Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Circle’s reserve engine absorbed a tough second quarter. Gross USDC redemptions exceeded mints by about $4 billion, and reserve yield slipped, while a larger balance base kept reserve income growing.Its biggest opportunity sits outside its reserves. Circle doubled the midpoint of its full-year other revenue outlook, which includes an undisclosed contribution from the ARC Token presale.Circle’s Aug. 5 earnings release puts the gross flows at $87 billion redeemed and $83 billion minted. Those rounded figures produce the roughly $4 billion gap.For Circle Mint customers, minting turns fiat into USDC, and redemption turns USDC back into fiat, according to Circle’s regulatory…

The International Space Station hosts hundreds of science experiments at a time. Some experiments can take hours to perform, and researchers need to account for astronauts’ limited time. Fully automated devices, like Redwire’s  ADvanced Space Experiment Processors (ADSEPs), have been designed to conduct more space science with less crew time. Within each ADSEP facility there are three to four “mini-laboratories”, called cassettes, that allow multiple studies with different needs to be performed at the same time. The latest model, ADSEP-4 can accommodate four cassettes and features imagery capabilities. Since 2017, ADSEPs have conducted and supported two dozen investigations aboard space…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has backed off its re-assessment of cancer-causing nitrates despite decades of research suggesting the contaminant is more harmful than previously thought and that nitrate pollution is at crisis levels in U.S. drinking water.  The agency would not confirm the assessment was cancelled, but the work has been stagnant for more than two years and the department responsible for it was eliminated. And scientists and health advocates say regardless of whether it has been cancelled or is locked in a lengthy delay — Americans are paying the price with their health.  The EPA set a threshold for…

I feel bad for the Saudis. They find themselves hammered between the Iranians and the Houthis, an unhappy situation thanks in part to a feckless and mercurial U.S. president. Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia’s leaders have wanted nothing more than regional stability while they go about the business of transforming their country. For a while there, the Middle East was just stable enough for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his advisors to dream big about a radically changed kingdom by 2030. And then Hamas struck Israel in October 2023, kicking off a regional war. The Saudis have done…

Israel’s military resumed strikes on southern Lebanon on Wednesday despite ongoing talks, blaming a ceasefire violation by militant group Hezbollah as Beirut said at least one person was killed. The fresh strikes and a first evacuation warning in weeks came as Lebanon and Israel were holding US-sponsored talks in Rome aimed at putting an end to hostilities, with Beirut seeking Israel’s phased withdrawal from the south. “In response to a blatant violation of the ceasefire by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, the IDF has begun conducting precise strikes in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement, shortly after telling residents…

Voters in Kansas and Missouri have long filled their legislatures with Republican lawmakers who oppose abortion. Those same Kansans and Missourians, when given the choice, have also voted in favor of abortion rights.And though the word “abortion” did not appear on the ballot in either state on Tuesday, voters resoundingly shot down Republican-backed ballot measures that could have made it easier to ban the procedure in the future. In Kansas, voters rejected a proposal to start electing Supreme Court justices, and in Missouri, voters declined to make it harder for residents to amend the Constitution.The results on Tuesday could buoy…

Kemi Badenoch has been clear about the qualifying criteria for prospective Conservative MPs. They must be “serious people who understand common sense,” she has said. The situation in local government is different, as demonstrated by Mrs Badenoch’s ill-judged support for a former neo-Nazi, selected to stand as a councillor in Somerset next year.Joshua Bonehill-Paine has convictions for racially aggravated harassment of a Jewish Labour MP and assaulting a police officer among other offences. On Wednesday, as pressure grew on the party leader to repudiate him, he withdrew his candidacy.Mrs Badenoch had defended Mr Bonehill-Paine on the grounds that he had…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Israeli military launched strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, fuelling fears of a renewed escalation as officials work to calm tensions in the region.The Israeli military said it had carried out the strikes after accusing the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah of violating a US-brokered truce between the two sides, but gave no details of what the alleged violation was.It had earlier issued an evacuation order for the village of al-Mansouri in southern Lebanon, saying that military activities there were “ongoing”, in…

pros and cons Pros LoudEasy carryExtremely durable Cons ExpensiveNo companion app Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.Portable speakers with waterproof designs are more common than not these days, but for those with ultra-rugged lifestyles, speakers from Bose, JBL, and Beats might not be tough enough. Turtlebox, a maker of speakers for the super-outdoorsy, returns with the Cub, a compact version of its flagship Original (Gen 3) speaker.Also: I brought a Bose, Sony, and JBL speaker to the beach – this one’s my new outdoor essentialAt $330, the Turtlebox Cub is more expensive than some competing speakers of similar…

Palo Alto Networks researchers have disclosed the details of new attack methods targeting passwordless authentication, showing how malware can hijack a passkey-protected account. Passkeys are increasingly adopted by tech giants and are widely recommended because they are more secure against phishing. The new attack methods, named ‘Pass-ta-key’ by Palo Alto Networks, focus on Google-synced passkeys. The security firm’s researchers showed how a threat actor could use the techniques to take over accounts without needing privilege escalation or user interaction. In a Pass-ta-key attack, malware already present on a Windows machine running Chrome can examine the browser’s local synchronization database to…