Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Crypto remains a marginal payment option among euro area businesses even as other forms of digital payments gain ground, according to a new European Central Bank (ECB) report.Just 0.2% of companies selling goods and services online accept crypto assets, the ECB said in its survey on companies’ cash use, published Thursday. Cash remains the most widely accepted payment method, with 92% of companies with physical points of sale accepting it.The ECB surveyed 8,205 businesses across the 21 euro area countries, covering retail, restaurants and cafes, hotels, and arts, entertainment and recreation. Market research firm Ipsos conducted the telephone interviews from…

Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect, affecting about 1 in 100 babies born each year. The condition can have many causes, including changes involving TBX5, a gene that plays a critical role in building the heart. In some cases, a child has only one working copy of TBX5 rather than two healthy copies inherited from the parents. For years, researchers have been trying to understand why losing the function of just one copy can have such a major effect on heart development, even when the second copy still works. Researchers at Gladstone Institutes now report that TBX5…

Post-earthquake reconstruction is expected to cost around $6.4bn, but Colombia has been hit by renewed US tariffs.Published On 15 Aug 202615 Aug 2026Colombia’s new president has called on United States President Donald Trump to suspend tariffs targeting the South American country, which is reeling from a deadly earthquake that has killed hundreds.President Abelardo de la Espriella said Saturday that he had requested the US “temporarily suspend” tariffs on Colombia to give “relief” to business owners.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listOn Monday, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Colombia, killing at least 294 people and damaging or destroying tens of thousands…

Under the plans, Jenrick said they would invest in talking therapies, physiotherapy and employment support to move away from people claiming health Universal Credit (UC) payments and Personal Independent Payments (Pip). People with “lover-level conditions” would no longer receive payments, instead accounts run by local councils and mayors will provide for needs such as transport and equipment.Employers would see the creation of a return to work cover giving them a “strong economic incentive” to return an employee to work who has been off due to sickness.Those claiming benefits and who had not returned to work in two years would face…

The Mini 1 was a simplified version of the Auk system, with four oval pots set over a 3-liter reservoir. Users could grow the included herb seeds or anything else they wanted in the pots using coco coir. It was simple, stylish, and effective.The Auk Mini 2 features a handful of updates, but perhaps the most visible is that it comes in new color variations, rather than just black and white. There are still the oak and walnut wood bottoms, but Mini 2 offers beech and ash instead of the Mini 1’s cork. Espresso, sage, and terra-cotta colored tops now…

In brief Bank Leumi, Israel’s largest bank, will let customers trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana inside Leumi Trade through Galaxy’s trading and custody rails. It’s Bank Leumi’s second attempt at crypto trading, after a failed run back in 2022. The target is early 2027, still subject to Bank of Israel approval—the same gate that killed Leumi’s 2022 Paxos plan. Bank Leumi and Galaxy Digital said Thursday they’ll bring cryptocurrency trading to Israel’s largest bank through its digital investment arm, Pepper.“Customers of Leumi and PEPPER, the bank’s mobile digital banking arm, will be able to buy, hold and sell selected digital…

For more than six decades, evolutionary biologists have debated whether an unusual genetic system shared by ants, bees and wasps helped drive one of nature’s most sophisticated forms of social organization: eusociality. In eusocial colonies, reproduction is divided between queens and workers, creating highly cooperative societies with specialized roles. New research from Arizona State University now suggests that genetics alone may not explain how these complex societies evolved. Published in Current Biology, the study found that eusociality does seem to arise more often among insects with a haplodiploid genetic system. However, nearly all of that pattern can be traced to…

Australia’s most populous state will launch a gun buyback scheme later this year, becoming the first to offer cash in exchange for firearms in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack.Gun owners in New South Wales (NSW) will be offered up to AUS$1,000 (£523) to hand over eligible handguns, shotguns and rifles from 2 November.Australian authorities had pledged sweeping firearm law reforms after 15 people were shot dead at a Jewish festival on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which is located in NSW, last December.The state’s premier Chris Minns said on Saturday: “We want those guns handed in, compensated for and…

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysClaude Code dominates, but Codex has crucial advantages.Cost, workflow, and trust matter as much as code quality.Whichever AI you choose, human review remains essential.Earlier this week, I explored the differences (or, really, amazing similarities) between agentic coding AIs, ChatGPT Codex and Claude Code. I explained how I use both tools and provided some suggestions for exploring them.Also: Claude Code vs. Codex: Why I use both and how to choose one (if you must)But I’m just one guy. In this article, we’ll broaden our selection to more than…

President Donald Trump and the heads of the SEC and CFTC are expected to meet crypto and prediction-market executives at the White House next week as the industry’s biggest legislative priority faces dwindling odds of becoming law this year.According to reports, the Aug. 19 gathering is expected to include executives from Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, Ripple, Chainlink, Kalshi and Paradigm, along with representatives from the Digital Chamber. Executives from Kraken, Gemini, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have also been invited.Trump and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig are among those expected to participate, while Securities and Exchange…