Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Social media posts claim that a new ingredient at Starbucks, a blending powder used to make new drinks called blended refreshers, is hazardous to human health. Baristas have reported coughs and headaches, among other symptoms. All of the powder’s ingredients are approved by the FDA as food additives. Snopes found no evidence that the powder is dangerous to consumer health, but it may pose some danger for baristas, who report that the powder easily forms dust clouds, suggesting that symptoms are caused by inhaling the powder.  One of the powder’s ingredients is silicon dioxide, commonly called silica. There is a…

President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche was confirmed as US attorney general on Saturday after Senate Republicans shrugged off Democratic concerns over politicization of the Justice Department. Blanche, who has already been serving as the top US law enforcement officer in an acting capacity, represented Trump as his private attorney in several criminal trials before entering government. The Senate, which Republicans narrowly control, confirmed him by 50 votes to 49. Trump, who has upended US political norms by seeking to bring nominally independent government agencies under his increasingly direct control, calls Blanche a “star.” Democrats opposed Blanche from…

The Trump administration is facing pressure on the right to ramp up arrests of about 350,000 Haitians who recently lost their legal status after the Supreme Court cleared the way for termination of a humanitarian program allowing them to live and work in the United States for years.The Department of Homeland Security has so far focused its enforcement efforts in the Springfield, Ohio, area, where a large group of Haitians with Temporary Protected Status arrived in recent years. At least 50 Haitians have been called into immigration offices and given ankle monitors in recent days, according to advocacy groups.But logistical…

As voters pick the Senate candidates who will face off in the midterm elections in November, with control of the chamber at stake, nominees from both parties have begun sharpening attacks on their opponents.In three of the most competitive and crucial states — Michigan, Maine and Ohio — Republicans have accused their opponents of justifying terrorism and supporting benefits for unauthorized immigrants. Democrats, for their part, have sought to capitalize on the unpopularity of President Trump’s cuts to health care programs.Here is a look at some of the claims.What Was Said“I spent years hunting terrorists and bringing Osama bin Laden…

Just as Chinese travellers were checking into hotels and boarding planes for summer holidays booked through Trip.com, the country’s biggest online travel agent received some painful news.The State Administration for Market Regulation imposed Rmb5.18bn ($770mn) in penalties on the US- and HK-listed company, saying a six-month antitrust investigation had found it abused its market dominance.The SAMR punishment announced in late July was less severe than many investors had expected, but it laid bare the extent of the grip on China’s vast travel industry of a company that handled more than Rmb1tn worth of online bookings globally in 2025.The company accounted…

Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysMicrosoft says it’s refocusing Windows on performance and reliability.File Explorer, Search, and Start are getting responsiveness fixes.The pressure to add new AI-based annoyances hasn’t gone away.Earlier this year, Microsoft Windows boss Pavan Davuluri wrote an open letter addressed to the Windows Insider community but really aimed at a much larger cohort of frustrated Windows enthusiasts and power users.That post laid out a laundry list of improvements that would be coming to Windows: more control over updates, a “more intentional” approach to AI, more attention…

Ravie LakshmananAug 08, 2026Zero-Day / Vulnerability Metabase has warned that a maximum-severity security flaw impacting its business intelligence and data visualization software package has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day. The vulnerability (CVSS score: 10.0), which does not carry a CVE identifier, allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to inject arbitrary SQL into the Metabase application database, enabling them to gain administrator access to the instance. Armed with the elevated access, the attacker can change the application configuration, steal stored credentials for the connected databases, read any data accessible through those connections, and export data. “We recently identified that…

Domestic-currency stablecoins intended to curb reliance on dollar-backed tokens could instead make it easier for users to move funds into digital dollars, according to a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official.On Friday, IMF First Deputy Managing Director Dan Katz said that once local and dollar stablecoins operate on the same blockchain infrastructure, users can convert between them through decentralized exchanges, liquidity pools or peer-to-peer swaps. In a speech at the University of Cape Town, Katz said the shift could move foreign exchange activity away from banks and currency dealers, reducing the friction that gives authorities tools to monitor and manage capital…

Many of today’s quantum technologies depend on powerful lasers that consume significant amounts of energy. As these systems grow larger and more widespread, their electricity requirements could become an increasing concern. Researchers have now demonstrated a striking alternative: sunlight itself can be used to generate quantum entanglement between photons. “Quantum entanglement is crucial for applications such as secure communication, ultra-precise sensing and high-performance computation,” said Cheng Li, a recent graduate of the University of Ottawa in Canada. “Our work shows that abundant natural light sources can be used for quantum entanglement, opening the possibility of more energy-efficient and accessible quantum…

On the surface it looks like a normal summer school in the Devon countryside, with teenagers playing volleyball in the sun, doing arts and crafts in the hall, and preparing for the night’s talent show.But behind the scenes, intensive discussions are taking place. Many of these teenagers come from opposite sides of historical national conflicts – from Israel and Palestine, India and Pakistan.Every day at Seeds of Peace they spend two hours in dialogue sessions with each other, sharing their personal experiences, their pain and trauma, and trying to find the common ground that unites them. Over the course of…