Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) updated its policies on how securities laws will apply to “certain types of crypto assets and certain transactions involving crypto assets,” following a similar move by the country’s federal commodities regulator last week.In a Friday update to the SEC’s frequently asked questions issued in March, the agency said that the latest interpretation of its rules on crypto was non-binding, had “no legal force or effect, [did] not alter or amend applicable law, and [did] not create any new or additional obligations for any person.” The FAQs would apply to how the SEC considers…

A remarkably complete fossil discovered in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert is changing how scientists view mammal evolution during the age of dinosaurs. The newly identified species, described in the journal Nature by researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, Stony Brook University, University of Arizona, and Arcadia University, provides new evidence about an extinct group of mammals called zhelestids. For decades, many scientists thought zhelestids were closely related to modern placental mammals. The new fossil suggests otherwise. Instead, zhelestids appear to have belonged to a very different branch of early mammals, overturning an interpretation that was based largely on fossil…

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S.-Chinese trade negotiations, a failed suspected terrorist attack on a British air base, and Spain’s worsening housing crisis. Offers on the Table China and the United States have agreed to slash tariffs on a slew of “nonsensitive” products collectively worth $60 billion, from Chinese toys to U.S. cosmetics. The cuts represent a step toward reducing the rival superpowers’ trade war after sweeping U.S. duties on Chinese goods reached a whopping 145 percent last year. According to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the tariff cuts will unlock “improved market access” for roughly…

Claim: Major League Baseball approached U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration regarding the possibility of hosting a game at a national park, specifically at Grand Teton National Park Rating: What’s True A White House official confirmed MLB had inquired about hosting a baseball game at a national park, adding that “no permits have been granted” by the National Park Service. However … What’s Undetermined … the White House also said that it was “incorrect” that members of the administration had already scouted locations at Grand Teton National Park. We could not verify this independently as it stemmed from a report by…

The war scenario playing out before us is part of a major joint exercise known as “Southern Jackaroo” – a training programme involving the Australian, American and Japanese armed forces aimed at strengthening defence co-operation across the Indo-Pacific.”We like to call ourselves America’s 911 response force,” US Marine Kevin Hicks says.And in terms of numbers, they are more prepared than ever. In 2012, just 200 US Marines were deployed to Australia for an annual six-month deployment. Today, that figure has risen to around 2,500.A quick read of Australia’s 2026 National Defence Strategy gives you an easy answer as to why…

Relatives of victims of the 2014 Air Algérie crash have welcomed a Paris court ruling finding Spanish airline Swiftair guilty of involuntary manslaughter.Sandrine Tricot, who lost her husband Frederic Tricot in the crash, told the BBC it was a relief to finally have a verdict after “4,449 days of waiting for the victims’ families”.The French court on Monday fined the airline €225,000 ($256,000; £193,000), the maximum penalty, over the crash that killed all 116 people on board flight AH5017 from the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, to Algeria’s main airport in Algiers.Swiftair’s defence rejected the French investigation, describing the case as…

Billions of pounds worth of green levies could be taken off bills, the energy secretary has said, as the government investigates funding green infrastructure through taxes instead.Miatta Fahnbulleh is looking at how green projects are funded, including varying levies between customers and funding them all through general taxation.Such a move could save customers an average of £120 a year, but could involve putting up taxes by as much as £3bn.With households facing a predicted rise in electricity bills next year of more than £400 largely because of the Iran war, ministers are looking for ways to bring down costs in…

While smartphones won’t stop getting bigger, e-readers seem to be getting smaller. Boox has been at the forefront with one of the most popular small e-readers, the Boox Palma, and now it is adding an even smaller model.Boox announced the Picco, with preorders opening today. Its screen is just under 4 inches (3.97 to be exact), making it about the size of a playing card. It’s even smaller than the Xteink X4 Pro I tested earlier this year, which has a 4.3-inch screen (but just slightly larger than the 3.7-inch Xteink X3), and considerably smaller than the upcoming Boox Palma 3’s…

NVIDIA has launched the NVIDIA Open Agent Safety Platform, an open software platform and reference system design for AI agent security. It pairs the OpenShell secure runtime with NVIDIA Sentry, an out-of-band watchdog on BlueField-4 DPUs. The core idea is simple. Safety controls should not live inside the agent they are meant to control. Today, with over 100 industry partners, we introduced the NVIDIA Open Agent Safety Platform, bringing together OpenShell and Sentry.Artificial intelligence is extraordinary technology that will advance discovery, productivity, security, health, and prosperity for generations to… pic.twitter.com/dReAxwpRUn— Jensen Huang (@JensenHuang) September 28, 2026 Is it deployable today?…

Dutch police have confirmed that a 24-year-old Amsterdam man arrested earlier this month was detained as part of an investigation into the ShinyHunters hacking group. “It is true that this month a 24-year-old man from Amsterdam was arrested in an investigation into the hacker group ShinyHunters,” the Politie Landelijke Opsporing en Interventies said Monday. Police said the suspect will appear before the Rotterdam District Court on Tuesday, September 29, when further information will also be released. The suspect has been identified by KrebsOnSecurity and DataBreaches as Pepijn van der Stap, a Dutch hacker previously known online as “Umbreon.” Van der…