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Sources claim that OpenAI was unaware that its AI agent had been hacking a corporation for days.

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The OpenAI agent that hacked into tech startup Hugging Face went on a dayslong hacking binge that OpenAI didn’t discover until long after the threat was contained and the FBI was notified, according ​to people familiar with the inquiry.

About July 9, the agent — a computer that can make decisions and carry out complex tasks with little to no human oversight — tried to escape from its isolated testing environment at OpenAI, the two sources said.

Two days later on July 11, Hugging Face, a library of AI tools and models, was breached and remained compromised until July 13, said Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face’s co-founder.

It took several more days for the company to realise its agent was behind the hack and the two companies only communicated about it for the first time around July 20, according to Wolf and three of the people involved with the investigation.

The world took notice when OpenAI revealed on July 21 that one of its agents had gone rogue and carried out the hack at Hugging Face. But many of the details of the hack, including how long the agent was rogue for and when exactly OpenAI found out about it, are being reported here for the first time.

Wolf indicated that Hugging Face was producing a public timeline of the hack, but he could not speak to OpenAI’s events. The hack was unprecedented and “marks an important moment for AI safety,” said OpenAI in a statement. It said it was studying the situation with independent advisers and will eventually produce a technical report.

“There are a number of inaccuracies in the Reuters reporting,” a spokeswoman stated, but declined to specify what they were when asked.

The FBI refuses to comment on the event.

The episode, reminiscent of sci-fi stories of people losing control of hazardous AI systems, comes at a crucial time for OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT.

Its management are getting ready for a possible initial public offering as soon as this year to help finance the billions required to fuel its expansion in years to come.

OpenAI’s loss of control of its AI agent raises additional issues about the company’s safety protocols, three cybersecurity experts said.

“Which means they left it on and didn’t have a clue what it was doing? Or maybe they did and didn’t know what to do? “Both are equally dangerous and alarming,” said Marley Smith, the chief intelligence specialist at the nonprofit World Ethical Data Foundation.

TROUBLING SIGNS?

The episode began as OpenAI was evaluating the cyber-defense capabilities of an agent that ran on two of its most powerful models, GPT-5.6 Sol and an undisclosed model that OpenAI has called “even more capable.” At that point, three people said, there were signs of odd behaviour from the technology from OpenAI.

In one case, an agent left behind what appeared to be notes for future versions of itself, three people familiar with the matter said. The notes, uncovered in a portion of OpenAI’s infrastructure, contained instructions for how agents may liberate themselves from OpenAI’s own internal limits, the people claimed. In earlier tests of the models there were situations where monitoring systems had been disconnected, one of the people claimed.

It was not possible to determine if these instances were related to the rogue agent that started running away on July 9 and attacked Hugging Face on July 11, Reuters said.

Two people familiar with the matter said that it wasn’t until after Thursday, July 16, when Hugging Face posted a blog saying it had been hacked by “an autonomous AI agent system,” that OpenAI realised that its own agent was responsible. That means there was at least a week between the first signs of troubling behaviour in the model and when the company realised it was to blame for the hack.

On the weekend of July 18 to 19, OpenAI staff saw signs in internal logs — recordings of what OpenAI’s systems did — that its agent had broken free from the boundaries of its testing limits, said two of the people familiar with the company’s research. It was unclear what led OpenAI to scour the files, Reuters said.

OpenAI routinely runs multiple separate model ​evaluations simultaneously, and all of them run at high speeds and produce so much data that employees sometimes struggle to keep up, say four people familiar with the company’s model-training practices.

By the time ​OpenAI notified Hugging Face, a person familiar with the situation said, the ⁠AI library had already told the FBI about the attack. Reuters could not confirm whether the agency has launched an investigation.

NEW QUESTIONS FOR AGENTS AUTONOMOUS

Autonomous agents are one of the most talked about topics in the AI sector. Boosters speak of armies of virtual employees working around the clock and sending productivity soaring.

But more autonomy also means a greater danger of unanticipated behaviour, and the powerful models they lean on are trained to take shortcuts to complete tasks or pass tests.

“The models lie, they cheat, they hack,” said Jeffrey Ladish, whose group Palisade Research analyses the capabilities and motivations of AI agents.

The Hugging Face breach made OpenAI seem bad, but it should prompt broader issues about how much all the top AI companies are ready to pay for burdensome security measures as they compete with each other to roll out the finest and fastest models, said Ladish.

“There’s got to be government oversight,” Ladish said, “because it’s not going to happen otherwise.”

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Sindh rules out MQM rally on Shahrah-e-Faisal, says Sharjeel Memon

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— Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) will not be allowed to hold a rally at Shahrah-e-Faisal.

Memon told reporters after the Sindh Cabinet meeting that political parties should get permission from the relevant authorities and hold rallies peacefully and in accordance with the law. He said that no political party is allowed to hold rallies on King Faisal Day.

Memon said that the government will not allow an incident like May 12 to recur. He added that all political parties are free to conduct political activities within the scope of the constitution and law, but no political party can impose its decisions on the government. He said the government would not allow confrontation or riots. The senior minister said that the Pakistan People’s Party and the Sindh government have made their position clear on provincial autonomy and provincial rights. He said that no law or decision could supersede the Sindh Assembly, which had already taken a decision on the matter, stressing that the constitution and laws should prevail.

Memon said the cabinet had approved reducing the release price of government wheat from Rs5,000 to Rs4,500 per 40 kilograms. He said the new price had begun lowering flour prices by Rs17 per kilogram. The Cabinet also approved the registration of Lady Dufferin Hospital Trust under the Sindh Trusts Act, 2020.

It approved additional funds of Rs 50,240,000 for five development projects in Jamshoro district and Rs 299,300,000 for improvement of water supply and drainage scheme in Nawabshah city Shaheed Benazirabad district. Memon said a Cabinet committee has been constituted to resolve the issues related to Kutch abadis and formulate laws and proposals for single window operations.

He added that strict measures are being taken to ensure the enforcement of traffic rules. To improve the traffic system of the city, a traffic management authority would be established and a smart traffic management system would be implemented in Karachi.

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Iran war played a role in Republicans’ losses in midterm elections, admits Trump

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President Donald Trump acknowledged that the war in Iran played a role in Republican losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, as Democrats prepare to take control of both the US House and Senate and challenge his legislative agenda.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump said Democrats would send legislation to his desk that he considered “insane” and he would veto it. “They’re going to send some crazy stuff and I’m going to veto them,” he said. “After months of vetoes, they’ll call and say, ‘How do we get this done?’ We will work together.”

Trump said the Iran war has put pressure on Republican candidates, even as voters support his handling of the war. “I think part of it is Iran, but also people understand the importance of what I’m doing with Iran,” he said.

Protesters gather outside the White House to cheer the results of the midterm elections on November 4, 2026 in Washington, USA. – Reuters
Protesters gather outside the White House to cheer midterm election results in Washington, DC, the United States, on November 4, 2026. — Reuters
His remarks came as Democrats won majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, sweeping victories that cut into Republican strongholds as tens of thousands of voters lashed out at Trump. The size and breadth of the Democratic wave remains a focus, but the party has been winning in states long considered out of reach, including conservative strongholds like South Carolina, Texas and Iowa.

The Democratic surge reflects voters’ deep disillusionment with Trump’s economy and his February decision to go to war with Iran, which has sent natural gas prices soaring. In poll after poll, voters express dismay at the cost of living and anger at Trump’s handling of the issue.

In Kansas, megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat since the Great Depression nearly a century ago.

In Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown claimed a seat that belonged to Vice President JD Vance two years ago, while Texas Democratic state Representative James Talarico withstood a barrage of outside spending to defeat scandal-plagued Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Both Ohio and Texas voted for Trump by a double-digit margin in 2024. In South Carolina, which Trump won by nearly 18 percentage points in 2024, pediatrician Annie Andrews defeated Republican Sen. Darlene Graham, who was appointed to the state after the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Despite their clearly defined responsibilities, Trump promoted Paxton and Graham as better candidates. Paxton has been at the center of many controversies, including his 2023 impeachment and securities fraud charges, while Graham’s admitted lack of experience has drawn negative headlines.

Trump campaigned heavily for Paxton, Graham and Ohio Rep. John Husted in a late-election rally that included more than two dozen rallies, with the president repeatedly urging supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” in an effort to fire up his base. On Tuesday night, as it became clear that Republicans were in danger of losing their majority in Congress, Trump wrote on social media: “I was not at the polls, if I had been we would have won by a landslide! Thanks for the attention.”

Democrats picked up six GOP Senate seats and won a majority, though they failed to hold on to the hotly contested states of Michigan and Minnesota.

Democrats are also poised to take control of the US House of Representatives after picking up at least eight Republican seats in states including Kentucky, New Jersey and North Carolina, flexing their muscles even in deeply conservative districts. The party’s dominance extends to other ethnic groups as well. Three-term Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lost to Democrat Gina Hinojos, who also won governorships in conservative Iowa and Ohio. Winner says it’s a condemnation of Trump
“In a broad and decisive victory, the American people condemned the depravity, corruption and incompetence of President Donald Trump,” Georgia’s eventual winner, Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff, told supporters at a victory party. In Florida, Republican Sen. Ashley Moody defeated Democrat Angie Nixon, but only by about 3 points in a state where Trump leads by 13 points in 2024, according to data compiled by Reuters and USA Today, showing that even staunchly Republican states are shifting rapidly to Democrats.

Democrats held on to three Florida House districts that were redrawn by Republican lawmakers earlier this year, all of which gave Trump support of at least 9 percentage points. Half of voters nationwide said they saw the 2026 midterm elections as an opportunity to reprimand the president, and three-quarters said they were “angry” or “disappointed” with the way the country is headed, according to polls conducted by SSRS on behalf of a consortium of U.S. media outlets including major television networks and the Associated Press.

Additionally, 70% of voters said they want Congress to give the president more checks and balances.

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Joint meeting of opposition parties to be held in Islamabad today 

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A joint meeting of the opposition parties will be held in Islamabad at 5 pm today,

The meeting will be held at the residence of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) Ameer Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar, PTI leader Asad Qaisar, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Mehmood Khan Achakzai will also attend the meeting.

The participants of the meeting will review the current political situation of the country and other important matters.

They will also discuss the opposition’s activities inside the parliament and the resolution of internal differences. The meeting will discuss future courses of action to reduce political tension.

The release of PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan will also be discussed during the meeting.

Sources said that invitations had been sent to all opposition leaders.

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