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Congo's Ebola outbreak cases top 1,000 cases, death toll reaches 254

Confirmed cases in the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo have reached 1,003, including 254 deaths, officials said in a statement late Sunday. A total of 100 people have recovered in the outbreak concentrated in the Ituri province since it was declared on May 15, Congo's Ministry of Health said. The Ebola outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no vaccines or treatment, was the worst ever in its first month. Officials admit there could be far more cases they still don't know about and that the peak of the outbreak is still ahead. Contact tracing remains a key issue for local authorities, who have only achieved a 55 per cent coverage rate, the ministry said. Officials also are yet to identify the outbreak's patient zero and still need to trace more than 35,000 people who have come in contact with infected individuals as of last week, authorities said.

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Ebola cases increase almost 40% in week as death toll passes 200

The Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda has claimed more than 200 lives in its first month and is the worst known outbreak at this stage, with up to 35,000 suspected potential contacts, Africa's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. With 894 confirmed cases so far, the current outbreak is three times worse than a previous outbreak in Uganda in 2000, which had 281 cases at the same point, said Dr Wessam Mankoula, a medical epidemiologist at Africa CDC. The latest number of cases is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed on May 15, weeks after it was suspected to have begun. The number of cases has increased 38% since last week and is now in 32 health zones across eastern Congo, said Mankoula. The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccines or treatments and was not tested for in the early days. The more common Zaire virus, for which there is a vaccine, was responsible for most of Congo's past 16 outbreaks of

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Cybersecurity experts urge Trump admin to lift curbs on Anthropic AI models

A group of cybersecurity executives and experts is asking the Trump administration to lift its directive preventing the use of Anthropic's latest artificial intelligence models by foreign nationals, saying the move could help US adversaries more than it hurts them. Anthropic said Friday it has taken its latest artificial intelligence models, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5, offline to comply with the directive. The AI giant said it did not believe the steps taken by the government were warranted by the concern it flagged about a potential security issue. Anthropic has said it was limiting use of some its latest technology to select customers because of its ability to surpass human cybersecurity experts in finding and exploiting computer vulnerabilities. The San Francisco-based company has had discussions with the White House previously about the latest models' capabilities. In the letter Sunday, more than 100 cybersecurity experts and leaders from companies including Adobe and Nvidi

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Ebola outbreak in Congo kills 131, over 500 suspected cases reported

At least 131 deaths and over 500 suspected cases have been reported in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, the Congolese health ministry said Tuesday as details emerged about the government's delayed response. Samuel Roger Kamba, the minister of public health, said: "513 suspected cases and 131 deaths have been recorded in the affected areas." "These are suspected deaths, and investigations are underway to determine which ones are actually linked to the disease." The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Sunday declared the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time that the Bundibugyo virus has been detected. Cases have now been confirmed in Bunia, North Kivu's

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Court rejects Musk's claims against OpenAI, saying lawsuit filed too late

A federal court on Monday dismissed claims filed against OpenAI and its top executives by Elon Musk, who accused them of betraying a shared vision for it to remain a nonprofit dedicated to guiding artificial intelligence's development for the good of humanity. Musk, the world's richest man, was a co-founder of OpenAI, which launched in 2015 and went on to create ChatGPT. After investing $38 million in its first years, Musk accused OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his top deputy of shifting into a moneymaking mode behind his back. The nine-person jury found that Musk waited too long to file his lawsuit and missed the deadline for the statute of limitations. The jury had deliberated only two hours. The jury served in an advisory role, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the verdict Monday as the court's own and dismissed Musk's claims. The three-week trial in Oakland, California shed light on the bitter falling-out between the two Silicon Valley titans and the beginnings of OpenAI, no

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WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak in Congo, Uganda

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the Ebola disease outbreak in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths. In a post on X, the World Health Organisation said the outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic, and advised against the closure of international borders. Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal. Health authorities have confirmed the current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been reported. Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in neighbouring Uganda, the W

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Canvas outage during cyberattack disrupts finals at schools, universities

A system that thousands of schools and universities use was offline on Thursday during a cyberattack, creating chaos as students tried to study for finals and underscoring education's dependence on technology. The hacking group named ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach at Canvas, said Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emisoft. Instructure, the company behind Canvas, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment or questions about whether the system was taken down as a precaution or because the hackers knocked it offline. Canvas is used to manage grades, course notes, assignments, lecture videos and more. The hacking group posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed, Connolly said. Students quickly took to social media to ask if others were unable to access Canvas, with many panicking that they could no longer view course materials housed within the platform

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OpenAI prez Greg Brockman tells court his stake in firm is worth $30 bn

Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and CEO Sam Altman's top lieutenant, disclosed in court Monday that his stake in the artificial intelligence company is worth nearly USD 30 billion. Brockman, who also said he did not personally invest any money in OpenAI, was testifying Monday in the trial that centres on the company's 2015 founding as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Elon Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at USD 852 billion. Brockman's disclosure would put him on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, with wealth comparable to Melinda French Gates. The civil lawsuit accuses Altman and Brockman of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company's founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind Musk's back. Late Sunday, OpenAI lawyers tried to admit as evidence a text message Musk sent to Brockman two days before the trial began. ...

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What to know about hantavirus, illness suspected in cruise ship outbreak

A rodent-borne illness is suspected of causing an outbreak aboard a cruise ship that has killed three people and sickened others. Studies indicate hantaviruses have been around for centuries, with outbreaks documented in Asia and Europe. In the Eastern Hemisphere, it has been linked with hemorrhagic fever and kidney failure. It wasn't until the early 1990s that a previously unknown group of hantaviruses emerged in the southwestern United States as the cause of an acute respiratory disease now known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease gained attention last year after the late actor Gene Hackman's wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico. The World Health Organisation said in a statement Sunday that detailed investigations of the cruise ship outbreak are ongoing, including further laboratory testing and epidemiological investigations. Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing. The virus is spread by rodents and, more rarely, ...

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Apple's John Ternus steps into spotlight after flying under radar for years

Apple's next CEO John Ternus is a company veteran who rose through the iPhone maker's hardware engineering ranks but until now has maintained a low profile. Ternus will take over as chief executive in September for Tim Cook, who turned Apple into a USD 4 trillion tech colossus during his 15-year run after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. Ternus faces challenges that will force him to step out of his comfort zone in hardware engineering. Beyond finding ways to keep Apple competitive in the artificial intelligence race, he will need to navigate supply chain questions and relationships with figures like President Donald Trump, who offered public praise for his predecessor on Tuesday. Although Cook is handing over the CEO reins at Apple, he is widely expected to help the Cupertino, California, company maintain a good relationship with Trump after he shifts over to his new role as executive chairman. Ternus, 50, has spent almost his entire career with Apple. He joined the company 25

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