Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Microsoft says ongoing issues causing games to crash or fail to launch after installing the August 2026 Windows updates may be caused by peripherals with RGB lighting. As Microsoft explained when it confirmed it’s investigating on Wednesday, this known issue affects games like ARC Raiders, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, and The Finals on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. “Following the release of Windows updates on August 11, 2026 (KB5121003) and later, Microsoft received reports of issues involving inability to run games as expected,” Microsoft said on the Windows release health dashboard. On impacted PCs, users are also experiencing…

Bitcoin (BTC) hit $77,000 on Friday as business intelligence company Strategy’s corporate treasury returned to profit.Key points:Bitcoin reaches its highest level since May 26 as it revisits $77,000.Price returns above the cost basis for Strategy’s BTC corporate treasury at $75,385.Around 11% of the BTC supply constitutes a new band of support below $68,000.Strategy out of the red with Bitcoin at highest since MayData from TradingView showed new local highs above $77,400 prior to the week’s final Wall Street open.BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewNow up around 20% in 48 hours, BTC/USD saw little by way of consolidation as it reclaimed a…

Researchers in Japan have captured an extraordinarily fast electronic transformation inside a metal-organic framework, observing a fleeting state and the hidden state that followed within just 30 femtoseconds. The team from Science Tokyo, Tohoku University, and Nagoya Institute of Technology combined ultrafast laser spectroscopy with theoretical calculations to uncover a previously unknown intermediate electronic state that helps drive the transformation. The discovery offers new clues about how light could eventually be used to rapidly control the properties of advanced materials. Materials can behave in unexpected ways after absorbing light. In some cases, light pushes them into photoinduced states with properties…

The proposal represents Spain’s latest effort to advance protection of 30% of its waters by 2030.It looks to protect 22,405 square kilometers (8,651 square miles) of marine waters, primarily in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean around the Canary Islands, as well as four sites in the Mediterranean Sea.Conservation groups have raised concerns in recent years about the state of Spain’s marine protected areas, highlighting a significant discrepancy between areas designated “on paper” and those that are subject to effective protection.See All Key Ideas The Spanish government has launched a consultation process to establish 23 new marine protected areas…

Ruby L. Bailey, a nonprofit and journalism leader with more than three decades of experience in public-service media, is joining Injustice Watch as its new executive director on Sept. 1. Bailey joins the team after two and a half years as the editor in chief of the Illinois Answers Project at the Better Government Association, where she led newsroom strategy and operations while working across the organization on strategic planning, board engagement, newsroom collaborations, audience development, and philanthropic stewardship. Her career includes leadership roles at USA TODAY, The Indianapolis Star, The Sacramento Bee, the Columbia Missourian, and the Detroit Free…

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby just wrapped up a weeklong tour of Southeast Asia. His aim was to reassure allies and partners in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia that the United States will continue to prioritize the region. But the Trump administration’s actions continue to contradict top officials’ strategic messaging and fuel regional concerns of U.S. withdrawal. In the Philippines, Colby gave a speech to the Stratbase Institute, where he laid out the case for Washington’s tough-love approach to the region. Colby derided the liberal commentariat for painting a picture of U.S. disengagement from the region, insisting that…

“Department for Work and Pensions data shows the share of Universal Credit paid to foreign nationals rose to 15.5% in January 2026.” Reform UK – 17 August 2026 Reform UK has corrected part of its welfare proposals plan published earlier this week. The Making Welfare Work plan claimed government data showed the share of Universal Credit paid to foreign nationals “rose to 15.5% in January 2026”.This isn’t correct. 15.5% was the proportion of people on Universal Credit in January 2026 who are not British or Irish citizens, but this figure has been falling since 2024, not rising.The Department for Work…

Five Palestine Action activists who vandalised a Barclays branch in Burnley will not be sentenced as terrorists, a judge has ruled.Dubbed the Barclays five, Brendon O’Hagan, 28; Amanda Kelly, 31; Hmeera Atiqnisar, 31; Mohammed Malik, 28; and Alma Yaniv, 70, were all found guilty in June of causing damage exceeding £200,000, after breaking windows and throwing red paint at a branch of Barclays Bank in Lancashire in August 2024.The group targeted the site in protest at Barclays because it held shares in the Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems.Judge Altham, the recorder of Preston, ruled on Friday that while the damage…

President Trump has opened a new front in his campaign to intimidate political foes, threatening a prominent liberal think tank with a $5 billion defamation lawsuit over a report concluding that his deployment of the National Guard to cities across the country has had little effect on reducing violent crime.The threats against the think tank, the Center for American Progress, were Mr. Trump’s latest effort to use the legal system to punish critics for voicing unflattering facts and opinions generally protected by the First Amendment. And while it is unclear how far any suit the president might ultimately file will…

Britain has seen a summer of record-breaking wildfires, deadly heat and drought with almost 2, 900 heat associated deaths recorded in England during May and June alone. Homes have been destroyed more recently by the fires in the West Midlands and deadly wildfires have swept across Europe.Despite the ever more visible impacts of the climate crisis, there is widespread concern that there has been no big political push for it at the centre of British politics or a renewed case for net zero.Some Labour MPs believe the government’s caution is a huge mistake. One said the government’s approach is “a…