Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

A remarkable set of fossil footprints from northern Kenya is offering scientists a rare glimpse of how an extinct human relative may have moved and interacted about 1.4 million years ago. The tracks, preserved near an ancient lakeshore, appear to record eight Paranthropus boisei individuals occupying the same place at roughly the same time. Researchers describe the discovery as a snapshot of “fossil behavior” because, unlike bones that can accumulate over long periods, footprints can capture a brief moment in the lives of individuals. The international team, made up of researchers from the US and Kenya, concluded that all eight…

At least seven people reportedly die after ferry capsizes off northern CyprusAt least seven people have died after a ferry carrying nearly 270 passengers and crew capsized off the coast of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, local media reported.An estimated 237 people have been rescued, Northern Cyprus’ prime minister, Ünal Üstel, told the TRT news channel, adding that the ferry had faced adverse weather conditions and began taking in water just 15 minutes after departure.Local media report that an intensive search and rescue effort was launched after the boat capsized off the coastal town of Kyrenia earlier today. The ferry had been…

Iceland first started talks to join the EU in 2009, in the aftermath of the financial crisis that devastated its financial sector. These talks were largely inconclusive before being definitively called off in 2015, with arguments over fishing quotas contributing to the collapse. The government, led by Social Democratic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, then promised to hold a referendum after coming into power at the end of 2024. She had argued that joining the union would insulate Iceland’s economy from bilateral tariffs that would be difficult for the small nation to deal with alone. Months of roiling debate over Saturday’s…

Grooming gang perpetrators and killers including those responsible for PC Andrew Harper’s death will be blocked from early prison release under changes announced by Andy Burnham after a backlash over the scope of the scheme.Here is a primer on how the crisis unfolded and what the upshot of Burnham’s decision could be.What is happening to prison sentences?From 1 October 2026, a change to sentencing rules means some adults serving a standard prison sentence in England and Wales will be released earlier than the date originally planned, the Institute for Government explains.Prisoners convicted of less serious offences, who currently spend 40%…

For much of the Afghanistan war, the only thing harder for the United States than winning was quitting.The country’s longest war ended in chaos and defeat five years ago Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, desperate to escape Taliban insurgents, swarmed the Kabul airport. Thirteen U.S. troops died there in a suicide bombing.But since then, the fears that prevented three presidents from quitting the war have proven to be unfounded. Afghanistan has not become a terror haven or launchpad for attacks in the United States.Today, the U.S. military is mired in a new war in Iran. Once again, the prospects…

These towering routers aren’t quite as big as the far more expensive Orbi 970 Series, but they have a similar design and are relatively large. The main router has four 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports, while the satellites make do with two 2.5 Gbps ports apiece. There’s no USB. Setup is quick and easy using the Orbi app on your phone.It is a tri-band system, and by default, there is one network name (SSID) for the 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz, and 6-GHz bands, and it supports multi-link operation (MLO). MLO is a new Wi-Fi 7 feature that allows devices to connect on multiple…

Now on a three-month, million-mile journey to its final orbit, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon reveal the universe’s darkest secrets. The mission launched at 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Roman pairs a large field of view with crisp infrared vision to explore vast swaths of the sky and probe deeply into cosmic history. This flagship mission will help astronomers explore dark matter, dark energy, and worlds outside of our solar system, known as exoplanets. Its surveys will support a broad…

Men age and die, but in the Balkans, time stands still and is stuck. General RatkoMladić, who died in prison in The Hague on Thursday aged 84, remains a hero in the Republika Srpska statelet – the Serbian half of dismembered Bosnia that he carved out with a hurricane of violence between 1992 and 1995 – and in Serbia itself.Too many Serbs in whose name Mladić carried out his mass murder of other ethnicities – mainly Muslim Bošniak and Roman Catholic Croats – adore him and mourn his passing.Since Bosnia’s war ended, Mladić’s portrait has adorned posters, gable ends, mantelpieces…

Google has updated its Maps application, labeling Lake Ontario as Lake America for users in the United States, following an executive order signed by President Trump last week amid an escalating trade war with Canada.The decision of the tech giant reflects what it did when Mr. Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America last year.The change has started to be rolled out, Google said in a blog post, adding that it was following its practice of using the name given by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System.“People using Maps in the U.S. will see “Lake America,”…

The Ministry of Defense also said Moscow had “(carried) out coordinated strikes” against an industrial facility in Kyiv. A Russian attack launched on Friday against a warehouse in Myla near the Ukrainian capital reportedly killed 38 people, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X Sunday, with 20 injured and four people missing since the attack. The warehouse attack resulted in fires that damaged at least 50 residential homes. “In total, this week alone, the Russians have launched nearly 2,000 strike drones, more than 1,600 aerial bombs, and 31 missiles of various types,” Zelenskyy added. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have also said…