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Nigerian public and law enforcement agencies have been urged to “stop the demonization” of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. According to an association that advocates for the risk-based regulation of the crypto industry, financial institutions should not use a Nigerian central bank directive as basis for denying service to industry players.

Risk-Based Regulation of Crypto Activities
A blockchain and crypto industry association has told Nigerian public and law enforcement agencies to stop demonizing and discriminating against blockchain and crypto entities. In its latest press release, the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SIBAN) argues that Nigeria urgently needs risk-based regulation for cryptocurrency activities as well as capacity building.

In a press release, SIBAN reiterates its strong belief that a February 5, 2021 directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not ban cryptocurrencies in Nigeria. Yet, despite there being no law that provides for the arrest or persecution of crypto entities, the association’s statement said industry players are being targeted.

“From time to time, instances of undue arrest and detention, bank-account blocking and closures, discrimination, extortion, harassment, intimidation, seizures, and queries, are experienced by persons or entities involved in any blockchain or cryptocurrency activity in Nigeria, particularly since the CBN cryptocurrency directive of 2021,” the statement said.

Besides asking security agencies to recognize the blockchain and cryptocurrencies, SIBAN implored banks and other financial institutions to “appreciate the difference between blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.” The advocacy group said in instances where cryptocurrency is not involved, banks and other financial institutions should not use the CBN directive to justify denying service.

SIBAN also opined that if agencies insisted on treating the blockchain just like they treat cryptocurrencies, such a stance would impact the entire banking system. The statement, warning of repercussions if such a move were to be taken, added:

If treated as the same, the CBN’s very own blockchain-powered eNaira and any other blockchain-powered product or service in the country would be affected in Nigeria’s banking and financial system as well. This, of course, is not the intention of the CBN.

To help Nigerian agencies stop treating or likening the blockchain to cryptocurrencies, the advocacy group recommended “capacity building in blockchain and cryptocurrency, particularly AML-CFT for virtual assets, to banks and other financial institutions.”

Meanwhile, SIBAN, which describes itself as a pro-innovation and pro-regulation association, said while it encourages its members to “adhere to the rule of law” it will nevertheless “will explore administrative and legal options to seek redress” in instances where their rights are violated. On the other hand, the statement suggested that the association is ready to collaborate with regulators if ever such a request is made.

news.bitcoin.com/nigerian-agencies-told-to-stop-demonizing-crypto-industry-players/

Slowly but surely, electric cars and trucks are taking over American highways. The White House aims for half of new vehicles sold in the US to be EVs by 2030, and auto giants like GM and Volvo want to go all-electric in a similar time frame. As utility companies hurry to expand the number of charging stations — a critical step for the EV transition — the future of the gas station is in doubt.

Right now, gas stations are a regular part of American life, a place drivers go on a daily or weekly basis to fill up and sometimes grab a snack. But the fuel pump plus convenience store concept has much less to offer the country’s small but growing number of EV owners.

While some gas stations have taken the leap and installed charging ports alongside their pumps, people tend to do the lion’s share of their EV charging at home. And since EV chargers can be installed in almost any location that’s connected to the power grid — they’re now available in office garages and rest stops, and will soon be in some Starbucks parking lots — the gas station is increasingly unnecessary for some Americans.

“The beauty is that you’re not locked into a gas station,” argues Rob Barrosa, a senior director of sales and marketing at Electrify America, an EV charging network and subsidiary of Volkswagen. “How do we get the power to where we want it? That’s a much easier problem to solve than having to deal with big huge gas tanks that you’ve got to bury into the ground.”

This is worrisome news if you’re in the gas station business. Boston Consulting Group analysts estimate that if EVs do take off, as much as 80 percent of the fuel retail market could be unprofitable by 2035. Should demand for gasoline completely disappear, many of the more than 100,000 stations throughout the country would be at risk of going out of business. If they’re not able to sell fuel, gas stations would struggle to make money since people typically buy products at their convenience stores while they’re filling up.

So if these businesses want to survive, they need to start reinventing themselves for a world beyond gas. That could be hard to do, or even impossible. Installing EV chargers in existing gas station locations can be quite expensive. Meanwhile, those locations might become irrelevant as car manufacturers, charging station companies, and the government race to build a brand new network of EV chargers.

Some are already imagining what a post-gas station future might look like. It might be as simple as electrified parking spots placed throughout a city, or lead to futuristic road stops where people can go to the gym or stroll through a garden while their EVs charge. One thing is certain, though: EVs are bound to change our built environment.

How to retrofit a gas station for EVs
Gas stations currently serve as middlemen between the fossil fuel industry and drivers. Oil companies need a place where they can easily distribute their product to customers, and drivers need a convenient, reliable spot to fill their gas tanks. And again, gas stations aren’t just in the business of selling gas and diesel. They also make money by selling food, alcohol, cigarettes, and lottery tickets, among other things. Some gas stations offer mechanic services; some have restaurants inside them.

To adjust this business model for the EV era, some gas stations are now installing Level 3 chargers, which can deliver as much as 20 miles of range per minute, alongside their old pumps and convenience stores. Some of these fast chargers make EV charging almost as speedy as filling up a gas tank the old-fashioned way, and they’re much faster than what people typically use at home. Several gas station owners who have or are installing Level 3 chargers told Recode that their goal is to become “fuel agnostic” and appeal to EV drivers as well as those with gas-powered cars.



But for many gas stations, the cost of an EV charger outweighs the benefits. The charger itself can cost tens of thousands of dollars, which is a tough expense for a small business. The overall cost can be much more, since installation often involves drilling through asphalt and laying electrical wiring, and sometimes gas stations also need to buy transformers to boost the overall electrical capacity of their sites. Chris Bambury, who operates several gas stations in California, told Recode that setting up just four EV chargers at one of his locations would have cost about half a million dollars if government and utility programs hadn’t covered about 90 percent of the bill.

An even bigger challenge is that gas stations already face intense competition from other public EV chargers. Data collected by the Department of Energy shows that, of the public charger locations the agency fully tracks, there are currently more public chargers located at hotels and inns, shopping centers, and government buildings than there are at gas stations and convenience stores. This is a limited picture of the nation’s charging network, and it doesn’t include the large number of chargers built by private companies like Blink, Electrify America, and Chargepoint. These companies also seem to prefer installing these chargers in places with parking spots connected to the grid, where EV drivers can find something to do while charging, like go to a grocery store or a restaurant.

The fight over the future of charging
For a number of reasons, the government really wants to convince people that EVs are just as easy to use — and can go just as far — as gas vehicles, so it’s building a huge number of charging stations in convenient locations. To accelerate this effort, the White House plans to spend $5 billion as part of a goal to build more than 500,000 public chargers across the country by the end of the decade. That money will be distributed among the states, and the hope is that there will eventually be chargers at least every 50 miles on the US Interstate Highway System. Meanwhile, local and state governments are giving grants to businesses that install chargers on their premises.

Gas stations aren’t exactly enthusiastic about the government’s efforts to put EV chargers anywhere and everywhere. In Georgia, where several automakers want to build new EV-focused manufacturing plants, gas station trade groups are advocating for legislation that would limit the state power authority’s potential role in EV charging. At the national level, lobbying groups that represent the gas station and convenience store industries have pushed back against a proposal in Congress to build EV chargers at public rest stops on the interstate because, they argue, it would undermine gas stations’ ability to compete.

But perhaps the biggest obstacle facing gas stations: Charging an electric vehicle is often as simple as parking it. Many EV owners buy chargers that plug into a standard home wall outlet just like their laptop or phone, and that virtually eliminates the need for frequent refueling trips. These are typically less expensive Level 1 chargers that take a few hours to fully recharge a battery, which is perfectly acceptable for charging a vehicle overnight. And since the average EV can travel 260 miles on a single charge, most people only need to plug their cars in once a day.





So even if gas stations do install fast chargers, people who are traveling long distances may be their main customers. This situation is already playing out in Norway, where about 90 percent of new cars sold are now electric or hybrid. While gas stations have moved quickly to install charging ports, many EV drivers in Norway are only visiting them on a monthly basis.

The rise of EVs could actually lead to a new generation of pit stops. Some private companies, for instance, are opening their own luxurious destinations with multiple charging stations. Electrify America plans to open a series of flagship, EV-focused travel lounges with solar canopies and event spaces that could possibly offer valet services and curbside deliveries in California and New York later this year. Automakers are also experimenting with the idea of premium charging stations. In California, Tesla has already opened a charging hub for its vehicles that incorporates a lounge, an espresso bar, and free wifi. Porsche and Audi are developing similar plans for stations of their own.

None of this is necessarily surprising. New innovations often make old technology obsolete. After all, the phasing out of travel by horse also meant the demise of the horse-drawn carriage industry and the repurposing of stables. Now, after a century spent building complex infrastructure around gas-powered vehicles, another transition seems inevitable. This means that EVs aren’t just transforming the kind of cars people drive, but also where they take them.

www.vox.com/recode/23023671/ev-charging-network-gas-station-fast-charger

PRESS RELEASE. UAE – DUBAI, 14 April 2022: Renowned to be a haven of thoroughbred Arabian horses, the Al Sheikh Stud embarks on a strategic journey to accommodate the growing demand for NFTs in the industry. In alliance with Atria Holdings and Finvault; the Stud farm is revving up its finest line-up of purebred Arabian Horses for the new digitized valuation.

Joining hands to create a marketplace for NFTs for Arabian horses; Finvault, a Web3 banking platform, and Atria Holdings, investors in innovative solutions; are ushering in a digital era for these high-valued horses. The strategic alliance will work closely to develop high-value NFTs for purebred Arabian horses belonging to the Al Sheikh Stud. Arabian horses, with their distinctive head shape and tall carriage are the most elite breed in the world. Apart from breeders, race enthusiasts, and discerning clientele; they reserve a special interest in the minds of artists and prestigious admirers. The NFTs are being developed to complement such unique investment opportunities in the world of Arabian horses.

Speaking about the new venture at Al Sheikh Stud, Mohamad Al Sheikh the founder of Al Sheikh Stud said; ”While the beauty of purebred Arabian horses is admired worldwide, the digital currency revolution demands an investment option of another kind. We are piloting the NFT for Arabian Horses in the region and hope that our esteemed clientele is as excited as us about this new undertaking. Apart from developing and securing the NFTs, we will also be collaborating with leading regional events to reach our valued customers.”

Poised to be the first of its kind, the NFTs are being developed to enable investors to trade in real purebred Arabian horses via digital currencies. To cater to the rise in demand for virtual investment opportunities, the NFTs will also be valued on a digital scope to be relayed further in advanced usages like simulated racing, breeding, and gaming. Finvault holds the right to reserve and limit the use of the NFTs depending on valuation and requirements.

Sharing details about the partnership, Finvault CEO, Punit Thakker said, “Finvault is delighted to be the creator in this venture with Atria Holdings as a technology partner. To create and build this NFT marketplace for Mohammad Al Sheikh’s legendary thoroughbred Arabian horses is a unique opportunity and one we are very excited about. With Dubai recently adopting its first crypto law and forming a regulatory body for virtual assets, the region is accelerating its trajectory to become the leading global virtual hub. At Finvault, we are on a mission to promote the mass adoption of blockchain around the world. We are thrilled to be part of such a high-profile project that will aid in this. The Arabian horse NFTs are just the beginning and we look forward to a long and successful partnership.”

The NFTs are likely to be launched by End of August and will be available for digital currency buyers across the globe.

About Al Sheikh Stud

Home of the legendary thoroughbred Arabian horses, the Al Sheikh stud is located in the heart of Belgium with an office in Dubai, UAE. Owned and established by Mohammed Al Sheikh in 2016, it has earned a favorable reputation for breeding and raising the elite Arabian thoroughbred. Its highly experienced and professional staff combined with world-class facilities makes for an ideal environment for breeding, foaling, weaning as well as training the horses for world championships. Some of its star performers like Equator, Serenza, and Al Gamra have held the stud’s flag flying high in the international arena of the Arabian Horse World Championship. Also it’s worth mentioning that Al Sheikh Stud’s Junior COLT, D-Mezyan won Gold at the World Arabian Horse Championship 2021. The 40th edition of the international championship was held at the Salon de Cheval in the French capital, Paris.

About Atria Holdings

A UK-based investor firm, Atria Holdings is parent to several startups and businesses like Al Sheikh Real Estate, Al Sheikh Stud. The entity was legally formed by Mohammed Al Sheikh Suliman in 2020 to manage all businesses under one umbrella. With investments and stakes in innovative businesses across the globe, the brand is on a mission to empower innovation and walk that extra mile for ideas that inspire social impact.

About Finvault:

Finvault is a Web3 banking platform that gives individuals and businesses full control of their money and digital assets, all in one secure vault. They are bridging the gap between Traditional Finance and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) to create ‘Banking 3.0’ and draw a line between conventional banking and DeFi.

www.finvault.com

Point of contact and media enquiries:

Rebecca Reid

Head of Marketing at Finvault

rebecca@finvault.com

Point of contact and media enquiries:

Lina Husri

PR for Atria Holdings

lina@thinksmart.ae

news.bitcoin.com/nft-for-arabian-horses-to-gallop-soon-at-the-al-sheikh-stud-in-partnership-with-finvault/

Crypto and blockchain firms constituted 16% of the 655 new company registrations that were recorded in Q1 of 2022, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) has said. The surge in crypto-related registrations also coincided with a quarterly period in which the DMCC is reported to have recorded its “highest Q1 performance” since inception.

Rise in Registrations Attributed to the Launch of DMCC Crypto Centre
One of the UAE’s largest free zones, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), has said 16% of the 655 new company registrations recorded in Q1 of 2022 were crypto and blockchain firms. The DMCC has attributed this surge in crypto and blockchain companies joining the free zone to the presence of the DMCC Crypto Centre, which was launched in May 2021.

According to a statement released by DMCC, the rise in the number of new registrations by crypto firms came during a quarter that has been named “the highest Q1 performance since 2002 inception.” In the statement, Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and CEO at DMCC, touts the new milestone which is said to have cemented the free zone’s status as a “world-leading business destination.” The CEO explained:

The global economic climate remains challenging, however, Dubai’s reputation as a world-leading business destination is stronger than ever, and DMCC sits at the very heart of this international appeal. Registering 665 new companies in the first three months of 2022 is another record broken for DMCC, and serves to show the huge potential on offer when joining our Free Zone in Dubai.

DMCC will continue with its efforts to attract ambitious firms that may be looking to set up in Dubai, Sulayem added.

Performance Better Than in Previous Quarters
Meanwhile, in the statement, DMCC revealed its key markets — namely India, U.K., Germany, and France — had performed better than in previous, similar quarters. According to the statement, Dubai company formations from China grew by 34%. The DMCC has attributed this growth to its “significant Mandarin engagement programmes that run country-wide throughout the year, and its representative office in Shenzhen.”

DMCC’s specific outreach programs to markets like Israel and Turkey resulted in quarterly company registrations originating from these jurisdictions rising by 350% and 100% respectively. According to the statement, DMCC has seen increased interest from trading hubs such as Indonesia and Vietnam.

news.bitcoin.com/crypto-and-blockchain-firms-constitute-16-of-uae-free-zones-record-q1-company-registrations/

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden made a striking declaration: Russia is committing “genocide” in Ukraine.

“It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out even the idea of being Ukrainian,” he told reporters. “We’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies [as genocide], but it sure seems that way to me.”

Biden’s assessment, grounded in recently discovered horrors like the slaughter of Ukrainian civilians in the town of Bucha, is by far the most high-profile assessment to date that Russia is committing genocide. While a handful of experts on war crimes have come to the same conclusion as the president, most experts and international authorities are still unsure.

“I don’t know yet, is the honest answer. [But] it’s not a crazy question to be asking,” says Rebecca Hamilton, an expert on the law of war at American University. “I’m not going to be surprised if, in time, evidence comes out and we can put together a picture that there is genocide.”

It’s easy to see this as a mere argument over definitions. It is clear that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine; these crimes do not become worse, in any legal or moral sense, if they are found to meet a legal or scholarly definition of “genocide.” Nor could any such finding legally require third parties, like the United States, to intervene directly in the war.

But in other ways, the debate over what to call Russian war crimes is hugely significant.

The charge of “genocide” is uniquely powerful in international public opinion, owing to the memory of World War II and the Holocaust. Nowhere is this more true than Germany, the country that also will play the most important role in determining whether to impose painful new sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas sector.

And if a genocide really is occurring in Ukraine, it matters for the victims to document it and show the world — and then, after the fighting, identify ways to hold at least some of the perpetrators accountable.

Is what’s happening in Ukraine “genocide”?
Genocide is not merely a word for mass killing in general. In international law, per the 1948 Genocide Convention, it refers to any of the following five acts if they are “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Under this definition, not every act of violence against civilians qualifies as an act of genocide — nor does every such act motivated by racial, national, or religious hatred. Instead, it is an act of genocide when it is part of a plan to “destroy” the target group — that is, to annihilate not just individual members but the group as a collective.

In the Russian case, establishing that Russian soldiers intentionally killed Ukrainian civilians is not enough to prove genocide. It wouldn’t even be enough if the soldiers said they did it because they hated Ukrainians. Instead, you would need to show that the killings were part of an intentional effort to wipe out the Ukrainian people.

Most of the recognized authorities, including independent genocide watchdogs like the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, have yet to join Biden in saying that such a campaign is happening in Ukraine. But some experts, like Johns Hopkins University political scientist Eugene Finkel, are ready to label what’s occurring genocide.

A scholar of the Holocaust who was born in Ukraine, Finkel was skeptical of Ukrainian claims of genocide early in the conflict. But the events of the past two weeks have changed his mind.

First, he argues that the horrors of Bucha — where entire families were executed — were not isolated incidents, pointing to evidence of other civilian killings in Russian-occupied towns. (Russia has denied its soldiers are responsible for the killings in Bucha; on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said reports of the atrocities there were “fake.”)

“Bucha is a feature, not a bug. It’s not some localized incident,” Finkel says. “In each of those places, it could be written off as undisciplined Russian soldiers ... but together, it clearly indicates that they were looking specifically for Ukrainians [to kill].”


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The bodies of two civilians seen on a street in Bucha, Ukraine, on April 4. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Second, Finkel argues, recent statements from the Russian government provide evidence of intent to commit genocide.

An April 4 article in the Russian state-run news outlet RIA Novosti called for a generation-long process of “re-education” in Ukraine, with an aim toward destroying the very idea of Ukrainian identity (“Denazification will inevitably include de-Ukrainization,” as the author put it). On April 5, top Putin deputy Dmitry Medvedev took a similar line: “It should not be surprising that Ukraine, which has been transformed mentally into the Third Reich … will suffer the same fate.” These comments reflect a broader turn in Russian state media commentary, portraying the entire Ukrainian population as a brainwashed threat to Russia that must be transformed if “Nazism” is to be defeated.

These statements, for Finkel, provide the crucial evidence of genocidal intent — linking the actions of Russian soldiers in towns like Bucha to a broader aim of exterminating an entire “national” group.

“I never thought I would see a government almost advertising genocide, but that’s what Russians are doing,” he tells me.

Other experts are more cautious. Though all agree that Russian soldiers have engaged in intentional mass killings, they argue that there’s limited evidence of a systemic plan to exterminate the Ukrainian people. While the comments from Medvedev and the Russian press are disturbing, we have yet to see conclusive evidence attributing Russian behavior in places like Bucha to those specific motivations.

“It is very hard to tell at this point why these acts were committed,” says Kate Cronin-Furman, a professor who studies war crimes at University College London. “It is obvious that mass atrocities have been committed. It is hard at this point to infer intent.”

In the post-Holocaust world, people committing genocide rarely provide “smoking gun” proof of their thinking — a written-down order or meeting record detailing a plan to exterminate the target group. Instead, scholars and war crimes prosecutors pore over a repository of data — ranging from interviews with victims and perpetrators to satellite photos of the killings — to make their most educated guesses. Even with the benefit of hindsight, these methods can be frustratingly inconclusive: There are still tremendous debates over historical cases of mass killing, and even the adequacy of the Genocide Convention definition itself.

“We come up with very different counts of how many genocides there were in history,” says Franziska Boehme, a scholar of genocide at Texas State University. “In the 20th century, some say three. Others say upward of 20.”

This difficult task is, of course, much harder in the context of an ongoing war. Information on the ground in Ukraine is scarce, and what does come out can be polluted by the fog of war. The Ukrainians, for understandable reasons, have every incentive to play up any report of Russian wrongdoing — no matter how thinly evidenced.



www.vox.com/23020696/ukraine-russia-genocide-allegations

Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion. Musk, the world’s richest person, says he wants to turn Twitter into a privately owned company because he “believe[s] free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.”

Should you take him seriously? Yes. And no.

The short version of the “yes” case is that Musk — who is currently worth an estimated $273 billion, thanks to the soaring value of Tesla, his publicly held electric car company — has the resources to buy Twitter.

Twitter, unlike other public tech companies like Facebook and Google, doesn’t have a financial structure that gives its founders and management control of the company without owning a majority of its shares. So in theory, if enough investors who own Twitter shares want to accept Musk’s bid, he’ll own the company.

The short version of the “no” case is that just because Elon Musk says something doesn’t mean it’s so — even when he’s talking about his own money. Musk is, at a minimum, maddeningly inconsistent. In 2018, for instance, he announced — on Twitter — that he wanted to turn Tesla into a private company and that he had “funding secured.” Which turned out not to be true.

More recently, Musk has: acquired a 9 percent stake in Twitter; agreed to join the company’s board; decided not to join the board; tweeted out erratic proposals to “improve” the company, like turning part of its headquarters into a homeless shelter. He told investors in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing: “After the past several days of thinking this over, I have decided I want to acquire the company and take it private.”

Who knows what he’ll think several days from now?

Even shorter: Musk has offered $54.20 per share for Twitter, which was trading for $45 per share Thursday morning before his offer became public. But Twitter was trading for more than $70 per share a year ago. Investors may simply decide that Musk’s offer isn’t good enough, and nothing else happens.

So there’s no way of telling what’s really going to happen in the near future. Musk says his offer is a one-time-only thing — a “best and final” offer. “I am not playing the back-and-forth game,” he wrote this morning. But, again, he’s Elon Musk. So taking him at his word, even if those are words he writes in a securities filing, isn’t advisable.

Twitter, for what it’s worth, does have to take Musk at least semi-seriously. The company put out a release this morning saying that they saw his offer and will consider it. It’s also likely that they knew this was coming: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal warned that “there will be distractions ahead” on Monday when he announced that Musk wasn’t taking a board seat, after all. Today’s news seems like a meaningful distraction!

It also wouldn’t be a shock if someone else made a bid for Twitter now that Musk has put it into play. Then again, most of the big tech companies that could afford Twitter and would be semi-logical acquirers for it would trigger real antitrust scrutiny if they tried to buy it. And a billionaire buying Twitter and doing whatever he wants with it would be just fine, legally speaking. If the board and investors sign off on Musk, there wouldn’t be an obvious way for regulators to prevent it.

Update: If you were in the “it’s possible Musk hasn’t really thought this through at all” camp, you may be right. In an interview today, Musk suggested that, just like his take-Tesla-private non-bid, he may not have the financing secured for this one, either. That’s not totally surprising: As the Wall Street Journal noted, almost all of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla shares and his ownership of SpaceX, and trying to unlock tens of billions of dollars from those assets would be difficult. Meanwhile, Twitter’s board is reportedly considering using a so-called “poison pill” that would make it more difficult for Musk to amass more Twitter shares.

But here’s the other thing: Even though he’s Elon Musk, he may have a point. Twitter may well be better off as a private company.

That’s not because of Musk’s assertion that Twitter should be the “platform for free speech around the globe.” My colleague Whizy Kim has already explained why you should be wary when the world’s richest person claims to be a free speech advocate.

But Musk isn’t the first person to make the argument that Twitter shouldn’t be a public company. Twitter investors have essentially been making that argument for years with their lack of enthusiasm. And I’ve heard of Twitter execs who have toyed in the past with the idea of finding a private owner for the company.


That’s because it’s not a wild point to argue that Twitter has enormous power as a messaging platform (see, for instance, Donald Trump) but limited prospects as a business. In a nutshell, Twitter has the same business model — free and supported by advertisers — as Google and Facebook. But it has much, much less reach than those companies, so advertisers aren’t going to give it as much support.

That’s why Google brought in $257 billion last year, and Facebook brought in $117 billion —and Twitter did $5 billion. And it’s why Google is worth $1.7 trillion, Facebook $583 billion, and Twitter $36 billion.

One argument in response to that disparity is that Twitter shouldn’t be a free, ad-supported business — that it should be something that people pay to use. But it’s easy to imagine that if Twitter cost money to use, most of Twitter’s users would decide that they’d rather spend their money on just about anything else. Which would mean the remaining, paying users would be talking to an even smaller audience — which would defeat the appeal that Twitter had for them in the first place.

But Twitter isn’t the world’s worst business. It’s just not a great one. Last year, it more or less turned that $5 billion in revenue into about $273 million in profit — a 5 percent margin.

That’s more profitable than, say, your average grocery store. But nothing like what public investors expect from a super-powerful, world-shaking Silicon Valley tech platform. But a private owner who isn’t consumed with turning Twitter into a profit center might be totally happy with that.

Whether Twitter employees — and in particular, its in-demand engineers — would be happy at a company that doesn’t offer the prospect of getting rich from stock options and grants would be another question. We will have plenty more in the coming days.

But, yeah: Sometimes billionaires buy things because they want to make money from them, and sometimes billionaires buy yachts, which won’t make them any money. And if you’re the world’s richest person, Twitter can be your $43 billion yacht.

www.vox.com/recode/2022/4/14/23024962/elon-musk-twitter-43-billion-private-analysis

Under a sky of blue and field of green, Villarreal -- affectionately known as the "Yellow Submarine" due to its luminescent yellow kit -- sunk Bayern Munich to reach the semifinals of the Champions League.

An 88th minute equalizer from Samuel Chukwueze following a fluid counterattack that had begun at the edge of Villarreal's penalty box ensured that the night ended in a 1-1 draw and sent Unai Emery's side through to the semifinals 2-1 on aggregate.
Villarreal entered the second leg with a slender 1-0 lead over the six-time Champions League winner, courtesy of an Arnaut Danjuma goal at their home ground, the Estadio de la Cerámica.
Impotent for much of the first half of the second leg, it wasn't until the 28th minute that Bayern mustered a shot on target, but it was easily saved by the Villarreal goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli.
Both of Villarreal's best chances in the first half arrived following counterattacks, as it soaked up pressure from Bayern.

Then, early in the second half, Bayern finally broke through the Spanish side's steadfast defense when Robert Lewandowski scored his 13th Champions League goal of the campaign to equalize the tie on aggregate.
It seemed that Bayern would pull ahead in front of its home crowd afterward given its dominance, but every shot on goal was wayward.
Bayern's inaccuracy spanned both legs in which it had 45 shots and scored only once, while Villarreal converted both of its two efforts on target.
An eerie silence descended on the Allianz Arena for the last few minutes of the tie following Chukwueze's goal, broken only by the delirious celebrations of the Villarreal squad after the final whistle.
"It's an extraordinary feeling, it was not easy for us. We are a small club, from a village, like that of Asterix and Obelix," said Emery. It will be the first Champions League semifinals for Emery -- who has won four Europa League titles as a manager -- while Villarreal has only reached this stage of the Champions League once before in 2005/06.
The Yellow Submarine is flying high in Europe's top club competition after ending Juventus' run in the round-of-16 and now Bayern Munich's hopes of a seventh Champions League. The Spanish club will now face either Liverpool or Benfica in the semifinals

Real Madrid got the better of yet another special night in the UEFA Champions League as it survived a brilliant comeback from Chelsea in a thrilling quarterfinal at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on Tuesday.

It was Karim Benzema yet again who made the difference, with the Frenchman scoring in extra-time to secure Madrid's place in the semifinals after losing 3-2 on the night but winning 5-4 on aggregate.
Madrid had taken a 3-1 advantage into the second leg after Benzema scored a hat-trick at Stamford Bridge last week, but the tie was turned on its head after Chelsea fought back to lead 3-0 on the night.
Goals from Mason Mount, Antonio Rudiger and Timo Werner had looked to give the reigning European champion another iconic win in the competition, but Madrid bit back with just 10 minutes remaining to force extra-time.
Madrid's first goal was simply a work of art, orchestrated by the brilliant Luka Modrić. The midfielder executed a perfect pass with the outside of his boot, allowing Rodrygo to volley home from close range.
Neutral fans welcomed another 30 minutes of chaotic football, and it was Madrid who found the decisive goal in extra-time, with Benzema heading home a brilliant cross from Vinícius Jr.
"The more I suffer, the happier I am," Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti told reporters after the game. "It was a lot of suffering, though.
"We won because we had the energy to keep the match alive. The players were brave and faced it like warriors," he added.



'There are no regrets'
After looking lackluster in the first-leg, Chelsea was much improved for its trip to Spain and came so close to a memorable win.
The three goals had temporarily silenced the home support and Madrid was struggling to lay a glove on the Premier League outfit.
In truth, Chelsea had chances throughout the game to finish off the tie and even had a goal disallowed by the video assistant referee (VAR) after Marcos Alonso was ruled to have handled the ball before lashing his effort into the top corner of the net.

Even in extra-time, with Madrid hanging on, Chelsea went close a number of times but failed to find the all important goal that would have seen it force a penalty shootout.
Notably, Kai Havertz -- who was exceptional in the second leg -- should have done better with a free header inside the box which he steered wide.
Manager Thomas Tuchel, who was constantly stalking the touchline and shouting at his players during the match, said he was proud of the team despite being knocked out.
"We went to the full limit today. I'm very proud of my players and I think we deserved to qualify but luck was not on our side," said Tuchel, who was shown a yellow card for his passionate protests toward the referee in the closing stages.
"There are no regrets. These are the kinds of defeats you can take with pride as a sportsman. The demand at Chelsea is very high and the players responded in a way that makes all of us proud."
Ultimately, it was 13-time European champion Real Madrid who once again found a way to win and will now face either Manchester City or Atlético Madrid in the final four.

edition.cnn.com/2022/04/13/football/real-madrid-chelsea-champions-league-quarterfinal-spt-intl/index.html

Anonymous Twitter users are exposing the extreme nationalism and pro-Russian sentiment circulating online in China -- and Beijing is not happy about it.

Scores of screen-grabbed posts from China's most popular social media platforms have been translated and shared on Twitter in recent weeks, offering Western audiences a rare glimpse into the Chinese internet.
Among those posts: a prominent military blog falsely claiming a Russian attack on a train station in Kramatorsk was actually carried out by Ukraine, a well known media commentator dismissing the atrocities in Bucha, and a vlogger with hundreds of thousands of followers using a misogynistic term for Ukraine.
The posts appear courtesy of anonymous Twitter users who say their aim is to expose Western audiences to the true extent of pro-Russian or nationalistic content on China's heavily censored platforms.

They often come under the hashtag of "The Great Translation Movement," or shared by an account with the same name run by a decentralized, anonymous team that crowdsources the collection and translation of popular posts on Ukraine and other hot topics, according to an administrator interviewed by CNN. Many, but not all, appear to have been widely liked or shared within China -- selection criteria cited by the administrator.
Since the account's launch in early March it has already made plenty of friends and enemies -- attracting both 116,000 followers (and counting) and a slew of criticism from China's state-run media.
The movement was formed in response to China's alleged hypocrisy in portraying itself as neutral on Ukraine, even while its state and social media circulated pro-Russian narratives, the administrator told CNN.
"We want the outside world to at least know what is going on inside, because we don't think there could be any change made from inside," said the administrator, who requested anonymity due to security concerns.
In bad faith?
China's state media has lashed out against what it decries as "cherry picked content." The overseas arm of the People's Daily -- the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party -- has claimed the translators behind the movement are guilty of attributing the "extreme remarks" of some netizens to the "whole country."
The nationalistic Global Times newspaper has accused the group of being "Chinese-speaking bad faith actors" and one of its opinion writers claimed the group included "foreign hostile forces" perpetuating "psychological warfare against China."

Outside China, media experts caution the posts do not show a holistic view of public opinion in China and appear to at least partially be selected for shock value -- but could still be useful in bringing these elements of China's media sphere to light.
Critics also say the group's tweets show evidence of its own bias -- such as in posts that use a term comparing China to Nazi Germany.
Posts which gain traction on China's social media must be seen in light of its highly censored environment, where nationalistic voices thrive and liberal ones have largely retreated or been censored, experts say.
But the administrator who spoke to CNN said the point was to highlight the visibility of such posts -- some coming from popular influencers, comments receiving thousands of likes or from prominent commenstators, and even government-backed news outlets.
"Our goal is to raise awareness about the state of public opinion in China, whether it is purely the result of spontaneous interactions (or) the result of government censorship," the administrator said.

"We want to counter the effort of the Chinese state-affiliated media by showing the West some content they do not want to show."
Dual messaging
The resistance against the group from China's state media highlights the sensitivities around how China wants to present itself on the world stage, especially at a time when it has been attempting to walk a diplomatic tightrope between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
China has often sought to present two different narratives -- one for domestic audiences and another for those overseas. This is made possible through both a language barrier and an online ecosystem that bans apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The Great Translation Movement breaks down both of these barriers.

"Even before the social media era, the way China talks internally through its state media is something it doesn't appreciate being parsed and translated for the world," said David Bandurski, director of the China Media Project, a research program in partnership with the Journalism & Media Studies Center at the University of Hong Kong.
And when it comes to Ukraine, China has sought to portray itself -- at least to overseas audiences -- as unaligned and invested in calling for peace. But its media coverage back home tells a different story, Bandurski said.
"If you just look at (state) media coverage, it's really hard to talk about neutrality ... Everything they have said is amplifying disinformation and aligning with Russia in terms of narratives."
While the tone of state-backed media is clear, experts say it is difficult to gauge public opinion in China simply by looking at social media, even when it comes to popular influencers or viral posts.
Like anywhere in the world, views on social media can be extreme. In China, heavy manipulation and censorship often amplifies select voices.
"The authorities certainly have an interest in promoting their preferred narrative online, and they have the technical and political means to unapologetically 'guide public opinion,'" said Florian Schneider, director of the Leiden Asia Center in The Netherlands.
"We should also not underestimate the power of social media algorithms: as pro-Russia statements become mainstream, they receive ever more likes and shares, which makes them more visible," he said.
Suppressed voices, echo chambers
The situation is complicated: Beijing too has reason to be wary of ultra-nationalist voices, which platforms sometimes censor. And while nationalist rhetoric has become more dominant online in recent years, the loudest voices may not show a majority.
Bandurski said that an analogy would be looking at ultra-conservative voices in the US media environment, and assuming that was representative of the American perspective.
"So the danger is this kind of echo chamber of content, which we might assume is representative of China and its perspective, and it's really a lot more complicated than that," he said.
Maria Repnikova, director of the Center for Global Information Studies at Georgia State University, said when it comes to Ukraine there have been "alternative voices talking about the war...but they're not as dominant or as loud or as visible." Their posts may either be censored or hard to detect as social media users may express dissenting views through code and allusion.
She also asks if things would be different if images of bombarded cities of Ukraine or the atrocities in Bucha were not restricted in China.
"If people could see all of those images and scenes, would that be a different story? Would different voices pick up?"
The Great Translation Movement administrator said they hoped that the movement could help push Beijing to tone down the rhetoric on these platforms so that there would be room for more voices.
"In today's Chinese mainstream discourse there is a very limited space for people who have a rational mind to speak," the administrator said.
"Even if you speak out and if it doesn't get deleted, you are still going to be spammed...and people are going to say you are a spy... the dignity of people themselves is destroyed."

edition.cnn.com/2022/04/13/china/china-ukraine-great-translation-movement-intl-hnk-mic/index.html

As a cold snap descends upon France, a ban on heated terraces has come into effect. Initially set for the end of 2021, the ban was put off because of the effects of Covid restrictions on the restaurant and bar industry. Now the time has come to finally flip the switch.

In a decree published Thursday, the government formalised a measure in the August 2021 climate law that banned heat systems for outdoor spaces of cafes and restaurants.

As of 31 March 2022, restaurants, cafes, bars and other businesses with a terrace are not allowed to heat – or cool – them artificially.

When the law was being debated, the government argued that heat lamps and heat systems are too polluting, releasing a half-million tonnes of CO2 each year.

The ban was initially set to come into force at the end of 2021, but it was pushed back to 31 March of 2022 in a concession to cafes and restaurants that lost business during Covid restrictions

Now, though, businesses caught heating their terraces face fines of up to 1,500 euros (3,000 euros for repeat offenders).

Some cities decided to move faster, with Rennes, in the west of France, banning outdoor heating since January 2020, and Lyon since November 2021.

No heat, but in Paris, more space
Bar and restaurant owners worry that the ban will drive away clients, especially smokers who will be left out in the cold.

Parisian businesses may be able to lure some back when the days get warmer, as temporary, seasonal terraces are back.

As of 1 April, until 31 October, cafes, restaurants and bars, as well as bookstores and record shops, can apply to extend their outdoor space.

The temporary terraces, which take over larger parts of sidewalks and some parking spots, were put in place during Covid restrictions, and became popular in the warmer months.

The city is trying to limit their impact, as residents complained about a lack of sidewalk space and noise in the evenings. A limited number of permits will be issued, and police will make sure the terraces close by 10pm (compared to 2am for regular terraces) to keep down noise levels.

Some 1,600 permits have been issued so far, out of the 11,000 requests, according to Paris city hall.

www.rfi.fr/en/france/20220331-ban-on-outdoor-heat-lamps-comes-into-effect-for-french-cafes-and-restaurants?xtor=CS1-51-[Desktop]-[CNN+Edition+%28Turner+International%29]&dicbo=v1-f19bfff6fbd51d14c5949e3b4bb64ab2-00518f0950dd1d41ab61ec38c907920b17-he4dmzbvmzsdgljvgeywgljugq4tsljyhazdellcg5tgcntdge2dqzldmy

Retired boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. has just dropped $18 million on a knock-out new waterfront estate in Miami Beach.
The contemporary three-story spread is set on the city’s upscale and guard-gated Palm Island, an enclave where the typical asking price for a home stood at $21 million in July, a whopping 200% increase from the same time in 2020, according to data from realtor.com.

Mr. Mayweather, 44, was crowned the highest-paid athlete of the decade by Forbes in 2019 after he brought in ​​$915 million over a 10-year period. He made last week’s purchase through a Nevada-based limited liability company of which he’s manager, property records show.

Spanning 10,853 square feet, his lavish new home boasts unobstructed views of the city skyline, passing cruise ships and the coveted city sunset, according to the listing with Dina Goldentayer and Ana Viyella of Douglas Elliman, who declined to comment on the sale



The nine-bedroom mansion was conceived for both indoor and outdoor enjoyment, the listing said. Fitted with neutral, sleek interiors, it has amenities including an indoor movie theater, a gym, a game room, a large entertainment area, smart-home systems and an elevator.

There’s also a roof deck, a pool, a four-car garage and a private dock which can accommodate boats up to 100 feet.

Tanasha Pettigrew of Galleria International Realty represented Mr. Mayweather in the deal



This latest addition to Mr. Mayweather’s real estate portfolio joins an opulent Las Vegas mansion the boxer bought in 2018 for $10 million and a French Modern-style estate in Beverly Hills he snapped up in 2017 for $26 million.

Mr. Mayweather, who won a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics as a featherweight, retired in August 2017 with an undefeated record.

A representative for the boxer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

www.mansionglobal.com/articles/floyd-mayweather-lands-18-million-miami-beach-mansion-01628887822?reflink=outbrain_2021_003194235dcb57f1d5588f00d243844b0a&dicbo=v1-8251f61585214d0a2135d2f12fadb0af-00f0464d4134b070538283435e8e7fd395-he4dmzbvmzsdgljvgeywgljugq4tsljyhazdellcg5tgcntdge2dqzldmy

A man in Western Australia has been charged with more than 400 s*xual offenses against children in what police are calling one of the most significant child abuse investigations in the state's history.

The 47-year-old from Perth faces 240 counts of indecent dealing with a child under 13, 98 counts of indecently recording a child under 13, and 44 counts of s*xual penetration of a child under 13, Western Australia police said in a statement Wednesday.
He also faces 26 counts of possessing -- and five counts of producing -- child exploitation material.
The charges follow a months-long investigation sparked by a tip off in July last year.
Searches were carried out at the man's home and workplace, during which multiple electronic storage devices were seized, police said.
After a digital forensic examination, authorities identified approximately 3.8 million images and videos considered child exploitation material.
The police said detectives identified 24 boys and girls who had been s*xually abused. The abuse allegedly took place between 2015 and 2021.
"This investigation is one of the most significant child abuse investigations ever conducted in Western Australia in so far as how many images were located and how many victims we will allege have been abused," Detective Inspector Hamish McKenzie said, according to CNN affiliate 9 News.
The 9 News report said the children were aged between ages 3 and 13 -- and police believe the victims were known to the man through family and friends.
The man is due to appear later this month in the Perth Magistrates Court,

edition.cnn.com/2022/04/13/australia/australia-s*xual-offense-children-intl-hnk/index.html

China has lashed out at the United States for ordering its consulate staff to leave the locked-down city of Shanghai, accusing officials of "weaponizing" the financial hub's failing attempt to contain the spread of Covid-19.

On Monday, the US State Department "ordered" the departure of non-emergency employees and their families from the city of 25 million "due to a surge in Covid-19 cases and the impact of restrictions related to (China's) response," according to a statement on its website.
The notice came just days after the State Department authorized the "voluntary departure" of staff from Shanghai. A travel advisory also urges Americans to "reconsider travel" to all of China, citing stringent Covid restrictions including "the risk of parents and children being separated."
China's most populous city has been laboring under a chaotic and uncompromising citywide lockdown for weeks, with many residents unable to access basic goods including food and medical care.

China's Foreign Ministry has notified the US it "firmly opposes" the consulate order, ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a news briefing on Tuesday.
"We express strong dissatisfaction with the politicization and weaponization of evacuations by the US," Zhao said, adding that the US was "smearing China."
Zhao also defended China's Covid prevention and control policies as "scientific and effective," insisting the government had "every confidence in bringing the new wave of Covid-19 under control" despite rising case numbers.
The financial hub reported more than 26,000 new locally transmitted cases on Monday, the sixth consecutive day over 20,000, according to China's National Health Commission (NHC). So far, more than 320,000 cases have been reported across 31 provinces -- including those in Shanghai -- since March 1.
Zhao's assertion stands in stark contrast to more somber messages from other Chinese officials, including the NHC deputy director Lei Zhenglong, who on Tuesday warned Shanghai's outbreak has "not been effectively contained."
He added that the outbreak had since spread to many provinces, and that the number of new infections is expected to remain high in the coming days.

Lockdown frustrations
Shanghai's lockdown has been mired in controversy and dysfunction since it was first introduced, seemingly with little warning, on March 29.
Public anger has been exacerbated by stories of parents being separated from their infected children, even toddlers, under Shanghai's rules on isolation, and of a pet corgi being killed by Covid prevention workers after its owner was placed into quarantine.
Videos circulating online show protests breaking out last week at a residential complex in southwestern Shanghai, with residents confronting police at the gate and shouting, "Give us supplies."
CNN was not able to independently verify the images or reach local authorities for comment.

Social media posts show rising desperation as well, with one recent video showing a mother begging for medication for her child from neighbors at midnight in Shanghai. "Do you have medicine for fever? My child has fever. Is anyone home? Excuse me, sorry to bother you! Everyone! Is anyone awake?" the mother can be heard crying in the video.
Since the start of pandemic, China has tightened rules around selling and buying fever medication, requiring a prescription and a negative Covid test.
CNN has geolocated the residential compound in the video to be in Shanghai, but could not independently verify the video and has not identified the mother involved.
In the past week, Shanghai's outbreak has spilled over to nearby cities including Hangzhou and Ningbo in Zhejiang province. Some nearby cities were put under lockdown, including Haining in Zhejiang, and Kunshan in Jiangsu province.
Meanwhile, the southern city of Guangzhou has reported dozens of cases since early April as well, prompting several rounds of mass testing and the closure of schools. Residents have been discouraged from leaving the city, and are required to present a negative PCR test if they want to leave.
On Monday, Shanghai officials began easing measures in neighborhoods that had not reported any positive cases in 14 days. However, authorities warned those residents should only be going out if necessary, get tested twice a week, and that lockdown would be re-imposed if any new cases were detected in the neighborhood. That still leaves the vast majority of the city's 25 million residents under lockdown.

edition.cnn.com/2022/04/13/china/shanghai-us-consulate-covid-lockdown-intl-hnk/index.html

The European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, has strongly condemned a rocket strike on a railway station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, which killed around 30 people and wounded about 100 on Friday, according to officials.

"I strongly condemn this morning’s indiscriminate attack against a train station in #Kramatorsk by Russia, which killed dozens of people and left many more wounded," Borrell said on his official Twitter account Friday.
"This is yet another attempt to close escape routes for those fleeing this unjustified war and cause human suffering."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday she is "appalled" by the "despicable" missile attack on the railway station.

Borrell and von der Leyen will be meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the strike “abominable” in a tweet posted Friday.

“Ukrainian civilians were fleeing to escape the worst. Their weapons? Strollers, stuffed toys, luggage. This morning, at the Kramatorsk train station, the families who were about to leave experienced horror,” Macron said. “Dozens dead, hundreds injured. Abominable."

The French president expressed his condolences to the victims of the strike in Kramatorsk and to victims from past attacks, namely Bucha, Mariupol and Kharkiv. He also called for investigations.

Macron reiterated that the European Union will continue to provide humanitarian, military and financial supports to Ukraine.

European Council President Charles Michel also condemned the strike.

edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-04-08-22/index.html

Binance Charity donated $2.5 Million in cryptocurrency to UNICEF as a solidarity gesture towards the children of Ukraine during these times of war.

Binance has just donated to help the children of Ukraine in their country’s ongoing war against Russia, joining a growing wave of individuals within the crypto ecosystem who are giving money and taking a stand for the country’s struggle.

Binance Charity, the non-profit charitable arm of Binance, announced a $2.5 million cryptocurrency donation to UNICEF. The goal is to help cover the organization’s expenses as it supports Ukrainian children and families who have been affected by the war
In an official statement, UNICEF thanked Binance for its contribution, assuring that the money came at the right time, as the escalation of the armed conflict is profoundly affecting the population.

The advance of Russian troops and attacks on various infrastructure points have affected the lives of those living in the northern part of Ukraine. The Ukrainian president’s calls for civilians to join the militia and his restrictions on the regional cash flow have also not helped improve the situation for the residents of the conflict zones.

UNICEF’s efforts are focused on providing water, education, and protection to children; promoting health and hygiene assistance to communities; working with Ukraine’s regional governments to back their community support programs; and supporting mobile teams providing child protection services.

Chanpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, shared his willingness to continue providing financial assistance to charitable initiatives in partnership with UNICEF:

We’re grateful for our ongoing collaboration with UNICEF, which with the support of the Binance community, provides emergency relief to help ease some of the suffering these children and their families are facing.

The World’s First Crypto War
The Russia-Ukraine war issue has had substantial repercussions in the cryptocurrency universe to the point that it has been called the world’s first “crypto war”.

On the Ukrainian side, the government itself began accepting donations of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins in an attempt to increase its war budget. Quickly Ukraine’s wallets ramped up to accept other altcoins such as Polkadot and Dogecoin, eventually reaching several million of dollars in funds.

Of those funds, Ukraine has already spent $15 million on military equipment. There is no information on expenditures allocated for humanitarian work.

On the other hand, much has been speculated about the possibility of Russia turning to cryptocurrencies as a way to circumvent sanctions imposed by the United States and its allied countries.

However, there has been no official announcement on the matter, and CZ itself assured that it was almost impossible for Russia to effectively use cryptocurrencies to keep its economy afloat:

“The truth is, crypto is too small for Russia. If we look at the crypto adoption today, there is probably about 3% of the global population with some kind of crypto exposure (i.e., owning some crypto). Of those, most only have a small percentage of their net worth in crypto. Less than 10% on average. So, there is probably only less than 0.3% of the global net worth in crypto today. This percentage applies equally to Russia.”

CZ believes that nobody smart would use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions.

Chengpeng Zhao, aka CZ, CEO of Binance – believes that cryptocurrencies are a terrible option for evading sanctions.

Cryptocurrencies have come in aid to the Ukrainian government as well as the several NGOs that have managed to secure donations to help the war-stricken country distribute emergency resources and push back against Russian invasion.

However, concerns regarding deep-pocketed Russian oligarchs trying to slip past the impact of Western sanctions by using cryptocurrencies have also heightened. CZ, for one, believes that “nobody smart” would choose crypto to do that.

Cryptocurrencies, A Weapon For Warmongers?
In an interview with CNN, CZ highlighted that crypto is too traceable due to the underlying blockchain technology and added,

“If you look at the data, nobody smart does that. Crypto is too traceable, the governments around the world are increasingly very good at tracking crypto transactions. So crypto is not good for that.”

Binance had joined other cryptocurrency giants such as Coinbase and Kraken in declining to unilaterally freeze millions of Russian user accounts even though it said that the platform complies with government sanctions.

When asked about his take on the ongoing war, CZ said that Binance is totally against it, the politicians, and dictators who start wars. However, the exec went on to clarify that,

“We are not against the people. There are many people on both sides of Ukraine and Russia that are suffering and we want to help those people.”

Illegal Trade: Fiat Vs Crypto
Despite increasing concerns about crime and sanctions evasion related to cryptocurrencies, it is important to understand that fiat is still very common when it comes to illegal trade. This is something that not just CZ emphasized, but US Treasury Department had recently confirmed.

In its report that included money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, and the role of virtual assets in all aspects, the US Treasury Department stated that the use of this asset class for money laundering remains far below that of fiat currency and more traditional methods.

Earlier last month, Tom Robinson, co-founder of blockchain forensics firm Elliptic weighed in on the matter and stated that crypto is not a perfect solution for dodging authorities as blockchain assets are known to note have the best privacy that, makes large-scale transfers and purchases complicated to conduct without being identified

cryptopotato.com/binance-ceo-using-crypto-to-avoid-sanctions-is-a-myth/

A Nigerian man serving in the U.S. Marines returned home after six years to surprise his family, IGBERETV reports.

He shared a video of his home return with the caption;

"6years since I last saw majority of my family so I decided to surprise them and what’s the best way if not in the authorized uniform. Not my mom jumping around in the background with my cover. They almost made me cry and I had to tell my family that I was in training and can’t use my phone so they won’t worry when I don’t pick or call back for 2days. Mission Accomplished

FYI. I changed into my uniform in the car outside my compound before going in"

www.instagram.com/tv/Cb21psgJ5OX/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

A Lagos State Domestic Violence and s*xual Offences Court, Ikeja, on Tuesday, sentenced a man, Collins Okechukwu, to life imprisonment for raping and robbing a 25-year-old student at the University of Lagos, Akoka.

Delivering judgement, Justice Abiola Soladoye, who described Okechukwu as a pathological liar, held that the prosecution proved the charges of rape and robbery against Okechukwu beyond reasonable doubt.

The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the judge sentenced Okechukwu to life imprisonment for rape, and 21 years’ imprisonment for robbery.

She said, “The testimony of the defendant portrayed him as a pathological liar in the sense that he claimed that University of Lagos Guest House was fully booked and the survivor was s*x-starved, which made them have s*x on the bare floor.

“This is unbelievable and watery.

“The defendant lured the survivor into the admin block, brought out a pistol, raped her and robbed her of her valuables thereafter.

“The claim of the defendant to have met the survivor at the guest house and she agreed to have s*x with him was consistently laced with irregularities and found unreliable.

“The defendant is found guilty as charged of the two offences and sentenced to life imprisonment in respect to rape and 21 years’ jail term for robbery.

“The sentences shall run concurrently.

“He should have his name entered in the s*x Offenders Register of the Lagos State Government.”

Sholadoye also cautioned female students in tertiary institutions against giving out their telephone numbers to strangers.

“What manner of a woman is the victim herself? She should desist from giving out her numbers for unnecessary frolicking,” the judge said.

NAN reported that four witnesses testified at the trial and three exhibits were tendered.

According to prosecution counsel, Mr Peter Owolabani, the convict committed the crimes on December 17, 2017, at 9pm behind the Faculty of Arts Building, UNILAG.

He said the convict also robbed the survivor of her phones, money and a gold chain.

Owolabani submitted that the survivor met the convict one year after the incident, invited him to her supposed birthday party and got him arrested.

punchng.com/man-bags-life-imprisonment-for-raping-unilag-student-judge-slams-victim/

Ukraine's Mariupol city has been '90%' destroyed after being besieged by Russian forces, the mayor says.
The Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in the south-east of the country has been "90%" destroyed after being besieged by Russian forces, its mayor Vadym Boichenko said Monday.

"The sad news is that 90% of the infrastructure in the city is destroyed and 40% is unrecoverable," Boichenko told a press conference.

Around 130,000 people remained trapped in the city, which continues to be pounded by Russian bombardments, he said.

Approximately half a million people lived in the city on the coast of the Sea of Azov before the outbreak of the war.

"The Russian army is brutally destroying Mariupol," Boichenko said.

"The bombings are incessant," the mayor said, with the notable use of "multiple rocket launchers."

According to Boichenko, the majority of the attacks on the city were coming "from the sea," where "Russian ships" were stationed.

"We are planning to evacuate the remaining residents, but we cannot do it today," he said.

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the difficulties encountered by recent evacuation attempts.

Mariupol has been under siege from Russian forces for over a month, leaving the population to fend for themselves in conditions that have been denounced by the international community.

www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/04/04/besieged-ukrainian-city-mariupol-90-destroyed-mayor-a77203

Herder Stabs Landlord In Rivers Community Multiple Times For Complaining About Cows Messing Up Compound

A landlord in Bonny Island, Rivers State, Mr Donald Pepple, has been attacked and stabbed multiple times by a Fulani herder for complaining that cows were messing up his compound.

The herder, who is now on the run, it was gathered, always passed through Pepple’s compound with his cattle, leaving the animals to eat crops, defecate all over the place and also mess up washed clothes spread on the line.

As a result of the havoc they wreak each time they pass through his compound, the victim had warned the herder not to bring his cattle into the place anymore.

Defying that warning, the Fulani cattle rearer on Tuesday morning invaded Pepple’s compound again, prompting the man to protest in anger.

The herder reacted angrily, first hitting the victim on the head with a stick believed to be laced with charm before going on to stab the landlord multiple times in his head and other parts of his body.

The herder fled the scene shortly afterwards, leaving behind 20 cows, which have since been seized by members of the community.

An eyewitness, Nengi Chukwueze, who spoke with SaharaReporters shortly after the incident, disclosed that the victim was currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Bonny.

He went ahead to disclose that though the matter was promptly reported at the Bonny Divisional Police Headquarters, officers had yet to apprehend the attacker, who is thought to still be hiding in the island community.

“The victim is still in the hospital. If he was not rescued on time by people around the place, he could have bled to death.

“The Fulani herder is still in hiding. He left his cows and fled the area immediately he attacked Mr Pepple. He is rearing the cattle for a Bonny indigene, so that person has been identified and has been helping with finding him.

“The incident has left residents of the island shocked because it is a peaceful community. We hope the attacker is arrested and prosecuted,” he said.

When contacted over the incident, the spokesperson for the police in Rivers State, Grace Iringe-Koko, promised to get back to our correspondent after receiving a briefing from the Bonny Police Division on the matter.
However, she had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.

saharareporters.com/2022/04/05/breaking-herder-stabs-landlord-rivers-community-multiple-times-complaining-about-cows

A pregnant woman, Omowunmi Joseph (43), of Odoye area, Alaadorin, Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State, on Monday morning, stabbed her husband, Joseph Nwankwo, to death around 2am while he was asleep.

Our correspondent learnt that earlier a crisis started between the two about two weeks ago when the hsuband told his wife that he wanted to marry a second wife from his home town.

According to our source, after committing the crime, Omowunmi reported herself at the Iyaganku police area command and that the command took her to Yemetu police division, close to the scene of the incident.

Our correspondent who visited the Yemetu police station on Monday morning learnt that the remains of the husband had been deposited in a morgue.

Effort to get the reaction of the police spokesman in the state, Adewale Osifeso, about the incident proved abortive.


dailytrust.com/pregnant-woman-stabs-hubby-to-death-over-plan-to-marry-2nd-wife

Nigeria’s Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Baba has approved the immediate dismissal nine personnel over their roles in recent botched strike by rank and file. Those affected are two Inspectors, five Sergeants and two Constables.

The affected police personnel are
AP/No. 245800 – Inspector Nanoll Lamak;
AP/ NP 287568 – Inspector Amos Nagurah;
F/No. 271367 – Sergeant Onoja Onuche;
F/No. 442680 – Sergeant Franklin Agughalau;
F/No. 495378 – Sergeant Emmanuel Isah
F/No. 508168 – Sergeant Adesina Ismail
F/No. 508282 – Sergeant Osoteku Ademola
F/No. 525839 – Police Constable Ehighamhen Favour Ebele & F/No. 528222 - Police Constable Ubong Inem.

The dismissal of the personnel as stated in the signal signed by the Commissioner of Police Provost, Force Headquarters Abuja, follows the conclusion of their orderly room trial for Offences of Confidence to wit Planning, Organising, Cordinating Industrial Strike within the ranks of the Nigeria Police Force.

Meanwhile, the Commissioners of Police in commands and formations have been ordered to warn the affected personnel accordingly, dekit and eject them from official accommodation and facilities where applicable.

It would be recalled that two weeks ago there was rumour of plans by Police personnel to go on strike.

The dismissed personnel, according to ait.live findings were identified and arrested following tracking of their calls and phone conversations.

ait.live/breaking-police-dismiss-nine-personnel-over-failed-strike/

Manchester City face Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night, looking to take a strong lead to the Wanda Metropolitano.

For so long, the quarter-finals was Pep Guardiola's kryptonite at the Etihad Stadium - with Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Lyon all knocking the Blues out at that stage. However, a nervy but decisive victory over Borussia Dortmund this time last season gave them belief that they have overcome that specific psychological hurdle

Benfica head into the first leg of the Champions League last eight game against Liverpool as underdogs but wouldn’t be worried about labels.

Benfica have made qualification to the Champions League next season a tad bit complicated after suffering a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Braga. The Lisbon giants are in third place in the league standings and Nelson Verissimo knows that results need to pick up

Italy orders the expulsion of 30 Russian diplomats for ‘security reasons’ as Denmark expels 15 Russian envoys over spying.

Denmark has ordered the expulsion of 15 Russian “intelligence officers” registered as diplomats in the country and Italy has expelled 30 Russian envoys “for national security reasons”.

Tuesday’s developments came after a string of moves against Russian diplomats in other European countries as well as the United States.

“The measure is in agreement with other European and Atlantic partners and is necessary for reasons linked to our national security and in the context of the current crisis caused by the unjustified aggression against Ukraine on the part of the Russian Federation,” Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said in a statement on Tuesday.

Russia will give an appropriate response, TASS news agency quoted Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.

Denmark’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the Russian citizens concerned will have 14 days to leave the country.

“We have established that the 15 expelled intelligence officers have conducted spying on Danish soil,” Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod told reporters after a meeting in parliament.

Denmark wished to send a “clear signal” that spying in the Nordic country was “unacceptable”, he said.

Strong condemnation

Russia’s ambassador to Denmark was informed of the decision on Tuesday morning, where the government also expressed its condemnation of “Russia’s brutality against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha”.

“Deliberate attacks against civilians are a war crime,” it said.

At the same time, Copenhagen insisted on maintaining diplomatic relations with Moscow.
“Denmark does not wish to break diplomatic relations with Moscow. The Russian ambassador and the rest of the embassy in Copenhagen are therefore not included in the expulsion,” Kofod said.

Horrific images of corpses lying in the streets in the town of Bucha northwest of Kyiv, some with their hands bound behind them, following the Russian withdrawal have drawn international condemnation of Russia, and the EU is considering additional sanctions.

Moscow has denied responsibility, suggesting the images are fake or that the deaths occurred after Russian forces pulled out of the area.

But newly released satellite photographs taken by Maxar Technologies in mid-March, before the Russian withdrawal, showed what appeared to be bodies in some of the same places they were later found by Ukrainian troops and seen by journalists.

On Monday, France expelled 35 Russian diplomats, and Germany announced it had expelled a “significant number” of Russian envoys.

www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2022/4/5/denmark-italy-expel-dozens-of-russian-diplomats

Louis C.K.’s album, "Sincerely Louis C.K.," was named best comedy album at Sunday’s 2022 Grammy Awards in Las Vegas — five years after he admitted to s*xual misconduct.

The controversial comedian was nominated against Nate Bargatze ("The Greatest Average American"), Lewis Black ("Thanks for Risking Your Life"), Lavell Crawford ("The Comedy Vaccine"), Chelsea Handler ("Evolution") and Kevin Hart ("Zero F---s Given").

The 54-year-old didn’t attend the ceremony and his win wasn’t televised during the CBS broadcast. It was C.K.’s third Grammy win in the category and the first since he admitted to s*xual misconduct in 2017.

Viewers immediately took to Twitter and slammed the recording academy while launching a fiery debate about Will Smith and his behavior at the 2022 Oscars on March 27

"So much for ‘cancel culture,’" one viewer tweeted. "Apparently you can do whatever you want if you’re famous."

"I don’t want to hear anything else about Will Smith now that Louis C.K. not only was nominated but just won an award #GRAMMYs," one critic chimed.

"Louis CK just won a whole ass Grammy while y’all are either calling for Will Smith’s head or crying about cancel culture," another user added. "There are no consequences for white cishet men."

"Embarrassing," one viewer noted.

www.foxnews.com/entertainment/louis-ck-grammy-win-backlash

Three Republican states on Monday announced they have filed a lawsuit to stop the Biden administration’s lifting of the Title 42 public health order that has been used to expel a majority of migrants at the southern border -- arguing that it was done unlawfully and will have a devastating impact on states.

The attorneys general of Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri are suing over the move to end Title 42, which was implemented by the Trump administration in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border, on May 23.

"This suit challenges an imminent, man-made, self-inflicted calamity: the abrupt elimination of the only safety valve preventing this administration’s disastrous border policies from devolving into an unmitigated catastrophe,"

The Biden administration announced on Friday that it will be terminating the order, despite fears of a massive migrant wave in the coming months. In February, 55% of the more than 164,000 migrants encountered at the border were expelled under the order.



www.foxnews.com/politics/republican-states-sue-biden-title-42-lift

Twitter's shares jumped more than 25% in price following Monday's news. Musk now controls nearly 73.5 million shares of the company, making him the largest shareholder, and individual stocks were priced at $49.81 on Monday morning.

Musk's purchase comes roughly a week after the billionaire criticized Twitter for a lack of commitment to free speech.

"Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy," Musk tweeted March 26. "What should be done?"

"Is a new platform needed?" he tweeted later.

Many of Musk's nearly 80 million Twitter followers encouraged him at the time to buy Twitter's platform entirely, or create his own.

"Buy this one!" tweeted Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/elon-musk-purchases-stake-in-twitter-after-slamming-its-approach-to-free-speech

China and Europe's top leaders are set to meet on Friday, as their vast and growing trade relationship threatens to be overshadowed by differences over Russia and other geopolitical tensions.

At the virtual EU-China summit, Beijing is expected to face pressure from one of its top trading partners over the war in Ukraine, which will be the main focus of the talks, according to the European Union. Chinese President Xi Jingping and Premier Li Keqiang will also discuss business ties, human rights and climate change with European Council President Charles Michel and Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
Europe trades more goods with China than anyone else. But in recent weeks, concerns in the West have spiked over Beijing's refusal to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"Senior EU officials have unsuccessfully sought to convince Beijing to push Moscow toward deescalation," Eurasia Group experts wrote in a note Tuesday. "[They] will now seek to enlist Xi, but the feeling in Brussels is that China is not interested in pressuring Russia."



The divergence over the Russia-Ukraine crisis stands in contrast to China and Europe's economic ties, which have deepened during the coronavirus pandemic.
Here's a look at where things stand — and what's at stake.
What's on the table
China abstained from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, troubling many in the West.

"The way in which China handles this conflict will have bearing on the future overall of the EU-China relationship," Reinhard Butikofer, head of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with China, told reporters ahead of the summit.

edition.cnn.com/2022/04/01/business/china-eu-summit-trade-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has "initiated disciplinary proceedings" against actor Will Smith over his actions at Sunday's Oscars, the group announced on Wednesday.

"Board of Governors today initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy's Standards of Conduct, including inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the Academy," the organization behind the Oscars said in a statement.
The statement also claims that Smith was asked to leave the ceremony after the incident "and refused." The Academy said it recognizes "we could have handled the situation differently."
Smith has come under fire in recent days after he stormed the stage on Sunday and slapped presenter Chris Rock after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith.
"Mr. Smith's actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television. Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience in that moment," the statement added. "We also apologize to our nominees, guests and viewers for what transpired during what should have been a celebratory event."
Another board meeting is set to take place on April 18, at which time, "the Academy may take any disciplinary action, which may include suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions permitted by the Bylaws and Standards of Conduct," the statement said.
"Consistent with the Academy's Standards of Conduct, as well as California law, Mr. Smith is being provided at least 15 days' notice of a vote regarding his violations and sanctions, and the opportunity to be heard beforehand by means of a written response," the statement said.
CNN has reached out to Smith's representatives for comment.
Still the talk of the town
The strong statement from the Academy comes as the conversation over the slap heard around the world was showing no signs of cooling.


Rock has remained publicly silent on the incident, so all eyes are on the start of his comedy tour, which kicks off Wednesday night in Boston.
Comedians Wanda Sykes and Amy Schumer, two of the three hosts on Sunday night, also spoke out on Wednesday with strong words of support for Rock, as did Rock's brother.
Meanwhile, Smith has maintained a low profile on social media since issuing his lengthy apology on Monday.
"I was out of line and I was wrong," he wrote in part. "I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness."
Smith's apology was not enough, however, to quell the reaction from Academy leaders, who said in a letter to members on Wednesday that they were "upset and outraged."
This came as many leveled criticism toward the Academy for its handling of the incident on Sunday night.
Sykes told Ellen DeGeneres on an appearance on her talk show that she felt Smith should have been escorted out.
"For them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like, 'How gross is this? This is just the wrong message,'" she said.



edition.cnn.com/2022/03/30/entertainment/academy-will-smith/index.html

As the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, it attracts more attention from cybercriminals, who have stolen nearly $700 million worth of assets from crypto platforms in the first quarter of 2022 alone.

Throughout this period, hackers have managed to get away with $682 million in as many as 72 hack events, with more than half of the losses attributed to hacks on Solana (SOL) and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystems, according to the recent findings by the Atlas VPN team.

In four major attacks, Solana suffered a loss of $397 million. The worst of them was the hack on Wormhole, a communication bridge between Solana and other decentralized finance (DeFi) networks, during which the platform lost around $334 million.

finbold.com/crypto-investors-lose-almost-700-million-to-blockchain-hackers-in-q1-2022/

For investors, these are unprecedented times.

The world has been rocked by a deadly pandemic. Europe is at war; Russia in an economic chokehold. The United States is experiencing its highest inflation in 40 years and it’s likely to get worse. Currency and equity markets are gripped by a scale of volatility unseen in years. The status quo of the traditional geopolitical order faces a crisis. And commodities are trading like meme stocks.

Enter cryptocurrency – a $3 trillion market that promises to liberate people from the grip of the global financial system.

Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly mainstream. Five years ago, the market was valued at just $14bn – a fraction of what it is today.

The US government, among others, is trying to get in on the digital asset boom, seeking to regulate and reinvent a sector operating largely out of its reach.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order requiring the government to assess the risks and benefits of creating its own central bank digital currency (CBDC).

While taking inspiration from cryptocurrencies and following some of the same principles, CBDCs are not regarded as crypto as they are regulated by a central authority. The White House will also look into mitigating crypto risks for consumers and leading economic and technological competitiveness and innovation in the sector.

China debuted its version of a CBDC, the digital yuan, during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games last month.
According to the Pew Research Center, 16 percent of Americans have dabbled in trading, using, and investing in cryptocurrencies. That figure is likely to rise considerably, crypto industry figures told Al Jazeera.

“I think we may refer to 2022 as the year of the big catalyst for crypto because what governments did is actually force adoption,” Ran Neuner, host of CNBC’s Crypto Trader, told Al Jazeera. “They put people in a position where they had no choice but to flee to the other system.”

''What governments did’
The US and its allies have imposed sanctions on Russia over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

The world’s largest credit card networks, Visa and Mastercard, and internet payments giant PayPal announced over the weekend that they are suspending services in Russia. That means that credit and debit cards issued by Russian banks will no longer work outside of Russia. Russian businesses also will not be able to accept cards issued from outside the country.

“It’s the most ridiculous thing,” Neuner said. “Russians that are living in the US but have bank accounts in Russia have had their credit cards cut off. Essentially, people are forced onto the alternative financial system.”

Russians have also been barred from using SWIFT – an international bank messaging system vital for transactions. Russia’s central bank has had its assets seized and hundreds of companies in the tech, oil, media and consumer goods sectors have pulled their operations from the country. Last week, the rouble hit an all-time low.

If your participation in the global financial system is dependent on the appeasement of the US and its allies and if you’re not in good standing with those people, they kick you out of that system, maybe you’re going to look for a different global financial system to participate in.

Why Bitcoin is the most decentralised cryptocurrency
Bitcoin is the world’s most well-known fully decentralised cryptocurrency. The majority of the digital coin’s trading is done on a peer-to-peer basis. There is no middleman, unlike with banks, and transactions are recorded on a blockchain – a digital ledger maintained by a network of computers.

Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous for the anonymous person or entity that basically wrote the code. Nobody funded it, nobody invested in it –it’s open-source software. There was economic incentive for people to join the network to mine Bitcoin and over time, that incentive led to the creation of what Bitcoin enthusiasts consider the strongest computer network in the world.

To change something in the Bitcoin infrastructure, a proposal must first be submitted and then approved by many different players in the Bitcoin universe, including the people who mine the Bitcoin and the nodes – those who run the software.

This infrastructure is what makes Bitcoin resilient to nation-state attack and meddling.

‘The analogy here is Gmail versus email’
In addition to the decentralised Bitcoin network, there are centralised and decentralised trading platforms where one can buy, sell, and trade Bitcoin and thousands of other digital currencies and assets.

www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/3/10/war-in-europe-is-a-major-driver-of-cryptocurrency-adoption

Hackers stole about $600 million from a blockchain network connected to the popular Axie Infinity online game in one of the biggest crypto attacks to date.

Computers known as nodes operated by Axie Infinity maker Sky Mavis and the Axie DAO that support a so-called bridge -- software that lets people convert tokens into ones that can be used on another network -- were attacked, with the hacker draining what’s known as the Ronin Bridge of 173,600 Ether and 25.5 million USDC tokens in two transactions. The breach happened on March 23, but was only discovered Tuesday, according to Ronin, the blockchain that supports Axie Infinity.

The attack is the latest to show that bridges are often rife with problems. The computer code of many isn’t audited, allowing for hackers to exploit vulnerabilities. It’s often unclear who runs them and exactly how. Identities of validators, who are supposed to order transactions on bridges, are often shrouded in mystery. And yet there are thousands of bridges out there, and they move hundreds of million of dollars worth of crypto

“The fact that nobody notices for six days screams aloud that some structure should be in place to watch illicit transfers,” said Wilfred Daye, head of Securitize Capital, the asset-management arm of Securitize Inc.

The Ronin heist underscores the security concerns that plague the wider market for decentralized-finance, or DeFi, protocols. Some $2.3 billion was stolen from DeFi platforms in 2021, a jump of 1,330% from the year before, according to a tweet from blockchain research firm Chainalysis on Wednesday

The price of Ron, a token used on the Ronin blockchain, dropped about 22% after the hack was disclosed. AXS, a token used in Axie Infinity, fell as much as 11% before recouping some losses, according to CoinMarketCap

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-29/hackers-steal-590-million-from-ronin-in-latest-bridge-attack

FIFA have confirmed that Russia have been removed from the qualification process for the 2022 World Cup.

The decision comes in the wake of the country's ongoing war in Ukraine, with Poland given a bye into the Path B playoff final on March 29.


Poland had been due to face Russia in the semi-final of the playoff process days earlier, but following the invasion of Ukraine the Polish FA and players made it clear that they did not want to face Russia.

Poland will now face either Sweden or the Czech Republic in the final.



A statement from FIFA read: "Subsequent to the decision of 28 February 2022 taken jointly with the UEFA Executive Committee to suspend all Russian teams from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice, the Bureau of the FIFA Organising Committee decided that Poland will receive a bye to the final of Path B due to take place on 29 March 2022, in which they will face the winners of the match between Sweden and the Czech Republic.

FIFA have also confirmed that the playoff semi-final between Ukraine and Scotland has been delayed, although the semi-final in that section between Wales and Austria will go ahead as planned.


"On 3 March 2022, the Ukrainian Association of Football wrote to FIFA requesting that its qualification match(es) be rescheduled owing to the impossibility of organising both the travel and training of a team under the current circumstances," said FIFA.

"Following consultation with UEFA and the four participating member associations in Path A of the European qualifying play-offs, it was unanimously agreed in the spirit of solidarity to accept this request.

www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/russia-fifa-world-cup-qatar-26419816

Fans can start registering to buy Qatar World Cup tickets on Wednesday with prices for visitors starting at around €60, one-third cheaper than the tournament in Russia, The Associated Press has learned.

The category-three tickets on international sale will be 250 Qatari riyals (€60), two people with knowledge of the prices said Tuesday, compared to $105 (€90) for the equivalent in 2018. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss the ticketing process.

The cheapest tickets — in category four only for Qatari residents — will cost 40 Qatari riyals (€9.7), the people said. The intended ticket prices will be the cheapest at a World Cup since $3 seats in Mexico — based on 1986 exchange rates — and half the price of those made available to locals at the equivalent of $22 in Russia in 2018.


The low entry point for tickets in Qatar could help to provide access to the low-paid migrant worker population for the Nov. 21-Dec. 18 tournament. The cheapest tickets at the 2019 world track and field championships were 60 Qatari riyals (€14.5) and entry was eventually made free for workers to fill empty seats.

FIFA tickets will be distributed through a regulated process rather than an open sale with the full range of prices still to be announced. Supporters requesting to attend matches at the Middle East's first World Cup will only discover if they are successful based on a random draw at the conclusion of the first application phase which runs through Feb. 8.

The ticket process is beginning with only 13 of the 32 slots at the tournament filled and qualifying not concluding until the intercontinental playoffs in June.

FIFA aims to generate $500 million (€441 million) from hospitality rights and ticket sales from the World Cup, according to the governing body’s most recent financial report.


Unlike previous World Cups, little travel will be required once in Qatar with the eight newly built stadiums within a 30-mile radius of Doha.

Travel during the tournament figures to be the shortest since the 1954 tournament in Switzerland, but hotel availability could be tight.

Local organisers have reserved most hotels in Qatar so there was no availability showing on Tuesday to book for the duration of the tournament when searching online.

Rooms in hotels, apartments and cruise liners will be made available via a website later this year. Only around 90,000 rooms will be made available to the public with 40,000 set aside for teams, officials, sponsors and media.

While camping in the desert had previously been touted as a means of finding space for fans, that is now being downplayed as a significant option. There will be 4,000 cabins on cruise ships that will dock in Doha for the tournament.

In a major upset, European champions Italy have failed in their bid to reach the World Cup... again.

They were beaten 1-0 by North Macedonia in a play-off semi-final to qualify for the tournament, which takes place in Qatar from 21 November.

Aleksandar Trajkovski scored a last-gasp goal for North Macedonia.


It was North Macedonia’s only real opportunity after a completely dominant performance by Italy, which missed a number of chances and had several others saved by visiting goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.

Overall, Italy had 32 shots on goal, compared to just four for its opponent.

But, just like five years ago, at the final whistle the Italian players fell to the ground in disbelief and disappointment — with several of them in tears — as the opposition celebrated wildly.

Italy also failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup after losing to Sweden in a two-legged playoff the previous November. Missing two straight World Cups is an unprecedented low point for the four-time champion, especially just months after winning Euro 2020.


“I'm proud of my teammates, we are all destroyed and broken but we have to start again,” Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini said. "At the moment it's difficult to talk about it, it will remain a great hole.

“I hope that the coach will stay because he is essential for this team. Now we have to return to winning, go to the Euros and in four years' time return to this blessed World Cup.”

But Roberto Mancini, who took over as Italy coach after the last qualifying failure, said on Thursday that the disappointment “was too great to talk about the future”.

“I feel that just as last July was the best thing I experienced at a professional level, this is the greatest disappointment,” Mancini added.

North Macedonia will play Portugal on Tuesday for a spot in the tournament in Qatar after Cristiano Ronaldo’s side beat Turkey 3-1.

Euro 2020 is the only major tournament North Macedonia has qualified for.

Mancini was missing a number of players that helped Italy win the European Championship last summer and had to field a makeshift defence, but it was barely troubled by North Macedonia until the very end.

Italy got off to an aggressive start but struggled to find a way past the wall of red shirts.

The Azzurri were gifted a great chance in the 30th minute after a horrendous kick from the North Macedonia goalkeeper left Domenico Berardi with an open goal but he scuffed his shot and Dimitrievski got back in time to make the save.

Dimitrievski did better moments later when he fingertipped Ciro Immobile’s angled shot over the bar.

Italy was getting closer and Dimitrievski had to make another save, this time to palm Lorenzo Insigne’s effort around the post.

North Macedonia had its first attempt on goal on the stroke of halftime when Enis Bardi threaded a ball through for Trajkovski but his effort was straight at Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Berardi almost atoned for his first-half error early in the second period but saw one attempt well saved by Dimitrievski and curled another just past the left post.

Italy was laying siege to the goal but saw everything charged down by North Macedonia.

And it was made to pay for its profligacy in stoppage time as Trajkovski fired a low shot into the bottom left corner from 25 yards, leaving Mancini looking stunned on the sideline.

www.euronews.com/2022/03/25/major-shock-as-european-champions-italy-fail-to-qualify-for-world-cup

Test Post.......................

As Russian and Ukrainian delegations arrive Tuesday in Istanbul for peace talks, Turkey's unique political position is under the spotlight. Could the nation that straddles Europe and the Middle East emerge as peacemaker?

As the war grinds on, a growing list of countries are exploring the possibility of mediating, stepping in to avert further bloodshed and the conflict spreading beyond Ukraine's borders.
Earlier this month, Turkey hosted Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers for a trilateral meeting in its southern city of Antalya. Afterward, the Turkish foreign minister visited both Moscow and Kyiv. Likewise, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited Moscow for the same purpose. And China has signaled readiness for mediation. Potentially other countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, India or South Africa, might get in line to broker some kind of resolution.
Almost all countries that have vied for the mediation role have also engaged in a strategic balancing act between the West and Russia for some time. Serving an intermediary role is a way for them to prevent further catastrophe in the conflict, and project international stature. But it is also a way for them to avoid making difficult choices the war might force upon them, such as choosing or tilting toward one side more clearly.
But the list of fence-sitters in the Russia-Ukraine conflict is not confined to mediators. Many more countries have chosen to remain "neutral," including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Morocco. The rationale for abstaining differs between countries, but some reasons cut across.

The international system is changing. And the idea that the world is no longer Western-centric, and increasingly multipolar, is widespread in the non-Western world. It informs their policies toward Russia, and toward China as well.
As long as the dominant narrative of this war is put in a West/NATO versus Russia dichotomy, it will have little resonance in the non-Western world. Plus, the fence-sitting approach is also a way of signaling discontent with the US/Western policy.
It was illustrative that the rulers of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, who depend on the US for their security, refrained from taking calls from President Joe Biden earlier this month. This snub was meant to convey their displeasure with the United States for Washington's insufficient support for their botched Yemen campaign.
From food and energy supplies to geopolitical vulnerabilities, many other factors also define their approach. For instance, in spite of its close military ties with the US, Egypt depends heavily on Moscow in terms of its food security. It also closely cooperates with Russia in Libya, with both supporting the warlord Khalifa Haftar. (Kyiv accuses Haftar of sending mercenaries to aid Russia in Ukraine.)
Likewise India, in spite of needing the West as a countervailing force against China, has long maintained close ties with Moscow; has purchased the Russian-made S-400 missile systems; and has pursued a policy of balancing between Russia and the West.

But of all these countries sitting on the fence and trying to mediate, Turkey has a unique profile and position. It is a NATO member, an organization for which Russia and previously the Soviet Union served as raison d'être or the foundational threat.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been increasingly castigating the Western-centric international system. But as a member of many Western institutions, Turkey is also a beneficiary, and in a sense, part of the geopolitical West.
Meanwhile, Turkey also has maritime borders with both Ukraine and Russia. Plus, Turkey is Russia's largest trade partner in the Middle East and North Africa region. And it has competed and cooperated with Russia through conflict zones in Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh in recent years.
Compared to other contenders for mediation, Turkey has the highest stakes in this conflict. The war is fundamentally changing the geopolitics and balance of power in the Black Sea region, and Turkey is a major Black Sea power.
Turkey will probably play a humanitarian role soon, too, as the number of refugees -- already in the millions -- rises. French President Emanuel Macron's announcement that France, Turkey and Greece will undertake a joint evacuation mission in Mariupol is a harbinger of a humanitarian role that might become more salient in Erdogan's policy down the road.
In spite of its policy of not provoking Russia, Turkey is simultaneously not pursuing a policy of equidistance. It sells armed drones to Ukraine, which are exacting significant losses on Russian targets, and has closed the Turkish straits to warships.
In addition to Russia dominating the Black Sea, it has a sizable Mediterranean presence where it is deeply involved in conflicts spots in Syria and Libya. Turkey's sea closure will put pressure on Russian policy in these conflict zones if the war is prolonged.
Yet unlike other NATO members, Turkey has neither joined the Western sanctions against Moscow nor closed its airspace to Russia. Doing so would have probably triggered a Russian veto against Turkey's quest for mediating the conflict. And there are an increasing number of anti-war Russian activists and pro-Kremlin figures heading to Turkey.

Turkey is basically trying to be pro-Ukraine without becoming too aggressively anti-Russia. Its capital city, Ankara, is too deeply exposed to Russia both economically and geopolitically. Russia is Turkey's largest source of tourists, grain imports and gas.
In any case, at this stage, there is not yet any sign of the West pushing Turkey more strongly in joining the sanction regime against Moscow. And despite Turkey's efforts, the conflict is not ripe for mediation yet, because Moscow still appears to be hellbent on the military option. This does not mean that efforts or talks will cease in this conflict; to the contrary, we are likely to see more.
Russia wants to give the impression it is interested in diplomacy to buy time and prevent further Western sanctions, but to no avail. No breakthrough should be expected anytime soon. In spite of this, keeping the idea of a diplomatic process alive is still important. Plus, the mediation serves Turkey's interests well. It boosts its international stature; turns Turkey into one of the major centers of diplomacy in this conflict; and delays some of the difficult decisions that it might face

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/29/opinions/turkey-mediator-russia-ukraine-dalay/index.html

Will Smith has issued an apology for striking presenter Chris Rock at Sunday's Academy Awards.

In a post on Instagram on Monday afternoon, Smith called his behavior "unacceptable and inexcusable."
"Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada's medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally," he wrote. "I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness."
Smith added in his post that, "Violence in all forms is poisonous and destructive."
He also included in his note an apology to "the Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees and everyone watching around the world," as well as the family of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams and those involved with the film for which he won his best actor award on Sunday.
"I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us," he wrote. "I am a work in progress."

Smith on Sunday caused a stir that changed the tone of an otherwise uplifting Oscars ceremony when he stormed the stage and struck comedian Rock in the face.
The moment came after Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith's shaved head.
While presenting the award for best documentary, Rock joked, "Jada I love you, 'G.I. Jane 2,' can't wait to see it."


The camera cut to an unamused Pinkett Smith, who has been open about her struggle with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that leads to hair loss.

"That was a nice one," Rock said, appearing to respond to the joke not going over well.
Rock then said, "Oh uh," and laughed as Smith walked toward him on stage and slapped Rock on the face.
According to CNN reporter Stephanie Elam, who is in the audience, she could hear Rock getting hit. Smith said twice during the incident, according to Elam, "Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth!"
Rock responded: "Oh, wow."
For viewers at home, censors muted the verbal part of the exchange between Rock and Smith.
The theater went silent and Rock said, "That was the greatest night in the history of television."
Smith's win overshadowed
Around 40 minutes later, Smith would take the stage again — this time as a winner.
Accepting his best actor award for his role in "King Richard," a tearful Smith acknowledged the earlier incident and apologized to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars, and fellow nominees. Notably, Rock was not mentioned by name.
Smith said, "I know to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse and have people talk people about you. In this business, you gotta have people disrespecting you. And you gotta smile and pretend that's ok."
Smith shared that prior to his win, fellow nominee Denzel Washington shared some wisdom with him: "At your highest moment be careful, that's when the devil comes for you."
Smith ended saying that he hopes the Academy welcomes him back.
CNN has reached out to Chris Rock's representatives for comment.



Reaction
Following the ceremony, the Academy Awards tweeted a short statement about the on-stage incident that read: "The Academy does not condone violence of any form. Tonight we are delighted to celebrate our 94th Academy Awards winners, who deserve this moment of recognition from their peers and movie lovers around the world."
The Los Angeles Police Department also said Rock chose not to press charges against Smith over the onstage altercation.
However, the reaction to the moment continued to boil overnight as after parties raged on and the morning came.
By midday on Monday, the Academy issued a stronger statement, this time condemning Smith's actions and revealing they had started a "formal review around the incident."
It added that it "will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law."
Earlier on Monday, CNN learned that Academy leadership "strongly considered" removing Smith from the Oscars telecast after the incident, according to a source close to the situation

"There were immediate discussions but the Academy decision makers were seated in various spots in the Dolby Theater and couldn't mobilize to make a decision before he won best actor," the source said.
At least a dozen members of the Academy met virtually on Monday morning to discuss a response to Smith slapping Rock, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.
The meeting was described as "heated" and "divided." There was no agreement on further action, according to the sources.
The dozen members who met on their own volition and are being described as influential and recognizable members of the Academy, including actors and directors. The group does not have any disciplinary power, but they are considered high profile enough that the Board of Governor's for the Academy could be influenced in any response they may have.
There are more than 9,000 voting members of the Academy, comprised of Hollywood artists and film executives.

Ukrainian forces "continue to maintain circular defense" in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the Ukrainian general staff said early Tuesday, even as Russian forces consolidated control around the southeastern port city.

On Monday, the mayor of Mariupol said that evacuation corridors had come largely under the control of Russian forces, after weeks of bombardment left the city in pieces, killed an unknown number of civilians and forced hundreds of thousands of residents from their homes.
"Not everything is in our power," said Mayor Vadym Boichenko, in a live television interview. "Unfortunately, we are in the hands of the occupiers today."



Boichenko called for a complete evacuation of the remaining population of Mariupol, which was home to more than 400,000 people before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
"According to our estimates, about 160,000 people are in the besieged city of Mariupol today, where it is impossible to live because there is no water, no electricity, no heat, no connection," he said. "And it's really scary."
It was unclear if there was still active fighting inside the city.

Ukrainian officials have alleged that Russian forces have prevented humanitarian convoys from safely approaching or exiting the city.
A pro-Russian separatist leader said on Sunday that about 1,700 Mariupol residents were being "evacuated" daily from the city and its surroundings. Ukrainian officials, however, say thousands were being forcibly "deported" to Russia.
"We need a complete evacuation from Mariupol," Boichenko said. "Our most important mission today is to save every life ... And there are hopes that we will succeed. For example, there are 26 buses that have to go to Mariupol to evacuate, but unfortunately, they haven't received permission to move," he said.
"And this game is played every day. A cynical game like, 'Yes, we are ready. You can drive there,' but in fact it does not work," he said. "Our heroic drivers under the fire are trying to reach the places where Mariupol residents can be picked up, and they are waiting with the hope that they will have such an opportunity. But the Russian Federation has been playing with us since day one."

Some 90% of residential buildings in the city were damaged, the data shows. Of those, 60% were hit directly and 40% were destroyed.

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/28/europe/mariupol-mayor-ukraine-occupiers-intl/index.html

Chris Rock will not be pressing charges against Will Smith following their onstage altercation at this year's Oscars, the Los Angeles Police Department has said.

Smith appeared to strike Rock at Sunday night's ceremony after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head as he presented the Academy Award for best documentary.
When Rock quipped: "Jada I love you, 'G.I. Jane 2,' can't wait to see it," the camera cut to Pinkett Smith, who rolled her eyes. The "Red Table Talk" host has been open about her struggle with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that leads to hair loss.




Following the joke, Smith walked onto the stage and seemingly hit Rock, before telling him to "leave my wife's name out of your f**king mouth."
"The Pursuit of Happyness" star appeared remorseful when he returned to the stage shortly after, to accept the Oscar for best actor for his role as Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams, in the film "King Richard."
During his emotional speech, Smith apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees for the incident but did not mention Rock by name.
While Smith's actions have been widely condemned on social media, with many arguing he should be charged with assault, his 23-year-old son, Jaden Smith, shared a tweet shortly after the incident, which said: "And That's How We Do It."



The LAPD confirmed on Monday that Rock declined to file a police report.
"LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program," the department told CNN in a statement. "The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report. If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report."
CNN has contacted Rock's representatives for further comment.
Smith appeared to predict the mayhem of Oscars night in an Instagram post hours earlier. Sharing a video of himself and his wife in their red carpet attire with his 60 million followers, he wrote: "Me 'n @jadapinkettsmith got all dressed up to choose chaos."

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/28/entertainment/chris-rock-will-smith-charges-intl-scli/index.html

The US and NATO believe that Belarus could "soon" join Russia in its war against Ukraine, US and NATO officials tell CNN, and that the country is already taking steps to do so.

It is increasingly "likely" that Belarus will enter the conflict, a NATO military official said on Monday. "(Russian President Vladimir) Putin needs support. Anything would help," the official explained.
A Belarusian opposition source said that Belarusian combat units are ready to go into Ukraine as soon as in the next few days, with thousands of forces prepared to deploy. In this source's view, this would have less of an impact militarily than it will geopolitically, given the implications of another country joining the war.
A senior NATO intelligence official said separately that the alliance assesses that the Belarusian government "is preparing the environment to justify a Belarusian offensive against Ukraine."
Russia has launched its attack on Ukraine in part from Belarus' territory, and thousands of Russian troops amassed in Belarus ahead of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine last month, which the two countries had claimed was for training exercises. US and European sanctions in response to the war have targeted both Russian and Belarusian officials, including Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus moved to change its constitution last month to allow the country to host both Russian forces and nuclear weapons permanently, though US officials have emphasized to CNN that they have not yet seen any evidence of Russia moving nuclear weapons or preparing to.
The sources emphasized that there have been no indications to date that Belarus is currently participating in the fighting in Ukraine, and a senior US defense official said the Pentagon had not seen "any indications that the Belarusians are preparing to move in -- into Ukraine or that they have made any agreements to do that."
The NATO military official said that a final decision for Belarus' involvement in the war still has to be made in Moscow, as of yet there has been no indication that Belarusian forces are participating in the fighting in Ukraine.
"It is not about what Lukashenko wants," the official explained. "The question is: does Putin want another unstable country in the region?"
"Involvement would destabilize Belarus," the official said.
The official wouldn't elaborate on how Belarus could intervene in the war, but said it made sense for Russia to try and cut off NATO military aid coming into Ukraine from its Western border.

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/22/europe/belarus-ukraine/index.html

Airbnb, the popular accommodation-booking platform, may begin accepting payments in cryptocurrencies this year. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky posted a list of customer demands on Twitter, where enabling crypto payments emerged as the top suggestion. In his post, Chesky noted that his company is already working on most of the customer advice, while promising to look into others. In recent times, a bunch of consumer brands have opened crypto payments for some goods and services. Majority of these pro-crypto brands are based in the US.

As part of his Twitter thread, Chesky noted that if Airbnb actually begins to accept crypto payments, the company will be inclusive of a variety of token ideas.

gadgets360.com/cryptocurrency/news/airbnb-crypto-payments-ceo-brian-chesky-2691952

There are now more than 5,000 confirmed planets beyond our solar system, according to NASA.

The latest addition of 65 exoplanets to the NASA Exoplanet Archive contributed to the scientific milestone marked on Monday. This archive is the home to exoplanet discoveries from peer-reviewed scientific papers that have been confirmed using multiple methods of detecting the planets.
"It's not just a number," said Jessie Christiansen, science lead for the archive and a research scientist with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement. "Each one of them is a new world, a brand-new planet. I get excited about every one because we don't know anything about them."

We're currently living in a golden age of exoplanet discovery. Although the existence of planets outside of our solar system had been previously proposed and certainly depicted in science fiction, these worlds were only first discovered in the 1990s.
Exoplanets have varied features
The diversity of exoplanets represent populations of planets unlike anything found in our solar system. They include rocky worlds larger than Earth called super-Earths, mini-Neptunes bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, and scorching hot Jupiters that dwarf our solar system's largest planet and closely orbit their host stars.
Scientists have also found planets that orbit more than one star and even some around the remnants of dead stars called white dwarfs.
So far, of the confirmed exoplanets, 30% are gas giants, 31% are super-Earths, and 35% are Neptune-like. Just 4% are terrestrial, or rocky planets like Earth or Mars.
Previous exoplanet discoveries have been made thanks to planet-hunting telescopes and satellites like the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Kepler Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.
When Christiansen was a graduate student in the early 2000s, there were only about 100 known exoplanets.
"That's partly why I wanted to go into the field — because it was brand new and so exciting that people were finding planets around other stars," Christiansen said in a question and answer session shared by Caltech. "Now, exoplanets are almost ordinary. My colleague David Ciardi (chief scientist for the NASA Exoplanet Archive) pointed out the other day that half of the people alive have never lived in a world where we didn't know about exoplanets."
Kepler helped scientists discover about two-thirds of the 5,000 confirmed planets, Christiansen said.
In the new batch of 65 planets, many are super-Earth and sub-Neptune planets, along with some hot Jupiter-size planets. There are also two Earth-size planets, but they're about 620 degrees Fahrenheit (327 degrees Celsius), so more like "hot rocks" than habitable planets, Christiansen said.
She also noted that one is a system with five planets orbiting a small, cool red dwarf star -- not unlike the TRAPPIST-1 system, where a similar star hosts seven rocky planets.
Space observatories joining the hunt
New telescopes will only increase the potential for exoplanet discovery. The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in December, will be able to peer through the atmospheres of exoplanets
The Webb telescope is poised to study the TRAPPIST system in detail.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will launch in 2027 and aid in the search for exoplanets with a variety of techniques. The European Space Agency's ARIEL mission, launching in 2029, will study exoplanet atmospheres.
Although scientists have confirmed more than 5,000 exoplanets, there are likely hundreds of billions of them across the Milky Way galaxy.
"Of the 5,000 exoplanets known, 4,900 are located within a few thousand light-years of us, Christiansen said. "And think about the fact that we're 30,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy; if you extrapolate from the little bubble around us, that means there are many more planets in our galaxy we haven't found yet, as many as 100 to 200 billion. It's mind-blowing."

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/21/world/5000-exoplanets-confirmation-nasa-scn/index.html

India’s foreign minister says ties with China cannot be normal as long as there is a huge deployment of troops along their disputed border.

After a three-hour meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New Delhi, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a news briefing on Friday that frictions and tensions on the border cannot be reconciled with normal relations.

Yi arrived in the city unannounced on Thursday, the most senior Chinese official to visit India since border clashes in the northern Himalayan region of Ladakh in June 2020 led to a sharp deterioration in relations between the Asian giants.

The Chinese top diplomat also met India’s powerful national security adviser, Ajit Doval.

Neither side had announced the visit before Wang landed in New Delhi late on Thursday. Footage from the Reuters’ India partner ANI showed him coming out of the commercial airport rather than the defence facility nearby where most foreign dignitaries land.

Jaishankar noted in a speech on Thursday the deterioration in ties and stressed the importance of the coordination of foreign and defence policies, which he said were “joined at the hip”.

“Few would have anticipated … the turn that India’s relations with China have taken in the last two years,” he said.

“Any prudent policy therefore backs its posture with capabilities and deterrence. A big responsibility of Indian diplomacy, therefore, is to create the widest set of options for such contingencies.”

Wang drew a rebuke from the Indian government ahead of his trip for remarks made in Pakistan this week on the disputed Kashmir region. India and Pakistan rule Muslim-majority Kashmir in part but claim in full, and China has generally stood by its close ally Pakistan.



Relations between China and India worsened after a June 2020 border clash in the Ladakh region of Indian-administered Kashmir killed at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.

www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/25/china-fm-india-surprise-trip-first-since-2020-border-clashes

Leaders attending a closed-door snap NATO summit heard an impassioned call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for new Western security assistance, according to a senior US administration official who heard the remarks.

The Ukrainian leader stopped short of issuing his usual calls for a no-fly zone or NATO membership. But Zelensky in a virtual address spoke "very eloquently" to describe his military’s efforts to defend Ukrainian citizens and democratic values, the official said.

The virtual address from Zelensky kicked off the summit, which is taking place in private. US President Joe Biden spoke next, laying out the coordinated Western approach on sanctions, reiterating strong support for Ukraine and reinforcing US commitment to NATO.

Biden "laid out a number of issues that the alliance is going to have to grapple with" in the coming months before the NATO alliance meets again at the end of June in Spain, the official said.

That includes finalizing force posture changes on NATO’s eastern flank.

The mood inside the NATO summit was "sober, resolute, and incredibly united," the official said.

"There was a very strong sense that we are facing a significant historical moment, and very strong support from all the leaders who spoke about the need to defend our democracy," the official said.
Other topics that arose included China, and a collective desire to avoid Beijing supporting Russia in its invasion.



And leaders discussed contingencies should Russia use a chemical or nuclear weapon on the battlefield in Ukraine.

"I think there is a recognition that NATO needs to continue a lot of the good ongoing work to be prepared to respond to various contingencies," the official said.

Four days after Russia invaded Ukraine, President Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan authorized a team of officials to quietly map out potential ways the US could respond if Russian President Vladimir Putin took an extreme step, including deploying chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, a senior administration official told CNN.

The group, known internally as a Tiger Team, is a new version of the one assembled last fall when it appeared Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine. Now a month into the invasion, this group meets several times a week to examine how the US could respond if Russia were to conduct a biological weapons attack, encroach on NATO territory, target US convoys or any other step Putin may take given his clear frustration over Russia's lack of progress.
These national security officials are focused on what they can plan against for the next three months, the official said. The New York Times first reported the details of the preparation.
The Tiger Team is focused on creating contingency plans for several scenarios, including Russia's potential use of chemical or biological weapons, targeting of US convoys delivering military assistance, disruptions to global food supply chains and the growing refugee crisis.
The National Security Council has also created another strategy group that will work in tandem with them to conduct a longer-term examination of potential major geopolitical shifts happening because of Russia's invasion. The strategy group is working to monitor and mitigate risks, while considering how to advance and defend US interests, the official said.
Before leaving for Brussels, Biden warned that the threat of Putin conducting a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine was "real." That will be up for discussion as he huddles with allies Thursday in a series of summits dedicated to the invasion of Ukraine.
In Brussels, the leaders will also have to confront another threat Putin has made: deploying his arsenal of nuclear weapons.
In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeatedly refused to rule out that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons.
When asked under what conditions Putin would use Russia's nuclear capability, Peskov replied, "if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be."
The United States condemned Peskov's "dangerous" comments. "It's not the way a responsible nuclear power should act," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.
Putin has previously hinted at using nuclear weapons against nations that he saw as a threat to Russia. Back in February, the Russian President said in a televised statement, "No matter who tries to stand in our way or all the more so create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history."
Any use of chemical weapons by Russia would flatly unacceptable and "totally change the nature of the conflict" in Ukraine, NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday. Speaking ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels Thursday, the NATO chief warned that the use of chemical weapons would be a " blatant violation of international law and of far reaching consequences."
Stoltenberg accused China of providing political support and of "spreading blatant lies and disinformation," and said Beijing's role in the invasion would be addressed at the summit. "Beijing has joined Moscow in questioning the right of independent nations to choose to choose their own path. The alliance is concerned that China could provide "material support for the Russian invasion."
Stoltenberg demanded that Belarus must also end its "complicity in Putin's invasion," and warned decisions taken at the summit tomorrow will have "far reaching implications."

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/24/politics/us-planning-on-how-to-counter-putin/index.html

David Beckham has handed over control of his Instagram account to a doctor in Ukraine, in a bid to highlight the "amazing work" of medical professionals caring for patients amid the Russian invasion of the country.

Throughout Sunday, the former England football captain, who has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2005, enabled Dr. Iryna -- head of a perinatal center in Kharkiv -- to show his 71.6 million followers the conditions under which she and her colleagues are working.
During the takeover, organized by UN children's agency UNICEF, Iryna, who is identified only by her first name, posted clips and images from the facility in Ukraine's second-largest city on Beckham's Instagram Stories and revealed how the war had affected her role and the work of her team.

Iryna said she now works "24/7," adding that while her team were "probably risking (their) lives" working during the conflict, "we love our work."
Writing on Instagram Stories, she said: "On the first day of the war, all pregnant women and mothers were evacuated to the basement. It was a terrible three hours that we spent together.
"Unfortunately, we can't take babies who are in intensive care to the basement because they rely on life-saving equipment," she wrote alongside photographs of newborns in the intensive care unit connected to oxygen generators.
In another clip, she filmed a young mother, Yana, holding her son, Mykhailo, who was born with breathing problems.


"The first days were the most difficult. We had to learn how to work with bombings and strikes. My workday is 24/7 now, I'm here all day," Iryna continued.
"Now, I'm not only the head of the center, but I continue to work as a pediatric anesthesiologist. I unload cargo, I work on logistics and offer emotional support."
Beckham has launched an emergency appeal via his 7 Fund for UNICEF to help provide aid to those affected in the war-torn country.
On Instagram, the father-of-four urged his followers to donate to UNICEF, which is working in Ukraine to provide families with access to clean water and food, ensure child protection services continue, and assess the refugee situation in neighboring countries.
"Thanks to your donations, the oxygen generators they have received are helping newborns survive in appalling conditions," Beckham said. "Please continue to support these incredible people and charities like UNICEF in any way that you can. Together we can really make a difference."
The president and co-owner of Inter Miami previously confirmed that he and his wife, Victoria Beckham, had made a personal donation to the appeal.

Chelsea FC will be allowed to sell tickets to away games, cup matches and fixtures involving the women's team after the UK government made alterations to the club's special license.

Due to UK sanctions placed on Russian oligarch and Chelsea club owner Roman Abramovich for his alleged ties with Vladimir Putin following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Blues had previously been unable to sell any tickets or merchandise.
Under the new license, proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to the Premier League, rather than Chelsea, and then be distributed to relevant parties -- either the Premier League or charities.
Away fans can now buy tickets for Premier League games at Stamford Bridge, with the revenue going to the Premier League.
These changes will also allow away fans to attend knock-out fixtures, including Chelsea's home Champions League quarterfinal first leg against Real Madrid on April 6 and the FA Cup semifinal against Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium on Easter weekend.

Home tickets, meanwhile, are still subject to sanctions with only season-ticket holders or those who purchased tickets before the introduction of sanctions able to attend matches.
Chelsea have requested that any money generated by ticket sales, which the club would have usually received, be donated to victims of the war in Ukraine.
"The revised licence allows fans to attend Chelsea FC games; Chelsea fans to travel to away Premier League fixtures and Chelsea fans to attend the FA Cup, UEFA Champions League and WSL games," a Premier League spokesperson said in a statement.
"The Premier League will receive and hold any revenue from the sale of these tickets that would normally have gone to Chelsea. Chelsea FC have requested and the Premier League agreed that this revenue will be donated to charity to benefit victims of the war in Ukraine.
"The beneficiary charities will be announced in due course after consultation with the club."
Chelsea's future is currently the source of much uncertainty since Abramovich announced that he would be selling the club, just days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Multiple bidders have expressed their interest, and the Raine Group -- a US bank handling the sale of the club -- is expected to announce a shortlist by the end of the week. The UK government will be the final arbiter of the sale.

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/24/football/chelsea-tickets-abramovich-sanctions-spt-intl/index.html

Top cryptocurrencies were trading mostly higher in Thursday's trade, with Cardano and Dogecoin leading the list of gainers in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin, the largest crypto by market value, was trading 1.57 per cent higher at $42,940.95. It is up 4.5 per cent in the last seven sessions. Ethereum added 2.05 per cent to $3,032.32. The second largest cryptocurrency by market value has risen 9.5 per cent in the last one week.

BNB advanced 1.56 per cent, USD Coin edged 0.03 per cent lower while XRP added 1.18 per cent. Cardano soared 13 per cent, taking its seven-day gain to 30 per cent.

Terra rose 2.28 per cent to $95.34. Solana jumped 5 per cent while Polkadot climbed 2.6 per cent. Avalanche edged 0.5 per cent higher. Dogecoin surged 11 per cent and Shibu Inu advanced 5 per cent.

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economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/cryptocurrency/top-cryptocurrency-prices-today-cardano-dogecoin-surge-up-to-13-shibu-inu-up-5/articleshow/90410326.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

The Taliban prevented girls above the 6th grade in Afghanistan from making their much-anticipated return to school on Wednesday.

Just hours after schools for girls were due to open, the Taliban ordered them to shut down again. Teenage girls in Afghanistan have now been denied their right to an education for 187 days.
Under increasing international pressure, the Taliban had originally said that schools would open for all students -- including girls -- after the Afghan new year, which is celebrated on March 21, on the condition that boys and girls were separated either in different schools or by different learning hours.
But on Wednesday, girls above the 6th grade were told to stay at home until a school uniform appropriate to Sharia and Afghan customs and culture can be designed, the Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency reported.
The decision is likely to spark widespread international condemnation. US diplomats said the Taliban's move was "disappointing."
Tamana, 18, who goes by her first name due to security issues, told CNN she had arrived at school Wednesday morning to start her senior year, but wasn't allowed in.
"I couldn't sleep last night as I was so excited to go back to school after eight months of being deprived of education, but when I and many other girls arrived at our school gate this morning we were told to go back home and wait until further notice," she said, adding that her dreams had been shattered once again. "All of my classmates went back home in tears."
The education ministry said in a statement that it "assures the people of our nation once again that it is fully committed to ensure the rights of our compatriots to education."
The UN mission in Afghanistan responded Wednesday, tweeting that it "deplores" the Taliban's decision to extend their "indefinite ban on female students above the 6th grade being permitted to return school."
Ian McCary, the Chief of Mission for the US Embassy in Kabul -- which is currently operating out of Doha -- said he was "deeply troubled" by reports that girls were not being allowed to return to school, posting on Twitter that the news was "very disappointing & contradicts many Taliban assurances & statements. All Afghan youth deserve to be educated."
His concerns were echoed by the US Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights Rina Amiri, who said the move "weakens confidence" in the Taliban and "further dashes the hopes of families for a better future for their daughters."

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/23/asia/taliban-girls-school-delay-afghanistan-intl/index.html

North Korea has fired what is believed to be its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in more than four years as Western leaders gather in Brussels for a security summit.

The suspected ICBM flew to an altitude of 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) and to a distance of 1,080 kilometers (671 miles) with a flight time of 71 minutes before splashing down in waters off Japan's western coast on Thursday, according to Japan's Defense Ministry.
Thursday's launch is North Korea's 11th of the year, including one on March 16 which is presumed to have failed. Analysts said the test could be the longest-range missile yet fired by North Korea, exceeding its last ICBM launch in November 2017.
Japan's Vice Defense Minister Makoto Oniki told reporters Thursday the altitude would suggest it is a "new type of ICBM," a potential sign North Korea is closer to developing weapons capable of targeting the United States.
The US joined allies South Korea and Japan in strongly condemning the launch Thursday and called on North Korea to refrain from further destabilizing acts.
US President Joe Biden is currently in Belgium, where he is attending a G7 summit alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The gathering is part of a series of meetings, including an extraordinary NATO summit, as Western leaders seek to align their responses to Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine. A European Council meeting will also take place Thursday.
According to analysts, the recent spate of North Korean missile tests suggest the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, is attempting show an increasingly turbulent world that Pyongyang remains a player in the struggle for power and influence.
"North Korea refuses to be ignored and may be trying to take advantage of global preoccupation with the war in Ukraine to force a fait accompli on its status as a nuclear weapons state," Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told CNN.
"North Korea is nowhere near initiating aggression on the scale of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But Pyongyang's ambitions likewise exceed self-defense as it wants to overturn the postwar security order in Asia, added Easley.
Thursday's test also comes just two weeks after South Korea elected a new conservative President, Yoon Suk Yeol, who is expected to take a harder line against North Korea than outgoing office holder President Moon Jae-in.
In response to Thursday's suspected ICBM test, South Korea's military launched several warning missiles for the first time since 2017, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a text sent to reporters.
"Our military is monitoring North Korean military's movements and have confirmed that we have the capability and posture to accurately strike the origin location of the missile launch and command and support facilities any time North Korea launches a missile," the JCS said.
Provocative act
Analysts said North Korea appeared to have conducted a so-called lofted missile test Thursday. "This is a tactic often employed by them to test longer range systems without more provocatively overflying another country," said Joseph Dempsey, research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
He said the preliminary data of Thursday's test indicate it could be a Hwasong-17, a much larger ICBM than the Hwasong-15 tested in 2017.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said data indicates Thursday's missile could have a maximum range of about 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles) -- theoretically putting it within reach of the continental United States, depending on the weight of the warhead it would carry -- and about 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) further than the Hwasong-15.
Despite the potentially extended range, Kim said Pyongyang has still yet to demonstrate its ability to master the technology required to enable a warhead to successfully re-enter the Earth's atmosphere into the final stages of flight.
US response
Pyongyang's other most recent launches, on February 26 and March 4, were likely intended to test a new ICBM system, the US Defense Department said earlier this month.
The US Indo-Pacific Command announced earlier this month that the US is intensifying "intelligence, readiness and surveillance collection activities" related to North Korea following the recent missile launches.
The move is a signal from the Biden administration that it needs to strengthen its military posture to ensure the US and allies in the region like South Korea and Japan are protected against North Korea's missile tests.
The command said they have "ordered intensified Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance collection activities in the Yellow Sea, as well as enhanced readiness among our ballistic missile defense forces in the region."
Earlier this month, the US military staged exercises on and around the Korean Peninsula to show its readiness in the wake of North Korean activity, including simulating ballistic missile defense systems.
The US Army's 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade moved to a remote location, "occupying its wartime defensive position, emplacing the Patriot missile system, and executing air and missile defense operations under a simulated combat scenario," US Forces Korea said in a press release.
And at sea, F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets flying off the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln along with US Air Force assets based in the region put on a show of force in the Yellow Sea off the western coast of South Korea, according to a statement from the US Navy's 7th Fleet in Japan.
This story has been updated to clarify the location of missile.

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/24/asia/north-korea-missile-test-intl-hnk/index.html

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The United Arab Emirates surprised its Western allies last week when it abstained on a US-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The move amounted to a declaration of neutrality from one of America's closest Middle East allies in a war that has polarized the international community.
Anwar Gargash, adviser to the UAE president, said taking sides "would only lead to more violence." The UAE's priority is "to encourage all parties to resort to diplomatic action and to negotiate to find a political solution," he said.
The war in Ukraine, which began less than two months after the UAE took a seat at the Security Council, has thrust the country's changing foreign policy onto the world stage, showing how the Gulf state tries to juggle its ties between traditional allies and burgeoning partnerships. It also demonstrates the struggle faced by the West in getting unequivocal condemnation of Russia's invasion from its allies.
The UAE called for a "peaceful solution" to the "Ukraine crisis in a way that guarantees the interests and national security of all parties," the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi said in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. They also discussed energy cooperation

Other Arab states have also refrained from condemning Russia's invasion. Saudi Arabia, which counts Russia as its main partner in the OPEC+ alliance to coordinate oil output, said Tuesday it "supports international de-escalation efforts in Ukraine." The Arab League on Monday also called for de-escalation and restraint in a joint communique. Neither has condemned Russia's aggression in Ukraine.
"The UAE [shouldn't] be projected as a puppet of the United States anymore," said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political science professor in the UAE. "Just because we have such great relations with America, we do not take orders from Washington, and we have to do things consistent with our own strategy and priority."


The UAE's apparent paving of an independent foreign policy comes amid Abu Dhabi's frustration with the Biden administration's treatment of issues of significance to the Gulf nation. Soon after Biden came to office, he removed the Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen from the US' list of terrorist organizations. Less than a year later, the Houthis have begun a campaign of fatal strikes on Abu Dhabi. The US has pledged to bolster UAE defenses, but Abu Dhabi wants a redesignation of the Houthis as terrorists.
In December, the UAE suspended talks for a $23 billion deal with the US to acquire F-35 fighter jets after the talks were stalled by the administration. Then, last month, it announced that it was buying fighter jets from China for the first time ever.
"The UAE has yet to figure out how to navigate the new multipolar world," Cinzia Bianco, a research fellow on Europe and the Gulf at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said on Twitter. "The UAE and other Gulf monarchies are re-evaluating relations with the US who, in their strong view, reneged on its end of the bargain: providing security."
Meanwhile, ties with Moscow have only grown stronger.
Two years ago, the UAE's de facto ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to the capital in a grand ceremony, during which the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince described Russia as his "second home" as Putin cemented $1.3 billion worth of energy and technology deals.
Local newspapers called it the beginning of a "special relationship" and ran live updates of the visit. "It was clear the two leaders share a strong personal bond," said Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper.
Why Russia-Ukraine tensions have the Middle East on edge
Why Russia-Ukraine tensions have the Middle East on edge

edition.cnn.com/2022/03/02/middleeast/mideast-summary-03-02-2022-intl/index.html

The Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol “remain in Ukrainian hands,” despite heavy shelling by Russian forces, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Thursday.

“Some Russian forces have entered the city of Kherson, but the military situation remains unclear,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

However, city mayor Ihor Kolykhaiev said the Ukrainian military is no longer present in Kherson in a statement posted Wednesday on Facebook.

Residents must now carry out the instructions of “armed people who came to the city’s administration,” said Kolykhaiev, indicating that the city has now fallen under Russian control.

According to the MoD’s update, the main body of a large Russian column advancing on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, remains more than 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) from the center of the city.

It has made “little discernible progress in over three days” having been “delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion," said the MoD.

“The Russian defence ministry has been forced to admit that 498 Russian soldiers have already been killed and 1,597 wounded in Putin’s war,” continued the update.

“The actual number of those killed and wounded will almost certainly be considerably higher and will continue to rise.”

edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-03-03-22/index.html

Russia-Ukraine live updates: Battle for Kyiv intensifies

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region and an ally of Putin, says Chechen fighters have been deployed in Ukraine.

In a video posted online, Kadyrov claimed that units from the North Caucasus region – a constituent republic of Russia – had suffered no losses so far.

Turkey has banned Russian warships’ access to the Black Sea at Kyiv’s request, according to Zellensky.

The Ukrainian leader praised the move as “extremely important”, adding in a post on Twitter that the people of Ukraine would “never forget” Ankara’s support.

www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/25/unsc-to-vote-on-resolution-condemning-russia-invasion-liveblog

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