Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

New analysis produced exclusively for the Guardian reveals how different voting systems would return significantly different seat totals in the UK parliament, based on recent polling.While the current first past the post (FPTP) system could leave Labour short of a majority with 250 seats, the modelling shows how proportional systems would be likely to reduce the number of seats given to the leading party – and give the UK a more finely balanced parliament that better represents the votes people cast.The new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has announced a new national commission on electoral reform aimed at changing the electoral…

WhatsApp is introducing new parental controls for teenagers, as tech companies continue to come under pressure to provide more age-appropriate experiences for children.The social messaging app’s new tools will give parents a range of options, such as being told when their child joins or leaves a group. It will also let them decide on privacy settings for their account.In a blog post, WhatsApp, clarified parents would not be given the power to see the messages their teen is sending and receiving, which along with calls would stay private and protected by end-to-end encryption.And it said the controls were optional, which…

Remote access software company TeamViewer warned customers on Tuesday to immediately patch a set of high-severity vulnerabilities affecting its client and host software. The highest-severity flaw is a remote session access control bypass (CVE-2026-92370) stemming from an improper access control weakness in TeamViewer Full Client and Host software for Windows, Linux, and macOS that could let remote threat actors perform unauthorized actions leading to remote code execution on targeted systems. The other four security issues addressed on Tuesday are a path traversal (CVE-2026-19743), a heap-based buffer overflow (CVE-2026-92368), a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition (CVE-2026-92369), and an improper path validation…

After suspected North Korean hackers exploited crypto exchange Bitget for $387.5 million last week, investigators were able to quickly flag and trace the recipient addresses. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen then controversially demanded that decentralized cross-chain swaps platform THORChain “refuse service to these addresses.”THORChain responded: “THORChain is decentralized and permissionless like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain. What responsibility should Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain bear when handling known stolen funds?”The move was controversial, especially given the protocol was halted immediately in May when $10.7 million of its own funds were exploited. Complicating matters, THORChain has retired its admin key and doesn’t have…

A sprinter’s first task is to react to the starting pistol. Now, a button-clicking experiment suggests that how quickly people respond to a cue may depend in part on whether they’re breathing in or out. Volunteers’ reaction times were faster when they exhaled or held their breath compared with when they inhaled, researchers report September 28 in iScience. Ken Paller and Erika Yamazaki, then both cognitive neuroscientists at Northwestern University, made their discovery while studying breathing patterns to find treatments for sleep apnea. Yamazaki graduated from her PhD earlier this year. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week’s…

Testing in a limited number of shallow aquifers near fracking sites in southwestern Pennsylvania found low levels of radium overall, but there aren’t yet enough samples to draw firm conclusions about the region as a whole, according to a new report from researchers at Penn State University.  Researchers were looking for evidence that fracking has or has not increased concentrations of radium in drinking water. Oil and gas wastewater can be toxic and radioactive. It is also generally extremely salty. In 2024, the team took samples from 91 private water wells and springs mostly in Washington County, which is one…

Cardiff Capital Region (CCR), the regional economic development body for South East Wales, is beginning an exploratory phase for a potential tidal lagoon in the region.CCR has approved exploratory development studies for a tidal lagoon within the Severn Estuary, said to have one of the highest tidal ranges in the world, reaching up to 14.5 meters, with initial analysis suggesting that a lagoon at Aberthaw could generate around 600 MW, potentially generating approximately 1.3 TWh of renewable electricity each year, enough for approximately half a million homes.Economic analysis estimates that the development and construction of the tidal lagoon could generate…

Can Canada become an associate member of the European Union? Why not? It ticks all the boxes as far as the EU is concerned: a robust democracy, a vibrant economy, and an unflinching commitment to multilateralism, trans-Atlantic security, and the defense of Ukraine. Can Canada become an associate member of the European Union? Why not? It ticks all the boxes as far as the EU is concerned: a robust democracy, a vibrant economy, and an unflinching commitment to multilateralism, trans-Atlantic security, and the defense of Ukraine. Yet Canada won’t join Europe anytime soon, certainly not in a formal way. What…

What we know so far The FlyDubai flight FZ 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia this morning after transmitting emergency signals. According to Israeli media, a fight had broken out between the plane’s two pilots. Passengers described one of the pilots being seriously injured in an alleged stabbing. The Boeing 737 plane, which Israeli officials said had between 160 and 180 passengers on board, transmitted a general emergency signal about two and a half hours after departing from Dubai, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24. It diverted to Saudi Arabia as it flew over…

Die deutsche Wirtschaft sendet widersprüchliche Signale: Während der Ifo-Index leicht steigt, kündigen Autokonzerne Werksschließungen an. Was ist aus der milliardenschweren Initiative „Made for Germany“ von Friedrich Merz geworden? POLITICO-Industrieexperte Tom Schmidtgen analysiert, ob die versprochenen Investitionen echtes Geld sind und was der anstehende „Invest in Germany Summit“ mit dem Kanzler bringt. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview erklärt der wirtschaftspolitische Sprecher der SPD-Fraktion, Sebastian Roloff, wie der Standort Deutschland wieder attraktiv werden soll. Dabei geht es um den Investitionsbooster, geplante Steuersenkungen und die Frage, warum Entlastungen für kleine und mittlere Einkommen jetzt entscheidend für die heimische Wirtschaft sind. Auf geopolitischer Bühne lehnt Donald Trump…