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The Broncos on the other hand are not. After Denver’s loss to the Seahawks in Russell Wilson’s return to Seattle, which was filled with questionable clock management and play-calling from Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett, social media latched on to a preseason rallying cry and turned it on its head. “Broncos Country, let’s ride,” has been commandeered. Made mistakenly viral by the new Broncos QB, Wilson made the catchphrase famous while filming liners for the upcoming season....

The soon-to-be mother-of-three announced plans to host an Instagram Live with her doctor in an effort to provide pregnant women with the information they need as they prepare for childbirth. The 34-year-old singer revealed her Instagram Live plans while sharing a video clip getting an ultrasound on Wednesday. Wearing her face mask, Ciara gushed over her ultrasound image with a nurse while holding up a phone where her husband Russell Wilson was watching via FaceTime....

He still plans to honor one he made earlier this season, his baseball agent said on Monday. WIlson, a former dual-sport athlete, plans to appear at the Texas Rangers' spring training camp in Surprise, Ariz., ostensibly to talk to some of the minor leaguers about his experiences. The former second baseman was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in 2010 and then picked up by the Rangers in the Rule 5 Draft this past December....

Analysts in Moscow point out that the Russian military preparations can’t be going unnoticed in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, and might just be part of a Russian war of nerves against the Georgians. (And indeed Putin has yet to give the final go-ahead to his generals.) Late last week Georgia suddenly moved to extradite five suspected Chechen militants to Russia–a sign, perhaps, of growing nervousness on the Georgian side....

“Regrettably, the US State Department has again demonstrated memory loss regarding the history of space exploration,” the Embassy of Russia in the USA said in a statement on Monday, accusing the state department “distorting the memory” of Gagarin. In its earlier Facebook update, the U.S. agency had said the date marked “technological advances space exploration brings and the international cooperation it fosters,” without noting Gagarin’s well-documented achievements in Soviet-era space flight....

During an appearance on Russian state television, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukraine was planning for this “provocation” to take place during United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit to Ukraine on Friday, the Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported. “This is not just a provocation, this is what we condemned as nuclear blackmail. And what else is it but a long-standing provocation around a nuclear facility, a direct threat to nuclear power?...

Yevgeny Balitsky, a Ukrainian politician who became the acting governor of the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia—referred to as Zaporozhye in Russia—in October 2022, told the pro-Kremlin Crimean television channel Krym-24 on Monday that Russian forces face a difficult task in seizing the rest of the Zaporizhzhia region. “There is no way of taking Zaporizhzhia quickly,” Balitsky said, as quoted by Russia’s state-run Tass news agency. “Sweeping measures will have to be used....

Russian President Vladimir Putin raised alarms this week about his military intentions going forward when he invoked the legacy of the monarch, Peter the Great. The famed Russian leader, who reigned from 1682 to 1725, notably led a series of successful wars that helped establish the country as a major international force. “Peter the Great waged the great northern war for 21 years,” Putin said during a speech. “It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them....

Speaking during a press conference, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that Russia has deployed over 100,000 troops at Ukraine’s borders through a “consistent and steady pace,” which has been supported by Russian naval activity in the northern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. “As we look at that number of troops and that amount of hardware that’s in the border region, it far and away exceeds what we typically see them do for exercise so it’s very concerning,” Austin said on Friday....

Putin said during a video call with leaders of other former Soviet nations that “the interim government formed by the Taliban regrettably doesn’t reflect the entire spectrum of Afghan society.” Nonetheless, he recognized the militant group’s promises to hold elections and efforts to restore state institutions. “We shouldn’t hurry with the official recognition of the Taliban,” he said. “We understand that we need to interact with them, but there shouldn’t be any hurry and we shall discuss that together....

Russian Ambassador to Ireland Yury Filatov said in an interview on Tuesday that planned military exercises would likely conclude by February 20 and “troops will be withdrawn.” Filatov’s comments came as the U.S. and NATO expressed skepticism that Russian forces were withdrawing. The Biden administration has warned repeatedly that an invasion could be imminent. The ambassador spoke to Irish broadcaster RTÉ on Monday and dismissed a question about a potential invasion....

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that the 32 men detained last month in a sanatorium near the capital—and another detained in the country’s south—were members of the notorious paramilitary Wagner Group. He says they were sent to disrupt Sunday’s election, where he is facing the first genuine challenge to his power in 26 years. The reach of the group, which has never been explicitly acknowledged by the Kremlin, stretches far beyond Russia’s neighbor and is implicated in conflicts in Syria, Libya and eastern Ukraine....

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Thursday with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla during a trip to Havana, where Moscow sought to further develop Cold War-era relations in the face of a hard-line administration in Washington. The top Russian diplomat criticized President Donald Trump’s decision in April to impose new trade restrictions on Cuba, actions he dismissed as “unacceptable” and “unlawful economic coercion.” “We shall fully support Cuba’s people not only politically, not only morally, not only by means of developing military technical cooperation but also through encouraging trade and economic projects to help the country’s economy become more resistant to all kinds of external threats,” Lavrov said....

In a quick political makeover last week, Yeltsin acquired a strong new ally: Aleksandr Lebed, 46, a tough retired general with a granite face, a drill sergeant’s bark and a squeaky-clean image. Lebed finished a surprisingly strong third in the election, behind Yeltsin and the communist candidate, Gennady Zyuganov. The moment Lebed cemented his alliance with Yeltsin, Korzhakov and other Kremlin hard-liners became expendable. After a night of confusion and intrigue, in which the hard-liners apparently tried to subvert next Wednesday’s runoff, Yeltsin and his new best friend slapped them down....

Several anti-doping bodies called for Russia to be excluded from the Rio Olympics, which begin on Friday, in the wake of a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that accused the country of state-sponsored doping, reports Xinhua. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) asked international sports federations to decide which athletes could compete, but banned all competitors with prior doping sanctions. “Not one team underwent such strict requirements as Russian athletes,” Zhukov told a news conference in Rio on Thursday....

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reacted to a Reuters report detailing Russia’s retreat from a town in eastern Ukraine, saying the “investigation of a document trove found in an abandoned Russian command post … supports ISW’s longstanding assessments about the poor condition of Russian forces.” Previously published Western intelligence has described dysfunction and poor morale among Russia’s armed forces. The Reuters report published Wednesday shows this dysfunction through the lens of a doomed Russian post....

But Russian soldiers at what appeared to be the scene of the same killing gave a different account and put the blame on Ukrainians. The war crimes accusation is among the latest of many made by Ukrainians against Russia since it invaded in late February. Russia has denied the atrocities and has accused Ukraine of staging them to win sympathy in the West. On Sunday, MP Lesia Vasylenko of the Holos party shared an image to her Twitter page of the woman she said had been killed....

If Gerasimov’s death in fighting at the northeastern city of Kharkiv is confirmed, he would be the second Russian general killed by Ukrainian forces during Russia’s invasion after Major General Andrey Sukhovetskiy died in combat last week. Ukraine’s Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Defense Ministry said on social media on Monday that military forces killed Gerasimov while defending Kharkiv. Russian authorities did not immediately comment on the report....

Moscow-based news outlet Baza said that Pyotr Koronayev, who worked for Baza, and his wife, Tatyana Kulikova, had been taken into custody, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Koronayev was released but his wife remained in detention, the story said. Baza did not say when the couple crossed into the U.S. from Mexico. Koronayev feared for his safety because of his public opposition to the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty....

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Monday its daily assessment on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which began more than 200 days ago. The update, posted on its Facebook page, said that the Ukrainian military destroyed almost 85 percent of Russia’s 810 marine infantry brigade, which is based in the city of Sevastopol in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula “After the successful actions carried out by the Defense Forces in the Kherson direction, the enemy suffered significant losses in manpower,”...