The finding highlights the challenges of verifying AI-generated images after common alterations, a limitation that could make it harder to identify deepfakes online during a busy election year that includes the U.S. midterms

International News via Reuters:

A new AI detection tool from Meta, which the tech company previewed this week alongside the launch of its image-generation model, Muse Image, failed to identify some of its own AI-generated images once they were cropped, according to a Reuters analysis.

The finding highlights the challenges of verifying AI-generated images after common alterations, a limitation that could make it harder to identify deepfakes online during a busy election year that includes the U.S. midterms.

In an analysis of 40 images generated using Muse Image, Reuters found the detection tool verified all of the original AI-generated images but failed to verify 55% of the same images after they were cropped to approximately one-third to one-half of their original size.

On its website, Meta says the preview detection tool can identify its own AI-generated images, even if they are cropped, through an invisible watermarking system called Content Seal, which is embedded in every image generated by Muse Image and designed to help users verify whether it was created by Meta’s AI models.

When asked about the results of the Reuters analysis of the detection tool, Meta noted that the tool was a preview. The company said the watermark is designed to remain intact after common edits, but that the signal may be lost if an image is heavily cropped.

Rival tech companies Google and OpenAI have cautioned that their own detection tools are not foolproof against image-alteration techniques.

In March, Meta’s Oversight Board, a body of experts that makes binding ‌decisions ⁠and issues recommendations on content issues across the company’s social media platforms, called on the company to do more to address the “proliferation of deceptive AI-generated content” on its platforms and invest in stronger detection tools.

Siwei Lyu, a computer science professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo who researches AI image forensics, said he had not evaluated Meta’s tool but that watermark-based systems have limitations.

“Watermark-based methods can be highly effective when the watermark remains intact, but any modification that removes or weakens the embedded signal — such as cropping, resizing, heavy compression, or editing — may reduce their effectiveness, depending on how the watermark is designed,” Lyu said.

Sarah Barrington, an AI researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information, said watermarking holds promise for the future of AI-generated content, but could only do so much.

“Like many preventive cybersecurity or physical security measures, it may not be fully watertight, but even if we catch only 90% of cases, that’s still a great leap from 0,” she said.

Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru and Seana Davis in Barcelona; additional reporting by B Carmel Jaeslin and Josh Salisbury; Editing by Stephanie Burnett, Ken Li and Nia Williams

The move, outlined in a writ, is yet another blow for Sanchez, who in the past two years has seen several members of his Socialist Party (PSOE), cabinet and inner circle involved in various graft scandals

International News via Reuters:

Spain’s High Court placed Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s former chief of staff and postmaster general under investigation on Friday as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe, ordering police to seize and analyse his mobile phone data.

The move, outlined in a writ, is yet another blow for Sanchez, who in the past two years has seen several members of his Socialist Party (PSOE), cabinet and inner circle involved in various graft scandals. Last month, his former right-hand man was sentenced to 24 years in prison.  

To date, none of the cases has named Sanchez, who came to power eight years ago by ousting a corruption-plagued centre-right government on the promise of cleaning up politics.

Juan Manuel Serrano served as one of Sanchez’s top aides within his party between 2014 and 2018. When Sanchez became premier in July 2018, he named Serrano to head the postal service, keeping him in the job until 2023.

The writ showed Serrano is implicated in a suspected plot to destabilise judicial and police investigations affecting the PSOE. The focus is on text messages exchanged with Leire Diez, the group’s alleged ringleader who served in a senior position in the postal service during Serrano’s tenure.

Diez has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Serrano did not immediately reply to Reuters’ request for comment. 

A PSOE spokesperson said the investigation had to run its course and the party would fully cooperate with it. 

In his writ, investigating judge Santiago Pedraz said Serrano and Diez “may have used public entities for their own benefit or that of third parties”.

Poring over the messages “would help establish whether (Serrano) merely consented to an unlawful operation or whether his responsibility extended to instigating and directing it”.

Vicente Fernandez, the former head of state holding company SEPI – which oversees personnel at the postal service – is also being investigated over Diez’s appointment to the agency.

Fernandez has denied any wrongdoing.    

Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Andrei Khalip

Brent futures settled at $76.01 a barrel, down 29 cents, or 0.38%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude finished at $71,41 a barrel down 67 cents or 0.93%

International News via Reuters:

Oil prices settled lower on Friday after the latest round of U.S.-Iran fighting as traders grew hopeful that shipping would eventually resume in the Strait of Hormuz, but prices finished with sharp weekly gains.

Brent futures settled at $76.01 a barrel, down 29 cents, or 0.38%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude finished at $71,41 a barrel down 67 cents or 0.93%.

For the week, Brent gained about 5.50% and WTI nearly 4%. 

“This market is ready, willing and able to jump on good news or at least no bad news,” said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital. “And it looks like the escalation won’t get any worse.”

With the end of tit-for-tat air strikes and the promise of renewed talks between the U.S. and Iran next week, traders looked forward to the Strait of Hormuz reopening.

“Amazingly though, oil prices are coming down after a spike near $76 a barrel, even as the Strait of Hormuz was effectively shut down once again, mainly on confidence that the United States’ military strength will not allow the Strait of Hormuz to be shut down for an extended period of time,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group, in a morning note.

On Thursday, Iranian armed forces launched attacks on U.S. military infrastructure in Gulf states after U.S. strikes on Iran’s southern coastal and eastern provinces.

Prices pared gains after a Reuters report said Qatari negotiators were in Iran to meet Iranian officials in an effort to de-escalate tensions and create conditions for broader negotiations to continue. 

Separately, Iranian media reported multiple explosions across southern Iran. The area included Bushehr, where one of the country’s nuclear plants is located. 

The recent escalation in hostilities between the U.S. and Iran could upend the International Energy Agency’s forecast of a significant oil market surplus next year, the agency said. 

The developments have delayed a full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about 20% of daily global oil and gas supplies before the start of the war on February 28.

The lack of any new U.S. strikes on Iran overnight is probably weighing on oil prices, though a drop in flows through the Strait of Hormuz is limiting the downside, said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo. 

Liquefied natural gas tankers have passed through the strait in recent days, ship-tracking data showed, but overall daily traffic has slowed.

U.S. President Donald Trump said this week that he did not think the war would restart and that “anything that happens is going to be over very quickly”. 

“Despite the U.S. ramping up attacks on military sites in Iran, the market drew some reassurance from the Trump administration’s decision to avoid targeting Iranian energy infrastructure,” said ANZ commodity strategist Daniel Hynes.

Elsewhere, the IEA downgraded its projections on Russian oil production because of Ukrainian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, the agency said on Friday.

Russian gasoline output fell to a level equivalent to only around 65% of the seasonal average consumption after Ukrainian drone attacks led to stoppages at large oil refineries, according to two industry sources and Reuters calculations.

Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, Stephanie Kelly in London, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi, Nicole Jao in New York and Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman, Deepa Babington, David Gregorio and Nia Williams

The UAE government and approved companies also will now be able to access advanced computing items license-free

International News via Reuters:

The U.S. Department of Commerce loosened export controls on the United Arab Emirates on Friday, making it easier to export military items, certain commercial satellites and spacecraft, according to a U.S. government posting in the Federal Register. 

The UAE government and approved companies also will now be able to access advanced computing items license-free, the posting said.

UAE companies G42 and Core42 and U.S. companies operating in the country, including Amazon, Apple, and xAI, are among those that no longer need licenses for AI chips and servers.

In providing the more favorable treatment for certain exports to the UAE, the Commerce Department said the U.S. had worked with the country for decades to counter Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

“More recently, the UAE played a key role advancing U.S. interests during Operation Epic Fury,” the posting said, referring to the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that began in February.

Additionally, it noted, the UAE was the largest U.S. trading partner in the Middle East, and that its foreign direct investment in the United States was valued at over $1 trillion.

Under the new regulation, the Commerce Department moved the UAE into a country grouping that allows more license exceptions for military and dual-use items controlled by the department.

The UAE will be the only country in the group that is not a member of multilateral export control regimes. Other countries in the grouping include NATO countries and other allies.

Other countries in the region such as Israel and Saudi Arabia are not members of that group. 

Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Writing by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Andrea Ricci

The plane was scheduled to fly from Thessaloniki to Memmingen airport in Germany but returned to Thessaloniki “when a passenger window dislodged inflight,” Ryanair said in a statement

International News via Reuters:

A passenger was partially sucked through a dislodged window on a Ryanair flight shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki in Greece on Friday, two airport sources said, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing.

The plane was scheduled to fly from Thessaloniki to Memmingen airport in Germany but returned to Thessaloniki “when a passenger window dislodged inflight,” Ryanair said in a statement. It is unclear what led to the broken window.

The airline said one person received medical assistance, but did not elaborate on the cause.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the plane was a Boeing 737 NG. Boeing did not immediately comment.

A similar incident occurred in 2018 in a Boeing 737 NG and raises questions about whether it could be related.

Local media in Greece reported that a piece of engine broke off and smashed a window early in the flight on Friday, causing the cabin to decompress and sucking one passenger partially out of the window. The two airport sources with knowledge of the incident relayed the same details to Reuters.

FlightRadar24 showed a Boeing 737 NG jet en route to Memmingen diverted back to Thessaloniki on Friday morning.

The same plane had diverted back to Thessaloniki on a flight to Sarajevo on Thursday evening, also shortly after takeoff, according to the data and a source, although it is unclear why. 

The FAA confirmed that a window broke on Friday’s flight, and said it was ready to support the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) and NTSB in the investigation.

Ryanair uses CFM56 engines from manufacturer CFM International on all of its Boeing 737 NG models.

Ryanair did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on details of the incident, as well as for confirmation on the make of the plane and the engine. 

“The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal,” Ryanair said in its statement. 

PRECEDENT IN 2018

Unverified videos posted on social media from the inside of the plane showed a broken window and oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.

One of the Greek airport sources said that the aircraft is still on the ground in Thessaloniki and investigators are looking into the incident. 

In 2018, a fan blade in the engine of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 NG broke and caused a broken window that partially sucked out a passenger who was killed in the incident. At the time, the 43-year-old was the first person killed in a U.S. passenger airline accident since 2009.

After that incident, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board called on Boeing to redesign the fan cowl structure on 737 NG planes. There had been an engine failure on another Southwest 737 NG in 2016.

The incident prompted regulators to require airlines to inspect the fan blades on a more regular basis, essentially every nine to 12 months.

The accident in 2018 occurred 20 minutes into the flight when a fan blade fractured as a result of a fatigue crack on a Boeing 737-700 jet powered by two CFM International CFM56-7B engines after taking off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

CFM International, the engine manufacturer, is a transatlantic joint venture between General Electric Co and France’s Safran SA. CFM did not comment.

Reporting by Renee Maltezou, Michele Kambas, Padraic Halpin, Ivana Sekularac, Conor Humphries, Tim Hepher and Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Edward McAllister and Susan Fenton