Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Posts shared online falsely claim the online bank Monzo has “officially” launched its own online slots platform.A spokesperson for Monzo has confirmed that this is not a genuine casino site from the company and said the posts were allowing individuals to “take advantage of our much-loved brand to trick people”. The posts often use the real Monzo logo to give the false impression that the business has launched its own casino. However, none of them link to the company’s real website.One post uses an image of a woman holding a large cheque in front of a ‘Monzo slots’ stand, which…

Artificial intelligence (AI) has stirred up more controversy than most things in the past five years. Ever since the introduction of accessible generative AI in 2022, institutions, universities, students, scholars, activists, cognitive specialists, public policymakers and members of the public have all been divided over the ethics of its use. As of the beginning of this month, even the founders of AI companies have taken the same stance. Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, released an essay calling on AI companies to slow the development of their most advanced models, as the safeguards currently in place are unable to keep…

Canada and the US are locked in an escalating trade dispute, with each side imposing tit-for-tat tariffs after bilateral talks collapsed last month.”Today our societies are being battered by new storms,” Carney said during his address, naming them as climate change, “the erosion of democratic norms” and the “weaponisation of trade”.”Economic integration is now being weaponised, tariffs being used to exert pressure,” he said.”Financial mechanisms have been used for coercion. Supply chains constitute weak points to be exploited.”He said a Canada-EU alliance would create a “beacon for other democracies”, while stressing the two sides were not seeking to form a…

Former cabinet minister and Labour Party deputy leader Lord Tom Watson has become a senior vice president at US tech firm Palantir.Announcing his appointment on X, Lord Watson said Palantir was “the most interesting company on the planet, doing work of real consequence”.He said the company had “challenges” and that while some criticism was “propaganda” there were “legitimate questions about large technology companies and sovereign control”.Green MP Sian Berry said: “This is yet another example of the corrosive revolving door between politics and big business lobbying that has no place in public life.” She added: “Palantir, with its work for…

18 September 2026Compared with July 2026:median consumer perceptions of inflation over the past 12 months were unchanged, while median expectations for inflation increased across all horizons;expectations for nominal income growth over the next 12 months were unchanged, as were expectations for spending growth over the next 12 months;expectations for economic growth over the next 12 months were unchanged, while the expected unemployment rate in 12 months’ time decreased;expectations for growth in the price of homes over the next 12 months were unchanged, as were expectations for mortgage interest rates in 12 months’ time.InflationIn August the median rate of perceived inflation…

A regulatory cap limiting Zoox to 100 robotaxis in Nevada is set to expire this month, clearing the way for the Amazon-owned company to expand its commercial fleet of custom-built robotaxis in Las Vegas just as competition heats up. The Nevada Transportation Authority (NTA) permit that imposed the 100-vehicle cap is set to expire September 25, TechCrunch has learned. An NTA official and a Zoox spokesperson confirmed the change, which is also outlined in an updated permit. This doesn’t mean Las Vegas is about to be inundated with hundreds of Zoox robotaxis. But it does give Zoox more freedom to…

The Instinct-to-Instinct model that is the talk of Silicon Valley presents too small a future for personal AI. With Fulcra’s multiplayer capabilities, people can get agent to agent collaboration without having to lock-in to any AI model.BOSTON, September 18, 2026 — Fulcra Dynamics, the company behind the best user-owned context backend for AI agents, today announced the capacity for universal agent to agent communications across peers and groups .  Now anyone using any agent harness (Claude, ChatGPT, Hermes, OpenClaw, etc) can connect with Fulcra to enable inter-agentcommunication. This solution enables any user on any platform to instantly connect their agent…

Ravie LakshmananSep 18, 2026Malware / Web Security Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a cluster of 13 npm packages that have been found to deliver a previously undocumented JavaScript stealer codenamed WeaselBiscuit. The new malware family, per OpenSourceMalware, exhibits functional overlaps with two malware strains associated with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) Contagious Interview campaign: BeaverTail and OtterCookie. “It’s smaller, lighter, and stripped down, with many of the heavier functions removed entirely,” security researcher Paul McCarty (aka 6mile) said. The names of the packages are below – @biz44/id10-client @biz44/id12-client @biz44/id44-client @biz44/id79-client @biz44/id95-client @biz44/id99-client @biz44/process-runtime-utils @biz44/runtime-utils engin1 id79-client process-lhpm process-mite process-tailwind…

Crypto’s post-Fed hike bid extended into Friday, with decentralized finance (DeFi) and layer-2 tokens taking over from privacy and haven assets that led Thursday’s gains, a rotation that demonstrates a return to risk-on trading.Bitcoin rose above $78,000 during the European morning, adding 2.1% since midnght UTC and 1.9% over the past 24 hours. It’s still 5% below the Sept. 4 monthly high of $82,284 after two weeks of range-bound price action. While all but two CoinDesk 100 constituents were higher on the day, the focus is on the DeFi Select Index (DFX). That accelerated the fastest, surging by 8.3% since…

Data indicates that the global ocean sustained 100 consecutive days of record heat between June 2 and Sept. 10, and the high sea surface temperatures don’t give any indications of dropping in the near future.Experts attribute this episode to climate change, which they say the current El Niño weather pattern is amplifying.The record-breaking ocean heat has drawn concerns from experts about the effects on marine ecosystems, global weather patterns, and economies that depend on the ocean.See All Key Ideas For 100 consecutive days between June 2 and Sept. 10, the global ocean outside of polar regions sustained record…