Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Perpetual futures have become one of crypto’s defining financial products, but DRW CEO Don Wilson says much of what people think they know about them is wrong.In a series of posts on X, Wilson argued that perpetual futures — or “perps” — are simply futures contracts without an expiration date. The features often associated with crypto perpetuals, such as high leverage, auto-deleveraging (ADL) and around-the-clock trading, are characteristics of how some crypto exchanges chose to implement the products, not the contracts themselves.”Most of what people think they know about ‘perps’ … has nothing to do with the contract itself,” Wilson…

For the first time, scientists have accurately determined the age of prehistoric paintings inside Font-de-Gaume, a celebrated decorated cave near Les Eyzies in Dordogne (southwestern France). The new findings provide firm dates for two black images, a bison and a masklike figure, and reveal that parts of the artwork were created during widely separated periods. The results could give archaeologists a powerful new way to reconstruct when people entered decorated caves, made paintings, and returned to alter or add to them. Why Ice Age Cave Paintings Are Difficult to Date Dordogne is home to some of the best-known prehistoric art…

India has made progress in conserving its Bengal tigers, but now it must accommodate growing numbers as they disperse from protected habitats into human-dominated areas — even as poaching is on the rise and destruction of forested land continues.Protected forest corridors are crucial to restoring lost or tenuous connectivity between key habitats, enabling genetic exchange between tiger populations that otherwise risk isolation and inbreeding.India has built more mitigation structures than any other country in Asia, including the world’s 10 largest wildlife underpasses and overpasses.But even as the country is reconnecting habitat, it’s also rapidly expanding road infrastructure, and even…

by Alexander Shur / Votebeat, Wisconsin Watch July 28, 2026 This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Ahead of the 2026 midterms, Wisconsin election officials are planning for the potential of mail ballot delivery delays by encouraging voters to mail back absentee ballots as soon as possible or return them some other way. And on Friday, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission, arguing voters should be able to cast provisional ballots on Election Day if they don’t think their mail ballot will arrive…

It’s not just the energy and geopolitical shocks of the Iran war that are set to leave their mark on the global economy this year. There’s also El Niño.  The world is already experiencing the naturally occurring weather phenomenon, which drives anomalous weather conditions and has the power to scorch or drench. El Niños see abnormally warm Pacific waters that pump heat into the atmosphere. That surge in heat shifts global rainfall and temperatures, fueling wetter conditions in some places and drier conditions in others.  It’s not just the energy and geopolitical shocks of the Iran war that are set…

A British MP on Tuesday accused a French warship of firing “warning shots” as he was interviewed on a boat in the Channel, while French authorities told AFP it was a “training exercise”. Chris Philp, an opposition MP from London, was giving an interview to the BBC on Tuesday on board a fishing boat and wrote on X that a “French warship approached close and fired 17 live rounds behind us”. To display this content from X (Twitter), you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices In a video posted by the BBC, a series of…

Young people will be expected to engage with new support to find work, Pat McFadden has said, as he announced parents receiving benefits could get £4,500 a year if their child starts an apprenticeship.Speaking to the Guardian, the work and pensions secretary echoed the comments of Andy Burnham when he suggested that access to support would be conditional on young people properly participating in the support that would be provided. To help with that, the new funds announced would stop families losing benefits when teenagers take up apprenticeships.“We have an obligation to put good support in place,” he said. “And…

Rideshare micromobility vehicles are a common sight in major cities around the world, whether that’s a bicycle program or electric scooters. Now, a company called Veo is introducing electric tricycles into the mix.Announced Tuesday at an event in Denver, the company showed off the Rover, a three-wheeled, sit-down electric vehicle designed for anyone to ride on the streets. They are available in Denver for now, but Veo plans to expand the vehicle to cities across the US.The Rover works like a shared bike or e-scooter. Sign up for the Veo app, pay a fee to unlock the trike, and then…

Single sign on (SSO) simplifies access by letting users log into multiple systems with one set of credentials. While this delivers clear benefits to the authentication process, that convenience can also concentrate risk, as the 2025 University of Pennsylvania breach showed. According to reports, attackers compromised a PennKey SSO account and used that access to reach internal systems including VPN, Salesforce, Qlik, SAP, and SharePoint. The attack also resulted in the theft of data on 1.2 million individuals. That does not mean SSO is insecure. When it is configured and protected properly, SSO can improve security by reducing password sprawl,…

A federal judge has temporarily barred Minnesota from enforcing its new prediction-market felony law against federally regulated exchanges designated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as contract markets, including Kalshi and Polymarket US, days before the statute takes effect on Aug. 1.Judge Katherine Menendez granted preliminary-injunction motions filed by the CFTC, KalshiEX and QCX, the registered entity doing business as Polymarket US. Her July 27 order prevents named Minnesota officials from enforcing Minn. Stat. § 609.7615 against CFTC-designated contract markets until the cases reach a final merits decision. Related ReadingHow a disputed $1 billion claim became a powerful weapon against…