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Anonymous lay claims to hacking Russia’s Central Bank, vows to release 35,000 secret agreements in 48 hours

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Hacking collective group, Anonymous, claims it has hacked into the Russian Central Bank, and has access to around 35,000 files of secret agreements it would release in the next 48 hours.

The hacking group which made the announcement on its Twitter account on Thursday, said the attack on the Russian apex bank is in continuation of its self-appointed cyberwar against offensive countries and high profile organisations in different parts of the world.

Though the Twitter account purportedly belonging to the group has not yet given proof that it had successfully undertaken the hack, or that it had access to the promised documents, the alleged invasion follows reports that the bank’s governor, Elvira Nabiullina, had attempted to resign following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Her offer to resign was, however, rejected, with President Vladimir Putin nominating her for a third term in the role, and Nabiullina has been trying to keep the economy afloat despite a raft of sanctions imposed by other countries, with many companies pulling out of Russia.

Since the Ukrainian invasion, Anonymous, and other closely aligned hacker groups, have been targeting Russian assets and companies.

On Thursday they, again, repeated their call for international companies continuing to operate in Russia to pull out immediately.

“Although some companies have responded to our request to stop their activities in Russia, there are still companies that refuse to leave Russia.

“Our last call is clear: Stop operating in Russia immediately if you have little mercy left for the massacred children in Ukraine,” their tweet said.

“Immediately stop your activity in Russia if you feel sorry for the innocent people who are being massacred violently in Ukraine.

“Your time is running out. We do not forgive. We do not forget,” another tweet reads.

Earlier in the week, GhostSec, a subsidiary of the Anonymous collective, claimed to have hacked printers in Russia to print out over 10,000 anti-Putin and anti-war messages.

“This isn’t your war. This is your government’s war,” the message said.

“Your brothers and sisters are being lied to, some units think they’re practicing military drills, however, when they arrive to what they think is a drill they’re greeted by bloodthirsty Ukrainians who want redemption and revenge from the damage that Putin’s puppets cause upon the land.”

Anonymous had previously claimed to hacking Russian television for the same purposes.

“The hacking collective Anonymous hacked into the Russian streaming services Wink and Ivi (like Netflix) and live TV channels Russia 24, Channel One, Moscow 24 to broadcast war footage from Ukraine,” the group said at the time.

 

Musings From Abroad

WHO ‘very worried’ over spread of Mpox varieties in Congo DR 

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A senior official of the World Health Organization (WHO), Rosamund Lewis, has said that the body is “very worried” about the spread of a variety of Mpox that has killed nearly 600 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo this year.

This year alone, Congo DR has reported 13,000 cases, which is more than twice as many as during the last peak in 2020, with the disease occurring in almost every province. The WHO is working with the authorities on the response and a risk assessment.

The dangerous clade mpox outbreak was the subject of a warning released by the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.

“The virus variant is known to be more virulent. If it adapts better to human-to-human transmission, that presents a risk,” Lewis, WHO’s mpox lead, told journalists.

WHO in May announced that the disease was no longer a global health emergency after which its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared the end of the emergency status for the disease.

Most reported cases of the disease were identified through sexual health or other health services in primary or secondary healthcare facilities, and involved mainly, but not exclusively, men who have sex with men.

A less severe form known as clade II started to spread around the world last year, mostly through male-to-male sexual contact, prompting WHO to declare a public health emergency.

Lewis expressed concern over new evidence suggesting that clade I can also spread through sexual contact. According to her, mumps can also infect humans through contaminated animals or family members living together in a home. Children and those with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable; in up to 10% of cases of clade I, illness results in death.

“We have very little information of who is dying of mpox [in DRC] other than age,” said Lewis, adding more data was needed.

The viral infection known as mpox spreads by intimate contact and results in lesions filled with pus and flu-like symptoms. Although most cases are mild and can be fatal.

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Musings From Abroad

Sudan Conflict: US insists all warring parties guilty of war crimes

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The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has maintained that neither party in the ongoing conflict in Sudan can be exonerated from war crimes.

The position was made known on Wednesday as the US continues pressure on the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to end fighting that has caused a humanitarian crisis. The US also insisted that the RSF and allied militias committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

“The expansion of the needless conflict between the RSF and the SAF has caused grievous human suffering,” Blinken said, referring to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). In West Darfur, the RSF has also been charged with spearheading an ethnic massacre; in the capital city of Khartoum, locals have accused the paramilitary group of raping, stealing, and detaining civilians.

“Masalit civilians have been hunted down and left for dead in the streets, their homes set on fire, and told that there is no place in Sudan for them,” Blinken said. The Masalit are a non-Arab tribe.

“Detainees have been abused, and some have been killed at SAF and RSF detention sites,” Blinken added.

A war broke out in mid-April between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over plans for a political transition and the integration of the RSF into the military, four years after longtime ruler, Omar al-Bashir, was overthrown in an uprising.

Blinken, however, maintained that the position did not rule out the possibility of other determinations in the future as more information became available.

“The United States is committed to building on this determination and using available tools to end this conflict and cease committing the atrocities and other abuses that are depriving the Sudanese people of freedom, peace, and justice,” Blinken said.

Over 6 million people have fled their homes as a result of the conflict, and about 1.2 million of them have entered neighbouring countries, severely straining the resources of Sudan and its neighbours.

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