Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

For a few brief years, there was no death penalty in the United States. In 1972, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that declared the death penalty unconstitutional, making the U.S. part of a broad postwar global trend against capital punishment.And then, just four years later, another decision brought it back. This month is the 50th anniversary of the death penalty’s return to the country. Today, the U.S. is an outlier in the West for its willingness to carry out executions. Why?Before she went on holiday, Katrin spoke to Maurice Chammah, a journalist for the nonprofit news organization The Marshall…

The Labour Party and the Co-operative Party are distinct organizations — but a pact agreed in 1927 allows candidates to stand on behalf of both parties. In practice, Co-operative MPs tend to follow the Labour line — but the party has a distinct focus on mutual ownership, community businesses, and credit unions. It argues for democratic control of services and businesses by the people who use them — and supporters say this program offers up real hints about how Burnham will now govern. Since returning to the Westminster frontline, the new prime minister has hardly been shy about his administration’s…

Founded in 2007, Alo Yoga (short for ‘Air, Land, and Ocean’) started as a yoga brand, but somewhere along the way, it became the model off-duty uniform. The brand’s rise was helped along by its celebrity fan club: Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber, and basically every supermodel whose workout fit has made us question our entire wardrobe. What began with buttery-soft leggings and yoga pants has expanded into a lifestyle empire, with travelwear, wellness supplements, and even a collection of luxury Alo bags.I’m also guilty of the Alo effect. I’ve been a longtime fan, and my overstuffed closet has…

In this tutorial, we build and execute a multi-agent workflow with Omnigent using a reliable, isolated Python environment created with uv. We configure a financial research lead agent that retrieves a live USD-to-EUR exchange rate from an external API, prepares a concise client-ready summary, and delegates its draft to a dedicated text-auditing sub-agent for clarity and length validation. We define reusable Python functions as callable agent tools, describe the complete agent structure in YAML, and use the Claude Agent SDK as the execution harness. We also manage the Anthropic API key securely through environment variables, apply non-interactive policies that limit…

South Korean authorities and four security firms have disclosed a state-sponsored campaign that compromised trusted domestic websites. The attackers used those sites to exploit locally installed financial-security software and infect targeted visitors with SIGNBT or COPPERHEDGE backdoors. A compromised page could infect a system running a vulnerable AnySign4PC version without a prompt or user-initiated download. The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) says AnySign4PC versions 1.1.4.4 through 1.1.4.6 are affected and lists version 1.1.5.0 as the fixed release. It recommends deleting vulnerable installations. AhnLab refers to two exploited products only as financial-security software A and I. Its report does not…

In brief Researchers tested whether frontier AI agents could independently conduct AI research. The systems completed engineering tasks but failed to produce papers worthy of acceptance at a top AI conference. The study identified five recurring failure modes that prevented AI from producing publishable research. A new study found today’s frontier AI agents could complete many of the engineering tasks required for AI research but failed to produce original work worthy of acceptance at a top machine learning conference.In the study, “Can AI agents conduct open-ended AI research?” published on Wednesday, researchers from Princeton University, the UK AI Security Institute,…

About 210 million years ago, two early relatives of modern crocodiles stood near each other among the low ferns of a humid riverbank in what is now northern New Mexico. Each animal was roughly the size of a jackal, but their bodies suggest they were adapted to hunt in different ways. One was Hesperosuchus agilis, a fast land predator with a long snout, powerful hind legs, and smaller, more slender front limbs. It likely searched for prey along rivers and streams. The second animal had a noticeably different head. Its snout was shorter, its skull was more strongly reinforced, and…

Two palm oil companies have resumed clearing forest in a long-disputed Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo, more than a decade after international pressure halted operations.The Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae says the companies are clearing its ancestral land without its consent, while the companies maintain they legally acquired the land from a neighboring village.Community members say the renewed clearing is destroying regenerating forest and farms central to their livelihoods, despite years of advocacy, international recognition, and an unresolved complaint to the RSPO, the top certifier of sustainable palm oil.Advocates say the dispute exposes persistent weaknesses in Indonesia’s recognition…

In May this year, police in Ankara stormed the headquarters of the Republican People’s party (CHP), the oldest political party in Turkey. Officers used teargas to enforce a controversial appeal court decision that reinstated the CHP’s 77-year-old former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu – seen as less of a threat to the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP). CHP members aligned with Kılıçdaroğlu’s successor, Özgür Özel, placed furniture at the building’s entrance, creating a barrier to prevent police from entering. It didn’t work. Hours later, party members loyal to Özel were physically removed from the premises.Entering the offices of Turkey’s leading opposition…

The US president said Israel would withdraw from Gaza “as disarmament is completed” and called the agreement “a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government”. “The International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors,” he said in a post on Truth Social.Trump said the agreement marked a “major milestone in the implementation of the Trump 20-Point Plan”, and he thanked mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. A US official, asked on a call with reporters about how hopeful the US…