Morning Skim
AI
OpenAI stops training its frontier models on the live internet
OpenAI says its newest frontier models are no longer trained on the live web, using a curated offline data world instead.
Why it matters: It signals a turning point in how cutting-edge AI is built, and could ease scraping fights and live-web contamination concerns.
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The Verge
UK to put 100 million pounds into a world-first AI Biosecurity Lab
The chancellor will announce the AI Biosecurity Lab funding in Wednesday's Budget to shore up UK defenses against biological threats.
Why it matters: It puts AI at the center of pandemic preparedness policy, not just products.
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BBC
Tech
Google says your Gmail and Photos data might now feed ad targeting
A quietly updated Google privacy policy says turning on Personal Intelligence gives the company more data, including Gmail and Photos content, for ad targeting.
Why it matters: Millions enabled the AI features without realizing they were also expanding Google's ad profile.
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Ars Technica
Quest Diagnostics confirms patients' data was compromised in a breach
The lab testing giant says patients' personal and health data was compromised in a breach of a third-party system.
Why it matters: Quest serves a huge share of US testing, so the exposure reaches a vast slice of patient records.
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TechCrunch
Business
Trump drops some Canada tariffs to rescue Susan Collins in Maine
The White House is rolling back some Canada tariffs in Maine, where the trade war has outraged voters ahead of Susan Collins' critical re-election battle.
Why it matters: It shows the president's tariff wall bending to electoral pressure, a signal other trade-dependent states will note.
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The Guardian
California voters are set to decide the world's first billionaire tax
Californians will vote on requiring the mega-rich to hand over billions of dollars to fund healthcare improvements.
Why it matters: If it passes, expect a wave of copycat measures and billionaire relocations far beyond California.
Dive deeper → BBC
Science
One of Earth's most powerful supervolcanoes is refilling with fresh magma
Underwater seismic surveys reveal a vast magma reservoir refilling beneath Japan's Kikai caldera, 7,300 years after one of Earth's most powerful eruptions.
Why it matters: Seeing a supervolcano system recharge in real time improves how scientists read the warning signs at Kikai, Yellowstone and Toba.
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ScienceDaily
Crows process visual information twice as fast as mammals
Researchers found crows evaluate visual information at roughly double the speed of mammals, apparently thanks to their compact nervous systems.
Why it matters: It suggests bird brains achieve primate-level cognition with radically different, faster hardware.
Dive deeper → Ars Technica
World
Typhoon Champi kills one and injures more than 500 in Taiwan
The weakening super typhoon still left large parts of Taiwan, including Taipei, mostly closed with flights cancelled as it heads toward China.
Why it matters: Champi is the second major storm to slam East Asia this month, straining recovery budgets and supply chains.
Dive deeper → The Guardian
Israel launches a new military operation across the occupied West Bank
Israeli forces began a days-long operation with raids and demolitions, with Netanyahu saying 'we will destroy this place.'
Why it matters: The scale of demolitions and raids tests the fragile ceasefire diplomacy running in parallel.
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Al Jazeera
Culture
Ryu Murakami, Japan's enfant terrible of fiction, dies at 74
The bestselling author of more than 40 subversive works, including Audition and Coin Locker Babies, has died.
Why it matters: Murakami mapped the dark underbelly of Japanese society and shaped both modern fiction and J-horror film.
Dive deeper → The Guardian
Tony Iommi releases From the Dark, his first solo album in over 20 years
The Black Sabbath guitarist has released From the Dark, his first solo LP in more than two decades.
Why it matters: It arrives weeks after Sabbath's farewell era closed, extending the band's catalog story one more chapter.
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Consequence
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