Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Kevin Warsh, the man U.S. President Donald Trump tapped to lower interest rates, on Wednesday presided over a unanimous decision to hike U.S. borrowing costs for the first time in three years due to concern over rising inflation. Most officials at the U.S. Federal Reserve also signaled that rates are likely to keep creeping upward, with at least one more rate hike later this year and more to follow in 2027. Kevin Warsh, the man U.S. President Donald Trump tapped to lower interest rates, on Wednesday presided over a unanimous decision to hike U.S. borrowing costs for the first time…

It sounds like a Disney movie: three wild dogs, all brothers, on an epic journey to find a home of their own after their family tells them to leave. They dodge cars and hunters in search of a new life, navigating bushmeat snares and the hostility of a human-dominated landscape until they find a new haven on the African savannah.But this is exactly what happened in Zambia last year, when three endangered African wild dogs made the longest-ever recorded single journey of any mammal from the continent. The brothers travelled more than 2,500 miles (4,100km) over eight months in their…

The first few hires at a startup can define the company. But increasingly, not every new capability requires a new employee. AI agents are beginning to take on engineering, customer support, research, and operational work that would previously have been assigned to early team members. For founders, that creates a new question before they even open a job requisition: What should people own, and what should be delegated to AI? At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Josh Reeves, CEO and co-founder of Gusto; Michelle Johnson, senior vice president at Insight Partners; and John Koelliker, CEO and co-founder of Leland, come together on…

Swati KhandelwalSep 16, 2026Artificial Intelligence / Software Security Mandiant says an attacker hijacked an active AI coding-assistant session at an unnamed software-as-a-service provider and later spread Shai-Hulud across about 100 internal code repositories. Before the repository spread, the assistant recommended software that the attacker had poisoned, and the recommendation was accepted. The worm stole repository secrets and source code for the company’s products. The case appears in Mandiant’s September 2026 report. The public case study does not say when the intrusion happened or how the attacker took over the active coding-assistant session. How the Attack Unfolded After the recommendation was…

According to Brooks, the primary narrative is not today’s anticipated rate hike, but rather the additional policy tightening expected later this year. Warsh may therefore struggle to deliver a message that aligns with the aggressive pricing currently seen in the markets.“Tomorrow’s Fed meeting is a nightmare for Warsh. There’s no way he can live up to all the hikes priced, so the press conference will likely disappoint markets. The Dollar is likely to fall and long yields likely to rise,” Brooks said.A weaker dollar typically supports dollar-denominated assets, including bitcoin and gold, reflecting a well-documented negative correlation between digital assets…

New research from Colorado State University suggests that irrigating U.S. crops may deliver a surprisingly large climate benefit by allowing farmers to produce more food without converting additional natural land into agriculture. Irrigation increases crop yields, which means the same amount of food can be grown on a smaller area. According to the researchers, if irrigation across the United States were suddenly eliminated, making up for the lost agricultural production would require expanding farmland. The greenhouse gas emissions associated with that land conversion would be 363 times greater than the emissions currently produced by irrigation itself. The team estimates that…

A pack of wild dogs has recorded the longest journey by an African mammal by clocking up more than 4,100 kilometers (2,500 miles).The record is documented in a new study that tracked wild dog dispersals over nearly 20 years across Zambia.Some of the dogs studied were killed in wire snares at the end of similarly epic journeys.Connections between separate landscapes still exist, the researchers say, but work must be done to ensure they aren’t lost within the next decade to unchecked human expansion.See All Key Ideas In mid-2025, a trio of male African wild dogs headed east through…

When the Emmy Awards were handed out Monday night, “Widow’s Bay” took home a record 14 trophies, accounting for half of Apple TV’s 28 wins. That was the most for any company, beating out Warner Bros. Discovery’s 21 awards. But we were curious to see how all the winning corporations stack up when it comes to trying to influence policy in Washington, D.C., so we totaled up their lobbying spending for the first half of this year. We fully admit there isn’t any correlation between K Street spending and Emmy wins, but it’s still fun to examine the numbers. Apple…

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Canada’s future with the European Union, a war crimes conviction against former Kosovar President Hashim Thaci, and alleged Houthi targeting of the holy city of Mecca. The EU Looks Across the Pond Could the European Union expand beyond Europe? Some experts argue that being part of the continent is an integral component of membership. But that is the proposal European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen floated on Wednesday, when she suggested making Canada the bloc’s first associate member. Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Canada’s future with…

Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail on Wednesday, imploring North Carolina voters to “pretend I’m on the ticket” and “crush the communists” in the November elections at a rally in support of the Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley.Despite Trump’s deep unpopularity, Republicans hope to once again turn the president’s loyal following into a political force as the party confronts an unforgiving midterm landscape.“I’m not bragging, but when I’m on the ticket Republicans have always done really well,” Trump told supporters. “I just want you to go out and pretend I’m on the ticket, because essentially I am.”The rally, Trump’s…