Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The security sources say six international warships are now in the seas close to the Lutuf – two from Turkey and one each from Spain, Denmark, the US and India, something the BBC has not been able to independently verify.”There is military equipment on the [hijacked] ship meant for Turkey’s operations in Somalia,” the Somali government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that the cargo included satellite equipment for a space station that Ankara is building north of the capital.He alleged that Turkey had carried out the second drone strike that killed nine armed men on Sunday.”The men…

A federal judge in California ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitutional rights of international students when it sought to deport them for criticizing Israel’s war in Gaza.In a 90-page ruling, Judge Noël Wise found that the key legal foundations that the Trump administration had relied on to arrest and deport foreign students were unconstitutional, because Trump officials had wielded them to target students who used their freedom of speech to express opinions that the government did not like.“In the United States,” Judge Wise wrote, “free speech, including the freedom to criticize the government and its leaders, is not…

The hype around humanoid robots isn’t particularly new. Thank Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his Optimus robot, as well as the myriad videos of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot, for that. Behind that hype, though, there is real progress. The physical capabilities of robots continue to improve, and researchers now believe that the AI techniques behind large language models can make complex robots capable of learning nearly any task. Those tailwinds have encouraged a new batch of companies to jump in on the promise of profits from humanoid robots. And many of the latest entrants are Chinese automakers. Earlier this week, Xpeng’s…

Berlin’s state government has confirmed that it is the target of an extortion attempt following the August compromise of the city’s state administrative network, and said it will not meet the extortionists’ demands. The same statement disclosed that forensic work had found further data outflows in the portfolio of the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Environment, with the exfiltration dated between August 7 and August 12, 2026. Scope and content are still being examined, and the Senate Chancellery said personal or other non-public data cannot be excluded from what was taken. The department first reported an outflow…

The debasement trade is back — and will benefit bitcoin.  That’s according to asset manager Grayscale’s crypto research team, who wrote in a note this week that the U.S. government debasing its currency would lead to cash hitting digital assets.  “Unchecked government debt growth undermines the credibility of fiat currencies and drives investors to seek out alternative stores of value like physical gold and certain cryptocurrencies,” the note by the firm’s head of research, Zach Pandl, read, adding that primarily bitcoin would benefit.  US public debt has reached over $40 trillion. The Treasury is buying back bonds to ease rising…

Fridges and freezers require specialist dismantling due to the gases they contain, which can be harmful to the environment if not disposed of safely, but three of the UK’s 10 full-scale processing plants have closed in the last 12 months.The three closures – due to a fire, bankruptcy and a change of use – have been compounded by this year’s heat waves, as the remaining plants cannot operate above 30 degrees Celsius.Industry body the Environmental Services Association said this year’s closures had ended up “knocking out capacity suddenly” and executive director Jacob Hayler said: “The result is that capacity is…

When the artificial intelligence sector’s overwhelmingly dominant chipmaker, Nvidia, announced quarterly results this week, many took this as a reason for confidence in the economic future of AI. Not me. My primary reflex, in fact, was fear. On their face, Nvidia’s results were unambiguously spectacular. Reported net profit doubled from a year ago to roughly $60 billion, compared with $6.2 billion just three years ago. The company’s revenues have doubled accordingly, soaring to $96.22 billion. Although it is already the world’s largest company in terms of its $5 trillion-plus stock market value, Nvidia said that it expected next fiscal year’s…

The Carroll government in Victoria has cancelled controversial plans for a statue of former Labor premier Daniel Andrews.Work began in May on the statue commemorating the former premier’s more than 3,000 days in office, as part of a 1999 policy recognising long-serving Victorian premiers.But the premier, Ben Carroll, announced an end to the Kennett government policy on Saturday, appointing an independent panel to review how Victoria commemorates officials with statues and state services.He directed work on the Andrews statue to cease.“We are grateful to former premiers for their service. But gratitude does not require a taxpayer-funded statue,” Carroll said.Sign up…

“As you can see, this hellish streak, which has been going on for several years, continues,” Moinil said, adding that Brussels has already seen 69 gun-related incidents in 2026, against the 102 that took place in 2025. The incidents reported in Saint-Gilles were linked to a fight between two drug-trafficking gangs. Still, innocent citizens were caught in the crossfire, the prosecutor said: In one attack, clients of a pizzeria had to seek cover from the flying bullets.  Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever is convening a meeting with the country’s security services Friday afternoon to discuss drug-related shootings, Le Soir…

You know the person blocking your view of the concert because their phone is swaying in the air, recording the entire thing? Get ready for the unfolded version of it.This week on The Vergecast, we dive right into the big week of Apple news. First, it’s the refreshed Mac Mini and Mac Studio, as well as the new M6 and M5 Ultra chips. Apple is advertising them all as achievements in AI inference, but we’re skeptical this is more than a marketing ploy for now. Then we get into the newly announced Apple event, why we’re not expecting to see…