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Multiple social media accounts shared images and videos of explosions and a fire at the Belbek airfield in Sevastopol on Saturday, reportedly caused by a Mikoyan Mig-31 jet coming down. Photos showed beachgoers on the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 looking at the dark smoke billowing up from the coast with the detonation of shells visible in some of them. “While landing, the military plane skidded off the runway, rolled down a mountain and burst into flames,” the Baza Telegram channel said....

A clip of the moment has begun circulating on social media after being posted on Twitter by the Daily Beast’s Julia Davis. Military expert Alexander Sharkovsky called for Russia to take measures against the U.K. for its support of Ukraine. He went as far to suggest that Russia should attack a ship near its Northern border. Sharkovsky made these comments in response to political analyst Victor Olevich’s comments. Olevich said Russia had not made significant progress over the last few months....

Tensions between Moscow and the West escalated after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Many Western nations, including the United States, condemned Putin’s war while also providing humanitarian and military support to Ukraine. This aid has bolstered Ukraine’s defense efforts while adding more pressure to already tense U.S.-Russia relations. A chief concern among national security experts amid the conflict is that Russia could potentially turn to nuclear weapons if they feel cornered by Ukraine’s advances....

Before Chris heads to New York City for this weekend’s Millrose Games, each guy dissects one race to look ahead to this weekend. After hearing news of a new John L. Parker J.R. novel, everyone is excited for the new “Once A Runner” prequel. The guys close out the show debating who is missing from this epic assembly of athletes after the Super Bowl. Check out this photo: Listen to the sixth episode of the Running Our Mouth’s Podcast:...

“There is no doubt that Facebook employees try to silence conservative voices and a quick Google News search on most contemporary topics often reveals a similar pattern of selectivity—or to be blunt, censorship,” Murdoch said while speaking at an annual meeting of stockholders for the Fox News Corporation. Murdoch is founder and CEO of the multimillion dollar media group. The 90-year-old media mogul also mentioned “collusion” between Facebook and Google alleged by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a December 2020 complaint....

“Defense, defense, defense. I thought we were outstanding defensively,” Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson said. D’Angelo Russell had 23 points and 10 assists, DeMarre Carroll added 20 points, including five 3-pointers, and the Nets beat the Memphis Grizzlies 109-100 on Friday night. The Nets limited Memphis to 45 percent shooting, including 5 of 24 (21 percent) from outside the arc, and won for the 11th time in their last 14 games....

Russell Westbrook and Odell Beckham Jr. are featured on the list, compiled by the GQ editorial board, who said this year’s crop features “men who look just as sharp on the street as they do on the red carpet.” Or, in the case of Westbrook and Beckham, at the press conference podium. PHOTOS: 20 most fashionable athletes | Russell Westbrook’s “best” looks GQ credits Beckham for dressing “as flamboyantly as he plays” and illustrating his personality through hair and skin....

Oklahoma City Thunder star Westbrook is scheduled to be re-evaluated and given a more precise recovery timeline in four weeks, according to team vice-president and general manager Sam Presti. Depending on his rehabilitation, Westbrook could miss the entire preseason and possibly the first few games of the regular season. The 2017 NBA MVP has had two surgeries on his right knee in recent years, and also underwent an arthroscopic procedure during the 2013-14 campaign....

According to a TMZ report, Wilson dropped $6.7 million on a 10,700-square-foot mansion in Bellevue, Wash. MORE: Russell Wilson’s rise, in images | Wilson, Ciara and Taylor Swift on stage Wilson’s name doesn’t appear on any record for the sale of the home, but according to The Seattle Times, Wilson formed a company to find himself a Seattle-area home shortly after the ink dried on his new deal. And a photo posted by the Times shows the neighboring home flying a “12” flag on its balcony, possibly to welcome Wilson to the neighborhood....

James Appathurai, NATO’s deputy assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, told Newsweek on the sidelines of this weekend’s Helsinki Security Forum that alliance members “shouldn’t be naïve” about the expanding Moscow-Beijing partnership. “China has been sticking politically with Russia throughout this process, amplifying their messaging, their disinformation—including on NATO, which China had not done in the past—in essence in partnership with Russia, which is supporting China’s points of view when it comes to Asia,” Appathurai said....

The Russian Football Union said on Monday defender Ruslan Kambolov injured a calf muscle during a game for Rubin Kazan the day before. He was replaced by 38-year-old veteran Sergei Ignashevich, who has come out of international retirement. The RFU said coaches dropped Kambolov, “taking into account the training time (until the World Cup begins) and the possibility of exacerbating the problem.” Kambolov was investigated by FIFA this year following the publication of World Anti-Doping Agency investigations alleging Russian officials covered up earlier doping cases....

Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, on Monday gave an update on the plight of the eastern Ukrainian city in an interview with Radio Free Europe and on social media. While Haidai said Ukrainian forces continue to resist Russian advances in Severodonetsk, the development indicates fighting has intensified in a city that could be pivotal to the Kremlin’s war effort. Describing conditions for people remaining in the city as “extremely difficult,” Haidai said in the interview that “evacuation is impossible....

Trump ordered earlier this month the withdrawal of troops from Syria’s latest battlefield that saw two U.S. partners—NATO ally Turkey and the mostly Kurdish, Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces—at war. However, the president has recently stated his intention to secure the country’s eastern oil fields. While the stated intention was to guard the resource from once again falling into the hands of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), such a move would also prevent a reclamation of these sites by the Syrian government, an ally of Iran and Russia....

On Sunday, in what the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine described in a Facebook post as a “bombardment” of ten airstrikes on various Russian positions, seven unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of an operational-tactical level and two Kalibr cruise missiles were destroyed in addition to the Alligator. The attack mirrored one carried out by Ukrainian forces on August 16, involving the same amount of airstrikes that took out an Alligator and three unmanned Russian aircraft in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions....

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday his country was “ready to provide appropriate assistance to Saudi Arabia” in the wake of attacks claimed Saturday by the Yemeni Zaidi Shiite Muslim rebel group known as Ansar Allah, or the Houthis, against the Abqaiq oil-processing site and Khurais oil field. Putin said Saudi Arabia could better protect itself “by making a wise state decision, as Iran has already done in buying the S-300 Russian missile system and as [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan has already done in buying the S-400 Russian missile system....

Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for eastern Ukrainian forces, made the remarks Friday, as a senior Russian-backed official acknowledged that Russian troops are “half encircled” in the strategic city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. “All the approaches and logistic routes of the enemy, through which they delivered ammunition and manpower, are in fact under fire control [of Ukraine],” said Cherevatyi. Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed governor in the Donetsk region, said Lyman is “partially surrounded....

“The Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported on November 1 that Iranian officials intend to send a shipment of more than 200 Shahed-136, Mohajer-6, and Arash-2 combat drones to Russia,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in a Russian offensive campaign assessment on Tuesday. “The GUR reported that Iran will send Russia the drones in a disassembled state and that Russian personnel will assemble them with Russian markings....

The mob rules in St. Petersburg. Here– and in every other big city in Russia-gangsters are moving in on business, government and the daily lives of the long-suffering population. On the street, people talk about “the mafia,” but the problem doesn’t spring from Sicily. It’s homegrown and nationwide: Ministry of Interior investigators count almost 3,000 gangs across the country. With the help of well-armed “bulls,” they extort millions of dollars and operate rackets from prostitution and drugs to the illegal export of billions of dollars’ worth of Russian raw materials....

The authorities of the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow have decided to reduce the seating capacity of the stadium to 81,000 from its original plan of 89,000. The move has been given a go-ahead by FIFA. It was confirmed in December last year that the Luzhniki Stadium will host the opening match and the final of the 2018 mega event. The venue will also host one of the semi-final matches....

“There was a fire at the petrol depot because of an air strike carried out by two Ukrainian army helicopters, who entered Russian territory at a low altitude,” Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, wrote in a Telegram post, The Moscow Times reported. Ukraine did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack. Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, told reporters later Friday that the alleged Ukrainian attack could hamper further talks between the two countries....