Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Cabinet never discussed cutting refugee intake, says PlibersekTanya Plibersek has said cabinet never discussed cutting Australia’s refugee intake after debate and confusion within Labor came into public view this week.The Financial Review on Thursday reported the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, was planning to cut intake of 20,000 arrivals to 13,750 in 2027-28.The prime minister declared the figure would stay at 20,000 after Labor MPs and refugee advocates reacted angrily.Asked on the ABC’s Insiders if the government had considered a cut to the refugee intake, Plibersek said: double quotation markNo, I don’t really know where this story came from. We…

Hollywood’s finest — the people accustomed to massive eight-figure checks and exotic movie sets — are now betting on something much smaller: microdramas. Microdramas are short, scripted series designed to be watched on phones. Episodes typically run just a few minutes, and often feature soap opera-style plots, dramatic twists, and cliffhangers designed to keep viewers watching, and often paying, for the next episode. The format took off in China before rapidly gaining traction internationally. Omdia estimates that U.S. revenue generated by microdramas is expected to reach $1.5 billion this year. A growing number of apps have emerged to capitalize, including…

Anthropic is permanently increasing Claude Code’s standard weekly usage limits by 25% for Pro, Max, Team, and seat-based Enterprise plans, but it’s not as good as it sounds. If you use Claude, you’re actually getting a 17% reduction compared to what you have today. Claude Code currently has a temporary 50% increase in weekly limits, which Anthropic says will remain in place until September 14. “Starting September 14, we’re permanently raising standard weekly limits in Claude Code by 25% for Pro, Max, Team, and seat-based Enterprise plans,” Anthropic wrote on X. “Until then, the current 50% increase will be in place.”…

In brief HMRC said 240 people each declared more than £1 million in cryptoasset capital gains in the 2024-25 tax year, £717 million between them. Across all 17,600 individuals reporting crypto disposals, taxable gains came to £1.38 billion on £13.8 billion of proceeds. Exchanges must begin reporting customer data to the tax authority from 2027 under a new OECD framework. Britain’s crypto gains are concentrated in very few hands, according to the first official figures HMRC has published on the sector.Some 240 people declared more than £1 million each in cryptoasset capital gains during the 2024-25 tax year, the tax…

Dozens of Israeli settlers burst into a Palestinian man’s house in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, trapping and attacking people inside, the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses said. It was the latest in a series of assaults by Israeli extremists that have drawn international condemnation.The attack took place near the Palestinian town of Qusra in the northern West Bank, where groups of Israeli settlers recently besieged the homes of several other Palestinians, including an American citizen. Violence has snowballed in the Israeli-occupied territory over the past several months, with Palestinians saying the Israeli authorities frequently look the other way.But…

It’s no exaggeration to say the large language models that power AI bots like ChatGPT and Gemini are changing the world. Many of us are now relying on them for coding, writing, summarizing, and searching the web. Whatever directions AI goes in over the next few years, LLMs will be part of that future.If you use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or any of the other AI platforms, then you’re using an LLM. What’s less commonly known is that these LLMs can be run locally, on your own computer. The key benefits are offline access and greater privacy, because you’re not sending…

The value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on Stellar has climbed roughly 360% in 2026 to nearly $4 billion, up from $868.8 million at the end of last year, according to a Dune Analytics dashboard maintained by Stellar.The network’s RWA market cap stood at $3.996 billion as of Aug. 29, spread across US Treasurys, private and public credit, non-US government debt and other tokenized asset classes.The market is concentrated among a handful of issuers. Spiko accounted for $1.55 billion of Stellar’s RWA value as of Aug. 27, followed by Realiz at $559 million, Tradable at $548 million, Franklin Templeton at…

Photoreceptor degeneration is behind several major causes of blindness, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Together, these disorders affect about 200 million people worldwide and rank among the leading causes of visual impairment and blindness. Beyond the profound effects on independence and quality of life, vision loss also creates a global economic burden estimated at over US$400 billion per year through healthcare expenses and lost productivity. In these diseases, the retina’s photoreceptor cells, which detect incoming light, gradually deteriorate and die. Yet much of the neural circuitry deeper within the retina can remain intact and capable of…

This is the 27th time since Russia invaded Ukraine that the Zaporizhzhia plant has had to rely on emergency diesel supplies.Published On 29 Aug 202629 Aug 2026The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southeastern Ukraine has been without off-site power for more than a week, the world’s nuclear energy watchdog has warned.The plant, which Russia has occupied since 2022, is currently relying on emergency diesel generators, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe plant needs power to keep its six non-operating reactors cool and has only a 10-day diesel supply on site,…

The Trump administration’s highly unusual deal to develop Venezuela’s vast oil resources would have the U.S. government collaborate with an influential and polarizing Venezuelan businessman.Under the deal that President Trump announced late Friday, the United States would work with Alejandro Betancourt López, whose family controls Venezuela’s second largest private oil producer, North American Blue Energy Partners, according to four people familiar with the arrangement.The federal government is expected to back the development of a significant portion of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves through the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital, while Mr. Betancourt’s company would lead operations, three of the people said.…