Speaking to reporters at a White House press briefing on Monday, Psaki echoed the words of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling the arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich a “shocking act” and “a brazen affront to international freedom and peace and security by the regime” in Minsk. A Ryanair …
Read More »L for Logic: UK considers action against Russia’s Nord Stream 2 over Belarus landing Ryanair plane
Tom Tugendhat, a Tory MP and chair of the foreign affairs committee in Westminster, also said the existing “Yamato” (sic) energy pipeline “must be frozen” in response to the arrest of Roman Protasevich in Minsk over the weekend. The most likely autocorrected name was a reference to the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which supplies …
Read More »Lukashenko signs laws banning Belarusian media from covering unsanctioned protests & preventing journalists from participating
The new rules mean that uncoordinated protests, such as those promoted by opposition figure Svetlana Tikhanovskaya last year, can only be covered after the fact. According to Belta, a Belarusian state-run media outlet, this law supposedly aims to stop media from “promoting or propagandizing” events. Furthermore, the amendments restrict reporters …
Read More »China’s cryptocurrency regulations are a smart move and other countries should look to do the same
Recently, Chinese regulators released a statement saying that the country would effectively ban any financial institutions and payment companies from doing business related to cryptocurrencies. This ban refers specifically to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and not China’s official digital yuan, which is in development right now. Though many have been critical of …
Read More »More than 200 people injured after 2 trains collide in subway tunnel in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur (VIDEO)
Wee Ka Siong said in a statement that 166 passengers suffered minor injuries, while 47 people in a serious condition were rushed to hospital for further treatment. No deaths have been reported. At around 8:33pm local time, an empty light rail train and another carrying 232 people collided underground near …
Read More »Spain’s go-it-alone strategy in migrants’ dispute with Morocco shows why EU’s armed frontier force faces struggle for credibility
Shocking video of Spanish border forces shoving desperate migrants clambering over rocks back into the sea, while beating them with truncheons, is not the most edifying spectacle or a sign that Madrid is on top of events at its troublesome African enclave of Ceuta. It followed several days of violent …
Read More »Future virus ‘more deadly’ than Covid-19 will spark new pandemic, WHO chief warns
“Make no mistake, this will not be the last time the world faces the threat of pandemic,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the UN agency’s annual assembly of health ministers from its 194 member states on Monday. “It’s an evolutionary certainty that there will be another virus with the potential to be …
Read More »100+ AP staffers condemn firing of journalist Emily Wilder over criticism of Israeli government
Arizona-based reporter Emily Wilder was fired from her position at AP just two weeks in, after a group of Republicans dug up her old criticisms of the Israeli government. Wilder, who is Jewish, had publicly condemned the Israeli government’s refusal to allow Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their …
Read More »UK Defence Ministry spent £3.2 billion on tanks that can’t shoot on the move – reports
Developed by General Dynamics, the Ajax armoured fighting vehicle impressed then-Prime Minister David Cameron so much that he ordered 589 of them in 2014, after receiving the Army’s go-ahead four years earlier. Delivery dates have since been missed, and the Army is still waiting to roll out the vehicles, but …
Read More »Belarus-Ryanair plane case is outrageous? America & its European allies set precedent when they tried to get Snowden, critics say
On Sunday, a Ryanair commercial flight from Greece to Lithuania was diverted from its course shortly before leaving Belarusian airspace and made an emergency landing in Minsk. This allowed the Belarusian authorities to take Roman Protasevich, former chief editor of Polish-based opposition Telegram channel NEXTA Live, into custody. In his …
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