Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Phia, the shopping startup co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, is once again under fire for its alleged business practices. The latest issue stems from earlier this year when Bloomberg published an investigation that mapped out how Phia was taking credit and commission for affiliate purchases it did not help to generate, known as cookie stuffing.  It’s a controversial practice that can get startups sued, mainly because it’s seen as taking referral revenue away from other affiliate marketers. Usually, when affiliate platforms like Phia sign on to work in a marketplace, they sign a contract stating that cookie stuffing…

Microsoft on Tuesday announced patches for 421 CVEs, including a high-severity vulnerability that has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day. The exploited flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-68820, is described as a use-after-free issue in Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (afd.sys), the kernel-mode driver functioning as the backbone for the Windows Sockets API. Microsoft says threat actors have been exploiting the security defect to elevate their privileges to System, without sharing details on the observed attacks. “A locally authenticated attacker could run a specially crafted application on an affected system to trigger a race condition. Successful exploitation could allow the…

Hashdex will stop trading its DEFI Bitcoin ETF after the Aug. 17 close, giving investors a final window to exit before the fund is liquidated.According to an SEC filing, investors who remain after trading ends will receive cash from the liquidation of its Bitcoin holdings by Aug. 28. The eventual payout will reflect the fund’s net asset value after Bitcoin price movements, transaction costs, and other closing expenses.The approaching deadline is already shrinking the fund.Hashdex data showed DEFI held about $8.7 million in assets and 134.95 BTC on Aug. 11, down from $11.77 million and 180.26 BTC on Aug. 7.More…

Cambodia appears to have resumed exporting sand to Singapore, despite a 2017 national ban, with Koh Kong provincial authorities saying a new dredging operation has been licensed.Mongabay traced at least four bulk carriers from Koh Kong to Singapore’s Tuas Port, where the site of a massive land reclamation project.The dredging is taking place within protected area boundaries and could affect riverbanks, fisheries and wildlife, as well as a major downstream mangrove forest.Environmental activists say they hope to draw attention to the renewed sand trade, but Cambodia’s shrinking civic space and restrictions on civil society groups have made standing up…

Following troubling reports that Department of the Interior (DOI) employees have “routinely” shredded documents and used “disappearing Signal messages” amid a culture in which officials “are terrified of written records,” nonpartisan watchdog American Oversight today demanded immediate action to stop the destruction of federal records. In letters to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Acting Archivist Ed Forst and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, we called for compliance with the Federal Records Act (FRA), demanding the agencies to take immediate action to preserve and recover any lost or destroyed federal records in response to “any actual, impending, or threatened unlawful…

Where do diesel prices stand now? Diesel prices have remained elevated beyond the spring planting season, with farmers now approaching the fuel-intensive fall harvest. In the Midwest, on-highway diesel averaged $5.26 per gallon during the week of Aug. 3, up nearly 39% from $3.79 per gallon during the same period a year earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. American farmers spent an estimated $1.4 billion more on diesel during the 2026 planting season than they did a year earlier, according to a July analysis released by the congressional Joint Economic Committee Minority. The report estimates diesel costs for…

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief. The highlights this week: The United States blames China for local data center opposition, details emerge about a California killing involving three Chinese immigrants, and Beijing issues new rules on exit bans and offshore trusts. Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief. The highlights this week: The United States blames China for local data center opposition, details emerge about a California killing involving three Chinese immigrants, and Beijing issues new rules on exit bans and offshore trusts. Explaining AI’s Popularity As public opposition to artificial intelligence data centers rises across the United States, Silicon Valley elites and…

Coalition promises to drastically cut net overseas migration and housing construction codeThe Coalition has promised to drop net overseas migration to under 180,000 a year over the forward estimates, including by cutting family and international student visas, as part of a push to open up more housing supply.The shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg will be up at the national press club and says the opposition will strip the 2000 page national construction code, which he says makes it “illegal to build a cheap safe house”, down to an 80-page “basic Australian standard”.The current permanent migration level is set to 185,000…

You may think it’s a commitment to buying a round, the ability to chat at length about the weather, or making a proper cup of tea. But when it comes down to what makes people proud to be British, there is a consensus across all ages, demographics and political groups – and tea, pints and the weather don’t get a look-in.Hard work, fair play and community are the values that voters – no matter which political party, age group, social class or region they come from – instinctively believe capture what it means to be British, according to a large-scale…

The police chiefs from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland also called for greater consideration of victims when prisoners have their sentences altered – such as with the government’s early release scheme, which was designed to reduce prison overcrowding.Under changes to the Sentencing Act made this year, Cole and Bowers, who were sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter in 2020, will become eligible for release from custody after serving half of their sentences.In the letter, released on Tuesday evening, police chiefs said the early release of PC Harper’s killers, and that of anyone involved in the death of an officer,…