MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian authorities have opened a criminal investigation into one of the leaders of a prominent independent election monitoring group, his lawyer said Thursday.

The case against Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia’s leading election watchdog Golos, is the latest step in the months-long crackdown on Kremlin critics and rights activists that the government ratcheted up after sending troops into Ukraine.

LAGOS, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- A total of 36 soldiers were killed on Monday in an ambush by terrorists and a military helicopter crash in Nigeria's central Niger state, the military said Thursday.

Edward Buba, a military spokesperson, told reporters at a press briefing in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, the troops were ambushed by terrorists of an unidentified group on Monday near the town of Zungeru of Niger state, and some soldiers were killed during the fire exchange.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for patience in a speech released as the ruling Communist Party tries to reverse a deepening economic slump and said Western countries are “increasingly in trouble” because of their materialism and “spiritual poverty.”

17 August 2023; MEMO: The Electricity Corporation of Lebanon (EDL) announced yesterday that two power stations have stopped operating for financial reasons, resulting in power cuts throughout the country. The corporation said that the operator, Primesouth, had informed it of the suspension of operations at the Deir Aamar and Zahrani power stations due to the failure to pay the operating company in foreign currency. A sum of at least $10 million is required.

17 August 2023; MEMO: China yesterday donated $1 million to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said.

China, UNRWA said, is supporting the agency’s education programme for 5,300 child refugees in five schools across the Gaza Strip.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are deeply divided along party lines in their views of President Donald Trump’s actions in the most recent criminal cases brought against him, a new poll shows, with about half saying his alleged attempt to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 vote count was illegal.

16 August 2023; MEMO: Iran’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for Clergy Affairs has opened a number of cases against former President, Hassan Rouhani, on charges of “interfering in the foreign exchange and stock markets”, a judiciary spokesman said yesterday.

Addressing a weekly news conference in the capital Tehran, Masoud Setayeshi said: “Rouhani is a cleric, and cases against him have been filed in the special prosecutor’s office in line with the relevant jurisdiction.”

16 August 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relationship with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is close to boiling over, Yedioth Ahronoth revealed on Tuesday.

The two men are apparently at odds regarding Gallant’s full support for the Israel Defence Forces and its senior leaders despite more and more army reservists refusing to show up for military service in protest against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul.

Coinbase said it’s received regulatory approval to bring federally regulated crypto futures trading to eligible customers in the U.S., sending shares sharply higher before the opening bell Wednesday.

In June, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, saying that the companies were in violation of the the law because they were operating as securities exchanges without registering with the agency.

16 August 2023; MEMO: Benjamin Netanyahu is afraid that a bill confirming military service exemption for Ultra-Orthodox men might expand anti-government protests within the Israel Defence Forces, local media reported on Tuesday.

HAMBURG, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire pushed by gusty winds from a thunderstorm raced through national forest land near California’s border with Oregon, prompting evacuations in the rural area.

The blaze in Siskiyou County, dubbed the Head Fire, was one of at least 19 fires — most of them tiny — that erupted in the Klamath National Forest as thunderstorms rolling through the area brought lightning and downdrafts that drove the flames through timber and rural lands. Estimates late Tuesday placed the fire at 4.7 to 6.3 square miles (12.2 to 16.2 square kilometers) in size.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is ramping up its efforts to illustrate the real-world impact of President Joe Biden’s signature climate, health care and tax law by showing how various Americans say they’ve benefited from his economic policies on the anniversary of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.