Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

THAILANDThailand introduces 0% capital gains tax on cryptoFor the next few years crypto investors in Thailand won’t have to pay any capital gains taxes on sales made via platforms licensed by Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission. The exemption is for five years and covers the period of January 1 2025, through to December 31 2029. The scheme aims to boost Thailand’s attractiveness as a regional crypto hub, and it’s already home to a growing community of crypto digital nomads However trades on unlicensed or overseas exchanges will still face standard personal tax rates as high as 38%. The exemption aligns…

Named Silescelida acristata, the species lived about 240 million years ago, during the Middle Triassic Period. The fossil was found in Dona Francisca, in central Rio Grande do Sul, in rocks that are part of the UNESCO Quarta Colônia Geopark. The discovery helps fill an important gap in our understanding of the evolution of archosauriformes, a group of reptiles that gave rise to the archosaurs. Archosaurs, in turn, are the lineage that encompasses two of the best-known groups of terrestrial vertebrates: crocodiles and dinosaurs, including birds. The study was conducted by researchers from the Quarta Colônia Center for Paleontological Research…

It’s very encouraging to hear the announcement about the new network of community mental health clinics in England (Editorial, 6 August). The focus on early intervention is crucial, as it means that people can access treatment as early as possible, rather than waiting for their mental health to reach a crisis point. The centres should improve access, reaching people where they are. The government should make sure that they meaningfully involve people with lived experience of mental health problems to ensure the centres are co-designed and co-led with them.As your editorial says, parity between mental and physical healthcare became a…

Prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard ⁠Air Force One, in an extraordinary ruse that involved hiding the president in an airport catering cart, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times.The operation took place when Trump was in Ankara for a Nato summit with world leaders, according to the Post. The president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras, and then was secretly shuttled minutes later to a…

President Trump on Monday described Democratic candidates in the midterm elections as “jihadists,” adding to Islamophobic statements recently made by Republican elected officials.Mr. Trump also delivered another tirade against people of Somali descent, saying: “They’re not smart, they have no aptitude, they have nothing going, and they’re telling us how to run our country.”Asked about the candidates representing the Democratic Party in the midterm elections, Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “we have jihadists being elected all over the place. We have this — whether it’s communism, jihadism.”White House officials did not respond to requests for comment…

Nvidia has teamed up with some of Wall Street’s largest banks and investors to raise $500bn (£370bn) in capital for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.The chipmaker said it had struck deals with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR, and that the investors were for the first time treating AI hardware and infrastructure, often referred to as “compute”, as an asset class.”In AI, compute is revenue”, Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said. “We are bringing the world’s leading long-term capital providers together to independently underwrite AI infrastructure.”The financing will go towards Nvidia’s own projects and those being built by…

Hackers used a dedicated mobile gateway to compromise a second facility during the destructive cyberattacks that hit Poland’s energy sector last year. The second target was a small combined heat-and-power (CHP) plant that supplies heat to around 50,000 residents, resulting in the steam turbine and the water treatment system being shut down. The Polish Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) disclosed this second incident in a follow-up report over the weekend, saying that the attacker used a private Access Point Name (APN) to access the operational technology network. “The attack was made possible, among other factors, by a misconfiguration that allowed arbitrary…

Bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream has announced a new feature allowing users to make trustless swaps.  Dubbed Blockstream Swaps, the idea is that Bitcoiners will be able to quickly move between the main chain and Lightning network.  It comes after non-custodial Bitcoin swap provider Boltz suspended its service after it said attackers were finding vulnerabilities faster than its team could fix using AI.  “In support of the broader Bitcoin and Liquid ecosystem, Blockstream is launching Blockstream Swaps,” Blockstream said.  “This initiative was already under development to ensure a resilient suite of utility for the ecosystem, and it complements the providers already…

Republican Mike Rogers has provided no evidence that Democrat Abdul El-Sayed “believes that America deserved 9/11,” as Rogers falsely claimed in a statement this month. Instead Rogers’ Senate campaign has pointed to past comments made by a liberal political commentator. El-Sayed said in April that the 2001 terrorist attack on the U.S. was not justified. Rogers speaks at a campaign rally in Portage, Michigan, in October 2024, during his previous run for Senate. Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images. Rogers released the statement attacking El-Sayed, who is Muslim, after El-Sayed won the Aug. 4 Democratic primary in…

Doctors, lawmakers condemn Trump order calling for sweeping changes to childhood vaccinesMedical experts and lawmakers are blasting Donald Trump’s executive order calling for sweeping changes to childhood vaccine recommendations.The order calls for fewer childhood vaccines and would require that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine be broken into three separate shots. It would also recommend that all shots be given at separate medical visits, promoting the president’s long-held but baseless theory that the shots should be spaced out.Jan Carney, president of the American College of Physicians, called the changes “problematic and deeply concerning.”“This executive order is part of a troubling…