A salesman at Moscow-based online retailer shopozz.ru has supplemented his usual business of peddling vacuum cleaners and dashboard phone mounts by selling dozens of Starlink internet terminals that wound up with Russians on the front lines in Ukraine.

In a break from long standing religious tradition, Saudi Arabia is set to open its first ever liquor store within a few weeks. 

The decision—led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—is historic for the kingdom, which has enforced stringent prohibition measures against alcohol since it was first banned in 1952.

The consumption of alcohol is forbidden in Islam, but the incoming store will only sell alcohol to non-Muslims in Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter, and authorization must be sought through an app called Diplo, Reuters reported. 

Saudi Arabia’s first alcohol store has opened in the diplomatic quarter of its capital Riyadh, accessible to non-Muslim diplomats. 

While it only affects a select group, it’s a big change for the highly conservative Muslim kingdom, where alcohol has been banned since 1952 after a Saudi prince murdered a British diplomat in a drunken rage. Drinking is also forbidden under Islam, and most of Saudi Arabia’s local population is religiously observant.

Saudi Arabia is preparing to open its first alcohol store in the capital Riyadh which will serve exclusively non-Muslim diplomats, according to a source familiar with the plans and a document.

Customers will have to register via a mobile app, get a clearance code from the foreign ministry, and respect monthly quotas with their purchases, said the document, which was seen by Reuters.

The United States hit a grim record of 106,699 drug overdose deaths in 2021, a 16% increase over 2020, the CDC said in its final report released this week. 

Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin, is driving the surge. Drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl jumped 22% in 2021, the CDC said. Heroin overdoses, meanwhile, decreased 32%. 

Scammers sell everything from fake handbags to fake electronics, but now, they’re getting creative, and it could become deadly, according to Customs and Border Protection. Experts say that people are pawning off fake alcohol to unsuspecting customers because of supply chain delays and inflation. 

"Whenever consumer demand begins to exceed the supply, you tend to have the black markets looking to capitalize on that," Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America Executive Vice President of Communications and Marketing Michael Bilello said. 

Alex is 34 and lives outside of Sacramento. Like many Californians, he vapes marijuana concentrate for a variety of health problems such as anxiety. But even though he lives within a half-hour drive of a legal dispensary, Alex purchases his cannabis on what he likes to call the “duty-free” market. About once a month, he drives an hour to an acquaintance’s house to purchase about an ounce of concentrate, for about half of what he would pay at a state-certified recreational dispensary.

There’s a reason Alex buys on the black market. He’s a disabled military veteran.

WASHINGTON (AP) — On a day when COVID-19 cases soared, healthcare supplies were scarce and an anguished doctor warned he was being sent to war without bullets, a cargo plane landed at the Los Angeles International Airport, supposedly loaded with the ammo doctors and nurses were begging for: some of the first N95 medical masks to reach the U.S. in almost six weeks.

Demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of how black markets work, a Wall Street Journal editorial blames marijuana legalization for vaping-related lung injuries involving illicit cannabis extracts. "A surge in vaping related lung illnesses this year caught the medical community by surprise, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting more than 2,500 lung illnesses and 54 deaths," the Journal says.

As a convicted felon, Bruce Sartwell isn't legally allowed to own firearms. But the regional president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club obviously isn't the kind of guy who cares about what he's legally allowed to do; when he was arrested in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, he was found to be in possession of a rifle he'd made himself, as well as unregistered "silencers" (sound suppressors), parts, and the equipment needed to manufacture more weapons.