(Refiles with correct dateline spelling) By Vitalii Hnidyi STOROZHEVE, Ukraine (Reuters) -The road into the newly liberated Ukrainian village of

A breakdown of the purse for Tour de France 2023.

Both BYU and Iowa State need a win on Saturday night to become bowl eligible

It’s Saturday night in Sin City, 9pm local time. One hour until lights out. Walking out of the media centre, across the car park of the Tuscany Suites and Casino, and up through the various security checkpoints, you arrive at the highly coveted, yet strangely downplayed open space that is the Formula One paddock. Halfway down, between the garages of Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo, lies the grid access lane: a portal to the forthcoming chaos. There is a chill in the air. A cool 15C temperature which, predicted all week, is about to play havoc with tyres in the 50 laps ahead. A pause for breath and then the steel-faced American bodyguard gives the go-ahead. On you stroll, pretending you belong here. Welcome to the curiously flummoxing experience that is the F1 pre-race grid. And this is not any old grid. This is Las Vegas: F1’s newest super-venue, where no multimillion-dollar expense has been spared (save a manhole cover or two). In the near distance are 20 cars all lined up in order, with at least a dozen mechanics and engineers per car. And in the gaps in between stand everyone else – the VIPs, the executives and the media – relishing or reeling in the madness of it all. Forty minutes until lights out. Effectively, there are two choices as a grid bystander: stay at the front of the pack, scrummaged in the melee to catch a glimpse of the A-listers, or head speedily to the back of the start-finish straight to rise up for air. Your route? By any means necessary. Down the middle, tiptoeing down the sides, most likely a zigzagging of both. Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll trots down alongside his wife to the back, where his son Lance starts in 19th. He exchanges a joke with Sky Sports grid walk pioneer Martin Brundle: “Don’t bother me today!” he says. Brundle, sporting a striking dark blue jacket for Vegas’s F1 reincarnation, laughs as he awaits his cue from a producer in his ear. This is his terrain. He may well hate this, but Brundle is now best known for his memorable grid walk encounters as opposed to his 15-year racing career. It started in 1997, when ITV first gained the rights from the BBC for F1 in the UK and executive producer Neil Duncanson first floated the idea. Before that, attempts to encapsulate the pre-race frivolities for audiences at home were caught up in old-school F1 management red tape. Yet as Bernie Ecclestone took the sport into the 21st century so the broadcasting access expanded – and Martin’s grid walk era was born. He was said to be reluctant at first. Now it is his unorthodox home away from home. A plethora of TV companies have followed suit. Today, we’ll let Martin and the rest of them get on with it. It is a striking juxtaposition to the grid: while the pressure is high on broadcasters to keep viewers entertained with minute-by-minute soundbites, the written media can stand back and absorb this whole… thing. Whatever this is. Milling around, with no real purpose other than the process of milling around. Looking at the grandstands to the side, where ticket-holding F1 fans record and capture every moment, and you think to yourself in the real, morally just world, they’re probably more deserving of this spot than you. Nonetheless, on you go. Engineers sit in the cockpit, toying with the complex intricacies of these 220mph machines, revving the engines so brashly it is hard to hear yourself speak. It is a baffling mish-mash of car-staring, celebrity-glancing and photograph-taking. “Portrait or landscape?” I ask one VIP couple, who request a photo in front of Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri. “Let’s do both,” comes the response. Those “very important people” are identified by a pink pass dangling around their neck. But the real celebs are simply identifiable by the hordes of people around them, people desperate for that picture which will deliver hundreds upon thousands of likes on Instagram. They come in all shapes and sizes: DJ Steve Aoki, model Paris Hilton, LIV rebel golfer Ian Poulter. And, towering menacingly over them all, seven-foot-plus NBA icon Shaquille O’Neal. Fifteen minutes until lights out. Stumbling towards the front, a gap opens up around the outside of Charles Leclerc’s pole-sitting Ferrari, before it’s blocked off again. Instead, head down, you attempt to carve your own racing line through the chaos down the middle and bang: you’re in the shot of Brundle’s conversation with one star or another. Quick, act natural: hurry on through. As is procedure, the home national anthem of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” rings out. A loud horn then blares indicating a quickening of proceedings. Walking back into midfield again, you saunter past FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Is there any occasion he does not miss? Today I feel… Formula One. Bumping into recent interviewee Willy T Ribbs – “howdy partner” – is the last brief interaction. Any conversation on the grid is usually short-lived but now, 10 minutes until lights out, time’s up. FIA personnel rush the lot of you away, herding the cattle to the exit door. The process now is a delicate balancing act: walk slowly enough to take in every last second yet quick enough to avoid an ear-clipping from the racing bouncers. Mechanics frantically push tyre trolleys through the crowds back to the garages; one Williams staffer swears under his breath. Las Vegas 2023 is a far cry from the tranquillity of yesteryear at Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps. Eventually the grid is cleared and, quick as a flash, it's over. You can breathe. The drivers can breathe. Brief respite before the action out on track. Sharing the spotlight with the stars of yesterday and tomorrow is entertaining. A privilege. A taste of a different world, even if it is as a supporting act loitering in the background. Now though, the food chain is restored. The unparalleled uniqueness and flashiness of the F1 grid is perhaps unmatched in world sport. For half an hour you walk with the stars, real and fake, and then return to normality. But after a build-up saturated in speed and splendour, lights out is finally imminent. You’ve had your time: back to the laptop and coffee machine you go. Read More Christian Horner suggests Las Vegas Grand Prix solution to ‘brutal’ schedule Las Vegas Grand Prix dazzles on debut with usual dose of Max Verstappen reality How Formula 1 cracked America Christian Horner suggests Las Vegas Grand Prix solution to ‘brutal’ schedule ‘It happens’: F1 fail to apologise or issue refunds to Las Vegas fans F1 2023 official calendar: All 23 Grand Prix this year

By Liz Lee and Ben Blanchard BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) -China reacted with anger on Monday to a planned visit next month

The New York Yankees have added some youth by recalling outfielder Everson Pereira and infielder Oswald Peraza from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre

Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican member of the upper chamber, has officially declared himself a candidate for president in next year’s Republican primary election. According to a statement of candidacy filed on Friday with the Federal Election Commission, Mr Scott has designated his official campaign committee as “Tim Scott for America”, with a campaign address in the Palmetto State’s capital, Charleston. Mr Scott, who has served as South Carolina’s junior senator since 2013, was first appointed to his Senate seat by one of his presidential primary opponents, then-South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. He filled a vacancy left by the resignation of Jim DeMint, who left the Senate to lead the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. At the time of his appointment, Mr Scott was the first Black senator to represent a state that had been part of the Confederacy during the American Civil War and the first Black Republican since Massachusetts senator Edward Brooke left the body in 1979. The then-freshman GOP senator retained the seat he’d been appointed to in a 2014 special election and was reelected easily in 2016 and 2022 with at least 60 per cent of the vote in both elections. He has long been considered a rising star in the Republican Party, and was given the honour of delivering the party’s response to president Joe Biden’s inaugural address to Congress in 2021. Mr Scott, whose campaign website has teased a “special announcement” on 22 May, joins a GOP primary field that includes Ms Haley, former president Donald Trump, ex-Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. Florida governor Ron DeSantis and ex-New Jersey governor Chris Christie are also expected to officially enter the GOP presidential field in the coming days. Mr Trump, who has retained his preeminent position in the GOP despite being impeached twice by the House of Representatives, losing the 2020 election, inciting a deadly attack on the US Capitol in an effort to remain in power, facing criminal charges in his former home state of New York and his status as a potential defendant in at least two more criminal probes, currently holds a commanding advantage in most polls. Read More Parents of transgender kids seek to block DeSantis ban on gender-affirming care for minors How one North Carolina lawmaker's defection from the Democratic Party upended abortion protections Missouri governor to announce his pick as new St. Louis prosecutor after Kim Gardner resignation

Germany suffered its first recession since the start of pandemic, extinguishing hopes that Europe’s top economy could escape

Andrew Tate accused DIICOT of threatening young women, continuing his ongoing feud with the agency

She had a meet and greet with the recruits in attendance after speaking to the players about her NIL journey

Arsenal have launched a bid for Ajax defender Jurrien Timber. The Netherlands international is ready to move on, with the Gunners lodging an offer of €35m.

By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday said it would launch a free, government-provided direct tax