Corax

Corax

26-year-old Luigi Mangione arrested suspected of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel last week, is referred to as an anti-capitalist Ivy League grad who liked online quotes from Ted Kaczynski, was caught with a gun and a manifesto railing against US healthcare industry

World

Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway freeze all pending asylum requests from Syrians after the fall of Assad, Austria where about 100,000 Syrians live says all asylum grants will be reviewed and that they will prepare an orderly repatriation and deportation programme
Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow along with his family and has been granted asylum for humanitarian reasons, according to a Kremlin source to the TASS news agency
Ukraine expands access to militarized satellite network Starshield from 500 to 3,000 terminals after SpaceX signs contract with the Pentagon, contract valid during 2025
Rebels storm the Syrian presidential palace and announce on state TV that President Bashar al-Assad is ousted, as the capital fell a Syrian airplane with unknown passengers left the Damascus airport and flew towards Assad's coastal region stronghold before making a U-turn and disappearing off the map, unclear if the plane was shot down or the transponder was switched off
Ukrainian trained Syrian rebel forces lead the assault on Aleppo along with among others Turkish backed former Al-Qaeda affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, only connection between the disparate Islamist groups is said to be hatred of the Russian-backed Assad regime, more than 20 villages and the Aleppo airport among what has been captured
New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says during visit in Greece that the alliance needs to go further to support Ukraine and accuses Russia of dangerously escalating the conflict by bringing in North Korean troops and Iranian drones, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says the country backs a more functional relationship between NATO and the EU to further strengthen the European pillar of the alliance
Russia fires hypersonic ballistic missile with multiple warheads at targets in the city of Dnipro, Putin says in televised address that what was once a regional conflict now has elements of a global character after Western long-range missiles were used for attacks on Russian territory
US opens military base in Poland less than 160 km from Kaliningrad, is the first US base in the country and will focus on air defense
Donald Trump wins the presidential election and becomes the first person in over 120 years to lose the White House and win it back again, won in all swing states and also won the popular vote
Greenland court extends the detention of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson for additional three weeks pending possible extradition to Japan, was arrested in July connection with refueling of his ship in Greenland's capital Nuuk on a 2012 Japanese arrest warrant stemming from a 2010 incident in which Watson is accused of causing damage to a Japanese whaling ship in the Antarctic

Miscellaneous

Polarization the word of the year according to Merriam-Webster, editor at large Peter Sokolowski comments that it is a pretty young word that is most frequently used in the US to describe race relations, politics and ideology
Football team Manchester United scraps plan to dress the team in rainbow jackets before the game against Everton as Muslim player Noussair Mazraoui refused to wear the jacket, third similar event lately after Christian Crystal Palace player Marc Guéhi wrote about Jesus on his rainbow armband and Muslim Ipswich player Sam Morsy twice has refused to wear such armband
Elon Musk becomes world number one on Diablo 4, cleared level 150 of the Artificer's Pit in record time which is widely used as a measure of player skill, was previously reported to be top 19 in the world in ranking where everyone else in the top 20 was Asian
England's Football Association will contact Crystal Palace player Marc Guéhi regarding him writing "I love Jesus" on the league-issued LGBTQ+ campaign rainbow armband during a game, says the formal reminder that religious messaging is banned avoids the need for disciplinary action, only captain not to wear the armband is Ipswich practising Muslim Sam Morsy
YMCA is not a gay anthem according to Victor Willis who wrote the lyrics, has pulled in millions of dollars in royalties as Donald Trump played it extensively as part of his campaign, songwriter happy that unlike other artists he has not stopped Trump from using his music
Brain rot named Oxford Word of the Year 2024, the term that increased in usage frequency by 230% between 2023 and 2024 is defined as deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state as the result of overconsumption of trivial or unchallenging material, first recorded use of the term is found in Henry David Thoreau 1854 book Walden where he criticizes society's tendency to devalue complex ideas which he sees as indicative of a general decline in mental and intellectual effort
Fistfights in Serbia's parliament during discussion regarding rail station roof collapse in Novi Sad that killed 15 people after a recent Chinese renovation, the opposition displayed a banner reading "blood is on your hands" while the ruling party's banner accused the opposition of wanting "war while Serbia wants to work" and the scuffle took place after both sides tried to tear the opponents' banners down, widespread protester in the country where most large infrastructure projects are undertaken with Chinese state companies
Jaguar managing director Rawdon Glover disappointed to receive negative feedback on the company's rebranding effort to become a woke EV-manufacturer, says the company's new advertisements don't necessarily reflect how he thinks their customers look, but that they also need to attract new customers and that overall the new ads, with diverse androgynous models in an alien landscape, has been received well
Quincy Jones dies at 91, produced Michael Jackson's Thriller album, wrote award-winning film scores and worked with artists including Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles, died just days before receiving honorary Oscar
Canned air from Lake Como being sold for 10 euros to tourists, marketed in Menaggio and Lenno and at restaurants by the lake since October, Davide Abagnale from Italy Comunica believes American visitors are attracted to the area after George Clooney bought a villa there

Media

X goes to court to avoid having to transfer Alex Jones' and Infowars' accounts which were said to be part of the Infowars bankruptcy sale that The Onion won, says its terms of service make it clear that accounts are ultimately owned by X and cannot be sold, Jones calls Musk a hero
US political commentator Candace Owens refused a visa to enter New Zealand because Australia banned her due to comments regarding the Holocaust and Muslims, has for instance expressed doubts regarding medical experimentation on Jews in concentration camps during World War II, planned doing a speaking tour discussing free speech and Christian faith
Australia bans social media ban for children under 16, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit but not YouTube included, the platforms bear sole responsibility for enforcement and risk fines of up to USD 33 million, 77% of Australians support the ban according to a recent YouGov poll
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy start podcast to keep the public updated on their work to reduce the US federal state, Dogecast will provide unique transparency into their process and also highlight examples of waste, fraud and misuse of tax funds
Milo Yiannopoulos makes comeback as a manager of disreputable celebrities, new company Tarantula has had Azealia Banks, Ariel Pink, Martin Shkreli and Ye as clients, Yiannopoulos also works undercover for the Trump family and helped them get rid of Laura Loomer
Alex Jones' media companies including Infowars are taken over by The Onion after bankruptcy auction, new owner intends to turn site into a parody of the kind of material it previously produced, Jones says he'll stay in studio and continue broadcasting until physically removed
FBI raid on Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan after platform gained attention for predicting Donald Trump's election victory, suspected political retaliation for challenging traditional polling and media processes
The Guardian stops posting on X, referring to how the platform has developed under Elon Musk with allegedly toxic far-right content and influence on the US presidential election, Musk responds that the newspaper is irrelevant and a vile propaganda machine
Joe Rogan's three-hour interview with Donald Trump difficult to find on Youtube who cites technical problems, Kamala Harris's campaign requires a different recording location and a one-hour time limit for the vice president to appear on the podcast, and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance's visit scheduled for Wednesday
Mel Gibson is working on a television series about the Great Siege of Malta in 1565 and was recently on a visit to the island where he met the country's Prime Minister Robert Abela, says the story of the 700 knights who won when they defended Malta against the attacks of the Ottomans is incredible

Politics

Donald Trump concludes election campaign with rally in Madison Square Garden in his home town New York, more than 30 speakers including Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, JD Vance, Mike Johnson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Rudy Guiliani, Dana White, Hulk Hogan, and Dr Phil
Elon Musk donates to the political group America PAC, which supports Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election of the United States, according to sources to Bloomberg who says the amount was sizable, story breaks four months after the entrepreneur wrote that he does not donate money to either candidates
The share of young people in Slovenia who self-identify as rights more than doubled since 2018 to 24 percent and those who consider themselves to be far-right increased from 7 percent to 11 according to study with 600 participants by the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Maribor Faculty of Arts in Slovenia, the right-wing youth are also more likely to show an interest in politics
Afro-Swedish EU parliamentarian Alice Bah Kuhnke (MP) tells The Guardian she has learned to keep her ID close at hand as she frequently is stopped in and around the European Parliament and that other black parliamentarians have the same experience, the article author writes that the over-representation of white men in parliament have far-reaching consequences
Argentine President Javier Milei attends a convention of European patriots organized by the right-wing party Vox with Marine Le Pen among others present and has no plans to meet the king or Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during a visit to Spain, calls socialism satanic and a cancer in a speech on the first day of the visit
Dutch Geert Wilders presents an agreement between four parties that will introduce the country's strictest immigration policy ever by, among other things, getting exemptions from the EU's immigration policy similar to Denmark, takes place after his party the Freedom Party became the largest party in the 2023 election and since then negotiated the formation of a government, still unclear who will be prime minister
The Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang is leading the polls ahead of the Belgian election at June 9 with 28 percent support and the party's Barbara Pas says the desire to have children generally remains the same, but cannot be fulfilled by the people due to practical and financial obstacles which the party seeks to eliminate
France's National Assembly party, with 28-year-old Jordan Bardella as front runner and party leader, leads Emmanuel Macron's party by a wide margin ahead of European Parliament elections, Bardella has 1.2 million followers on Tiktok and Macron's appointment of 34-year-old Gabriel Attal as prime minister may have been made as response to the popularity of the young nationalist
Protest movements generate attention online but have limited effects on political attitudes, researchers who studied protests in US from 2017 to 2022 say all had zero effect, except BLM protests after death of George Floyd which shifted views on race and benefited Democrats
The documentary Flynn about General Michael Flynn reaches number one on Amazon's bestseller list, follows Flynn's life through the ranks of the US military, the twists and turns following his tenure as national security adviser to Donald Trump and is said to provide an insight into the workings of the deep state

Opinion

EU's health ministers agree on recommending bans on smoking and vaping in many outdoor areas including cafe patios and beaches, all countries voted in favour apart from Germany and Greece which abstained, EU Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi comments that the agreement is a crucial step towards the goal of a tobacco-free generation in Europe
Peter Thiel: Humanity stands on the brink of apocalypse when modern technologies such as AI and nuclear weapons risk leading to a real Armageddon and pave way for the Antichrist in the form of a global state whose rule is justified by a need to control technology [video]
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: Recent Supreme Court decisions make clear that numerous regulations are unconstitutional because they were not enacted by Congress, we will help Donald Trump identify such regulations so that he can immediately repeal them, this will also cause severe cuts to agencies and major cost savings
Jeff Bezos: Media fails to be seen as credible and is considered by most to be biased, it would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing decline in credibility but victim mentality does not help and I will not allow the Washington Post fade into irrelevance so changes are now needed for us to win this fight
Bronze Age Pervert: The HBD/IQ right reenacts 20th century Jewish neurosis of hysterical fear of black men and ressentemnt against white men, the Hobbesian liberalism of dorks paves way for dystopic society which might suit Asians but which will make Europeans prefer living more free in the third world
Paul Gottfried: Abortion is held to be a key political issue but in fact female support of leftist candidates is fueled by general grievances about the imagined mistreatment of women, this means Republicans are unable to win over women to their cause and should therefore focus on winning as many young men as possible
Niall Ferguson: We are in Cold War 2.0 with China in which the US plays the role of the Soviet Union as despite some differences the similarities are many, geriatric leaders, shorter lifespans, deaths from addiction, large, expensive and inefficient military, low trust in public institutions and an elite that doubles down on its bizarre ideology that no one really believes in
Borepatch: Donald Trump is the modern day Tiberius Gracchus who, despite his family's great wealth, chose to run for public office to benefit the Roman working class and failed because the political establishment buried their traditional political differences and had him killed
Douglas Mackinnon: To those trying to save the people and infrastructure of Ukraine I am truly sad to report that you have failed and those who, from comfortable offices thousands of miles away, encourage Ukraine to fight to the last citizen need to come up with a more convincing rationale, for a number of defense contractors in the US and Europe, Ukraine has become the gift that keeps on giving but when but when does a never-ending supply of taxpayer money begin to resemble fraud, waste and abuse?
David P. Goldman: The Jews founded the first nation on the basis of language and religion, while the pagan kingdoms were multi-ethnic and Christian Europe was built on dual loyalty to both the church and one's own nation, the God of Israel was the first to offer eternal life to mankind while Christianity extended the promise of Israel to all, the remaining paganism in the Christian nations has expressed itself in an idolatrous desire to be a chosen people in the flesh, and Christian anti-Semitism is rather pagan resentment against Israel

Europe

Planned terror attack on Christmas market in Bavaria foiled by police after tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency, 37-year-old Iraqi asylum-seeker arrested, the man shared Islamic State propaganda on social media and planned on driving a car through the Augsburg market
Romanian presidential election invalidated by Supreme Court, Calin Georgescu, who unexpectedly won the most votes, has been singled out for violating campaign finance laws and has been accused of being part of a Russian influence operation
Muhammad is the most popular boys' baby name in England and Wales for the first time, has been in the top 10 since 2016 but has now overtaken Noah, 4661 Muhammads born in the countries during 2023 with Mohammed in 28th place with 1601 and Mohammad in 68th with 835
France's government collapses as Prime Minister Michel Barnier loses no-confidence vote, Barnier whose term spanned 90 days on will become the shortest-lived prime minister in the history of the modern French republic said ahead of the vote that he cannot accept the idea that institutional destabilization could be the objective that brings together a majority of lawmakers at a moment when our country faces a deep moral, economic, financial and civic crisis, the no-confidence vote followed Barnier's decision to force through an austere budget without parliamentary support
Polish PM Donald Tusk condemns climate activist road blockades and pledges crackdown, Interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak also condemns the activists' "completely irresponsible and scandalous behaviour" and says new regulations could be introduced and that the road blocks will be fought ruthlessly
Denmark reinstates 1915 ban on flying foreign flags without special permission, Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard says the Dannebrog is the most important national symbol and should enjoy a very special status, exceptions made for the Nordic countries, Germany, Greenland and the Faroe Islands as well as allowances for specific contexts like sporting events and demonstrations
Over 100 000 soldiers have deserted the Ukrainian army, widespread exhaustion and demoralization among the soldiers where interviewed deserters say it is 50 Russian shells fired for each Ukrainian one and that the war seems unwinnable
EU will provide Ukraine an additional EUR 4.2 billion in December to support the country's budget and will start transferring EUR 1.5 billion monthly from frozen Russian assets starting in January 2025, the new President of the European Council António Costa says the money can be used for military purposes and adds that the EU is working on a 15th package of sanctions against Russia
The EU simplifies the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the EU Taxonomy, the decision is reported as a decisive pivot away from the last years' Green Deal program and to reflect rising skepticism about Europe's environmental regulations, the decision follows days after the re-election of Donald Trump who has promised to again withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and slash regulation
Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu wins first-round in the presidential elections with 23% of the vote, first time in the country's 35-year post-communist history that the Social Democratic Party PSD does not have a candidate in the second round, Georgescu who campaigned on reducing reliance on imports, supporting farmers and increasing the domestic production of food and energy has also argued against the EU and NATO and claims the Ukraine wars is manipulated by American military companies faces liberal Elena Lasconi in the runoff

North America

26-year-old Luigi Mangione arrested suspected of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel last week, is referred to as an anti-capitalist Ivy League grad who liked online quotes from Ted Kaczynski, was caught with a gun and a manifesto railing against US healthcare industry
Daniel Penny acquitted of criminally negligent homicide for subduing and holding down the mentally ill drug addict Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train in May 2023, dividing case as the 26-year-old former marine Penny is white and the former Michael Jackson impersonator Neely was black – forensic pathologist hired by the defense testified that Neely died from a combination of his schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana, sickle cell trait and the struggle from being restrained
Quebec Premier François Legault says he's looking at banning prayer in schools and other public places, comments that he wants to send a very clear message to Islamists that the province will fight against any disrespect of its fundamental values and that he definitely will not tolerate teachers bringing Islamist religious concepts into schools
Manslaughter charge against Daniel Penny dismissed, Penny restrained the mentally ill drug addict Jordan Neely who made threats on the New York subway in May 2023 and held him in a chokehold until police arrived, polarized debate regarding the case where Black Lives Matter protesters has taken Neely's side while others have praised Penny's efforts to protect others, charge of criminally negligent homicide remains where the maximum penalty is four years in prison
American right-wing pundit Nick Fuentes facing battery charge after allegedly pepper spraying and pushing a 57-year-old woman who confronted him at his home in Illinois regarding an abortion-related X post stating "Your body, my choice. Forever.", the woman had no visible physical injuries but watery eyes according to the police report, Fuentes personal information and pictures of his house began circulating on social media after the post went viral gaining 100 million views
Canada bans 324 more "assault-style" firearms affecting 14,500 guns, plans sending guns taken from retailers to Ukraine, announcement made on the 35th anniversary of a shooting in Montréal where 14 were killed and 10 injured, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc comments that honouring those killed in mass shootings means taking action on gun control
Dinesh D'Souza: My film 2000 Mules falsely identified people as ballot harvesters based on video footage provided by the organization True the Vote on false premises, I apologize for this but still stand by the film's basic message that there was systematic election fraud in the 2020 presidential election
Justin Trudeau promises Donald Trump to increase border surveillance, the promise follows Trump's threat to slap tariffs on Canadian imports unless the country prevents illegal immigrants and drugs from crossing the border, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc says they will redeploy personnel as well as adding additional drones and police helicopters
Joe Biden pardons his son Hunter Biden who was convicted of gun crimes and pleaded guilty to tax crimes, the president has previously consistently said he will not pardon the son, now says he hopes Americans will understand why a father comes to such a decision
Kash Patel nominated to be FBI director in the incoming Trump administration, is staunch critic of the FBI and the federal government in general, has said that the FBI headquarters should be turned into an exhibition of the crimes of the deep state

Latin America

At least 184 people killed in gang attack over the weekend in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, were accused of witchcraft after gang leader Jean Monel Felix' son fell ill and died, most of the killed were over the age of 60
Millions without power in Cuba after electrical grid collaps during Wednesday morning, follows string of countrywide blackouts, Energy Minister Vicente de la O'Levy says he expects the system to be back online by Thursday, shortages of food, medicine, water and electricity have lead to record-breaking numbers of Cubans fleeing the country in the past three years
Jair Bolsonaro will soon be charged with attempted coup, according to sources within the Brazilian police force, last week several military officers, including a brigadier general, were arrested on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Lula da Silva in connection with the alleged 2023 coup attempt
Argentine President Javier Milei fires Foreign Minister Diana Mondino after she voted in the UN to lift the US trade embargo against Cuba, 187 countries voted in favor of the non-binding resolution and the US and Israel voted against
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva suffers small brain hemorrhage after fall at home and cancels trip to BRICS summit in Russia, according to official statement he is be able to carry out work as usual but is advised to avoid long-distance air travel
Argentina the only G20 country that refuses to sign a feminist statement with a list of commitments written by Brazil, President Javier Milei will attend the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro in November, which will be the first time he will meet Brazilian President Lula da Silva
Armed members of the Gran Grif criminal gang kill at least 70 residents of the Haitian village of Pont-Sonde, including ten women and three infants, and 45 homes and 34 cars are said to have been set on fire, motive still unclear
The Dominican Republic announces plan to per week deport up to 10,000 Haitians who made it to the neighboring country after the recent lawlessness, according to the UN, the Dominican Republic sent back 200,000 Haitians last year
Venezuela plans to issue arrest warrants for Argentina's President Javier Milei, his sister Karina Milei and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich over the expropriation of state-owned aircraft at the behest of the US Justice Department, which claimed it actually belonged to Iranian airline affiliated with the terrorist-designated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Peru's former president between 1990 and 2000, Alberto Fujimori, passes away at the age of 86 from cancer, known for fighting communists and was forced to flee to Japan in 2000 after allegations of election fraud

Asia

India intensifies border surveillance after reports that Bangladesh has deployed Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones in the area, the development follows intelligence reports indicating increased terrorist activity along the border after the August fall of the Bangladesh government
Martial law declared in South Korea by President Yoon Suk Yeol, recinded 6 hours later after vote by parliament, Yoon claims the political opposition is engaged in anti-state activities and sympathizes with North Korea and that all forces opposing the state must be eliminated
Four members of Pakistan's security services killed as thousands of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's supporters break through government barricades in Islamabad, the protesters demand his release from jail and government resignation over rigged elections, Khan sentenced for graft and revealing offical secrets and faces more than 150 other criminal cases, the clashes follow a court decision to ban rallies in the city, arrests of more than 4,000 Khan supporters and suspended mobile and internet services
Ishiba Shigeru elected prime minister by the Japanese parliament in first run-off vote since 1994, becomes Japans 103rd prime minister, Ishibas ruling coalition recently lost parliament majority but the opposition failed to unite around one candidate, paving the way for Ishiba
North Korea's payment for sending troops to the Ukraine war reportedly includes 600,000 tons of rice and technology transfer to its space program, believed to have sent 10,000 soldiers to fight for Russia and is ready to send more
Robot successfully retrieves melted nuclear fuel from damaged Fukushima reactor for the first time, collected fuel piece weighs less than three grams and experts say TEPCO's plan to complete cleanup within 40 years is too optimistic
42-year-old blogger Duong Van Thai is sentenced to 12 years in prison in Vietnam for the crime of making, storing, disseminating, or propagating information, documents, and items aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, fled to Thailand in 2018 but is said to have disappeared from there in 2023
Kurdish PKK claims responsibility for Wednesday's terrorist attack on state-owned arms manufacturer TAI outside Ankara, Turkey, in which five people died, claiming the company's weapons have killed thousands of Kurds, including children and women
China holds military drills around Taiwan and Xi Jinping visits Dongshan Island where China stopped Taiwanese invasion attempt in 1953, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs says they seek peaceful reunification but will never commit to renouncing the use of force
Former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba is expected to become Japan's new prime minister after a vote in parliament next week after winning the Liberal Democratic party leadership vote with 215 votes to female challenger Sanae Takaichi's 194 votes

MIDDLE EAST

Africa

Burkina Faso's ruling military leader Ibrahim Traoré dismisses Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela and dissolves the government, Kyelem de Tambela was formerly the head of all three governments since the military coup in October 2022
Niger's military junta takes operational control of French nuclear group Orano's uranium mining unit, comes as Niger downgrades links with France while strengthening ties with Russia and Iran, recently invited Russian firms to invest in uranium and other natural resource production in the country
Kismayo Mayor Omar Abdullahi Mohamed accuses Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of treason and the president's images is removed from public buildings in Jubaland, the accusation follows Somalia requesting Interpol to issue a Red Notice for Jubaland President Ahmed Madobe on accusations of conspiring with foreign entities and undermining national security and Jubaland issuing an arrest warrant for Mohamud on accusations of treason and incitement to rebellion, underlying the dispute are long-standing disagreements where the semi-autonomous Jubaland has resisted centralization
The Botswana Democratic Party is no longer in power in Botswana for the first time since the country's independence in 1966 after challenger Duma Boko from the coalition Umbrella for Democratic Change won Wednesday's presidential election
The Muslim organization Boko Haram kills 40 troops of the Chadian military in the village of Ngouboua at Lake Chad on Sunday, President Mahama Idriss Deby launches Operation Haskanite with the aim of eliminating Boko Haram
Nigerian activist Leo Igwe with the organization Advocacy For Alleged Witches works to support those accused of witchcraft in several African countries, 33-year-old man Jude has received support after being accused of the disappearance of a 15-year-old boy's penis and thus lost his job at a bank
In order to operate in South Africa, Starlink needs to be 30 percent owned by "historically disadvantaged groups", which includes blacks, women, youth and disabled, the service can be accessed from most parts of the world but for the delivery of necessary products to customers, permission from the states is required
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine seriously injured after being shot in the leg by police outside the capital Kampala on Tuesday, street confrontations between him and the police is not unusual and in this case police say he had to no avail been advised against holding a street procession when he left a private event
Germany ends its military presence in Niger in Africa as the last 60 soldiers and equipment leaving, but the countries write in a joint statement that their military cooperation will not end, since 2016, 3,200 German soldiers served on air bases in the region
More cases so far in 2024 of people infected with monkeypox in Africa compared to all of 2023 and the World Health Organization calls for a meeting of its Emergency Committee, a new deadlier and more infectious strain of the virus is said to have been discovered in April in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Economy

Boeing whistleblower Sam Mohawk says thousands of faulty or nonconforming parts have gone missing and probably been used in production, 42 defect rudders missing, more than 200 reports from whistleblowers sent to the Federal Aviation Administration regarding Boeing over the last year
China bans US exports of gallium, germanium, antimony among other key high-tech materials with potential military applications in response to Washington's expanded list of Chinese companies subject to computer chip export controls, Beijing's Foreign Ministry comments that they lodge stern protests regarding the malicious suppression of China's technological progress and firmly opposes the illegal unilateral sanctions
Thousands of Volkswagen workers went on strike Monday, want a pay hike while the company plans mass layoffs and closing factories, Mercedes, Continental, Bosch, Ford, ZF and Schaeffler Group among other auto-industry companies planning large workforce reductions and cost-cutting
Berkshire Hathaway reaches record-high liquid assets of 325 billion USD, partly by selling two-thirds of its Apple shares, has been a net seller of stocks for eight consecutive quarters, actions believed to be partly due to Warren Buffett anticipating increased capital gains taxes
Google starts cooperating with the small modular nuclear reactor developer Kairos Power and says that the first reactor will be online in 2030, Microsoft and Amazon have also recently invested in nuclear power and OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman is already an investor in the nuclear power company Oklo
The 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics goes to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson for their research that concludes that colonialism 500 years ago still keeps countries poor and in economic stagnation, last year the prize went to Marxist feminist Claudia Goldin
Donald Trump first president to make a transaction with Bitcoin as he buys hamburgers and beer for supporters in the pub PubKey in Manhattan in New York, says it was very easy and that his son Barron has four wallets or something for cryptocurrencies
The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan in Asia reportedly has Bitcoin worth 27 percent of the country's annual GDP after mining the cryptocurrency with the its renewable energy resources
The Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by 0.5 percentage points, which is the first cut since 2020, Donald Trump says it is either political intervention or confirmation the US economy is doing much worse than indicated, while Chairman Jerome Powell justifies the cut saying it aims to limit the risk of a full-blown downturn
Google wins in the European Court of Justice and avoids paying a fine of EUR 1,5 billion after the European Commission accused the advertising giant of abusing its market dominance between 2006 and 2016 by preventing websites from using advertising brokers other than their own platform, AdSense, the company was recently sentenced in the EU court in a separate case for fines of EUR 2,4 billion

Technology

German defense company Helsing announces that the final versions of the HX-2 AI kamikaze attack drone are coming off the production line with 4000 to be delivered to Ukraine, the electrically powered drone which has a top speed of 220 kph and a maximum range of 100 km can be loaded with a variety of warheads depending on target and search and engage targets without a signal or continuous data connection
Embryo selection optimizing for intelligence for sale by US startup Heliospect, 50,000 USD buys analysis of 100 embryos, say left-wing activists who claim to have gone undercover and made video recordingste
Elon Musk reveals new version of Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus and says he thinks it will become biggest product of any kind ever, company also introduces self-driving taxis and busses
Two 2024 Nobel prizes to AI pioneers, Geoffrey Hinton och John Hopfield awarded physics prize for developing fundamental methods, Demis Hassabis och John Jumper awarded chemistry prize for creating AlphaFold which has contributed to solving protein folding problem
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, vetos bill SB 1047, regarding AI-safety regulations, after massive lobbying from Big-Tech in Silicon Valley
OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati as well as two other prominent employees are leaving the company on the same day and the board of the non-profit organization is considering giving CEO Sam Altman equity by starting a for-profit entity, according to an ongoing capital round, the company is valued at USD 150 billion
Encrypted chat app Ghost, which police say is used by criminals, is cracked by Australian police, the apps owner, 32-year-old Jay Je Yoon Jung in Australia, was arrested on Tuesday and police raids are being carried out simultaneously in Ireland, Italy, Sweden and Canada
SpaceX performs the first private spacewalk ever as 41-year-old billionaire financier Jared Isaacman and 30-year-old astronaut Sarah Gillis step out of the capsule at nearly twice the height as the International Space Station
Nasa announces that SpaceX spacecraft will bring home the two astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station since June, instead of Boeing's Starliner that took them there and was then deemed unfit to take them back, would have returned after eight days but now expected to return in February next year
The U.S. AI ​​Safety Institute under the US Department of Commerce, which was established after the Biden administration's executive order on AI in October 2023, signs cooperation agreements with OpenAI and Anthropic, which means that they will get access to new models before they are publicly launched

Science

This year's Ig Nobel Prize, which is given to unusual scientific achievements, is awarded to studies that concluded that mammals can breathe through the anus, that drunk worms are slower than sober ones, that hair curls on people in the northern hemisphere generally curl in the same direction as hair curls on people from the southern hemisphere and scaring a cow every ten seconds affects its milk but having a cat on its back does not
Aging increases at the ages of 44 and 60 according to a Stanford study published in Nature Aging that examined 108 people between the ages of 25 and 75 of various races for up to seven years by taking blood samples 2-4 times a year
With moderate confidence there is link between fluoride in drinking water and children's IQ according to US government report, the addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has, according to the article, long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century as the chemical element is good for dental health
Reservoirs of liquid water 11 to 20 kilometers beneath the surface of Mars may have been found by scientists, who have analyzed four years of data collected by NASA's Mars InSight lander, if extracted to the surface the amount of liquid water found could cover the planet in a 1-2km deep ocean
The European Space Agency is creating Lego pieces of space dust from a meteorite in northwest Africa using 3D printers, the phenomenon of so-called in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the main focus of the organization's office in Cologne, Germany and teamleader Aidan Cowley says we have to figure out how to build structures on the moon since we can't bring any materials there
Why males do not breastfeed despite biological possibility may be an evolutionary strategy to curb the spread of harmful microbes in mammals, according to a study using mathematical models by the University of York published in Nature Communications
Left-wingers have smaller and lower faces, with lips and noses oriented further down towards the chin compared to those with right-leaning views, according to research with 591 participants at Stanford University that shows that political beliefs and facial characteristics correlate
Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes map of moon in the scale of 1:2,500,000 which took 100 scientists more than a decade to compile
Researcher Nathan Cofnas is fired from Emmanuel College, part of the University of Cambridge, for violating its diversity and inclusion policies ​​when he argued that the number of black professors at Harvard would approach zero in a meritocracy and that they would not hold any high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment
Nobel laureate in physics 2013, Peter Higgs who predicted the existence of the Higgs boson in particle physics in 1964 which was later confirmed at CERN in 2012, dies at the age of 94, was born in Newcastle in 1929 and worked at the University of Edinburgh for almost all of his career