Moscow’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service announced on Tuesday that it had found the firm – one of the world’s most valuable publicly traded companies – had breached the country’s fair competition rules. The complaint originated from Russian software company Kaspersky Lab, which makes anti-virus and cybersecurity products. Specifically, the Moscow-headquartered company …
Read More »Russia’s FSB security agency detains Ukrainian consul in St Petersburg, claims he was trying to collect ‘secret data’ from local
The diplomat, identified as Alexander Sosonyuk, was arrested in Russia’s second city on Friday, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday. The diplomat was detained while having “a meeting with a Russian citizen, during which he received secret information from law enforcement and FSB databases,” the agency said in a statement. …
Read More »Half of UK population now have antibodies against Covid-19, new data from govt stats agency shows
Blood samples have revealed that by the week ending March 14, 54.7% of England’s population had developed antibodies, suggesting they have been infected or vaccinated. In Wales the figure was 50.5%, Northern Ireland, 49.3%, and Scotland, 42.6%, the ONS said in its infection survey report, published on Tuesday. The ONS …
Read More »Matt Hancock’s UK Health Security Agency would be the worst April Fool’s ever – except he isn’t joking
Back in 1957, the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Panorama (well, it was then) showed a short three-minute film of a family in Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a family ‘spaghetti tree.’ People rang up the BBC switchboard afterwards for advice on growing their own spaghetti. They should have paid closer …
Read More »Aussie spy agency says it won’t call out ‘Islamic’ terrorists, but will say ‘religiously’ motivated attackers instead
“We don’t investigate people because of their religious views – it’s violence that is relevant to our powers – but that’s not always clear when we use the term ‘Islamic extremism’,” Mike Burgess, the director-general of ASIO said. “Understandably, some Muslim groups – and others – see this term as …
Read More »Ivan Safronov case: How a Russian space agency advisor & ex-journalist crash-landed at the centre of a NATO-linked espionage drama
That changed dramatically in July last year, when he was arrested by agents from the FSB, the country’s top domestic security agency, and charged with treason. In a statement, officials said that he was suspected of passing state secrets to spooks from a NATO nation. On Tuesday last, a Moscow …
Read More »200,000 Russians have died of Covid-19 since start of pandemic, state agency confirms, as caseload falls & restrictions dropped
Rosstat, the country’s statistical authority, announced on Friday that 37,107 people had died while infected with the coronavirus in January, putting the overall official number of dead at 200,432 and potentially giving the country the third-highest total death toll in the world after the US and Brazil. However, when measured …
Read More »Russian space agency Roscosmos begins design of ‘Venera-D’ orbital station, set to be Moscow’s 1st mission to Venus since USSR era
Speaking to the TASS news agency, the scientific director of the Institute of Space Research Lev Zeleny explained that the vessel will first be launched in 2029, if everything runs on schedule. “The technical design of the project has begun,” he said, after a meeting between the Russian Academy of …
Read More »Tweeter, tailor, soldier, spy: Canada’s spy agency inadvertently seeks double agent in laughable social media gaffe
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) drew many bemused and sarcastic replies after its tweet about job postings which quoted the work by Le Carré, the pen name of British author and former spy David Cornwell. “You could be the perfect spy. All you need is a cause,” Canada’s CSIS …
Read More »Leaked docs reveal how news agency Reuters secretly serves as a tool for British influence across the world
Among a tranche of secret UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) files recently leaked by hacktivist collective Anonymous are papers indicating that Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF) – the international newswire namesake’s “charitable” arm – has engaged in information warfare initiatives on behalf of Whitehall. These endeavors form part of …
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