Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The world was just awakening to the novel coronavirus, and a full-fledged pandemic was still in the future, when Dr. Anthony S. Fauci jotted a note in his diary on Jan. 26, 2020, musing about whether the virus might have originated in an open-air “wet market,” where live animals were sold, in Wuhan, China.“Now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier,” Dr. Fauci, then the government’s top infectious disease expert, wrote. “Having said that, somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans.”Those private reflections became public this past weekend when Senator Rand Paul, Republican of…

President Trump said on Monday that there was “a good chance” a new round of diplomacy with Iran could yield a breakthrough, but warned that he would quickly resume the airstrikes he paused over the weekend if that did not happen.“We’re talking right now,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “Iran took a beating over the last 14 days, and they asked us very nicely, ‘please stop, let’s meet,’” he said, an assertion that Iran quickly denied.Having failed to achieve his goals through two weeks of renewed attacks on Iran, it is unclear whether Mr. Trump can expect…

On Sunday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella doubled down on the shocking warning he issued earlier this month to businesses that use AI, taking it a step further this time. Companies that rely wholly on the proprietary AI labs for their AI needs ultimately won’t survive, he predicts. That’s what he said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” When Zakaria asked Nadella to explain what constitutes a company sharing too much with an AI model provider, Nadella said businesses need to be wary of everything they hand over, from their data to their prompts. Nadella called for a setup where “every time…

A threat actor has been hacking public Wi-Fi gateway appliances at organizations running captive portal networks to compromise the Microsoft 365 accounts of traveling corporate employees, ReliaQuest reports. As part of the attacks, the hackers modified the DNS configurations of the compromised small office/home office (SOHO) routers to redirect users to attacker-controlled infrastructure for credential theft. Ongoing since at least June 2026, the activity is similar to the previously observed FrostArmada campaign, which was attributed to APT28, also known as Forest Blizzard, and Fancy Bear, a state-sponsored group believed to be linked to Russia’s General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).…

Lawmakers are hoping to push through the crypto market structure bill this week but the Democrats are holding things back, according to Senator Dave McCormick. Speaking to Fox Business on Friday, the Republican senator said that a vote needs to happen now.  “The Democrats are starting to think, ‘We don’t want to give it a win,’” said McCormick.  Writing on X today, he added: “The time for delay is over. Bring the Clarity Act to the Senate Floor for a vote and let every senator go on the record. America needs clear rules that protect consumers and keep digital asset…

Each time the Moon covers the Sun during a total solar eclipse — darkening daytime skies and briefly revealing the Sun’s ethereal outer atmosphere, the corona — it presents new opportunities to better understand our star and its influence on Earth. On Wednesday, Aug. 12, as the next total solar eclipse sweeps over Greenland, Iceland, and Spain, NASA-funded science teams will be chasing the Moon’s shadow with a high-altitude jet and scientific balloons to investigate the Sun’s dynamics and how the temporary darkening of our skies affects our atmosphere. “From our unique perspective on Earth during a total solar eclipse,…

If they were handing out diplomas from the College of Strategic and Diplomatic Malpractice, the Trump administration would surely graduate with high honors. The latest episode in this sorry tale is the deal to provide Saudi Arabia with U.S. nuclear reactors and know-how, reportedly including the right to enrich uranium on Saudi soil in a black-boxed facility the United States would construct. Immediately after the signing of the deal on July 22, U.S. President Donald Trump added the condition of Saudi normalization with Israel, which, if he sticks to it, would invariably scotch the agreement. There is no compelling commercial, economic,…

Burke’s arraignment is scheduled for 31 August. The trial is to start within 90 days of that date.Prosecutors have alleged Burke stabbed the teen before dismembering her body after years of alleged sexual abuse.They allege he killed her because the teen had threatened to reveal his relationship with a minor and destroy his multi-million dollar music career.Evidence read in court on Monday showed threats Hernandez made to Burke on 22 April 2025, stemming from arguments about his friendship with another girl.”I swear to GOD I will kill u”, one expletive-laden text said, followed by a threat to strangle him and…

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has appointed Bridget Phillipson as Labour Party chair.A Labour spokesperson said Phillipson, who is also minister for women and equalities, will work closely with deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell to modernise the party ready for the next general election.Phillipson and Powell went head to head for the deputy leader position last year, after a race triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation, with Powell emerging victorious following 54% support from the party membership, external.Phillipson had been education secretary under Sir Keir Starmer but that job was also handed to Powell by Burnham when he appointed his cabinet last…

Anthropic founder and CEO Dario Amodei responded on Monday afternoon to murmuring in the industry that his company somehow supports efforts by the U.S. government to ban open-weight Chinese models, or possibly open-weight models generally. “Anyone who has read my past writing should know that I don’t regard such bans as a useful measure, but let me state it clearly so that there is no doubt: Anthropic has never advocated for a ban on open-weights models,” he wrote, emphasis his own. His response came after Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang took to X (his first post on the platform) to…