Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Apart from the joyous hyperactivity that comes with suddenly making it to No 10, there are good reasons why Andy Burnham seems to be a prime minister in a hurry. If he decides that his first term is going to run to its maximum length, he has three years, which is a maddening time-frame: too long for him to just tinker here and there, set out his long-term vision and then ask the electorate for permission to do more, but probably too short to start and finish many of his key projects. His chosen solution, it seems, is a mixture…

It’s almost Labor Day weekend, which means sales are on the way, including at Costco. Ahead of the holiday weekend, you’ll find major discounts on brand-name TVs, laptops, appliances, mattresses, home decor, and more.Also: The best Labor Day deals to shop now: Save on TVs, Apple devices, and moreCostco is a membership-based wholesale retailer. While non-members can shop with a guest account online, only members can access the full savings for the store’s sales events (non-members can expect a 5% markup on purchases, and some deals are members-only). Memberships start at $65 a year (and you can sometimes find membership deals). I’m a…

Real Trump Coins has denied launching, promoting or authorizing the Trump Digital GOLD token that briefly appeared across its online presence before collapsing, blaming the promotion on “third-party bad actors.”The denial came after the Real Trump Coins X account promoted the Solana-based token on Saturday and directed users to RealTrumpCoins.com, where GOLD was also advertised. The X posts were later deleted, while the account now links to a separate domain, TrumpCoins.com.“Trump Coins has not authorized and will not launch, promote, or authorize any digital token,” Real Trump Coins said in an X post on Saturday, adding that it was working…

Data center developers and states see small modular nuclear reactors as one of the potential solutions for America’s increasing energy demand due to their smaller sizes and ability to provide steady energy generation. But nuclear energy experts say the main challenge is the timeline for their commercial deployment. The U.S. Energy Information Administration describes small modular reactors (SMRs) as nuclear reactors designed to generate from 70 to 350 megawatts of power. According to the think tank Third Way, 22 SMR designs are under development in the country and two—both from NuScale Power Corporation—have received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission…

Khamenei urges Gulf rulers to confront their ‘real enemy’ as Iran keeps the Strait of Hormuz restricted amid stalled diplomacy.Published On 30 Aug 202630 Aug 2026Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has urged Gulf leaders to identify their “real enemy” and confront it, as Tehran maintains its hard line over the Strait of Hormuz, while regional mediators push for renewed diplomacy.“My emphatic and repeated recommendation to the rulers of Islamic countries, especially the countries of West Asia and the Gulf, is to identify your real enemy, understand his plan and confront it,” Khamenei said in a message published on Sunday…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Nepal is “intensifying” a daunting rescue effort in a race against rising water levels as the death toll from a catastrophic landslide last week along the border with China passed 700, with more than 3,000 missing.The government of Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on Sunday it had dispatched almost 20,000 security personnel and rescued more than 8,000 people, including 270 who were trapped in various hydropower projects, despite adverse weather conditions. Chinese authorities said on Sunday that more than 2,000 rescue…

Whoop has made screen-free wearables since its first proper release in 2015, but the shift in what Whoop considers itself to be about mirrors the change we see in the wider market. Today a Whoop band is made for just about anyone with the spare cash to pay for its $199 annual subscription. It’s a system to “help you improve how you sleep, train, and feel—starting day one,” to use Whoop’s own words. This couldn’t be further removed from the self-serious way Whoop described itself in 2015, as a “performance optimization system exclusively designed for elite athletes and teams.” What…

Russia’s largest bank, Sber, plans to expand its crypto-backed lending to accept Tether’s USDt stablecoin and Ether as collateral alongside Bitcoin, according to a senior executive.Sber will adapt its existing products and gradually expand its offerings as Russia’s new crypto law takes effect, Deputy Chairman Anatoly Popov said, according to a Friday TASS report. The bank plans to add the assets as collateral after the Bank of Russia permits them for public trading, he said.The plans come as Russia rolls out a regulated crypto market under a law signed by president Vladimir Putin on Aug. 4, with core provisions taking…

Feeding the Beast: Second in a series about lax regulation, corporate influence and the heavily polluting, yet nearly untouchable American meat industry.Thousands of dead and bloated pigs floated down country roads, buoyed by floodwaters. Tens of millions of gallons of feces and urine spilled over the brims of lagoons and contaminated everything in their path, including rivers, streams and private drinking water wells. It was September 1996, when Hurricane Fran pummeled eastern North Carolina and unleashed an environmental catastrophe, the first of several that would occur over the next two decades.  The resulting disasters stemmed from a primitive lagoon and…

Icelanders have voted to stay out of the European Union, broadcaster RUV ​reported on Sunday, ‌rejecting a government push to reopen membership talks and ⁠siding with those who said Iceland’s fishing waters were too important to risk. Opponents defeated the measure by a margin of 52.8% to 47.2%, the official count published by public broadcaster RUV showed. The capital of Reykjavik was the only area in the island nation of 400,000 people to support the referendum. A ‘no’ vote will disappoint Brussels, ‌as some officials had cast Iceland as a low-risk case that could ⁠help ease scepticism toward EU enlargement…