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

Abel Nava was charged with first-degree murder and is in custody at Carrizales-Rucker Detention Facility

June 30 – July 6, 2023 Friends and family attended the funeral of armed civilian defense leader Hipolito Mora and two of his bodyguards in La Ruana, Mexico, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, referred to by some as the Trump of South America, was barred from running for office again until 2030 after a panel of judges concluded that he abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system. This gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published in the past week by Associated Press photographers in Latin America and the Caribbean. The selection was curated by photo editor Anita Baca in Mexico City. Follow AP visual journalism: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Images AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

Former President Donald Trump has raised nearly $20 million in the past three weeks, a period that roughly

Body cam footage from first responders showed Lenway in the passenger seat clutching her bloodied neck where she was shot

Clashes have broken out in Dublin city centre between police and far-right protesters after five people, including three children were stabbed in an “appalling attack” on Thursday afternoon. The suspected knife attack happened outside a primary school in the bustling Parnell Square East on the north side of the Irish capital shortly after 1.30pm. A woman in her 30s and a man in his 50s remain in hospital with serious injuries while a five-year-old girl is receiving emergency medical treatment at a children’s hospital in Temple Street. Another girl, aged six, is being treated for less serious injuries, while a six-year-old boy has been discharged. At a press conference, police confirmed that a man in his 50s, who is receiving treatment at hospital, has been identified as a “person of interest”. They are currently not searching for anyone else and confirmed they are satisfied that the attack is not terror-related. On Thursday evening, riots broke out in the city centre with a number of Garda vehicles destroyed, while a tram and bus were set alight. Public transport was suspended while shop windows were smashed, with protesters blocking a bridge with construction signs. Describing the clashes as “disgraceful scenes”, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said a “complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology” was behind the disorder. Appealing for calm, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee said: “The scenes we are witnessing this evening in our city centre cannot and will not be tolerated. “A thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc.” The clashes broke out a few hours after the knife attack, which happened outside to an Irish-medium primary school, Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire. Labour Party senator Marie Sherlock saying that children had been queuing for after-school care at the time of the attack. A witness called Siobhan Kearney told Irish national broadcaster RTE that she saw a man attacking children with a “stabbing motion” before members of the public intervened and took a knife from him. Follow live updates on this breaking incident by clicking dublin-attack-parnell-square-latest-b2452500.html">here “I looked across the road and I see the man and the stabbing motion with a load of children so I flew across the road,” she said. “The man was after stabbing two children as far as I could make out, and we got the children up to the left with the women that were there, and the teachers I presume. “People were trying to attack the man so me and an American lady, we formed a ring around the man, and then about three minutes later the ambulance came for the children and then another ambulance and fire officers came for the man on the ground.” Ms McEntee described the attack as “appalling” and said her thoughts were with “the innocent children and the woman attacked”. She said: “I have been briefed by the Garda commissioner and will remain in close contact with him and senior gardaí. “This attack has shocked us all, and I have no doubt that the person responsible will be brought to justice. However, my thoughts now are with the innocent children and the woman who have been attacked, their families, and those who are caring for them at this time.” Leo Varadkar, the prime minister, said: “We are all shocked by the incident which has taken place in Parnell Square. A number of people have been injured, some of them children. Our thoughts and our prayers go out to them and their families.” Speaking at the scene, Sinn Fein party president Mary-Lou McDonald said children who witnessed what happened have been traumatised. She said: “I know that the gardai acted very swiftly in this matter, but this is certainly the last thing that any of us expected on a Thursday afternoon where children should come safely from school and be collected by their parents. “I pray the injured make a full recovery. The community is stunned, stunned and horrified.” Pictures and video from the scene shared on social media show a heavy presence of emergency services. A Garda spokesperson said: “Five casualties have been taken to various hospitals in the Dublin region. The casualties include an adult male, an adult female and three young children. “One child, a girl, has sustained serious injuries, the other two children are being treated for less serious injuries. “An Garda Siochana is in contact with parents of all three injured children.” Read More Dublin bus engulfed in flames as riots break out after attack in Parnell Square Calls for calm amid ‘disgraceful scenes’ after children injured in knife attack Three young children and woman injured in knife attack outside Dublin school Dublin: Police on scene after serious attack outside school in Parnell Square Three children and woman injured in ‘appalling attack’ in Dublin city centre Three children among five in hospital after ‘serious incident’ in Dublin

Jean Knight, the New Orleans born soul singer known for her 1971 hit “Mr. Big Stuff,” has died at the age of 80

Paris Hilton had a Thanksgiving surprise to share in the form of a daughter named London

In a mud-soaked nightdress, the Ukrainian grandmother claws at the fetid water that has swallowed the steps down to her home in Kherson city. Frail and in shock, Antonia Shevchenko, 84 appears unaware of the futility of her attempts to try to drain the swamp drowning her house. Her daughter Svetlana, 64, marooned by the sweltering mud, tries to coax her to stop and calm down. Shelling roars in the background. It is the first time the pair have been back since they evacuated after the Nova Kakhokva dam blew up this month, unleashing the contents of one Europe’s largest reservoirs over southern Ukraine. The explosion - which Ukraine blames on Russia - sparked the worst ecological disaster on the continent in recent history and will likely impact global food security, according to the United Nations. In Kherson, the capital of the region, it killed dozens of people, submerged whole towns, drowned all the wildlife and turned this street into a canal. “We didn't even have time to get her clothes, we had to carry her in the slippers and nightie she is still wearing now,” says Svetlana in tears, as her confused mother repeats “It’s all just mud,” in the background. “It’s impossible to fix this. I feel nothing now. Everything is just empty inside. Now it’s all gone, we have nothing left," Svetlana adds. A few streets away Oksana Kuzminko, 70, who was also returning for the first time, picks her way through the devastation. “Welcome to zombie land,” she adds with a despairing shrug. Until recently the only way to navigate these streets was to steer a boat between the tops of the roofs of the submerged houses. Now the waters have receded, the terrifying scale of the damage and the work still to be done has been revealed. Sewage, mud, rubbish, dead animals, bits of masonry, and potentially land mines swirl together in the backyards of the partially collapsed houses. The area is still being pounded by Russian forces, stationed on the other side of the swollen banks of the Dnipro river. Anna Gatchecnko, 73, another elderly resident of this district, says the combination of flood waters and the war is “your worst nightmare”. “We survived the Russian occupation, the shelling and now this happened,” she says, wearing plastic bags she has tied to her feet in the toxic slush. “They took everything. My house, my belongings were the last things in this world that I had." The Kakhovka dam - essential for fresh water and irrigation in southern Ukraine - is located in a part of the Kherson region that Moscow illegally annexed in September and has occupied for the past year. The damage is so severe Ukraine has accused Russia of “ecocide” – believing Moscow’s forces blew it up in an attempt to prevent Kyiv’s troops from advancing in the south as they launched a counteroffensive. Moscow has vehemently denied the accusations and blamed Kyiv. Experts say the dam was so robustly built only an internal explosion could have caused such a catastrophic breach. The tearing floods have wiped out hundreds of towns and villages according to the United Nations, which has warned nearly a quarter of a million people have been left in need of drinking water. Downstream of the dam - towns and villages have morphed into polluted swamps where cholera has been detected. Upstream, the reservoir which once sustained swathes of agricultural land, has turned into a salty desert. Residents in those areas queue to get water from fire trucks under shelling. And the repercussions will be felt well beyond Ukraine’s borders, even potentially sparking global hunger. Ukraine - a major exporter of grains, oils and vegetables - was already struggling to export its harvest because of war. The ravages of flooding in one of the world’s most important breadbaskets will almost inevitably lead to lower grain exports, higher food prices around the world, and less to eat for millions in need. “The truth is this is only the beginning of seeing the consequences of this act,” Martin Griffiths, a United Nations aid official warned recently. It also raised fears about the stability Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which relied on the waters of the now-dry Kakhovka reservoir to function. Rafael Grossi, head of the UN’s Atomic agency, which has unsuccessfully attempted to build a safety zone around the facility, was so concerned he travelled to the Russian-occupied plant. There he admitted it was "grappling with ... water-related challenges”. In Zaporzhizhia’s regional capital, Taras Tyshchenko, head of the Ministry of Health's Centre for Prevention and Disease Control, said if the Russians were capable of unleashing the waters over Kherson, they would have no qualms in taking out the nuclear power. After the dam's explosion, his health facility tests the air and waters across the region multiple times a day for radiation and contamination. So far they have detected cholera and remain on high alert for radiation. They have been through three rounds of training in the event there is a disaster at the nuclear power plant and have distributed potassium iodide tablets to those living within the danger zone. The damage from the destroyed dam is unfathomable, he says in front of the city’s main dock which is now dried out. The sweeping concrete jetty, which once hosted commercial water traffic, stoops forlornly over muddy puddles where his teams take water samples. “It could take well over a decade to fix the dam, refill the reservoirs and restore this region to normal," he adds grimly. "And that work can only really start after victory." In the interim cities, towns and villages along the Kakhovka reservoir will morph into wastelands if no solution is found. Deep fissures crisscross the cracked riverbeds where dead fish and molluscs slowly crisp in the sun. In one village, a forlorn fisherman drives a scooter across the desert scape in search of a pool of water. “Once the dam exploded we tried to build our own mini dams to try to retain some water, “ explains Vitaly Marozov, 29, who works at a 400-hectare farm producing vegetables and fruit just outside of the city of southern city Nikopol. He plays us a video of local volunteers building a makeshift barrier out of sacks and soil. “Now we are trying to dig wells but the water is salty," he adds. This is already destroying crops. Standing by a destroyed field of cabbages, dusted white with salt, he says they will be lucky if they can salvage a fifth of their total yearly yield. The damage he believes will cost their farm 22 million hryvnia, or around £500,000, and it will only get worse as the season progresses. “We are just one farm, this is the case all around this area. This will impact global food security unless someone does something drastic,” he continues. Back in the water-logged regions, volunteers deliver aid by boats to the communities now cut off from help. Others bring pumps to try to drain the pools of stagnant water from the worst-hit areas. But all it does is expose the irreparable damage done to the entire southern sweep of Ukraine. We find Olha Mosyk, 70, who was forced to swim to safety with a litter of newborn kittens, islanded by destruction in her home in the Mykolaiv region. Sodden muddy piles of dirt mark the remains of the walls of her house. “You need steel teeth to break Ukrainians. That won’t work on me,” she says, pulling up the remains of rotten potatoes from her destroyed field which is the same tyranny of blackened mud. “All we can do is try to pull ourselves together,” she adds with a pause. Back in Kherson city, Svetlana tries to comfort her mother Antonia who is on the cusp of a panic attack. “How do I feel? Crying all the time. My whole body is shaking,” the 84-year-old says faintly, her red floral nightie a flash of colour in the grey water. “It’s all flooded. My whole life is underwater.” Read More Zelensky accuses Russia of plotting ‘radiation leak’ attack at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant Ukraine's president tells other countries to act before Russia attacks nuclear plant Ukrainian soldiers rescue Russian troops left to drown after Kakhovka dam destruction Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow ‘arrests General Armageddon’ over Wagner rebellion Recapping the revolt in Russia, through the words of 4 presidents and a mutinous warlord

Pope Francis is visiting the French port city of Marseille

KAWASAKI, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2023--

WASHINGTON U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday that lawmakers from his chamber should be ready