WhatsApp Warns Users of Stealthy Hacking Attack Targeting Nearly 90 Individuals

The parents of Suchir Balaji, an OpenAI whistleblower found dead in November, have filed a lawsuit against the San Francisco Police Department, alleging negligence and a cover-up in the investigation of their son's death. Poornima Rao, Balaji's mother, stated in an interview with CNN-News18 that the police declared the case a suicide without reviewing critical CCTV footage. The lawsuit stems from claims that the police mishandled the investigation, making contradictory statements about whether the case was open or closed. Rao criticized the officers for failing to investigate thoroughly and seeking evidence that could clarify the circumstances surrounding her son's death. “They have violated California's Public Records Act and we sued them for the violation of CPRA,” she asserted. Balaji had raised ethical concerns regarding OpenAI’s practices and was reportedly a witness in a lawsuit against the organization. His family also suspects foul play, alleging that data related to Balaji’s revelations was deleted by OpenAI prior to his death.

Katharine Hayhoe, a prominent climate scientist and chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy, expressed optimism despite climate policy setbacks stemming from Donald Trump’s return to the White House. In an interview, she countered claims that the U.S. could disengage from global climate action, stating, "They can slow it down, but they can’t stop it," and noted that "last year, China installed more solar panels than the United States has in its entire history." Hayhoe emphasized that climate change disproportionately affects those least responsible for it, which motivated her career shift from astronomy to climate science. She criticized the misunderstanding of climate policies, encouraging more localized actions to mitigate emissions. Acknowledging the polarized views on climate in the U.S., she adapted her message to resonate with a broader audience by avoiding the term "climate change." Addressing concerns over public perception, Hayhoe cited research from Yale University indicating increasing public awareness of climate risks, fueled by frequent climate-related disasters. "Public opinion is changing; climate change is affecting the way people think," she concluded, reinforcing that hopeful action is crucial.

A recent study has shown that supermassive black holes in the universe are rotating at significantly higher speeds than previously believed. Researchers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) conducted this groundbreaking work, connecting black hole spins to the accretion of gas and dust over billions of years. Logan Fries from the University of Connecticut stated, "We unexpectedly found that they were spinning too fast to have been formed by galaxy mergers alone.” The findings suggest that the early universe's structure may have been more organized than assumed and indicate that black holes may grow largely through the materials they consume. The research used the SDSS’s Reverberation Mapping project to measure black hole spins by analyzing variations in light emitted from their accretion disks. This study reveals that many black holes are spinning much faster than models based solely on mergers of galaxies would predict. Notably, those in distant galaxies exhibited even higher rotation rates, implying a gradual accumulation of angular momentum through accretion processes. Fries presented these findings at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Maryland on January 14.