LAST UPDATE: 08:11 The US State Department has approved the potential sale to Taiwan of $1.1 billion worth of military equipment, including 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles. The announcement came in the wake of Chinese military exercises around Taiwan following the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island last month […]
Tag: International current affairs
Turkey: MP of pro-Kurdish HDP arrested
Turkish police arrested a pro-Kurdish member of parliament today after photos were published showing him with members of the PKK. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced that MP Semra Guzel of the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) was arrested while traveling in northwestern Turkey in possession of “a fake passport”. Parliament lifted his immunity after pro-government media […]
EU: The Commission intends to present a new instrument that will protect the internal market in the event of a crisis
Brussels is to present by mid-September the draft of a new instrument, the aim of which will be to protect the EU’s internal market in the event of a crisis and, if necessary, to force producers of strategic products to serve Europe as a priority. If there are shortages of critical goods, Brussels will be […]
The EMA does not rule out the appearance of a new variant of the coronavirus in the winter
New variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus may emerge this winter, but existing vaccines should protect the population from severe forms of the disease, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced today. The heads of this European agency gave a press conference on the situation surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, as the European Union prepares to launch a […]
Gazprom completely stopped the flow of natural gas in Nord Stream – ‘Discovered’ a technical problem
LAST UPDATE: 21.09 The Russian state energy giant Gazprom announced that the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline, which connects Russia to Germany, cannot restart as planned on Saturday, as a new technical problem was discovered, Bloomberg reported. It is a major blow to Europe, which is trying to fill its natural gas reserves ahead […]
Russia fails to circumvent sanctions on high-tech products
Russia is trying, but failing, to circumvent Western sanctions on high-tech goods for its military and energy sector and is struggling to get international funding, US State Department sanctions coordinator James O’Brien said today. Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan and Britain have imposed a raft of sanctions on Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine […]
Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine total 6,024, according to the BBC
The BBC Russian Service and the Mediazona website in collaboration with volunteers from open sources have recorded the names of 6,024 Russian servicemen killed in the war in Ukraine. BBC Russia journalists and volunteers are compiling a list of Russian servicemen killed since the start of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. These figures are […]
Eighteen killed in mosque blast, including Taliban cleric
An explosion outside a mosque in the western Afghan city of Herat today killed at least 18 people, including a prominent cleric close to the Taliban, in what authorities said was an attack. “Eighteen people were killed and 23 injured,” interior ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Thakor told Reuters. Herat police spokesman Mahmoud Rasoli said Mujib […]
Gazprom is set to begin deliveries of natural gas through Nord Stream on Saturday as scheduled
Russia looks set to resume deliveries of natural gas to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline tomorrow, Saturday, after a short three-day maintenance, according to data released today by the natural gas pipeline operator. Russian energy giant Gazprom is expected to resume natural gas deliveries through Nord Stream 1 to Germany on Saturday, two sources […]
Pakistan: The army rescued another 2,000 flood victims
Pakistan’s armed forces have rescued another 2,000 people trapped in floodwaters, they said in a statement, as the disaster, blamed on climate change, has inundated about a third of the country and is expected to continued. This year’s record-breaking monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern Pakistan have caused floods that have killed at least […]