The Marine Institute’s Dr Niall McDonough outlines why Europe needs to strengthen its ocean knowledge systems to help the region ‘adapt, compete and lead’.

As Europe seeks to strengthen its competitiveness, security and resilience in an increasingly uncertain world, the EU Ocean Pact provides a framework for addressing some of its most pressing challenges.

Its success will depend on whether Europe is prepared to invest in the knowledge systems needed to transform ambition into action.

Every Ocean Pact priority depends on ocean knowledge

The marine knowledge system comprises ocean observations (in situ and remote), data systems, data products and services, research, expertise, infrastructures, networks, partnerships and programmes. All of these components are interdependent, and to deliver real societal and economic impact, must work in an integrated way.

Without strong marine knowledge systems, Europe cannot, for example, evaluate the effectiveness of marine protected areas, monitor ecosystem recovery, understand climate impacts or measure progress towards environmental targets.

These systems provide the evidence, know-how, and operational capabilities that transform policy objectives into measurable outcomes. They enable policymakers, regulators, industries and communities to make informed decisions, assess progress, manage risk, and course-correct in response to evolving conditions.

At the same time, they help ocean businesses to reduce operational risk, improve planning, and make informed investment decisions, strengthening Europe’s ability to compete in emerging ocean industries.

The same marine observation networks that support environmental protection can also underpin maritime security and defence.

Marine observation and monitoring platforms, including satellites, research vessels, autonomous systems, seabed sensors and coastal monitoring networks, provide safe navigation as well as the situational awareness needed to detect, monitor and respond to emerging threats.

There remains, however, a substantial degree of fragmentation across Europe’s observation and data systems, which have been developed by a wide range of actors with different interests and purposes.

The OceanEye initiative launched in June 2025 is an important commitment by the European Commission to reduce this fragmentation and close critical data gaps.

While the specific modalities will be set out in the forthcoming Ocean Act (due in early 2027), the opportunity to improve coordination and alignment across all relevant ocean observing and data systems (metocean, environmental, maritime, safety and security, socio-economic etc) should not be lost.

Investing in public knowledge is a competitive advantage

This especially matters at a time when Europe seeks to enhance its competitiveness, as the ability to generate, manage and effectively apply knowledge and insight is becoming a source of economic strength, resilience and geopolitical influence.

Here, Europe possesses a distinctive advantage, with a long tradition of investing in public goods that create value across society, including research infrastructures, Earth observation systems, environmental monitoring networks and open scientific collaboration.

Horizon Europe, moreover, is the only truly global research programme with many countries around the world able to participate either as equal partners through accession agreements or as Third Countries eligible to receive funding.

The Draghi report pointed out that while Europe is a leader in many fields of research (notably including ocean science), it has traditionally been less effective at translating research excellence to competitive gain.

The next Multi-Annual Financial Framework will seek to address this through an enlarged European Competitiveness Fund and an increased emphasis on competitiveness in the next Horizon Europe Programme.

This is not wrong, but we must ensure that this evolution does not compromise the necessary support for public-good, policy-oriented research. Our competitive advantage resides here just as much as in higher TRL research and commercialisation supports.

Atlantic Summit Galway 2026

The priorities for future ocean research will be at the heart of discussions during the Atlantic Summit Galway on 8-9 October 2026.

Policymakers, researchers, innovators, industry leaders and coastal communities from across Europe and the wider Atlantic region, will come together to define the critical challenges and opportunities related to the ocean and to raise the ambition for the next chapter of EU and Atlantic Ocean R&I.

As an event with formal association to Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the conference will explore how ocean knowledge can support the implementation of the Ocean Pact and strengthen Europe’s future.

At a time when ocean challenges increasingly transcend national boundaries, the summit will provide a vital platform for collaboration across disciplines, sectors and countries, enabling shared solutions to shared challenges.

Europe is entering an era of intensifying competition for technology, resources, resilience and talent. Oceans will play a central role in all four. To succeed, the next Multiannual Financial Framework and Horizon Europe programme must recognise ocean research, knowledge and innovation as strategic investments that will help Europe adapt, compete and lead.

By Dr Niall McDonough

Dr Niall McDonough is director of policy, innovation and research support services at the Marine Institute, the state agency responsible for marine research, technology development and innovation in Ireland. McDonough has a PhD in marine biology and has worked at the Marine Institute since 2007, holding various leadership positions.

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Hackers are abusing legitimate Bing search-result redirects as click URLs in Google search ads to direct users to fake Claude installers that deliver ClickFix attacks.

The technique, dubbed “Adception” by security researchers at Push Security, appears designed to evade advertising security checks by using Bing’s trusted domain as the ad destination, before redirecting victims through a compromised website to the malicious download page.

The attack also uses multiple layers of cloaking to prevent security scanners and visitors who access the malicious URLs directly from seeing the payload.

According to a report published by Push Security, the campaign was discovered after researchers detected a malicious Google ad targeting users searching for “claude mac.”

Unlike typical malvertising campaigns that direct victims to attacker-controlled domains, the sponsored result displayed the legitimate bing.com domain, making the advertisement appear less suspicious.

When clicked, Push says the ad first passed through Google’s advertising redirect before reaching Bing’s bing.com/ck/a click-tracking endpoint, which forwarded the browser to a legitimate but compromised WordPress website belonging to a South American retailer.

The compromised website then redirected the visitor to claude-desk-code[.]com, a fake Claude download page designed to trick macOS users into executing malicious commands.

Bing’s click-tracking redirects use JavaScript to send visitors to their destination, allowing attackers to redirect users to malicious websites while making the traffic appear to originate from Bing.

The campaign also uses two layers of cloaking to prevent unwanted visitors from reaching the payload.

The compromised WordPress website checks for a Bing referrer and specific browser headers before redirecting visitors, while the fake Claude website uses JavaScript to verify that visitors arrived from Google or Bing.

Visitors who try to access the malicious site directly are redirected to a 404 error page, making it harder for automated security scanners to analyze the attack.

Fake Claude installer hides malicious commands

The final destination is a convincing imitation of a Claude download page that offers a macOS installer using an installation command entered into the Terminal.

However, while the page displays Anthropic’s legitimate installation command, curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash, clicking the copy button places a malicious command in the clipboard.

The substituted command first prints a message claiming to download Claude from Anthropic’s official website, but actually decodes a Base64-encoded URL pointing to lake-90[.]com.

It then uses curl to silently download a .dat file from the attacker-controlled server and pipes its contents directly into the macOS Z shell (zsh) for execution.

This means victims see the legitimate Claude installation URL both on the download page and in the terminal, even though an entirely different script is being executed.

The final payload delivered by the attack remains unknown, so it unclear what malware, if any, is being installed.

Push Security says it identified several domains associated with the same ClickFix toolkit, which it tracks internally as AcSig, that use an identical macOS installation command, payload URL structure, and installer interface.

Join Mikko Hyppönen and security leaders from the NFL, CHANEL, and Atlassian for a two-hour digital summit on what AI-speed attacks change, what defenders should stop doing, and how to validate, decide, fix, and re-validate at machine speed.

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Perennial Living wants to make care homes feel like luxury hotels

From about S$8,000 a month, seniors in Singapore can now live in an assisted living residence with a swimming pool, karaoke lounge, mahjong room, and even a personal concierge.

That’s what Perennial Living offers.

Spanning 195,000 sq ft at 28 Parry Avenue, it is Singapore’s first private assisted living development, with 200 assisted-living apartments alongside medical care, rehabilitation and memory care facilities, as well as a 100-bed nursing suite.

The development aims to offer a five-star hospitality environment, with dining and recreational amenities, alongside on-site services such as medical care, rehabilitation therapies and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatments.

Perennial Holdings has poured S$265 million into the project. Here’s a closer look at what residents can get for the price.

Apartment and suites

Assisted living residents can choose from studios, one-bedroom apartments, one-bedroom suites and two-bedroom suites, ranging from 302 to 569 sq ft. The apartments sit in ten blocks linked by bridges, with four units per floor, and private lift access on most floors, CNA reported.

Smart technologies will be implemented to support residents’ independence and safety.

These include remote-controlled curtains, motion-sensor lighting, 24/7 emergency response systems, bedside vital signs monitoring devices, fall detection, and facial-recognition access.

For added peace of mind, residents can opt for in-unit CCTV access for designated family members. 

Over at the nursing suites, residents with higher care needs can choose from one-bedroom and two-bedroom layouts ranging from 212 to 374 sq ft.

Each suite features nursing beds positioned beside or near windows to maximise natural daylight and outdoor views. Each suite also has call bells, fall detection, motion-sensor lighting and facial-recognition access.

Personal concierge, mahjong rooms and more 

Beyond their living spaces, residents will have access to over 38,000 sq ft of terraces overlooking the adjoining park, as well as a swimming pool, a karaoke lounge-cum-movie theatre, a mahjong room and a multi-purpose hall for calligraphy, arts and crafts, chess and other board games.

There is also a full-sized bus within the development, which has been converted into a Music Bus equipped with a jukebox, gramophone, piano and other instruments for music sessions, as well as a Travel Shop and Hair Salon Bus where residents can purchase travel trinkets or get their hair done.

The garden, designed with a continuous loop pathway to support residents living with dementia, features a full-sized bus stop, traditional telephone booths, and a post box, where the care team can help send out postcards written by residents to their loved ones.

Meanwhile, the wellness centre houses Singapore’s largest hydrotherapy pool in a private residential care setting to support rehabilitation needs. It is also connected to a 1.5-hectare community park with a mobility garden, butterfly trails, senior-friendly fitness stations, a dog run and a pet therapy zone where residents can enjoy nature and outdoor activities. 

Medical care on site

Residents can also access the facilities within the Perennial Wellness building, a two-storey medical and rehabilitation centre within Perennial Living.

It offers various services such as a Western medical centre with general practitioners, family medicine physicians and specialists, an imaging centre with X-ray and ultrasound services, a hospital-grade rehabilitation and fitness centre, and a TCM centre run by Chung Hwa Medical Institution. 

Assisted living and nursing suite residents will receive personalised, curated care and are supported by a panel of medical specialists. These include a cardiologist, urologist, rehabilitation medicine doctor and pain management doctor.

Additionally, residents who require specialised support for conditions such as dementia can access dedicated facilities across two assisted living blocks and nursing suites.

Beyond healthcare, residents can turn to a personal concierge for everyday requests, from arranging transport to grocery shopping.

A separate medical concierge is also available to help residents tailor their healthcare arrangements through optional services such as specialist consultations, specialised rehabilitation and fitness programmes, medical chaperone services and grooming.

Dining and activities

When it comes to dining, residents can head to The Olive, an all-day restaurant serving nutritious meals designed to support healthy ageing. Its menu includes options that are low in glycemic index and cholesterol-friendly.

The eatery, which was inspired by premium airline lounges, offers buffet-style dining and live hot stations, as well as à la carte selections. Residents can also order in-room meal delivery tailored to their clinical and wellness needs. 

The Olive is open to the public, and private dining rooms can be reserved for celebrations.

Additionally, residents can take part in a range of programmes, from cognitive games and handicraft workshops to cultural activities, health talks, strength training, hydrotherapy, art therapy and music therapy.

Perennial Living will also organise exercise and enrichment programmes to encourage social interaction among residents and the wider community.

Residents can use the Perennial WeCare app to book appointments, order meals, and request concierge services.

Assisted living from S$8,000 a month 

The basic occupation package for assisted living starts from approximately S$8,000 per month, while the basic nursing suite package starts from approximately S$7,600 per month. Final rates for both depend on the size, layout, level and facing of the unit chosen.

The assisted living package includes accommodation, housekeeping and linen service, core meals, full usage of the development’s amenities, fitness and strength training equipment, and access to a full array of social and wellness activities and programming. 

For the nursing suite package, over and above the offerings in the assisted living package, it includes 24/7 nursing support, assistance with activities of daily living, medication and treatment administration, medical doctor reviews and rehabilitation therapy.

All residents will also undergo a comprehensive pre-admission medical assessment, followed by a six-monthly review, or as needed. 

On top of the mentioned packages, residents can also opt for an East-meets-West Care Package that allows care plans to be designed and updated regularly according to each resident’s needs and health goals.

Under the package, residents have access to either Western medical practitioners twice a month for consultation, rehabilitation therapists for consultation and treatment, or TCM physicians for consultation and treatment at Perennial Wellness.

Both the assisted living apartments and nursing suites are open for bookings, although the latter are only expected to begin operations later this year, according to a media release.

“As Singapore’s population ages, we believe there is an opportunity to redefine what senior living can look like,” said Pua Seck Guan, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Perennial Holdings. 

“Our vision for Perennial Living was to create more than just a place to receive care, we wanted to build a vibrant community where seniors can continue living with independence and purpose, supported by integrated medical care, thoughtful hospitality and meaningful lifestyle experiences.”

Pua said the development is designed for seniors from different backgrounds. On whether the concept could come to other parts of Singapore, he told CNA that Perennial “would certainly explore it if opportunities arose.”

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Featured Image Credit: Perennial Holdings

An Anthropic AI model submitted a false tip about an unsolved murder to the Philadelphia police.

The AI reportedly submitted this incorrect information to a public Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) tip line on July 18, but Anthropic didn’t discover the behavior until September 28. The police had not seen the tip because it was marked as spam.

Anthropic notified the PPD about the incident on Wednesday and met with the department the following day.

“The company must strengthen its safeguards to prevent similar incidents from impacting city systems without the city’s knowledge. The two-month delay in detecting and reporting the incident to the City is unacceptable,” the PPD said in a statement to 6abc.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the PPD elaborated on the incident in an emailed press release shared with TechCrunch.

“According to Anthropic, its model was conducting a test involving interactions with randomly selected websites when it accessed PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com and submitted false information concerning an unsolved homicide. The submission, dated July 18, 2026, at 11:27 p.m., purported to come from someone who might have information about the case,” the PPD said.

As autonomous AI agents are increasingly made available to consumers, this incident highlights the danger of giving AI the ability to carry out tasks without any human supervision.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has been especially vocal about his belief that AI development should be slowed down so that labs can implement adequate guardrails. Perhaps this stance was informed, in part, by witnessing his company’s tools submit false homicide tips.

These issues are not exclusive to Anthropic. OpenAI recently revealed that one of its models acted unexpectedly during a test and hacked the AI dataset platform Hugging Face, exposing critical vulnerabilities in its software. As AI models continue to be granted unchecked access to people’s computers and login credentials, this problem is expected to persist.

“Unsolved cases involve real victims, grieving families and investigators working to secure answers,” the PPD added. “Technology companies must take all appropriate steps necessary to prevent their systems from submitting false information to law enforcement.”

The PPD said that Anthropic plans to publish a report with more information about the incident and other instances of unintended model behavior on Friday.

Federal prosecutors have been weighing a perjury and obstruction-of-justice case against Cassidy Hutchinson, who implicated President Donald Trump in the January 6 Capitol riot in testimony four years ago, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The efforts mark the Justice Department’s intent to proceed against Hutchinson, a former aide to ex-Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, though prosecutors are not expected to ask a federal grand jury in Washington to return an indictment until at least after the midterm elections, the sources say.

Hutchinson testified as a star witness to the committee that investigated the riot, recounting that Trump encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol even though he knew many were armed. She sat for several interviews in addition to her public testimony, where she recalled hearing that Trump had lunged at one of his Secret Service agents after being told he could not join his supporters at the Capitol.

In recent months, prosecutors at the Justice Department have focused on the fact that the former special counsel, Jack Smith, did not corroborate much of Hutchinson’s account to the committee, and the Secret Service’s denial of any altercation in the presidential limo, the sources say.

By comparing the transcripts of Hutchinson’s interviews with the committee and against her testimony to Smith’s team, prosecutors have been trying to construct a case based on how her testimony has changed, the sources say.

Prosecutors have also taken a special interest in Hutchinson’s claim that she had penned a statement on a notecard for Trump to release during the Capitol riot—a claim disputed by former Trump White House counsel Eric Herschmann, who said he had written the note.

It was not immediately clear whether prosecutors intend to ultimately proceed with both perjury and obstruction charges, which have been under consideration for several months. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Hutchinson and her lawyer did not respond to texts and calls seeking comment. Hutchinson, now 29, has kept a low profile since publishing a memoir of her time in Trump’s first administration in 2023 titled Enough.

Punchbowl News first reported the Justice Department’s interest in charging Hutchinson.

The grand jury investigation is the latest example of the Justice Department pursuing criminal cases against Trump’s perceived political enemies. Trump fired former US attorney general Pam Bondi in April partly for moving too slowly to bring such cases, sources familiar with the matter said.