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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appears in public for first time since Wagner revolt demanded his ouster

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appears in public for first time since Wagner revolt demanded his ouster.Source

Australian man plans Enhanced Games for doping athletes

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Aaron D’Souza is sure if he builds it they will come. Not ghostly baseball players but athletes of another sort. Those who compete with an edge.The Australia-born, London-based businessman is president of the Enhanced Games, a sort of Olympics without drug testing which he says “will obliterate all the world records” by “unlocking human potential.”The Enhanced Games has its own website, featuring a video that purports to show the “fastest man in the world.”“He has broken Usain Bolt’s 100m record. He has unlocked his body’s true athletic potential,” the website says. “But the world isn’t ready for him.“The Olympics hate him. He has been vilified. He will be vindicated.”The website invites fans to “come watch him compete at the 2024 Enhanced Games.” It accuses the International Olympic Committee of vilifying “enhanced athletes” and lists “enhanced” world record rejected by the IOC.“Each Olympiad another cohort of brave athletes sets new world records only to have their m...

Moscow lifts security measures after Wagner mutiny

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

All the restrictions implemented in Moscow over the weekend as mercenary Wagner Group troops marched on the city have been lifted, the Russian capital’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Monday.“All restrictions related to the introduction of the anti-terrorist operation regime are being lifted,” Sobyanin said in a statement, in which he thanked Moscovites for “their calmness and understanding.”Moscow residents were advised to stay home Saturday, as troops with the Wagner paramilitary group closed in on the Russian capital during an armed mutiny.The aborted insurrection eventually ended Saturday evening, after a deal was reached between the Kremlin, Minsk and renegade Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, under which the rebellious warlord would leave for Belarus. By that point, Prigozhin’s troops had made it to the Moscow region, about 200 kilometers from the capital, where several public venues had been evacuated.

Prigozhin’s Wagner mutiny is over. What now?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

Vladimir Putin’s strongman mask is slipping — and Ukraine sees opportunity in the chaos.Warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s short-lived mutiny over the weekend exposed Putin’s tenuous grip on the levers of power, the disunity within his ranks and the weakness in Russia’s own border defenses. The ease with which Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries were able to take control of Russian territory and march to within 200 kilometers of Moscow — and the videos of Russians cheering for them — showed Putin’s regime is far from invincible.“Today the world saw that Russia’s bosses do not control anything,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address late Saturday. “In one day, they lost several of their million-plus cities and showed all Russian bandits, mercenaries, oligarchs and anyone else how easy it is to capture Russian cities and, probably, weapons arsenals.”Switching from Ukrainian to Russian, Zelenskyy continu...

Russian defense minister makes first public appearance since mercenary revolt as uncertainty swirls

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made his first public appearance since a mercenary uprising demanded his ouster, inspecting troops in Ukraine Monday in a video aimed at projecting a sense of order after a weekend that saw armed rebels seize a Russian city and march seemingly unopposed on the capital.Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced an end to the “counter-terrorism regime” imposed on the capital Saturday, during which troops and armored vehicles set up checkpoints on the edges of the city and authorities tore up roads leading into the city.Shoigu is one of three powerful Russian military leaders whose diverging interests erupted into mutiny when thousands of Wagner Group mercenaries headed from Ukraine deep into Russia, before turning around Saturday after less than 24 hours.He is the first to appear publicly since then, in video released by the Defense Ministry that was widely picked up by Russian media, including state-controlled television. It was unclear when it was ...

Hajj pilgrimage starts in Saudi Arabia, with 2 million expected after lifting of COVID measures

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Some 2 million Muslim pilgrims officially began the annual Hajj pilgrimage on Monday, making their way out of Mecca after circling Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba, and converging on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert for a day and night of prayer. One of the largest religious gatherings in the world has returned to full capacity this year for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are required to make the five-day Hajj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do it. For pilgrims, it is a deeply moving spiritual experience that absolves sins, brings them closer to God and unites the world’s more than 1.8 billion Muslims. Some spend years saving up money and waiting for a permit to embark on the journey.Maintaining the holy sites and hosting the annual Hajj is a major source of pride and legitimacy for the ...

No sign of threat from the hazardous train that plunged into Yellowstone River, regulators say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

COLUMBUS, Mont. (AP) — Preliminary testing of water and air quality along a stretch of the Yellowstone River where train cars carrying hazardous materials fell into the waterway following a bridge collapse did not indicate any threat to the public, state and federal officials said Sunday. The seven mangled cars that carried hot asphalt and molten sulfur remained in the rushing river a day after the bridge gave way near the town of Columbus, about 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) west of Billings, Montana. The area is in a sparsely populated section of the Yellowstone River Valley, surrounded by ranch and farmland. Preliminary results of water quality sampling did not show petroleum hydrocarbons, which would have come from the asphalt, or sulfur, Kevin Stone, a spokesperson for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said. Both do not dissolve when they enter water, he explained.“Water quality testing will continue until the cleanup is complete and at this time there are no kn...

The Supreme Court’s biggest decisions are coming. Here’s what they could say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is getting ready to decide some of its biggest cases of the term. The high court has 10 opinions left to release over the next week before the justices begin their summer break. As is typical, the last opinions to be released cover some of the most contentious issues the court has wrestled with this term including affirmative action, student loans and gay rights. Here’s a look at some of the cases the court has left to decide from the term that began back in October:AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONThe survival of affirmative action in higher education is the subject of two related cases, one involving Harvard and the other the University of North Carolina. The Supreme Court has previously approved of the use of affirmative action in higher education in decisions reaching back to 1978. But the justices’ decision to take the cases suggested a willingness to revisit those rulings. And when the high court heard arguments in the cases in late October, al...

Pro-reform Mitsotakis wins second term in Greek election that sees surge by small far-right parties

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s center-right leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to be sworn in as prime minister on Monday, hours after easily winning a second term with a record-high margin over the leftwing opposition in an election that also ushered new far-right parties into Parliament.With 99.67% of the vote counted, Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party had 40.55% of the vote — more than twice the main opposition Syriza’s 17.84%. It was the largest margin of victory in half a century, and slightly expanded ND’s 20-percentage-point lead in previous election five weeks before.Held under a new electoral law that boosts the first party, Sunday’s vote gives ND a comfortable majority of 158 seats in the 300-member Parliament, with Syriza getting 48. Center-left PASOK elected 32 lawmakers and the Stalinist-rooted Communist Party 20.The remaining 42 seats will be shared between three far-right parties — including one endorsed by a jailed former leader of the defunct,...

Essentials for the Hajj: From sun hats to shoe bags, a guide to gear Muslims bring to the pilgrimage

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:50:10 GMT

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Straw hats, cross-body bags, and collapsible chairs: These are just some of the essentials Muslims bring to the Hajj pilgrimage.Spiritually, the five-day Hajj is awe-inspiring for the faithful, an experience they say brings them closer to God and to the entire Muslim world.Physically, it’s grueling. Pilgrims walk outdoors for hours in broiling heat around holy sites in Mecca and the surrounding desert. They are caught in unimaginable and overwhelming crowds, all trying to get to the same place. Barriers directing the traffic mean that if you miss your turn, you might walk hours more to get where you want to be.So the more than 2 million pilgrims don’t just learn the complicated rules of how to properly perform the rituals, which began Monday. They also pick up helpful hints and tricks of the trade to get by, learned from other hajjis — as those who have completed the pilgrimage are known.Here’s a look at what they say is essential gear.WHAT TO WEARDress fo...