Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Italian energy giant Eni has expanded its Asian portfolio with the addition of a new exploration license in the prolific Kutei Basin off the coast of Indonesia, Southeast Asia. Illustration; Courtesy of Eni Eni has disclosed the award of the Sapukala block with a 100% participating interest in the Kutei Basin, East Kalimantan, within the framework of the first Indonesia Petroleum Bidding Round 2026, following the execution of a joint study with a prominent Indonesian academic institution, in accordance with local regulatory requirements, and participation in the direct offer bid round. Based on the conducted study, the acreage is considered…

Reading Time: < 1 minute Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce Fact Briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims. No. Since David Crowley became Milwaukee County executive, the number of juvenile homicide victims in the county has ranged between 19 and 27 annually, with no clear trend upward or downward. Crowley, who was sworn in in May 2020, is the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin governor in the Nov. 3 election. Here are the number of Milwaukee County homicide victims ages 6-17: 2025: 19 2024: 27 2023: 22 2022: 25 2021: 21…

Reading Time: 4 minutes Members of Milwaukee’s Community Collaborative Commission are looking to Baltimore as they work to give residents a greater voice in how policing is carried out in Milwaukee. Community policing, a core focus of the commission’s work, calls for police and residents to work together to identify and respond to neighborhood problems. Baltimore’s “Community Policing Plan” spells out who is responsible for that work, what it involves and how it can be put into practice. “What works in Baltimore may or may not work in similar ways here,” said Tim Baack, president and CEO of Pathfinders, an…

Brazil’s Oct. 4 presidential election is set to pit two men against each other. Far-right Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro is challenging leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with both expected to advance to a runoff. But a woman may play a key role in that contest: former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, Flávio’s stepmother and the third wife of his father, convicted former President Jair Bolsonaro. According to opinion polls, more Brazilian women prefer Lula over Flávio. Michelle’s influence could change that—and set an example for how far-right groups can attract women worldwide. The Bolsonaro movement has spent years trying to…

US President Donald Trump assured President Volodymyr Zelensky that he would allow Kyiv to produce advanced Patriot air defence missiles, the Ukrainian leader said Friday. Kyiv is facing a shortage of the missiles, which remain the only ones reliably able to counter the ballistic missiles that Russia launches at Ukraine.  “At our last meeting, President Trump emphasised to me that yes, I have made a final decision. Ukraine will receive licences for the production of Patriot missiles,” Zelensky said in a voice note to journalists. In July, Trump said it would be “pretty cool” to grant Ukraine the licences, before…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 may randomly restart. Apple has rolled out an update to watchOS to fix this bug. To fix the glitch, install watchOS 27.0.1 from your iPhone or watch. I’ve been enjoying my Apple Watch Series 12 since picking it up last week. But one thing I haven’t enjoyed is the random restarts. So far, I’ve run into this issue twice. Both times I was tweaking a setting on the watch, only for it to unexpectedly shut down and restart on its own without any warning. And I’m not alone. But…

Microsoft has confirmed that some users may experience desktop loading issues, including black screens, after installing the August 2026 preview updates and subsequent updates. However, the company says this mainly affects Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) hosts using FSLogix (a software solution that speeds up user profile loading in virtual desktop environments). Windows users affected by this known issue may experience multiple symptoms. The most common symptoms include a black screen after sign-in, so users can’t access their desktop until they start the desktop session manually, and application event logs showing Windows Explorer crashes. Until a permanent fix is available for…

Bitcoin’s volatility is falling, and Saifedean Ammous calls that the most bullish development in Bitcoin right now. Bear-market drawdowns have shrunk from roughly 87% to 77% to about 54% this cycle, which moves Bitcoin closer to an investable asset for money managers. Saifedean explains why the halving still drives the four-year Bitcoin cycle and why fewer people are buying with leverage at the top. He also discusses how markets may eventually arbitrage these cycles away. Chapters:0:00 Tether, Bitcoin & the Dollar Milkshake Theory1:45 How the US Carries $40 Trillion in Debt as the World’s Reserve Currency4:21 Treasury Yields Hit Multi-Decade…

Plants have evolved several ways to use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into energy-rich sugars and oxygen (photosynthesis). But when water becomes scarce, that process can become much more difficult. Researchers led by Wolfram Weckwerth at the University of Vienna have now uncovered how one especially water efficient form of photosynthesis (CAM) evolved in multiple ways within a single genus of tropical trees. By comparing the genomes of three Clusia species, the team traced how ancient genome duplication followed by extensive genetic reorganization helped produce different forms of CAM. The findings were recently published in Nature Communications. A…

Plastic waste has been found in the most remote places — including, now, a deep-sea canyon off the coast of Argentina, according to a recent study. “The very first item spotted was a plastic bag entangled on the seafloor,” said Diego Urteaga, study co-author and a marine biologist at Argentina’s Bernardino Rivadavia Museum of Natural Science, told Mongabay by email. “Seeing something so clearly associated with human activity lying on the seafloor at more than 1,000 meters [3,281 feet] depth was striking.” Urteaga and his colleagues used a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), equipped with high-definition cameras, to survey…