Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The US government has granted visas to Iranian officials so they can travel to the UN General Assembly in New York next week, as the war between the two countries grinds into its seventh month. The BBC understands the core delegation permitted to attend includes Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.A spokesman for the US State Department confirmed the decision on Thursday, saying that the delegation will be placed under travel restrictions and will be banned from purchasing certain American products. The move comes as the war shows no sign of ending. Since it began in February,…

The Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin will hold their first official meeting in Manchester on Friday. Martin will be the first international leader to visit Number 10 North, the government said ahead of the talks.The men are expected to discuss further strengthening of the UK/Ireland relationship including boosting trade, security and working with the EU.Burnham said he was “delighted” to be hosting the taoiseach and said it was an “historic and proud day for Manchester”.”No10 North is all about creating opportunities for working people, and our partnership with Ireland as we improve the lives of…

The chancellor is to warn the European Union (EU) not to lock the UK out of its scheme to protect industries from unfair Chinese competition.John Healey will push for closer UK-EU partnerships on tech, defence, and manufacturing at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Dublin on Friday.But he will call on the EU to design its “Made in Europe” programme in a way that deepens ties with the UK “rather than erecting new barriers”, Treasury sources told the BBC.Officials said Healey will tell European finance ministers it is important to “learn lessons” after talks collapsed last year for Britain…

The Federal Aviation Administration has been struggling to manage an air traffic control shortage throughout the country. The reasons for the shortage are diverse, but the government has made it known that it’s on the lookout for innovative solutions to the problem. One of those solutions appears to be an $875 million AI software program that is expected to help air traffic controllers manage their workflows and more safely navigate flight routes. The Wall Street Journal reports that the FAA will soon launch Smart, which stands for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories — an automated software program designed…

Platform teams running AI on Kubernetes rarely run one thing. They run a queueing system, a distributed runtime, GPU node health checks, dashboards, and a layer of submission scripts holding all of it together. The Azure Kubernetes Service engineering team open-sourced TauGrid, which collapses that assembly job into a single Helm install. Is it deployable? Yes, TauGrid is MIT licensed, with container images and Helm charts published as public OCI artifacts on Microsoft Container Registry. Prerequisites are a Kubernetes 1.30+ cluster with GPU nodes, kubectl, and Helm 3.0 or later. What is TauGrid TauGrid is a self-hosted platform for running…

A Chinese cyber-espionage group known as “FamousSparrow” is using a revamped backdoor to build a nest inside Central and South American governments and major industries.The advanced persistent threat (APT) is associated with, but not definitively confirmed to be related to, Earth Estries and Salt Typhoon; it’s a seven-year-old outfit that made its reputation by attacking international hotels, and governments and corporations here and there. It appears to have changed its modus operandi of late, though, to become China’s eyes and ears in the global southwest. Since the summer of 2025, it has been using a custom backdoor called “SparroWocky” to…

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink may be the sentiment of the crypto industry, lobbyists and lawmakers who’ve spent the last year trying to get the CLARITY Act over the line. No shortage of negotiations, amendments or political wrangling; yet not enough to get the bill moving through the Senate. The CLARITY Act may have rammed into a Senate-shaped hurdle this week, but it isn’t dead on arrival yet — let’s go with walking wounded.There’s still a chance for the digital asset market structure bill to scramble together the 60 votes it needs to clear the Senate.When…

Since 1989, astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell has tracked every human-made object in space. McDowell’s meticulously maintained catalog, updated every few weeks, is more comprehensive and detailed than that of most governments. From his front-row seat, he has watched with growing alarm as private companies launched dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of satellites over the last decade. So when McDowell heard that a space company called Reflect Orbital plans to launch a satellite to reflect the sun’s light onto the night side of Earth, he heaved a deep sigh. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week’s scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.…

Irrawaddy dolphins, the Mekong River’s sole cetaceans, are viewed as sacred animals by Mekong communities, and are also an important source of tourism revenue.The species’ population has dropped steeply since the 1990s, due to hunting, entanglement in fishing gear and habitat degradation.The Anlong Chheu Teal pool, along the Laos-Cambodia border stands as a cautionary tale: The pool’s last dolphin died in 2022, and tourism subsequently cratered.Six calves were confirmed to be born this year in Cambodia, increasing the population to 118 and bringing hope that the species can rebound if dolphins and their habitats are protectedSee All Key Ideas…

French-based engineering player Technip Energies has been hired to work on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Guaymas, Sonora, on Mexico’s West Coast. Artist’s rendering of the proposed LNG terminal; Source: LNG Alliance Technip Energies has been selected by Amigo LNG, a Mexican joint venture between Texas-based Epcilon LNG and Singapore’s LNG Alliance, for an enhanced project management consultant (ePMC) role on the Amigo LNG project in Mexico. “We will provide overall project management, engineering interface management, construction management, and independent project oversight across the development, and act as the key technical and integration partner across the project’s stakeholders,…