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☆ Russians schemed to send U.S. military technology to Russian defense sector, Justice Department says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Tom_Winter_Nbc_News.Jpg | Tom Winter | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Two Russian nationals were arrested in a scheme to obtain sensitive U.S. military electronics and technology to provide it to the Russian defense sector, prosecutors said Wednesday, noting that some of the items were found on the battlefield in Ukraine. The men sent the items to sanctioned Russian companies that serve the defense sector, according to federal prosecutors. "This network schemed to procure sophisticated technology in direct support of a floundering Russian Federation military industrial complex," Assistant FBI Director Michael Driscoll said in a statement. When Orekhov and Kuzurgasheva sought to buy the sensitive U.S. military and "dual-use technology," they falsely claimed it was going to the Russian space agency Roscosmos. In an exchange with Soto, Orekhov used colorful language to allay his concerns about dealing with Russian companies.

Some of the electronics obtained through the scheme have been found in Russian weapons platforms seized in Ukraine, prosecutors said. They used a German company to ship the military technologies, as well as Venezuelan oil, to Russian purchasers, prosecutors said. The U.S.-origin technologies can be used in fighter aircraft, ballistic and hypersonic missile systems, smart munitions, and other military applications, Treasury said. After the initial round of U.S. sanctions on PDVSA, Russia's Rosneft emerged as a key intermediary for Venezuelan crude. After Washington sanctioned Rosneft subsidiaries over their dealings with PDVSA, dozens of firms with no track record of oil trading have been intermediating in sales of Venezuelan oil to Chinese buyers.

☆ Russia is frantically moving tens of thousands of civilians across the river in Kherson, an early war win for Putin's forces that they may not be able to hold
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Russian forces are rushing to evacuate tens of thousands of people in the key city of Kherson. The move comes as Ukrainian forces advance toward the city — the first that Russia captured. Russian forces have been occupying this southern city since they captured it early in the war. A view of a rocket firing as Ukrainian forces advance against Russian troops in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine on October 7, 2022. All together, Kyiv's advances have seen it liberate thousands of square miles of territory over the last two months that were previously occupied by Russian forces.

☆ A female doctor fled Russia to avoid being drafted amid fears the 'partial mobilization' will include women medics
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A female doctor told Insider she fled Russia because she feared being called up to serve in Ukraine. Another Russian woman, who trained as a nurse, told Insider that she'd rather go to prison than serve. "I'd been planning to immigrate to Germany for a while for work," she told Insider. The majority of doctors in Russia are womenVarvara had been planning to move to Germany with her husband in November. Sonia Subbotina, the girlfriend of jailed anti-war artist Alexandra Skochilenko, told Insider that she intends to remain indefinitely in St. Petersburg to care for Skochilenko.

☆ It's time for Mark Zuckerberg to step down
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Mark Zuckerberg should quit. He should step down from his position as CEO of Meta and let someone else manage Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Zuckerberg was so excited about legs that he jumped for joy as he talked about them. Zuckerberg already has two very profitable platforms — Facebook and Instagram — but their popularity is declining. Internally, employees told the Times, Meta workers refer to metaverse projects as MMH, or "Make Mark Happy,'' projects.

☆ Russia is bruised as winter approaches. Can Ukraine land another blow?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

That blast, which was used by the Kremlin as a justification for Monday’s onslaught, bruised the Russian psyche and handed Ukraine a significant strategic boost. And the airborne strikes distract from what has been a dismal stretch for Russia in the ground war. They were “an indication of the nature of the threat from Russia,” Giles said. “The reopening of a northern front would be another new challenge for Ukraine,” Giles said. Beyond weapons supplies, Ukraine will be watching to ensure that Western resolve stays firm if Russia tightens energy supplies even further.

☆ How one pioneering platform is working to detoxify social media
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But some platforms are trying to detoxify social media. Twitter; Mastodon; Vicky Leta/Insider1. One pioneering platform is working to detoxify social media. Once championed as heralds of a more interconnected world, social media has instead contributed to loneliness, low self-esteem, and the proliferation of harmful disinformation, Evan Malmgren writes. With 4.4 million users, Mastodon looks like Twitter, but rather than a single website, it's an open-source software platform that allows users to run self-hosted, "federated" social networks.

☆ Elon Musk's battle with Twitter shows that even the brashest, loudest leaders can face a reckoning
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Ebony Flake | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Now, though, his latest fight with Twitter shows the perils of always leading with bravado: While scandal is unlikely to sink the CEO, he's making extra work for himself — more than he usually does. Musk's negotiations to buy Twitter were subsequently halted when he pushed for concessions the platform was unwilling to give. Duncan Levin, a criminal defense attorney who represents controversial clients, such as Harvey Weinstein, Clare Bronfman, and Anna Delvey, told Insider: "No one is scandal-proof. Musk's ability to bounce back from repercussions is the result of a complex interplay of a fierce, cultlike fandom and his transformational leadership style, experts told Insider. What's more, he's highly intelligent and ahead of most people, a former manager at Tesla previously told Insider.

☆ The UN rejected Russia's push to hold a secret vote on its attempts to annex parts of Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russia wanted a UN vote over whether to condemn its actions in Ukraine to be a secret ballot. The UN roundly rejected that on Monday, and the vote is set to be held in public later this week. A secret vote may have made some Russian allies more likely to vote to support it, experts told Insider. Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia had argued that the vote should be a secret one. The resolution was drafted before Russia's bombardment on Monday of numerous cities and regions of Ukraine, including some that had not been attacked in months.

☆ Russia's reservists called-up for Ukraine war train to fight
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Dave Lucas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Newly-mobilized reservists take part in training on a range in Rostov region, Russia October 4, 2022. Reports have surfaced of men with no military experience or past draft age receiving call-up papers, adding to outrage that has reignited dormant -...moreNewly-mobilized reservists take part in training on a range in Rostov region, Russia October 4, 2022. Reports have surfaced of men with no military experience or past draft age receiving call-up papers, adding to outrage that has reignited dormant - and banned - anti-war demonstrations. Tens of thousands of men seeking to avoid the draft have already fled abroad, and the public remains concerned that the mobilisation could be expanded. REUTERS/Sergey PivovarovClose

☆ Startup Workspan raised $30 million to keep growing as it helps top tech companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and SAP manage relationships with partners
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ecosystem management tool Workspan has raised a $30 million Series C round. Workspan's tools help companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services co-sell with partners. It was there that he came up with the idea for what would become his next company, WorkSpan. Workspan was able to gain momentum quickly because of how necessary its tool is to large technology companies, Bawa said. Workspan has raised a total of $66 million in funding from investors like Insight Partners, Mayfield Fund, M12, and Redline Capital Management.

Russia will formally annex four regions of Ukraine partially controlled by its military, the Kremlin announced Thursday, in a major political escalation of the war against its neighbor. It comes after Moscow-backed authorities staged votes in the occupied regions of Ukraine's east and south that were widely denounced as a sham to justify a land grab following Russia's recent military setbacks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend a ceremony on the accession of the four regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia — at the Kremlin's St. George's Hall on Friday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has suggested it could be prepared to use nuclear weapons — a threat Putin has repeatedly made. Many Western experts see the moves as acts of desperation by Putin, whose armies have been pushed back by a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent weeks.

☆ Russian soldiers said they were 'fooled like little kids' and 'no one told us we were going to war,' audio obtained by The New York Times shows
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The New York Times published dozens of audio recordings of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. The soldiers largely complained about how the war was going and being misled by state leaders. The Times published on Wednesday several audio recordings of calls made by Russian soldiers that were intercepted by Ukrainian officials. Many of the soldiers captured in the calls complained about how poorly the war was going. One soldier said he was told by his commanders to "kill everyone we see," including civilians, which would be a war crime.

☆ Russian soldier says his comrades took armor off Ukrainian corpses because 'NATO armor is better than ours', according to audio obtained by The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian soldiers were frustrated by unsuitable military equipment as early as March. Recordings obtained by The New York Times reveal phone calls made by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. One man told his girlfriend how his comrades stole NATO armor off dead Ukrainian soldiers. The Russian military has resorted to pulling obsolete equipment out of storage, including Soviet-era equipment such as T-62 tanks. Prior to the Ukraine war, the Russian military was widely regarded as one of the most powerful in the world.

☆ India's military relationship with Russia isn't going away — it'll 'endure for decades,' analyst says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization leaders' summit in Samarkand on Sept. 16, 2022. Alexandr Demyanchuk | Afp | Getty ImagesIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have publicly rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, but the longstanding friendship between the two countries isn't going away, analysts said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, claimed that Russia and India were "friends," a month after Ukraine was invaded. But despite India's apparent change in stance over the war, India still needs Russia, analysts told CNBC. "Russia remains India's most important [military] partner," he added.

☆ The era of Big Tech moonshots is over. Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are pulling back on ambitious, risky long-term projects after many of them failed.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Hugh Langley | Eugene Kim | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have scaled back their ambitious "moonshot" projects. Moonshots like Google X and Amazon Grand Challenge allowed tech firms to build innovative projects. Before Amazon, Parviz led a similar team at Google called Google X. Page and Brin championed X projects they loved, helping them gain funding and headcount within the unit. Parviz, who created the once-hyped-up Google Glass, left Google X in 2014 to start Amazon's Grand Challenge.

☆ Tour a Family Home That Marries Unique Design and Liveability
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Maile Pingel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Though Sergey Makhno reached far into Ukraine’s past when building his house in Kozyn, a village south of Kyiv, he also sought to break new ground. “I wanted materials that have been used for centuries,” said the architect and furnishings designer. You might not mix individual “recipes” for the clay walls of every room to give each a distinct personality, as Mr. Makhno did. But as you layer on one-of-a-kind textiles or variegated zellige tiles, your style becomes less imitable. After dinner at the Makhno house one evening, an artist guest obliged his host by painting a grand, whimsical Jean Cocteau-like drawing on the wall of his son’s bedroom.

☆ Occupied Ukrainian regions to ask Putin to annex them after 'sham' votes
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Russian-installed officials in occupied regions of Ukraine said Wednesday they would ask President Vladimir Putin to incorporate them into Russia, a day after claiming that their residents overwhelmingly supported such a move in Kremlin-orchestrated votes widely viewed as illegitimate. The referendums asking residents whether they wanted the four occupied southern and eastern Ukraine regions to be incorporated into Russia began Sept. 23, often with armed officials going door-to-door collecting votes. Pro-Moscow officials in the eastern Luhansk region and the partially occupied southern region of Zaporizhzhia said they will make the request on Wednesday. Sergey Bobok / AFP - Getty ImagesAuthorities in the southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol say Russian rockets and artillery have pounded the city overnight. In the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, which is partially occupied by Moscow, Russian fire killed five people and wounded 10 others over the past 24 hours, said Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

India's foreign minister followed up last week at the U.N. Security Council, describing the trajectory of the Ukraine war as "very concerning" and the risk of a nuclear escalation as of "particular anxiety". Moreover, India is worried the war is pushing Russia closer to China, which has fraught relations with New Delhi, the analysts said. "This is countering a narrative that India and China are both doing the same thing – that China is supporting Russia and India, by sitting on the fence, is also supporting Russia," Raghavan told Reuters. India and Russia have had deep relations for decades: Russia accounted for $5.51 billion of the $12.4 billion that India spent between 2018 and 2021 on arms imports. "As the Ukraine conflict continues to rage, we are often asked whose side are we on," he said, again without mentioning Russia.

After Ukrainian forces stage ambushes and cut off the key access route to the capital, Russian soldiers tell their relatives that the military strategy is failing. … That’s what we’re fucking going to do, it seems. “Frankly speaking, nobody understands why we have to fight this war," Sergey tells his girlfriend. Replay‘I’ll quit at once.’Frustrated by continuous setbacks and fearing for their lives, Russian soldiers say they are fed up with the military. As quickly as they came, the Russian soldiers in northern Kyiv withdrew, regrouped and pivoted east, where Russian-backed separatists have been waging war for over eight years.

☆ A Russian soldier was recorded saying he was told to 'kill everyone we see' in Ukraine, including civilians, which is a war crime, according to audio obtained by The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Lloyd Lee | John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

More than 4,000 recordings of Russian soldiers making calls from Kyiv were obtained by The New York Times. One Russian soldier told his girlfriend that he received orders to "kill everyone we see." UN investigators previously accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine. The calls reveal the bleak reality Russian soldiers faced in the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, which began in late February. Russian forces, who have repeatedly targeted civilians since the war began, have been widely accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine — including by world leaders and top human rights groups.

☆ China's Xi makes first public appearance in Beijing since trip to Central Asia
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterChinese President Xi Jinping attends an extended-format meeting of heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states at a summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan September 16, 2022. Sputnik/Sergey Bobylev/Pool via REUTERSBEIJING, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping visited an exhibition in Beijing on Tuesday, according to state television, in his first public appearance since returning to China from an official trip to Central Asia in mid-September. Xi is widely expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term as leader at the Communist Party's once-in-five-years congress next month. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Ryan Woo and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Kremlin says no decisions taken on border closure amid mobilisation
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MOSCOW, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that no decisions had been taken on closing Russia's borders, amid an exodus of military-age men since President Vladimir Putin declared a partial mobilisation last Wednesday. Asked about the possibility of border closures in a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "I don't know anything about this. Russian media have reported a string of cases of elderly or medically exempt men being called up for service in Ukraine. The comments come amid rising fears of a border closure, with Russia's frontiers seeing an unprecedented outflow of military-aged men since the partial mobilisation was declared last week. On Sunday, Novaya Gazeta reported that 261,000 men had left the country since partial mobilisation was declared, citing an unnamed source in Russia's presidential administration.

☆ Leaked email: Impossible Foods founder Pat Brown stepping down from c-suite role to lead new research arm as executive shake-up continues at the plant-based meat maker
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Impossible Foods founder Pat Brown is stepping down as chief science officer. He'll lead Impossible Labs, a new arm of the plant-based meat company focused on research. Pat Brown is moving into a new role at Impossible Foods, the company he founded and used to helm as CEO, for the second time this year. In an email, an Impossible Foods spokesperson confirmed Brown's new role and said it was a planned leadership change. In the meantime, three other research and development executives will report directly to McGuinness: Rachel Fraser, vice president of downstream process development; Sergey Solomatin, vice president of research, materials, and texture; and Celeste Holz-Schietinger, vice president of product innovation.

The main challenge the Russian military faces after almost seven months at war looks likely to remain a basic one: manpower. Russia had about 1 million active personnel at the start, according to the institute’s estimates, though it did not dedicate all its troops to Ukraine. Both of these have made it hard to identify how the new additions to the Russian military could be trained or used effectively in this war. ‘New territory takes time’The “partial mobilization” comes after Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive broke through Russian lines outside Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second most populous city. The military support of mobilization and the veneer of territorial security that annexation could provide will likely take a while, however.

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