Tag Archives: Moscow

29Aug/23

International ransomware gangs are evolving their techniques. The next generation of hackers will target weaknesses in cryptocurrencies

Alpesh Bhudia, Royal Holloway University of London; Anna Cartwright, Oxford Brookes University; Darren Hurley-Smith, Royal Holloway University of London, and Edward Cartwright, De Montfort University

In May 2023, the Dallas City Government was hugely disrupted by a ransomware attack. Ransomware attacks are so-called because the hackers behind them encrypt vital data and demand a ransom in order to get the information decrypted.

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26Aug/23

Yevgeny Prigozhin: Wagner Group boss joins long list of those who challenged Vladimir Putin and paid the price

Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham

Two months after challenging Vladimir Putin’s leadership in an apparent but abortive “mutiny”, Yevgeny Prigozhin – the former owner of the mercenary private military company Wagner Group – has joined a long list of prominent Russians to die in mysterious circumstances.

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25Jul/23

Women storm climate leadership

By Alister Doyle | Climate Correspondent

July 25, 2023 /Environment/ — Since it was set up in 1988, the U.N.’s prestigious panel of climate scientists has been led by men – a Swede, an Anglo-American, an Indian and a South Korean.

That 35-year all-male run may end this week when governments pick a new chair for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at a meeting in Nairobi from July 25-28. Continue reading

26Jun/23

Putin seriously weakened by Wagner Group mutiny – but it was a missed opportunity for Ukraine too

Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham and Tetyana Malyarenko, National University Odesa Law Academy

Blink and you could have missed it. Within 36 hours, the challenge mounted against the Kremlin by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary private military company the Wagner Group, was over. On Friday June 23 2023, Prigozhin ordered 25,000 of his troops on to a “march for justice”, which duly set out to confront the Russian president in Moscow. The following afternoon he called it off.

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27Apr/23

AI can process more information than humans – so will it stop us repeating our mistakes?

Anders Sandberg, University of Oxford

It is a cliche that not knowing history makes one repeat it. As many people have also pointed out, the only thing we learn from history is that we rarely learn anything from history. People engage in land wars in Asia over and over. They repeat the same dating mistakes, again and again. But why does this happen? And will technology put an end to it?

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24Apr/23

Sudan: violence between army and militia is a symptom of an old disease that is destroying Africa

Paul Jackson, University of Birmingham

A three-day ceasefire to mark the Islamic festival of Eid-al-Fitr in Khartoum appears to be dead in the water as fighting continues in the Sudanese capital. According to the World Health Organization, more than 330 people have been killed over the past week. Now, with reports emerging that arms are being sent from Egypt and Libya, there are growing fears the situation could develop into a civil war that could draw in regional powers.

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15Apr/23

Why democratic countries around the world are not prepared to support Ukraine – and some are shifting closer to Russia

Jose Caballero, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

After over a year of the Ukraine war, efforts at building a global consensus against Russia seem to have stalled, with many countries opting for neutrality.

The number of countries condemning Russia has declined, according to some sources. Botswana has edged towards Russia from its original pro-Ukraine stance, South Africa is moving from neutral to Russia-leaning and Colombia from condemning Russia to a neutral stance. At the same time, a large number of countries have been reluctant to support Ukraine.

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03Mar/23

Snooping on campaigners

By Kim Harrisberg | South Africa correspondent

From phishing traps to arrests based on their social media posts alone, activists from Russia to Uganda say they’re increasingly being watched for their online campaigning.
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09Jan/23

Global economy 2023: why there will still be plenty of pressure on food prices in the year ahead

John Hammond, University of Reading and Yiorgos Gadanakis, University of Reading

Welcome to this special report on the food industry, the fourth instalment in our series on where the global economy is heading in 2023. It follows recent articles on inflation, energy and the cost of living.

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01Nov/22

Could Russia collapse?

Matthew Sussex, Australian National University

Among the many questions asked about Russia’s disastrous war against Ukraine, one of them is posed only very rarely: can Russia survive what seems increasingly likely to be a humiliating defeat at the hands of its smaller neighbour?

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