Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

False claims that a second plane never hit the Twin Towers are being shared online in the aftermath of the 25th anniversary of 9/11.A Facebook post shares a video which appears to show an explosion on the South Tower—the second tower to be attacked—without a plane hitting it. The text on the video reads: “Where is the plane? When amateur footage gets released long after the event…” This is false. There is ample evidence that two planes hit the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers causing them to collapse.The same clip was shared five years ago, and fact checkers explained then…

The family of Nicholas Brandram have denied he was the so-called “Putney pusher” and said he “took his own life after months of immense pressure caused by a Metropolitan police investigation”.Brandram, 44, was found unresponsive at a property in Chiswick, west London, believed to be his home, on Tuesday evening.The senior city banker had been arrested in June in connection with an incident nearly 10 years ago on Putney Bridge, in which a jogger shoved a woman headfirst into the path of an oncoming bus.The Metropolitan police said Brandram had been released under investigation after his arrest.On Thursday, a spokesperson…

Greek parliament then voted unanimously to lift his parliamentary immunity, and, in response to questions from POLITICO, Avramopoulos said he would appear before the Belgian authorities once a date has been set. He added that he regrets not appearing when he was first summoned around a year ago, stating that had he testified then, there would be no arrest warrant today. The Belgian arrest warrant for Avramopoulos, dated June 21 and seen by POLITICO, accuses him of membership in a criminal organization, bribery of an official, and money laundering. It also alleges a financial benefit totaling approximately €73,000. Allegations center…

A former student of James Orr who was found to have been bullied by the suspended senior Reform UK figure is reopening a case against the University of Cambridge, after apparent discrepancies emerged over the university’s handling of the incident.The former student alleges that the academic’s claim not to have been disciplined contradicts assurances they say they received from the institution.Cambridge was ordered by the university’s office of student conduct, complaints and appeals (OSSCA) complaint reviewer to pay £5,000 compensation to the student for distress and in lieu of tuition fees after an investigation partially upheld the bullying allegation against…

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is facing mounting unrest within his party ahead of two regional elections on Sunday, with some insiders warning that more poor results could hasten his departure from office.Merz has decided to skip next week’s UN General Assembly in New York and hold an emergency party meeting on Sunday evening as he seeks to contain the fallout from expected losses for the Christian Democratic Union in Berlin and the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.Two weeks after the far-right Alternative for Germany won a shock victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the CDU recorded its worst-ever result,…

King Charles has warned AI executives of the “existential dangers” posed by the technology falling into the wrong hands.He made the comments at a summit he had convened at Dumfries House in Ayrshire to discuss how the tech can be used to benefit society.Those gathered at the meeting also included Kanishka Narayan, the UK’s AI Minister, the Pope’s advisor, and participants from AI giants such as Nvidia, OpenAI and Anthropic.It comes amid a series of recent warnings from people inside the industry about the rapidly evolving capabilities of advanced or “frontier” AI models and the regulation needed to keep them…

On September 8, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) detailed several attacks that show how quickly AI is changing the economics of cybercrime. In one credential-harvesting campaign, a threat actor first compromised an organization’s cloud infrastructure, then built and deployed a multi-agent attack framework. The operation took less than six hours in total and resulted in thousands of third-party credentials being compromised. The AI even managed parts of the vulnerability-scanning pipeline, troubleshot problems as they arose and rotated IP addresses with minimal human intervention. One of the main benefits of AI for organizations is the productivity gains it can deliver. Unfortunately,…

In brief A group calling itself iamnotavillain has demanded 6,000 XMR, around $3 million, within 24 hours. It says it used blockchain analysis to find Revolut accounts with large crypto holdings. Revolut says it has received no direct contact or demand. A criminal group has put a 24-hour clock on Revolut, demanding $3 million in Monero or it will sell hundreds of customers’ identity documents and transaction records to other criminals, the Financial Times reported.The demand, posted Wednesday on a website the group set up for the purpose, asks for “6,000 XMR / $3,000,000” and warns that otherwise “all the…

Astronomers have confirmed the youngest known planet yet, a world less than 1 million years old that is still surrounded by the gas and dust from which it formed. The planet, called Elias 2-24 b, was identified using observations preserved in NASA-funded archives. It is still orbiting within its young star’s dusty disk, giving scientists a rare opportunity to study planet formation while it is still happening. “Our planet-formation models already struggled to explain the previous record holders for the youngest known planet — a four-way tie between two planets orbiting the star PDS 70 and two planets orbiting the…

Sri Lanka will keep the two most visited sections of Yala National Park closed from Sept. 14 to Oct. 15 as drought conditions and extreme heat intensify pressure on wildlife.Wildlife officers are supplying water to animals as natural water sources have largely dried up but concentrating thirsty wild animals around remaining water holes could spark new conservation risks.Poachers have previously poisoned water holes during droughts to kill deer and other animals for meat, with similar incidents reported in and around several protected areas across Sri Lanka.The crisis highlights how climate-driven water shortages expose wildlife to an array of fresh…