7 Mar, 2026 17:35

HomeSport News

Russia wins first Winter Paralympic medals in 12 years

The athletes took two bronze medals, competing under their national flag for the first time in more than a decade

Russia has won its first Winter Paralympic medals since 2014, with Varvara Voronchikhina and Aleksey Bugaev taking bronze in the women’s and men’s downhill standing events in Italy on Saturday.

Voronchikhina, 23, is a two-time para-alpine skiing world champion and is representing Russia at her first Paralympics event due to a long-standing ban on Russian athletes.

“I’m really, really happy. Maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet, but this is my first medal… I really feel proud; it’s very nice! Both that our flag is hanging in the stands and at the opening ceremony,” she told journalists at Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Three-time gold medalist Bugaev also celebrated the ability to compete under his national flag once more.

“I’m glad I can represent my country again… It’s nice not to be accused of anything, not restricted, not forced into hiding, like in Korea. It’s just stupid!” he told journalists. “We’re glad we can compete on a regular basis and win medals.”

The Russian Paralympic team was cleared to compete once more in January, after Moscow won an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. The body was still barring athletes from Russia despite the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) fully reinstating Russian and Belarusian participation last year.

Many Russian athletes were banned from competing after a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigation in 2015, following allegations of state-sponsored doping – which Moscow has consistently denied.

Dozens of the bans were later overturned on appeal at the CAS, which said there had been insufficient evidence to impose sanctions.

The Milano Paralympics opened on Friday, and is set to run until March 15. The Russian Paralympians will compete in snowboarding on Sunday.

https://www.rt.com/russia/634112-russia-wins-winter-paralympic-medals/

6 Mar, 2026 18:44

How the Iran war is dividing Team Trump

The conflict has exposed deep rifts within the president’s MAGA coalition.1/3

Donald Trump’s war on Iran marks the US president’s final break with his ‘America First’ allies and embrace of interventionism. It’s a decision that will haunt whoever inherits the leadership of his divided movement.

In the week since the US and Israel began striking Iran, support in Washington for ‘Operation Epic Fury’ has cleaved predictably along party lines. The Republican-controlled House and Senate rejected a war powers vote that would have granted Congress the ability to decide whether Trump could continue the conflict, while public opinion has been equally partisan: according to a CNN poll, 77% of Republicans support the war, compared to only 18% of Democrats.

Behind the bickering, the war has also revealed the contradictions within Trump’s administration and the broader MAGA movement. Trump and his officials have offered starkly different justifications for the attack: contrast Trump’s claim that Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons “capable of reaching our beautiful America”with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s assertion that the US joined an Israeli attack that was going to happen regardless.

They’ve also offered different timelines for the war and conditions for victory, with Trump musing that “wars can be fought forever” until Iran offers "unconditional surrender,” andVice President J.D. Vance reassuring the public that “there’s just no way Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight.”

Trump’s MAGA coalition is a broad one, and some of these contradictions are inherent to such a big-tent movement. In the runup to the war, for example,Trump took advice from both pro-Palestinian Tucker Carlson and die-hard Israel-first warhawk Senator Lindsey Graham.

His cabinet includes reformed Director of National IntelligenceTulsi Gabbard, who promised that Trump would end the “neocons' agenda of costly, unnecessary wars.” It also includes US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a Crusader-tattooed former Guantanamo Bay guard whose erratic public speeches are riddled with threats of “death and destruction,” and promises to “unleash American power” upon the nation’s enemies.

Now that the US is at war with Iran, these differences are no longer rhetorical, and none are as stark as the divide between Vance and what seems like the entirety of the Trump administration.

https://www.rt.com/news/634016-iran-war-trump-division/

>>24357043

2/3

Where was Vance?

“Our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran,” Vance told an interviewer in 2024. “It would be a huge distraction of resources. It would be massively expensive to our country,” he explained. Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, built a political career advocating for a US more focused on domestic issues, and was among the most vehement Republican critics of military aid to Ukraine. In 2023, he announced his endorsement of Trump in an op-ed titled “Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars.”

Once the war with Iran started, Vance was nowhere to be seen. He made no public statements for three days, appearing only in a series of photos released by the White House that heightened rumors of his isolation.

In one photo: Trump monitors the attacks on Iran from a makeshift situation room at Mar-a-Lago, flanked by Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.In the other:Vance watches the war play out from the White House, alongside Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

When Vance surfaced on Monday evening, over 48 hours after the war began, he had apparently squared away his long-held opposition to war with Iran and was ready to justify the conflict to Fox News’ viewers. “The president has clearly defined what he wants to accomplish,” he told the network. “There’s just no way Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multiyear conflict with no clear end in sight and no clear objective.”

Rubio’s rising star

Vance’s climbdown – from outright opposition to war, to opposing a “multiyear conflict” – was the most recent in a series of losses for the vice president. After calling for a complete halt in US funding to Ukraine and berating Vladimir Zelensky in the White House the following February, Vance has watched as the US continues providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data to Kiev, and keeps weapons flowing into the conflict, albeit with the Europeans writing the checks.

Then Vance, who once ridiculed the notion “that we should police the entire world,” sat by as Trump ordered the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, under the pretext of a police operation.

In all of these cases, Trump has sided with Rubio – a more traditional Republican interventionist – over Vance, and over his own election night promise that he was “not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.”And each time, Vance has adapted his positions to justify Trump’s actions.

Meanwhile, Rubio’s star is on the rise within Trump’s administration. It is notable that Trump sent Vance to the Munich Security conference in 2025, and Rubio with a slightly more nuanced message in 2026.

https://www.rt.com/news/634016-iran-war-trump-division/

>>24357045

3/3

Four days before the first US airstrikes hit Iran, Trump singled out Rubio for praise during his State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill. “You have done a great job,” he said, as Rubio received a standing ovation from Republicans. “Great secretary of state. I think he’ll go down as the best ever.”

Does Hegseth want a ground war?

Even among Trump’s most pro-war advisers, there are competing visions for how the conflict should play out. Earlier this week, Hegseth and Rubio were “at each other's throats” over sending ground forces into Iran, an anonymous source told Middle East Eye, with Hegseth reportedly angling for a ground invasion and Rubio more conscious of the risks involved.

The Pentagon has called the report “100% FAKE NEWS,” while the State Department has not commented.

Whether or not the report was true, the fact that Hegseth and Rubio’s supposed argument was leaked to the press points to a serious breakdown of message discipline in Washington: factions are competing. Maintaining a united front is universally recognized as essential in times of war, and the disjointed timelines, objectives, and victory conditions put forward by Trump’s officials suggest that the operation was planned without the full involvement of the president’s entire team.

“What we’ve seen is a completely ad hoc operation where it appeared that nobody actually understood or believed that military action was imminent,” former US diplomat Gerald Feierstein told Politico. “It seems like they woke up on Saturday morning and decided that they were going to start a war.”

The bottom line

Whatever their input, all of Trump’s cabinet are now tied to, and yet divided by, this war. Additional losses, failure to deliver a quick victory, or a retreat from the Persian Gulf with the Iranian government still in power would all tarnish Trump’s presidency and all within his administration.

This could have serious consequences for Vance in particular. Despite Trump’s apparent sidelining of his vice president in favor of Rubio, Vance remains the frontrunner to take the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2028.

Between now and then, however, he faces an unenviable choice: stick to his long-held beliefs and lose the support of a president now firmly committed to interventionism, or publicly defend Trump and lose the support of his ‘America First’ base. Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson – two ideological allies of Vance – have respectively expressed “serious doubts” about the war with Iran and called it “absolutely disgusting and evil,”while some polls have shown shaky support from Trump’s voters. A Reuters/Ipsos survey this week showed 45% of Republicans either opposing the strikes or declining to comment.

https://www.rt.com/news/634016-iran-war-trump-division/

8 Mar, 2026 14:01

‘Wagging the dog’: Putin mocks EU-Ukraine relationship

The Russian president’s comment comes as Kiev has halted oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline, jeopardizing energy security in the bloc

Russian President Vladimir Putin has likened the relationship between Ukraine and the European Union to “the tail wagging the dog,”saying that despite the aggressive behavior of the government in Kiev, Brussels keeps supporting it.

The Ukrainian authorities are preventing vital Russian oil from reaching Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Ukraine, claiming it was damaged by Russian strikes – claims Moscow rejects.Budapest and Bratislava have repeatedly accused Kiev of blackmail. They also say Brussels has sided with Ukraine instead of backing two EU member states.

“The situation is very strange,”Putin said on Sunday in an interview with Vesti. “I get the impression that we are dealing with a case where ‘the tail is wagging the dog’, and not the other way around.”

The Russian president called the stance taken by Kiev dangerous and aggressive.He stressed that Brussels is continuing to provide Ukraine with endless support, both in weapons and financial aid.

Commenting on the energy market, Putin emphasized that halting transit could further undermine the energy security of EU member states, as happened after the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines.

“Yet the EU prefers to continue the supply, effectively indulging the Kiev regime,” Putin added.

Putin criticized Western countries for the ongoing crisis in Ukraine,describing it as a “systemic mistake.” The president said the conflict began with Western support for a coup in Kiev, followed by the reunification of Crimea with Russia and unrest in southeastern Ukraine, including Donbass and Novorossiya.

“These are not our actions,”Putin asserted, adding thatEuropean countries were now “reaping what they have sown.”

(My theory from the beginning is Zelensky and all of Ukraine had collected blackmail on every Western Leaders, and they are still using the corruption against the EU. Basically the CIA has been using Ukraine for decades to destroy Russia going back to the World Wars.)

https://www.rt.com/russia/634160-wagging-putin-eu-ukraine-relationship/

4 Mar, 2026 15:38

WATCH ‘Prophetic’ Russian statesman predict WWIII triggered by Iran escalation

Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s 2019 warning has resurfaced following US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic

Late Russian firebrand politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s prediction that a conflict centered on Iran could trigger World War III has resurfaced amid the major US and Israeli military campaign against Tehran.

The US and Israel launched their joint assault over the weekend, saying it was aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons – allegations Tehran has denied, insisting its program is purely peaceful.

The video featuring Zhirinovsky’s prediction, originally recorded in 2019 right after parliamentary elections in Ukraine, shows the then-leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party, who died in 2022, warning about tensions in the Middle East.

“You do not take into account the situation in the Middle East. There will be such events that everyone will forget what Ukraine is,”the politician says in the clip.

“The matter is about the Third World War,”. Zhirinovsky continues, identifying Iran as a potential flashpoint.

He adds in the clip that=Israel will inevitably target Iranian nuclear facilities and argues that this will provoke swift retaliation from Tehran– giving Washington a pretext to intervene. The US, using Israel as justification, will then launch extensive bombing campaigns, possibly involving the deployment of “devastating local weapons,”he says.

“Iran is not Vietnam, nor North Korea, nor Kosovo. Here were the most terrible events,” Zhirinovsky adds.

Zhirinovsky’s core message was thatthe West would soon lose interest in Ukraine due to a crisis in the Middle East.

US-Israeli strikes on Iran, along with renewed Israeli attacks on Lebanon, have intensified since Saturday, with reported deaths topping 1,200. Missile and drone fire has spread across Iran, Israel, and the Gulf.

Israel said it hit targets in Lebanon after Hezbollah launched rockets in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in weekend strikes.

Iran’s response to what it called a regime-change operation has also disrupted crude oil and liquefied natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz – a key global shipping route.

https://www.rt.com/russia/633783-zhirinovsky-ww3-prediction/

4 Mar, 2026 14:44

Zelensky offers instructors to Middle East

Kiev could help Gulf states repel Iranian strikes if they work for Ukraine in talks with Moscow

(Fuck the goofy little Zelensky puppet!)

Vladimir Zelensky has offered to provide Gulf nations with Ukrainian instructors to help them fend off Iranian drone and missile strikes,but only in exchange for liaison with Moscow on Kiev’s behalf. The Ukrainian leader suggested deploying military personnel abroad despite his country’s own escalating manpower shortages amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.

The Ukrainian military has been grappling with widespread draft evasion and desertion in recent months, in addition to significant battlefield losses. According to the Russian military’s estimates, in 2025 alone, Kiev took more than 520,000 casualties.

Speaking on Tuesday, Zelensky said that “if the Middle Eastern leaders manage to talk [Russian President Vladimir] Putin into a ceasefire[with Ukraine]… then the guys who are now defending our skies could travel and defend or teach those nations how to defend [themselves] from Iranian attacks.” He also suggested that Gulf states swap PAC-3 missiles used in the US-made Patriot air defense system for Ukrainian drone interceptors.

Amid the ongoing peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, Kiev has insisted on a temporary ceasefire as a precondition for discussing some of the key issues at stake. Russia has rejected the idea, saying that Ukraine would merely use any pause to the hostilities to replenish and regroup its forces. The Kremlin has consistently stressed the need to address the root causes of the conflict to resolve it.

On Sunday, UK Prime Minister KeirStarmer similarly stated that “we will also bring experts from Ukraine together with our own experts to help Gulf partners shoot down Iranian drones attacking them,” He framed the move as necessary to protect British citizens and partners in the region.

The previous day, the US and Israeli militaries launched massive airstrikes on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with several top Iranian commanders, with more attacks since. The Islamic Republic retaliated by firing barrages of drones and missiles at Israel, as well as US and UK military installations across the Middle East.

Moscow has condemned the killing of Khamenei, with President Putin describing it as a “cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/633771-zelensky-offers-send-ukrainian-instructors-middle-east-iran-strikes/

Iran continues to hit Gulf countries as Israeli strikes intensify; Tehran says new leader appointed. 1/2

PUBLISHED SUN, MAR 8 20265:30 AM EDTUPDATED 52 MIN AGO

KEY POINTS

• The United Arab Emirates says it’s dealing with incoming missile and drone threats from Iran.

• Bahrain reports damage to a desalination plant and a university building.

• Kuwait says a government building and part of its international airport were hit.

• Iran says it has appointed a new leader after the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week, but the person hasn’t been named.

Gulf states reported more damage to infrastructure over the weekend as Iran continues to attack regional allies in retaliation for ongoing strikes by U.S. and Israeli forces.

Meanwhile, Iranian media said a new leader has been appointed, replacing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening salvos of the war.

The United Arab Emirates said it was “dealing with incoming missile and drone threats from Iran.”

“UAE air defences are currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran,” the country’s Ministry of Defense said in a post on X.

It said its defenses were intercepting ballistic missiles while fighter jets were tackling drones and “loitering munitions.”

On Saturday evening, alarms rang out across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, warning residents to “immediately seek a safe place” due to missile threats, and CNBC’s team confirmed hearing a loud explosion.

A high-rise building in Dubai’s Marina area, 23 Marina, was hit by falling debris. According to Dubai’s Media Office, no one was injured, but authorities confirmed that “debris from an aerial interception fell onto a vehicle in the Al Barsha area, resulting in the death of a Pakistani driver.”

Also on Saturday,passengers waiting for flights at Dubai International Airport were ushered into train tunnels. Iran said it had struck an air base in the United Arab Emirates.

Since the war started on Feb. 28,Iran has targeted several radar and air defenses in the Middle East— in Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — in retaliation against U.S. and Israeli attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. officials, military analysts and commercially available satellite images.

Bahrain said Sunday that a drone attack struck a water desalination plant.

“Iranian aggression indiscriminately attacked civilian targetsand caused material damage to a water desalination plant following a drone attack,” Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said in a post on X.

In a statement to CNBC, Bahrain’s electricity and water authority said the “Iranian attack on a water desalination facilityhas had no impact on water supplies or water network capacity.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/08/iranian-projectiles-continue-to-strike-gulf-countries-infrastructure.html

>>24357411

2/2

The country also said “blatant Iranian aggression” damaged a university building in the Muharraq area, injuring three people, as missile fragments fell.

Elsewhere, Kuwait said two fuel depots at its international airport were hit by drones, causing a “huge fire at one of them.” The country’s Public Institution for Social Security said its headquarters were targeted, resulting in “material damage” to the building.

Meanwhile, Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran have continued through the weekend.

Israel said it struck several fuel storage complexes belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. “The strike significantly deepens the damage to the military infrastructure of the Iranian terrorist regime,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X.

The IDF also said it attacked “key commanders in the IRGC’s Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps who operated in Beirut.”

New Iranian leader appointed

Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Alam al-Huda as sayingSunday elections have been held to replace Khamenei and that a new leader has been appointed. It did not give a name.

“All the rumors and news that tried to pretend that the Assembly of Experts has not yet made a decision are pure lies,” al-Huda was quoted as saying.

Iranian state ​media reported on Saturday that two influential Iranian clerics have called for the swift selection of a new supreme leader

One of the clerics, Naser Makarem ‌Shirazi, a grand ayatollah who commands a broad following for his religious rulings, said an appointment was ​needed swiftly to “help better organize the country’s affairs,” state media reported.

The calls suggest that at least some in the clerical establishment are uncomfortable with leaving a three-man council in charge— even temporarily ⁠under constitutional ‌rules — after the killing of Supreme ⁠Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday it would “pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor.”

“We warn all those who intend to participate in the successor selection meeting that we will not hesitate to target you either. This is a warning!” the IDF said in a post in Farsi on X.

Trump has argued the U.S. should have a role in choosing the new leader, a demand Iran has rejected.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/08/iranian-projectiles-continue-to-strike-gulf-countries-infrastructure.html

(If this is war, it’s underwhelming.)

Trump says US does not need Britain to win Iran war

5 hours ago

US President Donald Trump said Britain was giving “serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,but made clear he did not believe Washington needed British help in the war with Iran.

“The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

Trump’s remarks came afterBritain’s defense ministry said it was preparing the aircraft carrier Prince of Wales for possible deployment, although no final decision has been taken.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has defended his earlier refusal to allow US forces to use British bases for initial strikes on Iran,saying he wanted to ensure any action was legal and properly planned.(this guy wouldn’t know what legal and planned means!)

Responding to Trump’s comments, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News:“The thing I’ve learned doing this job is that you have to focus on substance and not on social media posts.”

“We’re not going to do things in terms of the rhetoric or hyperbole. We’re going to do things on really practical, calm, steady decision making. Because I think that actually the British character more widely is to do things in a serious and steady way.”

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603085457

The final crumbling of the British Empire continues!

VOICES FROM IRAN

Residents report strikes and military deployments across several Iranian cities

5 hours

Messages sent by residents to Iran International described explosions, reported strikes and military deployments across several cities in Iran on Sunday.

In Shahin Shahr near Isfahan, residents reported multiple explosions in the morning, including near a Revolutionary Guards center, the governor’s office and other locations.

Another message said a police station at the Attar–Modarres intersection and a Guards base were targeted around 9:15 a.m.

Residents also reported attacks on security and military facilities in other parts of Isfahan province. Messages described strikes on a police command building near City Center in Isfahan and on a police command office on Tohid Street.

Other reported targets included the Guards’ Saheb al-Zaman headquarters on Sofeh Boulevard opposite Al-Zahra hospital, a Basij intelligence district, a command headquarters and the Imam Ali barracks in Najafabad.

In nearby Fuladshahr, residents said Guards forces that had entered the Hijab stadium on Saturday were targeted.

Elsewhere, residents reported heavy bombing of army air and naval bases and other military facilities in Bushehr.

In Qom, one message said the Safaieh area was struck around 8 a.m.

Residents in Bandar Abbas reported hearing explosions since the morning and said military facilities at the western edge of the city had been hit by missiles.

Separate messages described security deployments in other cities.In Qazvin, police forces were reported stationed at the 22 Bahman stadium near a health center and a girls’ technical school.

In Tehran’s Sa’adat Abad district, residents said Imam Sadeq universityand a nearby high school had been turned into military positions with checkpoints set up around them.

In Tabriz, residents reported government forces stationed at Imam Ali primary school in the Roshdiyeh area.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603088644

Jason Cohen 🇺🇸

@JasonJournoDC

🚨NEW UNHINGED JAMES CARVILLE🤬

"Look, you fat f*ck Trump — if you listen to this, you listen good!"

"I got Trump Derangement Syndrome. I hate the motherf*cker! And you know what? I don't want to get rid of it. I don't want to get better! I want to get WORSE! I want to hate him MORE!"

"I pray to God in heaven: God, reign the righteous reign of Trump Derangement Syndrome on me. Pray for me, Lord. I'm your vessel on this earth."

"Pray for the people that listen to this.We want MORE! We want to HATE the son of a b*tch so much that we can't see straight!"

(I wonder which God he is praying to? It might be the end of his possible sanity forever.)

@DailyCaller

https://x.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2030306775346368789?s=20

>>24357450

The guy has been deranged since he consulted with Clinton, it seems he never got his wish to destroy America.

Pretty sure God is not going to give him more hate, for many reasons but “God is not the God of hate”,so God probably forwarded his prayer to the Devil.

Even the devil was somewhat reluctant to let his wish come true; because the Devil has changed his propaganda to more acceptable.But he said, well, what to hell, these deranged souls are going to hell anyway.

>>24357450

It’s hard to imagine he married a conservative Republican years ago, I wonder if they are still married or divorced?