Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

OpenAI has released a new field report tracking eight scientific computing projects where coding agents cut runtimes.The report documents projects that used Codex on its own in five cases and a combination of Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Code in three others. Worth flagging upfront: this is a vendor publishing a survey of its own product’s application in research settings, built from case studies written by the contributors involved.That doesn’t make the underlying pattern less worth examining. Research software has a documented maintenance problem. Tools built to accompany a single paper, coded by small academic teams without dedicated engineering support, tend…

Ravie LakshmananJul 29, 2026Cybercrime / Law Enforcement The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) on Wednesday said it charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov for allegedly facilitating terrorist activities and for failing to remove prohibited information in violation of Russian law. The principal security agency said the instant messaging platform “failed to remove numerous channels, chats, and bots on the platform that are actively used by Ukrainian special services and by terrorist and extremist organizations to plan and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations within the Russian Federation.” These actions have resulted in numerous…

The crypto market was mixed before the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision later Wednesday. The CoinDesk 20 Index has added 0.41% since midnight UTC, with 10 members advancing and 10 declining.Bitcoin BTC$64,409.00, the largest cryptocurrency, added 0.75% to claw back some of Tuesday’s losses after a volatile 48 hours that saw it spike to $66,700 last week before crashing to $62,400 in the wake of the rout in South Korean stocks.Inflation running at 4.1% makes the case for the Fed to raise the fed funds target rate for the first time in three years. Balanced against that, a pause in Iran-U.S.…

An urgent investigation has been launched into the mysterious deaths of 15 elephants in southern Kenya near the Amboseli National Park.The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) told the BBC that experts were examining the carcasses and said that tissue samples had been sent to laboratories to determine whether the deaths were caused by disease, poisoning or another factor.The park and its surrounds are known as the Amboseli ecosystem, a vast area that straddles the border with Tanzania, which is famous for its wildlife.Officials say this is the first time in decades that elephant mortalities on this scale have been recorded in…

Kenyan teenager Baraka Moruri has planted more than 7,600 trees over the last four years with the help of his family, friends and private organizations.He says he wants children to be better engaged in climate action and policy, arguing that they have ideas and energy to contribute.Climate finance experts say less than 1% of international climate finance gets to youth- and children-led projects, despite climate change affecting their health, education and food security.See All Key Ideas Baraka Moruri has been passionate about the environment since he was 6. Now 13, the Kenyan climate champion says he has planted…

The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs has launched a tender for a benthic survey of the Doordewind Wind Farm Zone.Doordewind Wind Farm Zone; Image: RVO The survey, commissioned by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), will collect factual benthic data to verify the findings of a desktop reef detection study, the results of which are expected in July 2026, and establish a baseline of the benthic environment across the Doordewind area. According to the contract notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU/TED), the work will support the preparation of site data for future offshore wind farms planned…

by Hope Karnopp / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch July 29, 2026 No. In Wisconsin’s partisan primaries, like the one happening Aug. 11, voters must choose a party section and only vote for candidates within that column. On a partisan primary ballot, voters must first select which party’s primary they want to vote in. Instructions on Aug. 11 ballot templates explain that if voters mark a party at the start of the ballot, votes cast in any other party won’t be counted.  If voters don’t make a party selection, then vote for candidates in more than one party, none of their…

Such is the astonishing scale of the wildfires burning at the gates of Bordeaux and Madrid, that if they had happened 20 – even 10 – years back, they may well have shocked the world into taking action on the climate crisis. But like the proverbial frog in a pot of slowly heating water, we have become inured; not only to the ever more devastating impacts of climate breakdown, but increasingly to the actions needed to bring global heating to heel.Even as more than 35,000 wildfires rage across the surface of our world, and as we continue to rewind our…

Claim: An image authentically shows an X post from “Stacy is Right” (@PoliticalStacy) approving of U.S. President Donald Trump hypothetically raping the user and touching the user’s children. Rating: In July 2026, people shared an image alleged to be a screenshot of a post in which X user @PoliticalStacy (aka “Stacy is Right”) approves of U.S. President Donald Trump hypothetically raping the user and touching the user’s children. For example, on July 23, someone posted (archived) the purported screenshot on X with a text caption criticizing @PoliticalStacy. (@Suzierizzo1 accessed via X) The supposed post read as follows: Let me be…

Russia’s main security service said on Wednesday that it had charged the founder of Telegram, one of the most popular messaging apps in the country and around the world, with facilitating terrorism, escalating the Kremlin’s efforts to restrict all means of communication not under its direct control.The security service, the F.S.B., said in a statement that it had issued an international warrant to arrest the Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, 41, who is Russian-born. The service accused Telegram of failing to remove information “actively used by Ukrainian special services, terrorist organizations and extremist organizations to prepare and coordinate sabotage and terrorist…