Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Cases have more than doubled since August as a dispute with federal health officials over the death count continues.Pennsylvania has confirmed a fifth measles-associated death this year, as the number of infections approaches 1,000 amid a rapidly growing outbreak across the state.The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced on Wednesday that an unvaccinated resident of Lancaster County who tested positive for measles had died.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe department said the death was reported to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).The state has recorded 943 confirmed measles cases across 39 counties so far in…

When assessing British political speeches, even many critics of the New Labour years measure success against Tony Blair, a leader whose podium appearances are regarded as the peak of oratory.On that measure, Andrew Marr, the former BBC political editor and now the New Statesman’s chief political commentator, reached for the ultimate accolade. “Rather to my surprise, I have to report Andy Burnham is at least as good a platform speaker” as Blair, he said. “Perhaps better.”Piers Morgan, the former News of the World editor, concluded that Burnham’s speech to the Labour party conference on Tuesday was “one of the best,…

Emma, from Kirklees, has grandchildren in Years 1, 2 and 4 and thinks primary school is too young to be introducing careers talks. “In primary school, there is too much trying to get little kids to grow up too quickly,” she says. “Just let them be little kids. I know they have to learn and the world’s changing, but still, give them a chance to be kids.”But Zoe, another parent, disagrees. “I think it’s a good idea,” she says. “It’s something that everyone has to do, so if you learn early, it’s something they don’t have to learn later on.”Teaching…

ZDNET’s key takeaways openSUSE Leap is getting an immutable mode. openSUSE already includes plenty of security features. This addition should make Leap one of the most secure distros. I’ve been a fan of SUSE and openSUSE for a long time. I actually remember SUSE Linux before it was SUSE Enterprise Linux or SUSE Enterprise Linux Desktop. Even back then, the distribution was a power user’s dream come true.  One reason for this was its security. openSUSE has been, for a very long time, one of the more secure of the “mainstream” Linux distributions. And in German-speaking countries, openSUSE is quite…

This week, OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Sol. It upgrades GPT-6 Sol, the mid-tier model in the GPT-6 family. OpenAI’s claim is specific: near-Astra results on agentic coding, computer use, and professional work. The price is one-fifth of GPT-6 Astra’s standard input and output rates. Cached input drops to $0.10 per million tokens, 50% below GPT-6 Sol. Is it deployable? Yes, as a hosted model. It is live today in the OpenAI API as gpt-6.1-sol, and in ChatGPT Work and Codex. Where Sol Sits in the GPT-6 Lineup OpenAI now ships 3 GPT-6 tiers. GPT-6 Astra costs $10 input, $50 output, and…

A Russia-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) actor that was significantly disrupted by Microsoft and US officials two years ago is casting a wider net than ever with its phishing and malware-delivery tactics. In recent attacks, the nation-state actor has ditched its previous ClickFix strategy for a novel technique, allowing it to reach even more targets and evade detection.Star Blizzard, active since 2017 and known for targeting journalists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and Russia experts — particularly those supporting Ukraine — has since January demonstrated a key tactical change in its phishing initial-access method, Microsoft Threat Intelligence (MTI) revealed in a blog…

In brief Google unveiled Gemini 4 Argon on Wednesday, scoring 77.9% on DeepSWE v1.1 and leading 12 of 18 benchmarks in its own comparison table. It posted a 0.7% attack success rate on Gray Swan’s prompt injection test, ahead of Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Fable 5.1, which both scored 1.0%. Argon goes first to vetted cyber defenders through the Fairwind Program, without cyber guardrails, before reaching paid API customers and Google AI Ultra subscribers. Gemini 4 is finally here, one week after the release of Claude Opus 5.5 and one day after GPT 6.1 Sol, proving American labs are…

When the first day of the apple harvest rolled around in Washington State last year, the fruit was ripe and the pickers were ready – but the weather had other ideas.”It was like 38C… it’s not safe for people to work in that heat,” recalls Joel Carter at Okanagan Specialty Fruits. “We had to stop at 10 o’clock in the morning.”He says that artificial intelligence (AI) models that forecast ideal harvest dates, taking into account the weather, would be useful. “You need to know more than just when your fruit is going to be ripe. How long do you have…

Once the outbreak was recognised, health workers began door-to-door screening in affected villages. Mobile medical units carrying oxygen, nebulisers, suction equipment, malaria tests and medicines visited more than 20 affected villages.One mobile doctor, Neeraj Sharma, says teams routinely saw more than 50 patients a day, about half of them children. They conducted 10 or more malaria tests daily, sometimes finding two positive cases a day.More than 6,200 patients – mostly children – were eventually treated at home, according to Gautam. More than 630 were referred to district hospitals. About 600 returned home, while around 30 remain admitted.Vaccination became an emergency…

The winning entry of a prestigious scientific photography competition is being re-evaluated following criticism from other scientists that it was made with AI.Nikon’s annual Small World In Motion contest accepts photos and video taken using powerful microscopes, and has run annually for the last 15 years.The winner was a short video submitted by Dr Ning Xu, a researcher at Tsinghua University in China, which claims to be footage of tiny, hair-like structures called cilia moving inside the airways of a child with a rare disease.Xu did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment, but has posted online denying he…