Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

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…

Elephant meat is common in some wildlife-rich communities, particularly when meat from legal hunts is distributed locally, but it is not an everyday staple. Botswana also tightly regulates game meat, and its legal possession generally depends on proving it came from a lawful hunt.The decision has reignited a long-running and often heated debate in Botswana over how the country manages its huge elephant population.Botswana has more than 130,000 elephants and communities living alongside them have long complained about animals destroying crops, damaging property and sometimes killing people. The government has defended regulated hunting as one way of managing the elephant…

The Conservatives have said they would introduce new work requirements for under-25s claiming benefits in a “tough love” approach to youth joblessness.Young people claiming Universal Credit who are fit to work but have not worked for six months continuously would face new rules to qualify for payments, including daily attendance at a job centre or courses.The party says the scheme would help tackle the almost one million people aged 16 to 24 in the UK who are not in education, employment or training, known as Neets.But anti-poverty charity Trussell warned that people on Universal Credit could not afford basic essentials,…

President Donald Trump has told aides that he thinks Republicans could still outperform expectations in the midterm elections this November, seemingly unwilling to confront the worsening political climate for the GOP.But aides acknowledge privately that the national polling for Trump is shockingly bad, and the White House, in recent weeks, has begun to contemplate for the first time losing both the House and Senate majorities.One longtime Trumpworld operative, who correctly predicted weeks before the 2024 presidential election that Trump was on course to win every battleground state, summed it up for Inner Loop: “Oh, yeah, we’re going to get creamed.”Trump’s…