Russia

A private lander touched down on the moon Thursday but managed just a weak signal back, as flight controllers scrambled to gain better contact with the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in more than 50 years.Tension mounted in the company's command centre in Houston, as controllers awaited a signal from the spacecraft some 400,000 kilometres away, which arrived about 10 minutes later.Despite the spotty communication, Intuitive Machines, the company that built and managed the craft, which is called Odysseus,…

ODESA, Ukraine — The American Century is ending, with external adversaries outmaneuvering the United States in critical strategic contests worldwide, while internal extremists destroy American leadership. Whether one believes — as American officials say they do — that the purpose of U.S. power is to enforce a “rules-based” liberal international order and defend human rights, or whether one believes — as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his friends say they do — that the U.S. uses its espoused ideals as cover…

The Biden administration has announced it will level 500 new sanctions against Russia following the death of jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny in a Siberian prison.  In a Friday statement from the White House, President Joe Biden announced the sanctions package, which was unveiled just one day shy of the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  “Today, I am announcing more than 500 new sanctions against Russia for its ongoing war of conquest on Ukraine and for the death of Aleksey Navalny,…

This weekend marks exactly two years since Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and brutal invasion of Ukraine. Despite overwhelming odds and continued hiccups in the supplies of Western aid to fight off Russia’s onslaught, the country and its tech startup ecosystem has literally soldiered on, becoming a case-study in resilience. For instance, of the 511 tech companies based in Kharkiv before February 2022 — these days a city better known for coming under regular Russian bombardment — 500 are still operating, according to…

In an ironic twist, Russia’s wartime box office is being dominated by a blockbuster adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, a film that denounces censorship and was filmed by an American director who is “vocally anti-war”.One leading film critic, Anton Dolin, told the Guardian it was the “best commercial film ever shot in Putin’s Russia”. A movie’s runaway success can work against it in Russia now: the film has had to run the gauntlet of pro-Kremlin propagandists and censors, and in true Hollywood fashion…

Projected increases in average winter temperature by 2090–2099 across the Russian Federation. Source: Climate Center of Rosgidromet (edited to exclude the forcibly annexed Crimea). Credit: WIREs Climate Change (2023). DOI: 10.1002/wcc.872 Recent research examines the effect of climate change on Russia and the country's role in addressing global environmental challenges. …

The Apple Vision Pro is the hottest tech product in the world right now and is only available officially in the U.S. However, at least one third-party store in Russia is offering the mixed-reality headset for over $6,000, despite Apple no longer exporting to the country following the invasion of Ukraine.Apple hasn’t sold in Russia since the conflict broke out in March 2022, now, almost two years later, shops located near the Kremlin are selling Apple Vision Pro.The Apple Vision Pro isn’t available in Europe yet, but a…

A month later, the world saw images of mass graves in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, dead limbs sticking out of the sand. Outside our building one morning, on an old brick wall that was previously empty, was a fresh message, the paint still wet: “Russians, go home.” My boyfriend went back to Russia so he could obtain a European visa, promising he would be back in a month, but he never returned.ARTWORK: MICHELLE THOMPSON; GETTY IMAGESI spent the rest of the year on the move: Cyprus, Estonia, Norway, France, Austria, Hungary,…

Ksenia Karelina had left Los Angeles around the New Year on a flight to Moscow via Istanbul. She was excited to see her younger sister, parents and grandmother in Yekaterinburg, the city east of the Ural Mountains in Russia that she had left more than a decade ago to start a new life in America.Now the 33-year-old spa aesthetician and amateur ballerina, a dual citizen of Russia and the United States, is behind bars in Russia on treason charges, with loved ones fearing for her fate and U.S. officials warning that the…

Drone warfare in UkraineThe drone war in Ukraine is evolving in ways that differ from how other countries, especially the United States, use UAVs.First, the U.S. uses drones globally, and often in conflict zones that are not recognized by the United Nations or do not have U.S. troops on the ground. Unlike this pattern of “over-the-horizon” strikes, Ukraine and Russia use drones during an internationally recognized conflict that is bounded by their borders.Second, the U.S. operates armed and networked drones, such as the …