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An extraordinary war of words is transpiring between the head of Russia's space agency and one of NASA's most famous former astronauts as the US-Russian partnership at the International Space Station hits its lowest point since its inception.Scott Kelly, who famously spent a year in space aboard the station, has been blocked on Twitter by Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin after Kelly criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Rogozin's repeated threats to pull out of the International Space Station, typically a venue of cooperation immune from geopolitical chaos."Get off, you moron!" Rogozin said in a quickly deleted Tweet. "Otherwise, the death of the International Space Station will be on your conscience.""Dimon, why did you delete this tweet?" Kelly replied in Russian. "Don't want everyone to see what kind of child you are?"In an interview with CNN, Kelly described it as "the first Twitter argument I've ever had."Social media propagandaKelly said he felt compelled to speak out after Rogozin shared a Roscosmos-produced video showing two Russian cosmonauts floating inside the space station waving goodbye to NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who is supposed to return to Earth with them on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on March 30."If he's going to act…

In a TikTok video reshared by user @hardlyinitiated, three men are seen discussing an unknown woman who has achieved financial stability by holding down a successful job and is currently seeking to find a suitable mate. The conversation has sparked a debate of itself on Twitter, with people criticizing the men’s remarks. During the clip, podcaster Ryan Catchings recalls a conversation with an unknown woman, saying, “She says I’ve got a good job. I make very good money. She says the only thing I need now is a man.” “Like yo, who wants you, who wants you? Once you have achieved these things, you have unfortunately disqualified yourself,” Catchings continues. He then explains that he places the blame on Black men who have not been in a position to provide, so most women work hard, pursue and build the lifestyle they want. Catchings declares that, as a result, men have a hands-off approach when it comes to successful women. After the clip surfaced online, Twitter began roasting the group of men.

A weekly progress shows that in the six weeks since January 12, Rahul Gandhi has consistently added around 80,000 new followers weeklyNEW DELHI: After his followers count almost froze over five months after the controversy over his tweet on Delhi rape, Congress member Rahul Gandhi’s new following is increasing at a weekly rate of around 80,000, the resumption of normal activity coinciding with an international row kicked up by Congress protest and media reports. While Rahul had on December 27, 2021, protested that his new following had ground to zero, even alleging that it was a result of political pressure from government, there was not much response from the microblogging site. But after a media report (Wall Street Journal) on the issue on January 12 followed by reports in national media, the Congress member’s account started buzzing again. Aweekly progress shows that in the six weeks since January 12, Rahul has consistently added around 80,000 new followers weekly. The followers count which stood at 19. 5 million has now risen to 20 million. Rahul’s account ran into acontroversy in August 2021 when he posted a picture of a family of a rape victim in Delhi. In response to complaints from…

Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Sunday broke Kapil Dev's record at the PCA Stadium in Mohali against Sri Lanka in the first Test match. Ravichandran Ashwin is now the second-highest wicket-taker in the longest format of the game for India only behind former India bowler Anil Kumble.India's senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin broke Kapil Dev's record for being the second-highest wicket-taker on Sunday against Sri Lanka in the first Test match. The off-spinner dismissed Sri Lankan batter Charith Asalanka to claim his 435th wicket in Test cricket. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have bowled brilliantly in the Test match as Sri Lanka have not been given any opportunity to score runs. Ravichandran Ashwin bowled a classical off-spinning delivery to the left-hander as he edged the ball and Virat Kohli who was standing at slips took a comfortable catch to help Ashwin achieve the massive feat. Anil Kumble with 619 wickets is the only bowler ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin in Test cricket.Here is how Twitter reacted as Ravichandran Ashwin broke  Kapil Dev's record:Legend! Fantastic landmark, @ashwinravi99!To go past @therealkapildev paaji is an achievement in itself. The way you were going, it was only a matter of time.Wish you many more! 👍🏻#INDvSL pic.twitter.com/eK9SlIc16u — Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) March 6, 2022What…

The Kentucky Wildcats faced off against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the SEC Tournament Championship seeking their first title since 1982. Even John and Ellen Calipari made the trip to support this team. The Cats were playing their fourth game in four days as they defeated Mississippi State, LSU, and Tennessee to reach their first title appearance since 2014. It was a great start for the Cats as they came out of the gate strong and found themselves trailing just 21-18 after the first quarter. The second quarter showed that the Cats may have had some tired legs playing for the 4th consecutive day as they scored just three points. However, they were still locking down defensively, holding the Gamecocks to just nine points in the quarter. Despite the poor shooting, Kentucky found themselves down just 30-21 heading into the halftime break. The third quarter was an offensive showing by both teams, as South Carolina outscored the Cats 25-22 to take a 55-43 lead into the fourth. The Cats showed a ton of fight and locked in defensively during the final 10 minutes, and with just over a minute to play, the Cats found themselves down 62-61. Kentucky would get…

The Boston Celtics defeated the Brooklyn Nets 126-120 on Sunday afternoon in Massachusetts to improve to 39-27 on the season.    As for the Nets, they dropped to 32-33 in the 65 games that they have played, which puts them under .500 on the season.   The Nets had been the top seed in the Eastern Conference at one point this season, but they went on an 11-game losing streak prior to the All-Star break.  The loss to the Celtics made them fall from the eighth seed to the ninth seed. They have also dealt with players in and out of the lineup such as Kyrie Irving not being able to play in home games, and Ben Simmons yet to make his debut for the team.  Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 54 points, while Kevin Durant had 37 points for the Nets.  Some of what people on Twitter are saying about the game can be seen in the tweets embedded below. 

DUSSELDORF: Russian President Vladimir Putin has intensified a crackdown on media outlets and individuals who fail to hew to the Kremlin line on the war in Ukraine, blocking Facebook and Twitter and signing into law a bill that criminalizes the intentional spreading of what Moscow deems to be “fake” reports. The moves against the social media giants on Friday follow blocks imposed on the BBC, the US government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and Latvia-based website Meduza. The government's sweeping action against the foreign outlets that publish news in Russian seeks to establish even tighter controls over what information the domestic audience sees about the invasion of Ukraine. The state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said it cut access to Twitter and Facebook in line with a decision by the prosecutor general's office. The watchdog has previously accused Twitter of failing to delete the content banned by Russian authorities and slowed down access to it. The bill, quickly rubber-stamped by both houses of the Kremlin-controlled parliament and signed by Putin, imposes prison sentences of up to 15 years for those spreading information that goes against the Russian government's narrative on the war. In response, multiple…

Amid a crackdown on demonstrators and independent media outlets, the Kremlin blocked access to Facebook and Twitter on Friday. Russian telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said the decision to block Facebook was made in response to the platform's alleged "discrimination" against Russian media, citing 26 cases since October 2020.Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Facebook's parent company, Meta, said in a statement on Twitter: "Soon, millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out. We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action." Early Friday evening, Meta released another statement announcing advertisers in Russia would be cut off from Facebook: "Despite the Russian government's announcement that they will be blocking Facebook, we are working to keep our services available to the greatest extent possible. However, due to the difficulties of operating in Russia at this time, ads targeting people in Russia will be paused, and advertisers within Russia will no longer be able to create or run ads anywhere in the world, including…

Twitter has banned more than 100 accounts that pushed the pro-Russian hashtag #IStandWithPutin for participating in “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” days after the hashtag trended on Twitter amid the invasion in Ukraine.A Twitter spokesperson said on Friday that it is still investigating the origins and links between the accounts, and that it banned the accounts for violating its “platform manipulation and spam policy.”The accounts with the most retweets about the hashtag on Wednesday only had a few dozen followers and used stock photos as profile pictures, which led disinformation researchers to question how the tweets went viral.It’s an indication that Russia’s once-feared “firehose of falsehood” has been both neutralized and drowned out in recent weeks, particularly as Western media and social platforms have sprung into action.The swarm of inauthentic accounts was initially discovered by Marc Owen Jones, an assistant professor of Middle East studies and digital humanities at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.“People throw the term bots around a lot, but what we saw here was lots of accounts demonstrating inauthentic activity and astroturfing,” Jones said. “They’re not bots. They’re a lot harder to check than that. Imagine a call center setup. Think of the amount of damage you can…

DUSSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a bill introducing a prison sentence of up to 15 years for those spreading information that goes against the Russian government’s narrative on the war in Ukraine.The bill criminalizing the intentional spreading of what Russia deems to be “fake” reports about the war was quickly rubber-stamped by both houses of the Kremlin-controlled parliament earlier in the day. Background: Russian State Duma passes bill to impose lengthy prison sentences on those reporting news on Ukraine invasion that doesn’t match Putin party line Russian authorities have repeatedly decried reports of Russian military setbacks or civilian deaths in Ukraine as “fake” news. State media outlets refer to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation” rather than a “war” or an “invasion.” Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of Russian parliament, said the new measure “will force those who lied and made statements discrediting our armed forces to bear very grave punishment.” “I want everyone to understand, and for society to understand, that we are doing this to protect our soldiers and officers, and to protect the truth,” he added. From the archives: ‘It wasn’t Putin who invaded Ukraine’:…