Author: Spencer Ballard

This is the first time Starlink’s device has been linked to a major drug smuggling operation Indian police have sent a legal demand to Elon Musk’s Starlink seeking details of who bought its internet device that helps in sea navigation when smugglers with US$4.2 billion worth of meth were caught in the biggest such Indian seizure. Two people with direct knowledge of the police notice sent by Andaman and Nicobar island officials said Starlink had been asked for the purchaser’s name and payment method, registration details and where the internet device was used when smugglers travelled in international waters from…

William Lewis is publisher and chief executive officer of The Washington Post. The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates. As our Editorial Board wrote in 1960: “The Washington Post has not ‘endorsed’ either candidate in the presidential campaign. That is in our tradition and accords with our action in five of the last six elections. The unusual circumstances of the 1952 election led us to make an exception when we endorsed General Eisenhower prior…

Russia’s Central Bank on Friday raised its key interest rate from 16% to 18%, a widely anticipated move as the country struggles to fight inflation amid surging spending on the war in Ukraine and widespread labor shortages across the economy, which are driving up wages. “Inflation has accelerated and is developing significantly above the Bank of Russia’s April forecast,” the regulator said in a press release. “Growth in domestic demand is still outstripping the capabilities to expand the supply of goods and services.” For that reason, the bank explained, “monetary policy needs to be tightened further” so that the government can reach…

Budapest (5/7 – 11.11) Former European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker defended U.S. President Joe Biden after his disastrous debate performance last week and warned of his rival Donald Trump’s “incomplete mind and flawed reasoning,” in an interview with Brussels Playbook. Juncker, who was Commission president from 2014 to 2019 during much of Trump’s presidency, said he had yet to watch last week’s debate, which triggered calls for Biden to step aside and make room for someone else to run as the Democratic presidential candidate. Still, Juncker insisted that “one can be of a certain age … and do a good job.” But Juncker…

Ukraine says it has repelled a Russian armoured attack in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, after Moscow’s forces launched an incursion across the border and sought to break through defensive lines. Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov said Russian reconnaissance groups had tried to penetrate the border, adding that “not a single metre has been lost”. “Russia has launched a new wave of counteroffensive operations in the Kharkiv sector,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Also on Friday, a huge fire broke out at an oil storage depot in Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region after what Russian-installed officials said was a Ukrainian strike. Three…

Bessie Coleman built an untouchable legacy, but the aviator’s tragic final flight is still shrouded in whispers of sabotage. The skies during Women’s History Month have witnessed a series of historic female flights. On March 16, Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri held the “first all-female two-ship T-38 flyover,” an aerial salute that soared above the KC Current stadium, the “first stadium to be built for women,” according to KSHB. United Airlines also held a special flight on March 7 that epitomized elegance in aviation and inclusivity on the ground. Aboard Flight 1215, which traveled from Newark, NJ, to Sarasota, FL…

Madrid (10/03 – 21.43)Exorcism is a key source of income for Sabohiddin Shodiev, a popular cleric in his rural community on the outskirts of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Shodiev — not his real name — says that every week he treats about 15 clients who ask him to expel what they believe is an evil spirit, or jinni, possessing them, or to rid them from “an evil eye.”The 53-year-old cleric has been practicing exorcisms — which he learned to do from his father — for more than two decades. Most of Shodiev’s clients come from Dushanbe and nearby districts,…

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected U.S. calls to scale back Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip or take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war, drawing an immediate scolding from the White House. The tense back and forth reflected what has become a wide rift between the two allies over the scope of Israel’s war and its plans for the future of the beleaguered territory. “We obviously see it differently,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. Netanyahu spoke just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel would…

Berlin (06/12 – 67.67) Asliddin Sherzamonov, an activist from Tajikistan, strongly believes that the United Nations (UN) should assess the actions of the Central Asian country’s security forces during the events of 2021 and 2022 in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO). Speaking at the UN session on minorities held in Geneva on December 1, Asliddin said that an independent international commission should be established to evaluate the activities of Tajikistan’s security forces. In the operations carried out by security forces in 2021 in Roshtkala and Khorog, three people died. In another operations in the spring of 2022 by the security…

Nyon, Manchester, Milan (19/12 – 31) The group phase of the 2023-2024 UEFA Champions League is to conclude this month. Names of the sixteen clubs who will compete in the knock-out phase have been released. On Monday, 18 December 2023, UEFA conducted the draw for the last-16 round, at their headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Defending champion Manchester City came out from the draw with the biggest smile as they will face off with the arguably easiest opponent. Pep Guardiola’s team will Danish champion Copenhagen, who were down at 37th in the UEFA club coefficient ranking. As the current title holder,…