figures

Parker vs Wardley: Briton weights 20lb lighter as both heavyweights cut confident figures

The Ipswich fighter came in at 17st 5lb (110 kg), consistent with his recent bouts.

“This is the one before the one. All the work is done. Training is ticked off. All the hard work is put in. Let’s get some rest now. Big night coming up tomorrow,” he added.

Spitalfields Market in east London saw more than fresh produce on the scales as the two heavyweights squared up for the final time before fight night.

Parker winked at the camera and bobbed along to the music.

As he flexed his muscles, he looked hefty and powerful as he tipped the scales at 18st 10lb (119 kg), just five pounds lighter than his career-heaviest.

It is a far cry from the 16st 12lb (107 kg) version who lost his world title to Anthony Joshua in 2018.

“We’re weary, we’re cautious, but I’m going to fight fire with fire and I’m going to get to him,” Parker said.

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Defence chiefs hit by nearly 300 suspected security breaches every week, figures show

DEFENCE chiefs were hit by nearly 300 suspected security breaches every week, latest figures show.

The toll, for the first half of last year, more than doubled in two years.

It included staff posting sensitive information on social media and gaming sites.

Military personnel have also given away secrets on their OnlyFans subscription pages, while restricted papers have been found in the street.

Blunders have included revealing the position of troops and ships, the security of military bases and details on weaponry and manoeuvres.

Figures obtained by The Sun show that in 2023 — the most recent full year with available stats — there were 12,713 security incidents.

In the first six months of 2024 there were a further 7,710. In 2021, the MoD recorded just 5,522.

There are no rules banning personnel from joining social networks as long as they maintain high standards.

This year Apache helicopter pilot Harry Bourne was dishonourably discharged from the Army for sharing videos and photos of himself on OnlyFans which revealed secrets of Wattisham Airfield, in Suffolk.

Security expert Graham Cluley said: “It all sounds like a joke but it’s deadly serious.”

The Ministry of Defence said: “We take data security extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring incidents are dealt with properly.”

Soldier standing in front of a military helicopter.

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Apache helicopter pilot Harry Bourne was dishonourably discharged from the Army for sharing videos and photos of himself on OnlyFansCredit: REBEL AGENCY

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U.S. sanctions head of Tren de Aragua, five key figures

July 18 (UPI) — The United States has sanctioned the head of the Tren de Aragua gang and five key leaders and affiliates as the Trump administration targets criminal organizations as part of its immigration crackdown.

Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, 42, is accused of being the leader of Tren de Aragua, and of expanding it from a Venezuelan prison gang involved in extortion and bribery to what the Treasury said was “an organization with growing influence throughout the Western Hemisphere.”

Under the previous Biden administration, the State Department issued a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to his arrest or conviction.

Guerrero Flores, also known as Nino Guerrero, was sanctioned Thursday by the Treasury, along with Yohan Jose Romero, 47, Josue Angel Santana Pena, 30, Wilmer Jose Perez Castillo, 39, Wendy Marbelys Rios Gomez, 45, and Felix Anner Castillo Rondon, 41.

“Today’s action highlights the critical role of leaders like Nino Guerrero and his lieutenants in Tren de Aragua’s efforts to increase its destabilizing influence throughout the region,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“The Trump administration will not allow Tren de Aragua to continue to terrorize our communities and harm innocent Americans.”

The sanctions freeze all property under the designated individual’s name and bar U.S. persons from doing business with them.

Tren de Aragua has been a target of the Trump administration, which has sought to conduct mass deportations and close the border to undocumented migrants.

On Feb. 20, the U.S. State Department designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.

The following month, President Donald Trump tried to use the gang, under unfounded claims it was “perpetrating, attempting and threatening an invasion” of the United States, to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador — a move that has since been blocked by the courts.

The FBI on Thursday also added Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, with the State Department offering a reward of up to $3 million for information leading to his arrest of conviction.

Mosquera Serrano is accused of being a leader of Tren de Aragua and is the first member of the gang to be added to the FBI’s infamous list.

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Key Ivory Coast opposition figures banned from October presidential vote | Elections News

The Electoral Commission head has said no revision of the electoral register will take place before the poll.

Four prominent opposition figures in the Ivory Coast have been excluded from the final electoral list, according to the Electoral Commission, leaving them ineligible to contest pivotal October presidential elections in a nation with not-too-distant memories of civil war and coup attempts.

“My elimination from the electoral list by the Independent Electoral Commission [CEI] is a sad but eloquent example of Ivory Coast’s drift towards a total absence of democracy,” Tidjane Thiam, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI), said in a statement on Wednesday.

Thiam’s statement came two days after CEI head Ibrahime Kuibiert Coulibaly announced that no revision of the electoral register would take place before the vote.

Thiam, who was widely seen as the main challenger to President Alassane Ouattara, was struck from the voter roll in April after a court ruled that he was not eligible to run for president because of his dual Ivorian-French nationality. Thiam, who was born in Ivory Coast, received French nationality in 1987 but renounced it in March.

Other major Ivorian candidates excluded from the vote include former President Laurent Gbagbo and his close ally Charles Ble Goude, who was charged with crimes against humanity related to the civil war.

The former prime minister and rebel leader Guillaume Soro is also barred. He was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for organising a coup.

None of the four will be able to run in the October 25 presidential race or vote.

Ouattara, who has been in power since 2011, is included on the electoral register but has yet to announce if he will seek a fourth term.

In 2015 and 2020, Ouattara won with more than 80 percent of the vote.

Thiam has appealed to the UN Human Rights Committee, his party said.

His lawyer Mathias Chichportich said in a statement sent to the AFP news agency that depriving the opposition leader of “his political rights” was “a serious violation of Ivory Coast’s international commitments”.

Gbagbo’s African Peoples’ Party-Ivory Coast (PPA-CI) complained that the authorities “did not choose to listen to the advice, the calls for discussion, for reason”, its Secretary-General Jean-Gervais Tcheide told AFP.

“It’s a shame they chose to force their way through,” he said, adding: “We’re not going to let them do it.”

Other opposition figures who announced their plans to run for the presidency are featured on the final electoral list.

They include former First Lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, who, speaking on behalf of an opposition coalition, said that the conditions were not met for a “peaceful, calm election”.

During the 2020 presidential election, a revision of the electoral list took place in June ahead of the October polling day.

The final electoral register for this year’s ballot includes the names of 8.7 million voters, in a country with a high immigrant population and where nearly half of the 30 million inhabitants are under the age of 18.

Authorities deny any political interference in the electoral process, insisting that they respect decisions made by an independent judiciary.

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Mali dissolves all political parties after opposition figures ‘arrested’ | Politics News

Human rights groups say politicians have been forcibly disappeared in recent days

Mali’s military government has dissolved all political parties after accusations from rights groups that opposition figures have been arrested.

Assimi Goita, who seized power in two army coups in 2020 and 2021, validated the decision after it was broadcast to Malians in a televised statement on Tuesday.

The parties were disbanded after demonstrations this month, demanding the country returned to democratic rule.

Protesters gathered on May 3 and 4, carrying placards with slogans reading, “Down with dictatorship, long live democracy,” in a rare public rebuke of the military government, which had promised to hold elections in 2022.

A national conference held in April recommended extending Goita’s presidency until 2030, drawing condemnation from opposition figures and human rights groups.

In response to another protest that had been planned on Friday, the military government issued a decree suspending all political activities across the country.

The move forced opposition groups to cancel the demonstration, and the government has now tightened its grip further.

The clampdown has coincided with reports of disappearances of opposition figures. Human rights groups said several politicians have been forcibly disappeared in recent days.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Abba Alhassane, the secretary-general of the Convergence for the Development of Mali (CODEM), was “arrested” by “masked gunmen”.

That same day, El Bachir Thiam, the leader of the Yelema party, was reportedly seized by unidentified men in Kati, a town outside the capital.

On Tuesday, a CODEM member speaking on condition of anonymity told the Reuters news agency that the party had lost contact with Abdoul Karim Traore, a youth leader, and feared he too had been abducted.

Malian authorities have not commented on the reported arrests.

Goita first seized power in August 2020 amid escalating attacks from armed groups affiliated with ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda’s regional affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).

In July 2020, protests against the former civilian government were violently repressed with at least 14 people killed during a crackdown by security forces.

The military then ousted the elected government, citing its failure to tackle the armed groups.

In December last year, HRW reported that Malian soldiers alongside Russian Wagner Group fighters “deliberately killed” at least 32 civilians and burned more than 100 homes in central and northern Mali.

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