Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Michigan’s marquee Democratic Senate primary has had twists and turns, heated exchanges, viral moments and tens of millions of dollars in outside spending. On Tuesday, voters will have their say in the race between Representative Haley Stevens, a moderate, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official.The outcome could affect the battle for the Senate majority and the future of the party. Prominent Democrats from Michigan and elsewhere have been divided over the candidates, whose differences mirror broader intraparty frictions over Israel, electability and other matters. Polling conducted over the last month has suggested uncertainty in the race.…

Kayla Solino/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.I work from home, and have a serious habit of snacking and typing. I suppose it comes with the territory of working as ZDNET’s deals and shopping editor, but the fast-paced nature of my day-to-day activities is a breeding ground for crumbs, dirt, and spills on my keyboard. Also: I overhauled my WFH office – these 5 gadgets made the cut (including a cheap cord wrangler)My MacBook Pro has really seen it all — accidental water and coffee spills, cracker crumbs, oily fingerprints, and even a healthy dash of hair from my unsupportive coworker…

In brief A developer is suing Cave City, Kentucky, over a one-year moratorium on new data centers. The proposed $4.8 billion AI campus would be built near Mammoth Cave National Park. The case could become an early test of how much authority local governments have to block AI infrastructure projects. The developer behind a proposed $4.8 billion AI data center near Mammoth Cave National Park is suing a Kentucky city after officials moved to halt the project, escalating a growing conflict between local governments and companies racing to build AI infrastructure.According to a report by The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky Industrial…

A new report suggests that high blood pressure may be managed more effectively by combining two dietary changes: consuming less sodium and getting more potassium. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, affects more than 1.28 billion adults around the world. It is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Current public health recommendations generally emphasize reducing sodium as the primary dietary step for lowering blood pressure and protecting heart health. Looking Beyond Sodium Reduction The physicians and health experts behind the report argue that lowering sodium may have a greater effect when it is paired with increased potassium…

Perhaps it’s my stage of parenthood, or the fact that I’ve been lying awake at night, but I think I have an idea that could secure the electoral future of the Labour party. All Andy Burnham needs to do to win a landslide at the next general election is abolish fines for parents who take their children on term-time holidays. More than 2 million – around a fifth – have taken their children out of school because they could not afford to travel during holidays, according to a national survey released this month. A record 459,288 fines were issued to…

Donald Trump says he has cancelled strikes against Iran, provided a deal is struck “rapidly” with the country.In a post on Truth Social, the US president said he had been asked by Iran and other countries in the Middle East to “hold off” on any attack as the “perimeters” of a deal had been agreed. Trump’s comments came after reports that the US and Israel may have been planning new, intense strikes on Iran.It is not the first time that Trump has issued apocalyptic warnings, only to subsequently insist that diplomacy was being given a chance. Iran has not confimed…

The democratic socialists packed into a dive bar on Chicago’s South Side were in a bubbly mood after the first day of their national summit. Hayley Banyai-Becker, a 31-year-old from Portland, Ore., stood on a chair to rally fellow members of the Democratic Socialists of America to stay on “the front lines of class struggle.”But there was a problem: None of them could hear her.“Did they just turn the music up?” Ms. Banyai-Becker called out, over the thump of angry rock.“Scream louder!” a D.S.A. member said.“Should we go up one by one and tell them to turn the music down?”…

Uber has partnered with — and in some cases made direct investments in — more than 30 autonomous vehicle companies over the past two years. And it’s taking a global approach. Here, TechCrunch tracks every one of those moves in one place. But first, a bit of history.  Uber was, at one time, developing and testing its own autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. The company, then led by Travis Kalanick, created Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) in 2014 and recruited dozens of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics program.  Two years later, Uber acquired Otto, a self-driving truck company founded by former…

Smaller Bitcoin transfers have reached levels not seen since the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX amid an ongoing suspected Coldcard hack.Bitcoin transfers below 1 BTC climbed to their highest daily level since November 2022 on Friday, with 39,600 BTC moved, according to data shared by CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno on Saturday.The figure was just 300 BTC below the 39,900 BTC transferred on Nov. 16, 2022, days after FTX filed for bankruptcy. “The Bitcoin plebs had not moved this amount of BTC in a day since the FTX collapse,” Moreno said, adding that he was encouraged to see users…

Two previously unknown human relatives left traces of their DNA in people alive today, adding another layer to the genetic legacy already inherited from Neanderthals and Denisovans. The discovery reinforces a growing view of human evolution as a long history of encounters and interbreeding among many related hominin populations. Earlier studies had found signs that Homo sapiens mixed with archaic humans beyond Neanderthals and Denisovans. Now, researchers at UC Berkeley have identified specific regions of the modern human genome that came from these unidentified ancestors and estimated when the interbreeding occurred. The team made the discovery using a new method…