Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Andrea Pirlo has said he is no longer a candidate to coach the Italian national side following days of controversy over his ties to a Russian betting company.His appointment as Italy’s next head coach had not been confirmed by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) yet was being treated as all but certain.But over the weekend several Italian politicians criticised the FIGC’s choice, noting that Pirlo, 47, had taken up a role as global ambassador for Russia’s Fonbet last October.The betting company has sponsored several sporting events involving veterans of Moscow’s war in Ukraine and has organised events in Russia at…

For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, a meeting with President Trump is always an opportunity to showcase their close relationship even if they, at times, disagree.This time, the stakes are especially high.Both leaders are facing electoral challenges in the months ahead and are expected to meet at the White House on Tuesday as their interests appear to be diverging sharply on the war with Iran.Before departing for Washington on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement that this would be his eighth meeting with Mr. Trump since the president was elected for his second term, and that Iran would…

Megan Szostak, 26, was always a “bird kid”.The urge to watch and appreciate the world around her – and avians flitting in and out of it – has been ingrained in her since childhood, when she was given her grandfather’s binoculars after he died.Armed with this and a field guide in her home of San Francisco, she set about identifying birds from an early age. But in recent years, her birding toolbelt has expanded to include something far more modern – an app.”I had friends who probably wouldn’t describe themselves as birders, but more just curious about nature and the…

America’s AI Investment Boom Is Reshaping the EconomyArtificial intelligence has become one of the defining investment stories in the United States, and the numbers continue to grow. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet are collectively committing hundreds of billions of dollars to AI infrastructure, while demand for advanced chips has turned NVIDIA into one of the world’s most valuable companies.It’s apparent that what started as a race to build smarter AI models is now a driving force behind investment in construction, manufacturing, energy and digital infrastructure, with effects that are spreading throughout the wider economy.AI Investment Fueling America’s Biggest Infrastructure Push…

Hidden desktops are a legitimate Windows capability, often used by specialized software, and occasionally used by malware. MedusaHVNC is a remote access trojan (RAT) being sold as malware-as-a-service (MaaS). It is promoted through its own website and a Telegram channel. It was found and analyzed by BlackFog, with the analysis finding a hidden virtual network computing (HVNC) module that opens a legitimate browser on a separate hidden Windows desktop, Since it operates from a hidden desktop, its operation is invisible to the user. The malware uses a 5-stage infection chain. It starts when the legitimate wscript.exe executes a JScript launcher.…

By Friday afternoon, the mood on commodity trading desks changes.For the first four days of the week, traders have been trying to profit from their bets. By lunch on Friday, however, they’re thinking about how much risk they can tolerate until markets reopen on Sunday evening.Anything could happen while markets are closed: news of a new war, an election result, an unexpected OPEC announcement or, as seen recently, a market-moving presidential post. Forty-eight hours can be a long time when traders are holding a position tied to a few of the world’s most actively traded markets, and there’s nothing they…

Seals, sea lions and walruses — collectively known as pinnipeds — are the only mammals with excellent hearing both above and below the water. The evolution of this unique ability occurred nearly 26.7 million years ago — about 100 million years after mammals first heard in air, researchers report July 15 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Their amphibious hearing is “something of a superpower,” says James Rule, a vertebrate paleontologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. “They are the only mammals which can do this.” Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week’s scientific breakthroughs every…

Father Robert Athickal helped a small group of schoolchildren in Patna turn local tree-planting efforts into one of India’s largest student environmental movements.Tarumitra trained generations of young people to restore degraded land, protect native species, practice organic farming, and organize around environmental problems.Athickal combined Jesuit teaching with Indian philosophy, arguing that humans had moral obligations toward animals, plants, rivers, soils, and other forms of life.By trusting students with real responsibility, he showed how modest, local action could grow into a movement involving hundreds of thousands of young people.See All Key Ideas   The first members had no office,…

Why this matters San Diegans and residents across California are grappling with a worsening housing and homelessness crisis. Inflation slowed down earlier this year in San Diego County, and that means local property owners won’t be able to set rents as high. Starting this Saturday, the new cap on rent increases for the San Diego region is 8.2% — a drop from last year’s limit of 8.8%. The change comes from a cost-of-living adjustment set by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new cap is the lowest it’s been in years. In prior years, it had been 8.6% and…

The rebellion in India of the young, led by the Cockroach Janta party (CJP), unfolded against a backdrop of large, abstract, geometrical structures – arcs, planes, hemispheres – that together make up an observatory called Jantar Mantar, built in the early 18th century to refine almanacs and tell time. Jantar Mantar has been a byword for political protest for decades: it marks the space that the Delhi police assigns to the politically disgruntled so they can vent in a contained way. But it had never before hosted a political insurgency that started from scratch and forced the Indian state to…