Massive rail strikes in the United Kingdom began on June 21, marking the country's most overwhelming industrial protest in 30 years. Thousands of rail workers walked out, bringing the country to a standstill as transport staffers are demanding better working conditions.

With a 64-34 vote Tuesday, the US Senate advanced a gun safety bill that includes some $11 billion for mental health services and $2 billion for community-based anti-violence efforts. It came as a product of bipartisan draft negotiations that included GOP Sen. John Cornyn, who as a result, was formally rebuked by the Republican Party of Texas.

Maradona died aged 60 on November 25, 2020, after suffering a cardiac arrest. Prior to his death, he had emergency brain surgery to address a subdural hematoma and was under medical supervision as an outpatient.

As pornography is illegal in China, artificial intelligence is being utilized by Chinese companies and authorities to identify questionable content in a kind of cat and mouse game of trying to eliminate it altogether.

CHISINAU (Sputnik) - The process of Moldova's accession to the European Union may take more than ten years, Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nicolae Popescu said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The police chief of the Uvalde Consolidated School District Pete Arredondo has been placed on leave due to a lack of details in the investigation into law enforcement's response to the school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead, Superintendent Hal Harrell said in a press release.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Joe Biden at the G7 Summit next week will roll out a specific set of proposals to increase pressure on Russia and to provide collective support to Ukraine, a senior Biden administration official said during a conference call.

Snowden's passport was supposedly canceled by the American government when he was en route to South America, leaving him effectively trapped in the Moscow airport. A month later, he would receive asylum and eventually a residency permit, and as of June 2022, he continues to live in Russia with his family.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines sextortion as a crime in which an individual threatens to not distribute someone’s private and/or sensitive material in exchange for sexual favors or money. This material includes nude images and sexual videos retrieved without the victim’s knowledge or consent.

Extended space flight presents a myriad of challenges for astronauts, including changes to muscles and exposure to solar radiation, to say nothing of getting used to floating around in zero-gravity all the time. Digestive issues are probably not at the top of the list of commonly expected problems, though.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Rossiya Segodnya media group held on Wednesday a videoconference roundtable titled "Integration Processes: Russia and the African Union."

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he does not see the need in forming a government of national unity after failing to win a ruling majority in the recent parliamentary elections.

Amid the threat of war in the Great Lakes region, the East African Community bloc has elected to send peacekeepers to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Meanwhile, Rwanda has accused Kinshasa of allowing the crisis between Hutu and Tutsi rebel groups across the border to fester.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - EU Military Staff Deputy Director General for European External Action Service Lt. Gen. Giovanni Manione said on Wednesday that he believes Russia is using Ukraine to oust the western countries from Africa.

In a joint statement in April, Russian and Chinese envoys pledged that their nations would continue to strengthen their relationship “no matter how the international situation changes.”

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States will receive additional refugees from Afghanistan in the coming months, the State Department's top migration official, Julieta Valls Noyes, said on Wednesday.

Moscow’s trade ties with foreign countries suffered a blow in March after western sanctions sent many global banks into panic mode, prompting them to refuse transactions with Russian counterparts even if the transfers did not fall into the remit of the sanctions. As a result, numerous areas of global finance and trade were disrupted.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Brexit exacerbates the rise in the cost of living in the United Kingdom, which leads to a slowdown in the economic growth, independent think tank Resolution Foundation said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The White House is developing a so-called “Roadmap for Normalization” of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel in advance of US President Joe Biden’s trip to the region in July, Axios reported on Wednesday.

OTTAWA (Sputnik) - Inflation in Canada increased to 7.7% year-over-year to May, which represents the highest level of price increases in the past 40 years, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday.

The average price for a gallon of fuel in the US has exceeded $5 dollars for the first time amid global oil prices that remain high, the refusal of the American oil companies to boost their output and the White House's focus on green technologies as the main solution to the country's energy problems.

Ecommerce giant Amazon is afraid its warehouses have such high turnover rates that within the next few years, they will have employed or fired the entire workforce around their warehouses, according to leaked internal research by the company.

Epidemics in the 19th and 20th centuries left millions disabled and thousands dead, until global post-WWII vaccination campaigns all but eradicated the virus. However, recent outbreaks have caused concern.

The bill comes amid calls for tougher legislation following a series of deadly shootings that rocked the US during recent weeks, including the Uvalde Elementary School shooting in Texas that claimed the lives of 19 children.

President Joe Biden needs more than just tamed fuel prices from Saudi Arabia, argue Bloomberg and Foreign Affairs. Offering a new Middle Eastern strategy would bring Riyadh back into Washington's fold.

The votes pose challenges for all, with PM Boris Johnson under fire, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer struggling to overcome his public image as Britain's most "boring" politician, and the Liberal Dems battling to remain politically relevant.

Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif government has adopted a slew of harsh measures to secure loans from the International Monetary Fund and other countries, including unprecedented hikes in fuel prices. Pakistan is facing a severe balance of payment crisis as foreign exchange reserves recently fell to $8.9 billion.

Delhi has recently augmented its capacity along the China border, deploying military hardware to the region following a violent clash in the Galwan valley in June 2020. The two countries continue military and diplomatic talks to withdraw thousands of troops from the Line of Actual Control.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The unyielding inflation growth in the United States suggests that the Federal Reserve needs to accelerate rate hikes, probably even make them restrictive, to curb price pressures already at 40-year highs, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday.

Fondly known as Big B, the 70-year-old Indian actor ventured into the entertainment business in the 1970s. Bachchan has about 30.6 million Instagram followers, 47.5 million on Twitter and 40 million followers on Facebook, making him one of the most followed Indian celebrities on social media.

Numerous gold refineries have refused to work with gold produced in Russia, sometimes even when western sanctions permitted it. However, some of the factories continued to accept Russian bullions, or only bought bars smelted prior to 24 February when the special military operation in Ukraine was launched.

The Australian Defense Minister said that New Delhi and Canberra “must begin to work more together” with other countries in the Indian and Pacific Oceans as ties between the governments strengthen. The two countries, which are part of US-led ‘Quad’, elevated their bilateral ties to the level of ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’ in 2020.

As the tenure of incumbent Indian President Ram Nath Kovind comes to an end on July 24, the polling for the country's 15th President is scheduled to be held on July 18, while the counting will be conducted on July 21.

The disease has re-emerged on a farm located in Toledo province, with the site being immediately quarantined by local health authorities.

The largest furniture market in Chandigarh witnessed a massive fire in April 2020. At least 17 shops were gutted in the fire. The market has at least 115 shops and since 2001 has witnessed more than 10 fires.

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - Israel's unicameral parliament on Friday passed the bill to dissolve itself in a preliminary reading after the ruling coalition lost its majority.

The phenomenon of the so-called "singing sands" can be observed - or, more precisely, heard - when the wind passes over dunes, produces sounds.

After Uttar Pradesh witnessed violent protests over the anti-Islamic remarks of now-suspended BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma as well as the party's Delhi media unit chief Naveen Kumar Jindal, State Chief Yogi Adityanath told media that the houses of those involved in violence would be razed using bulldozers.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union needs to be prepared for the fact that Russian may halt gas supplies completely by winter, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said on Wednesday.

Cristiano Ronaldo tasted immense success during his first stint from 2003 to 2008 at Man United, having captured multiple Premier League trophies and a Champions League title under Sir Alex Ferguson's reign at Old Trafford. His second spell, however, hasn't gone according to plan, with the English club finishing the 2021-22 season in sixth place.

Unlike aerobic fitness, flexibility and muscle strength, the art of body balancing is a great way to determine and measure physical fitness and the risk of developing poor health. Balancing on one foot even for a few seconds can not just predict one's longevity; it can also be a valuable way to determine someone's risk of falling.

UK residents have been urged to check they are vaccinated against polio after the crippling virus was detected at an east London sewage works.

According to a report by The Telegraph, the majority of the party supports the decision of Labour leader Keir Starmer to order MPs not to take part in the picketing. It was purportedly designed to avoid "the Tory trap" of backing the railroad workers as UK's transport system agonized during their strike.

The city of York became the United Kingdom's first "human rights city" in April 2017, and the majority of the city's residents now believe that the description does not fall in line with the Duke of York’s tainted reputation.

On June 10, the House committee investigating the 2021 Capitol breach kicked off its first public hearing out of six. The aim of the investigation is to determine whether former US President Donald Trump and his allies plotted the Capitol Riot as a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results and make sure the 45th president stayed in power.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - North Korea could have delayed its seventh nuclear test because of the situation with COVID-19 inside the country and China's plans, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a presidential official.

Scientists found that the mites have lived on humans so long that, like a cave-dwelling animal species who gradually go blind through evolution, it has lost the ability to live independently.

The prime minister is expected to address a range of issues, including the recent clashes between London and Brussels over the fate of the Northern Ireland Protocol. The EU previously announced it will start legal proceedings against the UK after London decided to unilaterally amend the protocol.

Apparently, Rambai from India's Haryana state ran alone in the race held in Vadodara as she had participated in the Above-100 category and the event did not have any competitors aged above 85.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow is currently considering London's request regarding the UK mercenaries, sentenced to death in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.