Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

For years, a small but vocal corner of the extremely online right has looked to the ancient world to justify its polluted brand of politics. The classicist Donna Zuckerberg (sister of Facebook founder Mark) wrote a book about it way back in 2018 called Not All Dead White Men – a deep dive into the corners of the internet where misogynists pretend ancient philosophy can justify their hatred of minorities.You would think that these self-appointed guardians of the ancient world would be excited about a blockbuster retelling one of its greatest pieces of literature, the Odyssey. Especially when Christopher Nolan’s…

Morocco’s interior ministry on Sunday issued its first toll for those who died trying to reach Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta last week, saying 11 people had died. The figures are significantly lower than those issued by Spain, which says at least 72 people died. Tens of thousands of would-be migrants crossed into the territory between Wednesday and Friday, sparking a diplomatic row within the European Union as some member states criticised Spain’s migration policies. Read moreSpain’s Ceuta navigates aftermath of border surge as most migrants return home Rachid El Khalfi, a spokesman for Morocco’s interior ministry, said that…

Cogent AI team released Cogent VR-1, a reasoning model post-trained specifically for cybersecurity rather than picking up cyber capability as a side effect of general coding strength. It ships with two companions: IntrusionBench, a benchmark that scores agents on completed enterprise intrusions, and the Cogent AI Harness, a governed runtime for security agents. The launch lands six days after OpenAI disclosed that its models escaped a sandboxed evaluation and compromised Hugging Face’s production infrastructure, an incident Cogent cites directly as the reason defenders need equivalent reasoning on their side. Is VR-1 deployable Not open-sourced or weight. VR-1 is available only…

The popular Bitcoin hardware wallet Coldcard product, made by Coinkite, is at risk following a $70 million hack. Coinkite on Thursday admitted that its Coldcard Mk3 model was affected following the hack and advised users to move their funds. Then, on Friday, the company said that users of the later hardware devices Mk4, Mk5, and Q should also take precautions.  Hackers on Thursday were first able to drain funds from 1,196 Bitcoin addresses because their private keys were not generated using sufficient entropy — or randomness.  Since then, a total of 1,082.65 Bitcoins have disappeared from wallets, according to data…

Among the various challenges that Russia has faced since its ill-conceived full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one of the most acute has been a severe labor shortage. Russia’s deepening demographic crisis, combined with mass emigration and recruitment of hundreds of thousands of men into the army, has sharply exacerbated the problem. Meanwhile, automation and digitalization—which could partially offset the labor shortage—have advanced too slowly. In recent years, unemployment has remained at a record low of a little more than 2 percent, while estimates of the labor shortage (described by Bank of Russia chair Elvira Nabiullina as unprecedented in Russia’s modern history)…

Russian ​e-commerce giant Wildberries said on Monday that a Ukrainian drone attack on ​one of ‌its warehouses ⁠in the Vladimir region had caused ‌a fire to break out and that ⁠staff had been evacuated. The company, whose warehouses have ​been systematically targeted by Ukraine ‌in recent weeks, said firefighters were working at the scene. It ‌said logistics operations had been rerouted to ​other facilities to ensure deliveries and shipments continued as usual. Read moreWildberries: ‘Russia’s Amazon’ targeted by Ukraine Alexander Avdeyev, the ​regional governor, said a ​young man had received ​a non life-threatening head wound in the ​attack and was being…

Brussels is in close touch with Berlin on the probe, which it believes could be a blueprint for other possible U.S. trade investigations into France and Italy’s pharmaceutical policies. Ditte Juul Jørgensen, head of the Commission’s trade department, recently met with German officials in Berlin to focus on a way forward on drug pricing.The Commission has adopted a similar strategy on transatlantic disagreements on digital policy.While the Trump administration has pressed for broader talks, including on the enforcement of the EU’s competition rules governing Big Tech platforms, Brussels has taken pains to keep the discussions at a technical level.In early…

When my son found out that my daughter was going to get her own tester State backpack to match her State carry-on suitcase, he immediately demanded his own. State is known for its fantastical matching patterns that extend from luggage and backpacks to lunch bags ($48). Its products are pricey, but the kid bags are not worse in quality or fewer in features than the adult bags, which I appreciate. It makes sense, considering kids are often harder on their bags than adults are on theirs.The Kane kids backpacks come in several sizes. Now that my kids are 8 and…

Crypto platform Luno has stopped customers covered by its regional-exit notice from sending their crypto to another wallet or exchange. With that option closed, their remaining standard route is to sell their holdings and withdraw the cash to a bank by Aug. 31 before Luno closes their accounts on Sept. 1.Restrictions began June 1, when Luno disabled deposits, crypto purchases and incoming crypto for affected customers. Selling, bank withdrawals and outgoing crypto transfers remained available until June 29. Customers who missed that send deadline can no longer preserve their holdings by moving them in kind. They must convert the assets…

The effects bovine TB (bTB) has on farmers ranges from emotional to financial.Breeder Rachel Leader said the loss of cattle “has a devastating effect on all of the family”.”The loss of that one animal, or animals, that you’ve grown up with, and suddenly there’s nothing after these years of generation… it’s just mind boggling, and you can’t describe the loss when you do lose your cattle.”But what can be done to tackle bTB?A 12-week consultation, launched in early July by Northern Ireland’s agriculture, environment and rural affairs minister, is asking for views on wildlife interventions and explores options such as…