The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) announced on Monday that it has opened a formal investigation into potential corruption in the country’s military procurement contracts. MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki announced that the investigation was launched under Section 17(a) of the MACC Act of 2009, following a complaint filed by political activist Badrul Hisham Shaharin. [...]
Performative cruelty is an ancient practice, even though the phrase itself is new. Gladiatorial fights (Ancient Rome, c. 264 BCE–5th century CE) in arenas like the Colosseum were intentionally staged spectacles of violence, often involving slaves, prisoners, or volunteers fighting to the death. These public events, attended by massive crowds, promoted imperial power and Roman [...]
FBI Director Kash Patel announced Sunday that the agency will send a large number of investigators and resources to Minnesota to continue investigating a multi-million dollar fraud scheme that is said to have involved theft of federal food aid from children during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Patel, the investigation has so far …exposed sham [...]
China’s military deployed Army, Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force troops to conduct joint drills around Taiwan on Monday as a “stern warning” against Taiwanese independence. In response, Taiwan placed its forces on “high alert,” condemning China’s “irrational provocations” and asserting that the actions “undermine regional peace.” The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drills tested the [...]
A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Saturday sentenced 10 individuals to house arrest for plotting to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro in power following his defeat in the 2022 election. The decision, issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, came shortly after Paraguayan authorities arrested a former senior police official linked to the case. [...]
Italian authorities on Saturday arrested nine individuals on suspicion of raising more than €7 million for Hamas by misrepresenting the funds as humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza. The arrests follow a counter-terrorism and financial crimes investigation jointly conducted by Italy’s anti-terror police and the Guardia di Finanza, launched shortly after the Hamas attacks in [...]
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated Saturday that his country is engaged in a “full-fledged war” with the US, Israel and Europe, describing the multifaceted pressures on Iran as “far more complex and difficult” than the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The remark appeared in an interview published on the official website of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. [...]
A group of 21 Arab, African and Islamic nations on Saturday issued a joint statement formally rejecting Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as an independent state. The statement asserted that recognizing Somaliland as a nation independent of Somalia constitutes a grave violation of international law, emphasizing the “serious repercussions of such unprecedented measure on peace and [...]
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday condemned that day’s deadly mosque bombing in Syria, urging that those responsible be swiftly identified and brought to justice. The explosion tore through the Ali Bin Abi Talib mosque in the Wadi al-Dahab neighborhood of Homs during Friday prayers, killing at least eight people and injuring around 20, according [...]
A court in Moscow on Thursday convicted a pro-war activist and critic of Vladimir Putin, Sergei Udaltsov, of justifying terrorism, sentencing him to six years in a maximum-security prison. The ruling was delivered by the 2nd Western District Military Court, which found Udaltsov guilty over an article he published more than two years ago defending [...]
