Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Researchers have found that the human brain begins undergoing broad changes in the way its genome is regulated starting in midlife. The findings may help explain why age is the strongest risk factor for neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. In a new study published in Science, scientists used advanced single-cell methods to examine gene regulation and three-dimensional genome organization in individual cells from the human hippocampus, a brain region essential for learning and memory. By analyzing samples from adults across a wide range of ages, the team created one of the most detailed pictures yet of how genome regulation…

Second time’s the charm? On Aug. 25, Maine’s Public Utilities Commission selected winning proposals in a years-long effort to turn more of northern Maine’s howling winds into energy that can power population centers in the southern part of the state and region. The PUC selected one developer to build 800 megawatts of new onshore wind energy in Aroostook County—enough to power over 300,000 homes—and another to build a new transmission line capable of carrying up to 1,200 MW of power to Southern Maine and New England. Six hundred MW of the first tranche of power are reserved for Maine. Advocates…

Further to Robert Ames’s article (I co-founded an orchestra 18 years ago. Since then, I’ve seen doors close for working-class musicians, 9 September), I have seen first-hand both the transformative power of music education and the fragility of its provision.I am the chair of trustees of Making Music, Changing Lives (MMCL), a Cardiff-based charity established in 2009 to provide musical opportunities for children and young people in the low-income communities of Ely and Caerau. Around 40 young people are loaned instruments for free and they receive free or heavily subsidised weekly tuition from highly-qualified teachers, and the opportunity to play…

Pyongyang blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office building in June 2020 after days of rising tensions.Published On 16 Sep 202616 Sep 2026A court in Seoul has ordered Pyongyang to pay roughly $32.5m for blowing up an office in North Korea in 2020 that was intended to foster better relations between the two neighbours.“The court has ruled the North should pay the South Korean government 44.6 billion won in damages,” a spokeswoman for the Seoul Central District Court told the AFP news agency on Wednesday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe lawsuit over the destruction of the Inter-Korean Liaison Office…

Casetify coupon codes can help you save on cases for basically anything. Be it your iPhone, your Android phone from Samsung or Google, your AirPods, or even your smartwatch, Casetify probably makes a case for it and we probably like it. Choose from hundreds of style options and use a Casetify coupon code or Casetify promo code to get a discount on your protective purchase.Photograph: Louryn StrampeUnlock this Casetify Promo Code for 30% OffOne of the easiest ways to get a Casetify discount code is to join the Casetify Club. It’s free and rewards you for your purchases. You can…

Malicious versions of the Admin Menu Editor Pro plugin for WordPress have been distributed to more than 200 customers after a threat actor compromised the maintainer’s website and pushed updates that created a hidden user account. Developer Janis Elsts says an unauthorized party accessed the adminmenueditor.com website on Monday and uploaded version 2.35 as an update for the plugin’s Pro version. The update included an includes/wp-user-consent.php file that installed a web shell on affected websites. After noticing the intrusion, Elsts removed the malicious update and pushed a clean version 2.36 on the same day at 19:00 UTC. However, the hacker…

She also said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission lacks the staffing to implement the law, and that the bill left gaps on money laundering and terrorist financing.Today, I voted no on the Clarity Act, legislation meant to regulate cryptocurrency in America.The ethics provisions in this bill are simply too thin. President Trump, his children, and his Cabinet are making billions of dollars in the crypto space, in part from bilking everyday…— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) September 15, 2026 Crypto equities took it harder than the tokens. Coinbase fell nearly 9% to $174.42 and Circle dropped more than 9% to $88.26,…

In January, U.S. armed forces removed Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro from office and began opening the mining sector to foreign investment.Over the last eight months, officials have passed mining reforms, taken down leaders of criminal groups, and raided illegal mine sites. Nevertheless, observers say the illegal mining crisis is getting worse, not better.Illegal mining has expanded this year, in some cases in protected areas, and criminal groups involved in mining have tightened their hold in many parts of the country, experts say.See All Key Ideas U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum traveled to Venezuela in March with…

Last week, as summer gave way to pumpkin season, I found myself contemplating the final squash. Like the horror movie trope of the final girl staggering out of the woods after the massacre, this squash is the sole survivor. All her sister squashes had either been cooked and eaten or left to rot. Now, my killing days were almost over. There would be no sequel.Or, to put it less dramatically: after six years, we have quit the local organic veg bag collective, which delivered to a nearby pickup point a bag of organic, local seasonal veg once a week. And…

Claim: The Chinese government issued a nationwide alert telling people not to communicate with aliens and to contact the United Nations if extraterrestrial life reaches out to them. Rating: Context In June 2026, numerous Chinese news media outlets reported on updated international guidelines advising researchers not to independently respond to extraterrestrial signals. English-language news outlets also reported on these updated guidelines, which came from an international scientific organization. It was not possible to find any evidence of the Chinese government sending a nationwide alert telling people not to communicate with aliens, nor of the existence of a U.N. “alien hotline.”…