Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

North Korean hackers have been exploiting a newly patched Windows zero-day vulnerability to take over victims’ systems, Check Point reports. Attributed to the infamous Lazarus Group APT, the attacks represent a continuation of the long-running Operation Dream Job campaign targeting job seekers with fake work opportunities at well-known companies. North Korean hackers have been mounting fake job attack variations regularly. Active since early 2026, the new campaign has been targeting the defense sector across multiple countries, mainly aerospace and aviation organizations in Europe and India, Check Point says. Posing as recruiters, the attackers have contacted potential victims through popular professional…

It isn’t often that a reporter gets asked to pose as a venture capitalist to fool suspected North Korean IT workers.But in June, I found myself joining a Zoom call as “Aelin Ashriver,” an investor from the fictitious Definitive Communications, to meet the development team of crypto startup Ballena Azul.The IT workers on the call believed they were pitching for VC backing for their startup. In reality they had spent weeks working inside a fake crypto company set up purely to study their methods and infrastructure by Mauro Eldritch, founder of cybersecurity firm BCA LTD, and Heiner García, a cyber…

The Sun, Moon, and Earth align on August 12, 2026, to produce a total solar eclipse. When this celestial event last occurred, on April 8, 2024, the path of totality stretched across North America, giving millions the chance to glimpse the Sun’s corona. In 2026, the viewing locales are more limited; only a handful of land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, including parts of Iceland and Spain, fall within the path of totality. On August 12, the Moon’s shadow will first cross over the Arctic Circle from northern Russia and then track along the eastern side of Greenland. At about…

A cocoa boom in southeast Liberia is wiping out native forests and encroaching into a proposed national park. The would-be Kwa National Park, a dense tropical rainforest, is home to chimpanzees, forest elephants, pygmy hippos and pangolins. Kwa is partly located in Grand Gedeh county, one of the most densely forested regions in southeast Liberia. Commercial agriculture is banned across the 1,720 square-kilometer (664 square-mile) area set aside for the national park, reports Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo. Yet, during patrols, forest rangers from Liberia’s Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and community eco-guards, such as George Bowey with the Wild Chimpanzee…

Azule Energy, a joint venture between Italy’s Eni and the UK’s BP, has awarded TechnipFMC another contract offshore Angola, covering the supply of flexible flowlines and risers. The contract has been awarded for the West Hub Tails project, an extension of the Block 15/06 Agogo Integrated Development, and follows the one for the Greater PAJ offshore oil development located in Blocks 31 and 31/21. TechnipFMC will design and manufacture flexible flowlines, risers, and associated equipment to accommodate all production from the West Hub area for consolidation into the Agogo floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The contract has been described…

“THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE,” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social in February 2025. He was not referring to his own administration, but to the US Agency for International Development (USAID). “CLOSE IT DOWN!” the president added.Just a few hours later USAID was in effect closed down, with most of the staff placed on indefinite administration leave. This was framed as part of Trump’s “America first” agenda. USAID, the Trump administration and his sycophants in the rightwing media had argued, was wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned money on ridiculous projects abroad instead of improving life at home. In the…

Count Binface, a man in a trash can costume, was trying to explain why he would be a winner no matter what happened on Thursday in the most high-profile election he’s ever fought.“Shall we do a little flowchart?” he asked me, gesturing with his gloved fingers.If you haven’t been following British politics, you may be wondering why I was interviewing someone who claims to be an intergalactic space warrior from the planet Sigma IX. Count Binface is a character played by the writer and comedian Jon Harvey, 46, and he has run in several elections as part of Britain’s long…

“I extremely appreciate the work of chief negotiator [Nickolay] Mladenov on behalf of the Board of Peace, his achievements in the 15-point plan are absolutely substantial,” said Hildegard Bentele, a center-right German lawmaker in the European Parliament. He said he was confident the U.S.-led effort would make progress “if re-submitted after Israeli elections and targeting the core point of full weapons’ decommissioning.”Others with experience in the region said that Netanyahu appeared to be successfully pushing the Board of Peace in a direction more favorable to Israel.Netanyahu’s actions are “testing the tolerance of the American or Board of Peace team,” said…

Nigel Farage has been standing in British elections since 1994, when he narrowly beat Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony party into fourth place in a Commons byelection. He was elected five times to the European parliament before achieving his goal of abolishing his seat.Finally, after 30 years of trying, he was elected to the Commons as member for Clacton in 2024. He resigned that hard-won seat in July after a parliamentary inquiry was launched into a £5m gift he accepted from a Thailand-based businessman shortly before the general election, but is standing again in the resulting byelection…

Good morning. Andy Burnham is chairing a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee this afternoon to discuss the heatwave and the climate crisis.About time too, some people will say. One of them is Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, who has been calling for this and who posted this on social media in response. double quotation markGood. Now we need action. Tax fossil fuel giants to pay for firefighting helicopters. A cool space in every community. A maximum working temperature. And no new oil and gas extraction in the North Sea. We cannot negotiate with the science. We are…