Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

German officials have called for a tightening of laws for known extremists after a deadly attack in Berlin on one of Europe’s biggest Pride parades, as the far right seeks to mobilise outraged voters before three key state elections.The anti-migration, anti-Islam Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the top party in national opinion polls, accused the government of failing to tackle Islamist radicalism on German soil, while the conservative chancellor, Friedrich Merz, pledged to act with “prudence but also determination” to address security gaps.Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German national with Lebanese roots who was well known to police, is believed to have…

Multiple robotics companies are tackling one of AI’s hardest problems: building foundation models capable of executing tasks they were never explicitly trained to handle. Their approaches run the gamut — from studying millions of web videos and conducting computer simulations to collecting motion data from humans performing tasks in gloves with built-in sensors. Enigma, a research lab set to emerge from stealth on Monday, is taking a fundamentally different approach. Rather than focusing purely on model capabilities, the less-than-one-year-old startup wants to study how humans engage with robots in hopes that these interactions will lead to intuitive interfaces and possibly…

Your workforce is building agents in Salesforce Agentforce, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Cursor, Zapier, Retool, and a dozen other tools, often without visibility or approval from IT or security. For IT and security teams, the decision of whether or not agents should be used has already been made by the business, one shadow agent at a time. The challenge now is keeping up. New agents can be created in minutes, connected to sensitive systems in a click, and changed daily. The job is to maintain visibility and control (who built it, what it can access, what it can do) while enabling…

Tokenization specialist Securitize (SECZ) is expanding its regulatory footprint, adding an investment adviser registration as the company positions itself to serve a growing number of institutional investors bringing traditional assets onto blockchain rails.Securitize said Monday that its subsidiary, Securitize Capital, has registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an investment adviser. The new license adds to the firm’s existing regulated businesses, which include a broker-dealer, alternative trading system (ATS), transfer agent and fund administration services.The move comes as regulators have begun examining how existing securities rules apply to a new generation of investment products on blockchain rails.…

Deep-diving insect larvae in an African lake are forcing scientists to reconsider a popular explanation for why insects are almost entirely absent from the open ocean. Their secret is a remarkably durable system of air sacs that can tolerate far more pressure than researchers expected. Billions of lake fly larvae (Chaoborus edulis), living in Lake Malawi in East Africa, complete an extraordinary vertical migration every day. During daylight hours, the larvae descend more than 200 meters into a deep region of the lake with very little oxygen. This area, often called a dead zone, offers shelter from predators that cannot…

A recent study found that extreme weather events like storms, heat waves and floods can interfere with the breeding success of marine predators like seals, shearwaters and albatross that raise their young along the coasts of the Australian state of Tasmania.While some colonies appeared unaffected by extreme weather, others saw offspring swept away by powerful waves and storm surges, hypothermia during unusually wet episodes, and deadly overheating during periods of high temperatures.The researchers noted that these extremes are among many challenges seals, seabirds and other marine predators face, including pollution, disease and declining food supplies, which can also be…

The word on the street in the Middle East and United States is that Saudi Arabia wants to cut Israel out of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. IMEC, as it is known, is a maritime and rail network that is supposed to connect India and Europe via the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Israel. It was announced with great fanfare at the G-20 summit in September 2023 and, from the perspective of U.S. officials, as an answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. At the time, it was hard to have a conversation about pretty much anything in…

For years, social media users have shared the story that P.T. Barnum, the 19th-century showman and circus operator, once marched 21 elephants across the Brooklyn Bridge to prove the newly built structure would not collapse. Some versions say Jumbo, Barnum’s most famous elephant, led the procession as thousands watched. One Facebook post (archived) with the story read: When the Brooklyn Bridge first opened in 1883, it was hailed as an engineering marvel, yet many New Yorkers doubted its safety.  Rumors spread that the suspension bridge might collapse under heavy weight, creating fear among the public. The following year, famed circus showman…

Gunther von Hagens, the creator of the controversial “Body Worlds” exhibitions where dissected human and animal bodies were displayed, has died at the age of 81, according to his family.Sometimes known as “Doctor Death”, he became famous for developing a technique called plastination, by which fluids and fatty tissue in corpses are replaced by rubber and polymers.His family said in a statement that he had asked for his body to be made available for plastination and that they intended to carry out his wish.More than 58 million people worldwide have viewed his exhibitions, the statement said. However, religious groups and…

Andrea Pirlo has said he is no longer a candidate to coach the Italian national side following days of controversy over his ties to a Russian betting company.His appointment as Italy’s next head coach had not been confirmed by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) yet was being treated as all but certain.But over the weekend several Italian politicians criticised the FIGC’s choice, noting that Pirlo, 47, had taken up a role as global ambassador for Russia’s Fonbet last October.The betting company has sponsored several sporting events involving veterans of Moscow’s war in Ukraine and has organised events in Russia at…