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‘Pandora Papers’ Show About how the Powerful Hide Money from Public View A massive investigation from more than 600 journalists across the globe sheds new light into the shadowy world of offshore banking — and the high-powered elites who use the system to their benefit. The exposé, dubbed the “Pandora Papers,” shows how the world’s wealthy hide their money and assets from authorities, their creditors and the public using a network of lawyers and financial institutions that promise secrecy. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Russia Test Fires Hypersonic Cruise Missile from Submarine for First Time Russia says it has successfully launched a hypersonic Tsirkon cruise missile from a submarine for the first time. The country’s defence ministry, which originally test fired the weapon – also known as Zircon – from a warship in July, said the second test, deployed in the Barents Sea, had hit its chosen target. Tsirkon is intended to arm Russian cruisers, frigates and submarines. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Swedish ‘Mohammad’ Cartoonist Lars Vilks Killed in Car Crash Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who stirred worldwide controversy in 2007 with drawings depicting the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog, was killed in a car crash near the southern town of Markaryd on Sunday, police said. Vilks, 75, who had been living under police protection since the drawings were published, was traveling in a police vehicle which collided with a truck. Two police officers were also killed. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Taiwan President Warns of ‘Catastrophic Consequences’ if Island Falls to China Taiwan is committed to defending its democracy against an increasingly aggressive China, the island’s president has vowed, warning of “catastrophic consequences” for the region should it fall. The comments from Tsai Ing-wen, in an essay published on Tuesday, came amid record-breaking incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defense zone. On Tuesday Taiwan’s premier, Su Tseng-chang, said the “over the top” activity violated regional peace, and Taiwan needed to be on alert. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

French Clergy Sexually Abused over 200,000 Children since 1950 French clergy sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years, a major investigation released on Tuesday found, and its authors said the Catholic Church had turned a blind eye to the ‘scourge’ for too long. The church had shown “deep, total and even cruel indifference for years,” protecting itself rather than the victims of what was systemic abuse, said Jean-Marc Sauve, head of the commission that compiled the report. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Facebook Says Sorry for Mass Outage Facebook has apologized for the mass outage that left billions of users unable to access Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger for several hours. The outage, which prevented users from refreshing their feeds or sending messages, was caused by “configuration changes on the backbone routers,” said Santosh Janardhan, Facebook’s vice president of infrastructure, in a blogpost late Monday, without specifying exactly what the changes were. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Pope Expresses ‘Shame’ over Church Response Following French Report Pope Francis on Wednesday called a report detailing decades of abuse in the French Catholic Church “a moment of shame,” and called upon leaders of the Church to ensure “similar tragedies” never happen again. Francis was speaking a day after a landmark report found that members of the Catholic clergy in France sexually abused an estimated 216,000 minors over the past seven decades. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Nobel Chemistry Prize Goes to Duo who Developed a Tool for Molecule Building German Benjamin List and Scottish-born David MacMillan won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for developing new tools for building molecules that have helped make new drugs and are more environmentally friendly. Their work on asymmetric organocatalysis, which the award-giving body described as “a new and ingenious tool for molecule building”, has also helped in the development of plastics, perfumes and flavors. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Zuckerberg Hits back at Facebook Whistleblower Claims Mark Zuckerberg has hit back at the testimony of the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, saying her claims the company puts profit over people’s safety are “just not true”. In a blogpost, the Facebook founder and chief executive addressed one of the most damaging statements in Haugen’s opening speech to US senators on Tuesday, that Facebook puts “astronomical profits before people”. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Netflix Edits Squid Game Phone Number Netflix has edited out a phone number that appears in its hit series Squid Game after a South Korean woman and others who use similar combinations were deluged with calls – with some callers even asking to join the show’s life-or-death games. The South Korea-made production has topped Netflix popularity charts in 90 countries since its launch last month and is on track to become its most watched series ever. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

U.S. Judge Blocks Enforcement of Near-Total Abortion Ban in Texas A federal judge temporarily blocked on Wednesday a near-total ban on abortion in Texas, the toughest such law in the United States, following a challenge from President Joe Biden’s administration after the U.S. Supreme Court let it proceed. The action by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin prevents the state from enforcing the Republican-backed law, which prohibits women from obtaining an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, while litigation over its legality continues. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Pakistan Earthquake Kills 20 in Balochistan Province At least 20 people have been killed after an earthquake struck Pakistan’s southern Balochistan province early on Thursday, officials have told the BBC. Authorities say the death toll may increase, and that many people were killed when structures collapsed. Many of the dead were women and children, the Reuters news agency said. The US Geological Survey said it was a 5.9 magnitude quake that struck at a shallow depth of 9km. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

Senate Report Describes Trump, Allies’ Efforts to Use DOJ to Subvert 2020 Election A Senate committee report released Thursday detailed new instances where former President Donald Trump and his allies sought to use the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 election. The report offers the most comprehensive look to date at both new and previously reported details of Trump’s maneuvering in advance of the Jan. 6 insurrection to manufacture doubts about his loss to Joe Biden. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

China Orders Coal Mines to Raise Production to Address Power Crunch Chinese officials have ordered more than 70 mines in Inner Mongolia to increase coal production by almost 100m tonnes, with the country battling its worst power crunch and coal shortages in years. The move is the latest attempt by Chinese authorities to boost coal supply amid record high prices and shortages of electricity that have led to power rationing across the country, crippling industrial output. Source @ReadLessKnowAll

English Premier League Soccer Club Bought by Saudi Sovereign Fund Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund completed a buyout of Premier League club Newcastle on Thursday, giving hope to fans dreaming of a first title in almost a century but concerning human rights activists that the kingdom had gained a foothold in the world’s richest soccer league. Supporters descended on the club’s St. James’ Park stadium, some chanting “we are Saudis, we do what we want” amid the promise of long-desired investment. Source @ReadLessKnowAll