Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

I’ve been reviewing laptops for well over a decade, sometimes testing more than 30 devices per year. They aren’t all winners, and many should be avoided, no matter how slick the marketing or cheap the discount. Good news: It’s my job to recommend laptops that fit your budget and won’t make you regret your purchase six months later. These are my favorite laptops that I’ve tested myself and would highly recommend you buy.For more guidance, also see my recommendations in specific categories, such as the Best MacBooks, Best Gaming Laptops, Best Chromebooks, Best Budget Laptops, Best Windows Laptops, and Best…

[Updated July 27, 2026, 2:16 UTC: Revised to reflect clarifications from a Garden Finance spokesperson.]Garden Finance said an independent solver’s off-chain database was compromised in an incident that prompted the cross-chain bridge and atomic swap protocol to temporarily take its app offline.On Sunday, Blockaid said an attacker drained about $450,000 in USDT from Garden’s hash time-locked contracts (HTLC) on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum and BNB Smart Chain. HTLCs are time-bound escrow contracts that Garden uses to facilitate atomic swaps between Bitcoin and assets on other networks. Blockaid described the exploit as ongoing and published addresses linked to the attacker and affected…

You would be forgiven, as the US and Iran traded strikes over the past few days, for thinking that it was only last month that the two signed the Islamabad Memorandum, which formalised the process of ending the war and established a 60-day period to negotiate the final terms of a deal. That’s because it was only last month. But there has been so much talk and bluster and strike and turn tail that the conflict feels like it has started and ended several times already. The whole war is only five months old but is already settling into a…

Zelensky is expected to renew calls to boost defence as both Moscow and Kyiv intensify drone and missile strikes, with US-led negotiations on resolving the conflict at an impasse while Washington’s attention has been diverted to the Iran war. Zelensky is set to visit a British naval base with Burnham and hear from both countries’ armed forces personnel who are involved in training Ukrainian service members for battle, the prime minister’s Downing Street office announced late Sunday. It said Burnham would vow “to continue the unbreakable bond between the two nations”, echoing what the new UK leader told Zelensky in…

Rigby was a popular City minister for almost a year before being promoted a couple of months ago under Keir Starmer’s government. Her return to the role has been particularly welcomed by the financial services industry, with hopes she will see through reforms put forward under Reeves, including controversial changes to the financial ombudsman. Rigby comes back with a pay bump, as her role as economic secretary to the Treasury now falls under the higher bracket as a minister of state under Burnham’s government, a roughly £10,000 difference from its previous classification as a parliamentary secretary. That pay rise sends…

Andy Burnham has pledged to use “whatever political capital I have” to finally fix the crumbling social care system in England, saying that without rapid action the NHS could effectively collapse.In his first full interview since becoming prime minister last week, Burnham said he could not put a timetable on the arrival of a new system for social care but that its creation would take time.Burnham has repeatedly said he hopes to properly tackle a political issue that has been repeatedly neglected by governments, highlighting personal experience with his father, who has Alzheimer’s disease and requires care.Asked whether he would…

Chainlink drew more than $7 billion of token value onto its cross-chain infrastructure in the second quarter as institutional adoption accelerated, according to its second-quarter review.The migration came as crypto projects replaced older bridging systems and traditional-finance firms moved deeper into tokenized markets, expanding Chainlink’s role across both sides of the digital-asset economy.Chainlink said its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) handled $4.9 billion in quarterly volume, up 353% from a year earlier, while the network’s total value secured reached $110 billion.The growth is also sharpening a longstanding question for investors: whether wider use of Chainlink’s infrastructure can translate into stronger economic…

Littering fines have generated nearly £100,000 in revenue for councils across a county since the start of 2023, new figures have revealed.Local authorities in Cambridgeshire have issued 889 fixed penalty notices for littering, according to Freedom of Information requests made by the BBC.Most of them were issued by Cambridge City Council, which received about £83,000 from littering fines – 86% of the county’s total.Harry Machin, a volunteer litter picker in Peterborough, said other councils could learn from Cambridge.More from Cambridgeshire:Cambridge City Council has consistently issued more fines than other authorities in Cambridgeshire, but the number of them has been falling.The…

Though it has yet to become front-page news in the UK, you should know about the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros merger. It threatens to inflict immense harm on the British public. As actors and public figures who have spent our careers in the arts in Britain – working with British crews, on British stages and sets – we have a responsibility to the public who support, enjoy and consume the art we make.The UK is being threatened by a media merger that would harm our workers, our culture and the public – but we can stop it. We are encouraged by…

Romania on Sunday said it was summoning Russia’s ambassador after the NATO member’s military shot down the third drone in as many days in the country bordering Ukraine. Romania has seen frequent drone incursions since Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but had not shot down any until Friday. On Sunday, a Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down a drone over the Black Sea, five minutes after it entered the country’s airspace, Defence Minister Radu Miruta said on Facebook. Romania is summoning Russia’s ambassador following “repeated violations”, foreign minister Oana Toiu said on X. Read moreSea drone explodes in the Romanian port of Constanta, raising fear of Ukraine war spillover President Nicusor Dan…