Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Democratic Party leaders are desperate to identify the so-called most electable candidates for the 2028 presidential campaign. As soon as the November midterms are over, the primary season begins. Political professionals will deploy armies of pollsters armed with the latest data and statistics to vet every individual who enters the race. Given the existential threat that many party members believe President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicanism pose to the nation, their highest aim is reclaiming power. For now, policy and ideological debates must be set aside. The overriding question is simple: Which candidate is most likely to help Democrats defeat…

For this edition of Reporters+, Karina Chabour has investigated a dark side of Donald Trump’s immigration policy. How ICE deports immigrants to so-called ‘third countries’ in Africa, far from the United States and often far from their countries of origin. Most of the people deported have been living in the US for decades. They worked there, paid taxes and many even have families left behind. Without notice, they are arrested, detained and then deported to Ghana and Eswatini; countries they don’t know, where they have no relatives, no income or status. Our reporter met individuals who now live in limbo:…

Ein historisches Debakel erschüttert die CDU: Erstmals in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik verpasst die Partei den Einzug in einen Landtag. Parteichef und Kanzler Friedrich Merz versucht mit einem schnellen Machtwort, seine Ämter zu sichern. Rasmus Buchsteiner und Rixa Fürsen analysieren, wie tragfähig dieser Befreiungsschlag wirklich ist und ob der Union die Zerreißprobe droht. Auch die SPD steht nach den herben Rückschlägen in Berlin und dem Dämpfer in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern unter massivem Druck. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview fordert die saarländische Ministerpräsidentin und stellvertretende SPD-Bundesvorsitzende Anke Rehlinger einen inhaltlichen Kurswechsel der Bundesregierung. Sie macht deutlich, warum es jetzt echte Reformen statt Streichlisten braucht, um das…

Pavlo Bazilinskyy still can’t believe he was on PornHub for work. He’s an assistant professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, and has spent more than a decade researching AI-driven interactions between humans and robots. But he found himself typing “public transport” into the search bar of a very specific website’s “amateur section.” 297 hits.“People are hard to predict,” Bazilinskyy says. It’s why he researches what he does. So his prurient pursuit had a point. Robotaxis without cabbies behind the wheel have started picking up passengers in a handful of countries, including the US. Meanwhile, there’s a…

Bitcoin treasury founder and pioneer Michael Saylor has said that the blockage of the Clarity Act is actually good for the digital asset space.  Writing on X on Saturday, the Strategy founder and chair said that legislation can make restrictions permanent just as easily as rights.  Lawmakers this week blocked long-awaited crypto legislation, the Clarity Act, which aims to formally divide oversight between regulators. The digital asset industry had long called for such rules to be in place.  Despite the hurdle, regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are pushing ahead with rulemaking.  “We…

More than half a century after scientists first encountered a mysterious marker on human red blood cells, researchers finally traced it to its genetic source. The breakthrough established MAL as a human blood group system and gave doctors a new way to identify the exceptionally rare people whose blood lacks the AnWj antigen. The work was led by scientists at NHS Blood and Transplant in Bristol, including researchers from the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory (IBGRL), together with colleagues at the University of Bristol. Their findings solved a puzzle dating back to 1972 and could help prevent dangerous transfusion reactions…

Accusations that the young are a snowflake generation are wrong, the head of an independent review into mental health, ADHD and autism has told the BBC.In an exclusive interview, Prof Peter Fonagy says there has been a real rise in mental distress among children and young people, with anxiety, depression, self-harm and eating disorders the most common.He says it is “harder to be young” now given the economic and employment uncertainty they face coupled with the challenges presented by social media.The review was ordered nine months ago by Wes Streeting after the then-health secretary claimed in an interview that young…

I am now in my 61st year, haven’t worked for more than two years and have stopped applying for jobs (‘I feel invisible’: over-50s reveal harsh realities of trying to get a job, 17 September). The bulk of my career was as an advice worker, specialising in debt, housing and energy advice.Some years ago I worked with a client in her late 50s who had been a hospital cleaner. She had expected to retire earlier, but the changes to women’s state pension age meant that she faced several more years before retirement. She could no longer do the physical work…

A former police officer allegedly developed an “infatuation and obsession” with one of his victims, and disguised himself as an Uber Eats rider before shooting two men, a court has heard.Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter as his trial began in Sydney’s supreme court on Monday.He has been accused of fatally shooting Jesse Baird, 26, and Baird’s partner, Luke Davies, 29, with his police service weapon at Baird’s Paddington home in February 2024.Appearing in the dock at the King Street courthouse in a light grey suit, dark…

Cardano’s delegated governance voters let a 12.29 million ADA request for Pogun expire without ratification, showing that Input Output’s history as a founding builder does not guarantee access to the network’s treasury.Pogun is an Input Output-backed credit and liquidity product designed to bring Bitcoin into decentralized finance. Its proposal offered Cardano a share of the business in exchange for development funding. Charles Hoskinson says the product is still headed to Cardano. Future Input Output ventures will follow technical and commercial fit instead of an automatic Cardano-first policy.The result is a clear test of decentralized control. Cardano’s representatives withheld public capital…