Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Dubai-based offshore vessel specialist Astro Offshore and Houston-headquartered subsea technology and services provider Oceaneering International are joining forces to target integrated offshore and subsea projects, backed by the addition of the UAE firm’s first DP3 multi-purpose support vessel (MPSV). MPSV Astro Aurora; Source: Astro Offshore Astro Offshore has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Oceaneering, describing it as an important milestone in the company’s strategy to expand its offshore and subsea capabilities. The collaboration brings together the UAE player’s offshore vessel capabilities with the U.S. firm’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV), survey, and integrated project delivery expertise, enabling the duo…

India has taken a major step towards opening one of its most sensitive areas of defence production to private companies.Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the transfer of technologies developed by the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for all conventional missile systems to Indian industry for domestic production, the country’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe move marks a significant shift for the sector dominated by government-run firms and research laboratories. Private companies will be able to compete for the technology and production rights, subject to technical qualifications, certifications and other regulatory…

The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Ratcliffe has met Russia’s intelligence services during his visit to Moscow, the Kremlin has said. Ratcliffe travelled to the Russian capital on Tuesday in a rare and unannounced visit. “There were contacts with the intelligence services,” Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters. “There were no meetings with the president of Russia. That’s all I can say on the subject. Naturally, President Putin is briefed immediately about everything,” he added. Peskov made the comments in response to a question at his daily press briefing from a reporter at the…

Dafydd Trystan Davies said that “the initial work has been completed on the 96 actions” in the party’s 100-day plan.He said that in some areas the administration had “put the foundations for success in place”.”But in others, we’ve made tangible real progress that people will be able to feel already,” he said.The first minister is on leave until the end of the week and was unavailable for interviews ahead of the completion of 100 days in government.Asked by BBC Wales whether that meant the government was playing down the milestone, Davies said it was him that was responsible for 100-day…

A Navy sailor aboard the beleaguered aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln said his father was released by immigration enforcement agents in the United States on Tuesday, several days after his detention at a traffic stop as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.Luis Manuel Aviles, 48, was arrested by Border Patrol agents on Saturday in Key West, Fla., as his son, Joshua Aviles, was returning to the United States after a nine-month deployment to the Middle East in support of the war with Iran. Amid reports of poor conditions aboard the carrier, it began its journey home to…

Compare 7 Top Wi-Fi RoutersCHART: Simon HillOther Routers I Tested and LikedI have tested many other models and have several more in the queue. These aren’t as great as the picks above, but they are worth considering.Photograph: Simon HillTP-Link Archer BE600 for $250: This standalone router supports Wi-Fi 7. I don’t love the design, but the six adjustable antennas allow for tinkering, and TP-Link has been very generous with the ports (one 10 Gbps, four 2.5 Gbps, and a USB 3.0), though it’s a little annoying that the USB is on the side. This model also offers excellent close-range speeds…

OpenAI on Tuesday said it banned a cluster of Russian ChatGPT accounts that used VPNs to bypass access restrictions and run an influence operation, which relied on its artificial intelligence (AI) tool to generate social media posts and comments that were shared on Substack, Telegram, X, Facebook and LinkedIn. The accounts “were being used to promote the International Burke Institute (IBI), a self-described ‘expert community’ based in Israel,” the company said. “What began as an investigation into AI-generated social media posts led us to a much broader influence operation, built around a website containing copied and misattributed academic work, a…

Bitcoin’s brief pullback below $78,000 triggered more than $300 million in crypto liquidations as traders took profits after a sharp $80,000 rally driven by Treasury developments, ETF inflows, and a squeeze on bearish positions.Data from CryptoSlate shows that the largest cryptocurrency fell as low as $77,870 during the last 24 hours before recovering above $79,000 as of press time. The retreat spread across major cryptocurrencies, with XRP falling 4% to $1.43 and Solana sliding 3% to $97 after trading above $101.Ethereum dropped to about $2,467, while Zcash declined 7% to $789. Cardano and Dogecoin each fell roughly 5%, with ADA trading…

What we experience when making a decision may be very different from what actually happens inside the brain, according to Indiana University Professor Tom James. For decades, both scientific theories and everyday intuition have tended to describe decision-making as a sequence. First we perceive something, then we think about it and make a choice, and finally we act. Each step is often assumed to correspond to a distinct brain function, moving from sensory processing to cognition and then to motor activity. Many scientific approaches, particularly model-based cognitive neuroscience, are built around this same linear framework. It also matches how decision…

NEW YORK—When nearly 10,000 people in Southeast Queens lost power during a July heatwave, Mayor Zohran Mamdani called on residents to keep their air conditioners at 78 degrees to reduce the pressure on the grid. The New York Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s electricity grid, issued an energy watch the same month, but it wasn’t the first time it sounded the alarm. In 2025, the NYISO activated its demand response program—which pays participants to reduce electricity use—22 times to prevent overloads during peak demand; 18 of those occurred in summer. During the previous 10 years, it had not…