How did OpenAI agents end up hijacking a German website? | Reuters World News

Hi, I'm Peter Devlin in London. It's Saturday, September 5th. Today, explosions reported near Iran's Karg Island as tanker strike reports emerge. Sources say the White House reviews possible successors to Hegseth deputy. Open AI agents caught communicating on hijacked German websites. And CDs are back and sales are surging. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Explosions have been reported near Iran's Karg Island, a key oil export terminal in the Gulf, amid unconfirmed reports that an Iranian tanker was targeted by US forces. Iranian media say blasts were heard near the island, while state-affiliated news outlets cited local reports that a tanker may have been struck. There have been no immediate confirmation from either Iranian or US officials, and the origin of the explosions remains unclear. The reports come after Iranian authorities warned that they would respond forcefully to any attack on Karg Island. The US embassy in Havana has issued a health alert, warning of a spike in diarrheal illnesses linked to the island's deteriorating water and power infrastructure. The alert comes as Cuba struggles with widespread blackouts and water shortages, nine months into a US fuel blockade that has deepened the country's energy crisis. US officials are advising residents and travellers to be cautious with food and water as health concerns grow. The White House has reviewed candidates to potentially replace Deputy Defence Secretary Steve Feinberg, according to three people familiar with the discussions who spoke to Reuters. The effort has included discussions with senior Senate lawmakers about whether potential replacements could win confirmation, according to two of the sources, who said the review was still ongoing as recently as late August. The sources say no decision has been made to remove Feinberg, and it's unclear why the White House has been considering replacements. The White House pushed back on the report, saying the anonymous sources have no idea what they're talking about, and that President Trump appreciates Feinberg's work. The Pentagon also denied any report to replace him. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says Feinberg has his full support, and isn't going anywhere. A federal judge has again blocked the US President Donald Trump administration from implementing new US Postal Service mail-in voting rules ahead of November's congressional elections. Judge Indira Talwani extended an injunction against the policy, which would require states to provide voter lists and add unique barcodes to mail ballots. She said the Postal Service lacks the authority to impose the requirements, and warned that they could cause disruption just weeks before voting begins. The administration has appealed the ruling. Turning now to an increasingly familiar tale, rogue AI agents. The Seattle Times and Newsday are suing OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the companies used their journalism without permission to train AI tools including ChatGPT and Copilot. The lawsuit comes as new research reveals OpenAI agents hijacked a German programming website this spring, turning it into a bulletin board for other AI agents without the company's knowledge or authorization. The activity on DSE Wiki rang from May through June, and went undetected for months. Our tech reporter Raphael Saters says the incident raises fresh questions about whether the company can control its increasingly autonomous AI systems. What's unusual here is that the agents, who appear to have been restricted to just passively observing the internet, found a way to post messages onto an obscure German wiki site. And once they were able to do this, they basically hijacked that site and turned it into a message board where they could all start communicating with each other. And these agents, it seems, were meant to be operating independently, solving their own tests and answering questions. Instead, it was basically like the teacher left the classroom for a few hours and the students all started talking amongst themselves during the test, sharing answers, working together to defeat the test, and to basically cheat en masse. So every time there is a new incident where these models behave in unexpected or potentially harmful ways, I think that it really refocuses questions about how quickly do we really want to be developing these models? Should we be releasing them to the public? And what kind of safeguards do we need to bake in? I don't feel I have any choice but to declare a mistrial. A Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder case after jurors were unable to reach a verdict. The jury deliberated for about 38 hours over seven days. Jury notes indicated the 12-person panel was split 11 to 1. While it's unclear whether the state will retry the case with a new jury, this set of jurors are now free to go. But as our legal reporter Tom Halls explains, leaving the trial behind emotionally might be more challenging. The Lindsay Clancy trial has been incredibly a gut-wrenching experience for the jurors. They've had to sit through weeks of testimony that included autopsy pictures of the dead children in the case. It included an awful 911 call. Lindsay herself broke down at least twice during the trial, and they had to stop proceedings. Observers and even some of the jurors were seen struggling to hold back tears. It was an incredibly emotional, intense experience. Research shows a lot of jurors in this experience, especially crimes involving children, end up having all sorts of anxiety. They have sleeplessness, nightmares, social withdrawal. They don't want to go out. So they're going to be processing a lot of very stressful and anxious-causing experiences. In 2022, Massachusetts launched a juror counseling program The vast majority of jurors never use it. But some do. And remember, the jurors have not been allowed to talk about the case. Most of us, when we have a very traumatic experience, we want to talk about it. And that helps us get through that experience. State elections in Germany are politically very important because the states have an important role to play in the federal system. But they're not usually very dramatic. This one's different. This one is the first one where the far-right AFD party has a realistic chance of being able to form the next government. It would be the first time a far-right party has governed a German state since World War II. But governing might be a challenge, given Germany's power-sharing structure. The problem it faces is that none of the other parties will agree to enter a coalition with it. The party's branch in Saxony-Anhalt has been designated as extremist right-wing by the state office of the domestic intelligence agency. The AFD sees this election as a stepping stone to the 2029 national vote. Economists fear their anti-immigrant policies might worsen Germany's labour shortage. Our Reuters EconWorld host, Karma Krimmins, explains. Now, the alternative for Germany's party's policy is to call for immigrants to be deported. Economists say that will make Saxony-Anhalt's problems worse. It's already got labour shortages. The party disagrees. It says it wants businesses to use AI rather than skilled migrant labour and says its economic programme, which includes restoring ties with Russia, would cut energy costs and boost growth. And finally, if you're cleaning out the closet, think twice before tossing those old CDs. That's right, CDs are back. CD sales revenue jumped nearly 59% in the first half of 2026, outpacing even vinyl, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Overall, recorded music revenue rose nearly 7% to $6 billion. And yes, streaming is still the industry's biggest business. But these numbers suggest plenty of music fans still want something they can hold in their hands. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis and news shaping our world, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. There's a link in the description to download it and start getting pure news straight from the source. 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