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BlackRock boss Larry Fink: Oil at $150 will trigger global recession

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BlackRock boss Larry Fink: Oil at 0 will trigger global recession



Larry Fink says if oil prices stay high for a sustained period it will have “profound implications” for the world economy.



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Judge calls Pentagon’s moves against AI firm Anthropic “troubling”: “It looks like an attempt to cripple Anthropic”

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Judge calls Pentagon’s moves against AI firm Anthropic “troubling”: “It looks like an attempt to cripple Anthropic”


A judge sharply questioned a lawyer for the federal government on Tuesday over the Pentagon’s efforts to cut Anthropic out of its classified systems — the latest development in a dispute between the company and the Trump administration over AI guardrails.

The back-and-forth revolves around Anthropic’s push to bar the military from using its AI model Claude to surveil Americans or power fully autonomous weapons. The Trump administration has said it needs the ability to use Claude for “all lawful purposes.” When the two sides were unable to come to an agreement, the Pentagon designated Anthropic a “supply chain risk” and moved to stop private companies from using Claude on military contracts, leading Anthropic to sue.

Anthropic, which argues the Pentagon’s action was an unconstitutional attempt to punish it for speech, is asking the judge to block the supply chain risk designation, as well as President Trump’s order for all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic. 

In a Tuesday afternoon hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin appeared skeptical of the government’s actions, calling them “troubling” and saying they “don’t really seem to be tailored to the stated national security concern.”

“If the worry is about the integrity of the operational chain of command, DOW could just stop using Claude,” Lin said, using the acronym for the Department of War, the administration’s term for the Defense Department. “It looks like defendants went further than that because they were trying to punish Anthropic. One of the amicus briefs used the term ‘attempted corporate murder.’ I don’t know if it’s murder, but it looks like an attempt to cripple Anthropic.”

Early in the hearing, Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton conceded that the supply chain risk designation does not stop companies that contract with the military from using Anthropic’s model on non-military-related work — a move Anthropic has argued would be illegal.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had written on social media last month that “no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.”

Upon questioning from Lin about Hegseth’s post, Hamilton confirmed that the Defense Department will not terminate any federal contractors because they have relationships with Anthropic that are separate from their work with the Pentagon. He also said he wasn’t aware of a law that gives the department that kind of power.

Anthropic’s attorney, Michael Mongan, argued that Hegseth’s post has still created “profound uncertainty” and harmed the business, noting that it has been viewed millions of times.

The law that was used against Anthropic defines a supply chain risk as a “risk that an adversary may sabotage, maliciously introduce unwanted function, or otherwise subvert” a national security system.

Hamilton said Tuesday the government decided to label Anthropic a supply chain risk because the company’s negotiating position and discussions with military officials made the Pentagon unable to trust Anthropic, and sparked concerns about a “risk of future sabotage.” He suggested the military is worried about Anthropic trying to “manipulate” its software or install a “kill switch.”

Lin questioned that stance, and said the government appears to be saying that a company can be designated a supply chain risk because it is “stubborn” and “asks annoying questions.”

In Tuesday’s hearing, Mongan denied that the company has the ability to change, shut off, surveil or otherwise influence its software once it is approved by the government and deployed for use. He also argued that if Anthropic poses a serious risk, it doesn’t make sense that the government appeared open to striking a deal with the company until the very end.

“A saboteur is not going to get into a public spat,” Mongan said. “They’re just going to accept the contractual term proposed by the government and then go and do … nefarious things.”

Lin said Tuesday that she plans to rule on the matter in the coming days.

The conflict between the government and Anthropic — which was the only AI firm whose technology was deployed in classified U.S. military systems — highlights a broader debate over acceptable uses of AI and how extensively the technology should be regulated.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has said he wants to work with the military, but he has vowed to stick to two “red lines” banning mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons that can carry out strikes without human input. He argues that AI’s potential to surveil people is “getting ahead of the law,” and said “the reliability is not there yet” for autonomous weapons.

“I think we are a good judge of what our models can do reliably and what they cannot do reliably,” Amodei said in an interview last month with CBS News.

The Pentagon has said it has no interest in using Anthropic’s technology for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, and argues those uses are already illegal and banned under existing military policies, respectively. But the military has said its decisions about lawful uses of AI technology shouldn’t be up to private companies, and has accused Anthropic of trying to impose its own values onto the government.

Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael said last month that Amodei has a “God-complex” and “wants nothing more than to try to personally control the US Military.”

On Tuesday, Lin called that dispute a “fascinating public policy debate” but not the focus of the case, noting that both sides agree the Pentagon can choose not to use Anthropic. Instead, she said, she plans to focus on whether the government’s moves to label Anthropic a supply chain risk are legal.



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Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea: Women’s game needs more respect with officiating – Sonia Bompastor

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Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea: Women’s game needs more respect with officiating – Sonia Bompastor


Bompastor was visibly upset on the touchline as she approached the fourth official to question the decision.

Chelsea’s players looked bemused and their frustrations grew, including Bompastor kicking a bottle, when Kadeisha Buchanan’s late effort was ruled out for a foul on goalkeeper Anneke Borbe, although replays showed that was the correct decision.

Asked what feedback she received from the officials on their decisions, Bompastor said: “Nothing. It’s always the same. You go to them and ask them to check they made the right decision, they always say ‘yeah, we are checking.’

“But they made the wrong decision. Nothing changes. When a human makes a mistake, you can understand a little more but when there is the VAR, it’s really difficult.

“I don’t think it’s been the first time for us this season in the Champions League. When we played Barcelona, Catarina Macario’s goal was not offside. That changes a lot. I just think they need to be better.”

Bompastor insisted she believes VAR is good for the women’s game but that the officials using it must be the “right people to check the situations”.

Asked how the women’s game could be respected more, Bompastor said the solution would be to bring the “best” referees to the biggest games.

“If that has to be coming from the men’s game, then maybe,” she said. “If it is coming from the women’s game, then [use] the best ones,” she added.

“We need to make those decisions. It’s really frustrating. We need to bring competence which is the most important thing.”

Pesu, 36, has officiated throughout this year’s Women’s Champions League and oversaw two games at last summer’s European Championship, including the opening match between hosts Switzerland and Norway.



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Oil trades surged just before Trump’s post on Iran talks. Some experts are suspicious.

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Oil trades surged just before Trump’s post on Iran talks. Some experts are suspicious.


Financial markets experts are raising concerns about possible insider trading after an unusual spike in oil futures trading only minutes before President Trump announced talks with Iran on Truth Social.

Mr. Trump’s announcement, which he posted on social media shortly after 7 a.m. EST on Monday, caused oil prices to tumble and the Dow Jones Industrial Average to surge more than 1,000 points. The president also touted what he described as “productive” peace talks with Iran, providing relief to investors concerned about rising oil prices and their impact on inflation and economic growth. 

The message amounted to a sudden shift from Mr. Trump’s post on Saturday that threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants unless it reopened the Strait of Hormuz to ship traffic. That abrupt change, which caught investors by surprise, has drawn scrutiny over unusual trading activity just before Mr. Trump issued Monday’s market-moving announcement.

“Massive spike”

In the minutes before Mr. Trump’s Monday morning post, there was a spike in oil futures trading, according to Bloomberg News and the Financial Times. Between 6:49 a.m. and 6:50 a.m., about 6,200 Brent and West Texas Intermediate futures contracts changed hands, with a notional value of $580 million, according to the Financial Times’ analysis of Bloomberg data. 

The average trading level for the same time period over the previous five trading days was about 700 contracts, Bloomberg News reported

Market experts said the trading volume in crude oil futures on Monday morning was larger than typical for that time of day.

“The massive spike in volume of trades right before that post is certainly enough to raise eyebrows, and I think to launch an investigation into what was behind that,” Stephen Piepgrass, a partner who specializes in futures trading at the law firm Troutman Pepper Locke, told CBS News.

Insider trading — when individuals or firms trade on material information that isn’t publicly available — is illegal because it undermines market integrity and investor confidence, noted Jill Schlesinger, CBS News business analyst and a former options trader on New York’s Commodities Exchange.

“Does it seem fair that someone is trading and making money and profiting on information that you and I don’t have? Yeah, that kind of stinks,” she said.

But Schlesinger said she doesn’t expect government securities regulators to investigate the oil trading, partly because Mr. Trump has previously expressed support for a lighter regulatory environment.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees futures markets, didn’t immediately return a request for comment. The White House also didn’t immediately return a request for comment. 

No clear catalyst

One reason the surge in oil futures trading is arousing suspicion is that no market-moving announcements were slated for Monday morning, such as government economic releases or speeches from Federal Reserve officials. 

The trading “was especially bizarre because there were no major news items — no major publicly available news items — to drive sudden big market transactions,” Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote in a March 24 blog post

He added, “The story would be baffling, except that there’s an obvious explanation: Somebody close to Trump knew what he was about to do, and exploited that inside information to make huge, instant profits.”

Despite those suspicions, it’s unclear whether the trading was initiated by a person or an algorithm of the kind widely used in computerized trading, with the latter typically relying on preset strategies for executing trades, Tim Skirrow, head of energy and derivatives at consulting firm Energy Aspects, told CBS News. 

Skirrow’s data shows that trading at 6:50 a.m. on Monday was six times the typical volume for that time. “In terms of size, this is not exceptionally large — just unusual for this time of day,” he said. 

Other questionable trades

Other recent examples of unusual trading have raised questions about people potentially acting on confidential or even classified government information. 

  • One trader, under the account name “Magamyman,” made nearly $600,000 on the February timing of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, according to data from Polymarket. 
  • Another prediction market user has made $967,000, including many trades involving Iran, CNN reported. The trader has a success rate of more than 93% on bets valued above $10,000, an unusually high win rate, the news outlet said.
  • A Polymarket trader made more than $436,000 in January by betting that former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be captured by U.S. forces. The wager came shortly before President Trump had ousted Maduro. 

Oil trading volatility

To be sure, the oil market has been unusually volatile during the past several weeks amid escalating conflict in the Iran war. Brent crude, the international benchmark, is trading at about $100 a barrel, a 37% increase from before the start of the conflict on Feb. 28.

Oil futures trading volume has also been elevated since the outbreak of hostilities. More than 3 million contracts have been traded on several days in March, compared with typical trading of about 700,000 to 1.4 million contracts in the three weeks before Feb. 28, according to data from financial services company CME Group. 

“The volume [on Monday] was a bit more normal than the usual time of the day, but there’s a lot going on in the market,” said Darrell Fletcher, managing director of commodities at Bannockburn Capital Markets.

Uncanny predictions?

Signs of potential manipulation in the oil markets come as concerns mount among lawmakers and regulators over possible insider trading on prediction market platforms, where users can bet on the outcome of political, sports and many other future events.

On Monday, The Guardian reported that bets totaling $70,000 made by eight Polymarket users on a U.S.-Iran ceasefire suggest potential insider trading.

As financial market dynamics shift and concerns over potential manipulation mount, the CFTC appears to be taking a more hands-on approach, according to Piepgrass. The agency recently launched a proposed rulemaking process that focuses in part on what actions prediction markets should take to prevent insider trading. 

Piepgrass said the outcome of that process could have implications not just for prediction exchanges, but also for oil markets.

“My sense is the CFTC is undergoing a sea-change right now because of this. They’re seeing more activity than they have seen in decades, maybe since they were created,” he said. “They’re reassessing everything.”

Lawmakers are also scrutinizing prediction markets. Last week, a bipartisan group of senators and House representatives introduced a bill that would prevent traders from betting on government actions, war, and events where an individual knows or can control the outcome. The lawmakers said their goal includes blocking government officials from making bets based on insider information. 

As regulators clamp down, prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket are moving to tighten their own rules on insider trading, a move some experts describe as an effort to preempt stricter government oversight. Both companies said Monday they have guardrails in place to detect suspicious activity.  

—CBS News’ Jake Rosenwasser contributed to this report



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Green fireball captured on dashcam video as meteor streaks across the sky

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Green fireball captured on dashcam video as meteor streaks across the sky


PORTLAND, Ore. — Jason Jenkins was driving to work before dawn when a bright green streak beamed across the sky.

The camera on his dashboard captured the moment at 6:06 a.m. Monday while he was in southwestern Washington state about 20 miles (32 km) north of Portland, Oregon. Initially he thought it might be a comet, but then figured it was too close to be one.

“It kind of reminded me of a lightning strike because it was so bright,” he said. “The video doesn’t do justice on how bright and close it seemed.”

What Jenkins saw was a fireball, a particularly bright meteor that can be seen up to 80 miles (129 kilometers) above the Earth, according to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

Last week a 7-ton meteor sped across the Ohio sky in a fireball that could be seen from several states away. It broke apart in a thunderous boom that startled residents who feared an explosion.

On Saturday, a meteor traveling 35,000 miles (56,327 km) per hour broke apart north of Houston, according to NASA. The disintegration caused booms heard by some in the area, the agency said, and a resident told local TV news outlet ABC13 that a piece of the meteor crashed through her roof.

Green fireballs like the one Jenkins saw are often due to the presence of magnesium, which emits a bright blue-green light when heated and vaporized in the Earth’s atmosphere, the museum said. Nickel can also contribute to a green color.

Its altitude in the dark early morning sky made it widely visible, said Jim Todd, the museum’s director of space science education.

“It was bright, it was green, it was spectacular,” he said Monday. “One tiny little piece of rock put on such a show this morning.”

With the video and other people reporting sightings, it may be possible to determine the direction the fireball was traveling and whether it landed on the Earth’s surface. In most cases, it’s rare that a fireball makes contact with the Earth, and when it does, it can be hard to locate, Todd said.

“Even if it does survive, it looks like a common everyday rock, and nearly almost impossible to find, unless it hit a house or a street or leaves debris behind,” he said.

As the number of people with cameras on their dashboards and doorbells has grown, so have reports of such sightings, he added.

Jenkins said that while he got his dashcam in case of an accident, it was “cool to catch something like that.”

“I won’t go without a dashcam ever again,” he said. “I need to go buy a lottery ticket now.”



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If someone gets into your email, they own every account you have. These 3 moves lock them out for good

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If someone gets into your email, they own every account you have. These 3 moves lock them out for good


NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

My friend Lisa called me last night, voice shaking. Someone had cleaned out her PayPal. Then her Amazon. Then they tried her bank. Three accounts in 40 minutes. The criminals never touched her passwords. They didn’t have to.

They had her email.

10 SIMPLE CYBERSECURITY RESOLUTIONS FOR A SAFER 2026

Think about what lives in yours right now. Bank statements. Medical results. Your retirement account, your mortgage company, every streaming service, every store you’ve ever bought anything from. And here’s the part that should stop you cold: every password reset link on the planet gets delivered straight to your inbox.

A criminal doesn’t need to hack your bank. They just need your inbox. One account. Every other door swings wide open. That’s not a flaw in the system. That’s how email was designed to work. And most people protect it with the same password they’ve been using since the Bush administration.

Nope. Not anymore.

Online criminals prowl the web for information on your banking, personal documents and other related accounts. Experts say your email could be a gateway for this activity. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)

Here’s how fast it actually happens

The criminal goes to your bank’s website. Click “forgot password” and type in your email address. The bank sends a reset link to your inbox. The criminal, already inside your email, clicks it, creates a new password and walks right in. Then they do it to your Amazon. Your PayPal. Your brokerage. Your health insurance portal.

Each account takes about 60 seconds. It’s less effort than ordering a pizza.

The FBI calls this account takeover fraud, and it cost Americans $2.7 billion last year alone. The part that should really bother you: 81% of victims said they thought they were “pretty careful” about security beforehand. (Their words, not mine).

BE AWARE OF EXTORTION SCAM EMAILS CLAIMING YOUR DATA IS STOLEN

Three moves. No excuses

1. Get a real password for your email right now.

If your email password is under 16 characters or reused anywhere else, change it today. I use NordPass ($1.43 a month) to generate passwords that look like a cat walked across my keyboard. You remember one master password. It handles the rest. That’s the whole deal.

Get rid of your old emails

Experts say that securing your email can limit your exposure and vulnerability to cybercrime. (Cyberguy.com)

2. Turn on two-factor authentication. But not the text message version.

Two-factor means even if someone steals your password, they still can’t get in without a second code. Good. But here’s what most people don’t know: SMS text codes can be hijacked through something called a SIM swap attack. A criminal calls your cell carrier, sweet-talks a customer service rep and transfers your phone number to their device. Now your “secure” text codes go straight to them.

Use Google Authenticator instead. It generates codes on your physical phone, not through your carrier. Go to your email account’s security settings and swap SMS verification for an authenticator app. Takes five minutes.

NEW EMAIL SCAM USES HIDDEN CHARACTERS TO SLIP PAST FILTERS

3. Audit every app connected to your inbox.

Every time you clicked “Sign in with Google” to access some website or app, you handed that app a key to your email. Some of those apps can read your messages. Some can send emails posing as you. I did this audit last year and found 34 apps with access to my Gmail. Thirty-four. Apps I’d completely forgotten existed, still holding a master key to everything.

Go here right now: myaccount.google.com > Security > Third-party apps with account access. Revoke anything you don’t recognize or actively use. Gone.

Person looking at their computer screen.

Experts say taking a few simple steps to audit apps and emails will protect you from cybercrime vulnerabilities.  (CyberGuy.com)

Your bank has a fraud department. Your credit card has zero-liability protection. Your email? Nobody’s covering that one but you.

Twenty minutes. Three moves. Lisa wishes she’d done it on a boring Sunday afternoon instead of a panicked Tuesday night.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Your inbox is either a fortress or an open door. There’s no in between. And unlike your front door, this one doesn’t even need a deadbolt. Just strong security.

Kim Komando is America’s Digital Goddess, heard on 510 radio stations nationwide. For more tips on staying safe online, visit Komando.com.



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Video Travel disruption continues even after deployment of ICE agents to U.S. airports

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Video Travel disruption continues even after deployment of ICE agents to U.S. airports



Berardi Immigration Law Managing Partner Rosanna Berardi answers questions about the role of ICE agents in U.S. airports.



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Miami Open: Jannik Sinner extends record winning run

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Miami Open: Jannik Sinner extends record winning run


Jannik Sinner extended his remarkable run with a 7-5 7-6 (7-4) win over Alex Michelsen at the Miami Open.

The Italian world number two claimed his 25th and 26th consecutive set wins at ATP Masters 1,000 events during his win over Corentin Moutet on Monday – setting a new record.

Sinner made it 28 sets in a row by beating Michelsen but did not have it all his own way. Having taken the first set, he fell 5-2 down in the second before coming back to win on a tie-break.

The four-time Grand Slam winner has triumphed at the past two Masters 1,000 tournaments – at Indian Wells earlier this month and Paris in November – without losing a set.

In the women’s draw, Coco Gauff takes on Belinda Bencic in a quarter-final later on Tuesday, while Karolina Muchova was the first to power into the semis with a 7-5 7-6 (7-5) win against Canada’s Victoria Mboko.

Third seed Elena Rybakina ended Talia Gibson’s run late on Monday with a comprehensive 6-2 6-2 win to move into the last eight.

The 21-year-old Australian had won 11 of her past 12 matches but was outclassed by two-time Grand Slam champion Rybakina, who will face fifth seed Jessica Pegula on Wednesday.



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Salah will get the Liverpool farewell, but he leaves a void to fill

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Salah will get the Liverpool farewell, but he leaves a void to fill


All good things must come to an end. Even Mohamed Salah — the epitome of a good thing for Liverpool over the past eight-and-a-half years — cannot go on forever.

On Tuesday, the Egypt international shocked the football world by confirming he will depart Anfield at the end of the current season. But while the timing of Salah’s announcement was unexpected, the past few months have increasingly appeared to be setting the stage for his Liverpool curtain call.

After all, it was less than four months ago that serious doubt was cast over the forward’s immediate future. Following the Reds’ 3-3 draw with Leeds United, he sounded off to reporters, claiming he had been “thrown under the bus” amid the team’s poor run of form.

The situation initially seemed irretrievable — and yet, after being omitted from Liverpool’s travelling party for their subsequent trip to Inter Milan, Salah was later reintegrated into the squad.

It is a testament to his mental fortitude — and to that of head coach Arne Slot — that a civil resolution was able to be reached. Salah had once again become a nearly ever-present for Liverpool after returning from the Africa Cup of Nations in late January, before he was forced to miss the weekend’s clash with Brighton & Hove Albion with a muscle problem.

Had the 33-year-old been ushered out of the back door in the January transfer window, it would have felt like an abrupt and unbecoming end to one of the all-time great Liverpool careers. Now, supporters have the opportunity to give Salah the farewell he deserves.

“I never imagined how deeply this club, this city, these people would become part of my life,” Salah said in an emotional video posted to his social media accounts on Tuesday.

The feeling, it is safe to say, is mutual.

Since joining the club from AS Roma in 2017, the forward has emphatically carved his name into the annals of Anfield history. He is third on the club’s all-time leading goalscorer list, having netted a staggering 255 times in 435 appearances.

Salah has won eight major trophies, including two Premier League titles and the UEFA Champions League in 2019. During his time on Merseyside, he has registered 189 goals and 92 assists in the Premier League — the highest number of goal contributions managed by any player for one club in the competition’s history.

His brilliance is so great that it now seems he cannot step onto the pitch without sending another record tumbling. And yet his impact is such that it cannot and should not simply be distilled into matches played and trophies won.

Over the past nine years, Salah has become a cultural phenomenon. To a generation, he is Liverpool Football Club, with his importance extending far beyond the realms of the sport itself. In 2019, the Egypt international was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine, having been named among the most 100 influential people in the world.

In 2020, he was honoured with a wax statue at London’s Madame Tussauds. In 2021, a study in the American Political Science Review determined Salah’s transfer to Liverpool had led to a 16% reduction in hate crimes in the city, as well as reducing Islamophobic online rhetoric.

There is barely a corner of Merseyside that is not in some way marked by the Liverpool forward, whether that be with an elaborate piece of street art or by the sight of a child with his name emblazoned on the back of their shirt. He has become woven into the tapestry of the region, and his legacy will endure long after he says his Anfield farewells.

From a football perspective, Salah’s impending exit leaves Liverpool with a huge void to fill. The Egyptian has failed to live up to his own impossibly high standards this term — his current tally of 10 goals in 34 games puts him on course for his least productive season in a red shirt — and yet it is still almost impossible to imagine Liverpool without him.

From a financial perspective, the move has both positive and negative repercussions for the club.

Sources have told ESPN Salah will leave on a free transfer, despite him having only signed a new two-year deal last April. While the agreement reached with Liverpool means the club will not be able to recoup a significant transfer fee this summer, his early exit will unburden them from paying his astronomical weekly wages next season, freeing up vital capital to help continue the Reds’ rebuild.

Most poignantly, though, Salah’s departure is perhaps the biggest sign yet that the sun is setting on what was a golden era for the club under previous manager Jürgen Klopp. While he is not the first of Klopp’s most favoured lieutenants to leave Anfield, he is irrefutably the most high-profile, and next season will provide the opportunity for a new face to take over the role of Liverpool’s main man.

Salah, though, is not quite done yet. With Liverpool battling to secure European qualification and through to the quarterfinals of both the Champions League and FA Cup, the season is still very much alive and Reds supporters will hope their long-time talisman is poised to go out on a high.

Should Liverpool defy expectations to clinch a trophy or two in the coming months, it would certainly be an ending fit for an Egyptian King.



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Meta told to pay $375m for misleading users over child safety

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Meta told to pay 5m for misleading users over child safety



The owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp has been found liable by a court in New Mexico.



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