Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Researchers have found the first genetic evidence of bat-borne viruses within commercially sold bat guano fertilizer in Thailand. However, the viral strains the team detected are not known to infect humans. Moreover, since the researchers only identified fragments of viral RNA and did not isolate live, intact viruses, they could not confirm if the genetic material poses an active threat to human health, according to a recent study, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. But the findings suggest that viral genetic material from bat populations can persist far beyond caves and survive within publicly available retail products, the study says.…

Golar LNG, a Bermuda-headquartered owner and operator of liquefied natural gas (LNG) midstream infrastructure, has struck an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) deal with Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore (CIMC Raffles) for its fourth floating LNG (FLNG) and second vessel of MKII design. FLNG MKII design with 3.5 mtpa; Source: Golar LNG While revealing its EPC agreement with CIMC Raffles for its fourth FLNG with an annual liquefaction capacity of 3.5 million tons of LNG per annum (mtpa), Golar LNG highlights that this FLNG conversion project has a total budget of approximately $2.45 billion to be delivered to its prospective site.…

Reading Time: 2 minutes My predecessors at Wisconsin Watch have done some amazing reporting on people experiencing homelessness in Wisconsin. A big question came up when I started my internship – how can unhoused people get help? There’s no simple answer. Homeless shelters and nonprofits for low-income families are still extremely limited by resources, available beds and caseworkers. And counties, especially rural ones, simply don’t have enough shelters. Some may not even have a single one. So when I set out to answer this question, I knew that doing some light research online and making a list of shelters would…

Ten-year-old Dilan Camilo Erazo Yela gathered with friends to play soccer on a Tuesday night in July 2024 in El Plateado, Colombia. Around 9:20 p.m., a drone appeared overhead and dropped an explosive on the turf field where the children played. Video footage posted on social media the next day showed Dilan lying on a gurney with his light blue T-shirt pulled up to his neck, as medical personnel tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him. Dilan’s fifth-grade teacher described him as quiet and respectful. “He was a boy who had dreams, and one of them was to be a great cyclist,”…

A video shared on social media claims to show an antibiotic capsule being attracted to a magnet because it contains graphene oxide.The caption on the post warns: “This my Prescription from the doctors an hour ago…GRAPHENE OXCIDE Metal Conductors [sic].”In the video, a person opens a packet of 500mg flucloxacillin tablets, a common antibiotic, and holds a magnet next to one of the red and black capsules. The black end then appears to be pulled along by the magnet.The speaker in the video asks: “Why are your medicines magnetic, big pharma?”Graphene oxide is a material with a number of uses…

The disaster tests President Abelardo de la Espriella and his government as it scrambles to find survivors and provide aid.Bogota, Colombia – A deadly magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia barely 72 hours after far-right leader Abelardo de La Espriella was sworn in as the president.The disaster killed more than 260 people, injured thousands and devastated cities and towns in the first major test of leadership for de la Espriella as his government scrambles to search for survivors and provide aid to the most affected communities.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe 48-year-old leader declared the disaster an “economic…

Summer sun and sports fixtures helped the UK economy grow between April and June, according to official data, but some economists warned the outlook for the rest of the year was weaker.The economy expanded by 0.4%, in line with market expectations but below a 0.6% increase in the first three months of this year. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said growth had “remained relatively robust”, with the UK ahead of other G7 countries for growth this year so far.Experts questioned whether this resilience would be maintained, however, given growth was fuelled by some temporary factors and energy prices could…

Businesses could face costs of up to £2.9bn a year because of a crackdown on zero hours contracts, according to the government’s own analysis.Labour’s employment reforms are set to cut the number of hours staff can work before they must be offered guaranteed time.Official analysis released on Wednesday showed it could cost employers between £350m and £2.9bn, based on the eventual threshold of hours the policy impacts.Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said the reforms would ensure workers are “fairly paid” but business groups said the cost to employers was “disproportionate” compared to how much it would help workers.Government analysis said…

Fermi, the AI nuclear power firm, has named a new CEO more than three months after firing co-founder Toby Neugebauer from the top executive post. Fermi said Wednesday it has hired Lee McIntire, an independent member of the company’s board who has held chief executive positions at CH2M Hill and TerraPower, the nuclear power startup founded by Bill Gates. Fermi America, which was co-founded by former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, is developing an AI campus in Amarillo, Texas, called Project Matador that will eventually use nuclear reactors to power data centers. The announcement, along with Monday’s news that it…

Fortinet on Wednesday announced patches for eight vulnerabilities across its products, including high-severity authentication bugs in FortiWeb and FortiManager. In FortiWeb, the company resolved an improper authentication issue impacting deployments configured with specific, non-default settings. A remote, unauthenticated attacker could exploit the flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-26035, “to log in to the FortiWeb GUI/CLI with a random username and password,” Fortinet explains. The weakness is associated with the wildcard setting for administrator accounts, which is disabled by default. When it is enabled, the system will match any username on a remote server with the Remote User account. “When wildcard is enabled,…