Violent anti-government protests erupt in Albania's capital
Thousands of demonstrators rallied in Tirana on Wednesday to demand better university conditions and the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Over several hours, police deployed water cannons and tear gas as demonstrators attacked government offices and set fire to multiple buildings.
Israeli firm’s digital ads enabling installation of ‘zero-click’ spyware, researchers say
Discover-Tech’s Controlium software lets clients mass-profile internet users then covertly hack targets, say researchers at University of Toronto An Israeli advertising agency has been serving millions of online adverts that allow “zero-click” spyware to be used against targets, researchers at a Canadian university have said. Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency. Continue reading...
G7 countries pledge $2.5 billion to fight food insecurity
In announcing the pledge, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said the World Bank identified 44 countries that may face food insecurity, notably due to fertiliser supply issues linked to energy price hikes after the US war on Iran.
Volvo Cars expands automated driving partnership with Nvidia
Volvo Cars is expanding its partnership with Nvidia to develop a new generation of driver-assistance and automated-driving technology, the companies said on Thursday, as carmakers race to bring increasingly advanced hands-free driving features to market.
The Country Schoolmaster by Kate Grenville review – when finding the truth is ‘like grabbing at water’
The prize-winning author returns to Australia’s colonial archives to reflect on our thirst for answers. But like her source material, the results are slippery * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email In much of her work – The Secret River, The Lieutenant and later A Room Made of Leaves and Restless Dolly Maunder – Kate Grenville has turned to historical archives as source material. But when she chanced upon a furious letter about a schoolteacher in northern New South Wales, she wasn’t sure there would be enough there. But Joseph Connor, a rural educator in the 1880s, had been accused of viciously beating and maltreating children in the town where her grandmother grew up – and the story wouldn’t let her go. “Powerful emotion of any kind is irresistible to a novelist,” she explained in a recent interview. So she kept reading. In 1884, just a few years after public schooling was made law, Connor was appointed the sole teacher at the school in Currabubula, a tiny town on Gomeroi country (also spelled Kamilaroi or Gamilaraay). Through letters, reports and transcripts from the archives, Grenville pieces together a hazy picture of the decade that follows: as he fathered more and more children of his own, there were anonymous complaints, petty feuds, and arguments with parents over fees. Then there were accusations that Connor had seriously beaten and “marked” several children; one lost a finger. There were inquiries and court hearings, but nothing was really proved. After 11 pregnancies, Connor’s exhausted wife died; a few years later, so did he. The Country Schoolmaster by Kate Grenville is out now through Black Inc Continue reading...
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