Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Eight long years ago, Meg Quinn decided not to share the details of a big decision.She was 37 and just out of a long-term relationship when she started panicking. Was she running out of time to have children? Feeling helpless, she decided to do something that was expensive but might help her chances of becoming a mother.She froze her eggs.“It was hard to talk about,” Ms. Quinn, a food content creator who’s now 45, said on Monday in an interview from her home in Los Angeles. “There were so many different ways that it could go. Like, you could spend…

Andy Burnham’s plan to stop the early release of PC Andrew Harper’s killers and other serious offenders could increase the risk of some more dangerous prisoners being released by mistake, unions have warned.In another blow to the proposals announced by the prime minister, probation staff have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike, warning of already unrealistic workloads.While the vote by members of Napo was not directly connected to the early release plans, the probation officers’ union has previously criticised the proposals as rushed. The union said the 91% vote in favour of a strike would come as a blow to…

In a significant milestone for Google, CEO Sundar Pichai announced via X that the Gemini app has become one of the company’s fastest-growing products, recently surpassing 1 billion monthly active users. Pichai also noted it was the 14th Google product to hit the 1 billion mark. With this rapid growth, Gemini is keeping pace with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which hit 1 billion monthly active users back in June.  The company has been steadily integrating Gemini across its products, from Search and Workspace to Android and its standalone app. Google’s AI Mode in Search, in particular, has achieved a lot of success,…

Swati KhandelwalAug 11, 2026Vulnerability / Enterprise Security Security researchers found a way to enter Microsoft SharePoint servers as any user, including an administrator, with no valid account. A significant part of the work that found it was done through an AI agent. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-55040 (CVSS 9.1), affects SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, SharePoint Server 2019, and SharePoint Server 2016. Microsoft’s affected-product list covers only those three on-premises editions, and SharePoint Online is not among them. It lets a remote unauthenticated attacker assume a chosen user’s identity. The attack has one prerequisite: the intruder has to know which account…

In brief Trump Media reported a $238 million second-quarter loss, up from $20 million a year earlier. Non-cash losses involving digital assets, pledged assets, and equities topped $190 million. Its Bitcoin and Cronos holdings lost more than 33% of their value during the first half. Falling cryptocurrency prices took a heavy toll on Trump Media & Technology Group during the second quarter, saddling the Truth Social parent company with a $238 million net loss—a steep increase from the $20 million it lost a year earlier.In its second-quarter earnings report, Trump Media said the “vast bulk” of the loss came from…

As NASA prepares to return astronauts to the lunar surface for longer stays and increasingly complex operations, building the Moon Base will require new ideas, advanced technologies, and expertise across many fields.  During NASA Stories at the Ion on July 30, Shatel Bhakta, principal systems engineer for NASA’s Moon Base Program, presented “Building the Moon Base: Challenges and Opportunities at the Lunar South Pole.” He discussed the work required to establish a sustained human presence at the Moon.  Through its growing partnership with Rice University and the Ion, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston hosts recurring talks connecting agency experts with entrepreneurs, researchers, students, and industry leaders. The series gives Houston’s innovation community a closer look at the people and ideas shaping…

In July 2026, WCS president and CEO Adam Falk spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler about his first year leading the organization.Falk said conservation depends as much on relationships with Indigenous peoples, local communities, governments, and funders as it does on protecting wildlife.He supports “30 by 30,” but argues that where areas are protected, how they are managed, and their ecological integrity matter as much as acreage.Falk also discussed the collapse in U.S. government funding for WCS, the need for long-term philanthropy, and closer cooperation among conservation organizations.See All Key Ideas Soon after becoming president…

Norwegian energy data and intelligence company TGS has kicked off a 2D seismic data reprocessing program to shed more light on the hydrocarbon exploration potential off the coast of São Tomé and Príncipe, Africa. Ramform Tethys vessel (illustration); Source: TGS TGS, in partnership with the Agência Nacional do Petróleo de São Tomé e Príncipe (ANP-STP), has started the São Tomé and Príncipe 2D PSDM reprocessing project, which covers a full reprocessing of 14,651 kilometers of 2D seismic data, encompassing four input surveys originally acquired by the company between 1999 and 2005. While the firm previously reprocessed the data in 2014,…

I went to Pakistan last month to write an article about the country’s electric motorcycle boom. I visited showrooms, toured an assembly plant and interviewed company founders and would-be bike buyers. As the trip neared its end, I figured I’d learned just about everything I needed to know.Except what it feels like to actually ride one.And then came my moment of fortune. Or maybe misfortune. Depending on how you feel about Lahore’s roads.“Do you want take it out for a drive?” Abdul Rafay, the owner of a new Vlektra electric motorcycle, asked after we finished an interview.I looked out at…

Russia released an American who had been held in prison for more than four years, and he was en route to the United States on Tuesday, President Trump said.The release of the detainee, Robert Gilman, 32, a Massachusetts resident and former Marine, came after his family and an advocacy group sounded the alarm about his failing health and accused Russia of mistreating him.Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday, “I am proud to announce that American Citizen Robert Gilman, a former United States Marine, is coming HOME!” He added that after discussions with President Vladimir V. Putin, “Russia has…