Russia has included the United States and the Czech Republic in a list of countries that have been classified as “unfriendly,” according to a document published Friday on the country’s official legal information portal. “To approve the attached list of foreign states committing unfriendly actions against Russia, citizens of Russia …

It is not yet time to start vaccinating children against COVID-19, the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom said on Friday at a media briefing, instead urging countries who have vaccinated their elderly to donate vaccines to other countries. “I understand why some countries want to vaccinate their children and …

Lightning is most likely the cause of the deaths, but other reasons have not been ruled out At least 18 elephants have been found dead in the northeast Indian state of Assam after officials suspect a lightning bolt struck their forest reserve. The carcasses were found by locals in the …

Iraq recorded 2767 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today, Friday. The daily epidemiological report on the COVID-19 situation stated that 27 COVID-19 deaths were registered today. On the other hand, 5769 patients had achieved full recovery. The statement added that the cumulative count …

Iraqi Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee, on Friday, asked the Turkish government to open an investigation into the racist attack on an Iraqi family. The head of the committee, Sherko Mirwais, said in a statement, “An Iraqi family from the Kurdistan region has been subjected to racist assault and attempted murder …

Facebook said on Friday it would defend its compliance with European Union privacy laws after the Irish High Court threw out its objections to an investigation opened by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC). “We look forward to defending our compliance to the IDPC, as their preliminary decision could be …

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for military support, the Interfax news agency reported, amid a renewed rise in tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan that last year exploded into a bloody conflict. Putin held a phone call late on Thursday with Pashinyan, during which …

By | Drew Sheneman

The CIA’s role in the Crypto AG case makes clear that spies don’t need a way into messaging apps, but a secret bird’s-eye view from the word go. This is far more effective than any ‘backdoor’ foreign powers may have access to. On May 12, the head of Switzerland’s federal …

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives elected Donald Trump’s candidate Elise Stefanik to their leadership, succeeding Liz Cheney, who they ousted earlier this week for criticizing the former president’s continued false claims of election fraud. Stefanik, a 36-year-old New York state congresswoman, rose to prominence with her fierce defense …

Ireland’s health service has temporarily shut down all of its IT systems due to a “significant ransomware attack,” and one of Europe’s busiest maternity hospitals is badly affected as most appointments have been canceled. The Health Service Executive (HSE) took to Twitter on Friday to announce a “significant ransomware attack” …

The president of the Philippines has vowed not to withdraw his country’s ships from waters contested by China as a long-running dispute between the two nations over sovereignty of South China Sea territory heats up. Speaking in a televised address aired on Friday, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would not …

Mainland China reported seven new COVID-19 cases on May 13, including its first local transmissions in more than three weeks, the country’s national health authority said on Friday. Two of the new cases were local infections in the eastern province of Anhui, the National Health Commission said in a statement. …

Nine people were wounded Thursday evening in Rhode Island’s capital in what police there believe to be the largest shooting in city history. Of the nine, three had serious injuries and were “maybe critical,” Providence Police Chief Col. Hugh T. Clements told reporters at the scene. He said multiple guns …

The United States has completed its withdrawal from Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan, once the second-largest military base in the country for US forces, officials said on Friday. “They have not officially handed over the base to us but I can confirm they left the base on Wednesday,” said Khoja …

A 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Friday, the US Geological Survey said, triggering panic on the nearest island but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The shallow quake hit at 12:30 (0630 GMT) near the island of Nias, about 250 kilousgmeters (160 …

The Iraqi government on Thursday pledged to protect diplomatic missions, a few days after an attack on Iran’s consulate in the southern city of Karbala. The government said it rejects and condemns any act that would destabilize diplomatic missions in Iraq. Last Sunday, Iraqi protestors gathered outside the Iranian consulate …

The operator of a critical US pipeline that provides the East Coast of the country with nearly half of its gasoline and jet fuel reportedly shelled out $5 million ransom to hackers, clearing the way for the pipeline to function normally again. According to reports in the US media, Colonial …

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia would respond to what he called Ukraine’s ‘cleansing’ of the political space, a day after a Ukrainian court placed a prominent pro-Russian politician under house arrest. The Ukrainian court put Viktor Medvedchuk, who promotes closer ties with Moscow, and says Putin is …

India records 4,000 deaths and 343,144 infections in the last 24 hours amid reports that strain first detected in the country is spreading across the globe. The number of recorded COVID-19 infections in India has climbed above 24 million amid reports on Friday that the highly transmissible coronavirus mutant first …