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Nazarbayev acknowledges Tokayev’s triumph.On January 18, Kazakhstan’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev interrupted his prolonged silence and recorded an address to the nation in which he assessed the recent upheaval in Kazakhstan and, more importantly, attempted to refute rumors that it was caused by a split and disagreements in the country’s political elite. He reiterated that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has full authority, is the head of the Security Council and will soon be elected chairman of the Nur Otan ruling party. "So, there’s no conflict or standoff among the elite. The rumors on this subject are absolutely groundless," Kazakhstan’s first president...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Honduras next week to attend the inauguration of President-elect Xiomara Castro, the Central American country’s first female president. Castro, the leftist opposition party candidate, won out over the country’s ruling party in November. She will be inaugurated Jan. 27. She is the former first lady and her husband, José Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the army in a coup in 2009. She rode a wave of popular discontent with 12 years of National Party governance, which peaked in former President Juan Orlando Hernández’s second term.

Whether or not Vladimir Putin moves his troops into Ukraine, he has once again confronted Europe with a most painful reality: while being too weak to defend itself, it can no longer rely on the United States to come to its rescue. We are facing a reality in which Russia, despite its economy only having the size of Italy's, can bully and intimidate a continent thanks to its energy reserves and its readiness to project vast military power. Sure, any Russian invasion of Ukraine would cost Russia a fortune and likely degrade into a grinding war of attrition. Invasion is...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A smartphone app that’s expected to be widely used by athletes and others attending next month’s Winter Games in Beijing has glaring security problems that could expose sensitive data to interception, according to a report published Tuesday. Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group, said in its report the MY2022 app has seriously flawed encryption that would make users’ sensitive data — and any other data communicated through it — vulnerable to being hacked. Other important user data on the app wasn’t encrypted at all, the report found. That means the data could be read by Chinese...

Most Americans don’t realize it but the Mexican state is in serious trouble, and we won’t be able to ignore it for much longer. Video footage recently surfaced on Twitter showing C4 explosives being dropped by a drone near a town in Michoacán, Mexico, reportedly by members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, following hours of clashes between armed groups. In the video, a small explosion hits a woodland camp, a cluster of tents amid dense trees and dirt roads. Men scatter, running for cover. Another volley of explosives is released. When it hits, the camp erupts in flames. The...

Dulles, Virginia – A friend was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery this week. At 38-years old, natural causes claimed him too soon, but there is solace in knowing his memory is preserved in a place of earthly honor and his soul rests in eternal glory. A 16-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, GySgt Josh Miles was quietly patriotic and intensely engaged in serving his country and her citizens. Josh grew up on a ranch in New Mexico where he learned to ride horses and to take care of himself. He loved the sense of freedom offered by...

The Prime Minister has scrapped Covid-19 Plan B in England, ditching the use of face masks from next Thursday and telling people to stop working from home in a major announcement signalling the beginning of the end of coronavirus. - Work from home scrapped - Face with medical mask Masks no longer mandated - Hospital Care home rules relaxed - Covid passes now optional Boris Johnson ditches Plan B measures.

As fears mount over the possibility of another Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration stands at risk of being painfully reminded of the steep cost of American retreat. After last year brought the catastrophic combination of the U.S. pullout and Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, the start of 2022 has added insult to injury. On January 11, the U.S. announced $308 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan -- meaning that Washington is still paying dearly for its miscalculations in Kabul. In its quest to avert the next crisis overseas, the Biden administration should look no further than another embattled...

Boris Johnson is expected to face more questions about his leadership at Prime Minister's Questions, as the row over lockdown parties at No 10 continues. A group of the newest Conservative MPs are believed to be preparing to submit letters of no confidence in him, having met to discuss the issue on Tuesday. If 54 Tory MPs submit letters, it would trigger a leadership contest. Only seven are known to have done so, but one MP told the BBC they thought the threshold could be reached shortly.Another said there was now a consensus, and a leadership contest could come sooner...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly planning to do away with all COVID-19 laws in the United Kingdom as case numbers drop and the country learns to treat the virus like a seasonal flu. The government is considering ending all legally enforced policies in England and is instead moving to a guidance-based system, a source told the Daily Mail. Laws that have existed since the beginning of the pandemic, including enforced self-isolation after an infection, could come to a halt, the source said. Emergency COVID-19 laws put into effect at the beginning of the pandemic are already scheduled to...

Navy cyber is a ship without a rudder. While every other service has one cyber designator, the Navy’s cyber expertise resides in three seprate communities. As a result, the three communities are each plagued with unnecessary problems and none are fully empowered or capable of leading the domain. To solve this issue, the Navy must consolidate responsibility for cyber, invest in the cyber warfare engineer community, and require deep technical experience for all cyber roles.Leadership and management for Navy cyber is currently divided among cryptologic warfare officers (CWOs), information professionals (IPs), and cyber warfare engineers (CWEs). CWOs are ostensibly responsible...

Kazakh ex-leader’s relatives exit key government and business positions following nationwide unrest Nursultan Nazarbayev's relatives are exiting Kazakhstan’s public sector. Samat Abish, the nephew of the country's first president, was dismissed from the post of Deputy Head of the National Security Committee, and Nazarbayev's three sons-in-law left key posts in major government bodies and large energy companies. According to Kommersant, this large-scale purge indicates the dismantling of the previous power structure built under the first president of the country, but it is not ushering in reforms just yet. "The purging of state structures, large companies and funds from the Nazarbayev...

Olympic athletes must “exercise extreme caution” as they eat Chinese meat, which can be contaminated with the prohibited substance clenbuterol, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) warned last week. A WADA spokesperson said its guidelines for traveling athletes “only to eat at places given the all-clear by event organizers” in countries such as China remained in place, Olympic news website Inside the Games reported. It came after the German Anti-Doping Agency alerted its athletes to avoid Chinese meat at all cost and to seek an alternative over possible clenbuterol contamination. Concerns over contaminated Chinese meat have existed for decades, although China...

Sweden's Commander-in-Chief Micael Byden calls for calm after the recent escalated security policy situation in Europe. However. he warns of the situation if the West join Russia's list of demands. Then I will end up in a situation where I cannot solve my assignment, he says to SVT's Aktuellt on Tuesday. It does not pay to be worried now. That's what Sweden's OB Micael Byden says. I do not think that you should walk around and be worried, but we must be aware and understand how tough this situation is, he says. However, he warns of what could happen if...

Hong Kong officials are killing hamsters by the thousands after declaring the rodents responsible for spreading COVID-19. Meanwhile, in China’s mainland, the blame has been put on international mail packaging. As one of the world’s last major holdouts of a zero-tolerance approach to the virus, China is fanning unusual theories about the source of emerging COVID-19 clusters despite doubts from overseas experts over the likelihood of such claims. On Jan. 18, Hong Kong ordered 2,000 hamsters, chinchillas, rabbits, and other small animals to be “humanely” put down after a health check on the rodents found 11 to carry the Delta...

"[American leaders] don’t think the balance of power matters any more…. If you think we’ve had trouble with the Russians, just wait for the trouble we are going to have with the Chinese. I am very popular in China. I go to China quite often. I usually start my talks by saying, ‘It’s good to be back among my people.’ Because when I get to China I’m intellectually more at home there than I am in Washington…." PROFESSOR JOHN MEARSHEIMER, 2016 Will there be a war over Ukraine? Have recent negotiations opened a path to peace? Unfortunately, the diplomats have...

WASHINGTON — The White House believes Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine at any moment, press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday, warning that an “extremely dangerous situation” is building along the Ukrainian border. "We believe we're now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack on Ukraine. I would say that's more stark than we have been,” Psaki said during her daily press briefing.

The American way of life has been nearly destroyed over the past two years by a virus that came from communist China. Politically, economically, and socially, America has been devastated. As of this writing, 850,000 Americans have died. Why, then, is the U.S. Olympic team preparing to head to Beijing to participate in the Winter Olympics? If ever there was an Olympics that should be boycotted, this is it. The purpose of the quadrennial games is, or ought to be, to promote goodwill among nations while allowing athletes a stage where they can test their skills against world-class competition. No...

GENEVA (AP) — Athletes at the Beijing Olympics were urged by human rights activists Tuesday to avoid criticizing China because they could be prosecuted. The IOC has not yet publicly committed to how athletes who speak out would be protected, activists said in a briefing hosted by Human Rights Watch. “Silence is complicity and that’s why we have concerns,” said Rob Koehler, the director general of the Global Athlete group. “We know the human rights record and the allowance of freedom of expression in China, so there’s really not much protection.” The IOC has not responded to requests in recent...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Ukraine to meet with the country’s president and foreign minister amid heightened tensions between Kyiv and Russia. Blinken will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday “to reinforce the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Tuesday. Price noted that Blinken will also discuss "the Department’s efforts to plan for contingencies" with U.S. Embassy’s staff and their families. Blinken will later travel to Berlin, Germany to meet with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and hold a...