'No Iranian arms in Yemen'
Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejects reports by some Arab media outlets that Tehran is using one of its southern ports to smuggle weapons to Yemen. Spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said such claims are unfounded and based on a scenario that has repeatedly been played out by the Saudi-led coalition and its Western backers. The spokesman said Iran’s support for the Yemeni people has always been on a political level. Kan’ani said such accusations are leveled against Iran to divert public attention from the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. He was reacting to some Arab media reports that members of a busted Yemeni smuggling cell have testified to Iran’s military support for Yemen’s Ansarullah movement. The reports quoted the alleged smugglers as saying that Iran’s Bandar Abbas port is being used for shipment of weapons to Yemen. Both Iran and Ansarullah have denied any transfer of military hardware to the war-torn country.
CIA spying lawsuit
A group of journalists and lawyers for WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, have sued the US Central Intelligence Agency and its former director, Mike Pompeo, for allegedly spying on them. They say the CIA recorded their conversations and copied data from their phones and computers when they visited Assange at Ecuador's embassy in London. The plaintiffs say the alleged spying means Assange's right to a fair trial has now been QUOTE tainted, if not destroyed. Assange is awaiting a ruling on his appeal of the British extradition order to the US. He is charged with spying by publishing US military and diplomatic files related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Assange's supporters say he is victimized because he exposed US wrongdoing in the conflicts.
Russia space station
Russia has unveiled a physical model of its home-grown space station, showing it is serious about abandoning the International Space Station. Russia's national space agency presented the model, dubbed "ROSS," at a military-industrial exhibition outside Moscow. The head of Russia’s space agency, Yuri Borisov, says the country will quit the ISS in 2024 after developing its own space station. Moscow says the new space station will be launched in two phases, without giving dates. The US space agency, NASA, says it has not yet received official confirmation of Russia's planned withdrawal from the ISS. It says Russia has declared plans to continue to work with the space station until 2028.