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Russian man rescued alive after almost 10 weeks adrift in sea off Siberian coast

A Russian man has been rescued after 67 days adrift on a small boat in the bitterly cold Sea of Okhotsk, Russian authorities said Tuesday.

The man’s brother and his teenage son died in the ordeal, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti, who named the survivor as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin.

Video of the rescue released by Russian prosecutors shows a bearded man in an orange lifejacket floating on a small catamaran-type vessel with a red flag raised on a pole, as emergency responders work to reach him.

The Sea of Okhotsk is mostly enclosed by Russia’s eastern Siberia and the Kamchatka Peninsula. It usually freezes over between October and March, and it ranks as the coldest sea in East Asia.

Two adult men and the 15-year-old son of one of them set off on the catamaran on August 9, prosecutors said.

“After some time, contact with them was lost, their location remained unknown,” a spokesperson for Russia’s far eastern transport prosecutor’s office, Elena Krasnoyarova, said.

“On October 14, around 22:00 the catamaran was spotted by a fishing boat passing in the Sea of Okhotsk near the Ust-Khayryuzovo settlement in the Kamchatka region,” she added.

Prosecutors said they are still working to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and investigating charges of water traffic safety violations, resulting in the death of two or more people through negligence.

The rescued man’s wife told Russian state media that his weight could have played a role in his survival, given he weighed about 220lbs (100 kg). She told RIA that Pichugin and his late brother and nephew had enough food to last for about two weeks.

Pichugin will be taken to a hospital for medical treatment in the town of Magadan, in Russia’s far east, RIA reported.

He is “in serious condition, emaciated, but conscious,” the director of the fishing company that stumbled upon the adrift boat told RIA.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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CNN Heroes 2024 Voting Disclosures

Eligible votes must be submitted using a verifiable email or Facebook account. Limit of 10 votes per day. Votes exceeding the limit will not be counted.

For additional information and details please see the full Legal Disclosures at https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/world/cnn-heroes-legal-disclosures-2024

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Hoax bomb threats to Indian airlines force emergency landing in Canada and fighter jets to scramble in Singapore

Twin bomb threats hit Indian airliners on opposite sides of the globe on Tuesday, forcing an emergency landing in the Arctic and fighter jets to scramble in Asia – the latest in a series of similar hoax scares for the country’s airlines.

Indian airlines have faced “a number of threats in recent days,” all of which have been found to be hoaxes, flag carrier Air India said in a statement Tuesday, as authorities in New Delhi and around the world investigate the string of false bomb warnings.

On Tuesday, an Air India flight from New Delhi to Chicago made an emergency landing in Iqaluit, Canada’s northernmost city. All 211 passengers and crew were relocated to the airport, Canadian police said.

Air India flight 127 was the “subject of a security threat posted online” and diverted “as a precautionary measure,” the airline said.

In a separate incident Tuesday, Singapore scrambled two Air Force F-15 fighter jets to escort an Air India Express passenger plane away from populated areas before landing at the city state’s Changi Airport, the Singaporean defense minister said on social platform X.

Flight AXB684 was enroute to Singapore from the southern Indian city of Madurai when the airline received an email that there was a bomb onboard, minister Ng Eng Hen said.

The threat prompted Singapore to activate its ground-based air defense systems and explosive ordnance disposal, and the plane was handed to airport police upon arrival, Ng said, adding that investigations are ongoing.

Multiple flights by Indian carriers have been delayed or diverted due to false bomb threats since Monday. They include domestic flights on low-cost airlines as well as international flights. The threats have appeared to come from emails or social media posts.

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet also said it received a bomb threat to a flight to Mumbai from the northern city of Darbhanga on Tuesday.

“The aircraft landed safely at Mumbai Airport and was directed to an isolation bay as a precautionary measure,” SpiceJet said in a statement, adding that after security checks the flight was cleared for further operations.

Though it remains unclear whether the threats are connected, or what the motive may be, Air India said they could not be dismissed.

“As a responsible airline operator all threats are taken seriously,” the airline said, adding it was working with authorities to ensure the perpetrators are “held accountable for the disruption and inconvenience caused to passengers.”

The Air India emergency landing in Canada comes as tensions rise between the two countries after Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner, on Monday.

Canada has accused agents of the Indian government of being linked to homicides, harassment and other “acts of violence” against Sikh separatists in the country. India called the accusations “preposterous” and in turn expelled six Canadian diplomats.

While there is no indication that the bomb hoaxes are linked to the diplomatic spat, threats to Air India flights in Canada have revived painful memories of the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182 by Sikh extremists, the worst terrorist attack in Canada’s history. The flight from Montreal to New Delhi exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board, including more than 250 Canadians.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Russia defense chief touts ‘common understanding’ with China in Beijing talks

Chinese and Russian defense officials vowed to strengthen their cooperation during meetings in Beijing this week – in the latest sign of deepening alignment between the neighbors that’s been closely watched by the US and its allies.

The two countries have “common views, a common assessment of the situation, and a common understanding of what we need to do together,” defense chief Andrey Belousov told Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, according to Russian state media Tass.

Their task is to “strengthen and develop” their strategic partnership, the Russian defense chief added.

The visit has been cited by Russian state media as Belousov’s first to China since his appointment in May and comes days ahead of an expected visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Russia.

Russia and China have been bolstering their security coordination in the face of shared frictions with the West. That’s included ramping up joint military drills in recent months – part of what experts say is an effort to signal to Washington that, while the two are not allies, neither stands alone.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Zhang repeated rhetoric voiced by Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for the two militaries to “deepen and expand military-to-military relations, safeguard their respective national sovereignty, security and development interests, and jointly safeguard international and regional peace and stability,” according to a readout from China’s Defense Ministry.

Belousov also held talks a day earlier with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun, who ranks below Zhang in China’s military hierarchy.

The Russian defense chief’s trip comes ahead of an expected visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Kazan, Russia next week for a summit of BRICS, an economic grouping Moscow and Beijing see as their answer to the US-backed Group of Seven (G7).

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not confirmed Xi’s travel plans, but the Kremlin last month quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as confirming the leader’s attendance. The trip would be Xi’s second to Russia since Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the fifth face-to-face with Putin in the same period.

Regular high-level diplomacy and increased security coordination between China and Russia have come under close scrutiny from the US and its allies, who have accused Beijing of enabling Russia’s war through the provision of dual-use goods like machine tools and microelectronics.

Joint patrols

Beijing has defended what it calls its “normal trade” with Russia and claims neutrality in the conflict. The two countries reached record levels of trade last year as China emerged as a key economic lifeline for Russia, which is strapped by war-related international sanctions.

In recent weeks, Chinese and Russian coast guards conducted what Beijing described as their first joint patrol in the Arctic Ocean, while their navies separately practiced anti-submarine warfare in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, Russian state media said.

The patrol followed a raft of joint exercises over the summer, including near Alaska – where US and Canadian forces intercepted Russian and Chinese bombers together for the first time – and in the South China Sea, a vital waterway claimed almost entirely by Beijing in which geopolitical tensions are rapidly rising.

Belousov’s arrival in Beijing Monday coincided with China’s military flying a record number of fighter jets and other warplanes around Taiwan during large-scale military drills.

China said the drills were intended as a “stern warning” to what it described as pro-independence forces in Taiwan. The drills came days after the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, gave a speech vowing to protect Taiwan’s sovereignty in the face of challenges from Beijing, which claims the self-ruling democracy as its own.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Iran, Russia and North Korea changed cyber attack tactics in the last year, says Microsoft

Microsoft users face more than 600 million cyber attacks every day, partly fuelled by a growing trend of cyber crime gangs working with nation states, according to a new report by the company.

In this year’s Digital Defence report, Microsoft said countries like Russia, Iran and North Korea have changed how they worked in the last year, including starting to experiment with AI.

“We must find a way to stem the tide of this malicious cyber activity,” said Tom Burt, the company’s vice president of customer security and trust.

“That includes continuing to harden our digital domains to protect our networks, data, and people at all levels.”

Russia appears to have “outsourced” some of its cyber espionage to criminal gangs, especially around its spying in Ukraine, and in June, a suspected cyber crime group managed to compromise at least 50 Ukrainian military devices.

In North Korea, a new piece of ransomware tech was developed called FakePenny, which Microsoft says the country used against defence and aerospace organisations.

Iran “placed significant focus on Israel” and is accused of hacking Israeli dating sites. Cyber criminals working for the country then allegedly offered to remove specific users from their hacked databases for a fee.

The number of ransomware attacks around the world more than doubled in the last year, according to the report, with hackers tending to use email, SMS and voice scams to try and access users’ information.

The use of artificial intelligence in cyber attacks also increased in the last year, with criminals linked to Russia and China using AI-generated content to try and trick users.

However “so far, we have not observed this content being effective in swaying audiences,” said Mr Burt.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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Starmer urged to support ban on smartphones in schools to stop children ‘doom-scrolling’

Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to support a new law to ban smartphones in schools to stop children “doom-scrolling” – after Number 10 refused to back the plan.

New Labour MP Josh MacAlister is calling for the government to make legal changes to make social media and smartphones less addictive for children and to “empower” parents and teachers to curb screen-time.

The former teacher introduced his Safer Phones Bill on Tuesday which has received backing from cross-party MPs as well as education unions, charities and current and former children’s commissioners.

Politics latest: Downing Street won’t deny PM met Taylor Swift

One of the key tenets is legally banning smartphones from schools but Sir Keir’s spokesman said the government has “no plans to legislate” that as headteachers can already ban phones from classrooms, although they have no legal backing.

Sir Keir’s spokesman said the bill “won’t go ahead”, but Health Secretary Wes Streeting separately indicated some support for the bill as he said “this is a really timely debate”.

Mr MacAlister said he is not perturbed and told Sky News: “This is a campaign of persuasion.”

As part of the bill, he is calling for:

• Raising the age of “internet adulthood” (the minimum age to create social media profiles, email accounts, etc) from 13 to 16
• Legally banning smartphones from classrooms
• Strengthening Ofcom’s powers to protect children from apps designed to be addictive
• Committing government to review further regulation if needed of the design, supply, marketing and use of mobile phones by children under 16

Current guidance to schools in England intended to stop the use of mobile phones during the school day is non-statutory, and was introduced earlier this year by the previous Tory government. The bill would make it a legal requirement.

Mr MacAlister, who chaired an independent review of children’s social care for the former government, said there was a “huge public health problem” with children around the world having increasing levels of mental health problems, issues with sleep and being impacted by phones in school.

“I’m only interested in one thing, which is making sure we can change the law to protect children and reduce screen time and get them back to having a healthier childhood,” he said.

“Parents are saying they’re facing an impossible choice between either keeping their kids off smartphones and ostracising them or letting children get on these phones and seeing all the harmful effects that it can cause.

“And we need to shape some collective rules that help parents and teachers make better choices for children.

“Children themselves are recognising the harm that comes with all of the doom-scrolling.”

Doom-scrolling is the act of spending an excessive amount of time online consuming negative news or social media content, often without stopping.

Mr MacAlister denied imposing a law would turn the UK into a “nanny state”, saying governments “do have a role to play” to set the rules for big tech companies.

And he said if the government fails to act, calls for a complete smartphone ban for children “will only grow”, which will make it tougher for the tech industry.

“So I’d say to them directly, get on board, engage with this, shape the regulation, help protect children and you will be operating in a UK market, which means you can keep the public onside with all the brilliant work that the tech industry does do without putting children at risk,” the MP said.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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Secret tomb containing remains of 12 skeletons discovered at Petra site in Jordan

Archaeologists have discovered a secret tomb at the Treasury monument in Petra, Jordan – one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

A long-buried tomb containing the remains of 12 ancient skeletons and grave offerings were found beneath the monument after research teams used remote sensing technology.

The discovery comes more than two decades after similar tombs were found on the other side of the famous monument, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts more than a million visitors a year.

The Treasury sits as the centre of an entire city carved by hand into the walls of a desert canyon by the Nabataean people about 2,000 years ago.

It is still not clear what its true purpose is.

British and American researchers from the University of St Andrews, the Jordanian Department of Antiquities and the American Center of Research had been given permission to conduct remote sensing in and around the monument.

They were aiming to assess the condition of the areas around the site using electromagnetic conductivity and ground penetrating radar – but ended up making a much more exciting discovery.

When the survey found what appeared to be underground chambers, the researchers carried out an excavation and found the tomb.

One of the skeletons discovered was grasping the top part of a broken jug that most likely dates to the first century BC.

Richard Bates, a geophysicist and professor at the University of St Andrews, told Sky News’ partner network NBC News the remains most likely include both men and women and range in age from children to adults.

The researchers believe the discovery could provide new insight into the Treasury and the people of the Nabataean Kingdom.

“The discovery is of international significance as very few complete burials from the early Nabataeans have ever been recovered from Petra before. The burials, their goods, and the human remains can all be expected to help fill the gaps of our knowledge in how Petra came to be and who the Nabataeans were,” Professor Bates said.

Archaeologists found the walls within the tomb were dated to between the mid 1st century BC and the early 2nd century AD.

The excavation of the newly revealed tomb was featured in a two-part episode of the American reality television series Expedition Unknown that aired on Discovery Channel.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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XEC COVID variant: How dangerous is it?

The new COVID variant XEC has been found by UK health experts as they prepare for winter, when cases tend to increase.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has highlighted a slight increase in hospitalisations amid COVID patients recently, with the admission rate at 4.5 per 100,000 people in the week to 6 October, up from 3.7 a week prior.

It is the fourth weekly rise in a row – and this, mixed with the UKHSA finding some XEC cases – has led to plenty of news coverage about the new variant.

It comes as a number of analysts on social media have tipped XEC to become the dominant strain and fuel a winter wave – but is it more of a threat than others?

The reality is that while the UKHSA is urging people to protect themselves from COVID generally, it has not “sounded the alarm” on XEC.

It has acknowledged that people may be concerned about new variants, adding around one in 10 of new cases it has analysed shows XEC lineage.

“Current information doesn’t suggest we should be more concerned about this variant but we are monitoring this closely,” says Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA.

What we know about XEC

XEC, like many other variants, is a part of the Omicron family.

It was first found in May, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which says it is a so-called recombinant of two other strains – KS.1.1 and KP.3.3 – meaning that genetic information was exchanged between them to form a third strain, XEC.

In its last COVID update on 9 October, the WHO said XEC was one of only two variants that was showing “increasing prevalence globally” between 19 August and 15 September – but it was still only responsible for a small percentage of cases, with KP.3.3 responsible for almost half of the cases worldwide.

In the UK, XEC was identified in 9.35% of COVID cases in samples taken by the UKHSA between 2 September 2024 and 15 September 2024, while 59.35% were identified as KP.3.3.

What are the symptoms of XEC?

No health organisations have listed any symptoms specific to XEC.

It is said to have the same symptoms as other COVID variants, including:

• a high temperature
• a new, continuous cough
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
• shortness of breath
• feeling tired or exhausted
• an aching body
• a headache
• a sore throat
• a blocked or runny nose.

Health authorities advise staying at home and avoiding contact with other people if you or your child have symptoms.

How can you protect yourself?

While the UKHSA isn’t sounding the alarm on XEC specifically, it is expecting COVID to circulate more in the winter, along with flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), calling them the “three main winter threats”.

If you are eligible to get vaccinated against them, now is the time to do so, says Dr Bernal.

All adults aged 65 and over are able to receive both the latest COVID booster vaccination and this year’s flu jab, along with residents in older adult care homes and people with underlying health conditions aged six months to 64 years.

Both vaccinations are also being offered to frontline health and social care staff, with employees in older adult care homes eligible for the COVID jab.

The NHS is also offering for the first time a vaccination against RSV, a common cause of coughs and colds, which can be dangerous to older people and young children.

The jab is available to people aged 75 to 79 as well as pregnant women from 28 weeks, to protect their child.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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‘Squad’ member calls Netanyahu a ‘genocidal maniac,’ sparking backlash from Israeli ambassador to the UN

Democrat ‘Squad’ member Rashida Tlaib is now calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘genocidal maniac,’ prompting a sharp rebuke from the country’s ambassador to the United Nations. 

‘Genocidal maniac Netanyahu is burning Palestinians alive, bombing hospitals, starving people, and killing aid workers,’ the Michigan representative wrote Monday night in a post on X. 

‘When will our country stop funding this madness? When?’ she added. 

Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon responded to her by writing ‘The only ones who burned children alive were your buddies over at Hamas.’ 

Tlaib is one of Netanyahu’s fiercest critics in Washington. 

Last week, she wrote on X ‘The war crimes being committed by the government of Israel are being funded by our own country while families at home suffer from displacement due to hurricanes and growing poverty. Our country is obsessed with war and destruction.’ 

When the Israeli prime minister delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress in July, she silently protested for much of it, holding up a double-sided sign that read ‘guilty of genocide’ on one side and ‘war criminal’ on the other. 

Fox News Digital observed a member of the House sergeant-at-arms’ staff speaking to Tlaib multiple times during the speech, after which she put the sign down. 

Prior to Netanyahu’s July 24 address, Tlaib released a statement saying ‘Netanyahu is a war criminal committing genocide against the Palestinian people.  

‘It is utterly disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address Congress. He should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court,’ she said at the time. 

Fox News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

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Harris holds big advantage among early voters, Trump with Election Day voters: poll

With three weeks to go until Election Day, Americans are already showing a strong partisan preference for how they vote, according to a new public opinion poll.

The NBC News poll found that 5% of registered voters said they have already cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election. Three percent of voters said they mailed their ballot while 2% voted early in person. Nearly half of survey respondents who have not yet voted, 47%, said they plan to vote early – 20% intend to vote by mail and 27% want to vote in person.

Of those early voters, Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, holds a commanding 17 percentage point lead over her rival, former President Trump, 57% to 40%. Harris leads among those voting by mail 66% to 32%, with a narrower lead among those who intend to vote early in person, 51% to 47%.

But Trump, the Republican candidate, has a strong lead among those who intend to vote on Election Day, 58%-37%. 

The survey found that 52% of voters said they plan to cast their ballots early, while 44% plan to vote on Nov. 5. Another 3% said they aren’t sure how they will vote, while 1% said they won’t vote.

The NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters was conducted Oct. 4-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

To date, 46 states and Washington, D.C. have begun some form of early voting. 

States have long allowed at least some Americans to vote early, like members of the military or people with illnesses. Many states expanded eligibility in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic made it riskier to vote in-person.

That year, the Fox News Voter Analysis found that 71% of voters cast their ballots before Election Day, with 30% voting early in-person and 41% voting by mail.

Early voting remained popular in the midterms, with 57% of voters casting a ballot before Election Day.

Elections officials stress that voting early is safe and secure. Recounts, investigations and lawsuits filed after the 2020 election did not reveal evidence of widespread fraud or corruption. 

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom, Kellianne Jones and Rémy Numa contributed to this report. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

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