Month: May 2019

First seed women’s tennis player Naomi Osaka of Japan has followed in the footsteps of her principle rival Serena Williams, winning her first-round game in three sets after desperately dropping the first one. Like Williams, who also needed three sets to book a ticket to the tournament’s next round, Osaka was forced to apply maximum…

Irish independent politician Clare Daly showed her support for jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the vote count for the European elections in Dublin on Monday, where she won a seat in the European Parliament. Daly wore a t-shirt reading ‘Free Assange’ as she waited for the votes to be counted and, after a close…

American logistics giant FedEx has apologized to Chinese tech firm Huawei after several of their packages were re-routed to the United States, where authorities are waging a broad campaign against the company. Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly said that the diverted packages contained “important commercial documents,” and that the incident had “undermined their confidence” in the…

When history of the present US-Iran stand-off in the Persian Gulf is written, future scholars may note how it was Tehran that saved the day from full-scale war by its responsible diplomatic outreach to regional neighbors. This weekend saw the usual feckless American vacillations resulting in even more military power being deployed in the Middle…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday appointed former finance minister Oleksandr Danylyuk as the top official of the body responsible for coordinating national security. The national security and defense council comprises ministers, senior lawmakers and top regional officials and is chaired by the president. Danylyuk pushed reforms and cooperation with the International Monetary Fund while…

The editor-in-chief of the Lithuanian branch of Russia’s Sputnik news agency was detained on arrival to the Vilnius airport and labeled “a threat to the national security” of Lithuania. He was deported back to neighboring Latvia. Marat Kasem himself told RIA-Novosti of his detention. The journalist said he has been banned from entering Lithuania for…

Trolls on the infamous 4chan forum are attempting to co-opt the innocent hashtag and turn it into a symbol of white nationalism called the “fashtag” — but don’t worry, it’s not a real thing, and you can keep hashtagging as normal. The 4chan pranksters are trying to trick social media users (and the media) into…

The ‘Russian oligarch’s niece’ at the center of the corruption scandal that brought down the Austrian government was actually a Bosnian student paid to set up the then-vice-chancellor, an Austrian tabloid claims. Austria’s government collapsed on Monday after a no-confidence motion in parliament ousted Chancellor Sebastian Kurz from power. The scandal began two weeks earlier,…

The United States walked out of a UN disarmament forum in protest after Venezuela took up the conference’s rotating chairmanship, insisting it would not participate in a conference led by a “rogue state.” “Whatever is discussed in there, whatever is decided, has absolutely no legitimacy because it is an illegitimate regime presiding over that body,”…

US swimming legend Michael Phelps has opened up about mental health problems he experienced in the past, revealing that he sought the help of a licensed therapist to battle depression and anxiety. In a series of twitter posts, the most-decorated Olympian of all time detailed his experience of overcoming his darkest days, saying that consulting…