After helping Trump win US presidency, Elon Must worries Europe with support for far-right extremism
Elon Musk has inserted himself into politics in Germany, which is headed for a February 23 election after center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious three-party coalition government collapsed.
France’s ex-president Sarkozy goes on trial for illicit campaign funding, influence peddling by Libya’s Gaddafi
The case emerged in March 2011, when a Libyan news agency reported that the Gaddaffi government had financed Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign. In an interview, Gaddaffi himself said “it’s thanks to us that he reached the presidency. We provided him with the funds that allowed him to win,” without providing any amount or other details.
Scientists in UK resolve a 50-year mystery with discovery of a new blood group initially thought to be a disorder
While we’re all more familiar with the ABO blood group system and the rhesus factor (that’s the plus or minus part), humans actually have many different blood group systems based on the wide variety of cell-surface proteins and sugars that coat our blood cells.
Pesticide banned in Europe but widely used in US makes brain cells age faster
The new study shows that atrazine exposure ages certain brain cells in mice, causing them to stop dividing and growing. It also highlights for the first time the role of a specific stress response pathway in disrupting the processes healthy cells use to detect, repair or remove damaged parts.
Fracture within Ecowas and animosity with US provides ideal ground for terrorism in West Africa
Despite the military regimes of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger forming an alliance of Sahel states to fight terrorism and to promote economic development, recent attacks with mass fatalities indicate that terrorist groups might already be taking advantage of the lack of a coordinated counter-terrorism strategy in the region.
Fragile geopolitical relations place world on high nuclear war alert as US, Russia grow stocks
However, the most concerning changes regard North Korea, which maintained its military nuclear programme as a core national security strategy. It amassed an estimated 50 warheads and enough fissile material for up to 90 warheads, with developments in ballistic and cruise missile technologies aimed at nuclear delivery.
Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipeline to Europe ends as Ukraine declines to renew transit agreement
The last remaining EU buyers of Russian gas via Ukraine, such as Slovakia and Austria, have arranged alternative supply. Hungary will keep receiving Russian gas via TurkStream, which runs two pipelines under the Black Sea.
Role of Russian billionaires that finance chemical factories that fuel Russia’s war machine laid bare
Peter Harrell, a former senior White House official who worked on Russia sanctions during the war’s first year and is now a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said perhaps it’s time to review those 2022 decisions now that nations that once relied on Ukraine and Russia for wheat and fertilizer have had time to find alternative sources.
Passenger plane flying to Russia from Azerbaijan crashes in Kazakhstan, many feared dead
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Putin’s offer to compromise with Trump on Ukraine war raises doubts about Russia’s military might
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had no conditions to start talks with Ukraine and was ready to negotiate with anyone, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But he said any deal could only be signed with Ukraine’s legitimate authorities, which for now the Kremlin considered to be only the Ukrainian parliament.
