Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

More than 100 organisations around the world, including ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and rival Anthropic, have signed an open letter calling for a global effort to “strengthen cyber defences” against AI-powered cybersecurity threats. “We have a limited window to strengthen cyber defences,” the letter says. “In the coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable.” Concerns have increased in recent months about the capabilities of increasingly advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models, including those made by OpenAI and Anthropic, two of the world’s leading AI developers. In mid-July, two OpenAI models…

Harrop, who has said he joined the SNP in 2014, has written on the Wings Over Scotland website, external about his efforts to obtain information, claiming the Scottish government has a “pathological aversion to transparency and accountability”. The particular information request that could potentially trigger a Supreme Court ruling asks for material relating to the internal discussions among ministers, advisers and civil servants about whether they could claim an FOI exemption for material gathered by James Hamilton. While some information was divulged, the government claimed legal privilege over some of the correspondence, with the Court of Session eventually ruling those…

The Food and Drug Administration approved updated Covid vaccines on Thursday, clearing the way for manufacturers to ship doses to pharmacies and doctors’ offices.Moderna and Pfizer, which make the most commonly used Covid vaccines, are expected to begin shipping soon; Pfizer said it would do so “immediately,” and Moderna has done so within days of approval in past years. Sanofi, which distributes a non-mRNA option called Nuvaxovid (commonly known as Novavax), said doses would be available in the coming days, with the timing varying by location.However, criteria set by the F.D.A. and a legal dispute stemming from past Trump administration…

I think I know why Rockstar Games debuted its “extended look” of Grand Theft Auto VI on Netflix instead of immediately dropping it for free on YouTube. Unlike most video game trailers, the almost 27-minute preview of GTA VI felt more like a slice of a prestige crime drama than any video game trailer that I’ve ever seen. To make a new game that lasts another decade or more and potentially rivals the success of its predecessor, Rockstar is clearly trying to further blur the lines between Hollywood and video games.The line between games and movies has been getting consistently…

US medical technology giant Boston Scientific has been targeted in a cyberattack that has caused significant disruption to its global operations. Boston Scientific develops and manufactures devices and therapies used primarily in cardiology, neurology, oncology, and other interventional medical procedures. The company said it detected a cybersecurity incident affecting some IT systems on August 25. The attack caused a network outage and disrupted operations.  “The incident has impacted access to certain operating systems and business applications, including the ability to process and ship customer orders,” Boston Scientific noted in a statement shared on its website.  The company said it could…

Should fund managers dealing in Bitcoin be worried about the threat of quantum computing?  The short answer is yes — but there’s time to prepare and solutions are already being found. One of them? Post-quantum Bitcoin transactions on the mainnet. And the first one happened this week thanks to the Starknet Foundation.  JUST IN: The first post-quantum resistant Bitcoin transaction was mined today.”It required no soft forks. It required no hard forks. It required no core protocol upgrades. And it’s live today.” pic.twitter.com/YyZbHhm8HI— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) August 27, 2026 Speaking at Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong on Thursday, Damian Chen,…

From the first hint of cold winter mornings, supermarkets and pharmacies begin heavy marketing to coax us to stock up on vitamin C to get through the cold and flu season. But where did that idea come from? As we’ll see, it’s a story including a Nobel Prize winner, a book and some claims that don’t quite stack up.Nobel Prize winner writes a bookLinus Pauling was a chemist from the United States who won two Nobel Prizes. One was in 1954 for chemistry, for his research into chemical bonds. The other was in 1962 for peace, for his activism against…

Coral reefs, medieval coastal castles and mangrove forests on UNESCO’s World Heritage list now share something in common: Precise digital boundaries.A new dataset maps 386 coastal World Heritage Sites, offering the clearest picture yet of what stands to be lost as the world’s climate changes.Covering 235 million hectares (~581 million acres) of coastline, the new high-resolution, open-access dataset can be used by researchers and local managers to study flooding, erosion and other climate risks faced by heritage sites.The tool is a critical first step to understand climate risks, but not a substitute for the local knowledge needed to help…

Rare earths help make the world cleaner, smarter, and more connected. But in Myanmar, their extraction leaves behind poisoned rivers, scarred hillsides, dispossessed communities, and rising health risks. Supply chains centered around China are pulling heavy rare earths from Myanmar’s conflict zones, revealing a larger shift: Extraction of strategic resources no longer necessarily depends on stable governments or consolidated state authority. In some places, supply chains can adapt to the fragmented political order that war produces. The Kachin Independence Army, one of many groups fighting Myanmar’s central government, seized Pangwa, the hub of Kachin state’s rare-earth industry, in 2024. But…

Claim: Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un paid tribute to the late country music star Dolly Parton at the summit of Mount Paektu in August 2026. Rating: A rumor that Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un paid tribute to the country music star Dolly Parton at the summit of Mount Paektu spread after Parton’s death in August 2026. For example, the X account @DPRK_News posted (archived) an image of Kim standing on a snowy mountaintop and wrote, “Fond memories of dear friend Dolly Parton immortalized from summit of Mt Paektu.” Fond memories of dear friend Dolly…