List of All Articles with Tag 'world'

Spain has thrilled its fans and neutrals alike with some scintillating performances en route to a historic Women's World Cup final against England on Sunday.

The newfound presence of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus, exiled from Russia after their mutinous march on Moscow, has fuelled fresh anxieties in Ukraine and on Nato’s eastern flank. Belarus’s neighbours have moved to a heightened state of alert since dictator Alexander Lukashenko appeared to broker a last-minute deal with the Kremlin to defuse the shortlived mutiny on 23 June and host Wagner troops on Belarusian soil. During a recent meeting at the strategically important Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated land corridor near their countries’ borders with Belarus and Russia’s enclave of Kaliningrad, Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nauseda warned that north of 4,000 mercenaries were believed to be in Belarus, while Poland’s premier Mateusz Morawiecki branded them “extremely dangerous”. Poland is sending 10,000 troops to its eastern border, and this week held its largest military parade in decades, as it warned that Wagner mercenaries had moved towards Grodno and set up camp in the Brest region, some six miles from Poland’s border. A group associated with Ukraine’s military has also warned that the construction of a “tent city” capable of housing 1,000 mercenaries some 15 miles from its border could be used to simulate a threat there, in a bid to detract from Kyiv’s efforts to make painstaking gains along the heavily mined frontline of Russia’s invasion in the south, and defend a push by Moscow’s forces near Kupiansk in the north. The true extent to which Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s guns for hire are now operating in Belarus – and their aims there – remains hard to determine. “We are dealing with layer upon layer of disinformation,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House. “Not only the repeated information campaign trying to convince Ukraine that there is a renewed threat from the north, but also confusion over exactly what Wagner is doing, who they are reporting to, who they are following orders from, and where they might be.” These factors make it hard to distinguish how much of the threat is “manufactured” to pile pressure on Belarus’s neighbours, Mr Giles said, adding: “The simple answer is that we don’t know. We should watch what is actually being done rather than what is being said.” However, Mark Galeotti, director of the Mayak Intelligence consultancy, said he believed Ukraine’s military was not “in the slightest bit worried” about the threat of Wagner attempting to cross its northern border. Speaking of claims the mercenaries could try to cross into Poland or Ukraine, he said: “In some ways, Wagner is a victim of its brand name, and people are suggesting it’s going to do all types of crazy things that are totally beyond their capabilities, but also which frankly no one would even try.” Wagner has “lost all of its heavy equipment”, he added, with Russia’s defence ministry making “damn sure” to reclaim tanks and artillery handed to the mercenaries while in Ukraine, meaning “we’re talking about a bunch of guys with Kalashnikovs, rather than a sort of fully coherent mechanised force”. Citing reports that funding disputes have already seen some mercenaries bussed back to Russia, Mr Galeotti said Ukraine has “ample forces to stop 2,000 guys with guns wandering over” a border “carefully watched” due to its proximity to Kyiv, most likely including by Nato. While he believes Wagner would not pose much of a direct threat even if better equipped, Nick Reynolds, the Royal United Services Institute’s research fellow for land warfare, said the possibility of disruption “can’t be discounted”. Read more: Wagner tracker: Charting Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenary group through the Ukraine war Wagner’s presence – along with that of Belarusian and Russian forces – means Ukraine does have to devote some troops to guard the border, which already comes under “a lot of artillery and drone strikes”, albeit not as heavily as troops along frontlines in the Donbas and further south, he said. While Poland’s concerns have been stoked by Mr Lukashenko’s jibes that the country should thank him for constraining Wagner mercenaries he claimed wish to “[smash] up Rzeszow and Warsaw”, the Belarusian leader vowed in February that Minsk would only enter the war if attacked by Ukraine – despite reports of pressure from Vladimir Putin to do so. Mr Reynolds said he did not foresee any real threat from Belarus this year due to the weakness of Minsk’s military and Russia’s presence there being “just not strong enough to credibly pose a threat of opening a second front” – although Moscow’s mobilisation efforts mean “that might change in time”. “Something I’d watch much more closely in the short-term is Wagner’s international footprint,” he said, adding that the group’s compromised position within Russia itself could see it lean more heavily on its activities in Africa and the Middle East, which are of “enormous value diplomatically” to the Kremlin. Mr Giles also warned that “forces taking orders from Russia or Belarus do not need to be large or well-equipped to cause disruption”. He pointed to the “migrant dumping campaign” initiated by Belarus in 2021, with its Baltic neighbours in Warsaw, Vilnius and Riga once again accusing Minsk in recent days of sending asylum-seekers en masse to the border to in a bid to pile pressure on them. And he highlighted the power of Wagner “as an information weapon”, whether to distract Ukraine or “throw some kind of provocation with Poland to try to back the fiction that Lukashenko presents to his people of Poland being an aggressive and threatening neighbour.” Dr Marina Miron, of King’s College London’s war studies department, agreed that an attempted incursion doesn’t make “any kind of sense” logistically, saying: “I think it’s more of a kind of psychological operation than anything else. At least for now.” While the risk is currently low, “at some point, they will be returning to Ukraine”, said Dr Miron. “That’s when there will be a definite threat.” Read More Wagner mercenaries issue a chilling message on Poland’s doorstep: ‘We are here’ Ukraine’s intelligence service claims responsibility for Crimean Bridge drone attack Lithuania to temporarily close two checkpoints with Belarus amid tensions on border Wagner tracker: Charting Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenary group through the Ukraine war

The Kremlin’s efforts to paralyze Ukrainian food shipments are succeeding, with a third of the country’s crop exports

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol has given

Record-breaking wildfires in Canada are heading toward key population centers in the country’s west, prompting the province of

Women’s sport in Australia will get a A$200 million ($128 million) funding boost as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez says he has qualified for the first Republican presidential debate, but according to a

The former head of Santiago s subway will take over as chief executive officer of Codelco as Chile’s

A mother who was convicted of murder after giving cow’s milk to her malnourished infant son while fleeing from Hurricane Katrina could have her life sentence commuted. The Louisiana Board of Pardon and Parole has recommended release for 43-year-old Tiffany Woods who has been behind bars for the past 17 years for second-degree murder in the November 2005 malnutrition death of her five-month-old baby, Emmanuel. The decision of whether or not she’ll be released is now up to Governor John Bel Edwards. At a hearing on Monday, Ms Woods pleaded for her release in front of the board from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in Baker, where Warden Kristen Thomas said she was a “low-risk, low-need” inmate. “At that stage of my life I was a young mother who was trying to take care of her children the best she could. And I made some terrible decisions,” Ms Woods told the board, wiping her eyes. “But the woman who sits before you today, I’m not that same person.” Ms Woods, who was just 25 years old at the time, and her children were living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina devastated the area in 2005. Just three weeks earlier, her son Emmanuel was released from the ICU after being born prematurely and with a condition that increases the risk of sudden death. The family fled to Shreveport, Louisiana where they stayed in several different accommodations including a sports arena and a motel before moving into a rental house. Ms Woods had been feeding the baby with formula until they ran out of food vouchers, she told the board. That’s when she decided to feed him cow’s milk. “The formula he was taking, he wasn’t swallowing. He was always throwing it up, and then we ran out of WIC (food) vouchers, so I decided to switch it … I switched it to organic milk. I thought he was doing better, but he wasn’t thriving,” Ms Woods said to the parole board. Emmanuel’s condition continued to get worse and he died in November 2005. Both Ms Woods and her husband were indicted for murder, and during the trial, the prosecution argued that even though Woods claimed she ran out of vouchers, there was food and beer in the fridge after the baby’s death, according to The Associated Press. Louisiana law allows murder convictions in accidental deaths resulting from a set of felonies that includes cruelty to juveniles. Also, unlike most states, Louisiana murder convictions carry a mandatory life prison sentence with no chance at parole for adults. Both of Emmanuel’s parents lost their appeals. The boy’s father, Emmanuel Scott, who is now 36, is also serving life in prison. He hasn’t applied for clemency. Ms Wood’s other children, who are now grown, were present for the board meeting earlier this week including Troy Woods who spoke in support of his mother and Nie’John Woods, who appeared via video from Alaska, where he serves in the US Air Force. He told The Messenger that the Louisiana pardon board's recommendation to release her could finally allow the family to heal after her arrest and conviction ripped it apart. “There were many difficulties growing up without her, moving from home to home as a child — with people who were not always caring or loving," he said. The board voted unanimously that Ms Woods should be granted her freedom. But that decision ultimately comes down to Governor John Bel Edwards. “I want to thank him for the consideration. For the first time in a very long time we have hope, which is a huge deal for myself and my siblings,” Nie’John added. Last year, the state board issued 105 recommendations for clemency, and Edwards granted 35 pardons and commuted sentences for 51 other people. Read More Nurse Lucy Letby found guilty of murdering seven babies in their hospital cots No death penalty for a Utah mom accused of killing her husband, then writing a kid book about death Rachel Morin suspect linked to LA assault on child as murdered hiker’s family speaks out - live updates

Defence attorneys for Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger have argued that they don’t have all the DNA evidence from prosecutors at a pivotal motions hearing that could delay the highly anticipated trial. Mr Kohberger gave an awkward smile to the court as he returned to the Latah County Courthouse on Friday where six motions from the defence and the prosecution were being argued, including the process of how he was identified as a suspect and his alibi for the night of the murders. The hearing comes just six weeks before Mr Kohberger is set to stand trial for the 13 November 2022 slayings of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin at their home in Moscow. The proceedings began on Friday with Mr Kohberger’s defence team’s motion to compel prosecutors to share additional DNA evidence – specifically the lab results of three unidentified male DNA samples reportedly found at the crime scene. Prosecutors argued that they have provided everything and that they “can’t provide something that doesn’t exist”. “There has to be some level of trust in discovery,” Judge John Judge said. “You are all sworn attorneys.” He ordered the prosecution to reach back out to the lab to ensure there are no other results that the defence does not have. Mr Kohberger, 28, was a graduate student in criminal justice at Washington State University when he was arrested on 30 December at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania. He was then brought back to Idaho where a grand jury indicted him for the murders in May. A DNA sample from trash collected at Mr Kohberger’s family home was used to link him to a knife sheath found at the scene of the murders. Investigators said, “At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father.” But his defence team, who claim Mr Kohberger was “out driving” at the time of the killings, has argued against the use of forensic genealogy used to identify him and has asked for all the records from the forensic genealogy work. They are also seeking a stay in the trial proceedings arguing that the grand jury should have reached its conclusion “beyond a reasonable doubt” rather than based on probable cause. Prosecutors strongly oppose these motions. Judge John C Judge could grant, deny, or partially approve any parts of these motions. But depending on how he rules, there could be a delay in the 2 October trial date. Read More Bryan Kohberger’s defence seeks to undercut DNA evidence against him in Idaho murders case Bryan Kohberger finally reveals vague alibi for night of Idaho murders Bryan Kohberger asks judge to throw out Idaho murders indictment as prosecutors demand alibi

Telecom executive Joe Natale was at the center of an epic rift in the billionaire Rogers family two

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis met privately on Friday with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who has publicly rebuked DeSantis’s