Westbrook has not played since the Thunder's Christmas Day, when he posted a triple-double performance of 14 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. MORE: Granger traded to Sixers for Turner | Durant suing former accountant | Photos: Sixers support Kevin Grow On Dec. 27, Westbrook underwent the third knee surgery since he suffered a torn meniscus in April. “We are all very excited to have Russell back," Thunder GM Sam Presti said....
“About me not being black enough, I don’t even know what that means,” Wilson told ESPN. “People were trying to find ways to knock us down and distract us, but there’s no doubt we’re more together than ever before.” MORE: Seahawks not back to championship form | Panthers fall to Seahawks | Vincent Jackson trade target for Seahawks Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman was quick to come to the defense of his teammate and even joked about the stories....
According to ESPN, which cited unidentified sources, the Seattle quarterback is sticking to his April 15 deadline of getting a new deal done with the team. While the midnight deadline is imposing, ESPN reported that both sides still are working hard to reach some sort of agreement. If Wilson doesn’t get the extension he desires, he will still attend all training camps and activities and will play during the 2019 season....
As Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez railed against “the increased aggression of the U.S. government” during lengthy remarks delivered to the press Tuesday in the wake of historic anti-government demonstrations alleging shortages in COVID-19 vaccines and basic humanitarian needs, his message was echoed by three powers deeply critical of Washington’s foreign policy toward Havana, and in many other parts of the world. In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met with Cuban ambassador Julio Garmendia Peña for a discussion earlier Tuesday in which “the Russian side expressed solidarity with Cuba’s government and people, and promised all-round support to the efforts towards the soonest normalization of the situation,” according to the Russian Foreign Ministry....
NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana appeared by video link at the Helsinki Security Forum on Friday, telling attendees that NATO and European Union allies face a tough winter as inflation, cost of living crises, and the energy squeeze combine. Russia’s invasion has reached “a turning point,” Geoana said, with Ukrainian forces driving forwards in the east and making slower but still significant progress on the southern front. “Russia’s war underlines just how vital a strong deterrence and defense is,” he said....
In their second game of the international friendlies this month, France pulled off a relatively easy win against Russia at the Saint Petersburg Stadium on Tuesday. It was a considerable improvement on their previous performance, where they squandered a comfortable two-goal lead against Colombia. Kylian Mbappe and Paul Pogba were the top performers for France on the night. Their collective effort powered them to a 3-1 victory over the hosts....
“The problem in the region is not Iranian activities,” Russian ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov told the Jerusalem Post in comments later shared by Moscow’s embassy in Tel Aviv. “It’s a lack of understanding between countries and noncompliance with U.N. resolutions in the Israel-Arab and Israel-Palestinian conflict.” Israelis have steadily annexed and settled across territories deemed Palestinian by the United Nations. Violence between the two sides has stymied peace efforts for decades, though frictions between Israel and Iran, along with fellow pro-Palestinian partners such as Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, have taken precedence....
At around 6.20 a.m. on Friday, Ukrainian responders put out the fire which has not appeared to have affected the reactor sites. Ukrainian officials said a fire broke out in a training building outside the facility, with images on social media showing continuous shelling and smoke rising near the nuclear facility. One Zaporizhzhia resident told BBC Radio 4’s Today program he saw the Russian military shooting and throwing bombs at the plant all night....
“We assess that Russia would consider initiating a cyber attack against the Homeland if it perceived a US or NATO response to a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine threatened its long-term national security,” the memo, dated January 23 and attributed to the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, reads in bold text. The warning came as President Joe Biden sent additional weapons to Ukrainian forces and reportedly weighed the option of sending thousands of U....
“Frankly, there are no reasons for being optimistic,” Petr Svirin, spokesperson for Moscow’s embassy in Washington, tells Newsweek. With a U.S. presidential election just days away, Russia is once again dominating America’s headlines, accused of a number of abuses from voter meddling to overseas aggression. Moscow denies all of it, arguing that, despite their troubled past, the ball is in Washington’s court when it comes to making things right—regardless of who wins on Tuesday....
“We should understand that amid the world war, all the talks that it’s is a regional or a local war must be dropped,” Vucic, an ally of Putin, told independent Serbian TV channel Pink in an interview. “The entire Western world is fighting against Russia via Ukrainians. It is a global conflict,” he said, according to Russia’s state-run news agency TASS. Serbia, which has strong ties with Russia politically, economically, and culturally, has so far refused to side with the West in imposing sanctions over Putin’s war against Ukraine, which began in late February....
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, also the minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, wrote on Facebook on Friday that she has received warning that Russians plan to attack in the midst of religious services being conducted on January 7—the day Christmas is celebrated in Orthodox churches. On Friday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists reported hearing outgoing and incoming shelling in the city of Bakhmut after the ceasefire was scheduled to begin....
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) described in a report Thursday the unusual efforts taken by the Russian military to shore up its personnel as its invasion of Ukraine drags on. The assessment is the latest to present an increasingly desperate picture of Russia’s military personnel, which have been described recently as worn-out after sustaining heavy losses during the war. Drawing on Ukrainian intelligence, the ISW report found that Russian military leaders have begun what it calls the “widespread” practice of promoting non-commissioned officers to the rank of junior lieutenant without meeting education or experience requirements....
Pictures and videos were circulating on social media Thursday of Pantsir-S1 air defense systems that were spotted on top of a couple Moscow buildings, including one used by the Russian Defense Ministry. While neither the Kremlin nor the Russian Defense Ministry seems to have publicly confirmed or commented on the installation, the bolstering of Moscow’s air defenses came as Russia continues to warn the West against providing Ukraine with munitions that could give it the capability to strike deep inside the country....
Robert Anderson worked for the FBI for 21 years, rising to oversee the bureau’s efforts to identify, track and disrupt foreign intelligence and cyberwarfare efforts—including those originating from Russia. In a 60 Minutes interview broadcast Sunday, Anderson told CBS News’ Bill Whitaker that Russia’s cyberwarfare arm remains a significant threat to the American political system. “The Russians never left,” Anderson said. “I can guarantee you in 2016 after this all hit the news, they never left....
Dolgov, now deputy chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy of the Federation Council, made this statement while speaking on Russian state TV in a video that has been viewed more than 60,000 times. The Daily Beast’s Julia Davis posted the video to her Twitter page. The video was posted on Tuesday but it is not clear on what day the TV show aired. “Meanwhile on Russian state TV: member of Russia’s Federation Council Konstantin Dolgov claimed that Russia—the country that started the largest-scale land war in Europe in recent history—is providing safety and security for Ukraine, Europe and the entire world....
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Russia on Tuesday for a modification of the 2015 deal and invited other countries to help resolve stalled peace talks on a political settlement in eastern Ukraine. Conflict broke out between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian forces in Donbas, the center of Ukrainian industry, after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. In the seven years since fighting began, more than 14,000 have been killed in conflict....
Russia has now delivered eight shipments of S-400 components to Turkish armed forces at the Murted air base close to the capital of Ankara. The deal has angered American officials, who claim that integration of Russian armaments into the NATO nation’s defense network poses a security risk to the entire transatlantic alliance. But despite U.S. protests and threats, both Russian and Turkish officials have stayed the course. And this weekend, Leonid Slutsky—the head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s lower house of parliament—said the controversial agreement is “the first shot” in a new era of military cooperation between Moscow and Ankara....
Lavrov’s remarks come more than eight months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24. Although Moscow initially hoped for a quick victory, the invasion has revealed weaknesses in their military that blunted the Kremlin’s gains. Furthermore, Ukraine received support from the West, bolstering defense efforts and allowing its military to launch a strong counteroffensives to reclaim occupied territory. As fighting rages on, negotiations between the two Eastern European nations have stalled....
When Putin ordered the invasion in late February, the Kremlin anticipated a quick victory but was met with surprisingly strong resistance from Ukrainian defenders. More than four months later, Russian progress has largely stalled, with fighting largely concentrated in eastern Ukraine. Russia has faced a sharp rebuke from the West because of the invasion. World leaders have issued sanctions against Russian goods and oligarchs, devastating the country’s economy. Economists have warned that the economic fallout from the conflict could devastate Russia’s economy for years, though Moscow has dismissed the impact of Western sanctions, arguing they have done more to hurt the U....
