Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Bitcoin price has crossed $80,000 as the US Treasury explored tapping its roughly $1 trillion cash pile to fund an escalating effort to stabilize long-term government debt.Two senior Treasury officials told CNBC that the Treasury General Account, the federal government’s operating account at the Federal Reserve, could help finance expanded bond buybacks. The officials did not specify how much could be used or when. Reuters put the account at about $940 billion as of last Wednesday.The report extends a sharp shift in Treasury’s response to rising borrowing costs.On Aug. 19, the department unexpectedly said it would at least double liquidity-support…

In the past decade, palm oil-producing countries, such as Indonesia, have introduced policies and company-level commitments to curb deforestation.In both concessions linked to companies with zero-deforestation commitments (ZDCs) and those not linked to ZDCs, data suggests annualized deforestation has dropped dramatically from the 2000s.Despite this drop, a new study suggests ZDCs have not, in fact, led to additional reductions in deforestation.A decline in palm oil prices and historic deforestation in concessions may have contributed to this contrasting picture, say researchers.See All Key Ideas JAKARTA — A new study of palm oil concessions linked to Indonesian supply chains finds…

With three decades under its belt, a giant gas project is getting a new lease of life, as the latest phase of its development begins production ahead of schedule, accelerating the delivery of 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Europe. Troll A platform; Source: Jan Arne Wold/Equinor The Troll A platform in the North Sea is being supplied with additional gas, after production started from the Troll Phase 3 stage 2 subsea project on August 22, 2026, helping maintain jobs, value creation, and high gas deliveries to Europe from the platform and the Kollsnes processing plant, which marks…

Every few months, there are more shocking headlines about the behaviour of England’s water companies. The latest are about the ever-increasing pay of the chief executives and chief financial officers, which rose to a total of £25.3m across 14 companies over the past year. Meanwhile, people living in England struggle with rising water bills and untreated sewage being discharged (often illegally) on to beaches and in to lakes, and companies such as Thames Water are on the brink of insolvency and want government backing.It’s not surprising that we’re in this situation: England’s water companies have long been accused of putting…

The State Department is preparing to send U.S. diplomats back to embassies in the Middle East that were evacuated before and during the war with Iran, suggesting that the Trump administration does not anticipate a return to all-out hostilities.The return of foreign service officers and the scaling back of emergency measures taken at U.S. missions in the Middle East could begin this week, according to an internal State Department document obtained by The Times.The changes were also described by three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the press.The restaffing…

Government lays out housing plans but Burnham backtracks on social renting pledgeGood morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog.The government has set out its plans to spend an initial £10bn on a mix of subsidised housing in England, with a target of 60% being social renting.The funding, which comes from the 10-year Affordable Homes Programme, is in line with the Starmer government’s policy and sees Andy Burnham backtrack on his proposal to rip up housing plans and boost social home building.Burnham previously called for the programme to be spent entirely on social homes, which are more heavily subsidised…

Amazon Echo Dot (left), Google Home Speaker (center), Apple HomePod mini (right). Maria Diaz/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysAmazon has raised prices on Echos, Kindles, and other products.The price of an Echo Dot has risen by 60% to $79.99.Amazon blamed the hikes on the costs of memory and storage chips.Shopping for a new Echo, Kindle, or other Amazon product? You may have to shell out more for the item than you would have less than a week ago.Late last week, Amazon raised prices on several of its key products, according to a review by Fortune. The…

The cybersecurity agency CISA has instructed government organizations to immediately patch a critical vulnerability that has been widely exploited in attacks against Oracle WebLogic servers. The remote code execution flaw, identified as CVE-2026-21962 with a CVSS score of 10, affects Oracle HTTP Server and the WebLogic Server Proxy plugin, which bridges HTTP Server to WebLogic. The security hole can be exploited without authentication to hack affected servers. Oracle patched the vulnerability with its January 2026 updates.  CISA added CVE-2026-21962 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on August 24 and instructed federal agencies to address it by August 27.  […

Tether’s abandoned Bitcoin mining venture in Uruguay, where a former contractor estimated spending reached about $120 million across two sites, is casting a shadow over the stablecoin issuer’s smaller renewable-energy pilot in Brazil.The Uruguay project unraveled after Tether’s local entity, Microfin, and state utility UTE disagreed over the terms governing electricity use, Reuters reported. Microfin understood its contracted allocation as a minimum that could be expanded, while UTE treated it as a maximum.The dispute was underway by late 2024. Microfin stopped paying power bills in May 2025, notified UTE the following month that it planned to terminate the contracts, and…

Bogong moths are a critical resource for the many rare and wonderful species that live in the Australian Alps, but their future is far from certain.The IUCN classifies the bogong moth as an endangered species, but Australia, the only country where the moth is habitually found, has refused to recognize it as such, categorizing it instead as “data deficient”.Currently, a network of entomologists, ecologists, data scientists, First Nations peoples, and volunteers is working to address the data gaps, hoping to reapply for a national endangered species listing and identify the best strategies to protect the bogong moth.However, tracking a…