Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

In the Maine Senate race, ads from a Democratic super PAC misleadingly claim Republican Sen. Susan Collins cast a vote to “cover up the Epstein files” and received “$3 million to her super PAC” from “Jeffrey Epstein’s business partner.” Collins supported an Epstein-files disclosure bill in November that required the Department of Justice to publicly release records related to the convicted sex offender. She had voted two months earlier against an amendment that called for the release of the files and was attached to a defense spending bill. Collins said she opposed adding the amendment to an unrelated bill. Furthermore,…

Supreme court says it will review whether Trump administration can detain immigrants while they challenge deportationThe supreme court today said it will review whether the Trump administration can enforce its policy of denying bond hearings for immigrants to determine whether they should remain detained while their cases are adjudicated.The novel move to impose mandatory detention is another feature of Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown during his second term in office, and has now made its way to the top court after several appeals court judges ruled that the policy violated federal law and fails to provide immigrants with due process.However, those…

At a recent meeting of EU defense ministers, “many called for front-loading parts of the €90 billion loan allocated for 2027,” meaning disbursing part of the 2027 loan this year instead, the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said last month. But the Commission preferred to instead speed up the disbursement of the 2027 loan next year itself, meaning Ukraine would get that money faster, diplomats said. “Our dialogue with the European Commission has delivered good results in addressing Ukraine’s financial and defense needs for 2026 and 2027,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “We have agreed on the format, timeline, and…

Senior Labour figures are privately voicing unease about John Healey’s approach to his crucial first budget this month, against the backdrop of volatile global markets and soaring energy costs.The chancellor’s work has been made significantly harder by the global bond sell-off, which continues to raise the cost of government borrowing, and ever increasing energy prices as Donald Trump continues the US war with Iran.The yield – in effect the interest rate – on 30-year UK government bonds hit 6% on Thursday for the first time since 1998. Barclays raised some of its mortgage rates for the second time in a…

Nearly 10 years ago, Nigel Farage told LBC he would leave the country if Brexit were not a stunning success. For reasons that no one can quite fathom, he is still here. Could it be that he is a man who can’t be trusted to keep his word? Surely not.Nige wants you to know he’s very much still around. He might have been a bit quiet over the past few weeks, as Reform had to deal with one or two unfortunate investigations into their funding, but now he’s very much back. And he’s definitely not rattled that Labour has a…

Sony is launching a new AI upscaling technology specifically for the regular PS5. The new tech, called Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR), is a “new performance tier of AI upscaling” that’s a result of Sony’s Project Amethyst work with AMD, according to a blog post.Sony says that PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which is available on the PS5 Pro, “remains the gold standard,” and in Digital Foundry’s early hands-on with the tech, it does seem that QSSR isn’t as fast as PSSR because the PS5 doesn’t have dedicated machine learning silicon. As a result, you should probably expect closer to…

Hybrid risk intelligence company Osavul has raised $10 million (€8.5 million) in a Series A funding round led by 33N Ventures. Balnord, G+D Ventures, and 42CAP also participated in the round, which brings the Luxembourg-based company’s total funding to approximately €12 million. Osavul’s AI platform analyzes open and privileged data to identify hostile intent across the cyber, physical, and information domains before attacks materialize. It identifies who is targeting a customer and maps that intent against the customer’s people, facilities, and supply chains. According to the company, its assessments are evidence-traced and reviewed by analysts, and can run on-premises within…

In brief The SEC proposed a tailored framework for how registered investment advisers and regulated funds can custody crypto, seeking to clarify which arrangements satisfy the “qualified custodian” standard that has long kept firms hesitant to offer digital-asset strategies. The plan would permit self-custody under certain conditions, allow state trust companies to serve as custodians, and update audit and broker-dealer custodial rules. It’s the latest in the SEC’s post-Clarity Act build-out, alongside the innovation exemption and Regulation Crypto Assets. The Securities and Exchange Commission is moving to settle one of the thorniest questions in institutional crypto: how professional money managers…

NASA selected 16 companies to provide Enterprise Logistics Support Services under new agreements that will standardize requirements, improve reporting, and streamline the management of costs and resources. The $1.4 billion blanket purchase agreements will support equipment and property management, transportation, disposal, product support, flight hardware support operations, equipment maintenance and repair, export control, move operations, flight hardware, and other material purchases. Under the General Services Administration’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services Plus multiple-award blanket purchase agreements, NASA has the discretion to use firm-fixed-price, time-and-materials, labor-hour, or hybrid contract types. The five-year base ordering period begins Thursday and runs through…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—It’s time to act. It’s long past time.  That was the case made by lawyers for the Southern Environmental Law Center, who filed a petition Wednesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court asking a judge to force local health officials to act on a 2023 air permit renewal application for ABC Coke, the nation’s largest producer of foundry coke.  SELC lawyers filed the petition on behalf of the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, an environmental nonprofit better known as GASP. The filing argued that Dr. David Hicks, the county’s health officer, has failed his “statutory, nondiscretionary duty to take action”…