Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The prime minister is right to identify that the existing ban on alcohol consumption at football matches is viewed by fans as discriminatory (Andy Burnham signals he may lift ban on alcohol in football stands, 23 September). However, the need for reform of this legislation goes much further.The Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc) Act 1985 was rushed through parliament, despite reservations at the time from the police and football authorities, and the absence of any evidence that it would reduce football-related disorder. Since then, no studies have indicated that the prohibition has reduced drunkenness or disorder at matches, but research has…

Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vučić, has resigned to pursue an attempt to become prime minister in an early parliamentary election that will test his firm rule in the Balkan country after nearly two years of protests.Vučić’s second presidential term would otherwise end in May next year. He is banned by the constitution from seeking a third term and said he was resigning to lead his rightwing Serbian Progressive party (SNS) in the 25 October ballot.The governing populists face a major challenge from a youth-backed movement that led protests triggered by a train station canopy collapse in November 2024 that killed…

Andy Burnham will fight the next election with a pledge to finally fix the broken social care system, acknowledging that he is willing to expend political capital by asking taxpayers to cover the cost.As Labour’s party conference began in Liverpool, he pledged to “rip the plaster off” to radically transform care, setting out a vision for a universal service that would be free at the point of use for everybody in England.The prime minister said the new NHS-style service would be funded by “everybody” but did not give further details of how his long-term plan would be paid for, indicating…

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the fragile state of your connected devices, follow Jennifer Pattison Tuohy. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. A decade ago, a group of former Apple engineers built a beautiful smart oven. With a built-in scale, restaurant-grade heating elements, a camera, and the intelligence to recognize a chicken breast and cook it perfectly, the June Oven set the standard for smart cooking appliances. At $1,495, it was absurdly expensive, but…

In brief Australia revealed an OpenAI agent breached a government website in June, apparently the first known case of an AI agent hacking a government site, and the latest in a string of incidents involving OpenAI, Google, Meta and China’s Kimi. Containment is hard because an agent’s usefulness and danger share a source: giving a model tools and goals lets it act in unanticipated ways, often during evaluations rather than through “malicious intent.” The stakes rise where AI meets crypto’s financial incentives, fueling an industry debate over slowing development—one the Cato Institute warns could entrench today’s leaders. The alarming AI…

Researchers have created a simpler and less expensive way to measure a biologically active form of phosphorus in soil, a development that could help scientists better understand how this essential nutrient moves through ecosystems and supports agriculture. Phosphorus is critical for plant growth and food production, but the world’s natural phosphorus reserves are limited. Learning how the nutrient is stored, transformed, and released in soil is therefore important for maintaining fertile farmland while reducing waste and environmental damage. A Better Way To Measure DNA-Bound Phosphorus In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, an international team…

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic resigned Sunday ahead of the upcoming October 25 parliamentary elections. Vucic, who has been Serbia’s prime minister or president since 2014, had announced that he would resign the presidency so he can formally pursue a bid to become prime minister if his right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party wins the October vote.  Vucic’s second presidential term would otherwise end in May next year. He is banned by the Serbian Constitution from seeking a third term Hundreds of Vucic’s supporters cheered him in front of the Presidency building in Belgrade’s city ​centre. “This is the last evening for…

In the last fortnight, Friedrich Merz’s party was beaten to first place in Berlin, pummelled in the polls in Saxony-Anhalt and pushed out of parliament altogether in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.A lifeline for Merz is that no-one, within his own centre-right CDU party, is yet willing to challenge the chancellor openly despite persistent rumours of a Kanzlertausch (chancellor swap).But he is on thin ice, with record low approval ratings among voters who often describe him as arrogant and out of touch.It is a problem that in government circles is sometimes more politely referred to as a “communication” issue.Those who back the Chancellor…

Even Andy Burnham’s closest allies accept that deposing Keir Starmer to install their man as leader was a huge political gamble. But if the mood at the Labour party conference in Liverpool is anything to go by, it is one that – so far – has paid off.The contrast with last year, when Starmer retained his grip on the party and Burnham slunk away from Liverpool early, could not be more stark. Their relief at their turn of fortune is tempered only by the fiscal headwinds ahead.Cabinet ministers recount how at their political meeting two weeks ago, they were shown…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Autonomous vehicle technology is not yet ubiquitous or mainstream. Readers here might shout, “It’s everywhere!” but I can tell you that it is not — although I understand why folks in the San Francisco Bay Area might disagree.  The tech is, however, being commercialized and that transition from testing to commercial product has me thinking about scale. A few strategies…