“Most mornings I learn more from New Items than I do from all of the traditional papers I read combined.” — Michael Blair, Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School and former presiding partner, Debevoise & Plimpton.
1. Anthropic says its most advanced systems may be learning not just to reason, but to reflect internally on how they reason. These introspective capabilities could make the models safer — or, possibly, just better at pretending to be safe. The models are able to answer questions about their internal states with surprising accuracy. “We’re starting to see increasing signatures or instances of models exhibiting sort of cognitive functions that, historically, we think of as things that are very human,” Anthropic researcher Jack Lindsey, who studies models’ “brains,” says. “Or at least involve some kind of sophisticated intelligence,” Lindsey tells Axios. (Source: axios.com)
2. China’s first atomic quantum computer has passed a major commercial milestone, making its first sales to domestic and overseas customers, according to state media. Hubei Daily, the official newspaper of Hubei province, reported on Friday that the first commercial Hanyuan-1 unit had been delivered to a subsidiary of telecoms provider China Mobile while Pakistan had also placed an order. The sales were valued at more than 40 million yuan (US$5.6 million). The Hanyuan-1 was one of the few machines in the emerging field of atomic quantum computing to achieve mass production and delivery worldwide, the report said. (Source: scmp.com)
3. Late last year, dozens of researchers spanning thousands of miles banded together in a race to save one baby boy’s life. The result was a world first: a cutting-edge, gene-editing therapy fashioned for a single person, and produced in a record-breaking six months. Now, baby KJ Muldoon’s doctors are gearing up to do it all over again, at least five times over. And faster. The groundbreaking clinical trial, described on 31 October in the American Journal of Human Genetics, will deploy an offshoot of the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing technique called base editing, which allows scientists to make precise, single-letter changes to DNA sequences. The study is expected to begin next year, after its organizers spent months negotiating with US regulators over ways to simplify the convoluted path a gene-editing therapy normally has to take before it can enter trials. (Sources: nature.com, nejm.org. Italics mine.)
4. President Trump said China knows the risks of any attack on Taiwan but refrained from explicitly saying the US would intervene militarily on behalf of the democracy of 23 million people. (Ed. Note: That’s why it’s called “strategic ambiguity”) Speaking in an interview that aired Sunday with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Trump said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping “understands what will happen” if the People’s Liberation Army tried to invade. When pressed by host Norah O’Donnell on what that meant exactly, Trump said: “I don’t want to give away, I can’t give away my secrets.” Trump added that Xi and other Chinese officials have said in meetings that they would never move against Taiwan while he was US president “because they know the consequences,” according to a CBS transcript of the interview. (Sources: bloomberg.com, cbsnews.com)
5. President Trump yesterday said that, for now, he is not considering a deal that would allow Ukraine to obtain long-range Tomahawk missiles for use against Russia. Trump has been cool to a plan for the United States to sell Tomahawks to NATO nations that would transfer them to Ukraine, saying he does not want to escalate the war. His latest comments to reporters aboard Air Force One indicate that he remains reluctant. (Source: reuters.com)
6. Russian forces continue to intensify offensive operations in and around Pokrovsk to seize the town and collapse the Ukrainian pocket. Both Ukrainian and Russian forces recently made tactical advances in the Pokrovsk area. Geolocated footage published on November 1 indicates that Russian forces recently advanced in southeastern Pokrovsk. Additional geolocated footage published on November 2 shows Ukrainian forces striking two Russian soldiers in northern Pokrovsk conducting what ISW assesses was an infiltration mission that did not change the control of terrain or the forward edge of the battle area (FEBA). (Source: understandingwar.org)
7. The world’s top artificial intelligence groups are stepping up efforts to solve a critical security flaw in their large language models that can be exploited by cyber criminals. Google DeepMind, Anthropic, OpenAI and Microsoft are among those trying to prevent so-called indirect prompt injection attacks, where a third party hides commands in websites or emails designed to trick the AI model into revealing unauthorised information, such as confidential data. “AI is being used by cyber actors at every chain of the attack right now,” said Jacob Klein, who leads the threat intelligence team at AI start-up Anthropic. AI groups are using a variety of techniques, including hiring external testers and using AI-powered tools, to detect and reduce malicious uses of their powerful technologies. But experts warned the industry had not yet solved how to stop indirect prompt injection attacks. (Source: ft.com)
8. Time and again, the preeminent status of the US in global debt markets has been called into question since Donald Trump returned to power. From sweeping tariffs and tax cuts, to yawning budget deficits and persistent attacks on the Federal Reserve — a steady drumbeat of worries had many on Wall Street sounding the same ominous alarm: “Sell America.” In spite of it all, though, investors keep piling into US government debt. Borrowing costs are down, returns are up and the most dire predictions have, thus far, failed to materialize. In fact, the $30 trillion Treasuries market is up about 6% this year, on its way to the best year since 2020. (Source: bloomberg.com)
9. When President Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April, economists predicted surging inflation and raised the odds of a recession. Companies and consumers stockpiled to get ahead of price rises. Those worries now seem overblown. Inflation, while too high, is lower than forecasts. And the economy continues to grow despite the steepest tariffs in almost a century. “I’m not sure they’ve mattered as much as people thought they would,” said Kelly Kowalski, head of investment strategies at MassMutual. At the same time, the promised benefits of tariffs also largely haven’t come to pass: Revenues from Trump’s levies have been far lower than the Treasury Department predicted, and there are few signs of a domestic manufacturing boom. (Source: wsj.com)
10. US stocks rose to their 36th record high of the year last Tuesday afternoon, but portfolio manager Jacob Sonnenberg was in no mood to celebrate. Propelled by a handful of huge Silicon Valley technology companies tied to the artificial intelligence boom, the S&P 500 ended the session in the green. But this was despite the fact that 397 stocks lost ground. In 35 years, the blue-chip index has never posted a gain on a day when so many of its constituents have sold off, according to the Bespoke Investment Group. “I understand Nvidia is spitting out cash, I get it. But it’s still deeply concerning how concentrated this market is becoming,” says Sonnenburg, who focuses on tech stocks for California investment group Irving Investors. “If you’re not in one of about 10 names, it’d be insanely challenging to make money.” (Source: ft.com)
11. Opec+ has responded to fears of an oil glut by pausing its plans to increase production next year. Eight members of the oil producers’ group said on Sunday that they would add another 137,000 barrels a day of crude in December, but then halt any further rises in January, February and March. The group said the pause was due to “seasonality”. Oil demand in the first quarter is generally weaker after the end of the holiday season when oil refineries often go into maintenance. Oil prices bounced on Monday following the decision, with Brent crude climbing as much as 0.8 per cent to $65.28. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, rose 0.8 per cent to $61.44. (Source: ft.com)
12. Brain drain: The EU has seen a surge in interest from American academics applying for grants, as US researchers increasingly look for options abroad in response to President Donald Trump’s attacks on higher education. The EU received a record number of applications for its top research and innovation grants this year, including a tripling of US bids for a key fund compared with 2024. “In general, it’s not positive what has happened,” the EU’s research commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva told the Financial Times, referring to the situation in the US. “We are not celebrating what is happening with scientists, but we want to provide those scientists opportunities to continue their work.” (Source: ft.com)
13. Brain drain: Israel has unveiled tax incentives to encourage high-tech workers abroad to return home, as part of a series of measures designed to make one of the country’s key economic sectors more competitive. The measures come after officials said earlier this year that the number of Israeli tech workers leaving the country each month had jumped by about 45 per cent in the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war that started in October 2023, causing widespread disruption to the Israeli economy. (Source: ft.com)
14. Power of the Dog: A Mexican mayor who pleaded with President Claudia Sheinbaum to take a harder line against drug cartels was assassinated in a brazen public shooting Saturday night, the latest sign of the power of organized-crime groups that hold sway over much of the country. Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan, the hub of Mexico’s multibillion-dollar avocado industry in violence-torn Michoacán state, was gunned down as he officiated a candle-lighting ceremony observing the Day of the Dead in the city’s main plaza. He was shot seven times by a gunman who was killed by security forces, officials said. (Source: wsj.com)
15. A Michigan defense lawyer is disputing FBI Director Kash Patel’s allegations that his 20-year-old client and four other young suspects were planning to carry out a terror attack on Halloween weekend. Announcing their arrests on Friday, Patel said more information would be coming soon, however the FBI and Michigan authorities have offered few details about the case. Spokespersons for the state and national FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Detroit did not immediately respond to messages Saturday. However, lawyer Amir Makled, who represents a man from the suburb of Dearborn who was still detained on Saturday, said federal authorities haven’t given him many details about the investigation but after reviewing the matter, he concluded that no terror event was planned. He said he doesn’t expect any charges will be filed. He described the all-male group of U.S. citizens as gamers, and said they range in age from 16 to 20. (Source: apnews.com)
16. Astronomers from the International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have released an incredible image of the Milky Way shining in low-frequency radio light, revealing a spectacular realm invisible to the human eye — and indeed most telescopes. Made by meticulously stitching together thousands of observations over eighteen months, the epic mosaic shows a galaxy awash with the circular blotches of supernova remnants, the leftovers of a catastrophic explosion that destroys a star. (Sources: vimeo.com, icrar.org)
The Milky Way shining in low-frequency radio light. (Source: icrar.org. Photo Credit: ICRAR)
Quick Links: Trump says Xi will help fight fentanyl. Seems unlikely. The economic upsides of Donald Trump’s second term. Businesses press Supreme Court to strike down Donald Trump’s emergency tariff power. US regulators are approving bank mergers at the fastest pace in more than three decades. Canadians mourn the defeat of the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series.
Political: China’s Belt and Road Initiative is booming. Charismatic leader Zack Polanski emerges on the left to roil Britain’s political scene. Europe’s left flocks to New York to take notes on Mamdani’s meteoric rise. Czech Eurosceptic Andrej Babiš to agree coalition deal with far-right. Trump escalates demands for 2020 election investigations and prosecutions. Sorry: Canada’s Carney says he apologized to Trump over Reagan anti-tariff ad. The Great Gatsby comes to Mar-a-Lago. Top 10 US billionaires’ collective wealth grew by $698 billion in the past year, according to Oxfam America. New poll shows what Americans think of America, and it’s not great.
Science/Technology: In a first, AI models analyze language as well as a human expert. Too much social media gives AI chatbots ‘brain rot’. Sam Altman says ‘enough’ to questions about OpenAI’s revenue. Some white-collar professionals are trading PowerPoints for power tools. Some scientists argue that the link between increasing heat and adverse maternal outcomes is quietly becoming a public health emergency. Is that a UFO coming our way? Avi Loeb: a UFO is coming our way.
War: Vietnam is building islands to challenge China’s hold on a vital waterway. The last “militant” leader still fighting in the Middle East.