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☆ Russia's navy is flexing its muscles around the world, but it may end up paying for Moscow's losses in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Russia's navy has had little involvement in Ukraine, losing only one major warship so far. Russia's military closed off parts of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan to practice firing torpedoes, missiles, and artillery. Russia's navy received heavy investment in the 2000s, as President Vladimir Putin rebuilt the military after a decade of post-Soviet decay. While it still struggles with its larger ships, Russia's navy now has dozens of frigates and corvettes armed with effective long-range weapons. Russian navy corvette Gremyashchiy, front, and the frigate Admiral Kasatonov in St Petersburg in July 2019.

☆ Russia launches new attack on Ukraine on Moscow's 'sacred' day
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The attack - the fifth in May - came a day after Russia launched its biggest drone swarm yet in a renewed air campaign unleashed 10 days ago after a lull since early March. "Overnight into the 'sacred' May 9, (they) launched an attack on the territory of Ukraine," Ukraine's air force said on its Telegram messaging app. But Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said he did not want to "spoil" Russia's Victory Day parade and would reveal more details later. Victory Day this year is even more emotionally charged as Russia mourns thousands of soldiers killed in the nearly 15-month war in Ukraine that shows no sign of ending. Putin has repeatedly likened the Ukraine war - which he casts as a battle against "Nazi"-inspired nationalists - to the challenge the Soviet Union faced when Hitler invaded in 1941.

☆ Victory Day analysis: Putin tried to project strength, but Moscow parade revealed only his isolation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Nathan Hodge | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —For Russian President Vladimir Putin, this year’s Victory Day parade in Red Square was a chance to continue his war on history. It has become a pawn to their cruel and selfish plans.”Despite the pomp of the parade, Putin cuts an increasingly isolated figure. In Russia, Putin and his regime have destroyed these values. A lone Soviet-era T-34 tank leads the procession in Moscow in contrast to the large array of military hardware on display on previous Victory Day parades. “Victory Day is the victory of our grandfathers,” he said.

☆ Security worries overshadow Russia's Victory Day preparations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Gareth Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But several Russian regions have already scaled back events, citing concerns that they could be targeted by pro-Ukrainian saboteurs. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, more than any other country. Putin's office linked what it called the "terrorist" drone attack on the Kremlin in the early hours of May 3 to the Victory Day parade, which takes place below the walls of the ancient citadel. Kyiv has said it expects increased efforts by Russian forces to take the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut ahead of Moscow's Victory Day celebrations. In Soviet times, Victory Day commemorations were more low-key, with the emphasis on honouring veterans and their huge sacrifices, which are seared into older Russians' folk memory.

☆ Ukrainian defenders oust Russian forces from some positions in Bakhmut - Ukraine general
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, May 1 (Reuters) - Ukrainian counterattacks have ousted Russian forces from some positions in the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, but the situation remains "difficult", a top Ukrainian general said in comments released Monday. "The situation is quite difficult," said Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces, in a statement on Telegram. "At the same time, in certain parts of the city, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions." He added that new Russian units, including paratroopers and fighters from the Wagner mercenary group, were being "constantly thrown into battle" despite taking heavy losses. Russian forces have steadily made incremental gains in Bakhmut, but a Ukrainian military spokesman said on Sunday it was still possible to supply the defenders with food, ammunition and medicine.

☆ Ukraine controls key supply route into Bakhmut - military
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 30 (Reuters) - Ukraine remains in control of a key supply route into Bakhmut, but the situation remains "really difficult" in the besieged eastern city, a Ukrainian military spokesman said on Saturday. Russian forces have been trying for 10 months to punch their way into the shattered remains of what was once a city of 70,000. Kyiv has pledged to defend Bakhmut, which Russia sees as a stepping stone to attacking other cities. "Yes, it is really difficult there, because their attempts to seize the road continue, as well as attempts to establish fire control. If Bakhmut fell, Chasiv Yar would probably be next to come under Russian attack according to military analysts, though it is on higher ground and Ukrainian forces are believed to have built defensive fortifications nearby.

☆ Climate Change’s Fingerprints Turn Up in Parched East Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Raymond Zhong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Now we must ensure that the fund is made fit for purpose,” said Harjeet Singh, head of political strategy for Climate Action Network International. There, the drought may have caused 43,000 excess deaths last year, according to estimates issued last month. Scientists know that global warming is increasing the average likelihood and severity of certain kinds of wild weather in many regions. It’s like smoking and cancer: The two are undeniably linked, but not all smokers develop cancer, and not all cancer patients were smokers. To determine the effects of global warming on individual weather episodes, climate researchers use computer simulations to compare the global climate as it really is — with billions of tons of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by humans over decades — and a hypothetical climate without any of those emissions.

☆ Rebel attacks deepen displacement crisis in Congo's Ituri
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Paul Lorgerie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Semire said members of the Hema herding community started to abandon Drodro in mid-March ahead of a rumoured advance by CODECO. "There are repeated attacks - this delays the return of people here, because it creates doubts," he said. Its population has nearly doubled to 65,000 since the beginning of 2023, according to camp representative Samuel Kpadjanga. The presence of fighters in the forests and fields around the camp makes attacks on those who venture out a regular occurrence, Kpadjanga said. My life is safe, but they took everything from me, my scythe, my money," she lamented back in a hut at Rhoe camp, as a toddler peeked at her from the doorway.

☆ Palestinian reporter breaks barriers by reporting in Hebrew on Israeli TV
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Hadas Gold | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

He is one of the few Palestinian reporters who report in Hebrew, on Israeli TV. Maswadeh is not the first or the only Palestinian reporter on Israeli TV – there are several on the Arab affairs beat. “I was born in East Jerusalem to a Palestinian family, to a Palestinian culture. “We were there looking at the TV – Israeli TV – and saw, you know, the smokes and people screaming and I didn’t know what’s happening, I didn’t speak Hebrew. “I get threats from both sides [Palestinian and Israeli], but it was mainly from Palestinians who don’t like the fact that I work for Israeli TV,” he added.

☆ Russia Pounds Cities Across the Country, Ukraine Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Jeffrey Gettleman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russian forces pounded Ukrainian cities with missiles, mortars, artillery fire and airstrikes over the weekend, killing at least one person and taking out homes and critical infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said Sunday. “Fierce battles for the city of Bakhmut continue,” according to a Sunday morning update from the Ukrainian military’s General Staff. But the update emphasized that Bakhmut was hardly the only target and that Russian forces had rained down dozens of airstrikes and many other artillery attacks across the country. The violence comes as Ukraine is preparing for an anticipated counteroffensive that could focus on seizing back territory in the east and south of the country. For Russia’s part, President Vladimir V. Putin has made the seizure of the entire Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine, a priority for Moscow’s forces.

☆ Earth Day 2023: The world just failed its annual health checkup
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The WMO’s annual State of the Climate Report, published Friday ahead of Earth Day, is essentially a health checkup for the world. Global sea levels climbed to the highest on record due to melting glaciers and warming oceans, which expand as they heat up. “Communities and countries which have contributed least to climate change suffer disproportionately.”A man uses a hand fan in a park in central Madrid during a heatwave, on August 2, 2022. The hottest year on record, 2016, was the result of a strong El Niño and climate change, said Baddour. “This is really a wake up call that climate change isn’t a future problem, it is a current problem.

☆ World could face record temperatures in 2023 as El Nino returns
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Kate Abnett | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Issei KatoBRUSSELS, April 20 (Reuters) - The world could breach a new average temperature record in 2023 or 2024, fuelled by climate change and the anticipated return of the El Nino weather phenomenon, climate scientists say. During El Nino, winds blowing west along the equator slow down, and warm water is pushed east, creating warmer surface ocean temperatures. "El Nino is normally associated with record breaking temperatures at the global level. Climate models suggest a return to El Nino conditions in the late boreal summer, and the possibility of a strong El Nino developing towards the end of the year, Buontempo said. The world's hottest year on record so far was 2016, coinciding with a strong El Nino - although climate change has fuelled extreme temperatures even in years without the phenomenon.

☆ Shooting attack in Jerusalem, clashes in West Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Israeli security force members search and patrol the area following a shooting incident in East Jerusalem, April 18, 2023. On Monday, Israel's domestic security service said it had uncovered an attempt by Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force to recruit Palestinian operatives in the West Bank. U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem collapsed almost a decade ago and show no sign of revival. Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East War when it also captured Gaza and the West Bank, in a move not recognised internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their own future capital.

☆ Orthodox Christians await Holy Light in Jerusalem under heavy police restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

JERUSALEM, April 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of Palestinian Christians and pilgrims from around the world filled Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday to celebrate the Orthodox Holy Light ceremony, under a heavy Israeli police presence that has drawn anger from churches. Additional checkpoints around the Old City will also restrict access to the area around the church. Israel annexed East Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City and its holy sites, after a 1967 Middle East War in a move not recognised internationally. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The Holy Sepulchre lies at the heart of the Old City's Christian Quarter in East Jerusalem.

☆ Western Australia assesses Cyclone Ilsa's 'path of destruction'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, April 15 (Reuters) - Emergency authorities in Western Australia were assessing damage on Saturday from a tropical cyclone that hit the state's northwest, sparing heavily populated areas but affecting several remote communities. Ilsa, downgraded to a severe weather system, made landfall in the sparsely populated Pilbara region of Western Australia early on Friday with an intensity rating of 5, the highest. Western Australia Department of Fire and Emergency Services Assistant Commissioner Rick Curtis said crews were surveying damage in the "very large area" hit by Ilsa. "It’s quite a remote part of Western Australia so getting support services to the area will take some time and effort." Australia's weather forecaster warned of possible severe weather on Saturday in parts of the neighbouring Northern Territory, including potential flooding in the outback town of Alice Springs, as the ex-cyclone tracked east.

☆ Russia's Wagner claims it controls most of Bakhmut; Kyiv says forces holding firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Yulia Morozova/File PhotoApril 11 (Reuters) - The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group on Tuesday said his forces controlled more than 80% of the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after some of war's heaviest and bloodiest fighting. Senior Ukrainian military officials did not address the claims directly, but said their forces were holding firm against fierce attacks in what once was a city of 70,000 and keeping Russian forces in check. The Russian-installed head of Donetsk region, one of four areas declared annexed by Moscow last September, said Russian forces had backed Ukrainian defenders into a corner. But Russian forces, she said, "are generally losing to us in street battles so they are simply destroying all buildings and structures". Russian forces have made only incremental gains in their advance through eastern Ukraine.

BEIJING/TAIPEI, April 11 (Reuters) - China's latest military drills near Taiwan show it is serious about being able to cut off the democratically ruled island in a conflict, analysts said, as Beijing said its aircraft carriers could "shatter" defences from the east. 1) Carrier OperationsMany analysts noted the jets flying off the Shandong aircraft carrier, which took up position east of Taiwan, about 230 kilometres (143 miles) south of Japan's Miyajima island. The aim of the drills was to show that they could encircle Taiwan in a blockade and deter foreign powers from intervening, Zhao said. 3) Precision TargetingThe PLA also said it carried out virtual simulations showing how its forces could execute targeted missile attacks on Taiwan. Japan's military said in a briefing on Tuesday that it was assessing China's manoeuvres around Taiwan, but described them as "without question, serious training".

☆ The Clash of Civilizations That Heralded a Rocky Relationship
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Abhishek Kaicker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Das, a professor of English at Oxford University, is the rare scholar who combines a sensitivity to the literature of Jacobean England with a sympathetic and nuanced understanding of the Mughal empire. In Das’s telling, Roe was not a herald of the Company Raj to come as much as a product of 17th-century England, an island nation whose commercial ambitions were beginning to overshadow its royal court. Conflicts over precedence did nothing to advance his mission of securing trade rights, which was the real reason Roe had been sent across the Indian Ocean. The Mughal emperor Jahangir suffered neither James I’s financial embarrassments nor accorded much privilege to traders. Indeed, the court’s sumptuous ceremonies led “mogul” to become a byword for fantastical wealth and overwhelming power.

Salvoes of rockets from Lebanon and Gaza struck north and south in Israel over the past day and the Israeli military replied with air strikes. Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, praised the shooting attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility. [1/3] Israeli troops stand guard at a shooting attack scene in the Jordan Valley, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank April 7,2023. With the international-led peace process long moribund, Palestinians' hopes of creating an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital, have faded. Israel's new hard-right government is set on expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank and includes members who rule out a Palestinian state.

☆ Inside a shake-up at the world's 'most feared law firm'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Casey Sullivan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +30 min

It's been a tumultuous period for Quinn and the storied law firm he built over the past 37 years — now the world's largest litigation firm with hourly rates that can be north of $2,000. But behind the scenes, a shift at QE has been the talk of elite law firm circles. Indeed, the firm – known as a singular, even freewheeling, institution that brands itself as the "#1 Most Feared Law Firm in the World" — may appear to be less in the image of its founder as a generational shift brings changes. "We all thought it was important that the world understands this is not a one generation law firm." One former firm partner in California says he believes Quinn's inner circle generally got better deals.

☆ The US housing market is crashing and soaring at the same time. It all depends on where you live.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US housing market is crashing and soaring all at the same time as pockets of the market see divergent trends. According to data from Black Knight, home prices on the West Coast are plunging at the same time home prices on the East Coast are surging. Meanwhile, all 12 of the major housing markets west of Texas saw home prices fall over the same time period. Such a split in the US housing market is unprecedented. To be sure, West Coast home prices had room to fall after experiencing dizzying gains over the past decade.

☆ How Ukraine's closest allies turned the tide on sending advanced tanks, and could do the same for military jets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Their success, an expert told Insider, shows how Europe's balance of power has shifted eastwards since Russia's invasion in February 2022. Sergei Grits/APEstonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told Insider that Ukraine's allies had been "too slow" when deciding to send weapons to Ukraine. AP Photo/Martin Meissner, FileReinsalu, Estonia's foreign minister, told Insider that he had repeatedly engaged with his German counterpart about the decision. Kallas and Šimonytė, the two prime ministers, both told Insider that they support Ukraine getting military jets. "Ordinarily, on less critical matters, peer pressure happens but the public sees very little of it or none of it," he told Insider.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, March 27 (Reuters) - The Australian natural gas sector believes it has the solution to warnings of a shortfall in domestic supplies in coming years. But a recent report from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AMEO) warned the domestic market may have insufficient supplies from this year out to 2025. The second is that if the LNG producers are forced by legislation to satisfy the domestic market first, they risk undermining Australia's reputation in Asia as one of the most reliable suppliers of energy. There is also a time factor, with it likely to take far longer to explore, develop and build the infrastructure than is available to avoid shortfalls in the domestic market. The first is to risk Australia's reputation as an energy supplier and future investment by forcing the LNG producers to supply the domestic market and curtail exports.

JERUSALEM, March 24 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers flocked to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first Friday of Ramadan for noon prayers, which passed peacefully amid tight security imposed after months of escalating tension and violence. "I cannot describe to you how happy I am to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque. I'm 50 years old and they only recently removed the security ban that had prevented me from coming here," said Nasser Abu Saleh, a resident of the West Bank city of Hebron. The Muslim Waqf, custodians who manage the site which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, said around 100,000 people had visited for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan. [1/5] Palestinians make their way through an Israeli checkpoint to attend the first Friday prayers of Ramadan in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank March 24, 2023.

The YouTube subscriber count has quickly become an outdated relic. YouTube shorts has lowered the barrier to entry, making it easier to gain subscribers. "Especially in the world of short-form content, where your viewers are one swipe away from moving onto someone else." Nearly every social platform, from YouTube to Facebook to TikTok, is still working to crack the code for monetizing short-form video well with advertising. Short-form video ad spending worldwide for 2022 to 2028, via Insider Intelligence.

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