Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Taiwan, once widely known as Formosa, conceals a remarkable natural world within its steep and rugged interior. It is one of the few places on Earth capable of supporting truly giant trees, including specimens that rise more than 80 meters above the forest floor. Since 2014, our group, the ‘Taiwan tree seekers,’ has worked to find, measure, and document these extraordinary trees. The team brings together professional tree climbers, ecologists, geologists, and remote sensing specialists. That long search reached a major milestone in 2023, when we identified an 84.1-meter-tall (276-foot-tall) Taiwania fir (Taiwania cryptomerioides). It is now recognized as the…

Eidesvik Reach, the joint venture of Reach Subsea and Eidesvik Offshore, is selling its 2009-built, 85-meter-long inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) vessel Viking Reach.Source: Reach Subsea The joint venture, in which Eidesvik holds a 50.1% ownership interest and Reach Subsea 49.9%, has entered into a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with an undisclosed buyer for the sale of the vessel. As part of the transaction, Reach will also sell the work-class remotely operated vehicle (WROV) onboard the vessel to the buyer. The company said that the sale is consistent with its strategic focus on modernizing its asset base ahead of the…

A 60-year-old man from Wales was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Monday after concealing his mother’s death by hiding her body in a freezer for years.Christopher Phillips pleaded guilty in March to preventing the lawful and decent burial of a dead body and to fraud by false representation, the South Wales Police said in a statement.According to the police, officers found the body of his mother, Sylvia Phillips, in a freezer in his home in Porthcawl, a town in southern Wales, in February.Police officers said they had been called to the address to conduct a welfare…

Trump specifically called out the two biggest U.S. oil producers by name after both reported strong earnings on Friday.“Chevron, too much money. Exxon Mobil, too much, too much money,” Trump said. “They ought to give some of that back to the public, and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price.”The average U.S. retail gasoline price has hovered near $4.10 a gallon for the past week, up from less than $3 before the United States and Israel launched their attacks against Iran in February. In late June, Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate big oil companies for not…

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel sidestepped investors’ questions about preorder demand for the company’s long-awaited Specs smart glasses during Monday’s earnings call, just weeks before the device’s September launch event. “What we’re hearing from folks is really that they want to try Specs,” Spiegel told investors. “It’s obviously a high consideration purchase at $2,195. Obviously, developers and folks who are familiar with the platform really understand it and understand the technical leaps we’ve made with this generation. I think for the broader public and consumers, it’s going to be really important for folks to go hands-on. Our upcoming launch event will…

A cyberattack on the U.K.’s Police National Legal Database (PNLD) has compromised contact data of more than 100,000 police officers and other criminal justice professionals. The intrusion was detected on Sunday, July 26, and was later claimed by the ExfilSquad data extortion group, which alleges it stole 135,000 contact records. PNLD is an online legal resource service that has been used for more than 30 years by the 43 Home Office police forces in England and Wales, as well as the British Transport Police. PNLD also operates ‘Ask the Police,’ a public-facing website with answers to hundreds of common policing…

EU sanctions rules will bar direct and indirect transactions with HTX from Aug. 23 when those dealings fall within the bloc’s jurisdiction. For some individuals still needing to exit the exchange, an ordinary withdrawal will then require a narrow authorization from a national authority.Council Regulation (EU) 2026/1848 lists “HTX (HUOBI GLOBAL SA)” in Annex XLV and sets Aug. 23, 2026, as the date the restriction applies. Article 5ad prohibits transactions with listed entities. Later amendments extend that prohibition to entities acting on behalf of or at the direction of a listed entity, as well as qualifying crypto-asset or payment service…

The newly established beetle genus Luffy was not given its name simply as a playful reference. Researchers selected it because the insects have distinctive physical features that closely resemble the unusual abilities of Luffy, the main character in One Piece. Compared with related beetles, members of this genus have exceptionally long and slender mandibles, antennae, and maxillary palps. Their stretched proportions reminded the scientists of Luffy’s rubber body, which allows the fictional character to freely extend and enlarge his limbs. Complete taxonomic descriptions of the genus and its species were published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal ZooKeys. Two New Luffy…

Apsana Begum, Labour MP for Poplar & Limehouse in east London, said she had written to the trust to express her fears.”At this moment, the focus could have been on how NHS funding is restored and how there can be parity between the quality and level of care for physical health and mental health,” she said.”I am concerned that these cuts are particularly targeted towards mental health care services that are of equal importance to patients.”More from Bedfordshire:The trust has a strong national reputation, being one of a small number of NHS organisations to hold the highest rating from the…

Ukraine’s ​overnight attacks on Russia killed six people and injured nine, as ​they damaged warehouses near the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg, governors said, while Russian strikes killed and injured people in Ukraine. Read moreUkraine targets Wildberries again as Russia hits Kharkiv publishing house Five ​were ‌killed and six injured after Ukrainian drones attacked ⁠the Moscow region, governor Andrei Vorobyov said on messaging app Telegram on Tuesday. ‌A warehouse caught fire which was later doused, he said, ⁠without giving details. Drones near St Petersburg, Russia’s second biggest city, hit a warehouse facility, regional governor Alexander ​Drozdenko said on Telegram…