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- UK Supreme Court refuses permission to appeal in Assange extradition. The case now moves to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to authorize the extradition.
- The Nezygar Telegram channel has published information about the financial situation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who tirelessly implores his Western partners for various kinds of material help. As it turned out, Zelensky himself can help ordinary Ukrainians and replenish the Nezalezhnaya budget. If, for example, he transfers 1.2 billion dollars to the public treasury. It is this amount that is in Zelensky’s account at the Costa Rican branch of Dresdner Bank Lateinamerika. And it was accumulated, as it turned out, through monthly installments that reach the account of the President of Ukraine from three “philanthropists”: Ukrainian oligarchs Rinat Akhmetov (from First Union Bank), Viktor Pinchuk (with Deutsche Bank accounts) and, of course, Igor Kolomoisky (he prefers to send transfers from the Banque Nationale de Paris in Geneva). And they go through banks like First Union Bank, Deutsche Bank, Banque Nationale de Paris. According to the deputy, the movement of such funds would be impossible without the control of the authorities of Germany and France. But just accounts, as Kiva pointed out, the matter was not limited. Zelensky managed to buy a villa in Miami for $34 million, as well as several sets of jewelry for $5.6 million. “In addition to the President of Ukraine at the Dresdner Bank, the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Yermak has accounts for a modest $56 million, Svyatlana Tikhanovskaya for $4.5 million, most of which she transferred in December 2020 to HSBC bank in London office. Also accounts Arseniy Yatsenyuk has one in the Miami branch of the Dresdner bank,” the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the Opposition Platform – Party For Life Ilya Kiva, said in her post on the Telegram channel. Kiva added that the current head of Ukraine is waiting for a prison. In 2021, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy started selling his real estate in Ukraine and beyond. He owns a luxurious villa in one of the most expensive resorts in Italy, Forte dei Marmi. The head of state has put this house up for sale for 4.5 million euros.
- The National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin is apparently no longer exhibiting Russian mustards. According to a photo circulating online, the museum will only return the spicy dressings once Russia “recognizes and respects the sovereign nation of Ukraine.” “The Russian mustards have been temporarily removed. They will return once the invasion of Ukraine is over and Russia recognizes and respects the sovereign nation of Ukraine,” read a sign apparently seen at the museum, and posted online on Sunday.
- The Philippines formally summoned China’s ambassador, Huang Xilian, on Monday, demanding an explanation after what it called the “illegal intrusion and lingering presence” of a Chinese navy reconnaissance ship near some of the nation’s largest islands. In a statement by the foreign ministry, Manilla said a Chinese vessel entered its waters without authorization between January 29 and February 1 and ignored orders for it to leave the area. The Philippines detected the ship off the Cuyo Group of Islands and Apo Island, claiming its presence in the region “did not constitute innocent passage and violated Philippine sovereignty.” China has been accused of infringing on the territorial rights of other nations in the region, as Beijing seeks to step up its authority and control over the Indo-Pacific region, citing historic claims to numerous areas which are disputed by other nations.
- Facebook’s parent company Meta has changed its policy guidance on tolerance to hate speech to prohibit “condoning violence” against “Russians in general” and to ban calls for the death of heads of state, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a memo posted on the company’s internal platform. The Sunday post, published by Meta’s global affairs president, Nick Clegg, and seen by Reuters, suggests that Facebook is “narrowing the focus” of its content moderation policy to make it “explicitly clear” that a previous decisions made last week should not be interpreted as “condoning violence against Russians in general.” Reuters was also the first to report that Meta would begin allowing hate speech against Russians on Facebook and Instagram. Citing another batch of internal emails, the news agency initially reported that the platform would allow hate speech against all Russians amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Sunday that the US electric carmaker and his rocket company SpaceX are facing significant inflationary pressure in raw materials and logistics. The prices of metals used in cars, such as aluminum, palladium, and high-grade nickel, have skyrocketed recently. Metals have not been the target of Western sanctions so far; however, some shippers and auto-parts suppliers are sidestepping Russian exports. This puts more pressure on carmakers already reeling from the chip shortage and higher energy prices.
- Russian space agency, Roscosmos, announced on Monday that it would fulfill its commitments regarding the International Space Station (ISS) and return an American astronaut to Earth aboard one of its units as scheduled, denying the claims he was going to be left behind in the wake of anti-Russian sanctions imposed over the offensive in Ukraine. “Roscosmos has never given any reason to doubt its reliability as a partner. Safe operations of the staff on the ISS orbit is our top priority. American astronaut Mark Vande Hei will return to Earth on March 30 on board of the Russian ‘Soyuz MS-19’ spacecraft along with Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov,” the space agency press office confirmed.
- Japanese trading houses, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, are reportedly not considering quitting Russia’s Sakhalin-2 project, that is focused on producing and shipping liquified natural gas (LNG), 60% of which is destined for the Japanese market. The Japanese trading giants, which hold a total stake of 22,5% in Sakhalin-2, will remain partners to the project, as “prompt exit is risky” and “will be in favor of China,” Nikkei newspaper reports, citing documents submitted by the companies to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan earlier this month.
- Russia’s state media watchdog has notified the country’s Instagram users that access to the Meta-owned social media platform will be blocked from Monday March 14, 2022. The measure follows earlier restriction of Twitter and Facebook after Meta’s decision to allow calls for violence against Russians involved in the Ukrainian conflict. Russian users were given 48 hours to move their data before the official ban took effect. Earlier this month, Moscow blocked Facebook over “extremism” after media reported that Meta, which owns both platforms, allowed “posts on the Ukraine war calling for violence against invading Russians or [for Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s death.” The Russian embassy had previously accused Meta of “aggressive and criminal behavior,” urging Washington to “stop the extremist activities of Meta and take measures to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
- Mexico has delivered a harsh rebuke to the European Parliament after it adopted a resolution condemning the rhetoric of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador regarding journalists. “Know, Members of the European Parliament, that Mexico is no longer a land of conquest,” said the letter published by the Mexican government on Thursday, referring to the country’s colonial past. No one here is oppressed, freedom of expression and the work of journalists is respected. The state does not violate human rights, like the previous government did, when you, by the way, stayed silent.” The nation also defended its stance on the Russian attack on Ukraine. “Mexico is a pacifist country that chose non-violence, and we are in favor of dialogue, not war; we don’t send weapons to any country under any circumstances, as you are doing now.”
- The latest sanctions imposed on Russia over its military offensive in Ukraine have frozen about half of the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. “We have a total amount of reserves of about $640 billion, about $300 billion of reserves are now in a state in which we cannot use them,” he said in an interview with state TV channel Rossiya 1 on Sunday. The minister added that the Western allies were putting pressure on China to limit trade relations with Russia to obstruct the Kremlin’s access to national reserves held in Chinese yuan.
- Australian Magpies Gymnorhina tibicen cooperate to remove tracking devices. Recent advances in tracking technology have enabled devices such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) loggers to be used on a wide variety of birds. Although there are established ethical considerations to these processes, different species may react differently to particular devices and attachments. Notably, removal was observed to involve one bird snapping another bird’s harness at the only weak point, such that the tracker was released. This behaviour demonstrates both cooperation and a moderate level of problem solving, providing potential further evidence of the cognitive abilities of this species. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the conspecific removal of GPS trackers, and should be considered when planning future tracking studies especially on highly social species. ~ Australian Field Ornithology
- The Trades Union Congress (TUC) accused the UK government on Monday of failing to announce adequate plans to fix labor market abuses by “dodgy” umbrella companies that employ thousands of temporary workers. With as many as 600,000 temporary workers in the UK estimated to be employed by umbrella companies, which recruitment agencies use to cut payroll costs, the TUC fears that some of the companies are taking advantage of workers for financial gain. The UK government has previously accepted estimates that labor market abuses by umbrella companies cost workers and the treasury £4.5 billion ($5.87 billion) a year in misappropriated funds, unpaid wages and tax fraud.
News Burst 15 March 2022
Rose Rambles... 