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EuroLeague transfers and rumors: Joel Embiid gets an ultimatum, Kevin Durant calls someone insane, and more
EuroLeague transfers and rumors: Joel Embiid gets an ultimatum, Kevin Durant calls someone insane, and more
October is almost here and that means EuroLeague basketball is almost here as well. News this week relating to EuroLeague and international basketball was primarily dominated by NBA players, but it was still an entertaining week. Here’s a recap.
2023-09-25 21:33
Tokelau profile
Tokelau profile
Provides an overview of Tokelau, including key events and facts about this Pacific Ocean territory.
2023-08-23 00:22
This $25 fingerprint padlock is great for holiday travel
This $25 fingerprint padlock is great for holiday travel
TL;DR: As of October 18, get this mini smart fingerprint padlock for $24.99 — or
2023-10-18 17:00
Paige Spiranac's dating history: Unveiling golf sensation's relationships with sportsmen
Paige Spiranac's dating history: Unveiling golf sensation's relationships with sportsmen
Paige Spiranac has transitioned into a social media superstar in recent years but makes sure to keep her love life private
2023-11-14 18:09
Exclusive-JPMorgan shuffles bosses as Rivas to retire as head of North American investment banking -memo
Exclusive-JPMorgan shuffles bosses as Rivas to retire as head of North American investment banking -memo
By Nupur Anand NEW YORK JPMorgan Chase reorganized the leadership in its investment bank, promoting a new head
2023-09-27 01:48
Inside Russia’s torture chambers as investigators warn Khershon cells ‘tip of iceberg’
Inside Russia’s torture chambers as investigators warn Khershon cells ‘tip of iceberg’
Harrowing new accounts of Ukrainians being tortured during Russia’s eight-month occupation of Kherson are “just the tip of the iceberg”, an international team investigating the alleged war crimes has warned. The acts described by those detained in dozens of makeshift detention centres – including the use of sexual violence as a common tactic among Russian guards, and genital electrocution – are “evocative of genocide”, the team of lawyers and prosecutors said this week. The UN’s special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, told The Independent that similarities in the accounts of victims across several different regions of Ukraine “expose a deeper concern that torture and intimidation are a policy and strategy of the Russian state”. Top Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of genocidal aims ever since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine last February, with The Independent among the first to witness evidence of human rights abuses by Russian troops in the aftermath of the first Russian retreats from territory near Kyiv. Accounts of Russian torture chambers in Kherson first began to emerge soon after Russia’s forces retreated from the key Black Sea port city in November, having captured it one month into their full-scale invasion last February. Earlier this week, a team of prosecutors, experts and analysts – funded by Britain, the EU and US – helping Ukraine’s prosecutor general to sift through that evidence published a summary of its findings among an initial pool of 320 detainees held at more than 35 detention centres. Of those victims, at least 43 per cent explicitly mentioned practices of torture in those centres – with commonly used techniques including suffocation, waterboarding, severe beatings and threats of rape, said the team led by humanitarian law firm Global Rights Compliance. At least 36 detainees mentioned the use of electrocution during interrogations, often genital electrocution. Other victims mentioned threats of genital mutilation, and at least one victim was forced to witness the rape of another detainee by a foreign object covered in a condom, the group said. While those detained included medical workers, teachers, volunteers, activists, community leaders, and law enforcement officials, current and former soldiers appear to be the detainees most likely to have experienced torture in the facilities, according to the investigators. The team of investigators says it has managed to identify individual Russian perpetrators – including one soldier, Oleksandr Naumenko, alleged to have ordered the genital electrocution of 17 different victims. However, the Kremlin has consistently denied allegations of war crimes in Ukraine, and Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report's findings. Responding to the findings, the UN’s special rapporteur said: “The recent collection of interviews are similar in a number of key respects to testimonies I have received as Special Rapporteur on torture, albeit my representations to the Russian authorities are based on information in the regions of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. “The similarities in practice across regional zones expose a deeper concern that torture and intimidation are a policy and strategy of the Russian State. “And as such, it is presently hard to envisage that perpetrators will face justice in Russia. That said, the careful and continuous collection of evidence must go on.” Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “Sadly, these practices are very, very familiar to any one of us who has done research into the Russian security forces and how they deal with civilians.” Pointing to past human rights abuses by Russian troops in the North Caucasus and occupied Crimea, Mr Krivosheev told The Independent: “So it is not at all surprising, but no less shocking, to read about this in territories that Russian forces have occupied in Ukraine.” Mr Krivosheev said many of the details of the Kherson report chimed with his own past experience of Russian torture practices in those arenas, where captives suffered “a lot of” sexualised violence and electrocution, with it being “very common” to target the latter on detainees’ genitalia. Compounding fears of a concerted effort by Moscow to subjugate Ukraine’s population using such methods, Global Rights Compliance co-founder Wayne Jordash KC unveiled evidence in March suggesting the Kherson “torture chambers were planned and directly financed by the Russian state”. Commenting on the new findings, he said: “The torture and sexual violence tactics the [Ukrainian prosecutor’s office] is uncovering from the Kherson detention centres suggests that Putin’s plan to extinguish Ukrainian identity includes a range of crimes evocative of genocide. “At the very least, the pattern that we are observing is consistent with a cynical and calculated plan to humiliate and terrorise millions of Ukrainian citizens in order to subjugate them to the diktat of the Kremlin.” Ukrainian authorities are reviewing more than 97,000 reports of war crimes across Ukraine and have filed charges against 220 suspects in domestic courts. High-level perpetrators could be tried at the International Criminal Court, which has already issued a warrant for Mr Putin’s arrest. “The true scale of Russia’s war crimes remains unknown, but what we can say for certain is that the psychological consequences of these cruel crimes on Ukrainian people will be engrained in their minds for years to come,” said Anna Mykytenko, a senior legal adviser at Global Rights Compliance. “What we are witnessing in Kherson is just the tip of the iceberg in Putin’s barbaric plan to obliterate an entire population. Justice will be served for Ukrainian survivors as we continue our mission to identify and hold perpetrators accountable. Impunity is not an option.” While Mr Krivosheev said he could not say based on the evidence available to Amnesty that alleged torture in Kherson was “a way of dealing with the entire population”, he said he had “certainly” witnessed Russian troops using such practices to instill fear across whole populations previously. Condemning a failure among the international community to properly address Russia’s past crimes in the North Caucasus and Crimea, Mr Krivosheev said Amnesty would strive alongside those seeking to bring “all those responsible to account for war crimes, including torture, in fair trials”. “These crimes have no statute of limitation, and this is the only way to ensure justice and prevent such crimes in the future,” he said. Read More Tales of torture emerge as Kherson celebrates freedom from months of Russian occupation In the dark shadow of Putin’s war: Murder, mass graves and torture mark a Russian retreat Life after the Kakhovka dam explosion | On The Ground Why Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s ports matter for us all
2023-08-05 15:34
How did Sinead O'Connor spend her last days? Singer's neighbors felt 'very sad' seeing her battling grief and loneliness
How did Sinead O'Connor spend her last days? Singer's neighbors felt 'very sad' seeing her battling grief and loneliness
Neighbors recall seeing Sinead spending extended periods on her large balcony, seemingly lost in contemplation
2023-07-28 19:20
Trent Alexander-Arnold receiving the keys to England’s midfield suggests one thing
Trent Alexander-Arnold receiving the keys to England’s midfield suggests one thing
Trent Alexander-Arnold stood and surveyed. He saw the run from Marcus Rashford and the pass was a delight; cutting across the ball from right to left, it floated into the space. But what followed was something out of a cartoon drawn specifically to show what England struggling to beat Malta at home would look like. As Rashford’s run into the box was stopped and Malta cleared, Alexander-Arnold controlled and drove forward in one movement. But it was too much: Alexander-Arnold crashed into Rashford. Wembley groaned. Rashford limped off, injured. It was that kind of night. The paper aeroplanes quickly overtook England to take the lead: more had landed on the Wembley pitch than England had managed shots against the side ranked 171st in the world. Sailing down from high up in the stands, those folded pieces of A4 perhaps made for a more entertaining sight than Gareth Southgate’s side as they toiled and strugged and led only to Enrico Pepe’s eighth-minute own goal. That was obviously not enough to please the masses. It took until the 74th minute for England to finally click. Alexander-Arnold surging through a challenge in midfield to play in Kyle Walker, Phil Foden cleverly finding Bukayo Saka with a slided pass, Harry Kane dropping into position to tuck away England’s second and final goal of the night with what was only their second shot on target. Soon enough, Declan Rice curled in a pleasing third, only for VAR to disallow it due to Kane being stood in an offside position. Again, it was that kind of night. Still, job done, of sorts. England will be among the seeded teams in next month’s Euro 2024 draw. England, though, played as if there wasn’t a job to be done. It was a completely forgettable exercise, the sort of occasion where even Southgate will have struggled to learn much from. Except one thing, perhaps. In some respects, this was the night where Southgate handed Alexander-Arnold the keys to his midfield. So much for the supposed hesitancy to trust – this was Alexander-Arnold having the license to be what he wanted to be, to go everywhere if he wanted to. And for the most part, Alexander-Arnold really was everywhere, ghosting into several roles at once, like a hurried waiter attempting to cater to several overly demanding tables on a busy night. Ultimately for Rashford, Alexander-Arnold’s exuberance to burst forward resulted in an early substitution. Which, for Alexander-Arnold, was not a great look. Nor was the scoreline, or England’s overall performance, which should not, it has to be said, be attributed solely down to him. But this was also, in some ways, his night: his audition for a role in England’s midfield at Euro 2024. Alexander-Arnold, the 4, the 6, and the 8, wearing the 10, was given Wembley to do some free jazz. Asked what he wanted to be for England, Alexander-Arnold’s response was to be a bit of everything. There was the deep-lying Trent, the constructor, with his studs on the ball and his head aloft. The deep-lying Trent also showed a burst of speed, turning and accelerating to quicken England’s play, and was chopped down by Maltese opponents three times within the opening 10 minutes – once rather unceremoniously by Kemar Reid. Then there was the combining Trent, the one who roamed and drifted into the little pockets that popped up just inside Malta’s half, stopping and waiting, building the picture of what was around him. At first glance, most of his work here involved short return passes, but then came the acceleration again, the delightful flick around the corner to Foden, the lofted ball through to Kane, delivered with the quick snap of his instep. At which point Alexander-Arnold became something else: the driving Trent, the arriving Trent, reaching the edge of the box with a surge. There was a hint of the Gerrard to this Trent, a sense that he wanted to be on the receiving end of his own pass. There was the first-time shot from the angle of the penalty area, curled towards the top corner. Given England’s half, though, it curled harmlessly over the bar. But on a dull night, it was something to hold onto. On the other side of England’s midfield was Conor Gallagher. Brought off at half-time, barely having a touch, it illustrated how much came through Alexander-Arnold instead. Cole Palmer later came on and brought a flash with a couple of weaves and shimmies off the right. It belatedly offered a glimpse of some freshness on an evening where Southgate looked reluctant to experiment with anything new. But he did try something with Alexander-Arnold – the last to come off the pitch at the end, long after most at Wembley had already left. There were a few messages like that here. After all, there will be a space in England’s midfield this summer next to Rice and Jude Bellingham, who was desperately missed – even though he clearly should not have been. On a completely forgettable night there was perhaps one conclusion, and that is that Alexander-Arnold is closer to starting for England, and having more responsibility within that side, than we maybe realised. Read More England labour to win over Malta in front of bored Wembley crowd Gareth Southgate privileged as he closes in on 100 games in charge of England Gareth Southgate highlights Sir Bobby Charlton legacy ahead of Wembley tribute How Gareth Southgate can make England vs Malta exciting England vs Malta LIVE: Euro 2024 qualifier result and reaction Marc Guehi on what he brings for England: ‘I can be aggressive, I can be cute’
2023-11-18 08:46
Real Madrid's win percentage with and without Thibaut Courtois
Real Madrid's win percentage with and without Thibaut Courtois
How Real Madrid have fared with and without Thibaut Courtois in their starting lineup following his ACL injury.
2023-08-12 00:45
Good news for the college class of 2027: It's not too late to get more financial aid
Good news for the college class of 2027: It's not too late to get more financial aid
This weekend, the Class of 2027 checks into their college dorms at US institutions, from Columbia University in New York City to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to the University of Colorado Boulder.
2023-08-26 16:01
Andrew Tate's brother Tristan Tate and coach hilariously halt his shoulder presses, fans say 'bro is preparing to be a cheerleader'
Andrew Tate's brother Tristan Tate and coach hilariously halt his shoulder presses, fans say 'bro is preparing to be a cheerleader'
A video showed Andrew Tate working out with his brother, Tristan, and a coach when the hilarious incident happened
2023-06-29 18:26
India’s Biggest Airline Posts Profit Short of Expectations
India’s Biggest Airline Posts Profit Short of Expectations
IndiGo reported fourth-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates, as rising fuel costs offset the post-Covid travel rebound at
2023-05-18 19:19