Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

Plastic pollution could disrupt the bioluminescent light produced by deep-sea organisms, researchers warn in a letter in the journal Cambridge Prisms: Plastics. When deep-sea organisms ingest plastics, it could disrupt the chemical pathways that create bioluminescence and damage the tissues in their bodies, impairing their ability to find food and a mate, the authors said. In the deep sea, up to 80% of organisms with complex cells are believed to be bioluminescent, the only source of light in the darkest parts of the ocean. The light these organisms create is essential for their survival and reproduction, the letter…

One of the most important outcomes of the recent summit in Washington between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, is something we are unlikely to learn soon, if ever. This has nothing to do with the failure of the delegations to release a joint statement, or even the large discrepancies between each side’s readout of their meetings. Rather, it is about the private estimates that Xi must have made at the conclusion of his visit concerning two related questions: Who, deep down, is Trump, and what does his presidency say about the state of the United…

Rumors spread widely in September 2026 about the details of a lawsuit that alleged seven male students at Cornell University drugged and raped a 20-year-old female student in 2024.  In particular, social media users shared a claim that some of the accused students were allowed to write essays in lieu of punishment. Cornell said the essay claim was false, but Snopes was unable to independently verify that, nor what specific punitive measures were or were not given to the male students. Snopes readers also sought information about why no one had faced criminal charges. After the lawsuit was filed, the…

Trump says US will win war with Iran: ‘It’s going to be one way or the other’Donald Trump confirmed that the US negotiating team spoke with Iranian officials through mediators today. This comes after the president rejected the latest ceasefire proposal from Tehran, and Iran said it has “no plans” to negotiate with Washington.Once again, Trump was resolute.“We’re going to win,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s going to be one way or the other. It’s going to be it’s going to go pretty quickly.”ShareKey eventsAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with Senate majority leader John Thune in Washington…

His ambition is big enough to see from space as he promises the “biggest change to Britain in 40 years”. Andy Burnham pledges what no prime minister until now has dared to, breaking the long spell of Thatcherism. Her sham monopoly markets in public services have crashed. The chancellor, John Healey, promises a “new age of industrialisation”, breaking with her era of industrial desertification. The social care system she blew into disconnected privatised fragments will become a national care service. Something new is waiting to be born.Things happen fast. Only a year ago, the Labour party was on its knees…

Burnham’s speech will see him promise an “honest conversation” with voters about difficult subjects, alongside the overall message of “hope” that he has made the theme of the four-day gathering.He is expected to say that he initially wanted to “give the usual tub-thumping conference speech” but that “the patriot in me tells me something very different is needed”.It comes ahead of a tricky Budget at the end of next month, where the room for manoeuvre facing the prime minister has been narrowed by recent rises to the cost of UK borrowing.Ahead of the speech, the prime minister has promised to…

There are five weeks left until the midterm elections, and extremism is on the ballot in much of the US. A WIRED review of candidates running for statewide and federal positions in November, along with exclusive data on candidates running for state-level positions, reveals hundreds of Republican candidates who openly express virulently hateful ideologies, share racist content online, have close ties to white supremacist and antisemitic figures, and are members of far-right groups online. President Donald Trump and his administration have openly embraced, endorsed and defended many of these candidates.At a local level, over 500 candidates running for state legislator…

Swati KhandelwalSep 28, 2026Vulnerability / Cybercrime The attacker who stole about $388 million from the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget gained access through a vulnerability in a third-party security product the exchange used, Bitget said on Monday. The attacker exploited the flaw to obtain high-level internal credentials and then, on September 24, used them to send fraudulent withdrawal commands to Bitget’s wallet system. Exchanges keep most customer funds in offline cold wallets and use hot and warm wallets to process withdrawals. Transfers from those wallets must still be approved before they are signed. The stolen funds came from part of Bitget’s hot…

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the crypto exchange’s recent $388 million exploit stemmed from a vulnerability in a third-party security product that allowed the attacker to obtain “high-level internal credentials.”In comments to Cointelegraph, Chen said the attacker used those credentials to issue fraudulent withdrawal commands. Bitget’s private keys were not compromised, and its cold wallets were not affected, she said.Bitget said it has since addressed the security flaw and tightened its withdrawal controls, including restricting internal access, adding independent verification for withdrawals and increasing monitoring for unusual activity.The attack occurred on Sept. 24, when Bitget detected unauthorized transfers from several…

A commercial mission to boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory concluded without raising the spacecraft’s orbit, but the agency and industry vendor Katalyst Space have gained valuable experience that will benefit future in-space servicing programs. “From the beginning, this was a high-risk, high-reward mission,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Without intervention, Swift was going to re-enter the atmosphere by year’s end. And while we’ll be sad to see Swift’s mission come to a close, we knew this boost effort would be valuable to the agency on multiple levels — advancing U.S. spacecraft servicing technology,…