Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

In Bangladesh, the agricultural byproduct of bananas, the fiber from the stems, is used to produce handicrafts, sarees, curtains, mats, and bags, among other products.A study shows the country could commercially produce around 37,778 tons of banana fiber, with the potential to generate more than $94 million in export earnings annually.The price of banana fiber in the local and global markets is more than double that of jute fiber.Currently, the country earns around $1.5 million from banana fiber exports annually.See All Key Ideas Bananas make up 20% of all fruit crops grown in Bangladesh, and the country has…

With liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports reshaping North America’s energy landscape, Canada-headquartered energy infrastructure company Enbridge has made another strategic move on the U.S. Gulf Coast by penning an exclusive option to acquire the TTC Connector, designed to provide a new link into an existing LNG supply corridor, connecting one of the firm’s gas storage facilities with the broader pipeline network that feeds an LNG export terminal in Texas, United States. An aerial view of the Excelsior ship docked at Freeport LNG terminal; Courtesy of Freeport LNG Enbridge has signed an exclusive option to acquire the TTC Connector, located within the…

Serbia this week started pulling a sunken Nazi-era fleet out of the Danube River, where lowered water levels caused by extreme heat have exposed some of the vessels and created a headache for captains trying to navigate around them.Near the end of World War II, Germany sank more than 200 of its own ships in the Danube in eastern Serbia, trying to block the Soviet Union’s forces as they advanced up the river. One or two rusted hulks have peeked above the water’s surface nearly every summer.This year, however, residents of the nearby port town of Prahovo have counted at…

Unless Uefa can find a way to unseat Infantino, he has seven months to cement his supporter base.One way Infantino has always done this is by jetting off around the world and meeting people.When he was elected in 2016, Infantino declared that Uefa gave him a budget of €500,000 (£430,000), external “to fund flights – mainly flights – around the world” to lobby member associations for votes.Following Wednesday’s meeting of the Fifa management board in Rabat, Infantino jetted off to South America for the inauguration of new Colombian president Abelardo de la Espriella.Another key tool will be the funding of…

AFC is the largest military training establishment for under-19s in the UK and it receives all the Army’s 16-year-old recruits.North Yorkshire Police told the BBC in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request it had received 16 reports of sexual offences linked to the college in the year to June, including allegations of exposure, voyeurism and sexual assault.No information was included on whether the reports had led to prosecutions.A total of 176 complaints of inappropriate sexual behaviour at the college were made between January 2018 and June 2025, according to Ministry of Defence (MoD) data.The women, whose names…

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 takes place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 13–15, but some of the best conversations aren’t exclusive to the stage or held within workshops or the halls. They spread into happy hours, rooftop mixers, breakfast meetups, and pitch nights across the city throughout the week of October 10-16. Many of those events come through the official Disrupt Side Events. One of the best parts of the program is that it’s a wide-open opportunity. If you have a good idea for a theme and a place to host, you’re well on your way toward applying to…

AI is accelerating vulnerability discovery, exploit development, and attacker weaponization faster than most organizations can adapt. Security teams are inundated with vulnerability disclosures, threat intelligence feeds, exploit chatter, and vendor advisories, all demanding immediate attention. Yet only a small percentage of vulnerabilities are ever actively exploited in the wild. The challenge is no longer visibility. The challenge is determining which threats actually create exploitable risk in your environment before attackers operationalize them at scale. That operational gap is exactly why we built Horizon3.ai’s Rapid Response. Rapid Response helps organizations validate exposure, prioritize action, verify fixes, and reduce uncertainty around emerging threats…

The Cypher wind-down, after payments company Nium acquired the crypto card and self-custody wallet provider, will end purchases on all active Cypher Cards at 00:00 UTC on Aug. 8. That makes Aug. 7 the final spending day, while users have until Sept. 6 to withdraw balances, claim rewards and preserve wallet access before Cypher’s app, dApp, and business platform go offline.Cypher’s broader termination notice says the card will be deactivated on Sept. 6, conflicting with its operational timeline. That timeline and an Osmosis Pay reminder both set Aug. 7 as the last spending day, so cardholders should treat the earlier…

Amboseli National Park, home to a population of nearly 2,000 African elephants, has witnessed significant human-wildlife conflict, in part, because it is largely unfenced to allow elephants to move freely.Park managers are turning to drones to help reduce contentious interactions between elephants and residents in surrounding areas.The drones provide real-time aerial surveillance that enables rangers and communities to track elephants and prevent dangerous encounters by corralling them away from human settlements and farmland.“Thanks to the use of drones in wildlife conservation, we have seen a reduction in retaliatory injuries and deaths,” Jeremy Goss, Program Director at Big Life Foundation,…

Pope Leo XIV will meet with survivors of clergy abuse during a four-day trip to France next month that will include a visit to UNESCO headquarters, a meeting with French bishops in Lourdes and an interreligious meeting in the border city of Metz, the Vatican announced on Friday. The Vatican issued a brief separate statement highlighting the meeting with several abuse survivors and noting that the victims themselves will be involved in preparations for the meeting. The timing and location will be provided at a later date.  Leo met with six abuse survivors during his recent trip to Spain, where…