The World Blog by humble servant.

Indian pharma firms could soon find new business opportunities in Russia as a number of European and US corporations suspend some operations in the country over its military operation in Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador said. Speaking to the Rossiya 24 channel on Friday, Ambassador Denis Alipov argued that India is a leading manufacturer of generic drugs identical to famous brands, calling the nation a “world pharmacy.” “The withdrawal of many Western companies from the Russian market and those niches that have been vacated may actually be occupied by Indian companies in many industries, in particular, in pharmaceuticals,” he told the broadcaster, adding that India “has long and actively been present in the Russian market” – including joint medicine production ventures – “and I think even greater opportunities will open now in this niche.” Pharma giants explain stance on new clinical trials in RussiaREAD MORE: Pharma giants explain stance on new clinical trials in Russia Alipov’s commen...

Russian military has learned about a plot by Ukrainian hard-line nationalist groups to target diplomatic facilities of the US and other western nations, located in the western Ukrainian city of Lvov. The news was broken by Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov during a media briefing on Saturday. The information on the alleged plot was provided by an officer with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who voluntary surrendered to Russian forces, Konashenkov said. “The officer was directly involved in organizing and training of sabotage and terrorist groups to work in areas liberated from nationalists,” the official stated. The officer gave Russian military a list of SBU agents and other individuals involved into such activities, providing information on the alleged plot to target the diplomatic facilities in the country’s west. “The officer spoke … about [planned] terrorist acts in Lviv against employees and facilities of the diplomatic missions maintai...

Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said that globalization should not be “weaponized” while military bloc politics must be “rejected,” a day after US President Joe Biden warned his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of “consequences” if Beijing supported Russia's military action in Ukraine. Speaking at the Fourth International Forum on Security and Strategy in Beijing on Saturday, the Chinese official agreed with Moscow’s assessment that NATO’s unchecked expansion in Eastern Europe and the failure to address Russia’s national security concerns paved the way to the current crisis, saying that a simple “commitment of no eastward expansion could have easily ended the crisis and stopped the sufferings.” “Instead, one chose to fan the flames at a safe distance, watching its own arms dealers, bankers and oil tycoons make a fortune out of the war while leaving people of a small country with the wounds of war that would take years to heal,” he said. NATO’s pursuit of “absolute security” leads...

Car-free Sundays in cities, working from home up to three days a week and using cost-efficient public transport – are just some of the recommendations made by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to the world. The 10-point action plan aims at cutting back on oil consumption “in the face of the emerging global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” According to IEA estimates, the actions it suggests, should they be implemented globally, could help reduce oil consumption by 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) within four months, which would be equivalent to more than half of Russia’s exports. It is estimated that the world consumes nearly 100 million barrels daily. Among the measures to be implemented immediately, especially by developed nations, are the reduction of speed limits on highways by at least 10 kilometers per hour, as well as so-called car-free Sundays, with every such day helping to save approximately 380,000 barrels of oil, the global energy watchdog cl...

Canada has depleted its own stock of weapons in its bid to support Ukraine amid Russia’s military operation in the country, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand has acknowledged. “I believe that we have exhausted our inventory … to the extent that we are able to provide [more] weapons,” Anand said during a live appearance on CBC on Friday. “There are capacity issues we need to make sure we are on top of for the purposes of ensuring the Canadian Armed Forces are well resourced,” she added. Ottawa had been among Western capitals that have provided Kiev with so-called “lethal aid.” It has so far sent or is in the process of sending 4,500 rocket launchers, 7,500 hand grenades, 100 anti-tank launchers with 2,000 rounds, two C-130J tactical aircraft, and various other pieces of kit from Canada. Russia sent its troops into Ukraine in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the...

Germany’s vice chancellor has said that next winter’s gas supplies to his country have not so far been secured. Robert Habeck, who also serves as the economy and climate minister, hasn’t ruled out there being a so-called domino effect, with a setback in the gas supply chain causing a knock-on shortage in other facilities. “If we don’t receive further gas supplies … and the deliveries from Russia are capped or stopped, we wouldn’t have enough to keep all our houses warm and to keep all our industry running,” Habeck said, in an interview with the German radio station Deutschlandfunk. The warning comes ahead of his visit to the Persian Gulf, which begins on Saturday. In Qatar, one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, Habeck is scheduled to meet with the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and other government officials. On Monday, he is expected to participate in talks with United Arab Emirates ministers. READ MORE: Germany sets date for independence from Russi...

Senator suggests plan to ax Fauci’s NIAID post White House medical advisor Anthony Fauci should not be allowed to act as a ‘dictator-in-chief’, Sen. Rand Paul said Senator suggests plan to ax Fauci’s NIAID post © AFP / J. Scott Applewhite Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has proposed an amendment that would remove chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci from his role at the top of the public health pyramid. On Monday, the senator, who is also a trained physician, revealed a plan to split Fauci’s role as the head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) into three roles run by separate directors. “This will create accountability and oversight into a taxpayer funded position that has largely abused its power, and has been responsible for many failures and misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Paul wrote in a Fox News op-ed. “We’ve learned a lot over the past two years,” the senator wrote, adding that the main lesson is that “no one person should be deem...

The Russian military has said it used its state-of-the-art Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to destroy an arms depot near the city of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine. The strike with the air-launched missile system took place on Friday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said during a briefing. It targeted “a large underground depot of missiles and aerial munitions of the Ukrainian forces” in the village of Deliatyn, he added. Kinzhal, which means ‘dagger’ in English, was used by the Russian military for the first time since the start of the Ukrainian conflict on February 24. Those munitions are said to be able to penetrate any existing air defenses by traveling at a whopping speed of up to Mach 10 and constantly maneuvering during their flight. Russian military releases footage of helicopter attack on Ukrainian convoy (VIDEO) Read more Russian military releases footage of helicopter attack on Ukrainian convoy (VIDEO) Kinzhal missiles are carried by MiG-31K superso...

A drug-developing Artificial Intelligence needed just six hours to come up with 40,000 potentially deadly chemical weapons, a fresh study has revealed. The authors of the paper, published in Nature Machine Intelligence earlier this month, said they'd carried out the ‘thought experiment’ to figure out if artificial intelligence (AI) could be misused by evil actors. And the results their work produced have proven that the danger is real. As part of the study, the usual data was given to the AI, but it was programmed to process it in a different way, looking for toxic combinations. “In less than six hours after starting on our in-house server, our model generated 40,000 molecules that scored within our desired threshold,” the paper said.]a It came up not just with the VX compound, which is one of the most dangerous nerve agents ever created, but also with some unknown molecules, “predicted to be more toxic.” “This was unexpected because the datasets we used for training the AI did...

S Secretary of State Antony Blinken will not be making a trip to Saudi Arabia in the “near future,” the country’s foreign ministry said, formally denying a recent report citing a local official. In a missive carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Saturday, the FM “denied reports circulated in the media and attributed to an official source in the ministry regarding a visit to be made by the U.S Secretary of State to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the near future,” adding that the ministry “did not issue any statement in this regard.” The report in question originated at Reuters, which cited “an official from the Kingdom's foreign ministry” claiming Riyadh and Washington were planning a visit to “strengthen ongoing ‘positive discussions.” Earlier this week, Axios reported much the same after speaking to five US, Israeli and Palestinian sources. UK fails to secure promise of more oil from Saudi Arabia, UAEREAD MORE: UK fails to secure promise of more oil from Saudi Arabia, UAE Joe B...

India’s state-run refiner, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), has bought two million barrels of Russian oil for loading in May, as the country’s refiners step up efforts to secure crude from Moscow at a discount, regional media reported on Thursday. The crude was sold by European trader Vitol and is the second such deal, as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) purchased three million barrels of the Russian Urals crude earlier this week at a discount of $20-$25 a barrel for delivery in May. Another Indian company, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), has also reportedly floated a tender for one million barrels of the same benchmark. Some countries have reportedly been avoiding buying Russian oil in fear of retaliatory sanctions from the US. As a result, the country’s oil has been available at discounted prices. The Indian oil major says it did not consider the purchase of Russian crude a problem as neither oil itself, nor Vitol have been sanctioned, reports say. Washingto...