Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

WelcomeGood morning. Nick Visser here to get the news going. Here’s what’s on deck:Leah Stewart, the woman who was bitten by a shark at Sydney’s Coogee beach, issued a thankyou to those who supported her after the attack.She wrote on GoFundMe: “After what has been an incredibly difficult few months, I’m so happy that I’ve progressed enough to build some independence, and I can finally see some light after all of this.”Stewart was in an induced coma after the shark attack and had multiple surgeries, including the amputation of one of her arms.Meanwhile authorities have begun vaccinating as many of…

President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, were driven in the presidential limo around an IndyCar racetrack shaped from the streets of downtown Washington on Sunday afternoon. It was the final, major event planned for the city as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations.Interior Secretary Doug Burgum shouted, “Gentlemen, start your engines!” Mr. Trump waved a large green flag up and down while his wife smiled and clapped. The Qatari jumbo jet that he now uses as Air Force One flew low overhead.Twenty-five racecars screamed around a 1.7-mile track that wended between white marble monuments and Smithsonian museums…

President Trump’s economic policies drew a fresh round of concern from some Republicans this weekend who criticized his trade policies, as others in the party sidestepped questions about his broader approach amid a midterm election that has put consumer prices front and center.Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa, a Republican running in one of the most competitive Senate races, reiterated her opposition to Mr. Trump’s recent announcement that he would lower tariffs for up to 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef over the next 90 days, which he claimed would push down costs.“We need to focus on affordability, but I…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Waymo gets a lot of attention for its fast-paced expansion. And for good reason; it seems like every week, the company’s robotaxis are arriving in a new city, or expanding within an existing service area.  We’ve known for a while that Waymo’s sixth-generation self-driving system — which debuted in its next-generation Ojai robotaxi — is central to those ambitions. But now we have a better understanding…

US-listed crypto exchange-traded funds outside Bitcoin and Ethereum drew nearly $90 million last week. Investors followed a sharp market rally into XRP, Solana, Chainlink and Hyperliquid.XRP products led the group with $39.78 million of net inflows in the week ended Aug. 21, their strongest showing since the week ended May 15, when they attracted about $60.5 million.Solana funds followed with $28.34 million, while Chainlink and Hyperliquid products added $13.35 million and $3.89 million, respectively.Data from SoSoValue shows that the rally broadened. The ETF rebound was dominated by Bitcoin and Ethereum. Spot Bitcoin funds pulled in $1.92 billion during the week,…

When thinking about why we have not encountered intelligent aliens yet, as Adam Kirsch does (The long read, 11 August), it seems to me that one factor gets neglected: fossil fuels. Alien life could develop intelligence on myriad planets, but to develop advanced technology that would enable them to get off‑world, they need to go through an equivalent of the Industrial Revolution, and that needed first coal, then oil and gas.There could be many intelligent alien races out there, but on planets without an easily accessible fossil fuel equivalent, they’d never get past a 17th-century level of development.Even if we can…

Cleveland police have published photographs of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough who died when a car travelling the wrong way on the A66 crashed head-on into their police vehicle.Two 17-year-old boys were among the seven people who were killed in the incident on Teesside.Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak died when their Volkswagen Passat, believed to be using cloned plates, collided with a marked armed response vehicle early on Saturday near Middlesbrough.Blades, 37, and Clough, 38, of Cleveland police, who were also killed in the collision,…

With back-to-school season approaching (or already here in some places), keeping track of everyone’s schedules can get pretty chaotic. Between work, school, appointments, sports, chores, and everything else going on, a regular paper calendar just doesn’t cut it. That’s where Linkdaze’s smart digital calendar comes in — a touchscreen tablet built specifically to organize a household rather than a single person.  One of Linkdaze’s biggest strengths is its calendar compatibility. The system can synchronize calendars from popular services, including Google, iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo, and Cozi, which is a dedicated family-organizing app. This is particularly useful for families where different members…

Healthy growth and development depend on tens of thousands of genes being switched on at the right time and in the right place. Specific regions of DNA help coordinate this process, guiding the production of enzymes, hormones, proteins, and other molecules that cells need to function properly. When gene activation goes wrong, cells can malfunction and contribute to diseases, including cancer. To better understand the DNA sequences that control this process, researchers in the laboratory of University of California San Diego Professor James T. Kadonaga focused on an important DNA element known as the “initiator.” The initiator marks the location…

As a vulnerable teenage girl carrying my life in a rucksack, I have been the person Andy Burnham describes people walking past in his article (I won’t abandon anyone to sleep rough on our streets. That’s my £442m promise, 19 August). That experience taught me that homelessness is far more complex than rough sleeping alone, and that ending it takes more than getting people off the streets.Getting everyone in for Christmas is an important ambition. But lasting success means preventing people from reaching crisis point and giving those who do the practical support and opportunities they need. I was lucky.…