Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Proponents of autonomous vehicle technology have long argued that robotaxis and other self-driving vehicles will reduce crash incidents and make roads safer. And there is some evidence of that. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a cost to those who are working (or have worked) for the companies developing that tech.  Sean O’Kane, senior reporter, special projects, dug into…

OCEAN Mining has completed a buyout of co-founder and 16-year veteran Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr, ending his ownership and three leadership roles at the Bitcoin mining pool.Dashjr resigned as chairman, chief technology officer and director, while OCEAN repurchased all of his equity, according to an Aug. 29 joint statement. Holding those board, technical and executive positions had placed him at the center of both OCEAN’s governance and its mining-policy decisions.The private company did not disclose the repurchase price, its remaining ownership structure or successor appointments. OCEAN said it will continue operating its transparent, non-custodial pool, while Dashjr will pursue…

Nanocrystals have become an important part of modern materials science, with quantum dots helping inspire the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Yet despite their enormous potential, researchers have only been able to produce these microscopic crystals from a relatively narrow range of materials. Now, chemists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have developed a method for creating nanocrystals from metal nitrides, a technologically important group of materials that had resisted conventional nanocrystal synthesis. The study, published in Nature, could expand the possibilities for electronics and other applications, including flexible lighting and medical implants. “We were able to…

Philip Fearnside has spent 50 years studying the practical limits of Amazon development, beginning with the agricultural settlements built along Brazil’s Trans-Amazonian Highway. His work repeatedly asked who benefits from projects and who bears their longer-term costs.He produced influential research on deforestation, forest carbon, tropical dams, and the wider effects of roads, often challenging official assumptions about emissions and economic viability. He later contributed to the IPCC’s work on climate change.Fearnside has paired research with public engagement, publishing in Portuguese, writing for Amazônia Real and Mongabay, speaking to journalists, and testifying on projects including the BR-319 highway. That role…

Ten months after a coup, military leaders say the referendum is designed to stabilise future civilian governments.Published On 30 Aug 202630 Aug 2026Ballot counting is under way in a referendum in Guinea-Bissau that could significantly boost the presidency’s power.Citizens of the West African nation took to the polls on Sunday to vote on a new constitution that would reform the country’s political system ahead of elections later this year.Turnout “exceeded” 55 percent and the poll took place “without any incidents that would call into question the credibility of the vote”, Idrissa Djalo, executive secretary of the National Electoral Commission, told…

In the Commission’s Berlaymont HQ, von der Leyen and her team are feverishly working on her State of the EU speech, to be delivered on Sept. 16. It’s when she will set out her plan for the years to come. After that, she’ll have to deliver. “Speeches are important. But it’s the actions that create legacy,” said Martin Hojsík, a vice president of the European Parliament from the Renew Europe group. “Europe has become more vulnerable economically, competitiveness remains a major challenge, social and regional inequalities persist, and too often her Commission has reacted to crises rather than anticipated them,”…

Jack Wallen/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET key takeawaysPaperwork is a free, open-source organization tool.The software is available on Linux and Windows.It allows you to tag, label, and search documentsBecause I’m a writer, I keep a lot of documents. By a lot, I mean hundreds. I need a way to organize my documents and avoid chaos.I could organize the documents manually, but that would take a very long time. On top of that, searching by hand is a hit-or-miss process.That’s where Paperwork comes into play. This simple (yet very effective) tool allows you to add documents, move the…

BitGo’s NYDIG deal transfers its institutional trading business to the digital-asset custody and trading infrastructure provider, while NYDIG says it is concentrating resources on power, Bitcoin mining and high-performance-computing data centers.The closing terms disclosed by BitGo put roughly $42.5 million of consideration upfront. BitGo is adding an institutional team, client relationships and financial products around its custody and settlement platform. NYDIG is directing attention toward a company-described power-and-compute footprint exceeding 3 GW.The deal makes each company’s resource allocation clear while leaving the margin comparison unresolved. BitGo’s filings show that very large digital-asset sales can carry a thin gross spread. NYDIG…

Researchers have uncovered a major temperature imbalance deep inside Mars, with the planet’s southern interior appearing significantly hotter than its northern half. Gravity measurements suggest that the interior beneath Mars’s southern hemisphere is about 200 to 400 degrees Celsius warmer than the north and may be partially molten. The finding offers a new window into the Red Planet’s geologic history, including periods when Mars may have had environments capable of supporting life. The study was led by Caltech alumnus Alexander Berne (PhD ’26), now a postdoctoral associate at the University of Arizona. The results were published August 27 in Nature.…

The alarm sounded 16 years ago. In 2010, China blocked exports of key rare earths to Japan in a row over disputed islands in the East China Sea. The critical minerals are essential to everything from advanced weaponry and iPhones to electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines, so the rest of the world took note. But it didn’t take much action. China still accounts for about 70% of rare-earth mining globally and 90% of separation and processing.Then, last year, Beijing forced Donald Trump to back away from his trade war – not with its retaliatory tariffs, but the curbing of…