Friday, January 6, 2023

Six In The Morning Friday 6 January 2023

 

US targets Iranian drone companies over ties to Russia in new sanctions


The US Treasury on Friday imposed sanctions on officials tied to an Iranian defense manufacturer that designs and produces unmanned aerial vehicles, which have been used in the war in Ukraine, as well as the director of “the key organization responsible for overseeing Iran’s ballistic missile programs.”

The new US sanctions hit “six executives and board members of U.S. designated Qods Aviation Industries” and the director of Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, according to a Treasury press release.

“We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to deny Putin the weapons that he is using to wage his barbaric and unprovoked war on Ukraine,” Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in a statement. 



Leak reveals Roman Abramovich’s billion-dollar trusts transferred before Russia sanctions

Exclusive: Files raise questions about whether oligarch’s children were made beneficiaries to protect fortune from possible asset freezes



Trusts holding billions of dollars of assets for Roman Abramovich were amended to transfer beneficial ownership to his children shortly before sanctions were imposed on the Russian oligarch.

Leaked files seen by the Guardian suggest 10 secretive offshore trusts established to benefit Abramovich were rapidly reorganised in early February 2022, three weeks before the start of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The sweeping reorganisation of Abramovich’s financial affairs commenced just days after governments threatened to impose sanctions against Russian oligarchs in the event of an invasion.



Iran: Journalist employed by reformist newspaper arrested


Mehdi Beikoghli, of the Etemad newspaper, was involved in reporting on jailed anti-government demonstrators. Dozens of journalists have been arrested by the authorities in Iran, where censorship is widespread.


Iranian authorities arrested a journalist employed by the reformist Etemad newspaper, the publication and his wife said Friday. 

Mehdi Beikoghli was taken into custody on Thursday, with his personal belongings such as computer and notebook seized by authorities. Beikoghli is the head of the politics department at the paper. 



France suffered hottest year and record rain shortfall in 2022

France experienced its hottest average temperature and lowest levels of rainfall on record in 2022, the national weather office said on Friday.

The average temperature for the year was 14.5 degrees Celsius (58.1 Fahrenheit), "very far above 2020 which held the previous record" of 14.07 degrees Celsius, Meteo France said in a statement. 

The heat was "a symptom of climate change," it added.

The country also suffered a "record rainfall deficit" of 25 percent below the long-term average, the lowest since 1989, the weather office added.



China Covid: Young people self-infect as fears for elderly grow


When Mr Chen's 85-year-old father fell ill with Covid in December, it was impossible to get an ambulance or see a doctor.

They went to Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing, where they were told to either try other hospitals or sit in the corridor with an IV drip.

"There was no bed, no respiratory machine, no medical equipment" available, Mr Chen tells the BBC.

His father managed to find a bed at another hospital, but only through a special contact, and had by then developed a severe lung infection.





Two Years Later, Prosecutions of Jan. 6 Rioters Continue to Grow


The Justice Department’s investigation of the Capitol attack, already the largest it has ever conducted, has resulted in 900 arrests, with the potential for scores or hundreds more to come.

 The investigation into the storming of the Capitol is, by any measure, the biggest criminal inquiry in the Justice Department’s 153-year history.

And even two years after Jan. 6, 2021, it is only getting bigger.

In chasing leads and making arrests, federal agents have already seized hundreds of cellphones, questioned thousands of witnesses and followed up on tens of thousands of tips in an exhaustive process that has resulted so far in more than 900 arrests from Maine to California.

But the inquiry, as vast as it has been, is still far from complete: Scores, if not hundreds, more people could face charges in the year — or years — to come, spread out over the course of many months so as not to flood the courts.










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