Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Gianni Infantino has apologised for “errors” he made in controversial plans to sell off stakes in competitions to private investors, but will remain Fifa president after receiving the backing of senior executives in a meeting in Morocco.Infantino summoned members of the management board to Fifa’s Africa office in Rabat on Wednesday following mounting criticism of his aborted proposals, with world football’s governing body releasing a statement of support four hours after the meeting ended.European football’s governing body Uefa said at the weekend that it has lost confidence in Infantino, calling the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal a “shabby, back room,…

Among the immediate measures suggested by Polanksi were freely accessible cool spaces in “every local area”. He has previously cited a need for such zones in schools, hospitals and care homes.Polanksi also renewed his call for Burnham’s government to block new oil and gas drilling licences, and block the development of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in Scotland.He also called for a new strategy to prevent wildfires following a series of blazes in various areas this summer, including “firefighting helicopters where needed”.And he argued that the need to prevent future droughts justified his party’s longstanding policy of…

Reform UK has pledged to imprison the bosses of companies employing illegal migrants and said it would fine larger firms 10 per cent of their global revenues.The party said its aim was to stop delivery and gig economy companies profiting from illegal workers “without consequences”.Home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf said “young British people are being shut out of entry level jobs and our whole economy is being undermined”.The Home Office said it was already increasing penalties for companies hiring illegal workers. A source within the department called some of Reforms proposals “empty posturing”.Reform said that if it won the next…

BLACK HAT – Two security researchers found a way to exploit vulnerabilities in Samsung software, including the virtual assistant Bixby, to hack mobile devices. The research was conducted by Dimitrios Valsamaras, senior security researcher at Microsoft, and Ken Gannon, head of mobile research at Mobile Hacking Lab.  Gannon and Valsamaras demonstrated the vulnerabilities at the Pwn2Own Ireland hacking competition in October 2025, where they earned $50,000 after exploiting them to hack a Samsung Galaxy S25 device. The researchers have now detailed their findings in a talk at the Black Hat conference, describing the vulnerabilities they discovered and how they were…

Crypto is in a tough spot right now, and the effects of a down market are being felt across the industry. In February of this year, Nomura tightened risk limits at Laser Digital after crypto losses dragged down quarterly profit. This was read by the market as a retreat, but Nomura indicated it would be staying in crypto, just with a more conservative approach.To this end, Laser Digital’s investment and partnership with ZigChain delivers a comprehensive risk framework and governance across a pipeline of institutional onchain vault products, according to a statement.Rafay Gadit said the private credit market in the…

Wildfires occur across Europe each summer, but the fires that swept through Spain and France in July 2026 ranked among the most destructive either country had experienced in decades. Some of the worst outbreaks developed in southwestern France’s Gironde Department and in Spain’s Ávila and Madrid provinces during the middle of the month. The fires forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate and destroyed hundreds of homes. Spanish officials reported that the fire in Ávila burned about 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres), making it the largest wildfire ever recorded in the country. It surpassed the 2025 fire that affected Larouco,…

The bullhorn blared as three cardboard kayaks lurched into the Hudson River from Pier 84 in Manhattan. Their occupants paddled across choppy waters toward a bright yellow buoy about 20 meters offshore. All three boats completed the course, though not without a struggle. Revived in July after a six-year hiatus, the Cardboard Kayak Race invited New Yorkers back to the waterways surrounding the nation’s most densely populated city. In the 1970s and 1980s, attempting to paddle a flimsy cardboard boat across one of New York City’s waterways would have seemed risky, not because it might sink, but because falling overboard…

The winner of this year’s annual Florida Python Challenge hunted down and eliminated 96 invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades national park, as part of an initiative to remove hundreds of the snakes from the area every year.The challenge invites hunters to participate in 10 days of capturing and humanely euthanizing as many of the invasive snakes as possible across eight designated hunting locations, with the winner taking home a cash prize of $10,000. The event is hosted by Florida fish, wildlife and conservation (FWC), the south Florida water management district, the National Park Service and others.This year’s competition drew…

The BBC’s attorneys contend that the records are relevant to assessing Trump’s claims of massive damages. His initial lawsuit appeared to seek $10 billion, although a form his attorneys submitted to the court listed $5 billion. Trump is still seeking $10 billion in his proposed revised lawsuit, according to a BBC court filing.Trump’s lawsuit, filed last December, claims that the documentary defamed him by splicing together segments of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech in a manner that made it sound like he was directly calling for the violent attack on the Capitol that followed. The BBC has apologized for the…

A military helicopter carrying President Trump came less than a mile of a passenger jet above Washington on Tuesday after garbled communications with Ronald Reagan National Airport’s tower delayed air traffic controllers from clearing nearby air traffic, according to two people familiar with federal officials’ initial assessment.The incident occurred shortly after 2:30 p.m. as Mr. Trump was flying to Joint Base Andrews from the White House on the initial leg of a planned trip to Los Angeles.Before taking off, the crew of Marine One — the call sign of the helicopter that carries the president — made three attempts to…