Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The AI amulet has become a bit of a cliché in the tech industry — devices like Friend have turned the idea of physical AI into little more than an exercise in eye-rolling for many consumers. But that hasn’t stopped Meta from jumping into the arena with its own AI wearable, called Muse Charm, which is designed to give consumers another way to stay connected to its recently launched, and already popular, personal AI agent, Muse. The device, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a “one more thing” moment during the company’s annual Connect event, isn’t ready to ship just…

NIST has published a draft update to its operational technology security guide, and CISA and the FBI have issued a fact sheet on the risks of working with third-party ICS integrators.  NIST this week released a draft of Special Publication 800-82 Revision 4, titled Guide to Operational Technology (OT) Security. Public comments are due by November 30, 2026. The document covers how to secure OT while accounting for the performance, reliability and safety demands specific to these systems. The revision expands the guide’s sector coverage to include building automation, water and wastewater systems, food and agriculture, freight rail, maritime vessels,…

People have been debating whether a quantum computer presents a realistic threat to the Bitcoin network for over a decade. It was a serious topic of conversation over 13 years ago when I first discovered Bitcoin myself.  There has been quite a lot of progress, both in terms of theory and real-world engineering, since long ago when I was just a bumbling idiot trying to figure out what was going on here.  Two major milestones have been reached since then that make a material difference in the likelihood of a viable quantum computer actually being produced sometime in the next…

Rare infections that can pass from a pregnant woman to a developing fetus are associated with higher risks of autism and intellectual disability later in childhood, according to a large study from Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Pediatrics. “It is important to emphasize that it is unusual for these infections to be transmitted from mother to child. They account for a very small proportion of all cases of autism in the population, but for those children who are actually affected, we see a clearly elevated risk of both autism and intellectual disability,” says Reneé Gardner, a researcher at the Department…

Glenda Beal’s roots in lobstering run nearly as deep as her roots in the town that shares her name: Beals Island, Maine. Her husband and two sons are lobstermen, as were her father and uncle, both grandfathers and a few generations before that. “Our economy runs on lobster fishing, predominantly,” said Beal, 60, a descendant of one of the island’s original settlers. It’s a tough industry in which to make a living, Beal said, and the three salmon farming operations in nearby Eastern Bay only make it tougher. She said her community’s lobstermen have noticed barren and polluted waters, damaged…

China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) has started the construction of the first of two Asso.subsea’s trenching support vessels (TSV), described as the most powerful TSV ever built.Screenshot. Source: Asso.subsea via LinkedIn Asso.subsea reported on September 23 that the steel-cutting ceremony was held for the TSV Avra at the CMHI Shenzhen shipyard, one year after the shipbuilding contract was announced. This March, the partners signed the shipbuilding contract for the construction of the second TSV, named Andromeda, sister to Avra. The vessels will have 24 MW hybrid power and over 180 tons bollard pull, a 4,000-ton under-deck cable carousel capability and…

Reading Time: < 1 minute Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce Fact Briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. No. Congress did not vote up-or-down on giving data center operators a $68 billion tax break, despite that claim in an ad targeting U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany. Tiffany, a northern Wisconsin Republican, is running for governor in the Nov. 3 election. The ad from a Democratic Governors Association-backed group cites Tiffany’s 2025 vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. A yes vote on the nearly 900-page federal budget package, filled with…

I’ve spent my working life covering neglected issues. But few are neglected like the devastating chronic condition ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome). In severe cases, the illness shuts down people’s lives almost entirely, causing an extreme loss of energy and a wide range of physical and cognitive symptoms that can prevent patients from working, socialising and, sometimes, even moving or eating. Yet these people have been more or less airbrushed from our minds.To find out what this neglect looks like in practice, this week I put out a call on Bluesky asking people with ME/CFS about their recent…

US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has announced a $2.45bn (£1.85bn) Gaza recovery plan at a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.The funding will be spread across 66 programmes over six months, and directed at housing, diesel generation and waste removal, among other needs.But the board admitted substantial donations were still needed, with $18bn pledged but only $280m handed over so far. It estimates full recovery and reconstruction will require about $71bn over the next decade.The board also did not set out a date for the start of reconstruction in Gaza, where Trump’s plan to end…

Germany last month imported 30,000 barrels of diesel from the U.S., according to Kpler. This year U.S. imports have so far accounted for about 18% of Germany’s imports, according to industry association en2x. The United Kingdom, the biggest importer of American diesel in Europe at 108,000 barrels last month according to Kpler, had a similar official line to Germany. “Forecourts in the U.K. are being supplied with petrol and diesel as normal and we have a diverse and resilient supply,” a U.K. government spokesperson said. But one British lawmaker wasn’t so sanguine. “If the U.S. restricts our supply of diesel…