Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

British diplomats in six locations around the world, including Buenos Aires and Santiago in South America, will no longer get hardship payments for working in dangerous cities.Bonuses and respite breaks are granted to those working in cities considered risky, like Beirut in Lebanon, or with high crime, such as Pretoria in South Africa, or high air pollution in cities including New Delhi and Beijing.The UK government has removed Santiago, in Chile, Panama City in Panama, Pyongyang in North Korea, Bamako in Mali, and Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in addition to the two south American cities, according to the latest…

Artie Beaty/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysGoogle Meet can now take notes for in-person meetings.The feature works on both the app and desktop versions.It’s only open to Google AI Pro or Ultra subscribers for now.Several years ago, Google Meet introduced a feature that takes notes during your virtual meetings. As of this week, Google’s meeting software can now sit in and take notes on your in-person offline meetings, too. Designed to let you focus on the meeting instead of taking down what was said, Meet’s new feature is rolling out this week to both the…

The Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is warning that hackers are actively exploiting a macOS authentication bypass vulnerability after public exploit code emerged. The security issue lies in macOS Screen Sharing, a built-in remote desktop feature that allows remote desktop control over a network, using the VNC protocol over TCP port 5900. Apple fixed CVE-2026-65400 on August 6 in macOS Tahoe 26.6.1 and earlier releases. The flaw allows network-based attackers to gain access without valid credentials. An attacker could use this access to open applications remotely, access files, change security settings, and perform various other actions. In an update…

Israel’s biggest bank, Bank Leumi, will become the first lender in the country to offer customers Bitcoin trading, according to a Friday announcement.  The lender will work with Galaxy Digital to provide the service, which will become available to customers early next year, the announcement said.   Bank Leumi first announced plans to debut crypto trading in 2022 but shelved the initiative. The latest project will use GalaxyOne Institutional, Galaxy’s institutional platform for banks, asset managers and other institutions for trading and other services, to debut the service.  JUST IN: 🇮🇱 Israel’s largest bank is entering Bitcoin.Bank Leumi will allow customers…

The company said monitoring the bat boxes at the site helped confirm the conservation measures were working and could highlight “unexpected and valuable” results, like the Nathusius’ pipistrelle.It said using eDNA swabs was a “potentially useful monitoring tool” for ecologists as data could be easily missed in ‘one-off’ surveys like a visual bat box check.These techniques could more widely increase knowledge of species’ distributions, helping effective conservation to be targeted in the right place, it said.Working alongside South Yorkshire Bat Group and Yorkshire Water, biodiversity intelligence company NatureMetrics analysed eDNA collected from bat boxes and detected Nathusius’ pipistrelle – one…

Marine protected areas (MPAs) cover less than 10% of the ranges of most species of sharks and rays, with significant shortfalls for threatened and critically endangered species, a new study finds.The analysis also reveals major gaps in reporting on the extent of fishing and harvesting re-strictions in these preserves.The study’s authors recommend including biodiversity targets as part of the 30×30 framework and encourage policymakers to consider aligning MPAs with important shark and ray areas to maximize conservation and biodiversity benefits.However, some researchers disagree that blanket MPAs would meaningfully benefit shark and ray conservation.See All Key Ideas In 2022,…

A giant multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project in South America is laying the groundwork for a final investment decision (FID) by the end of 2026, with the submission of its application to join Argentina’s Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI), bringing the country closer to unlocking one of the world’s largest new gas export developments and transforming its vast Vaca Muerta resources into a major source of LNG supply. Rendering of Argentina LNG project; Source: YPF The Argentina LNG integrated liquefied natural gas project promoted by YPF, Eni, and ADNOC’s XRG has submitted its application to join Argentina’s Large…

Friday, American Oversight released letters sent to the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor (OSA) and North Carolina State Board of Elections (BOE) calling for immediate action to recover public records deleted by former elections liaison Dallas Woodhouse and urging the BOE to subpoena him for testimony about the deleted records. The missing records could shed more light on OSA officials’ efforts to influence county election boards’ early voting plans. The letters follow the release of new records we obtained, reported on by NC Newsline, including texts from Woodhouse’s personal phone showing OSA officials and staff communicating with county…

At least the Guardian’s Ewan Murray and Sky Sports’ Ewen Murray work for different outlets (A tale of two Murrays: when Ewan met Ewen to talk Tiger Woods, stiff gins and 15 years of mistaken identity, 8 August). Stephen Moss (former literary editor, and chess and classical music expert) and I (Birdwatch columnist) both write for the Guardian, causing endless confusion.A member of Sedgemoor chess club once told me that “We would be very honoured if you could come and give us a game” (they wouldn’t), while a woman, after admitting that she “quite enjoyed” my birding articles, spoiled it by…

What was claimed An image shows Andy Burnham wearing a T-shirt with “Free Palestine” on it. Our verdict This isn’t a real image. It is an edited version of a real picture of Mr Burnham wearing a completely different outfit. An image of Andy Burnham edited to show him wearing a “Free Palestine” T-shirt is circulating on Facebook.The image depicts the Prime Minister wearing a T-shirt with the Palestinian flag and the words “Free Palestine” on it. He is also shown to be wearing a keffiyeh, and holding a Palestinian flag. It appears to be an edited version of a…