Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

A post shared over 1,300 times on Facebook claims that migrants crossing the English Channel by small boat automatically get refugee status if they are picked up by rescue ships.This isn’t correct. In order to receive refugee status, anyone arriving in the UK via small boat must apply for asylum and then have their claim be successful. Being picked up by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) or Border Force does not change this, the Home Office has confirmed. The post features an image of an RLNI lifeboat and text that claims Border Force and RLNI vessels picking up migrants…

Three unidentified people were seen emerging from a manhole in New York City’s Upper East Side neighborhood early Wednesday before fleeing the area, police said, in an incident that comes as many world leaders have gathered in the city for the United Nations general assembly.The incident is the latest in a series of similar cases involving people entering or emerging from New York City’s sewer network in recent months that have gone viral online.A spokesperson for the New York City police department (NYPD) said in a statement that the incident appeared to fit the “same criteria” as several of the…

German prosecutors are investigating a man aged 105 over allegations that he was an accessory to multiple counts of murder at a Nazi prisoner of war camp in World War Two.The suspect is alleged to have been a camp guard at Stalag 326 VI K in Senne in northwestern Germany.A similar case had also been under way involving a second former camp guard at Senne, Dortmund public prosecutor Sonja Frodermann said in a statement.That suspect died a few months ago at the age of 99, she said.No further details about the two former guards have been made public, however the…

Representative Chris Pappas, a Democrat, leads John E. Sununu, the Republican nominee, by five percentage points in the New Hampshire Senate race, 50 percent to 45 percent, according to a new poll of likely voters conducted by The New York Times and Siena University.Mr. Pappas’s lead suggests that Democrats retain an advantage in a state where there have been some indicators that Republicans could be competitive even in a favorable environment for Democrats.The Democratic edge comes despite the two candidates being viewed nearly identically by voters overall, with 43 percent rating Mr. Pappas favorably and 44 percent saying they see…

Ukrainian refugees in the UK fear they could be left homeless after the government quietly axed 70% of funding for hosts of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, reducing monthly “thank you” payments to them from £350 to £100.The scheme was launched after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has provided support for 181,000 of the 234,000 Ukrainians who have since sought sanctuary in the UK.Now the government has said it will cut the hosting payments and reduce contributions to local authorities, which are paid a sum for each arrival to meet costs associated with delivery of the programme.A…

It feels like Xbox has been in a permanent state of turmoil for at least two years now, and this week is no different. Microsoft cut 268 jobs across its gaming division this week, shuffled major studios and franchises around, and continued its Xbox “reset.”Layoffs have become a way of life for Xbox employees, after Microsoft started cutting thousands in early 2024 and hasn’t slowed down. The turmoil was particularly apparent when Microsoft started shutting down game studios, and the painful layoffs have had a lasting impact on morale, according to current and former Xbox employees I’ve been speaking to…

Kontext Security today launched publicly with $4 million raised in a funding round led by 42CAP, with additional support from a16z CSX and HTGF. Co-founded by Jens Ernstberger and Michel Osswald, the Munich, Germany-based startup has built a runtime security platform that provides organizations with visibility and control over AI agents’ actions. Deployed between the AI agents and the systems and tools they access, Kontext’s runtime enforcement platform evaluates the agents in real time against security policies and risks. Taking into account each agent’s identity, assigned task, target resource, and requested action, it shows organizations how the agents running in…

Coinbase’s new fixed-rate Bitcoin-backed USDC loans give borrowers a set repayment date, but the deadline creates a liquidation risk separate from a falling Bitcoin price. If the debt remains unpaid after maturity, a healthy collateral position can still be liquidated. Morpho announced the offer on September 22, 2026, with the rate and repayment date fixed from the outset.The loans use Morpho Midnight, the fixed-rate lending protocol beneath Coinbase’s new offer. They sit alongside Coinbase’s variable-rate loans, which have no set due date. Before a fixed-rate borrower confirms a loan, Coinbase displays an indicative rate and sets the final rate at…

Sometimes what we see does not immediately make sense. A shadow can briefly resemble a face, or one object can momentarily be mistaken for another. New research suggests that the brain may resolve these visual conflicts by allowing different regions to compare their interpretations until a more consistent picture emerges. In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cynthia R. Stebbins Fellow Mitra Javadzadeh and collaborators at the University of Cambridge and University College London examined how two neighboring regions of the visual cortex interact. They found that when activity in the two regions matched, the shared…

Seafood isn’t just a key source of protein and calories; it’s also where millions around the world get essential vitamins and minerals needed to build tissue, fight infections and grow. Yet, as modern mechanized fishing fleets plunder global waters, populations in low-income countries are losing out.  If the fish caught by foreign-flagged bottom trawlers went to local populations instead of international markets, over 10 million people in nutritionally vulnerable countries could reach adequate vitamin and mineral intake, according to a team of scientists from Oceana.  In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, micronutrient deficiencies—including a lack of omega-3, vitamin B12 and…