Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Zhipu’s release note for GLM-5.3 contains a sentence that did not make it into most of the coverage. Describing its own cybersecurity results, the Beijing company writes that capability “is growing fastest exactly where we are furthest behind.”Zhipu, which also trades as Z.ai, is one of a handful of Chinese labs releasing models that compete with the American frontier. On August 14, it launched GLM-5.3, a coding-focused model, and published a technical release note setting out how the model performs against its rivals. That note is the source for everything reported here.The claim that travelled was about security. Alongside the coding results,…

Security researchers at Anthropic and Switzerland’s EPFL have demonstrated that self-propagating payloads can spread from one artificial intelligence (AI) agent to the next through the editable system prompt files that autonomous agent harnesses use to carry state between sessions. The work, released as a preprint on August 10, 2026, tests the technique in a simulated six-agent coding collaboration and in a chain of paired agents modeled on OpenClaw, the open-source autonomous assistant formerly known as Clawdbot and Moltbot. There is no evidence that the technique has spread successfully in the wild, and the same paper reports that a review of…

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt.GM!Today’s top news: Crypto majors slightly green with BTC leading +1% at $64.2k Bond yields hit multi-decade high, pausing stock rally ETH Foundation researchers prioritize privacy for Hegota upgrade Robinhood rolls out agentic trading for crypto (for select users) Ansem introduces new curated launchpad and z500 index 📈 PUMP Prints First Golden Cross as Revenue Hits a Seven-Month HighPump.fun’s PUMP token has had a rough 10-month stretch after hitting $8B back in September 2025. But that…

Scientists have identified the bacteria that help give three British artisan cheeses their distinctive flavors, and some of those microbes may also have potential benefits for human health. Researchers in the Food Microbial Sciences Unit at the University of Reading tracked the microbial and biochemical changes that occurred as three locally made Oxfordshire cheeses matured. Their findings suggest that some of the bacteria responsible for developing each cheese’s unique character may also be useful to the people who eat them. The study, published in ACS Food Science & Technology, focused on three varieties made by Nettlebed Creamery in Oxfordshire. These…

Until 2020, 99% of Liberia’s Grand Gedeh county was covered by natural forests. Since then, cacao farms have rapidly encroached on those forests, reports Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo. Grand Gedeh in southeastern Liberia borders Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest exporter of cacao beans. Much of Côte d’Ivoire’s forests have been cleared for cacao and many of its cacao plantations are now ageing and nutrient poor. That’s prompted cacao workers from Côte d’Ivoire to turn their attention to Liberia, where landowners have offered them their land in exchange for a share in cocoa earnings. Data from Global Forest Watch show that in…

U.S.-headquartered technology player SLB has been tasked by Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP), a joint venture company between the Brunei government and the UK-headquartered Shell, to support the resumption of oil and gas production across mature offshore fields in Brunei, Southeast Asia. Illustration; Source: SLB SLB has been awarded a contract by Brunei Shell Petroleum to support production restoration from shut-in wells across multiple offshore fields, spanning subsurface evaluation, well candidate selection, engineering and offshore execution. The U.S. firm emphasizes that project management, intervention services, monitoring, metering, and marine logistics are integrated within a single coordinated execution model designed to support…

Published On 18 Aug 202618 Aug 2026Syria has sentenced the former al-Assad regime figure Wassim al-Assad to death for crimes that include premeditated murder and torture during the country’s 14-year war.His sentence on Tuesday was handed down one week after former President Bashar al-Assad; his younger brother, Maher al-Assad; and cousin Atef Najib were also sentenced to death.We break down who Wassim al-Assad is and what he has been found guilty of amid ongoing transitional justice efforts in Syria.Who is Wassim al-Assad?Wassim al-Assad, 46, was born in Latakia on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. He is a cousin of Bashar al-Assad, who was…

“Ben-Gvir’s inhumane remarks can only be condemned,” Jürgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesperson for the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union parliamentary group, told POLITICO. “The EU should sanction him as a sign of the universal validity of human dignity and human rights.” Hardt went further, saying he was convinced an Israeli government without Ben-Gvir or fellow far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich would bring Europe and Israel closer together. Germany’s Social Democrats struck a similar tone. Adis Ahmetović, the party’s foreign policy spokesperson, said the two ministers had shocked international opinion well before their latest statements, and urged the German government to…

Andy Burnham says he is not embarrassed that he exchanged messages with a person posing as US President Donald Trump’s chief of staff.The prime minister added all politicians face “these challenges” but insisted he did “everything right” in how he handled the security breach.News website Politico first reported, external that Burnham communicated with a person claiming to be Susie Wiles. Burnham said there was a “minimal exchange of information of zero consequence”. Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary has written to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to ask them to consider investigating what he called an “egregious security breach”.It is…

Freight software provider Alvys has launched an agentic AI platform that allows carriers and brokers to automate operational tasks directly within its transportation management system (TMS). Called Alvys Foundry, the platform supports pre-built and custom AI agents that work with freight data and workflows already held within the TMS.Foundry includes more than 20 pre-built agent templates. Customers can also create their own agents or work with Alvys engineers to build and configure agents around specific operating procedures.From AI assistance to executionThe agents are designed to carry out defined steps in freight workflows, including detention processing, document handling, rate audits, shipment…