Category: Blog

Plans for the start of the Basketball World Cup in Okinawa, Japan, were unaffected Thursday after a North Korean rocket launch prompted an alert ordering some residents to evacuate. Press conferences and practices for the eight teams that are beginning World Cup play in Okinawa went on as scheduled Thursday. The tournament begins Friday, also […]

A Russian court has granted a request by investigators to extend the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was jailed by Russian authorities earlier this year on espionage charges. The Lefortovo District Court, during a closed hearing, ruled Thursday that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) could keep the 31-year-old Gershkovich behind bars […]

Mercenaries with the Wagner Group are mourning the alleged death of their once-leader. Yevgeny Prigozhin was reportedly killed Wednesday in a plane crash inside Russian airspace that also claimed nine other people’s lives. No concrete evidence of his death has yet been provided. “I won’t be afraid to say that Yevgeny Prigozhin is a Russian […]

President Biden commemorated Ukraine’s Independence Day by renewing the U.S. commitment to support Ukraine “over the long term” amid its ongoing war with Russia. “Today, the people of Ukraine are once more marking their Independence Day, while suffering the all-out assault of Putin’s craven war for land and power,” Biden said via a White House […]

Russian villagers who witnessed the crash of Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s jet say they heard an “explosion” before seeing the plane plummet out of the sky. Prigozhin’s plane crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino, and residents there say they saw the plane fall from the clouds in at least two pieces. Officials say Prigozhin was […]

China has banned seafood imports from Japan as the island country has started its controversial process of releasing nuclear radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, Chinese customs authorities said Thursday. The ban started immediately and will affect all imports of “aquatic products” including seafood, China said. Authorities will “dynamically adjust relevant regulatory measures as appropriate […]

Ukraine says a Russian military helicopter was lured into its borders and the pilot defected to its side after a months long intelligence operation, according to Wednesday reports.  A spokesman for Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence said the agency deliberately lured the Russian pilot to land his Mi-8 helicopter at a Ukrainian airfield in the Kharkiv region.  […]

North Korea launched a long-range rocket in a southern direction on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, in the North’s likely second attempt to put a satellite into orbit. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the launch involved what the North called “a space launch vehicle.” It gave no further details. […]

A Lebanese army helicopter crashed during a training mission in a forest east of Beirut on Wednesday night, killing two crew members and wounding one, the army said. The army, in a terse statement, said the helicopter crashed near the mountain town of Hammana. It gave no further details. UNRWA TEMPORARILY SUSPENDS SERVICES IN LEBANON’S […]

Japan is set to begin pumping more than a million tons of treated water from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Aug. 24, a process that will take decades to complete. The water was distilled after being contaminated from contact with fuel rods at the reactor, destroyed in a 2011 earthquake. Tanks on […]