Russia's Central Election Commission has announced the final results of the country's presidential election, after declaring the vote valid.

According to protocol signed by the commission members on Friday, Vladimir Putin has claimed 76.69 percent of the vote, winning his third non-consecutive term as Russian president. Putin's candidacy was supported by 56.43 million voters.

This constitutes irrefutable evidence that the government have been straight out lying - to Parliament, to the EU, to NATO, to the United Nations, and above all to the people - about their degree of certainty of the origin of the attack. It might well be an attack originating in Russia, but there are indeed other possibilities and investigation is needed. As the government has sought to whip up jingoistic hysteria in advance of forthcoming local elections, the scale of the lie has daily increased.

"It was America's first such operation since January and came a day after US President Donald Trump announced it would levy US$60 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports - triggering immediate retaliation from Beijing," said a report in the South China Morning Post. [...]

US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an order directing his trade representative to impose US$60 billion in tariffs on a range of Chinese products. Along with the tariffs, new investment restrictions will be erected and actions will be taken against China through the World Trade Organization, the president said. But the exact details of how and when Trump's tariffs will be imposed remain unclear.

China has lodged a protest with the United States after an American destroyer USS Mustin sailed near disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Beijing demands an end to US "provocations actions which violate the sovereignty of the People's Republic and pose a serious threat to its security, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said in Beijing.

Briefing reporters on Friday, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying called on Washington to respect regional countries' efforts aimed at securing peace and stability in the South China Sea.

A zero-hour contract is a type of contract between an employer and a worker, where the employer is not obliged to provide any minimum working hours, while the worker is not obliged to accept any work offered. The employee may sign an agreement to be available for work as and when required, so that no particular number of hours or times of work are specified

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Workers subject to zero-hour contracts are vulnerable to exploitation as they may be denied work at any time for any reason, including declining to respond to a demand to work. A refusal to work in any one instance for any reason can result in a prolonged period of lack of work. In 2014, millions of workers were still trapped in low-paid, highly insecure jobs, where mistreatment is the norm and where there is limited prospect of escape, said the Trade Union Congress. Due to the uncertainty of the workers' schedules zero-hour contracts present problems for workers with children due to the difficulty of arranging child care.