Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Manual operation is a designed capability, not a folk memory. It requires procedures that exist on paper — literally on paper, because the HMI may be what you just lost — people trained on them, and decision rights assigned in advance. The sector had, in fact, just rehearsed this: EPA’s 2026 National Cyber Drill on July 8 — 18 days before Minnesota — put utilities through precisely that scenario, operating with SCADA remote connectivity, cloud services and communications degraded or unavailable. Whether that capability actually exists at your site is testable: I’ve published a free, browser-based Island Mode 72-hour stress…

Bitcoin may have already erased half of its market cap, but veteran crypto investor Michael Terpin says the asset still has further to fall before hitting rock bottom.“We still have more pain to go,” Terpin tells Cointelegraph on the Trade Secrets show. Terpin believes that Bitcoin will ultimately fall “66%” from its October 2025 all-time high of $126,100. “I think that brings us down into the 40s, and I think that’s about where we’re gonna go,” Terpin says. To be precise, a 66% drop from the ATH would see Bitcoin changing hands for $43,500, a price the asset has not seen…

Researchers have developed a way to make twisted oxide materials over much larger areas while maintaining precise control over how their layers are rotated. The advance could help move twistronics closer to practical electronic devices by giving scientists greater control over both the scale and internal structure of these materials. Twistronics explores how rotating one layer of a two-dimensional (2D) material relative to another can change the material’s electronic behavior. Until now, much of the field has focused on extremely thin materials held together by relatively weak forces. “The field of twistronics was developed using 2D materials that are bonded…

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says the number of people facing hunger globally fell by around 43 million people between 2022 and 2025 — 20% of Africans were food insecure in 2025, compared to just 6% in Asia.FAO’s director of agrifood economics, David Laborde, said severe cuts to development aid, armed conflict, and climate shocks have held back food production in Africa over the past decade.Analysts told Mongabay that African governments need to stop promoting agriculture approaches that rely on imported synthetic fertilizer and pesticides, and instead support more effective practices that strengthen soil fertility, diversify crops and…

Intermoor, Acteon’s Moorings and Anchors business line, has secured its third contract with Brazilian oil & gas giant Petrobras in less than a year, this time for the provision of inspection, preservation, maintenance, and operational readiness services for subsea interconnection, mooring and anchoring materials.Source: Intermoor Under the three-year contract, Intermoor will deliver integrated services covering a range of critical mooring components, including chains, steel wire ropes, anchors, connectors, load collars, anode collars, adapters and other load handling accessories. The scope covers visual and dimensional inspection of all mooring materials and accessories, non-destructive testing (NDT), including magnetic particle and liquid penetrant…

Reporting Highlights Over the Limit: One in 10 Omaha yards we tested that the EPA cleaned up still has enough lead in the dirt to be over the agency’s threshold. Nearby Toxins: Nearly all previously remediated homes the news organizations’ testing found to have excessive levels had a neighbor whose yard tested high but was never cleaned up. New Levels: Nearly a quarter of east Omaha yards we tested surpass a new lead level set by Trump’s EPA that could trigger more cleanup. These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. Shortly after buying…

How can Europe defend itself against Russia without the US, or with much less of it? This question sums up the existential challenge now facing the continent.Russia’s imperial ambitions start with Ukraine, but they don’t end there. Moscow’s hybrid attacks, its political interference in support of Russia-friendly parties and its military sabre-rattling – including a warship’s live-fire exercise 45 miles off the UK coast – all point in the same direction. A kinetic war to defend ourselves against Russia in the coming months or years cannot be ruled out. This is why European defence budgets are rising across Europe, especially…

During a Senate hearing on July 29, 2026, Dr. Anthony Fauci — the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — declined to answer questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. Former President Joe Biden issued Fauci a pre-emptive pardon for his actions as a public health official between 2014 and 2025, including his role in the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden issued this pardon specifically because Republicans had repeatedly threatened to prosecute or punish Fauci.    Because pardons prevent someone from facing criminal prosecution for their actions, Republicans argued…

More than 150 migrants have been rescued after the boat they were using to cross the Channel caught fire on Tuesday morning, French authorities have said.The boat was attempting to cross to the UK when its engine caught fire, according to the French maritime prefecture of the Channel and North Sea.It said 157 people have been rescued and are being taken to port in Boulogne-sur-Mer. There are no reports of anyone having been injured or killed.It comes just a day after Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged his government will be “relentless” in curbing the number of people arriving in the…

Democrats across the country celebrated in April after Virginia voters greenlit a plan to cut the number of safe Republican House seats in the state from five to just one. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, said he hoped that the new congressional map would offset the Republican Party’s gains in states like Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri, which drew new district lines at President Trump’s behest.But the Democrats’ new congressional map dissolved just weeks later, when the Virginia Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional. The decision sunk Democrats’ nearly $70 million investment in the…