Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

I’ve spent my working life covering neglected issues. But few are neglected like the devastating chronic condition ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome). In severe cases, the illness shuts down people’s lives almost entirely, causing an extreme loss of energy and a wide range of physical and cognitive symptoms that can prevent patients from working, socialising and, sometimes, even moving or eating. Yet these people have been more or less airbrushed from our minds.To find out what this neglect looks like in practice, this week I put out a call on Bluesky asking people with ME/CFS about their recent…

US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has announced a $2.45bn (£1.85bn) Gaza recovery plan at a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.The funding will be spread across 66 programmes over six months, and directed at housing, diesel generation and waste removal, among other needs.But the board admitted substantial donations were still needed, with $18bn pledged but only $280m handed over so far. It estimates full recovery and reconstruction will require about $71bn over the next decade.The board also did not set out a date for the start of reconstruction in Gaza, where Trump’s plan to end…

Germany last month imported 30,000 barrels of diesel from the U.S., according to Kpler. This year U.S. imports have so far accounted for about 18% of Germany’s imports, according to industry association en2x. The United Kingdom, the biggest importer of American diesel in Europe at 108,000 barrels last month according to Kpler, had a similar official line to Germany. “Forecourts in the U.K. are being supplied with petrol and diesel as normal and we have a diverse and resilient supply,” a U.K. government spokesperson said. But one British lawmaker wasn’t so sanguine. “If the U.S. restricts our supply of diesel…

Progressive voters could push Reform UK into fourth place and put Labour within touching distance of a majority if tactical voting is widespread at the next election, a major poll has found.Andy Burnham is beginning to attract a significant number of left-leaning voters back to Labour, motivated by a desire to stop Nigel Farage, the results suggest.The poll of more than 8,000 voters, shared with the Guardian, suggests a widespread openness to voting tactically. It also shows the prime minister’s most successful electoral strategy would be to unite the centre and left bloc of voters, while the right remains split.It…

A new MRP poll suggests Labour would remain the largest party if a general election were held now, but would fall well short of an overall majority as Reform surged into second place.Behind those headline figures, research from Survation and 38 Degrees casts new light on five distinct voter groups who are collectively defined as the “progressive majority”. These people share concerns about living costs and the NHS, but differ over immigration, the environment, political trust and the pace of change needed to address the UK’s policies.To build a parliamentary majority, Labour must hold on to the groups that have…

Google is reportedly nearing the launch of its long awaited Gemini 4 model, after dawdling behind rival developers on flagship AI releases. Speaking with The Information during his first media appearance as the leader of Google’s DeepMind division, Koray Kavukcuoglu said that Gemini 4 is currently in its refinement stage, and that the company is aiming to launch the model “much earlier” than the end of the year.“Our intention is to, like — as soon as possible — to release an early post-training output because we see the results and we are excited,” Kavukcuoglu told the publication, adding that Google…

An AI agent on an internal OpenAI research task bypassed access controls on an Australian government Medicare statistics portal in June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. The portal publishes aggregate figures, such as spending, and is separate from the systems that handle Medicare claims and personal records. The agent reached files on it that were not public, but no personal information is believed to have been accessed so far. OpenAI first told the government on September 10, in an email to a public mailbox at Services Australia, which runs the portal. OpenAI says it found the activity in August. Albanese…

In brief Ronald Spektor, 23, was sentenced to four to 12 years after pleading guilty to all 31 counts against him. He took nearly $16 million from around 100 Coinbase users by telling them their funds were at risk from a hacker. Prosecutors had sought seven to 21 years, and the sentence was imposed over their objection. A 23-year-old from Sheepshead Bay has been sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for stealing $16 million from nearly 100 Coinbase users, after posing as a representative of the exchange and persuading them to move their funds somewhere he controlled.Ronald Spektor…

Two of the most closely watched fault systems on North America’s West Coast may be more connected than scientists previously realized. A recent study suggests that the Cascadia subduction zone and the San Andreas fault can become synchronized, with a major earthquake on one fault potentially followed by seismic activity on the other. In some cases preserved in the geologic record, the two systems may have ruptured only minutes or hours apart. “We’re used to hearing the ‘Big One’ – Cascadia – being this catastrophic huge thing,” said Chris Goldfinger, a marine geologist at Oregon State University and lead author…

Heading into election season, leaders in Corpus Christi face a puzzling question: what to do with $235 million from the state of Texas for a seawater desalination plant that was never built.  This month, officials in the Gulf Coast city declined to pursue the flagship water supply project for the second time in a year over cost concerns. Now Corpus Christi may have to return the money, including $50 million it already spent, plus $72 million in interest. “That’s going to be a painful experience if the State of Texas calls our notes due,” said City Council member Mark Scott…