Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The question of whether to approve Rosebank, as well as the Jackdaw gas field east of Aberdeen, has become hugely politically significant.Rosebank was approved by the previous Conservative government in 2023, but that decision was successfully challenged in the courts by campaigners including Uplift.The decision now lies with the Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, but will be seen as an important indication of Burnham’s wider thinking on oil and gas.Miliband was widely thought to have been opposed to Rosebank when he served as Sir Keir Starmer’s energy secretary.Burnham has spoken repeatedly of the need for a “flexible” approach to energy and…

Ministers are working up sweeping plans for welfare changes including scrapping a key disability benefit for under-25s and replacing it with a multibillion-pound package of support to get into work, the Guardian has learned.Whitehall sources said the package of changes under debate was much bigger than previously thought, as Andy Burnham’s government hopes to persuade more people on benefits back into work.The move could be fraught with political danger after last year’s dramatic welfare rebellion by Labour MPs. But ministers have spent weeks trying to persuade them the plans are about reform, and feel confident opposition has waned.The plans are…

In July 2016, the Manchester City player Yaya Touré ambled into a small bar near Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium and offered a bemused smile as dozens of Chinese fans rushed towards him.Manchester City had just won their sixth trophy under the big-spending ownership of Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group and the blues were international megastars. They were also magnets for investment.On a trade mission led by Sir Howard Bernstein, the architect of modern Manchester, civic leaders rolled out club legends such as Mike Summerbee and Sun Jihai in a charm offensive to football-mad Chinese businessmen who saw that the club…

The Steam Deck is four and a half years old, and handheld gamers are eagerly awaiting a Steam Deck 2 — but Valve has consistently said it needs a new chip with a “generational leap” in performance and efficiency before building the sequel.There’s some reason to believe that chip has now broken cover: AMD Gainsborough. But I’m a tad skeptical.As leaker Moore’s Law is Dead and IT Home report, the latest AMD drivers have leaked the codename for a previously unknown chip: an “AMD Gainsborough.” The first Steam Deck chip was named “Aerith” after Final Fantasy VII’s heartbreaking love interest,…

Is zero trust still effective in the AI era? A new book from John Kindervag says yes, but that assumes it is correctly implemented. John Kindervag introduced the concept of zero trust in a Forrester Research report titled No More Chewy Centers: Introducing the Zero Trust Model of Information Security published in 2010. Since then, the concept has become a foundational precept within cybersecurity. Fifteen years later, he was asked to write a new book about zero trust in the age of AI. The big question is whether 15 years-old security principles remain valid in the face of new AI-assisted…

That had been a point of disappointment for some participants in past events: While Trump briefly appeared, they didn’t get a chance to meet him.Since his memecoin’s launch in the days before he took office again, investors have lost billions of dollars, and those losses have occupied the spotlight during the recent debates over the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — the crypto market structure bill in the Senate. With Trump’s crypto empire in mind, Democratic lawmakers had insisted that the bill limit the digital asset ties of senior government officials, but that provision could never be worked out, and…

A diet that combines elements of the Mediterranean diet with an eating plan designed to lower blood pressure may help slow some of the structural changes that occur as the brain ages, according to research published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. Greater adherence to the MIND diet was linked to less brain tissue loss over time, particularly in grey matter, which plays an important role in memory, learning, decision making, and information processing. It was also associated with less enlargement of the brain’s ventricles, fluid filled spaces that tend to grow as brain tissue shrinks. What…

The prince spoke to Kate and Jim Beavan, of Great Tre-Rhew Farm, and Jenny Knight, the director of Stump Up for Trees.After the visit, Knight paid tribute to Prince William for “looking at not just the problems but the solutions as well”.Representatives from the Duchy of Cornwall also joined the visit to share learning about nature recovery, climate-resilient forestry and to start a long-term partnership.Knight added “knowledge exchange is so valuable” and said working together across different areas would have a greater impact.At the end of the conversation, William discussed his enjoyment of cider, which is made on the farm.”He…

Police have at last asked prosecutors to consider charges relating to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. The suffering of those who survived or were bereaved by the blaze, which killed 72 people, has been exacerbated by the extraordinary length of time that the investigation has taken. But they can now look forward to a decision about who will face criminal charges. The Crown Prosecution Service has promised that this will be before the 10th anniversary next June.The names of the 20 organisations and 54 individuals in the police files will not be released by prosecutors unless they are charged. But…

Seventeen-year-old Raphael took part in protests outside a school in Strasbourg, where barriers were used to obstruct nearby tram tracks. He voiced his frustration at his school’s facilities in an interview with news agency AFP, saying some rooms had leaks and that there were not enough toilets.”The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is too small. There’s zero budget, zero resources, not enough supervisors,” Raphael said.While France’s next general election is still months away, the protests and how French authorities are responding to them has been heavily politicised.The government and hard-right politicians have blamed the hard left for igniting protests,…