Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Altman’s four-page order, dated Wednesday and made public Thursday, said he found merit in Trump’s contention that his bid to drop his claims of damage to his brand and businesses — focusing instead on damage to his reputation — might undercut the BBC’s need for the financial data.“This is a compelling argument,” wrote Altman, a Miami-based Trump appointee.Lawyers for the BBC argued that information on the value of Trump’s businesses will continue to be relevant to the case regardless, since Trump’s reputation is closely tied to his business acumen. The BBC’s attorneys have also noted that Trump’s proposed new complaint,…

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said on Thursday that he had been discharged from a rehabilitation facility after a nearly eight-week medical absence, announcing in a statement that he would continue recovering at home as the Senate takes its scheduled August recess.“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement.A spokesman for Mr. McConnell did not say whether the senator would return to the Senate when the…

Representative Cory Mills of Florida is running for re-election in a solidly Republican district and has President Trump’s endorsement. Yet two of his fellow Republicans on Florida’s congressional delegation would prefer he lose his upcoming primary election.Representatives Anna Paulina Luna and Mike Haridopolos took the rare step of endorsing one of Mr. Mills’s rivals this week, underscoring how vulnerable some Republicans consider Mr. Mills, who was investigated by the police in Washington, D.C., last year after a woman filed a report of assault. No charges resulted.His former girlfriend was also granted a protective order against him. As a result of…

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysDetails of the upcoming Pixel 11 lineup have leaked.Upgrades are coming to the chipset and modem.It’s yet to be seen how much value the new HiLight feature will bring.While the actual reveal is less than a week away, the majority of specs and details for the upcoming Google Pixel 11 series have already leaked. It might not seem like a huge upgrade from the 10 series at first glance, and the physical redesign is minimal, but there are definitely some things to be excited about once you dive in.Also: The…

OpenAI is rolling out a more reliable version of ChatGPT GPT-5.6 Sol for Plus and Pro users, while Free users are getting unlimited text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna. The changes are focused on making ChatGPT more direct, factually accurate, and consistent across quick questions and deeper reasoning tasks. In our tests, BleepingComputer observed that GPT now gives you greater control over the model’s reasoning and intelligence with a new slider. ChatGPT’s intelligence slider Source: BleepingComputer As you can see in the screenshot, you can slide GPT’s reasoning from Instant to High. Instant would respond almost immediately, while High reasoning could take…

Ex-governor of New York and Democrat Andrew Cuomo has said lawmakers need to hurry up and get the “highly political” Clarity Act over the line.  Cuomo, who is also the director of crypto exchange OKX, said that Democrats and Republicans were mainly locking horns over the ethics language in the bill.  A number of lawmakers are hoping the Clarity Act — which would set in stone crypto regulation in the U.S. — gets passed before Congress departs for August recess. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives last year but sticking points remain.  “We need clarity,” Cuomo said…

The NASA Science Activation Program’s Cosmic Storytelling with NASA Data (CosmicDS) project, led by Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, works to bring authentic NASA data into the hands of educators and learners. From July 27–29, 2026, the CosmicDS team partnered with the Smithsonian Institution’s BEST AQI (Breathing Easier: Supporting Teen Air Quality Investigations) project to host a Leadership Institute at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) in Cambridge, MA. The Institute brought together 13 formal and informal educators who serve as advisors to BEST AQI, an initiative that guides teens through their own air quality research to…

Parrotfish play a vital role in reef ecosystems by producing sand from consumed coral and maintaining healthy reefs by grazing algae; in doing so they support the sediment accretion processes that help low-lying atolls naturally grow and adapt to rising sea levels.A grassroots social media campaign in the Maldives raised awareness about the ecological importance of parrotfish, helping build widespread public support for their conservation after the species began proliferating in local fish markets during the COVID-19 pandemic.Public backing from the #FishForTomorrow campaign led the Maldivian government to ban the catch of all parrotfish species in 2020, making the…

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report, where our team has spent the last week taking turns falling sick. But don’t worry, we rallied so that we could bring you this week’s edition. All right, here’s what’s on tap for the day: A Chinese AI conundrum in Washington, another potential Hormuz reopening, and the cost of Trump’s new battleships. Here we go again. No, we’re not talking about the latest U.S. attempt to reach a deal with Iran (though there’s more on that below). Instead, we’re talking about Washington’s latest freakout over China’s artificial intelligence capabilities. Many people (us included)…

The claim that the U.S. military was responsible for four deaths in the crash of a private medical transport plane in New Mexico in May 2026 is still under investigation. It was true that the military was testing technology that jammed GPS signals at the time of the crash, based on FAA communications on the day of the crash and the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report.  However, no evidence has come to light definitively confirming or disproving that the signal jamming was the sole or partial cause of the crash. Posts claiming that the U.S. military was responsible for…