Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

I went to Pakistan last month to write an article about the country’s electric motorcycle boom. I visited showrooms, toured an assembly plant and interviewed company founders and would-be bike buyers. As the trip neared its end, I figured I’d learned just about everything I needed to know.Except what it feels like to actually ride one.And then came my moment of fortune. Or maybe misfortune. Depending on how you feel about Lahore’s roads.“Do you want take it out for a drive?” Abdul Rafay, the owner of a new Vlektra electric motorcycle, asked after we finished an interview.I looked out at…

Russia released an American who had been held in prison for more than four years, and he was en route to the United States on Tuesday, President Trump said.The release of the detainee, Robert Gilman, 32, a Massachusetts resident and former Marine, came after his family and an advocacy group sounded the alarm about his failing health and accused Russia of mistreating him.Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday, “I am proud to announce that American Citizen Robert Gilman, a former United States Marine, is coming HOME!” He added that after discussions with President Vladimir V. Putin, “Russia has…

Andy Burnham said on Monday he was “increasingly confident” that PC Andrew Harper’s killers would not be freed in the new year.Determined to ensure that Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were jailed for 13 years in 2020 for manslaughter, serve their full sentences, he has asked the justice secretary, Alex Norris, to examine three options for increasing prison capacity.The options outlined by Burnham are speeding up the deportation of foreign offenders, releasing female prisoners from jail and reviewing indefinite sentences given to “lower-risk” prisoners.How feasible are they?Accelerating the deportation of foreign prisonersThere were 10,134 foreign nationals held in prisons…

Fairfax Media Archives / Getty ImagesFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysA developer ran a 35-year-old version of Word in today’s Windows.The developer rebuilt the original sources and used modern replacements.Anyone can replicate this, but you’ll need the right programming tools.I remember using Microsoft Word for Windows in the early 90s. Yes, it looked clunky by today’s standards. But I loved the power it gave me to visually create, format, and manage all my writing. And in retrospect, that old-fashioned version of Word worked just fine without throwing AI in your face. Well, if you…

WORKER = os.path.join(WORK_DIR, “octobot_worker.py”) WORKER_SRC = r”’ import asyncio, itertools, json, os, sys, time, traceback import numpy as np import tulipy import octobot_script as obs CFG = json.load(open(os.environ[“OBS_CONFIG”])) OUT = os.environ[“OBS_OUT”] FIX = CFG[“fixed”] for kw in (“Close”, “High”, “Low”, “Time”, “market”, “current_live_time”, “plot_indicator”): if not hasattr(obs, kw): raise RuntimeError( f”octobot_script.{kw} missing -> tentacles are not installed. ” “Run: python -m octobot_script.cli install_tentacles” ) def tail(*arrays): “””tulipy indicators return different lengths; right-align them all.””” n = min(len(a) for a in arrays) return [np.asarray(a)[-n:] for a in arrays] def clamp(v): return float(min(max(v, FIX[“min_offset_pct”]), FIX[“max_offset_pct”])) def build_callbacks(params, run_data): “”” OctoBot-Script splits a…

Microsoft has released Windows 11 KB512103 and KB5120240 cumulative updates for versions 25H2/24H2 and 23H2 to fix security vulnerabilities, bugs, and add new features. Today’s updates are mandatory as they contain the August 2026 Patch Tuesday security patches for 400 vulnerabilities discovered in previous months. You can install today’s update by going to Start > Settings > Windows Update and clicking on ‘Check for Updates.’ You can also manually download and install the update from the Microsoft Update Catalog. This is the eighth ‘Patch Tuesday’ release in 2026, and it’s based on 24H2, which means 25H2 gets the same update. There are no exclusive or special changes. You’ll get the same fixes across the two versions…

In brief The Bank of Russia published a draft directive letting non-qualified investors buy crypto through brokers, capped at 300,000 rubles a year. Only Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether’s USDT made the approved list for public exchange trading. Qualified investors face no such limits; all investors must pass a risk test first. Russia’s central bank has proposed its first framework for letting ordinary investors trade crypto on public markets.The Bank of Russia published a draft directive on Aug. 11 that would let non-qualified investors buy digital assets through brokers, crypto exchanges or managers—within a strict annual ceiling.”We’re setting a limit on…

The water quality of a Berkshire chalk stream – named by Thames Water as part of a “flagship chalk stream restoration project” – has been classed as “poor” by the Environment Agency.In the figures released on Thursday, the River Pang also failed a test for hazardous substances.In 2022, Thames Water began the Pang Flagship Chalk Stream Partnership, which it said would “deliver restoration plans from 2025 to 2035”.Thames Water said it had invested £875,000 in the partnership, adding river water quality was influenced by a range of factors, “including farming, industry, road runoff and increasingly extreme weather” and “addressing these…

A campaign to shoot crows has resumed in Singapore in response to a surge in public complaints about attacks, with authorities saying “pest” birds pose a public health risk and outcompete native species.Ecologists argue Singapore’s crow problem is human-made, with poor waste management and illegal feeding fueling a population boom.They criticize culling as ineffective over the long term and say it risks normalizing lethal wildlife control while undermining Singapore’s “City in Nature” vision.Nature groups say ongoing and planned forest clearance for public housing could lead to further increases in urban bird populations, as more favorable habitats are created, leading…

At a time when U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are warning about the threat of “communism,” the Trump administration itself has taken over much of the means of production. If Trump’s foray into state capitalism last year seemed alarming—and it did—it has only gotten worse.  At a time when U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are warning about the threat of “communism,” the Trump administration itself has taken over much of the means of production. If Trump’s foray into state capitalism last year seemed alarming—and it did—it has only gotten worse.  The U.S. government now…