Author: Reginald Matthews

Moscow/Washington (13/6 – 29) We took a holiday from reality. Immanuel Niven, a mathematician and philosopher, has long been scrutinizing Russia’s economic landscape, and his recent assertions suggest a dire forecast. He contends that the “Putin system” is on the brink of collapse, a scenario he had mathematically foreseen as early as March. Niven points to the pronounced tax hikes announced in Russia, the most substantial in its modern history, as well as Putin’s recent rhetoric urging citizens to work as if they were at the front lines. These developments, Niven argues, are symptomatic of the escalating toxicity within Russia’s…

The president of Iran was on Sunday night feared dead after the helicopter he was travelling in crashed in a mountainous region. The lives of Ebrahim Raisi and Hossein Amirabdollahian, his foreign minister, were “at risk”, an Iranian official said during a large search and rescue mission. Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian interior minister, blamed the crash, which came just a month after Tehran launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack against Israel, on poor weather conditions. State media described the incident as an “accident”. The chief of staff of the Iranian military ordered the entire army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)…

On the first anniversary of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’s deadliest border war, marked in September, irascible Kyrgyz national-security chief Kamchybek Tashiev aired his frustrations at the slow progress in talks aimed at demarcating the disputed frontier. Tajikistan, said Tashiev, was making “territorial claims” against Kyrgyzstan in the talks. “But our answer is that there should be no such claims,” Tashiev fumed, noting ominously that Kyrgyzstan had found “new documents” related to the border. “Based on those, we know that many parts of Kyrgyzstan had been given to Tajikistan,” he claimed. “If [Tajikistan] does not renounce its territorial claims against Kyrgyzstan then…

Statistics from the Nepal Police Headquarters reveal that 35 police personnel, including staff up to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) level, have tragically committed suicide over the past seven years. According to the data provided by the police HQ, the breakdown includes one SSP, one Police Senior Sub Inspector (Senior SI), one Assistant Sub Inspector of Police (ASI), five Police Head Constables, 21 Police Constables, and two Police Office Assistants who took their own lives. Analyzing the figures over seven years, the incidence of suicides appears to be increasing annually. Two police personnel committed suicide in the fiscal year…

The coming election to choose the World Health Organization’s next chief of the South-East Asia Regional Office, or SEARO, has become contentious as the person who takes up that post could influence the health of billions of people. The daughter of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is one of two candidates for the SEARO position. Saima Wazed’s nomination has sparked controversy with many health experts calling it “nepotism,” and expressing concern over the election process to fill senior roles at the U.N. health body. A candidate for the SEARO post should have a “strong technical and public health background and…

Tech support scams are some of the most common methods of fraud, particularly targeting older demographics. Usually imitating a legitimate company’s customer service or IT department, tech support scammers trick victims into granting access to their computers, which they then use to extract payments. Last year, over 32,000 victims reported a cumulative loss of nearly $806.5 million stemming from just such fraud schemes. At least some reprieve may be coming for consumers, thanks to a collaborative effort by Microsoft, Amazon, and the Indian government. On October 19, India’s Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) announced the completion of Operation Chakra-II, which involved 76 raids targeting illegal call centers located within several states across…

Nepal’s telecoms market has become the latest to be affected by the ongoing tensions between the US and China, with the rollout of 5G mobile networks in the country now apparently under threat. 5G trials in a number of Nepalese provinces have been called off because state-owned incumbent Nepal Telecom has been unable to secure a permit to import equipment from China, The Kathmandu Post reported on Wednesday. The telco aims to use equipment supplied by Huawei and ZTE for 5G. Citing a company spokesperson, the paper reported that Nepal Telecom formally requested a licence to import equipment for the 5G trials…

NASA predicts that an asteroid approximately the size of our Moon will potentially collide with Earth in 159 years, with the impact being as powerful as 22 atomic bombs. While the likelihood is slim, there is a chance that asteroid Bennu could strike Earth by the year 2182. NASA’s calculations suggest that Bennu could impact Earth with the force of 22 atomic bombs. The asteroid was discovered in 1999 and has been closely monitored due to its considerable size, measuring 1,610 feet wide, and a small but possible chance of impacting our planet. Numerous internet videos depict the potentially catastrophic scenario of a…

Pakistan, home to more than 1.7 million people who have fled violence in neighboring Afghanistan, is launching a mass deportation of “illegal immigrants,” authorities said Tuesday. In a news conference, caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti announced a November 1 deadline for those residing in the country illegally to leave, after which “all law enforcement agencies would deport them,” he said. As of the end of 2022, Pakistan hosted more than 1.3 million registered Afghan refugees and 427,000 people in “refugee-like situations” from Afghanistan, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. But their presence in Pakistan has long been controversial, with police crackdowns and…

Moscow: Moscow said Monday that it had scrambled two fighter jets to intercept two US reconnaissance drones near Crimea. The Russian defence ministry said on Telegram that it mobilised the two jets after it “detected a flight in the direction of the Russian state border”. According to the ministry, the two US drones, a Reaper and a Global Hawk, were “carrying out aerial reconnaissance in the region of the Crimean peninsula”, near the Black Sea. Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. After the arrival of the Russian planes, the drones “changed their direction of flight and left the areas where aerial reconnaissance…