Hometown Newspaper For The Free World
India’s import of Russian oil remains point of contention between New Delhi and Washington – WION
From www.wionews.com
2022-04-12 04:08:54
Excerpt:
Top officials from the world’s two largest democracies held ministerial-level talks in Washington after their leaders from India and the United States discussed their differences over the Ukraine war.
Europe to Pay for Russian Gas in Rubles—Has Anything Really Changed? | Morgan Lewis
From www.jdsupra.com
2022-04-12 22:55:04
Excerpt:
Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pronouncement that buyers from “unfriendly states” pay for Russian gas in rubles, it has been largely unclear, until recently, what this demand would imply in practice.
Decree No. 172, “On Special Procedure for Discharge of Obligations of Foreign Buyers to Russian Suppliers of Natural Gas” (Decree), effective as of March 31, 2022, provides that from April 1, 2022, payments for Russian gas shall be made in rubles and establishes a new procedure for gas supply payments. The March 31 Decree applies to “payment for supplies of natural gas in a gaseous state” and does not seem to apply to payment for liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries.
Arguably, the new payment procedure contemplated by the Decree, in principle, does not change key payment terms for existing foreign buyers of Russian gas. They are allowed to continue to pay in the currency established by their gas supply contracts with Russian suppliers, while the principal novelty is that all payments are now required to be made through special accounts that foreign buyers must open with Gazprombank in Russia, which then makes the conversion into rubles. However, as done on a unilateral basis (i.e., outside of contractual arrangements), Russia’s enforcement of the new payment requirements, arguably, can trigger claims for breach of contract.
NASA is testing futuristic spacesuits with built-in cooling systems
From www.dailymail.co.uk
2022-04-12 14:21:21
Excerpt:
NASA astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) are testing new spacesuits with built-in water cooling systems to withstand the heat of space.
In a new video, NASA has shown how its personnel are conducting spacewalks just outside of the ISS while receiving cooled water from an on-board device.
Astronauts are wearing special garments under their spacesuits that feature tubes filled with a constant stream of this circulating water.
The concept of using water as a coolant goes back to Apollo era in the 1970s, but NASA’s new system is equipped with pressure sensors, a thermal control loop to maintain a set temperature, and the ability to release warm water vapour into space.
NASA astronauts on board the International Space Station are testing futuristic spacesuits with built-in cooling systems
Cooling technologies are being tested for the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon, set to take place in 2025, according to NASA.
Hospital hallway robots get patches for potentially serious bugs
From www.cyberscoop.com
2022-04-12 11:08:40
Excerpt:
Rolling robots used at hospitals for a variety of tasks — including transporting medication — have been patched for five vulnerabilities that could have allowed attackers to potentially disrupt patient care or capture sensitive information, researchers said Tuesday.Health care cybersecurity company Cynerio said it found the bugs in Aethon’s TUG robots in December, and then “worked closely” from January onward with the manufacturer through the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s process for disclosing critical vulnerabilities. Aethon said it took “immediate action” after receiving the information from CISA.“We are pleased that the notification process worked as intended and helped to discover, report, and rectify system vulnerabilities in a collaborative effort so that we can continue to stay a step ahead of bad actors and provide the efficiency systems like ours are made to deliver,” Aethon said.
The most serious of the bugs, which scored 9.8 out of 10 on the open source Common Vulnerability Scoring System, could have allowed an unauthenticated user to connect to the TUG Home Base Server that controls the robots, Cynerio said. Attackers could potentially cancel existing tasks, use a TUG to meddle with elevators and even open and close its drawers.
Google files lawsuit against “puppy scammer” for using its services to sell non-existent dogs
From www.techspot.com
2022-04-12 12:33:00
Excerpt:
According to a new blog post published by Google’s safety & security team, aptly titled “Hounding scammers with litigation,” the company seeks to address instances of puppy fraud using the legal system. According to Google, there’s been an uptick in online scams over the past few years (likely thanks to the ongoing pandemic), some of which cannot be tackled just by raising awareness.
In more extreme cases, Google says lawsuits are an “effective tool” for establishing legal precedent and raising the stakes for anyone caught scamming innocent victims.
The Brew: Obama Eye-Balling a Constitutional Loophole to Take Over Biden’s Last Two Years?
From stream.org
2022-04-12 11:01:45
Excerpt:
Yes, it’s Holy Week. But it’s also 202 days to Halloween. Close enough to conjour up a fright, courtesy of Andrea Widburg over at American Thinker. (Here’s the link. Children may want to cover their eyes.)
Widburg saw all that fawning over Barack Obama last week. How he brushed aside Joe Biden like a piece of lint on his fancy suit. How he called Biden “Vice President” … lamely passing it off as a joke.
Former President @BarackObama: “Thank you. Vice President Biden. Vice President – that was a joke.” pic.twitter.com/dm0sBnM7P2
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 5, 2022
Widburg posed “an admittedly wild theory about how Obama may intend to fix things: Obama’s aiming to get back into the Oval Office.” Crazy?
Not so crazy. The 22nd Amendment says a person cannot be “elected more than twice.” And cannot serve more than two years of another’s term. So in…
‘Woke culture’ has made its way into the French presidential election – WUNC
From www.wunc.org
2022-04-12 09:14:00
Excerpt:
French President Emmanuel Macron is set to face far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a runoff later this month. That’s the result of a vote over the weekend. The presidential campaign has been dominated in part by a battle against woke culture that’s seen as an import from the United States. Candidates of all stripes have shared a rare consensus in denouncing le wokism. And I asked French journalist, commentator and filmmaker Rokhaya Diallo what that says about race, identity and extremism in France.
US airlines seek end to Covid mask mandate despite passenger wariness
From www.ft.com
2022-04-12 04:00:55
Excerpt:
Airline executives and politicians are piling on pressure for the US to let Covid-19 mask rules expire on schedule next week, even as a majority of the public wants to keep them.
Forced mask-wearing has caused friction in aircraft cabins. Last year, 72 per cent of a record 5,981 reports of unruly passengers were mask-related, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which proposed a total of $5mn in fines for such behaviour.
A diverse group of advocates wants to see the mask requirement disappear as it has within other indoor spaces. Next Monday the federal government’s order for travellers on public transport is set to lapse unless officials issue another extension.
Domestic airlines have led the call to end the mandate, with chief executives of seven carriers including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines telling President Joe Biden in a letter last month that it was “no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment.”
“It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on aeroplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks,” especially when considering the quality of on-board air-filtration systems, the executives wrote.
