Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Earlier this week, the Alaskan cruise ship Wilderness Legacy rescued a small skiff stranded near Farragut Bay after running out of fuel. But, according to tracking data reviewed by the Alaska Beacon and Halifax Shipping News, the closest vessel was actually Mark Zuckerberg’s super yacht, Launchpad.Michael Love, a passenger on the Wilderness Legacy, posted on Bluesky that the captain announced the Launchpad was closer, but “repeatedly refused to respond,” which was met with booing from the passengers. The AIS tracking (embedded below) seems to support that the Launchpad was closer to the vessel in trouble, but then stopped near the…

Demand for US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) rebounded sharply this week, signaling renewed investor appetite after months of uneven flows, even as uncertainty persists around digital asset regulation and the security of crypto self-custody.On Saturday, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said the spot funds attracted roughly $1 billion in net inflows for the week, their strongest showing since April and third-best week since last October — a period he referred to as Bitcoin’s “silent IPO.”Source: Eric BalchunasThe term was popularized by investor Jordi Visser in November to describe what he viewed as a changing of the guard among Bitcoin…

India is attempting to do something the world has never seen before. So claimed Niti Aayog, the government of India’s policy thinktank, earlier this year. It said that no major economy has tried to expand GDP nearly eightfold within a generation while simultaneously redirecting its energy and industrial systems to reach net zero within two generations. Hence its detailed report’s claim that there is “no historical precedent”.There is something to this. China industrialised at vast scale, but not on a sustainable net zero path. Korea, Japan and Europe became wealthy by industrialising before decarbonising. Today, rich nations have already satisfied…

Iran’s demands for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, as laid out in a statement on Saturday, are largely what President Trump had already agreed to do in the memorandum of understanding that was signed on June 17 and quickly fell apart. But Iran sees control over the strait as its best chance of getting Mr. Trump to deliver on those promises — and is not willing to give it up just yet.For Iran, analysts suggest, denying Mr. Trump the ability to claim victory over the strait is the most efficient lever to persuade him to recommit to those agreements and…

Italian divers have discovered an ancient Roman shipwreck off the coast of Sicily, believed to be more than 2,000 years old.The vessel was found piled high with hundreds of well-preserved containers, which were used to transport goods such as wine and olive oil. Italy’s Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli hailed the wreck as “one of the most important underwater archaeological discoveries of recent years”.Specialist police divers found the ship around 46m (150ft) deep, after a tip-off from fishermen. The wreckage is 21m (69ft) long and 6m (20ft) wide, according to reports in local media.The culture ministry says it dates from the…

Sadiq Khan has ordered Westminster council to scrap a policy that would ban new pubs and bars from opening in Soho and the West End of London.This comes after the Guardian revealed the council’s new licensing policy asks pubs to stop customers from standing up while consuming beverages, which it calls “vertical drinking”. The policy is under consultation and also asks pubs to have table service rather than allowing orders at the bar.There was widespread anger at the plans to direct those applying to open new bars and restaurants in Westminster to implement the restrictions.The mayor of London has new…

A pilot has traced the shape of a bin with their flight path near Clacton before Count Binface challenges Nigel Farage in a byelection on Thursday.The light aircraft spent around half an hour between 2,100ft and 4,150ft above the sea near the Essex coastal town zigzagging to mark out the shape of a bin, according to data from Flightradar24.The plane took off from Earls Colne airfield near Colchester at 2.48pm on Saturday and landed at 4.13pm. The aircraft is in private ownership, according to Flightradar24, and the pilot’s identity is unknown.Voters will go to the polls in Clacton in a…

Samsung continues to innovate in the flip phone space: At the Samsung Unpacked event in London last month, the company unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 (and the foldable Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra). The phones are available to purchase now through Samsung and the various phone carriers. The new Z Flip 8 is slightly thinner and lighter than its predecessor, and has a larger battery.  Also: Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked 2026: New foldables, smartwatches, and smart glassesIf you’re looking to upgrade, you can preorder the Galaxy Z Flip 8 from Samsung or from phone…

In brief MyTrade founder Liu Zhou has been fined $10,000 over running a crypto wash trading service. Zhou pleaded guilty in October 2024 alongside 17 co-conspirators charged in the same operation. MyTrade’s dashboard let clients order a daily volume of fake trades, executed by bots. The founder of crypto market maker MyTrade has avoided prison and been fined $10,000 for running a wash trading service that generated millions of dollars in fake daily volume across roughly 60 cryptocurrencies.Liu Zhou, 41, a Canadian citizen and Chinese national, was sentenced in Boston federal court on Thursday by U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley,…

After the playwright Tom Stoppard died last year, one of the most striking tributes to his work came from a clinical scientist. Michael Baum explained in the British Medical Journal how, in the interval of a 1993 performance of Arcadia, he experienced an epiphany. Thomasina Coverly’s attempt to plot the equation for a rose prompted him to realise that chaos theory was the best way to explain breast cancer’s pattern of recurrence. It was, he wrote, “the bond that links the arts and the sciences as one enterprise rather than the contents of two silos”.Mr Baum was not the first person to celebrate…