Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The switch took place after the president boarded the traditional jet in front of television cameras. Journalists and many administration staff who remained on Air Force One were unaware of the switch and their role as unwitting decoys, The Post reported.Trump claimed at the time that he was riding the recently retired Air Force One jet — instead of a Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-800 which the president flew into Ankara on — for “old time’s sake.” But subsequent news reports suggested the Secret Service had become aware of an Iranian threat, leading to the older jet to be used. The flight…

The government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, Andy Burnham has said.Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the prime minister’s failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis.In July this year, firefighters called to Cannock Chase found an area the size of a football field blazing in the summer heat. The heathland in Sherbrook Valley, part of a special area of conservation, was home to adders, toads and other wildlife, which were thought…

An agonizingly close race in the Democratic primary for governor of Wisconsin ended with an upset win for the moderate David Crowley early on Wednesday, the latest turn in a rancorous battle between the party’s ascendant left and its old guard that has defined primary season this year.Mr. Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive and standard-bearer for moderates in the race, vastly exceeded expectations by defeating State Representative Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist who built a supercharged campaign of energized supporters and overwhelmingly led in most public polls.Other races were called before midnight. Here are eight takeaways from Tuesday’s long night.A…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management is laying the groundwork for a take-private bid for US fast-food chain Wendy’s with backing from a consortium of investors including Bugatti backer BlueFive Capital. Trian, a longtime Wendy’s shareholder, is assembling a group of co-investors for its bid that is likely to include Flynn Group, one of the burger restaurant’s largest franchisees, and Abu Dhabi-based BlueFive, according to people familiar with the matter. The group could submit its take-private bid in the coming weeks, the people…

Nina Raemont/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysAside from all the new Pixel phones, Google announced a new finder tag called Pixel Tag. It uses Bluetooth Channel Sounding and Ultra Wideband for precision tracking. Channel Sounding promises more stable, accurate, and secure device tracking.Google’s Made by Google event features a hardware newcomer this year: the Pixel Tag. Google’s Android-exclusive Pixel Tag Bluetooth tracker debuts with a user-replaceable coin battery, an IP67 dust and water-resistance rating, and compatibility with any Android phone running Android 9 or later.However, the most interesting aspect of the Pixel Tag is its inclusion of Bluetooth…

Earlier this year, OpenAI frontier models and Codex became generally available on AWS, giving enterprises a new path to bring advanced AI into production. Today, we’re sharing the next step in our work with AWS: making Daybreak capabilities available through Amazon Bedrock.With Daybreak Access, defenders can use frontier cyber models within their existing AWS environments. Daybreak Blue and Daybreak Red access levels are both available in AWS:Daybreak Blue provides access to frontier general-purpose models, including GPT‑5.6 Sol, with safeguards tailored to authorized defensive security work.Daybreak Red provides access to our purpose-trained cybersecurity models for authorized vulnerability research, exploit validation, and…

A SharePoint vulnerability patched last month is now being exploited in the wild, with the attacks starting shortly after the release of a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-55040, was fixed by Microsoft with its July Patch Tuesday updates. Microsoft described it as a weak authentication issue that allows an attacker to bypass a security feature over a network. “Exploiting this vulnerability could allow an attacker to disclose files and modify data,” Microsoft said, adding, “In a network-based attack, an unauthenticated attacker could bypass authentication and make an anonymous connection.” Rapid7 disclosed the technical details of CVE-2026-55040 on…

In brief U.S. consumer prices rose 0.1% in July after falling 0.4% in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday. Over the past 12 months, prices are up 3.4%, a tick below June’s 3.5%. Bitcoin ticked up about 0.3% on the day to roughly $63,750, while total crypto market cap slipped under 1%. U.S. inflation in July slowed as expected, and markets—including Bitcoin—took it in stride.The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, increased by 0.1% over the last month after falling 0.4% in June, in line with forecasts, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.”Over the last 12 months, the…

It’s not just you. Frogs also get overwhelmed when confronted with too many options — and sometimes, they make bad decisions. Female Cope’s gray tree frogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) prefer males with longer calls, which in some tree frogs is tied to better survival odds for offspring. But female frogs exposed to an overabundance of mating calls are worse at picking out the best mates, researchers report August 12 in iScience. This suggests that, like people, frogs experience choice overload — the tendency to delay, avoid and make worse decisions when more choices are offered. Sign up for our newsletter We…

A palm oil grower in an Indonesian village on Sumatra island, around 100 miles west of Singapore, has spent 15 years studying the role of mangroves in coastal ecosystems and pushing local action to restore coastal forests.Research shows this area of Sumatra’s northern coastline, which is separated from the Strait of Malacca by a narrow channel and the island of Bengkalis, is experiencing coastal abrasion of more than 6 meters per year, due primarily to mangrove loss.Indonesia pledged to restore around 600,000 hectares in five years by 2024, which researchers say was likely the world’s most ambitious reforestation initiative…