Russia’s Clandestine Chemical Weapons Programme and the GRU’s Unit 29155 – bellingcat (Novichok – still making it)

A year-long investigation by Bellingcat and its investigative partners The Insider and Der Spiegel, with contributing investigations from RFE/RL, has discovered evidence that Russia continued its Novichok development program long beyond the officially announced closure date. Data shows that military scientists, who were involved with the original chemical weapons program while it was still run by the Ministry of Defense, were dispersed into several research entities which continued collaborating among one another in a clandestine, distributed R&D program. While some of these institutes were integrated with the Ministry of Defense – but camouflaged their work as research into antidotes to organophosphate poisoning – other researchers moved to civilian research institutes but may have continued working, under cover of civilian research, on the continued program.

Our investigative team believes the St. Petersburg State Institute for Experimental Military Medicine of the Ministry of Defense (“GNII VM”), likely with the assistance of researchers from the Scientific Center Signal (“SC Signal”), has since 2010 taken the lead role in the continued R&D and weaponization of the Soviet-era Novichok program.

Source: Russia’s Clandestine Chemical Weapons Programme and the GRU’s Unit 29155 – bellingcat

Melting Ice in Antarctica and the Rising Sea Level — FunWritings

Melting ice in Antartica and the rising sea level caused by climate change

Melting Ice in Antarctica and the Rising Sea Level — FunWritings

Frontex at Fault: European Border Force Complicit in ‘Illegal’ Pushbacks — (refugees/migrants) – bellingcat

Vessels from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, have been complicit in maritime “pushback” operations to drive away refugees and migrants attempting to enter the European Union via Greek waters, a joint investigation by Bellingcat, Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, ARD and TV Asahi has found. Open source data suggests Frontex assets were actively…

Frontex at Fault: European Border Force Complicit in ‘Illegal’ Pushbacks — bellingcat

Eurosurveillance | A large national outbreak of COVID-19 linked to air travel, Ireland, summer 2020

An outbreak of 59 cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) originated with 13 cases linked by a 7 h, 17% occupancy flight into Ireland, summer 2020. The flight-associated attack rate was 9.8–17.8%. Spread to 46 non-flight cases occurred country-wide. Asymptomatic/pre-symptomatic transmission in-flight from a point source is implicated by 99% homology across the virus genome in five cases travelling from three different continents. Restriction of movement on arrival and robust contact tracing can limit propagation post-flight. Source: Eurosurveillance | A large national outbreak of COVID-19 linked to air travel, Ireland, summer 2020

How to Learn Chinese Tones

Foundation Operation X for Languages, Cultures and Perspectives

Written by Dyami Millarson

I have always been interested in prosody as a topic within the field of phonetics which has always been one of my main linguistic interests, and that is why I found it particularly satisfying to learn the Chinese tones and perfect my ability to recognise and reproduce them over the years. I still recall how I started learning Chinese tones: I found a Chinese tone game on the BBC website. I still recommend this to people who have zero knowledge of Chinese tones. It is a helpful tool for absolute beginners. As I progressed more, I found a tone drill game on the website of ArchChinese. I still use that tool up to this day, because I find it quite convenient for perfecting my tones. My goal is to be able to pronounce Chinese exactly like a Chinese native speaker. That is why I…

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