Takaichi shuffles Japan Cabinet to revive sagging support

Inquirer.net - Sep 18, 2026

TOKYO — Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reshuffled her Cabinet on Thursday in a bid to turn around her waning popularity, but retained key ministers as she pursues stronger ties with the US. Japan faces President Donald Trump’s tough demands for bigger defense spending, more investment in America and measures to combat a weak yen. The reshuffle is

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Harry makes first public appearance since return to UK

Sep 18, 2026

Harry makes first public appearance since return to UK

LONDON — Prince Harry on Thursday made his first public appearance since his shock return to Britain from the United States with his family three weeks ago. Harry, who quit Britain for California six years ago with his wife Meghan amid tensions with his family, attended a fundraising evening for his Invictus Games for wounded veterans in London. Dressed in a smoking jacket adorned with his military decorations, the 42-year-old prince took selfies with injured former soldiers at the event. Meghan did not accompany him. Along with their two children, Harry and Meghan landed back in the UK on August 26 and have kept a relatively low profile since. Speculation abounds over the reasons for their return, given that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left in the middle of a falling-out with his family, which only worsened after Harry published his tell-all memoir "Spare." His appearance at the event comes after the brother of Princess Diana, Harry's mother, unleashed a barrage of stinging criticism against King Charles III's behaviour towards his ex-wife. In a memoir being serialised in the Daily Ma

'In our lane': Fed's Warsh defies Trump but still fighting for credibility

Sep 18, 2026

'In our lane': Fed's Warsh defies Trump but still fighting for credibility

WASHINGTON — U.S. Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh delivered the interest rate hike this week that many economists think surging inflation required, defying President Donald Trump — but questions about the central bank chief's credibility linger. The Fed on Wednesday raised rates in the world's largest economy by 25 basis points to between 3.75 and 4.00 percent, with policymakers signalling at least one more rate hike before year-end. Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on the Fed's independence to set monetary policy since taking office, initiating a criminal probe into Warsh's predecessor and attempting to fire another Fed governor in his quest for lower rates to spur economic activity. He frequently insulted and berated former chair Jerome Powell, but delivered a muted — if still extraordinary — response to Warsh's announcement of the rate hike. Trump told reporters he spoke with Warsh before the Fed's meeting, telling him to "do what you want" and ascribing the decision to raise rates — which the Fed chair voted for and stood by — to a "hostile board." Asked by a

Anthropic's Claude is building its own next version, company says

Sep 18, 2026

Anthropic's Claude is building its own next version, company says

Anthropic's Claude is helping the company develop the next, more intelligent version of the model, the artificial intelligence lab said in an announcement Thursday. Claude is leading 26 percent of Anthropic's model research and development, which the company said means it can complete most of a given task “end-to-end from a high-level prompt" while still being under human supervision. The model is not yet working completely autonomously. Still, about 90 percent of the company's research and development is done in “collaboration” with Claude, which Anthropic said means the model can do “large chunks of work under close human direction.” The announcement came as some leading figures in AI, led in large part by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, are calling for a slowdown in the technology’s development over safety concerns. As leaders consider pacing AI's development, “we should do everything possible to minimize the gap between what frontier labs know and what the public knows,” the company said in a blog post. “This means better measuring the development of AI, reporting on it

Russians begin voting in controlled election as war drags

Sep 18, 2026

Russians begin voting in controlled election as war drags

MOSCOW — Polling stations opened early Friday in Russia's Far East, kicking off a three-day election that President Vladimir Putin's party is all but guaranteed to win in the fifth year of war with Ukraine. It will be Russia's first parliamentary election since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022. The conflict has since killed hundreds of thousands. Only parties that support Putin and the Kremlin's dragging military campaign have been registered to run. Moscow has also organized voting in occupied Ukraine. While few in Russia doubt Putin's United Russia party will sail to victory again, the vote is an opportunity for the Kremlin to gauge public support for the Ukraine war, the effects of which have hit home more than ever this year. The vote to renew the 450 seats in the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, will run until 1800 GMT on Sunday. Russia's Kamchatka peninsula and Chukotka — on the Pacific — are the first of Russia's 11 time zones to begin voting. Putin has ruled Russia since New Year's Eve 1999 and his United Russia party has dominated Russian politics sinc

Iran says struck oil tanker in Strait of Hormuz

Sep 18, 2026

Iran says struck oil tanker in Strait of Hormuz

TEHRAN — Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Friday they struck an oil tanker sailing under the Togolese flag in the Strait of Hormuz, state news agency IRNA reported. Tehran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait since the United States and Israel struck Iran in late February. The Islamic republic wants to charge tolls for passage, attacking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route. "The Togo-flagged oil tanker 'Trend' had been targeted and detained after a fire broke out on board," the statement said, referring to an attempted "illegal passage" through the vital waterway. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) announced Thursday a "security incident in the Strait of Hormuz, 16 nautical miles (29.6 km) northeast of Khasab, Oman." UKMTO did not provide details about the vessel involved, and it is unclear whether it is the same mentioned by the Revolutionary Guards.

WHO sees some progress in Congo's Ebola fight but cases surge in one area

Sep 18, 2026

WHO sees some progress in Congo's Ebola fight but cases surge in one area

GENEVA — The head of the U.N. health agency is hailing “encouraging signs” in the fight against an Ebola outbreak in one part of eastern Congo, while warning that case counts are rising fast in another as officials race to tamp down the virus. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that signs of gaining ground against the Bundibugyo virus, the rare species behind the outbreak, have emerged in Ituri province. But he said that the situation is one of “many outbreaks in many places.” “We are now starting to see encouraging signs that we are gaining ground. In the most affected parts of Ituri province, transmission is going down,” Tedros told reporters at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. South Kivu, he said, has reported no new cases since May. “But make no mistake, the epidemic continues to grow and continues to kill,” Tedros said. He said more than 7,200 cases and more than 3,500 deaths have been reported across seven provinces. In North Kivu, “cases are rising fast,” Tedros said. The number of weekly cases has nearly

The king and AI: UK monarch Charles meets artificial intelligence leaders as safety concerns swirl

Sep 18, 2026

The king and AI: UK monarch Charles meets artificial intelligence leaders as safety concerns swirl

LONDON — King Charles III on Thursday urged senior leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Nvidia to make sure that artificial intelligence remains under control and in the service of people and the planet. The gathering in Scotland was convened to discuss how AI can benefit society, and comes at a pivotal moment for the technology as debate swirls around whether rapid advances will soon put it beyond the ability of humans to rein it in. "The development of AI — its substance and its pace — are both intriguing and deeply concerning in equal measure," the king said in his opening remarks. The "existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands, and being used in potentially catastrophic ways” should be urgently considered, he said. "Surely, then, we need sufficient means of control before it is all too late?" The king asked attendees, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Google DeepMind Chair Demis Hassabis, to consider the "fundamental principles" that should guide AI development. ChatGPT maker OpenAI's Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar was also at

Gaza building collapse shows dangers plaguing enclave since Israel-Hamas truce

Sep 18, 2026

Gaza building collapse shows dangers plaguing enclave since Israel-Hamas truce

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The deadly collapse of a multistory building in Gaza has drawn new attention to the hardships facing Palestinians there nearly a year after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas promised to kickstart reconstruction. But as talks faltered, plans for rebuilding stalled. Many residents have since moved back into some of the hundreds of thousands of homes damaged by the war despite the risk of weakened foundations and unstable walls suddenly giving way. The Gaza Health Ministry said 21 people were killed in the collapse in Gaza City on Wednesday. Um Mohammad Adas, whose relatives were among the dead, said the fallen building had become a shelter of last resort. “Now, they are lying in the street homeless and with absolutely nothing,” she said of her family members who survived the collapse. “Even the clothes they are wearing were borrowed.” Families living in similar structures said they couldn’t afford any other shelter. “We don’t have money to go somewhere else,” Ahmad Arafat said on a street full of rubble near his home. “And we can’t afford

Yen sinks, sending Japan stocks surging as Bank of Japan hike draws two dissents

Sep 18, 2026

Yen sinks, sending Japan stocks surging as Bank of Japan hike draws two dissents

TOKYO — The yen dropped after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates in a well-telegraphed move, as dissent from two board members cast doubt on how aggressively it will tighten policy from here. Japanese stocks rallied, helped by the weaker currency, which boosts the value of overseas earnings when repatriated into yen. Japanese 2-year government bond yields, which are most sensitive to monetary policy expectations, sank 2.5 basis points to 1.835 percent as of 0442 GMT. "The rate hike itself was in line with market expectations, but the two dissenting votes came as a modest surprise," said Hirofumi Suzuki, chief FX strategist at SMBC in Tokyo. "The outcome has somewhat tempered expectations for further rate hikes and conveyed a dovish impression." The yen extended early declines to be down about 0.7 percent at 157.085 per dollar, near session lows at 157.145, its weakest level since September 3. Against that backdrop, the Nikkei surged 1.7 percent to 65,221.53, topping the psychological 65,000 mark for the first time in more than a week. The index had been up 0.8 percent at the midday

Anthropic quietly sets up biology lab as it ramps AI drug program

Sep 18, 2026

Anthropic quietly sets up biology lab as it ramps AI drug program

SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic has quietly set up a laboratory to do physical biology work as it pushes its artificial-intelligence ambitions into the world of drug science. At a time when fears of AI are gripping the public, the startup has built a wet lab, or place for physical experiments, in the San Francisco Bay Area, two people familiar with the matter said. Anthropic has said it wants to unlock treatments for rare diseases, and its biology work has gone beyond "in silico" or computer evaluations. In a Reuters interview on Tuesday, Anthropic's head of life sciences, Eric Kauderer-Abrams, confirmed the startup's wet lab. "We believe that to do biology, the final test is still and will be for a while in real lab work," he said. "We absolutely are doing that today, and I would describe our approach as being typical of what you would see in most biotech companies, where there's some amount of that that we're doing in our own facilities and some amount of that that we're working with external partners on." A spokesperson later clarified that Anthropic's lab is not for drug discovery specif

Bombing at mosque near police offices in Pakistan kills at least 16

Sep 18, 2026

Bombing at mosque near police offices in Pakistan kills at least 16

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A powerful bomb exploded Friday at a mosque near a building housing police offices in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 16 people and wounding 57, police and rescue officials said. The attack came as violence has surged in the region with security forces targeting militants. The bombing occurred in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, when an attacker apparently rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the mosque, said Zulfiqar Hameed, the provincial police chief. Hospital officials have confirmed that five police officers and 11 civilians were among the dead, Bilal Faizi, a senior rescue official said. Most of those wounded were worshippers, he said. Some were in critical condition. At least seven armed gunmen also attempted to enter the police compound and exchanged fire with officers. Six of the gunmen were killed, according to police. Photos from the scene showed the outer wall of the police offices had collapsed and the mosque was badly damaged. Smoke rose over the site after the blast, which witnesses and residents said

Is AI Making Cyberattacks Easier? Researchers Say They Breached OpenAI Systems Using Claude

Sep 18, 2026

Is AI Making Cyberattacks Easier? Researchers Say They Breached OpenAI Systems Using Claude

Researchers at Hacktron used Anthropic’s latest Claude model to exploit a vulnerability in OpenAI’s systems, highlighting the growing cyber capabilities of AI tools.

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