Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The long-awaited crypto Clarity Act has stalled and is due a September vote but regulators are ready to step in to advance crypto rules regardless, according to reports.  Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission was preparing to roll out this week initiatives to help the crypto industry. The regulator has said that it will hold an open meeting Friday “to create a tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.”  And JD Supra reported Tuesday that Commodities and Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig was ready to proceed with “rulemaking whether or not the Clarity…

Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Earth planning date: Friday, July 31, 2026 As mentioned in the previous blog, Curiosity has been exploring a large-scale feature in Gale’s sedimentary record suspected to be an “erosional supersurface.” The “supersurface” represents a period in time when a net depositional environment changed to a net erosional one before returning to a depositional regime, thus producing a discontinuity in the rock record. The erosion can involve wind, water, or both. Sometimes there are clues about these environmental changes in the layers below and above the supersurface. So far…

Most of the incidents in Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield involved private e-scooters, often on public roads, pavements or footpaths, despite that being illegal. Private e-scooters are meant only for use on private land, with the owner’s permission.Half of the children injured were aged between 10 and 13. Nearly two-thirds were boys.Most injuries were sustained by the rider – only 5% were pedestrians that had been hit by an e-scooter – and the most common cause was falling off the e-scooter. Around 11% were collisions with a vehicle, which was often linked to more serious injuries.Injuries to the arms and legs…

Amid heat waves, wildfire smoke warnings and sudden storms over the last few months, officials around the world have urged people to follow a fairly straightforward method for keeping safe: stay inside.  But this guidance comes with its own risks, including an often-underestimated public health threat.  A growing body of research finds that climate-fueled extreme weather can breed loneliness and isolation, which experts say hinders community connection, mental health and physical well-being. In some cases, this seclusion can be deadly. Data shows people living alone are more likely to die during heat waves, hurricanes and floods—removed from the social networks…

Illinois law provides for the appointment of a special prosecutor when the elected county state’s attorney has an “actual conflict of interest in the cause, proceeding, or other matter.” Often the conflicts are inadvertent: A relative or political ally is a key witness in the case, for example, or the state’s attorney previously represented someone now charged with a crime. The petition to appoint a special prosecutor can come from any “interested person,” even if that person is not a party in the case. The special prosecutor’s appointment must be approved by the judge overseeing the case. In Illinois, special…

When China’s Politburo met on July 30 to set economic policy for the second half of 2026, the numbers in front of it were not good. In the first half of the year, retail sales grew just 1.3 percent from a year earlier, while the economy grew 4.7 percent. Consumer prices were up just 1 percent, about where they have been since February. A technology rally carried the stock market through the spring, but it broke in mid-July and was falling again as the Politburo convened. The solution that the Politburo settled on is to double down on the strategy…

Pyongyang conducts second weapons test in less than a week as Seoul, Washington gear up for annual military exercises.Published On 12 Aug 202612 Aug 2026North Korea has launched a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan, according to Seoul and Tokyo, marking the second such test from Pyongyang in less than a week.The launch on Wednesday came as South Korea and the United States announced plans to hold their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military drills starting on August 17.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list“Our military detected at around 6:00 am [21:00 GMT Tuesday] a ballistic missile launched by…

Francesca Hong, a Wisconsin state assemblywoman and democratic socialist, outlasted two more prominent Democrats but still faces several others in the Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday.Here are five things to know about Ms. Hong, a chef and former small business owner from Madison.1. She ran as a populist focused on economic issues. Ms. Hong, the child of Korean immigrants, is a single mother and renter who once owned her own ramen restaurant. This year, she was sued over unpaid credit card debt, and has argued such working-class challenges make her well-equipped to understand and improve the lives of Wisconsinites.2.…

After a former lead writer claimed Saber “replaced me with ChatGPT,” CEO Matthew Karch now claims, “Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI,” for the Rideshare “Stimulator” game announced last month, developed by Unigine.The writer, Stella Sacco, says differently, however, posting on Bluesky that “I was lead writer on this one! And Saber replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development. All the passenger voices were AI too. Either they changed direction at some point or they’re not disclosing it on Steam.”Saber describes Rideshare “Stimulator” as an “immersive driving simulation game that puts you behind the wheel as…

Advice for CSOs For CSOs, the primary strategic priority should be reducing the window of exposure around CVE-2026-68820, because exploitation is already occurring, Bicer said. CVE-2026-62832 should follow closely, because it is publicly disclosed and assessed as more likely to be exploited. The next priority should be unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerabilities with low attack complexity, particularly Windows DNS Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability, Microsoft QUIC Remote Code Execution Vulnerability, Windows iSCSI Target Service Remote Code Execution Vulnerability, and Windows Deployment Services TFTP Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. He said IT leadership should also require accelerated remediation and explicit validation…