State department source says balloon was carrying equipment capable of intercepting communications
The Chinese balloon that flew over North America for more than a week before being shot down over the Atlantic was carrying equipment capable of intercepting and geolocating communications, the US government has claimed.
A senior state department official said on Thursday that equipment was identified by a U-2 spy plane sent up to scrutinise the balloon.
Continue reading...Mattia Muggittu says he feels like David v Goliath as energy drink firm disputes branding on his first bottles
A small wine producer in Sardinia accused by the maker of the energy drink Red Bull of copying its logo has said he feels as if he is in a David and Goliath battle against the Austrian company.
Mattia Muggittu, the owner of Muggittu di Mamoiada, had just produced his first bottle of wine, which features two traditional Sardinian oxen tied together on its label, when he received a legal notice from Red Bull claiming the image bore similarities to the one on its energy drink depicting two bulls charging at each other inside a golden sun.
Continue reading...Serhiy Haidai says Moscow’s forces are trying unsuccessfully to advance westwards in ‘maximum’ escalation
Russia has launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine and is trying to break through defences near the town of Kreminna, the governor for the Luhansk region said on Thursday.
Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian TV that Russian troops had gone on the attack and were trying to advance westwards across a winter landscape of snow and forests. There had been “maximum escalation” and a big increase in shooting and shelling, he said.
Continue reading...Pierre Ny St-Amand charged with first degree murder after two children died and six were injured in incident
Police have charged a bus driver with first-degree murder after he drove his vehicle at a high speed into a daycare center north of Montreal, killing two children, injuring six and leaving authorities searching for a motive.
Witnesses say that after Wednesday’s crash, the 51-year-old driver, identified as Pierre Ny St-Amand, stepped out of the bus, stripped off his clothes and started screaming.
Continue reading...Rally is latest showing of public discontent since demonstrations against Covid curbs
Thousands of older people have staged a rally in the rain in central China to protest against significant cuts to their medical benefits, in the latest outburst of public discontent since nationwide protests against Covid curbs gripped the country late last year.
Video clips on social media show a large crowd of elderly protesters in raincoats and holding umbrellas gathering outside the Wuhan city government by the Yangtze River on Wednesday, while police officers form a line to stop them from approaching the gates. The location of the rally has been verified.
Continue reading...Campaign seeks to boost traditional Indian values and offset ‘dazzle of western civilisation’
The Indian government has urged people to set aside the “western” traditions of Valentine’s Day and instead celebrate the occasion by cuddling up with the country’s sacred cows.
In a new appeal, 14 February has been declared Cow Hug Day, when people are encouraged to take the animals into an embrace. Cows are holy within Hinduism, the majority religion in India, and are considered sacred animals across the country.
Continue reading...Presidential election comes as fuel shortages and currency woes take toll on continent’s most populous country
Nigeria’s election on 25 February has been described as pivotal to the progress of democracy in Africa, where military coups and attempts by longstanding rulers to cling to power have raised fears of a “democratic retreat” from advances made since the end of the cold war.
More than a dozen African countries go the polls in the coming 12 months, but experts agree that the presidential and parliamentary vote in the continent’s most populous country is the one that matters the most.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, you can read more on the situation in Ukraine here
A leading military aviation analyst, Justin Bronk at the Rusi thinktank, says the UK could probably spare only a handful of its oldest, Tranche 1, Typhoons amounting to around 20 to 25. Ukraine has said it needs around 200 western fighters to create a war winning air force.
The fighters were, he tweeted, “not optimised for low altitude” – flying of the type needed to evade Russian air defences, and were not well designed to operate from the simple, dispersed airfields used by Ukraine to evade detection.
Continue reading...Researchers say food and energy security boosts prospects for civilisation to continue, along with Vanuatu, Iceland and Solomon Islands
The lucky country can count on one more piece of good fortune, with researchers finding Australia – followed by neighbour New Zealand – best placed to survive a nuclear winter and help reboot a collapsed human civilisation.
The study published in the journal Risk Analysis describes Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as the island countries most capable of producing enough food for their populations after an “abrupt sunlight‐reducing catastrophe” such as a nuclear war, super volcano or asteroid strike.
Continue reading...Cuts represent an estimated 3.6% of Disney’s global workforce in effort to save $5.5bn in costs and follow major job losses at other top US companies
Disney has announced a sweeping corporate restructuring that will result in 7,000 people losing their jobs as part of an effort to achieve US$5.5bn (£4.5bn, A$7.9bn) in cost savings, at the same time as revealing plans for sequels to Toy Story and Frozen.
The layoffs represent an estimated 3.6% of Disney’s global workforce and come after major job cuts at other US giants including Alphabet, Amazon, Ford and Meta.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president urges Europe to send ‘long-range heavy weaponry’ as Macron says Europe’s future at stake
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has used a visit to Paris to urge Europe to deliver combat aircraft and heavy arms to Ukraine as soon as possible.
“The sooner Ukraine gets long-range heavy weaponry, the sooner our pilots get planes, the sooner this Russian aggression will end and we can return to peace in Europe,” the Ukrainian president said as he arrived at the Elysée Palace on Wednesday after a day of diplomacy in London.
Continue reading...Turkish president rejects growing criticism as rescuers continue to pull survivors from freezing rubble
Turkey’s president has rejected growing criticism of the authorities’ response to Monday’s huge earthquakes, as the death toll passed 15,000 across Turkey and Syria and rescuers continued to pull survivors from the freezing rubble.
Making his first visit to Turkey’s worst-affected region since the 7.8- and 7.5-magnitude quakes hit within hours of each other, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan acknowledged early problems with Turkey’s response but said it was now working well.
Continue reading...Kyiv outraged as Pink Floyd star accepts Russian invitation to speak at UN security council and calls for immediate ceasefire
The veteran Pink Floyd rocker, Roger Waters, has addressed the UN security council at Russia’s invitation, and called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. But he was denounced by the Ukrainian ambassador as “just another brick in the wall” of Moscow’s propaganda.
Waters spoke via a video link, dressed in a light brown tweed jacket, appearing on a screen looming over representatives of the 15 nations on the council, convened on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Erkin Tuniyaz ‘played central role’ in persecution of Uyghurs, says inter-parliamentary alliance on China
The Foreign Office has shocked cross-party opponents of the Chinese treatment of Uyghur groups by revealing that it has asked the Xinjiang governor for talks.
MPs belonging to the inter-parliamentary alliance on China (Ipac) called it “incomprehensible” that “anybody within government would think it appropriate to meet with someone who has played a central role in the persecution of Uyghurs – crimes our own parliament has declared to be genocide”.
Continue reading...Poland and Baltic states say bloc should seize funds to start rebuilding country, amid questions of legality
Poland and the Baltic states have urged the EU to work on seizing frozen Russian state assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine “as soon as possible”, raising pressure to act on a legally fraught question.
In the run-up to a two-day EU summit that will discuss the Russian invasion, the leaders of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia said that, “in order to be credible on this matter vis-a-vis Ukraine”, the bloc had to go beyond reiterating previous commitments and “accelerate our work in the council right now”.
Continue reading...Ukrainian leader drew upon his showmanship during trip to ask for ongoing support and place on agenda
Few world leaders arrive for an effective state visit to the UK wearing battle fatigues, but even fewer leaders come to the UK with a mission to remind their hosts of their own greatness and history, manifestly leaving a flattered audience so convinced that the world does indeed need their country’s leadership. Volodymyr Zelenskiy has many extraordinary skills as a showman, but one is a unique ability to appeal to a nation’s psyche.
In retrospect, it would have been unforgivable for the Ukrainian leader to have only visited EU leaders at their meeting in Brussels and not also flown to the UK – the major European power that has from the outset provided not just moral support, but been in the vanguard in offering arms, training, intelligence, and has since 2014 cooperated with Ukraine by helping to rebuild its navy. So when it was leaked that Zelenskiy was likely to address EU leaders on Thursday, it should have been self-evident he would also come to London, but the visit, meticulously planned and choreographed, was kept under wraps until Downing Street broke the news before 9am.
Continue reading...Rights groups say the move is a threat to freedom of expression in a country currently facing deadly anti-government protests
Peru has called on citizens to report social media users suspected of supporting or inciting “acts of terrorism”, as the country reels from two months of violent anti-government protests which have claimed at least 59 lives.
In a move widely condemned by human rights organisations, the country’s interior ministry said on Monday that the criminal definition of “apology for terrorism” was being modified to include the use of social media, after the first jail sentences for the alleged crime last month.
Continue reading...Special forces destroy aircraft and seize weapons in effort to protect largest Indigenous reserve from mining mafias
The Brazilian government has launched its campaign to drive tens of thousands of illegal miners from the country’s largest Indigenous reserve, with special-forces environmental operatives destroying aircraft and seizing weapons and boats during an operation deep in the Amazon’s Yanomami territory.
Members of Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama – with support from the Indigenous agency Funai and the newly created ministry for Indigenous peoples – launched the long-awaited operation on Monday, with troops establishing a base along the Uraricoera river. Wildcat tin ore and gold miners use the waterway – as well as dozens of illegal airstrips – to reach and supply their illegal outposts in Yanomami lands.
Continue reading...More than 11,000 confirmed dead with more than 8,000 rescued; Erdoğan visits quake zone
The combined death toll from Monday’s earthquake which struck Syria and Turkey has now reached 11,416, as rescue efforts continued across the region, despite being hampered by cold weather conditions.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the death toll from Monday’s quake had reached 8,754 in Turkey. Visiting Kahramanmaraş, which was near the epicentre of the quake, he said “On the first day we experienced some issues, but then on the second day and today the situation is under control”. Erdoğan promised the government aims to build housing within one year for those left without a home in the 10 provinces affected.
The death toll in Syria has risen to 2,662, according to reports from AFP. Syria’s government has received help from a host of Arab countries including Egypt and Iraq, as well as from its key ally Russia, which has sent rescue teams and deployed forces already in Syria to join relief work, including in Aleppo.
Syria has activated the EU civil protection mechanism, two days after the earthquake, to request further assistance from the 27-country bloc and the eight other nation states that are part of the programme. The European Union has has already mobilised search and rescue teams to help Turkey, while the bloc’s Copernicus satellite system has been activated to provide emergency mapping services. At least 19 member countries have offered assistance.
Cold weather continues to be expected in the region with minimum and maximum temperatures for Kahramanmaraş today of -6C and 1C (21-34F), and for Gaziantep between -5C and 1C (23-34F). Diyarbakır is expected to have continued snowfall, with temperatures climbing to 2C (35F) at most.
A container blaze at Turkey’s southern port of Iskenderun has been brought under control, Turkey’s maritime authority said on Wednesday, following combined extinguishing efforts from land, sea and air. The blaze started when containers were toppled during the quake.
A first 7.8-magnitude quake struck at 4.17 am (1.17 GMT) on Monday near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, home to about 2 million people. It was followed by a 7.5-magnitude tremor and several aftershocks.
Continue reading...Campaigners accuse Museveni regime of evading international scrutiny after shock move to end agreement with OHCHR
Rights activists and campaigners have condemned the Ugandan government’s decision to shut down the country’s UN human rights office, describing it as “shameful”.
In a letter to the Office of the UN high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) in Uganda dated 3 February, the foreign affairs ministry said it will not renew the host country agreement it signed with the OHCHR, which established its initial mandate in the country in 2005. The current mandate, signed on 9 February 2020, expires in August.
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