Parents have long worried that video gaming corrupts their kids' brains. Now the U.S. government is proclaiming that all is not lost, and that in fact a lucrative career path awaits as an air traffic controller. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Department launched a campaign Friday targeting video gamers for the job, which is crucial for keeping the U.S. skies safe.
Russia will see revenue from its biggest single oil tax double to $9 billion in April due to the oil and gas crisis triggered by the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran, Reuters calculations showed on Thursday. read more
Consumer confidence plunged to a record low in April as fears mounted over rising energy prices and the broader impact of the Iran war, according to a University of Michigan survey. The drop in sentiment coincided with a sharp spike in inflation expectations, with respondents seeing prices up 4.8% in a year from now, a full percentage point rise from the March reading.
As a result of the war with Iran, gasoline prices have skyrocketed for U.S. consumers. A gallon of regular unleaded gas, which cost $2.98 a gallon on the eve of the war, now costs $4.14, according to AAA. read more
A group of Russian government hackers have hijacked thousands of home and small business routers around the world ... read more
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RFK Jr. rewrites CDC panel's charter, opening door to anti-vaccine quacks
arstechnica.com
... As expected, anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has significantly rewritten the charter for a federal vaccine advisory panel. The edits give him more power to appoint his like-minded allies as federal advisors, shift the panel's focus to alleged vaccine injuries and risks, and welcome fringe groups and anti-vaccine organizations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Monday, a notice in the Federal Register indicated Kennedy renewed the charter for the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which is done every two years, with the last term having ended April 1. But instead of the usual humdrum renewal process, the notice on Monday indicated big changes were coming to the defining document of the panel, which heavily influences federal vaccine policy that, in turn, influences state requirements and insurance coverage.
The new charter, published Thursday, reveals new responsibilities that redirect advisors toward topics and terms dear to anti-vaccine activists.
For instance, ACIP members will now be responsible for "considering analysis of cumulative effects of vaccines and their constituent components." This wording echoes explicit goals of Kennedy's anti-vaccine allies, who aim to pin complex conditions -- such as allergies, autism, and neurodevelopmental conditions -- on combinations of vaccinations or common ingredients in those shots, such as aluminum adjuvants.
This is a pivot from anti-vaccine activists' earlier attacks that focused on individual vaccines, such as the false, fraudulent claim that the measles vaccine is linked to autism"a claim that has been roundly debunked by dozens of high-quality studies. ...
More on Claude Mythos ...
Why Anthropic believes its latest model is too dangerous to release
www.understandingai.org
... Anthropic safety researcher Sam Bowman was eating a sandwich in a park recently when he got an unexpected email. An AI model had sent him a message saying that it had broken out of its sandbox.[emphasis mine]
The model -- an early snapshot of a new LLM called Claude Mythos Preview -- was not supposed to have access to the Internet.
To ensure safety, Anthropic researchers like to test new models inside a secure container that prevents them from communicating with the outside world. To double-check the security of this container, the researchers asked the model to try to break out and message Bowman.
Unexpectedly, Mythos Preview "developed a moderately sophisticated multi-step exploit" to gain access to the Internet and emailed Bowman.
It also -- unprompted -- posted details about this exploit on public websites.
Mythos Preview is capable of hacking more than its own evaluation environment. It turns out that the model is generally really, really good at finding and exploiting bugs in code. ...
Related...
CDC study shows COVID shot benefits; Trump official blocks release
arstechnica.com
... Under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been blocked from publishing a scientifically vetted study finding significant health benefits from this season's COVID-19 vaccines, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
The move adds to longstanding concern among health experts that chaos and political interference under Kennedy -- a staunch anti-vaccine activist who has long falsely maligned COVID-19 vaccines -- is deeply undermining science at federal agencies and beyond. ...
International Humanitarian Law Databases
ihl-databases.icrc.org
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Article 51 - Protection of the civilian population
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2. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.
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US-Iran war, fuel crisis live updates: No sign of 'uptick' in traffic through Strait of Hormuz, despite White House's claims
www.news.com.au
... The White House's claim that there's been an "uptick" in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since Donald Trump announced his ceasefire with Iran appears to contradict the data. ...
White House Sends Mixed Signals on Strait of Hormuz Closure
www.notus.org
... Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, sent conflicting messages on Wednesday about the Strait of Hormuz, pushing back on reports that Iran had closed the channel while also calling on it to be reopened.
Leavitt didn't directly answer who currently controls the vital shipping route, raising new questions about the status of a ceasefire with Iran.
Leavitt rejected the report by Iranian state media that tanker traffic had been halted in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon, calling it "false."
"That is completely unacceptable," she told reporters at a White House briefing, adding that "we have seen an uptick of traffic in the strait today." ...
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Bessent, Powell warned bank CEOs about Anthropic model risks
www.reuters.com