September 2026
All columns and Brief analyses.
10 results
Anthropic withholds Mythos 5.1 from UK pre-release testing
Anthropic did not give the UK AI Security Institute pre-release access to Claude Mythos 5.1, launched on 1 September, while vetted US organisations received access. It is the first time the institute has been excluded from a pre-release evaluation of an Anthropic model. The UK Cabinet Office says cooperation continues, but Anthropic has not explained the decision.
Bianfu Cave's Denisovan fossils date to 167,000-134,000 years ago
Four teeth, two cranial fragments and a forearm bone from three Denisovans have been identified in Bianfu Cave in Yunnan. The fossils date to 167,000-134,000 years ago, while the cave's cultural layers span 190,000-70,000 years ago. Combining ancient proteins with tooth and bone morphology adds detail about Denisovan anatomy, hunting and tool use.
Bosnia gives two Serbian diplomats 48 hours to leave
Bosnia and Herzegovina declared two staff members at Serbia's embassy in Sarajevo personae non gratae and gave them 48 hours to leave. Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković announced the decision amid rising tension after Ratko Mladić's funeral in Belgrade. Sarajevo is also withdrawing most of the staff from its embassy in the Serbian capital.
Britain, France and Canada form a common trade front against settlement goods
The leaders of Britain, France and Canada pledged national import bans on goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Britain also prohibited services to settlements, including finance, construction, infrastructure, real estate and advertising. The three governments call settlement expansion and rising settler violence a direct and urgent threat to a two-state solution.
Cegid and Silae unite payroll and payments in a group valued above 10 billion euros
Cegid and Silae agreed to put accounting, tax, payroll, e-invoicing and payment tools into one group with an enterprise value above 10 billion euros. Silver Lake will retain majority ownership; the new structure will serve 2 million end users and more than 15,000 accountancy firms. Completion is expected in the first half of 2027 after employee consultation and regulatory approval.
Chandra's 84 hypersoft sources expose galaxies' ultraviolet blind spot
A search of the Chandra archive found 84 hypersoft X-ray sources across six galaxies. These point-like objects radiate mainly below 0.3 keV and release most of their energy in easily absorbed extreme ultraviolet. Possible sources include accreting white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes; some may offer new targets in searches for type Ia supernova progenitors and for radiation that ionises galactic gas.
ChatGPT Images 2.5 turns a doodle into an image instruction
OpenAI's ChatGPT Images 2.5 adds a Sketch window whose doodle becomes part of the generation instruction, plus comments placed on specific image areas. OpenAI claims generation can be up to 50 percent faster, while Axios's early test focuses on likeness preservation and more precise local editing.
China's producer prices rise 3.8 per cent in August
Producer prices in China rose 3.8 per cent over the year and 0.4 per cent over the month in August. Increases of 26.6 per cent in coal mining and 20.8 per cent in non-ferrous metal processing show cost pressure concentrated near the start of the production chain. Falling consumer-goods prices indicate that the increase has not reached every factory-gate product equally.
Cognition reaches a $48 billion valuation with a $2 billion round
Cognition, developer of the Devin coding assistant, raised more than 2 billion dollars at a 48 billion dollar valuation. TechCrunch reports that the round follows a 26 billion dollar valuation four months earlier, while SiliconANGLE independently reports the same financing and new valuation. TechCrunch also says annualised revenue has risen from 492 million dollars to 900 million dollars since May, without disclosing how the metric is calculated.
Colombia and the US frame cooperation on critical minerals and civil nuclear power
Colombia and the United States signed two memorandums on critical minerals and civil nuclear cooperation during Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to Barranquilla. The minerals document aims to position Colombia as a reliable partner in strategic supply chains, while the nuclear document opens gradual technical talks on energy security and research; the agreements do not grant direct extraction rights.