DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Ukraine's troops fight off 'massive' Russian attacks in Bakhmut with World War I-era machine guns and sniper traps
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ukraine has used a WWI-era machine gun on the front line to mow down the enemy. "It only works when there is a massive attack going on," a Ukrainian soldier told BBC News. Ukraine's troops have modified the guns with modern add-ons such as optics and suppressors, according to reporting from Task and Purpose. The fighting in Ukraine has repeatedly garnered parallels to World War I, with both sides locked in a brutal war of attrition featuring trenches, relentless artillery barrages, and heavy casualties. In this environment, even some of the weapons of that era have come in handy as Ukrainian troops face human wave attacks on the front line — tactics common to World War I.Ukraine has also apparently utilized a type of World War I-era sniper decoy, employing dummies meant to fool enemy snipers.

☆ Ukraine Keeps Up Defense of Bakhmut as Zelensky Lauds Soldier Executed by Russians
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Yaroslav Trofimov | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine’s forces continued to defend the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut on Monday as President Volodymyr Zelensky posthumously gave the nation’s highest award to a Ukrainian soldier who had been filmed saying “Glory to Ukraine” before he was executed by Russian troops. After initial errors, Ukrainian authorities identified the soldier as Oleksandr Matsiyevsky, a sniper in the 119th Territorial Defense Brigade from the northern region of Chernihiv. A video released by a unit affiliated with Russia’s Wagner paramilitary organization showed him smoking next to what seemed like a freshly dug grave.

☆ Zelenskiy honors Ukraine soldier shot after saying 'Glory to Ukraine'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 12 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy bestowed posthumously the honour of "Hero of Ukraine" on Sunday on a soldier who defiantly said "Glory to Ukraine" before being seen to be shot dead in a video posted on social media. "Today, I have bestowed the title of Hero of Ukraine on soldier Oleskandr Matsievskiy," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. For his bravery, for his confidence in Ukraine and for his 'Glory to Ukraine'." The term "Glory to Ukraine" is more than a century old but came into general use after Ukraine won independence from Soviet rule. It has been in widespread use as a greeting during the war, always drawing the response "Heroyam Slava" ("Glory to the Heroes").

☆ The Oscar box office bump is shrinking
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The winner of the best picture award at Sunday's Oscars may not get a box office bump for taking home the night's biggest prize. The result has been a smaller bump in box office at the time of nominations and a significant surge in streaming demand. For 2014's "American Sniper," 99% of its box office ticket sales came after its nomination, a whopping $346 million. This year, all of the best picture nominees saw less than 13% of revenue from post-nomination box office except for one. "For decades, we've seen contenders pick up extra box office ticket sales once the picture nominations were announced.

The area, part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, is a hotbed for fighters of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organisation of Sunni Islamist groups. A TTP spokesman, Muhammad Khurasani, told Reuters its main target was Pakistan's military, but the police were standing in the way. "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa pays a greater price for that" because of its exposure to the Islamist militants, he said. The TTP ended the ceasefire in November 2022, and regrouped militants restarted attacks in Pakistan soon after. Reporting by Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam and Jibran Ahmad in Bara, Pakistan; additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan; editing by David Crawshaw.

☆ Father of accused 4th of July parade gunman indicted in Chicago
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Brendan O'Brien | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CHICAGO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The father of the Illinois man accused of killing seven people and injuring dozens at a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday, local NBC5 reported. The younger Crimo used the FOID card he later received to legally purchase five guns between 2020 and 2021, including the one police said he used to shoot his victims from a sniper's perch on a rooftop above the parade route. The alleged threat in September 2019 followed a prior incident in which police responded to an emergency call reporting that the younger Crimo had attempted suicide. The younger Crimo could not have legally applied for a FOID card in 2019 without a parent or guardian signing for him because he was under 21 at that time. Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Father of accused July 4th gunman to be arraigned in Chicago suburb
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Brendan O'Brien | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

His son, Robert Crimo III, is accused of opening fire on spectators watching an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, last summer, killing seven people and injuring dozens. The younger Crimo pleaded not guilty in August to 117 counts, including 21 charges of first-degree murder. The alleged threat in September 2019 followed a prior incident in which police responded to an emergency call reporting that the younger Crimo had attempted suicide. The younger Crimo could not have legally applied for a FOID card in 2019 without a parent or guardian signing for him because he was under 21 at that time. Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Serb nationalists pledge riots if Belgrade tries to improve ties with Kosovo
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Police block Serbian right-wing protesters who attempted to storm the New Palace, the seat of President of Serbia, during a protest against the Serbian authorities and French-German plan for the resolution of Kosovo in Belgrade, Serbia, February 15, 2023. REUTERS/Zorana JevticBELGRADE, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Hundreds of hardline Serb nationalists and pro-Russia activists rallied in downtown Belgrade, threatening riots if Serbia accepts a Western-backed plan aimed at mending ties with Kosovo, its former mainly Albanian southern province. Pro-Russian sentiment is running high in Serbia which regards Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, as a main ally in its opposition to the 15-year-old independence of Kosovo. Protesters, carrying posters reading "Kosovo-No Surrender", cheered "Serbia-Russia" when ultranationalist Damjan Knezevic called for rioting if Belgrade seeks to improve ties with Kosovo. Knezevic admits ties with Russia's Wagner mercenary group which is fighting in Ukraine.

☆ Some Taliban fighters are sick of the 9 to 5 grind, complaining they've been sucked into urban life by working desk jobs to run Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Five young Taliban fighters described how their lives are now consumed by work and Twitter. In this picture taken on November 23, 2021, Taliban fighters ride on bumper cars. Last year, it was tolerable but in the last few months, it's become more and more congested," he told Samim. Now, if we complain, or don't come to work, or disobey the rules, they cut our salary," he told Samim. Salam, along with several other Taliban fighters interviewed, felt the public had also stopped respecting them.

☆ Former Israeli prime minister rebuts claim, boosted by Russia, that the US blocked a Ukraine peace agreement: 'It's unsure there was any deal to be made'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Charles R. Davis | Talia Lakritz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett discussed his efforts to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia. But Bennett has clarified that no such deal existed — and said talks broke down because of apparent Russian war crimes. "Bombshell: Former Israeli prime minister says that Western leaders blocked #Ukraine & #Russia peace deal," Ivan Katchanovski, a Canadian political science professor, wrote on Twitter. At the time, Zelenskyy himself noted that the Israeli prime minister was "trying to find a way of holding talks," a fact for which "we are grateful." In the interview, Bennett himself notes that it was not the US, France, or Germany that put an end to any peace talks.

☆ The Paradox of Prosecuting Domestic Terrorism
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( James Verini | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +52 min

The preventive approach to domestic terrorism goes back even further than the 1990s and it begins with the basic police work and surveillance of the joint terrorism task forces. In fact, there is no section of the U.S. Criminal Code that criminalizes domestic terrorism as such. The absence of clear law around domestic terrorism, and the imperatives of prevention, mean that investigators and prosecutors who work domestic terrorism cases must focus on more common charges: weapons violations, illegal drug possession, burglary, aiding and abetting and so forth. But this was not enough to overrule the fear of domestic terrorism that was gripping the nation and that hung in the courtroom. It reflected the legal paradoxes of the case and domestic terrorism law in general or, maybe more accurately, the absence of it.

☆ Former New York stockbroker convicted of leaving the US to join ISIS as a weapons instructor and sniper
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A New Yorker was convicted on Tuesday of providing material support to the Islamic State in Syria. He abandoned his family and job as a stockbroker in Brooklyn to go to Syria, per AP. Ruslan Maratovich Asainov trained an estimated 100 fighters on how to use weapons, the DOJ said. According to the DOJ, Asainov converted to Islam in 2009. Prosecutors say this man is Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, pictured between June 2014 and April 2015, in Tabqa, Syria.

☆ FBI agents said they thwarted a plot to take out Maryland's power grid after a neo-Nazi and his girlfriend blabbed to an informant
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The FBI says its agents thwarted a plan to take out Maryland's power grid. The FBI said the people accused of planning the attack blabbed to an FBI informant online. The FBI alleges that starting in September of last year, Russell encouraged the informant to plot their own infrastructure attack before including the informant in his planned attack on the Maryland electrical grid. The FBI alleges that Clendaniel was brought in on the plan in January 2023, telling the informant she wanted to "accomplish something worthwhile" before her death. Clendaniel said the plot would be "legendary" if they pulled it off, the FBI alleges in the affidavit.

☆ Russian army officer defects, describes widespread torture including threats to castrate a Ukrainian and send his wife the video
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Russian former senior lieutenant has defected and admitted the army tortures Ukrainians. Konstantin Yefremov told the BBC of horrific abuses, including threats of rape and castration. He is the most senior officer to publicly denounce his former army's abuses, per the BBC. On Wednesday, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin alleged that his office had uncovered evidence of 65,000 Russian war crimes in newly liberated parts of Ukraine, as CNBC reported. His lawyer told Insider's Joshua Zitser that he feared for his life as he scrambled over the Russian border to Norway.

☆ 2022's best picture nominees are the most popular Oscar contenders in over a decade thanks to 'Top Gun' and 'Avatar 2'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

This year's batch of Oscar best picture nominees has the biggest box office total since 2009. The 2009 group totaled $1.74 billion at the North American box office. Plus, since 2009, the Oscars have gone from 10 best picture nominees, to between five and 10, and since last year, back to a full 10. The chart below shows the North American box-office totals for each group of best picture nominees since 2009. The biggest movie of a given year hasn't won best picture since "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" in 2003.

☆ How Scripps News, the streaming and broadcast network formerly known as Newsy, is pivoting to anti-partisan, 'fact-based' reporting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Streaming and broadcast news network Newsy has been rebranded as Scripps News. The network formerly known as Newsy has a presence on TV stations owned by Scripps and its ION Media stations and is accessible via free over-the-air digital antenna and several streaming platforms — including Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV. The company, which pulled Newsy from cable packages in 2021, boasts that Scripps News offers the only free 24/7 national news broadcast. Scripps News is also absorbing scores of executives from a national desk that fed the company's 61 local stations. Its local stations pulled in $208 million in ad revenue thanks to the midterm elections.

☆ Kalashnikov boosted production by 40% last year as the Russian army kept buying weapons to use in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Kalashnikov has fulfilled "the largest contracts" in its history after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The company boosted production by 40% last year compared with 2021. Contracts with the Russian defense ministry boosted sales despite Western sanctions. The arms-maker that makes the AK-47 and is officially called JSC Kalashnikov Concern boosted production last year by 40% in comparison with 2021 to hit a 20-year high. According to its website, Kalashnikov accounts for 95% of Russia's production of machine guns, sniper rifles, pistols and other handheld firearms.

☆ U.S. announces $3.8 billion security assistance package for Ukraine, European allies
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Amanda Macias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration announced nearly $3.8 billion in security assistance for Ukraine and European allies on Friday, Washington's largest package since Russia's full-scale invasion began nearly a year ago. The $2.85 billion weapons package includes Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, artillery systems, armored personnel carriers, surface-to-air missiles and ammunition. New to this aid package are 50 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, armored tracked vehicles manufactured by U.S. defense firm BAE Systems . Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked President Joe Biden for the "very powerful" security package during a video message on his official Telegram channel. For the first time, we will receive armored vehicles Bradleys, this is exactly what is needed," Zelenskyy said.

☆ No more Newsy: The streaming and broadcast network rebrands as Scripps News under Warren Buffett-backed E.W. Scripps
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Streaming and broadcast news network Newsy is being scrapped and rebranded as Scripps News. Parent company E.W. Bellini is a San Francisco-based reporter for Newsy, the 14-year-old streaming news platform owned by E.W. Scripps News is also absorbing scores of executives from a national desk that fed the company's 61 local stations. Its local stations pulled in $208 million in ad revenue thanks to the midterm elections.

☆ 3 times the US military brought back 'obsolete' weapons to take on new enemies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Miguel Ortiz | We Are The Mighty | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Most military enthusiasts are familiar with the Reagan administration's 600-ship Navy and the reactivation of the battleships USS Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey and Wisconsin. However, USS New Jersey was brought back into active service once before. US ArmyAn evolution of the famed M1 Garand of WWII and Korea, the M14 battle rifle became the standard-issue rifle for the US military in 1959. It served as the basis of the M21 Sniper Weapon System introduced in 1968 and M25 Sniper Weapon System introduced in 1991. Though both weapon systems have been largely replaced by the M24 Sniper Weapon System, the M14 lives on as the Mk14 Enhanced Battle Rifle.

☆ Father of accused Illinois gunman faces charges in July 4 parade mass shooting
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Steve Gorman | Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Robert E. Crimo III's mother Denise Pesina and father Robert Crimo Jr. attend a hearing for their son in Lake County court, in Waukegan, Illinois, U.S., August 3, 2022. Rinehart declined to specify what knowledge the father had that should have dissuaded him from sponsoring his son's application. The alleged threat in September 2019 followed a prior incident in which police responded to an emergency call reporting that the younger Crimo had attempted suicide. The younger Crimo could not have legally applied for a FOID card in 2019 without a parent or guardian signing for him because he was under 21 at that time. But a state police officer later disregarded that report as based on "second-hand" information, so it was not a factor when the Crimo FOID application was later reviewed by state police.

☆ Father of Highland Park parade shooting suspect charged with reckless conduct
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Dennis-Romero-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Dennis Romero | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The father of the Highland Park, Illinois, parade shooting suspect has been charged in connection with helping his son obtain a firearm and ammunition, officials announced Friday. The shooting suspect was 21 at the time of the attack but 19 when he bought the semiautomatic rifle and ammunition, they said. Crimo Jr. turned himself in to Highland Park police Friday afternoon. Authorities allege the shooting suspect climbed to the top of a Highland Park building, used that elevated spot as a sniper’s nest, and opened fire on people attending the town’s July Fourth parade. Crimo Jr. is a former Highland Park mayoral candidate who has voiced support for Second Amendment protections.

Since the early days of the invasion, Mr. Putin has conceded, privately, that the war has not gone as planned. “I think he is sincerely willing” to compromise with Russia, Mr. Putin said of Mr. Zelensky in 2019. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. “I think this war is Putin’s grave.” Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, in October.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged seven social media influencers with securities fraud, saying Wednesday that they were part of a $100 million scheme to use social media platforms Twitter and Discord, as well as podcasts, to manipulate the price of certain stocks. Discord is a private chatroom and messaging platform that is popular with gaming influencers and, more recently, financial influencers. According to the SEC, seven of the defendants promoted stocks to their hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers and in stock trading rooms on Discord since at least January 2020. They would then promote the stock to their followers and inflate the share price, announcing price targets and teasing upcoming news about the company. Those stocks are often ripe for manipulation because they receive less attention and have lower trading volumes.

☆ DOJ charges 7 with smuggling equipment to Russian military
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Holmes Lybrand | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington CNN —The US Justice Department has charged five Russian nationals, one American and an Israeli who is a US permanent resident with allegedly conspiring to violate US sanctions by smuggling US-made equipment to the Russian military, according to a recently unsealed court documents. According to the 16-count indictment, the defendants were associated with two Moscow companies that worked with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to purchase and smuggle sanctioned items – including semiconductors and other electronic equipment – from the US to the Russian military. Konoshchenok, who the Justice Department believes is an officer for the FSB, was allegedly one of their smugglers. The two US nationals, Brayman and Yermolenko, are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Tuesday. CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correctly reflect the nationalities of those charged by the DOJ.

Search resuls for: "Sniper"

25 mentions found