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Limbaugh made the comments on Tuesday’s episode of The Rush Limbaugh Show. He claimed that Fauci had made a “thumbs up” gesture at a coronavirus briefing towards ABC reporter Jonathan Karl, president of the White House Correspondents Association. Limbaugh said that Fauci’s gesture was in approval of Karl allowing a “China sympathetic” reporter into the briefing. “I don’t know if anybody noticed it, but little doctor, Dr. Fauci, at the end of the briefing, gave Karl a thumbs up, like a ‘job well done’ kind of thing,” Limbaugh said....

Anatoly Gubanov was arrested by FSB intelligence officers, the state-run Tass news agency reported Thursday. The agency cited an anonymous law enforcement source who said Gubanov was suspected of having “handed over secret aviation development data abroad.” Darya Rozmakhova, a spokesperson for Moscow’s Lefortovo District Court, told Tass Thursday: “The court has chosen custody for a term of one month and 30 days, i.e. until February 2, 2021, as a measure of restraint for Anatoly Aleksandrovich Gubanov suspected of committing a crime stipulated by Article 275 of Russia’s Criminal Code,” an offense classified as high treason....

Responding to a question from Ukraine 24’s anchor about how safe Ukraine’s capital is at the moment, Arestovych talked about Russian airstrikes that have given the country no respite and which, “ironically,” are using the same missiles the country returned to Russia in 1999 after the end of the Cold War. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine gained independence, as formalized by a referendum in December of that same year when an overwhelming majority of 92....

In a post on his Telegram channel, Khodakovsky, a commander for the pro-Russian Vostok Battalion, said Ukraine continues transferring its soldiers and equipment in preparation for additional offensives in such a way that prevents Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops from even considering advancing themselves. “The past week passed without significant changes on the front line, but the relative stability should not mislead anyone,” Khodakovsky wrote. “The enemy is preparing, transferring forces and equipment, and accumulating resources....

Lavrov made the admission at his annual news conference in Moscow, during which he also accused the U.S. and the military alliance NATO of playing a direct role in the war. “With Ukraine, we didn’t just get up, [only because] we because we didn’t like [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky, or because he stopped playing in the KVN [Russian and formerly Soviet humor TV show and an international competition] and stopped maintaining his theater, Kvartal 95 [publicly owned television entertainment production company, founded by Zelensky], and we went to war against Ukraine,” he said....

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Tuesday that at least 6,884 civilians had been killed and 10,947 injured in Ukraine from the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 up to December 26. The casualties include 165 deaths and 516 injuries recorded in December, most of which were caused by “the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects.” “OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration,” OHCHR said in a news release....

The comments by Medvedev, currently deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, follow months of pressure by Russian authorities on social media platforms, and come within the context of a crackdown on the country’s opposition, as well as independent media outlets. Medvedev was asked in an interview with RT, which aired on Tuesday, about the summoning of the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, John Sullivan over claims of “interference of American IT giants in our elections....

Ukrainska Pravda, a Ukrainian online newspaper, reported that on Saturday Kyiv forces were successful in destroying eight tanks and 11 armored vehicles. This report comes after a post by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Facebook page on Sunday. The post highlighted Ukrainian estimates of the total losses Russia has faced since the conflict began on February 24, while also highlighting the latest additions. According to the post, A total of 43,550, of Russia’s military personnel have been killed with an additional 150 killed on Saturday....

In an interview published on Monday by pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia, Andrei Kelin said relations between Moscow and London are “undoubtedly at a very low level” and have been deteriorating for years, to the extent that the U.K. could be the first NATO nation Russia severs diplomatic ties with. Kelin said relations between the two nations began to collapse in 2018, after the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Britain....

“We hear whining about Russia expanding its military activities in the Arctic,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, according to the Associated Press. “But everyone knows that it’s our territory, our land. We bear responsibility for the Arctic coast to be safe, and everything our country does there is fully legitimate.” Lavrov’s comments come as Russia seeks to expand activity in the Arctic, and across Nagurskoye, its northernmost military base. The Nagurskoye base currently houses missiles and radar activity, and can handle all types of aircraft, including nuclear-capable strategic bombers, according to AP....

The comments by Russian deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko come after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington supported Kyiv’s goal to join the transatlantic alliance, adding that no country could veto such a move. During a visit to Ukraine, Austin said on Tuesday that Kyiv had “the right to decide its own future foreign policy,” which it should do “without any outside interference.” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has been clear in his aim to join NATO as a buffer against the threat of Russia, which in May massed its largest concentration of troops near the Ukrainian border since it annexed Crimea in 2014....

Russia, which has confirmed the fourth-highest incidence of COVID-19 after the U.S., India and Brazil, recorded its largest daily increase in positive test results between Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, Sweden’s public health leaders, who received praise for seeming to stave off severe outbreaks even in the absence of lockdown measures, are reportedly introducing local restrictions as case counts climb. According to Russia’s national coronavirus information center, nearly 16,000 new virus cases were confirmed on Monday, a record-breaking total....

Alexander Stuchilin, the CEO of the Rezonans research center, told Russia’s state-backed Tass news agency Monday Iranian forces used the Rezonans-NE radar system to track American F-35 aircraft; fifth generation jets that are the most advanced in the U.S. arsenal. “At the beginning of 2020 this radar identified U.S. F-35 planes and tracked them,” Stuchilin claimed on the sidelines of the Army-2020 military technology forum in Moscow. “The radar’s personnel were transmitting information, including the routes of F-35 flights,” he added....

(Reporting by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Mark Bendeich) 0 votes

Moscow, Sep 8 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The Russian city of Yaroslavl has paid its respects to the 44 people killed in a plane crash that wiped out an entire hockey team a year ago. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was en route to its first game of the KHL season in Belarus when its jet crashed on take-off Sep 7, 2011. Among the 44 killed in the disaster, blamed on pilot error, were Canadian head coach Brad McCrimmon and a host of former NHL stars and future draft prospects....

Ukraine has been carrying out strikes on bridges in the region, key supply lines for the Russian army from the occupied Crimean Peninsula to southern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said Monday that they have been using the U.S.-supplied HIMARS weapons to carry out successful strikes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also vowed to take back Russian-held Crimea and Kherson. The Black Sea peninsula has been occupied by Russia since it illegally annexed the region in 2014....

The origin of the clip is unclear, but it has been shared by multiple Telegram channels. It attempts to portray the men who are staying in Russia as “men” and those who flee as “boys.” In the video, a wealthy Russian man says that he’s escaping to neighboring Georgia, presumably to avoid conscription, and he’s promptly mocked for doing so. The man is shown wheeling along his baggage on a street in Russia, while two younger men look on....

Tottenham are planning a £22 million bid for Galatasaray winger Bruma, according to Turkish publication Fanatik. Spurs chiefs sent scouts to keep an eye on the 22-year-old during his side’s derby against Fenerbahce at the weekend and were impressed with his performance despite the 2-0 defeat. Bruma has scored four goals and assisted three more for Galatasaray so far this season and was recently linked with a move to Manchester United....

YouTube, which didn’t even exist three years ago, found its way into the mainstream awfully fast. At presidential debates cosponsored by the site, candidates had to endure—and pretend to enjoy—oddball video questions submitted by YouTubers. Democrats were quizzed about global warming by an animated melting snowman; Republicans were grilled about gun control by a guy swinging a rifle. “If you’re not on YouTube, you’re not part of the discussion,” says Grove, a former Boston Globe and ABC News reporter....

The Thunder’s 119-100 win over the Raptors on Monday was their eighth straight. They’ve scored at least 110 points in all eight games, the first time that’s happened since Shaq and Penny Hardaway’s Magic squad did it back in 1994. MORE: NBA League Pass Alert: Games to watch this week Leading the way was Russell Westbrook, the human triple-double machine. Westbrook recorded 26 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists for his 16th triple-double of the season and his seventh in March....