Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Israel is facing weeks of water shortages after an exceptional algae bloom crippled much of its desalination capacity, in a crisis scientists say was triggered when Israeli attacks destroyed much of Gaza’s wastewater infrastructure, causing a massive discharge of untreated sewage.“Pollution does not recognise political borders,” said the Zalul Environmental Association, an Israeli NGO dedicated to protecting the country’s seas and shores. “The discharge of untreated sewage from the Gaza Strip into the sea is contributing to the worsening crisis affecting the Israeli desalination facilities. The wastewater contains nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which feed microalgae and cyanobacteria and…

The European Accessibility Act, which entered into application in June 2025, reflects this changing perspective. It establishes common accessibility requirements for products and services such as e-commerce, banking, smartphones, computers, ticketing systems, self-service terminals and e-books. By harmonising standards across the single market, the legislation reduces fragmentation, lowers compliance costs and enables companies to scale accessible solutions more efficiently across Europe. Accessibility is not simply a matter of rights or compliance — it is a proven tool for driving innovation and strengthening Europe’s long-term competitiveness. Accessibility should also be understood as a quality standard. Many features originally developed for people…

As they say, the only things you can’t escape in life are death and taxes. Doing your own taxes has only gotten easier over the years, but it’s still plenty confusing, especially with both federal and state rules and rates always in flux. To help you figure out this confusing process, I’ve written a guide on How to Pay Your Taxes Online and on the Best Tax Services. In these guides, I included H&R Block’s DIY and Assisted Services, along with other competitors to give you more information as you navigate the seemingly endless options available for your specific tax needs. Tax day may…

Anthropic and OpenAI on Tuesday announced new models, with both artificial intelligence (AI) companies noting that they are continuing to invest in improving alignment to combat risky behavior. Opus 5.5, per Anthropic, is a “major step up from Opus 5,” and “achieves the best scores of any model to date on our automated behavioral audit, our alignment suite that tests Claude across thousands of simulated scenarios.” The AI company said the model is less likely than its other recent models to carry out hard-to-reverse actions or act outside the boundaries it’s been given, adding it’s more resistant than Opus 5…

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig has said that the regulator was preparing for the transition of markets moving “24-7, on-chain.”  Speaking to CNBC on Wednesday, the regulator said that it was an exciting time to be regulating markets related to crypto and artificial intelligence.  The CFTC is fast pushing ahead with rulemaking for the crypto space, despite lawmakers last week blocking the long-awaited Clarity Act. Following the vote on the landmark crypto legislation, Selig said that the watchdog would still help U.S. President Trump “get the job done” in regulating digital assets.  “Our markets are rapidly evolving,” Selig…

Greater amounts of REM and deep sleep were associated with lower risks of dozens of diseases, and less than 5 hours of total sleep was associated with high risks of disease, according to a new study published September 17th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Shengzhi Sun of Capital Medical University, China, and colleagues. Sleep quantity and quality is a priority of China’s National Health Commission and a focus in China more broadly. The most recent 2026 China Sleep Health White Paper finds that while the average surveyed Chinese person sleeps 6.97 hours per night, 23 percent sleep…

The Philippines is a key location for the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative, a global pact to establish a semiconductor and AI supply chain not reliant on China.Pax Silica, and a related national initiative called the Luzon Economic Corridor, have been met with opposition from civil society and Indigenous groups.Land for the planned Pax Silica hub overlaps with land thousands of Indigenous Aeta claim as their ancestral domain.Protesters also cite concerns about water, energy use, and waste management plans for the planned hub.See All Key Ideas MANILA — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. arrived at the Grand Hyatt Manila…

As the scandal over Susan Collins’ relationship with Hawaii defense contractor Navatek became the central issue in her hotly contested senate campaign, she and her top aides mustered a defense with a series of incorrect and misleading claims. On Tuesday, ProPublica published an investigation into the senior senator from Maine’s relationship with Martin Kao, the former Navatek CEO and a major donor who told law enforcement he exchanged campaign cash for government contracts. His confession came after his guilty plea for campaign finance and loan fraud. The ProPublica story revealed that the FBI had been circling the senator, her top…

US President Donald Trump treated Chinese President Xi Jinping to a rare personal airport welcome Wednesday, kicking off a pomp-filled state visit aimed at smoothing superpower tensions on everything from AI and trade to Iran. The summit is expected to be more about spectacle than substance — but there was an early breakthrough when Washington announced a two-month extension of a trade truce with Beijing that was due to expire in November. After officials literally rolled out the red carpet, Trump and First Lady Melania shook hands with Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan once the Chinese president descended from…

Wenn die mächtigsten Männer der Welt aufeinandertreffen, steht die globale Ordnung im Mittelpunkt. In Washington sprechen Donald Trump und Xi Jinping über Zölle, Taiwan und die Vorherrschaft bei Künstlicher Intelligenz. POLITICO-Reporter Hans von der Burchard analysiert, ob bei den verhärteten Fronten diplomatische Lösungen möglich sind und wo Stillstand droht. Auf der UN-Bühne in New York hat SPD-Umweltminister Carsten Schneider den deutschen Ausstieg aus fossilen Energien bis 2045 präsentiert. Doch wie viel Substanz steckt wirklich in der neuen Roadmap? Energie-Expertin Johanna Sahlberg von POLITICO PRO „Energie & Klima am Morgen“ hat das Papier exklusiv ausgewertet und ordnet ein, wie der Plan…