Posts

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Defense Ministry said on Friday that the small town, located 9 miles north of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, was under Russian control. Ukraine has maintained however that its forces are holding out in the region. In its latest assessment of the war in Ukraine, the ISW, a U.S.-based think tank, said Russia’s “information space” was having difficulty portraying tactical Russian gains around Soledar as “operationally significant....

Sotheby’s should know. Thanks to the nouveau Russian rich, Russian art has become the single hottest commodity at auction houses. Sotheby’s has already moved more than $100 million of Russian art since January, putting it on pace to trounce last year’s record total of $150 million. Last week Christie’s in London held its first-ever summer Russian sale, fetching an impressive $36 million, and setting a new world record for the highest price ever paid for a painting in a Russian sale (with Konstanin Somov’s $7....

Energoatom described Saturday’s attack on a five-story building in Voznesensk in the Mykolaiv region as “another act of Russian nuclear terrorism.” “It is possible that this missile was aimed specifically at the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant [PNNP], which the Russian military tried to seize back at the beginning of March,” Energoatom said in a statement, Reuters reported. “The invaders have been ruthlessly roaming the southern region of Ukraine, destroying its infrastructure and sparing no one,” the statement added....

London, April 15 (IANS): A 23-year-old man collapsed and then died during the Brighton Marathon in the south English port city. The runner who was reportedly from London collapsed after suffering a suspected cardiac arrest Sunday, reports Xinhua. He was treated by paramedics and an off-duty police officer of Sussex Police said he was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton for emergency surgery but was pronounced dead later....

Guinea-Bissau athlete Dabo and Busby of Aruba are the only competitors from their respective nations competing in Doha and were well out off the pace in a 5,000 meters heat won by Selemon Barega of Ethiopia. But the lasting image of the race will undoubtedly be the sight of Dabo aiding a struggling Busby in the closing 300 meters. The intense Doha heat was noticeably causing issues for Busby as the race reached a conclusion and Dabo set aside his own efforts to help Busby – who was almost on his knees – over the line....

Week after week, the giddiness over these offerings provided distraction for investors who seem nervous about the market’s lofty levels. When eToys went public two weeks ago, its stock was offered at $20, opened trading at $78, and closed just slightly lower in its first day of trading. The week before, it was TheStreet.com, a financial-news Internet site whose stock made news itself by soaring from $19 to $60. For all the blaring headlines and popping of champagne corks, though, some troubling signs have been piling up....

Miro recalled sharing a room with Lee, back in 2013 when the former was yet to make his main roster debut. As Miro was about to doze off one night, he heard Lee coming in and decided to prank him. Miro’s prank involved him hiding under his blanket, jumping out and screaming at the highest pitch he could gather. Things didn’t go as planned though, as Brodie Lee went straight to the bathroom instead of entering the room....

Steve Thomma, the head of the White House Correspondents Association tweeted: “Rush Limbaugh concedes election, says Biden has won.” However, minutes later, Limbaugh walked back his previous comments, and Thomma corrected himself. Thomma followed up: “Comes back, says he did not concede a Biden win, and that if he have that impression he didn’t mean to.” “I’ve not conceded anything. All I’ve said was that the cable networks were waiting for Fox to do it!...

The Oklahoma City point guard made it clear he was exactly where he wanted to be during his news conference after signing a three-year deal worth a reported $85 million. MORE: Ranking the best players to change teams in their prime “There’s no need to wait if you know where you want to be. There’s no need to waste time,” Westbrook told reporters. “I felt like this is the best place for me and the best team....

While Russell Wilson is currently temporarily sidelined while he recovers from a finger injury, his future with the Seahawks beyond 2021 might actually be questionable at best. An offseason of drama and rumors surrounded the passer and the team, with both sides eventually making up and deciding to give it at least one more go in 2021. While the team hasn’t reached the highs that it did when they won Super Bowl 48, with Wilson under center, they’ve been perennial contenders more often than not....

Wilson spoke about Brown’s holdout — the left tackle is seeking a long-term deal — after Seattle’s Sunday scrimmage. He made it known that he wants to get Brown back on the field. “Not having Duane Brown out there is a pretty significant deal because I think he’s one of the best left tackles in the game, there’s no arguing it,” Wilson said, per ESPN. “I think he’s as good as it gets....

Officials talked face-to-face for the first time at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border since Russia launched its military invasion of Ukraine five days earlier. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office previously said the key issues were an “immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of troops from Ukraine,” but the country continues to see heavy shelling and extensive casualties. The meeting lasted for several hours before officials headed back to their respective capitals to discuss the negotiations....

Alexander Lavrentiev, the Kremlin’s special envoy to Syria, downplayed the danger of a clash between the Turkish and Syrian militaries, telling RIA Novosti Tuesday that “the collision, first of all, it is not just that no one is interested, it is simply unacceptable.” “We will not allow this,” he said. The same outlet cited the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that its troops had been deployed to the front lines between the two opposing armed forces engaged in Syria’s eight-year civil war....

The three-day election for Russia’s lower house has predictably been marred by accusations of fraud and repression, as well as criticism from opposition groups and foreign governments that the ballot was rigged. The ruling United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, is poised to maintain its two-thirds constitutional majority in the 450-seat parliament, the Duma. However, the State Department said on Monday the ballot took place under conditions “not conducive to free and fair proceedings,” as it criticized a clampdown by the authorities including “efforts to marginalize independent political figures....

The Russian-installed governor of occupied Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said in a Telegram post there had been an explosion at the fleet’s headquarters on Saturday morning following the strike by the drone which “unfortunately … was not shot down.” He said that there were no casualties and called for calm. Videos of the aftermath of the strike shared on social media showed a plume of smoke rising into the air above the building near the waterfront....

The daily newspaper Kommersant said that the United Russia deputies party in the country’s parliament, or Duma, has been urged to “draw parallels” between the bloody battle which ended with Germany’s surrender on February 2, 1943, with the Kremlin’s campaign in Ukraine. The politicians are given weekly recommendations on topics to communicate with their constituents, according to the paper, which includes social media posts. For the week ending February 5, deputies were told to push a narrative about the battle for the southern Russian city that bore the name of Soviet leader Josef Stalin and forced Adolf Hitler’s Nazi forces to their first surrender....

The 32-year-old Akinfeev said on Monday it was a “logical conclusion” after 111 appearances over 15 years. He made his debut within weeks of his 18th birthday. Akinfeev said he wants to concentrate on playing for CSKA Moscow, which hosts Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday. “Fifteen years in the national team is a huge period. With each year it gets more difficult to play on two fronts and withstand extremely high loads,” he said....

In a statement posted to Facebook, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said that “a massive missile and bomb attack” was launched across the country, and that “Russian bombers ‘worked’ directly from the territory of Belarus.” The Ministry of Defense said that six aircraft launched 12 missiles, and that the “blow was carried out in Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions.” “This is the first case of an air strike across Ukraine directly from the territory of Belarus....

It is well known that global temperatures are increasing due to climate change, with the rate of warming rising as time goes on. Earth’s temperature has risen by 0.14 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1880, but since 1981 the rate has been more than twice that. The nine years from 2013 through 2021 rank among the 10 warmest years on record, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)....

On Monday, the United States imposed more sanctions on Russia, including on its central bank, as punishment for President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. All the measures taken since the Russian attacks began in the early hours of Thursday should increase Russia’s inflation and drive investors away, but it likely not shut down the Kremlin. “Those transactions will be exempt from the onerous financial sanctions, so that energy supplies can continue to flow into Europe,” Jeffrey Schott, a trade and sanctions expert and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Newsweek....