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☆ Russian recruits are making videos directly addressed to Putin begging for more support amid 'meat assaults'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian conscripts are increasingly appealing directly to Putin for more support amid the war. Videos in recent weeks have featured troops asking for additional aid or to be recalled altogether. In a video from earlier this month, a Russian soldier admonished "the incompetence of our superiors," saying his unit had been replenished with newly-mobilized soldiers six times already. In a separate video obtained by CNN, a different Russian soldier in eastern Ukraine filmed a smoking Russian tank, explaining that he was offering "firsthand evidence" of the "clusterfuck." Even pro-Russia war bloggers have compared the flurry of soldier deaths to "meat assaults," according to the Post.

☆ A convicted kidnapper who fought for Wagner in Ukraine said it was 'utter hell' and he saw fellow fighters 'cry' and 'vomit' as fear took over in the trenches
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An ex-convict who fought for Wagner in Ukraine said the front line was "utter hell," Reuters reported. Wagner recruited thousands of convicts to help address Russia's manpower issues in the war. In the face of these personnel problems, Russia turned to the infamous Wagner mercenary group for help. Wagner recruited thousands of prisoners for the fight, promising them pardons in exchange for their service. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, argued in a statement to Reuters that Wagner was "probably the most experienced army that exists in the world today."

U.S. forces in both countries combat Islamic State militants, who are also active from North Africa to Afghanistan. MASSIVE COSTSThe costs of U.S. involvement in Iraq and Syria are massive. "It was worth it because the decision was not simply: 'Does Saddam pose a WMD threat in 2003?'" IN THE GULF'Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador in Iraq, said the 2003 invasion did not immediately undermine U.S. influence in the Gulf but the 2011 withdrawal helped push Arab states to start hedging their bets. Reporting By Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by William MacleanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Saudi Arabia has announced a new airline to bring in tourists as it tries to attract 100 million visitors to the kingdom by 2030
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Saudi Arabia announced a new airline that will connect its capital city to over 100 destinations worldwide. On Sunday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced Riyadh Air — a new national airline that will connect Saudi Arabia to over 100 destinations across the globe by 2030. But cultural clashes may deter tourists from entering Saudi Arabia's newly opened doors. However, some experts say travelers should look at the bigger picture before blacklisting Saudi Arabia as a leisure destination, and consider the opportunity as a learning experience. "Frankly, it would be hard to name a single destination with a clean record on the environment, animal welfare, and human rights."

☆ The US military has been testing pulsed energy on animals trying to recreate the mysterious 'Havana Syndrome' symptoms: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US military has been carrying out and funding testing on various animals. The testing is aimed at seeing if radio frequency waves cause the mysterious sickness known as "Havana Syndrome." US intelligence determined last week that the ailment is likely not caused by a foreign adversary or weapon. A defense official told Insider that the Department of Defense, in accordance with congressional requirements, "continues to address the challenges posed by" anomalous health incidents, "including the causation, attribution, mitigation, identification, and treatment for such incidents. The official did not comment on the reported testing on primates but said that the testing at Wayne State University is aimed at alleviating "the deficits associated with traumatic brain injury."

☆ Wagner Group mercenaries are being butchered in Ukraine, but US intel expects them to keep stirring up trouble elsewhere on Russia's behalf
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The notorious Wagner Group has operated around the world on Russia's behalf for years. For years, the Wagner Group has put boots on the ground in countries across Africa and the Middle East. A pedestrian walks past a mural depicting the logo of the Russian mercenary 'Group Wagner' and a slogan in Russian on January 20, 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia. Graves of Russian Wagner mercenary group fighters are seen in a cemetery near the village of Bakinskaya in Krasnodar region, Russia, January 22, 2023. Like Russia's regular military, Wagner has endured heavy losses on the battlefield.

☆ Russia used rarely seen missiles and wildly unpredictable ones Ukraine's forces can't stop in deadly strikes across the country
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ukraine's air defenses are unable to shoot down these weapons, a military official said. Ukraine's military said Russia fired 81 missiles and eight Iranian-made suicide drones at cities across the country, leaving multiple civilians dead and injured. Among the missiles that were fired were 28 Kh-101 and Kh-555 air-launched cruise missiles, 20 Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles, 13 S-300 surface-to-air missiles, eight Kh-31P and 6 –Kh-59 guided missiles, six Kh-47 Kinzhal missiles, and six Kh-22 missiles, according to Ukrainian state media. Three rockets launched against Ukraine from Russia's Belgorod region are seen at dawn in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 9, 2023. AP Photo/Mykola TysYurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine's military, said Thursday's attack was "really large-scale and for the first time using such different types of missiles.

☆ Ukraine sees bloody battle for Bakhmut as chance to wipe out Wagner's army of convicts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Wagner Group is increasingly relying on its professional recruits as inmates flounder in Bakhmut. Wagner soldiers have played an outsized role in the battle of Bakhmut thus far. Meanwhile, US intelligence from December suggested an estimated 10,000 professional Russian soldiers, the majority of whom are veterans, were also acting as Wagner soldiers alongside the former inmates. A mural depicting mercenaries of Russia's Wagner Group that reads: "Wagner Group - Russian knights." Despite rumors that Ukraine was preparing to withdraw from Bakhmut, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that he would send further reinforcements to the city.

☆ Russia will have to rely on nukes, cyberattacks, and China since its military is being thrashed in Ukraine, US intel director says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Chris Panella | John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russia's military losses in Ukraine will leave it reliant on "asymmetric" options, the US intel director said. Discussions on Russia's relationship with China have also been ongoing, including speculation that Beijing might be considering sending lethal aid to Russia. In late February, a top Pentagon official told lawmakers Russia had lost the war and will emerge from war in Ukraine a "shattered military power." "Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a strategic defeat. Russia's military is going to have to be rebuilt," George Barros, a military analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told Insider in September.

☆ US senators unveil bipartisan bill empowering Biden to ban TikTok and other services
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington CNN —A dozen US senators unveiled bipartisan legislation Tuesday expanding President Joe Biden’s legal authority to ban TikTok nationwide, marking the latest in a string of congressional proposals threatening the social media platform’s future in the United States. The legislation, called the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act, does not target TikTok specifically for a ban. In the case of TikTok, lawmakers have said China’s national security laws could force TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to provide access to TikTok’s US user data. The bill specifically directs the Secretary of Commerce to “identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, or otherwise mitigate” national security risks associated with technology linked to those countries. But those have expanded to include makers of surveillance cameras and, more recently, apps and software makers such as TikTok.

☆ Russian troops ordered to fight with 'shovels' in hand-to-hand combat, UK defense intel says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russian soldiers were told to fight with only "firearms and shovels," the Ministry of Defence saidThe shovels are believed to be the MPL-50 entrenching tool, designed in1869, said the UK ministry. "The 'shovels' are likely entrenching tools being employed for hand-to-hand combat," said the briefing. It is thought that the "shovels" in question are the renowned MPL-50 entrenching tools first designed in 1869. The increase in hand-to-hand combat in Ukraine was due to a declining number of troops, artillery, and munition, it said. Indeed, it has been reported that Russian forces have been deploying "barrier troops" or "blocking units" to shoot Russian soldiers who defect and desert the war.

☆ CNN exclusive: Yellen says ‘so far, so good’ in US inflation battle
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Minneapolis CNN —Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday she believes US inflation remains too high but that a soft landing is on the radar. During an exclusive interview with CNN’s Melissa Bell from Kyiv, Yellen said the Federal Reserve’s efforts to date to bring down inflation while maintaining a strong labor market appear achievable. “I would say, ‘So far, so good,’” said Yellen, a former Fed chair who led the central bank from 2014-2018. But look, inflation still is too high, but generally if you look over the last year, inflation has been coming down. “It’s utterly essential to preserve that to avoid economic and financial catastrophe,” she told CNN.

☆ Zelenskyy predicts Vladimir Putin will be toppled by his own people. They will 'find a reason to kill the killer,' said Ukraine's president
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Zelenskyy said that he believed his own people would eventually topple Vladimir Putin. He said that eventually, they would turn on him and "will find a reason to kill the killer." "There will certainly be a moment when the fragility of Putin's regime is felt in Russia," Zelenskyy told journalist Dmytro Komarov in a new documentary. They will find a reason to kill the killer," he says, per a translation by Ukrayinska Pravda. Although denouncing the war is illegal in Russia, there have been rare moments of dissent, and Russia's military bloggers have started openly criticizing Moscow's military leadership.

☆ An Austin Powers movie helped inspire the US strategy of exposing Russia's tactics in Ukraine, a national security advisor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

advisor took inspiration from Austin Powers as Russia prepared its invasion, Politico said. The situation reminded him of a scene in the cult comedy movie where a steamroller moves forward. He said in November 2021, he had been discussing a scene in the 1997 spy comedy "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," with Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer. Sullivan said that he and other top national security officials settled on the unprecedented strategy of declassifying US intelligence about Russia's plans. It was a gamble that this would work," Emily Horne, a former National Security Council spokeswoman told the publication.

☆ Most of Putin's presidental administration is secretly against the Ukraine war but don't dare tell him: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Much of Putin's presidential administration is opposed to the Ukraine war, the FT reported. Members of Russia's presidential administration and economic cabinet have told friends they are against the war, according to the Financial Times, whose report drew on the insight of multiple unnamed Putin confidants and former officials. The presidential administration consists of top-level officials who act as the leader's executive office. People close to the president told the FT that Putin's fatal flaw is his weakness for loyalty — valuing this over competence. "They need to be honest with him and they are not," a figure close to Putin told the paper.

☆ 30,000 Wagner Group fighters have been killed or injured in Putin's invasion of Ukraine, says White House spokesman
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

More than 30,000 Wagner Group fighters have been killed or injured, according to US officials. John Kirby said that half of the Wagner fighters who perished in the war have died since mid-December. Kirby stated that, according to US intelligence, 90% of the Wagner Group soldiers killed in the last two and a half months were convicts. While the Wagner Group has made limited advances in Bakhmut, Kirby said this gain has come at a "devastating cost that is not sustainable." According to British intelligence, 40-60,000 Russian soldiers and Wagner Group fighters have been killed since February 2022.

☆ Relax, those objects in the sky are probably just from one of the 90 countries and 10,000 companies that make up the nearly $1 trillion space economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US shot down three unidentified objects over the weekend, following the downing of a Chinese balloon earlier this month. The space economy was valued at nearly $500 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to over $1 trillion by 2030. Over the weekend, the US shot down three unidentified objects over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron. These entities, none of which have claimed ownership of the objects, include the 90 countries and roughly 10,000 companies currently involved in the global space industry. But on Monday, the White House said President Biden will establish a team to analyze unidentified objects in the US airspace.

☆ Saudi Arabia's crown prince once bragged Jared Kushner was 'in his pocket'. It's getting harder to convince people otherwise.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It's a move that, even if technically legal, appears designed to help obscure Kushner's financial relationship with the Saudis, and fuels longstanding suspicions over Kushner's relationship with the crown prince. During his time as a senior advisor in his father-in-law's administration, Kushner's relationship with the Saudi ruler repeatedly raised alarm among top US officials. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesThe Post report also said Trump benefited financially from ties with the Saudis after leaving office. A report by The Intercept in 2018 claimed that Crown Prince Mohammed boasted about having secured an extraordinary level of influence over Kushner, reportedly remarking that he had Kushner "in his pocket." The report said that Kushner may have even handed US intelligence on internal critics to Crown Prince Mohammed.

Lockheed (LMT) Martin Corporation and Raytheon (RTN) Missiles & Defense, a subsidiary of Raytheon (RTN) Technologies Corp, will be added to China’s sanctions list, its Ministry of Commerce said in a Thursday statement. That move came after American forces downed what it called a Chinese surveillance balloon that entered its airspace late last month. Thursday’s Chinese commerce ministry statement made no mention of the downed balloon, nor the US sanctions on Chinese entities. Instead, it cited “national sovereignty” as the catalyst for the penalties while highlighting both companies’ sales of arms to Taiwan. China maintains that the balloon found over the United States was a civilian research aircraft accidentally blown off course.

☆ Nonconsensual deepfake porn puts AI in spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Donie O'Sullivan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

chatbot that can answer questions and write prose, is a reminder of how powerful this kind of technology can be. Deepfakes have been used to put women’s faces, without their consent, into often aggressive pornographic videos. It’s a depraved AI spin on the humiliating practice of revenge porn, with deepfake videos appearing so real it can be hard for female victims to deny it isn’t really them. Amid the fallout, the Twitch streamer “Sweet Anita” realized deepfake depictions of her in pornographic videos exist online. Twitch streamer "Sweet Anita" during her interview with CNN.

☆ Exclusive: British authorities surveilled FBI spy chief Charles McGonigal's secret 2018 meeting with a Russian contact
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

An FBI spy chief's secret meeting with a Russian contact was detected by UK officials. McGonigal should have realized that the London meeting would be noticed, one source said. During his years in New York, McGonigal oversaw 150 FBI agents tasked with shadowing foreign operatives and turning them into spies for the US. He would have had intimate knowledge of surveillance penetration in world capitals, which makes the London meeting all the more mystifying. McGonigal had investigated Russian operatives earlier in his career, but it is unclear whether he was involved with the FBI's Deripaska recruitment effort.

☆ The 3 Flying Objects the US Shot Down May Have Been Commercial or Research Craft, White House Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The White House said that three objects shot down over the weekend might have posed no threat. A leading explanation is that they were used for commercial or research purposes, a spokesperson said. US authorities have also found no evidence linking the objects to Chinese spying, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at a White House briefing. Kirby added that even though the US hadn't determined that the objects were used for spying, authorities couldn't rule that possibility out. Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

☆ US general refuses to rule out aliens after third suspicious flying object is shot down by the military over its airspace
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US has shot down three objects flying over North America in as many days. A top US general said he wasn't ruling out an extra-terrestrial origin for the objects. It comes after the US shot down a spy balloon it alleged was sent by China. The remarks come after the US military shot down three objects flying in North American airspace over the last 3 days. An object flying at high altitude had been shot down on Biden's orders over northern Alaska Friday, while another was downed over Yukon in north-western Canada Saturday.

☆ 3 suspicious objects have been downed across North America this week. Officials have no idea where 2 of the UAP came from and the pilots who shot them down can't agree on what they even look like.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

US fighter aircraft shot down an object threatening airspace over Alaska yesterday. On Saturday, another unknown object, described as "cylindrical," was shot down over Canada. Here is what we know about the object shot down on Friday. The object shot down on Saturday was spotted in the Northern Canadian territory of Yukon. It is unclear if the object shot down off the Alaskan coast was of similar size or shape.

☆ AI is the latest Wall Street craze. Is it also the next bubble?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

All of this AI news has helped boost shares of Baidu (BIDU), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL) this year. Shares of the artificial intelligence software company have more than doubled this year, to about $26. SoundHound AI, which makes speech- and other audio-recognition software, has also seen its stock more than double this year. The fact that many of the world’s largest tech companies are embracing artificial intelligence is evidence of that. “We believe tech companies and tech equities will continue to face headwinds, as long as the Fed keeps its foot on the brake,” Siebel said in December.

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