The United States on Tuesday accused companies in the United Arab Emirates, the Central African Republic and Russia of engaging in illicit gold deals to help fund the mercenary fighters of Russia's Wagner Group. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement it has sanctioned four companies linked to Wagner and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that it alleged were used to help pay the paramilitary's forces fighting in Ukraine and undertaking operations to support Russian interests in Africa. "The Wagner Group funds its brutal operations in part by exploiting natural resources in countries...
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Wednesday that the world was at a perilous point in the COVID-19 pandemic, as fast-moving variants continued to spread because of an uneven global vaccination effort. From the agency's headquarters in Geneva, Tedros said that some countries with high vaccination rates were making plans to roll out booster shots in coming months and were dropping public health social distancing measures and relaxing as though the pandemic were already over. But the WHO chief said that because of what he called a "shocking inequity in...
Tropical Storm Elsa brought heavy rain to the U.S. state of Florida on Wednesday with forecasters expecting the center of the storm to make landfall along the state's Gulf Coast and move inland during the day. The storm, which had briefly strengthened to hurricane status late Tuesday, weakened some overnight, with the U.S. National Hurricane Center saying it was once again at tropical storm strength and due to weaken further after landfall. Forecasters expect the center of Elsa to stay near the coast in the coming days as the storm moves north over the states of Georgia, South Carolina,...
Britain is about to try something that no other nation has yet dared: lifting coronavirus restrictions amid a new wave of infections. The government says that with more than half of Britons now fully vaccinated, the time is right to reopen in the coming weeks. However, some scientists have warned that a sudden reopening of the economy and society is a big gamble as infection numbers rise. In a televised press conference Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined the end to lockdown measures beginning July 19. "Our vaccines have helped to break the link between disease and...
Since Britain voted five years ago to break with the European Union, there has been an exodus from the country of EU workers, which has gathered pace since the pandemic struck, according to British government figures. Many among the more than one million EU citizens who have left went to Germany and the Netherlands, leaving Britain's coronavirus-hit businesses desperately short now of labor and complaining they are unable to fill staff vacancies just as Britain is planning to lift, on July 19, its remaining pandemic restrictions and hoping for a V-shaped economic recovery. The...
The number of spectators at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics will be limited to a handful of VIP, or Very Important Persons dignitaries, and Olympic officials due to concerns over the rising number of new COVID-19 cases in the capital, according to a Japanese newspaper. A report in Tuesday's edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper says the idea is part of a larger plan that would also include banning visitors from attending events at large venues and at night. Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics announced back on June 21 that it would allow just 10,000 people, or 50% of a venue's...
North and South Korea have restored a communication hotline that was cut off by Pyongyang last June.
According to the South's presidential office, the leaders of both countries have agreed to...
Critical infrastructure facilities were hit by drone strikes early on Thursday, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Volodymyr Zelenskiy's presidential office said on Thursday.
"Another attack...
Andrew McCabe, pejabat FBI No. 2 yang secara umum dikritik Presiden Donald Trump atas dugaan bias politik, mundur dari biro tersebut hari Senin waktu AS, beberapa minggu sebelum masa pensiunnya,...