Navy Admiral Fired by Hegseth Advances to Runoff to Replace Mace
Nancy Lacore would face a tough fall election in a district drawn in 2021 to be more Republican. She is seeking to replace Representative Nancy Mace, who ran unsuccessfully for governor instead of running for re-election.
Steve Hilton Wins Second Spot in California Governor Race, Beating Tom Steyer
Steve Hilton, a Republican endorsed by President Trump, will face Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, in the general election. Tom Steyer, another Democrat, will not advance.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, Independent, to Face Richard Pan in California House Race
Mr. Kiley dropped his Republican affiliation earlier this year. The newly drawn Sixth Congressional District is widely considered to be favorable for Democrats.
Meta A.I. Bug Allowed Hackers to Take Over Instagram Accounts
The flaw, which Meta said it had fixed, allowed anyone to take over accounts using a bug in the company’s new artificial intelligence software.
House defies Johnson and passes Democratic-led labor bill
Twenty G.O.P lawmakers broke with Speaker Mike Johnson and joined Democrats in backing a bill to amend the National Labor Relations Act.
US Labels BYD, Baidu, Alibaba and Other Tech Giants As Aiding China's Military
The Pentagon has added Alibaba, BYD, Baidu, Unitree, and other Chinese companies to its list of firms it says support China's military, barring them from U.S. defense contracts. The companies and China's embassy deny the allegations. The Associated Press reports: Created in 2021 by a congressional mandate, the list (PDF) seeks to identify Chinese companies that the Pentagon considers to have links to the Chinese military -- not only those directly controlled by the Chinese military and security forces but also those contributing to the country's defense industrial base. When updating the list last year, the Pentagon said the Chinese military sought to acquire advanced technologies and expertise developed by Chinese companies, universities and research programs that "appear to be civilian entities."
The Chinese Embassy on Monday accused the U.S. of "overstretching the concept of national security and making discriminatory lists to go after Chinese companies." It said Chinese companies observe the laws and regulations of the countries where they do business. "The U.S. should stop its wrong practice and create a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies," the embassy said in a statement. [...] The Chinese Embassy on Monday accused the U.S. of "overstretching the concept of national security and making discriminatory lists to go after Chinese companies." It said Chinese companies observe the laws and regulations of the countries where they do business. "The U.S. should stop its wrong practice and create a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies," the embassy said in a statement.
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Air Canada Pilot Accused of Flying for 17 Years Without Proper License
The pilot, who retired last year before the investigation, held some valid flight credentials, officials said, but not the one required to be a captain.
Everybody Is a Loser in This Middle East War
None of the participants in the recent wars of the Middle East can claim victory. All are to blame.
House Passes G.O.P.’s $70 Billion Immigration Bill
The vote gave final passage to Republicans’ megabill to fund immigration enforcement through the remainder of President Trump’s term, clearing it for his signature.
EU Orders Meta To Open WhatsApp To Rival AI Chatbots
The European Commission has ordered Meta to temporarily restore free WhatsApp Business API access for rival AI chatbots while it investigates whether Meta's ban on third-party assistants abuses its dominant position. Meta says it will appeal, calling the move "regulatory overreach" that would let major AI companies use a paid WhatsApp product for free. The BBC reports: The EU said it began its investigation, in December 2025, after Meta banned third-party general-purpose AI assistants from the WhatsApp for Business API. It said that appeared to be an abuse of Meta's dominant position in European markets. So, as an interim measure as its investigation continues, it has given Meta five working days to re-instate access for third-party general-purpose AI assistants to the WhatsApp for Business API under the same terms and conditions that were in place previously.
"In rapidly evolving markets, competition can be lost long before a final decision is adopted," said Teresa Ribera, the Commission's executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition. "This is why these interim measures will remain in place for the duration of the investigation." She added the decision "preserved choice for citizens across Europe on the AI assistants they want to use with WhatsApp, without that decision being made for them." The Commission said if Meta failed to comply with its interim decision it could be fined up to 10% up of its total turnover. "The European Commission has decided that OpenAI and some of the largest companies in the world can use the paid-for WhatsApp Business product for free," it said in a statement.
"This is regulatory overreach subsidized by the many European companies that pay. We will appeal."
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Meet the NASA Astronauts in the Artemis III 4-Person Crew
NASA’s next mission in its effort to return humans to the moon will be led by an all-male crew. Three of them have extensive experience in space, while the other was a backup on Artemis II.
Anthropic Releases Claude Fable, a 'Safe' Version of Mythos
Anthropic is releasing Claude Fable 5, a Mythos-class AI model for enterprise customers and paid subscribers. The company says broader access is possible thanks to new safeguards that block high-risk requests in areas like cybersecurity and biology. "For us, it's really around what we call 'race to the top,' being able to provide this technology in a valuable fashion, and at the same time providing the right safety guardrails so that it can do asymmetrically more benefits than harm," Dianne Penn, Anthropic's head of product management for research, told CNBC in an interview. CNBC reports: [W]ith the launch of Claude Fable 5, Anthropic is honoring its stated "eventual goal" to deploy Mythos-class models at scale. It's also capitalizing on growing momentum and investor interest in its technology ahead of a potentially massive IPO, which is expected to take place as soon as this year. Anthropic said Claude Fable 5 shows "exceptional performance" across software engineering and knowledge work tasks. On some benchmarks, it scored more than 10% higher than Claude Opus 4.8, another model the company announced late last month, according to a blog post.
Claude Fable 5 represents a "significant jump" in capability, which is why Anthropic had to implement additional guardrails to prevent misuse, Penn said. If a user asks a high-risk question, like how to make ricin, a toxin, for instance, the model will block its response and fall back to Claude Opus 4.8 to deliver a safe answer. "What we wanted to do was to be very intentional about building new types of classifiers and new types of safety guardrails in place for this launch," Penn said. Anthropic also released an updated Mythos model called Claude Mythos 5. "It's the same underlying model as Claude Fable 5, but with the safeguards lifted in some areas," reports CNBC.
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F.D.A. Clears Sunscreen Ingredient Long Used in Europe and Asia
Dermatologists say bemotrizinol offers advantages over other compounds in sunscreens currently on the market.
High-Severity Vulnerability In Linux Caused By a Single Errant Character
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Researchers have analyzed a high-severity vulnerability in Linux that's able to escalate untrusted users to root by exploiting a bug you don't often see: a single errant character inside the kernel. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-23111, is located in nf_tables, a subsystem of the Linux kernel that provides packet filtering capabilities. It's used to manage firewall rules and replaces older subsystems such as iptables, ip6tables, arptables, and ebtables.
The presence of a single mis-issued exclamation point in code implementing nf_tables introduced a use-after-free, a class of vulnerability that corrupts memory by placing malicious code at memory addresses that haven't been properly freed of their previous contents. CVE-2026-23111 can be exploited by an unprivileged user or process to elevate system rights to root. The exploit works by disrupting the deletion of verdicts -- a determination within the nf_tables framework that determines if a packet matches a rule calling for a certain action to be performed. This process can use what are known as catchall elements, which act as a wildcard in the event a lookup doesn't match any other element in the set.
When a verdict map is deleted from memory, catchall elements are deactivated and a chain's reference counter is decremented. When errors occur the deletion can be reversed and the counter incremented. CVE-2026-53111 allows for that process to be altered. As a result, the exploit can decrement the variable an arbitrary number of times and then delete and free the chain when some objects still point to it. Although the kernel vulnerability was fixed in February, multiple proof-of-concept exploits have since emerged, including one from FuzzingLabs in April and another from Exodus Intelligence that works on Debian and Ubuntu.
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The Left’s Reckoning on Gaza, Elites and American Power
Matt Duss, Senator Bernie Sanders’s former foreign policy adviser, argues that Democrats need a foreign policy reckoning.
Can NASA Really Land Astronauts on the Moon by 2028?
Experts have been hopeful, but say the agency’s lunar aspirations are largely at the whims of two billionaires, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Paramount CEO David Ellison Pledges Editorial Independence for ‘60 Minutes’
David Ellison told Ms. Stahl, one of three remaining correspondents for the news program, that he would respect the show’s editorial decisions after a tumultuous stretch.
EU Says Decision Not to Launch Siri AI in Europe Is Apple's Alone
The European Commission says Apple's decision not to launch Siri AI in the EU is Apple's alone, arguing that the company sought an exemption from Digital Markets Act interoperability rules instead of building a compliant privacy- and security-preserving solution. Apple, meanwhile, says regulators rejected its proposals and claims the DMA would require giving third-party AI systems overly broad access to users' devices. MacRumors reports: Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters in Brussels: "The decision not to roll out Siri AI in the EU is Apple's and Apple's only. Apple was simply unable to develop interoperability solutions that meet essential EU privacy and security standards. Instead of trying to find a suitable compliance solution, Apple simply made a request to the European Commission to be exempted from their interoperability obligations. That's not an option."
Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, said the company was "deeply disappointed" and cited what it described as regulators' refusal to accept any of Apple's proposals, including a system called Trusted System Agent that would have allowed third-party virtual assistants to safely access the same device capabilities as Siri AI.
The Commission's account tells a different story. Rather than negotiating over Apple's proposed solutions, regulators say Apple simply requested a blanket exemption from its interoperability obligations under the Digital Markets Act, something the Commission says is not an available option. Apple's statement framed the DMA's requirements as demanding that any AI system be given "nearly unlimited access" to a user's device.
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Meta Will Use Your Activity On Other Websites To Personalize Your Feeds
Meta says it will expand how it uses off-platform activity shared by other businesses to personalize Facebook and Instagram feeds as well as AI responses, not just ads. The change starts in July and can be disabled through the "Activity from other businesses" setting, though Meta says it is not collecting new data as part of the update. The Verge reports: For example, Meta says if you bought a tent online recently, you might see camping-related videos in your Reels feed. "We aren't collecting any new data as part of this update," the blog post says. "This is about using information that businesses already send to us to further improve your experience."
Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez tells The Verge that the company previously only used the activity across its apps, such as likes, views, and follows, to tailor the content you see. The company also started using conversations with its AI assistant to personalize ads last year.
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Anthropic Releases ‘Safe’ Version of Its Mythos A.I. Technology
Called Claude Fable 5, it is twice as expensive as the company’s previous flagship system.