Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Israel’s largest regulated cryptocurrency broker, Bits of Gold, is investigating a data breach that potentially exposed the personal information of up to 250,000 customers.While customer funds and digital assets remain secure, the incident prompted Israeli retail and energy giant Paz to temporarily halt Bitcoin purchases on its Yellow convenience store app.In an Aug. 16 notice, Bits of Gold confirmed that an unauthorized party accessed a supporting data-analysis system several days earlier. The firm is Israel’s first licensed virtual asset service provider. Related ReadingIsrael and Pakistan show crypto’s next growth phase is likely to be outside the USNew moves in Israel…

The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Community of Practice for Education (SCoPE) – part of the NASA Science Activation (SciAct) Program portfolio – enables Earth and Space Science and Engineering Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) – especially NASA-funded SMEs – to efficiently and effectively share their science with support from SciAct education experts.  In Summer 2026, NASA SCoPE partnered with Arizona State University’s Facility for Open Research in a Compressed Environment (FORCE) Summer School to help seven undergraduate student interns build the science communication skills needed to share their research with a variety of audiences. FORCE is a world-class laboratory that…

Italy’s engineering, drilling, and construction services company Saipem is carrying out completion work with its 2000-built drillship for compatriot energy giant Eni on a gas well off the coast of Sicily, with the campaign scheduled to run through to late September 2026, according to an Italian Coast Guard order. Saipem 10000; Source: Saipem The Saipem 10000 drillship has begun completion operations on Eni’s Gemini-1 gas well offshore Sicily, marking the next stage in the development of the discovery as a potential producing well. Based on an official order issued by the Porto Empedocle Coast Guard on August 5, 2026, completion…

Following a major federal court ruling striking down the Department of Energy’s (DOE) unlawful attempt to purge pending Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, American Oversight sent a letter to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) demanding that the agency abandon its similar effort to close outstanding public records requests and comply with its obligations under federal law. Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in our favor and vacated DOE’s blanket “still interested” policy, which threatened to close pending FOIA requests unless requesters affirmatively confirmed within 30 days that they still wanted…

When Conwade Bramwell, a 23-year-old Jamaican, was selected for Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program at the peak of COVID in 2020, he quickly resigned from his full-time job as a hotel bartender. Bramwell had met several Canadians in Jamaica and looked forward to spending time in the country—and building a chance for a better life. “I saw Canadians as lovely people while growing up,” he said. “So, quitting my job for an opportunity to go to Canada and work was like a no-brainer. … But it’s never easy to leave your family and go somewhere else to work.” His excitement…

Russia’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld its decision to bar Russia’s only anti-war party, Yabloko, from running in the September legislative elections, as dozens of party supporters were detained outside the court. Last week, the court removed Yabloko from the ballot, upholding a suit brought by a nationalist party, which blasted the rival for its peace stance and accused it of receiving foreign funding and copyright violations. “The Appeals Chamber of the Supreme Court upheld the court’s decision to revoke the registration of Yabloko’s federal list of candidates for the State Duma elections,” the party said in a statement, adding…

The court in Pskov, north-western Russia, delivered its verdict on Monday. It found Shlosberg guilty of “public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation”.The prosecution had demanded 12 years and one month in jail. The criminal charges were brought following Shlosberg’s comments published on social media.In his closing speech, Shlosberg again rejected all the charges, describing the trial as “an imitation of an investigation” in order to “achieve an obviously illegal goal”, according to a transcript published by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.The opposition politician also repeated his call for a ceasefire in the…

A Labour MP has been suspended after being questioned about government Covid loans taken out by his businesses.Bayo Alaba, the MP for Southend East & Rochford, has referred himself to the Labour party for investigation after the Times asked about a loan given to one of his businesses during the pandemic.After the Times contacted Labour for comment, the party suspended the whip from Alaba and said it had launched an internal investigation.According to the newspaper, Alaba appears to have taken out two bounceback loans during Covid but questions remain about an attempt to wind up one his companies in 2022…

Ministers have dropped plans to relax affordable housing rules for developers in England after a backlash from housing experts who warned it could drastically cut the number of cheaper homes available in rural areas.The government said on Monday it would not go ahead with proposals to end affordable housing quotas for private builders on sites between 10 and 49 houses after a consultation triggered an overwhelmingly negative response.The change, which was included in the government’s 150-page planning reform document on Monday, is one of the most significant reversals ministers have made to housing policy since Andy Burnham became prime minister.Kate…

Bad news for those who get their updates through RSS feeds: Feedly, the largest standalone RSS reader worldwide, has experienced technical issues for over a week, and paying users are upset that the web app has been “unusably slow.” Some users have also reported that the company has ignored their support requests. Uh-oh. Feedly, the heir to the market ceded by Google when it closed Google Reader in 2013, is today among the most successful RSS newsreaders globally with 15 million users, according to its website. That makes it larger than competitive products like the web-based Inoreader as well as…