue regular crew transportation to the International Space Station, NASA has awarded SpaceX three additional missions through a contract modification. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract, this change brings the total missions for SpaceX to 17 and helps NASA to maintain access to the space station with two unique commercial crew industry partners. This is a firm fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract modification for the Crew-15, Crew-16, and Crew-17. The value of this modification for all three missions and related mission services is $946 million. The amount includes ground, launch, in-orbit, and return and recovery operations,…

LONDON (AP) — How does a grizzly bear cross the road? With the help of Indigenous people, ranchers and governments. That’s the idea behind the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, which is working to keep the Rocky Mountains an unfettered migration route for wildlife from Wyoming to northwestern Canada. To do so, the group works with local people and governments throughout the region to protect wild lands and build overpasses, underpasses and fencing to help animals cross busy roads. The charity is one of the 15 finalists announced Friday for the 2026 Earthshot Prize, created by Britain’s Prince William to…

Here we go again with another round of tech bros claiming that AI is going to develop superintelligence and kill us all (More Anthropic researchers warn of AI’s perils but Musk dismisses ‘psyop’, 10 September). We’ve heard this before. Many, many times.It’s the familiar plotline of pretty much every sci-fi movie about AI, ever. And these narratives have always been there, but every so often they burst back into the headlines when someone at one of the leading AI companies resigns, or sounds the alarm bells, or when so called “leading AI researchers” sign an open letter.Each time this happens it’s…

A Republican TV ad cherry-picks parts of last year’s budget reconciliation law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to overstate the impact of the law or distort Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff’s record.  The ad from One Nation never mentions the OBBBA – a partisan bill that received no Democratic votes in the House and Senate. The law is only referenced in small print in the ad as “roll call vote #372” – the source of Ossoff’s vote on July 1, 2025, against the bill.  The One Nation ad says the Democratic senator “doesn’t care about people like us”…

At least 17 people have been killed and 73 others wounded after a vehicle laden with explosives rammed into a mosque in north-western Pakistan, according to Pakistan’s news agency.Seven police officers and a four-year-old child are among those killed in the attack, which also involved gunmen opening fire within a police facility in the city of Kohat in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.Video found by BBC Verify shows the site covered in rubble and people tending to casualties. Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari expressed “his best wishes for the swift recovery of those…