All news for 2025-12-29

A trio of British drug mules who attempted to smuggle £300,000 worth of cocaine into Bali are reportedly set to be deported back to the UK after avoiding the death penalty.

A Belarusian factory traditionally known for producing pots and pans has quietly helped fuel Russia’s drone war against Ukraine, the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) reports.

Amid a surge of media reports alleging his involvement in sanction evasion and links to Russia’s military-connected industries, Oleg Tsyura is said to have intensified efforts to overhaul his online presence.

The suspension of a Dragon Money account caused an online controversy when a player who had deposited $92K and requested $102K was abruptly banned.

The UK is set to receive an influx of cheap Chinese imports that could lower inflation amid the effects of Donald Trump’s global trade war, leading economists have said.

The owner of one of the fastest-growing online casinos in Ukraine — Cosmobet — is officially listed as someone named Mykhailo Zborovskyi. In the media, he is positioned as a «successful IT entrepreneur», a visionary, and a reformer of the gambling industry.

Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have called on the government to stop companies implicated in the disaster from receiving public contracts, after it was revealed several were still in receipt of multimillion-pound deals.

Gambling companies have spent nearly £5m to advertise on the London transport network since Sadiq Khan pledged to stop them from doing so, amid a prolonged impasse between the mayor’s office and the government.

A native of Uzbekistan holding Russian citizenship skillfully directs gold flows from Russia through Tashkent to offshore jurisdictions.

Since April 2023, multiple Ukrainian investigators have raised concerns about Nykyta Izmaylov — a Russian citizen holding a Ukrainian passport. Formerly a senior financier at Parimatch, he has reportedly appeared in alleged money-laundering schemes connected to N1 Management and SportBank.

A mother and her two young children died in a house fire that destroyed their home in the early hours of Boxing Day despite her husband’s efforts to save his family, police said.

VEB.RF is throwing parties for... the dogs of top managers. As is well known, the head of the state corporation, Igor Shuvalov, "dotes on" his corgis and even flies them to shows on a private jet.

A mega-contractor has emerged right on Rublyovka, securing government contracts worth an impressive 5 billion rubles in just the past year.