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COLUMBUS, Mont. - A bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River in Montana collapsed early Saturday, plunging portions of a freight train carrying hazardous materials into the rushing water below. David Stamey, the county’s chief of emergency services, said there was no immediate danger for the crews working at the site, and the hazardous material was being diluted by the swollen river. The area is in a sparsely populated section of the Yellowstone River Valley, surrounded by ranch and farmland. The river there flows away from Yellowstone National Park, which is about 110 miles southwest. ADVERTISEMENT. The Yellowstone saw record flooding in 2022 that caused extensive damage to Yellowstone National Park and adjacent towns in Montana.

While Russia scrambled to defend itself from its own paramilitary forces on Saturday, Ukrainian leaders said their own forces managed to make advancements in Russian-occupied territory. The Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organization led by Yevgeny Prigozhin - a former ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin - marched across Russia on Saturday, coming within hours of Moscow. The BBC reported that Ukraine has made advances since launching its counter-offensive on June 4, including in the days and hours before the Wagner Group’s apparently brief insurrection. While Ukraine continued its efforts to retake territory, Russia was forced to defend itself from itself. Before the Wagner Group fighters turned back, Russian security officials were gearing up to defend Moscow.

The Wagner group is a private military army that’s been fighting alongside Russia’s regular army in Ukraine, but tensions over how the war has been fought have been building for months. Putin has appeared to acknowledge that Russia’s military has lost control of Rostov-on-Don and there are indications Wagner fighters have moved north to Voronezh, about 320 miles from Moscow. Ukrainian officials declined to comment directly on whether Prigozhin was leading an insurrection against Putin. U.S. officials observing the chaos unfolding in Russia Saturday have reached few conclusions about the rupture between Putin and Prigozhin. Prigozhin, 61, is the head of the Wagner mercenary group, a paramilitary organization that was supporting the Russian government in its war against Ukraine before Prigozhin apparently turned against Russia’s military.

The increasingly public feud between Russian military leaders and the head of a Russian paramilitary group escalated dramatically on Friday, when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the paramilitary Wagner Group, accused Russian armed forces of attacking his soldiers and vowed retaliation. Prigozhin, whose Wagner forces helped take the city of Bakhmut, has been increasingly vocal in his attacks against the Russian military’s leaders, posting more and more scathing criticism of the top brass over the war effort and accusing generals of denying Wagner the ammunition and support needed to fight effectively. Prigozhin has claimed to be the founder of the Wagner Group, but the reality is likely much more complicated. In one video Prigozhin posted in May, he stands in a field, apparently surrounded by corpses of dead Wagner fighters. Even before Prigozhin escalated his rivalry with the Russian military this week, experts I’ve spoken to really doubted Prigozhin was actually a Putin rival and could build his own power center in the Russian state.

OceanGate Expeditions listed a job posting for a submersible pilot on its web site while a frantic search and rescue mission was underway for five missing tourists in the doomed Titan bound for the Titanic wreckage site. Social media was abuzz on Friday after screenshots of the ad, which was posted before the Coast Guard announced on Thursday that all five people aboard the Titan had perished, were widely circulated. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was among the five people who died in the Titan submersible. The passengers included 61-year-old OceanGate boss, Rush, as well as Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet, UK billionaire explorer Hamish Harding and Pakistani billionaire and mogul Shanzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman. Filed under missing titanic sub , social media , TikTok , twitter , 6/23/23.

Warnings over the safety of OceanGate’s Titan submersible were repeatedly dismissed by the CEO of the company, email exchanges with a leading deep sea exploration specialist show. In messages seen by the BBC, Rob McCallum told OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush that he was potentially putting his clients at risk and urged him to stop using the sub until it had been classified by an independent body. Mr McCallum told the BBC that he repeatedly urged the company to seek certification for the Titan before using it for commercial tours. Mr Rush founded OceanGate in 2009 and the company offered customers a chance to experience deep sea travel, including to the wreck of the Titanic, on board Titan for a price of $250,000. Experts have questioned the safety of Titan and how private sector deep-sea expeditions are regulated.

Three orcas attacked the Dutch sailing team JAJO during a leg of the Ocean Race on Thursday. The orcas attacked when the team was just off the Strait of Gibraltar in the leg from The Hague to Genoa. The team was in second place in the Ocean Race when the Orcas attacked and in fourth place once they could get sailing again. A spokesperson for the Ocean Race told Omroep West that, as far as they know, both the orcas and the crew escaped the attack unharmed. Brend Schuil, the on-board reporter aboard Team JAJO, told the broadcaster that the team was prepared for a possible orca attack because it has been known to happen in the area.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Four Thai nationals were charged Friday under Malaysia’s anti-trafficking laws in connection with the 2015 discovery of mass graves believed to be of Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis held in camps in a hilly jungle area on the country’s border with Thailand. Following cooperation with Thai authorities, he said the four men were caught and extradicted to Malaysia on Thursday to face charges. In May 2015, Malaysian police announced the discovery of a cluster of abandoned jungle camps used by human traffickers in Wang Kelian and later exhumed 139 bodies from mass graves there. A joint report in 2019 by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and Fortify Rights found gaps in the investigation and possible obstruction of justice. A Royal Commission of Inquiry set up by the government later said no Malaysian enforcement officials, public servants or local citizens were involved in trafficking syndicates but found negligence by border patrols.

California is partnering with Mexico to help find professional boxers owed pensions from a little-known state retirement plan, with two dozen former fighters located in recent weeks and pledges to identify more. The efforts follow a Times investigation that found most boxers owed benefits from the California Professional Boxers’ Pension Plan were unaware that the 40-year-old program existed or had little information about how to apply. The California State Athletic Commission, which administers the pension plan, said it estimates that at least a quarter of the 200 boxers currently owed benefits had a last known address in Mexico. Officials with the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego and Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they are helping California locate boxers using identity documents filed in Mexico and abroad to ensure those entitled to money receive it. The World Boxing Council, which is in Mexico City, is also working with the athletic commission to find boxers who are owed pensions.

US troops have entered Peru periodically for decades, but never for periods as long as this. Most of the US military personnel will be taking part in Resolute Sentinel 2023, a military exercise that will be staged across a number of regions of Peru between June and August. China is already Peru’s largest trading partner on both the exports and imports side while Peru is the second largest destination for Chinese investment in Latin America, behind only Brazil. A whopping 32% of Peru’s exports go to China, compared with just 12% to the US. But according to the report in Hildebrandt en sus trece, citing other documents by Craig Faller, Washington’s soft-power arm USAID will also be playing a part in the US’ counter-offensive against China and Russia in Peru. The US Ambassador to Peru, Lisa Kenna, is a former adviser to former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a nine-year veteran at the Central Intelligence Agency.