Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Where a person lives during early adulthood may influence their heart health decades later. A recent study found that people exposed to more unfavorable neighborhood social conditions when they were young adults had a greater likelihood of developing coronary artery calcification by midlife. Coronary artery calcification is an important marker of early cardiovascular disease. The findings were published in Nature Communications. Northwestern Medicine researchers identified the connection using a new index designed to capture several neighborhood social determinants of health at once. The measure incorporates socioeconomic conditions, access to food, opportunities for physical activity and local crime rates. “This study…

A proposed offshore oil project near the Falkland Islands threatens sensitive marine ecosystems—and Argentina’s sovereignty—and must be halted, an Argentine environmental group and a veterans’ organization alleged in a new lawsuit.  The complaint, filed in a federal Argentine court on Tuesday, asks the court to block planned offshore oil operations by U.K.-based Rockhopper Exploration and Navitas Petroleum of Israel on the Argentine continental shelf, about 136 miles north of the Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas Islands, or Islas Malvinas.  The plaintiffs—the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers and the Malvinas Islands La Plata Ex-Combatants Center—argue that the Sea Lion…

With energy security at the forefront, a A$350 million ($245 million) Gippsland Basin project is moving closer to first gas, with production from new wells expected before winter 2027, supporting additional gas supply for eastern Australia. ExxonMobil and Woodside have unlocked additional Gippsland gas, which is set to start flowing from new Turrum wells before winter 2027; Source: ExxonMobil The Gippsland Basin joint venture (JV), comprising Esso Australia, a subsidiary of U.S.-headquartered ExxonMobil, and Woodside Energy, has completed an offshore drilling campaign in Victoria’s Gippsland Basin, drilling five new production wells as part of the Turrum Phase 3 development, targeting…

Reporting Highlights Policy Gap: A federal program meant to reduce the risk of death from natural disasters often excludes mobile homes, the country’s largest source of affordable housing. Repeated Flooding: Multiple storms have swept homes out of a North Carolina trailer park, but new residents continue to move to those same flood-prone plots. Having Little Say: Former residents think no one should live so close to the water. A federal buyout could keep homes off the riskiest areas, but that decision is up to the park’s owners. These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this…

Guinea-Bissau voters have approved a new constitution significantly expanding presidential powers ahead of elections due in December.According to provisional results, 70% of voters approved sweeping changes in the tiny west African state’s first constitutional amendment since revisions that ended the one-party socialist state more than three decades ago.The turnout for Sunday’s referendum was reportedly over 55%, amounting to approximately 544,060 people.The new constitution will reduce the number of seats in parliament from 102 to 65 and cut electoral constituencies from 29 to 12. New provisions will require presidential candidates to have lived continuously in the country for at least five…

When Kemi Badenoch steps up to the dispatch box for prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, she will face a very different opponent. And while all eyes will be on Andy Burnham’s first PMQs, those in the Conservative ranks will be watching their own leader’s performance just as closely.Badenoch attempted to get out of the traps quickly this week, instigating a reshuffle of her frontbench like a conscientious head girl refilling her pencil case for the start of term. Out went the unassuming shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, replaced by the Thatcherite Andrew Griffith. He will lead a new economic unit alongside…

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has been convicted and fined for not taxing a 24-year-old car, through a controversial fast-track court system.He was found guilty last month under a system critics have described as “conveyor-belt justice”, with magistrates deciding on hundreds of daily cases and sometimes spending less than a minute on them.City Hall officials say the car does not belong to either Khan or Transport for London (TfL), raising the possibility he was wrongly convicted.The mayor has been the focus of protests by motorists angry at the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to cover the whole of…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The European Commission is drawing up plans to break up the EU’s diplomatic service and fold parts of it into the bloc’s executive, in response to demands from France and Germany for a sweeping overhaul of Brussels’ foreign policy machinery by the end of the year.Senior officials have begun studying which functions of the European External Action Service (EEAS) could be absorbed by existing Commission departments, according to people briefed on the process, in what would amount to a partial reversal of…

Apple has followed Google’s lead and officially changed the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” on its Apple Maps service less than a week after President Trump ordered the change. Apple Maps users in the United States will begin to see Lake America, not Lake Ontario — one of the five Great Lakes in North America — when using the website or mobile app. The change will only be shown to users in the United States. Apple Maps users in Canada will continue to see Lake Ontario, while those outside the two countries will see both names. The change…

Enterprise AI buyers have been stuck between two things they both need. Regulated teams need a zero data retention (ZDR) guarantee, so no prompt or agent transcript sits on a vendor’s servers. Security teams need misuse detection, which historically required the vendor to hold that same data long enough to correlate it. This week, Anthropic announced Enterprise Frontier Safeguards (EFS), an architecture that tries to give both. EFS stores monitoring data in cloud infrastructure the customer controls, not Anthropic’s. Detection stays with Anthropic. Custody, keys, and human review stay with the customer. Is it deployable today? Not yet. EFS rolls…