World News

A Russia-linked crime group that attacked computer systems of companies worldwide has demanded $70 million paid in bitcoins to restore access.

While forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience in China has drawn worldwide condemnation, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been investing heavily in controversial research on using genetically modified pigs as a source of human organ transplantation, touting it as a “world first” achievement. And the cloning of pigs has long since entered “industrial scale.”

Iran’s only nuclear power plant has been brought back online, its manager said early Monday, after two weeks off-grid amid a power shortage and rolling blackouts across the Islamic republic.

Egypt’s irrigation minister said on Monday he had received official notice from Ethiopia that it had begun filling the reservoir behind its giant hydropower dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), for a second year.

Tropical Storm Elsa made landfall in Cuba on Monday, charting a course toward Florida after causing at least three deaths elsewhere in the Caribbean.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed there is “a window of opportunity” now for talks aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the French presidency said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday that most of the COVID-19 lockdown measures affecting England will be removed on July 19.

A day after rumors of an attack on US forces in Syria by pro-Iran militias, the militias made good on their threats with two rounds of attacks on the US in Iraq. During the afternoon, rockets targeted Al-Asad base and by the evening, drones were reported to have targeted an area near the US embassy.

Belarus accuses the United States and several of its allies of organizing a coup and says it has closed its border with Ukraine from where weapons allegedly arrive. The autocratic president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said the illegal arms deliveries were coordinated by Washington and some European nations.

Private Israeli intelligence group The Intel Lab released satellite photos on Saturday of what it said is damage from a reported drone attack on an Iranian nuclear facility last month.

Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot said Friday that Iran is nearer than ever to producing a nuclear weapon, while appearing to imply that America’s 2018 exit from the accord was a mistake.

A top Chinese virologist has been tied to at least two Chinese military scientists who collaborated with her on coronavirus research in the past, including one now listed as deceased, a report Tuesday said.

The European Union has formally launched its digital COVID-19 certificate, designed to make travel safe and easy for the fully vaccinated within its member nations — but at least one airline says the app has run into issues on its first day of use.

Iran has reportedly restricted the access of United Nations inspectors to its uranium enrichment facilities at the Natanz nuclear site, citing security concerns after what it alleges was an Israeli attack on the facility in April.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to the U.S. administration to “lift or waive” all sanctions on Iran as agreed under the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he expects the United States and Russia to launch new arms control talks by mid-July.

Most European troops have already pulled out of Afghanistan, quietly withdrawing months before the U.S.-led mission was officially expected to end — part of an anticlimactic close to the “forever war” that risks leaving the country on the brink of civil war.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its 1921 founding on Thursday with nationwide festivities and fanfare.

Russia’s capital is imposing new restrictions amid the surge of new coronavirus infections. The measures in Moscow come as elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the Balkans countries race to vaccinate their populations.

The Dutch Defence Ministry said Russian fighter jets repeatedly flew low over the ship and carried out “mock attacks” off the coast of Crimea last week.