Britain needs to be prepared to defend itself in space, as future wars will be fought above the Earth using zero gravity weapons, says the UK Defence Secretary. In a speech on air and space power in the ‘age of constant competition’ Ben Wallace said China and Russia were already developing space-based weapons. Satellites, that … Read more
Russian agents may have deliberately discarded a bottle of the deadly nerve agent novichok, used in the assassination attempt of former spy Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury in a bid to undermine UK security, the High Court today heard. The claim was made during a legal challenge by the family of Dawn Sturgess, 44, who died … Read more
Families of the nine cross-country skiers who died in a mysterious mountain tragedy in Russia in 1959 have rejected the official explanation that they froze to death – claiming that a Soviet rocket was involved. The grisly Dyatlov Pass incident has sparked decades’ worth of rumours about aliens, yetis and links to the KGB, after … Read more
A tourist is stuck close to the crater of the highest active volcano in Eurasia with rescuers unable to reach him by foot or helicopter. The ailing man is stranded some 650ft below the rim of the giant 15,580 ft Klyuchevskaya Sopka in Russia‘s Kamchatka peninsula. Spewing volcanic activity and a melting high-altitude glacier is … Read more
A glamorous social media influencer has sparked outrage by chartering a helicopter to visit a hermit who has lived outside civilisation in Siberia all her life – putting her at risk of coronavirus or another modern infection. Agafya Lykova, 76, lives as if she was an 18th-Century peasant in the Siberian wilderness, in Russia, 150 … Read more
Matthew Vaughn, the brains behind the Kingsman films, hopes to turn its prequel — The King’s Man — into a spy franchise to rival the James Bond pictures. Vaughn’s terrific new movie, set during the start of World War I and starring Ralph Fiennes and Gemma Arterton, is due to open in cinemas on September … Read more
The European hamster is now ‘critically endangered’ and is just one step away from extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has warned. Once abundant across Europe and Russia, populations of the European hamster — Cricetus cricetus — have declined as a result of lowered reproduction rates. While female hamsters in the wild give … Read more
RUSSIA: Dmitry Borisovich Kratov, Chief medical officer at Butyrka Prison, mistreatment of Sergei Magnitsky RUSSIA Oleg Silchenko, Investigator in the Investigative Committee, mistreatment of Sergei Magnitsky RUSSIA: Gennady Vyacheslavovich Karlov, Investigative Committee of the Russian Interior Ministry, failed to investigate mistreatment of Sergei Magnitsky RUSSIA: Natalya Vinogradova, Deputy Head of Department of Ownership and Financial … Read more
India overtakes Russia to become country with world’s third highest number of coronavirus cases, with nearly 700,000 infections India’s health ministry said 697,358 cases have now been recorded The figure marks an increase of 24,000 new cases in the past 24 hours India is now the world’s third worst-affected country, behind US and Brazil By Afp … Read more
WHAT CAUSED THE HEATWAVE? The heatwave was triggered by the build-up of high pressures over Europe over the past few days, leading to the northward movement of warm air from Europe over the UK. ‘At this time of year southerly winds will always lead to above average temperatures,’ said University of Reading meteorologist Peter Inness. ‘Air from … Read more