Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Reading Time: 5 minutes This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access. What happened? The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday lifted one of two injunctions against President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail voting, but additional legal hurdles and practical considerations could make it difficult to implement it in time for the quickly approaching November elections. The unsigned ruling, which cut along ideological lines, focused on a relatively narrow legal question: whether the lower court’s injunction was premature. The majority made it clear that it was not deciding on the…

In Western debates about how to aid Ukraine—and how the war might end—there is a widespread view that Ukraine cannot and should not defeat Russia outright or fully expel it from its territory. Indeed, few Western politicians openly support Ukraine’s “victory,” instead using vague phrases like helping Kyiv “as long as it takes.” Since Moscow has nuclear weapons, so this line of thinking goes, it losing the war is not only impossible but, in fact, undesirable. To avert a humiliating defeat, Russia might risk Armageddon and use its nuclear arms, and surely Ukrainian territory and sovereignty are not worth that.…

Two unvaccinated individuals have died of measles in Pennsylvania, state health officials announced on Tuesday. The deaths are the first in the state in 35 years and have been announced just one day after Maryland declared a measles outbreak in three counties.Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to medicine, and is preventable with a highly effective vaccine.“My deepest sympathies are with the loved ones who are facing this unimaginable loss,” said the Pennsylvania secretary of health, Dr Debra Bogen, in a statement. “Because measles was largely eliminated in the Commonwealth for more than three decades, people are…

As a doctor, I have spent much of my professional life caring for people at some of the most vulnerable moments they will ever face. I have seen the anxiety that surrounds the prospect of dying, and the desperate wish of patients and families to avoid unnecessary suffering.Naturally, we all want people facing the end of life to be treated with kindness and respect. But when considering the debate on assisted dying, true compassion demands that we ask a more fundamental question. What kind of society are we building if, before we’ve fixed the systems designed to care for people,…

Screenshots from Linux Foundation YouTube channel / ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysAt the start, Torvalds had no clue how big Linux would become.Some early developers still work on Linux today.Torvalds has no intention of ever stopping work on Linux. In 1991, Unix was an important but secondary x86 operating system. That year, on Aug. 25, a Finnish graduate student named Linus Benedict Torvalds announced on the Usenet group comp.os.minix that he was working on “a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.” No one knew it, not…

Ravie LakshmananAug 25, 2026Authentication / Password Security Meta on Tuesday announced a set of WhatsApp account security features, including support for multiple passkeys to a single account to help users with both iOS and Android devices sign into their accounts using the phishing-resistant method. The tech giant said more than 1 billion people use a passkey to log into WhatsApp. Support for passkeys was first introduced in Android in October 2023, before expanding to iOS in early 2024. Meta also followed it up by integrating passkeys into Facebook logins in June 2025. Users can manage their passkeys by navigating to…

The9’s second-quarter profit was driven by accounting for its 9BIT token holdings rather than its operating businesses, with one fair-value gain alone exceeding the company’s bottom line.The Nasdaq-listed company reported $32.4 million of net income for the quarter ended June 30, up from $22.6 million in the first quarter. Yet The9 recorded only $712,000 of revenue, zero cryptocurrency-mining revenue and a $13.4 million loss from operations.Token income outweighed operationsBelow the operating line, The9 recognized a $47.2 million fair-value gain on 9BIT tokens and an additional $11.1 million cryptocurrency reward. Together, those two items totaled $58.3 million, more than the quarter’s…

Cell therapies that harness the immune system have transformed treatment for some cancers of the blood and lymphatic system. Solid tumors, however, have remained much more difficult to treat because they are harder for immune cells to enter and can release signals that weaken nearby immune defenses. Researchers at Stanford Medicine and collaborating institutions have now developed a strategy aimed at overcoming those obstacles. Their approach transforms natural killer cells, a type of immune cell known for rapidly attacking abnormal cells, into a specialized tissue resident form that can move into solid tumors and destroy cancer cells. “We show that…

Arabian Drilling, described as Saudi Arabia’s largest onshore and offshore drilling contractor by fleet size, has expanded its footprint in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with a multi-well assignment off the coast of Oman. Illustration; Source: Arabian Drilling Arabian Drilling signed a contract with Masirah Oil and Northern Offshore on August 17, 2026, with a value of less than 5% of total revenue based on the audited financial statements for 2025, to drill two firm wells, in addition to two optional wells, in Oman. The assignment will conclude upon completion of these drilling operations. This deal follows the completion of…

Key takeaways from this investigation County prosecutors in Illinois fed sensitive personal and location information about local residents — including court dates and scheduled jail releases — to federal immigration agents. The practice was widespread: Prosecutors’ offices in 1 out of every 6 counties in Illinois provided information to ICE. Illinois’ TRUST Act prohibits local law enforcement agencies from providing information to federal immigration officials, but state’s attorneys disagreed about whether their offices are bound by the law. The consequences were devastating for families: Some people who didn’t appear to otherwise be on ICE’s radar were deported after county prosecutors…