Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

President Trump said late Friday that the United States had struck a deal to take majority control of a huge portion of Venezuela’s oil reserves, pointing to a sweeping effort to assert U.S. dominance over energy in the Western Hemisphere.The agreement amounts to a highly unusual foray into another country’s oil fields through a partnership with a private company, the State Department said through a U.S. official. That firm is affiliated with a Venezuelan businessman, Alejandro Betancourt López, according to two people familiar with the partnership.The deal would give the United States control of more than 65 billion barrels of…

Cells to hold newly arrested people could run out without the early prison release scheme, a government minister has said.Bridget Phillipson defended the plan to address the prison capacity crisis in England and Wales by releasing thousands of prisoners early, which has been criticised by domestic abuse charities, bereaved families and probation officers among others.“We have faced some really difficult and unpalatable choices because of the huge crisis that was left behind in the prisons estate,” the women and equalities minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday.She insisted the “most serious offenders” would not be released early under…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The age of prepping is upon us. In Sweden, a brochure instructs citizens to keep at least a week’s supply of water and food “in case of crisis or war”. Similar leaflets have been issued to Norwegians, Danes and Finns, and are online in the UK. Even without Russian aggression, cyber attacks and extreme weather mean such precautions are no longer the preserve of doomsday survivalists hoarding baked beans and duct tape. But in such a crisis, social solidarity would also matter. So…

pros and cons Pros Brighter display is a welcome upgrade.Similar camera setup and features as the $1,899 Pro Fold.Qi2 25W wireless charging is easy to appreciate. Cons Pricier baseline at 256GB.Possibly too much AI for some people. more buying choices Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.Confession: I’ve spent the past two weeks speed-dating. Not people, but phones. Some were overly luxurious, offering flashy features and bold promises that were simply too lavish for my lifestyle. Others were quietly compelling.The new Pixel 11 is a bit of both camps. It’s like the classic movie trope: the quiet nerd who…

New details about the July attack on Hugging Face reveal that hundreds of AI agents driven by OpenAI’s internal IM1 model coordinated the compromise through an unauthorized message board. Last month, Hugging Face disclosed that autonomous AI agents exploited two vulnerabilities in its dataset-processing pipeline to execute code, steal cloud and cluster credentials, and move laterally across its production infrastructure. OpenAI later confirmed that its models escaped an ExploitGym evaluation environment through a zero-day vulnerability in a locally hosted instance of JFrog’s Artifactory package manager that was connected to the internet. The agents searched online for benchmark solutions and breached…

A Solana-based token promoted by a Trump-linked coin brand collapsed within hours of its launch, raising questions over who was behind it and its unusual trading activity.Real Trump Coins, a brand US President Donald Trump publicly promoted in 2024, touted the “Trump Digital GOLD” token on X before deleting related posts on Saturday, according to blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain.The Real Trump Coins website continued promoting GOLD as of publication, advertising a 4% trading fee and pledging to use 99% of trading fees to buy back the token in an effort to make it a top-10 crypto asset by market capitalization.The…

A family of Siraya activists in Taiwan is a major driving force behind the revival of their ancestral language — more than a hundred years after it was last spoken.The work to revitalize the Siraya language, which began more than 20 years ago, helped secure the community’s legal recognition as Taiwan’s 17th Indigenous group.The story of the Siraya language’s revitalization began as a love story between Siraya activist Uma Talavan and Filipino musician Edgar Macapili.While she could not understand a Dutch missionary’s Siraya translation of the Gospel of Matthew, her husband recognized similarities between the Siraya language and his…

I was sitting on a rooftop in Athens at sunset looking up at Filopappou hill. Athens in August is burning hot. Not so much hotter than London or Paris any more, but the sort of hot that makes it foolish to step out into sunlight before 6pm. Emerging from the air conditioning at dusk, I saw a dense line of silhouettes on the ridge above me. Almost every one of these shadows had its arm raised, holding a cameraphone towards the sunset.Of all the pretty hills in the Greek capital, Filopappou arguably has the best view. The Acropolis stands directly…

Claim: Disney bought country singer Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park. Rating: A rumor (archived) that Disney bought Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park circulated online after the beloved star’s death in August 2026. The Mouse Trap News Instagram account shared news of the alleged takeover, writing, “What do you think of Disney taking over Dollywood?!” (@mousetrapnews, accessed via Instagram) The story also appeared on Mouse Trap News’ Facebook (archived) and TikTok (archived) accounts. Commenters across the platforms appeared to question whether the rumor was true. Snopes readers also contacted us to investigate its legitimacy. The rumor about Disney buying Dollywood is not real.…

At least four Palestinians are trapped inside the home, while settlers have set fire to nearby Palestinian land.Published On 29 Aug 202629 Aug 2026Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli forces, have surrounded a Palestinian home in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.At least four Palestinians are trapped inside the home while settlers have set fire to nearby land, according to Al Jazeera journalists.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listCoordination is under way to allow ambulances to reach the area and evacuate one injured person.Qusra has faced an escalating campaign of settler violence over the…