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Securities regulator urges market players to develop new strategies and nail cyber-basics before AI models fuel mass attacks

India’s Securities and Exchange Board has advised participants in the nation’s equities industry to immediately revisit their information security systems and practices, in case Anthropic’s Mythos bug-finding AI sparks a cyberattack spree.…

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Eastern Great Egret
Scientific Name: Ardea modesta
Description: The Great Egret's overall plumage is white, and, for most of the year, when not breeding, the bill and facial skin are yellow. The feet are dark olive-grey or sooty black, as are the legs. During the breeding season, the bill turns mostly black and the facial skin becomes green. Also at this time, long hair-like feathers (nuptial plumes) hang across the lower back, and the legs become pinkish-yellow at the top. Young Great Egrets are similar to the adults, but have a blackish tip to the bill.
Similar species: The Great Egret can be confused with other white egrets found in Australia. It can be distinguished by the length of its neck, which is greater than the length of its body (and with a noticeable kink two-thirds of the way up), a dark line extending from the base of the bill to behind the eye and the overall larger size.
Distribution: Great Egrets occur throughout most of the world. They are common throughout Australia, with the exception of the most arid areas.
Habitat: Great Egrets prefer shallow water, particularly when flowing, but may be seen on any watered area, including damp grasslands. Great Egrets can be seen alone or in small flocks, often with other egret species, and roost at night in groups.
Feeding: The Great Egret usually feeds alone. It feeds on molluscs, amphibians, aquatic insects, small reptiles, crustaceans and occasionally other small animals, but fish make up the bulk of its diet. The Great Egret usually hunts in water, wading through the shallows, or standing motionless before stabbing at prey. Birds have also been seen taking prey while in flight.
Breeding: The Great Egret breeds in colonies, and often in association with cormorants, ibises and other egrets. Both sexes construct the nest, which is a large platform of sticks, placed in a tree over the water. The previous years' nest may often be re-used. Both sexes also incubate the eggs and care for the young (usually two or three).
Minimum Size: 70cm
Maximum Size: 90cm
Average size: 80cm
Breeding season: October to December in the south; March to May in the north.
Clutch Size: 2 to 6
Incubation: 28 days
Nestling Period: 40 days
(Source: www.birdsinbackyards.net)
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This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying and recording without my written consent.

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JAPANESE ALPINE

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Sanno Shinto Shrine nestles among towering camphor trees at the edge of the former Urakami kaido, the narrow road used by Edo-Period travelers entering Nagasaki from the north through the Urakami Valley. The shrine was founded in 1652 and named after Sanno (Hie) Shinto Shrine near Kyoto because of the similarity in the terrain and the fact that both shrines were located in a place called "Sakamoto." The two enormous camphor trees flanking the entrance to Sanno Shinto Shrine were probably planted at the time of the shrine's foundation.
A timeworn flagstone path leads away at right angles from the road to a long flight of stone steps descending to the congested Hamaguchi-machi neighborhood one of modern Nagasaki's most popular night entertainment areas. Sanno Shinto Shrine's second torii arch was established at the top of the steps to inform pilgrims that they are approaching the holy precincts of the shrine. It is a scene that can be found anywhere in Japan. But this torii arch is different, just as the neighborhood around it hides a very unusual history.

On the morning of August 9, 1945, the American B29 Bockscar, carrying an atomic bomb, abandoned its original target of Kokura because of cloud cover and changed course for Nagasaki. At 11:02 a.m., the bomb exploded over the northern part of Nagasaki, yanking an enormous column of dust, smoke and debris up into the summer sky and obliterating a good one-third of the city below.

Located about 800 meters from the hypocenter, Sanno Shinto Shrine barely had time to gasp. The instantaneous flash of heat, which reached as high as 4000 degrees on the ground, vaporized the leaves and branches on the camphor trees. Then the blast, ten times greater than the fiercest hurricane, pulverized the shrine buildings and slapped down all the stone balustrades, lanterns, sculptures and gates nearby. But when the wind finally abated and the dust settled, the stunned deities of the shrine found that one of the legs of the torii arch at the top of the steps had remained miraculously upright.

Now half a century has passed since that fateful day. The hillside is lush with greenery again, Sanno Shrine has been reconstructed, and the neighborhood is a similar -- albeit modernized -- version of its pre-war self. Nothing in this typical urban tangle even hints at the catastrophe that occurred here in 1945.

But the ominously significant one-legged arch continues to do its delicate balancing act and to look down upon the changing city. Robbed of a leg by the world's first experiment with nuclear war, it points silently to the uneasiness of humankind and to the precarious state of a fragile planet forced to live with the threat of nuclear destruction.

Source: Crossroads : A journal of Nagasaki history and culture

Trump has threatened to pull 5,000 troops from Germany – while European leaders worry this is just the start of a US withdrawal from the continent. Deborah Cole reports

Landstuhl is a unique place: a small town in the south-west of Germany, it is also very American.

There are American fast food joints, nail salons flying the US flag … and it has, says the Guardian’s Berlin correspondent, been welcoming the US army since it marched into the nearby city of Kaiserslautern in spring 1945.

Without offering details or evidence, US Southern Command describes the people killed as ‘narco-terrorists’

The US military said on Tuesday it had struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing three people, in the latest such attack that rights groups label as “extrajudicial killings” and Washington describes as targeting “narco-terrorists”.

US Southern Command posted about the strike on social media Tuesday evening, alleging that the vessel struck on Tuesday was operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” that it did not identify.

WASHINGTON (ANP/AFP) - De Braziliaanse president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva heeft donderdag een ontmoeting met Donald Trump in Washington. "Ze zullen economische en veiligheidskwesties bespreken", zei een Witte Huis-functionaris tegen persbureau AFP.

De twee leiders hebben elkaar slechts één keer eerder ontmoet, afgelopen oktober in Maleisië. Eerder dit jaar stond een ontmoeting in Washington gepland, maar die ging uiteindelijk niet door.

Lula en Trump hebben aanzienlijke meningsverschillen over multilateralisme, internationale handel en de strijd tegen klimaatverandering. Lula is ook zeer kritisch over Trumps buitenlandbeleid en veroordeelt met name de oorlog in Iran.

Brazilië bezit de op een na grootste reserves ter wereld van zeldzame aardmetalen die essentieel zijn voor de productie van talloze producten, van smartphones tot geleide raketten. Lula heeft gezegd dat hij openstaat voor Amerikaanse investeringen in deze sector, op voorwaarde dat Brazilië het volledige productieproces, van exploratie tot raffinage, in handen heeft.