In theory, the import of drones into Russia should have been choked off by Western sanctions. In practice, however, it is clear that avenues for their procurement remain open for drones as well ad advanced microchips - used in everything from missiles to demining robots. They are flowing into Russia from abroad through companies...
Contrary to its promise, the German company not only continued its deliveries, but also began exporting laser rangefinder binoculars and night vision scopes. Laser rangefinders and levels from the Swiss company Leica Geosystems are also making their way into Russia, albeit through third countries. The equipment may have military...
Russia’s official public services portal, Gosuslugi, notified users of an upcoming forum titled “Strong ideas for a new era” and invited them to submit “an idea, a public initiative, or a project” that would contribute to “the country’s development” on an online platform created for the event....
Unilever became the first major European food company to stop imports and exports from Russia, as well as media and ad spending there, in March 2022. It continued, however, to supply “essential” food and hygiene products to Russians while pledging not to take any profits from those sales. Its Russian subsidiary Unilever Rus,...
Ann Widdecombe, who joined the Reform UK party this year, made the comments when she was asked what she would say to consumers who could not afford to pay for basics such as the ingredients of a cheese sandwich. The Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Sarah Olney, said: “How out of touch can you get? Ann Widdecombe joins a...
As the brutal war against Ukraine costs Russia’s army ever more casualties, recruitment drives for fresh replacements are now turning to migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus to fill the boots of the dead left behind by their prospective comrades. Meanwhile, Mikhail Matveyev, a Duma member, criticised "naturalised...
The weakness was allegedly discovered in February by a Google engineer, but “despite attempts to alert Telegram’s security team, the issue remains unresolved”, Matt Johanson, a security expert, writes on Twitter....
Data collected from Twitter and Telegram shows that there is increased use of slurs against Ukrainians, calling for violence and celebrating the death of Ukrainians, despite platform policies that are meant to stop, or at least mitigate this activity, the Centre for Information Resilience says. The dataset collected and analysed...
Chinese authorities raided three advisory firms over the past few months which offered investigative and strategic analysis for the Chinese market to foreign investors. Their staff -all Chinese nationals- were detained, one of them was sentenced to six years in prison for “stealing national secrets”. Alfred Wu, a researcher...
The overdue penalty payment of €5.2 million has been issued by the French regulator, the CNIL — on top of a €20 million sanction it slapped the company with last year for breaching regional privacy rules. Clearview refuses payment as it “is not subject to the GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation]”, the company...
So far, Musk has shown a willingness to bow down to authoritarian censors. The latest is yet another example of that. Just as the Turkish election was about to take place, the government demanded that Twitter censor content critical of authoritarian strongman, gollum-lookalike, and world’s most thin skinned leader, Recep...
Drawn up in 2021 by the Kremlin’s Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation, the Kremlin’s plans do not focus on cooperation. “This is the old KGB method: ‘We should weaken our enemies. And the best way to weaken them is from inside, not from outside.’ What they are good at is dividing societies, creating problems,...
Twitter user Carl Zee outlined the situation in a series of May 11 posts accompanied by a memo from the Florida Department of Education. Zee explains, “My friend showed Disney’s Strange World in a Florida classroom and one student reported it to their parents. Now she’s under investigation by the state. Florida is not safe...
Hideji Suzuki, the former President of Japan China Youth Exchange had been locked up in a ‘Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’ (RSDL) facility for the seven months. RSDL is a notorious system where the suspect is kept incommunicado without access to a lawyer for months at a time. It is a system that has been...
On Sunday, Russia was accused of using phosphorus on the besieged city of Bakhmut, with Ukraine releasing footage purporting to show it raining down on its positions. Phosphorus creates flash fires that are incredibly hard to put out. If people are hit with the chemical they suffer horrendous burns, which actually accelerate if...
Bank shareholders and executives should bear the risks of mismanagement, the Berkshire Hathaway chair and CEO says, with vice chair Charlie Munger criticising that executives are more concerned with getting rich than with customers.
Regarding protesters who were holding up signs reading ‘Not My King’ near Buckingham Palace during Saturday’s coronation, Tory MP Lee Anderson wrote on Twitter: “If you do not wish to live in a country that has a monarchy the solution is not to turn up with your silly boards.” Meanwhile, human rights organisations...
When China abruptly relaxed its stringent zero-Covid policy in December last year, people who were stuck and returned to Beijing found cameras fixed right outside their apartment doors. They are now being watched at work, on the streets, on public transportation, when they leave their homes and when they return. The Chinese...
The Communist Party has been widening the legal landscape for imposing exit bans and is increasing their use against human rights defenders and their families, for holding people hostage to force targets overseas to come back to China -a practice called ‘persuade to return’, a form of transnational repression-, controlling...
Officials said that ‘members of the public’ are not allowed to bring on ‘political slogans or materials’ to the parliamentary estate. The material was eventually returned under pressure from David Davis, a former minister. The row comes at a sensitive time for UK-China relations, with ministers already facing pressure to...
When a missile strike far from any frontlines killed 23 people this week, including a baby boy, and injured nine more, it would have been inexplicable were it not for the fact that Russian forces have for years directed attacks on civilians as a weapon of war. To the military that bombed schools and hospitals in Syria, and tried...
A man contacted the authorities arguing that the MP’s “extreme views” would damage her children and they should be removed from her care. Creasy has been a prominent campaigner on misogyny and violence against women. The man’s complaint was quickly dismissed, but the police decided that this man, who had no personal...
On Tuesday this week, Giuliani revealed voter suppression tactics to the far-right Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon and Arizona’s defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake during a discussion on his America’s Mayor Live program.
Increment of non-performing mortgages for homebuyers at 12 of China’s listed banks surged 13.2 times last year from the year before as economic pressures make it harder for people to repay their loans.
Both China and Brazil have positioned themselves as potential peace brokers in the war, but their ambivalent views have been widely criticised by Western allies as biased, incomplete and Russian-leaning. Now EU’s Josep Borrell says President Xi Jinping of China and President Lula da Silva of Brazil should visit Ukraine before...