List of All Articles with Tag 'ame'

Canadian investigators in Newfoundland are examining the main support ship after sub's implosion.

The video was shocking — not just for what it showed but also for what was said. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the outspoken millionaire head of the private military contractor Wagner, stood in front of the bloodied bodies of his slain troops in Ukraine and yelled expletive-riddled insults at Russian military leaders, blaming them for the carnage. “They came here as volunteers and they died to let you lounge in your red wood offices,” Prigozhin shouted. “You are sitting in your expensive clubs, your children are enjoying good living and filming videos on YouTube. Those who don’t give us ammunition will be eaten alive in hell!” It was a disquieting display for Russians used to more than two decades of rigidly controlled rule by President Vladimir Putin — years with little sign of infighting among his top lieutenants. Prigozhin's video in May and his other rants against the military leadership have been met with silence from Putin, as well as the brass. Some see Putin's failure to squelch the infighting as a sign of potential shifts in Russia’s political scene that set the stage for more internal battles. Prigozhin's rift with the military has been ignored by state-controlled TV, where most Russians get their news, although it is followed closely by the politically active, ultrapatriotic readers and viewers on social media networks, which share his contempt for military leaders. While there are no indications that Putin is losing influence, “there are growing signs of deep dysfunction, anxiety, worry about the war and real problems in marshaling the resources necessary to fight it effectively,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the editor of its Strategic Survey. Prigozhin’s feud with military leaders goes back years, and it spilled into the open amid the fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut that was spearheaded by his mercenaries. It has pushed the 62-year-old Wagner owner, dubbed “Putin's chef” for his lucrative Kremlin catering contracts, to the forefront of Russian politics and signaled his growing ambitions. He scathingly criticized Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, as weak and incompetent in mocking statements full of vulgar language. At one point, he even alleged the army planted mines on the route his fighters planned to use and opened fire at them. With his crude remarks, Prigozhin ventured into territory where only Putin had gone before: Over the years, the Russian leader occasionally broke decorum with an earthy remark or off-color joke, while top officials used carefully worded language. In a later video, Prigozhin made a statement that some have interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on Putin himself. He declared that while his men were dying due to the Defense Ministry’s failure to supply ammunition, a “happy granddad is thinking he’s doing well,” and then referred to that “granddad” with an obscenity. The blunt comment caused a social media uproar, where it was broadly seen as a reference to Putin. Prigozhin later said he was talking about Gerasimov. “Prigozhin is now sailing much closer to the wind than he ever has,” Gould-Davies told The Associated Press. Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political commentator, described Prigozhin as “the second-most popular man after Putin” and a “symbol of Russia’s military victory for millions of people.” Putin needs Prigozhin's mercenaries at a time when the regular military is still recovering from setbacks earlier in the invasion. The Wagner chief's position was bolstered after the private army captured Bakhmut last month in the war’s longest and bloodiest battle, relying on tens of thousands of convicts who were promised pardons if they survived six months of fighting. “Putin dominates the system, but he still sort of depends upon a small number of big people to implement his will, to provide him with resources to carry out his orders, including fighting the war,” Gould-Davies told AP. While Putin may adhere to keeping various factions divided and then intervening to “decide who wins and who loses, and who’s up and who’s down,” the process erodes the government's authority in wartime, Gould-Davies said. “That may be a way of keeping the political system going, but it’s certainly not the way to fight the war, because if your military forces are divided and if they’re not fighting together effectively, then your military operations will suffer accordingly and that’s exactly what’s happening here,” he said. Mark Galeotti, a London-based expert on Russian politics and security, noted the infighting was continuing even as Ukraine is in the early stages of its long-expected counteroffensive — "a point when really everyone should have one single common goal.” In a recent podcast, he speculated that Putin’s failure to resolve political disputes could be rooted in a lack of interest, a focus on other issues or, more likely, a reluctance to take sides. “It also raises questions about his overall capacity to do his job,” Galeotti said. “This is the one thing, the one job he can’t really outsource, and he’s not even trying.” The lack of response from military leaders to Prigozhin’s insults appeared to indicate they weren’t sure if Putin was on their side. St. Petersburg regional Gov. Alexander Beglov was another recent Prigozhin target, following their long-standing conflict rooted in Beglov’s reluctance to award lucrative contracts to Prigozhin’s companies. Just like the military leaders, Beglov has not responded. Prigozhin has allied with other hawkish officials, reportedly including Tula Gov. Alexei Dyumin, a former Putin bodyguard seen by many as a potential successor. The Wagner head also gravitated for some time toward Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed regional leader of Chechnya. While denouncing most senior military leaders, Prigozhin spoke approvingly about Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who led Russian forces in Ukraine for several months before Putin appointed Gerasimov to oversee the operations. But some of those alliances have been shaky. While Kadyrov initially praised Prigozhin and backed some of his criticism of the military leaders, he later shifted course and criticized him for sounding defeatist. Kadyrov’s lieutenants went further, blasting Wagner's efforts in Bakhmut after Prigozhin made dismissive comments about Chechen fighters in Ukraine. Kadyrov’s right-hand man, Magomed Daudov, bluntly said Prigozhin would have been executed for such statements during World War II. Prigozhin quickly backed off, saying he was only expressing concern about Russian operations. Prigozhin has dodged questions about his ambitions, but in a move that reflected his desire to gain political clout, he recently toured Russia, continuing a barrage of blustery comments. “There are signs that he seeks some sort of political future,” Gould-Davies observed. Even though Prigozhin owes his position and wealth to Putin, he's playing the role of outsider with his criticism of some leaders and by trying to appeal to the masses amid setbacks in Ukraine, said Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Endowment. “He is posturing as an enemy of the elites, even though he is a product of Putin’s system, the embodiment of his regime and state contracts,” Kolesnikov said. “Prigozhin is playing an independent politician, raising the stakes and testing the system’s limits. But it’s only technically and physically possible for as long as Putin finds him useful and is amused by his escapades.” In a show of support for the military, Putin backed the Defense Ministry’s demand for all private companies to sign contracts with it — something Prigozhin has refused to do. And in another sign Putin's administration may finally be cutting Prigozhin down to size, messaging app channels connected to the Kremlin carried photos of his partying children, including a daughter in Dubai, in apparent retaliation for Prigozhin’s attacks on the defense minister’s daughter. Prigozhin has urged all-out war with Ukraine, including a total nationwide mobilization and the introduction of martial law in Russia — calls welcomed by some hawks. But Kolesnikov notes that the vast majority of Russians who are mostly apathetic or unwilling to make larger sacrifices could be frightened and appalled by that message. He cautions against overestimating Prigozhin’s clout and political prospects, and underestimating Putin's authority. "It’s enough for the commander-in-chief to move his finger to make the Wagner chief disappear,” Kolesnikov said. ___ Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London contributed. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine-war Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Live Updates | Armed rebellion by Russian mercenary chief Furious Putin calls Wagner mutiny ‘treason’ and ‘mortal blow’ to troops –live Mapped: Inside Russian Wagner group’s road towards Moscow

Donald Trump’s criminal trial over a stash of White House documents recovered from his home in an FBI raid may not take place until November. That was the request that Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith filed late Friday evening with Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the prosecution of the former president. ABC News first reported the filing, which cites the need for prosecutorial staff to obtain security clearances as one of the key reasons for their requested delay past the original trial date in August. A second motion requests that Ms Cannon prevent the release of a list of witnesses for the trial whom the Justice Department will seek Mr Trump be barred from contacting. Among other crimes, the ex-president is also charged with witness tampering, and has been ordered not to be in contact with one of his close aides: Walt Nauta. The development means that any trial will likely begin after at least the initial GOP primary debate this summer and could very well continue through voting in early primary states next year. Mr Trump has plead not guilty to all 37 counts, and loudly decried what he calls a witch hunt against him. But senior officials from his own administration have undercut that defence, unwilling to propagate the fantasy that Mr Trump had the authority to retain classified documents that pertained to national defence or the nonsense theory that the trove is somehow comparable to much smaller batches of presidential records recovered (without resistance, unlike in Mr Trump’s case) from the homes of Mike Pence and Joe Biden. His allies have claimed without evidence that the Justice Department is coordinating with the White House on the case, and have held strong to the idea that their leader did nothing wrong. But new evidence obtained by news outlets indicates that Mr Trump even spoke to reporters about a document in his possession which he verbally acknowledged was still classified. Mr Smith’s case exploded into view last year with the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago; now, it is one of more than a half dozen criminal and civil legal fights bearing down on the former president. Aside from being accused of violating the Espionage Act with his trove of (allegedly) stolen documents, Mr Trump is also accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York; in addition, the actions of the ex-president and his legal team are thought to be at the centre of a grand jury investigation in Georgia over the efforts to change the election results in that state. Read More Trump claims he ‘doesn’t want any help’ fighting federal indictment after he struggled to find attorneys willing to represent him Trump calls on Congress to help him wriggle out of federal charges Fox News’s Bret Baier hits back at Trump conspiracy theorist after ex-president appears to incriminate himself in interview New recordings of Trump revealed in classified papers investigation, documents show ‘I’m very proud of my son’: Joe Biden defends son Hunter Biden after deal with DoJ to plead guilty to federal charges Democrats downplay Hunter Biden's plea deal, while Republicans see opportunity to deflect from Trump

Online gamblers bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on whether the submarine that went missing on a recent expedition to the Titanic, in what online critics called a “dystopian” use of digital finance. Since Wednesday, people wagered at least $300,000 on the fate of the vehicle using the crypto platform Polymarket, Mother Jones reports. On the site, betters buy and sell shares on the outcomes of events using cryptocurrency, and can redeem their shares for $1 each if their guesses are correct. Follow the latest updates on the missing Titanic submarine here “For the purposes of this market, the vessel need not have been rescued or physically recovered to be considered ‘found,’” reads the description page for the submarine bets. “If pieces are located, but not the cabin which contains the vessel’s passengers, that will not suffice for this market to resolve to ‘Yes.’” One user, asking only to be identified by his first name, Rich, told Mother Jones he made around $3,250 betting. He argued what he was doing was morally defensible because unlike the regular stock market, it had no impact on the fate of the entity being wagered upon. “My answer would be that markets are fundamentally immoral. There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism,” Rich said. Others weren’t so sure. Social media users racked up thousands of likes criticising such gamblers. “Actually insane,” one commenter wrote. “Imagine making money off of if someone is gonna die or not.” Polymarket defended its offerings on the submarine, arguing that it was a neutral way of calculating the likelihood of a rescue. “If the families were privy to Polymarket, they could use the market as a way to obtain the real-time, unbiased probability of the submarine being recovered,” the company said in an email to Gizmodo. “That is a far more valuable service to them than sensationalist media coverage: with our markets at least they understand the true probabilities.” Bookmakers take bets on nearly everything, from sports to sex tapes, but the industry does have some lines regarding poor taste. According to Betting Gods, a gambling industry tip site, most major bookmakers refused to take bets regarding the death of Queen Elizabeth. “Major bookmakers won’t bet on the Queen dying as it would offend most of its regular customers. Whether they all agree with Britain having a royal family or not, most people would prefer to bet on a variety of other things such as sports,” the site wrote in an article. “When asked the question of why bookmakers won’t bet on what age the queen will die, the spokespeople of all the major bookmakers were unanimous in saying that it was important that people understand where the parameters of bad taste bets can’t be crossed.” Read More US launches prosecutions of Chinese companies on charges of trafficking fentanyl ingredients Titanic sub latest - Coast Guard makes stunning admission about ‘explosion’ when submersible lost contact OceanGate CEO said he was ‘personally insulted’ by ‘baseless cries’ about Titanic sub’s deadly safety flaws Federal court halts ‘suppressive’ Florida drag ban Florida's law targeting drag shows is on hold under federal judge's order Recovery could cost millions as Coast Guard stunningly admits submersible ‘explosion’

A federal court temporarily halted Florida’s controversial restrictions on drag performances, warning the law was overbroad and could risk infringing on free speech rights. The SB1438 law, signed in May by Republican governor Ron DeSantis, is “dangerously susceptible to standardless, overbroad enforcement which could sweep up substantial protected speech,” US judge Gregory Presnell wrote in his ruling. Far from a neutral attempt to protect children, as its backers have sometimes claimed, the law is an admitted attempt to “specifically suppress the speech of drag queen performers,” Judge Presnell wrote. The governor’s office told Reuters the ruling was “dead wrong.” “Of course it’s constitutional to prevent the sexualization of children by limiting access to adult live performances,” spokesperson Jeremy Redfern said. The suit against the state comes from Hamburger Mary’s, a restaurant chain that features family-friendly drag performances. An Orlando franchise of the restaurant filed suit in May. It claimed the law, which levies criminal penalties at food establishment for admitting children to an “adult live performance,” would “explicitly restrict or chill speech and expression protected by the First Amendment.” “This bill has nothing to do with children, and everything to do with the continued oppression of the LGBTQ+ community,” Hamburger Mary’s Orlando wrote in a Facebook post. Florida governor Ron DeSantis has made limiting the rights of LGBTQ+ people a key part of his agenda, signing bills that restrict gender-affirming care, protections for trans people in schools, and access to youth education on gender and sexuality. This month, courts struck down a Florida rule and statute banning Medicaid payments for transgender healthcare, and partially blocked a state law banning people under 18 from getting gender-affirming medicine. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Tennessee declared the state’s drag ban to be “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.” “There is no question that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment,” Judge Thomas Parker wrote. “But there is a difference between material that is ‘obscene’ in the vernacular, and material that is ‘obscene’ under the law.” “Simply put, no majority of the Supreme Court has held that sexually explicit — but not obscene — speech receives less protection than political, artistic, or scientific speech.” Read More Trump faces questions about whether he'll drag down the Republican Party after his indictments Group with Nazi flags protest outside Florida children’s museum days after similar stunt at Disney World Here are the restrictions on transgender people that are moving forward in US states Florida's law targeting drag shows is on hold under federal judge's order Evangelical leader hopes conference is 'testosterone booster shot' for anti-abortion 2024 candidates Trump, DeSantis interviews show Fox influence on GOP field still strong despite troubled year

"Joy and sorrow were always communal rights in small maritime communities," said one Newfoundlander.

James Cameron has weighed in on the Titanic submersible disaster.

The NetherRealm Studios-developed Mortal Kombat 1 is the latest entry in the decades-spanning fantasy fighting

Apple Arcade is a collection of curated games that can be played on iPhone, iPad,

The 2023 NBA Draft threw more than a few surprises our way. Here are the five most promising early candidates for Rookie of the Year.The 2023 NBA Draft is officially in the rearview mirror, which means teams will now shift their focus to the summer ahead. Free agency, trades, summer league, trai...

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie on Friday defended his criticism of former president Donald Trump before a sometimes-hostile crowd at the first day of the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to the Majority Conference, telling an audience of evangelical voters that Mr Trump had let down the people who voted for him in 2016 and in 2020. Speaking from the main stage at the Washington Hilton, Mr Christie recounted to the audience how he’d been the first of Mr Trump’s 2016 opponents to endorse him and helped him with debate preparations on his way to winning that year’s general election before serving as the first chair of Mr Trump’s transition team. He also noted that he’d assisted Mr Trump with debate prep in 2020 by playing Joe Biden in mock debates before asking attendees why, after supporting Mr Trump in two consecutive elections, would he choose to run against him again. “I'm running because he's let us down,” he said. “He has let us down because he's unwilling — he’s unwilling to take responsibility for any of the mistakes that were made, and any of the faults that he has, and any of the things that he's done, and that is not leadership, everybody”. As Mr Christie continued by describing what Mr Trump had done as “a failure of leadership,” a large portion of the evangelical voters who’d gathered to hear him began to boo loudly. The former New Jersey governor responded that the hecklers could “boo all you want,” but shortly after he had some of them offering applause instead after he said their shared Christian faith “teaches us that people have to take responsibility for what they do”. “People have to stand up and take accountability for what they do,” he continued. “And I cannot stand by”. Mr Christie added that after all his prior support, all Mr Trump now does is call him names and belittle him. He said the attacks from Mr Trump put him on a “great list of Americans,” including Mr Trump’s former Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, his former defence secretary, Mark Esper, and former OMB Director, ex-acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former White House chief of staff John Kelly. “You ou can love [Mr Trump] all you want, but I will tell you, I will tell you that doing those kinds of things makes our country smaller,” he said. “It makes our country smaller, and it makes us lesser”. Read More Evangelical leader hopes conference is 'testosterone booster shot' for anti-abortion 2024 candidates Chris Christie delivers epic Twitter takedown of Trump boasts about hiring ‘the best’ White House staff Chris Christie slams GOP debate pledge as a ‘useless idea’ as he doubles down on plans to take on ‘loser, loser, loser’ Trump

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has announced she has become a grandmother at the age of 36. Ms Boebert, who has insisted in the past that raising a child is cheaper than paying for birth control, made the announcement while dodging a question about her spat with congressional colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene. Ms Greene called Ms Boebert a "little b****" on the House floor during a spat. Ms Boebert sat down for an interview with Sean Hannity the next day during which he asked about the feud. That's when Ms Boebert revealed she became a grandmother. "Sean, I did not put my life on pause and leave my four boys and my now grandson to come here and just get in spats with people," she told the host. "I came here to legislate and to be effective for Coloradans, Coloradans who are suffering from the Democrats’ policy. Marjorie is not my enemy. Joe Biden’s policy, the Democrats, that is my enemy that I am combating right now." The new grandchild belongs to her 17-year-old son Tyler. Ms Boebert first announced that her child was having a child in April. “So I’m going to tell you all for the first time in a public setting, that not only am I a mom of four boys, but come April I will be a gigi to a brand new grandson. And Jason and I are so excited to welcome this new life into our family,” she told the crowd at a Moms for America event. She told the same crowd that there was “something special” about rural communities because their teen moms did not abort pregnancies as often as urban teenagers did. Data from the US Centres for Diease Control and Prevention shows that teenage mothers are less likely to finish high school than their childless counterparts. Ms Boebert is a living example of that statistic; she dropped out of high school in 2004 when she became pregnant. She only finished her GED in 2020 a month before her first primary contest during her congressional race. “Now my son when I approached him and told him, ‘Tyler, I’m going to be a 36-year-old grandmother.’ He said, ‘well didn’t you make granny a 36-year-old granny,’” Ms Boebert said during the Moms for America event. “I said, ‘Yes, I did.’ He said, ‘Well then it’s hereditary.’” She told the audience that she was proud of her son’s partner for not seeking an abortion. Read More Lauren Boebert accuses Marjorie Taylor Greene of spitting on her lip after being called ‘a little b****’ GOP's Boebert wanted to impeach Biden, but House Speaker McCarthy had other plans AOC implores Greene and Boebert to not waste time with Biden impeachment: ‘We should actually be working’ AP News Digest 3:20 am GOP's Boebert wanted to impeach Biden, but House Speaker McCarthy had other plans Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Lauren Boebert a ‘little b****’ on House floor