Author: 5amResearch

LONDON: British PM Rishi Sunak faces a potential revolt from within his party ranks over new legislation that is set to criminalise homelessness. According to a ‘Times’ report on Monday, several Conservative Party MPs have warned that they will vote against the measures in the ‘Criminal Justice Bill’ in House of Commons. The proposals, which had been unveiled by former Indian-origin home secretary Suella Braverman, would mean rough sleepers in England and Wales could be fined as much as 2,500…

Israeli air strikes destroyed a building belonging to the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing a senior commander in the Quds Force, the external military and intelligence service of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iranian state media reported on Monday. General Mohamad Reza Zahedi, 65, oversaw Iran’s covert military operations in Syria and Lebanon, Iranian officials said.He is among the senior most Iranian commanders believed to have been killed by Israel in a yearslong shadow war that has included assassinations of…

The Israeli parliament on Monday approved a bill granting top ministers the power to prohibit the broadcasting of Al Jazeera news channel in Israel—a move Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to pursue. The law, passed by a vote of 70 to 10, enables the ban of foreign channel broadcasts and permits the closure of their offices within Israel. The law empowers the prime minister and the minister of communications to declare international networks functioning in Israel to be in…

KAZAN: A Russian court on Monday extended until June 5 the pre-trial detention of US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who faces 15 years in prison on charges of spreading “false information,” according to her employer. In court in the central city of Kazan on Monday, Kurmasheva smiled but complained about the poor conditions in which she was being held. “This cell is five square metres for two people. There is no hot water. Instead of a toilet there is a hole…

Israeli strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early on Friday killed 38 people, including five members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two security sources said, the deadliest attacks so far in an intensified Israeli campaign against Iran’s allies in Syria. Israel has ramped up its airstrikes on both Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria since the Oct. 7 incursion into Israel led by Iran-backed Palestinian faction Hamas. Tehran and its proxies have entrenched themselves across…

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Wednesday it is pouring an additional $2.75 billion into Anthropic, bringing its total investment in the artificial intelligence startup to $4 billion. Amazon will maintain a minority stake in San Francisco-based Anthropic, a rival of ChatGPT maker OpenAI. “Generative AI is poised to be the most transformational technology of our time, and we believe our strategic collaboration with Anthropic will further improve our customers’ experiences, and look forward to what’s next,” said Swami Sivasubramanian,…

Attorneys for Hunter Biden are expected in court Wednesday in Los Angeles, where he is accused in what prosecutors call a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while living an extravagant lifestyle. President Joe Biden’s son has pleaded not guilty to the nine felony and misdemeanor tax offenses. He’s asking the judge to toss out the case, arguing that the prosecution was politically motivated, was tainted by leaks from IRS agents who claimed publicly the case was…

LONDON (AP) — Farmers drove dozens of tractors in a slow-motion convoy towards Britain’s Parliament on Monday to protest post- Brexit rules and trade deals that they say are endangering livelihoods and food security. Supporters of the campaign groups Save British Farming and Fairness for Farmers of Kent drove from southeast England and through southern districts of the capital, bound for Parliament Square, where dozens of supporters waited to welcome them. Britain has so far not seen large-scale farmers’ protests…

The American plane maker has been under intense pressure since early January, when a panel blew off a brand-new Alaska Airlines 737 Max midflight. That’s spotlighted a lengthy series of safety and manufacturing problems that have piled up for Boeing over the years — including two devastating crashes that also involved Max jets. Leadership shakeups have arrived amid this turmoil, too. On Monday, Boeing announced that CEO David Calhoun would be stepping down from his post at the end of…

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus reached the space outpost after Saturday’s blastoff from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan that followed an aborted launch attempt two days earlier. Thursday’s attempted launch was halted by an automatic safety system about 20 seconds before the scheduled liftoff. Roscosmos and NASA said the crew wasn’t in danger during the aborted launch. The head of the Russian space agency, Yuri Borisov,…

The heads of leading U.S. airlines want to meet with Boeing and hear the aircraft manufacturer’s strategy for fixing quality-control problems that have gained attention since a panel blew out of an Alaska Airlines jetliner in January, people familiar with the situation said Thursday. The meeting is likely to take place next week, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions between Boeing and the airlines. The request by airline leaders was reported first…

Leo Varadkar is to step down as Ireland’s prime minister in a shock decision, saying he was no longer the right person to lead his party into a general election due within a year. Varadkar, who has been Taoiseach since December 2022 and served previously in the role between 2017 and 2020, cited personal and political decisions but gave no details in a brief, at times emotional, announcement on Wednesday. “One part of leadership is knowing when to pass on…

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In a decision hailed by an environmental group as a historic victory, an Amsterdam court ruled Wednesday that Dutch national airline KLM misled consumers in statements about sustainable aviation in a case that accused the carrier of “greenwashing.” Amsterdam District Court said in a statement that in some advertisements, that are no longer in use, KLM “makes environmental claims based on vague and general statements about environmental benefits, thereby misleading consumers.” The court said that…

The US Department of State announced the designation of former North Macedonia Special Chief Prosecutor, Katica Janeva; current mayor of Karpos, North Macedonia, Stevco Jakimovski; and former mayor of Kacanik, Kosovo, Xhabir Zharku, for their actions undermining the rule of law and the public’s faith in their respective governments’ democratic institutions and public processes. Janeva was found to be involved in corrupt acts, including using her political influence and official power for personal benefit; Jakimovski was found to be involved in corrupt acts, including…

For too long, Americans have suffered from a convoluted property system that condemned them to pay some of the world’s highest commissions, up to 6 per cent on residential sales. The real estate agents’ lock on online listings drove up costs and combined with a shortage of affordable homes to shut all but the most affluent buyers out of the housing market. Class action lawyers get a bad rap, but last week they forced the National Association of Realtors to…