Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Bitcoin has been sitting still recently, and the coin’s volatility is now lower than 98.5% of all days in its 17-year history, according to asset manager Fidelity. Writing on X, the firm’s digital asset arm said that spot trading volume was also at its lowest level since 2019.  Bitcoin’s price is virtually unmoved over a 30-day period, with some analysts saying the bottom is likely in. The coin was recently trading for $65,329, nearly 50% lower than the all-time high it notched in October 2025.  🆕 Update: BTC volatility is now lower than ~98.5% of all days in its history.Meanwhile,…

The human brain is continuously processing enormous amounts of information. Even something as familiar as driving requires several mental tasks at once. The brain must remember the route, recall how to control the vehicle, and respond to unexpected developments such as a road closure or shifting traffic conditions. A brain network known as the frontoparietal cortex plays a major role in managing this flow of information. It receives signals from throughout the brain, determines which information is most important, and helps coordinate the appropriate response. New research from the University of Iowa offers a more detailed look at how this…

In the Colombian department of La Guajira, at South America’s northernmost tip, Indigenous Wayuu fishers from the community of Punta Gallinas are working with marine biologists to conserve and document shark populations.Despite a 2021 law banning targeted shark and ray fishing in Colombia, the meat remains a vital protein source in one of the country’s most remote and food-insecure regions.Colombian shark conservation initiative Proyecto Puyuii is working with Wayuu fishers to record shark species in the understudied waters of La Guajira, implementing sustainability measures such as larger-mesh nets, safe release techniques and avoiding longlines.With sustainable tourism touted as a…

Ulyana was living at her parents’ home in Ternopil in western Ukraine when she received the news that her husband of five years, a Ukrainian soldier named Vlad, had reportedly died by suicide in 2023 while at a military base near the front lines. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ulyana and their then-two-year-old son had moved to Ternopil as Russia began to occupy parts of the Kyiv region. Vlad stayed behind and joined Kyiv’s territorial defense, which was comprised of volunteers who took up arms alongside the military to halt Russian advances. When Ulyana and her mother-in-law saw…

A court in China on Thursday sentenced the billionaire founder of Evergrande to life in prison, years after the real estate giant’s collapse brought China’s financial system to the brink.Hui Ka Yan, the company’s founder and former chairman, pleaded guilty in April to several charges, including fund-raising fraud, misuse of funds and securities fraud. The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court found that between 2016 and 2021, Mr. Hui and Evergrande engaged in large-scale financial fraud and committed crimes including misuse of funds, fund-raising fraud and illegally taking public deposits, according to an announcement the court posted on social media. The court…

On July 29, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced £8.4 billion for Dreadnought, including £5.9 billion for BAE and £2.5 billion for the wider supply chain and apprenticeships.Burnham’s appointment of John Healey — the former defense secretary — as the chancellor, has cheered Australian officials. “That shows to me that they’re putting defense and national security at the heart of their economic agenda as well as their defense agenda,” said James Paterson, the shadow defense minister, who is at the heart of debates about AUKUS accountability.The military clockBarrow’s local problems translate into military risk through the gaps in Australia’s submarine capability.Paterson…

President Trump met with crypto executives at the White House on Wednesday, voicing his support for an industry that has generated enormous wealth for him and his family and calling on Congress to pass a major cryptocurrency bill.Mr. Trump convened the group in the Roosevelt Room, where he reeled off the names of his industry visitors, some of whom are business partners of his family’s crypto company.“Great group of people,” Mr. Trump said as he surveyed the room. “Tremendous investors, brilliant people.”Officially, the meeting was a kickoff event for a new “innovation advisory committee,” a group of business leaders assembled…

The Green Party of England and Wales is calling for a 38% windfall tax on the profits of big banks to support small and medium-sized businesses. Leader Zack Polanski said the tax would be applied to UK profits of more than £800m and be used to cut tax bills for a million smaller companies.The idea was floated by the campaign group Positive Money, which estimated it would raise £19bn a year.When a similar idea was raised last year, the trade body UK Finance said banks already paid both a corporation tax surcharge and a bank levy.Polanski has previously claimed banks…

As AI models have become more powerful, the potential for those models to be misused has grown — as has a clamor for safety guardrails that can stop such abuse from happening. AI companies must now walk a delicate tight rope between respecting their enterprise customers’ privacy while also watching usage for possible issues. Sensing an opportunity to one-up its rival Anthropic, OpenAI just announced a privacy-centric safety approach to monitoring for misuse. The company is previewing a new service to select customers that it calls Private Safety Processing. This is an automated system that watches for potential abuse while…

Ravie LakshmananAug 20, 2026Vulnerability / Web Security Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a critical flaw in the Elementor Pro WordPress plugin that, if successfully exploited, could lead to remote code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-32475, carries a CVSS score of 9.0 out of 10.0. It has been described as a case of unrestricted upload of a file with a dangerous type. “The flaw lives in the Forms module’s File Upload field, where the extension check and the file-move step run in two separate loops with different handling of empty file entries,” Patchstack said. “By submitting two file parts…