In an effort to shake things up, RuneScape has recently announced Fresh Start Worlds, wherein players will get to experience the classic free-to-play MMO as it was in its earliest days. The servers will launch with players unable to roll over their preexisting characters and instead being forced to start anew, competing against other players to discover who can level up the fastest. RELATED: RuneScape Developer Jagex Trademarks ‘ELDERGATE’...
“It is with profound sadness, I must share with you directly, that our beloved Rush, my wonderful husband, passed away this morning, due to complications from lung cancer,” she said. “Rush will forever be the greatest of all time. Rush was an extraordinary man: a gentle-giant, brilliant, quick-witted, genuinely kind, extremely generous, passionate, courageous, and the hardest working person I know.” Before Kathryn Limbaugh’s remarks, an announcer noted that listeners had been keeping the broadcaster and his wife in their thoughts and prayers....
Limbaugh made the remarks on the Tuesday edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show, claiming that some media reports of overcrowded hospitals and a stressed health care system were overblown. “One of the things that interests me is the hospitalization numbers,” Limbaugh said. “Because if you look at Drudge, if you look at the drive-by media, you would believe there is not a single hospital bed in this country, right? You have been led to believe that every hospital is overflowing....
Westbrook scored 33 points, grabbed 19 rebounds and dished out 15 assists on Saturday to give him 181 career triple-doubles, tying him with Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson. Westbrook has dropped triple-doubles this season in sleep. One more snoozer will give him the league’s all-time mark. The Washington Wizards needed every bit of Westbrook’s numbers in the 133-132 overtime win over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday. Westbrook can break the all-time mark by Robertson on Monday as Washington plays at the Atlanta Hawks....
Wilson uncharacteristically told a joke that featured a word that had to be censored after he took a seat next to comedian Andy Samberg, who was in a plastic bubble pretending to have the flu. MORE: Most famous two-sport athletes | Unforgettable images of Russell Wilson “So I’m backstage, before the show, obviously. And all of a sudden I run into this guy with a bubble. And he sticks out his hand....
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported Monday that the Rubin Central Design Bureau is working with the Russian Ministry of Defense to develop over 10 types of various unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). The collaboration was confirmed by Andrey Baranov, deputy general director of the Central Design Bureau for Foreign Economic Activity and Military-Technical Cooperation. Most recently at the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum in Russia, the Bureau presented its Surrogate-V underwater drone....
Russia has claimed that it controls the salt-mining town nine miles north of the city of Bakhmut, which has been a focus for troops from the Wagner Group of mercenaries fighting for Moscow and financed by the businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. However, British defense officials said that as of Sunday, Ukrainian forces have “almost certainly maintained positions” in the town, despite the Wagner assaults. Former British military intelligence officer Philip Ingram told Newsweek that reported Russian gains in Soledar were “tactically important” as Wagner continued to try to surround and capture Bakhmut....
On Tuesday, Anna Popova, a physician and one of Russia’s top public-health authorities, confirmed production of the vaccine had begun. The vaccine was developed by scientists and researchers at the Vector Institute, a national virology center in Siberia. Popova said the center will produce some doses before next year, Russian news agency TASS reported. Rospotrebnadzor, a federal bureau leading the country’s COVID-19 response, provided additional details about larger clinical trials to come following Popova’s announcement....
NATO suspended the accreditation of the Russian officials, which meant they could no longer access the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. NATO also whittled down Russia’s team at the headquarters from 20 to 10, the AP reported. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced the retaliatory move Monday, claiming that NATO “isn’t interested in any kind of equal dialogue or joint work.” He added that the closure of NATO’s information offices and military liaison in Moscow comes as Russia doesn’t “see any need to keep pretending that there could be any shift in the foreseeable future,” according to the AP....
Data released Wednesday showed there had been 11,115 new cases of the disease in 24 hours. This was only 500 fewer than Tuesday’s figure, whose tally was the second highest since the start of the pandemic—and only 41 fewer than the record high of 11,656 on May 11. It brings the official number of cases in Russia to 1,248,619, making it the world’s fourth most-affected country by the disease....
In recent weeks, Russia has sought retaliation to the sanctions which have devastated its economy by announcing a string of export bans including on medical, auto, and agricultural equipment, as well threatening to restrict foreign ships from Russian ports. In order to help ease the financial damage of the oil ban imposed by the U.S. and U.K, and debated but not imposed by the European Union, Russian president Vladimir Putin has also demanded that “unfriendly countries” pay for Russian natural gas exports only in rubles—a move which would essentially help prop up the economy by increasing demand for the currency....
Programs on the channel Russia-1 have repeatedly promoted the prospect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine spreading beyond the country’s borders. On Wednesday, the host of Evening with Vladimir Solovyev revisited the theme, starting his show with a monologue in which he said he had a “feeling that we don’t fully understand the gravity of this moment.” Solovyev questioned why a war, which while “intensive” is in “no way an extraordinary conflict” in global terms, “was causing “such a crazy reaction in the West?...
On December 31, Ukrainian forces targeted a facility housing Russian conscripts in the eastern Ukrainian city of Makiivka. Moscow’s defense ministry initially reported that 63 servicemembers had been killed before revising its death toll to 89 personnel. This makes the strike Russia’s worst reported loss to date since the invasion began on February 24, 2022. Ukrainian forces claimed that around 400 Russians stationed at the building in Makiivka had been killed....
And as Kyiv (spelled Kiev by Russia) accused the Kremlin of conducting “war crimes” to the extent of “genocide,” Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, argued it was Ukraine’s alleged ethnic cleansing, along with its bid to join the U.S.-led NATO Western military alliance, that fueled the war. “The special operation in Ukraine is the result of the unwillingness of the Kiev regime to stop the genocide of Russians by fulfilling its obligations under the international commitments,” Antonov told Newsweek....
The hackers attached malware to a software update for SolarWinds’ Orion system in an attack that has so far infected computer systems at the heart of the U.S. government, including the departments of Treasury, Commerce, and Energy. With experts warning the breach may take years and cost billions of dollars to fix, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said that the attack has also affected state and local governments, as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations....
The Russian Ministry of Defense Wednesday published a map that includes both the 20-mile-deep “safe zone”—deemed an “operation zone” on this document—established by invading Turkish forces and allied Syrian insurgents in northeastern Syria, as well as the newly designated 18-and-a-half-mile border area now designated for Russian and Syrian military patrols. These joint patrols were aimed at facilitating the withdrawal of the People’s Protection Units (YPG). This Kurdish militia helped to establish an autonomous administration as it assisted the U....
A group of guests briefly discussed America’s rising costs during a recent show hosted by Vladimir Solovyov, whom the U.S. State Department has called a Kremlin propagandist. “Our figures are in place,” said professor Maxim Bratersky, according to a video and English translation provided by Julia Davis, a columnist for The Daily Beast. “We’re waiting for the time when the rising prices, failing industries in Europe and America, declining standards of living will force local citizens to take to the streets and overthrow their governments....
The latest British intelligence update on the conflict, which began on February 24, 2022, suggests Russia is moving to change tactics amid a nearly six-month long push to take Bakhmut, which has been one of the hottest spots of the war. Russian troops, led by the Wagner Group paramilitary unit, have failed in recent weeks to make any operationally significant gains in their offensives around Bakhmut. They have been unable to progress beyond minor tactical gains in Soledar and other surrounding small settlements....
“We will do everything possible to accomplish the task of protecting the Russian airspace along the southern borders and to ensure security during the Winter Olympics,” Major General Viktor Gumenny, commander of air defence troops of the Russian Air Force, said Sunday. Gumenny said the Pantsir-S air defence systems will be initially sent to the Ashuluk firing range in southern Russia to ensure the proper training of their crew during the next two months....
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on its Facebook page that its troops on December 14 destroyed units of military equipment and inflicted multiple casualties in the city of Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhia region. “The Defense Forces destroyed up to 10 units of military equipment of different types. About 180 enemy soldiers were injured,” it said. The general staff said Russia is using a “mobile crematorium” in the city....
