News Burst 2 November 2024
>> Sweden and Norway are both reconsidering their plans for cashless societies. Both nations fear that fully digital payment systems would leave them vulnerable to Russian security threats, and concern for those unable to use them. Previously they were rapidly moving rapidly cashless systems, supported by high digital literacy and fintech growth. A combination of good high-speed internet coverage, high digital literacy rates, large rural populations and fast-growing fintech industries, had put both country’s on a fast track to a future without cash.
>> US President Joe Biden was caught on camera playfully biting babies during a Halloween party in the White House on Wednesday, as he greeted the children of staff, media reports. Biden has a history of what many consider to be bizarre interactions with children. The president was handing out sweets to children during the celebration alongside First Lady Jill Biden, who was dressed in a full-body panda suit. The 81-year-old commander-in-chief’s awkward interactions with children during the event have gone viral as he played with babies dressed in Halloween costumes. Biden was photographed biting at least two babies at the party, where around 8,000 people were invited.
>> Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has released a new declassified document highlighting the case a Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator who participated in the Volyn massacre. Vassily Malazhensky long evaded capture and ended up in custody only in the late 1960s. The document is a 1967 memo sent by an investigative KGB unit in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv to the KGB’s central investigative department detailing the investigation of Malazhensky’s case. According to the document, investigators established that he first became involved with Ukrainian nationalist organizations in 1940 during a stay in Nazi Germany.
>> The staggering fine of $20 decillion Google now owes to Russian broadcasters who were banned from YouTube is “symbolic” and intended to push the company to rectify the issues it has with them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. The eye-watering sum is supposed to make the company “pay attention” to the problem and fix it, Peskov suggested on Thursday. “This is a specifically formulated sum, I actually can’t even pronounce this figure, but it is rather filled with symbolism,” he said, explaining that Google “should not limit the actions of our broadcasters on a whim.”
>> An EU report has called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to create a “fully fledged” intelligence agency to coordinate the clandestine activity of member states. However, even proponents of the idea admit it would be costly and unpopular. Penned by former Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and published on Wednesday, the report outlines the EU’s readiness for war, and makes a multitude of vague recommendations. Officials in Brussels are advised, for example, to cultivate a “preparedness culture,” and to “strengthen civil-military coordination frameworks.”
>> US officials are not always certain they correctly understand what Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and chief-of-staff Andrey Yermak are trying to say because both men often shun the services of interpreters despite lacking fluency in English, the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has claimed. Zelensky’s English is “only mediocre,” while Yermak speaks it “extremely poorly,” according to the report from Saturday. This creates a communication problem because the Americans cannot be certain that their messages are properly received or that they correctly understand what the Ukrainians are telling them, according to the newspaper.
>> Peru has been ordered to compensate victims of programme that affected more than 300,000 women in 1990s. A UN committee has urged the country to compensate women who were forcibly sterilized in the 1990’s, ruling that the state policy could constitute a “crime against humanity”. Peru had argued the sterilization programme was part of a broader reproductive health policy. The Guardian reports: Forced sterilisation was part of a programme implemented by Peru’s then president Alberto Fujimori during the final four years before he left office in 2000 after a decade in power.
>> A Pennsylvania official has been exposed for dumping millions of fraudulent voter registrations, according to reports. Beth McBride delivered a massive number of June-dated applications on the last day of registration, according to Romilda Crocamo, Luzern County’s manager. This news comes on the heels of other similar news in Lancaster County, also in Pennsylvania, where a voter fraud operation was uncovered that involved a mostly-fraudulent batch of 2,500 voter applications being turned in on or near the deadline, just like what happened in Luzerne County. It turns out, according to “ThePersistence” (@ScottPresler) on X / Twitter, that a single organization is behind both of these voter fraud operations, which is why this X / Twitter account is now calling for an immediate investigation.
>>Barack Obama’s eldest daughter, Malia, has changed her last name due to the ongoing scandal that Michelle Obama, aka ‘Big Mike’, is not her biological mother. Malia Obama’s last name change was first revealed in her new film project, “The Heart,” in which she was credited as Malia Ann instead of Malia Obama. The oldest daughter of Obama reportedly dropped her last name in film projects to distance herself from her famous parents.
>> The first ever woman to be euthanized via a suicide pod in Switzerland had to be strangled to death by her executor due to a malfunction with the machine, according to reports. The president of Sarco’s operator The Last Resort, Dr Florian Willet, was arrested along with several other people nearby. The inventor of the Sarco, Philip Nitschke, followed the process by video call but was unable to catch all of it due to technical difficulties. A 64-year-old American mother-of-two, who has not been named, died inside the capsule in the middle of a forest near a cabin in Merishausen, Switzerland on September 23. The pod, which prior to this had never been used, allows a person inside the device to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person inside is then supposed to fall asleep before dying by suffocation.
>> As millions of people around the world celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams radioed home a message of festive cheer. Speaking from the ISS’ window-filled cupola with Earth as her backdrop, Williams, who is an American with Indian heritage, spoke about her father’s efforts to keep Indian culture alive after he migrated to the United States in 1957. She also touched upon the symbolism of Diwali — the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness and hope over despair. “Diwali is a time of joy as goodness in the world prevails,” she said.
>> Over the last few decades, planetary scientists have been steadily adding to the list of moons in our solar system that may harbor interior oceans either currently or at some point in their past. For the most part, these moons (such as Europa or Enceladus) have been gravitationally bound to the gas giants Jupiter or Saturn. Recently, though, planetary scientists have been turning their attention further afield, towards the ice giant Uranus, the coldest planet in the solar system. And now, new research based on images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft has suggested that Miranda, a small Uranian icy moon, may have once possessed a deep liquid water ocean beneath its surface. What’s more, remnants of that ocean may still exist on Miranda today.
>> Sweden and Norway are both reconsidering their plans for cashless societies. Both nations fear that fully digital payment systems would leave them vulnerable to Russian security threats, and concern for those unable to use them. Previously they were rapidly moving rapidly cashless systems, supported by high digital literacy and fintech growth. A combination of good high-speed internet coverage, high digital literacy rates, large rural populations and fast-growing fintech industries, had put both country’s on a fast track to a future without cash.
>> US President Joe Biden was caught on camera playfully biting babies during a Halloween party in the White House on Wednesday, as he greeted the children of staff, media reports. Biden has a history of what many consider to be bizarre interactions with children. The president was handing out sweets to children during the celebration alongside First Lady Jill Biden, who was dressed in a full-body panda suit. The 81-year-old commander-in-chief’s awkward interactions with children during the event have gone viral as he played with babies dressed in Halloween costumes. Biden was photographed biting at least two babies at the party, where around 8,000 people were invited.
>> Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has released a new declassified document highlighting the case a Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator who participated in the Volyn massacre. Vassily Malazhensky long evaded capture and ended up in custody only in the late 1960s. The document is a 1967 memo sent by an investigative KGB unit in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv to the KGB’s central investigative department detailing the investigation of Malazhensky’s case. According to the document, investigators established that he first became involved with Ukrainian nationalist organizations in 1940 during a stay in Nazi Germany.
>> The staggering fine of $20 decillion Google now owes to Russian broadcasters who were banned from YouTube is “symbolic” and intended to push the company to rectify the issues it has with them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. The eye-watering sum is supposed to make the company “pay attention” to the problem and fix it, Peskov suggested on Thursday. “This is a specifically formulated sum, I actually can’t even pronounce this figure, but it is rather filled with symbolism,” he said, explaining that Google “should not limit the actions of our broadcasters on a whim.”
>> An EU report has called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to create a “fully fledged” intelligence agency to coordinate the clandestine activity of member states. However, even proponents of the idea admit it would be costly and unpopular. Penned by former Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and published on Wednesday, the report outlines the EU’s readiness for war, and makes a multitude of vague recommendations. Officials in Brussels are advised, for example, to cultivate a “preparedness culture,” and to “strengthen civil-military coordination frameworks.”
>> US officials are not always certain they correctly understand what Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and chief-of-staff Andrey Yermak are trying to say because both men often shun the services of interpreters despite lacking fluency in English, the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has claimed. Zelensky’s English is “only mediocre,” while Yermak speaks it “extremely poorly,” according to the report from Saturday. This creates a communication problem because the Americans cannot be certain that their messages are properly received or that they correctly understand what the Ukrainians are telling them, according to the newspaper.
>> Peru has been ordered to compensate victims of programme that affected more than 300,000 women in 1990s. A UN committee has urged the country to compensate women who were forcibly sterilized in the 1990’s, ruling that the state policy could constitute a “crime against humanity”. Peru had argued the sterilization programme was part of a broader reproductive health policy. The Guardian reports: Forced sterilisation was part of a programme implemented by Peru’s then president Alberto Fujimori during the final four years before he left office in 2000 after a decade in power.
>> A Pennsylvania official has been exposed for dumping millions of fraudulent voter registrations, according to reports. Beth McBride delivered a massive number of June-dated applications on the last day of registration, according to Romilda Crocamo, Luzern County’s manager. This news comes on the heels of other similar news in Lancaster County, also in Pennsylvania, where a voter fraud operation was uncovered that involved a mostly-fraudulent batch of 2,500 voter applications being turned in on or near the deadline, just like what happened in Luzerne County. It turns out, according to “ThePersistence” (@ScottPresler) on X / Twitter, that a single organization is behind both of these voter fraud operations, which is why this X / Twitter account is now calling for an immediate investigation.
>>Barack Obama’s eldest daughter, Malia, has changed her last name due to the ongoing scandal that Michelle Obama, aka ‘Big Mike’, is not her biological mother. Malia Obama’s last name change was first revealed in her new film project, “The Heart,” in which she was credited as Malia Ann instead of Malia Obama. The oldest daughter of Obama reportedly dropped her last name in film projects to distance herself from her famous parents.
>> The first ever woman to be euthanized via a suicide pod in Switzerland had to be strangled to death by her executor due to a malfunction with the machine, according to reports. The president of Sarco’s operator The Last Resort, Dr Florian Willet, was arrested along with several other people nearby. The inventor of the Sarco, Philip Nitschke, followed the process by video call but was unable to catch all of it due to technical difficulties. A 64-year-old American mother-of-two, who has not been named, died inside the capsule in the middle of a forest near a cabin in Merishausen, Switzerland on September 23. The pod, which prior to this had never been used, allows a person inside the device to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person inside is then supposed to fall asleep before dying by suffocation.
>> As millions of people around the world celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams radioed home a message of festive cheer. Speaking from the ISS’ window-filled cupola with Earth as her backdrop, Williams, who is an American with Indian heritage, spoke about her father’s efforts to keep Indian culture alive after he migrated to the United States in 1957. She also touched upon the symbolism of Diwali — the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness and hope over despair. “Diwali is a time of joy as goodness in the world prevails,” she said.
>> Over the last few decades, planetary scientists have been steadily adding to the list of moons in our solar system that may harbor interior oceans either currently or at some point in their past. For the most part, these moons (such as Europa or Enceladus) have been gravitationally bound to the gas giants Jupiter or Saturn. Recently, though, planetary scientists have been turning their attention further afield, towards the ice giant Uranus, the coldest planet in the solar system. And now, new research based on images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft has suggested that Miranda, a small Uranian icy moon, may have once possessed a deep liquid water ocean beneath its surface. What’s more, remnants of that ocean may still exist on Miranda today.
