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A private jet crashed over Russia on Wednesday, killing all 10 people on board, emergency officials said. Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list, but it wasn’t immediately clear if he was on board.

Unconfirmed media reports said the jet belonged to Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military company.

Russia’s state news agency Tass cited emergency officials as saying that the plane carried three pilots and seven passengers. It was not clear if Prigozhin was among those on board, though Russia’s civilian aviation regulator, Rosaviatsia, said he was on the passenger list.

The plane was en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg and went down in the Tver region, more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital. Authorities are investigating.

Flight tracking data reviewed by The Associated Press shows a private jet registered to Wagner that Prigozhin had used previously took off from Moscow on Wednesday evening and its transponder signal disappeared minutes later.

The signal was lost in a rural region where there are no nearby airfields where the jet could have landed safely.

Prigozhin, whose private military force Wagner fought alongside Russia’s regular army in Ukraine, mounted a short-lived armed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in late June. The Kremlin said he would be exiled to Belarus, and his fighters would either retire, follow him there, or join the Russian military.

Shortly after that, Wagner fighters set up camp in Belarus, but Prigozhin’s plane, according to media reports, was flying back and forth between Belarus and Russia.

This week, Prigozhin posted his first recruitment video since the mutiny, saying that Wagner is conducting reconnaissance and search activities, and “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free.”
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Latest Developments:

Australia is sending $74 million in new military assistance to Ukraine. The package includes armored vehicles, special operations vehicles and trucks.
Britain’s defense ministry says allies have trained more than 17,000 Ukrainian troops, and that the number could reach 30,000 by 2024.

Ukraine’s military said Monday its forces downed two of three cruise missiles that Russia fired from the Black Sea as well as seven of eight Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia.

Such aerial attacks have been a common part of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Ukrainian officials hailing the work of air defenses in countering the assaults.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday after a phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden that he was “especially grateful” to the United States for the reliability of Patriot air defense batteries.

Biden reaffirmed unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine, including through continued security, economic and humanitarian aid, according to a White House statement.

Zelenskyy said he also discussed the fighting on the front lines and strengthening Ukraine’s troops in his call with Biden and similar conversations Sunday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Ukraine Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Monday that Ukrainian forces had made some gains in the eastern part of the country during the past week, and that there was heavy fighting ongoing in the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka areas.

Maliar also said that while “the situation in the south has not undergone significant changes over the past week,” overall Ukrainian forces had freed 130 square kilometers since launching a counteroffensive earlier this month.

US, Ukrainian reaction

The unprecedented challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin by fighters from the Wagner paramilitary forces has exposed fresh “cracks” in the strength of Putin’s leadership that may take weeks or months to play out, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday in a TV interview on the NBC program “Meet the Press.”

Blinken characterized Wagner Group’s mutiny and its subsequent crisis as a Russian “internal matter.”

He added, “This is a challenge coming from within to Putin, and that’s where his focus has been. Our focus is resolutely and relentlessly on Ukraine making sure that it has what it needs to defend itself and to take back territory that Russia has seized.”

Blinken said that although it is too soon to tell what Russia’s internal turmoil meant, Putin’s distraction is to the advantage of Ukraine. He also said that at the end of the day, the reason Ukraine will prevail is that “this is about their land, this is about their future, this is about their freedom, not Russia’s.”

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said he discussed the turmoil in Russia in a phone call with his U.S. counterpart Sunday, describing the Russian authorities as “weak” and saying things were “moving in the right direction.”

In a brief readout of the call with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Reznikov said they also discussed Ukraine’s counteroffensive and steps to strengthen Ukraine’s armed forces.

“We agree that the Russian authorities are weak and that withdrawing Russian troops from Ukraine is the best choice for the Kremlin,” Reznikov wrote on Twitter.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The daughter of a German citizen of Iranian descent who was sentenced to death by Tehran pleaded Tuesday for the United States and Germany to act urgently to save him. 

The daughter of Jamshid Sharmahd was making her case in Washington, including holding a sit-in outside the State Department, on the heels of a deal by President Joe Biden’s administration to free five U.S. citizens who were imprisoned in Iran. 

According to his family, Sharmahd, a software developer who had been living in California, was kidnapped in 2020 on a visit to the United Arab Emirates and taken to Iran. 

He was sentenced to death over a deadly blast at a mosque in 2008 in the southern city of Shiraz, charges the family describes as ridiculous. Iran’s Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty in April. 

“What I’m asking the U.S. and Germany is to free my father, to bring my father back, to save (his) life,” said his daughter Gazelle Sharmahd, who lives in California. 

“This is a life-and-death situation,” she told a roundtable. 

She voiced frustration that Germany and the United States are playing “some form of responsibility ping-pong.”  

“It goes back and forth. Not my citizen. He doesn’t live here. Not my problem, not my problem. And we’re not getting through to them,” she said. 

Germany has said it is engaging at the highest levels and through all channels on the case, with a foreign ministry spokesman acknowledging that the family is “going through something unimaginable and unbearable.” 

But Gazelle Sharmahd insisted that German efforts were focused only on improving his conditions in prison. 

“What, does he need better toothpaste before they murder him right now?” she said. 

The U.S. State Department has called Iran’s treatment of Sharmahd reprehensible but said it was for Germany to discuss the case of its own citizen. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that all U.S. citizens have been released from prison under the deal, which drew fire from the Republican Party. 

Under the arrangement, the five U.S. citizens, all of Iranian origin, were freed to house arrest and are expected to be allowed to leave after the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue that had been held in South Korea to comply with U.S. sanctions. 
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Turkey’s media regulator has given Voice of America’s Turkish Service a three-day deadline to apply for a broadcast license or face potential criminal charges.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council, or RTUK, on Monday told VOA it needed to apply for an on-demand broadcasting license.

The on-demand license is more commonly acquired by entertainment streaming services such as Netflix.

Failure to comply with the request and pay a three-month license fee would result in the regulator applying to the Criminal Judgeships of Peace with a request to block access to VOA’s content.

The media regulator said it was acting under a Turkish law stating that broadcasting executives who air programs despite the cancellation of their licenses could face charges that carry sentences of up to two years in prison.

The directive comes more than a year after the regulator moved to block VOA’s Turkish language content over the broadcaster’s refusal to comply with the same new licensing regulation, over concerns of censorship.

The RTUK also targeted German news outlet Deutsche Welle, which like VOA, is a public, state-owned international broadcaster with an editorially independent newsroom.’

When RTUK blocked access to VOA’s Turkish service in June 2022, VOA moved to a different web address. The new directive could block access to that content.

VOA’s public relations department confirmed that the regulator had issued a new order requiring the broadcaster to obtain a license within 72 hours.

“As a public service broadcaster designed to provide accurate and objective news, VOA cannot comply with any directive intended to enable censorship,” VOA spokesperson Bridget Serchak said in an email.

“VOA will continue to object to any requirement by Turkish regulators — or regulators in any country where we provide news and information — that smacks of attempts to censor our news coverage,” VOA acting director Yolanda Lopez said in a statement Tuesday.

“The requirement to remain a reliable source of independent journalism for our audience is enshrined in our Charter,” Lopez said, adding, “We will take every step necessary to avoid any interference by anyone that threatens the VOA’s ability to deliver on its mission.”

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it is closely following the situation and is “deeply concerned.”

A spokesperson, speaking on background, told VOA via email that the U.S. urges Turkey to “uphold its obligations and commitments to respect the fundamental freedom of expression.”

“The individual’s rights to freedom of expression includes freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,” the spokesperson said.

“Respect for freedom of expression is enshrined in Turkey’s constitution and in its international commitments and obligations,” the spokesperson said.

VOA emailed the RTUK regulator late Tuesday and as of publication had not received a response.

The regulator’s deputy head last year had dismissed concerns raised by broadcasters and others over the new regulation, saying the decision “has nothing to do with censorship but is part of technical measures.”

RTUK had previously ordered VOA and two other international broadcasters in February 2022 to apply for a license.

A few months later, it blocked access to VOA’s Turkish-language content and that of Deutsche Welle when both declined to apply for licenses as requested by the regulator.

The February 2022 licensing decision was based on a regulation that had gone into effect in August 2019. At that time, several media freedom advocates raised concerns about possible censorship because the regulation granted RTUK the authority to control all online content.

Under the regulation, RTUK is authorized to request broadcast licenses from “media service providers” so that their radio, TV broadcasting and on-demand audiovisual media services can continue their online presence.

If the licensees do not follow RTUK’s principles, the regulation allows RTUK to impose fines, suspend broadcasting for three months or cancel broadcast licenses

In the past, the U.S. State Department has said that moves to block VOA and DW content in Turkey amounted to an expansion of “government control over freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey. Free press is essential to a robust democracy.”

Turkey has a poor record for media freedom, with watchdog Reporters Without Borders noting that around 90% of media is government controlled, leaving few independent or critical news outlets.

The country, which has one of the worst records globally for jailing journalists, ranks 165 out of 180 on the press freedom Index, where 1 shows the best media environment. 
…

In a gloomy, indoor football camp on an industrial estate on the edge of Barcelona, Marta dives into tackles with the boys  without fear.  

The 11-year-old has been playing with teenagers who are older — and stronger — than herself for months, but so far has held her own. 

Her newfound passion for football meant she watched as Spain beat England 1-0 Sunday and carry away the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Sydney, Australia.  

The victory for the Spanish women’s team will have knock-on effects for the next generation of Martas who may dream of sharing the glory, said Sara Otero, Marta’s mother.  

“I think it will raise visibility of football in Spain for women. I don’t think Spain is an especially sexist country but for girls and women, football has never been a very accessible sport. Maybe they thought there was too much contact or it was dangerous,” Otero, 52, a businesswoman, told VOA. “But now there has been much more effort to make football accessible to everyone, which I think is good.”  

Events after the final whistle at the World Cup final perhaps proved there is still much work to be done off the pitch.  

Controversial kiss 

After the celebrations, attention in Spain turned to a row over alleged sexism after Luis Rubiales, the president of the Spanish Football Federation kissed female player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the cup presentation.  

Hermoso was later recorded in the dressing room saying she “did not like it,” Reuters reported, but she later played down the incident in a statement to EFE news agency.  

At first, Rubiales said he was just celebrating the victory and derided critics as “idiots” for making so much of it. He later apologized, Reuters reported.  

The football chief came under fire from Spain’s acting equality minister Irene Montero, who tweeted, “A non-consensual kiss is a kind of sex violence we suffer all women daily, which was until now invisible, and which we cannot normalize. Consent should be at the center.” 

El Pais, a left-wing Madrid newspaper, said Monday in an editorial, “Jenni did not like the kiss, and we didn’t either,” and described it as an “intrusion, an invasion of privacy, an aggression.” 

League still young

Women’s football in Spain, as in many other countries, is still in its infancy.  

The professional league was only set up last season and there are 90,000 registered players which include women and girls, said Maria Rodrigo, a spokeswoman for La Liga Feminine in Spain told VOA.    

Professionals in La Liga are paid on average about $65,000 per year while the elite players can expect around $98,000. It is far cry from the astronomic salaries commanded by the likes of Lionel Messi, the Argentina and Inter Miami striker.   

Maria Tikas, a journalist who covers football for Sport, one of Spain’s biggest daily sport newspapers, said Rubiales’ kiss for Hermoso showed Spain still had a problem of sexism to address.    

“This is a society which has a problem of inherent machoism which is only going to go away through education, cultural changes, politics and legal means. In football this is worse because it has been the territory of men for so, so, long,” she told VOA.  

Hope for change 

But she believes that the victory of La Roja — the name given to the Spain team — may help change things.  

For one thing, there are now role models.  

“Many of the players in the (Spanish) team today did not have references (to famous female players). Now when a girl sees Alexia (Putellas, of Spain and Barcelona) win the World Cup they see that could be Alexia too. They see how it could be possible for them.”  

Dolors Ribalta Alcalde, an expert on female football at the University Ramon Llull in Barcelona who played for FC Espanyol, a team in the second Spanish league, said Spain’s triumph did not happen by “magic.” 

“This has happened firstly because of social changes. With parents seeing it as a positive thing for their daughters to play football instead of discouraging them. Girls have started to see football as something positive,” she said.  

Back at the football camp where Marta plays, there are plenty of photographs of star male players like Messi. 

But even though girls’ teams play there every week, there are no pictures – yet – of the Spanish women’s team.  

Many female players and their fans hope that will change soon. 
…

Google, Facebook, TikTok and other Big Tech companies operating in Europe are facing one of the most far-reaching efforts to clean up what people encounter online.

The first phase of the European Union’s groundbreaking new digital rules will take effect this week. The Digital Services Act is part of a suite of tech-focused regulations crafted by the 27-nation bloc — long a global leader in cracking down on tech giants.

The DSA, which the biggest platforms must start following Friday, is designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that’s either illegal or violates a platform’s terms of service, such as promotion of genocide or anorexia. It also looks to protect Europeans’ fundamental rights like privacy and free speech.

Some online platforms, which could face billions in fines if they don’t comply, have already started making changes.

Here’s a look at what’s happening this week:

Which platforms are affected?

So far, 19. They include eight social media platforms: Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat.

There are five online marketplaces: Amazon, Booking.com, China’s Alibaba AliExpress and Germany’s Zalando.

Mobile app stores Google Play and Apple’s App Store are subject, as are Google’s Search and Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Google Maps and Wikipedia round out the list.

What about other online companies?

The EU’s list is based on numbers submitted by the platforms. Those with 45 million or more users — or 10% of the EU’s population — will face the DSA’s highest level of regulation.

Brussels insiders, however, have pointed to some notable omissions from the EU’s list, like eBay, Airbnb, Netflix and even PornHub. The list isn’t definitive, and it’s possible other platforms may be added later on.

Any business providing digital services to Europeans will eventually have to comply with the DSA. They will face fewer obligations than the biggest platforms, however, and have another six months before they must fall in line.

Citing uncertainty over the new rules, Meta Platforms has held off launching its Twitter rival, Threads, in the EU.

What’s changing?

Platforms have started rolling out new ways for European users to flag illegal online content and dodgy products, which companies will be obligated to take down quickly and objectively.

Amazon opened a new channel for reporting suspected illegal products and is providing more information about third-party merchants.

TikTok gave users an “additional reporting option” for content, including advertising, that they believe is illegal. Categories such as hate speech and harassment, suicide and self-harm, misinformation or frauds and scams, will help them pinpoint the problem.

Then, a “new dedicated team of moderators and legal specialists” will determine whether flagged content either violates its policies or is unlawful and should be taken down, according to the app from Chinese parent company ByteDance.

TikTok says the reason for a takedown will be explained to the person who posted the material and the one who flagged it, and decisions can be appealed.

TikTok users can turn off systems that recommend videos based on what a user has previously viewed. Such systems have been blamed for leading social media users to increasingly extreme posts. If personalized recommendations are turned off, TikTok’s feeds will instead suggest videos to European users based on what’s popular in their area and around the world.

The DSA prohibits targeting vulnerable categories of people, including children, with ads.

Snapchat said advertisers won’t be able to use personalization and optimization tools for teens in the EU and U.K. Snapchat users who are 18 and older also would get more transparency and control over ads they see, including “details and insight” on why they’re shown specific ads.

TikTok made similar changes, stopping users 13 to 17 from getting personalized ads “based on their activities on or off TikTok.”

Is there pushback?

Zalando, a German online fashion retailer, has filed a legal challenge over its inclusion on the DSA’s list of the largest online platforms, arguing that it’s being treated unfairly.

Nevertheless, Zalando is launching content flagging systems for its website even though there’s little risk of illegal material showing up among its highly curated collection of clothes, bags and shoes.

The company has supported the DSA, said Aurelie Caulier, Zalando’s head of public affairs for the EU.

“It will bring loads of positive changes” for consumers, she said. But “generally, Zalando doesn’t have systemic risk [that other platforms pose]. So that’s why we don’t think we fit in that category.”

Amazon has filed a similar case with a top EU court.

What happens if companies don’t follow the rules?

Officials have warned tech companies that violations could bring fines worth up to 6% of their global revenue — which could amount to billions — or even a ban from the EU. But don’t expect penalties to come right away for individual breaches, such as failing to take down a specific video promoting hate speech.

Instead, the DSA is more about whether tech companies have the right processes in place to reduce the harm that their algorithm-based recommendation systems can inflict on users. Essentially, they’ll have to let the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm and top digital enforcer, look under the hood to see how their algorithms work.

EU officials “are concerned with user behavior on the one hand, like bullying and spreading illegal content, but they’re also concerned about the way that platforms work and how they contribute to the negative effects,” said Sally Broughton Micova, an associate professor at the University of East Anglia.

That includes looking at how the platforms work with digital advertising systems, which could be used to profile users for harmful material like disinformation, or how their livestreaming systems function, which could be used to instantly spread terrorist content, said Broughton Micova, who’s also academic co-director at the Centre on Regulation in Europe, a Brussels-based think tank.

Under the rules, the biggest platforms will have to identify and assess potential systemic risks and whether they’re doing enough to reduce them. These risk assessments are due by the end of August and then they will be independently audited.

The audits are expected to be the main tool to verify compliance — though the EU’s plan has faced criticism for lacking details that leave it unclear how the process will work.

What about the rest of the world?

Europe’s changes could have global impact. Wikipedia is tweaking some policies and modifying its terms of service to provide more information on “problematic users and content.” Those alterations won’t be limited to Europe, said the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts the community-powered encyclopedia.

“The rules and processes that govern Wikimedia projects worldwide, including any changes in response to the DSA, are as universal as possible. This means that changes to our Terms of Use and Office Actions Policy will be implemented globally,” it said in a statement.

It’s going to be hard for tech companies to limit DSA-related changes, said Broughton Micova, adding that digital ad networks aren’t isolated to Europe and that social media influencers can have global reach.

The regulations are “dealing with multichannel networks that operate globally. So there is going to be a ripple effect once you have kind of mitigations that get taken into place,” she said.
…

A public kitchen closes early so workers can get home on a day of heavy bombing. Police officers stuff the windows of their station with white sandbags. Every few minutes we hear the boom or thud of weapons being fired into and out of the city.

Each hit could mean a death. The Russian military is drawing closer.

In a golden-domed church on Sunday morning, Valentina, a 70-year-old singer, looks sad when she tells us she will stay in her eighth-floor apartment, despite fears that Russia once again has her city in its sights.

“This year I will plant potatoes in my garden,” she says. “I will harvest tomatoes.”

About two hours later, rockets hit a residential area a block away, burning out cars and sending 10 people to the hospital. Later that day, a nearby bridge is blown up.

In the suburbs, volunteers drive a small green bus from neighborhood to neighborhood, picking up families who want to evacuate. Many people weep as they hug loved ones or neighbors and board the bus.

“Maybe it’s silly,” says a woman in a white dress with teary, red eyes. “But I just can’t go.”

Inside the bus, passengers are eager to get moving.

“We need to get out of here as soon as possible,” says Lydia, 65, as she and her husband wait for the bus to depart.

Another woman, Tatiana, 63, is traveling alone. “We’ve been here since the war began,” she says. “During the winter we had no heat and no windows. During the occupation we had no internet and no grocery store.”

Russia occupied Kupiansk for seven months in 2022, before they were pushed out by Ukrainian forces.

“But now combat is coming closer,” says Tatiana.

Snail mail

Across town, closer to where Russian soldiers are firing off bombs from about 5 to 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles) away, a post office is tucked behind an open-air market where vendors sell clothes, housewares and dried fish.

Every few minutes a customer comes into the post office, despite the ongoing shelling. Many come with packages to ship.

“I’m sending out my most important things, like electronics,” says Nina, 64, standing at the counter. “I’m planning to leave the city, and I’m afraid my property will be destroyed.”

Within a few days, she says, she will flee to western Ukraine, where she hopes to find her valuables waiting for her.

Other customers come in to pick up their pensions — the only income for most retirees in Kupiansk. Officials tell us they are paying out pensions three months in advance nowadays, in case they lose access to the city.

Carriers used to deliver the mail, but the last time it went out was weeks ago, and then only to the region’s most infirm people, those who couldn’t make it to the post office.

The windows are mostly filled in with plywood, but one rectangle of glass lets in light. “That’s all that’s left of our peacetime windows,” jokes one worker.

Svitlana Oleynikova, 45, the post office manager, says incoming bombs frequently hit a nearby school, but some seem to miss their mark and land outside their office.

When Russia controlled the city, the post office was closed, and it seems inevitable that workers will be forced to abandon their post again, she says.

“I am evacuating my mother this week,” she explains. “But I will keep working until the post office is closed.”

Soldiers standing by

Near a clearing in the bush alongside the Oskil River, about a dozen Ukrainian soldiers relax by the shore in various states of undress — speedos, camouflage pants, underwear. We are about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Russian forces.

“Isn’t this a great place for a holiday?” one man asks us. The rest of the group laughs.

Two beers in cut-off water bottles are stowed under a car bumper, out of the sun. One man swims about 5 meters out to the center of the river. There is a faint smell of cigarettes. The band Måneskin’s version of the 1967 Four Seasons song “Beggin’” blares from somebody’s phone.

“Don’t be afraid of shrapnel,” says one soldier, wearing shorts and dog tags, without a shirt. “This one hit our car” he adds, grinning. He points out a hole in the roof and the side-back window, shattered and covered with lime green tape. “And we were in it.”

Inside the city, at a territorial defense post hidden on the side of the hill, Maxim, a 25-year-old soldier with a hand badly mangled from a mortar attack in the early days of war, mans a grenade launcher. He scans the horizon over the river for approaching Russians, as smoke from recent bombings rises from the forest.

So far, neither side has launched a full-scale attack, says Maxim, but they are preparing for battle.

“They’re not going to be able to take this city like they did in the early days of the war,” he says. “The city was taken without a single shot being fired. But we have a lot of forces here now.”
…

Ukraine’s president has described the decision by the Netherlands and Denmark to supply his country with F-16 fighter jets as “historic and inspiring.” The Western allies will supply dozens of the technically advanced jets after Washington’s approval. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
…

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin posted his first video address since leading a short-lived mutiny in late June, appearing in a clip — possibly shot in Africa — on Telegram channels affiliated with the Wagner group on Monday. 

Prigozhin is seen standing in a desert area in camouflage and with a rifle in his hands. In the distance, there are more armed men and a pickup truck. 

Reuters was not able to geolocate or verify the date of the video, but Prigozhin’s comments and some posts in the pro-Wagner channels suggested it was filmed in Africa. 

“The temperature is +50 — everything as we like. The Wagner PMC makes Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa — more free. Justice and happiness — for the African people, we’re making life a nightmare for ISIS and al-Qaida and other bandits,” Prigozhin says in a video. 

He then says Wagner is recruiting people and the group “will fulfill the tasks that were set.” The video is accompanied by a telephone number for those who want to join the group. 

The future of Wagner and Prigozhin has been unclear since he led a short mutiny against the Russian defense establishment in late June and the Kremlin said he and some of his fighters — who have fought in some of the fiercest battles of the Ukraine war — would leave for Belarus. 

Since the mutiny, some Wagner fighters have moved to Belarus and started training the army there. In comments published in late July, Prigozhin also said Wagner was ready to further increase its presence in Africa. 
…