Trump admin "aware" of deaths in explosive diarrhea outbreak, delays reporting
arstechnica.com

... While news of the deaths made widespread headlines Monday, federal health agencies under the Trump administration were mostly silent. The Food and Drug Administration -- which is conducting traceback investigations to dentify foods contaminated with the parasite"has not updated its outbreak investigation page since July 24, nearly two weeks ago, as of publication time.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meanwhile, added a banner notice on its outbreak update webpage saying that the agency was "aware" of the two cases. But its reporting data was not updated to include the two deaths as of this publication.
Sluggish data

Ars Technica contacted the US Department of Health and Human Services about the un-updated numbers to ask if the CDC was still awaiting confirmatory data on the two deaths. In a response, HHS Press Secretary Emily Hilliard confirmed the information provided by Michigan's health department on the two deaths and said that "FDA and CDC plan to update overall illness numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths this week."

Outside experts have speculated that the agencies' sluggish responses to the outbreak may stem from harsh budget and staffing cuts, along with widespread upheaval at the agencies.

Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has generally tried to shift focus away from infectious diseases and outbreak prevention -- aligning with his longstanding efforts to disparage vaccines and downplay their need -- and instead redirect attention to wellness campaigns, such as improving diet and exercise. ...

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OpenAI, Anthropic AI agents implicated in new security breaches
www.reuters.com

... An AI agent was caught creating fake online identities to gain unauthorized access to secure systems during tests of models from OpenAI and Anthropic which revealed a series of new breaches, Britain's AI Security Institute disclosed on Tuesday.

The institute said agents powered by Anthropic's Mythos 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6-Sol engaged in unauthorized actions during security evaluations the government organization conducted to assess the models' capabilities.

"Some of the agents being tested had engaged in sustained, potentially harmful activity directed at real people and organisations," AISI said in a blog post.

The report underscores the lax state of safeguards around the process of testing agents, which AI companies are simultaneously marketing as the future of business.

AISI, which receives access to advanced AI models under voluntary agreements from major labs, put the agents through a fictional cybersecurity scenario to test their capabilities.

It ran the challenge 122 times, and identified 19 unsanctioned actions across a total of 10 test runs. Anthropic's agent was behind 17 of the actions, and OpenAI's agent the remaining two.

The most egregious action involved an agent writing malicious code and creating fake online identities in an attempt to get a human to approve the code, AISI said, adding that no real-world harm was found as a result of any of the breaches.

While AISI did not say which agent was behind the fake identities, Anthropic confirmed its agent was responsible.

"We're grateful to the UK AISI for their leadership on this incident, which underscores the need for a broader conversation about how to safely evaluate increasingly capable AI agents," Anthropic said in a statement.

It also said it was working with AISI to obtain more details on the incident and conduct its own investigation.

Andrew Yoon, a researcher at CivAI, a California non-profit that examines AI capabilities and dangers, said: "The fact that Mythos engaged in such deceptive actions, with apparent awareness that it was targeting a real person, suggests that Anthropic does not have as good a handle on their models as they think." ...

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California's Drought Has Now Caused Irreversible Damage to a Crucial Aquifer
www.sciencealert.com

... The cracks in parched soils are only a superficial, if harrowing, sign of drought.

To fully understand the impact of long-lasting droughts made worse by climate change, scientists need to know what's happening deep underground -- in the world's aquifers.

These sponge-like freshwater reservoirs supply water for communities, agriculture, and surface ecosystems. But if there's little rain to replenish them, or too much of their water is extracted, aquifers might not recover.

The Sacramento Valley aquifer system, under pressure from recent droughts, is responsible for supplying part of California's Central Valley, where, along with the San Joaquin Valley to the south, around a quarter of the US food supply is grown.

According to new data, the capacity of this aquifer has now been permanently reduced due to rapid and regular freshwater extraction over the last few years. ...

Bipartisan Opposition Grows Against Feds' Colorado River Plan
arizonadailyindependent.com

... Democratic and Republican leaders across the Lower Basin have opposed the U.S. Department of Interior's water reduction plan for the Colorado River, while Upper Basin states have widely backed the move.

The department's and Bureau of Reclamation's Final Environmental Impact Statement from Friday has received little fanfare in Nevada and Arizona, where the proposal could make for significant water cuts.

The federal Colorado River proposal came after negotiations between the seven U.S. states that rely on the river -- Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California -- missed two deadlines in November 2025 and February 2026. Arizona, Nevada and California are in the Lower Basin. The rest are in the Upper Basin.

The current framework for water management on the river is set to end in December. This comes in a year that has been defined by dry weather, a short and warm winter followed by fierce wildfires across much of the Southwest. ...