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United Utilities chief executive Louise Beardmore is in line to pocket £435,000 in shares a year, which will be paid out regardless of the company's performance.

Chinese AI systems "have matched the performance of Anthropic's powerful model Mythos in some cybersecurity scenarios," reports the Wall Street Journal. They call it "a development poised to reset the global tech race and pressure the White House in its overhaul of U.S. AI policy." Security researchers said that a new AI model, released this month by China's Zhipu AI, also known as Z.ai, can match the latest U.S. models when it comes to finding security bugs, although it still lags behind Anthropic's and OpenAI's products in other tasks. Overall, the capability gap between top U.S. models and those built by Chinese companies has narrowed significantly, and use of Chinese AI systems has surged as businesses seek to rein in runaway costs. A host of companies, including Microsoft, are weighing how they can offer Chinese models on their platforms, a development that is set to alter the balance of power among tech companies... Unlike models from Anthropic or OpenAI, Zhipu's GLM-5.2 is open-weight. That means it can be downloaded and run on hardware operated by anybody and can be modified and used without supervision. Open-weight models are ideal for users who want unfettered access to systems they control, but they are also ideal for hackers, who can run them in the shadows. GLM-5.2 has ranked as one of the 10 most-used AI models, according to data from OpenRouter, a company that provides access to more than 400 AI models. In some benchmarking tests, according to the cybersecurity company Semgrep, GLM-5.2 bested Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 model, which was released in May. When given further instructions, Opus 4.8 and GLM-5.2 can match Mythos in bug-finding ability, according to researchers... "Banning Fable while selling chips China needs to develop its own version is a gift to China," said Saif Khan, a distinguished technology fellow at the Institute for Progress think tank who worked on export restrictions in the Biden administration. The U.S. needs to maximize the use of Mythos and comparable models to harden its cyber defenses while it can, he added. Among the Mythos 5 and Fable 5 users that had lost access before Friday's decision to restore Mythos 5 access for some trusted entities: the National Security Agency, which had been testing the tools and found them impressive in trials, according to people familiar with the matter... "It is incentivizing companies across the globe to use cheaper but very capable Chinese open-weight models, while at the same time undermining the U.S. AI industry," said Niels Provos, a researcher who led security teams at Google and Stripe. "I don't understand it." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.

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The Ministry of Justice has already written to 7,308 victims telling them the Government's reforms may see criminals in their case let out of jail within months.

Simon Carman, 46, from south of Perth, was arrested after the body of 17-year-old Thongchai Donhomla was found by local police in luggage near railway tracks.

For Michelle Moore, hot summer days were the worst. Since her late 20s, the 58-year-old council worker had been living with painful and disfiguring varicose veins.

You didn't think he'd go quietly, did you? Ben Stokes hoicked Zak Foulkes to Daryl Mitchell at midwicket, threw back his head in disappointment and walked off to a standing ovation.

It was what Ben Stokes stood for, in tandem with the Boy's Own adventures he conjured with bat and ball, that made him one of the greats of England cricket.

Sheila Burgman's shock absorber needed replacing after her blue Peugeot 307 smashed into the pothole in January 2024.

Carrie Johnson, Ellie Goulding and Olivia Colman are backing calls by almost 100,000 people for a 'thorough and transparent' probe into missed opportunities to save the toddler.

Lydia Bright has doubled down on her criticism of school closures during the record-breaking heatwave.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Thomas Beatie reflected on the storm that erupted 18 years ago when he became the 'First Pregnant Man' - and introduces his daughter for the first time.

The Israelis taken hostage by Hamas gunmen from the Nova music festival massacre on October 7, 2023, have revealed the scale of the horror they endured at the hands of their captors.

Oliver Lloyd, 19, from Telford, Shropshire, was visiting the Uluwatu Temple in Bali, Indonesia , on June 15 when a long-tailed macaque grabbed his phone straight from his hand.

The actor famously kicked off his entertainment career as a child star in the early 70s.

The New York Times tells the story of a 63-year-old retiree who wrote a check for several thousand dollaras to pay her taxes. But she discovered much later that her taxes were never paid because that check had been intercepted and then altered to be payable to someone else: In some cases, thieves may pilfer one or more checks from local mailboxes. Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, said thieves sometimes "fish" for checks at free-standing drop boxes, using long tools with sticky pads on the ends to grab letters. In other cases, more sophisticated criminals may steal large batches of checks, copy them and then sell them on the internet. Often, the purloined checks are chemically altered in what's known as "check washing" to remove the name of the recipient. The thief replaces it with a fraudulent name, and often increases the amount of the check, before cashing or depositing it. The 63-year-old retiree's bank told her she'd waited too long to recover the funds: Schwab's "security guarantee," outlined on its website , says that "Schwab will cover losses in any of your Schwab accounts due to unauthorized activity." But fine print at the bottom of the page notes that reimbursement "requires your timely reporting of unauthorized activity to Schwab," and that Schwab "will not be liable for additional or increased losses resulting from a failure to report unauthorized activity in a timely manner." It notes that more details are available in account agreements... Notify your bank as soon as possible, said Scott Anchin, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and policy at the independent bankers association. Banks generally allow at least 30 days and sometimes up to 90 days from the time your statement is made available to you to report suspected check fraud, he said. So how can you avoid check fraud? Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, just suggests that "No one should ever mail a check." If you must write a check, he said, try to deliver it in person or take it inside a post office to mail rather than relying on your own mailbox or public drop boxes. The American Bankers Association recommends using permanent "gel" ink pens when you do write checks to reduce the risk of tampering... And if you don't already, consider using your bank's online bill payment service. The article notes that even the U.S. federal government "has been moving away from paper checks for things like benefit payments and income tax refunds, saying digital payment methods are more secure."

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The 38-year-old pop diva brought their son Riot Rose Mayers to her 37-year-old babydaddy's sold-out concert at the Kia Forum in LA, California on Saturday night

Ms Needham has spent every day since Ben's disappearance in 1991 pursuing fresh leads in the hope of finding answers about what happened to her son.

Stokes will end his England career at the conclusion of the third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge.

Zoe Saldaña exuded glamour in a black midi dress as she joined glamorous Hayley Atwell at Lancome's Longevity MD lunch in London on Sunday.

Our thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones