Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The EBU also found further gangs across Europe using the hawala system for criminal activity. One former money launderer previously involved in European hawala networks, whom we are calling Frank, told the EBU he had been involved in transactions totalling several hundred million euros.His first introduction to the hawala system had been at an office in a small town outside Rotterdam, he said. There, five or six messengers had arrived with money in about an hour and a half, transferring at least a million euros, he estimated.”What I found out later is that it’s not just about money. It’s about…

Vice President JD Vance called Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee and an outspoken critic of Israel, “very, very evil” at a campaign rally near Detroit on Monday and accused him of heightening racial and religious divisions.“I realize that there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today,” Mr. Vance said at the event at a warehouse in Sterling Heights hosted by MAGA Inc., President Trump’s super PAC.Mr. Vance was in Michigan campaigning for former Representative Mike Rogers, Dr. El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in one of the nation’s…

I had originally planned to meet Scott Brown on Saturday at a poutine festival outside of Manchester, N.H. — until a campaign aide told me the festival had sold out before Brown could get a ticket.Brown is, in case you have forgotten, the former Republican senator from Massachusetts who rocketed to political stardom when he notched a stunning upset victory in the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in January 2010. He went on to serve in the first Trump administration as the ambassador to New Zealand, a post so plum that the Boston Globe called him “the…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldRussia’s finance minister was excluded from a “family photo” of global officials at the G20 summit in Asheville, North Carolina, after objections from multiple European countries that were blindsided by his appearance.Anton Siluanov’s attendance at the meeting — his first physical appearance since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — was met with protest from European officials who have tried to isolate Moscow since President Vladimir Putin launched the war.Two people familiar with the situation said Siluanov was ultimately…

As far as the Asus’ appearance goes, the side bezels are a bit large, and the top and bottom bezels aren’t the same size, which I find visually off-putting. Nicely, though, the amount of adjustability is impressive. This stand can swivel, tilt, rotate into portrait mode, and the height can shift 5 inches. The stand has some very basic built-in cable management, with down-firing ports that help keep cords organized. Also, the flat base doesn’t require much space on my desk.Each of the two back USB-C ports has a specific purpose. One is USB-C 3.2 with DP Alt Mode, which…

Claude Code reads files, runs shell commands, invokes MCP tools, and acts through the credentials available on a developer’s machine. Anthropic’s new Compliance API endpoints give security teams their clearest view yet into that activity. They also expose a larger problem: activity logs alone cannot tell you whether an agent’s access is legitimate. AI has moved from the browser tab to the endpoint with harnesses like Claude Code. They run on developers’ machines, execute bash commands locally, and connect to third parties via MCP servers, skills, and plugins. All this so the user can outsource labor to the machine and…

During a ceremony hosted by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman at the agency’s headquarters in Washington on Monday, the Republic of Türkiye signed the Artemis Accords, joining the growing international coalition of like-minded nations dedicated to peaceful, transparent space exploration. “It is my privilege to welcome the Republic of Türkiye as the 71st signatory of the Artemis Accords,” said Isaacman. “Last year, President Trump directed NASA to accelerate its return to the lunar surface and establish humanity’s first enduring presence on another world, a Moon Base, as well as lay the foundation for the manned exploration of Mars. NASA never undertakes…

Indigenous ranger groups across northern Australia are removing tons of ghost nets and other marine debris from some of the country’s most remote coastline, where abandoned fishing gear kills turtles, dugongs and sharks long after it is lost.The nets ride ocean currents into the Gulf of Carpentaria from Southeast Asia, and removing them is slow and dangerous work, though rangers are now using drones and AI to find nets faster than before.After funding for the patrols nearly lapsed, the Australian government committed AU$25 million ($18 million) over four years, most of it to continue the cleanups, and AU$4.5 million…

An offshore subsea construction vessel (OSCV) that Norwegian shipbuilder VARD is building for Taiwan-based Dong Fang Offshore (DFO) has been launched in Romania and will now go to Norway for final outfitting.Source: VARD via LinkedIn The 121.3-meter-long vessel of VARD 3 39 design is said to be a highly versatile platform designed and equipped for subsea operation duties, offshore wind operations & maintenance (O&M) activities, as well as cable installation and repair scopes. VARD announced that the launch of the vessel’s hull, marked as NB 988, was celebrated on August 21 at its shipyard in Brăila, Romania. The vessel will…

Is the Trump administration creating a group in the US with fewer protections against executive power owing to their immigration status? Its often openly racist actions suggest so. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims to target “the worst of the worst” – undocumented migrants who commit violent crimes. Yet the Guardian reported that over half of those arrested in July had no criminal convictions or pending charges. That month, ICE made record arrests and deportations, apprehending 1,500 people and removing 1,100 daily.When campaigning, Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitians were “eating the pets”. In office, his administration moved to end temporary…