Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Honorable MentionsPhotograph: Simon HillRayNeo Air 3s Pro for $299: TCL-owned RayNeo offers many models, and I’ve tested several. The latest Air 3s Pro glasses boast a 201-inch virtual screen (1080p, 120 Hz, 1200 nits), but the 46-degree field of view lets it down a little. Both color vibrancy and brightness are improved over previous releases like the Air 2s and the older TCL RayNeo Air 2 XR Glasses. You can just about see the whole screen clearly (even after adjusting, I had to slide them down my nose a little to avoid blurring at the bottom). You will also need…

Severe business downtime can cost millions Business downtime can also be significantly costly for a breached organization, depending on the level and extent of the downtime and how technology-dependent the firm is. Nearly all the organizations studied suffered operational disruption, taking an average of 100 days to recover from a security incident. Jason Hicks, field CISO at Coalfire, tells CSO: “Often a breach is not going to take a company completely offline, but it can happen. The more critical systems that are taken down, the more significant the cost.” Manufacturing tends to have the best metrics around this, as it’s…

A solar eclipse, the Perseid meteor shower, brilliant Venus, and a deep partial lunar eclipse will make August an unusually eventful month for skywatchers. August Skywatching Highlights Aug. 5: Last Quarter Moon Aug. 12: A total solar eclipse crosses northern Russia, Greenland, Iceland, northern Spain, and part of Portugal. A partial eclipse will be visible from parts of the United States. The New Moon also occurs on this date. Aug. 12 and 13: The Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak under exceptionally dark skies. Aug. 14 through 16: Venus reaches its greatest eastern elongation and glows low in the western…

The US Senate’s delay of a vote on crypto market structure legislation could give Hong Kong and Singapore more time to strengthen their positions as digital asset hubs, according to First Digital founder and CEO Vincent Chok.On Friday, Thune’s office confirmed to Cointelegraph that the Senate would not vote on the legislation before the August recess. Thune cited Democratic opposition and said the bill would be a priority when senators return in September.Chok, whose company issues the FDUSD stablecoin, said the delay could give jurisdictions with clearer regulatory frameworks an advantage in attracting capital and talent as US uncertainty weighs…

In southern Sumatra, a small team of forest rangers is racing to protect Batutegi forest, an important watershed and refuge for endangered wildlife such as tigers and slow lorises.Batutegi faces persistent pressures from forest encroachment and the need to balance conservation with local livelihoods.Experts say protecting Batutegi will require sustained collaboration with local communities, alongside long-term conservation and forest management efforts.See All Key Ideas TANGGAMUS, Indonesia — For more than a decade and a half, forest ranger Wandi Harmoko has walked the ridges and valleys of Batutegi, a landscape in southern Sumatra. He is one of only a…

Noble Corporation, a U.S.-based offshore drilling giant, has lined up a new assignment for a 12-year-old jack-up rig off the coast of Norway with ConocoPhillips Skandinavia, a subsidiary of the U.S.-headquartered energy company ConocoPhillips. Noble Interceptor rig; Source: Noble Corporation Noble has been awarded a contract by ConocoPhillips Skandinavia for the Noble Interceptor ultra-harsh environment jack-up rig offshore Norway. This deal, which is expected to start in the third quarter of 2027, has an estimated duration of 670 days. The 2014-built Noble Interceptor jack-up rig is of Gusto MSC CJ70 X150 MD design. With a maximum drilling depth of 40,000…

Since he returned to office, President Donald Trump’s administration has upended foreign aid. It’s labeled well-established, long-running programs as “not aligned with American interests” and slashed their budgets.  Still, the billions of taxpayer dollars Congress has allocated for foreign aid programs must be spent; lawmakers have insisted the government continue to fund humanitarian aid, global health and pro-democracy causes around the world. With most of the old programs now gone, however, we wanted to know: What is the Trump administration doing with that money now? Recently, we published our investigation that found one answer to that question in a little-known…

It is unbelievable: unconscionable. Westminster Council is moving against “vertical drinking” in pubs, starting with Soho. It claims drinking standing up is noisy and disruptive. It makes pubs, the council says, boisterous places where customers crowd round bars, get drunk and become pains in the neck in the street outside.Westminster’s new draft licences would require pubs to be only for seating, to have “table service in place of open bar space”. Pub users should, presumably, sit down, shut up and wait to be served, like decent Westminster people who use wine bars.The council balks at claims it seeks a ban,…

Italy placed all its major cities under the highest heat alert Thursday as a blistering heatwave gripped Europe, setting a national temperature record in Austria, fuelling wildfires in France and disrupting energy and transport systems across the continent. Read moreEurope’s record-breaking heat sparks wildfires, drought in France, Greece and the UK The extreme weather has pushed temperatures above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in several countries, prompting health warnings for millions of people. Scientists and officials warn that such events are becoming more frequent and intense as the climate warms. The current heatwave has exposed vulnerabilities in public health systems, power…

In statements to investigators, Vladyslav D. said he was paid more than $2,000 (£1,487) in cryptocurrency for his efforts. His motive was clear.And what about the Leipzig case?Few details about the drone bomb are yet public.Some German sources report that the explosive was Semtex, which contains RDX – the explosive found in the food cans in a Lithuanian cemetery.We do not know how much the drone found at the airport was carrying and the physical damage may have been limited.”The drone casing, if it was metal, might have put a hole in the plane but just a blast wave probably…