The WHO raised the public health risk from the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo to 'very high' on Friday, with 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths. The rare Bundibugyo species has no proven vaccine and kills about a third of those infected. Two cases have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda. Meanwhile, Oxford University scientists are developing a vaccine using the ChAdOx1 platform, the same technology behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Animal testing is underway, and clinical trials could begin in two to three months if results are promising. The Serum Institute of India is lined up for mass production. A separate experimental Bundibugyo vaccine is also in development but is six to nine months from testing. The WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday but said it is not a pandemic. Violence and insecurity in eastern DR Congo are hampering the response; last week, angry relatives set fire to a hospital after health workers refused to release a body due to contamination risk.
Ebola is a deadly viral disease that normally infects fruit bats. Bundibugyo is one of six Ebola species; it caused only two previous outbreaks (Uganda 2007, DR Congo 2012) and has no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire species. Ring vaccination is used to contain spread.
A hacker group called TeamPCP has carried out an unprecedented spree of software supply chain attacks, poisoning hundreds of open source tools and breaching companies including GitHub, OpenAI, and Mercor. On Tuesday, GitHub disclosed that a developer installed a malicious VSCode extension, giving attackers access to about 3,800 of its own code repositories. TeamPCP advertised the stolen source code for sale on a cybercrime forum. The group's tactic is a self-perpetuating flywheel: they compromise a developer tool, use it to steal credentials from other developers, then publish malicious versions of their tools, repeating the cycle. Recently, the group automated attacks with a worm called Mini Shai-Hulud that spreads through GitHub repositories. Cybersecurity firm Socket has tracked 20 waves of attacks in recent months, affecting over 500 distinct software packages. Cloud security firm Wiz says the GitHub breach is the latest in a long line of victims.
Software supply chain attacks occur when hackers insert malicious code into legitimate software updates or tools, compromising anyone who installs them. They are difficult to detect because the software appears trustworthy. The 2020 SolarWinds attack was a notable example.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced Thursday that the province will hold a referendum on October 19 asking voters whether Alberta should remain in Canada or begin the legal process for a binding independence vote. The announcement follows citizen-led petitions: one for separation gathered over 300,000 signatures, while a pro-Canada petition collected more than 400,000. Smith said she will vote to stay in Canada, but she criticized a court decision that halted verification of the separation petition after First Nations groups argued they were not properly consulted. Polls suggest a majority of Albertans oppose separation. If the 'leave' side wins, a second binding referendum would have to meet the requirements of the federal Clarity Act, including a clear majority and a clear question, followed by lengthy separation negotiations. Alberta's separatist sentiment stems from long-standing grievances over federal energy policies and a perception that Ottawa overlooks the oil-rich province.
Canada's unity was last tested in 1995 when Quebec voted 50.58% against independence. The Clarity Act, passed in 2000, sets rules for any future secession referendum, requiring a 'clear majority' on a 'clear question' and parliamentary oversight. Alberta, with 4 million people, is Canada's main oil producer.
Scientists have discovered that a region of Earth's molten outer core beneath the Pacific Ocean abruptly reversed its flow direction in 2010, switching from westward to eastward for about a decade before weakening again in 2020. The finding, published in the Journal of Studies of Earth's Deep Interior, comes from satellite data collected between 1997 and 2025 by ESA's Swarm and Cryosat missions, along with Germany's CHAMP and Denmark's Ørsted missions. The outer core, a sea of liquid iron 2,200 kilometers below the surface, generates Earth's magnetic field through its churning motion. The unexpected reversal suggests the core's large-scale flows are far less stable than previously thought and may be influenced by hidden shifts in the solid inner core. Researchers are now trying to determine whether the reversal was a short-lived fluctuation, part of a repeating oscillation, or a new stable state. Continued monitoring is essential because changes in the core affect the magnetic field that shields the planet from cosmic radiation.
Earth's magnetic field is generated by the motion of liquid iron in the outer core. The inner core rotates eastward, while the outer core generally flows westward. Satellites like ESA's Swarm measure magnetic field variations to infer core dynamics.
Developer and educator Josh Comeau argues that AI tools amplify existing expertise rather than replacing it. He points to Matt Perry, creator of the Motion animation library, who used AI to close 160 GitHub issues in a quarter and complete a major refactor in a single afternoon. In contrast, newcomers on forums like r/vibecoding report hitting walls because AI generates code for individual prompts without a holistic architectural understanding. Comeau compares AI to Iron Man's suit: powerful but useless without a skilled operator. He warns against anthropomorphizing LLMs, which leads people to overestimate their autonomy. The essay pushes back on the fear that AI will make human developers obsolete, suggesting instead that deep domain knowledge becomes more valuable as AI handles routine tasks. The piece is a newsletter entry, not a formal study, but it offers a concrete, falsifiable claim: AI's productivity gains are proportional to the user's existing skill.
Josh Comeau is a well-known web development educator. The essay responds to widespread anxiety among programmers about AI replacing jobs. Matt Perry's Motion library (formerly Framer Motion) is a widely used React animation tool.
Paleontologists have discovered the oldest fossil evidence of sexual reproduction and locomotion in animals at a site in Canada's Northwest Territories, dating back 567 million years to the Ediacaran period. The findings, published in Science Advances, push the origins of animal sex back by 5 to 10 million years. The fossils include Aspidella, a saucer-shaped creature; Dickinsonia, a flat, mouthless organism that absorbed food through its underside; and clusters of tubular Funisia, which likely reproduced through mass spawning events similar to modern corals. The team also found Kimberella, an early bottom-crawler, providing the earliest evidence of movement in animals. The site represents the first discovery of the White Sea assemblage in North America, previously known only from Russia, Asia, and Australia. The presence of these organisms in older rocks shows they persisted for long periods, not just a brief evolutionary blip.
The Ediacaran period (635–541 million years ago) marked the transition from microscopic life to larger, complex organisms, setting the stage for the Cambrian explosion. Fossils from this era are rare because animals lacked hard shells or bones.
Eli Lilly's next-generation weight-loss drug retatrutide helped participants lose an average of 28.3% of their body weight over 80 weeks in a Phase 3 clinical trial, the company announced. The trial, called TRIUMPH-1, enrolled people classified as overweight or having obesity, with an average starting weight of 248.5 pounds. At the highest 12 mg dose, weight loss averaged about 70 pounds, putting the drug on par with bariatric surgery. Retatrutide is a triple agonist, targeting GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptors, unlike Wegovy (single agonist) or Zepbound (dual agonist). Side effects included nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting in about a third of participants. The results move retatrutide closer to FDA approval. Daniel Drucker, a GLP-1 expert at the University of Toronto, called it the most potent weight-loss drug yet. If approved, it would likely become the go-to option for people needing to lose the most weight.
GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide (Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Zepbound) mimic gut hormones that regulate appetite. Retatrutide adds a third target, glucagon, which may increase energy expenditure. Phase 3 trials are the final step before seeking regulatory approval.
South Korean police are seeking an arrest warrant for YouTuber Kim Se-ui, who allegedly used AI to fabricate evidence that defamed actor Kim Soo-hyun and ended his career. Authorities say Kim manipulated screenshots of text messages and generated an audio file with AI to falsely claim the actor had dated actress Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor. The allegations surfaced shortly after Kim Sae-ron died by suicide at age 24. Kim Soo-hyun, a household name in South Korea, admitted to dating her as an adult but denied any relationship while she was underage. The scandal led to the indefinite postponement of his Disney+ series and the collapse of his endorsements. Police say the YouTuber spread the false claims for financial gain and that Kim Soo-hyun is still receiving psychiatric treatment. The case highlights the growing use of AI-generated media to destroy reputations.
Kim Sae-ron was a rising actress whose career was damaged by a 2022 drunk-driving incident. After her death, rumors spread online that she had dated Kim Soo-hyun as a minor, amplified by the YouTuber's posts and the actress's family. South Korean celebrities face intense public scrutiny.
Zillow abruptly lost access to thousands of home listings in the Chicago area on Wednesday after filing an antitrust lawsuit against Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and brokerage Compass. The suit alleges the two companies colluded to hide listings in a private listing network (PLN), forcing buyers to work with Compass agents to see them. Zillow claims the practice harms consumers by reducing transparency and enabling Compass to represent both sides of transactions. MRED retaliated by cutting off Zillow's access to 43,000 listings, calling the platform's lawsuit meritless and a contract dispute. Compass argues sellers have the right to choose how their homes are marketed. The number of listings on Zillow in the Chicago market dropped from nearly 5,000 to about 1,700 overnight. Zillow is seeking a preliminary injunction to restore access. The case could set a precedent for how MLS data is shared with consumer platforms.
Multiple listing services (MLS) are regional databases where brokers share property listings. Private listing networks allow agents to market homes off the public MLS, sometimes to create exclusivity. Zillow aggregates listings from MLS feeds.
Journalist Steven Rosenbaum's new book, The Future of Truth, was found to contain at least three fabricated quotes generated by AI tools he used during research. A New York Times investigation identified quotes attributed to tech reporter Kara Swisher and Northeastern professor Lisa Feldman Barrett that neither person said. Rosenbaum acknowledged the errors and is conducting a citation audit, but he told Ars Technica he will continue using AI because it 'knits together ideas' in ways he finds valuable. He said AI-generated notes were flagged and passed to a fact-checker, yet the synthetic quotes slipped through. The incident exposes a weakness in traditional fact-checking: when AI is involved, the assumption that a quoted source exists can no longer be taken for granted. Rosenbaum's book is about how AI reshapes truth, making the irony particularly sharp.
Rosenbaum is a journalist and author. His book examines AI's impact on truth and media. The controversy follows a pattern of AI-generated errors in published works, raising questions about editorial standards when AI tools are used in research.
