Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Does gravity affect every type of particle in exactly the same way? Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen are preparing an experiment that could test that fundamental assumption using one of nature’s more unusual particles. “We have taken an important step towards carrying out an exciting experiment on this topic,” says the professor of physics: “We want to measure the gravitational interaction of the muon.” The familiar matter that makes up people, planets, and nearly everything around us consists of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Physicists classify these particles as belonging to the first generation…

Across Israel, politicians, military leaders and much of the media are trying to discredit a documentary that almost none of them have seen. Produced by the Guardian, NAZA examines the AI-powered targeting systems used by the Israel Defense Forces to bombard Gaza after Hamas’s brutal 7 October 2023 attacks. Named after the Israeli military acronym euphemistically used for “collateral damage”, NAZA features interviews with 24 anonymous insiders who reflect on their role in the death-dealing. Israeli leaders have branded the film a “blood libel” and “fiction”. Its Oscar-winning directors, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham, face being stripped of their citizenship…

Two continental football federations, UEFA and CONCACAF, on Friday called on FIFA President Gianni Infantino to release around $2.1 billion from the global governing body’s reserves to share among its 211 member associations. A letter sent to Infantino by European football chief Aleksander Ceferin and his counterpart at the North and Central American and Caribbean body, Victor Montagliani, said each of FIFA’s member associations (MAs) should receive $10 million in the four years between 2027-2030. The move is the latest twist in the civil war which erupted in world football after it emerged Infantino sought to sell a stake in…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is positioning the state to take the lead on AI oversight, including the potential to mandate a “kill switch” for frontier models, with a new executive order issued Friday.Newsom’s order directs the state to convene a group of experts that will deliver recommendations within two months on how to strengthen AI safety measures in state law. Newsom wants the group to consider how the state could require AI companies to embed independent verification groups onsite for regular audits, make their transparency reports and risk assessments subject to standards of independent auditors, create a “kill switch”…

SpaceXAI has released Grok Voice Transcribe 2.0, its newest speech-to-text (STT) model. The development team claims it to be twice as accurate as Grok Voice Transcribe 1.0 at the same price. The model targets hard audio: noisy phone lines, competing voices, local accents, and spoken credentials. It runs in batch and real-time streaming modes through the Speech to Text API. Is it deployable? Yes, as a hosted API. It is live today under the model ID grok-voice-transcribe-2.0. SpaceXAI has not announced open weights, so self-hosting is not an option. What is Grok Voice Transcribe 2.0? Grok Voice Transcribe 2.0 is…

Check Point Software has released security updates to address a critical vulnerability that can let attackers execute code with root privileges on management systems. Tracked as CVE-2026-91843, this flaw stems from a stack-based buffer overflow weakness in the login process for Security Management Server instances, which manage Security Gateways (firewalls) and monitor network security events. The security issue also affects the company’s Log Server, a dedicated server that collects and stores logs generated by Check Point firewalls. Successful exploitation lets threat actors without privileges gain root remote code execution in low-complexity attacks that don’t require user interaction. Check Point also…

Binance is expanding its derivatives offering into foreign exchange with the launch of 24/7 perpetual futures, starting with a US dollar-Brazilian real contract on Monday.Unlike traditional FX markets, which close for the weekend, Binance’s contracts will trade continuously using a dual-mode pricing system. During regular FX trading hours, prices will track a weighted index from third-party data providers, while weekends and public holidays will use an orderbook-based pricing mechanism.The USDBRLUSDT contract will go live on Sept. 21, settle in USDT and offer up to 100x leverage, according to a Friday announcement. Binance said the weekend system uses an exponentially weighted…

I am writing in response to Martin Gelin’s article (How Sweden lost its soul – and stopped being Sweden, 11 September). Gelin is right to lament how far Swedish politics has moved from the liberal internationalism of the Fredrik Reinfeldt era. Having grown up in Malmö, I have seen how border controls with Denmark affect an Öresund region whose everyday life has long depended on easy movement across the strait. Gelin is right to see this retreat from openness as consequential.But to say that Sweden has therefore “lost its soul” goes too far. Its political shift is neither uniquely Swedish…

US judges affirm migrants must have opportunities to voice safety concerns before deportation to unfamiliar nations.Published On 19 Sep 202619 Sep 2026A US federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s policy of rapidly deporting migrants to countries other than their own – a ruling that could next go before the Supreme Court.On Friday, a three-judge panel of the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston largely upheld a February decision that found the Department of Homeland Security’s so-called third-country removal policy unlawful.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe case stems from a class-action lawsuit testing what due…

Executive Order 22 bans executive branch officials from signing nondisclosure agreements for data center projects, requires expedited noise regulations, and requires a review of backup-generation operations used by data centers, among other requirements. The order also establishes an AI task force responsible for evaluating how the state government can address risks to Virginians like workforce displacement and data privacy issues, and determining how existing law can be applied to AI harms.The order represents the latest signal that states are taking data center and AI policy into their own hands as Congress and President Donald Trump have been slow or resistant…