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US to ban Russian anti-virus software - CNN


RT
Wed, 10 Apr 2024 17:06 UTC
Kaspersky bldg.
© Sputnik/Kirill Kallinikov
Washington is planning to bar US businesses and individuals from using software created by the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed government officials familiar with the matter. The move is seen as "unprecedented," as measures of the kind have never targeted private companies and citizens.

The comprehensive ban is currently being finalized and could be imposed as soon as this month, the sources told the news network. The new regulation would use "relatively new Commerce Department authorities built on executive orders" by Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump to prohibit Kaspersky Lab from providing certain products and services in the country, they added.

According to the sources, the order is aimed at mitigating risks allegedly posed by Kaspersky's software to critical US infrastructure.

As part of preparatory works for the move, the US Department of Commerce has made an "initial determination" to ban certain transactions between the Russian cybersecurity company and US citizens, the sources added.

Comment: No one has ever shown or proven any actual connection between Kaspersky products and Russian spying operations. It's all a bogus fear campaign.

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Putin

Putin twice as popular as Biden in Mideast and African states - poll


RT
Tue, 09 Apr 2024 16:21 UTC
US President Joe Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Sputnik / Mikhail MetzelFILE PHOTO
Moscow and Beijing are already playing more important roles in the Middle East and North Africa than ten years ago, and in another decade could rival Washington's influence in the region, according to a recent opinion poll.

The poll was conducted by Al-Monitor in partnership with data analytics firm Premise across Egypt, Türkiye, Iraq and Tunisia between March 4 and March 22, 2024, and questioned 2,670 respondents in the four states about their views on power dynamics in the region.

When asked which of the three world leaders they viewed "most favorably," some 44.4% chose Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by Chinese President Xi Jinping with some 33.8%, while only 21.7% said they preferred US President Joe Biden.

Putin was seen more favorably across all four states, most of all in Egypt (51.6%). Biden was slightly more popular in Iraq (29.2%) of all states, but still polled third after Putin (35.5%) and Xi (35.3%).

Al-Monitor suggested that Washington's popularity suffered due to its support of Israel's war in Gaza, but noted that a multitude of other factors could be influencing opinions. The respondents were almost split on whether Washington (30%) or Moscow (28%) could "most successfully mediate political disagreements in the Middle East." However, over 40% agreed that the US was still "best equipped to help resolve the Israel-Hamas war," compared to Russia's 27.9% and China's 13.4%.
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Biohazard

Ground-up chicken waste and excreta fed to cattle may be behind bird flu outbreak in US cows

Maeve Cullinan
The Telegraph
Wed, 10 Apr 2024 16:20 UTC
cow dairy
© ADAM DAVIS/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockDairy cows across six US states have become infected with the highly pathogenic virus. Experts warn that lax regulations could also see the virus spread to US pig farms, with serious consequences for human health.
Fears are growing that the H5N1 outbreak among cattle in the United States could have been caused by contaminated animal feed.

In contrast to Britain and Europe, American farmers are still allowed to feed cattle and other farm animals ground-up waste from other animals including birds.

Dairy cows across six US states - and at least one farm worker - have become infected with the highly pathogenic virus, which has already killed millions of animals across the globe since 2021.


Comment: Tens of millions have been culled preemptively; how many bird flu itself has actually killed is harder to discern. And it seems the relentless vaccine campaign isn't working: France detects bird flu outbreak on fully vaccinated duck farm

MIT reports: 'Immunization doesn't prevent infection, but it does reduce symptoms.'

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Hourglass

Saudi cuts back widely ridiculed NEOM desert city plans by 98%


The Cradle
Tue, 09 Apr 2024 15:20 UTC
NEOM saudi arabia
© NEOMThe $500 billion desert project sparked human rights concerns over the need to expel Bedouin tribes from the development area
Saudi Arabia will downsize plans for its $500 billion NEOM linear city, The Line, as part of Mohammad bin Salman's (MbS) 2030 vision to diversify the oil-dependent economy.

By 2030, development was planned in stages to ultimately cover a stretch of 170 kilometers of coastal desert and house 1.5 million people.

However, an unnamed official told Bloomberg on 5 April that the project would be scaled back to 2.4 kilometers, with a reduced capacity of less than 300,000 residents.


Comment: So it'll essentially be another skysraper-esque building in the desert?


"The pullback on The Line comes as the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund has yet to approve Neom's budget for 2024," Bloomberg writes, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. "It shows that the financial realities of the trillions of dollars of investment are starting to cause concern at the highest levels of the Saudi government as it tries to fulfill its ambitious Vision 2030 program, the overarching initiative tasked with diversifying the kingdom's economy."

Comment: One wonders whether this scaling back has something to do with the, overall, rapidly deteriorating global economic situation: US at risk of 'delayed recession', says analyst who predicted 2008 crash

For an idea as to why it was so widely ridiculed, see:



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Headphones

I've been at NPR for 25 years. Here's how we lost America's trust

Uri Berliner
The Free Press
Tue, 09 Apr 2024 00:01 UTC
uri berliner
© Photo by Pete Kiehart for The Free PressUri Berliner near his home in Washington, D.C., on April 5, 2024.
Uri Berliner, a veteran at the public radio institution, says the network lost its way when it started telling listeners how to think.

You know the stereotype of the NPR listener: an EV-driving, Wordle-playing, tote bag-carrying coastal elite. It doesn't precisely describe me, but it's not far off. I'm Sarah Lawrence-educated, was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother, I drive a Subaru, and Spotify says my listening habits are most similar to people in Berkeley.

I fit the NPR mold. I'll cop to that.

Comment: While the focus here is on NPR, a similar story could be told about a number of center-left news organizations, as mainstream journalism slowly circles the drain of irrelevancy. When the mandate switches from production of thought-provoking to thought-dictating, the audience simply won't stick around.

See also:

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Magnify

Russian rocket aborts minutes before launch over 'pressurization issue'


Aviation Week
Tue, 09 Apr 2024 15:08 UTC
Angara A5 russia shuttle space
© Nikolay Lapshin/Khrunichev CenterAngara A5 on the new launchpad in Vostochny.
The flight of a Russian Angara A5 heavy-lift rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome was automatically aborted 2 min. before the planned 5:00 a.m. EDT April 9 liftoff.

The reason for the halt was a failure of the oxidizer tank pressurization system in the central block, Yury Borisov, the head of Roscosmos state space corporation, told reporters.

Launch has been reschedule for April 10.

Angara A5 is set to carry a dummy payload, as the primary goal of the first flight is to test the new launchpad at Vostochny, located in Russia's far east. The rocket was installed on the pad on March 26 and has been conducting various checks of its new Orion booster since then.

Comment: It's worth noting considering Russia's advanced technological abilities, alongside a number of issues it has encountered of late:

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Magnify

1 dead as bridge collapses on railway tracks in Russia


Crisis24
Tue, 09 Apr 2024 12:06 UTC
russia bridge collapse
Authorities continue to respond to the site of a bridge collapse in Vyazma as of early evening April 8. The Paninsky Bridge, which services automobiles, collapsed onto a railway. At least one individual died, and two were injured as a result of the incident. Moscow Railways, which operates trains between Moscow and Smolensk via the affected track, confirmed that train service in the area is suspended.

Train disruptions between Moscow and Smolensk are likely in the coming days until authorities clear the track. Heightened security is likely near the collapse site in the coming days as authorities attempt to clear the area.

Comment: Footage:

The BBC reports:
All train traffic was halted after Monday's incident in the town of Vyazma, Smolensk region, they say.

About 8,000 households were without gas as pipelines were also damaged.

The cause of the Paninsky overpass's collapse is being investigated. One news channel suggests it was most likely because of its old age.

Local residents "repeatedly asked the authorities to repair the overpass", the 112 Telegram channel says.

Several vehicles were believed to be on the bridge when it collapsed.

Later pictures from the scene showed an overturned car and a lorry.

Regional Governor Vasiliy Anokhin says six of the bridge's seven spans collapsed.

Three of the injured people have been sent to the capital Moscow, and a 14-year-old girl is being treated in a local hospital.

"My deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased woman," Mr Anokhin wrote in a post on social media.

The governor adds that more than 160 emergency personnel are working at the scene through the night to restore the train traffic as soon as possible.
Also this week:

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Colosseum

US at risk of 'delayed recession', says analyst who predicted 2008 crash

Giulia Carbonaro
Newsweek
Tue, 09 Apr 2024 11:47 UTC
recession us america dollar
The U.S. economy is not yet out of troubled waters and could still face a "delayed" recession, according to Gary Shilling.

The financial analyst, who correctly predicted the crisis of 2007-2008, said that the resilience in the U.S. economy since the end of the pandemic has mostly been due to the labor market, but this might start to slow down in the near future.

"You haven't had that weakness in labor markets that, I think, you normally would have had and would have [caused] a recession [in 2023]," he told CNBC. "That doesn't mean we won't have one, but it means whatever it is, it's delayed."

He added that there are already "preliminary signs of weakness" in the market that would suggest it is slowing down, including wage gains, quits and service inflation.

Comment: It's fairly obvious that the US economy in particular bears little relation to its productivity nor its wealth, and that, partly due to its interconnectedness, another global economic crash is on the cards: Germany slides into recession, joining UK, Japan, Ireland, and Finland

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War Whore

Support for 'authoritarian' Zelensky falling - German media


RT
Mon, 08 Apr 2024 09:32 UTC
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky
© Paula Bronstein/Getty ImagesUkrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president's failure to keep his election promises has contributed to public disenchantment, Tagesspiegel claims.

Public support for Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is declining as he is increasingly perceived as an authoritarian ruler, German newspaper Tagesspiegel has claimed.

In an article on Saturday, Tagesspiegel reported that approval ratings for Zelensky "have recently sunk to 61%," citing fresh opinion polls by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. The Ukrainian leader had enjoyed the support of more than 80% of citizens in the initial months after the conflict with Russia broke out in 2022, the German outlet noted.

In January, the New York Times reported that Ukrainians were growing weary of government narratives being pushed on TV, accusing them of painting an unrealistic picture of frontline developments.
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Cross

Vatican blasts gender-affirming surgery, surrogacy and gender theory as violations of human dignity

Angela Giuffrida
The Guardian
Mon, 08 Apr 2024 19:41 UTC
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez
© AP Photo/Gregorio BorgiaThe prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez
The Vatican has described the belief in gender fluidity as "a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God", as it released an updated declaration of what the Catholic church regards as threats to human dignity.

The new Dignitas infinita (Infinite Dignity) declaration released by the Vatican's doctrinal office on Monday after five years in the making reiterates Pope Francis's previous criticism of what he has called an "ugly ideology of our time".

"Desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes, apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift, amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God, entering into competition with the true God of love revealed to us in the gospel," the 20-page document says.
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