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 The US government on Friday charged a Russian woman with being part of a Kremlin-backed plot to interfere with next month's midterm elections. Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, became the first foreigner to be charged in connection with the upcoming elections, rather than the 2016 presidential race. She was accused of having being, since 2014, the chief accountant for "Project Lakhta", a $35 million operation linked to the St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, which led Russian social media disruption in 2016. She is accused of conducting "information warfare" against the United States. Khusyaynova continued to file detailed multi-million dollar budgets through 2017, and into 2018, including expenses for placing disruptive adverts on Facebook, promoting social media posts, registering domain names, and paying activists. The operation was said to have been funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, who is a friend of Vladimir Putin, and two companies he controls. Yevgeny Prigozhin, right, with Russian President Vladimir Putin at his school meals factory in 2010 outside St Petersburg Credit: Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik via AP The case was made public shortly after US intelligence agencies, in a rare public statement, warned of concerns about "ongoing campaigns" by Russia, China and Iran, to interfere with the November 6 midterms, and the next presidential election in 2020. Project Lakhta spread m
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 Scientists hope a man-made moon could provide nighttime lighting at lower cost
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 Donald Trump says he will pull the United States out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia, claiming that Moscow is violating the deal. The president said he wanted a new agreement with Russia and China, although he offered no details of how Moscow had violated the 1987 treaty. "We are going to terminate the agreement and then we are going to develop the weapons," Mr Trump said - unless a new agreement was forthcoming.
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 Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova of St. Petersburg, allegedly served as the chief accountant for an operation known as "Project Lakhta," the Justice Department said Friday in a statement. The move comes as top U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies warn Americans about ongoing efforts by Russia, China and other foreign actors to interfere in the 2018 midterm and 2020 presidential elections.
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 China is planning to launch its own 'artificial moon' by 2020 to replace streetlamps and lower electricity costs in urban areas, state media reported Friday. Chengdu, a city in southwestern Sichuan province, is developing "illumination satellites" which will shine in tandem with the real moon, but are eight times brighter, according to China Daily. The first man-made moon will launch from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan, with three more to follow in 2022 if the first test goes well, said Wu Chunfeng, head of Tian Fu New Area Science Society, the organization responsible for the project.
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Silicon Valley is in the midst of a health craze, and it is being driven by "Eastern" medicine. It's been a record year for US medical investing, but investors in Beijing and Shanghai are now increasingly leading the largest deals for US life science and biotech companies. In fact, Chinese venture firms have invested more this […]
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