The railroad at the heart of the hazardous train crash near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border offered vague answers Monday about who agreed to burn the derailed cars carrying vinyl chloride. Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw told the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee that a unified command team – led by a local fire chief in East Palestine, Ohio and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine – OK’d the “controlled release” plan on Feb. 6 to prevent a dangerous explosion that would have spread contaminants and deadly shrapnel across the region. Majority Chairman Doug Mastriano, R-Chambersburg, questioned the use of “controlled” to describe the railroad’s decision to set the train cars on fire and watch plumes of smoke drift for miles over homes and farmland. “You’re blaming it on a chief in East Palestine, correct?” he said. “So your cars are on fire, it’s your rail, it’s your incident and you’re going to leave it to a local fire chief who’s likley never had to deal with this before?”

Following the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio (United States), on February 3, officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as local and state agencies, have been monitoring water and air quality in the town. East Palestine residents continue to complain of symptoms such as headaches and shortness of breath and question official reports that chemical levels are low and safe. “Residents have a disconnect between experiencing some symptoms and being told that everything was fine,” said Ivan Rusyn, director of the Superfund Research Center at Texas A&M University in College Station, who has led research with other scientists to measure air quality in the town. For the researchers there is a lack of clear communication between the government and the residents of East Palestine Three days after the accident, a 5km square area was evacuated and the chemicals the train was carrying, including vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate, were drained into pits. The materials were then burned in a controlled burn to prevent an explosion, creating a black cloud that likely created acrolein and other byproducts. In fact, weeks after the derailment, the EPA reported that slightly elevated levels of acrolein were detected in East Palestine, concentrations that have “returned to levels below the national average,” according to the same entity. (You may be interested in: Here we explain why some beaches are disappearing in Colombia). According to the group of researchers from the University of Texas, it is necessary to analyze a broader set of chemicals, extending those that spilled during the derailment or those that were formed with the controlled burning. The group of researchers found that, in addition to acrolein, there would be higher concentrations of four other similar compounds in surrounding areas. Rusyn insists that more sampling is needed, as the cleanup work will continue to excavate the contaminated soil, as well as aerate the stream water to extract the chemicals, something that could release more compounds into the air.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bowed to pressure from the opposition and agreed to allow his top aide to testify before a parliamentary committee probing alleged Chinese election interference, his office said on Tuesday. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly called for Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, to speak in a parliamentary committee looking into the foreign election tampering. The government had refused until the leader of the New Democrat Party, which supports Trudeau in key parliamentary votes, on Tuesday backed the Conservative call. Demands for Telford’s testimony stem from allegations in unconfirmed media reports that Trudeau’s aides were made aware of specific Chinese interference attempts. Trudeau says that China attempted to meddle in the 2019 and 2021 votes, but did not change the outcome. He has pointed to closed-door, bipartisan investigations that found attempted foreign interference was unsuccessful.

A new lawsuit accuses Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta Platforms Inc executives and directors of failing to do enough to stop sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram. The complaint made public late Monday by several pension and investment funds that own Meta stock said Meta’s leadership and board have failed to protect the company’s and shareholders’ interests by turning a blind eye to “systemic evidence” of criminal activity. Given the board’s failure to explain how it tries to root out the problem, “the only logical inference is that the board has consciously decided to permit Meta’s platforms to promote and facilitate sex/human trafficking,” the complaint said. Meta rejected the basis for the lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware Chancery Court. Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, has long faced accusations that its platforms are a haven for sexual misconduct.

Contrary to the findings of the Ohio EPA (Ohio Environmental Protection Agency), an “independent environmental group” has found carcinogens in the water. According to the group and common scientific knowledge, “there is no level of carcinogen that is safe.” While independent experts have found such contamination, official agencies and contractors hired by Norfolk Southern found nothing, telling residents it was safe to return to their homes and even to drink the water.

The first lawsuit against JP Morgan, filed by an unnamed “Jane Doe” representing a group of the pedophile’s victims, argues the US-based bank “knowingly benefited from participating in a sex trafficking venture” led by Epstein, who was a client there from 1998 through 2013, and “negligently failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent physical harm.”  The US Virgin Islands’ own suit against JP Morgan alleges the bank enabled the late predator’s sex trafficking operation, though Judge Rakoff also threw out three of the four claims in that suit.  Eight of the 12 claims from Doe’s lawsuit against Deutsche Bank, which took on Epstein as a client in 2013, even though he had been a registered sex offender since 2008, were also dismissed.  Rakoff’s decision allows the plaintiffs to pursue further pretrial discovery. Former JP Morgan CEO Jes Staley, a central figure in both lawsuits against the bank who resigned in 2021 over his links with Epstein, is reportedly due to be deposed later this week. Court filings show he exchanged over 1,200 emails with Epstein, with more than a few referencing young women. Last week, Rakoff tentatively scheduled trial dates for both JP Morgan cases for October 23.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced Russia’s readiness to switch to the yuan in foreign trade settlements with countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. He said this during the Russian-Chinese talks with the participation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, RBC reports. Currently, the share of the yuan in Russia’s export calculations is about 16%. “We are in favour of using the Chinese yuan in settlements between Russia and the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I am sure that these forms of payments in yuan will be developed between Russian partners and their colleagues in third countries,” Putin said. According to [Putin], national currencies are already actively used in Russian-Chinese trade.

Reportedly, one document is a statement on plans for economic cooperation, and the other is a statement on plans to deepen the partnership. In addition, Russian sources say that Putin “supported the development of sporting links between the Russian Federation and China and the establishment of a sports association within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation”. He explained that this is necessary because the West “uses sport as an instrument of pressure”.

The United States said Tuesday it is imposing a new round of sanctions on Iranian firms and people accused of procuring equipment used for Iranian drones. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control coordinated with the FBI to designate four firms and three people in Iran and Turkey for allegedly buying equipment, including European-made engines, to be used for Iran’s drone and weapons programs. Those targeted for sanctions include the Iran-based Defense Technology and Science Research Center, its procurement firm Farazan Industrial Engineering Inc. and two other firms along with purchasing agents from the companies.

Russia’s defence ministry has said a Russian Su-35 combat plane was scrambled over the Baltic Sea after two United States strategic bombers flew in the direction of the Russian border, but that the fighter jet returned to base after the US planes moved away from Russian territory. The encounter on Monday follows last week’s diplomatic furore following the crash of a US surveillance drone into the Black Sea after it was intercepted by two Russian Su-27 fighter jets in what was the first known direct military contact between Russia and the US since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency said that the National Defence Control Centre of Russia’s Ministry of Defence identified the two US planes as B-52H strategic bombers. “On March 20, 2023, the radars of the air defence forces of the Western Military District on duty detected two air targets flying in the direction of the state border of the Russian Federation over the Baltic Sea,” the ministry said, according to TASS. The Su-35 fighter was scrambled to prevent “a violation of the state border” by the US aircraft, the ministry said, adding that the aircraft reached a “designated air patrol area”. “After the foreign military aircraft moved away from the state border of the Russian Federation, the Russian plane returned to its home base,” the ministry said, adding that the Su-35 was strictly in line with international air law. “No violation of the state border of the Russian Federation was permitted,” the ministry said.

Paris police clashed with demonstrators for a third night on Saturday as thousands of people marched throughout the country amid anger at the government pushing through a rise…

  NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Top Republicans, including some of Donald Trump’s potential rivals for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, rushed to his defense Saturday after Trump said he is bracing for possible arrest. The reaction underscores the political risks faced by would-be opponents who are eager to convince voters that it is time…

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On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of deporting children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia, which, according to the court, constitutes a war crime. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the document “legally worthless.” “Decisions of the International Criminal Court have no value for our country, in particular from a legal point of view,” Zakharova wrote in a Telegram post. “Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and doesn’t bear obligations under it. Russia doesn’t cooperate with this body, and possible ‘recipes’ for arrest coming out of the International Court of Justice will be legally worthless and void for us.” Deputy head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and former Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, made a rather discourteous comment: “No need to explain how this (piece) paper should be used,” Medvedev said, adding a toilet paper roll emoji to his Twitter post.

While Silicon Valley Bank was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation after its value collapsed following a bank run last Friday, the rest of SVB Financial Group will be sold off in an effort to repay creditors and large depositors, though it will not cover everyone who lost money in the collapse. A legal battle is expected to follow. Earlier this week, a shareholder lawsuit filed in the US district court for the Northern District of California alleged that several of SVB’s quarterly and annual financial reports had not fully disclosed the risks being communicated by the Federal Reserve that looming interests rate hikes “had the potential to cause irrevocable damage to the company.”  While the FDIC only covers customer deposits under $250,000, the administration of President Joe Biden stepped in after SVB’s collapse to guarantee those exceeding that amount, rankling critics who see it as a bailout masquerading as a regulatory action. An inordinately large percentage – 94% – of SVB’s deposits exceeded the $250,000 cutoff, about twice the typical share at other banks. Senate Republicans pointed out that the banks that didn’t fail would be unfairly penalized when their own rates increased to cover the hefty payouts to depositors, costs which would ultimately be passed onto the taxpayer, putting them on the hook for a bailout after all. New York-based Signature Bank collapsed just days after SVB, triggering fears of a wider contagion even as the president attempted to reassure Americans that their finances were safe. Similar to SVB, 90% of its deposits exceeded the FDIC cap.

Angry protesters took to the streets in Paris and other cities for a second day on Friday, trying to pressure lawmakers to bring down French President Emmanuel Macron’s government and doom the unpopular retirement age increase he’s trying to impose without a vote in the National Assembly. A day after Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne invoked a special constitutional power to skirt a vote in the chaotic lower chamber, lawmakers on the right and left filed no-confidence motions to be voted on Monday. At the Place de Concorde, a protest by several thousand degenerated into a scene echoing the night before. Riot police charged and threw tear gas to empty the huge square across from the National Assembly after troublemakers climbed scaffolding on a renovation site, arming themselves with wood. They lobbed fireworks and paving stones at police in a standoff.

The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. It was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. The ICC said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.” It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation. The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow.

Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire known for his opposition to Beijing and ties to the administration of former US President Donald Trump, has been charged in the United States with defrauding investors out of $1bn. Guo, also known as Ho Wan Kwok and Miles Guo, was arrested in New York on Wednesday over an alleged conspiracy involving the misappropriation of hundreds of millions of dollars obtained from his thousands of followers online, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. Guo is accused of pocketing money raised from investors who were promised outsized returns for backing a number of his business ventures, including the media company GTV Media Group, an exclusive membership club known as G|CLUBS and a cryptocurrency called Himalaya Coin.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Shoigu told Austin that the incident was caused by the Americans violating the airspace restriction declared by Russia, with all the proper international notifications in place. Shoigu called US drone flights off the Russian coast “provocative in nature” and risked an escalation of tensions in the Black Sea.  While Russia does not desire such a development, it will “continue to respond proportionately to all provocations,” Shoigu said. He added that the two nuclear powers “must act as responsibly as possible,” which includes keeping a military channel open to discuss any crisis. Speaking at a Pentagon press briefing, Austin confirmed that he made the call, and said it was “important that great powers be models of transparency and communication.” However, he insisted the US would “continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows.”

Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company and two senior executives are facing a class-action lawsuit in the United States, where shareholders have accused the financial institution of failing to disclose the risks that anticipated interest rate hikes would have on its business. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California on Monday, is seeking unspecified damages from SVB Financial Group and its Chief Financial Officer Daniel Beck, as well as the bank’s Chief Executive Officer Greg Becker. The bank collapsed and its assets were seized by the US government late last week after a mass withdrawal of funds by customers. The lawsuit, which accuses SVB of violating federal securities laws, noted that the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, had signaled as early as 2021 that it would increase interest rates to tame inflation.

Credit Suisse shares tumbled more than 20% in pre-market trading on Wednesday after its biggest backer ruled out investing any more into the troubled Swiss bank.  “The answer is absolutely not, for many reasons outside the simplest reason, which is regulatory and statutory,” Saudi National Bank Chairman Ammar Al Khudairy said in a Bloomberg interview, responding to whether the Gulf lender would dole out more money.  Shares in Credit Suisse slid 21.91% to $1.96 in pre-market trading in US-listed shares. Meanwhile, in Zurich, it’s stock fell 19% to $1.79, marking a new record low on Switzerland’s stock exchange. The bank’s stock is down about 24% since the start of the year.

US stocks tumbled Wednesday, as the banking sector saw renewed turmoil — but this time focused on Europe. US-listed shares of Credit Suisse plunged more than 20%, as Saudi backers ruled out further investment in the embattled lender. Since regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, investors have been concerned about another 2008-style financial crisis. On Tuesday, Moody’s cut its outlook for the entire US banking system. Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported wholesale prices posted a monthly decline of 0.1% in February, versus expectations for a 0.3% increase.

An American intelligence drone crashed after colliding with a Russian fighter over the Black Sea on Tuesday, the U.S. Air Force’s European headquarters said in a release. The MQ-9 Reaper drone was flying a routine surveillance mission in international airspace when it crossed paths with two Su-27 fighters around 7 a.m. local time, according to U.S. Air Forces in Europe. The Russian jets began antagonizing the unmanned aircraft, repeatedly dumping fuel on and buzzing in front of the much smaller Reaper, the Air Force said. One Su-27 drew close enough to hit the drone’s tail propeller, causing its remote operators to lose control of the plane.

March 14, 2023. Blick Online: Dark hours for Credit Suisse Bank Dark hours for the bank Credit Suisse, which continues to fight against the outflow of cash from its coffers. The trend has slowed but not reversed, the bank said in its annual report on Tuesday. The Zurich group suffered massive liquidity withdrawals last year,…

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At the best of times this is not a good look for an institution in charge of £1.1 trillion worth of the world’s deposits and investments. In the middle of the worst jitters over bank safety for 15 years, it is doubly awkward. Coming weeks after both the chairman and chief executive had given the impression that the outflows had bottomed out, it is also deeply embarrassing. Markets gave their own unambiguous verdict. Credit default swaps on Credit Suisse debt hit a record, meaning it is more costly than ever for investors to insure against the group defaulting. The shares slumped by 4 per cent at one point yesterday, though they rallied on the back of a worldwide bounce in bank stocks.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) will not affect China’s financial system but offers an important lesson for the country’s banking industry, the official Securities Times has said. An SVB-style bank failure is unlikely to happen in China but the incident would have “important implications for the development of China’s small- and medium-sized lenders, and the stability of China’s financial system”, the media outlet said in an editorial on Wednesday. SVB’s shutdown on Friday has roiled global markets, forced US President Joe Biden to rush out assurances that the financial system is safe and prompted emergency US measures giving banks access to more funding.

Responding after Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Ottawa is seeking “potential regime change in Russia” in comments to reporters last week, Moscow’s Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov asked how Western nations would respond if the roles were reversed. “Quite perplexed to hear from Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly that her goal is ‘regime change’ in Russia. Is this how she instructs the Canadian Embassy in Moscow?” Stepanov said on Monday. “And by the way, what reaction would we expect if, for example, someone in Moscow had said that Russia’s goal is ‘regime change’ in Ottawa?”

A Southfield, Michigan-headquartered bank holding company has agreed to plead guilty to securities fraud for filing false securities statements relating to its 2017 initial public offering (IPO) and its 2018 and 2019 annual filings. According to a signed plea agreement that will be publicly filed in court, Sterling Bancorp, Inc. (the Company) was the holding company for its wholly owned subsidiary, Sterling Bank and Trust F.S.B. (the Bank, or together with the Company, “Sterling”). Sterling – with branches located in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, and Southfield – completed an IPO in 2017, and the Company’s stock began trading on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol “SBT.”

Senators on Tuesday called Russia’s downing of a U.S. drone “dangerous” and “reckless,” slamming Russian President Vladimir Putin but stopping short of calling for any specific actions. A Russian fighter jet intercepted the drone over the Black Sea. “This intercept was so dangerous and so brazen that the U.S. Air Force was forced to crash their drone into international waters. It is another reckless act by President Putin and his military, and I want to tell Mr. Putin, stop this behavior before you are the cause of an unintended escalation,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said from the chamber floor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Germany’s response to the explosion on North Sea pipelines showed that the country remained “occupied” and unable to act independently decades after its surrender at the end of World War II. Putin, interviewed on Russian television, also said European leaders had been browbeaten into losing their sense of sovereignty and independence. Western countries, including Germany, have reacted cautiously to investigations into the blasts which hit Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, saying they believe they were a deliberate act, but declining to say who they think was responsible.

Research shows most troops don’t begin transition classes until they are in their final months of military service.

Neither the US nor Russia gave any coordinates for the incident. The Americans argued the drone was “operating within international airspace” over the Black Sea. The Russians said the drone was inside the restricted airspace established for the special military operation, of which everyone was properly notified months ago. Unconfirmed reports in the Russian media put the drone’s location about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday dismissed allegations that Ukrainians could be behind the blasts that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year, and insisted the U.S. was to blame. Putin spoke after The New York Times, The Washington Post and German media published stories last week citing unidentified U.S. and other officials as saying there was evidence Ukraine, or at least Ukrainians, may have been responsible. The Ukrainian government has denied involvement. Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper and German public broadcasters ARD and SWR reported that investigators believed five men and a woman used a yacht hired by a Ukrainian-owned company in Poland to carry out the attack. German federal prosecutors confirmed that a boat was searched in January but have not confirmed the reported findings. Putin rejected the notion as “sheer nonsense.”

Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, where he is scheduled to meet top ally Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia is a main backer of Assad and has a broad presence in Syria, where a 12-year uprising-turned-civil war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population. Moscow has played a pivotal role in fighting back armed opposition groups trying to topple Assad’s government through its military support, and has also aggressively backed Damascus against opponents at the United Nations. The Kremlin confirmed Tuesday that Putin will meet with Assad on Wednesday — the anniversary of the conflict — in a statement carried by Russia’s state news agency Tass.

Ohio filed a lawsuit against railroad Norfolk Southern to make sure it pays for the cleanup and environmental damage caused by a fiery train derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border last month, the state’s attorney general said Tuesday. The federal lawsuit also seeks to force the company to pay for groundwater and soil monitoring in the years to come and economic losses in the village of East Palestine and surrounding areas, said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. “The fallout from this highly preventable accident is going to reverberate throughout Ohio for many years to come,” Yost said.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the first federal limit on so-called “forever chemicals” in the country’s drinking water, a move officials said will save lives. The proposal announced will limit per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS. The substances have been linked to a range of health issues, including low birth weight and kidney cancer. They do not naturally degrade in the environment and are expensive to remove from water.

ilicon Valley Bank’s parent company and two senior executives are facing a class-action lawsuit in the United States, where shareholders have accused the financial institution of failing to disclose the risks that anticipated interest rate hikes would have on its business. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California on Monday, is seeking unspecified damages from SVB Financial Group and its Chief Financial Officer Daniel Beck, as well as the bank’s Chief Executive Officer Greg Becker. The bank collapsed and its assets were seized by the US government late last week after a mass withdrawal of funds by customers.

The agency cited concerns over the lenders’ reliance on uninsured deposit funding and unrealized losses in their asset portfolios. “The review for downgrade reflects the extremely volatile funding conditions for some US banks exposed to the risk of uninsured deposit outflows,” it stated. Moody’s also slashed the debt ratings of collapsed New York-based Signature Bank deep into junk territory, withdrawing future ratings for the insolvent lender. The downgrades come while US bank stocks have continued to plummet despite the government’s measures to support lenders and prevent more bank runs. First Republic Bank has led the sell-off, with its share price nosediving more than 60% on Monday, forcing a brief halt in trading due to volatility. Western Alliance Bancorp lost over 47% while Zions Bancorp declined by about 26%. Dallas-based Comerica dropped 28% and UMB lost more than 15%.

“The problem is the bond market, and my prediction, I called Lehman Brothers years ago, and I think the next bank to go is Credit Suisse,” said the co-author of the best-selling book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’, “because the bond market is crashing.” Kiyosaki explained on Monday that the bond market, which is bigger than the stock market, is the economy’s “biggest problem” and will put the US in “serious trouble.” “The US dollar is losing its hegemony in the world right now. So, they’re going to print more and more and more of this… trying to keep this thing from sinking,” he explained.

LONDON — Defense spending is getting a £5 billion ($6 billion) boost from the British government, but most of the cash has been earmarked for nuclear programs and rebuilding depleted weapons stocks rather than addressing wider capability gaps in the armed forces. The funding figures, released Sunday night, will be contained in a refresh of the 2021 integrated defense and security review due to be published later today. News of the increase came as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak headed off to San Diego, California, for a meeting Mar. 13 with U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to announce details of the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact agreed by the three nations.

“In January, Germany imported 3,500 metric tons of Russian oil,” the Office said, adding that such volumes were imported by the EU before January 1, 2023. In January 2022, Germany imported 2.8 mln metric tons of Russian crude oil. To substitute the Russian oil, Germany scaled up supplies from Norway (plus 44%), the United Kingdom (+42%), and Kazakhstan (+34.6%). The EU’s embargo on seaborne supplies of Russian oil became effective on December 5 of the last year.

Economists see Lehman Brothers-style crisis as unlikely despite jitters following collapse of California-based lender.

The International Criminal Court is expected to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and targeting civilian infrastructure, a source said on Monday, in what would be the first international war crimes cases arising from Moscow’s invasion. The source said the arrest warrants could include the crime of genocide, and were expected to arrive in the “short term” if the court prosecutor’s request was approved by a pre-trial judge at the Hague-based court. It was unclear which Russian officials the prosecutor might seek warrants against. The office of the prosecutor at the ICC declined to comment. Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moscow would be certain to reject any arrest warrants against any of its officials. But an international war crimes prosecution could deepen Moscow’s diplomatic isolation and make it difficult for those accused to travel abroad. The source said the arrest warrants could include the crime of genocide, and were expected to arrive in the “short term” if the court prosecutor’s request was approved by a pre-trial judge at the Hague-based court. It was unclear which Russian officials the prosecutor might seek warrants against.

The package comes within the framework of the so-called Integrated Review, a program document envisioning ‘Global Britain’ and originally adopted under former PM Boris Johnson. The money is set to be funneled to all 42 language services of the BBC World Service and will be used to “support English-language broadcasting,” as well as to “counter…

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“The day 72 million Japanese go hungry.” That’s the prospect Josei Seven (March 16) unfolds. For shock value? Yes and no. Certainly it’s shocking. But it’s not cheap…

An analysis by Global Affairs Canada argues that Saudi Arabia is the “principal guarantor” of affordable oil for Western countries, as well as an important market for Canadian companies, The Breach reported on Monday, citing the seven-page document. Canadian weapons are crucial to maintaining Riyadh as an “integral and valued security partner,” the report claimed. …

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Defense spending this year must focus on the blockade threat, earmarking funds to stockpile spare parts for F-16 fighter jets and other weaponry, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said on Monday, in a report seeking parliamentary budget approval. Since last year, the ministry has been reviewing its strategic fuel reserves and its capacity to repair equipment, said Reuters, which obtained a copy of the report. The Taiwanese military will also need to replenish its stores of artillery shells and rockets “to strengthen combat continuity,” the ministry said. China’s military has been conducting joint force operations “with an eye to controlling strategic choke points and denying access to foreign forces.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is allowing thousands of Ukrainians who fled their homeland when Russia invaded a year ago to stay in the United States longer, the administration said Monday. The decision provides relief to Ukrainians whose one-year authorization to remain in the U.S. was set to expire soon. The Homeland Security Department said the extension is for certain Ukrainian nationals and their immediate family members who were let into the U.S. before the Uniting for Ukraine program started.

Key developments on March 13:  Fierce fighting rages over central Bakhmut as Russia’s Wagner mercenaries try to break through Ukrainian defenses in the ruined city, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on March 13. Syrskyi, who commands Ukraine’s Ground Forces and made two known visits to Bakhmut in recent weeks, acknowledged that the situation in the embattled city remained difficult as Russia continued to press forward. The commander said that the Wagner members were storming into central Bakhmut from multiple fronts, but Ukraine still held on to the “fortress” while inflicting “significant losses” on the invading forces.

The Army’s end strength continues to decrease under its most recent budget request. The service unveiled its part of President Joe Biden’s overall defense budget request to Congress today. The Army is asking to fund an Army with 452,000 active duty soldiers, 325,000 soldiers in the Army National Guard and 174,000 soldiers in the Army Reserve. That’s a drop of 21,000 soldiers from the active rosters as compared to last year’s initial request for 473,000 active troops.

According to Andrew Adams, the group has focused on identifying those who are helping Russians to avoid sanctions and export controls. “I think it can be quite effective to be sanctioning facilitators,” Adams said, calling them “professional sanctions evasion brokers.” A recent report from the Treasury Department showed that more than $58 billion worth of sanctioned Russian assets have been blocked or frozen worldwide so far. Adams pointed out that KleptoCapture aims to sell the frozen yachts and other property of sanctioned Russians, despite the legal difficulties, and use the proceeds for the benefit of Ukraine. He noted, however, that this would be done in accordance with the law.

The pharmaceutical giant says it will pay $229 in cash for each share of Seagen.

Russia on Monday began the closed-door trial of jailed opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who faces up to two decades in prison on treason charges for comments critical of the Kremlin. His trial is the latest in a string of cases against opposition voices in Russia in a crackdown that has intensified since President Vladimir Putin…

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U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As alleged, at the direction of its founder and CEO Laura Perryman, Stimwave created a dummy medical device component — made entirely of plastic — designed to be implanted in patients for the sole purpose of causing doctors to unwittingly bill Medicare and private insurance companies more than $16,000 for each implantation of the piece of plastic.  The defendant and Stimwave did this so that they could charge medical providers many thousands of dollars for purchasing their medical device.  Our Office will continue to do everything in its power to bring to justice anyone responsible for perpetuating health care fraud, which in this case led to patients being used as nothing more than tools for financial enrichment.”

Biden administration officials are pressing their Canadian counterparts to make a decision on whether Ottawa will lead a multinational force into Haiti to assist the crisis-racked Caribbean nation in its battle against gang control, U.S. and diplomatic sources said. They are hoping that a visit to Canada by President Joe Biden next week will settle…

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Panel says the UN, the Syrian government and others are responsible for delays in getting emergency aid to Syrians.

Did China interfere in Canada’s elections? We don’t know. But journalists must not rely on friendly leaks for the truth.

Hundreds of thousands of people have rallied in cities across Israel for a 10th consecutive week, protesting against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government to curb the Supreme Court’s powers. Organisers said a record 500,000 people attended Saturday’s rallies, making them the “biggest in Israeli history”. Media in Israel put the turnout at 250,000 to 300,000 people. The demonstrations come as Netanyahu’s government prepares to press on with its legislative agenda next week, shunning calls for a pause to allow for negotiations on the divisive judicial reforms.

France faced a seventh day of demonstrations on Saturday against President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension reform plans amid ongoing rolling strikes which have affected refineries, public transport and garbage collections. A coalition of French unions, maintaining a show of unity since the protest movement was launched at the end of January, hopes to keep up to pressure on the government to withdraw the reform, whose key measure is a two-year extension of the retirement age to 64. According to interior ministry figures, up to 1 million people are expected to take part in over 200 marches throughout the country. Demonstrations started at 10 a.m in the streets of major cities including Toulouse and Nice. A march in Paris is scheduled to start at 2 p.m.

The ban will be imposed next week and reevaluated after six months, De Croo said in a statement. Government employees will be allowed to use the app on their personal devices, but not on any devices “whose purchase, subscription or use are partly or fully paid for by the federal government.” Citing reports by the Belgian State Security Service and Centre for Cybersecurity, De Croo claimed that TikTok collects large amounts of user data, manipulates the information users are exposed to, and cooperates with Chinese spy agencies. “We must not be naive,” De Croo said. “TikTok is a Chinese company that today is obliged to cooperate with the Chinese intelligence services.”

The verdict follows Ng’s initial conviction back in April last year, when he was found guilty of helping Tim Leissner, his former boss at Goldman Sachs, drain money from the fund. Goldman Sachs helped 1MDB, a fund set up in 2009 to finance development projects in Malaysia, raise $6.5 billion through bond sales back in 2012 and 2013. According to US prosecutors, some $4.5 billion of these funds were diverted by Ng and his co-conspirators in the process. They were then used for bribes to government officials, purchases of high-end real estate and other luxury items. According to the Department of Justice, some of the money even went to finance the 2013 Leonardo DiCaprio film ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, which is itself a story of defrauding and money laundering. According to US District Judge Margo Brodie, Ng and his co-defendants “effectively stole money” that was supposed to go toward infrastructure and economic development projects in Malaysia. “There is a critical need to deter crimes of pure greed like this one,” Brodie said, commenting on the sentence. Ng pleaded not guilty and said that the $35 million he was accused of getting in payments from the embezzlement scheme were in fact a return on his wife’s investment. The former banker plans to file an appeal.

The Pentagon’s efforts to improve U.S. force posture in the Pacific have yielded a flurry of major agreements, with allies motivated by China’s behavior. The Chinese Coast Guard ship made its presence known. First, the ship sped near the Philippine patrol vessel Malapascua close to the Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef in the hotly contested South China Sea. Then, it allegedly came within 150 yards, blocking the Philippine ship’s path in what government officials later described as “dangerous maneuvers,” before the Chinese crew pointed what Manila called a green “military grade” laser at some of the Philippine crew, temporarily blinding them. China denied it was operating unsafely, but Philippine officials were unassuaged. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. summoned Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian to express “serious concern.”

As they work to unleash greater violence on the Palestinians, its rulers are turning Israel into a fascist garrison. Israeli headlines read like guidelines for future autocracy, with the justice minister working to strip power away from the judiciary, the communications minister threatening to defund Israel’s public broadcaster to funnel money to a channel favourable to the government, and the minister of heritage accusing organisations representing Reform Jews of endangering Jewish identity. Fearing a tailspin into turmoil, President Isaac Herzog stepped in, with tacit support from President Joe Biden, to facilitate a compromise between the government and the protesters. But what seems like a well-intentioned effort to build consensus, is, in fact, an ill-advised attempt at appeasing fascists and pandering to evil. Any compromise offered by Herzog would be skewed towards the ruling majority, which holds the power to interpret its articles at will. A compromise will also whitewash and empower the ruling fascists, presenting them as responsible and pragmatic actors, as they pursue their extremist agenda, and as the street opposition loses momentum and disintegrates, slowly but surely.

According to the report, Fridman and Aven currently own 45% of the bank via a Luxembourg-based holding company that controls the lender’s Cyprus-based parent company ABH Financial Limited. Their shares will reportedly be sold to Alfa-Bank’s third co-owner, Andrei Kosogov, for 178 billion rubles ($2.3 billion). Kosogov, who already owns a 41% stake in the bank, confirmed to FT that the deal has been agreed, but made no further comments as to the details. Alfa-Bank’s press service also confirmed on Friday that such a deal is being prepared but noted that it is too early to speak about the particulars. The sale is expected to be finalized later this spring, once it is approved by the Russian central bank and tax authorities. Unlike Kosogov, who is not subject to the Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia, both Fridman and Aven have been targeted by Western authorities for their alleged ties to the Russian government. Both billionaires have challenged the EU sanctions against them in court, and now “want to do everything they can to get out of their Russian assets so that sanctions will be removed,” one of the sources told the news outlet.

The US Justice Department announced on Wednesday having obtained a warrant to seize a Boeing 737-7JU aircraft owned by Russian oil company Rosneft and worth approximately $25 million.  The court documents cited in the press release states the probable cause for the intended seizure as violations of the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) and of the recent sanctions issued against Russia.  Those sanctions bar a plane that was built or manufactured in the US from entering Russia without a valid license, the report stated. Airplanes and aircraft parts are subject to export rules because of their potential military use and national security implications.  “Specifically, since February 2022, when the export controls that bar the United States-built plane’s re-entry to Russia went into effect, the plane has left and reentered Russia at least seven times, in violation of federal law,” the press release said. “The Boeing jet, which was manufactured in the United States, was last in the United States in March 2014, and is currently believed to be in, or traveling to or from, Russia,” it continued.  In August, the Justice Department was approved by a US court to seize a plane belonging to another Russian energy company, a $45-million jet reportedly owned by oil major Lukoil.

The Russian army launched 81 missiles in twenty-four hours, including six Kinjal, which Kiev claims cannot intercept. Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukraine by imposing, on Thursday, March 9, a missile and drone dam on several areas of the country, including in the west, yet far from the front lines. The strikes, which have been the most significant in weeks, have left at least six people dead and deprived of power, as well as temporarily, the Zaporijia nuclear power plant. Moscow has described these attacks, which it carried out in particular with the help of new Kinjal hypersonic missiles, as « reprisals » to an incursion into its territory on March 2 from « saboteurs » Ukrainian. Kiev denied the charges, and warned that Moscow could use these allegations to justify further assaults. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced this daily message on the Internet in his daily message on the Internet « new attempt by the terrorist state to wage war on civilization, which temporarily cut the power, heating and water in some of our regions and cities ».

The United States has imposed sanctions on 39 entities, including many based in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, that Washington said facilitate Iran’s access to the global financial system, describing them as a “shadow banking” network that moves billions of dollars. The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Thursday that those included in the sanctions had granted companies previously slapped with Iran-related sanctions – such as Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co (PGPICC) and Triliance Petrochemical Co Ltd – access to the international financial system and helped them hide their trade with foreign customers.

Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has been charged with abuse of power and money laundering in connection with the awarding of government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Muhyiddin, who led the country from March 2020 through the worst of the pandemic, pleaded not guilty to the charges at a Kuala Lumpur court on Friday morning. He has previously called the investigation politically motivated. The veteran politician faces as many as 15 years in jail if found guilty of money laundering, and up to 20 years for abuse of power. He could also be fined. Muhyiddin was granted bail of 2 million Malaysian ringgit ($442,674) by the judge and asked to surrender his passport.

A judge in Peru has lengthened the duration of former President Pedro Castillo‘s pre-trial detention from 18 months to 36, as the disgraced head of state faces charges stemming from his attempt to dissolve Congress and rule by decree in December. On Thursday, Judge Juan Carlos Checkley handed down the decision in the wake of an additional investigation announced in February. Prosecutors at the time formalised plans to probe Castillo’s short tenure in office, on charges of influence peddling, organised crime and acting as an accomplice to collusion.

ASIC has announced six of Australia’s largest banking and financial services institutions have paid or offered to pay a total of $4.7 billion in compensation to customers who suffered loss or detriment because of fees for no service misconduct or non-compliant advice. AMP, ANZ, CBA, Macquarie, NAB and Westpac all undertook the review and remediation programs to compensate affected customer as a result of two major ASIC reviews. ASIC commenced the reviews to look into the extent of failure by the institutions to deliver ongoing advice services to financial advice customers who were paying fees to receive those services and how effectively the institutions supervised their financial advisers to identify and deal with “non-compliant advice”.

Police in Canada said on Thursday they are investigating allegations that two Montreal-area centers are being used as Chinese state-backed “police stations” to intimidate or harass Canadians of Chinese origin. The investigation adds to mounting allegations of Chinese interference in Canada’s internal affairs, including accusations by Ottawa that Beijing tried to influence the last two Canadian elections. China has denied those accusations. “We are carrying out police actions aimed at detecting and disrupting these foreign state-backed criminal activities, which may threaten the safety of persons living in Canada,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Quebec said in a statement. Countries including the United States and the Netherlands have carried out similar probes following a report in September by Safeguard Defenders, a Europe-based human rights organization, detailing the presence of dozens of Chinese police “service stations” in major cities globally. In November, the RCMP in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, also launched an investigation into similar reports of Chinese “police service stations” in the Toronto area. The Ontario RCMP did not respond to a request for information on that probe.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is spearheading a new drive this week to see Finland and Sweden become members of the world’s biggest military organization by the time U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts meet for their next summit in July. Fearing that they might be targeted next after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, the Nordic neighbors abandoned their traditional positions of military nonalignment to seek protection under NATO’s security umbrella. All 30 allies signed Finland’s and Sweden’s accession protocols. Almost all have since ratified those texts, but Turkey and, more recently, Hungary have sought guarantees and assurances from the two. NATO must agree unanimously for them to join.

Saudi Arabia is reportedly asking for US help to develop its civilian nuclear programme, raising fears that the kingdom may seek to develop a nuclear weapon and accelerate an arms race with Iran. Saudi officials want US support to enrich uranium and develop their own fuel production system, while Washington is in return seeking a normalisation with another Middle East ally, Israel, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. The oil-dependent kingdom is looking to add nuclear power to its energy mix while, at the same time, being deeply wary of nuclear proliferation attempts by Tehran.

The Foreign Secretary is to order a crackdown on SNP ministers exceeding their powers by using meetings with overseas governments to promote Scottish independence and attack Brexit. The Telegraph understands that James Cleverly is to write to Britain’s embassies to remind them that a UK diplomat should be present during meetings between SNP ministers and foreign governments. Whitehall insiders highlighted concerns that the Scottish Government is using Foreign and Commonwealth Office resources and relationships to set up the meetings, only to use them to talk down Britain.

Matt Taibbi presented the US Congress with evidence of corporate, NGO and government collusion: Social media platforms colluded with non-governmental organizations and the US government to suppress information they did not like. During the hearing, multiple Democrats tried to pressure Taibbi into revealing his sources, insinuating Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, was behind the disclosures.

(Bloomberg) — US President Joe Biden dropped into a meeting at the last minute in the White House to see a man all of Washington wants an audience with: Sauli Niinisto, once upon a time known as the “Putin whisperer.” The impromptu get-together was thrown together as Biden joined Niinisto and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The pair of presidents have now met three times and spoken four since late 2021 — giving the Finnish head of state unprecedented access to the world’s most powerful leader. At stake is the stalled expansion of NATO, with Turkey and Hungary holding up the biggest shift in the security landscape of western Europe in several decades.

WASHINGTON ― U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has outlined new spending requirements to boost deterrence against China, including billions of dollars in new weapons, new construction and closer military-to-military collaboration with America’s allies in the region. The command’s congressionally-ordered assessment delivered Wednesday calls for more than $87 billion in spending between 2024 and 2028; with $15.4 billion for fiscal year 2024 alone. That represents a significant jump from last year’s $9 billion request for FY23 and five-year projected spend of $77 billion. With China competition a bipartisan priority on Capitol Hill, the Indo-Pacific Command assessment of its needs offers a blueprint for China hawks to add to President Joe Biden’s $842 billion defense budget for FY24, which requests $9.1 billion for the Pentagon’s Pacific Deterrence Initiative.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former state House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges were convicted Thursday in a $60 million bribery scheme that federal prosecutors have called the largest corruption case in state history. A jury in Cincinnati found the two guilty of conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise involving bribery and money laundering, after about 9 1/2 half hours of deliberations over two days. U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker said the government’s prosecution team showed that “Householder sold the Statehouse, and thus he ultimately betrayed the people of the great state of Ohio he was elected to serve.” He called Borges “a willing co-conspirator.”

BERLIN (AP) — European countries said Thursday that they have decided to dissolve a system conceived in 2019 to enable trade with Iran and protect companies doing business with it from U.S. sanctions, but only ever processed one transaction. The German and French foreign ministries said the 10 shareholders of INSTEX — Belgium, Germany, Finland, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. — concluded that there was no basis to keep it going after Iran persistently refused to work with the institution. The decision comes at a time when tensions between the West and Iran have increased following Tehran’s crackdown on internal dissent, its supply of armed drones to Russia that have been used in the war in Ukraine, and the de facto breakdown of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers including Germany, France and the U.K.

A former Goldman Sachs banker was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for his role in looting a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund of billions of dollars used to finance lavish parties, a superyacht, premium real estate and even the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Roger Ng was convicted last April by a U.S. District Court jury in Brooklyn, but he continues to deny charges that he conspired to launder money and violated two anti-bribery laws. Prosecutors said Ng and his co-conspirators helped the Malaysian fund, known as 1MDB, to raise $6.5 billion through bond sales — only to participate in a scheme that siphoned off more than two-thirds of the money, some of which went to pay bribes and kickbacks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Thursday announced more sanctions against people and firms associated with Iran and with what it said was an illicit banking network used to conceal transactions. The U.S. said it placed the penalties on 39 firms linked to a shadow banking system that helped to obfuscate financial activity between sanctioned Iranian firms and their foreign buyers, namely for petrochemicals produced in Iran. The Treasury Department said the companies — from Hong Kong to the United Arab Emirates — made up a “significant ‘shadow banking’ network” that gave cover to sanctioned Iranian entities to disguise petrochemical sales with foreign customers.

The company attributed the decision to the latest round of Western sanctions against Russia, saying that transactions in dollars and euros will be unavailable to any individuals residing in Russia regardless of nationality.   The exchange also banned users based in the EU from making transfers in Russian rubles via the platform, according to media reports. When trying to make a transaction in rubles, the platform prompts users to select a ‘local currency’ for P2P. “In order to continue using Binance P2P, users can choose other available fiat currencies,” a representative of the exchange told Forbes Russia. 

Ukrainian troops eased out of their most precarious defences in Bakhmut. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the conquest of the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, known collectively as the Donbas region, as one of his goals – and Bakhmut in Donetsk is key to that. “We understand that after Bakhmut, they could go farther,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN. “They could go to Kramatorsk. They could go to Sloviansk. It would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine in the Donetsk direction.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also learned from the agency that the data is now being offered for sale on the dark web.   Leading lawmakers were informed of a “significant data breach” at the DC Health Link marketplace potentially affecting all members of the House and their families in a letter from the Chief Administrative Office of the House on Wednesday. CAO Catherine Szpindor promised a full list of the individuals affected but advised members to secure their finances “out of an abundance of caution” as their data may have been compromised.  

The Boeing 777 was en route from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing with 239 passengers on board on March 8, 2014, when it vanished from the grid less than an hour into its journey.  For three years, Malaysia, China, and Australia searched for the plane in the Indian Ocean, where it was believed to…

more “Malaysia asked to reopen MH370 probe after claims of new evidence” »

A cellist is accused of helping Vladimir Putin channel $50 million into Swiss accounts. 4 bankers are also accused of not having checked the real source of the money. Putin is believed by some to have accrued vast wealth during his time as Russian leader. Four bankers have been accused of helping Vladimir Putin’s cellist…

more “4 bankers have been accused of helping Putin launder $50 million through Switzerland via his cello-playing best friend” »

Pentagon chiefs reportedly blocking Washington from sharing evidence of alleged war crimes in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court. The US Department of Defense is reportedly at odds with the administration of President Joe Biden over helping the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine.

A former managing director of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Goldman Sachs) was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for his role in a multibillion-dollar bribery and money laundering scheme involving Malaysia’s state-owned investment and development fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). “Today, Roger Ng was sentenced for his role in a massive and egregious bribery and money laundering scheme involving the bribery of high-level foreign officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates and theft of billions of dollars meant to benefit the Malaysian people,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Justice Department remains firmly committed to holding accountable individuals who engage in corruption, undermine the rule of law, and abuse our financial system to launder their illicit funds.  This sentence sends a strong message to criminals around the world:  if you violate our laws, we will bring you to justice.”

The chief executive officer (CEO) of Company 1, a multi-national corporation headquartered in Malta and with operations in the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and the United States was charged with bribery in an indictment returned on September 30, 2019.

Carlson has been criticised for TV segment that used cherry-picked video to portray US Capitol rioters as peaceful.

Submarines are part of the AUKUS pact with the UK, which may also jointly develop a vessel with Australia.

The United States government has requested and obtained a warrant to seize a Russian aircraft valued at $25m, according to a statement released on Wednesday. The US-made plane, a Boeing 737-7JU, is accused of travelling from a foreign country to Russia, in violation of US law and sanctions implemented after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The plane was last in the US in 2014, according to the statement from the US Attorney’s Office for New York’s Eastern District. But the US alleges the plane has flown in and out of Russia “at least seven times, in violation of federal law”.

A recent controversy has called into question the agreement that decides who prosecutes U.S. troops in Japan.

The House rejected Matt Gaetz’s war powers resolutions to pull 900 U.S. troops from Syria days after a visit from Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley.

House lawmakers reexamined shortfalls from the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Thousands of demonstrators surrounded the legislature in Tbilisi in protest against the “foreign agents” law Read Full Article at RT.com

Switzerland won’t break its constitutional neutrality to assist in the supply of military aid to Ukraine, its president has said Read Full Article at RT.com

The new intelligence reviewed by US officials suggested the perpetrators behind the sabotage were “opponents of President Vladimir V Putin of Russia”, the Times reported, but did not specify the members of the group and who organised and paid for the operation, which would have required skilled divers and explosives experts.

India has imposed money-laundering regulations on trade in cryptocurrencies, according to a government release published on Tuesday, in the latest step to tighten control of the sector. A range of crypto transactions, namely the exchange, transfer, safekeeping and administration of virtual assets, now fall under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA), the notification from the Ministry of Finance published by The Gazette of India states. The PMLA obliges financial institutions to keep a record of all transactions for ten years, provide the records to officials in necessary, and to verify clients’ identity.

Lynda Bennett, 65, of Maggie Valley, North Carolina, was a primary candidate for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District in 2020. In late December 2019, Bennett borrowed $25,000 from a family member, representing that she needed the money for personal expenses because she had to spend a large amount of her own money on her campaign. The day after depositing the loaned money into a personal account, Bennett then caused $80,000, including the $25,000 in loaned funds, to be transferred to the bank account of Lynda Bennett for Congress (LBC), her authorized federal campaign committee. Under the FECA, Bennett was required to report a loan from a third-party individual as a campaign contribution. Bennett knowingly and willfully violated the FECA by reporting through LBC that the full $80,000 was a loan to her campaign using her own personal funds, rather than disclosing that $25,000 of that amount was a loan from another individual.

BEIJING — Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned Tuesday that Beijing and Washington are headed for “conflict and confrontation” if the U.S. doesn’t change course, striking a combative tone at a moment when relations between the rivals are at a historic low.