Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Andy Burnham has dropped his support for capping political donations, causing anger among activists and Labour MPs who have long campaigned for change to the way parties are funded.The prime minister has decided not to back amendments to the elections bill, which would cap the amount a person or an organisation can give in a single donation, according to government sources.The decision comes after a lobbying campaign from Labour’s trade union backers, who said amendments to the bill, which returns to parliament for its remaining stages next week, could undermine their ability to donate to the party. It is also…

When Darline Graham announced her bid for Senate, she said she wanted “to carry my brother Lindsey’s legacy on behalf of the people of South Carolina.”But throughout her six-week campaign, she has spoken far more about her desire to support President Trump’s agenda than she has talked about her brother’s political goals — or her own. She did not put a platform on her campaign website.After a close victory in a special primary runoff on Tuesday, she is now the favorite to win a six-year term in the Senate.While some of her views remain fuzzy, here is a look at…

OpenAI published the most complete report to date on Wednesday about what happened when its AI agents hacked into Hugging Face last month. For the most part, though, the 37-page document raises more questions than it answers, including about what preceded the incident and how OpenAI can stop another one like it from happening again.What remains especially perplexing is why one of the world’s preeminent AI development labs seemingly underestimated its own models’ capabilities. OpenAI has spent years warning the world about the rapid advancement of AI systems. And yet it failed to implement long-established network security and isolation measures…

Ravie LakshmananAug 26, 2026Malware / Cyber Espionage Cybersecurity researchers have discovered additional infrastructure and previously undocumented malware associated with Nimbus Manticore, an Iranian state-sponsored hacking group affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Group-IB, in a new analysis published today, described the cyber espionage actor as among the most active Iranian APT groups in 2026. Nimbus Manticore (aka GalaxyGato, Mirage Kitten, Screening Serpens, Smoke Sandstorm, Subtle Snail, and UNC1549) is assessed to be linked to Tortoiseshell (aka Imperial Kitten and Unyielding Wasp), which is part of the Charming Kitten (aka Eclipsed Wasp) cluster. Tortoiseshell is known to be active…

Potentially taxable onchain crypto activity reached at least $457 billion globally in 2025, while international reporting rules may capture only a fraction of it, according to a new Chainalysis report.The US accounted for an estimated $112.6 billion of the total, while North America led all regions with $134.6 billion, followed by the European Union at $125.1 billion.The estimates include realized gains, income from activities such as mining, staking and lending, and crypto-denominated payments across six major blockchains, but exclude trading and other activity conducted within centralized exchanges.Chainalysis said transactions covered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Crypto-Asset Reporting…

Fifty eggs suspected to be those of endangered parrots were intercepted at South Africa’s main airport in Johannesburg last Thursday – and some of them have now hatched.A 50-year-old Thai national was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle them in a “homemade incubator bag” carried as hand luggage, according to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).Many of the rescued eggs have successfully hatched, with the chicks now receiving “intensive” care to “maximise their chances of survival”, it added.If convicted, the suspected wildlife trafficker faces a fine of up to 10m rand ($626,000, £461,000) or up to 10…

Kenya’s secondhand clothing trade, locally known as mitumba, clothes millions of people and supports an estimated 2 million livelihoods, making it one of Africa’s largest markets for used garments. That makes Kenya a useful lens for understanding the growing global public health problems associated with textile waste disguised as reusable clothing. More than 4.5 billion used garments are shipped to Africa each year, according to a recent letter published in Science. Many end up in dumpsites or are burned when local sorting systems are overwhelmed. The researchers argue that discarded textile waste can become reservoirs for harmful bacteria,…

Reading Time: 4 minutes Meta agreed Wednesday to pay $17 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by 47 states. Wisconsin would receive at least $219 million and up to $313 million if conditions involving other social media companies are met, through what state Attorney General Josh Kaul called the “largest Big Tech settlement in the history of the country.” The settlement resolved a pivotal case years in the making that sought to hold the…

How long does it take for the penny to drop in Downing Street and the Foreign Office (Israel’s Ben-Gvir posts video of gallows site for hanging Palestinians, 20 August)? Israeli individuals have had sanctions imposed on them for over a year with absolutely no effect, and it is likely that people such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, see them as some sort of badge of honour.Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband must realise by now that the only sanctions likely to have any effect are those imposed against the state of Israel, so denouncing the issue of tenders…

Tuesday’s announcement that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had dissolved, with its forces merging with the Syrian military, represents a boost for a government seeking to demonstrate that it has sole authority over the country.And yet, analysts have told Al Jazeera, the finer details of military integration remain, indicating that the divisions that have beset Syria over almost 14 years of war, and then in the 20 months since the fall of the al-Assad regime, have not been totally eradicated.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe SDF, which emerged in 2015, has been based in the country’s northeast, where…