Author: RT

Iraq asks US to clarify after letters with different messages on troop withdrawal received The government of Iraq has asked Washington for clarification, after Baghdad received Arabic and English-language letters on troop withdrawal containing different messages.  Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi acknowledged receiving a letter from the US military containing an outline for the withdrawal of American troops from his country. However, the Iraqi leader said that the English and Arabic versions of the letter were not identical, and that he has requested clarification, Reuters reported on Tuesday. One day earlier, a copy of a letter announcing the US withdrawal was circulated online, and confirmed as genuine by a US Army press spokesman. However, the...

Australian Open 2020 matches could be played indoors in case of extreme smoke conditions – organizers The raging wildfires that have swept Australia might cause revolutionary changes to the season-opening Grand Slam with the possibility of matches being played indoors in the case of severe smoke conditions. The tournament's organizers have come up with the idea amid fears that the prestigious tennis event might be delayed or even canceled due to heavily polluted air caused by extreme bushfires. READ MORE: ‘Fiery conditions’: Nike changes Australian Open outfit ad after bushfire backlash “We have three roofed-stadiums and eight indoor courts at Melbourne Park,” Australian Open organizers wrote on their Twitter handle in response to a question by a user...

Exchange firm Travelex resorts to hard copies after ransomware attack Foreign currency exchange firm Travelex has been forced to resort to recording transactions with pen and paper after falling victim to a ransomware attack by hackers on New Year’s Eve. Police are investigating. The company has released a statement on their website saying that some of its services were “compromised” and so, as a precaution, “immediately took all our systems offline [in order] to protect data and prevent the spread of the virus.” The firm claims that “no personal or customer data has been compromised.” Screenshot of Travelex website. ...

Astronomers detect 2nd MASSIVE neutron star collision 520 million light-years away (VIDEOS) Gravitational wave astronomers, operating at the fringes of our scientific and technological capabilities, have detected a new collision between two neutron stars; just the second time in our history as a species. Newly published research has revealed that on 25 April 2019 two neutron stars around 520 million light-years away merged into a new object named GW190425, not exactly catchy. //www.youtube.com/embed/853sZWxVto4 This event marks just the second such collision astronomers have seen; the first was detected back in August 2017, and called GW170817. Again, astrophysicists and astronomers aren’t famed for their...

Facebook bans deepfakes ahead of US election, but vows no collateral damage against satire or parody videos Facebook has announced a new policy to tackle machine learning and AI-manipulated ‘deepfake’ videos on the platform ahead of the 2020 US presidential election but claims satire and parody videos will be spared. Under the new rules, announced Monday by Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, videos will be removed from Instagram and Facebook if they meet two criteria.  Videos will be automatically flagged by Facebook if they have “been edited or synthesised … in ways that aren’t apparent to an average person and would likely mislead someone into thinking that a subject of the video said words that they did not actually say”...

Is Beijing backpedaling on key issue of US-China trade deal? China’s annual quotas for corn, wheat and rice will remain unchanged, the country’s senior agriculture official has reportedly said. The news comes days before the first part of the US-China trade agreement is due to be signed. “They are quotas for the whole world. We will not change them just for one country,” Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Han Jun told Chinese news outlet Caixin. Read more The good, the bad & the ugly about US-China trade breakthrough As part of the breakthrough trade deal reached between the two sides last year, China promised to significantly boost purchases of American goods, including farm products critica...

Americans approve of Trump’s assassination of Soleimani... even though 60% had never heard of him – poll A new poll has found that Americans doubt Donald Trump has a clear Iran policy, but nonetheless they support the decision to kill Qassem Soleimani – who, remarkably, had been an unknown entity for the majority of respondents. Forty-three percent of Americans said they approved of the US drone strike that killed the Iranian commander last week in Baghdad, while 38% disapproved and 19% said they were unsure, according to the results of a HuffPost/YouGov survey. The somewhat shaky support for the controversial strike appears at odds with Americans’ views on Trump’s broader strategy for dealing with Tehran. A mere 32% believe that the US president has ...

Groggy Pog: Confused Paul Pogba says he could ‘drink his own pee’ in series of bizarre post-operation videos Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba was dazed and confused after coming round from an ankle operation – even saying he could “drink his own pee pee.” Pogba, 26, went under the knife on Tuesday, later posting a series of videos on his Instagram stories to update fans on how it had gone. But the French World Cup winner might regret being quite so open after watching back some of his bizarre ramblings while he was clearly still under the effects of anaesthetic.   “I don't even know if I'm OK, if I’m high or if I’m sober, well I don't look sober,” the midfield ace began in one video. Paul Pogba high is everything I needed to see to...