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Guardian USA

Obama to appear at Abdul El-Sayed rally in critical Michigan Senate race

Former president to visit 10 days before election day as victory for progressive challenger could tip Senate balance

Barack Obama will head to Detroit this month to rally with Abdul El-Sayed, a show of establishment support for a progressive insurgent in Michigan, one of the most consequential Senate races in the country.

The former president will appear with El-Sayed and the gubernatorial nominee, Jocelyn Benson, on 24 October, the state’s Democratic party announced on Monday. The rally falls on the first day of the state’s in-person early voting period and 10 days before election day.

Guardian USA

Politico reportedly barred from traveling with Trump amid administration’s crackdown on White House coverage – live

White House did not let Politico on Air Force One, CNN reports; a federal judge had put a temporary block on Trump’s overall ban on Politico, CNN and MS Now

As the supreme court hears oral arguments this morning, it’s worth noting that if the justices side with Boulder or decide that the case is not in their jurisdiction, then it would continue in state court.

But if the fossil fuel industry convinces the justices, the decision could apply not only to the Boulder case, but also to the many other climate cases brought by state and local governments around the US that we mentioned earlier.

Guardian Tech

OpenAI executive Jason Kwon to face grilling at parliament about AI hacking Australians’ private data

Unions, employer groups, banks and industry experts will appear at the four-day hearings along with OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and Google

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OpenAI must explain how they will stop their models from inappropriately accessing Australian data, the Labor chair of the parliament’s committee on artificial intelligence has warned, ahead of federal inquiry hearings which will grill the tech company alongside Anthropic, Microsoft and Google.

Independent senator David Pocock is also demanding answers, saying OpenAI “still have a lot they need to answer” about their AI agent accessing Services Australia data on Medicare and the company’s “appalling” tardiness in notifying the federal government about the incident.

Follow our Australia politics live blog for latest updates

Slashdot

Meta Rushed To Fix Muse 'VM Escape' Vulnerability Soon Before Launch

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: In the immediate weeks before Muse's launch, Meta engineers found several security vulnerabilities in the company's viral AI agent product, at least one of which could have allowed malicious users to break outside of Muse's intended environment and access Meta's own sensitive databases and services, 404 Media has learned. The issues were so severe that they reached Mark Zuckerberg and staff worked overtime to fix them. These specific vulnerabilities were discovered before the launch of the product but required a multi-team "mad dash" to fix "a sudden spike in reported KVM escapes," according to an internal post by Meta executives to its core infrastructure team seen by 404 Media. In order for Muse to work, a user gives the AI agent access to various important services and accounts that they own. On Meta's end, each individual Muse instance runs on a kernel-based virtual machine, which connects to, but is supposed to be isolated from, Meta's own critical infrastructure. A "KVM escape," then, is when, through a security vulnerability, a Muse instance is able to escape from that virtual machine and interact with the system that runs it, or with other users' virtual machines. According to a Meta source, as well as internal security documentation and internal posts viewed by 404 Media, at least one of the vulnerabilities could have allowed an outside attacker -- that is, a normal Muse user -- to access data in sensitive internal Meta databases. At least one of the vulnerabilities was related to an exploit found in Linux kernel-based virtual machine code in July. 4 Several of the vulnerabilities were in the underlying Linux virtualization software that Meta uses for Muse. The security issue was considered serious enough that it was raised to Mark Zuckerberg, and several different security teams worked nights and weekends in the leadup to launch to fix the issues. [...] The Meta source said they felt security teams were asked to push hot fixes to these bugs as quickly as possible and in a way that wouldn't delay Muse's launch, leading to what they described as "half-baked protections being rushed out to enable the launch. Many senior engineers believe it's inevitable we're going to have a massive data breach as a result of Hatch." Muse is called "Hatch" internally and in Meta's codebase.

Chinese Dictionary

韵味 [韻味] yùn wèi

implicit charm in rhyme or sound / hinted appeal / interest (HSK 7-9)

Guardian USA

Students vandalize Cornell building over handling of gang-rape allegations

Student activists defend their actions as nonviolent, saying ‘property damage is not violent, condoning rape is’

Cornell University to take ‘serious look’ at fraternities after rape allegations

Student activists vandalized a Cornell University administration building overnight in response to the university’s handling of gang rape allegations in a high-profile case that has dominated national news.

Students smashed a glass door at the entrance of Day Hall and painted messages on the walls at approximately 3am on Monday, the Cornell Daily Sun reported.

HACKADAY

How to Grow a Giant Crystal from Copper Sulfate

Copper sulfate crystals are probably among one of the prettiest crystals you can grow at home, with even just a simple setup with some copper scrap and vinegar already capable …read more

Guardian USA

Republicans criticize Steve Hilton for ‘creepy’ innuendo-filled campaign ad

Hilton faces heavy backlash from within his own party for ‘Just Try It’ ad amid his longshot bid for California governor

Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for California governor, is receiving heavy criticism from members of his own party over a controversial, sexual innuendo-filled campaign ad that’s been described as “creepy”.

The video entitled “Just Try It, California” was released last week and depicts two young women with brightly colored hair, sitting on a bed in front of a pride flag in low lighting. One nervously says “I can’t believe I’m doing this”, while another strokes her hair and coaxes “don’t be nervous, it’s not that bad” before guiding her to fill out a ballot for Hilton and aggressively commanding “lick it”.

Guardian USA

Politico reportedly barred from traveling with Trump amid administration’s crackdown on White House coverage – live

White House did not let Politico on Air Force One, CNN reports; a federal judge had put a temporary block on Trump’s overall ban on Politico, CNN and MS Now

Slashdot

Norway Plans Temporary Ban on Smart Glasses

Norway is preparing legislation that would temporarily ban camera-equipped smart glasses in a range of public places, including parks, beaches, museums, shopping centers, schools, daycare centers, healthcare facilities, gyms and public events. Private use would still be allowed. The Guardian reports: Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway's minister of digital affairs, said he was worried that new, powerful technology is being introduced where people risk being photographed, filmed or audio-recorded without knowing it." "We do not want a society where people worry about being recorded without their knowledge, photographed or filmed in places and situations where they are accustomed to not being monitored," he said. Norway's Labour party, which heads a minority government, needs the support of other parties to pass the proposed ban. It said it planned to submit a bill "as soon as possible," while tasking an expert group with drawing up permanent regulations on the issue.

Guardian USA

Florida high-schooler and one other killed in school bus rollover crash

Authorities say crash in Winter Haven involved three vehicles, including bus filled with dozens of schoolchildren

A high school student and one other person were killed in a crash that caused a school bus to flip over on to its roof in central Florida early on Monday, according to authorities.

About 26 students traveling on the public school bus involved in the crash were taken to the hospital, the Polk county sheriff’s office said in a statement posted to Facebook. The bus had 39 occupants: 37 high school students, the bus driver and the driver’s daughter, officials said.

Guardian USA

Politico reportedly barred from traveling with Trump amid administration’s crackdown on White House coverage – live

White House did not let Politico on Air Force One, CNN reports; a federal judge had put a temporary block on Trump’s overall ban on Politico, CNN and MS Now

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