Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

In brief DogeOS opened the public testnet of its EVM-compatible application layer for Dogecoin on Sept. 30. Fees on the testnet are paid in DOGE, and the teams building on it include a lending protocol, a perpetual exchange, a stablecoin and a prediction market aggregator. There is no mainnet launch date set just yet. DogeOS opened the public testnet for its Dogecoin application layer on Wednesday, per its press release. A testnet is a trial version of a network, where developers test apps before real money is involved.Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus created Dogecoin in 2013 as a joke. It…

Galaxies, vast collections of billions of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity, are scattered across the immensity of space. But every so often, a coincidence occurs: Two galaxies line up from our point of view on Earth (or from a space telescope) and appear to overlap in the sky. These rare overlapping galaxies give astronomers a chance to study something normally difficult to see: the dust inside one of these distant cosmic objects. That’s the focus of NASA’s new Overlap Zoo project. Picture the background galaxy acting like a cosmic flashlight, shining through the nearer galaxy. The backlit…

As governments and global funds pour billions into oil, gas, renewable energy, digital infrastructure and mining, the future of cross-border investment is becoming a defining issue for environmental protection and climate action. China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been central to this trend, with more than a trillion dollars deployed since the early 2000s and a global footprint that is far more complex than its “green” branding suggests. Inside Climate News presented a special Climate Week NYC event on Sept. 23 to examine the tensions at the heart of China’s overseas investments. Reporter Katie Surma moderated the discussion with guest…

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief. The highlights this week: The prospect of more stable U.S.-China relations raises questions for India, Pakistan’s main opposition party postpones a planned protest, and India’s Cockroach movement sets its eyes on a new target. What Did the Trump-Xi Summit Mean for India? Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at the White House and agreed to lower some tariffs, to partner on energy and trade, and to keep talking. Their summit showed that the rival superpowers are keen to ease bilateral tensions—or at least to better manage them.…

Claim: Cornell University was dropped from membership in the Ivy League amid the “Cornell 7” gang rape lawsuit. Rating: Rumors that Cornell University was forcibly removed from the Ivy League, the collegiate athletic conference that includes eight of the United States’ oldest and most-prestigious universities, circulated in late September 2026.  The rumor circulated as the university was scrutinized over a lawsuit that accused seven male students of drugging and raping a female student in 2024. As Snopes previously reported, the lawsuit, filed in September 2026, led to the Tompkins County, N.Y., district attorney reopening his office’s investigation into the case.  People…

Seven Minnesota judges face ethics complaint after speaking publicly about the US president’s immigration crackdown.Published On 30 Sep 202630 Sep 2026The United States Justice Department has filed a misconduct complaint against seven federal judges in Minnesota who spoke publicly about the pressure their courts came under during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.The judges spoke to The New York Times this month about dealing with a flood of cases during Operation Metro Surge, an immigration crackdown that led to thousands of arrests in the Minneapolis-St Paul area from December to February.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe Justice Department says it…

The EU is currently paying out installments on its two-year €90 billion loan to Ukraine, but Kyiv is asking for the money to come faster to fill the budget gap. “The funds are needed this fall … especially given the mobilization that the enemy is planning right now,” Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara urged this week. But before releasing more funds, Brussels wants Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, to complete crucial reforms that are part of the country’s roadmap to eventual EU membership. “As reforms in the Rada progress, more budget support too. We have €37 billion still available in this calendar…

OpenAI on Tuesday unveiled “dots”, a new artificial intelligence (AI) assistant it says can proactively carry out tasks on a user’s behalf.At its annual developer day in San Francisco, chief executive Sam Altman referred to “dots” as “remarkably capable, always-on agents that can handle really anything you can think of.”At the same time, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and other tech leaders held a meeting with President Donald Trump as the firm faces intense scrutiny after internal tests of its AI agents revealed unexpected and occasionally harmful actions.Dots, however, were pitched as brightly coloured cute cartoons meant to function as digital…

Threat actors have weaponized a now-patched security flaw in Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) to deploy web shells and access mailbox data, according to findings from the Microsoft Security Research team. The attack exploits CVE-2026-73570 (CVSS score: 8.9), an unauthenticated operating system command injection flaw that can lead to remote code execution when Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) notifications are enabled and the optional zimbra-snmp package is installed. Exploitation of CVE-2026-73570 can be triggered by a specially crafted SMTP request (i.e., email against exposed Zimbra servers without requiring authentication or user interaction. The vulnerability was patched by Zimbra in July 2026…

Bitcoin is having one of its best quarters ever — another indication that the biggest cryptocurrency is in a bull market.  As noted by the The Kobeissi Letter this week, the price of bitcoin is now up close to 30% since August 19, when the U.S. Treasury announced it planned to more than double the size of its government debt repurchases. Over the past quarter, the bitcoin price has surged by 40% — its best quarterly performance since Q4 2024.  Bitcoin’s price recently stood at nearly $83,698, unmoved over a 24-hour period but up 6% over a 30-day period.  The…