Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Wednesday, American Oversight released new records raising urgent questions about whether the Trump administration is meeting its obligation to provide adequate medical care to people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody after it disrupted the longstanding system responsible for processing payments for offsite treatment. Federal law mandates that ICE provide medical care for people in its custody. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the records we obtained document more than 233,000 medical, dental, and pharmacy claims totaling more than $96 million that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) processed on behalf of…

The rise in children and young people with mental health problems makes this week’s announcement of a new network of community clinics in England particularly welcome. A&E departments have recorded an increase in difficult-to-manage symptoms including aggression and hallucinations. New specialist walk-in mental health services should take some of the pressure off. The bringing forward of a deadline for ending out-of-area acute placements, and a pledge to reduce waiting times for children, are also positive.Declining mental health was among the key themes of Alan Milburn’s interim report on young people and work. It is a big factor behind the rise…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – facing a crucial election later this year – has hinted that he may be considering taking unilateral action to prolong a costly war with Iran, even as Washington and Tehran appear to be close to an interim deal to open the Strait of Hormuz.“We heard today the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ahmad Vahidi, declare that Iran intends to continue developing a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu claimed in an assertion, even though no official statement from Vahidi on the matter has been released by the Iranian government or official media.Recommended Stories list of…

“We do of course see that Russia attempts every day, in one way or another — through hybrid means and various measures — to exert influence here in Germany in a manner that seeks to undermine our democracy and erode trust in politics and politicians,” said Martin Giese, a foreign ministry spokesperson. Russian disinformation campaigns have portrayed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his government as warmongers. They aim to undermine the already unpopular chancellor and boost Russia-friendly forces such as the AfD and the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) — both of which are strong in eastern Germany. “The state…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s blocking of promotions for high-ranking women in the military has contributed to the lowest percentage of such nominations for women in at least 25 years, according to a New York Times analysis.Eight of 201 candidates for high-ranking posts this year have been women, or 4 percent — less than half the average percentage of the past 10 years.More women could still be promoted this year. And the number of women nominated for promotion in any year is relatively small, so the percentages can fluctuate based on a few individual officers. In 2012, for example, the percentage…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Uefa has doubled down on its threat to boycott the World Cup despite Fifa abandoning a controversial plan to raise capital from investors, as European football’s governing body moves to keep the pressure on Fifa president Gianni Infantino. Uefa, whose members include current World Cup holders Spain, issued its threat of a boycott last week, seeking binding assurances that Fifa “will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership”.“These conditions have not been met,” Uefa said on Thursday. “In addition,…

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.The 13-inch Apple MacBook Air M5 is now on sale for back-to-school season, with the 13-inch starting at $1,134, or 13% off — the lowest price we’ve seen since Apple’s blanket price increase across its entire MacBook and iPad lineup in June. Also: I tried buying a MacBook Air from Apple today – shipping was delayed by over a monthThis means consumers are paying 15% to 25% more now than they would have on the same device a couple of months ago. While Amazon has changed its prices to match, some of the latest MacBook…

Meta has become the latest AI company to confirm that one of its models hacked a real organization during cybersecurity testing, as similar incidents continue to emerge following OpenAI’sOpenAI’s initial disclosure that its agents breached Hugging Face. The Information was the first to report the incident on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter who said Meta’s Muse Spark 1.1 model breached an unidentified company and made changes to its internal systems. According to the report, the model reached the public internet because of an error in the configuration of a sandbox testing environment operated with independent cybersecurity evaluation company…

Bitcoin hovered near $64,830 on Thursday, up 0.8% over 24 hours and 1.3% on the week, while trading inside a narrow band, CoinDesk data show. Ether rose 2.1%, but most other majors barely moved, leaving the market less in rally mode than in wait-and-see mode.The bid under bitcoin is coming from macro hopes rather than fresh crypto demand. President Donald Trump pointed to strong employment, better manufacturing data and cooling inflation, while also raising the possibility of a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. A reopening would likely pressure oil lower, easing inflation worries and giving Treasury yields and…

Researchers have created a hollow CdS@polydopamine nanoreactor that imitates two important features of living cells. The design offers a new way to reproduce some of the highly organized chemical functions of cells inside synthetic nanomaterials. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The research was led by Prof. LI Can at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. Jian Liu’s team at Inner Mongolia University. Recreating Cellular Chemistry at the Nanoscale Living cells carry out complex biochemical reactions with exceptional efficiency and precision. They…