Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

INPE’s DETER system recorded 2,874 sq km of Amazon deforestation alerts from August 2025 through July 2026, down 36% from the previous year and 55.6% below the preceding 10-year average.The total is the lowest since 2013 when earlier DETER data are included. If the trend is confirmed by the higher-resolution PRODES system, Brazil could record its lowest official Amazon deforestation rate since monitoring began in 1988.The decline has coincided with stronger environmental enforcement under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Alerts also fell in the Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, and Pampa, with the Cerrado reaching a five-year low.Despite the…

The Bald Range fire, which is burning “out of control” in British Columbia, Canada, prompted an evacuation order of more than 18,000 people in two communities as the blaze rapidly spread, the authorities said.The fire has scorched more than 25,000 acres as flames have edged closer to the Districts of Summerland and Peachland, officials said.Officials said the fire exploded in a way that they had never seen before, prompting overnight evacuations and the deployment of resources to battle yet another conflagration as more than 100 wildfires burn in the province.The Bald Range fire was “like a bomb going off in…

Finding a good laptop under $500 was hard enough before RAMageddon. They nearly always had cheap hardware and underpowered, often outdated chips. That’s what made the MacBook Neo so disruptive: It offered great build quality and good-enough performance starting at $599. Windows laptops couldn’t touch it. Even though it’s gone up to $699, it’s still the laptop to beat.So when little-known Chinese brand Chuwi announced a $450 Windows laptop with an aluminum build and a brand-new Intel Wildcat Lake processor, it sounded too good to be true.$449The GoodIt’s $450Tons of ports for a small laptop (though none are very fast)Good…

Swati KhandelwalAug 07, 2026Linux / Vulnerability A use-after-free bug in Linux’s SCTP networking code can be turned into full root on a host, and Tencent researchers say they used it to escape a container and reach the machine underneath. The flaw has existed since 2008. The fix already shipped: stable kernels 7.1.6, 6.18.42, 6.12.101 and 6.6.148, released August 3, close it. Anyone running an older kernel with SCTP reachable should update. Tracked as CVE-2026-64564 and named SCTPhantom by its finders, the flaw was disclosed publicly on August 6, two days after the kernel CVE team assigned it. No public exploit…

Crypto’s favorite buy-the-dip strategy failed to make money for Ethereum and Cardano investors who stuck with it since the start of 2022.An investor who placed $100 into Ethereum every month from January 2022 through August 2026 would have contributed $5,600 but ended up with about $4,898, a 12.5% loss, CryptoRank data showed. The same strategy applied to Cardano would have left just $2,616, representing a 53.3% loss.Elsewhere, the results were far stronger. The $5,600 invested in Tron’s TRX token would have grown to $16,521, a 195% return. Bitcoin would have produced $8,660, XRP $8,465, and Solana $8,025, leaving all three…

The claim that a Texas city paid a family farm $10 in exchange for land meant to be used for a park and then sold the land to a data center developer for $10 million is still under investigation.  Deeds from Williamson County show that four members of the Cromwell family sold a plot of land to the Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation for $10 “to be held in the trust for future use as parkland” in July 1999. The land changed hands four more times until NCP Travis TPP Project LCC, a data center developer, bought it from the…

Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke’s death in May was caused by the “effects of heroin and cocaine”, the Los Angeles authorities have revealed.The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner ruled that the death was accidental., externalThe 29-year-old was found unresponsive in a bedroom at a house in San Fernando Valley on 11 May, 2026 and was pronounced dead by paramedics.The medical examiner’s office also listed the “combined effects of multiple prescription medications” as a “significant” contributor to his death but did not state what the medications were.The medical examiner added that its full report would be available at…

Representative Max Miller, the Republican from Ohio accused of physically abusing his ex-wife and young daughter, has defied calls from his own party to drop out and plans to stay in the race to keep his seat in Congress, according to his spokeswoman.Mr. Miller would have had to withdraw by Saturday evening, at the latest, to allow local party chairs enough time to name a replacement on the ballot by Monday at 4 p.m., according to Ohio state law.His decision, confirmed by Abigail Angelos, a campaign spokeswoman, sets up a competitive general-election campaign. Mr. Miller’s district was considered solidly Republican…

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 139, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, barbecue sauce, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I’ve been reading about Johnny Knoxville and Google Zero and the history of the bicycle, @all-ing everyone in all my WhatsApp chats just because I can now, rereading There Will Come Soft Rains because this week is when it happens, seeing if Sabbath can help fix my screentime problems, once again moving everything around in my home office, eating altogether too…

Open Source had a great childhood. For two decades it got to be a kid. It ran around barefoot, gave everything away, trusted strangers, and never once thought about who was watching. It ran the kind of lemonade stand that took IOUs from anyone who wandered up — take what you need, pay me back whenever, no need to leave a name. It was idyllic. It was also, in retrospect, a little feral. Then, somewhere around 2020, its voice started to crack. It tried to grow a beard. Acne everywhere. SolarWinds, then Log4Shell, then TeamPCP and Shai-Hulud — the supply…