Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The US House of Representatives has agreed to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress for defying a legal summons related to its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Black, who had business ties to Epstein, did not comply with a subpoena ordering him to appear before the House Oversight Committee earlier this month and share documents related to Epstein. Lawyers for Black, who has sued over the summons, called the contempt move “outrageous”.After passage of the measure holding Black in contempt, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said: “No-one is above the law. We will continue to seek…

The Greens are just four points behind Labour in urban constituencies across the UK, putting them within touching distance of taking as many as 40 seats if the result was replicated at the next election, according to new polling by a Labour-linked thinktank.The survey by ThinkLabour, which has extensive links to Andy Burnham’s government, finds that urban voters have moved in large numbers towards the UK’s Green parties since the 2024 general election. The research highlights the challenge Labour faces in holding on to the Holborn and St Pancras seat in the face of a challenge from Zack Polanski, the…

Holyrood has voted to pause planning applications for all new AI datacentres for up to a year until the Scottish government has developed a national strategy.On Wednesday, MSPs backed a Scottish Labour motion to halt new schemes for up to 12 months while rules on hyperscale datacentres are developed in what could be a blow to the British government’s AI strategy.Scotland has seen a boom in planning applications for large datacentres as global investment in AI infrastructure has exploded, with British officials encouraging developers to include Scotland in the infrastructure buildout. Datacentres are critical for storing and processing data used…

 Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Anthropic is rolling Claude Cowork back into regular Claude. If you prefer regular chat, your experience shouldn’t change. Anthropic also launched Claude Docs. If you’ve gotten attached to the original, more limited Claude chat interface, Anthropic has some bad news: the company is rolling Claude Cowork and chat into a single, all-powerful Claude known as… Claude. And there’s apparently nothing it can’t do. “You don’t have to choose where a task goes. Claude does more of the work,” Anthropic’s announcement said. The change also applies to Artifacts and is…

Microsoft is investigating reports that the Windows 11 KB5124008 security update is breaking domain trust relationships on some enterprise systems, preventing users from logging in with valid domain credentials. Administrators report on Reddit and Microsoft’s Q&A forums that affected computers lose their secure channel with Active Directory after the Windows 11 update is installed and devices reboot. Last week, Microsoft confirmed to BleepingComputer that it is aware of the reports and is investigating. “Microsoft is aware of these reports and is investigating. We will share guidance as it becomes available,” Microsoft told BleepingComputer. While Microsoft has not confirmed the root…

BlackRock, DTCC, Intercontinental Exchange, Mastercard, Standard Chartered and Visa are among Arc’s founding validators, while BNY, HSBC and State Street are some of the 100+ institutions and ecosystem companies live on or exploring the network.Trading venues on Arc include Uniswap and Aerodrome, while Aave and Morpho are providing lending markets. Tokenized money market funds including Circle’s USYC and BlackRock’s BUIDL are also coming to the network.Allaire called Arc a “canonical home for asset issuers,” where funds, equities, commodities and currencies could be issued before moving to other blockchain ecosystems through Circle’s interoperability infrastructure.Circle Payments Network is also being integrated directly…

New research suggests that an overactive immune sensor may play a major role in severe genetic disorders linked to rapid aging. By reducing the activity of this sensor, scientists were able to improve tissue health across several biological systems, challenging long-held ideas about how DNA damage drives degeneration. The immune system is designed to recognize and eliminate threats such as viruses. But under certain conditions, that protective machinery can mistakenly react to the body’s own damaged DNA. When fragments of DNA are treated as if they came from an invading virus, the resulting immune response can trigger chronic inflammation that…

Myanmar’s postcoup civil war has raged for more than five years and left the country in a state that has been compared to the apocalypse. Though the conflict is seldom a leading story in mainstream Western media, the United States’ Christian right is paying close attention. Between 2002 and 2018, more refugees were resettled in the United States from Myanmar than from any other country. The majority are from the country’s Christian minority and many have now settled in the Midwest, particularly in Indiana and Minnesota. The money they earn in meat-packing factories, Walmart distribution centers, and sushi shops helped…

The images were published on the heels of a report from the Pentagon’s watchdog, which found Iranian strikes had “damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan during the conflict”.It also noted that equipment losses have totalled $3.7bn (£2.8bn). Overall, the US spent $33.4bn (£24.7bn) on the war up to 29 June, the report said.In the months after the war began, “dozens of US aircraft were destroyed or damaged”, the report continues.The document lists several of the aircraft damaged, including five refuelling aircraft which were “damaged…

“In this new world, we must urgently reimagine our partnerships,” von der Leyen said in the speech at the European Parliament building in Strasbourg. She added that the EU wanted to “build global coalitions for our resilience and democracies. And here too only Europe ― with its size and power ― can take the lead.” For the head of the EU’s executive branch, who’s now two years into her second five-year term, the speech amounted to a declaration of geopolitical legacy. Coming one year after she declared Europe’s “independence moment” from the same platform, von der Leyen expanded on that…