Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

In Muslim-majority Oman, most people wake before dawn for morning prayers. People often go back to sleep afterward or take afternoon naps, says sleep medicine researcher Mohammed Al-Abri of Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman. Such segmented sleep is not limited to Muslim countries. Teenagers, new parents, perimenopausal and menopausal women and elderly individuals everywhere can struggle to sleep the recommended seven to nine hours in a single block. Early school and work start times leave night owls without adequate sleep. Shift workers juggle daytime demands with nighttime working hours, cramming in sleep when they can. And people living in…

Early September marks the anniversary of two “wars”—one an actual armed conflict with a real, albeit stretched and abused legal framework, the other a completely counterfeit enterprise from the get-go. Sept. 11 is of course the 25th anniversary of al Qaeda’s attacks upon the United States. And Sept. 2 is the first anniversary of the Trump administration’s lethal maritime strikes against vessels alleged to be smuggling drugs. The Trump administration has cynically tried to cloak its boat strikes in the mantle of the post-9/11 “war on terror”—labeling the victims of these attacks as “narco-terrorists,” supposedly affiliated with “designated terrorist organizations,”…

House lawmakers return to Capitol Hill as Republicans hope to pass stopgap spending billThe US House is back after a five-week recess. And this week, Republicans are focused a key legislative agenda item: passing a stopgap spending bill to stave off a possible government shutdown.Currently, funding is guaranteed through 30 September, but after a year marked by record-breaking shutdowns, GOP House speaker Mike Johnson is hoping to advance a bill that would extend funding spending at its current levels until after the November midterms.Johnson is expected to put a vote on the House floor this week, using a fast-track procedure…

National mainstream leaders have also weighed proposals to potentially cut off federal funding to Saxony-Anhalt that would be part of the so-called fiscal equalization system, which moves money to poorer states from wealthier ones. That funding, which for Saxony-Anhalt amounted to €2.8 billion in 2025, could theoretically be cut for rule-of-law concerns, although legal hurdles are high. But the AfD says it is prepared to take action against such efforts. The AfD’s national party leaders created a “Working Group on Government Participation” to begin drafting bills that could be passed in the state legislature and to weigh how the party,…

Speaking exclusively to BBC Breakfast on Sunday, Burnham said he had applied “common sense” on IPPs.”I was faced with a situation where people on those sentences who have more than served their time, not being released when others who’ve committed very serious crimes being released early,” he said.He said the government would table legislation to terminate IPPs by the end of this Parliament.He conceded that of those offenders, there would be those who would “pose a risk to communities”, and a cross-party oversight group would be established.And there are others who have a more favourable outlook about releasing some prisoners…

After a relatively cheery summer in which he announced a range of eye-catching cost of living policies, Andy Burnham may find his return to parliament this week to be a rude awakening.While the new prime minister has enjoyed some success in the polls, he is faced with many of the same problems that stymied Keir Starmer and has some difficult and unpopular choices to make.North Sea oil and gasThe Rosebank oilfield and the Jackdaw gasfield have been in limbo for a year after a court case ruled the consent given to drill by the previous Conservative government was unlawful. Now,…

For the past five years, security researcher Matt Burch has immersed himself in the esoteric and high-stakes world of ATM security, in which small software flaws can sometimes expose cold, hard cash. As Burch has bored deeper into the computers powering these digital lock boxes—and continued to find vulnerabilities in key digital security systems—he has started working to raise the alarm, not just about overlooked ATM flaws, but about how that same software used in other industries can introduce weaknesses in an array of critical systems.At the Black Hat and Defcon security conferences in Las Vegas this month, Burch presented…

Ravie LakshmananAug 31, 2026Cybersecurity / Hacking The boring parts caused most of the trouble. A router shipped ready to listen. A fake check turned the user into the installer. Trusted systems collected traffic and passwords, then cleaned the logs. Old bugs formed new attack chains. Even an AI agent decided its assigned task was optional. Elsewhere, fake apps, helpful support calls, cheap banking kits, exposed systems, and weak defaults kept things moving. Different attacks, same useful mistake: something familiar was trusted without a second look. Here is the week… ⚡ Threat of the Week U.S. Disrupts Chinese Proxy Network Enabling…

In March, someone moved $1 million worth of Bitcoin through a large crypto custodian. Three weeks later, almost exactly the same amount came back. Incredibly, less than two months after that, the Bitcoin was deliberately destroyed.The wallet had been dormant for almost 12 years before it suddenly sprang back to life. Bitcoin educator Bennet noted it sent 20.00010537 BTC to “a custodian of some kind” before receiving it back again (minus $3 or so). “The whole balance went out to what looks like an exchange hot wallet, and almost exactly the same amount came back three weeks later. Seven weeks…

Choosing the diet version of a favorite soda often means consuming non-nutritive sweeteners. These additives provide sweetness without the calories found in sugar. However, some health organizations have begun raising questions about their possible long-term effects, including whether they may disrupt energy metabolism and eventually contribute to a higher risk of diabetes or cardiovascular disease. New research in mice adds to those concerns. The study suggests that sucralose and stevia, two widely used sweeteners, can alter the gut microbiome and gene activity in ways that may affect metabolic health. Some of these biological changes were also observed in later generations.…