Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

In brief Robinhood posted record Q2 revenues of $1.31 billion, up 32% year-over-year, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $1.26 billion. Crypto revenue fell 38% year-over-year to $100 million, while event contracts—prediction market bets on real-world outcomes—surged over 10x to $156 million, becoming the company’s fastest-growing revenue line. The company expanded Robinhood Chain with tokenized stocks, decentralized lending, and plans for new international crypto offerings. Robinhood reported second-quarter earnings Wednesday and posted record quarterly revenue of $1.31 billion in Q2, up 32% year-over-year, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $1.26 billion. The company is expanding into prediction markets and crypto products, including…

French fries and other fried foods are popular largely because of their crisp texture and rich flavor. However, they can absorb large amounts of oil during cooking, increasing their fat and calorie content. Regularly consuming foods high in fat can contribute to health problems such as obesity and hypertension. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are investigating whether microwave energy could help produce French fries that absorb less oil without losing the qualities consumers expect. Their findings suggest that combining microwave frying with conventional frying could shorten cooking time, limit oil uptake, and still create the crisp exterior and…

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is investigating the deaths of 15 elephants in the Amboseli savannah ecosystem, near the border with Tanzania. KWS told Mongabay that some preliminary laboratory investigations have found a toxic substance in the dead elephants. The animals were found between June 24 and July 24, 2026, at the Kimana Sanctuary and Kuku Ranch, an area at the crossroads between three national parks in southern Kenya. “Ten elephants exhibited similar clinical signs, including partial paralysis that left them unable to stand before dying within one to two days,” KWS communications Director Duncan Wanyama said in a…

Like a sporting Dr Pangloss, Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, would like to persuade football followers that they are living in the best of all possible worlds. Maddeningly for him, many disagree. On Monday, Mr Infantino published a 15-page Instagram rant in which he bemoaned the “hate and false rumours” in circulation during the recent men’s World Cup. White House interference over a crucial refereeing decision, prohibitive ticket prices, unnecessary but lucrative hydration breaks; it was all, as his best friend in politics, Donald Trump, would say, “fake news”.But where the president of world football’s governing body sees haters, others see lovers…

Claim: A screenshot authentically shows a July 2026 post by U.S. President Donald Trump in which he shared an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself standing in front of the White House with Mahatma Gandhi, former President John F. Kennedy and a person dressed like Jesus Christ. Rating: Context Trump posted a similar image on July 26, 2026, that showed him standing in front of the White House next to Kennedy. A rumor spread in July 2026 that a screenshot displayed a real Truth Social post by U.S. President Donald Trump in which he shared an artificial intelligence-generated image of him…

Two Greek firefighters have died after they became trapped tackling a wildfire that swept through the Rethymno area of Crete.Gale-force winds whipped up the flames prompting the evacuation of several villages, in the latest summer wildfire to break out in southern Europe.In southern Turkey, the main Fethiye to Antalya highway had to be closed and part of a hospital evacuated because of a fire in Muğla province.Meanwhile, a fourth heatwave of the summer has begun in Spain and France, and firefighters are trying to prevent a flare-up from major wildfires that have just been brought under control.Witnesses said several fires…

Merz himself took to X to welcome Frei: “Dear Thorsten, our parliamentary group is gaining an experienced and responsible leader in you. Congratulations on your convincing election. I look forward to continuing our successful work together for the Union and for our country!” Speaking at a press conference following the meeting of conservative MPs, Merz explained: “My impression is that the parliamentary group understood and accepted the rationale behind [my personnel decisions] … I am very confident that this parliamentary group meeting will provide fresh momentum, new energy and renewed determination for all of us to govern this country well…

President Trump unveiled plans for a $22.5 billion redesign of Dulles International Airport at the White House on Wednesday, characterizing the reconstruction as part of his broader efforts to remake the Washington region.“This transformation is another step in our ongoing efforts to make Washington, D.C., safe and beautiful again,” Mr. Trump said, adding that the project would have bipartisan appeal, because “whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you don’t want to go and be subjected to this airport.”Dulles Airport, which opened in the Virginia exurbs of Washington in 1962, has long been celebrated as an architectural landmark, thanks to the sweeping…

AI hasn’t just changed how startups build; it’s broken how they sell, secure their data and customers, and scale it more rapidly than ever before. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, the AI Stage is back to dig into the single hottest topic in the community for the past few years, presented by Google for Startups. This time around, we’re exploring the business models AI is rewriting, the wealth of unsolved security gaps, and the entirely new job categories AI has created from scratch. From October 13–15 in San Francisco at Moscone Center, join leaders from across the AI industry as they…

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a maximum-severity security flaw in Ruflo, an open-source agent meta-harness for Anthropic Claude Code and OpenAI Codex, that could result in unauthenticated remote code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-59726 (CVSS score: 10.0), impacts all versions of the project before version 3.16.3. It has been codenamed RufRoot by Noma Security’s research team, Noma Labs. Originally launched as Claude Flow, Ruflo is an AI multi-agent orchestration platform and harness that allows users to deploy multi-player swarms, coordinate autonomous workflows, and build conversational AI systems. The project has more than 66,500 stars on GitHub. The crux of the…