The UN denied a report that it asked staff to avoid referring to the conflict in Ukraine as a war or invasion. The Irish Times obtained an email from the director of the United Nations Regional Information Centre that instructed staff to use conflict or military offensive. The director said that the Ukrainian flag should not be added to personal or official social media accounts. The UN staff have a responsibility to be impartial, according to the message. There is a serious possibility of reputational risk that has been flagged by senior officials. No official communication has gone out to global staff to refrain from using certain words, according to the U.N.'s under secretary general for global communications. I lead @UN communications. No such official communication has gone out to global staff to refrain from using certain words. https://t.co/RVOZakUqH1 — Melissa Fleming 🇺🇳 (@MelissaFleming) March 8, 2022 The U.N. spokesman said it was not the case that staff had been told not to use words like war. He said the email did not signify an official policy and that a senior official used the phrase "Russia's invasion" on Monday. All I can tell you is that there was no email sent to staff from NY. He told the Irish Times that the email can't be considered an official policy. The email raised concerns over its similarity to Russia's language policy around the war, and Russian officials prefer to call it a special military operation. There is a mistaken impression that UN staff were told not to use the words invasion and war. The UN is trying to squash reports that it told officials to avoid using the word invasion when addressing the war in Ukraine. Few know that Amazon has millions of Prime subscribers. Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko suggests that workers are being used to spread a Russian message that civilians and infrastructure are not in danger. Poland had a deal for a fighter plane. The European stocks rallied on Wednesday after the president of Ukraine appeared to make concessions. Comparison photos are fun to look at. It can show the transformation that someone has undergone. Australia has been increasing its defence spending over the past few years as China looks to increase its presence in the region. The number of defence personnel in Australia will rise to 80,000, the highest level since the Vietnam War, as a result of the purchase of nuclear submarines from the United States and Britain. The United States, Britain and NATO are important partners for Australia, according to Defence Minister Peter Dutton. The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said that some of the conscripts have been captured. 7 million oil barrels per day is the amount of oil that Russia exports, which is about 3% of the global supply. Russia is the top exporter of crude and oil products. The day before the ban on Russian oil imports was announced, Barkindo made his remarks at a gathering of top global energy executives by S&P Global. Put your ideas into action with the cloud products and services from Microsoft. Two Russian members of the supervisory board of Dutch luxury yacht maker Heesen stepped down on Wednesday due to the current international situation in Ukraine, the company said. The trading of Lukoil shares has been suspended, but neither Alekperov nor the resigning board members are on international sanctions lists. If the war in Russia escalates, the Philippine president is willing to open the country to American forces under a 1951 mutual defense treaty. In a recent meeting in Manila, the president expressed concern over the global economic impact of the unfolding crisis, according to Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez. A wave of discontent over economic policy, scandals and gender wars led to the victory of a conservative South Korean presidential candidate. The People Power Party, the main conservative bloc, has regrouped since the snap election after the impeachment and ousting of then President Park Geun-hye. After being appointed by Moon, the former prosecutor-general became known for his investigations of top presidential aides and fell out with him. They saw that it worked. Almost every house in the neighborhood has it. I get a lot of thanks for my method. Around a dozen Russian aircraft are stuck at Swiss airports by the airspace being closed in many European countries to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, according to the civil aviation authority in Switzerland. The site of the notorious 1986 nuclear accident fell under Russian control. Russian conscripts were not fighting in Ukraine according to Putin. The Defense Ministry of Russia says they are. These are the most embarrassing things you could send out. Jaren Jackson Jr. is a player for the Memphis Grizzlies. Britain said on Wednesday it had seized a plane connected to a Russian billionaire under new aviation sanctions which give authorities the power to detain any Russian aircraft and to ban exports of aviation or space-related goods to Russia. It is a criminal offence to fly or land in the United Kingdom because of the strengthened action against Russian aircraft. The Foreign Office said in a statement that the ban includes any aircraft owned, operated or chartered by anyone connected with Russia or designated individuals or entities. A senior Columbia Threadneedle rates strategist said that the Federal Reserve could shrink its balance sheet as it looks to cool inflation. You can speak in 43 languages with this invention. The leader of Hong Kong said on Thursday that the ban on flights from nine countries, including the United States and Britain, wouldn't be lifted until the government controlled the outbreak of coronaviruses. According to Our World in Data publication, the city has some of the most severe restrictions in place to combat a surge in coronaviruses that has seen it suffer the most deaths globally per million people. Her comments come a day after she announced a shift in her government's approach to tackling the coronaviruses, devoting more medical resources to elderly people as infections and deaths climb rapidly amongst the city's mainly unvaccinated seniors. Russian state-run media posts will no longer be recommended in Explore and Reels and will be harder to find in Search. The US Vice President will meet with the Polish leaders in Warsaw on Thursday, amid disagreements over how to arm Ukraine with warplanes to fight Russia. The United States turned down an offer from Poland to transfer its Russian-made fighter jets to a U.S. base in Germany as a way to replenish the Ukrainian air force.More from National Review