Speaking on Thursday, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed to the deaths of thousands of civilians in the region, saying that Kiev has gone unpunished for the supposed killings, which she says are ignored by the international community, “as if completely invisible.” The Donbass conflict has been ongoing since 2014 in the …
Read More »Iran successfully produces 60%-enriched uranium days after ‘act of sabotage’ at Natanz nuclear facility
The news was broken by the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, on Friday. “I am proud to announce that at 00:40 … Iranian scientists were able to produce 60%-enriched uranium,” the speaker said on Twitter. The achievement was confirmed by the head of the Atomic Energy Organization …
Read More »Pakistan shuts down social media for hours, after days of violent anti-France protests
On Friday, the Interior Ministry ordered the telecommunications authority to “completely” cut off access to Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Telegram until 3pm local time (11:00 GMT), said Khurram Mehran, a spokesman for the media regulator, without giving any further details. “In order to maintain public order and safety, access …
Read More »Turkey bans use of cryptocurrencies for payments, citing possible ‘irreparable’ damages
The regulator said in a statement published in the Official Gazette that cryptocurrencies and other such digital assets based on distributed ledger technology could not be used, either directly or indirectly, as an instrument of payment. “Payment service providers will not be able to develop business models in a way …
Read More »New Zealand wants to ban cigarette sales to anyone born after 2004 as part of plan to make nation ‘smoke free’ by 2025
Under the country’s Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan, New Zealand hopes to gradually increase the legal smoking age and ultimately prohibit cigarette sales to anyone born after 2004. The initiative also calls for a significant reduction in the level of nicotine allowed in tobacco and places restrictions on where cigarettes …
Read More »UFC star Rose Namajunas doubles down on anti-communist comments ahead of Zhang Weili title clash
The Lithuanian-American caused uproar this week when talking to a media outlet from her parents’ country in the build-up to UFC 261. First revealing she had recently seen a documentary entitled ‘The Other Dream Team’, about the Lithuania men’s basketball team at the 1992 Olympics and the struggles they faced …
Read More »NBC and ABC affiliates pull Sinclair-like stunt, airing US Chamber of Commerce ads in effort to block pro-union act
The business lobby deployed a set of ads, presented in the form of an interview, with almost identical scripts across NBC and ABC affiliates in several states, warning viewers that passing the PRO Act “could impact every American family and American community” with barely a peep uttered from the working …
Read More »‘It’s lockdown what done it’: Is Boris lauding lockdowns because he’s planning another for October? It certainly looks that way
The Man in Black wanted us to be in no doubt during his interview this week with Sky News: it was the lockdown whatdunit. “It is very, very important for everybody to understand,” Johnson said, “that the reduction in these numbers, in hospitalisations, in deaths, in infections, has not been …
Read More »UK has ‘no plans’ to change rapid testing programme, after report of widespread false positives
There are “no plans to halt the universal programme,” the department stated on Thursday. “With around one in three people not showing symptoms of Covid-19, regular, rapid testing is an essential tool to control the spread of the virus…by picking up cases that would not otherwise have been detected.” The …
Read More »‘Mass casualty incident’: Multiple people reported wounded in shooting at FedEx facility in Indianapolis
A massive police response was underway on Mirabel Road, southwest of Indianapolis, on Thursday night. One man told local media his niece was shot in the arm at a gas station that is just outside the warehouse complex that includes a FedEx Ground warehouse. Indianapolis police said in a statement …
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