Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

King Harald V of Norway has died at the age of 89, the palace in Oslo has announced, triggering the succession of his son, Haakon, whose wife Mette-Marit’s association with Jeffrey Epstein has sparked fierce recent controversy.“It is with deep sadness that we announce that His Majesty King Harald passed away today. King Harald passed away peacefully at Oslo University Hospital on Friday, August 28 at 6.35 am,” the palace said in a statement.The palace had announced on Thursday that Harald’s health had deteriorated and that he was in an “extremely serious” condition, prompting his wife, Queen Sonja, and Crown…

The EU’s Habitats Directive bans the capture or killing of all cetaceans, the category that includes whales as well as dolphins and porpoises. For Loftsson, joining the bloc would almost certainly mean the end of the hunt. Loftsson is the driving force behind Icelandic whaling. His company, Hvalur hf., has operated on and off since 1947 and today runs the country’s only commercial whaling fleet. Through the summer season, his two ships, the Hvalur 8 and 9, have been patrolling Icelandic waters to hunt fin whales, notching up over 50 kills so far.  Iceland is one of just three countries,…

Zack Polanski has called for a freeze on the approval of new data centres in England because of concerns about the amount of water and energy they use.The Green Party leader said the government should introduce stricter environmental rules and give communities more say on whether the centres are built in their area.Data centres can use significant amounts of water to cool their systems, although there are no official figures on how much water they consume in the UK.The government said a pause would lead to the UK losing investment and being dependent on overseas computing for sensitive data processing.A…

More than 80 performers have signed the letter, with Derry Girls actor Siobhán McSweeney saying she was “deeply worried” that the government was lagging behind.”There is a way to work alongside AI and to use it as a tool that benefits us rather than rendering us obsolete,” she said.”Our audiences want that human connection. Not AI.”As well as actors, other signatories include those working in other performing industries.That includes Scottish singer Sandi Thom, known for her 2006 hit I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair).She said she was signing the letter because her voice was…

Swati KhandelwalAug 27, 2026Malware / Phishing Threat actors linked by Arctic Wolf to Dark Caracal with medium confidence deployed a previously undocumented Go-based malware framework, GoCaracal, during a June 2026 intrusion at an unnamed communications organization in Venezuela. GoCaracal provides operators with remote shell access and payload execution, while the extended profile adds browser data theft, keylogging, remote desktop control, and SOCKS5 proxying. Arctic Wolf also published a YARA rule and representative indicators of compromise (IoCs) that defenders can use to hunt for the malware. “We assess with medium confidence that this activity is linked to Dark Caracal,” Arctic Wolf…

MANTRA Chain restored mainnet block production on v8.4.0 six days after a security incident forced a chainwide halt. The promised technical account remains unpublished, leaving the exploitation of the upstream dependency and the activity inside two project-managed wallets unexplained.The official incident timeline says mainnet resumed at approximately 05:30 UTC on Aug. 22. The chain said there was no rollback or state change between the halt and restart, user balances were not altered, and token holders did not need to take action.The team behind the chain marked the incident resolved on Aug. 24 but again said a postmortem would arrive in…

Glioblastoma is considered the most aggressive type of brain cancer. One reason it is so difficult to treat is that cancer cells spread into nearby brain tissue. That makes complete surgical removal extremely challenging because surgeons must avoid damaging healthy areas of the brain. The blood-brain barrier creates another obstacle by restricting how effectively drugs and radiotherapy can reach the tumor. Together, these challenges help explain why the five-year survival rate is only about 7 percent. A Two-Function Nanoparticle Platform Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Harvard and Henan universities have developed a ‘double-punch’ nanozyme platform that aims…

When a 2022 drought hit Bolivia’s Ascensión de Guarayos, restoring traditional paúros helped the community survive after the municipal reservoir ran dry.The youth-led effort to revive paúros has grown into a broader conservation project, including a legally protected urban ecological corridor.The initiative is part of a global trend to restore Indigenous water systems as low-cost, climate-resilient solutions to growing water scarcity.Experts say blending traditional and modern approaches can strengthen water security — but only if local communities lead and retain control.See All Key Ideas SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia — When Rolando Ágreda was 16, a severe…

The U.S. ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, has become somewhat of a celebrity—though mostly for the wrong reasons. Since starting his post in January, Gor’s mission has been to restore the U.S.-India strategic partnership after U.S. President Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to it last summer. In several ways, he has succeeded: For example, he has prioritized getting free trade agreement negotiations back on track. But his recent eyebrow-raising statements, coupled with his expansive view of his role in the region, have both complicated and confused Washington’s South Asia policy. Last week, for example, Gor visited Srinagar—the largest city…

Claim: A video authentically showed a Target ad featuring a costume that critics said evoked racist blackface and minstrel imagery. Rating: In August 2026, after the retailer Target removed a costume from its website that faced backlash for evoking racist minstrel and blackface imagery, a video circulated online that social media users claimed (archived) showed an ad that Target also pulled featuring the costume in question. The video showed an animated character wearing the since-removed costume advertising various $5 fall deals.  One Threads user who shared the video wrote, “Target pulls national ad campaign after accusations that new spokesperson is…