Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

WhatsApp has begun a limited beta rollout of Scam Alert, an optional feature that uses an on-device machine learning model to flag suspicious messages from non-contacts.  The company says the tool is designed to work alongside end-to-end encryption rather than around it, with classification happening entirely on the device and no automatic reporting to WhatsApp or parent company Meta. Once a user enables the feature, a model is downloaded to the device and evaluates incoming messages for patterns associated with known scams, drawing on conversational structure and linguistic cues.  If a message is flagged, only the recipient sees a warning…

In brief Bill Swearingen’s noRecognition project generates patterns that stop camera software from classifying what it covers—people, faces, or cars. The patterns defeated all 11 open-source detection algorithms he tested, including the software behind Flock license plate readers, Axon body cameras, and Clearview AI. The first public test came Friday at Def Con in Las Vegas: a 2009 Toyota Yaris wrapped in the pattern, driven past a Flock camera. Bill Swearingen spent the past year running one experiment over and over from his home in Kansas City, where he co-founded the SecKC security meetup. About 31 million tests later, he…

The barren lunar landscape has some important resources, such as water and minerals like iron and titanium, but extracting and processing them will require special equipment. Where those resources can be found will dictate where to land and how to mine them. To help with that, Lunar Station Corp. is using a wealth of NASA data in multiple computer models. “With 60 years of lunar data available to us, we help our clients understand the environmental factors for any given location on the Moon,” said Blair DeWitt, CEO of Lunar Station. Combining disparate data from different sensors used by NASA…

Indonesia holds the world’s largest nickel reserves and has rapidly expanded production, which a new study says has grown roughly tenfold over the past decade.Nickel mining can fragment wildlife habitat as mines, roads and associated infrastructure expand, threatening biodiversity in areas of global conservation importance.Researchers say protecting the most important biodiversity and carbon areas could substantially reduce environmental risks, but doing so could also constrain nickel supply.Even with greater adoption of low- or no-nickel battery chemistries, total nickel demand could continue to grow because the metal is also used extensively in stainless steel, renewable-energy infrastructure and other applications, the…

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief. The highlights this week: The new security pact among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey delivers Islamabad a boost in the Middle East but not in its own backyard, Bangladesh lashes out at India over an event involving former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and the Taliban deny detaining an Afghan-U.S. dual citizen who disappeared in Kabul four years ago. Mecca Pact Is Mixed Blessing for Pakistan Last week, Pakistan inked a new security pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, known as the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement. The deal cements Islamabad’s place in the Middle…

Claim: An image authentically showed U.S. President Donald Trump hiding in an airplane catering cart to be smuggled from one plane to another. Rating: In August 2026, a rumor spread on the internet that a photograph authentically showed U.S. President Donald Trump hiding in an airplane catering cart as he was being smuggled from one plane to another for security reasons.  The image circulated after the New York Times reported on Aug. 10 that, in July, Trump had to be smuggled from Air Force One onto a military jet in a catering container to leave Turkey because he faced a…

US Department of Homeland Security is expected to buy up to $20m in gloves amid criticism of the president’s immigration crackdown.Published On 12 Aug 202612 Aug 2026The administration of United States President Donald Trump is planning to spend tens of millions of dollars to equip federal immigration agents with gloves capable of delivering electric shocks.According to a notice posted on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security has estimated it will invest between $10m and $20m in such gloves by the end of March 2027.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe devices are known as the CT-G5 G.L.O.V.E., an acronym…

The two-week runoff campaign to decide which Republican candidate will compete in November to succeed the late Senator Lindsey Graham started in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, as each candidate workshopped what their sales pitch should be.Senator Darline Graham, Mr. Graham’s sister, had holed up at her campaign headquarters in Columbia, S.C., according to two people with knowledge of her night who requested anonymity to describe a private gathering. She discussed next steps on the phone with President Trump while she snacked on chicken nuggets and sweet tea from Chick-fil-A.Representative Ralph Norman, the vice chairman of the House Freedom…

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary and one of the most public-facing officials in the Trump administration, will step down to spend more time with her family, she and President Trump announced on Wednesday.In a social media post, Mr. Trump said that Ms. Leavitt, who recently returned from maternity leave after giving birth to her second child, would leave at the end of the month to spend time with her young children — a decision that he said “I totally understand and respect.”He said Ms. Leavitt would become one of his “top” outside advisers and called her “one of…

Brazil’s data protection authority (ANPD) has ordered Discord to suspend its livestreaming feature after a teenage girl was allegedly encouraged to take her own life in a broadcast on the platform.The messaging service allows people to create and join groups based on their interests, with users able to enter voice or video calls in real time through Discord’s “Go Live” feature.The investigation by the ANPD began on 7 August after the death of a 13-year-old girl, who was reportedly pressured to end her life by others in the Discord server – or group – she was in.Discord told the BBC…