For the first time Iran has told the United States that it is ready for direct negotiations on the nuclear deal. This could be possible turning point in efforts to salvage the 2015 nuclear accord.

Iran, United States ready for direct nuclear talks

French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has said that the United States is working to ''divide'' Europe.

Speaking as part of an interview with the France 5 television channel he said Paris should stop “being a tool of the United States.”&nbsp;

“The US is trying to divide Russia from France and Germany, and every time they get closer to each other, the Americans find a way to divide them,” he said.

He also proposed that if he were elected to the top job, “there would be no more sanctions against Russia.”&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/marine-le-pen-accuses-french-government-of-breaking-law-by-hanging-eu-flag-off-arc-de-triomphe-441768">Also read |&nbsp;Marine Le Pen accuses French government of breaking law by hanging EU flag off Arc de Triomphe</a>

Former TV talk show host Zemmour and Marine Le Pen are vying for the far-right vote, hoping to beat President Emmanuel Macron in the April election.

For several weeks last year, opinion polls indicated that Zemmour,&nbsp;who has been convicted several times for inciting racial hatred,&nbsp;had a chance of placing second in the presidential poll and facing Macron in a run-off. His campaign has since lost some steam and he now polls fourth.

Opinion polls put Macron in the lead, followed by Le Pen or conservative challenger Valerie Pecresse.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/french-presidential-contender-eric-zemmour-caught-flipping-off-hater-432935">Also read |&nbsp;French presidential contender Eric Zemmour caught flipping off hater&nbsp;</a>

Zemmour was recently found guilty of racist hate speech for a televised tirade against unaccompanied child migrants.

He drew widespread outrange in September 2020 when he told the CNews channel that child migrants were "thieves, killers, they're rapists. That's all they are. We should send them back".

Zemmour, a media pundit who is struggling to assemble the endorsements from elected officials required to compete in April's presidential vote, did not appear in court to hear the verdict, having skipped his trial in November.

In 2016, he had claimed that Philippe Petain, who headed the Vichy government during World War II, in collaboration with Nazi Germany, had actually "saved" French Jews.

(With inputs from agencies)

French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has said that the United States is working to ''divide'' Europe. Speaking as part of an interview with the France 5 television channel he said Paris should stop “being a tool of the United States.

French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has said that the United States is working to ''divide'' Europe. Speaking as part of an interview with the France 5 television channel he said Paris should stop “being a tool of the United States.” “The US is trying to divide Russia from France and Germany, and every time they get closer to each other, the Americans find a way to divide them,” he said. He also proposed that if he were elected to the top job, “there would be no more sanctions against Russia.” Also read | Marine Le Pen accuses French government of breaking law by hanging EU flag off Arc de Triomphe Former TV talk show host Zemmour and Marine Le Pen are vying for the far-right vote, hoping to beat President Emmanuel Macron in the April election. For several weeks last year, opinion polls indicated that Zemmour, who has been convicted several times for inciting racial hatred, had a chance of placing second in the presidential poll and facing Macron in a run-off. His campaign has since lost some steam and he now polls fourth. Opinion polls put Macron in the lead, followed by Le Pen or conservative challenger Valerie Pecresse. Also read | French presidential contender Eric Zemmour caught flipping off hater Zemmour was recently found guilty of racist hate speech for a televised tirade against unaccompanied child migrants. He drew widespread outrange in September 2020 when he told the CNews channel that child migrants were "thieves, killers, they're rapists. That's all they are. We should send them back". Zemmour, a media pundit who is struggling to assemble the endorsements from elected officials required to compete in April's presidential vote, did not appear in court to hear the verdict, having skipped his trial in November. In 2016, he had claimed that Philippe Petain, who headed the Vichy government during World War II, in collaboration with Nazi Germany, had actually "saved" French Jews. (With inputs from agencies)

France: Presidential candidate Eric Zemmour says US is working to 'divide' Europe

North Korea began the new year by convening a meeting for the ruling Workers’ Party during which very little was said about the United States. That ominous silence didn’t last long.

Kim Jong Un, the country’s ruler, has launched six ballistic missiles in four weapons tests since Jan. 5, almost as many missiles​ in one month​ as North Korea launched in all of last year. On Tuesday, the South Korean military confirmed that the North had fired two cruise missiles in its fifth test of 2022.

The message was clear: The North Korean leader feels he is being ignored and wants to push the Biden administration to reengage and pay attention to his economically ailing nation.

Individually, the tests may not amount to much — they involved missiles that have already been tested or weapons that are still under development. But taken together, they signal that Kim plans to use 2022 to jolt the Biden administration out of its diplomatic slumber.

Kim needs Washington to engage ​with him on economic concessions​ so that he can fix his country’s devastated economy. Over the years, he has learned that the best way to grab the attention of a U.S. president is with weapons. And that the best time to do it is when the world can least afford the instability.

According to that playbook, 2022 looks like a promising year.

China is busy preparing for the Beijing Olympics next month. South Korea elects a new president in March. Russia has hinted at a potential invasion of Ukraine, keeping the Biden administration on tenterhooks.

During a Politburo meeting last Wednesday, Kim suggested that his government might once again begin testing long-range missiles and nuclear devices after suspending such tests before his 2018 summit meeting with President Donald Trump.

“2022 calls for continued saber-rattling, punctuated by some major missile tests,” said Lee Sung-yoon, a North Korea expert at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. “Kim’s goal is to routinize short-range ballistic missile flights as a fact of life without any repercussions, after which he will move on to bigger provocations by resuming intermediate- and long-range missile tests punctuated by a nuclear test, as he did in 2017.”

That year, North Korea tested what it called a hydrogen bomb and also launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was also the year Trump took office after a vicious campaign in the United States. South Korea had just impeached its president.

Wednesday was the second time ​Kim threatened to lift the moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests. After his diplomacy with Trump ended without an agreement in 2019, he said he no longer felt bound by the commitment. ​But he did not follow through with any such tests, and his country was soon plunged into the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic.

This year ​also marks the beginning of Kim’s second decade in power, and a chance for him to reassert his authority.

Ever since taking over, he has focused on building the country’s arsenal to validate his family’s dynastic rule, calling his nuclear weapons a “treasured sword” that protects North Korea against foreign invasion.

During the meeting Wednesday, he urged North Koreans to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of his father​ and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, in February, as well as the 110th birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, in April.

Under his father and grandfather, North Korea had seemed open to shelving its nuclear ambitions. But those hopes have dissipated under Kim, who has rapidly expanded the country’s nuclear program, even as the United Nations piled on sanctions.

Though ​Kim has often been depicted abroad as a leader ​potentially capable of opening up his isolated country for the sake of economic development, his nuclear weapons are, as North Korea has put it, “not a bargaining chip.”

Rather, the country sees them as tools​ to bring Washington to the negotiating table. And by that logic, the more powerful the arsenal, the more leverage Kim has.

Even when he ​vowed to focus on economic development in 2013, Kim stuck to his “parallel” goal of strengthening his nuclear force. The country has conducted more than 130 missile tests under him, compared with a total of 16 tests under his father and 15 under his grandfather. The last four of the North’s six nuclear tests all took place under his watch.

“By advancing its nuclear capabilities and weapons systems, North Korea is showing the United States and South Korea that the more time passes, ​the bigger the price ​will become that they have to pay,” Choi Yong-hwan, an analyst at the Institute for National Security Strategy​ in Seoul, wrote in a recent policy paper.

Yet try as it may to flex its power, North Korea appears to be low on the Biden administration’s list of international priorities​​.

Washington has taken no steps to entice Kim, except to propose talks “without preconditions,” ​a lukewarm entreaty that North Korea has rebuffed.

But it has not resumed tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Instead, North Korea has focused on testing missiles that can carry what it calls “smaller, lighter and tactical” nuclear weapons. ​These kinds of weapons do not pose a direct threat to the United States, but they could boost Kim’s leverage with Washington by placing American allies such as South Korea and Japan under nuclear threat.

In North Korea’s first two tests this month, the country launched short-range ballistic missiles with what it called “hypersonic gliding vehicles,” detachable warheads that ​make the weapons harder to intercept because they ​not only fly extremely fast but also change course during flight.

In a Jan. 13 test, North Korea launched the KN-23, one of three new solid-fuel ballistic missiles the North has been testing since 2019.

Solid-fuel missiles are easier to transport and launch. The KN-23 can perform low-altitude maneuvers, making them harder to intercept. North Korea has also begun launching KN-23 variants from a submarine, as it did in October, and from trains, as it did in September and again this month.

In its most recent test, North Korea fired a pair of solid-fuel missiles from a mobile launcher vehicle. When the North first launched such a pair in 2019, there was a 16-minute interval between the two missiles fired.

That gap was reduced to four minutes in the recent test, indicating that the military has improved its ability to fire multiple missiles and hide them from counterattacks by the United States and South Korea.

“North Korea hopes that if it continues to demonstrate its nuclear capabilities but confines them to the Korean Peninsula, it will not aggravate public opinion in the United States and will strengthen voices there calling for a compromise,” Cha Du-hyeogn, a principal fellow at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies, wrote in a recent paper.

For that strategy to work, Kim will need continued help from China in resisting any new international sanctions. North Korea’s economic challenges were deepened two years ago when it shut its border with China to fight the pandemic. This month, Beijing confirmed that “through friendly consultations,” China and North Korea reopened their border for freight trains.

“This timing suggests Beijing is more than complicit with Pyongyang’s provocations,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “China is supporting North Korea economically and coordinating with it militarily.”

North Korea began the new year by convening a meeting for the ruling Workers’ Party during which very little was said about the United States. That ominous silence didn’t last long.

North Korea began the new year by convening a meeting for the ruling Workers’ Party during which very little was said about the United States. That ominous silence didn’t last long. Kim Jong Un, the country’s ruler, has launched six ballistic missiles in four weapons tests since Jan. 5, almost as many missiles in one month as North Korea launched in all of last year. On Tuesday, the South Korean military confirmed that the North had fired two cruise missiles in its fifth test of 2022. The message was clear: The North Korean leader feels he is being ignored and wants to push the Biden administration to reengage and pay attention to his economically ailing nation. Individually, the tests may not amount to much — they involved missiles that have already been tested or weapons that are still under development. But taken together, they signal that Kim plans to use 2022 to jolt the Biden administration out of its diplomatic slumber. Kim needs Washington to engage with him on economic concessions so that he can fix his country’s devastated economy. Over the years, he has learned that the best way to grab the attention of a U.S. president is with weapons. And that the best time to do it is when the world can least afford the instability. According to that playbook, 2022 looks like a promising year. China is busy preparing for the Beijing Olympics next month. South Korea elects a new president in March. Russia has hinted at a potential invasion of Ukraine, keeping the Biden administration on tenterhooks. During a Politburo meeting last Wednesday, Kim suggested that his government might once again begin testing long-range missiles and nuclear devices after suspending such tests before his 2018 summit meeting with President Donald Trump. “2022 calls for continued saber-rattling, punctuated by some major missile tests,” said Lee Sung-yoon, a North Korea expert at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. “Kim’s goal is to routinize short-range ballistic missile flights as a fact of life without any repercussions, after which he will move on to bigger provocations by resuming intermediate- and long-range missile tests punctuated by a nuclear test, as he did in 2017.” That year, North Korea tested what it called a hydrogen bomb and also launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was also the year Trump took office after a vicious campaign in the United States. South Korea had just impeached its president. Wednesday was the second time Kim threatened to lift the moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests. After his diplomacy with Trump ended without an agreement in 2019, he said he no longer felt bound by the commitment. But he did not follow through with any such tests, and his country was soon plunged into the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic. This year also marks the beginning of Kim’s second decade in power, and a chance for him to reassert his authority. Ever since taking over, he has focused on building the country’s arsenal to validate his family’s dynastic rule, calling his nuclear weapons a “treasured sword” that protects North Korea against foreign invasion. During the meeting Wednesday, he urged North Koreans to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of his father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, in February, as well as the 110th birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, in April. Under his father and grandfather, North Korea had seemed open to shelving its nuclear ambitions. But those hopes have dissipated under Kim, who has rapidly expanded the country’s nuclear program, even as the United Nations piled on sanctions. Though Kim has often been depicted abroad as a leader potentially capable of opening up his isolated country for the sake of economic development, his nuclear weapons are, as North Korea has put it, “not a bargaining chip.” Rather, the country sees them as tools to bring Washington to the negotiating table. And by that logic, the more powerful the arsenal, the more leverage Kim has. Even when he vowed to focus on economic development in 2013, Kim stuck to his “parallel” goal of strengthening his nuclear force. The country has conducted more than 130 missile tests under him, compared with a total of 16 tests under his father and 15 under his grandfather. The last four of the North’s six nuclear tests all took place under his watch. “By advancing its nuclear capabilities and weapons systems, North Korea is showing the United States and South Korea that the more time passes, the bigger the price will become that they have to pay,” Choi Yong-hwan, an analyst at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, wrote in a recent policy paper. Yet try as it may to flex its power, North Korea appears to be low on the Biden administration’s list of international priorities. Washington has taken no steps to entice Kim, except to propose talks “without preconditions,” a lukewarm entreaty that North Korea has rebuffed. But it has not resumed tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Instead, North Korea has focused on testing missiles that can carry what it calls “smaller, lighter and tactical” nuclear weapons. These kinds of weapons do not pose a direct threat to the United States, but they could boost Kim’s leverage with Washington by placing American allies such as South Korea and Japan under nuclear threat. In North Korea’s first two tests this month, the country launched short-range ballistic missiles with what it called “hypersonic gliding vehicles,” detachable warheads that make the weapons harder to intercept because they not only fly extremely fast but also change course during flight. In a Jan. 13 test, North Korea launched the KN-23, one of three new solid-fuel ballistic missiles the North has been testing since 2019. Solid-fuel missiles are easier to transport and launch. The KN-23 can perform low-altitude maneuvers, making them harder to intercept. North Korea has also begun launching KN-23 variants from a submarine, as it did in October, and from trains, as it did in September and again this month. In its most recent test, North Korea fired a pair of solid-fuel missiles from a mobile launcher vehicle. When the North first launched such a pair in 2019, there was a 16-minute interval between the two missiles fired. That gap was reduced to four minutes in the recent test, indicating that the military has improved its ability to fire multiple missiles and hide them from counterattacks by the United States and South Korea. “North Korea hopes that if it continues to demonstrate its nuclear capabilities but confines them to the Korean Peninsula, it will not aggravate public opinion in the United States and will strengthen voices there calling for a compromise,” Cha Du-hyeogn, a principal fellow at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies, wrote in a recent paper. For that strategy to work, Kim will need continued help from China in resisting any new international sanctions. North Korea’s economic challenges were deepened two years ago when it shut its border with China to fight the pandemic. This month, Beijing confirmed that “through friendly consultations,” China and North Korea reopened their border for freight trains. “This timing suggests Beijing is more than complicit with Pyongyang’s provocations,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “China is supporting North Korea economically and coordinating with it militarily.”

Why is North Korea suddenly launching so many missiles?

Will Iran seek 'good deal with guarantees' from Nuclear talks with United States?

The United States has ordered family members of its embassy staff in Ukraine to leave the country, the decision comes due to the ongoing threat of Russia's military action. Other US nationals in Ukraine have also been advised to leave, the US has also advised its citizens against traveling to Russia.

United States orders departure of its diplomats' families from Kyiv amid Russia-Ukraine conflict

The United States has ordered the family members of its embassy staff in Ukraine to leave the country. The decision comes due to the ongoing threat of Russia's military action.

United States orders kin of embassy staff in Ukraine to leave the country

The US Justice Department charged four&nbsp;Belarus&nbsp;officials with air piracy Thursday for last year's forced diversion of a Ryanair flight in order to arrest a dissident on board.

Two top officials of the state air navigation authority and two security officials were accused of conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy for allegedly taking part in a fake bomb scare scheme to force the aircraft to land in Minsk on May 23, 2021, so that the Belarusian government could seize opposition campaigner Roman Protasevich.

The charges, filed in federal court in New York, said Ryanair Flight 4978 from Athens to Vilnius had been carrying more than 100 passengers, including four US citizens, when&nbsp;Belarus&nbsp;authorities concocted the scheme to force it to land.

Two of the four charged, Leonid Mikalaevich Churo and Oleg Kazyuchits, are director-general and deputy director-general, respectively, of the state aviation authority Belaeronavigatsia.

Two others from the state security services, their names not fully known to the FBI, were also charged.

“The FBI identified a detailed operation that subjected passengers from many countries, including the US, to the realities of terroristic threats," said FBI Assistant Director Michael Driscoll.

"Not only is what took place a reckless violation of US law, it’s extremely dangerous to the safety of everyone who flies in an airplane," he said.

"The next pilot who gets a distress call from a tower may doubt the authenticity of the emergency -- which puts lives at risk."

The diversion operation was led by state security services and succeeded in having Protasevich, 26, a journalist with the Nexta opposition media, and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, a law student at the European Humanities University in Lithuania, arrested at a Minsk airport.

Both were placed under house arrest to face various charges.

According to the US indictment, Churo and the security officials communicated the ostensible bomb threat to traffic officials at Minsk Air Control Center even before the Ryanair flight took off from Athens, demanding it divert to &nbsp;Minsk.

They waited until the plane entered&nbsp;Belarus&nbsp;air space to alert the aircraft to the purported bomb threat,&nbsp;in order to force it to land in Minsk.

Churo's deputy Kazyuchits then sought to have the incident record falsified to hide the fabricated bomb threat and the involvement of security officials, according to the indictment.

The four, who remain at large in&nbsp;Belarus, all face possible life in prison if they are brought to justice in the United States.

The incident sparked international outrage and has brought punitive sanctions from Europe, Canada, Britain and the United States.

The International Civil Aviation Organization on Monday said it had completed its investigation but would only reveal the conclusions at the end of this month.

The US Justice Department charged four Belarus officials with air piracy Thursday for last year's forced diversion of a Ryanair flight in order to arrest a dissident on board.

The US Justice Department charged four Belarus officials with air piracy Thursday for last year's forced diversion of a Ryanair flight in order to arrest a dissident on board. Two top officials of the state air navigation authority and two security officials were accused of conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy for allegedly taking part in a fake bomb scare scheme to force the aircraft to land in Minsk on May 23, 2021, so that the Belarusian government could seize opposition campaigner Roman Protasevich. The charges, filed in federal court in New York, said Ryanair Flight 4978 from Athens to Vilnius had been carrying more than 100 passengers, including four US citizens, when Belarus authorities concocted the scheme to force it to land. Two of the four charged, Leonid Mikalaevich Churo and Oleg Kazyuchits, are director-general and deputy director-general, respectively, of the state aviation authority Belaeronavigatsia. Two others from the state security services, their names not fully known to the FBI, were also charged. “The FBI identified a detailed operation that subjected passengers from many countries, including the US, to the realities of terroristic threats," said FBI Assistant Director Michael Driscoll. "Not only is what took place a reckless violation of US law, it’s extremely dangerous to the safety of everyone who flies in an airplane," he said. "The next pilot who gets a distress call from a tower may doubt the authenticity of the emergency -- which puts lives at risk." The diversion operation was led by state security services and succeeded in having Protasevich, 26, a journalist with the Nexta opposition media, and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, a law student at the European Humanities University in Lithuania, arrested at a Minsk airport. Both were placed under house arrest to face various charges. According to the US indictment, Churo and the security officials communicated the ostensible bomb threat to traffic officials at Minsk Air Control Center even before the Ryanair flight took off from Athens, demanding it divert to Minsk. They waited until the plane entered Belarus air space to alert the aircraft to the purported bomb threat, in order to force it to land in Minsk. Churo's deputy Kazyuchits then sought to have the incident record falsified to hide the fabricated bomb threat and the involvement of security officials, according to the indictment. The four, who remain at large in Belarus, all face possible life in prison if they are brought to justice in the United States. The incident sparked international outrage and has brought punitive sanctions from Europe, Canada, Britain and the United States. The International Civil Aviation Organization on Monday said it had completed its investigation but would only reveal the conclusions at the end of this month.

US charges Belarus officials with air piracy over Ryanair flight diversion

Ivanka Trump, daughter of the former US President Donald Trump has been asked to cooperate in the 2021 US Capitol assault investigation by the lawmakers with their inquiry.&nbsp;

On Thursday (January 20), the US House of Representatives panel probing the January 6, 2021 attacks on the US Capitol, requested an interview with Ivanka, who is also a former White House aide.&nbsp;

How is Ivanka Trump involved in the probe?

The panel told the 40-year-old businesswoman that there is evidence that she had pleaded with Donald Trump to call off the violence.&nbsp;

"Testimony obtained by the committee indicates that members of the White House staff requested your assistance on multiple occasions to intervene in an attempt to persuade President Trump to address the ongoing lawlessness and violence on Capitol Hill," chairman Bennie Thompson wrote to Ivanka.&nbsp;

As far as Ivanka is considered, her actions during the riots are treated as a "key focus" by the committee.&nbsp;

The panel said that Ivanka appears to have "direct knowledge" of her father's attempt to persuade former Vice President Mike Pence to stop the democratic counting of electoral votes.&nbsp;

"As January 6 approached, President Trump attempted on multiple occasions to persuade vice president Pence to participate in his plan," Thompson wrote.

As per the committee Ivanka "was present in the Oval Office" on January 6. She even observed a telephone conversation between her father and Pence.&nbsp;

Thompson&nbsp;added, "One of the president's discussions with the vice president occurred by phone on the morning of January 6. You were present in the Oval Office and observed at least one side of that telephone conversation."

Ivanka reacts

A statement released by Ivanka Trump's spokesperson did not address whether she would cooperate with the committee's investigation.

"Ivanka Trump just learned that the January 6 Committee issued a public letter asking her to appear," a spokesperson for Ivanka Trump said in a statement.&nbsp;

The statement added, "As the Committee already knows, Ivanka did not speak at the January 6 rally." On the same very day, Ivanka had publicly stated that "any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful."

What the committee is looking for?

So far, it has been understood that the investigators are looking into how the attack was planned and how it took place. They are also trying to find out to what extent Trump and his aides had a part in encouraging it.

The committee has already spoken to around 400 witnesses and issued subpoenas for several key figures in Donald Trump's orbit, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and one-time White House strategist Steve Bannon.

The committee said it also wanted to ask whether her father made any effort to deploy federal agents or troops to end the January 6 violence, saying it so far has no evidence of that.

On January 6, hundreds of angry supporters of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, with an intention to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.&nbsp;

The rioters vandalised property, assaulted some of the lawmakers and they even occupied the building for several hours.&nbsp;

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(With inputs from agencies)

Ivanka Trump, daughter of the former US President Donald Trump has been asked to cooperate in the 2021 US Capitol assault investigation by the lawmakers with their inquiry.

Ivanka Trump, daughter of the former US President Donald Trump has been asked to cooperate in the 2021 US Capitol assault investigation by the lawmakers with their inquiry. On Thursday (January 20), the US House of Representatives panel probing the January 6, 2021 attacks on the US Capitol, requested an interview with Ivanka, who is also a former White House aide. How is Ivanka Trump involved in the probe? The panel told the 40-year-old businesswoman that there is evidence that she had pleaded with Donald Trump to call off the violence. "Testimony obtained by the committee indicates that members of the White House staff requested your assistance on multiple occasions to intervene in an attempt to persuade President Trump to address the ongoing lawlessness and violence on Capitol Hill," chairman Bennie Thompson wrote to Ivanka. As far as Ivanka is considered, her actions during the riots are treated as a "key focus" by the committee. The panel said that Ivanka appears to have "direct knowledge" of her father's attempt to persuade former Vice President Mike Pence to stop the democratic counting of electoral votes. "As January 6 approached, President Trump attempted on multiple occasions to persuade vice president Pence to participate in his plan," Thompson wrote. As per the committee Ivanka "was present in the Oval Office" on January 6. She even observed a telephone conversation between her father and Pence. Thompson added, "One of the president's discussions with the vice president occurred by phone on the morning of January 6. You were present in the Oval Office and observed at least one side of that telephone conversation." Ivanka reacts A statement released by Ivanka Trump's spokesperson did not address whether she would cooperate with the committee's investigation. "Ivanka Trump just learned that the January 6 Committee issued a public letter asking her to appear," a spokesperson for Ivanka Trump said in a statement. The statement added, "As the Committee already knows, Ivanka did not speak at the January 6 rally." On the same very day, Ivanka had publicly stated that "any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful." What the committee is looking for? So far, it has been understood that the investigators are looking into how the attack was planned and how it took place. They are also trying to find out to what extent Trump and his aides had a part in encouraging it. The committee has already spoken to around 400 witnesses and issued subpoenas for several key figures in Donald Trump's orbit, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and one-time White House strategist Steve Bannon. The committee said it also wanted to ask whether her father made any effort to deploy federal agents or troops to end the January 6 violence, saying it so far has no evidence of that. On January 6, hundreds of angry supporters of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, with an intention to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. The rioters vandalised property, assaulted some of the lawmakers and they even occupied the building for several hours. × (With inputs from agencies)

How is Ivanka Trump involved in US Capitol assault probe? Panel asks her to cooperate

The lawmakers investigating the 2021 US capitol assault have intensified attempts to try and seek testimonies from the former US president Donald Trump's inner circle. The panel that is investigating into the deadly 6th of January rights has requested for an interview with Ivanka Trump.

US panel probing Capitol riots seeks interview with Ivanka Trump

Here are some of the top stories to start your day: US President Joe Biden has clarified his comments after he suggested that the allies were split over how to react to any potential "minor incursion" from Russia in Ukraine.

Here are some of the top stories to start your day: US President Joe Biden has clarified his comments after he suggested that the allies were split over how to react to any potential "minor incursion" from Russia in Ukraine. Also, read a report on how doctors in Alabama successfully transplanted a pair of kidneys from a genetically modified pig into a brain dead man. Click on headlines to read the full report: Joe Biden clarifies over Russia remark; Ukraine says there are no 'minor incursions' and small nations US President Joe Biden sought to clarify his comments as on he said that "I have been absolutely clear with President (Vladimir) Putin, he has no misunderstanding. If any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border that is an invasion". Russia, China block US bid to impose UN sanctions on North Koreans Russia and China moved to block the Biden administration's bid to impose sanctions on North Koreans as Kim Jong-Un's regime threatened to conduct nuclear weapons tests. US airlines plane bound for London turns around mid-flight An unruly passenger, who refused to wear a mask, forced a US airlines plane bound for London to turn around mid-flight on Wednesday. The mask-related disruption occurred on an American Airlines flight. In a first, two kidneys from genetically modified pig transplanted into brain dead man Doctors in Alabama successfully transplanted a pair of kidneys from a genetically modified pig into a brain dead man. WATCH | Gravitas: How Xi Jinping forced 10,000 'fugitives' to return to China ×

Morning news brief: Biden clarifies Russia remark, UN sanctions on North Koreans blocked and more

The Senate has only three Black members, a paltry number that is unrepresentative of the country, so when the chamber took up a voting rights bill this week aimed at preventing the disenfranchisement of voters of color, Sens. Cory Booker, Tim Scott and Raphael Warnock played an outsized role in the debate.

During a more than 10-hour discourse Wednesday that highlighted the Senate’s striking lack of diversity, the three men brought vastly different perspectives to an issue that each said had affected them in deeply personal ways, with the two Democrats — Warnock of Georgia and Booker of New Jersey — serving as self-described witnesses to Republican-engineered voter suppression, and Scott, R-S.C., countering that the real threat to democracy was coming from the left.

The protracted proceedings underscored how heavily the white leaders of both parties lean on the few Black members of their rank-and-file when issues of race arise. When Vice President Kamala Harris, a former senator from California who was the first Black woman to serve in that post, briefly presided over the debate Wednesday night, nearly half of the 11 African Americans who have ever served in the Senate were present at once.

But it also showed the power of representation and biography in a debate over policy.

The moral force that the three senators could marshal to their causes was clear. The back-and-forth between Scott, the son of a struggling single mother in working-class North Charleston, South Carolina, and Booker, a former Rhodes Scholar and big-city mayor, provided a striking moment, as they fought over the meaning of Jim Crow in the present day.

Scott used the elections of all three Black men — but especially himself and Warnock — to back up his case that America is a nation of expanding democratic opportunity, not voter suppression and inequity.

“It’s hard to deny progress when two of the three come from the Southern states which people say are the places where African American votes are being suppressed,” he said.

Warnock, who ministers from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the pulpit from which Martin Luther King Jr. preached, closed the debate with an appeal to every senator.

“Let the message go out: You cannot honor Martin Luther King and work to dismantle his legacy at the same time,” Warnock said Wednesday night, two days after King’s holiday, when virtually every senator of every political stripe produced an obligatory tribute to the slain civil rights leader.

“I will not sit quietly while some make Dr. King the victim of identity theft.”

The groundbreaking positions of the men, no doubt, are at least part of the reason they were thrust onto center stage. Scott was the first Black senator from the South since Reconstruction. Warnock is the first African American to represent Georgia in the Senate and the first Black Democrat to be elected to the Senate by a former state of the Confederacy. Booker is his state’s first Black senator.

Donna Brazile, a Black Democratic strategist who headed Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, recalled watching Wednesday’s debate and “thinking, ‘I thank God we have in 2022 three Black members of the United States Senate, regardless of party affiliation,’ because they all spoke uniquely from their own experiences of the journey of Black Americans.”

But it can be a bit overwhelming, said Carol Moseley Braun, who was the first Black woman to serve in the Senate and the only Black person in the entire chamber when she served.

“If it had to do with women, I got trotted out. If it had to do with Black people, I got trotted out,” she recalled in an interview Thursday. “I couldn’t win.”

In the end, no amount of pressure from Warnock could sway a single Republican to back the voting rights and election protection bill, or persuade the two balking Democrats, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, to support weakening the filibuster to advance it over GOP opposition.

Nor could Scott save his party from the fallout of defending voting restrictions passed by Republican legislatures that Democrats say are intended to disenfranchise minority voters. The South Carolina senator’s ardent defense of Georgia’s new voting law may have been lost amid the repercussions from a faux pas uttered Wednesday by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

Asked about protests from voters of color over new restrictions, McConnell said, “The concern is misplaced because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.” Critics interpreted the comment as implying that either Black voters are not wholly American, or that the top Senate Republican considered “American” synonymous with white.

In a statement provided to The New York Times on Thursday, McConnell sought to clarify his remarks, saying that he has “consistently pointed to the record-high turnout for all voters in the 2020 election, including African Americans.”

Warnock is the obvious face of the Democratic cause, not because of his skin color but because his tight election victory in 2020 — along with an even tighter win by his colleague, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. — gave the party its Senate majority, and because Warnock must face Georgia voters again this November, now under new election rules signed into law by the state’s Republican governor.

Indeed, in an evenly divided Senate where the net loss of a single seat would cost Democrats control, Warnock is perhaps the most endangered Democrat, and the party’s cause célèbre.

“Rev. Warnock is the moral authority and conscience on this issue by virtue of his background, his election and his extraordinary rhetorical capabilities,” said Marc Elias, the party’s top election lawyer. “He speaks for so many people, and articulates what so many people feel in their hearts about the importance of voting rights.”

Last year, at least 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, but in the Senate on Wednesday, Georgia’s law was front and center.

Scott fiercely defended the law — “supposedly the poster child of voter suppression” — as actually expanding access to the ballot, saying Democrats were distorting its effects to inject race into the voting rights fight when their real aim was political power.

He leaned in hard to his biography, which included a grandfather he escorted to the polls because he could not read, to burnish his credentials as he laid into the Democrats’ case for a far-reaching rewrite of election laws that have traditionally been the purview of state and local governments.

Speaking for “Americans from the Deep South who happen to look like me,” the conservative Republican recounted the Jim Crow era that his grandfather had lived through, when literacy tests, job losses, beatings and lynchings kept Black Southerners from the polls. The Georgia law is nothing like the “Jim Crow 2.0” that President Joe Biden and other Democrats have called it, he said.

“To have a conversation and a narrative that is blatantly false is offensive, not just to me or Southern Americans but offensive to millions of Americans who fought, bled and died for the right to vote,” Scott said.

That brought a sharp response from Booker. “Don’t lecture me about Jim Crow,” he said, adding, “It is 2022 and they are blatantly removing more polling places from the counties where Blacks and Latinos are overrepresented. I’m not making that up. That is a fact.”

But it was Warnock who brought to the debate the names of his own constituents: a woman who has not been able to vote for a decade because of long lines and constantly moving polling places; a student who could not vote for him in 2020 because the epic waits near her college would have made her miss class; another who waited eight hours in the rain to cast her ballot.

“One part of being a first of any kind is thinking, ‘How do I educate people?’” said Minyon Moore, who was a political director in the Clinton White House and a senior aide to Hillary Clinton. “I see that as a badge of honor, not a burden, and I know that Sens. Warnock and Booker do too. They have a responsibility to educate and explain. If they don’t do it, who will?”

Warnock, too, brandished his biography, which included growing up in the Kayton Homes housing project in Savannah, Georgia, the youngest of 12 children. His mother picked cotton in Waycross, Georgia, as a child, he said, and “the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton helped pick her youngest son as a United States senator” in 2021.

It was difficult enough when he beat the incumbent Republican, Kelly Loeffler, by about 93,000 votes with a huge minority turnout; this November will be worse with the state’s new law, he said.

Georgia’s legislators “have decided to punish their own citizens for having the audacity to show up,” Warnock said, adding, “Those are the fact of the laws that are being passed in Georgia and across the nation.”

Democrats have been wowed by such rhetorical performances, but the senator’s first year in electoral politics has yielded little in the way of victories. The voting rights push that he has framed as a moral imperative has been blocked. Another effort, to secure health care for the working poor in states like Georgia that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, got a boost when it was included in the Build Back Better Act that passed the House. But that, too, has been stymied in the Senate.

He was blunt Wednesday, when he said during the voting rights debate that he believed in bipartisanship, but then asked, “Bipartisanship at what cost?”

“Raphael Warnock feels that he went up there with this idea he can work with anyone,” said Jason Carter, a grandson of former President Jimmy Carter who was the Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia in 2014 and speaks regularly to Warnock. “There may come a time where he throws up his hands and says we can’t get anything done. I haven’t heard the frustration boiling over yet.”

The Senate has only three Black members, a paltry number that is unrepresentative of the country, so when the chamber took up a voting rights bill this week aimed at preventing the disenfranchisement of voters of color, Sens.

The Senate has only three Black members, a paltry number that is unrepresentative of the country, so when the chamber took up a voting rights bill this week aimed at preventing the disenfranchisement of voters of color, Sens. Cory Booker, Tim Scott and Raphael Warnock played an outsized role in the debate. During a more than 10-hour discourse Wednesday that highlighted the Senate’s striking lack of diversity, the three men brought vastly different perspectives to an issue that each said had affected them in deeply personal ways, with the two Democrats — Warnock of Georgia and Booker of New Jersey — serving as self-described witnesses to Republican-engineered voter suppression, and Scott, R-S.C., countering that the real threat to democracy was coming from the left. The protracted proceedings underscored how heavily the white leaders of both parties lean on the few Black members of their rank-and-file when issues of race arise. When Vice President Kamala Harris, a former senator from California who was the first Black woman to serve in that post, briefly presided over the debate Wednesday night, nearly half of the 11 African Americans who have ever served in the Senate were present at once. But it also showed the power of representation and biography in a debate over policy. The moral force that the three senators could marshal to their causes was clear. The back-and-forth between Scott, the son of a struggling single mother in working-class North Charleston, South Carolina, and Booker, a former Rhodes Scholar and big-city mayor, provided a striking moment, as they fought over the meaning of Jim Crow in the present day. Scott used the elections of all three Black men — but especially himself and Warnock — to back up his case that America is a nation of expanding democratic opportunity, not voter suppression and inequity. “It’s hard to deny progress when two of the three come from the Southern states which people say are the places where African American votes are being suppressed,” he said. Warnock, who ministers from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the pulpit from which Martin Luther King Jr. preached, closed the debate with an appeal to every senator. “Let the message go out: You cannot honor Martin Luther King and work to dismantle his legacy at the same time,” Warnock said Wednesday night, two days after King’s holiday, when virtually every senator of every political stripe produced an obligatory tribute to the slain civil rights leader. “I will not sit quietly while some make Dr. King the victim of identity theft.” The groundbreaking positions of the men, no doubt, are at least part of the reason they were thrust onto center stage. Scott was the first Black senator from the South since Reconstruction. Warnock is the first African American to represent Georgia in the Senate and the first Black Democrat to be elected to the Senate by a former state of the Confederacy. Booker is his state’s first Black senator. Donna Brazile, a Black Democratic strategist who headed Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, recalled watching Wednesday’s debate and “thinking, ‘I thank God we have in 2022 three Black members of the United States Senate, regardless of party affiliation,’ because they all spoke uniquely from their own experiences of the journey of Black Americans.” But it can be a bit overwhelming, said Carol Moseley Braun, who was the first Black woman to serve in the Senate and the only Black person in the entire chamber when she served. “If it had to do with women, I got trotted out. If it had to do with Black people, I got trotted out,” she recalled in an interview Thursday. “I couldn’t win.” In the end, no amount of pressure from Warnock could sway a single Republican to back the voting rights and election protection bill, or persuade the two balking Democrats, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, to support weakening the filibuster to advance it over GOP opposition. Nor could Scott save his party from the fallout of defending voting restrictions passed by Republican legislatures that Democrats say are intended to disenfranchise minority voters. The South Carolina senator’s ardent defense of Georgia’s new voting law may have been lost amid the repercussions from a faux pas uttered Wednesday by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader. Asked about protests from voters of color over new restrictions, McConnell said, “The concern is misplaced because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.” Critics interpreted the comment as implying that either Black voters are not wholly American, or that the top Senate Republican considered “American” synonymous with white. In a statement provided to The New York Times on Thursday, McConnell sought to clarify his remarks, saying that he has “consistently pointed to the record-high turnout for all voters in the 2020 election, including African Americans.” Warnock is the obvious face of the Democratic cause, not because of his skin color but because his tight election victory in 2020 — along with an even tighter win by his colleague, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. — gave the party its Senate majority, and because Warnock must face Georgia voters again this November, now under new election rules signed into law by the state’s Republican governor. Indeed, in an evenly divided Senate where the net loss of a single seat would cost Democrats control, Warnock is perhaps the most endangered Democrat, and the party’s cause célèbre. “Rev. Warnock is the moral authority and conscience on this issue by virtue of his background, his election and his extraordinary rhetorical capabilities,” said Marc Elias, the party’s top election lawyer. “He speaks for so many people, and articulates what so many people feel in their hearts about the importance of voting rights.” Last year, at least 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, but in the Senate on Wednesday, Georgia’s law was front and center. Scott fiercely defended the law — “supposedly the poster child of voter suppression” — as actually expanding access to the ballot, saying Democrats were distorting its effects to inject race into the voting rights fight when their real aim was political power. He leaned in hard to his biography, which included a grandfather he escorted to the polls because he could not read, to burnish his credentials as he laid into the Democrats’ case for a far-reaching rewrite of election laws that have traditionally been the purview of state and local governments. Speaking for “Americans from the Deep South who happen to look like me,” the conservative Republican recounted the Jim Crow era that his grandfather had lived through, when literacy tests, job losses, beatings and lynchings kept Black Southerners from the polls. The Georgia law is nothing like the “Jim Crow 2.0” that President Joe Biden and other Democrats have called it, he said. “To have a conversation and a narrative that is blatantly false is offensive, not just to me or Southern Americans but offensive to millions of Americans who fought, bled and died for the right to vote,” Scott said. That brought a sharp response from Booker. “Don’t lecture me about Jim Crow,” he said, adding, “It is 2022 and they are blatantly removing more polling places from the counties where Blacks and Latinos are overrepresented. I’m not making that up. That is a fact.” But it was Warnock who brought to the debate the names of his own constituents: a woman who has not been able to vote for a decade because of long lines and constantly moving polling places; a student who could not vote for him in 2020 because the epic waits near her college would have made her miss class; another who waited eight hours in the rain to cast her ballot. “One part of being a first of any kind is thinking, ‘How do I educate people?’” said Minyon Moore, who was a political director in the Clinton White House and a senior aide to Hillary Clinton. “I see that as a badge of honor, not a burden, and I know that Sens. Warnock and Booker do too. They have a responsibility to educate and explain. If they don’t do it, who will?” Warnock, too, brandished his biography, which included growing up in the Kayton Homes housing project in Savannah, Georgia, the youngest of 12 children. His mother picked cotton in Waycross, Georgia, as a child, he said, and “the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton helped pick her youngest son as a United States senator” in 2021. It was difficult enough when he beat the incumbent Republican, Kelly Loeffler, by about 93,000 votes with a huge minority turnout; this November will be worse with the state’s new law, he said. Georgia’s legislators “have decided to punish their own citizens for having the audacity to show up,” Warnock said, adding, “Those are the fact of the laws that are being passed in Georgia and across the nation.” Democrats have been wowed by such rhetorical performances, but the senator’s first year in electoral politics has yielded little in the way of victories. The voting rights push that he has framed as a moral imperative has been blocked. Another effort, to secure health care for the working poor in states like Georgia that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, got a boost when it was included in the Build Back Better Act that passed the House. But that, too, has been stymied in the Senate. He was blunt Wednesday, when he said during the voting rights debate that he believed in bipartisanship, but then asked, “Bipartisanship at what cost?” “Raphael Warnock feels that he went up there with this idea he can work with anyone,” said Jason Carter, a grandson of former President Jimmy Carter who was the Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia in 2014 and speaks regularly to Warnock. “There may come a time where he throws up his hands and says we can’t get anything done. I haven’t heard the frustration boiling over yet.”

'I will not sit quietly': 3 Black senators in spotlight on voting rights

A news reporter based in the United States grabbed attention when she finished the reporting despite being suddenly struck by a car during a live shot.&nbsp;

Immediately after the scary hit, the reporter named Tori Yorgey for NBC affiliate WSAZ of Huntington, West Virginia stood up and finished the reporting.&nbsp;

The incident happened when Yorgey was reporting live from Dunbar on the January 19th evening about a local water main break when a four-wheeler hit her from behind.&nbsp;

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/trending/pakistan-pilot-refused-to-fly-plane-saying-his-shift-ended-was-it-necessary-for-safety-446361">Pakistan pilot refused to fly plane saying his shift ended. Was it necessary for safety?</a>

After the collision, the reporter bumped into the camera and she fell into the nearby snow. She was heard saying: "Oh my god, I just got hit by a car, but I'm OK."

"I'm OK, you know, that's live TV for ya. It's all good," she added.&nbsp;

She even revealed that it was not the first time she was hit by a car while reporting the news. She said: "I actually got hit by a car in college too just like that."

She added. "I am so glad I'm OK!"&nbsp;

ALSO READ | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/19-year-old-zara-rutherford-becomes-youngest-woman-to-fly-solo-around-world-446369">19-year-old Zara Rutherford becomes youngest woman to fly solo around world</a>

Besides getting up, Yorgey also spoke with the driver of the car that hit her. While the camera was adjusting, the driver can be heard apologising for off-camera.&nbsp;

She said, "Ma'am, you are so sweet and you're OK. It is all good."

The news reporter also revealed that it was her last week at the job, She said, "You know it's my last week on the job and I think this would happen specifically to me, Tim [news caster]."&nbsp;

She was asked about the impact of the collision, she replied, "I don't even know, Tim. My whole life just flashed before my eyes, but this is live TV and everything's OK".&nbsp;

She added, "I thought I was in a safe spot, but clearly we might need to move the camera over a bit, so let me do that while I'm thinking of it."&nbsp;

Watch the incident here:

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Reporter gets hit by car on live tv, gets up and keeps working <a href="https://t.co/86dtuUxfL7">pic.twitter.com/86dtuUxfL7</a>
— GlockTopickz (@Glock_Topickz) <a href="https://twitter.com/Glock_Topickz/status/1484250908645105666?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2022</a></blockquote>
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A news reporter based in the United States grabbed attention when she finished the reporting despite being suddenly struck by a car during a live shot. Immediately after the scary hit, the reporter named Tori Yorgey for NBC affiliate WSAZ of Huntington, West Virginia stood up and finished the reporting.

A news reporter based in the United States grabbed attention when she finished the reporting despite being suddenly struck by a car during a live shot. Immediately after the scary hit, the reporter named Tori Yorgey for NBC affiliate WSAZ of Huntington, West Virginia stood up and finished the reporting. The incident happened when Yorgey was reporting live from Dunbar on the January 19th evening about a local water main break when a four-wheeler hit her from behind. ALSO READ | Pakistan pilot refused to fly plane saying his shift ended. Was it necessary for safety? After the collision, the reporter bumped into the camera and she fell into the nearby snow. She was heard saying: "Oh my god, I just got hit by a car, but I'm OK." "I'm OK, you know, that's live TV for ya. It's all good," she added. She even revealed that it was not the first time she was hit by a car while reporting the news. She said: "I actually got hit by a car in college too just like that." She added. "I am so glad I'm OK!" ALSO READ | 19-year-old Zara Rutherford becomes youngest woman to fly solo around world Besides getting up, Yorgey also spoke with the driver of the car that hit her. While the camera was adjusting, the driver can be heard apologising for off-camera. She said, "Ma'am, you are so sweet and you're OK. It is all good." The news reporter also revealed that it was her last week at the job, She said, "You know it's my last week on the job and I think this would happen specifically to me, Tim [news caster]." She was asked about the impact of the collision, she replied, "I don't even know, Tim. My whole life just flashed before my eyes, but this is live TV and everything's OK". She added, "I thought I was in a safe spot, but clearly we might need to move the camera over a bit, so let me do that while I'm thinking of it." Watch the incident here: Reporter gets hit by car on live tv, gets up and keeps working pic.twitter.com/86dtuUxfL7 — GlockTopickz (@Glock_Topickz) January 20, 2022 ×

Video: TV reporter struck by car during live broadcast, gets up, finishes job

US has now charged four Belarusian officials with aircraft piracy, this is in response to last year's diversion of the Ryanair flight. Belarus was widely criticized last year for diverting the passenger flight to Minsk to arrest opposition journalist Roman Protasevich. Four officials who had been charged are the Director general and deputy Director General of Belarus's state air navigation authority.

United States charges four Belarus officials with aircraft piracy

After a series of missile tests, North Korea on Thursday (January 20) has hinted that it could resume nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests.&nbsp;

The state-run media reported that the North Korea top officials led by Kim Jong Un said the country was preparing for a "long-term confrontation" with the United States.&nbsp;

The state media KCNA reported that a meeting of the party Central Committee's politburo "gave an instruction to a sector concerned... to promptly examine the issue of restarting" all activities that had been temporarily suspended.&nbsp;

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News agency AFP has reported that the latest information is in likely reference to Pyongyang's nuclear and ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) programmes.&nbsp;

"The hostile policy and military threat by the US has reached a danger line that can not be overlooked any more," a report on a meeting of the country's Politburo in state media KCNA said Thursday.

The North's top officials "unanimously recognized that we should make more thorough preparation for a long-term confrontation with the US imperialists," KCNA reported.

This includes examining restarting all temporarily-suspended activities, the report added.&nbsp;

In recent days, tensions have been rising over a series of North Korean missile tests. A US push for fresh sanctions was followed by a heated reaction from Pyongyang.&nbsp;

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(With inputs from agencies)

After a series of missile tests, North Korea on Thursday (January 20) has hinted that it could resume nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests. The state-run media reported that the North Korea top officials led by Kim Jong Un said the country was preparing for a "long-term confrontation" with the United States.

After a series of missile tests, North Korea on Thursday (January 20) has hinted that it could resume nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests. The state-run media reported that the North Korea top officials led by Kim Jong Un said the country was preparing for a "long-term confrontation" with the United States. The state media KCNA reported that a meeting of the party Central Committee's politburo "gave an instruction to a sector concerned... to promptly examine the issue of restarting" all activities that had been temporarily suspended. IN PICS | Decoding Pakistan's China-made J-10C fighters, can it beat Rafale? News agency AFP has reported that the latest information is in likely reference to Pyongyang's nuclear and ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) programmes. "The hostile policy and military threat by the US has reached a danger line that can not be overlooked any more," a report on a meeting of the country's Politburo in state media KCNA said Thursday. The North's top officials "unanimously recognized that we should make more thorough preparation for a long-term confrontation with the US imperialists," KCNA reported. This includes examining restarting all temporarily-suspended activities, the report added. In recent days, tensions have been rising over a series of North Korean missile tests. A US push for fresh sanctions was followed by a heated reaction from Pyongyang. × (With inputs from agencies)

North Korea slams 'hostile policy' of US, hints it may resume nuclear, long-range missile tests

North Korea has hinted at resuming its nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over a meeting at the party central committee's political bureau. The meeting also prepared for a long-term confrontation with the United States.

North Korea hints at resuming nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests

Russia has positioned its troops in the ex-soviet territory and its long-time ally Belarus. The two nations are all set to hold military drills next month, this development has made the United States more nervous. The US is worried that the arrival of Russian troops in Belarus for exercises could lead to a permanent presence moreover it might also introduce nuclear weapons into the country.

Russia, Belarus to hold joint military drill, United States raises concerns over move

The United States condemned the drone attack on Abu Dhabi on Monday (January 17) that left at least three people dead, including two Indians.&nbsp;

After the drone attack which triggered a fuel tank blast, Yemen's Houthi&nbsp;rebels claimed responsibility and warned civilians and foreign firms in the UAE to avoid "vital installations".&nbsp;

Abdul Ilah Hajar, adviser to the president of the Houthis' Supreme Political Council in Sanaa, said the military operation in Abu Dhabi was a warning shot.

"We sent them a clear warning message by hitting places that are not of great strategic importance," he told AFP.

He added, "But it is a warning if the UAE continues its hostility to Yemen, it will not be able in the future to withstand the coming strikes."

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/two-indians-among-3-killed-in-uae-drone-attack-claimed-by-yemens-houthis-445407">Two Indians among 3 killed in UAE drone attack claimed by Yemen's Houthis</a>

The West&nbsp;condemn attack

In the aftermath, the US vowed to hold the Houthis&nbsp;"accountable", while Britain, France and Gulf powers all likewise strongly condemned the attacks in the UAE.&nbsp;

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a White House statement: "The Huthis have claimed responsibility for this attack, and we will work with the UAE and international partners to hold them accountable."&nbsp;

"Our commitment to the security of the UAE is unwavering and we stand beside our Emirati partners against all threats to their territory," he added.

Britain strongly condemned the attack. "I condemn in the strongest terms the Houthi-claimed terrorist attacks on the United Arab Emirates," Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted.

France also condemned&nbsp;the attack "in the strongest terms".&nbsp;

"These attacks threaten the security of the United Arab Emirates and regional stability," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.&nbsp;"France expresses its support for the UAE in the face of these attacks," he added.&nbsp;

Three people dead

Two Indians and a Pakistani working for oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) died as three petrol tanks exploded near a storage facility.&nbsp;

Local police said "small flying objects, possibly belonging to drones" were found at both sites.&nbsp;

"We condemn the Huthi terrorist militia's targeting of civilian areas and facilities on UAE soil today... this sinful targeting will not go unpunished," UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said in a statement.&nbsp;

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(With inputs from agencies)

The United States condemned the drone attack on Abu Dhabi on Monday (January 17) that left at least three people dead, including two Indians. After the drone attack which triggered a fuel tank blast, Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed responsibility and warned civilians and foreign firms in the UAE to avoid "vital installations".

The United States condemned the drone attack on Abu Dhabi on Monday (January 17) that left at least three people dead, including two Indians. After the drone attack which triggered a fuel tank blast, Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed responsibility and warned civilians and foreign firms in the UAE to avoid "vital installations". Abdul Ilah Hajar, adviser to the president of the Houthis' Supreme Political Council in Sanaa, said the military operation in Abu Dhabi was a warning shot. "We sent them a clear warning message by hitting places that are not of great strategic importance," he told AFP. He added, "But it is a warning if the UAE continues its hostility to Yemen, it will not be able in the future to withstand the coming strikes." ALSO READ | Two Indians among 3 killed in UAE drone attack claimed by Yemen's Houthis The West condemn attack In the aftermath, the US vowed to hold the Houthis "accountable", while Britain, France and Gulf powers all likewise strongly condemned the attacks in the UAE. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a White House statement: "The Huthis have claimed responsibility for this attack, and we will work with the UAE and international partners to hold them accountable." "Our commitment to the security of the UAE is unwavering and we stand beside our Emirati partners against all threats to their territory," he added. Britain strongly condemned the attack. "I condemn in the strongest terms the Houthi-claimed terrorist attacks on the United Arab Emirates," Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted. France also condemned the attack "in the strongest terms". "These attacks threaten the security of the United Arab Emirates and regional stability," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. "France expresses its support for the UAE in the face of these attacks," he added. Three people dead Two Indians and a Pakistani working for oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) died as three petrol tanks exploded near a storage facility. Local police said "small flying objects, possibly belonging to drones" were found at both sites. "We condemn the Huthi terrorist militia's targeting of civilian areas and facilities on UAE soil today... this sinful targeting will not go unpunished," UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said in a statement. × (With inputs from agencies)

US and UK condemn Yemeni drone attack on Abu Dhabi that killed 3, including Indians

The United States is using platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to help the agencies spy on users in secret, Forbes reported citing newly-unsealed court documents show.

The United States is using platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to help the agencies spy on users in secret, Forbes reported citing newly-unsealed court documents show. As per the report, the US federal agencies have been using a 35-year-old American surveillance law in order to track users on WhatsApp. It was mentioned in the report that there was no explanation for why was it done. Also, it was reportedly done without knowing who they are targeting. ALSO READ | One in ten COVID-19 patients could be infectious even after 10 days The report talks about a recently-unsealed government surveillance application that revealed that in November 2021. As per the report, the DEA investigators demanded the Facebook-owned messaging company to track seven users based in China and Macau. The application revealed that the DEA has no idea about the identities of any of the targets. However, they asked WhatsApp to monitor the IP addresses and numbers. The Forbes report mentioned that such surveillance is done using a technology known as a "pen register" - under the 1986 Pen Register Act. ALSO READ | India’s main cities record sharp fall in Covid infections It is understood that the 'pen registers' are surveillance devices that capture the phone numbers dialled on outgoing telephone calls. It traps and traces devices to capture the numbers identifying incoming calls. They are not supposed to reveal the content of communications and as mentioned by the Forbed report, the application doesn't seek any message content. On the other hand, WhatsApp couldn’t provide content, as it is end-to-end encrypted. Spyware Recently, Poland's ruling party leader admitted that the country bought Israeli spyware but dismissed claims it was used against the opposition. Recent allegations about the use of Pegasus software have rocked Poland, drawing comparisons to the Watergate investigation that led to US president Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. Pegasus can turn smartphones into pocket spying devices, allowing the user to read the target's messages, track their location, and even turn on their camera and microphone without their knowledge.

Did US government agencies ask WhatsApp to help agencies spy on users in secret?

The chief executives of major US passenger and cargo carriers have warned of an impending "catastrophic" aviation crisis in less than 36 hours, when two big telecommunication firms are set to deploy new 5G service.

US airlines warns of 'chaos' on 5G rollout

A major winter storm that slammed southeast US and parts of Canada on Sunday continued to bring in freezing rain and snow across the region. Over 4,200 flights in the United States were either canceled or delayed on Monday due to bad weather, parts of New York state, Pennsylvania and north Carolina received over 20 inches while Atlanta saw its first snow in nearly four years.

US, Canada hit by severe winter storm, over 4000 flights cancelled

A major winter storm has ripped through southeast US and parts of Canada on Sunday bringing in freezing rain and snow in the region. As per reports, over 80 million people are currently under a weather warning and nearly 3 million people up in the northeast region are under high wind warnings including in New York city and Boston.

Winter storm engulfs United States and Canada, over 80 million under weather alert

A year has passed since the US went to the polls but the change in dates has not stopped former President Donald Trump from carrying on with his election fraud claims. In his first public speech of 2022 addressing a gathering in Arizona, Trump said that the alleged voter fraud was the real insurrection comparing his unsubstantiated claims to the Jan 6 riots that shook the entire country.

Former US Prez Donald Trump addresses gathering in Arizona, says voter fraud was real insurrection

In a crowd-pleasing speech in Arizona on Saturday (January 15), former United States President Donald Trump reiterated unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential elections were stolen from him.&nbsp;

In front of thousands of supporters who were waving flags written 'Trump 2020' and 'Trump 2024', the Republic leader&nbsp;said, "We are done having our lives controlled by politicians in Washington. We are done with the mandates."

He added, "The radical Democrats want to turn the United States into a communist country. We won those elections. We won them big. We can't let them get away with it."&nbsp;

"If an election were held today, we would trounce them so badly in a landslide in every way, just as we really did on Nov. 3. We trounced them. If we had an honest press, the election would have been much different," Trump added.&nbsp;

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/hostage-crisis-at-us-synagogue-ends-everyone-out-alive-safe-445112">Hostage crisis at US synagogue ends: Everyone out alive, safe</a>

During the rally, other speakers had kept to similar themes as they slammed US President Joe Biden as "weak" and "deranged."

They included Kari Lake, whom Trump has endorsed for governor of Arizona in this year's race. She has previously said she would not have certified Biden's victory if she had been in office at the time.

Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, who has spent millions of dollars trying to overturn the election, with a focus on the machines used to count ballots, told the crowd he was not going to give up.

"And I will promise you this, there's not gonna be any election with any machines or computers done in 2022," he said.&nbsp;

During the rally, Trump walked out on a popular song of a former WWE professional wrestler known as The Undertaker.&nbsp;

Watch:

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Undertaker Theme at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpRally?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrumpRally</a>💀 <a href="https://t.co/IXk87N3hWo">pic.twitter.com/IXk87N3hWo</a>
— (AD) Deo Non Fortuna (@_labour_first) <a href="https://twitter.com/_labour_first/status/1482537731586674692?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2022</a></blockquote>
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WATCH |&nbsp;Republican party threatens to boycott tradition of participating in the US presidential debates

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&nbsp;

In a crowd-pleasing speech in Arizona on Saturday (January 15), former United States President Donald Trump reiterated unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential elections were stolen from him.

In a crowd-pleasing speech in Arizona on Saturday (January 15), former United States President Donald Trump reiterated unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential elections were stolen from him. In front of thousands of supporters who were waving flags written 'Trump 2020' and 'Trump 2024', the Republic leader said, "We are done having our lives controlled by politicians in Washington. We are done with the mandates." He added, "The radical Democrats want to turn the United States into a communist country. We won those elections. We won them big. We can't let them get away with it." "If an election were held today, we would trounce them so badly in a landslide in every way, just as we really did on Nov. 3. We trounced them. If we had an honest press, the election would have been much different," Trump added. ALSO READ | Hostage crisis at US synagogue ends: Everyone out alive, safe During the rally, other speakers had kept to similar themes as they slammed US President Joe Biden as "weak" and "deranged." They included Kari Lake, whom Trump has endorsed for governor of Arizona in this year's race. She has previously said she would not have certified Biden's victory if she had been in office at the time. Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, who has spent millions of dollars trying to overturn the election, with a focus on the machines used to count ballots, told the crowd he was not going to give up. "And I will promise you this, there's not gonna be any election with any machines or computers done in 2022," he said. During the rally, Trump walked out on a popular song of a former WWE professional wrestler known as The Undertaker. Watch: Undertaker Theme at the #TrumpRally💀 pic.twitter.com/IXk87N3hWo — (AD) Deo Non Fortuna (@_labour_first) January 16, 2022 × WATCH | Republican party threatens to boycott tradition of participating in the US presidential debates ×

Donald Trump reiterates claims that 2020 US presidential election was stolen

Firefighters continued to battle a large blaze Saturday morning at a chemical plant in Passaic, New Jersey, more than 14 hours after it erupted, sending towering flames into the sky and clouds of smoke wafting through the region.

By 11 a.m., the fire had been downgraded to a four-alarm response from an 11-alarm response, but bitter low temperatures created other problems as firefighters contended with frozen hydrants and hazardous conditions.

City officials said that the worst outcome had been avoided so far: The fire did not reach the portion of the plant that houses large amounts of chemical products, and there were no major injuries.

Residents were urged to keep their windows shut, but the city’s mayor said Saturday morning that the situation did not require them to evacuate the area.

“It’s one of the worst fires I’ve experienced as mayor because of the potential,” Mayor Hector Lora said in a phone interview around 10:30 a.m. “It had the potential to be the worst in our city. We would be looking just at evacuating hundreds and hundreds of people had it reached the chemical section.”

The blaze erupted just after 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Majestic Industries warehouse, which houses Qualco, a company that manufactures chlorine pellets for swimming pools. The facility can store more than 100,000 pounds of the product.

The website for Qualco appeared to be down Saturday morning, and a representative could not immediately be reached.

The building was largely empty at the time of the fire, with only one security guard present, officials said. More than 200 firefighters from around the region were sent to Passaic, a city of about 70,000 residents that is roughly 10 miles from Manhattan.

The cause of the fire remained unknown. Officials said inspectors would not be able to begin making a determination until the situation was under control.

Lora said some similar fires at plants in the area had been caused by an increased use of heaters and equipment in the cold weather months but emphasized that it was not clear if that was the case Friday.

The mayor and state environmental officials said that toxic fumes were not being emitted and that air quality readings in the area remained within state and federal limits.

“We’re going to move forward with more permanent setups to make sure the air quality in the area is continually under the standards,” said Ken Pincus, the city’s health officer.

Still, weather conditions offered new challenges for firefighters Saturday morning.

The direction of the wind Friday night sent smoke and flames directly up into the air, Lora said, and was also helping to keep the blaze alive Saturday.

“The winds last night, I would say, were our best friend,” Lora said. “This morning it could become our worst enemy as it continues to feed the fire.”

A section of the more than 200,000-square-foot building collapsed, and fire officials said they were concerned about structural issues in other areas.

It was unclear how close the blaze had been to affecting the largest supply of chemicals. Only one firefighter reported a minor injury to his eye, officials said, and no residents were injured.

About 900 families live in a housing complex near the plant, Lora said, and would have needed to leave if conditions had worsened.

“Where would we put them? Where do you take them when the air quality is a concern every area that you turn?” Lora said. “The building can be replaced, but human life cannot be. That everyone’s safe is what I’m most grateful for right now.”

The blaze sent billows of smoke through the region Friday night, and New York City officials said residents there might see or smell smoke.

Video posted on social media shows a large ball of fire erupting along the side of a highway as thick clouds of smoke roar into the sky. The flames drew crowds of onlookers, some of whom reported hearing explosions and seeing sparks.

Lora said he had spoken to Gov. Phil Murphy, who dispatched state environmental and emergency management officials to the scene.

Murphy said on Twitter on Friday that he was urging “everyone in Passaic to stay safe.”

“Praying for the safety of our first responders on the scene,” he wrote. 
&nbsp;

Firefighters continued to battle a large blaze Saturday morning at a chemical plant in Passaic, New Jersey, more than 14 hours after it erupted, sending towering flames into the sky and clouds of smoke wafting through the region.

Firefighters continued to battle a large blaze Saturday morning at a chemical plant in Passaic, New Jersey, more than 14 hours after it erupted, sending towering flames into the sky and clouds of smoke wafting through the region. By 11 a.m., the fire had been downgraded to a four-alarm response from an 11-alarm response, but bitter low temperatures created other problems as firefighters contended with frozen hydrants and hazardous conditions. City officials said that the worst outcome had been avoided so far: The fire did not reach the portion of the plant that houses large amounts of chemical products, and there were no major injuries. Residents were urged to keep their windows shut, but the city’s mayor said Saturday morning that the situation did not require them to evacuate the area. “It’s one of the worst fires I’ve experienced as mayor because of the potential,” Mayor Hector Lora said in a phone interview around 10:30 a.m. “It had the potential to be the worst in our city. We would be looking just at evacuating hundreds and hundreds of people had it reached the chemical section.” The blaze erupted just after 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Majestic Industries warehouse, which houses Qualco, a company that manufactures chlorine pellets for swimming pools. The facility can store more than 100,000 pounds of the product. The website for Qualco appeared to be down Saturday morning, and a representative could not immediately be reached. The building was largely empty at the time of the fire, with only one security guard present, officials said. More than 200 firefighters from around the region were sent to Passaic, a city of about 70,000 residents that is roughly 10 miles from Manhattan. The cause of the fire remained unknown. Officials said inspectors would not be able to begin making a determination until the situation was under control. Lora said some similar fires at plants in the area had been caused by an increased use of heaters and equipment in the cold weather months but emphasized that it was not clear if that was the case Friday. The mayor and state environmental officials said that toxic fumes were not being emitted and that air quality readings in the area remained within state and federal limits. “We’re going to move forward with more permanent setups to make sure the air quality in the area is continually under the standards,” said Ken Pincus, the city’s health officer. Still, weather conditions offered new challenges for firefighters Saturday morning. The direction of the wind Friday night sent smoke and flames directly up into the air, Lora said, and was also helping to keep the blaze alive Saturday. “The winds last night, I would say, were our best friend,” Lora said. “This morning it could become our worst enemy as it continues to feed the fire.” A section of the more than 200,000-square-foot building collapsed, and fire officials said they were concerned about structural issues in other areas. It was unclear how close the blaze had been to affecting the largest supply of chemicals. Only one firefighter reported a minor injury to his eye, officials said, and no residents were injured. About 900 families live in a housing complex near the plant, Lora said, and would have needed to leave if conditions had worsened. “Where would we put them? Where do you take them when the air quality is a concern every area that you turn?” Lora said. “The building can be replaced, but human life cannot be. That everyone’s safe is what I’m most grateful for right now.” The blaze sent billows of smoke through the region Friday night, and New York City officials said residents there might see or smell smoke. Video posted on social media shows a large ball of fire erupting along the side of a highway as thick clouds of smoke roar into the sky. The flames drew crowds of onlookers, some of whom reported hearing explosions and seeing sparks. Lora said he had spoken to Gov. Phil Murphy, who dispatched state environmental and emergency management officials to the scene. Murphy said on Twitter on Friday that he was urging “everyone in Passaic to stay safe.” “Praying for the safety of our first responders on the scene,” he wrote.

Firefighters continue to battle large blaze at Passaic chemical plant

Russia has dismantled ransomware crime group&nbsp;REvil&nbsp;at the request of the United States in an operation in which it detained and charged the group's members, the FSB domestic intelligence service said on Friday.

The arrests were a rare apparent demonstration of U.S.-Russian collaboration at a time of high tensions between the two over Ukraine. The announcement came as Ukraine was responding to a massive cyberattack that shut down government websites, though there was no indication the incidents were related.

The United States welcomed the arrests, according to a senior administration official, adding "we understand that one of the individuals who was arrested today was responsible for the attack against Colonial Pipeline last spring."

A May cyberattack&nbsp;on the Colonial Pipeline that led to widespread gas shortages on the U.S. East Coast used encryption software called DarkSide, which was developed by&nbsp;REvil&nbsp;associates.

Police and FSB operation searched 25 addresses, detaining 14 people, the FSB said, listing assets it had seized including $600,000 computer equipment and 20 luxury cars.

A Moscow court identified two of the men as Roman Muromsky and Andrei Bessonov and remanded them in custody for two months. Muromsky could not be reached for comment and his phone was off. Reuters could not immediately reach Bessonov.

Two Muscovites told Reuters Muromsky was a web developer who had helped them with websites for their businesses.

Russia told Washington directly of the moves it had taken against the group, the FSB said. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said it could not immediately comment.

"The investigative measures were based on a request from the ... United States," the FSB said. "... The organised criminal association has ceased to exist and the information infrastructure used for criminal purposes was neutralised."

The REN TV channel aired footage of agents raiding homes and arresting people, pinning them to the floor, and seizing large piles of dollars and Russian roubles.

The group members have been charged and could face up to seven years in prison, the FSB said.

A source familiar with the case told Interfax the group's members with Russian citizenship would not be handed over to the United States.

The United States said in November it was offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of anyone holding a key position in the&nbsp;REvil&nbsp;group.

The United States has been hit by a string of high-profile hacks by ransom-seeking cybercriminals. A source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters in June that&nbsp;REvil&nbsp;was suspected of being the group behind a ransomware attack on the world's biggest meatpacking company, JBS SA.

Washington has repeatedly accused the Russian state in the past of malicious activity on the internet, which Moscow denies.

REvil&nbsp;has not been associated with any major attacks for months.

John Shier, a threat researcher at the UK-based Sophos cybersecurity company, said there was no independent confirmation the self-identified leaders of the "defunct" group had been arrested.

"If nothing else, it serves as a warning to other criminals that operating out of Russia might not be the safe harbour they thought it was," he said.

'NORMAL PROGRAMMER'

A former client of Muromsky who only gave the name Sergei described him as a regular worker who did not appear wealthy.

Sergei runs a shop called Motohansa selling motorcycle spare parts. Muromsky created its website and supported it for some time charging him around 15,000 roubles ($196) per month, he said.

"He is a smart person and I can imagine that if he wanted to do it (hacking) he could, but he charged very little money for his services. Several years ago he had a Rover car. That's not an expensive car at all," Sergei said.

Muromsky is in his thirties and was born in Anapa in Russia's south, he said. "He worked as a normal programmer."

Another client, Adam Guzuyev, described Muromsky as "a regular normal worker" who proved unable to install all the features Guzuyev wanted on his website.

"He earned no more than 60,000 roubles. I can't say he has genius abilities," he said, adding Muromsky spent three months working on his website.

Russia has dismantled ransomware crime group REvil at the request of the United States in an operation in which it detained and charged the group's members, the FSB domestic intelligence service said on Friday.

Russia has dismantled ransomware crime group REvil at the request of the United States in an operation in which it detained and charged the group's members, the FSB domestic intelligence service said on Friday. The arrests were a rare apparent demonstration of U.S.-Russian collaboration at a time of high tensions between the two over Ukraine. The announcement came as Ukraine was responding to a massive cyberattack that shut down government websites, though there was no indication the incidents were related. The United States welcomed the arrests, according to a senior administration official, adding "we understand that one of the individuals who was arrested today was responsible for the attack against Colonial Pipeline last spring." A May cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline that led to widespread gas shortages on the U.S. East Coast used encryption software called DarkSide, which was developed by REvil associates. Police and FSB operation searched 25 addresses, detaining 14 people, the FSB said, listing assets it had seized including $600,000 computer equipment and 20 luxury cars. A Moscow court identified two of the men as Roman Muromsky and Andrei Bessonov and remanded them in custody for two months. Muromsky could not be reached for comment and his phone was off. Reuters could not immediately reach Bessonov. Two Muscovites told Reuters Muromsky was a web developer who had helped them with websites for their businesses. Russia told Washington directly of the moves it had taken against the group, the FSB said. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said it could not immediately comment. "The investigative measures were based on a request from the ... United States," the FSB said. "... The organised criminal association has ceased to exist and the information infrastructure used for criminal purposes was neutralised." The REN TV channel aired footage of agents raiding homes and arresting people, pinning them to the floor, and seizing large piles of dollars and Russian roubles. The group members have been charged and could face up to seven years in prison, the FSB said. A source familiar with the case told Interfax the group's members with Russian citizenship would not be handed over to the United States. The United States said in November it was offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of anyone holding a key position in the REvil group. The United States has been hit by a string of high-profile hacks by ransom-seeking cybercriminals. A source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters in June that REvil was suspected of being the group behind a ransomware attack on the world's biggest meatpacking company, JBS SA. Washington has repeatedly accused the Russian state in the past of malicious activity on the internet, which Moscow denies. REvil has not been associated with any major attacks for months. John Shier, a threat researcher at the UK-based Sophos cybersecurity company, said there was no independent confirmation the self-identified leaders of the "defunct" group had been arrested. "If nothing else, it serves as a warning to other criminals that operating out of Russia might not be the safe harbour they thought it was," he said. 'NORMAL PROGRAMMER' A former client of Muromsky who only gave the name Sergei described him as a regular worker who did not appear wealthy. Sergei runs a shop called Motohansa selling motorcycle spare parts. Muromsky created its website and supported it for some time charging him around 15,000 roubles ($196) per month, he said. "He is a smart person and I can imagine that if he wanted to do it (hacking) he could, but he charged very little money for his services. Several years ago he had a Rover car. That's not an expensive car at all," Sergei said. Muromsky is in his thirties and was born in Anapa in Russia's south, he said. "He worked as a normal programmer." Another client, Adam Guzuyev, described Muromsky as "a regular normal worker" who proved unable to install all the features Guzuyev wanted on his website. "He earned no more than 60,000 roubles. I can't say he has genius abilities," he said, adding Muromsky spent three months working on his website.

Russia dismantles REvil hacker group at US request

With the White House legislative agenda in shambles less than a year before the midterm elections, Democrats are sounding alarms that their party could face even deeper losses than anticipated without a major shift in strategy led by the president.

The frustrations span the spectrum from those of the party’s liberal wing, which feels deflated by the failure to enact a bold agenda, to the concerns of moderates, who are worried about losing suburban swing voters and had believed Democratic victories would usher a return to normalcy after last year’s upheaval.

Democrats already anticipated a difficult midterm climate, given that the party in power historically loses seats during a president’s first term. But the party’s struggle to act on its biggest legislative priorities has rattled lawmakers and strategists, who fear their candidates will be left combating the perception that Democrats failed to deliver on President Joe Biden’s central campaign promise of rebooting a broken Washington.

“I think millions of Americans have become very demoralized — they’re asking, what do the Democrats stand for?” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent in charge of the Senate Budget Committee. In a lengthy interview, he added, “Clearly, the current strategy is failing, and we need a major course correction.”

Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from a blue-collar Ohio district who is running for the state’s open Senate seat, said his party isn’t addressing voter anxieties about school closures, the pandemic and economic security. He faulted the Biden administration, not just for failing to pass its domestic agenda but also for a lack of clear public health guidance around issues such as masking and testing.

“It seems like the Democrats can’t get out of their own way,” he said. “The Democrats have got to do a better job of being clear on what they’re trying to do.”

The complaints capped one of the worst weeks of the Biden presidency, with the White House facing the looming failure of voting rights legislation, the defeat of their vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers at the Supreme Court, inflation rising to a 40-year high and friction with Russia over aggression toward Ukraine. Meanwhile, Biden’s top domestic priority — a sprawling $2.2 trillion spending, climate and tax policy plan — remains stalled, not just because of Republicans but also opposition from a centrist Democrat.

“I’m sure they’re frustrated — I am,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, when asked this week about the chamber’s inability to act on Biden’s agenda. Discussing the impact on voters before the midterm elections, he added, “It depends on who they blame for it.”

The end of the week provided another painful marker for Democrats: Friday was the first time since July that millions of U.S. families with children did not receive a monthly child benefit, a payment established as part of the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan that Democrats muscled through in March without any Republican support.

Plans to extend the expiration date for the payments, which helped keep millions of children out of poverty, were stymied with the collapse of negotiations over the sprawling domestic policy plan. And additional pandemic-related provisions will expire before the end of the year without congressional action.

“That’s just about as straightforward as it gets,” said Ryan. “If the Democrats can’t get on with a tax cut for working families, what are we for?”

In recent days, Biden has faced a wave of rising anger from traditional party supporters. Members of some civil rights groups boycotted his voting rights speech in Atlanta to express their disappointment with his push on the issue, while others, including Stacey Abrams, who is running for governor in Georgia, were noticeably absent. Biden vowed to make a new forceful push for voting right protections, only to see it fizzle the next day.

And last week, six of Biden’s former public health advisers went public with their criticisms of his handling of the pandemic, calling on the White House to adopt a strategy geared to the “new normal” of living with the virus indefinitely. Others have called for the firing of Jeffrey Zients, who leads the White House pandemic response team.

“There does not seem to be an appreciation for the urgency of the moment,” said Tré Easton, a senior adviser for Battle Born Collective, a progressive group that is pushing for overturning the filibuster to enable Democrats to pass a series of their priorities. “It’s sort of, ‘OK, what comes next?’ Is there something that’s going to happen where voters can say, yes, my life is appreciatively more stable than it was two years ago.”

White House officials and Democrats insist that their agenda is far from dead and that discussions continue with key lawmakers to pass the bulk of Biden’s domestic plans. Talks over an omnibus package to keep the government open beyond Feb. 18 have quietly resumed, and states are beginning to receive funds from the $1 trillion infrastructure law.

“I guess the truth is an agenda doesn’t wrap up in one year,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

While there’s widespread agreement around the electoral peril that the party faces, there’s little consensus over who, exactly, is to blame. Liberals have been particularly scathing in their critique of two centrist senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and their long-standing objections to undermining the Senate filibuster, as well as Manchin’s decision to abruptly reject the $2.2 trillion spending plan last month. For months, Democratic lawmakers, activists and officials have been raising concerns about sinking support among crucial segments of the party’s coalition — Black, female, young and Latino voters — ratings many worry could drop further without action on issues like voting rights, climate change, abortion rights and paid family leave.

“In my view, we are not going to win the elections in 2022 unless our base is energized and ordinary people understand what we are fighting for, and how we are different than the Republicans,” Sanders said. “That’s not the case now.”

But many in the party concede that the realities of their narrow congressional majorities and united Republican opposition have blocked their ability to pass much of their agenda. Some have faulted party leaders for catering to progressives’ ambitions, without the votes to execute.

“Leadership set out with a failed strategy, and while I guess, maybe they can message that they tried, it actually isn’t going to yield real laws,” said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Florida centrist, who is retiring but has signaled aspirations for a future Senate run.

Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat from rural Illinois, said Democrats should consider less ambitious bills that could draw some Republican support to give the party accomplishments it can claim in the midterm elections.

“We really kind of need to reset at this point,” said Bustos, who is retiring from a district that swung to Donald Trump in 2020. “I hope we focus on what we can get done and then focus like crazy on selling it.”

Biden effectively staked his presidency on the belief that voters would reward his party for steering the country out of a deadly pandemic and into economic prosperity. But even after a year that produced record job growth, widely available vaccines and stock market highs, Biden has not begun to deliver a message of success nor focused on promoting his legislative victories.

Many Democrats say they need to do more to sell their accomplishments or risk watching the midterms go the way of the off-year elections, when many in the party were surprised by the intensity of the backlash against them in races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York.

“We need to get into the business of promotion and selling and out of the business of moaning and groaning,” said Bradley Beychok, president of American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic group.

Others say that as president, Biden has fallen out of step with many voters by focusing on issues like climate change and voting rights. While crucial for the country, those topics aren’t topping the list of concerns for many voters still trying to navigate the uncertainties of a pandemic stretching into a third year.

“The administration is focused on things that are important but not particularly salient to voters and sometimes as president you have to do that,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank. “Now, we need to begin to move back to talking about the things that people do care about."

With the White House legislative agenda in shambles less than a year before the midterm elections, Democrats are sounding alarms that their party could face even deeper losses than anticipated without a major shift in strategy led by the president.

With the White House legislative agenda in shambles less than a year before the midterm elections, Democrats are sounding alarms that their party could face even deeper losses than anticipated without a major shift in strategy led by the president. The frustrations span the spectrum from those of the party’s liberal wing, which feels deflated by the failure to enact a bold agenda, to the concerns of moderates, who are worried about losing suburban swing voters and had believed Democratic victories would usher a return to normalcy after last year’s upheaval. Democrats already anticipated a difficult midterm climate, given that the party in power historically loses seats during a president’s first term. But the party’s struggle to act on its biggest legislative priorities has rattled lawmakers and strategists, who fear their candidates will be left combating the perception that Democrats failed to deliver on President Joe Biden’s central campaign promise of rebooting a broken Washington. “I think millions of Americans have become very demoralized — they’re asking, what do the Democrats stand for?” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent in charge of the Senate Budget Committee. In a lengthy interview, he added, “Clearly, the current strategy is failing, and we need a major course correction.” Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from a blue-collar Ohio district who is running for the state’s open Senate seat, said his party isn’t addressing voter anxieties about school closures, the pandemic and economic security. He faulted the Biden administration, not just for failing to pass its domestic agenda but also for a lack of clear public health guidance around issues such as masking and testing. “It seems like the Democrats can’t get out of their own way,” he said. “The Democrats have got to do a better job of being clear on what they’re trying to do.” The complaints capped one of the worst weeks of the Biden presidency, with the White House facing the looming failure of voting rights legislation, the defeat of their vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers at the Supreme Court, inflation rising to a 40-year high and friction with Russia over aggression toward Ukraine. Meanwhile, Biden’s top domestic priority — a sprawling $2.2 trillion spending, climate and tax policy plan — remains stalled, not just because of Republicans but also opposition from a centrist Democrat. “I’m sure they’re frustrated — I am,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, when asked this week about the chamber’s inability to act on Biden’s agenda. Discussing the impact on voters before the midterm elections, he added, “It depends on who they blame for it.” The end of the week provided another painful marker for Democrats: Friday was the first time since July that millions of U.S. families with children did not receive a monthly child benefit, a payment established as part of the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan that Democrats muscled through in March without any Republican support. Plans to extend the expiration date for the payments, which helped keep millions of children out of poverty, were stymied with the collapse of negotiations over the sprawling domestic policy plan. And additional pandemic-related provisions will expire before the end of the year without congressional action. “That’s just about as straightforward as it gets,” said Ryan. “If the Democrats can’t get on with a tax cut for working families, what are we for?” In recent days, Biden has faced a wave of rising anger from traditional party supporters. Members of some civil rights groups boycotted his voting rights speech in Atlanta to express their disappointment with his push on the issue, while others, including Stacey Abrams, who is running for governor in Georgia, were noticeably absent. Biden vowed to make a new forceful push for voting right protections, only to see it fizzle the next day. And last week, six of Biden’s former public health advisers went public with their criticisms of his handling of the pandemic, calling on the White House to adopt a strategy geared to the “new normal” of living with the virus indefinitely. Others have called for the firing of Jeffrey Zients, who leads the White House pandemic response team. “There does not seem to be an appreciation for the urgency of the moment,” said Tré Easton, a senior adviser for Battle Born Collective, a progressive group that is pushing for overturning the filibuster to enable Democrats to pass a series of their priorities. “It’s sort of, ‘OK, what comes next?’ Is there something that’s going to happen where voters can say, yes, my life is appreciatively more stable than it was two years ago.” White House officials and Democrats insist that their agenda is far from dead and that discussions continue with key lawmakers to pass the bulk of Biden’s domestic plans. Talks over an omnibus package to keep the government open beyond Feb. 18 have quietly resumed, and states are beginning to receive funds from the $1 trillion infrastructure law. “I guess the truth is an agenda doesn’t wrap up in one year,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. While there’s widespread agreement around the electoral peril that the party faces, there’s little consensus over who, exactly, is to blame. Liberals have been particularly scathing in their critique of two centrist senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and their long-standing objections to undermining the Senate filibuster, as well as Manchin’s decision to abruptly reject the $2.2 trillion spending plan last month. For months, Democratic lawmakers, activists and officials have been raising concerns about sinking support among crucial segments of the party’s coalition — Black, female, young and Latino voters — ratings many worry could drop further without action on issues like voting rights, climate change, abortion rights and paid family leave. “In my view, we are not going to win the elections in 2022 unless our base is energized and ordinary people understand what we are fighting for, and how we are different than the Republicans,” Sanders said. “That’s not the case now.” But many in the party concede that the realities of their narrow congressional majorities and united Republican opposition have blocked their ability to pass much of their agenda. Some have faulted party leaders for catering to progressives’ ambitions, without the votes to execute. “Leadership set out with a failed strategy, and while I guess, maybe they can message that they tried, it actually isn’t going to yield real laws,” said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Florida centrist, who is retiring but has signaled aspirations for a future Senate run. Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat from rural Illinois, said Democrats should consider less ambitious bills that could draw some Republican support to give the party accomplishments it can claim in the midterm elections. “We really kind of need to reset at this point,” said Bustos, who is retiring from a district that swung to Donald Trump in 2020. “I hope we focus on what we can get done and then focus like crazy on selling it.” Biden effectively staked his presidency on the belief that voters would reward his party for steering the country out of a deadly pandemic and into economic prosperity. But even after a year that produced record job growth, widely available vaccines and stock market highs, Biden has not begun to deliver a message of success nor focused on promoting his legislative victories. Many Democrats say they need to do more to sell their accomplishments or risk watching the midterms go the way of the off-year elections, when many in the party were surprised by the intensity of the backlash against them in races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York. “We need to get into the business of promotion and selling and out of the business of moaning and groaning,” said Bradley Beychok, president of American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic group. Others say that as president, Biden has fallen out of step with many voters by focusing on issues like climate change and voting rights. While crucial for the country, those topics aren’t topping the list of concerns for many voters still trying to navigate the uncertainties of a pandemic stretching into a third year. “The administration is focused on things that are important but not particularly salient to voters and sometimes as president you have to do that,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank. “Now, we need to begin to move back to talking about the things that people do care about."

Frustrated Democrats call for 'reset' ahead of midterm elections

First sedition charges have been announced by the United States Justice Department on Thursday (January 13) in relation to the January 6 riots and attack on the Capitol.&nbsp;

After the year-long probe, US prosecutors charged the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, and 10 other people with seditious conspiracy.&nbsp;

The 56-year-old Rhodes and another associate of the organisation, Ed Vallejo, were arrested early Thursday.&nbsp;

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/china-attempting-to-infiltrate-the-uk-parliament-warns-mi5-china-says-we-have-no-need-buy-influence-444573">China attempting to infiltrate the UK Parliament, warns MI5; China says 'we have no need buy influence'</a>

The Justice Department said in a statement: "Following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, Rhodes conspired with his co-defendants and others to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by Jan. 20, 2021."

As per the US prosecutors, in late December 2020, Rhodes used private encrypted communications to plan to travel to Washington DC on January 6, 2021.&nbsp;

He and others who were involved in the attacks planned to bring weapons to the area to help support the operation the prosecutors mentioned.&nbsp;

Who are Oath Keepers?

In the aftermath of the January 6 riots, serious charges have been levied primarily against members of far-right groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.&nbsp;

Oath Keepers is an American far-right anti-government militia and its members claim that they are defending the Constitution of the United States.&nbsp;

While doing so, they feel encouraged to disobey orders which they believe would violate the US Constitution.&nbsp;

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/disappointed-us-supreme-court-blocks-bidens-vaccine-mandate-for-businesses-444557">'Disappointed': US Supreme Court blocks Biden's vaccine mandate for businesses</a>

What happened on January 6, 2021?

A mob of hundreds of angry supporters of former United States President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, with an intention to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.&nbsp;

The rioters vandalised property, assaulted some of the lawmakers and they even occupied the building for several hours. Many were injured and at least five people died either shortly before, during or following the incident.&nbsp;

First sedition charges have been announced by the United States Justice Department on Thursday (January 13) in relation to the January 6 riots and attack on the Capitol.

First sedition charges have been announced by the United States Justice Department on Thursday (January 13) in relation to the January 6 riots and attack on the Capitol. After the year-long probe, US prosecutors charged the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, and 10 other people with seditious conspiracy. The 56-year-old Rhodes and another associate of the organisation, Ed Vallejo, were arrested early Thursday. ALSO READ | China attempting to infiltrate the UK Parliament, warns MI5; China says 'we have no need buy influence' The Justice Department said in a statement: "Following the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, Rhodes conspired with his co-defendants and others to oppose by force the execution of the laws governing the transfer of presidential power by Jan. 20, 2021." As per the US prosecutors, in late December 2020, Rhodes used private encrypted communications to plan to travel to Washington DC on January 6, 2021. He and others who were involved in the attacks planned to bring weapons to the area to help support the operation the prosecutors mentioned. Who are Oath Keepers? In the aftermath of the January 6 riots, serious charges have been levied primarily against members of far-right groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters. Oath Keepers is an American far-right anti-government militia and its members claim that they are defending the Constitution of the United States. While doing so, they feel encouraged to disobey orders which they believe would violate the US Constitution. ALSO READ | 'Disappointed': US Supreme Court blocks Biden's vaccine mandate for businesses What happened on January 6, 2021? A mob of hundreds of angry supporters of former United States President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, with an intention to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. The rioters vandalised property, assaulted some of the lawmakers and they even occupied the building for several hours. Many were injured and at least five people died either shortly before, during or following the incident.

US Capitol riot: Who are Oath Keepers? Founder of far-right group charged with seditious conspiracy

Click on headlines to read the full report: US Supreme Court blocks Biden's workplace vaccine mandate. Also read the report on WHO approving two new treatments for COVID-19.

Click on headlines to read the full report: US Supreme Court blocks Biden's workplace vaccine mandate. Also read the report on WHO approving two new treatments for COVID-19. After the year-long probe, US prosecutors charged the founder of the far-right oath keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, and 10 other people with seditious conspiracy. Click on headlines to read the full report: 'Disappointed': US Supreme Court blocks Biden's vaccine mandate for businesses The US Supreme Court blocked President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for large businesses delivering a blow to the US government. The Biden administration had mandated that coronavirus vaccinations or weekly testing should be made compulsory in companies that employ over 100 workers. However, the Supreme Court judges disagreed with President Biden's vaccine guideline. Two new COVID-19 treatments approved by World Health Organization The global health governing body - the World Health Organization has approved two new treatments of coronavirus (COVID-19) on Friday (January 14) amid a sharp rise in the virus cases globally. US Capitol riot: Who are oath keepers? Founder of far-right group charged with seditious conspiracy First sedition charges have been announced by the United States Justice Department on Thursday (January 13) in relation to the January 6 riots and attack on the Capitol. After the year-long probe, US prosecutors charged the founder of the far-right oath keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, and 10 other people with seditious conspiracy. China attempting to infiltrate the UK Parliament, warns MI5; China says 'we have no need buy influence' MI5, the British intelligence service, has warned lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party has employed a woman to exert improper influence over parliamentary members. WATCH | Gravitas: One child is shot in America every hour ×

Morning news brief: US vaccine mandate, new Covid treatments and more

The Biden administration&nbsp;on Wednesday (January 12) imposed first sanctions on North Koreans linked to ballistic missile programme after Pyongyang said it conducted the launch of a hypersonic missile.&nbsp;

The United States has imposed sanctions on North Korean and Russian individuals and entities for their support of or links to North Korea's ballistic missile programmes.&nbsp;

In total, six North Koreans, one Russian and a Russian firm have been slapped with sanctions as Washington said they were responsible for "illegally procuring goods for the programmes from Russia and China".

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/chinas-claims-in-south-china-sea-gravely-undermines-rule-of-law-us-state-department-study-444266">China's claims in South China Sea gravely undermines rule of law: US State Department study</a>

While announcing the sanctions, Brian E Nelson, the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in a statement mentioned the illegal procurement of goods for weapons.&nbsp;

The statement read: "Today's actions, part of the United States' ongoing efforts to counter (North Korea's) weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, target its continued use of overseas representatives to illegally procure goods for weapons."&nbsp;

Nelson said that the latest launches "are further evidence that it continues to advance prohibited programs despite the international community's calls for diplomacy and denuclearization."

IN PICS |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/nanning-how-chinas-new-warship-with-anti-stealth-radar-is-set-to-change-balance-in-south-china-sea-392163">China's new warship is set to change balance in South China Sea</a>

In a released statement, the Treasury Department said that the United States remains committed to seeking "dialogue and diplomacy" with the DPRK.&nbsp;

However, it added that the US will also continue to address the threat posed by the DPRK's "unlawful weapons" programme&nbsp;to the US and the international community.&nbsp;

The Treasury Department said the sanctions follow the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's "six ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which violated multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions."

As per the statement, one of the North Koreans being sanctioned, Choe Myong Hyon, was based in Russia and had provided support to North&nbsp;Korea's Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS).&nbsp;

The statement also added that the targeted were four China-based North Korean representatives of SANS-subordinate organisations: Sim Kwang Sok, Kim Song Hun, Kang Chol Hak and Pyon Kwang Chol.

North Korea's&nbsp;hypersonic missile test

Meanwhile, North Korean state media reported on Wednesday that the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, personally oversaw the successful test of the hypersonic missile, the second such launch by the nuclear-armed nation in less than a week.

State news agency KCNA said the most recent test demonstrated "the superior manoeuverability of the hypersonic glide vehicle." It claimed it hit a target some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away.&nbsp;

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(With inputs from agencies)

The Biden administration on Wednesday (January 12) imposed first sanctions on North Koreans linked to ballistic missile programme after Pyongyang said it conducted the launch of a hypersonic missile.

The Biden administration on Wednesday (January 12) imposed first sanctions on North Koreans linked to ballistic missile programme after Pyongyang said it conducted the launch of a hypersonic missile. The United States has imposed sanctions on North Korean and Russian individuals and entities for their support of or links to North Korea's ballistic missile programmes. In total, six North Koreans, one Russian and a Russian firm have been slapped with sanctions as Washington said they were responsible for "illegally procuring goods for the programmes from Russia and China". ALSO READ | China's claims in South China Sea gravely undermines rule of law: US State Department study While announcing the sanctions, Brian E Nelson, the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in a statement mentioned the illegal procurement of goods for weapons. The statement read: "Today's actions, part of the United States' ongoing efforts to counter (North Korea's) weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, target its continued use of overseas representatives to illegally procure goods for weapons." Nelson said that the latest launches "are further evidence that it continues to advance prohibited programs despite the international community's calls for diplomacy and denuclearization." IN PICS | China's new warship is set to change balance in South China Sea In a released statement, the Treasury Department said that the United States remains committed to seeking "dialogue and diplomacy" with the DPRK. However, it added that the US will also continue to address the threat posed by the DPRK's "unlawful weapons" programme to the US and the international community. The Treasury Department said the sanctions follow the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's "six ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which violated multiple United Nations Security Council Resolutions." As per the statement, one of the North Koreans being sanctioned, Choe Myong Hyon, was based in Russia and had provided support to North Korea's Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS). The statement also added that the targeted were four China-based North Korean representatives of SANS-subordinate organisations: Sim Kwang Sok, Kim Song Hun, Kang Chol Hak and Pyon Kwang Chol. North Korea's hypersonic missile test Meanwhile, North Korean state media reported on Wednesday that the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, personally oversaw the successful test of the hypersonic missile, the second such launch by the nuclear-armed nation in less than a week. State news agency KCNA said the most recent test demonstrated "the superior manoeuverability of the hypersonic glide vehicle." It claimed it hit a target some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away. × (With inputs from agencies)

Biden administration imposes first sanctions on North Koreans over missile tests

Here are some of the top stories to start your day: The Biden administration on Wednesday imposed first sanctions on North Koreans linked to ballistic missile programs.

Here are some of the top stories to start your day: The Biden administration on Wednesday imposed first sanctions on North Koreans linked to ballistic missile programs. Also read a report on South China Sea situation as amid tensions, the US State Department in a document hit out against the "unlawful" claims by President Xi Jinping's government. Click on headlines to read the full report: Biden administration imposes first sanctions on North Koreans over missile tests The Biden administration on Wednesday (January 12) imposed first sanctions on North Koreans linked to ballistic missile program after Pyongyang said it conducted the launch of a hypersonic missile. Amid Ukraine tensions, Russia unveils ‘White Swan’ strategic bomber Amid tensions with Ukraine at the border, Russia's defence forces unveiled the new Tupolev Tu-160M strategic missile bomber. The bomber also known as ‘White Swan’ carried out its debut flight from the aerodrome of the Kazan Aviation Enterprise, reports said. What's next for Britain's Prince Andrew as US court denies plea to dismiss sex assault case? A United States judge on Wednesday denied a plea by Britain's Prince Andrew to dismiss a sexual assault lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, as per court documents. China's claims in South China Sea gravely undermines rule of law: US State Department study Amid tensions in the South China Sea with China, the US State Department in a document hit out against the "unlawful" claims by President Xi's government. WATCH | WHO: Omicron variant is dangerous for those who have not been vaccinated yet ×

Morning news brief: US slams China's South China Sea claims, Prince Andrew's sex assault case and more

The United States is currently experiencing its worst inflation rise in nearly 40 years, prices for commodities across the board have risen in the past year. Cars gas food and furniture have all gotten costlier our correspondent Susan Tehrani brings us ground report.

United States: Prices of cars, gas, food, furniture rise | Inflation

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