DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a bid by South Carolina officials to revive a Republican-crafted voting map that a lower court said had unconstitutionally "exiled" 30,000 Black voters from a closely contested congressional district. In this case, the Republican legislators were accused of racial gerrymandering to reduce the influence of black voters. South Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature adopted a new voting map last year following the 2020 U.S. census. The Republican map resulted in a 1st congressional district with a larger percentage of white, Republican-leaning voters. The judges – all three appointed by Democratic presidents – ruled that no elections can take place in the 1st district until it has been redrawn, prompting the South Carolina Republican officials to appeal to the Supreme Court.

☆ Belarus opposition told to 'be ready' for democracy push as rumours of leader's ill health swirl
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] Exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, in Copenhagen, Denmark May 15, 2023. State TV later broadcast a clip of Lukashenko at what it said was a central air force command base. Dressed in a military uniform, Lukashenko appeared to have a bandage on his left hand and to be short of breath at times. "There are many rumours about the dictator Lukashenko's health," Tsikhanouskaya she tweeted to supporters. Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, said in televised comments that Kyiv had information about Lukashenko's health, but said he would not comment for various reasons.

☆ Ukrainian mayor says Russian troops are disguising themselves as civilians to escape Zaporizhzhia, according to local report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russian troops are trying to escape the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian mayor reportedly said. The mayor said residents saw Russian troops dressing as civilians to join the evacuation, according to local news outlet Pravda. So, our residents report frequent cases when the Russian military personnel change into civilian clothes," the outlet reported he said. In March 2022 Fedorov was abducted by Russian forces and freed later that month, Ukrainian officials said. Galina Danilchenko, a local politician with long-held pro-Russian views, was installed as acting mayor in Fedorov's place.

☆ ‘Panic’ and Shortages in Parts of Occupied Ukraine Amid Russian Evacuation Orders
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Marc Santora | Anna Lukinova | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, Ukraine — People living in Russian-occupied areas of southern Ukraine described in recent days an atmosphere of confusion, defiance and scarcity, as the occupation authorities ordered tens of thousands of civilians to evacuate in the face of a looming Ukrainian offensive. The New York Times communicated with more than a dozen people in occupied towns and villages in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine, by phone and through secure messaging applications. They said gas stations were running dry, grocery store shelves were emptying and A.T.M.s were out of cash. “They discharge people from the hospitals and take away the equipment,” said Andriy, 38, a resident of occupied Kamianka-Dniprovska in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine. And people are afraid to ask since there are armed soldiers around.”Access to occupied areas is heavily restricted, and the accounts of residents could not be independently verified.

☆ Zaporizhzhia: Evacuations from Russian-occupied Ukrainian region raise concerns of nuclear power plant safety
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Helen Regan Julia Kesaieva Mariya Knight Katharina Krebs Kostan Nechyporenko Stephanie Halasz | Helen Regan | Julia Kesaieva | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

But the evacuation of a town close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has raised concerns about the facility’s stability. The plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, is held by Russian forces but mostly operated by a Ukrainian workforce. The plant is also significant because Ukraine relies heavily on nuclear power. On the groundOn Sunday, Ukraine’s Operation Command South spokeswoman said Russian forces were trying to exhaust Ukraine’s air defense system. Bakhmut has been the site of a months-long assault by Russian forces that has driven thousands from their homes and left the area devastated.

☆ Situation around Europe's largest nuclear power plant is 'potentially dangerous,' watchdog warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Leila Sackur | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Members of the delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visit the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on March 29, 2023. The situation in the area near Europe's largest nuclear power plant is "becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous," the head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said Saturday. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement that he was "extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risk," facing the Zaporizhzhia power plant in southeast Ukraine. "I'm extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant. The 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the northern Ukrainian city of Pripyat is considered the worst on record.

☆ 'Mad panic' evacuation as IAEA warns of a nuclear accident at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant occupied by Russian forces
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Fears mount of increased fighting around the contested Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that is occupied by Russian troops was becoming critical. "The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous," Grossi said in a statement. Grossi said evacuations were underway in the nearby town of Enerhodar, built for workers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Reuters reported. He said there is a "possibility" of an "outbreak of full-scale hostilities" near the nuclear plant, saying, "We have been worrying about this nuclear power plant for more than a year.

☆ Opinion: Whatever happened in the skies over Putin’s fortress, one thing is certain
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. (The following day, the Kremlin also accused the US of involvement in the alleged attack, which the US denies). What exactly happened over the presumably heavily fortified Kremlin – a word that means fortress in Russian – the seat of government and home to the president? Russia’s credibility, particularly concerning its war against Ukraine, has been crushed by its persistent lies. In the Immortal Regiment parade, hundreds of thousands of Russians take to the streets, many holding up photographs of their relatives who served the nation in World War II, the Great Patriotic War, as it is known there.

☆ Chinese businessman Guo Wengui appeals bail denial in fraud case
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Guo Wengui, once a business associate of former U.S. President Donald Trump's adviser Steve Bannon, was arrested in March. Guo pleaded not guilty to 11 charges including securities fraud, wire fraud and concealing money laundering. The 52-year-old defendant, whose other names include Ho Wan Kwok and Miles Kwok, is a prominent critic of China's Communist Party. He left China in 2014 during an anti-corruption crackdown under President Xi Jinping. Bannon was arrested in a 2020 fraud case while aboard Guo's yacht.

Whatever the provenance of the two drones that approached the Kremlin early Wednesday morning, one thing was clear: The Russian government wanted the world to know about them. The Kremlin made a deliberate choice to quickly make public what it claimed was a drone attack aimed at assassinating President Vladimir V. Putin. It published an unusual, five-paragraph statement on its website that named the Ukrainian government as the perpetrator and asserted the right to retaliate against Kyiv. The Kremlin’s messaging diverged significantly from its response to previous episodes involving attacks on Russia or Russian-occupied territory. Now the question is whether Russia will use the incident to justify more and even deadlier strikes against Ukraine.

☆ Journalist on Ryanair plane diverted by Belarus is jailed for eight years
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Caleb Davis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] FILE PHOTO:Opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich, who is accused of participating in an unsanctioned protest at the Kuropaty preserve, arrives for a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus April 10, 2017. The circumstances of Protasevich's arrest in May 2021 prompted international outrage and triggered European Union sanctions against Lukashenko. After his arrest, Protasevich was shown on state television tearfully confessing on state television to involvement in anti-government protests and plotting to topple Lukashenko. The exiled Belarus opposition said the admissions were false and had been coerced. Video from state media showed him declining to answer questions from journalists in court about whether he would appeal.

☆ Russia Tightens Restrictions in Occupied Regions of Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Residents waiting for buses in Russian-controlled Mariupol, Ukraine, in December. Russian counterintelligence operatives are restricting travel in occupied areas of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials. KYIV, Ukraine — As Ukrainian forces step up their assaults behind enemy lines ahead of an expected counteroffensive, Russia is imposing stricter measures on civilians in occupied areas of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials say. The Ukrainian General Staff, which is responsible for the country’s overall military strategy, said “the violent abduction of pro-Ukrainian civilians” in occupied areas was continuing and that there were signs more civilians could be detained. In a reflection of the dangers facing Russian occupiers themselves, both Ukrainian and Russian officials reported an assassination attempt on the Kremlin-appointed deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Tuesday.

☆ One in 5 young people in Chinese cities are out of work. Beijing wants them to work in the fields
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Guangdong, the manufacturing powerhouse that abuts Hong Kong, said last month it will help college graduates and young entrepreneurs to find work in villages. Guangdong’s plan, which was widely panned on social media, coincided with the rate of urban unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds surging to 19.6%, the second highest level on record. Kong Yiji, a famous literary figure from the early 20th century, has been one of the hottest memes on China’s social media since February. A tourist shop named 'Kong Yiji' in China's Zhejiang province. Other popular buzzwords have included “lying flat” and “letting it rot.”Authorities, uneasy about dissatisfaction expressed through memes, have banned the hashtag of Kong Yiji.

HELENA, Mont. — As Montana lawmakers entered the critical final days of their legislative session on Thursday, one of the state’s only transgender lawmakers, Zooey Zephyr, was left exiled from the House chamber, monitoring the debate and casting votes on a laptop as she sat on a hallway bench near a bustling snack stand. Even as her Republican peers sought to isolate her in the wake of her impassioned comments against a proposed ban on what doctors call gender-affirming medical care for children, Ms. Zephyr said she would not remain idle. She spent much of the day on the bench, working with headphones in her ears to block the sound of chattering lobbyists, the hiss of a milk foamer and the voices of lawmakers ordering coffee. “I am here working on behalf of my constituents as best I can given the undemocratic circumstances,” Ms. Zephyr said on Twitter.

☆ Iran diplomat jailed in Belgium to be freed in swap - Iran
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DUBAI, April 26 (Reuters) - An Iranian diplomat jailed for 20 years in Belgium will soon be released in a prisoner swap, Iran's judiciary spokesperson said on Wednesday. "Belgium has requested an exchange and so have we for our diplomat Asadollah Assadi. In March, Belgium's Constitutional Court upheld a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran that could lead to Assadi being swapped for a jailed Belgian aid worker. Last week, Belgium submitted a request to Iran that the jailed aid worker, Olivier Vandecasteele, be sent back to his country in accordance with the prisoner transfer treaty. Assadi was jailed for 20-years in 2021 over a 2018 foiled bomb plot targeting an Iranian opposition group in Paris.

☆ These Iranian activists fled for freedom. But the regime still managed to find them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Salma Abdelaziz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

“Whatever actions you take against the Islamic Republic, there in France, is a crime,” the man is heard saying. They have done nothing wrong.”Massi Kamari, an Iranian activist living in Paris, says Iranian intelligence threatened to send her family to Tehran's Evin prison if she continued her activism against the regime abroad. I mean these criminals were hired by the Islamic Republic. So, you see the Islamic Republic itself is a criminal organization. “But even the week after I received the call (from Iranian intelligence officials), I was out doing my political work.

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - An exiled Chinese businessman charged by U.S. prosecutors with leading a more than $1 billion fraud will remain in jail after a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday rejected a proposed $25 million bail package. Guo had also proposed 24-hour guard, and being subjected to detention with GPS monitoring at his wife's Connecticut home. He had also been a business associate of former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who was arrested in a 2020 fraud case while aboard Guo's yacht. In seeking bail, Guo's lawyer Stephen Cook said Guo would remain in the United States if released on bond "because the risk to his life is simply too great for him to leave." The defendant has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges including securities fraud, wire fraud and concealing money laundering.

☆ Son of toppled Iranian Shah to visit Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JERUSALEM, April 16 (Reuters) - The exiled son of the Iranian Shah toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution will visit Israel this week, Israel's government said on Sunday, calling him the "most senior Iranian personality" to ever pay a public visit to Israel. Israel and Iran enjoyed warmer ties under the U.S-backed Shah, though they have become enemies since. Israel, in its statement, said the visit by Reza Pahlavi is meant to create "a bridge between Israel and the Iranian people, and expressing joint opposition to the Ayatollah regime." "A democratic Iran will seek to renew its ties with Israel and our Arab neighbours," Pahlavi was quoted as saying in the the Israeli statement. During his visit Pahlavi will take part in Israel's official Holocaust memorial ceremony.

[1/2] Security forces operate as supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrate against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Planalto Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, January 8, 2023. REUTERS/Ueslei MarcelinoBRASILIA, April 14 (Reuters) - A judge on Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to testify before federal police within 10 days about his role in the Jan. 8 storming of government buildings by his supporters. Bolsonaro has denied any responsibility for the riots - which recalled the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. His critics say he instigated the riots by inflaming his supporters with attacks on Lula and by repeatedly criticizing Brazil's voting system, which he claimed was open to fraud, though he never provided proof. Bolsonaro returned to Brazil in March but faces legal investigations into his attacks on the voting system and alleged role in encouraging supporters to storm Brasilia on Jan. 8.

☆ Dalai Lama 'unfairly labelled' over tongue video - Tibet govt-in-exile
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Rupam Jain | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Patron of Children in Crossfire, speaks during a press conference in Londonderry, Northern Ireland September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File PhotoNEW DELHI, April 13 (Reuters) - The head of Tibet's government-in-exile on Thursday defended the Dalai Lama over footage of him asking a boy to suck his tongue, saying the incident had demonstrated the country's spiritual leader's innocent and affectionate side. Penpa Tsering, the Sikyong (political leader) of the exiled Central Tibetan Administration, said the Dalai Lama had been "unfairly labelled with all kinds of names that really hurt the sentiment of all his followers". The video clip, filmed in February and circulated this month, has been viewed over one million times on Twitter. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.

☆ Ukraine says it seized assets of billionaire accused of aiding Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Max Hunder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has accused Novynskyi of "aiding" Russia, which invaded Ukraine last year. The representative, who did not want to be named, on Friday said the billionaire denies the charge. The SBU said it had seized assets including ownership deeds to 40 Ukrainian enterprises and 30 natural gas wells. "The property of pro-Russian oligarch Vadym Novynskyi, who is involved in aiding the aggressor country, was seized," the SBU said in a statement. The details of the accusations against him for aiding Russia have not been spelled out by the SBU.

☆ Dalai Lama Apologizes After Video of Kiss With Boy at Public Event Stirs Criticism Online
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Austin Ramzy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Dalai Lama is a widely recognized religious teacher and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. HONG KONG—The Dalai Lama apologized on Monday for an encounter during a public talk with a boy who he kissed and told to “suck on my tongue.”Video of the February event circulated online recently in India, where the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader lives, and beyond, spurring criticism on social media.

☆ Russian travelers say they fear one question: ‘Where are you from?’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Monica Pitrelli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Another Russian traveler, Lana, also asked that we not use her full name over fears of retaliation from Russian authorities. "Back then, when you say 'I'm from Russia,' the first thing people say is vodka, bears, Matryoshka [dolls], and all that innocent stuff," she said. Anna said telling new people she's Russian has "always been tricky, to be honest, even before the war." Source: Julia AzarovaSince leaving Russia, Azarova said she's not had any confrontations over her nationality. Now she's now no longer afraid to say she's Russian, she said, namely because she can't do anything about it.

☆ Dalai Lama apologises after video asking boy to 'suck my tongue'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, April 10 (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' 87-year-old spiritual leader, apologised on Monday after footage showed him asking a young boy to "suck my tongue" at a public event. "A video clip has been circulating that shows a recent meeting when a young boy asked his Holiness the Dalai Lama if he could give him a hug," said a statement on the exiled leader's Twitter account, which has 19 million followers. The statement said the Dalai Lama leader "often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, is regarded by Beijing as a dangerous separatist. Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi, Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ukraine Strikes Russian Military Base in Occupied South as Offensive Looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( James Marson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ukraine hit a Russian military base in the occupied south, officials said, the latest in a series of strikes to target a key Russian supply route to Crimea as Kyiv is gearing up for a spring offensive. The exiled mayor of the southern city of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov , said Ukraine had struck the base in the nearby town of Vesele.

Search resuls for: "Exiled"

25 mentions found