Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

During Wednesday’s hearing, the appeal judges heard that while deliberating their verdict, jurors stayed in the same hotel as members of the prosecution team, a key police witness, and journalists.Patterson’s barrister Richard Edney said this “catastrophic” situation had “undermined the integrity of the verdicts and requires the quashing of the convictions”.He said a retrial was required “so that justice can not only be done but be seen to be done”.Director of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane accepted it was regrettable but “happened, as far as we can tell… by accident”.”The issue is whether there was communication between this jury and any…

Former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for wartime elections, in what is widely seen as the biggest challenge to Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidency since Russia’s full-scale invasion four and a half years ago.”Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,” said Fedorov, 35, in a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday, adding that Ukraine is fighting “precisely because we want to remain a free European state”.Since the war broke out in 2022 Ukraine has been under martial law, which means elections are suspended.Fedorov, who did not mention Zelensky by name in the video, was unexpectedly fired from his role as…

Burnham announces drive to get thousands of rough sleepers off streets for ChristmasHello and welcome to the UK politics live blog.Andy Burnham has pledged to work to “get everyone in for Christmas” as he continues to build on his policy to end rough sleeping.Arguing in the Guardian that rough sleeping has become so common it now “feels like part of the scenery”, Burnham promised he would mount a Covid-style campaign to get everyone off the streets this winter.The announcement solidifies tackling homelessness as a central policy for Burnham’s government, and gives voters a measure by which to judge his success…

Jack Wallen/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysNot all Linux distributions will eventually include AI.Developers’ ethos often runs counter to AI technology. Jack Wallen expects these six distros will continue to shun AI.AI is everywhere, and the technology’s tendrils continue finding their way into more and more places. Will we soon see AI in shopping carts, waffle makers, heated blankets — rocks?OK, maybe AI in rocks is a stretch, but you get the point.Microsoft and Apple are embedding their respective AIs into the heart of their operating systems, and some Linux distributions, such as Omarchy, have…

The Hacker NewsAug 18, 2026SaaS Security / Cloud Security A single piece of infrastructure has been pulling records out of Salesforce and ServiceNow customer portals across multiple industries for more than a year, according to research published this week by agent security platform Reco. The activity, which Reco has named the City Forum campaign after a domain tied to the attacker’s IP address, traces back to one server: 158.220.87.79, hosted on a commodity VPS through the German provider Contabo. Every request from that server carries the same fingerprint, the default user agent of Go’s net/http library, which tells researchers the…

Bitcoin’s price is down nearly 50% since its October record. But investors shouldn’t worry, the world’s largest asset manager has said, and the cryptocurrency still plays a role as “a global monetary alternative.”  In a report Monday, Robert Mitchnick, global head of digital assets at the firm, said that the ongoing rise in U.S. and global government debt and deficits hasn’t slowed.  BlackRock has argued alongside other Bitcoin proponents that the oldest and biggest cryptocurrency can be a hedge against governments printing money.  JUST IN: $15 trillion BlackRock reports they’re still bullish on Bitcoin despite the -50% decline from its…

Ukraine’s ​ousted Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for wartime elections in a bombshell address on Tuesday, arguing the nation faced a crisis of governance, in the biggest internal challenge to President Volodymyr Zelensky since Russia’s invasion. Fedorov’s call, delivered in a video address posted on YouTube, is the first such ​demand by a ‌major Ukrainian political figure since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukrainian law prohibits holding elections ⁠during wartime. “Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,” Fedorov said. “We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to renew its full democratic process…

Mary Peltola, an Alaska Native and moderate former congresswoman running on a platform she describes as “fish, family and freedom,” is the leading Democrat in Alaska’s nonpartisan primary election on Tuesday.The top four finishers regardless of party will advance to the general election in November. To have a shot at taking back control of the Senate, Democrats almost certainly will need Ms. Peltola to beat Dan Sullivan, the Republican incumbent.Here are five things to know about Ms. Peltola.She is Yup’ik.Ms. Peltola’s father, Ward Sattler, a teacher and bush pilot, moved to Alaska from Nebraska. Her mother, LizAnn Piicigaq Williams, was…

The Pentagon said late on Tuesday that it was ending a major training exercise with South Korea one week earlier than scheduled, on Aug. 21, and scaling back many remaining live-fire training drills to computer simulations or canceling them altogether.The moves came after President Trump on Sunday ordered the Defense Department to reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, a longtime U.S. ally and a linchpin of America’s national security strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.Mr. Trump’s order was aimed at rekindling talks with Kim Jong-un of North Korea at a time when efforts to resolve the Iran war have hit…

Panel remarks by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the International Business Council of the World Economic ForumGeneva, 19 August 2026Europe’s post-war growth model rested on three mutually reinforcing pillars. Today, all three are weakening as the international environment changes.The first pillar was expanding global trade. Europe became one of the world’s most open economies – roughly twice as open to trade as the United States – and benefited greatly from globalisation.[1] But expanding trade can no longer be taken for granted. Last year alone, more than 2,500 trade restrictions were implemented globally.[2]The second pillar was Europe’s strength in…