According to Sweden’s Data Protection Authority (the Datainspektionen), the fine is punishment for the search engine giant’s failure to remove search results ordered to be blocked three years ago. Sweden’s Datainspektionen has fined google 75 million Swedish kronor (equivalent to about €7 million or $7.74 million) for failure to comply with the data protection watchdog’s instructions, th [...]

The Chinese government has rolled out new technology to curb the COVID-19 outbreak and is lending a hand to other struggling countries, while the US continues to take an “America first,” “profit-only” approach, web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa and software engineer Patricia Gorky told Sputnik Monday. [...]

Caught off guard by the EU’s ban on medical exports, Serbia found help in China as it struggled to prepare for the Covid-19 outbreak, the Serbian president said, adding that it has become clear that European solidarity is a myth. Serbia is the latest country to impose severe restrictions on travel and public gatherings in response to the global epidemic. [...]

A rendezvous on a yacht sailing the open sea is a perfect recipe for romance for any couple, even if it weighs almost as much as the boat itself! Two highly-relaxed seals have been filmed lazily chilling on a yacht that apparently served the pinnipeds as a halting post in their journey. The yacht, which appears to be too small for the couple, is almost half-sunk in the water under the seals' weigh [...]

Despite its apparent limitations, the new radar system can potentially be used in conjunction with other radar systems to strip enemy stealth aircraft of the very capabilities that give the latter their edge. It appears that stealth aircraft, one of the most potent tools in the NATO countries’ arsenal, may become not-so-potent in the near future as a new radar system developed by Russia’s Alma [...]

The situation in northern Syria has grown more volatile since Ankara accused Russia of killing 33 Turkish troops in a Thursday airstrike outside Idlib as Turkey’s NATO allies weigh the option of intervention. An expert told Sputnik NATO involvement is unlikely, but so is Damascus letting up the assault as they try to rebuild their country. [...]

The news comes as the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads to over 130 countries and territories, currently infecting more than 156,000 people and with over 5,800 dead worldwide, prompting the World Health Organization to declare it a global pandemic. US President Donald Trump is said to be trying to track down German scientists working on developing a pilot vaccine against the COVID-19 coronaviru [...]

VIENNA (Sputnik) - Austria will introduce an entry ban for citizens of Russia, Ukraine, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Sunday. The chancellor added that all restaurants across the country would be closed starting 17 March, while supermarkets and food delivery companies will continue to operate. [...]

The former finance minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, has released a cache of audio files, secretly recorded in 2015 during the bailout talks with the Eurogroup – a powerful group of eurozone’s finance chiefs. The recordings and their transcripts were released by Varoufakis on the website of his ‘pan-European’ DiEM25 party on Saturday. [...]

The eating habits of world leaders have long been a matter of public interest, with observers questioning whether KFC and diet Coke, or perhaps something more balanced, could have an impact on politicians’ ability to deal with the physical and psychological stresses of their office. [...]

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that she has struck a deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over a coronavirus relief plan that President Donald Trump had previously opposed as overreach. “We are proud to have reached an agreement with the administration to resolve outstanding challenges, and now will soon pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act,” Pelosi (D-Californi [...]

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has in one fell swoop seemingly forgiven the US for its treatment of China in the dark days of its coronavirus epidemic and one-upped the capitalist system with a donation of much-needed supplies. [...]

US President Donald Trump said that trade in “no way” will be impacted by the 30-day Europe travel ban, despite saying less than an hour earlier the restrictive measures would apply to a “tremendous amount of trade and cargo.” [...]

The State Department’s special envoy for Syria has just admitted that the US aims to defend jihadist militants in Idlib against ‘Russian aggression,’ proving once again that the swamp in Foggy Bottom is alive and well. [...]

Global stock markets hit bear territory this week, with oil prices experiencing their biggest plunge since the 1991 Gulf War. Boom Bust is joined by Professor Richard Wolff of the Economic Update to discuss the ongoing oil crisis. He explains that the US, which wanted "energy independence," decided 10-20 years ago to go into the fracking business simply because it was profitable. [...]

The development comes weeks after a camera at the International Space Station spotted an unknown cone-like object that was flying upward. NASA’s STEREO observation mission has spotted what fans of conspiracy theories said is a gigantic UFO flying past the Sun. The incident itself occurred on 29 February, but the footage of it was posted just recently on the channel “Hidden Underbelly 2.0” de [...]

How Trump is hurting his administration’s coronavirus response, explained by an expert. President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States has so far been a disaster. He initially downplayed the severity of the outbreak at home, directly contradicting his top health officials. He’s displayed a stunning lack of knowledge about basic things like how vacci [...]

Earlier in the day, prosecutor in the MH17 case Thijs Berger said that the investigation into the 2014 downing of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine had almost been completed and the materials will be handed over to the court by June. The Dutch court announced on Tuesday that the hearings on the MH17 crash have been postponed until 23 March. [...]

The Russian capital’s air and missile defence system is one of the most sophisticated in the world, and includes a dense layer of anti-aircraft missile launchers, interceptor systems, and a unique tetrahedral truncated pyramid radio-radar station so powerful it can detect space debris. In the event of an enemy attack, Moscow’s air defences would intercept and destroy enemy missile tar [...]

In the Soviet Union’s declining years, there was a half-deferential, half-derisive moniker for the feeble leaders in their 70s who preceded Gorbachev: the ‘Kremlin elders’. Thirty-something years later, the United States looks set to elect its own septuagenarian to run the White House. [...]

Authorities in Wuhan have closed the city’s first makeshift hospital after discharging the last batch of 34 recovered coronavirus patients, as the rate of infection in the city has dropped dramatically. Wuhan was the site of the original outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, and the city’s response, building a new hospital in less than two weeks to handle Covid-19 patients, was seen as a moder [...]

Vladimir Putin has confided that US President Donald Trump privately lamented the "insane" US military budget. He also says Russia protects itself by making the costs of attacking the country too high for anyone to contemplate. The US has outstripped us” in terms of annual defense expenditure, the Russian president said in a new episode of news agency TASS's ‘20 Questions to Vladimir Putin� [...]