Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Pat Lowe, who died on July 2nd, 2026, aged 84, was a psychologist, writer, naturalist, editor, and longtime defender of the Kimberley in Western Australia.Her understanding of the region was shaped by years living with Walmajarri artist Jimmy Pike at Kurlku in the Great Sandy Desert and by listening to Indigenous knowledge-holders.She helped found Environs Kimberley, later chaired it, served on its board for decades, and edited its newsletter for 29 years.Lowe also supported Broome’s literary community, wrote extensively about the Kimberley, and argued that communities should be able to reject projects that would permanently damage Country, the Indigenous…

According to Centrica’s boss, Chris O’Shea, most people using British Gas prefer to talk to a chatbot rather than a person (Customers prefer AI chatbots, says British Gas owner as 1,300 call centre and back office jobs axed, 23 July).He says that 90% of his customers prefer to use digital channels than speak to a person in the first instance, and that the number of customer calls has fallen by 20%. Well, this is hardly surprising, given the difficulty of getting through to a real person. Finding a telephone number to do so is a challenge in itself, and then…

US accused France of “condescending” rhetoric over its human rights stancesPublished On 27 Jul 202627 Jul 2026United States diplomats walked out of a United Nations Security Council meeting on Russia’s war against Ukraine as France’s delegation took the floor.The walkout on Monday came two days after an online exchange between US and French officials over Washington voting against renewing the four-year term of UN human rights chief Volker Turk.Recommended Stories list of 2 itemsend of listFrance’s UN Mission in Geneva wrote on Saturday that the US was no longer a “beacon of human rights” and stood isolated alongside North Korea,…

The plans for technical education reform will build on local initiatives like the MBacc, or Greater Manchester Baccalaureate, which was announced in 2023 by the now prime minister when he was the city’s mayor.Launched there in September 2024, it has provided a framework for pupils to pick GCSE subjects in both academic and technical subjects which align with growing local industries, like green energy or digital.The government said it would be working with regional mayors, local leaders, schools, colleges and employers to deliver its plans nationally.Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the announcement “marks the start of a real shared effort…

In the BBC’s new apocalypse drama, The Rapture, the UK is engulfed in a terrifying heatwave. I watched a preview of the programme in May, while preparing to interview the lead actor Ruth Madeley. I thought at the time: “This will be much more frightening when it chimes with the real life weather, bad luck for them that it’s not coming out for a couple of months.” But, by the time of meeting Madeley the following month, we were already in the middle of a heatwave that would lead to the highest ever recorded June temperature in the UK. The…

Jack Wallen/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysShadowfetch aims to bring local AI and Linux together.This distro makes installing LLMs and agents easy.The distro is very early stage of development.For many, the idea of AI invading Linux is blasphemy. There are, however, those who believe it is an inevitability and have fully embraced the concept. Even Linux creator Linus Torvalds has told anti-AI developers to “fork off.”Now, one developer has taken Debian and twisted it into a local AI workstation that would make a great tool for your AI needs. Use it for general AI…

Hackers are actively exploiting a vulnerability in the FastJson open-source Java library, allowing remote code execution without user interaction or elevated privileges. The security issue affects FastJson versions 1.2.68 through 1.2.83 and is leveraged in attacks targeting various organizations in the U.S. The malicious activity was observed last week by the agentic security company ThreatBook, and researchers at the business protection company Imperva confirmed that it was “targeting a wide range of organizations, across Financial Services, Healthcare, Computing, Retail, Business, and other industries.” “Attacks are currently almost entirely targeting US-based organizations, with a few attacks in Singapore and Canada, although…

Triple-A, a Singapore-based stablecoin payments firm, said unauthorized access to wallets holding its own digital assets was contained without affecting client money. The company has not disclosed the size of its treasury loss or explained how the wallets were accessed.Triple-A said it identified the incident on July 25. In its July 27 statement, the firm said it does not custody digital assets for clients and holds client funds separately in trust accounts with safeguarding institutions that were not exposed.Certain services were placed in maintenance mode for approximately three hours while the company secured the affected infrastructure and ran security checks.…

A small clinical trial suggests that limiting food intake to fewer hours each day could provide modest cognitive benefits for older women, beyond those associated with weight loss alone. The pilot study followed women with overweight or obesity who were participating in a six-month weight loss program. Those who ate within a daily window of roughly eight to nine hours showed greater improvement on certain thinking tests than participants who spread their meals across about 12 hours. “Losing weight alone will ward off some of the aging-related cognitive decline, and these data suggest that there may be additional benefits if…

The morning-after pill, known as emergency contraception, external, is medication designed to prevent unwanted pregnancies. It usually has to be taken within three to five days of having unprotected sex. The sooner it is taken, the more effective it is.It works by delaying or preventing the release of an egg, but will only prevent pregnancy if ovulation has not already happened.Alternatively, women can visit a doctor or nurse to have a coil or intrauterine device (IUD) fitted to prevent pregnancy at any time during their menstrual cycle. To be effective, it needs to be fitted within 120 hours or five…