Month: April 2023

China feels it has the “right to redefine the global world order,” Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei told AFP on Wednesday ahead of the opening in London of his first design-focused exhibition.  The show at the Design Museum features hundreds of thousands of objects collected by the Chinese artist since the 1990s, from Stone Age tools to Lego bricks, and draws on his love of artifacts and traditional craftsmanship.  The son of a poet revered by former communist leaders, Ai, 65, is perhaps China’s best-known modern artist and helped design the famous “Bird’s Nest” stadium for Beijing’s 2008 Olympics.  But …

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Turkey has closed its airspace to flights to and from an airport in Kurdish-administered northern Iraq, a top Turkish official announced Wednesday, citing an alleged increase in Kurdish militant activity threatening flight safety.  The airspace was closed Monday to flights taking off from and landing at Suleimaniyah International Airport, in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgic said.  The closure was a response to an alleged increase in the activities of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the city of Suleimaniyah, including its “infiltration” of the airport, Bilgic said in a written statement.  Bilgic said …

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The Russian official charged alongside President Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court for the alleged abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children said Wednesday that Moscow is “fully open” to cooperation in the interest of the children.  “Unfortunately, there is no official communication through official channels with Ukraine, although we are ready to work with the relevant bodies,” Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, told a meeting organized by Russia at the United Nations.   “We haven’t received a single request from their side, only completely unfounded accusations in the media and social media,” she said.  Lvova-Belova spoke by …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin charged Wednesday that Western intelligence agencies have helped Ukraine carry out acts of sabotage, as he urged his officials to mount a stronger response.  Putin spoke during a call with members of his Security Council that focused on efforts to shore up control of the four Ukrainian provinces that Russia claimed as part of its territory in September — a move that was rejected by most of the world as an illegal annexation.  “There are reasons to believe that the capabilities of third countries, Western special services, have been involved in preparation of acts of sabotage …

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International law enforcement agencies have seized a sprawling dark web marketplace popular with cybercriminals, Britain’s National Crime Agency, or NCA, said Wednesday, in a multinational crackdown dubbed ‘Operation Cookie Monster.’ A banner plastered across Genesis Market’s site late on Tuesday said domains belonging to the organization had been seized by the FBI. Logos of other European, Canadian, and Australian police organizations were also emblazoned across the site, along with that of cybersecurity firm Qintel. “We assess that Genesis is one of the most significant access marketplaces anywhere in the world,” said Rob Jones, the NCA’s Director General of Threat Leadership. …

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