Russia on Friday labelled superstar rapper Oxxxymiron, popular among young Russians, a "foreign agent", according to the interior ministry's website.. His name was added to a register of "foreign agents" -- a term used to crackdown on Kremlin critics -- on the ministry's website.
After three years of planning, five expeditions and a two-week trek through dense jungle, scientists have reached the tallest tree ever found in the Amazon rainforest, a towering specimen the size of a 25-storey building.. Three more expeditions to the reserve's remote Jari Valley region, which sits at the border between the states of Amapa and Para, reached several other gigantic trees, including the tallest Brazil nut tree ever recorded in the Amazon -- 66 meters.
Iran may use the Islamic veil as a tool of oppression, but the hijab is also the weakest pillar of an embattled regime trying to forestall its own "Berlin Wall" moment, an Iranian-American activist based in New York tells AFP. Masih Alinejad, 45, who fled Iran in 2009, became known in 2014 after she launched a social media campaign called mystealthyfreedom.org that encourages Iranian women to protest against the obligation to wear the hijab in their country.. - 'The weakest pillar' - "To me, the compulsory hijab is like the Berlin Wall.
The Beatles' home city of Liverpool will hold the 2023 Eurovision song contest next May, the BBC announced on Friday, after Britain stepped in to host the event due to the war in Ukraine.. The northwestern English city was famously home to the Beatles as well as a host of other big names from Gerry and the Pacemakers to Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
The education board that oversees schools in the Texas town of Uvalde on Friday suspended the police force whose bungled response to a horrific mass shooting has been widely criticised.. On Friday the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District said it was suspending the small police force that has responsibility for safety and security in the handful of public schools under its aegis.
UN aviation agency members reached an agreement Friday to try to achieve by 2050 net-zero carbon emissions in air travel -- often criticized for its outsized role in climate change.. The assembly, which brought together representatives from 193 nations at the International Civil Aviation Organization's Montreal headquarters, reached a "historic agreement on a collective long-term aspirational goal (LTAG) of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050!"
The Russian rights group Memorial is honoured to have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but it should have gone to political prisoners such as Alexei Navalny, who risk their lives for contesting President Vladimir Putin, the group's co-founder said Friday.. But Ponomarev said an even better move by the Norwegian peace prize committee would have been to give the award to Navalny, Putin's leading opposition critic and an outspoken anti-corruption figure, or to liberal opposition figures Vladimir Kara-Murza or Ilya Yashin, who are also imprisoned.
Russian forces are advancing on Bakhmut, threatening to take some of the shine off weeks of Ukrainian victories, as life becomes more desperate for the eastern town's hard-pressed residents.. Moscow's forces launched a push towards Bakhmut in August, and two weeks later the Ukrainian general staff admitted the invading force had had "some success", but still without taking the town.
US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday designed to protect the privacy of personal data transfers between the EU and the United States and address European concerns about US spying activity.. The White House said the executive order addresses concerns raised by the Court of Justice of the European Union when it ruled that the previous framework known as Privacy Shield did not provide adequate protection.
Vladimir Putin for his 70th birthday Friday was gifted a tractor by the Belarusian president and told by the head of Russia's Orthodox Church that "God" put him in power, while the Kremlin held back on celebrations as Moscow faces setbacks in Ukraine.. - 'If there is Putin, there is Russia' - Close Putin ally, Belarus strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, told journalists he gifted a Belarusian tractor "the best one out there" to the Russian president.
