Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

U.S. energy player Cheniere Energy has reached substantial completion at the third stage of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Texas and exported its 5,000th LNG cargo, marking a major expansion of its U.S. liquefaction capacity and a decade of rapid growth in the global LNG market. Corpus Christi LNG Stage 3; Source: Cheniere The Stage 3 project milestone at its Corpus Christi Liquefaction (CCL) facility in Texas was achieved on August 28, 2026, when Bechtel Corporation, the firm’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, turned over care, custody and control of Train 7 to Cheniere. Bechtel got the…

Reporting Highlights Weakened Watchdog: After failing to dismantle the CFPB, Russell Vought and his allies have reshaped the bureau into an industry-friendly, less aggressive regulator.  Face Value: The CFPB’s ask-nicely approach faced its first test when a buzzy startup failed its customers, but the CFPB took the  company’s word that it fixed its problems. The New Abnormal: Current and former CFPB staffers say the bureau’s light-touch approach and reliance on political aides breaks from precedent and leaves consumers vulnerable. These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. In mid-July testimony before Congress, Russell Vought…

China’s efforts to embed artificial intelligence across industries, which it calls its “AI+ plan,” has generated plenty of fanfare, and much of it is justified. For China, AI is a national development project, not simply a technological innovation, with the ambition to lift everything from traditional industries to emerging sectors. But the next challenges are not technical. China has already tapped much of the low-hanging fruit, such as long-term industrial planning, advanced supply chains, and a vast engineering talent pool. Some of the most important AI+ challenges go back to less glamorous problems requiring system-level and institutional policy change. Nowhere…

In the race between athlete and time, there is only ever one winner.Messi has pushed that defeat date back for a long, long time now. But I think maybe two things hastened it a little bit.One is the recent death of his father and the other is – although it was 1-0 on the scoresheet – the World Cup final defeat by Spain. The distance between the two sides was so, so large.You could see Messi, as he looked around the stadium almost thinking, “I don’t think I can go through this again”.What memories he has given us. This little…

Ayten Bicer felt her 12-year-old daughter slip from her grasp and disappear as the ferry they were travelling on capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus on Sunday, killing eight people.Her daughter Miray and six-year-old son Memhet Asaf are among 20 people still missing after the vessel sunk while en route to Turkey from the coastal town of Kyrenia, in the self-proclaimed Turkish republic on Cyprus.She and her husband, Hayri, survived and, like many other families, are waiting for news of their loved ones back in port as rescuers continue to search.”She was saying, ‘Don’t let go’. And I didn’t…

Kemi Badenoch sacked her shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, and shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, in a sweeping Conservative reshuffle on Monday, replacing Stride with Andrew Griffith, and is expected to install Tom Tugendhat as Patel’s replacement.Stride, who has been the shadow chancellor since Badenoch became leader, was widely seen among Tories as failing to make an impression at a time when Labour has been under pressure over the economy.Griffith, who was previously a high-profile businessman, moves from the shadow business brief, where he will be replaced by Claire Coutinho, the former shadow energy secretary. A senior Conservative source described Griffith,…

Sir James Cleverly, who resigned from the shadow cabinet on Saturday to run for Mayor of London, has accused the prime minister of waging a “war on London” and pursuing a “very anti-London agenda”.The senior Conservative claimed Andy Burnham’s devolution drive would come at the expense of London, arguing the plans centralised power in Manchester.On Saturday, Sir James announced he was quitting the Tory front bench as shadow secretary of state for housing, communities and local government to run for City Hall at the next mayoral election in 2028.A government spokesperson said devolution plans would “deliver good growth in every…

Generative AI is making it easier to produce more content and harder to keep track of it. As videos, recordings, and documents accumulate, Adobe, Apple, Google, and a growing number of startups are using AI to make those files searchable. It is not yet clear whether that will support a new category of standalone software or become a standard feature of products people already use. Clipto is betting there is room for a separate product. The San Francisco-headquartered startup, which also has teams in Singapore and Hong Kong, has raised $15 million in an all-equity round at a $250 million…

The researcher known as Nightmare Eclipse has dropped another zero-day — this time a privilege escalation exploit targeting a Kaspersky endpoint security product. Nightmare Eclipse, also known as Chaotic Eclipse, has released PoC exploits for many vulnerabilities in recent months, mainly Windows and Microsoft Defender flaws.  The researcher started dropping zero-days after growing frustrated with Microsoft’s handling of vulnerability reports. While many of the exploits remained at the PoC stage, a few ended up being exploited in the wild by malicious actors.  Over the weekend, Nightmare Eclipse released an exploit targeting a privilege escalation vulnerability in Kaspersky Endpoint Security. The…

Bitcoin treasury Strategy resumed its bitcoin buys last week, snapping up nearly $370 million in the leading cryptocurrency, according to a Monday announcement from the company.  A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Strategy bought 4,603 bitcoins for $369.7 million between August 24 to August 30. Each coin was bought at an average price of $80,318, according to the filing.  The buy comes after Strategy paused its bitcoin buys in June, instead focusing on building a cash buffer, buying back its stock and even sometimes selling some of its holdings.  “Strategy is evolving from one-way capital issuance…