Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

If North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets U.S. President Donald Trump later this year, one of the most consequential decisions may be who accompanies him—especially if, as seems probable, it’s his daughter Kim Ju Ae. Ju Ae, who is believed to be around 13 years old, has become a familiar presence since her first public appearance in state media at a missile launch in November 2022. She has since appeared at military parades, weapons tests, cultural events, and meetings with foreign visitors. In September 2025, Kim took her to Beijing—her first publicly confirmed trip abroad—where he attended China’s military…

Carney calls for closer strategic autonomy, trade, student mobility ties with EuropeCarney now speaks in more detail about what he thinks should come from Canada’s new, strong relationship with the EU.He says Canada and Europe “should secure our strategic autonomy through deep cooperation in the full range of strategic capabilities, including critical minerals, defence, industrial capacity, AI and compute, energy, security, space and payments.”He wants the two sides to “move towards seamless digital trade and non-agricultural goods and a wide range of services.”He also says he wants to see deeper people to people ties, “allowing our youth to work, study…

During the trip, Jukes was asked what a Reform government would want from a polling company and replied: “Showing that we’re winning,” according to the same person.  JL Partners director James Johnson shared several pictures of the Egypt excursion on social media, but Jukes did not appear in any of them. A spokesperson for JL Partners said that Jukes had been invited in a personal capacity and, like other guest speakers, had expenses covered, adding: “Anyone familiar with these sorts of events will know that no inference can reasonably be drawn from the participation of any individual speaker.” A Reform UK…

Back in July, the government lost a Senedd vote on extra spending plans after failing to strike a deal with Welsh Labour. Plaid and Welsh Labour are currently holding fresh budget negotiations around this year’s supplementary budget and next year’s full budget.In an interview with BBC Walescast, Welsh Labour Leader Ken Skates said: “It appears they’re looking at using Flying Start money to pay for something they never costed during the election or in their manifesto, the childcare offer, which will benefit a lot of middle class and upper class families.”But it’s going to be people and children who benefit…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.HSBC is ending its $38,000 school fee subsidy for new hires in Hong Kong, phasing out a longstanding perk that the UK bank had used to attract senior staff to the Asian financial hub.Locally hired employees and those transferred from elsewhere would not be eligible for a subsidy to cover their children’s school fees, the bank’s Asia co-heads told staff in a memo on Thursday, according to an HSBC spokesperson.Existing staff at the director level and above who currently receive the perk…

The Toronto International Film Festival is a place to go to see the future of film, but this year it also provided a glimpse at what is coming very soon in the realm of streaming. Four different streamers — Peacock, Netflix, Amazon, and AMC — all premiered early looks at upcoming horror-adjacent series that are dropping very soon. And by doing it at TIFF, they showed just how important the month of October has become in the realm of streaming.Perhaps the most high-profile is Carrie, which is coming to Prime Video. An adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel, which…

Search and recommendation systems increasingly need to return a set of results, not one best match. A query like ‘camping gear’ should return a tent, a sleeping bag, a stove, and a headlamp. It should not return 10 near-identical tents. Google Research has introduced Retrieve-for-Train (R4T) for this problem. The framework uses reinforcement learning (RL) once, offline, to learn good query fan-out. It then distills that behavior into a small diffusion model that produces all retrieval directions in 1 pass. Why Standard Fan-Out Falls Short Query fan-out splits one broad prompt into several sub-queries. The research team identifies 2 problems…

The China-linked espionage group FamousSparrow has been using a new backdoor named SparroWocky in attacks on government organizations in Latin America. The operations have been ongoing for more than a year, with the new malware replacing the previously used SparrowDoor custom backdoor. ESET researchers observed SparroWocky in attacks targeting organizations in Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. The researchers believe the threat actor’s objective was to collect intelligence on Latin American governments’ responses to increasing U.S. pressure on Chinese economic interests. FamousSparrow victimsSource: ESET ESET’s analysis revealed that SparroWocky is a modular, full-blown C++ backdoor that…

Bitcoin fell to an intraday low of $75,064.82 on Sept. 16, but recovered and reclaimed the $76,000 zone after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference wrapped up.The S&P 500 fell roughly 0.7%, the Dow dropped 1.2%, and the 2-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.734% in the same window, while Bitcoin held its ground.Warsh’s real signal sat well past the hike itselfThe Fed raised its target range 25 basis points to 3.75% to 4.00% in a unanimous 12-0 vote, but fixed-income derivatives had already priced in odds above 90% of that move before the meeting began.Warsh then said at his press…

NASA recently awarded $10.5 million to seven organizations nationwide through its new State Hubs initiative. Space Florida was selected for Project ORBIT, which aims to expand opportunities for middle and high school students, boost enrollment in key career and technical programs, and create a statewide portal connecting skilled workers with aerospace employers. Elaine Ho, associate administrator for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, joined local leaders and industry partners recently to see Space Florida Academy students in action at three Central Florida schools. Students at Lyman High School in Longwood, Florida, demonstrated their skills in aerospace engineering, robotics, building trades, welding,…