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☆ Raygun: Viral Olympian ranked No. 1 breaker in the world by sport’s governing body
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-10 | by ( Samuel Joseph | Sam Joseph | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Australian breaker Rachael Gunn, the Olympian widely known as B-Girl Raygun who went viral after her performance at the Paris Games, is now ranked the No. The 37-year-old claimed the top spot in the latest women’s rankings released by the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) – the governing body of breaking and other dancesports. However, she won the gold medal at the 2023 WDSF Oceania Championships, securing her 1,000 ranking points and vaulting her up to No. “In alignment with the Olympic Qualification System, ranking events were intentionally not held between 31 December 2023 and the Olympic Games Paris 2024. From our perspective, that was nothing really shocking.”Raygun became one of the stories of the Paris Games after her performances at La Concorde Urban Park.

Persons: Rachael Gunn, Raygun, Japan’s Ami, Lithuania’s, WDSF, Robin, Ezra Shaw, Adele, Rachel Dratch, Jimmy Fallon, ” Raygun, –, ”, Martin Gilian, Frank Franklin, “, that’s, “ It’s Organizations: CNN, Paris Games, World DanceSport, Oceania, Oceania Championships, Olympic, Games, Olympic Games, Olympics, Getty, Twitter, Concorde Urban Locations: United States, France, Lithuania, Japan, Paris, Shanghai, Budapest, Australia, Munich, Los Angeles

☆ Raygun: Australian breaker praised for her ‘courage’ and ‘character’ after viral performances at the Paris Olympics
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-12 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Rachael Gunn arrived in Paris as a competitive breaker excited to make her Olympic debut. Recently, that took her all the way to the Paris Olympics, where 32 athletes – known as B-boys and B-girls – were competing at the Games for the first time. Raygun competes against Logistx at the Paris Olympics. “All my moves are original,” Raygun said after competing in Paris. Raygun said that all of her breaking moves are original.

Persons: Rachael Gunn, Gunn –, Raygun, –, USA’s Logistx, France’s, Lithuania’s Nicka, Adele, Harry Langer, ” Raygun, “, ”, Martin Gilian, Sergey Nifontov, ” Gunn, Ezra Shaw, ” Anna Meares Organizations: CNN, Paris Olympics, Games, Concorde, Twitter, Sydney’s Macquarie University, Logistx, Oceania, Olympics, DanceSport, Getty, Olympic, International Olympic Committee Locations: Paris, Sydney, Australia, Munich, New York City, Los Angeles

☆ A Head-Spinning Debut
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-10 | by ( Jonathan Abrams | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Breaking is a new sport at this year’s Summer Olympics — at least we’ll call it a sport for the sake of the Games. You probably know it as break dancing, the art form in which performers spin, pose, glide and dance across the floor with incredible athleticism and charisma. The event debuted yesterday in Paris with the women’s, or B-Girls’, competition. Ami Yuasa of Japan, known as B-Girl Ami, bested Lithuania’s Dominika Banevic, or B-Girl Nicka, to win breaking’s first gold medal. The dance spread nationally and globally through movies like “Beat Street” and pioneering crews providing demonstrations in countries like Japan and England.

Persons: Ami Yuasa, Ami, Lithuania’s Dominika, I’ll, Red Bull Organizations: Red Locations: Paris, Japan, New York, England, Europe

☆ Mykolas Alekna: Son of a two-time Olympic champion, the Lithuanian will aim to carry on his father’s legacy
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-04 | by ( Martynas Ruseckas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Lithuanian discus thrower Mykolas Alekna is poised to carry on the legacy of his father, Virgilijus, who holds an Olympic record in the same discipline. His 69.89-meter throw in Athens 2004 guaranteed the then-32-year-old a second Olympic gold medal, having also won in Sydney 2000. The world record followed in April 2024, when all his six throws – alongside his new all-time mark – were over the elite 70-meter mark. Deep-rooted traditionAlekna’s success in the discus throw is testament to Lithuania’s deep-rooted tradition in this field event – the Baltic state has been hugely successful with the discus in hand. Virgilijus Alekna’s victories on the global stage helped to popularize the sport, and now, finals of discus throw are among the most-watched Olympic events in Lithuania.

Persons: Bronny James, LeBron, Mykolas Alekna, Virgilijus, Jürgen, Alekna, you’ll, ” Virgilijus, Mykolas, –, Romas Ubartas, Ubartas, Martynas, Andrius Gudžius –, Lukas Weißhaidinger, Daniel Ståhl Organizations: CNN, Sydney, Sydney Games, University of California, Seoul Games, Soviet Union, Paris Games, League –, Lithuanian, European Athletics, Tokyo Games Locations: Paris, Lithuanian, Athens, Berkeley, Munich, Bavarian, Baltic, European, Soviet Union, Barcelona, Lithuania, Soviet, Rome, Slovenian, Sweden

☆ Ukraine war: European nations turn to conscription as threat of wider war with Russia grows
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-21 | by ( Radina Gigova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Several European nations have reintroduced or expanded compulsory military service amid Moscow’s mounting threat, part of a range of policies aimed at boosting defenses that are likely to be scaled up even further. Compulsory military service was reintroduced on January 1 this year, after being abolished in 2006. In the UK, the Conservatives floated the idea of military service in their ill-fated election campaign. In Lithuania, for instance, opinions about military service among students vary, said Paulius Vaitiekus, president of Lithuania’s National Students’ Union. However as an alliance we do not prescribe mandatory military service,” Dakhlallah said.

Persons: ”, Robert Hamilton, Vladimir Putin “, Wesley Clark, we’ve, Clark, “, Arturs Pīlācis, Ints Kalnins, Jonas Gahr Støre, Jens Bartnes, ” Bartnes, Max Henrik Arvidson, Boris Pistorius, Thomas Frey, Sean Monaghan, Paulius Vaitiekus, Vaitiekus, Monaghan, Hamilton, it’s, ” Radebo, Mikael Sjoberg, Russia’s, Farah Dakhlallah, Dakhlallah, ” Dakhlallah, ” Monaghan, Donald Trump –, ” Clark Organizations: CNN, Foreign Policy Research Institute, US Army, Allied, Europe, NATO, ” Latvian, Reuters, European Union, Conservatives, Federal, of Defense, Eurasia Program, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Lithuania’s, ’ Union, Finnish Defence Forces, Swedish Armed Forces, Marinette, Ministry of Defense, Bloomberg, Getty Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Kyiv, Europe, Eurasia, Kosovo, Scandinavia, Latvia, ”, Riga, Norway, Norwegian, Germany, B'chel, Lithuania, Ukrainian, NATO, Finland, Soviet Union, Sweden, NATO’s, Swedish, Gotland, Visby, Moscow, Crimea

A pile of flowers blanketed a small memorial in the center of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius after the death of the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny last month. The impromptu tribute at the memorial, an unassuming pyramid commemorating victims of Soviet repression, has highlighted Vilnius’s growing status as the center of Russian political opposition. In Vilnius, exiled Russian journalists have set up studios to broadcast news to millions of compatriots back home on YouTube. Russian activists have rented offices to catalog the Kremlin’s human rights abuses, and exiled Russian musicians have recorded new albums for the audience back home. The arrival of the Russian dissidents in Vilnius has added to a larger wave of Russian-speaking refugees and migrants from Belarus and Ukraine over the past four years.

Persons: Aleksei A, “ Putin, ”, Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: Lithuanian, YouTube Locations: Lithuanian, Vilnius, Russia, Ukraine, Russian, Belarus

☆ NATO’s next challenge: How to reverse years of underfunding defense
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Luke Mcgee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

For over a decade, allies have chronically underspent on defense while the West’s adversaries modernized and bolstered their own military capabilities. Defense spending stayed low across the West not just because of budget pressures, but also because everyone – including the US – was frightened to provoke Russia. However, the nature of NATO allies’ support for Ukraine – much of it direct military support – has exposed the vulnerability that years of underfunding has caused the alliance. Fabian Bimmer/Pool/ReutersThis means that the challenge in front of NATO allies now is not just how can they meet the demand for weapons coming from Ukraine, but how do they reverse years of underfunding their own defenses? Some allies don’t trust that others will be quite so generous with defense spending if the Russia-Ukraine war were to end.

Persons: Vladimir Putin’s, Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, Murat Kula, ”, ” John Herbst, Antony Blinken, Ulf Kristersson, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, underfunding, It’s, Herbst, NATO’s, –, Jens Stoltenberg, Olaf Scholz, Fabian Bimmer, Stoltenberg, ” Stoltenberg, Peter Ricketts, Douglas Lute, “ Organizations: CNN, NATO, Turkish, Anadolu Agency, Pentagon, “, Swedish, US State Department, Getty, Ukraine, Rheinmetall, Trump Locations: Soviet, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, United States, British, Vilnius, Russia, Kyiv, Europe, Germany, AFP, North Korea, Iran, Washington, Unterluess, Baltic, Brussels, Finland, Sweden, NATO

☆ Putin is coasting towards another term in power. Here’s what to know about Russia’s presidential election
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Russia is holding a presidential election that is all but certain to extend Vladimir Putin’s rule throughout this decade and into the 2030s. But this is not a normal election; the poll is essentially a constitutional box-ticking exercise that carries no prospect of removing Putin from power. But that is not to say Russians expect the election to change the direction of the country. Russia’s elections are neither free nor fair, and serve essentially as a formality to extend Putin’s term in power, according to independent bodies and observers both in and outside the country. In order to vote against Putin, you just need to vote for any other candidate,” he said on February 8.

Persons: Vladimir Putin’s, Putin, Alexey Navalny, Natalia Kolesnikova, Joseph Stalin, Putin’s, Dmitry Medvedev, euphemistically, —, Abbas Gallyamov, Gallyamov, ”, Callum Fraser, Nikolay Kharitonov, Leonid Slutsky, Vladislav Davankov, Davankov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Boris Nadezhdin, Yekaterina Duntsova, Duntsova, Leonid Volkov, Volkov, Stringer, Alexey Navalny –, –, Yulia Navalnaya, “, “ Putin, Don’t, Navalnaya Organizations: CNN, Russian, Duma, Getty, Levada, Central, Commission, Royal United Services Institute, Communist Party, Slutsky, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Kremlin, CEC, Freedom, Putin, European Union, Foreign Affairs Locations: Russia, Ukraine, AFP, Soviet, Lithuanian, Vilnius, Chechen, Grozny, Moscow, Russian

☆ Top Navalny Aide Attacked With Hammer Outside Home in Lithuania
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Leonid Volkov, who served as one of Mr. Navalny’s top organizers, was pulling up to his house in Vilnius when the attack happened. Mr. Volkov survived the attack. Photographs posted online by another top aide to Mr. Navalny showed Mr. Volkov conscious but injured, with a mark on his head and blood streaming from one leg. Other photographs showed the bashed-in window of his car, which was parked in a driveway in front of a children’s basketball hoop. Later in the evening, the aide posted a photograph of Mr. Volkov being loaded into an ambulance and taken to the hospital.

Persons: Aleksei A, Navalny’s, Leonid Volkov, Kira Yarmysh, Volkov, Navalny, Ms, Yarmysh Locations: Russian, Lithuania’s, Vilnius, “

Helsinki, Finland CNN —More than 500 days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the war loomed over President Joe Biden’s weeklong, three-stop trip to Europe. Drama over Ukraine’s membershipUkraine was the top agenda item for NATO leaders in Vilnius, and the discussion of a pathway for the war-torn country to join the alliance prompted division among leaders. After meeting with Zelensky for more than an hour, Biden told reporters that he was able to reassure his Ukrainian counterpart. The former president raised the prospect of withdrawing from the alliance multiple times in 2018, The New York Times reported. I don’t think NATO’s ever been stronger,” Biden said during his meeting with Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö

Persons: Finland CNN —, Joe Biden’s weeklong, reasserting, Biden, Jens Stoltenberg, Ulf Kristersson, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Monday, Erdoğan, ”, Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Donald Trump’s, Trump’s, –, ” Biden, Trump, Rishi Sunak, King Charles III, Putin, “, Stoltenberg, Wang Wenbin, Biden “, “ I’ve, Sauli Niinistö Organizations: Finland CNN, Russia, NATO, Zelensky, Vilnius University, Nordic, Senate, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Ministry, Microsoft, House, Lithuania, State, Government Locations: Helsinki, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Washington, Turkey, Sweden, Ankara, Vilnius, London, Finnish, China, Beijing, Asia, Indonesia, Hiroshima

☆ What Zelensky wanted from NATO – and what he got
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Christian Edwards | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —At last year’s NATO summit in Madrid, the alliance formally invited Sweden and Finland to join its ranks. But NATO membership is far more significant than military hardware, and it may be some time before Kyiv’s final wish is granted. “This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine’s membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. However, the ultimate goal of NATO membership looks likely to elude Zelensky for some time. Wallace reminded reporters Wednesday that before the summit the question of Ukraine’s NATO membership was still an “if.” Now, it’s a “when.”

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Zaporizhzhia –, Putin’s, ” Zelensky, Pavel Golovkin, Joe Biden, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Biden, ” “ We’re, We’re, ”, Ben Wallace, Wallace, ” Biden, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, Dmytro Kuleba, “, Jens Stoltenberg Organizations: CNN, NATO, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sweden’s, AP, Sunday, UK, Getty, Foreign, Twitter Locations: Madrid, Sweden, Finland, Vilnius, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Vilnius ’, Lithuania’s, United States, Russia, NATO, Zelensky, AFP, Kyiv, Vilnius –, Germany, France

☆ NAFO: The pro-Ukraine internet 'fellas' using Shiba Inu memes to fight Russian propaganda
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Jill Dougherty | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

“NAFO” stands for the North Atlantic Fellas Organization and is a decentralized online volunteer organization that is waging its own social media war against Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. Over the weekend, the group held its own summit in Lithuania’s capital, which was opened by the country’s foreign minister. A cartoon Shiba Inu, wearing the blue and yellow colors of Ukraine's flag, pops up behind Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in a video she shared on Twitter. Some fellas are Ukrainian soldiers, who are fighting on the front lines and provide pictures from the battlefield, mocking the incompetence of the Russian military or praising Ukrainian bravery. After identifying Russian propaganda or pro-Russian sympathizers, fellas pile on their posts with memes, humor, wry logic, and dismissive comments.

Persons: Kaja Kallas, Kallas, Petras Malulas, NAFO, Kamil Dyszewski, Gabrielius Landsbergis, Keir Giles, Matt Moores, you’ve, Maria Zakharova, ’ ”, Defense Oleksii Reznikov, ”, Shiba, Shiba Inu, Ben Wallace, Adam Kinzinger Organizations: CNN, Estonian, Atlantic Fellas Organization, Twitter, Getty, Georgian Legion, Center for Strategic, International, Russian Foreign, Union, Ukraine’s, Defense, United Kingdom’s, Ukraine Locations: Vilnius, Lithuania, Estonian, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania’s, AFP, Russian, Egypt

Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is not even in Belarus, Lukashenko told CNN – he is in Russia, Lukashenko claimed. Available satellite imagery has also not shown any signs of the kind of preparations and security that would be standard at a Russian nuclear facility. Russia has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, with 4,477 deployed and reserve nuclear warheads, including around 1,900 tactical nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists. “Putin does not need tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus to use those weapons,” Bergmann added. “But it is concerning to the US that tactical nuclear weapons could potentially be co-located in Belarus with Wagner fighters.

Persons: Wagner, Alexander Lukashenko, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Lukashenko, CNN –, Alexander Zemlianichenko, Vladimir Putin, Putin, ”, Max Bergmann, “ Putin, ” Bergmann, Lukashenko’s, Alexander Nemenov, Angela, Prigozhin, Leonid Kasinsky, ” Lukashenko Organizations: CNN, Wagner Group, Wagner PMC, Federation of American Scientists, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Directorate of, Ministry of Defense, Soviet Union, Experts, NATO, European Union, Lithuanian President’s Communication, Georgetown University, Kremlin, Wagner, Russian Ministry of Defense Locations: Russia, Europe, Belarus, Russian, Minsk, Belarusian, Tsel, Soviet, Vilnius, Lithuania, AFP, Poland, Belarus US, St . Petersburg

London CNN —Europe’s air traffic control authority says it has been battling an ongoing attack, claimed by pro-Russian hackers, since Wednesday. There hasn’t been any impact on flights, though access to its website has been affected, according to the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, or Eurocontrol. “There has been no impact on European aviation.”The International Air Transport Association also said air traffic was operating normally. “There has been no inconvenience to commercial air traffic, no disruption and no delays because of the cyberattack,” the industry group said. European countries have provided military assistance to Ukraine and imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia aimed at crippling its ability to wage war.

☆ Macron: France's 'tone deaf' president faces backlash over Taiwan comments
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Luke Mcgee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

In it, he said that Europe must not become “just America’s followers” when asked about the prospect of China invading Taiwan. One said that Macron is “simply tone deaf to everything happening in the world. They were surprised to see Macron’s comments so soon after that meeting. For all that Macron’s comments could be put down to a president under pressure at home doing things on the world stage to create a distraction, his comments on Taiwan have done real damage to the fragile transatlantic relationship. It might not have been his intention, but Macron’s comments have come at a yet unknown cost.

Since the early days of the invasion, Mr. Putin has conceded, privately, that the war has not gone as planned. “I think he is sincerely willing” to compromise with Russia, Mr. Putin said of Mr. Zelensky in 2019. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. “I think this war is Putin’s grave.” Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, in October.

☆ War Darkens a Second Winter in Lithuania
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-24 | by ( Karolis Vyšniauskas | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

They say that every generation has its war. As an aging millennial, born into Lithuania’s post-1990 democratic success story, I thought that the climate crisis and Covid would be enough for my cohort. Then, on Feb. 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, and along with many of my compatriots, I understood that nothing would be the same. Lithuanian language publications were banned and replaced by Cyrillic. Book smugglers became national heroes for illegally bringing Lithuanian books into the Russian empire and keeping the language alive.

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