Author: News Desk

Trade through Lithuania to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad could return to normal within days, two sources familiar with the matter said, as European officials edge towards a compromise deal with the Baltic state to defuse a row with Moscow. Kaliningrad, which is bordered by European Union states and relies on railways and roads through Lithuania for most goods, has been cut off from some freight transport from mainland Russia since June 17 under sanctions imposed by Brussels. European officials are in talks about exempting the territory from sanctions, which have hit industrial goods such as steel so far, paving…

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would respond in kind if NATO deployed troops and infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they join the U.S.-led military alliance. “With Sweden and Finland, we don’t have the problems that we have with Ukraine. They want to join NATO, go ahead,” Putin told Russian state television after talks with regional leaders in the central Asian ex-Soviet state of Turkmenistan. “But they must understand there was no threat before, while now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in kind and create the same threats for…

Bahrain ranked 1st globally in multiple subindices within Metas’ (Facebook) Inclusive Internet Index conducted by Economist Impact, including national female e-inclusion policies, female digital skills training & STEM education, open data policies, and privacy regulations. The Inclusive Internet Index 2022 measures whether the internet is accessible and affordable in each country and how much it enables social and economic mobility. It assesses the performance of 100 countries in four indicators of inclusion: availability (usage, infrastructure and quality), readiness (literacy, safety and policy), affordability (price and competitive environment), and relevance (local and relevant content). Dalal Buhejji, Executive Director of Investment Origination…

NATO invited Sweden and Finland on Wednesday to join the military alliance in one of the biggest shifts in European security in decades after Helsinki and Stockholm dropped their traditional neutrality. “Today, we have decided to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO,” NATO leaders said in their declaration, after Turkey lifted a veto on Finland and Sweden joining. Ratification in allied parliaments is likely to take up to a year, but once it is done, Finland and Sweden will be covered by NATO’s Article 5 collective defence clause, putting them under the United States’ protective nuclear umbrella.…

A missile strike killed at least three people in a residential building in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday as Russian forces intensified their attacks on multiple fronts. In the east, the governor of Luhansk province said there was “fighting everywhere” in the battle around the city of Lysychansk, which Russian troops were trying to encircle. The governor of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine said Russian shelling had increased there too in the past few days. “Several villages have been wiped from the face of the earth,” Oleksander Vilkul said. The stepped-up attacks took place as Russian President…

Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his presidential limousine on Jan. 6, 2021, when his security detail declined to take him to the U.S. Capitol where his supporters were rioting, a former aide testified on Tuesday. The then-president dismissed concerns that some supporters gathered for his fiery speech outside the White House that day carried AR-15-style rifles, instead asking security to stop screening attendees with metal-detecting magnetometers so the crowd would look larger, the aide testified. “Take the effing mags away; they’re not here to hurt me,” Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a top aide to Trump’s then-White…

The nosedive in cryptocurrency markets has wiped out millions of dollars in funds stolen by North Korean hackers, four digital investigators say, threatening a key source of funding for the sanctions-stricken country and its weapons programmes. North Korea has poured resources into stealing cryptocurrencies in recent years, making it a potent hacking threat and leading to one of the largest cryptocurrency heists on record in March, in which almost $615 million was stolen, according to the U.S. Treasury. The sudden plunge in crypto values, which started in May amid a broader economic slowdown, complicates Pyongyang’s ability to cash in on…

Sweden and Finland on Wednesday looked set for fast-track membership of NATO after Turkey lifted a veto on them joining, at a summit where the U.S.-led alliance is due to adopt a broad strategy focused on Russian and China for the next decade. After talks in Madrid, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday agreed with his Finnish and Swedish counterparts a series of security measures to allow the two Nordic countries to progress in their bid to join the U.S.-led alliance. “We will make a decision at the summit to invite Sweden and Finland to become members,” NATO Secretary-General Jens…

NATO allies will continue to supply Ukraine with weapons in its war against Russia for as long as necessary, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Madrid on Wednesday. “It is good that the countries that are gathered here but many others, too, make their contributions so Ukraine can defend itself – by providing financial means, humanitarian aid but also by providing the weapons that Ukraine urgently needs,” Scholz told reporters as he arrived for the second day of a NATO summit. “The message is: We will continue to do so – and to do this intensively – for as long…

The 19th meeting of the Bahraini-Egyptian Joint Military Cooperation Committee concluded. The meeting was co-chaired by BDF’s Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations Major General Ghanim Ibrahim Al Fadala and Egypt’s Assistant Minister of Defense for Operations Major General Staff Mohammed Abdellah Abdulmawla. Ways to strengthen defence cooperation between Bahrain Defence Force and the Egyptian Armed Forces were reviewed at the meeting.