Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Earth planning date: Friday, Sept. 18, 2026 Curiosity surprised us at the beginning of the week with a change in rock texture — instead of the finely layered bedrock blocks we’ve been seeing in our recent sulfate unit workspaces, suddenly we were looking at blocks covered (and likely filled) with a jumble of small disc-shaped lumps. We’ve seen somewhat similar features before much earlier in the mission — for example, close to the Pahrump Hills back in the Murray mudstones, and they’re sometimes seen in Earth rocks as well,…

Large volumes of critical minerals are being imported from Myanmar into Thailand and then mostly resold to China.At least six Thai rivers have been found to be contaminated with heavy metals linked to mining operations in Myanmar.Data suggests companies in Myanmar, Thailand and China are profiting from an industry that has created a public health crisis, impacting food and water security for hundreds of thousands across eastern Myanmar and northern Thailand.Civil society and Thai political groups are calling for an end to imports of minerals mined in Myanmar in response to the ongoing river pollution crisis.See All Key Ideas…

Claim: The pilots who got in a reported altercation on a Flydubai flight on Sept. 30, 2026, leading to an emergency landing, are Russian and Ukrainian. Rating: Context The Embassy of India in Saudi Arabia said the pilot who was the victim of the midair stabbing, Smit Machchhar, is Indian. On Sept. 30, 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that a fight between Russian and Ukrainian pilots forced a Flydubai plane to carry out an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The claim spread as Flydubai, an Emirati airline, said in a statement that “an altercation” occurred on the flight deck…

No motive for the incident has been given and the pilot was under investigation in Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu told Fox News on Wednesday night, before he was expected to be taken back to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the flight took off from.Israel was “likely” to contribute to the investigation, the prime minister added.US President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Netanyahu following the incident, saying it seemed as though the attacker was “perhaps a terrorist” or there were other reasons behind the attack.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has also called it an “attempted jihadist terror attack”, without…

ZDNET’s key takeaways Pearson will acquire the AI skills platform Workera in H2 2026. A recent Workera report in ZDNET indicated gaps in AI upskilling. Together, the firms hope to develop the future of AI skills training. Pearson, a global learning and assessment company, announced on Sept. 29 that it has agreed to acquire Workera, the AI-native skills platform used by organizations such as ServiceNow, Accenture, and the United States Space Force to verify what their employees can do and where they may need to improve. Also: 73% of tech job listings require AI skills now: How to show off…

Apple released new versions of iOS and macOS to address a zero-day vulnerability that a threat actor is actively exploiting in targeted attacks.The out-of-bounds write vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-86950, affects Apple’s CoreGraphics framework, which macOS and iOS use to render and manipulate 2D graphics. The vulnerability affects a broad range of Apple devices, including iPhones dating back to the iPhone 11 and multiple generations of iPads.Extremely Sophisticated AttacksThe flaw has a CVSS score of 8.8 and can allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on an affected system. According to Apple’s advisory, the vulnerability is being exploited “in an extremely…

British multinational bank Standard Chartered expects Ethena’s USDe stablecoin supply to grow eightfold to $40 billion by the end of 2028 as the protocol expands its sources of yield beyond crypto markets.In a Wednesday research report shared with Cointelegraph, the bank initiated coverage of Ethena’s ENA token with a year-end 2028 price target of $2, roughly seven times the $0.28 price cited in the report. Standard Chartered also expects USDe to slightly outpace overall stablecoin market growth over the period.Its forecasts imply ENA would also outperform Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) through 2028. Standard Chartered sees BTC reaching $300,000 and ETH…

A rare species of moth has been found in north Wales.The Bog Grass Moth was found at Cors Geirch National Nature Reserve on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, as conservationists were surveying the area’s species.Experts called it a “special surprise” to find the “incredibly sparse moth” in the habitat.An exact population figure in the UK for the Bog Grass Moth is not known, but they have only been recorded in a small number of English counties, such as Dorset.The fen, which is an area of low, flat, wet land, is monitored by Natur am Byth’s Llŷn and Ynys Môn project,…

Amid political pressure and rising energy prices, the European Commission is considering pausing a part of its landmark methane regulation, which is set to take effect in January. The move comes after French President Emmanuel Macron urged the Commission in a September 18 letter to postpone new methane reporting requirements and ease other fuel-related rules in response to increasing costs exacerbated by the Iran war. The European Union has spent an additional $100 billion euros on energy this year due to rising costs, said Dan Jørgensen, European Commissioner for Energy and Housing.  At a meeting of EU energy ministers in…

Your article on the impact of the escalating cost of living on divorce settlements (Unhappy couples staying put due to cost of living crisis, say divorce lawyers, 23 September) provides a timely reminder of the financial inequities facing many separating couples.As a pensions expert, I have regularly encountered a particular imbalance in the splitting of pension assets on divorce. Although the last Labour government enabled pension savings to be taken into account in divorce settlements, there remains, 25 years on, an inherent unfairness in the way many such arrangements are implemented.Where one partner (usually the husband) has built up valuable…