Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

UK-headquartered energy technology provider TechnipFMC has emphasized that strong execution momentum is keeping a giant deepwater oil project, operated by France’s energy giant TotalEnergies, in Block 58 off the coast of Suriname on track. Subsea equipment delivery for GranMorgu; Source: TechnipFMC TechnipFMC, which secured an integrated engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (iEPCI) contract worth over $1 billion in 2024 for the GranMorgu development on Block 58 offshore Suriname, has confirmed that this project continues to make strong progress. The company has reported the delivery of “critical” subsea equipment that is supporting the next phase of execution. According to the firm, the…

Darul Qasim’s influence extends beyond its own classrooms through scholars who now teach and lead communities across the Chicago area.For Imam Haroon Ahmed, a graduate of the college who now serves as director of Islamic affairs at the Islamic Foundation, overseeing its mosque and school, the impact is measured through individual lives rather than institutional reach. Much of his development as a scholar and imam, he says, was shaped and tested during his years at Masjid Uthman and Uthman Academy, a mosque and Islamic school serving Chicago’s western suburbs.After Jummah, the Friday congregational prayer, Ahmed remains in the prayer hall…

Plans to ban foreign nationals from social housing under a Conservative government have been condemned as “divisive”.Under proposals revealed on Friday, the party said about 230,000 homes would become available if foreign nationals were prevented from accessing social housing.Ending new tenancies for all foreign nationals, as well as current tenancies for couples where neither person is a UK, Irish or EU citizen, would free up an estimated 228,144 homes for British families, the party said.Under the plans, tenants in England who do not qualify for the housing would be expected to move out of their homes within six months.Foreign nationals…

TikTok says a “moderator error” delayed the removal of a livestream that appeared to show blogger Perez Hilton harming himself, as reported earlier by Wired. Jamie Favazza, a spokesperson for TikTok US, tells The Verge that the platform notified law enforcement about the situation and banned Hilton’s account for violating its community guidelines.Hilton, or Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., is known for the celebrity gossip blog he started in 2004, where he often posted photos of stars featuring his own often obscene or cruel drawings layered on top.Though some users claimed Perez’s livestream aired for more than 30 minutes, Favazza disputes…

Meta has become the third frontier AI developer in recent weeks to disclose a security incident involving one of its advanced AI models during cyber capability testing conducted by AI safety startup, Irregular, placing the independent evaluator at the center of a series of disclosures involving the industry’s leading AI labs. During a “capture-the-flag” test by Irregular, Meta’s Muse Spark 1.1 compromised another company’s system and exploited a security vulnerability, Reuters reported. The model gained unintended access because of a configuration issue in the testing environment. Quoting Meta, the report added that the incident was contained, caused no lasting harm,…

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso is the latest lawmaker to call for action on the crypto Clarity Act, though recent developments show work on the bill may be slowing.  Speaking to the Senate Thursday, Barrasso reminded lawmakers that the U.S. passed the first major digital asset bill last year, the Genius Act, and the same bipartisan work was necessary for the Clarity Act.  Lawmakers are rushing to get a vote on the Clarity Act before a five-week recess this week. Some Republicans have criticized Democrats for dragging their feet with the bill and deliberately being pernickety.  JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Senate…

Researchers have discovered an unusually rich fossil site in a remote region of Canada’s Northwest Territories, revealing new details about some of the earliest complex animals on Earth. The fossils belong to the Ediacaran biota, a collection of mostly soft-bodied organisms that lived on ancient seafloors more than 500 million years ago. Some specimens appear to be about 567 million years old. Their age suggests that animal movement and sexual reproduction began 5-10 million years earlier than previous evidence indicated. The study, led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and Dartmouth, was published in Science Advances. “For…

It is rare for people to drop dead holding the incriminating packaging, but there is no longer any serious doubt that consuming a diet of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) risks a catalogue of life-shortening illnesses from heart disease and stroke to diabetes and cancer. Because these diseases are degenerative over time, the food and drink industry has been able to argue for decades that its UPFs are fine in moderation. It would have us believe that there is no such thing as a “junk” individual food, only poor diets overall, and that its products therefore should not be subject to any…

Uefa is in something of a pickle as it tries to get rid of Infantino.The easiest route to success was the slow turning of the vice throughout this week, hoping to exert enough pressure to force him to quit.Yet the Swiss appears to have no intention of walking away.European football looks like an outlier, struggling to gain enough support to topple him. On Thursday, Lamin Kaba Bajo, the president of the Gambia Football Federation, praised Infantino’s “courage” and for the U-turn, and said he was “willing to give him my support more than ever”.Only Jordan, one of the few countries…

FireTracking’s cameras are currently surveying a million hectares, mainly in France.The cost? In the French département of Indre-et-Loire, the company has installed 11 detection sites.”In all €1.2m [$1.4m; £1m] was spent to cover the whole 6,000 sq km area [2,300 sq miles],” says Chaudier.It is mainly agricultural land. Crop fires are a huge and expensive problem with some 300 a year in this département alone, Chaudier says.AI fire detection is going to get better over the coming years. The French civil protection service has a programme called Condor, for example, which is testing solar-powered drones that carry out continuous patrols…