Players for the Spanish women’s national squad have reiterated their refusal to play in two upcoming fixtures without major changes to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) – the latest development amid the fallout of ex-soccer boss Luis Rubiales’ unwanted kiss on La Roja star Jennifer Hermoso.

Twenty players who had previously signed a letter on Friday objecting to playing for the national team until major concerns were addressed have been named to new head coach Montse Tomé’s 23-woman squad list.

Tomé, who replaced former manager Jorge Vilda as part of a shake-up at RFEF following Spain’s Women’s World Cup triumph, selected the players for matches against Sweden and Switzerland on September 22 and 26, despite the players stating their “firm will to not be called up for motives which are justified.”

In statements posted to social media on Monday, the players said: “[We] will study the possible legal consequences to which RFEF has exposed us by putting us on a list which we had asked not to be called up to due to reasons which were already explained publicly and in more detail to RFEF, and with that to take the best decision for our future and for our health.”

Despite their repeated refusal to play for Spain until substantial change is made in the federation, several players have reported for camp, including Athenea del Castillo, Misa Rodríguez, Olga Carmona and Teresa Abelleira – the latter three being signees of Friday’s released statement.

Asked by reporters in Madrid on Tuesday on her way into the squad hotel if the players were in agreement with Tomé’s squad list, goalkeeper Rodríguez said: “No.”

The players’ statement came just hours after Tomé told reporters that she was in touch with the players and had made arrangements to satisfy their concerns.

“The federation has worked to be able to talk to the players,” she said. “I’ve also worked with them. We’ve listened to them, we thought that we all were a part of this group, and the way is having good communication.”

Asked if any player had told her that they didn’t want to be called up to play in the upcoming UEFA Women’s Nations League matches, Tomé said they had not.

Meanwhile, Hermoso – who was not named in Tomé’s call up – released a statement on Monday saying that “nothing has changed” within the federation.

“We have been searching for weeks – months, even – for protection from the RFEF that never came,” said Hermoso, who was not named in the 23-player squad for the upcoming fixtures.

“The people who now ask us to trust them are the same ones who today disclosed the list of players who have asked NOT to be called up.

“The players are certain that this is yet another strategy of division and manipulation to intimidate and threaten us with legal repercussions and economic sanctions. It is yet more irrefutable proof that shows that even today, nothing has changed.”

Speaking on radio network Cadena SER on Monday, Víctor Francos, the president of the Spanish government’s High Council of Sport (CSD), confirmed that the players could face fines and sanctions according to the country’s Law of Sport for not representing the national team having been called up.

“I hope that the call-up was agreed to with [the players],” said Francos. “If they don’t show up, the government will do what it has to do, which is apply the law, which is unfortunate for me, I assure you, and it hurts me. I would never want to do what I would have to do in that moment.

“But the law is the law, the Law of Sport says what it says. International laws for national teams say what they say, but I still trust that there could be a path to a solution.

“I also tell you, I get the feeling [RFEF has] transferred to the government a problem that they had, saying, ‘Well, we’ll call them up and then the government will decide.’”

According to Spain’s Law of Sport and the RFEF Disciplinary Code, the players could receive a fine of between 3,006 euros ($3,213) and 30,051 euros ($32,125) and have their playing licenses suspended or confiscated for two to five years, which potentially could have implications for players’ club careers in addition to their international future.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Spain’s culture and sports minister, Miquel Iceta, urged RFEF to resolve the dispute.

“The High Council of Sport will personally get involved in the search for a resolution,” he said.

“The Royal Spanish Football Federation has no right to deprive Spain of the women’s national team, even more so after having won the World Cup.

“As such, we call on the federation to correct all of the deficiencies of this anomalous squad call-up, to change its federative structures so that the federation can effectively be a space of safety, competitiveness and professionalism to which the players have a right to and Spanish citizenry has a right to.”

Iceta also vowed that a solution would be found before punishments can be handed out to the players.

Reacting to the ongoing dispute between federation and the players, men’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Iker Casillas wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Everything they do keeps getting WORSE in RFEF.”

Spanish footballers’ union, AFE, said it was “absolutely shocked” by Monday’s squad announcement in a statement.

“It’s incomprehensible that an institution, which itself has stated in the last few weeks, which hopes to commence a new era of open and consensus dialogue, demonstrates once again a huge lack of consideration towards women’s football and the recently proclaimed world champions,” AFE said.

“From AFE, we appeal to RFEF to cease in its efforts to pressure the players and it considers why there’s such a lack of confidence and support on behalf of many of its called up players.”

The Spanish women’s national team is due to play Sweden and Switzerland in the Women’s Nations League on Friday and next Tuesday respectively.

How we got here

Spanish players’ dissatisfaction with the federation dates back over a year when 15 members of the senior women’s squad sent personally signed letters to RFEF saying that they would no longer play for the national team unless there were wholesale changes made throughout the coaching staff.

Of the 15 players who signed the letters, only three were in Spain’s World Cup squad: Mariona Caldentey, Aitana Bonmatí and Ona Batlle. That trio was included in Tomé’s squad announced on Monday.

Despite those off-field struggles, a young Spanish side produced a superb run at the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, defeating England in the final to lift a first title.

The achievement was subsequently overshadowed by Rubiales’ actions during the medal ceremony and the fallout which followed, culminating in the ex-soccer boss resigning as RFEF president on September 11.

However, now that Vilda and Rubiales have left their positions, RFEF hopes to kick-start a new chapter in women’s soccer.

On Monday before announcing the squad list, it released a statement underlining its commitment to enforce changes in the organization.

“Its absolutely necessary, to realize these changes, to clarify each of the behaviors and conducts which may have occurred and act, as such, with professionalism and justice, settling the relevant responsibilities in each case,” it said.

“It’s evident that the Federation, society and the very players are aligned with this same objective: the renewal and beginning of a new era where football is the great winner of all of this process.”

On Friday, Rubiales testified in Spain’s National Court after being summoned by the presiding judge to aid in the court’s investigation into potential charges of sexual assault and coercion against him.

The Spanish Prosecutor’s office said Rubiales answered questions from the judge and all parties and denied the charges.

Later on Friday, the judge gave Rubiales a restraining order, preventing him from going within 200 meters of Hermoso, and ordered him not to communicate with her during the court’s investigation.

“The whole world could see it was not consensual. That’s what we’ll show,” Hermoso’s lawyer Carla Vall said after leaving the National Court in the capital of Madrid.

A huge prehistoric structure in Ohio has become the 25th US landmark to be awarded a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, which is made up of eight monumental earthworks built around 2,000 years ago, was among the sites to be added on Tuesday as the UNESCO World Heritage Committee continues to review nominations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The collection of earthen mounds built by Indigenous peoples is described as the “most representative surviving expressions of the Indigenous tradition now referred to as the Hopewell culture,” with some believed to be used as lunar or astral observatories.

“The earth walls of the enclosures are among the largest earthworks in the world that are not fortifications or defensive structures,” says the official UNESCO website.

Historic site

“Their scale is imposing by any standard: the Great Pyramid of Cheops would have fit inside the Wright Earthworks.”

The inclusion of Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks marks the first US addition to the World Heritage List since the nation rejoined UNESCO earlier this year.

“Just three months after rejoining UNESCO, the United States has its 25th site inscribed on the World Heritage List, which illustrates the richness and diversity of the country’s cultural and natural heritage,” says Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO.

“This inscription on the World Heritage List highlights the important work of American archaeologists, who discovered here remains dating back 2,000 years, constituting one of the largest earthwork constructions in the world.

“Inclusion on the Heritage List will make this important part of American history known around the world.”

The US formally quit UNESCO in 2019, citing “anti-Israel bias” after the organization accepted a Palestinian bid for full membership and inscribed sites in Palestinian territories onto the World Heritage List. Israel also withdrew from the organization.

A selection of buildings by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, was inscribed that same year, joining the likes of fellow US landmarks Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon National Park and the Statue of Liberty on the list.

Other new additions

Established in 1978, the World Heritage List has inscribed well over 1,000 sites of “outstanding universal value” in the more than four decades since then.

Only countries that sign the convention creating the World Heritage Committee and list can nominate sites.

Participants from around the world have been examining the 50 contenders nominated to be included since Saturday.

New additions to the list announced over the last few days include the astronomical observatories of Kazan Federal University in Russia; Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains National Park; the Maison Carrée of Nîmes, a Roman temple in southern France; Cambodia’s Koh Ker archaeological site; and Gordion and the capital city of ancient Phrygia in Turkey.

Gaya Tumuli, made up of seven burial mounds built by the Gaya Kingdom, in South Korea, the Viking-Age Ring Fortresses in Denmark and the National Archaeological Park Tak’alik Ab’aj in Guatemala have also been added to the list.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected warplanes, toured an airfield and visited a Pacific Fleet frigate on Saturday as the latest stop on his tour of Russia took him to Vladivostok.

Russian state media reported that Kim had met Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at the Knevichi airfield in Vladivostok before both men were accompanied by the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, on a visit to the Pacific Fleet frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov.

Kim was welcomed by Shoigu upon his arrival and the two discussed military cooperation “between armed forces… and in the fields of their national defense and security,” North Korean state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday.

The North Korean leader was also shown the ship’s central command center and its modern missile weapon control systems, the Russian Ministry of Defence said via Telegram.

The Russian defence ministry added that Admiral Evmenov had talked to Kim about the “expanded capabilities of the new control systems, which allow Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles to be effectively used against sea and coastal targets at a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers from the ship.”

Afterwards Kim was gifted a replica of the ship and left a comment in the frigate’s guest book, though the ministry did not reveal what he wrote.

The stop in Vladivostok is Kim’s latest in a tour of Russia and its Far East region that follows his meeting with President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, at which the North Korean leader appeared to endorse Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

The meeting has led to speculation around the potential for some kind of military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

The ministry said on Saturday that the frigate had been selected to showcase the modernization within the Far East region “which clearly demonstrates the capabilities of the shipbuilding industry.”

Earlier in the morning, Kim and Shoigu had toured the Knevichi airfield in Vladivostok, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, where Kim was shown Russian aircraft including the Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3.

Kim also saw the Su-34, Su-30SM, Su-35S fighter jets along with the Su-25SM3 attack aircraft, RIA added.

The Kinzhal hypersonic missile system and Russia’s Tu-214 long-haul passenger airplane were also on display, it said.

Kim ‘deeply impressed’

On Friday, North Korean state media reported Kim had been “deeply impressed” by a visit to a Russian aircraft manufacturing plant.

Kim toured facilities for aircraft design and assembly at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Yuri Gagarin Aviation Plant, where he was struck by “the rich independent potential and modernity of the Russian aircraft manufacturing industry,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

He met test pilots, climbed aboard a Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet, and watched a test flight of the airplane, KCNA said.

The facility Kim toured on Friday is Russia’s largest aviation manufacturing plant and builds and develops warplanes for the ministry of defense, including Su-35S and Su-57 fighter jets, according to the Russian state media agency TASS. Kim’s late father, Kim Jong Il, visited it in 2002.

On Friday’s visit Kim “expressed sincere regard for Russia’s aviation technology” and how it had undergone “rapid development, outpacing the outside potential threats, and wished the plant success in its future development,” KCNA reported.

After the tour and a luncheon, Kim left a message in the visitor’s book saying, “Witnessing the rapid development of Russia’s aviation technology and its gigantic potential” before signing it with the date and his name.

According to a Russian government press release on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said Moscow saw “the potential for cooperation both in aircraft manufacturing and in other industries” with North Korea.

“This is especially relevant for achieving the tasks our countries face to achieve technological sovereignty,” he said in a statement circulated on Telegram.

Mutual benefits

While exact details remain scant on what sorts of talks have taken place behind closed doors, observers say it’s clear what each is looking for from the other.

Moscow is desperate for fresh supplies of ammunition and shells as its war with Ukraine drags on – and Pyongyang is believed to be sitting on a stockpile.

Meanwhile, after years of sanctions over its nuclear weapon and missiles program, North Korea is equally in need of everything from energy to food to military technology, all of which Russia has.

When the two leaders met at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Amur Region, a reporter asked Putin whether Russia would help North Korea “launch its own satellites and rockets” – to which Putin responded, “That’s exactly why we came here.”

The Russian president also said Kim “shows great interest in space, in rocketry, and they are trying to develop space.”

The United Arab Emirates has contradicted claims by the Nigerian government that it is to lift a year-long visa ban on Nigerian travelers.

The source asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The UAE said in a notice last October it will no longer issue visas to citizens from Nigeria and 19 other African nations. It did not provide further details. Obtaining a 30-day tourist visa was relatively easy until the UAE abruptly stopped issuing the visas to Nigerian nationals.

Flights between both countries were stopped last year after Dubai’s Emirates airline suspended its operations in Nigeria citing trapped revenues.

The carrier said it could not access and repatriate its funds amounting to $85 million withheld in Nigeria.

Earlier this week, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu met with UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi where both men “finalized a historic agreement,” according to a statement released by the Nigerian government.

The government said in the statement that the agreement paved the way for the lifting of the visa ban, including the immediate resumption of flights between both countries.

“Furthermore, by this historic agreement, both Etihad Airlines and Emirates Airlines are to immediately resume flight schedules into and out of Nigeria, without any further delay,” a statement by Nigeria’s presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said.

However, a statement by the UAE government later Monday said both leaders had during the meeting, “explored opportunities for further bilateral collaboration” with the hope of “reinforcing ties between the UAE and Nigeria,” but did not mention lifting the visa ban or flights restarting.

In a follow-up statement, Nigerian government spokesman Ngelale said officials from both countries needed more time to finalize agreement details, contradicting his earlier statement.

“Given the agreement struck between the two Heads of State, there is need to allow cabinet officials from both sides to work out the finer details and finalize the cross-sectoral agreements,” he said, adding that “Everyone can now allow the process to work itself out organically, devoid of speculation.”

An elite’s playground

There was much jubilation from excited Nigerians when it was announced that the visa ban was lifted.

Dubai is a popular destination for thousands of Nigerian tourists. It is also a haven for real-estate investors from the country. 

Before the pandemic, Nigerians ranked among Dubai’s largest foreign real-estate investors, with investments valued at nearly $2 billion, according to local media reports citing the Dubai Land Department. 

Before the ban, Emirates Airlines operated two daily flights from Lagos, Nigeria, to Dubai, and one daily flight from the capital Abuja to Dubai.

Tarek Fahim was taking videos of the water filling behind the dam in the Derna valley in Libya late Saturday night. Up until 1:30 am, Storm Daniel was just wind and rain. When he went home an hour later, it took very little time between the moment he heard the dam burst and the gushing water flooding his street.

“The amount of water and the cars it was pushing felt like an earthquake,” he says.

He moved the family to the rooftop, and they climbed up a water tank as the water kept rising. They survived. “Maybe one percent of those who lived on ground floors survived,” he says of his neighborhood around al-Fanar street.

When the water level gradually receded, he went back down to check on his neighbors, “but there was meter-high mud on the street,” he recalls. “Just in 15 buildings around me, 33 people died,” he says. As he starts listing the names of the friends he lost, he breaks down in tears.

Across the eastern Libyan city of Derna, thousands died and thousands more are still missing after a catastrophic flood hit the city in the early hours of Sunday. A Saturday report from the United Nations estimates at least 11,300 people are dead and 10,100 are missing in the city alone.

Approximately 170 people have been killed outside of Derna due to the flooding, the UN report said.

Tarek’s bare feet are covered in mud from walking through the side streets helping neighbors go through the wreckage of their homes. The trauma and loss are visible on every face. Men sit in front of their hollowed-out houses, some silent, others sobbing.

Across the street Talal Fartas is going through what remains of his jewelry store, picking gold necklaces and bracelets from the mud. “The safe was swept away. Everything is gone,” he says.

Only few traces are left behind of what the shops lining the street used to sell. Pieces of metal dangle from the ceilings of gutted out stores. Vehicles are wedged in terraces and entrances of the low-rise buildings. A purple lunch box sits under a mangle of trees and light post. A couple of blocks up north, the rubble piled up along the sides of the road rises higher and higher until it becomes a swath of debris.

When the two dams outside the city burst, they unleashed a powerful flood that leveled residential blocks. The eastern and western parts of Derna are now separated by a wasteland of destruction that runs across the city all the way to the Mediterranean.

Rescuers go through the collapsed buildings looking for survivors with little hope. Almost all they find are dead bodies and more are believed to be under the heaps of crumbled cement.

Back at al-Fanar street, a man calls for help to dig out the bodies of four children from under the mud.

International aid and rescue missions are slowly trickling in, but they hardly match the scale of devastation. Local volunteers and emergency workers from different parts of Libya did what they could in the immediate aftermath.

Abdel Wahab Haroun, 21, says he retrieved 40 bodies from the sea on Sunday. He tied a rope around his waist connected to a line of volunteers to brave the high waves. “There were dead people everywhere, children a few months old, elderly people, pregnant women. There are families of 30-40 people all gone,” he says.

Haroun volunteers at a collection point for the city’s victims set up at an open area next to the sea. A rotten stench fills the air every time a dead body is brought in.

The remains of two people are in half-filled black bags on the ground. A pickup truck pulls up with two more bodies wrapped in blankets. “This one is too decomposed,” a volunteer shouts before putting them in white bags to load on a bigger truck. Officials try to document identities when possible ahead of mass burials at a different location. A small truck fumigates the air periodically as doctors and medics there warn of health hazards.

Derna’s waterfront has become the main staging area for delivering dead bodies and transporting them for burial, in a process that has been kept to one location due to the health hazards of decomposing bodies.

Along the damaged promenade, volunteers in hazmat suits scan the sea looking for washed up bodies. The crystal blue water has turned into a murky brown. The waves push broken furniture to the shore. Wrecked vehicles are stuck in what remains of the wave barrier further out in the sea.

“There are probably people in these cars you see in the water, but we don’t have the equipment to reach them,” says Ibrahim Hassan, head of the ambulance services in Kofra, southern Libya.

He needs heavy and more sophisticated equipment to retrieve these vehicles and search the water for the bodies of those still missing.

“This valley was a paradise full of pomegranate trees,” one volunteer says as she waits for next drop off of bodies.

“Derna is gone,” Abdel-Wahab says.

Iranian authorities detained the father of Mahsa Amini on the one-year anniversary of her death Saturday, Iranian journalists and rights groups have said.

Amini was killed in the custody of the morality police on September 16, 2022, after being arrested for allegedly failing to wear her headscarf properly. Her death triggered protests throughout Iran.

Amini’s family had visited her grave in the western Kurdish city of Saqqez on Friday, the eve of the one-year anniversary of her death, IranWire reported Saturday.

Helicopters were seen hovering over the Aichi cemetery with numerous military personnel and police officers also stationed throughout the area, IranWire added.

Iranian authorities strongly denied reports of Amjad’s detention on Saturday with state media news outlet IRNA describing the reports as “false” in a post on Telegram.

This comes after Amini’s uncle, Safa Aeli who resides in Saqqez, was also arrested by authorities on Tuesday, according to a member of the family and reports from the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

People participated in protests throughout Iran on Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of Amini’s death as authorities deployed armed guards in many cities as a show of force, prompting heavy security presence.

Many protesters were seen chanting “Women, Life, Freedom” – a popular rallying cry used after nationwide protests began following Amini’s death last year – while some protesters also chanted death slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

At least 13 Kurdish cities in the province where Amini hails from have gone on strike, Kurdish rights group Hengaw said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Amini’s death last September sparked the largest protests Iran had witnessed in years, morphing into a larger social movement with demonstrators protesting the regime’s treatment of women among other issues.

An ensuing crackdown by Iran’s security forces saw hundreds killed and thousands arrested.

The UN said in November last year more than 300 people were killed in the protests, including more than 40 children. US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency in January placed the number at more than 500, including 70 children.

Thousands more were arrested during the months of nationwide protest, the UN said in a report in June, citing research released last year by their Human Rights Committee.

Iran executed seven protesters for their involvement in the unrest, according to the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Across much of Cuba, the economy has ground to a standstill as the communist-run island reels from a sharp drop in tourism, spiking inflation and renewed US sanctions. In places like Santa Clara, a city of around 250,000 people with frequent hours-long daily blackouts and more horses and carts on the road than cars, there was seemingly an unlimited number of disaffected men to recruit.

After her son responded to a post on Facebook looking for Cubans to work as cooks and construction workers in Russia, Cecilia said two women reached out to him via WhatsApp.

Cecilia said she overheard some of the calls and one of the women spoke Spanish in a Russian accent and the second woman was clearly Cuban.

Within a week, Cecilia said, Miguel had signed a contract to work repairing infrastructure damaged in the war and the women had sent him a plane ticket to fly from the beach destination of Varadero to Moscow, his first trip outside the island. 

Aboard the plane Miguel told her he saw dozens of other young military age men who had been recruited, including two distant cousins, also heading to take part in the Russian war effort.

At first Miguel’s adventure seemed to be paying off. He sent money back to his mother and elderly grandmother that allowed them to buy luxuries like meat and coffee.

He texted his mother photos of the food he was having: pizza and ice cream sundaes.

“They were fattening him up for the slaughter,” Cecilia said.

The next time they spoke by video call Miguel had his head shaved and was wearing a Russian military uniform, she said. He was going to the front but told his Mom not to worry and even put her on the phone with his commanding officer, also a Cuban, who promised that he would take care of her son.

But soon Miguel told his mother that he wanted to return home.

“He has seen what you see in a war,” Cecilia said. “He said he has seen wounded. That at the hospital people arrived missing arms and legs. He isn’t used to seeing that.”

Miguel complained of illnesses to avoid having to fight but his Russian superior officers did not accept his excuses. The last time Miguel spoke to his mom in September he said the Russian officers had taken away his phone as punishment and that he had had to bribe one of them to be able to call her.

“He said ‘Mama I am on the front line in Ukraine.’ He’s there, where it’s dangerous,” Cecilia said. “They are there to shield the Russian troops. They are cannon fodder.”

The predicament of Cuban recruits like Miguel is further complicated by an announcement from Cuban officials in September that they would treat their citizens fighting for Russia as illegal mercenaries and the online recruiters as human traffickers.

“Cuba is not part of the war conflict in Ukraine,” said a statement from Cuba’s Foreign Ministry. “It is acting and will act vigorously against whomever, from the national territory, participates in any form of human trafficking for the purposes of recruitment or mercenarism so that Cuban citizens use weapons against any country.”

A special program dedicated to the affair on Cuban State-TV featured interviews with officials saying that a network of 17 people including alleged would-be mercenaries and traffickers had been arrested and if convicted could face punishments ranging from 30 years in prison to the death sentence.

“He was deceived,” Camuza said. “I hope they take that into account and evaluate that because like him there are many more. Whatever the prosecutor decides at least he is in Cuba. The other one, I hope he calls me.”

Conflicting messages

The open recruiting threatened to set back Russia’s relations with their former Cold War ally Cuba. Since the war began Cuban officials had increasingly echoed Russian propaganda that NATO aggression was to blame for its invasion of Ukraine. Russia, in turn, sent more shipments of crude oil to the island and promised greater foreign investment.

Still, Cuban officials appeared to have demonstrated forcefully that they were refusing to become directly involved in the war by allowing their citizens to serve in the Russian military with explicit Cuban state approval.

But muddled messaging quickly left even experienced Cuba watchers baffled.

On Thursday, Cuba’s ambassador to Moscow was quoted by Russian media outlets as saying that Cuba does not oppose the “legal participation” of its citizens in the Russian special operation in Ukraine, as long as they were not recruited by third parties.

“We have nothing against the Cubans who want to sign a contract and legally take part in this operation with the Russian army. But we oppose illegality, and these operations are not within a legal framework,” said Cuba’s ambassador to Russia Julio Garmendía Peña, referring to the ad hoc online recruiting efforts, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti. 

Without responding to Garmendía’s comments directly, hours later, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla again issued a statement saying that Cuban citizens under no circumstances were permitted to fight abroad.

Behind the scenes, Cuban officials fumed that the ambassador’s comments were a bothersome distraction just as Cuban diplomats were holding a meeting with US officials in Washington, DC and the day before Havana hosted the G77+China summit of developing nations.

“It’s a comedy of errors,” said Pedro Freyre, a Cuban-American lawyer who met with officials in Havana frequently during the Obama-era détente with the communist-run island. “It would be funny except for the unfortunate circumstance that young Cubans are being exposed to death.”

For those Cubans fighting for money on the other side of the world, their choices now seem to be exile in a war zone, or prosecution and a lengthy jail sentence back home.

“What will happen to my son?”

Mike Babcock has resigned as the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets, the team announced on Sunday.

“Upon reflection, it has become clear that continuing as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets was going to be too much of a distraction,” Babcock said in the statement. “While I’m disappointed to not have had the opportunity to continue the work we’ve begun, I know it’s in the best interest of the organization for me to step away at this time. I wish everyone in the organization well in the upcoming season.”

Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen called it a “difficult” but “necessary” decision to “ensure our focus remains on the players and the team’s upcoming season.”

The resignation comes after former National Hockey League (NHL) player and current TNT host Paul Bissonette said on his Barstool Sports podcast, “Spittin’ Chiclets,” last week that a player told him Babcock asked Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner to show him photos on his phone to “let him know the type of person you are.”

Both Babock and Jenner called the allegations a “misrepresentation” of what had actually happened.

“While meeting with our players and staff, I asked them to share, off their phones, family pictures as part of the process of getting to know them better,” Babcock said in a statement last week. “There was absolutely nothing more to it than that. The way this was portrayed on the ‘Spittin’ Chiclets’ podcast was a gross misrepresentation of those meetings and extremely offensive. … These meetings have been very important and beneficial, not only for me but for our players and staff as well, and to have them depicted like this is irresponsible and completely inaccurate.”

The 30-year-old, 10-year NHL veteran Jenner also denied the allegations and backed up Babcock’s statement.

“While meeting with Babs, he asked me about my family and where I’m from, my upcoming wedding and hockey-related stuff,” Jenner said. “He then asked if I had pictures of my family and I was happy to share some with him. He showed me pictures of his family. I thought it was a great first meeting and good way for us to start to build a relationship. To have this blown out of proportion is truly disappointing.”

The team named Pascal Vincent the new head coach on Sunday, also announcing they signed the 51-year-old Vincent to a two-year contract through next season.

Vincent joined the Blue Jackets as an associate coach in 2021 after spending 10 seasons with the Winnipeg Jets organization.

“Pascal Vincent is an outstanding coach,” Kekalainen said. “He knows our players and organization and is respected by everyone here. He was a strong candidate for our head coaching position several months ago and is in the best position to help us navigate this change as we begin camp and lead our team moving forward.”

In July, Babcock was named the ninth coach in Blue Jackets history after coaching the Anaheim Ducks, Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs previously. The 60-year-old helped lead the Ducks to the Stanley Cup final in 2003 and the Red Wings to a Stanley Cup victory in 2008. Babcock compiled a record of 700-418-19-164. Babcock’s 700 wins are 12th-most in NHL history.

Sahith Theegala’s first PGA Tour triumph had a home from home vibe about it.

A delirious ensemble of more than 35 friends and family packed behind the ropes to roar the California-born golfer to Fortinet Championship glory in Napa on Sunday.

The 25-year-old signed off with a four-under 68 to finish 21-under overall, putting him two shots clear of South Korea’s S.H. Kim as Theegala secured a first PGA Tour victory on his 74th start.

“It doesn’t feel real,” Theegala, who claimed a $1.512 milllion share of an $8.4 million prize pot with the win, told reporters.

“It’s probably not going to set in for while. But man, that was a lot of good golf, and that was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. I had so many family and friends cheering me on, the support I have is mind blowing.

“This feeling is incredible, and I couldn’t have done it without my whole team and everyone out here. This is such a team effort, and for me to just put it together like this, it means the world to me.”

Conducting the orchestra of support at Silverado Resort was Theegala’s father, ‘Murli’ Muralidhar, whose request for a stack of extra tickets for family and friends – many of whom had driven through the night from Southern California – was duly accepted by the PGA Tour.

Theegala senior was dialed in from the outset, howling with delight and high-fiving the accompanying party as his son began the day with a birdie. Similar celebrations followed with increasing vigor as he watched the world No. 29 rattle off six further birdies to edge closer to a long-awaited victory.

A heartbreaking late collapse at the Phoenix Open in February 2022 was captured in painful intimacy in Netflix’s fly-on-the-wall docuseries “Full Swing,” with a devastated Theegala consoled by his father and mother Karuna.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, you’ll get your day soon,” they told their son, who finished one short shy of making the playoff, won eventually by Scottie Scheffler.

Pipe dreams

Sure enough, 17 months later, that day arrived, with Theegala making a beeline for his parents after tapping home at the 18th.

“I’m so proud of him,” Theegala’s father told reporters.

“This goes a long for his career, feeling confident that he could do it on his own, he doesn’t have to depend on others. I think this is why I was proud him, that I knew he could do it.

“When he won in college four times, I told him realistically on the PGA Tour he may have won only one of a hundred, and he proved me wrong.”

And Theegala had plenty of praise in return for his father, who moved to the United States from India in 1987 and played a pivotal role in supporting his son’s “pipe dreams” of a career in pro golf.

“My dad’s the reason I’m here today,” Theegala said.

“All he knew when he came from India was academics and to study. Him and my mom did such a good job of learning how to almost hybrid parent between this Indian culture and American culture and let me play sports.

“I think at first it was hard for maybe some of my family, and even friends, to understand why I was trying to chase playing professional golf. Seems like kind of a pipe dream, but my dad had my back the whole time. He just believed in me from the start and knew that this could be a thing.

“He was really hard on me, but also one of my best friends. Always told me to have fun – the main thing was to just enjoy it, because if you don’t enjoy it, there’s no purpose in doing it, life’s too short.”

Heritage

It continues a fine spell for athletes with Indian heritage in Theegala’s sport and beyond.

England’s Aaron Rai, a golfer of Kenyan-Indian descent, finished just one shot off BMW PGA Championship winner Ryan Fox on Sunday, while in Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma, India now has two men’s players inside the world’s top-200 golfers.

In August, Neeraj Chopra – who claimed an unprecedented first track and field Olympic gold medal for India in Tokyo two years ago – etched more history with a gold in the men’s javelin at the World Athletics Championship in Budapest, Hungary.

“I’m very proud of my Indian heritage. I just love seeing other Indians sort of rise to the occasion in sports,” Theegala said.

“Hopefully we’re breaking some stereotypes about athleticism and competing in sport and all that. There’s a lot of things I do in daily life where that stems from my culture and my heritage.

“It means a lot, and I think hopefully this is the start of something really good for Indian sport.”

Frank Lomani’s game-ending kick may have drifted wide of the posts, but that mattered little for Fiji’s players. As the final whistle blew on the Rugby World Cup group stage match, they could now celebrate beating Australia for the first time in the tournament’s history – and a first victory against the Wallabies since 1954.

The joyous celebrations that followed the 22-15 win were worthy of the historic occasion: substitutes ran onto the pitch to embrace their teammates, while others fell to the ground in disbelief.

Soon after, the players huddled together and – as is a tradition for Fijian rugby teams – sang a hymn to give their thanks to God.

Having lost to Wales in its opening World Cup game, the win against Australia, just Fiji’s third victory ever against the two-time world champion, now gives Fiji a good chance of reaching the quarterfinals of the competition.

“We treated this game as a final for us,” said try-scorer Josua Tuisova – a mentality that clearly reaped rewards.

Australia led 8-6 after Mark Nawaqanitawase took a quick lineout and linked up with Samu Kerevi for the game’s opening try, but Fiji responded through Simione Kuruvoli’s excellent goal-kicking.

Tuisova increased his side’s advantage at the start of the second half when he raced into the corner after Australia had failed to gather a high box kick, before Kuruvoli’s conversion and a Lomani penalty inched Fiji towards a famous win.

The Wallabies rallied late on and came within seven points through Suli Vunivalu’s try, but it wasn’t enough to mount a comeback.

“It was a good win against a very good Australian team,” Fiji’s head coach Simon Raiwalui told reporters. “We could have easily got distracted last week with the loss, but the boys applied themselves, trained well all week, and prepared themselves. The result was a direct relation to the preparation that the boys put in.”

For Australia, which beat Georgia in its opening World Cup game but suffered five defeats in the two months prior to the tournament, this will lead to further questions and soul-searching.

The two-time world champion, level with Fiji on six points, must now realistically beat Wales on Sunday to avoid elimination at the group stages for the first time.

Fiji, on the other hand, faces a more positive immediate future. Sunday’s win, which comes just weeks after a first win against England, could prove a turning point for the small Pacific Island nation of around 930,000 people.

Rugby is ubiquitous in Fiji, and its fans are among the most passionate in the world. But despite having a glut of talented players, limited resources, a lack of professional club teams, and few opportunities to compete at a high level have stunted the country’s progress.

Often struggling against “tier one” nations – so-called because they play in rugby’s top-level international competitions – the Flying Fijians, as the team is nicknamed, have failed to get past the pool stages of a Rugby World Cup since 2007, when they lost a memorable quarterfinal against South Africa.

“We wanted to change … our identity, what we stood for,” said Raiwalui, who was appointed head coach in February. “We have traditional areas where those ‘tier one’ teams – developed nations – attack us. I think those are areas where we’ve really improved.

“Teams talking of us as a bunch of very talented individuals is passing … It’s all credit to these boys; we’ve put the framework in place and they’ve put the work in.”

Against Australia, Fiji’s discipline and game management was superior, conceding seven penalties to the Wallabies’ 18 and turning the ball over 11 times.

Raiwalui’s team will now be confident of getting wins against Georgia and Portugal and potentially reaching the knockout rounds. Securing two losing bonus points against Wales – one for scoring four tries, another for losing by less than seven points – may prove decisive later in the tournament.

Fiji’s progress has no doubt benefitted from the formation of the Fijian Drua, a professional club side now playing alongside teams from New Zealand and Australia in Super Rugby.

“With Drua, you see not only do they try and educate [the players] around being professional, they also give them game-time, quality game-time at the Super Rugby level,” Fiji’s kicking coach Seremaia Bai told reporters.

“I think it’s massively positive for the development of rugby and you can see the way most of the boys who played in the Drua – it’s really improved the performance of the team.”

According to Bai, the next step would be for Fiji to earn a place alongside New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, and Australia in the Rugby Championship.

“[That] would be a massive, massive boost for such a small country as Fiji,” he added. “If you want to be the best you have to play with the best and New Zealand and Australia are not far away from Fiji.”

Limited resources can still be an issue for “tier two” rugby nations like Fiji, especially as they attempt to bridge the gap to their rivals at the top of the sport.

At this year’s World Cup, however, Raiwalui said that the team has been given the funding for a pastor, who is providing his players with support and religious guidance.

“We’ve prepared with what we’ve got as best we can … We were able to bring a talatala in – a reverend,” he said.

“You talk about mental wellbeing, but it’s our mental wellbeing being in connection with our religion, being in connection with our people. Our game and our campaign being geared towards [that] is important for us as Fijians.”