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The US Government's Anthropic Models Ban Was Never About an AI Jailbreak

TechCrunch's Zack Whittaker argues that the U.S. government's abrupt export-control order forcing Anthropic to pull its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models offline was "never about an AI jailbreak" threat. Instead, it was driven more by "personality differences" between the AI company and Trump administration. Security experts say the reported guardrail bypass did not justify the order and warn that the move sets a troubling precedent: the government can unilaterally disrupt American software products without court approval, potentially undermining trust in U.S. AI providers. From the report: Katie Moussouris, a cybersecurity veteran and researcher who founded Luta Security, said in a blog post that Anthropic recently shared with her a private copy of a paper written by security researchers describing an alleged guardrail bypass in Fable 5. (The Wall Street Journal reports that the paper's authors are security researchers at Amazon.) Moussouris said that Anthropic reached out to ask for her take on the paper. Moussouris' blog post described how the researchers triggered the guardrail bypass, but said that the bypass itself "should never have triggered an export control." The difference is largely between asking an AI model to "review code for security issues" versus asking it to "fix this code."

The end result is largely the same, even if the questions are posed slightly differently. "The behavior described in the paper cannot meaningfully be fixed, and any attempt would only weaken the model for defense," said Moussouris, who criticized the export control directive as hasty, heavy-handed, and misguided. Moussouris and dozens of other top security researchers and experts have since called on the Trump administration to revoke the export control order, calling the move to pull advanced cybersecurity capabilities from network defenders in the U.S. as "dangerous."

Past administrations have made sweeping decisions on knowledge gaps. For instance, language used by the U.S. government during the 2010s to fix export law covering cybersecurity tools that could also be used for cyberattacks was so broad that inadvertently, it nearly outlawed legitimate security and vulnerability research. However, the Trump administration's directive appears retaliatory. Justin Hendrix, the editor of Tech Policy Press, said the Trump administration's move is "likely to raise alarms in foreign capitals about the reliability of American AI for critical applications." The message is that AI companies in the United States can't be trusted to operate without interference from the U.S. government.

The Trump administration hasn't confirmed why it invoked its export control directive. Did the officials misread the report and freak out? Did Amazon CEO Andy Jassy say something to senior government officials that prompted the reaction, out of caution or spite? Was something lost in translation, or was this a way to pressure Anthropic, with whom the administration already has a fractious relationship? It's possible that the White House was unaware of the far-reaching consequences of the letter's demand and officials are scrambling to undo the damage of their own making. To quote Hendrix, "the climate is one of a cloud of suspicion that senior officials are picking favorites based on personal and political factors." The aftermath is that the government has set a dangerous precedent about how much control it intends to wield over the release of American-made software. This time the government took issue with Anthropic; tomorrow it could be with anyone else.

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Russian Spam and Profanities Are Now Plaguing the Arch Linux AUR

The Arch Linux User Repository "AUR" is facing another issue just days after more than 1,500 packages were found carrying malware. According to Phoronix, over 70 AUR packages have reportedly been modified to insert Russian spam and profane messages into users' shell configuration files. From the report: Nicolas Boichat with his AI/LLM detection bot detected some questionable messages appearing in AUR content. Russian messages were being added post-install to the bashrc / zshrc / Fish configuration, etc containing offensive messaging. Those commits happened on the 14th, after the recent malware fiasco. And then over the past day reporting on dozens of AUR packages having similar Russian messages containing offensive language.

The latest update on that thread indicates more than 70 AUR packages having this Russian spam / offensive messaging. Among those various Python packages, Ruby packages, Llama.cpp, and others. At least the AI/LLM bots are proving helpful here in proactively picking up on some of the AUR abuses until the fundamental situation can be better handled.

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Firefox 152 Adds JPEG XL Support, Redesigned Settings

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Linuxiac: Mozilla has released Firefox 152, the latest update to its popular open-source web browser, with updated settings, improved media controls, experimental JPEG XL support, and various platform-specific fixes for desktop and Android. A key update is the redesigned Firefox Settings page, which now features clearer groupings, improved navigation, and a more streamlined structure for easier customization. The release also expands built-in spellchecker support, adding dictionaries for Croatian, English (UK), Georgian, Persian, Slovenian, Tajik, Tamil, Tibetan, Turkish, Welsh, and Xhosa. [...] Importantly, Firefox now offers experimental support for JPEG XL, an image format with improved compression over WebP, JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Users can enable JPEG XL in the Firefox Labs panel within Settings.

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Formula 1 News

Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website

How Hamilton bounced back by ‘unplugging from the matrix’

Lewis Hamilton has outlined how he turned his performance at Ferrari around to secure a maiden win with the team in Barcelona.

VK: Voorpagina

Volkskrant.nl biedt het laatste nieuws, opinie en achtergronden

Heiligdom op Westoever dat onder Palestijns bestuur valt, staat nu onder controle van Israël, zegt extreemrechtse minister

Nederland liet de ontheemde Molukkers aan hun lot over: die erkenning komt geen dag te vroeg

Ireen Wüst als eerste vrouw in functie chef de mission voor olympiërs die mikken op deelname aan Spelen Los Angeles 2028

Premier Jetten zou zondag mogelijk excuses aanbieden aan de Molukse gemeenschap: waarover gaat dat?

Any Expression of Love is a Way to Return

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Any Expression of Love is a Way to Return

Found Photo Booth photograph

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Found Photo Booth photograph

Found Ektachrome Slide

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Found Ektachrome Slide

date stamped on slide July 1969

Hit the Road

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Hit the Road

Found Slide -- The Sirkka Sopanen Collection

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Found Slide -- The Sirkka Sopanen Collection

Japan - Takamatsu

SergioQ79 - Osanpo Photographer - posted a photo:

Japan - Takamatsu

Venerdì sera a Takamatsu. Il vicolo sarebbe quasi completamente buio se non fosse per le attività ancora aperte. Le lanterne, le insegne e le luci interne dei locali illuminano lo spazio quel tanto che basta per continuare la serata. Davanti al bar si accumulano scatole, contenitori, cassette e una bicicletta lasciata a pochi passi dall'ingresso. A prima vista sembra disordine, ma osservando meglio ogni oggetto ha una funzione precisa. Non è una strada preparata per apparire ordinata. È una strada che lavora. E proprio per questo tutto sembra trovarsi esattamente dove deve essere.

高松の金曜日の夜。この路地は営業中の店がなければ、ほとんど真っ暗になってしまう。提灯や看板、店内の明かりが最低限の光を与え、人の活動を支えている。店の前には段ボール箱や容器、自転車が並んでいる。一見すると雑然として見えるが、それぞれに役割がある。見た目のために整えられた空間ではなく、日常の営業を続けるための空間だ。だからこそ、すべてがあるべき場所に置かれているように見える。

A Friday evening in Takamatsu. The alley would be almost completely dark without the businesses still open for the night. Lanterns, signs and interior lights provide just enough illumination to keep the street alive. In front of the bar, boxes, plastic containers, crates and a bicycle occupy the entrance area. At first glance it may look messy, but a closer look reveals that everything has a purpose. This is not a street arranged to look tidy. It is a street arranged to function. And that is why every object seems to be exactly where it belongs.

The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Former NFL star Aldon Smith’s brain to be donated for CTE research after death at 36

  • Player died suddenly after charity work on Saturday

  • Off-field incidents, suspensions affected his career

  • 49ers statement: ‘His smile lit up every room’

The family of former NFL star Aldon Smith is donating the player’s brain to the Boston University CTE Center to research the effects of repetitive brain injuries.

The 36-year-old died suddenly on Saturday, hours after delivering pizzas to a homeless charity in the San Francisco Bay area. No cause of death was given and Smith’s family has hired attorneys Harry Daniels, Bakari Sellers and Wayne Kendall to investigate his death.

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The Guardian view on defending Europe in a new era: collaboration is the key | Editorial

The recent abandonment of plans for a Franco-German fighter jet sent a disastrous signal. Strategic autonomy will be jointly achieved or not at all

It has become a truism to assert that Europe needs to fast-track its own strategic independence in a volatile world. A recent paper from the European Council on Foreign Relations describes the continent’s leaders as grappling with “a ‘Schrödinger’s NATO’ moment, in which America remains formally inside the alliance while behaving as though it were not, just as the Russian threat looms larger”. Donald Trump’s United States has become at best an unreliable and at times reluctant ally, as Vladimir Putin’s revanchist ambitions have exposed the need to strengthen Europe’s defences.

But if the goal of greater autonomy is to be achieved, far better coordination of resources and cooperation between national defence industries will be required. Neither has been much in evidence this month, with France and Germany abandoning a joint £100bn project to build a new fighter jet as part of an updated Future Combat Air System. Originally launched by Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel in 2017, plans for the jet were pulled as a result of irresolvable disagreements between Dassault, the French aviation company involved, and Airbus, the European aerospace company whose defence unit is based in Germany.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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McIlroy fears ‘false economy’ created by LIV Golf could put PGA Tour events at risk

  • McIlroy not a fan of planned two-tier system for tournaments

  • Masters champion paired with Fleetwood and Åberg at US Open

Rory McIlroy believes the “false economy” created by the threat of LIV Golf may now be putting some well-established PGA Tour events at risk.

The world No 2 and current Masters champion said he felt people had lost sight of how good the tour was before it too had a huge cash injection.

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Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Media: Zelensky liet Trump foto's zien van beschadigd klooster

KYIV (ANP/RTR) - De Oekraïense president Volodymyr Zelensky heeft de Amerikaanse president Donald Trump tijdens hun korte ontmoeting rond de G7-top foto's laten zien van de schade aan het historische kloostercomplex Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Dat zeggen bronnen tegen nieuwswebsite Kyiv Independent en persbureau Reuters.

Een Europese diplomaat zei dat Trump zijn afkeer uitsprak over de aanval. Een andere bron noemde het "psychologisch" een slimme zet van Zelensky. Het gesprek zou constructief zijn verlopen, al deed Trump naar verluidt geen toezeggingen over verdere sancties tegen Rusland. De ontmoeting vond in de loop van dinsdag plaats en duurde volgens de Oekraïense nieuwssite ongeveer een half uur. Trump en Zelensky zouden elkaar later op de top nogmaals spreken.

Zelensky zei tijdens een afzonderlijk interview dat wereldleiders op de top in Évian-les-Bains het erover eens zijn dat Rusland de oorlog niet aan het winnen is. De stemming lijkt daarmee te zijn veranderd, zei hij.


Onderzoek: sociaaleconomisch zwakkeren worden zwaarder gestraft

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Verdachten die het minder goed voor elkaar hebben, krijgen gemiddeld zwaardere straffen dan mensen die het sociaaleconomisch beter hebben. Het Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Datacentrum (WODC) meldt dat op basis van eigen onderzoeken naar het strafrecht.

Volgens het WODC is er sprake "van een structureel ongunstigere positie" voor mensen met zwakkere sociaaleconomische kenmerken. Het gaat dan om opleidingsniveau, arbeidsmarktstatus, huishoudinkomen en woonstatus. Zij krijgen gemiddeld vaker een gevangenisstraf, en een langere celstraf, aldus het WODC. Mensen die het beter hebben, krijgen vaker een geldboete.

"Kijkend naar het volledige pakket aan sancties kan dit resulteren in substantiële verschillen in strafhoogte. Migratieachtergrond heeft bij strafrechtelijke uitkomsten minder invloed dan sociaaleconomische kenmerken", stelt het onderzoekscentrum.

Maatwerk

Volgens het WODC is er in het strafrecht veel ruimte voor maatwerk, waarbij de persoonlijke situatie van een verdachte wordt meegewogen bij het opleggen van een straf. Bijvoorbeeld of iemand een baan heeft. De verschillen in de strafmaat zijn daarom niet per se onwettig. Wel vinden de onderzoekers dat er relatief weinig eisen worden gesteld aan de strafmotivering.

Voor het onderzoek zijn gegevens uit ruim 2,5 miljoen strafzaken gebruikt met bijna 1,2 miljoen verschillende verdachten.


WSJ: Iran mag van VS direct olie verkopen na ondertekening deal

WASHINGTON (ANP/RTR) - Iran mag van de Verenigde Staten direct beginnen met de verkoop van olie en brandstof na het ondertekenen van de vredesdeal. Dat hebben de landen afgesproken, melden ingewijden aan The Wall Street Journal.

De afspraak zou Iran een financiële stimulans bieden om het conflict af te bouwen. De bepaling om sancties op de Iraanse oliehandel op te heffen, treedt in werking zodra de overeenkomst later deze week wordt ondertekend. Het besluit gaat volgens de bronnen ook over diensten als bankieren, transport en verzekeringen die nodig zijn om de verkoop mogelijk te maken.

Er zouden wel voorwaarden zijn verbonden aan het akkoord. "Iran kan alleen aanspraak maken op de voordelen van dit memorandum van overeenstemming als het zich houdt aan alle punten die zijn overeengekomen, waaronder het niet ontwikkelen van kernwapens, het onschadelijk maken van verrijkt materiaal en het niet belemmeren van de vrije doorvaart in de Straat van Hormuz", zegt een ingewijde.