Author: Serapheim Baroulis

Suspects allegedly interfered with EU Sakharov Prize nominations to help foreign governments, leaked police files suggest. The EU’s highest honor for human rights work was targeted by an allegedly corrupt network operating on behalf of foreign governments at the heart of the European Parliament, according to a cache of leaked documents. The annual Sakharov Prize was among the aspects of parliamentary work mentioned in a file where one of the key suspects logged activities that were allegedly part of the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the EU’s Parliament. The award, which hands €50,000 to an individual or group that has…

The cybersecurity agencies of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand) issued a warning on Tuesday that hackers were increasingly exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities to access their targets’ networks. It marks a significant departure from similar advisories issued in 2022 and 2021, when the agencies warned that malicious cyber actors were exploiting older software vulnerabilities more frequently than recently disclosed ones. In a co-authored advisory, the agencies list the top 15 most routinely exploited vulnerabilities of 2023, with CVE-2023-3519 — an issue affecting Citrix’s networking product NetScalers — being the most widely used. Reports around the time…

“They were plotting to kill a huge number, tens of thousands of people at this concert, I am sure many Americans,” CIA Deputy Director David S. Cohen said “Tens of thousands” of fans were the target of a thwarted terrorist attempt at Taylor Swift’s recent Vienna shows, a CIA official told reporters on Wednesday, Aug. 28. CIA Deputy Director David S. Cohen shared new details of the thwarted terror plot that canceled all three of the 34-year-old pop star’s planned Eras Tour concerts in Austria earlier this month during the annual Intelligence Summit just outside Washington, D.C., reports The New York Times and NBC News. “They…

Washington/Vienna/Berlin (10/8 – 45.45)After a tip-off by U.S. intelligence officials and only a few hours left Austrian police made swift arrests. The plot seems too bizarre not to be true. Abul Baraa, aka Ahmad Armih, the German based hate-preacher in Berlin radicalized via Tik-tok or Istagram a 19-year Beran A. to swear the oath of alliance to the Islamic State. After a tip-off by U.S. intelligence officials and only a few hours left Austrian police made swift arrests. The plot seems too bizarre not to be true. Abul Baraa, aka Ahmad Armih, the German based hate-preacher in Berlin radicalized via…

Kyiv (8/07 – 62.5) Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv was hit in renewed strikes by Russian terror attacks with rockets against Ukrainian targets. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 41 civilians dead, seven of them children, and many others were injured. Search parties combed the debris and continued to look for the killed and injured. Volunteers are searching for the destroyed children hospital on the ground. Nurses and doctors are working to save and evacuate patients and visitors. Cries of young patients are heard rising from the debris with emergency services not reaching them. The Russian terror attack comes…

Polls show that a large percentage of Israeli citizens have lost faith in the future of their nation Major General (Reserve) in the Israeli Army, and former ombudsman for the occupation forces, Yitzhak Brick, has sounded an alarm over the growing inefficacy of the country’s army to win a possible war. Warning that the Israeli occupation forces have turned into an “air force army,” Brick criticized the leadership in Tel Aviv for their “sensitivity” towards human losses on the ground. “Whoever wants to completely avoid losing on the battlefield, completely loses the deterrence of the army and the ability to…

Russian House in Dhaka (formerly the Russian Cultural Centre), in cooperation with the National Museum and the Liberation War Affairs Academy, organized an event dedicated to Bangladesh’s 53rd anniversary of independence, ahead of Independence Day on March 26. At the beginning of the ceremony, a minute’s silence was observed to pay respect to the memory of all the martyrs of the Great War of Liberation and to express sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the tragic terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow on March 22. Twenty-six freedom fighters from different districts of Bangladesh…

Kiev, London (25/3 – 50) Kiev is being bombed by the Russians, but despite the dangers the indiscriminate bombing brings, Ukrainians have their humor, and a bit of the “so what” attitude. Let’s call her Maria, because we don’t know her correct name and we don’t want to endanger the young coffee aficionado to targeted Russian attacks targeting the Ukrainian spirit of everything can be fixed with a good cup of coffee. The young Ukrainian barista keeps working despite today’s Russian missile strike destroying large parts of her cafe. “They won’t be able to break us,” Maria tells the reporter…

As Congress continues to delay aid and Volodymyr Zelensky replaces his top commander, military experts debate the possible outcomes. Long before it was reported, at the end of January, that Volodymyr Zelensky had decided to replace his popular Army chief, Valery Zaluzhny, the Ukrainian counter-offensive of 2023 had devolved from attempted maneuvers to mutual recriminations. The arrows pointed in multiple directions: Zelensky seemed to think that his commander-in-chief was being defeatist; Zaluzhny, that his President was refusing to face facts. And there were arguments, too, between Ukraine and its allies. In a two-part investigation in the Washington Post, in early December, U.S. officials…

Giant portraits of President Emomali Rahmon adorn even the most nondescript buildings in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe. Throughout the country, his sayings are featured on posters and billboards. Their ubiquitous presence underscores the consolidation of power by Rahmon – officially described as “Founder of Peace and Unity, Leader of the Nation” – since he emerged victorious from the 1992-1997 Tajikistan civil war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. After three decades in power, he has established himself as an absolute ruler with no tolerance for dissent. Rahmon’s bid to centralize control includes efforts to silence political opponents, human rights activists, and independent…