On Monday, the US State Department issued a warning for US citizens to leave Russia immediately, saying that dual nationals could be conscripted to serve in the war in Ukraine.
The war has killed or injured 220,000 people on both sides in nearly a year of fighting.
It’s one of several travel warnings the US has issued for both Ukraine and Russia, but the claim that Americans could be drafted was strongly rejected by the Russian government. In November, Russian state media news outlet Tass reported that President Vladimir Putin had extended conscription to dual nationals and citizens with residency status abroad.
The US State Department has also issued several travel advisories in recent months, warning US citizens to "not travel to Ukraine due to active armed conflict. Those US citizens in Ukraine should depart if it is safe to do so”.
Have US dual national citizens been conscripted by Russia?
To date, no dual national US citizens in Russia are reported to have been conscripted. This is despite the fact that Russia has drafted hundreds of thousands of men to fight in the conflict and is now mobilising further waves of soldiers as a new major offensive begins.
However, Ukraine’s embassy in Washington claims that 4,000 US citizens have volunteered to fight in the country’s foreign fighter brigades, part of a force called the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine. As of January 2023, six American citizens are thought to have been killed fighting on the side of Ukraine.
In September, two US war veterans captured by Russia in June were released as part of a prisoner exchange, Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh and Alexander John-Robert Drueke.
How many US citizens are in Russia?
The US State Department told the BBC on Monday that it did not track numbers of US citizens abroad, so there are currently no reliable estimates. There are, however, some high-profile dual nationals residing in Russia.
In September, US State Department spokesman Ned Price warned that prominent whistle blower Edward Snowden could be drafted to fight in Ukraine.
Mr Snowden fled to Russia in 2013 and claimed asylum after leaking a vast trove of documents exposing US domestic surveillance of citizens on a massive scale by the National Security Agency. Mr Price was reiterating the US position that Mr Snowden “must return to face justice” and that, “as a result of his Russian citizenship, apparently now he may well be conscripted to fight in Russia's war in Ukraine". Mr Snowden was granted Russian citizenship in September 2022.
Another prominent American supporter of Russia is Hollywood actor Steven Seagal, who was given Russian citizenship in 2016.
The star of movies including Under Siege and Hard to Kill is unlikely to face conscription, however, having been given the title of special representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Relations between Russia and the US.
He reportedly visited Russian-held parts of Ukraine in August to condemn the US supply of precision-guided missiles to Ukrainian forces.
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MATCH INFO
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Who is Mohammed Al Halbousi?
The new speaker of Iraq’s parliament Mohammed Al Halbousi is the youngest person ever to serve in the role.
The 37-year-old was born in Al Garmah in Anbar and studied civil engineering in Baghdad before going into business. His development company Al Hadeed undertook reconstruction contracts rebuilding parts of Fallujah’s infrastructure.
He entered parliament in 2014 and served as a member of the human rights and finance committees until 2017. In August last year he was appointed governor of Anbar, a role in which he has struggled to secure funding to provide services in the war-damaged province and to secure the withdrawal of Shia militias. He relinquished the post when he was sworn in as a member of parliament on September 3.
He is a member of the Al Hal Sunni-based political party and the Sunni-led Coalition of Iraqi Forces, which is Iraq’s largest Sunni alliance with 37 seats from the May 12 election.
He maintains good relations with former Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law Coaliton, Hadi Al Amiri’s Badr Organisation and Iranian officials.
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- Aliu Bamidele Lasisi (Nigeria) beat Artid Vamrungauea (Thailand) POINTS
- Julaidah Abdulfatah (Saudi Arabia) beat Martin Kabrhel (Czech Rep) POINTS
- Kem Ljungquist (Denmark) beat Mourad Omar (Egypt) TKO
- Michael Lawal (UK) beat Tamas Kozma (Hungary) KO
- Zuhayr Al Qahtani (Saudi Arabia) beat Mohammed Mahmoud (UK) POINTS
- Darren Surtees (UK) beat Kane Baker (UK) KO
- Chris Eubank Jr (UK) beat JJ McDonagh (Ireland) TKO
- Callum Smith (UK) beat George Groves (UK) KO
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
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HBKU Press
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
