Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Pope Leo XIV will meet with survivors of clergy abuse during a four-day trip to France next month that will include a visit to UNESCO headquarters, a meeting with French bishops in Lourdes and an interreligious meeting in the border city of Metz, the Vatican announced on Friday. The Vatican issued a brief separate statement highlighting the meeting with several abuse survivors and noting that the victims themselves will be involved in preparations for the meeting. The timing and location will be provided at a later date.  Leo met with six abuse survivors during his recent trip to Spain, where…

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have signed a joint defence agreement, saying an attack on one of them would be seen as an attack on all three.The pact was announced at a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Saudi city of Mecca.The three countries have been looking to strengthen security ties as the war between the US and Iran has drawn in Saudi Arabia and disrupted maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping channel, and the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia and…

Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said on Friday that she would oppose Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general, further imperiling his chances of confirmation.Ms. Murkowski, who is the second Republican senator to oppose President Trump’s pick for the job, said in a statement that she harbored concerns over the “politicization” of the Justice Department, and worried that Mr. Blanche would “fail to check the worst impulses of this administration.”Given her stance and with Democrats uniformly against him, Mr. Blanche can likely not afford any other Republican defections and still be confirmed.Ms. Murkowski cited the department’s handling of the release…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldNo tankers have loaded at Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, for at least a week, according to shipping and satellite data providers, suggesting the renewed US naval blockade has brought Tehran’s crude sales to a halt. Washington reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports in mid-July after an interim deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz collapsed. Kharg Island, which is critical to Iran’s oil industry, fell idle on July 31, according to ship tracking company Kpler and consultancy…

Starting with the original in Camp Miasma in 1980, the horror franchise went on to have a long life. There were multiple sequels, spinoffs in the form of arcade cabinets and board games, and just about every kind of merchandise you can think of, from alarm clocks and lunch boxes to Halloween costumes and action figures. It got so popular there were even knockoff costumes at party stores. For several decades the franchise exerted a powerful, albeit dwindling, impact on the world of horror. But if you haven’t heard of Camp Miasma, that’s okay, because it doesn’t really exist. It’s…

Black Hat — The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) says a 2024 safety recall for Bendix’s EC80 heavy-truck brake controller quietly fixed a set of serious vulnerabilities, including a wirelessly reachable remote code execution flaw, alongside the memory corruption issue Bendix publicly disclosed.  The findings were detailed by NMFTA senior cybersecurity research engineer Ben Gardiner on Thursday at the Black Hat USA 2026 conference. The EC80 electronic control unit (ECU) handles anti-lock braking, traction control and stability functions on heavy commercial vehicles. It communicates over J2497, also known as PLC4TRUCKS, a powerline databus that has served since 2001 as…

MARA Holdings sold 2,213 Bitcoin during the second quarter, equal to 91.37% of the 2,422 BTC it mined, before adding $600 million of new borrowing secured by Bitcoin collateral to help finance its planned acquisition of Long Ridge, a power-generation site it aims to develop for AI and high-performance computing.The company’s quarterly filing shows that the new money sits inside $750 million of fully drawn facilities entered into on Aug. 4. Coinbase provided a $450 million facility, including $300 million of new borrowing and the refinancing of an existing $150 million loan. Two Prime provided a separate $300 million loan.…

Linus Pauling was one of the most brilliant scientists of the 20th century. He won two Nobel prizes and transformed our understanding of chemical bonds and the structure of proteins. Late in his career, though, he became famous for something very different: a passionate belief that very high doses of vitamin C could help people with cancer. Many doctors scoffed. When Pauling himself later died of cancer aged 93, he was held up as a classic case of the “halo effect”: being a genius in one field doesn’t guarantee wisdom in another. Half a century on, the story looks more…

U.S.-headquartered technology player SLB has signed off on a long-term stimulation assignment on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) with Norway’s state-owned energy giant Equinor. MV Island Captain; Source: SLB SLB and Equinor’s multi-year agreement for advanced reservoir stimulation services across the Norwegian Continental Shelf will result in a major upgrade of the MV Island Captain well stimulation vessel to secure additional capability for tight offshore reservoirs. The ship will be converted into a fully proppant-capable stimulation vessel. This move will not only enable dedicated capacity to support development of tight offshore reservoirs but also help maximize recovery from future wells. The…

Since the first Industrial Revolution, goods and technologies have reached the farthest corners of the world, but the ability to design, build, market, and extract value from them has remained highly concentrated. Unless humanity can break this pattern, a sufficient response to climate change will remain out of reach. BRASÍLIA—Suppose the global economy comprised countries roughly equally equipped with research institutions, technology development labs, and industrial production facilities. They might compete fiercely, build rival alliances, and vie aggressively for raw materials and natural resources. But one can also imagine a more optimistic scenario. Since each country would understand its own…