Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

On the surface it looks like a normal summer school in the Devon countryside, with teenagers playing volleyball in the sun, doing arts and crafts in the hall, and preparing for the night’s talent show.But behind the scenes, intensive discussions are taking place. Many of these teenagers come from opposite sides of historical national conflicts – from Israel and Palestine, India and Pakistan.Every day at Seeds of Peace they spend two hours in dialogue sessions with each other, sharing their personal experiences, their pain and trauma, and trying to find the common ground that unites them. Over the course of…

Sadiq Khan has called on the government to commit to revamped climate action and to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas, as the UK endures a summer of drought, wildfires and heatwaves.Writing in the Guardian, the mayor of London said that Andy Burnham’s administration must reaffirm its commitment to net zero and make clear it will continue to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas “to get Britain back on track.”There is growing concern among Labour MPs and climate experts that the new prime minister may support renewed drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea;…

The Senate on Saturday passed a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown at the end of September, in a bipartisan effort to head off a major spending skirmish before the midterm elections.The vote was 90-6, with one senator voting present, to keep federal funding flowing at current levels through Dec. 11 and bar the Trump administration from transferring funds to the Border Patrol, a provision that Democrats had insisted on. It was unclear whether the agreement, which was negotiated by senators, could pass the House, though lawmakers there are also eager to avoid a shutdown fight before November.The…

Since the advent of the internet, there has been a dedicated digital art community that’s all about creating through computing. Wacom, a Japanese company founded in 1983, is considered one of the longstanding leaders in this sector. One of the oldest producers of graphics tablets in the world, Wacom has spent the last few years iterating on its MovinkPad series — a specialized Android tablet that creators can use to spin up digital art at the click of a button or the swipe of a stylus. I’m not a professional artist, or even a hobbyist. But I am a tech…

The North Carolina Ports Authority has confirmed that a cyberattack disrupted IT systems and slowed operations at the Port of Wilmington, Port of Morehead City, and Charlotte Inland Port. The three facilities are all part of the port, constituting two principal commercial deepwater seaports and an inland hub. The Port of Wilmington, which is the most significant of the three, has nine berths and a 600,000 TEU annual container capacity, handling an average of 5,000 container gate moves per week. Wilmington and Morehead together handle 4.4 million short tons of bulk/breakbulk cargo yearly, serving as significant regional logistics hubs. The…

A vote on the long-awaited Clarity Act will be delayed until September as lawmakers go on recess today.  As first reported by POLITICO, citing comments from Majority Leader John Thune, the vote on the landmark bill will now have to wait until lawmakers return from August recess.  Bipartisan work has gone into the Clarity Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives last year, but some Republicans have accused Democrats of stalling the bill.  BREAKING: 🇺🇸 President Donald Trump says “I see it more and more where people are paying with Bitcoin, they don’t even know about cash anymore.”…

The night belongs to Lime bikes in the capital this summer. Buses and tube carriages are boiling, cars crawl between low traffic neighbourhoods and Thames Water roadworks, and pedestrians plod through the sticky heat. But Lime riders exist in a different, breezier realm: whirring along, chatting in pairs or blissfully alone, weaving through the city’s tree-lined maze, choosing impulsively between destinations, rarely stopping for anything or anyone.“My favourite part of a night out is Lime biking home,” writes Annie Lord, a dating columnist and author, in Freewheeling: Essays on Cycling. “As I ride up a hill, the bike’s electrics click…