Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Coding agents spend a large share of their tool budget on search. When the target is a known symbol, ripgrep answers it exactly. When the target is a behavior described in plain language, keyword matching often misses, and the agent falls back to guessing terms, reading whole files, and assembling context by hand. Each of those detours costs tool calls, tokens, and wall-clock time. The Qwen Developer team announced zg (zvec-grep), an open-source local-first search layer that puts semantic search, BM25, and ripgrep behind one interface for both humans and agents. The code ships under the zvec-ai GitHub organization with…

OpenAI said its newest model, Astra, has reached the ‘Critical’ cybersecurity capability level under the company’s Preparedness Framework, the first time any of its models has been placed in that category.  The designation applies when a model can independently find and exploit zero-day vulnerabilities across many well-defended systems, or carry out a complete cyberattack against a hardened target from only a high-level instruction. OpenAI said the classification requires additional safeguards before the model can be released. In testing described by the company, Astra achieved a perfect score on ExploitBench, a benchmark that measures a model’s ability to turn known vulnerabilities…

Coinbase has launched crypto derivatives trading in Canada, giving eligible users access to perpetual and dated futures tied to Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and other assets.The products are offered through Coinbase Financial Markets, a futures commission merchant registered with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which operates in Canada under foreign dealer and futures commission merchant exemptions.Coinbase said Wednesday that the offering includes 23 crypto perpetual and dated futures, five commodity futures and the Coinbase 50 Index. The company said it is the first major crypto-native platform to offer direct native crypto futures in Canada.Access is limited to eligible Canadian…

A newly analyzed fossil predator from what is now England and Wales has been identified as the largest scorpion known to science. Researchers from The University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum reached the conclusion after revisiting fossils that had remained in museum collections for more than 150 years. The animal, Praearcturus gigas, reached roughly one meter in length and carried pincers more than 16 centimeters long. Around 415 million years ago, it would have been an imposing predator in the floodplain environments of the Early Devonian. A study published in Palaeontology used modern analytical methods and comparisons with…

China’s carbon pollution fell modestly in recent months after the country’s consumers and industries sharply cut their use of oil, according to a new analysis. With oil and gas markets still in turmoil due to war in the Middle East, the trend could translate into a full-year decline for China’s carbon dioxide emissions. After the United States and Israeli bombing of Iran prompted the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, China responded by slashing its oil imports. But because China had built massive stockpiles of crude, the big question was whether the country was simply drawing down its reserves or…

As the mother of a child with anaphylactic allergies, I am sympathetic to the terror that Lucy Pasha-Robinson describes (Food allergies when flying are no joke. That’s why nuts should be banned on planes, 27 August). Indeed, last summer I spent six hours compulsively cleaning on a demonstrably filthy flight. Flight crew handed out wipes to passengers “to clean your tray tables”, then proceeded to serve packets of cashews (my child’s anaphylactic nut) with drinks. My nerves were shredded by the time we arrived in Chicago.However, I am firmly against the banning of nuts from the skies. Food bans do not…

A JSOW bomb also appeared to be loaded under the wings of a U.S. fighter jet taking off in a video published by U.S. Central Command on Tuesday alongside the statement that it had conducted strikes on targets in Iran.The attack on Kuhestak is the fourth episode reported by The Times in which strikes on structures with no military use were hit and civilians were killed. On Feb. 28, the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, a U.S. Tomahawk missile hit an elementary school in Minab, Iran, killing over 150 civilians, most of them children, Iranian officials said.Hours…

Thousands of people have protested in cities across Spain over the government’s handling of the influx of migrants to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta on the north African coast.Spanish opposition parties accuse Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of abandoning the residents of Ceuta, while the government says right-wing parties are exploiting the crisis.On Wednesday a police report said Moroccan security forces showed “total permissiveness” during the unprecedented influx, days after Sánchez insisted Morocco was not responsible. He has blamed trafficking gangs and online misinformation for encouraging people to cross the border. Morocco has denied orchestrating or being involved in the mass…

Call it the gentlest of all reality checks. A quantum realignment in expectations. The faintest reminder to both Andy Burnham and Labour backbenchers that international bond markets are impervious to Manchester charm and positivity. Despite a summer of feelgood announcements from the government, there is no escaping the fact that the country is still up shit creek. It’s going to be a tough ride ahead. Nothing will come pain-free.Still, a new prime minister has to learn to take the wins – however small – as they come along. In the wider scheme of things, a good prime minister’s questions means…

Uber is cutting more than 3,000 jobs worldwide as part of a major overhaul designed to shrink management layers and refocus spending on its core business. The cuts amount to roughly 10% of its global workforce, bringing staffing back to levels last seen in 2021. Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi told staff in a company email that the taxi and delivery firm had expanded quickly but accumulated too many layers and small teams that slowed decision‑making. He said the reductions would put Uber, which has its global head office in San Francisco, US, in a better position for its “biggest opportunities…