Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

I enjoyed your article (The secret lives of theatre workers: ‘People were having full sex in the stalls’, 9 August). I worked many roles front of house and later as operations manager at a busy regional theatre, and it has provided me with some of the most entertaining stories.My favourite was working at a performance of The Rocky Horror Show in the large main theatre, while in the smaller studio was a play aimed at teenagers. The programming team had provided some post-show entertainment in the form of a DJ and breakdancer for the studio show, which happened to time…

The claim that some sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier are facing mental health crises and have attempted to jump overboard is still under investigation.  The claim stemmed from reporting by the U.S. military news outlets Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, which interviewed families of various sailors. The reports, citing second- and thirdhand accounts from military spouses, claim at least two sailors tried to jump overboard as the aircraft carrier logged more than 250 consecutive days at sea amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Military families say they have had limited communication with sailors facing mental health…

United States President Donald Trump has announced plans to declare the Strait of Hormuz a “territory” of his country as tensions boil with Iran.Speaking in New York on Friday, Trump told supporters that the US would soon claim the vital waterway, which is critical for the global supply of oil, natural gas and fertiliser.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said, with a chuckle.Since February 28, the US and Israel have been at war with…

The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln’s supply problems began soon after the first day of the war, as Iranian missiles and attack drones fell on a Navy base in Bahrain.The Iranian attack, retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli assault on Tehran, destroyed much of the base. And as it went up in smoke, so did a major logistics hub that the Navy has relied on for decades.The Navy needed a Plan B to continue feeding the sailors working around the clock to keep warplanes flying strike missions, and later to maintain a blockade of Iran’s ports.With the threat of Iranian attacks at…

President Trump on Friday dismissed concerns about dire conditions reported aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier that has been deployed for more than eight and a half months, much of it in support of the war against Iran.Mr. Trump’s comments came in response to a reporter who asked about the reported conditions stemming from the extended deployment, which have included shortages of basic supplies, safety and hygiene issues and deteriorating mental health. When the reporter said that the crew members’ families were concerned, Mr. Trump said, “No, they’re not.”The president, who was about to depart the Washington area…

Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI, two companies developing self-driving trucks, have received permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test their autonomous vehicle technology on public roads. And Kodiak has already started. Kodiak said it is starting with a handful of test trucks in California, primarily around its Mountain View office. Both companies applied for testing permits this spring under updated rules approved by the California DMV, the agency that regulates autonomous vehicles in the state. Those rules, approved April 28, lifted a ban on driverless vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds from testing on public roads and provided…

By Rajan Kapoor, VP Security, Material Security Over the past two months, I’ve written about the Vercel breach and the Composio breach separately. Both offer lessons to learn on their own. But reading them together, I keep coming back to the same observation: these aren’t isolated incidents They’re the same attack, run twice, against different targets, where email was not the entry point into the workspace. And once you see the pattern clearly, it changes what you think you need to defend. It also raises an uncomfortable question that I’ve been sitting with. The pattern I’m describing, where an OAuth…

Edelman Financial Engines has disclosed a $34 million position in spot Bitcoin ETFs — a stake that now exceeds some of the firm’s other holdings in major tech companies.  While the position is still tiny in the investment advisor’s portfolio, it is still larger than its $25 million position in Amazon.  The position — held in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust and Grayscale’s flagship product — tracks closely with the public views of its founder, Ric Edelman.  Edelman has been advocating for Bitcoin ETFs since 2019, years before the SEC approved spot products in January 2024. He also founded the Digital…

NASA is asking U.S.-based collegiate teams to submit bold, original concepts to the 2027 edition of a student challenge focused on aerospace innovation that could help the agency envision a future on the Moon shaped by new technology.  The latest NASA Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition invites student teams to explore new operations paradigms and advance the technologies needed to support sustained operations in the lunar South Pole region.  “This competition showcases the technical excellence and creativity of the next generation of explorers and innovators,” said Chris Jones, chief technologist, Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate, NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “The concepts students develop through RASC-AL demonstrate exceptional talent and…

Recovery projects for 100 critically endangered and extinct-in-the-wild species across the world are set to receive new funding under a conservation initiative announced Aug. 4. Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund, both U.S.-based environmental organizations, created the Phoenix Species Project and committed $100 million each, for a total of $200 million, to the project. The project’s steering committee said each species will likely receive between $500,000 and $1 million for the duration of the five-year project. Among the 100 species are Mexico’s Charco Azul pupfish (Cyprinodon veronicae), which went extinct in the wild in 1997 after its habitat…