Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Tuesday’s Democratic primaries in Massachusetts are likely to determine who will represent the state in Washington next year.The state is so Democratic that its primaries are usually more consequential than general elections in congressional races. The state’s last Republican House members left office after the 1996 elections. Scott Brown, who won a special election in 2010 after the death of Edward Kennedy, was the only Massachusetts Republican to serve in the Senate since 1979.Massachusetts Democrats will decide once again whether Senator Ed Markey is too old for another six years. They will also render judgment on Representative Stephen F. Lynch,…

Other Folding Phones to ConsiderPhotograph: Julian ChokkattuSamsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra for $2,100: The Z Fold8 Ultra is a refined release with a 6.5-inch cover display that opens to an expansive 8-inch screen that feels like two 6.5-inch displays side by side. It’s fast and smooth, with a 5,000-mAh battery, but it’s the camera that earns it the “Ultra” title. It’s an impressive combo, including a 200-megapixel main shooter, 50-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10-megapixel telephoto lens that supports 3X optical zoom. Sadly, it lacks Qi2 support for magnetic wireless charging, and the camera module makes it rock when lying flat…

Nearly 22,000 Microsoft Exchange servers exposed online remain unpatched against a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability that allows attackers to hijack all user mailboxes. Tracked as CVE-2026-62911 and reported by DEVCORE Research Team’s Orange Tsai, this security flaw affects Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2019, and Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) software. Threat actors with basic privileges on the targeted server can exploit it in low-complexity attacks that require user interaction. “Authentication bypass by capture-replay in Microsoft Exchange Server allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network,” Microsoft said when it patched the vulnerability during the August 2026 Patch…

Blockchain enterprise solutions provider Ripple has partnered with digital asset infrastructure company SettleMint to offer financial institutions solutions for custody, issuance and management of tokenized assets across their full lifecycle.The strategic partnership will integrate Ripple’s institutional digital asset custody infrastructure, Ripple Custody, and SettleMint’s Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform (DALP) to offer institutions a less complex way to secure digital assets, Ripple announced on Tuesday.A day earlier, digital asset service provider Coincheck Group partnered with wallet infrastructure provider DFNS to build digital asset wallet technology and custody services in Japan.DFNS’s wallet-as-a-service offers institutions full transaction lifecycle management, including workflow orchestration and…

In Ecuador’s Intag Valley, 19 families are developing a 300-kilowatt hydropower project that can provide an alternative source of income to the large-scale extractive and productive industries that are common in the Imbabura province.The communities own 90% of the HidroAguagrún project and half of its net electricity revenue will go directly into a trust for conservation activities once the plant is fully operational.The project offers a potential model for community-owned renewable energy, but replicability depends on community willingness and cohesion, water availability and funding.See All Key Ideas In Ecuador’s Intag Valley, one of the major watersheds that supply…

The case of future datacentres demanding more electricity than the entire United Kingdom (Two planned datacentres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds, 25 August) is an example of corporates transferring their problems to society and the electorate. This must not be allowed to happen.One solution would be to make each datacentre responsible for generating all its own electricity and for reducing its CO2 emissions to zero. These installations will have vast areas of roofing and car parks that could be covered in solar panels, space for wind generation and battery storage, and for emissions scrubbers.If the…

In August 2026, investigative outlet 404 Media (and later The Wall Street Journal) used location trackers to follow large shipments of books, some of which were rare, to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas. 404 Media claimed Amazon was cutting off book spines to more efficiently scan their contents for artificial intelligence data training purposes — destroying the books in the process. The facility, called LAS8, was home to the VGT3 operation. Publicly available Google Maps images show the entrance of the facility emblazoned with the image of a dinosaur baring its jaws, holding a book in its claws.  According…

Tropical Storm Edouard headed toward the US Gulf coast early on Tuesday and was expected to strengthen significantly – possibly reaching hurricane force – before bringing potentially heavy rains and flooding into parts of Texas and Louisiana.The storm was upgraded on Monday night from a tropical depression, and forecasters with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) expect it will make landfall in Texas later on Tuesday.Early on Tuesday, the storm was about 40 miles (64km) south-south-east of Cameron, Louisiana, and 70 miles south-east of Port Arthur, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of 40mph (65km/h) while moving west-north-west at 8mph.Tropical storm warnings,…

“The goal here was to standardize the process across the board,” said Muhammad Alameldin, director of growth for California YIMBY, a pro-development organization that has supported the new state laws. “The theme is that if you own a piece of property, you should be able to build on that piece of property.” The state’s effort on backyard homes is considered its most successful policy to increase homebuilding in recent memory. In 2018, fewer than 9,000 backyard homes were permitted in California, making up less than 8 percent of the state’s total production, according to an analysis of state data by…

Donald Trump has said the United States’ position on the Falkland Islands is “one of many” under review, as he pressed the UK to increase military spending.The US president said the UK has “got some problems, but they’ll get solved” when asked about defence funding as a follow-up question to his response on the Falklands.It comes after The Daily Telegraph reported, external US defence officials were drawing up proposals to incentivise Nato allies to meet their spending pledges, with a threat to oppose UK sovereignty over the Falklands among the possible options.The UK government responded by saying Falkland islanders “are…