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Police confirmed that Jacob Reidy has no criminal history but he was reportedly being monitored for similar antisemitic incidents

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Portugal’s government bond rating outlook was raised by S&P Global Ratings as the country’s economy is set to

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are among 10 drivers who will be absent from first practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Friday. Last year, Formula 1 implemented a mandatory programme in which each car has to be driven by a rookie – defined as a driver who has started two or fewer F1 races – in at least one practice session per season. A lot of teams and drivers have left it to the 22nd and final race of the season to sit out, with Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Sergio Perez also missing out on FP1 at the Yas Marina Circuit. Formula E champion, 28-year-old British driver Jake Dennis, will fill in at Red Bull alongside F2 driver Isack Hadjar. Two British 18-year-olds will also be in the cockpit: Oliver Bearman will once again drive for Haas after making his F1 practice debut in Mexico last month, while Formula 3 runner-up Zak O’Sullivan will drive Alex Albon’s Williams car. Danish driver Frederik Vesti, currently second in the F2 standings ahead of this weekend’s finale in Abu Dhabi, takes Lewis Hamilton’s place. He also drove in George Russell’s car in Abu Dhabi. American driver Pato O’Ward will drive in Norris’ McLaren, while 2022 F2 champion Felipe Drugovich will fill in for Fernando Alonso on Friday. Israeli-Russian driver Robert Shwartzman replaces Leclerc at Ferrari . Jack Doohan and Theo Pourchaire, Alpine and Alfa Romeo junior drivers respectively, will also have a chance to impress in first practice. AlphaTauri are the only team not running a rookie driver on Friday, with Liam Lawson and Hadjar having driven in practice/race sessions already in 2023. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Williams’ Logan Sargeant are rookies anyway, so is not required to forgo a practice session this season. The purpose of the young driver programme is to give inexperienced drivers time out on track in an F1 car, as well as giving them the opportunity to build up the requisite super-licence points in order to compete in F1 in the future. Read More Hamilton ‘made contact with Red Bull and Ferrari’ before signing new Mercedes deal Guenther Steiner to produce new hit ‘workplace comedy’ show F1 Juniors broadcast an admirable idea – but all kids want to be is grown up

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Faerie Court Seraphine is an epic skin that will cost 1,350 RP coming to League of Legends with Patch 13.6. There are several other champions getting skins with this set.

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US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she disagrees with Moody’s Investors Service’s shift to a negative outlook on

So you're ready to move on from your current Android phone. Whether you're upgrading to

Russia says Ukraine has launched another missile attack on Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, a day after an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet left a serviceman missing and the main building smoldering

Once a low-profile businessman who benefited from having President Vladimir Putin as a powerful patron, Yevgeny Prigozhin moved into the global spotlight with Russia’s war in Ukraine. As the leader of a mercenary force who depicts himself as fighting many of the Russian military’s toughest battles in Ukraine, the 62-year-old Prigozhin has now moved into his most dangerous role yet: preaching open rebellion against his country’s military leadership. Prigozhin, owner of the Kremlin-allied Wagner Group, has escalated what have been months of scathing criticism of Russia’s conduct of the war by calling Friday for an armed uprising to oust the defense minister. Russian security services reacted immediately, opening a criminal investigation and urging Prigozhin’s arrest. In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin took Prigozhin’s threat, riot police and the National Guard scrambled to tighten security at key facilities in Moscow, including government agencies and transport infrastructure, Tass reported. Prigozhin, a onetime felon, hot-dog vendor and longtime associate of Putin, urged Russians to join his “march to justice.” ‘PUTIN’S CHEF’ Prigozhin and Putin go way back, with both born in Leningrad, what is now known as St. Petersburg. During the final years of the Soviet Union, Prigozhin served time in prison — 10 years by his own admission — although he does not say what it was for. Afterward, he owned a hot dog stand and then fancy restaurants that drew interest from Putin. In his first term, the Russian leader took then-French President Jacques Chirac to dine at one of them. “Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, he saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011. His businesses expanded significantly to catering and providing school lunches. In 2010, Putin helped open Prigozhin’s factory that was built on generous loans by a state bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord won millions of dollars in contracts to provide meals at public schools. He also organized catering for Kremlin events for several years — earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef” — and has provided catering and utility services to the Russian military. In 2017, opposition figure and corruption fighter Alexei Navalny accused Prigozhin’s companies of breaking antitrust laws by bidding for some $387 million in Defense Ministry contracts. MILITARY CONNECTION Prigozhin also owns the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-allied mercenary force that has come to play a central role in Putin’s projection of Russian influence in trouble spots around the world. The United States, European Union, United Nations and others say the mercenary force has involved itself in conflicts in countries across Africa in particular. Wagner fighters allegedly provide security for national leaders or warlords in exchange for lucrative payments, often including a share of gold or other natural resources. U.S. officials say Russia may also be using Wagner’s work in Africa to support its war in Ukraine. In Ukraine, Prigozhin’s mercenaries have become a major force in the war, fighting as counterparts to the Russian army in battles with Ukrainian forces. That includes Wagner fighters taking Bakhmut, the city where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place. By last month, Wagner Group and Russian forces appeared to have largely won Bakhmut, a victory with strategically slight importance for Russia despite the cost in lives. The U.S. estimates that nearly half of the 20,000 Russian troops killed in Ukraine since December were Wagner fighters in Bakhmut. His soldiers-for-hire included inmates recruited from Russia’s prisons. RAGING AGAINST RUSSIA’S GENERALS As his forces fought and died en masse in Ukraine, Prigozhin raged against Russia’s military brass. In a video released by his team last month, Prigozhin stood next to rows bodies he said were those of Wagner fighters. He accused Russia’s regular military of incompetence and of starving his troops of the weapons and ammunition they needed to fight. “These are someone’s fathers and someone’s sons,” Prigozhin said then. “The scum that doesn’t give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.” A ‘BAD ACTOR’ IN THE US Prigozhin earlier gained more limited attention in the U.S., when he and a dozen other Russian nationals and three Russian companies were charged in the U.S. with operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord ahead of Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. They were indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned Prigozhin and associates repeatedly in connection with both his alleged election interference and his leadership of the Wagner Group. After the 2018 indictment, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Prigozhin as saying, in a clearly sarcastic remark: “Americans are very impressionable people; they see what they want to see. I treat them with great respect. I’m not at all upset that I’m on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him.” The Biden White House in that episode called him “a known bad actor,” and State Department spokesman Ned Price said Prigozhin’s “bold confession, if anything, appears to be just a manifestation of the impunity that crooks and cronies enjoy under President Putin and the Kremlin.” AVOIDING CHALLENGES TO PUTIN As Prigozhin grew more outspoken against the way Russia’s conventional military conducted fighting in Ukraine, he continued to play a seemingly indispensable role for the Russian offensive, and appeared to suffer no retaliation from Putin for his criticism of Putin’s generals. Media reports at times suggested Prigozhin’s influence on Putin was growing and he was after a prominent political post. But analysts warned against overestimating his influence with Putin. “He’s not one of Putin’s close figures or a confidant,” said Mark Galeotti of University College, London, who specializes in Russian security affairs, speaking on his podcast “In Moscow’s Shadows.” “Prigozhin does what the Kremlin wants and does very well for himself in the process. But that’s the thing — he is part of the staff rather than part of the family,” Galeotti said. Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Who is the head of the mercenary group calling for an armed rebellion in Russia? Who are Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner mercenary group Russia opens criminal case against Wagner chief over ‘call for armed mutiny’