Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Downing Street has issued a temporary GB-wide ban on the sale of disposable barbecue and brought in the military to help deal with wildfires as Andy Burnham urged people not to risk lives in “tinderbox” Britain this weekend.The prime minister spoke from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, where at least 19 people have been taken to hospital during eight fires that have ripped through several homes.He said it was necessary to bring in a temporary ban on disposable barbecues from today, asking retailers to withdraw them from sale, as he spoke of the “absolutely devastating” wildfires.“Please think about the situation…

Labour marked its worst performance in more than 50 years when voters went to the polls in Barnsley in May, but 100 days on from those seismic local elections, the political landscape has shifted drastically.Could the South Yorkshire town, where Reform UK reaped the benefits of dissatisfaction with Labour, prove to be a test case for whether the governing party has turned the tide?Labour had run Barnsley’s council since its inception in 1974, but was left with just 11 councillors after Reform triumphed with 42 seats.“I knew that it would be the most challenging set of elections that we’ve ever…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A decade ago, when Daniel Kinahan, the Irishman accused by multiple western governments of running one of the world’s biggest cocaine cartels, became embroiled in a bloody gang war, it appears he invested on two fronts: contract killings and public relations.While the crime family he is alleged to command hired foreign hitmen to assassinate rivals on the streets of Dublin, a film crew was hired to shoot a mini-feature dramatising the feud in a flattering light to Kinahan. He would later use…

Tim O’Reilly’s yardstick for measuring the worth of a company, person, or society has long been create more value than you capture. It’s no surprise that O’Reilly—publisher, internet pioneer, VC, conference organizer, and dispenser of tech wisdom—is applying that metric to the way people design and use AI. Specifically, he’s pushing for a future where open-source AI is an elixir for the masses. He worries that, like Microsoft in the 1990s, today’s hyperscalers are trying to lock users into their products. So he is promoting efforts to open-source AI technology—not only making critical technical details such as neural-net weights accessible,…

Bitcoin (BTC) declined into Friday’s Wall Street open as traders increasingly saw a BTC price breakdown next.Key points:Bitcoin stays below $63,000, heading steadily closer to new August lows while US stocks build on record highs.Analysis says that $63,220 must be reclaimed by the weekly close to avoid a deeper rout.Markets look to PCE inflation data as the next key test for risk assets.Bitcoin price sags with stocks at all-time highsData from TradingView showed BTC/USD down 1.3% on the day at $62,570, near its lowest levels month-to-date.BTC/USD four-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewDespite encouraging US inflation data lifting risk assets and reducing the…

The UK’s electric vehicle (EV) sales target could be cut after the government launched a review following pressure from car makers.Currently 80% of all new cars sold must be EVs by 2030 – but motor industry figures had urged ministers to reduce that goal, warning it would cost too much and put jobs at risk.The government has now said it is considering cutting that figure to as far as 50% of all sales by the end of the decade, which it will consult on until late October.Environmental groups have argued that watering down the target undermines the UK’s long-term climate…

The tiny, seldom-studied sand cat is the only feline adapted to survive in harsh deserts: It lives across Southwest and Central Asia, northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.Because of its large geographic range, this cat isn’t classified as threatened by the IUCN, but data is difficult to come by. Some scientists want to uplist the species to near-threatened status.The sand cat is difficult to see, day or night. After scattered anecdotal reports, scientists used camera traps to document the first systematic record of the sand cat in Qatar. Their findings offer valuable glimpses into this elusive species’ distribution and…

Greece’s transmission system operator (TSO) Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), as the project promoter of the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) that will connect Cyprus and Israel, has submitted an investment approval request to the regulatory authorities of both countries. Source: IPTO This is the necessary next step under the European framework toward project implementation, following the completion of the required cost-benefit analysis (CBA) studies and the proposal for the cross-border cost allocation (CBCA). During the preparation of the studies, consultation and data exchange took place with the competent entities of Cyprus and Israel, including the ministries of energy, the Transmission…

Reporting Highlights Philanthropy’s Gatekeepers: Donor-advised fund sponsors control $327 billion in giving, granting them vast power to decide which charities can receive donor dollars. Selective Defunding: Major sponsors froze grants to the Southern Poverty Law Center following an unproven indictment while continuing to fund other institutions facing severe legal scrutiny. Little Accountability: Wall Street-affiliated funds remove charities without providing clear reasons or pathways to appeal, refusing to explain themselves to donors and the public. These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. When the Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center in April…

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief. The highlights this week: A deadly earthquake rattles Colombia, the United States threatens visa bans for Argentines doing business with Huawei, and the final season of One Hundred Years of Solitude drops on Netflix. Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella had been in office for less than three days when a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit the country on Monday. The epicenter of the quake was in the Chocó department, which is located between Bogotá and the Pacific coast and lies on a few fault lines. Colombian officials said on Thursday that at least…