Network intrusion detection, a well-explored cybersecurity field, has predominantly relied on supervised learning algorithms in the past two decades. However, their limitations in detecting only known anomalies prompt the exploration of alternative approaches. Motivated by the success of self-supervised learning in computer vision, there is a rising interest in adapting this paradigm for network intrusion detection. While prior research mainly delved into contrastive self-supervised methods, the efficacy of non-contrastive methods, in conjunction with encoder architectures serving as the representation learning backbone and augmentation strategies that determine what is learned, remains unclear for effective attack detection. This paper compares the performance of five non-contrastive self-supervised learning methods using three encoder architectures and six augmentation strategies. Ninety experiments are systematically conducted on two network intrusion detection datasets, UNSW-NB15 and 5G-NIDD. For each self-supervised model, the combination of encoder architecture and augmentation method yielding the highest average precision, recall, F1-score, and AUCROC is reported.

Large language models (LLMs) offer promising capabilities for simulating social media dynamics at scale, enabling studies that would be ethically or logistically challenging with human subjects. However, the field lacks standardized data resources for fine-tuning and evaluating LLMs as realistic social media agents. We address this gap by introducing SIMPACT, the SIMulation-oriented Persona and Action Capture Toolkit, a privacy respecting framework for constructing behaviorally-grounded social media datasets suitable for training agent models. We formulate next-action prediction as a task for training and evaluating LLM-based agents and introduce metrics at both the cluster and population levels to assess behavioral fidelity and stylistic realism. As a concrete implementation, we release BluePrint, a large-scale dataset built from public Bluesky data focused on political discourse. BluePrint clusters anonymized users into personas of aggregated behaviours, capturing authentic engagement patterns while safeguarding privacy through pseudonymization and removal of personally identifiable information. The dataset includes a sizable action set of 12 social media interaction types (likes, replies, reposts, etc.), each instance tied to the posting activity preceding it. This supports the development of agents that use context-dependence, not only in the language, but also in the interaction behaviours of social media to model social media users. By standardizing data and evaluation protocols, SIMPACT provides a foundation for advancing rigorous, ethically responsible social media simulations. BluePrint serves as both an evaluation benchmark for political discourse modeling and a template for building domain specific datasets to study challenges such as misinformation and polarization.

How China is challenging Nvidia's AI chip dominance The US has dominated the global technology market for decades. But China wants to change that. The world's second largest economy is pouring huge amounts of money into artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Crucially, Beijing is also investing heavily to produce the high-end chips that power these cutting-edge technologies. Last month, Jensen Huang - the boss of the global AI chip industry leader, Nvidia - warned that China was just nanoseconds behind the US in chip development.

Can Ukraine restore its pre-war borders? Why are Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine a'red line' for Russia? Is Russia testing NATO with aerial incursions in Europe? Five people have been killed in Ukraine after Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles across the country overnight, which officials said targeted civilian infrastructure. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia fired approximately 50 missiles and 500 attack drones.

As AI drives layoffs at companies like Lufthansa Airlines and JPMorgan Chase, workers can navigate career transitions by identifying their transferable Working Genius skills.

Residents leave their apartment building, which was damaged by a Russian drone strike, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Sunday. LVIV, Ukraine - NATO member Poland said it scrambled aircraft early on Sunday to ensure its air safety after Russia launched airstrikes on Ukraine, with Ukrainian officials reporting missiles and drones raining down on the Lviv region near the Polish border. Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness, Poland's operational command said in a post on X. Eastern-flank NATO members are on high alert after Poland shot down suspected Russian drones in its airspace in September and drone sightings and air incursions, including in Copenhagen and Munich, have led to chaos in European aviation. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

Russia pounded Ukraine with missile and drone attacks overnight on Saturday and into Sunday morning, focusing on the major western city of Lviv. Ukraine's neighbour Poland scrambled fighter jets in order to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the Polish military confirmed. Allied Nato aircraft were also deployed. Lviv's regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said two people were killed in strikes in the region, and two more injured. Elsewhere, Russia again targeted Ukraine's power plants - and one was struck in an overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia, where the mayor said one person died and more than 73,000 people were without electricity.

Can Ukraine restore its pre-war borders? Why are Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine a'red line' for Russia? Is Russia testing NATO with aerial incursions in Europe? One person was killed and about 30 others injured after two Russian drones struck trains at a station in Ukraine's northern Sumy region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of "terrorism", while Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Moscow deliberately targeted civilians during the attack.

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A recent Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition off the coast of Uruguay discovered at least 30 suspected new species and explored a sunken warship. An octopus moves around deep-sea corals at 1,612 meters (about 5,288 feet) during a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, dive near the historic HMS'Challenger's' oceanographic station 320, where the country's first coral samples were collected almost 150 years ago. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. An expedition led by a team of scientists from Uruguay discovered that the South American nation's deep-sea coral reefs are thriving and teeming with life. The reefs are primarily home to numerous species that were recently listed as vulnerable to extinction.