Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Waiting at the bar and trying to catch the bartender’s eye so you can order a pint, before going to stand with your friends and have a catchup, has been how British people have experienced going to the pub for centuries.But Westminster council has been accused of trying to put a stop to it. The council, which has jurisdiction over one of the busiest nightlife districts in Europe – Soho and the West End – has recommended not allowing “vertical drinking” or ordering at the bar in its new draft licensing policy.Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has criticised these…

A record number of people have been referred to the government’s anti-terror programme, with a 39% rise over the last year, including a 20% rise in referrals for extreme rightwing ideology, according to official data released on Thursday.A total of 10,293 referrals – up from 7,408 – were made to the Prevent programme in the year to September 2025, which is the highest number since records began 11 years ago.Those referrals to the scheme, which aims to stop people turning to terrorism, involved 9,957 people suspected of extremist or violent tendencies.The rise comes after officials noted a sustained and significant…

Nintendo has smashed its first-quarter earnings estimates for the fiscal year, bolstered by strong games sales and US tariff refunds, though its customers likely won’t receive anything from the latter. In its latest financial results, Nintendo reports that operating profits soared to 142.5 billion yen (about $902 million) between April 1st and June 30th, compared to 56.9 billion yen (about $360 million) for the same quarter last year — an increase of 150.5 percent.This spike is partially attributed to a boom in game sales, with Switch 2 software sales increasing by 9.2 percent compared to the previous year, and software…

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is giving federal agencies three days to mitigate vulnerabilities in IBM Langflow, N-central, and Apache Tomcat, all actively exploited. ​Tracked as CVE-2026-9198, the security issue in IBM’s Langflow visual framework for building AI agents is the most severe, with a critical rating of 9.8 out of 10. It allows an unauthenticated attacker to execute remotely on default Langflow deployments by chaining two API endpoints to bypass login and run code. In late July, multiple fully functional proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits for CVE-2026-9198 emerged in the public space, with complete instructions on how they can…

About 64 Bitcoin, worth $4.17 million, and 200 Ether, worth $380,000, linked to the recent Coldcard exploit were sent to cryptocurrency mixing protocols, according to blockchain security platform CertiK. The Bitcoin transfer was from address bc1q0 to crypto mixing protocol Wasabi on Tuesday, according to blockchain data shared by CertiK.“We think it might be a smaller exploiter. There’s likely a few copycats after the initial exploit,” a CertiK spokesperson told Cointelegraph. The 200 Ether (ETH) was transferred to Tornado Cash on Wednesday, according to CertiK’s X post.Crypto mixing protocols such as Tornado Cash typically pool and then scramble the cryptocurrency from…

The government is already on course to miss its legally binding target of restoring 77% of England’s waters to good ecological status by 2027 – a goal the environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, has warned will be missed by a “considerable margin”.It’s now investigating both the government and the Environment Agency over possible rule breaches.Environment Secretary Angela Eagle said the figures “underline the need for wholesale change across the water sector”.She pointed to new laws the government has introduced to hold water companies to account and record investment. “We will drive forward a system that puts the public…

Speaking about the recent heatwaves, England’s health secretary, who also gave an interview to the Guardian newspaper on the topic, said: “I spoke to A&E staff who were telling me that they’ve had a big increase in patients coming into A&E linked to the heat in a way that you would normally only see in the winter.”So I’ve been clear: the NHS has to make sure we are preparing for summer pressures now in the same way we prepare for winter.”What it means is making sure that you’ve got plans in place to respond to higher numbers of people coming…

A mountainous reserve near Manila, the Philippine capital, is a critical ecological refuge, harboring high levels of plant diversity despite its proximity to the highly urbanized city, according to a recent study. The findings come from surveys done 10 years earlier, however, and mounting pressures on the area’s forests since then may have had an impact, the authors say. As the last remaining natural lowland forest in Cavite province, on the southern shores of Manila Bay, Mounts Palay-palay-Mataas-na-Gulod Protected Landscape serves as a vital stronghold for Philippine biodiversity, researchers say. In July 2016, they surveyed plants within the…

Reporting Highlights Hard Line on Payments: In her two years in the role, Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill has opposed almost all compensation claims by wrongfully convicted people. Freed After Four Decades: Elvis Brooks’ murder conviction was thrown out after a prosecutor admitted he hid potentially exonerating evidence. Murrill maintains he’s guilty. A Higher Bar: Twenty-three people have sought compensation after judges threw out their convictions. Murrill has asserted that 22 have failed to sufficiently prove their innocence. These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. Elvis Brooks thought he had an airtight case…

Claim: In early August 2026, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The conflict in Iran would be over by now if President Trump had better intelligence.” Rating: In early August 2026, social media users shared an alleged quote attributed to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in which she purportedly said the Iran war “would be over by now” if U.S. President Donald Trump “had better intelligence.” For instance, one Facebook post read, “Karoline Leavitt: ‘The conflict in Iran would be over by now if President Trump had better intelligence.'” The purported quote spread on social media platforms including…