2026/08/11 Daily Edition

State confirms nine cases, including five deaths, from Vibrio vulnificus organism, which thrives in seawater Health officials in Louisiana are urging beachgoers to take precautions during a summertime surge in infections from a flesh-eating bacterium found in coastal waters. Louisiana has confirmed nine cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections this year, the state’s health department said last week in a news release. All were hospitalized, and five died. During the same period over the previous decade, Louisiana reported an average of seven cases and one death...

Researchers analysed activity in regions of brain when dogs were shown images of different facial expressions While dogs are known to turn the puppy eyes on their owners, it seems our pets are keeping a close eye on us too: research has revealed dog brains can distinguish different types of unhappy human faces. Dr Laura Cuaya, a co-author of the study from the University of Vienna, said previous behavioural studies had shown dogs could tell apart some human facial expressions, but such studies tended to only test two at a time, one positive and one negative. As a result, it was not clear if dogs could distinguish different types of happy or unhappy faces...

Scientists have worked out what is going on inside a dog's brain when it sees a human smiling or scowling.

A brutal summer has exposed how much pressure European countries are under from forces largely out of their grip: war in Iran and Ukraine, record heat and more.

The penalty, imposed by a state judge, is on top of a $375 million fine ordered by a jury that found Meta misled users about the safety of its platforms.

The tech giant is investing in the natural-gas-burning power plant as part of a huge data center in Texas, even as it pledges to honor climate commitments.

VHS Dates advertises itself as resurfacing lost dating service videotapes from the 1980s. The account’s followers have been genuinely touched.

Exclusive: anonymous flagging service says cases have surged, as watchdog says AI is making sexualised or ‘nudified’ content easier to produce Children in the UK have reported a surge in explicit deepfake images featuring their likenesses, as a safety watchdog warned AI is making such content easier to produce. The Report Remove service, which blocks intimate images from appearing online, said there had been a rapid increase in imagery that had been digitally manipulated or “faked” in some way, including with AI and nudification tools...

The woman who found the chocolate bar during a house clearance compares it with today's Mars Bars.

A Trump administration framework on AI testing leaves a lack of transparency – and plenty of open questions After months of talking with tech industry leaders, the Trump administration finalized a framework this week for how it will test new artificial intelligence models for safety and cybersecurity risks. So far, the White House is keeping details of the framework private, in a blow to transparency and potential boon for secretive AI companies. On Tuesday, staff from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, Nvidia and Microsoft attended a private meeting with White House officials to review the AI framework. Multiple outlets have since reported that although the volunteer vetting process for new AI models has been settled, the White House does not plan to release its policy publicly and will only share testing criteria with a select few tech companies...

Researchers say breakthrough offers hope for new medicines but also raises urgent biosecurity questions Scientists have made the first viruses designed by artificial intelligence in a milestone that raises hopes for new medicines but also concerns over how to ensure the technology remains safe. The viruses are specific kinds known as bacteriophages, which only infect bacteria and are used around the world to treat patients with persistent infections. In lab tests, a cocktail of the AI-designed viruses killed E coli bugs that were resistant to natural bacteriophages...

The United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, starting a monthslong war that spread to neighboring countries and rocked global markets.