NORWAY
Russia accused of hacking
Russia was behind a cyberattack launched against parliament in August, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Soereide said on Tuesday, an accusation Moscow denied. The parliament on Sept. 1 said that it had sustained a cyberattack the previous week and that the e-mail accounts of several lawmakers and employees had been hacked. “Based on the information available to the government, it is our assessment that Russia stood behind this activity,” Soereide said in a statement. The Russian embassy in Oslo said that the accusations were not backed up with evidence and were unacceptable. “We regard this as a serious deliberate provocation, harmful for bilateral relations,” the embassy said. When authorities announced the incident last month, they did not say who they thought was behind the attack. “The fact that we go out with an attribution is a strong signal ... from Norwegian authorities,” Soereide told reporters. “We cannot accept that parliament is the subject of such attacks.”
KAZAKHSTAN
Three blast off to ISS
Two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut yesterday blasted off on a high-speed journey to the International Space Station (ISS) in the first such launch aboard a Russian capsule since SpaceX’s game-changing debut manned flight from US soil. Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA’s Kathleen Rubins launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Their journey was the first manned flight to the ISS to last just over three hours before docking — a new fast-track profile that takes half the time of standard trips. Only an unmanned cargo ship had previously used the profile, which requires just two orbits of the Earth.
UNITED STATES
Pompeo defends detainees
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday defended the 12 Hong Kongers who were detained by China while allegedly trying to flee to Taiwan by boat in August, saying that they had “committed no crime.” “They simply believe that they are worthy of freedom and the unalienable rights due to every person,” Pompeo said in a speech from the Department of State delivered virtually at the John S. McCain Freedom Award Ceremony. “They aren’t alone in that belief. America stands with them.” The 12, some of whom are linked to protests and were facing charges in Hong Kong prior to their arrest, are being held in Shenzhen, China, where they await prosecution. Two are suspected of organizing an illegal border crossing, while the other 10 are suspected of entering Chinese waters illegally.
CANADA
Trudeau criticizes China
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said that China’s “coercive diplomacy,” repressive measures in Hong Kong and detention of Uighurs are counterproductive for itself and the rest of the world. Trudeau took aim at Beijing’s record as he marked the 50th anniversary of the nation’s diplomatic ties with China. “We will remain absolutely committed to working with our allies to ensure that China’s approach of coercive diplomacy, its arbitrary detention of two Canadian citizens alongside other citizens of other countries around the world is not viewed as a successful tactic by them,” he said at a news conference. He also mentioned Ottawa’s “concern for the protection of human rights and places like Hong Kong and ... with the Uighurs.” Former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have been held in China for nearly two years and have been charged with spying.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
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