The US basketball community decried Women's NBA star Brittney Griner's drugs conviction and nine-year prison sentence from a Russian court as "unjust" on Thursday and called on the US government to bring her home.. A prisoner swap was also discussed during a call between Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday.
Three more ships filled with grain will sail from Ukraine on Friday under a UN-backed deal lifting Russia's blockade of the Black Sea, Turkey's defence minister said.. "It is planned that three ships will set sail tomorrow from Ukraine," the Anadolu state news agency quoted Defence Minister Hulusi Akar as saying, one day after the first ship passed Istanbul on its way to Lebanon.
A 62-year-old French sailor has been rescued in the Atlantic Ocean off Spain after surviving for 16 hours in cold water under his capsized sailboat by breathing through a shrinking air bubble.. Camprubi -- an experienced sailor who has won several regattas -- said at first he had an air bubble of about 80 centimetres that allowed him to breathe but "this spece was slowly shrinking".
A 62-year-old French sailor has been rescued in the Atlantic Ocean off Spain after surviving for 16 hours in a tiny air bubble under his capsized sailboat, the Spanish coastguard said Thursday.. The coastguard said Camprubi was rescued at around noon on Tuesday, so he spent 16 hours under the boat with "just 30 centimetres (12 inches) of air".
A Venezuelan court on Tuesday sentenced an opposition ex-MP and 16 others to jail terms of up to 30 years for an alleged exploding drone attack against President Nicolas Maduro in 2018.. Sentencing came exactly four years after two drones packed with explosives flew towards Maduro as he addressed a military parade in Caracas and blew up, injuring seven soldiers.
Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine: - US ratifies Finland, Sweden NATO membership - The US Senate ratifies the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, strongly backing the expansion of the transatlantic military alliance in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.. Of the seven member countries which have yet to formally agree, only Turkey has raised a challenge, demanding certain concessions from both countries to back their memberships.
South Sudan's leaders have announced they will remain in power two years beyond an agreed deadline, sparking criticism from foreign partners.. Four months later, they announce that the transitional government will remain in power two years beyond the agreed deadline, in a move foreign partners warned lacked legitimacy.
The French government will create an ambassador's post to promote LGBTQ rights across the world, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Thursday.. The new envoy will coordinate the foreign ministry's policy and act as "France's voice" for the promotion of LGBTQ rights, Borne told an audience on the 40th anniversary of France's abolition of a World War II-era law discriminating against homosexuals.
Hundreds of migrants were ferried off the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa Thursday ahead of a visit by anti-immigrant leader Matteo Salvini, who is campaigning for September elections vowing to stop new arrivals.. Salvini, who leads Italy's League party, has made stopping the arrivals the cornerstone of his platform ahead of general elections on September 25, where he is expected to gain power as part of a right-wing alliance.
Moscow and Washington have been in talks about a new prisoner exchange, in a rare moment of dialogue with tensions soaring over Russia's military intervention in Ukraine. . The arrest came just days before Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
