After Years Of Delays And Alarmingly Flimsy Evidence. Update: On October 19, 2021, Ola Bini’s trial was suspended by request of the Corporación Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CNT) whose representative was unable to attend the hearing. Later that year, a new date was set. The trial is set to take place from January 19 to 21, 2022. For over two years EFF has been following the case of Swedish computer security expert Ola Bini, who was arrested in April, 2019, in Ecuador, following Julian Assange’s ejection from that country’s London Embassy. Bini’s pre-trial hearing, which was suspended and rescheduled at least five […]
Expert
36 posts
Recently released data suggests there are fewer police officers per person in the United States that at any point in the last 25 years. The figures are from the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll. According to recent federal data there were 214 officers per 100,000 Americans in 2019, which represents a nine percent fall since 2007 when police numbers were at their peak. The figures come as the United States wrestles with the consequences of the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter campaign. Steven Howard, a former federal agent and weapons expert, told Sputnik: […]
A contentious scenario could play out if President Trump disagrees with assessments of his ability to perform in office, says John Fortier, former executive director of the Continuity of Government Commission. Trump is seen here preparing to leave the White House earlier this week for a fundraising event and campaign rally in Minnesota. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images A contentious scenario could play out if President Trump disagrees with assessments of his ability to perform in office, says John Fortier, former executive director of the Continuity of Government Commission. Trump is seen here preparing to leave […]
The heated and disorderly Trump-Biden debate this week undoubtedly made an impact on US voters’ perception of the two candidates. Verbal exchange aside, the presidential contenders’ body language had a role to play too, and appeared to speak volumes about their confidence. Dr Michelle Cohen, a psychological expert on communication, relationships, personal issues, body language, life coaching, life choices, profiling, and self-help guidance, believes that Trump’s body language was more assertive and emanated confidence, whereas Biden’s gestures and posture were humbler, yet the Democratic candidate had his “powerful moments”, too. Sputnik: Considering Trump and Biden’s body language, who was the leader […]
The argument that Mr Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning in 2010 to hide her identity in order to secure classified US documents is not supported by the evidence a 20-year-long US Army investigator told the Old Bailey on Friday. The conspiracy to commit computer intrusion charge levied against Julian Assange by the US government is not based on a reliable set of presumptions, the Old Bailey heard on Friday. Mr Patrick Eller, who served 20 years in the US Army, was Command Digital Forensic Examiner at the US Army Criminal Investigation Command headquarters in Quantico, Virginia. He has reviewed the computer intrusion […]
A US envoy’s rare visit to Syria’s mostly Kurdish-held al-Hasakah region and his promise that Turkey won’t interfere in NE Syria indicates that Washington is pushing ahead with the plan of unifying various Kurdish regional groups with the aim of dividing Syria and Iraq, Turkish security expert Abdullah Agar has said. On 21 September, US Special Representative Ambassador James Jeffrey travelled to northeast Syria and held separate meetings with the leaders of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as well as the delegations of the ongoing intra-Kurdish political dialogue. Following the summit with the Syrian Kurdish leaders, Jeffrey headed to Erbil […]
Sputnik talked to Emete Gözügüzelli, maritime law expert and Deputy Dean of the School of Law at the Northern Cyprus Branch of the Social Sciences University of Ankara, to discuss US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent visit to Greek Cyprus, its results, and its significance for key players in the region. As part of his visit to Cyprus, Mike Pompeo met with Nicos Anastasiades, the leader of the Greek Cypriot community. Following the meeting, the US Secretary of State said that the ongoing tensions between Greece and Turkey in the region wouldn’t solve the problems in the Eastern Mediterranean. “The […]
The number of COVID-19 cases in India is consistently rising, despite the enforcement of one of the strictest and most prolonged lockdowns on the planet. India has now topped Brazil with at least 4,562,414 cases. The US remains in the lead, however, with the highest number of infections: 6,589,020. India has seen a record surge in cases in the past several days, with a daily caseload expected to top 100,000. Community health experts have expressed concern over the surging cases and seek effective measures to slow the spread of the deadly disease. Sputnik talked to Professor K. Srinath Reddy, president of […]
Expert Tells Court, Charges Against Assange Are Unconstitutional By Mohamed Elmaazi, Sputnik News. September 10, 2020 Expert Tells Court, Charges Against Assange Are Unconstitutional2020-09-102020-09-10https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/09/assange1-e1599736622154.jpg200px200px Above photo: Mohamed Elmaazi. It is immaterial whether one considers Julian Assange to be a reporter because he was engaged in “journalistic activity” when obtaining and publishing classified US documents, the director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation told the court on day three of the WikiLeaks publisher’s extradition hearing. The US indictment against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange represents an “unconstitutional” threat to the First Amendment of the United States constitution and to press freedom more generally, Professor […]
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The fact that Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was put out of coma indicates that it was not Novichok nerve agent used against him in the event of his poisoning, Russian scientist Leonid Rink, who was directly involved in the development of Novichok, said. “I rule out his poisoning, because there are no symptoms. But even if a concentration 400 times less than the lethal dose was used, he would come out of a coma, but miosis [constriction of the pupil] would still be observed. There were no such symptoms here”, Rink said. According to the scientist, Novichok […]
Dr Jude Lal Fernando is assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin and is the director of Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice. He is also the coordinator of the People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka which found the Sri Lankan state guilty of genocide and USA and UK complicit in genocide against the Tamils. Dr Fernando explains in detail the colonial origins and geostrategic nature of Britain’s involvement in Sri Lanka and the significance of war crimes investigations opened up by the Metropolitan Police Service into the activities of the mercenary firm Keenie Meenie. Sputnik: Describe, briefly, the political context of Sri Lanka […]
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) CEO Kirill Dmitriev earlier revealed that Russia has already received preliminary requests for 1 billion doses of its vaccine against COVID-19 from over 20 countries. A decision by the Vietnamese Health Ministry to order from 50 million to 150 million doses of the Russian anti-COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V has become one of the hottest news stories in the country in recent days. The Russian Ministry of Health said that the vaccine supply depends on the progress and results of clinical trials conducted by the manufacturer. Moreover, the vaccine testing process in Vietnam before its mass use […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/10/1080183731_0:0:3019:1698_1200x675_80_0_0_bf2d82921fb5b467236faf911327e614.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/society/202008181080210221-thats-a-good-thing-more-infectious-covid-19-mutation-less-deadly-than-other-strains-expert-says/ The D614G mutation, a common strain of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus that has been found in Europe and North America and recently in parts of Asia, may be more infectious than other strains. However, it may also be less deadly, according to Paul Tambyah, the president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases. Some evidence suggests that proliferation of the D614G mutation correlates to a drop in death counts from COVID-19, Tambyah explained, Reuters reported. “Maybe that’s a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly,” Tambyah told Reuters, […]
by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio for VT Mediterranean Versione originale in Italiano «After that kind of mushroom-shaped cloud that is very reminiscent of nuclear explosions, the so-called “thermal rings” are visible in the videos in the following moments, which develop into an explosion only when it is caused from top to bottom and not when it is a simple blast from the ground. This makes it very probable that the explosion in the port of Beirut was caused by a bomb or a missile». This statement was made by a retired Carabinieri officer who, for obvious reasons, wants to remain anonymous. […]
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has lost its centrality in the eyes of the Palestinians as well as regional and international players, says a Ramallah-based expert, attributing the change in attitude to the rift between Fatah and Hamas and a number of global developments. Only a month ago, the Palestinian issue was grabbing headlines around the world, triggered by Israel’s plan to extend its sovereignty over parts of the West Bank. But as the initiative has been put on the back burner (for the time being), the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has lost its centrality, making room for other local and regional issues. In the […]
The massive blast that shook Beirut was likely caused by a fatal mishandling of hazardous materials, mirroring the explosion that leveled a fertilizer plant in France some two decades ago, a chemist and detonations expert told RT. Tuesday’s explosion tore through a port chemical depot and sent a towering fireball and mushroom cloud into the sky over Beirut, leaving more than 70 people dead and some 4,000 injured. Though US President Donald Trump has mused that the incident was an “attack” caused by “some kind of bomb,” Frolov – who heads the combustion and explosion department at the Semenov Institute of Chemical […]
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly bashed yet another White House public-health expert on Monday while touting an unproven anti-malarial drug, saying he took “exception” to coronavirus testing czar Brett Giroir dismissing hydroxychloroquine as an effective coronavirus treatment. Days after CNN cut short a Navarro interview after he kept repeating the racist phrase “China virus,” the network invited him on for yet another contentious segment that featured the combative Trump aide disseminating coronavirus disinformation. Navarro, who has been an outspoken proponent of hydroxychloroquine and has repeatedly attacked top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci for warning about the drug’s lack […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/07/18/1079975475_0:172:3072:1900_1200x675_80_0_0_128aadb3b9f02660928d906924124e1e.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/us/202007241079978010-us-must-follow-asia-europe-to-get-covid-19-baseline-to-nearly-zero-health-expert-fauci-says/ WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States needs to follow European and Asian nations and reduce its daily rate of new coronavirus cases to a few hundred, instead of easing restrictions at far higher levels, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Anthony Fauci said on Friday. “The European and Asian countries locked down at 95 percent”, Fauci said in an interview at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “The baseline was tens or hundreds of cases a day. We locked down to 50 percent of what we could have: We never went […]
In the course of government briefings, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has several times contradicted remarks made by US President Donald Trump on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, leading to reports from mainstream media that the two were involved in a rift. The White House denied reports that the country’s top disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been sidelined by the Trump administration. Several news outlets recently claimed that the White House had prepared a list of comments made by Fauci about the coronavirus pandemic in the US as a means of detailing times […]
A landmark white paper setting out a route for Britain’s Government to accelerate its drone industry and transform the UK’s capabilities has been presented to the parliament this week following unanimous industry support. Paul Cureton, a Senior Lecturer in Design at Lancaster University, looks at how drones and autonomous technology can transform regions in the future. Sputnik: How can drones change our cities and lives of citizens, in the future, post Coronavirus? Paul Cureton: Drones are changing the way we live dramatically already. Post-Covid, we’re seeing medical delivery trials, we’re seeing all sorts of experiments and new infrastructure being put in […]
The EU Foreign Affairs Council scheduled for 13 July promises to be most interesting and intriguing. Earlier it was reported that the EU may take additional steps against Ankara over the drilling in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said after his meeting in Brussels with EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Federica Mogherini that Turkey would retaliate if the European Union introduces new sanctions against Ankara. Hasan Unal, a political scientist from Istanbul-based Maltepe University’s Political Science and International Relations Department, commenting in an interview with Sputnik on the situation with EU-Turkey relations and their prospects in the […]
The U.S. killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a targeted drone strike in Baghdad. A U.N. investigator says the action violated Iraq’s sovereignty. Here, protesters in Tehran hold up an image of Soleimani during a demonstration on Jan. 3. Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg via Getty Images The U.S. killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a targeted drone strike in Baghdad. A U.N. investigator says the action violated Iraq’s sovereignty. Here, protesters in Tehran hold up an image of Soleimani during a demonstration on Jan. 3. Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg via Getty Images The U.S. […]
Israel is set to vote on a sovereignty bill on 1 July and while most of the world has slammed the move, some say the disputed areas of the West Bank have always belonged to the Jewish people, promised to them by the same global community that’s now questioning Tel Aviv’s actions. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to drop its intention to annex parts of the West Bank, a move that’s planned for early July. The UN chief made the comments to the Security Council on Wednesday, stressing that the move would be devastating for the two-state solution and […]
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has weakened over time and could eventually die out without a vaccine, a top Italian infectious disease specialist recently told British outlet The Telegraph. According to Professor Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at Italy’s Policlinico San Martino Hospital, the virus may have become less dangerous in recent months. “The clinical impression I have is that the virus is changing in severity,” he told the outlet. “In March and early April, the patterns were completely different. People were coming to the emergency department with a very difficult-to-manage illness, and they needed oxygen and […]
New Delhi (Sputnik News): The burden of COVID-19 has been spiralling unabated in India’s national capital, and following media reports, the Supreme Court of India has termed the situation in Delhi as “horrendous, horrific and pathetic.” An expert panel set up by the federal government on COVID-19 on Monday asked the Delhi government to conduct a large-scale serological survey involving sampling from more than 20,000 people to get a comprehensive assessment of the spread of the infection and draw up a comprehensive strategy. The expert panel headed by Vinod Paul, a member of the federal government’s official think-tank Niti Ayog, asked […]
Cairo will continue to lend its support to General Haftar, says an Egyptian expert, who stresses that his country is determined to curb the threat of terrorism emanating from Libya. Egypt is keen to maintain “partial relations” with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Libya’s Fayez Al Sarraj, the New Khaleej news website reported on Wednesday, citing a diplomatic source in Cairo. The anonymous official has also suggested that his country has stepped away from the previous unshakeable support it had given to General Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army, which has also enjoyed the backing of […]
A server wears a protective face mask while attending to customers amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Bethesda, Md., on June 12. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images A server wears a protective face mask while attending to customers amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Bethesda, Md., on June 12. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images Across the country, states are loosening the restrictions that had been put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19 — with varying results. New cases are decreasing in some states, including New York, Michigan and Colorado, while case numbers and hospitalizations have swelled recently in […]
The British government has released documents detailing parts of the relationship between the National Health Service and for-profit surveillance firms such as Faculty and Palantir and global consultancies such as McKinsey, following the threat of court proceedings brought by openDemocracy and Foxglove. Phil Booth, coordinator of the organisation medConfidential that campaigns for patient confidentiality and consent in Britain, explains the “devastating” revelations in the documents as well as what is still unknown about how the private information of millions of people is being handled. Sputnik: The last time we spoke you explained that NHS data was at risk from for-profit-surveillance firms. Since […]
India’s military activity on China’s border is related to the domestic political situation while China’s military drills in the northwest are a response to the situation in the Himalayas, including attempts by extremist forces to rely on US support, according to analysts. Chinese and Indian senior military officials agreed to peacefully resolve the situation in the border zone following consultations on 13 June. The move comes after tensions escalated in May, resulting in several skirmishes and the deployment of additional forces to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that roughly acts as the border between the two countries. India’s Foreign Ministry […]
Human Rights Expert Hopes COVID-19, Climate Change And Racial Injustice Are A ‘Wake-Up Call’ By Ilana Cohen, Inside Climate News. June 14, 2020 Human Rights Expert Hopes COVID-19, Climate Change And Racial Injustice Are A ‘Wake-Up Call’2020-06-142020-06-14https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/08/Seattle-Racism-Protest-holding-the-elephant1-150×112.jpg200px200px Above photo: The US is facing up to one elephant in the room, racism, will it face up to the climate crisis as well? New York University law professor and former U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, fears “a sort of crisis fatigue.” Philip Alston spent years at the United Nations confronting the vast societal injustices that have brought millions of demonstrators out […]
The morning after Tesla CEO Elon Musk called stay-at-home orders “fascist” and tweeted “FREE AMERICA NOW” in April, a professor of occupational health at the University of California San Francisco inserted himself into the dispute over reopening the electric car company’s Fremont plant. Dr. John Balmes sent an email to Dr. Erica Pan, Alameda County’s interim head of public health, that morning introducing her to Tesla’s corporate medical director, Dr. James Craner. The two men work together at UCSF, where Craner is also on the clinical staff. Balmes stopped short of an endorsement for reopening the plant amid the coronavirus pandemic. […]
Digital currencies could supersede bank accounts as low-interest rates make them increasingly obsolete. That’s the view of Massimo Buonomo, the UN’s global blockchain expert, who added that digital currencies, particularly central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), could soon “eliminate the need for a bank account” altogether. Speaking on an online panel discussing the future post-coronavirus global economic order on Thursday, Buonomo said banks and credit cards have long enjoyed a duopoly on digital payments, but the advent of digital currencies means users could sidestep them entirely. Low-interest rates, enforced by central banks to encourage more borrowing, may expedite the process, he said, […]
A new model predicts that almost a quarter of a billion people in Africa will be infected within 12 months without adequate measures to control the novel coronavirus’ spread. Between 4.6 to 5.5 million people could be hospitalised under this scenario, severely straining limited health resources. Nearly 250 million people could catch the novel coronavirus (COVID-19 aka SARS-CoV-2) across the African continent, with up to 190,000 of them dying if African countries don’t receive the support that they require. This is according to the latest peer-reviewed report by experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), due to be published soon in the […]
Denmark is “very unlikely” to be hit by a second wave of coronavirus, the country’s chief epidemiologist said on Tuesday. Kare Molbak made the statement after the government laid out plans for increased testing and a contact tracing system. The Nordic country, which has 533 coronavirus-related deaths, was the first in Europe to relax its coronavirus lockdown almost a month ago. The infection rate and the number of deaths have continued to drop. Denmark this week began a second phase of relaxing its lockdown which will include reopening of restaurants and shopping malls. “No country has seen an actual second wave […]
According to recent press reports, two Asian giant hornets—a species not known to occur in North America—were found in northwest Washington state in late 2019, and a hornet colony was found and eliminated in British Columbia. Now scientists are trying to determine whether more of these large predatory insects are present in the region. Entomologist Akito Kawahara explains for The Conversation why headlines referring to “murder hornets” are misleading. How common are these hornets in Asia, and how much alarm do they cause? The Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) is fairly common in many parts of Asia, where it is called the […]
Society 09:12 GMT 11.05.2020Get short URL Recent reports suggesting that Elizabeth II’s grandson was finding his new life “challenging” after his departure from the royal duties this March and that he was missing the army have prompted many to suggest that the ex-senior royal might have already started to regret his move to North America with Hollywood wife Meghan Markle. Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told Daily Star Online that former senior royal Prince Harry was probably willing to come back home to the UK already, following news that he had been “feeling out of place” in LA and could not believe […]