Russian prosecutors asked a court to sentence imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 20 years in prison on extremism charges, his ally Ivan Zhdanov said Thursday. According to Zhdanov, the trial against Navalny, which went on behind closed doors in the prison where the politician is serving another lengthy sentence, is scheduled to conclude with a verdict on Aug. 4. In his closing statement released Thursday by his team, Navalny bashed Russian authorities as being governed by “bargaining, power, bribery, deception, treachery ... and not law.” Navalny said: “Anyone in Russia knows that a person who seeks justice in a court of law is completely vulnerable. The case of that person is hopeless." Navalny, 47, is President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe who exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. The authorities sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison for parole violations and then to another nine years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. The politician is currently serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison east of Moscow. He has spent months in a tiny one-person cell, also called a “punishment cell,” for purported disciplinary violations such as an alleged failure to properly button his prison clothes, properly introduce himself to a guard or to wash his face at a specified time. Navalny's allies have accused prison authorities of failing to provide him with proper medical assistance and voiced concern about his health. The new charges relate to the activities of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. His allies said the charges retroactively criminalize all the foundation's activities since its creation in 2011. Navalny has rejected all the charges against him as politically motivated and has accused the Kremlin of seeking to keep him behind bars for life. One of his associates — Daniel Kholodny — was relocated from a different prison to face trial alongside him. The prosecution has asked to sentence Kholodny to 10 years in prison. The trial against the two began a month ago and went along swiftly by Russian standards, where people often spend months, if not years, awaiting for their verdict. It was unusually shielded from public attention and Navalny's lawyers haven't offered any comments on the proceedings. Navalny, in his sardonic social media posts, occasionally offered a glimpse of what was going on with his case. In one such post, the politician revealed that a song by a popular Russian rapper praising him was listed as evidence in the case files, and claimed that he made the judge and bailiffs laugh out loud as the song was played during a court hearing. In another, he said that the case files linked him to U.S. mogul Warren Buffet. In his closing statement, Navalny referred to the recent short-lived armed rebellion by the fighters of Russia's private military company Wagner, after which their chief and the leader of the mutiny, Yevgeny Prigozhin, walked free, even though a number of Russian soldiers were killed by his troops. “Those who were declared traitors to their Motherland and betrayers, in the morning killed several Russian army officers as the entire Russia watched in astonishment, and by lunch agreed on something with someone and went home,” Navalny said. “Thus, law and justice in Russia were once again put in their place. And that place is not prestigious. One sure can't find them in court," the politician said. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Jailed Alexei Navalny ‘forced to listen to Putin speech for 100 days in a row’ Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin? Russia restricts movement of British diplomats over Ukraine support - live news

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It’s been revealed that Mars is spinning at a faster and faster rate, effectively shortening the length of a day on the planet’s surface. Data collected by NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander has left experts puzzled. The length of every day is shortening by a fraction of a millisecond each year, and experts don’t know exactly why it’s happening. The findings also showed that the planet is 'wobbling' in an unusual way due to the molten metal “sloshing” in its core. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The reason for the planet speeding up is unclear, but one theory states that ice building up at the poles could be behind it. Dr Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and his colleagues are behind a study into the findings, which were published in the journal Nature. Dr Banerdt said: “It’s really cool to be able to get this latest measurement — and so precisely. “I’ve been involved in efforts to get a geophysical station like INSight onto Mars for a long time.” He went on to say: “Results like this make all those decades of work well worth it.” Meanwhile, another new study has found that Mars may have once had wet and dry seasons – like those on Earth – conducive to the emergence of life. Researchers have discovered fossil evidence suggesting the red planet had a cyclical climate more than three billion years ago. Nasa also recently discovered “diverse organic matter” on the surface of Mars, which could change our understanding of the planet and the search for life in the universe. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Errol Spence Jr plans on activating his rematch clause with Terence Crawford and has revealed the likely date of the rematch as he looks to avenge his knockout loss. In a contest billed as the ‘fight of the year’, the two best welterweights of their generation went to war on Saturday night in a bout that was years in the making. However, Crawford dominated proceedings as he knocked down Spence three times before finally ending the fight at 2:32 of the ninth by TKO to cement himself as an all-time great. The 35-year-old unified the division for the first time in the four-belt era that began in 2004 as he took his overall record to 40-0 (31 knockouts). To his credit, Spence (28-1) admitted he’d been beaten by the better fighter as he suffered a first defeat of his illustrious career. “He was the better man,” said Spence. “He was using his jab, and my timing was a little bit off. He was catching me in between shots. I make no excuses. “He was on a hotter jab, he was timing his jab and he had his timing down on point.” Crawford already owned the WBO belt and took the WBC, WBA and IBF titles from Spence to become the first male boxer to become the undisputed champion in two divisions and has won world titles at three weights. Attention now turns to the mandatory rematch and despite the decisive nature of his defeat, Spence laid out the fact that it will probably happen before the end of 2023. "Hell yeah, we got to do it again,” he said. “I'm going to be a lot better, it's going to be a lot closer. It's probably going to be in December because it's set before the end of the year.” Spence also hinted that he would prefer the rematch to be at a higher weight than the 147lb welterweight limit, with junior middleweight (154lbs) the next division up. The winner gets to decide the weight of the rematch but Crawford also suggested he’d be open to moving up. “It definitely doesn’t have to be at 147,” he said in his post-fight press conference. “I’m in the hurt business. 147 was kinda hard for me, too. “I was already talking about moving up in weight and challenging (Jermell) Charlo, so 154 wouldn’t be out of reach.” Read More Terence Crawford dismantles Errol Spence Jr to become undisputed welterweight world champion Inside the phone calls that made Spence vs Crawford – a generational fight The Independent’s pound-for-pound boxing rankings